[00:00:00] Marcey Rader: To get us sucked in to give us the dopamine response. So I tell people a lot of times is that it's not your fault. Not your fault that you, you know, go to your phone outta boredom and you, you know, scroll through Instagram. Your brain has gotten so used to that response. 

[00:00:20] Shawna Rodrigues: Welcome to The Grit Show. Growth on purpose. I'm your host, Shawna Rodrigues, and I'm happy to be here with you as your guide for all of us growing together as seekers and thrivers. 

[00:00:34] Sought after by Fortune 100 companies and others. Marcey Rader has spoken for tens of thousands of people worldwide. From North Dakota to Dubai to Tokyo as an award-winning speaker. She trains her audiences to maximize their energy, conquer the calendar, master tasks, and extinguish their email to change your career,

[00:00:55] team, organization; one habit at a time. Marcey Rader believes that [00:01:00] Health powers productivity. She's a multi-certified health and productivity expert, a three-time author, and the founder of RaderCo. Marcey helps executives, teams, and individuals banish burnout, keep good people, and move forward through practical, tailored tools, healthy, sustainable habits, and coaching accountability.

[00:01:19] We are very excited to have her here today to help us learn about these things. Welcome, Marcey.

[00:01:25] Marcey Rader: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

[00:01:28] Shawna Rodrigues: So I would love to hear more about your journey to becoming an expert about the efficiency and the productivity pieces.

[00:01:36] Marcey Rader: Sure. I used to work in clinical research and I've worked in that field for 14 years, and the last six to eight I was a corporate trainer and during that time, um, well for about a decade, I traveled up to 48 weeks a year and also did over 100 ultra and endurance events, so Iron Mans and, and longer, [00:02:00] and managed to shut down with inbox zero every night.

[00:02:05] With all the travel and the training and things. And people would ask me, you know, how do you do that? Teach me. And I would do this training for clinical leads that was two weeks long, and one for new CRAs that was, um, three weeks long. And the last day was always like Marcey's special training on email and time management and, and, um, how to travel and be healthy and all those things.

[00:02:29] And the feedback that I got was, You know, this was the best part of the whole two weeks or the whole three weeks. It's practical, it's actionable. And when I decided to leave the corporate world, it felt very natural to me to, to move into that space and coach and speak and train on that. But I will tell you the book that started it all for.

[00:02:56] I mean, I've always been very organized and [00:03:00] I'm Type A type, awesome.

[00:03:02] Um, and so I've always been very organized, but the book that really changed my life was called The Power of Les by Leo Babaa. And probably 13, 14 years ago, I read that. We downsized twice. Um, culminating from that book. I mean, when I say it changed my life, we moved, we got rid of a bunch of stuff.

[00:03:23] We moved again. Um, we now live in an 1100 square foot house. We are debt free. I became debt free at 46. I'm 48 now. I read everything about minimalism that I could find, and this was when it, um, you know, this was a long time ago, so, you know, any blog that people would write about, um, minimalism and productivity, I just absorbed it all and it just became a passion of mine.

[00:03:49] And there, there it went crazy. From then 

[00:03:52] on 

[00:03:53] Shawna Rodrigues: that's so intriguing. I love it. I wanna hear more about this. This is great. And so you kind of integrated the minimalism aspects [00:04:00] of being able to work with productivity is kind of how those two things came together, huh?

[00:04:04] Marcey Rader: Yes. And That word minimalism scares people a little bit because some people think that it means that you have one bowl, one spoon, um, you know, you wear the same color of shirt and the same, you know, style every day. And, and it really is just, you know, only having around you what you love and what is functional.

[00:04:27] Um, I say, you know, getting rid of the meh, like just the stuff that's like meh, you know, like not, not having that clutter up your space, um, you know, your inbox, you know, not having a lot of things come in that don't add value to you. Um, social media, you know, being very intentional about it, not going to it out of boredom and.

[00:04:50] You can think of minimalism in a different way. You know, it could even be the number of connections that you have. You know, the number of groups that you belong to. And [00:05:00] so it's not the, I mean, I don't really use that term, anymore, but it's, it's what got me started on this path.

[00:05:10] Shawna Rodrigues: Yes. To find your way to be able to, to make things fit a little better. It sounds like even.

[00:05:15] Marcey Rader: Yes. 

[00:05:16] Shawna Rodrigues: Yes. 

