1
00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:06,680
Speaker 1: Welcome to How I Work, a show about the tactics

2
00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:08,960
Speaker 1: used by leading innovators to get so much out of

3
00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:11,959
Speaker 1: their date. I'm your host, doctor Amantha Imba. I'm an

4
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,880
Speaker 1: organizational psychologist, the founder of innovation consultancy Inventium, and I'm

5
00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:19,560
Speaker 1: obsessed with finding ways to optimize my work date. Now,

6
00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:23,119
Speaker 1: before I get on to today's episode, I'm wondering, have

7
00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:26,120
Speaker 1: you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes of one

8
00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:30,080
Speaker 1: of my interviews? Maybe you haven't, but anyway, on October

9
00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:33,239
Speaker 1: eight I'm going to be doing a live interview for

10
00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:38,080
Speaker 1: How I Work in Melbourne with Australia's most fascinating, controversial

11
00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:42,240
Speaker 1: and quirky consumer psychologist, Adam Ferrier. You might have seen

12
00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:46,440
Speaker 1: Adam on Gruin or The Project talking about advertising and

13
00:00:46,479 --> 00:00:50,400
Speaker 1: consumer behavior, and Adam's also the co founder of thinker Bell,

14
00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:54,440
Speaker 1: an agency that fuses together marketing science with hardcore creativity

15
00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:57,640
Speaker 1: and was awarded Agency of the Year in twenty eighteen.

16
00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:00,800
Speaker 1: I've known Adam for over a time decade and I'm

17
00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:04,200
Speaker 1: really looking forward to this chat because Adam's views are

18
00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:08,240
Speaker 1: very contrarian. We are going to be covering things such

19
00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:11,120
Speaker 1: as how Adam's built his own personal brand, which has

20
00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:14,360
Speaker 1: done an amazing job of how he's refined his own

21
00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:18,200
Speaker 1: personal brand, positioning, balancing work with fatherhood, where his best

22
00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:21,399
Speaker 1: ideas come from faking it till you make it, which

23
00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:23,800
Speaker 1: is some good advice Adam gave me many many years ago,

24
00:01:23,959 --> 00:01:26,880
Speaker 1: and many other topics. I'm going to be doing the

25
00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:30,080
Speaker 1: interview and inventim's Melbourne office and I would love you

26
00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:33,720
Speaker 1: to come along to my chat with Adam Ferrier. So

27
00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:37,039
Speaker 1: booked today before it sells out. You can simply go

28
00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:42,360
Speaker 1: to bitlybit dot, l y forward slash how I Work Adam,

29
00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:45,840
Speaker 1: and I'll link to that url and the show notes too,

30
00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:47,720
Speaker 1: And if you do come along, make sure you come

31
00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:52,280
Speaker 1: up and say hi. So this episode is another my

32
00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:56,360
Speaker 1: favorite tip episode. The title's probably pretty self explanatory. It's

33
00:01:56,360 --> 00:01:58,400
Speaker 1: about my favorite tip from each of the interviews that

34
00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:02,120
Speaker 1: I conduct and this format because I sometimes feel myself

35
00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:04,520
Speaker 1: as a podcast listener that I just want to get in,

36
00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:06,800
Speaker 1: get the most amount of value from an episode, and

37
00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:11,160
Speaker 1: then get out. So back in April in twenty nineteen,

38
00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:14,280
Speaker 1: I attended TED twenty nineteen in Vancouver and I recorded

39
00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:17,079
Speaker 1: a bunch of interviews with some very inspiring speakers and

40
00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:20,400
Speaker 1: attendees while I was over there, and Brian Scoutemore was

41
00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:24,560
Speaker 1: one of those interviews. Brian is the founder and CEO

42
00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:27,600
Speaker 1: of O two E Brands, a four hundred million dollar

43
00:02:27,639 --> 00:02:30,960
Speaker 1: business which is the umbrella company for one eight hundred,

44
00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:34,800
Speaker 1: Got Junk, Wow, One Day, Painting You, Move Me, and Shackshine.

45
00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:39,040
Speaker 1: Brian's companies have been featured on ABC Nightline, Good Morning America,

46
00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:41,600
Speaker 1: Doctor Phil, CNN, The Today Show, Oprah, and cbn C.

