When I started this podcast, I had an idea of sharing kind of raw, short episodes that spoke directly to you and felt like receiving a voice note, but when I looked around, I saw that everybody else had, like jingles and intros and outros and editing and artwork and all the promotional material around each episode. And I thought that's what a podcast was, and that it needs to be polished. Otherwise you're not just allowed to go and put things out there on the internet and on Spotify and Apple Music and all the places where the podcasts are.
And so I followed the rules that I'd seen, and I did all of that. And the problem with that is it meant that every time I had an idea, I mean, I started off, yes, I did a little batch of episodes, and then I thought I'd get into a rhythm with it, but every time a brilliant idea, or, you know, something just came up, and I thought, Oh, this would be really good to just share as a podcast, I quickly, sort of short circuited to yes, that that does take me a few minutes, but actually, No, it doesn't, because I'm going to have to now make it polished and do the editing and do the promotional thing, and do a social media post about it, all of that stuff.
That means that suddenly a 10 minute podcast takes two hours, and I didn't have two hours. So that was like on that big to do list that we always have of, Oh, I'll get to that at some point, but it's just not important at math to do it. So anyway, I'm coming back to it now, and I'm coming to this with the idea of, let's not do the rules of podcasting. Let's fuck the rules of podcasting, because are there even rules? I don't know. Are there rules?
There's things we see other people do, and it's easy to think, oh, that's what I'm supposed to be doing, just like it is with all things in business. And I'm not a rule follower. I do like to subvert the rules, but I am a recovering perfectionist, so that is tricky, and I think capitalism wants us to show up like polished and put together. But who does that serve anyway?
So last week, I was having a bit of a shit week. Basically, I actually shared on story. I was kind of moping about on my own with this, and then I actually shared on stories that I'd been, you know, despairing because little things had added up, like my Wi Fi was messing about and was off for not well, it was just wasn't working properly for a couple of days.
So it was really stressful when you're doing like, calls and things and you need to have decent bandwidth for all of that stuff. And I was so I was working off patchy hot spotting. I managed to lose my keys as well one day, and I was just feeling like, really overwhelmed by it. And then I had this kind of guilt spiral of, you know, the world's falling apart, like I watched the news, I know what's going on, like, Oh my goodness. And I'm here having a meltdown over the internet and some keys, like first world problems, shame, etc.
And then I think a lot of us are feeling like this, like we're just trying to get shit done, normal stuff, but we're also watching this backdrop of, you know, really horrendous stuff and feeling kind of powerless, but also like, but it's, you know, I need to function and do the things I need to do. And how do I yeah, how do I do it all? And then that idea of, like, professionalism that goes hand in hand with perfectionism came in because to me, like, maybe I'm still processing what professional means, but what it has meant to me in the past was being consistent and being always ready, always organised, like always calm and rational, always got my shit together. And then I thought, actually, no, that is not being professional. That is called being a robot!
And I always talk like about being human, and like finance needs to be more human, and about offering grace to like my clients and my community, allowing emotions to exist alongside the work, and then there I was being mean to myself for being human and having human struggles and human reactions. And the funny bit as well was when the internet was messing about and was being all patchy. I was also kind of relieved, because I thought. Well, I can't go and launch anything big right now because there's no stable Internet, and I don't know when it's going to come back.
So I guess I'm just not going to do that. And I give myself a little bit of a break from like, oh, I need to launch this, that and the other. And then suddenly, like, you know, I was back online. Everything's working again, all smooth, etc, and I'm kind of now, or I was, or maybe I still am, in the phase of like, oh shit. That means I've got to do those things now, the things that I just gave myself permission to just park for a bit, I've now got to do them, have I? And so I wanted to talk a little bit basically about the idea of, like, timelines and cycles and seasons, because we're coming up to the end of, well, mid, sort of end of June at the moment.
And I know like everybody is talking, or not everybody, because not everybody talks about this, but a lot of people are talking about quarter this quarter this quarter that we're nearly at the end of quarter two, let's reflect on our goals. How was that progress? Like, oh, shit, I didn't even have any goals, maybe, and it's already halfway through the year. Like, what am I gonna do for the second half? Am I on track? Do I need to catch up? And there's all this kind of, like, pressure about it. If you, if you tap into that, there's pressure. Obviously you can be like, No, I'm not, not getting involved with that. And, yeah, so essentially, like, I am totally, if you love a quarterly goal and a quarterly, you know, breaking the year up into four segments and having different bits like that is cool. And I work with people a lot who are working quarterly.
And I'm not saying like, it's wrong, or it's like, boring, or you're, you know, anything. I'm just saying, like, brilliant, if you if it's working for you, that's amazing. But I kind of want to talk to the people that maybe it's not. So I was just chatting to myself for about a minute because I've got a microphone that the dogs ran through and pulled the cable out, and now the cable does not appear to be functioning brilliantly, so that is great. I'm gonna keep going now and try and remember what I was talking about. Essentially, yeah, I'm not going to edit this out. I'm just going to leave it in and keep going. So yeah, so the reason I was talking about quarters is because, basically, I am very familiar with, you know, I've lived big corporate reporting cycles, FTSE, 100 groups, that's been kind of something that I've been involved with professionally and as well as kind of startups reporting, you know, and reporting to investors and banks and all this stuff.
And, yeah, it's like, I felt like, ultimately, it was very strange, because we make a big deal out of quarters, and actually they don't really mean that much. It's made up. It's a made up system that serves, you know, a big reporting thing. And obviously smaller businesses have adapted it. And obviously it works for some people, that's brilliant. But for other people, they're like, Nah, I don't really feel this idea of quarters and targets and goals, and, you know, sounds very, very corporate.
