WEBVTT - Making remote work work, with Meredith Monday Schwartz 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:09.280 Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning. 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:15.160 This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:17.560 episode is going to be a longer one part of 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:20.480 the series where I interview fascinating people about how they 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:23.520 take their days from great to awesome and any advice 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:26.319 they have for the rest of us. So today I 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.520 am delighted to welcome Meredith Monday Schwartz to Before Breakfast. 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:32.519 Meredith is the CEO of Here Comes the Guide, a 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.400 wedding website, and is one of the brains behind the 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:38.640 Currently Reading podcast. So Meredith, welcome to the show. 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:41.559 Oh, thank you. I've been reading your books forever and 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:42.720 I love talking to you. 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:45.720 Oh I'm so excited that we can have this conversation. 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:48.080 So tell our listeners a little bit about yourself. 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:51.080 Well, as you said, I wear a couple of different hats. 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.320 So I am the CEO of Here Comes the Guide. 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:57.040 We are forty four all women, and so we are 0:00:57.120 --> 0:00:59.280 creating a company that we want to see more of 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:01.080 in the world, and we happened to be in the 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:04.280 wedding space, so I'm very very busy there. And then 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:07.600 also I do Currently Reading, which is a podcast about 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:09.960 books and reading. My partner Katie Cobb, and I have 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:14.200 been doing that for eight eight seasons now. I had 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:16.040 to stop and double check myself. We've been doing it 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:20.040 for eight seasons now, and we just it's the most 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:22.039 fun to be able to talk about the books that 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:24.920 were currently reading, whether we like them, didn't like them, 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:27.480 spicy opinions welcome, We just have a good time. So 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:30.800 it's a lot to balance, but it's all things that 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:31.959 are really meaningful to me. 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:34.080 I love that. I love that. It's good to be 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.840 busy in life with things that we enjoy. So I 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:40.679 wanted to start with Here Comes the Guide because you 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.040 guys kind of came on my radar many years ago, 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:45.600 as I know that you had transitioned to being a 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:49.840 mostly remote company prior to the pandemic. Now, a lot 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:53.560 of people discovered that as a situation and they had 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:55.600 to in twenty twenty, but you guys had done that 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:59.600 before that. So what led to that and how did 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:00.000 that come up? 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.600 So I have been at Here Comes the Guide actually 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:05.600 since I was twenty four years old, so back in 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:08.639 like literally pre internet day, so I've been at Here 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.000 Comes the Guide forever. But it started out which there 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:13.560 were just three of us. Now they're forty four of us. 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:15.400 I look at Here Comes the Guide as being a 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:19.960 massive experiment about creating a company that allows women to 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.080 have as much of it all as they can have, 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:25.720 so a career that's meaningful to them, where they can 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:29.120 see that they are doing really important work, and also 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:32.600 the ability to have a life. So this balance is 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.200 a really important thing to me. So we actually bought 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:39.280 out our founder in twenty seventeen, and at that point 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:43.800 I immediately said, we are becoming a fully distributed company 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:46.160 because it was clear to me we'd done a lot 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:50.480 of remote before then, mostly because we had some people 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:53.560 who worked for Here Comes the Guide. We were in Berkeley, California, 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:56.680 move away one of them, her husband was deployed. I 0:02:56.720 --> 0:03:00.520 didn't want to lose this fantastic teammate, so I was like, 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:03.320 you know what, move to Maryland and you're going to 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:05.480 keep working for Here Comes the Guide. We had that 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:07.640 happen a couple of different times where I was able 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:11.920 to retain fantastic talent if I was just okay with 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:15.520 them being where they needed to live. And then I 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:19.040 really really enjoyed working from home myself, really works with 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:21.840 kind of my very introverted self. I love being a 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.400 part of a team, but I also like having space 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:28.320 to decompress when I need to. So when we took 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.200 over from our founder, we went fully distributed. We let 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:33.840 go of our Berkeley office and all of the overhead 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:37.200 associated with that, and we have never looked back, and 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:41.160 so we have grown so much since then. We've gotten 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:46.120 really really good at hiring for remote positions, which is, 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:52.360 you know, that's a really intentional project in and of itself, 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:54.960 because you have to hire a very specific kind of person. 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.840 But we have found our sweet spot and we are 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:02.120 so glad that we that we are fully distributed. We're 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:05.560 also a very connected team. So even though we are, 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:08.440 one of our core values is we can be together 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:10.000 even if we're not all together. 