47
00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:45,080
Speaker 1: Brian's story has been featured in Fourtune Magazine, The New

48
00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:48,359
Speaker 1: York Times, Half Post, The Wall Street Journal, and he

49
00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:52,200
Speaker 1: contributes regularly to Forbes, among other publications. Is also the

50
00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:55,880
Speaker 1: author of WTF Willing to Fail? How failure can be

51
00:02:55,919 --> 00:02:58,920
Speaker 1: the key to your success. Now, this esque track that

52
00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:01,840
Speaker 1: I've pulled with my int of you from Brian is

53
00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:06,440
Speaker 1: starts off with me asking him about his approach to email.

54
00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:10,600
Speaker 1: I want to talk about email because that I was

55
00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:14,400
Speaker 1: reading press about you that you basically ban staff from

56
00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:16,840
Speaker 1: getting on their emails over vacation and you take the

57
00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:19,959
Speaker 1: same approach, Like when did that start for you being

58
00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:23,200
Speaker 1: strict around no emails on weekends and vacation.

59
00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:25,440
Speaker 2: Probably when I started having kids.

60
00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:27,480
Speaker 3: I've got three young kids, and I want to be

61
00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:30,600
Speaker 3: a present dad who is hanging with them and not

62
00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:34,440
Speaker 3: being on devices. So the easiest way for me to

63
00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:37,640
Speaker 3: get off of email and off of social is again

64
00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:41,920
Speaker 3: my assistant changes my passcode and she says, Brian, have

65
00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:44,960
Speaker 3: a great vacation, and off I go, and I can't

66
00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:48,120
Speaker 3: get into my email. So now, in fairness, not every

67
00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:51,360
Speaker 3: single person and every company has that luxury, right, So

68
00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:52,080
Speaker 3: I don't want this.

69
00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:52,440
Speaker 2: To be ale.

70
00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:54,600
Speaker 3: Brian's a CEO of a four hu a million dollar company,

71
00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:56,680
Speaker 3: must be nice to be king kind of thing. This

72
00:03:56,840 --> 00:04:01,480
Speaker 3: is me, even when the company was smaller, deciding that

73
00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:04,280
Speaker 3: everyone should have a break from email and have a

74
00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:07,200
Speaker 3: break from their their day to day when they're on vacation.

75
00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:09,520
Speaker 3: I want them to focus with family. So we call

76
00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:12,200
Speaker 3: it going dark, and we encourage people, and it does

77
00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:14,000
Speaker 3: take a lot of encouragement for some to get off

78
00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:16,600
Speaker 3: their email. But they need a partner, someone who can

79
00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:21,159
Speaker 3: run their job, their business department while they're out of

80
00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:25,560
Speaker 3: the office. And so I've got Jen, I've got my COO, Eric,

81
00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:28,880
Speaker 3: and so they will run my job.

82
00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:29,719
Speaker 2: And you know that.

83
00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:32,479
Speaker 3: I remember when my assistant first started changing my pass code.

84
00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:35,640
Speaker 3: She'd say, what if the office burns down, I'm like,

85
00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:37,680
Speaker 3: call nine one one, call the fire department. You know

86
00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:39,400
Speaker 3: what am I going to do if I'm off on

87
00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:43,560
Speaker 3: vacation with my kids. And I've never had anyone reach

88
00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:45,760
Speaker 3: out and get in contact with me on vacation because

89
00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:49,600
Speaker 3: they trust that I trust them to do the job

90
00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:52,680
Speaker 3: while I'm away, and so I don't get on social media,

91
00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:55,240
Speaker 3: I don't check in. My brain is totally free from

92
00:04:55,279 --> 00:04:58,279
Speaker 3: business and I get to enjoy that family time.

93
00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:00,040
Speaker 2: And personal time. It could be a long weekend.

94
00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:02,480
Speaker 3: Of four days, it could be a three week stint.

95
00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:05,039
Speaker 3: I think my longest is about six weeks being completely

96
00:05:05,080 --> 00:05:06,919
Speaker 3: disconnected from the company.

97
00:05:07,279 --> 00:05:09,000
Speaker 1: Do you remember what that was like? Your first day

98
00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:10,400
Speaker 1: back after six weeks?

99
00:05:10,839 --> 00:05:12,800
Speaker 3: It's great because when I come back so again, when

100
00:05:12,839 --> 00:05:14,719
Speaker 3: you have a partner, you have a partner who can

101
00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:18,320
Speaker 3: deal with what needs to get done while you're away.

