Maintaining Momentum in Marketing, Business and Life with Diann Wingert

NOTE: This podcast was transcribed by an AI tool. Please forgive any typos or errors. Erin Ollila 00:00 hello friends today we are here with Diann Wingert. And what you may not know about her is that she actually dated an actor, before he became a really big deal who went on to be the lead in two popular television series. She ended the relationship and what she learned from that became a lesson about mindset values and timing that she uses to this day. So tell me that big lesson. What do you use from from that experience to kind of guide you today? Well, without the big reveal, because I don’t know if the gentleman in question would want me to share this. But he was 26, I was 19, he was already on his way to becoming a thing. And I was just literally barely no longer a teenager. The reason why I ended the relationship is because I realized that I was not ready for the places he was going. I liked him a lot. He treated me incredibly well. But I realized that his lifestyle, his goals, and the world that he was moving into, was just not what I was ready for at the age of 19. And I actually feel pretty proud of myself for having that level of self awareness. Because I realized how I mean, Erin, how many times do we go places, because other people are going there, even people we admire. And once we get there, we’re struggling so hard, when in fact, we could have opted out from the beginning. So opting out an intentional constraint are two things that I use in my own life and teach all the time, even though they’re not always what people want to hear. No. And honestly, I think that’s the perfect start to this episode. We’re here now in the new year, and I think everyone has settled into getting back to work kind of getting back to real life after a slew of holidays, a slew of new year resolutions and goals that they’ve set for themselves. They’re probably reviewing the content that they wrote down about what they’d like 2023 to be when they sat down originally, and let’s say November, early December, and they’re thinking, holy macaroni, like, I need to follow up on this. And it’s one overwhelming and too, I think, we like to be a little loftier in our goal setting, or I see a lot of my clients, at least or myself, set really high goals for themselves and recognize that like, is this what I want to be doing? So I think that in some ways, it’s what you just said, as the perfect introduction to our conversation. Here we are the momentum that we felt from this exciting like goal planning time is starting to melt off, what does one do when they recognize they’re not really sure if they are in the right place here? Diann Wingert 02:47 There is so much juicy goodness to unpack here. First of all, I think, well, most of us these days, say Oh, I’m not really a New Year’s resolution kind of person, we’re probably just putting a new label on the same old thing. Like people say, Oh, I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, I just tried to be really intentional thing Ding, ding, ding, same thing. Or, you know, we’re in a coaching program where q4 2022, we’re all talking about our priorities for the next year, and so on and so forth. Bottom line is you and I both work with creative people who have way more on their plates than they could ever possibly hope to get through. And so they’re making decisions about what do I DIY, what do I get help with? What do I outsource and so forth. What it really ultimately comes down to in terms of getting into momentum, sustaining our momentum. And I think at this point in January, actually restoring our momentum comes down to number one, realistic expectations, to actually being able to set priorities that are in alignment with your values, not the celebrity entrepreneurs, coaches, gurus, pundits, people you admire, even people in your own intimate circle, in alignment with your values. And also, I think, in alignment with your personal bandwidth at this time, which depends on things like stage of life, stage of business, what other obligations responsibilities, caretaking duties you have, are you like, I’m, I’m not a mom anymore. Well, I’m still a mom, I’ll always be a mom, but my kids are grown and flown. But I have a 12 week old puppy, and you better believe that eats into my bandwidth. If you have medical illnesses, chronic illnesses, chronic pain, mental health conditions, that impacts your bandwidth. And yet somehow we automatically leave those things out of the equation when we set expectations, priorities and intentions for the new 05:00 A year, which has most of us feeling right about now. Like we have no gas in our tank, and we got a long road ahead of us. And that’s depleting, demoralizing, and has a lot of people even questioning whether they have what it takes to be an entrepreneur, all of this suffering is optional. Because you don’t have to do your business your life like anybody else, you just have to do it in a way that works for you. So expectations, bandwidth, and boundaries. We’re all living in this idealistic or an idealistic as fuck I really am. I always have been, it does set me up for disappointment. But it also means that I have had to learn that I need to respect my actual bandwidth, set real boundaries, be prepared to back them up and not just like set them and forget them, but constantly adjust what I what I’m really attempting to do based on what’s realistic, I don’t like failure. I don’t think you do. I don’t think anybody listening does either. And yet, we unconsciously set ourselves up for it all the time, which is a huge leak in our ability to sustain momentum. If you’re listening in you’re feeling that loss of momentum, definitely do it like a gut check a time check on the bandwidth, because the goals you set doesn’t don’t necessarily have to be unrealistic. But it’s Can you do it right this moment? Should you parcel them out into the future, right? So for me, yes, absolutely. The expectations and the priorities are just as equally important. But I think that what goes ignored is the bandwidth, I would 100% agree. And for the people I work with, I have all these