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:14.320 Yeah. Absolutely, Well, the pandemic was rough for weddings, but 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:16.720 at least you guys had figured out how to work 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.240 as a remote team before that. But as you observed 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.679 this then, like from you know, twenty twenty to twenty 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.760 twenty one, twenty twenty two, and you saw other organizations 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.760 experimenting with this, what do you think most people got wrong? 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:32.159 I mean, I know you were hiring very specifically for 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:33.960 people who could do this, and you had figured out 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:38.000 managing distributed teams. What were people What mistakes were people 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:38.480 making with this? 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:46.599 There's a lot of layers to that. I think the 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:48.840 biggest mistake that people can make is to not be 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:53.760 hiring with that mindset. But when companies found themselves in 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.920 that position, I think a lot of companies approached it 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:02.080 from the mindset that their employees were going to try 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.880 to rip them off, that they were going to not 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:09.040 work on purpose. They didn't trust in the intention of 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:13.680 their employee, and the employee feels that when you're putting 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:16.839 things on people's computers to see how often are they 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:21.080 moving their mouths, when you're demanding that they log in 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.240 and lock out at really specific time, it just all 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.360 really messes with the ability for the employee to feel 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.120 that they are being trusted. I always tell everyone that 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:36.160 I hire, I am so not interested in micromanaging anybody. 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:39.480 If I can't trust you to do the work because 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:42.160 you care about doing it for your own self, then 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.440 I have no desire to do business with you. So 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:48.479 I hire from the mindset of people, if they care 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.520 about the company that they're working for, are going to 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:53.640 do the best work that they can do. So to me, 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.400 that like going all the way to the other end 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:03.240 where you mistrust your staff automatically makes people people When 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:07.159 they feel mistrusted, they automatically don't have the same level 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:10.320 of loyalty to the person who's mistrusting them. They're being 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:12.840 treated like children. So that's the biggest mistake that I 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:15.000 saw employees me employers. 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:17.719 Yeah, And with that though, I mean, you have to 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.760 manage a little bit differently. I'm sure you are managing 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.480 largely about certain results outcomes, and then you also have 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:27.160 to have systems like if people have a quick question, 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.920 like you can't stop by people's desk when you're fully remote, 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:33.400 and if you're in different time zones, that introduces its 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:37.080 own complications. So what are some of your best practices there? 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.200 Right, So there's again there's a lot of different elements 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.479 of this. From a work product perspective. I operate on 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:47.800 a trust, put verify way of doing things right, so 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:53.160 I know the role that each person is fulfilling. I 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:55.920 know what that role needs to produce over the course 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.240 of a week or a month, or a quarter or 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:00.280 a year. And so we have a a lot of 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.920 systems in place that we've built into our own bespoke 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:08.320 CRM that allows us to get a sense of what 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.880 people are producing over the course of the week. Now, 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:14.280 first of all, I'm not judging it day by day 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:17.960 because I don't think that that's a fair judgment. But 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:20.920 we do have a sense overall of the work. So 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.400 I'm not The result I'm looking for is to have 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:28.560 this specific role, this work product done. The result I 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:32.680 don't care if you're moving your mouth every thirty seconds, 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:36.880 That to me is tracking the wrong thing. I do 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:38.960 care that you're getting the work done that I hired 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.120 you to do in the best way possible, the way 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:43.720 that fits you and your personality in the best way. 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:49.240 So we absolutely have built in multiple layers of trust, 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.000 but verify where we can look at work product. 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:56.920 Yeah. Absolutely, Well, let's talk a little bit about virtual 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.320 meetings because I know that this is something that a 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:02.679 lot of people have struggled with and you know, zoom 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:06.280 fatigue over the years. What do you do to make 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.680 these more engaging and build that sort of level of 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.720 trust and interaction in a virtual way. 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.240 So from a meeting, we're just talking about meetings. Let 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:24.560 me start by saying I hate most meetings right, So 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:29.880 we meet as little as possible so that people can 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.240 do the work that they need to do. Like I 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:34.520 feel like me and my leadership team, our job is 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.320 to give air cover to our people and then stay 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.920 out of their way. And so we manage everything. I mean, 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:44.400 teams meet. We you know, we absolutely meet and connect regularly, 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:49.240 but we're really careful to say, does this meeting actually 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:51.880 have to happen? Are the exact right people there? I 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:55.320 saw something on TikTok the other day where someone was saying, literally, 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:57.360 the only time I turned my mic on through that 0:08:57.400 --> 0:08:59.760 whole meeting was when I said goodbye at the end 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:01.800 of it, and I thought, then, why are you even 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:06.800 in that meeting? And I just so I don't love meetings. 