[00:05:17] Well, tell us more about this. Like what is the piece that you feel is the most useful for your clients that you've found for trying to make things work better for them?

[00:05:25] Marcey Rader: The, the main thing that people come to our company for is really comes down to digital distraction. 

[00:05:35] Shawna Rodrigues: Mm-hmm.

[00:05:36] Marcey Rader: We get hired a lot for email extinguisher. Simple steps to shrink the inbox. That's our main workshop. We even have an email action plan that's a two session coaching program. Um, there we have something called Focus powerups, which is a workshop on dealing with, you know, tech distractions and especially at home.

[00:05:57] The search term, how to focus at work [00:06:00] increased by 300% in 2020. And so we, you know, we do workshops, training, and private coaching. Our personal coaching really around guardrails, around time, technology and energy even. And a lot of that comes down to what we're focusing on and prioritizing.

[00:06:23] Shawna Rodrigues: And is that where you find is the most important thing, is making like conscious decisions about what you're going to prioritize and focus on the planning piece of that?

[00:06:30] Marcey Rader: Yes. And um, so with technology, you know, technology is designed with a hook. To get us sucked in to give us the dopamine response. So I tell people a lot of times is that it's not your fault. Not your fault that you, you know, go to your phone outta boredom and you, you know, scroll through Instagram. Your brain has gotten so used to that response. And sometimes it seems, [00:07:00] counterintuitive. But to to save yourself from yourself, you sometimes need technology to save yourself from the technology. And that's, you know, I am a big fan of an app called Freedom and it's something you can install on your computer and it will block you from certain websites at certain times of the day, or if you decide like, I wanna focus on this thing that, you know, you turn on a freedom session for however many minutes and you can't open up any other websites or, or any that you blacklisted. And so, you know, it's, it's okay to have to use those things because it's not a good idea to waste your willpower on.

[00:07:38] And that's what it comes down to is, you know, when we are fighting, not looking at our phones, not looking at our email, 

[00:07:46] Shawna Rodrigues: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:47] Marcey Rader: that's, that's taking up precious willpower that we could maybe be using at night when we're deciding what to have for dinner or whether or not to go to the, um, just [00:08:00] salad restaurant or go through the Wendy's drive through.

[00:08:03] You know, technology affects our willpower and discipline and setting up these tech guardrails ahead of time can can help with that.

[00:08:13] Shawna Rodrigues: Ooh, I like that. I like that acknowledgement. Because we only. So much bandwidth for all of these decisions that we're having to make and to be able to have something to help with some of those ways that we are being so distracted, so that we can save our decision making for the things that are important.

[00:08:27] At the end of the day, when we're exhausted by it,

[00:08:29] Marcey Rader: mm-hmm. 

[00:08:30] Shawna Rodrigues: that can make a big difference. Yeah. So how can you support focus with teams then? Is it the same type of tech guard rails that you use for that, or is it different for.

[00:08:38] Marcey Rader: No, it is not different for teams. 40%, so the Digital Wellness Institute recently did a study and 40% of respondents said that the digital communication at their company was one of the main reasons why they were leaving. The digital culture. [00:09:00] Because Yes, because of all of the, I mean, it's just, it's like the wild, wild west people pinging, ringing, buzzing, you know, at all hours and not having any kind of etiquette.

[00:09:11] You know, you emailing somebody at seven o'clock at night, but you would never call them, you know, at seven So when I work with teams, it's, you know, maybe coming up with a communication charter to ask everyone, you know, what are your guardrails? You know, do you have your phone on silent most of the day?

[00:09:28] What are your work hours? Um, you know, what is the best way to reach you if something's urgent? If it's just something that's fyi, you know, because we had people emailing, slacking, you know, team chats. , texting, you know, calling. Some people do still call. You know, there, there are so many different avenues to get messages that, there are rarely clear guidelines on how to communicate with each other.

[00:09:56] And one thing I tell people is, [00:10:00] well, let me back. There's two schools of thought and one is that, hey, if I wanna work during my off hours, and they answer, that's on them. And I say, yeah, ish. Because if you are in a position of hierarchy, 

[00:10:18] it doesn't matter how many times you say by working night or the weekend, don't worry about replying back to me.

[00:10:25] People will feel compelled you are their superior and if they know that you work, many people will feel compelled just to check because you don't wanna be the one to not answer that email, especially if there are multiple people on the thread. And so, you know, really, working with leadership for them to set the expectations and model the behavior that they tell people. You [00:11:00] know, that, and I'm, it's like air quotes that they're encouraging people to adopt, but they're not adopting themselves. And it can, it can be so simple by just scheduling the email, scheduling the team's message. You don't have to send it, you know, right then.