And the reason I left that world is because it felt to me like, hang on a minute. This is a big waste of time. We're just always talking about planning the next quarter and the next budget and the next this, and then comparing the results, even though we knew that the results wouldn't be there, but trying to find reasons why they were or they weren't, and then lots of time going, looking forward, looking backwards, but never in the moment. And anyway, that's a topic for another day.
Essentially, that whole like, yeah, World of that. But essentially, the point being is, just because big businesses do it doesn't mean it's going to be appropriate for everybody, and particularly smaller businesses who are not, you know, beholden to shareholders, boards of shareholders and investors, etc. So I personally do, yeah, I do quite a bit of reporting stuff because clients need it, want it, etc, and it, we make it work, and it's great, etc.
But personally, for me, I don't love doing it, probably a bit like when you do, you know, you do something really well for other people, but you don't always want to sit down and do it for yourself. Sometimes, I think there's, there's an element of that, yeah. So the other one, the other element to that is we've got the idea of, like, seasons and, okay, well, well, it ties in, you know, quarter seasons ties in nicely with the seasons. And, like, that's really, you know, a nice thing to think, well, yes, we're quiet in the winter and we hibernate, and then we're, like, really busy when it. Light and really productive and active and all the things. But what if you didn't really rest through the winter?
Yeah, so through the winter I didn't really rest. I feel pretty tired at the moment. I think I don't feel all productive and go, go, go. And that's fine. I think, I think that's fine. We don't have to, you know, just because we're living cyclically and seasonally doesn't mean we have to always match the energy, particularly if we didn't get to be squirrels and Hibernate through the winter. Like, do squirrels hibernate? I think they do. Maybe they don't, actually, but they prepare for winter. Yeah, so don't know. Don't know if that helps, if other people are feeling like that, essentially.
And I was gonna, and I know I've kind of gone on a bit now, I was trying to keep these to 10 minutes. We're over 10 minutes, but I am wrapping up now and again, there are no rules, so let's just go with it. Yeah. So I was thinking, like, if other people are finding the revenue goal thing, like, too triggering, because the world's difficult, like, don't really vibe with quarter stuff anyway.
And it's just a lot of pressure to say, like, oh, you know these 10k, 20k, month stuff anyway, I started writing a list of alternatives, because I was thinking, right? I could give you some things to do that are not tied to revenue, that feel more expensive and they feel more achievable. And the little chunks, like putting a bit of money in your pension and setting up a fund so that when good things happen, you can treat yourself and like all of this stuff. And then I was thinking, hang on a minute.
This sounds like a to do list. This sounds like I'm giving more things to do. They're nice things. They're great things. Might do another episode on little things. You can do all of that stuff, but it's labour, isn't it? It's more stuff to have to do. And actually, no, let's not do that. Like, do it? Go and do it if you want to.
But actually, I'm thinking that I'm not gonna suggest more things that add more stuff to your plate. So one thing I did want to say, though is, what if you trusted that the good shit you've done in the past is still circulating, that you you know that you care, your service, your way of showing up is still echoing outwards. What if you haven't had time to do your marketing and you're like, oh, I should talk more about this, that and the other and like, promote and make sure that the revenue is coming, all that stuff.
But what if people are still talking about you like they're still referring you because your work spoke for itself, word of mouth, reputation, relationships, community, these things don't evaporate just because you're, like, taking a breather, or you you know you're not fully going forward with all the things. And, yeah, I think that's kind of valid. Basically, just to say, like, just chill a bit, if you need to, and trust that there is still things working in the background to keep things working. And I have got some notes of stuff I was going to be talking about. I'm not sure if I'm going to talk about that now, I just jotted down a few notes. Anyway, yeah, so I Yeah, essentially, do a lot of work on financial planning and reporting and goals and targets and investors, you know, all that stuff.
But what I actually always start with is not the spreadsheet, not the money, not the forecast, plans, etc. We start with like, what's what's real, what's true, what? What's your energy like? What's your life like? What? What do you actually have capacity for? What do you give a shit about? What do you want to burn down and build in its place? Because you can't force like, clear goals and structures out of an like a nervous system in survival mode. So we have to start like, where you are. You can't dream from a place of like guilt and exhaustion.
So you know, essentially, if you're tired and feeling a bit shitty, there's probably, probably not a job for today to do that. So yeah, so maybe, yeah, I'll just expand a little bit on that, actually. So when you are like, overloaded with to do lists and tasks and all the stuff, and you're tired and you're stressed because the state of the world, you can't actually have the bandwidth to to do things in like, a nice, organised, structured way, necessarily, like you need to build the bandwidth, which is the rest, the recuperation, the like, Yeah, a bit of time out in nature, whatever. I'm not gonna give lists of things to do, but, you know, just, just the stuff. And then when you actually get to it, probably gonna feel a bit more achievable, a bit more like you can focus, you can put your brain. And power into it and it's gonna work.
So essentially, I'm, you know, I think that's really important. We always rush to, like, jump into the spreadsheets and do the things and make the money work. But actually, sometimes you just need to pause and like, remember that you're human. Like, I've remembered that I'm human. And, like, last week. And actually a lot of people, when I shared that, were like, Oh my God, yes, same. Like, you know, look similarly DMs of people and chatting in the DMs about it, and people, you know, talking to me about it that actually, yeah, we're all feeling like this. Actually, like, let's be a bit more open about that. And, and it's really normal to be like, this is a normal reaction to, you know, to what, what's, what's happening?
So, yeah, I think that's probably, probably all I've got to say. At the moment, I'm glad that my microphone was carried on staying connected. And let me know if this is a style that you like. Let me know if, yeah, any feedback, any thoughts, I'd love to continue the conversation basically, and I will chat with you soon.
