Better At Business: Recent Episodes
Marina Darlow & Shanna Mann
Marina Darlow and Shanna Mann discuss steps and systems to take your business from viability to sustainability and beyond!
We discuss New Year’s Resolutions. Are they important? Aren’t they? What works?
- 1:30 Shanna talks about the risks associated with “winning” at your New Year’s Resolutions.
- 3:00 What is a New Year’s Resolution anyway?
- 8:00 How habits tie into resolutions. How good are you at habits?
- 8:30 How big changes cause so many follow-on shifts that you can’t predict what will happen.
- 10:00 Marina uses parenthood as an example of m [...]
Today, for the Grand Finale of our first season, we have a guest we’re both super-excited about - Charlie Gilkey!
Charlie is the founder of Productive Flourishing, that’s been enabling Creative Giants realize their impact on the world for over a decade. He’s a speaker, author, Business Strategist and Podcaster. His work has a way of validating your actions, calming your deepest fears, and moving you to push and reach further that you thought possible.
Show Notes:
- 1:23 The power of analytics and building a narrative
- 6:40 Is there a magic number, a critical mass, where [...]
Discussing Failure and What Constitutes “Successful Failure”
1:45 - Shanna’s “superhuman” reaction to failure.
3:05 - The correct ‘philosophy of failure’.
5:44 - How to avoid the feeling of failure when comparing yourself to others.
8:50 - Marina’s Hebrew catchphrase that encapsulates the philosophy
9:30 - Shanna’s thoughts on how to avoid the paralysis that can be caused by the fear of failure (or the fear of success)
13:00 Hedging as a technique for avoiding failure
18:15 Marina’s example of a ‘failed’ launch and what she learned, as well as the perspective she’s gained
21:02 Why the emotional reaction to failure can’t be allowed to derail the learning process.
21:43 How mental models play into the philosophy of failure.
24:00 How “It wasn’t Your Fault [...]
This week we interview Dr. Kirsten Milliken of PLAYDHD fame. She’s a phychologist, and ADHD Coach, and Author and a champion for PLAY.
3:51 Working better and playing better - alone or with another person?
6:26 Play beyond ball and sandbox - the playful mindset and why it’s so powerful
9:21 Does “play” always equal “fun”? What’s the difference, and how to use this to your advantage?
14:15 Geeking out on efficiency and what’s the federal government thinks about it (ahem…)
Ever thought of DECADENCE as a Planning tactic?
- 0:25 Why Decadence in the first place?
- 3:01 The Framework for using Decadence as means of Getting Things Done
- Marina’s blog post about Decadence as a tactic (and a #MomWin)
- 6:10 what happens when you give yourself permission to think decadently
- 7:50 the edge Decadence provides over l [...]
Wolves are Pack Animals — We Need To Connect First
With us this week is Helen Tremethick, founder of The Communications Distillery, word weaver and client communicator extraordinaire.
- 2:00 The insight that made Helen better at business
- 7:00 The importance of having people who know what we’re going through
- 8:45 How Helen’s love notes create diehard fans and [...]
How we sew our systems and tools together
- 01:10 - How Marina plans and her favorite tools
- 06:30 - Marina’s physical workspace
- 09:45 - “Once you know the trick, it’s not a trick anymore” - As true of Gantt charts as it is of shoes
- 10:45 - Shanna’s physical workspace — Austin Kleon’s two-workstation method
- 14:45 - How Shanna realized that working by hand made her more productive
- 15:15 - Marina and Shanna discuss the pros and cons of Gdocs and why it works for [...]
With us this week is Michelle Nickolaisen of Bombchelle.com, freelancer, creative and woman-about-the-internet.
- 0:30 Michelle’s favorite nerdy thing: D&D live play podcasts. The Adventure Zone, Friends at the Table, Godsfall for th [...]
Two polar Opposite approaches to time management (0:36)
Losing momentum from task to task - how to transition better (5:06)
Building Personal Transition rituals (11:07)
“Clear to Neutral” ritual - what’s the most important part? (13:24)
Building a time-structure: where to start? (hint: with your personal Focus Patterns) (17:06)
Allow and plan - both time and energy - for processing NOVELTY [...]
With us in this episode is Joel Zaslofsky, author of Experience Curating, Head of Operations at the largest online enclave of multipotentialites The Puttytribe, and Shanna’s long-time mastermind partner.
In this show you’ll hear:
- 1:30 The nerdiest thing that Joel is obsessed with
- 4:30 Why Joel hand-transcribes
Show Notes
- Automation - The magic of IFTTT (If This Then That) (1:05)
- Build an Automation or outsource to a VA? It depends (3:14)
- The Love Affair with Data is making you a CONNECTOR (5:14)
- [...]
Learn How To Solve Problems
- Every problem is figure-outable (00:44)
- The exact steps for figuring out and fixing problems (04:00)
- Why you need to be empowered to customize your solutions for you (10:32)
- Why you need to recognize when you’ve collapsed multiple processes under [...]
Episode 1: Structure of Business – What Does and Doesn’t Need Structure
- The key aspect of business that REQUIRE structure (0:58)
- The three biggest things you want to perfect when starting out (3:48)
- Why an immediate success can be dangerous (7:05)
- What to do when client communications threaten to turn you into an emotional wreck (11:58)