[00:11:14] And um, even you can schedule Slack message. You can schedule texts with the right app. And you know, the difference too is that cuz we, we also, um, work with business owners and you know, me as a business owner, I have a more flexible schedule. I actually really enjoy working on Saturday mornings. You know, a lot of times on Fridays I don't work that much or, um, it might be that, you know, I half a day on a Thursday I'm out, you know, doing things that other people do on the weekend. So my schedule is much more flexible. But my, my coaching clients that are working like regular nine to fives, which that, I don't even know if that exists anymore.

[00:11:56] Eight to six or whatever. Eight to seven, seven to [00:12:00] six. They're already working those hours and they don't have that flexibility. So the goal is for them not to be working at night when their kids are with them or not to be working on the weekends. That's when they need to recharge.

[00:12:13] Shawna Rodrigues: Yes. And so if we keep letting it sprawl into all those hours, we're just burning people out, which is not wanna do.

[00:12:19] Marcey Rader: Yeah. And remote. The remote hybrid. environment is, has made it worse. And I'm not against remote. I've actually worked remote since 2001, but our screen time has gone up three hours in the last two years from an average of eight hours a day to 11.

[00:12:40] Shawna Rodrigues: Wow.

[00:12:41] Marcey Rader: For remote workers. Yeah. Yes. And a lot of that is video.

[00:12:46] Shawna Rodrigues: Yeah. A lot of video meetings. That definitely adds to it as well. Do you put that into the, the charters, the communication charters, about how much you're having meetings?

[00:12:54] Marcey Rader: Oh yes, absolutely. Even, even before Covid [00:13:00] meetings in, in most surveys were the number one least productive thing at a company. And whenever I work with a company, we send out a productivity scorecard and asks them, asks everybody questions about their email, task management, time, meetings, and so on. And I'm telling you, every, I have not worked with a single company that didn't complain about ineffective 

[00:13:27] meetings.

[00:13:28] Not 

[00:13:28] one 

[00:13:29] Shawna Rodrigues: Yeah. It's, 

[00:13:30] Marcey Rader: or too 

[00:13:31] many. 

[00:13:32] Shawna Rodrigues: yeah, too many and making sure they have a purpose and the right people are there, instead of just having everyone arbitrarily having to attend, even though it's taking away from them actually getting things done and being productive.

[00:13:42] Marcey Rader: Yeah. And, and when they do that, there's a rule of seven for every number of people in a meeting. Over seven decision making decreases by about 10%.

[00:13:53] Shawna Rodrigues: Mm. 

[00:13:54] Marcey Rader: And so, you know, I, I offered that. But then also the more people in the [00:14:00] meeting, the more people are multitasking because, and because they don't, they're like, well, nobody's gonna ask me, or, so and so will take care of it.

[00:14:07] So then there's that 

[00:14:10] and you know, there's this meeting calculator online where you can take people's estimated hourly rates and see how much this meeting actually costs. And, you know, If, if I, so everybody that works for me, they're, um, hourly. And so I'm very considerate when I'm inviting people to meetings because this is like, I know exactly how much this is gonna cost me.

[00:14:36] And if, if you had a room of executives and all of their direct reports and they were, um, you know, they were able to see how much it was costing them. Like, oh, this was a $7,000 meeting, or this was a, you know, $16,000 meeting and we didn't even make a decision.

[00:14:59] Shawna Rodrigues: Yep, [00:15:00] exactly.

[00:15:00] Marcey Rader: So there's been a couple times where I've actually calculated like, okay, how much, how much is this costing you?

[00:15:06] And they were just astounded, you know? They 

[00:15:08] couldn't believe it. 

[00:15:09] Shawna Rodrigues: Yeah, no, that's a very, very good tool to have. Very good tool to have. Yes. And so when looking at focus, like what are some of the tools and tricks you have to help people with focus?

[00:15:18] Marcey Rader: I am not a fan of notifications on your phone, your watch, um, email for certain, and that is one of the first things that we take off when we're working with personal coaching clients, notifications on as the default are not there to help you be more productive. They're there to get you to use the tool more.

[00:15:41] Shawna Rodrigues: Mm-hmm. 