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:11.480 Most meetings done wrong make me absolutely crazy. And from 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:15.239 a connection standpoint, we are really real. We are obsessed 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:19.280 with our culture and our ways that we connect, and 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.280 we do a lot of different things that increase that connection. 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:23.960 One of the things that we do is we do 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:27.959 a quarterly connection event where we all get together. Yes, 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:31.760 it's on Google Meet. Yes, we have a company wide 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:35.520 cameras on policy. Again, if your camera is off, I 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:37.520 have to ask, why are you even in that meeting. 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:40.679 If I don't need to see you and interact with you, 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:43.840 then why are you in the meeting? And so we 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.720 have a cameras on policy. And also we do these 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:51.960 connection events where we actually have a team that plans them, 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:54.800 where we spend time together every quarter doing something that 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.520 has nothing to do with work. So we've done like 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:01.040 a murder mystery we did, like you know, we've done 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:04.199 some like crafting, different you know, craft related things we did, 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.839 like watercolor painting. As I'm saying all of this, I 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.200 hear everyone's eyes rolling back in their head. I understand 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:15.319 how cheesy it sounds. Our group of women loves to 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:17.840 hang out with each other, like honestly, we could. We 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:22.920 could do almost nothing in our annually. We do annual 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:26.320 retreats where we all get together, and yes we do 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:28.560 quite a bit of work, but we also just hang 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.920 out and cook together and get up early and have 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:36.520 coffee together. And we hire for culture. We hire girls girls. 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.760 We don't hire mean girls. Ever. I will fire a 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:45.160 mean girl immediately, like so fast it would make her 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:49.000 head spin, and it has. And so we hire for 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:52.480 culture in addition to hiring for the ability to do 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.920 the work. So we enjoy spending time together. Whether it's virtually, 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:58.880 there's a lot of connection that can happen virtually. Some 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:00.760 of my best friends I've never met in real life. 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.160 I challenge the notion that you can't connect virtually. 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:06.480 Absolutely. Well, We're going to take a quick ad break 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:16.520 and then I'll be back with more from Meredith Monday Schwartz. Well, 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.160 I am back talking with Meredith Monday Schwartz, who is 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:22.120 the CEO of Here Comes the Guide, a wedding website, 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.760 and is also one of the brains behind the Currently 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:28.199 Reading podcast. So, Meredith, listening to you and knowings we 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:29.480 your work over the years, I know you like to 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:31.840 get things done, So I want to pivot to talking 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:37.160 about your own personal productivity. Do you have any you 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:39.560 know we talk a lot about morning routines on this show. 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:41.640 Do you have any sort of morning routine in your 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:42.280 life right now? 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.280 I absolutely do, And my morning routine has changed over 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:47.760 the course of my career. Right it's different when we 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:51.080 have little ones. My kid, my youngest is fourteen, he's 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:54.440 in high school. My older three are off and launched 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.480 and doing their thing, and so my mornings look more 0:11:57.840 --> 0:11:59.960 the way that I want them to look now I'm not. 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.520 I'm a super early riser. I really like to sleep 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:06.160 until seven. The older I get. I'm fifty two, I 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:10.120 now like like about nine hours of sleep. Ten years 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.360 ago I probably only wanted seven. So that's been an 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:16.439 interesting thing. So I sleep until seven, seven thirty sometimes, 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:19.079 and then I get up and I always make a 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:23.280 cup of coffee. I love to do morning read I'm 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:28.160 always reading something nonfiction in the morning, and then I 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.079 I do morning pages. Do you do morning. 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:32.800 Pages, Laura, I don't, but tell us about them. 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:37.640 Okay, morning pages is from It's from a very famous book. 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:39.560 I'm sure everyone listening to this has heard about this 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:42.080 by Julia Cameron, called The Artist's Way. The idea of 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:45.000 morning pages is basically, it's just a brain dump. You 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.520 get a notebook. I try not to use a precious notebook. 