102
00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:22,960
Speaker 3: Before I used to go dark, I would find, you know,

103
00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:25,600
Speaker 3: there's all these decisions and things that would happen that

104
00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:29,480
Speaker 3: you'd get looped into. After going dark, I'd find that

105
00:05:29,480 --> 00:05:32,320
Speaker 3: these things would just take care of themselves. Someone's getting

106
00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:35,920
Speaker 3: making decisions, getting things done, and I'd come back and

107
00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:39,039
Speaker 3: find that it's not really that stressful. It's just takes

108
00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:40,960
Speaker 3: about a day or two to catch up and get

109
00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:43,760
Speaker 3: back into the flow of what did I miss? What

110
00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:47,039
Speaker 3: key events happen. But my assistant will map out a

111
00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:48,760
Speaker 3: bit of a list of here's things that you need

112
00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:49,000
Speaker 3: to know.

113
00:05:49,640 --> 00:05:53,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, Wow, How how do you get staff getting

114
00:05:53,960 --> 00:05:58,480
Speaker 1: off email during vacation because it's so addictive just to

115
00:05:58,520 --> 00:05:59,360
Speaker 1: do a just check.

116
00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:02,520
Speaker 3: You know, it is people I think like a clean inbox.

117
00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:05,560
Speaker 3: And so it's just letting people know that this is

118
00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:09,280
Speaker 3: a requirement. We want you to recharge. I remember with

119
00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:13,239
Speaker 3: my assistant, with my with my COO, Eric Church, who's

120
00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:17,080
Speaker 3: big email guy and loves to be busy, and you know,

121
00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:19,640
Speaker 3: he'd probably cram thirty pounds into a nine pound jar

122
00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:22,320
Speaker 3: if he could, right, And he's a guy who it

123
00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:25,039
Speaker 3: took a couple of years to really push to get

124
00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:27,800
Speaker 3: him off of email and disconnect. And once he did

125
00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:30,520
Speaker 3: it and felt the relief and the recharge and just

126
00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:33,920
Speaker 3: it's so liberating, he said, I'm bought in. Let's get

127
00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:36,440
Speaker 3: the entire company on board. And so we have to

128
00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:38,800
Speaker 3: push people again. But I think the only way to

129
00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:41,240
Speaker 3: really do it is changing your pass code. It's too

130
00:06:41,279 --> 00:06:44,039
Speaker 3: easy to be bored and be standing in the line

131
00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:46,440
Speaker 3: somewhere waiting and just go have a quick glance at

132
00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:49,200
Speaker 3: the email and see how things are doing. No, let

133
00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:52,159
Speaker 3: go make sure you got someone to cover and everything

134
00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:52,719
Speaker 3: will be fine.

135
00:06:53,080 --> 00:06:57,000
Speaker 1: Such a great hack. I love that. What like what

136
00:06:57,080 --> 00:06:59,800
Speaker 1: else would surprise people about the way that you.

137
00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:04,080
Speaker 3: I think people would just be surprised with how really

138
00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:08,919
Speaker 3: disconnected I become quickly from the business while I'm away.

139
00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:12,400
Speaker 3: So I remember on my fortieth birthday, I took my

140
00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:14,360
Speaker 3: closest friends and family. It was a big goal of

141
00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:16,880
Speaker 3: mine at a time actually when the business wasn't doing

142
00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:19,120
Speaker 3: very well, so I didn't really wasn't really able to

143
00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:21,640
Speaker 3: afford it, but I took my closest friends and family

144
00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:24,200
Speaker 3: to Italy and we rented a villa. And I remember

145
00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:27,200
Speaker 3: one fella that was there was a key exec who

146
00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:28,680
Speaker 3: was a good friend of mine, who.

147
00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:29,320
Speaker 2: Was in the business.

148
00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:31,720
Speaker 3: I said, I'd love you to come on this trip,

149
00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:34,200
Speaker 3: but to be clear, we can never talk business on

150
00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:37,680
Speaker 3: this holiday. And so he'd go off to a little cafe,

151
00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:40,040
Speaker 3: he'd do a little bit of work, and he'd come

152
00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:41,760
Speaker 3: back and just wouldn't tell me what was going on.

153
00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:45,560
Speaker 3: So I really do like to be either all in

154
00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:49,160
Speaker 3: my business or all out. And I think we live

155
00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:52,400
Speaker 3: in a world where there's so many distractions, there's so

156
00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:56,720
Speaker 3: much intensity of pace that I've got to protect and

157
00:07:56,720 --> 00:07:58,040
Speaker 3: look out for my own mental health.

158
00:07:58,080 --> 00:07:59,160
Speaker 2: I think everybody does.

159
00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:02,840
Speaker 3: You need to just it's I think it's impossible to

160
00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:05,600
Speaker 3: multitask and do two things at once. So why not

161
00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:07,920
Speaker 3: do family and be all into family or be all

162
00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:11,080
Speaker 3: into your you know, trip with your friends and enjoy

163
00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:14,480
Speaker 3: and be focused and be present and when the business

164
00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:16,160
Speaker 3: requires you, then be back into that.