[00:15:41] Marcey Rader: And we've just gotten used to them being on, but it just means that we've been, you know, we've, we've just gotten used to the state of distraction and this constant switch tasking, every time we get a notification, it leads to that feeling. You know, I worked all day. I dunno [00:16:00] what I.

[00:16:01] Shawna Rodrigues: Yes, I definitely felt that. yes. 

[00:16:03] Marcey Rader: Uhhuh. And whenever I say that, people are like, oh yeah, that's me.

[00:16:08] And, and it's cause of the switch tasking back and forth. And we're, you know, we're switching from one, one context to another. And I liken it to, you know, if you were driving at four in the morning from one city to the next, there's nobody on the road. You're getting great gas mileage, you're in the zone.

[00:16:25] You get from point A to point B, you don't even think about it. Compare that to rush hour, where every time you're stopped, you're not back up to 70 immediately you have to speed back up, stop speed, stop speed, stop. You may only get to 30 or 40 miles per hour during rush hour. That is your brain on notifications where you're never really getting focused.

[00:16:48] So I say turn off everything that you feel comfortable with. Like the only notifications I get are. When I travel, I get like the [00:17:00] airline notifications, those pop up and, um, my phone, because if somebody calls me, then that's usually a little bit more urgent because hardly anybody calls. 

[00:17:10] So, so phone is is one that's on for me, but I don't even have like texts on, I just check, you know, once an hour or so.

[00:17:18] So that would be one thing. Um, you know, establishing phone free time. to recharge our brains and let ourselves just thinkitate, because we don't just think enough. And, and I was guilty of this too, where I always had input coming in. I was listening to a podcast, I was um, to an audio book. I was, you know, there's always something going into my brain and you know, so giving ourselves that time, cuz if we don't give ourselves quiet time, then we're not able to think, uh, or solve problems, I should say. And, and that's why, [00:18:00] you know, you can, you usually solve a problem when you're exercising or taking a shower or So that would be another thing is establishing something that you do that's device free where you don't have input coming in.

[00:18:16] And then from a team's perspective, establishing. Some kind of communication charter to, and get input from your team and find out how people want to communicate best and, and kind of get on the same page with them. 

[00:18:32] Shawna Rodrigues: Oh, that's very useful. And it's interesting, I've noticed that when I'm really stressed out that I don't listen to the radio in the car. I don't have any music on no podcast, no nothing. It's just quiet in my car. And so that must be because I need to think. So now I feel better about that.

[00:18:45] I used to think. Oh, I must be overwhelmed cuz I don't have any music on, but I just need to think That's a good, good reminder. That's an important thing to do. It's not just for the shower

[00:18:54] Marcey Rader: Yes. Yeah. We, we need to, and, you know, we become more [00:19:00] creative when our, when we're a little bit bored. I was so guilty of this and I took a, um, a. I took an input fast, or I, I had an input fast last year. I had a podcast episode about it.

[00:19:14] I didn't listen to any podcasts for a month. I just listened to music and because I, I'm number one learner and strengths finders, if you're familiar with that assessment. So I am always like taking a course and I'm doing this and I'm doing that and I'm listening to an audiobook and, um, I thought, okay, I'm just gonna listen to music for a month.

[00:19:34] It was a really good experiment for me. Um, for one thing, just, you know, there are lots of hits from the eighties and nineties that I had forgotten about. Brought back some fun memories.

[00:19:47] Shawna Rodrigues: Yes. Do you notice an increase in your creative. Abilities and your, your thoughts that came in that were different because you were able to have more space for that.

[00:19:56] Marcey Rader: I don't know necessarily if I felt like I was more [00:20:00] creative, but I did make the decision to have more phone free times 

[00:20:04] Shawna Rodrigues: Yeah. 

[00:20:05] Marcey Rader: phone free activities because I did feel like that there was some kind of shift. And that I was just able to think more and solve problems 

[00:20:16] Shawna Rodrigues: Yes. That's interesting. Now when I travel, I've noticed when I, um, when I was writing that traveling was always when I did more writing, and I think it's because I had more quiet time when I was traveling. And that's the big difference. So, That's good to think about that you do need that space sometimes and to go on walks or do exercise, do things that you can do without extra things coming in.

[00:20:37] Cuz if we're just like taking things in all the time, we don't have time for it to process.