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.400 I try to use a very like, a very workman 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:56.679 like notebook, and then you just brain dump anything that 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.959 is in your head. It doesn't have to make sense, 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.240 it doesn't have to be pros. Lots of times I'll 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:06.760 do listing, you know, I'll make lists and it's just 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:09.440 you know, she says, three full pages. I do one 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:12.400 full page because that's a big notebook, and it fits 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:13.880 in my time, and I'm the boss of my own 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:18.640 morning routine. And it has helped so much from an 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:23.200 emotional perspective because it's daily journaling, right whatever, but also 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.679 from a business perspective. I will often have some business 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:32.559 idea that is on the periphery of my brain, and somehow, 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:34.719 when I do that brain dump in the morning, in 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:38.600 the beginning of my day, what was on the periphery 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:41.920 comes to the forefront. So I do that and then 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.160 I go I work out with a trainer multiple days 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:48.520 a week to do some heavy lifting, and then get 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:49.760 into my workday when I come home. 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:53.400 Absolutely, And do you have any sort of structure for 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.600 your workday that makes the most sense for you. I do. 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:01.920 I do time blocking, and so I do different things 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:04.880 during different time blocks on different days. So for example, 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:10.200 company wide, we have no meetings on Wednesdays. You literally 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.200 aren't allowed to make, you know, a non emergency meeting 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.240 on a Wednesday, So everyone knows we don't have any 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:19.720 meetings on Wednesdays. Mondays, I do leadership stuff, you know, Friday, 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:21.800 we actually have a four day work week, so we 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:24.920 don't work on Fridays and so Fridays is my currently 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:28.920 reading day, So my week definitely has a rhythm to it. 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:32.560 And do you have a particular time of day that 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:36.920 you do best with sort of heads down kind of 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.720 focused work versus more of the like I mean sending 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:42.200 messages to team members or emails or things like that. 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:45.280 Yeah, my morning is when I am the clearest to 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:49.320 do focused work, writing, creative work, any of that. So 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:52.080 I try not to put any meetings on my schedule 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.240 until noon and really give myself from like nine to 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.720 noon each day to have in whatever time block that is, 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:02.600 to have that that really focused work, because that's when 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:05.040 my brain is firing. By the time I get to 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:09.320 the afternoon, I need to be less creative And can 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:12.160 I do a lot better with emails and meetings and 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:14.720 those kinds of things. But again, we're really trying to 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:17.360 limit meetings, so if I'm in a meeting, I have 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:18.200 to be on for it. 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:22.040 Yeah. Well, let's pivot to talking about reading here. You 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.080 mentioned you read it nonfiction in the morning, and then 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.120 the fiction, which I know a lot of currently reading, 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.160 is about when does that happen in your schedule? 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.560 Oh gosh, so right, So we Katie and I each 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:38.120 every week bring three books a week to talk about. 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:39.960 So that means that I have to read at least 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:42.600 twelve books a month to keep up with the podcast schedule, 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:44.880 which actually is not a problem because that's kind of 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:49.200 my normal lifelong reading habit. But I like to read 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.760 before I get up in the morning, fiction, especially on 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.200 the weekends. This is I'm going to tell you, and 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:57.560 I know a lot of people are going to have 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:00.680 They're going to think I'm nuts. I wake up seven 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:02.360 to seven thirty on the weekends. Again, I don't have 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:07.000 littles anymore. When my grandkids aren't there and I wake 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.360 up at seven, I don't. I try not to get 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:13.720 out of bed until eleven o'clock on the weekday mornings. 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:17.880 I will read for a lot of that time so 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:20.360 that you know, I will have a couple of cups 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:23.080 of coffee. Reading in bed is my favorite place to read. 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.040 I have a full set up with my kindle and 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.200 my Kindle stand and my Kindle remote literally where I 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:31.720 can just be laying like I'm laying in a coffin 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:34.800 and just be turning the pages on my kindle and 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:39.000 I will just crush. I will just crush for several hours. 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:41.280 So I love I've done that my whole life. I 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:42.280 love to read in the morning. 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:44.480 Well, I would say, you have to get up out 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:46.880 of bed to get your coffee. I assume that there's a. 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.000 My husband does that, that's his does it for you? 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:49.680 Oh? How lovely? 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:53.560 That is his? That is his main job. Like you know, 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:55.600 like you had one job, Johnny. 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.760 Job, go make your coffee and bring it over to you. Right, Oh, 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:00.200 I love it. Well, then you don't have to get 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:02.440 up at all. I mean, you know, maybe a bathroom 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:03.320 trip exactly. 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:07.320 It's my favorite thing. It is so indulgent. And there 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.560 were so many years if having four kids, where obviously 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:14.360 that schedule just was not on the table. So I 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:16.160 lean into it like crazy now. 