165
00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:19,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, and look like on the topic of distractions, like

166
00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:21,800
Speaker 1: you you wrote it, I think it was in your

167
00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:25,640
Speaker 1: Forbes column around mobile phone or cell phone addiction, Like,

168
00:08:25,920 --> 00:08:28,440
Speaker 1: how have you approached that in your own life, because

169
00:08:28,480 --> 00:08:30,960
Speaker 1: I mean, the things on our phone are designed to

170
00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:33,640
Speaker 1: suck us in a design to be addictive. How have

171
00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:36,680
Speaker 1: you sort of fought against that? Obviously this password changes,

172
00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:37,800
Speaker 1: but how else?

173
00:08:38,240 --> 00:08:41,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I use things like screen time in the

174
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:44,520
Speaker 3: Apple iOS, which allows you to set limits on the

175
00:08:44,559 --> 00:08:48,679
Speaker 3: apps you're using. And again it's interesting you sort of

176
00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:50,800
Speaker 3: learn about yourself. But I used to set limits for

177
00:08:50,880 --> 00:08:53,600
Speaker 3: certain apps that I would use, and then it would

178
00:08:53,679 --> 00:08:55,920
Speaker 3: it would prompt you, you know, Okay, you're out of time,

179
00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:56,920
Speaker 3: do you want more time?

180
00:08:57,280 --> 00:08:59,480
Speaker 2: And you just log your own password to get back.

181
00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:01,760
Speaker 3: In and get more time. It was an extra step,

182
00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:05,400
Speaker 3: but it didn't prevent me from doing what I wanted

183
00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:08,280
Speaker 3: to do, was to truly be locked out. So again,

184
00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:11,120
Speaker 3: I got my assistant to set up my screen time

185
00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:13,600
Speaker 3: passcode so I don't know it. So when I'm out

186
00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:15,080
Speaker 3: of time, I'm out of time. If I need to

187
00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:16,800
Speaker 3: ask her to log in, I'll give her my phone

188
00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:17,600
Speaker 3: and she can log in.

189
00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:18,960
Speaker 2: But that's such a rare occasion.

190
00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:24,360
Speaker 3: So you know, the world, the world has so much

191
00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:27,480
Speaker 3: social media and so much noise that life gets a

192
00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:31,400
Speaker 3: little lost in that. And I think that there's beauty

193
00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:34,360
Speaker 3: in just enjoying the moment and sort of pulling back.

194
00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:38,560
Speaker 3: And I think that we're as human beings, we don't

195
00:09:38,559 --> 00:09:40,360
Speaker 3: have a lot of self control at times, and so

196
00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:42,680
Speaker 3: it is finding that type of hack and a partner

197
00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:45,079
Speaker 3: you trust to be the person that locks you out

198
00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:47,040
Speaker 3: of the things you shouldn't be dealing with.

199
00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:51,080
Speaker 1: Hi may again, I am such a fan of hacks

200
00:09:51,160 --> 00:09:54,520
Speaker 1: like changing the password that basically eliminate the need to

201
00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:57,680
Speaker 1: use willpower to stay off digital distractions, and if you

202
00:09:57,679 --> 00:10:00,000
Speaker 1: don't have an AI like Brian, maybe you could buy

203
00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:02,160
Speaker 1: up with the work mate and ask them to do

204
00:10:02,240 --> 00:10:04,800
Speaker 1: it for you. So that's it for today. If you

205
00:10:05,040 --> 00:10:06,920
Speaker 1: like this excerpt, you might want to listen to my

206
00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:09,760
Speaker 1: full chat with Brian, which I'll link to in the

207
00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:12,680
Speaker 1: show notes. I loved my full chat with Brian. He's

208
00:10:12,800 --> 00:10:16,280
Speaker 1: just so fascinating, And if you're enjoying how I work,

209
00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:18,000
Speaker 1: I'd love it if you could take five seconds to

210
00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:20,439
Speaker 1: leave a review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening

211
00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:23,760
Speaker 1: to this podcast. From leaving reviews actually makes it easier

212
00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:26,040
Speaker 1: for other people to find this podcast. And thank you

213
00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:28,199
Speaker 1: to all the wonderful people who have left five star

214
00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:31,640
Speaker 1: reviews and written some lovely words. It truly does make

215
00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:33,920
Speaker 1: my day. So that's it for today and I'll see

216
00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:34,680
Speaker 1: you next time.