[00:20:40] Marcey Rader: Yeah. And you know, because you mentioned writing. Um, so I've written three books and two of them, most of the books were written at. Umstead State Park, which is near where I live in Raleigh, and I would take my laptop there, I'd get about two hours of juice on it, and it has no, [00:21:00] it has terrible cell service, so I couldn't even, I couldn't get a hotspot if I wanted to.

[00:21:04] I couldn't get a text and, and there was nowhere to plug in. So even though I would, you know, drive there with my laptop or ride my bike with my laptop, and I only would write for two hours before my computer went dead, I would get more done in that two hours. Then I would if I stayed at home in my home office and you know, had it open for three. 

[00:21:25] Shawna Rodrigues: Yes, getting rid of the distractions makes such a difference in being able to focus sometimes.

[00:21:31] Definitely doing that. I've definitely noticed that I did that where when I started my, my podcast, that I actually got an office space, a desk and an office, and not having my office at home had all the things. And tons of products to get done and all these distractions for me that I get pulled into that just going to a space where like there was a desk, there was nothing pretty much there. And all I could do was the work that was in front of me. Made it so I got so much more progress done and so much more done. Than when I was at home with all the distractions, even though I had a home [00:22:00] office.

[00:22:00] Marcey Rader: Yeah. Well, and, and back to your question about like improving your focus. One thing that I've recommended to people, and again, like I said, I've worked from home since 2001. I am a big fan of remote work. I am definitely more productive. I'm an ambivert, I'm an extrovert, but I need a lot of privacy. So, um, I am much better at home because if, if I was in an office with a bunch of people that I knew,

[00:22:27] Shawna Rodrigues: Yes. 

[00:22:27] Marcey Rader: way too easy for me to strike up conversations. But I joined a co-working space last year called Raleigh founded, and I will go there and they have little phone booths, they have huddle rooms that I meet my concierge and we'll co-work in there.

[00:22:43] And sometimes I'll just go and, but it's, there are some co-working spaces that are, that are a little bit more social. Ours is not, we have social functions, but for the most part people are just in there, you know, um, working and I will go in there like once a week and [00:23:00] I find that I get a lot done there.

[00:23:03] Because I don't have the distractions at, at home, especially if my husband is here. You know, like if my husband is like, has a cold and doesn't go into work, I am outta here because like I'll hear him like opening up cabinets and I know that all I need to do is say like, it's in the cabinet to the left.

[00:23:21] You know? Cause I know that he, he's looking for something. Um, but you know, it's, I think that's one thing that, you know, co-working spaces are kind of missing the opportunity to advertise to people that do have a great home office. I mean, I have an amazing home office, um, but I still like to get out once a week or so, and for people who don't have a co-working space near them, um, even a hotel lobby.

[00:23:53] I, I love me a fancy hotel lobby. They're usually quiet. You know, um, I'll work off my [00:24:00] hotspot. Sometimes I'll just buy a coffee at their cafe and I'll say, you know, can I hop on your wifi? And then I feel fancy because I'm in this gorgeous lobby. And so that's an option too, cuz coffee shops can be good for some people, but sometimes it's a little loud and you can't always guarantee a place to sit, but a nice hotel lobby.

[00:24:18] Yep. 

[00:24:19] Shawna Rodrigues: Yes, I've done that, especially when travel. I've discovered how nice they can be. But I so Vida co-working in Portland, Oregon, Vida is amazing and I think that's actually one of the secrets cuz when I've had jobs that I work at full time, when I go into the office, I feel like I need to check in with this person and this person, and I appreciate this person, what they contribute.

[00:24:38] So I need to go talk to them so I can maintain that connection and that gratitude for what they do. And so I spend a lot of time doing that, like, you know, deposits into all those banks of all those things and connecting. And when I come here I do have people I enjoy talking to, but I don't feel the need to, and I don't have to, and I can go be antisocial and focus on my work and I don't feel bad about it at all.

[00:24:59] I don't [00:25:00] talk to anybody. So it's kinda nice the co-working. That's a good point about the coworking is I don't feel the need to be social even if, um, if I need to get my work done, which is nice.

[00:25:10] Marcey Rader: Yeah.

[00:25:11] Shawna Rodrigues: Very good. Yeah, very good tools. So even if you have a home office, it's not such a bad idea to have this co-working space.

[00:25:16] They have an option here for four days a month. Or you can have the desk space like I had when I started here, which was really nice. You have some options like that?