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:18.840 Yes, absolutely, Well maybe that's my goals for as soon 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:21.479 as mine are as old as yours. Well we'll get 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:23.719 there eventually. All right, Well, we're gonna take one more 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:25.280 quick ad break and then I will be back with 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:35.600 more from Meredith Monday Shorts. Well, I am back talking 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.440 with Meredith Monday. Schwartz is the CEO of Here Comes 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:40.840 the Guide also one are the hosts of the Currently 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:44.560 Reading podcast. So how do you figure out what to 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.000 read next? Since I mean, you're reading at least one 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:48.960 hundred and forty four books a year, it sounds like 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:51.719 you've got to keep the uh, keep the train moving. 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:53.360 How are you figuring that out right? 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.280 Well, this is not a small thing, even for someone 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.119 who reads for a living like I do. I'm a 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:03.120 mood reader. There are planned readers and mood readers. And 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.359 I don't understand people who say, here are the books 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:08.879 that I'm going to read in December. I love that 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:11.960 for them. It's fantastic. I could never read like that. 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:14.720 So I'm a mood reader. I always have a book 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:18.119 going in every format. So I'm always reading four books. 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:21.760 So my morning read one of my kindle, an audiobook, 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:25.160 and then a print book. So I always have four 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:28.879 going at a time and every time I get so 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.639 that gives me the ability to switch around a lot 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:35.919 based on my moods. And so I mean, I'm super 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.680 plugged into the book world. I'm very very lucky that way, 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:42.520 and so I have lots of different sources. Instagram is 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:46.440 a really really big one. I'm very big on Bookstagram, 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.520 and so I take pictures of books that are interesting 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:53.680 to me, and I caption them in a very specific 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:57.400 way in the actual photo app on my iPhone, and 0:18:57.440 --> 0:18:59.880 then when I'm in the mood for something, I will 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.959 kind of flip through that. I also put a lot 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:05.400 of holds in the library, so at any point I'll 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.720 have fifteen twenty thirty books home from the library and 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.040 I'll do a book flight. So I'll pick five books. 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:15.320 I'll read the first paragraph chapter of those five books 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.280 in which everyone grabs me that's what I'm reading next. 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:23.000 And with that, then will you not read a book? 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.160 I mean, after you've started it, you gotten a ways 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.520 into it, if you decide, yeah, this isn't this isn't happening, right. 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.240 So if I do a book flight and I'm just testing, 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.119 then I then all of those other four that I 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.280 didn't choose, they could come up again in the future. 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:39.720 The question of dnf ing or did not finish is 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:41.480 one that comes up so much for us in the 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.960 book world. I am a pretty profligate DNF for if 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:48.639 I can't afford to get stuck behind a book, and 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.679 there are too many books in the world for me 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:54.000 to do that. And also it's not fair to the 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:56.280 author for me to push through when a book's not 0:19:56.320 --> 0:20:00.400 working for me, because inevitably I won't have any great 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.359 to say about it when I'm having to push that hard. 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:06.400 So I read about ten percent or fifty pages. If 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:10.760 it's not flowing very easily, I'll set it down. Sometimes 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:13.320 I'll say i'm in our inning it not right now 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.440 instead of DNFING, because DNF is kind of like I 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:18.840 might never return to that in our end means there 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:20.520 was something I liked about it, but it just wasn't 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.600 fitting what I needed right now. So I have two 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:26.639 separate kind of categories of not finishing a book. 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:29.320 Yeah, well, because you said you're a mood reader, and 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:31.200 so something that's not for you right now, I mean 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:33.640 maybe you'll feel more like you like a cozy kind 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:37.160 of book in winter versus the summer, or something like that. 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:40.119 Yeah. I've had books that I have started two or 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:43.600 three different times because I'll think this book is made 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:45.840 in a lab for me, but for some reason it's 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:50.280 not working, and then the fourth time it's absolutely perfect. 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:53.439 I believe in bookish serendipity. I think if a book, 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:56.840 if you need a book, it is going to find you, 0:20:57.040 --> 0:20:58.960 and it is going to find you at the right time. 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:02.960 But we have to help that happen. By trusting when 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:04.639 it's not the right time and letting it go. 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:09.040 Yeah. Well, I do like the advice to abandon a 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:12.440 book that isn't working for you, because to maintain any 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:16.280 sort of swift reading schedule, you can't get stuck because 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:18.679 then your pace falls off. Then you're only reading, you know, 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.119 six books a month or two because you stopped in 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:23.359 the middle of one, and you don't turn reading time 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:26.320