Time

Goosebumps

Nic Roth is an author, illustrator, and full-time artist. He is also Ben’s younger brother, so have fun sharing EP60 with a sibling and laugh out loud as we explore what it takes to be a full-time creative. We also talk about book publishing, becoming a muralist, and attending art school, before hearing Bloop from the Roasted Reflections library.

After the break, we invite leaders to always create, while at the same time, welcoming mistakes to brew lasting progress. BEN BOT then helps us compare invested time, versus spending, passing, and wasting time. After a few quick thoughts on being brothers, Nic wraps up EP60 by recognizing that belief in one’s self is contagious, as well as, how opportunities to collaborate awaits all of us, every step of the way.

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BONUS MATERIALS
https://NicRothStudio.com
http://Goosebumps.YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com
Reading Break from Roasted Reflections: Bloop
http://CollectorHardbackEdition.com
http://RoastedReflections.com
http://BENBOT.ai

By Ben McDougal, ago

Plateaus of Purpose

The highs and lows of an entrepreneurial lifestyle are dramatic, but the plateaus can be just as wild. Find your own feng shui as Vanessa Mcneal guides us on a lovely ride through the internal parts that make you move. This episode reshapes our appreciation toward the inevitable plateaus of life.

Mid-way through, you’ll hear a fresh addition to how our coffee breaks will add value throughout Season 2. Ben narrates a writing from Roasted Reflections.

After the break, we dive into the vindication that is keynote speaking! Vanessa and Ben have spoken to so many different types of audiences, so listen to how they share tips on giving an engaging talk, building trust to connect with an audience, slide deck design, collaborating withing different budgets, and appreciating times of slowness that offer a waiting room to prepare you for next. We open with an unplanned appreciation toward love and trusting our powers. We close by contrasting the acceleration that comes with coaching, versus the processing that can come from therapy.

LISTEN on APPLE PODCASTS
LISTEN on SPOTIFY

BONUS MATERIALS
YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com
VanessaMcneal.com
New S2 Thread on X
Roasted Reflections
BenMcDougal.com

By Ben McDougal, ago

Overbooked

It’s a go-go world of busy, busy, busy

With days scheduled from start to finish, what time is left for random acts of conspicuous kindness, welcoming serendipity, or just saying yes to more adventure?

Thoughtful preparation is often required to coordinate whatever it may be. There’s value in staying organized, but over planning is a trap. The thirst for productivity in an industrial age has made busy feel/look successful. How often do we hear pride disguised by disgust, in the tone of someone explaining the constrictions of their overbooked calendar? Yes, it takes boundless hard work, a healthy obsession, and endless sequencing to be remarkable, but unexpected opportunities emerge when we’re not captive to a calendar.

Extra Shot
A lack of routine may slow down time.

Renting time can be lucrative, but in our connected era, there are ways to efficiently get things done without falling victim to a back-to-back life. Perhaps being comfortable without a plan can leave space to connect more interesting dots? Things will not always come together, but if the calendar is a tool to keep promises while staying quietly organized, complacency can be released and replaced by unplanned experiences that keep us open to next.

As we sip on another holiday season, see how it feels to fly without a plan. May voids filled with no agenda unravel a freedom to be your best.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Visualizing Variety

For people who play 80 hours instead of working 40, a diversified career portfolio often emerges.

A variety of activities and the contemporary energy of popcorning between them, helps vanguards stay ahead of the innovation curve. Diversification of work can also provide stability when the volume of different activities are strategically adjusted over time.

As we diversify career portfolios, balance, transparency, being realistic, patience, perpetual learning, and avoiding The Headline Trap is critical. These real skills fuel focused progress on multiple fronts and help reduce the risk of diluting yourself to mediocrity. If you’re stretched too thin, the value of diversification can devolve into fragmentation.

Extra Shot

It’s easy to discount our potential, but life is too short not to love what you do.

When change is constant, visualized assessment helps track how time is spent. Below is the evolution of my own career portfolio. People who see this often want to implement this method introduced in the Side Hustles chapter of YDNTB, so let’s jam on how to visualize your diversified career portfolio.

First, organize the things you spend time building. Assign a percentage of time spent on each activity, then plot the data into a pie chart. I use Apple Keynote to manage the pie chart and Adobe Photoshop for added flare, but any spreadsheet or slide deck software can visualize data in a similar way. Once created, save the pie chart as an image. You now have a conversation piece that showcases how you spend time. Update it as your career portfolio evolves or use this method as an annual exercise to stay balanced with your own personal bandwidth.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Popcorning

There’s an energy that comes from jumping between different initiates in a diversified career portfolio.

An ability to popcorn between progress is what makes a diversified career portfolio work. Over time, the mental and physical exhilaration strengthens an elastic-type of energy that builds focus, even when it’s applied on multiple fronts and in tiny time windows.

This ambitious movement fuels action within different slices of a diversified career portfolio and should be celebrated. For example, the impactful days where we hammer on one thing, ship progress; pop to the next thing, ship different progress; and then pop one or three more times to fuel momentum on even more! This type of work is exhausting, but the flow makes us feel tenacious. With practice, this multi-modal focus is refined, increasing the leverage to explore exponential activities.

Extra Shot

I have a fun new phygital item for sale.
Video – https://youtu.be/6toglC21dwI

They’ll say you gotta focus. Only chase one rabbit. Maybe. If financial stability relies on a single income or paid employees depend on you to lead, less diversification will help support stability.

That said, who knows a leader who only does one thing? Leaders are everywhere, doing everything! We are efficient humans with super computers all around us. Even when different ventures don’t seemingly relate, there is a shared thread that sews efficiency into the work. YOU!

For anyone with more to build, there’s no permission required to add creative slivers to the pie chart of how you spend time. Does it take an extra gear? Yes. Might it require practice to stay balanced? Yes. Will you have to play 80 hours in order to avoid working 40? Yes. It is absolutely possible for anyone in our connected era? Yes!

Cheers to this elastic-type of energy that comes from popcorning between various initiates within a balanced diversified career portfolio.

By Ben McDougal, ago