[00:25:24] Marcey Rader: Yeah, we have a, our, our option is, um, I don't have a suite or an office, but I can use any of the space, which there's plenty of space, and then I have, you know, unlimited access to meeting rooms if I want 'em, and it's $200 a month. Just the meeting rooms alone, like to be able to meet clients or meet other people there for a few hours, you know, a few times a month is, is well worth it.

[00:25:49] And the community, you know, it's, um, one thing that I have heard from some people, you know, when they went remote is that they feel a little 

[00:25:57] isolated and it's [00:26:00] nice. Like they have community days and things like that. Raleigh founded. And so it, it is nice to have a, a community, um, to feel 

[00:26:07] part. 

[00:26:08] Shawna Rodrigues: Yes. So

[00:26:09] Marcey Rader: it's, it's like the best of both worlds cuz it's not like I feel that I have to for my career 

[00:26:16] or 

[00:26:16] Shawna Rodrigues: Yes. 

[00:26:17] Marcey Rader: to talk to that person 

[00:26:18] next to me.

[00:26:19] Yeah. 

[00:26:19] Shawna Rodrigues: Yes, it's nice bonus. Yeah, they have happy hours here and they have lunches here and they have great activities. It's great to participate in, but if I miss one, I don't feel like I'm missing out or disappointing anyone. Whereas with other jobs, I felt like you had to. So coworking spaces, they're awesome.

[00:26:34] So that's a good, good way to help with focus. That's a good extra point. I like that. So you also have a tool that you are coming out with that is brand new, hot off the presses for, for planning. This, your, um, your playbook. Do you wanna talk more about your playbook and how that can support these things too?

[00:26:52] Marcey Rader: Yes, because it just launched today. It is, um, it's actually in pre-launch mode, but it's, they called the [00:27:00] powered Path playbook. And it is a, a digital meets analog tool, so it's not just a planner. It's an online course explaining the prompts throughout the playbook and how to use it. And I have used a lot of different planners over the last decade, and what I found is that they focus too much on the doing. 

[00:27:23] And not enough on the reflection. And it's, it's, we need to ask ourselves the questions, you know, every month. Like, what worked well, what didn't work well? Um, you know, what do I need to change? What were my biggest brags, you know, what are, what are the wins for today? You know, when we take the time to reflect, we're better able to plan our future.

[00:27:44] And so this, and the playbook goes along with my method. Of annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily reflections and planning. So there are prompts for each of those. And [00:28:00] for business owners, they tend not to have a group that they're discussing these things in. They're not doing annual reviews or one to ones.

[00:28:08] So these are good prompts for business owners to do for themselves, um, for employees. The, the benefit for employees is they can't remember what they did six months ago. When they have their annual review, they, they don't feel comfortable bringing up their, you know, top brags for the month when they have their one to one.

[00:28:29] So this, these, you know, prompts are there for them to be able, like, okay, this is what I did this month. This is what I did. This is the lesson that I learned. And for leaders it, when leaders buy it for their teams, It's a consistent, they're consistent questions that they can ask their team member. You know, like, what were your brags, what, you know, what lessons did you learn this month?

[00:28:51] And so it creates this framework that, um, the whole team or the individual can really chart [00:29:00] their year and, and be able to go back and look and reflect. And I've done this, this is, um, I've been doing this for like the last nine years and, and really, Perfect, I guess perfected the, the prompts, um, for, for what I feel works the best for my clients and for the people that I've 

[00:29:20] done this with. 

[00:29:21] Shawna Rodrigues: That's amazing. So what's the course piece of it? Like how big is that commitment and how does that in, um, integrate with it?

[00:29:27] Marcey Rader: It's not a big commitment because we're all so fully scheduled. It is about 

[00:29:32] an hour. 

[00:29:33] Shawna Rodrigues: Oh, nice.

[00:29:34] Marcey Rader: Yes, it is about an hour and every, there's a video for each prompt and, um, the shortest video is about 30 seconds. The longest, I think, is task batching. And, and that's, um, a little under five 

[00:29:49] minutes. 

[00:29:50] Shawna Rodrigues: Nice. And you have a focus of focusing on three things a day, which I love, cuz I talked about that in one of our episodes. So I love that. Did you limit that? Cause you wanna be Yes. Focused [00:30:00] on things.

[00:30:00] Marcey Rader: Yes, your top three priorities, and those are for your day, your week, your month, your quarter, and 

[00:30:06] your year. 

[00:30:07] Shawna Rodrigues: That's awesome. I love it. And that's gonna all go up on December, you said? December 5th, is that right?

[00:30:13] Marcey Rader: no, so it's launch today. It's in pre-launch mode. If, if people order before December 5th, I can guarantee it in time for the holidays 

[00:30:23] and. The entire thing is $199 the course and the playbook, the playbook is an analog, you know, we'll mail that to you. And, I know the price will go up because my printing costs have gone up because we're adding some things into it.

[00:30:38] Oh, I have to tell you the part that I'm really excited about. So, one thing too is that I felt bad throwing away planners and journals.

[00:30:47] Shawna Rodrigues: Uh huh. 

[00:30:48] Marcey Rader: No, I'd get these like beautiful linen bound and I was like, oh, I'm just throwing 'em away. So I decided to create a binder style and so that way, um, you can move, like when you're done with the quarter, [00:31:00] you can move it to the back.

[00:31:00] When you're done with the week, you could move it to the back. So you're always your, you know, the current time. Is in the front if you want it to be. And also I put in like 50 extra lined pages so that say you're going to a workshop that day and you wanna take notes, you can take out a lined page and put it right next to the day that, that it is that day.

[00:31:22] And, and also, you know, you can use your own binder that you love and the color that you want and not be, you know, restricted to like the black or the linen or whatever it is. Um, but for companies, if they wanted to, they could, um, we could co-brand it and they could have it coil bound if they want, but, but that option, I was really excited about creating because it's more sustainable and, you know, after the first year you can just order a refill of the analog, and it's A5 size, it's not giant, you know, eight, eight by 10 or eight by 11. So I'm just, [00:32:00] I'm, I'm really, really excited about this, um, for my clients, but also just to introduce people to this reflection piece because to me it's, it's been a really integral part of getting me to where I am. And I even offer a bonus reflections template for couples and partners and my, yeah, my husband and I have done reflections. We do it every year on New Year's Day and then every, um, every anniversary on July. And you know, it. Encourages you, I don't wanna say force, but encourages you to ask questions and talk about things that you might not otherwise talk about.

[00:32:43] Like, what's working well, what's not working well? And, and even asking, you know, like in the individual playbook, it's, you know, your top brags, but do you think about your top brags as a couple?

[00:32:57] Shawna Rodrigues: Mm-hmm.

[00:32:58] Marcey Rader: that's, that's a, that's a cool [00:33:00] thing to, to think about. I mean, you know, if you're partners in crime or, you know, you're, you're doing stuff together every day or it's, it's important to kind of see how you're working as a team. 

[00:33:15] Shawna Rodrigues: Absolutely. That's brilliant. I think it's great to include that cuz that is something not enough people are doing and having that reflection. So it's nice that it's worked into a planner. I don't think I've heard of that before. That's such a nice bonus.

[00:33:25] Marcey Rader: Yeah. 

[00:33:25] Thank. 

[00:33:26] Shawna Rodrigues: Yes. Good stuff. Good stuff. That's awesome. Wonderful.

[00:33:29] So as we're getting closer to time to wind things down and wind things up, did you have anything you wanted to make sure we covered or we kind of done a good job of getting things in and we can move into our self care stuff.

[00:33:40] Marcey Rader: I feel like we have packed this, so I'm ready to move 

[00:33:43] into self care. 

[00:33:44] Shawna Rodrigues: Awesome. So 

[00:33:45] Marcey Rader: I'm excited about this one. 

[00:33:46] Shawna Rodrigues: Good. Our self care spotlight. Tell us what you do for self-care.

[00:33:51] Marcey Rader: I'm excited because it's so easy. I have an infrared sauna. 

[00:33:56] Shawna Rodrigues: Ooh.

[00:33:57] Marcey Rader: Oh, it is the best health [00:34:00] investment I have ever made. We got it in during, um, COVID, uh, the first year of Covid and I have Hashimotos disease and pretty severe Renards disease. Um, so it's, it's significantly helps with that, but it's on my screened in porch.

[00:34:18] And it is a device free zone. I take no devices in there. I will either, um, meditate or do a self-hypnosis track, um, or I read. Or I do crossword puzzles. Um, and I typically will do that at the end of the day as my transition, like, um, it's, it's quarter to three right now, about four o'clock. I'll start heating it up and between five and five 30 I'll get in there for 20 to 40 minutes.

[00:34:48] If I have stuff that I'm doing in the evenings, then I'll get in it in the morning. Um, but it is the best health investment. I've ever made,[00:35:00] 

[00:35:00] Shawna Rodrigues: Incredible. That's so great that you did that and that you're so good at using it on a regular basis to be able to enjoy those benefits.

[00:35:07] Marcey Rader: I use it every single day that I am home. Um, it would be, I would say there might be one to two days max a month that if I am not traveling, I am not in there for 20 minutes 

[00:35:22] at least. 

[00:35:23] Shawna Rodrigues: That's incredible. That's incredible. But it takes a while to heat up, you said? So you have to be 

[00:35:27] able to. 

[00:35:28] Marcey Rader: it takes about an well in the summer, it only takes about 30 minutes. In the winter, it takes, um, about an hour to an hour and a half. But again, we have it on our screen and porch. Uh, whereas if you had it, like my brother just bought one, and he will have his in his basement and it will take no time to heat up.

[00:35:46] And mine's a little older model. Um, and they, you can get them where they heat up much 

[00:35:51] faster Now. 

[00:35:52] Shawna Rodrigues: Oh, that's so exciting. I love that. That's not one I've heard about before. I love hearing about new ways of doing self care and things that work for folks. That's [00:36:00] amazing. That's great. So what would you have for our Grit way, if we take one thing that people can implement immediately and take away, what would be the one thing you would recommend that people can just take away and start tonight or tomorrow to start doing to help?

[00:36:14] Increase their focus or their productivity, or what would you say?

[00:36:18] Marcey Rader: I'm going to offer a mindset shift. 

[00:36:22] That usually I give it just an action, like do this action, but I wanna do a mindset shift instead, especially because we're doing, we're leading into the holidays.

[00:36:32] Shawna Rodrigues: Mm-hmm. 

[00:36:33] Marcey Rader: Instead of using the word barrier or boundary, 

[00:36:37] consider it a guardrail. So you have a technology guardrail or a time guardrail because guardrails keep us safe when we are driving around the mountains.

[00:36:48] At least for me, I want guardrails.

[00:36:51] Shawna Rodrigues: Mm-hmm. 

[00:36:51] Marcey Rader: They protect me.. And so when you set guardrails around your technology or your time, they [00:37:00] are keeping you and your energy and your focus safe.

[00:37:05] Shawna Rodrigues: Nice. So shifting the way you look at that and the way you think about that and label that to being guardrails, to be able to not be boundaries is something that you're choosing to have there to keep yourself safe and keep yourself on track.

[00:37:16] Marcey Rader: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah 

[00:37:18] Shawna Rodrigues: I love it. That is perfect. Thank you so much. And what is the best way for people to find you and follow you and learn more about you?

[00:37:25] Marcey Rader: helloraderco.com and the playbook is helloraderco.com/playbook.

[00:37:33] Shawna Rodrigues: Excellent. 

[00:37:34] Marcey Rader: Yes, and I am LinkedIn only, and I am fairly active on LinkedIn, so I'd love for people to connect with me there. 

[00:37:42] Shawna Rodrigues: Awesome. Well, we will definitely make sure we have your LinkedIn in the show notes as well so people can connect with you and to check out that the playbook on your website as well. Congratulations on that. That sounds like such a fun thing to have out and to have available for folks.

[00:37:56] Marcey Rader: Thank you. You know, just launching today and already seeing [00:38:00] sales in my inbox. I am, I feel, um, a lot of gratitude and for my team and, um, Just the people that have been involved and everybody that I've done reflections with over the last nine years, and it just, it, it just is a really amazing feeling. 

[00:38:19] Shawna Rodrigues: That's great. I love it. I love it. And we're coming right off of, you know, Thanksgiving. So gratitudes, good stuff. We love gratitude, . Yes. Good stuff. Well, good. Well, thank you so much for taking time to meet with us today, Marcey. This was very valuable and I'm excited for people to hear all of it and to get, um, all of the tips and tricks as well as having access to the, um, what you're offering.

[00:38:38] Thank you.

[00:38:39] Marcey Rader: Thank you Shawna.

[00:38:40] Shawna Rodrigues: Thank you for being here. As part of our audience today, if you're interested in checking out our coloring books, after all, it is the holidays. All you need to do is Google the color of Grit and they should pop up. You can definitely find them on Amazon.

[00:38:56] You can also get sample pages off of our website, The Grit Show dot [00:39:00] com. Don't forget, you are the only one of you that this world has got and that means something. We'll be here again next Tuesday. I hope you are too.