different slogans like too much is never enough. We do not have the internal set point that tells us when we’re actually doing enough when we’re expecting too much, because we’re very driven, to just do whatever is in our imagination. So I think about it like this, like in your imagination, in your vision, in your ideal world of the business that you are creating, you fall in love with you become completely infatuated with that vision. And we’re foolish enough maybe too, audacious enough, let’s say audacious enough to think that we can actually create it all of it, like instant for continuously. And anytime we fall short of that in any way, it’s actually painful. So of course, we overlook our limits, we bypass our bandwidth, because we’re so infatuated with what we have fallen in love with creating and believe is possible. And we resent anything that interferes like I have always thought getting sick is such an inconvenience. I just think this is so freakin inconvenient kind of shit to do. But I’ve always got shit to do. So I was a single, you don’t think you know this about Aaron, I was a single mom, for over a decade, I didn’t have any support either. And my kids were 1012 and 15, when we embarked on that journey, and we have a lot of mental health issues in my family. So there was a lot to manage. And it was all on me. But that actually, I think turbocharged my awareness, my understanding, and my commitment to creating the things that we are going to unpack today in this conversation about keeping the engine moving. And when it slows down or stops. What to do about it, I first I think would be my preference to think about maintaining momentum. Because the reality is, once you’ve come to a full stop, it’s so much harder to get going like at all. So one of the concepts that I teach and I use in my own life is swap your on off switch for a dimmer switch. I think in analogies and metaphors because my memory is for shit. But pictures in my mind I’m able to hang on to and I find that other people relate to them. So the on off switch is like I’m either going 100% with what my goals, priorities, plans, dreams, you know, whatever, whatever I committed to in my accountability group. It’s either all or nothing and I think okay, my personality is definitely that way it’s like full ass or no ass I don’t have fast anything. But when it comes to momentum and goals and getting stuff done, you really are not well served by this because something will happen. So 10:00 Sooner or later, probably sooner, where you’ve got everything all lined up, you’ve got the perfect task list, you’ve got it all mapped out in your project management software, you’ve scheduled it, you’ve time blocked it, you’ve patched it. And then quote unquote, something happens when your kids get sick, somebody frickin rear ends you, you lose your wallet, or it could be something more serious. But when this something happens, and you have an on off switch in your brain, everything goes to a screeching halt. And once that situation has been dealt with resolved, or the emergency is gone, you’re literally starting from the start piece on the game board. That that sends people into a total tailspin. So how would the dimmer switch? Look? I like to think about minimal and optimal with everything I do. What is the minimal amount that allows me to stay in momentum, so I’m dialing the dimmer switch down? Or if you don’t like that analogy, you can think about turning down the heat on the stove. So that it’s like simmer instead of boil. dial it down? What is the minimum amount? easiest example of this would be like exercise? It’s January, everybody wants to lose weight, get in shape, have fun definition. Maybe we’re still trying to get back to our pre COVID. Wait, anybody even remembers what that looks like? If we are able to set a minimum amount for expectations? What would that look like? Well, of course, everybody thinks, oh my god, I’m going to exercise for an hour, seven days a week? No, you’re not. No, you’re frickin not you are for sure. Unless you’re an elite athlete, which means you would have already been doing it for years. And this isn’t even a conversation that you’re having with yourself, what’s the minimum acceptable amount, maybe it is a 10 minute walk three times a week. And that flexibility coupled with your non negotiables I think helps a lot of people ease into the idea of the dimmer switch, because I don’t know about you, I tend to be all or nothing, I tend to be overly rigid. And it’s like, you know, I say I’m not going to eat chips anymore. The first time my hand dives into that Doritos bag, I might as well just eat my way all the way to the very last and sit and then swivel my finger around the inside after I look at it, you know, but but dialing it down and thinking, okay, really, realistically, if if you’re thinking I’m gonna record a podcast episode every week, it doesn’t have to be an hour with a guest and all the things, it could literally be a 10 minute solo, that you riff on something that’s top of mind that your audience wants to hear. But it’s I think what I’m saying in summary is it’s the combination of commitment to the minimum, non negotiable. 13:02 And flexibility within the amount and how it might look. Now, the only downside to this, Aaron, because I’ve done this with a lot of people, and I’ve done it with myself over many years. The only downside is that you do risk decision fatigue. Oh my god, decision fatigue, I think I like to swim in the pool of decision fatigue for the past few years. Yes, it’s you’re right. You’re right. Because Because you’re you literally and and I think it’s one of the reasons why the hardcore, I’m going to exercise for 45 minutes every day, in this way. At this time, no matter what. That sounds like a frickin nightmare to most people listening, but it is easier from the perspective of you don’t have any decisions to make 8am rolls around. It’s what you do. Because you’ve trained your brain to the habit. And you’re not thinking should I or should I do a feel like it or not? You just do it because it’s what you do. And the brain can take a nap. That’s the only downside. Yeah, no, it’s so interesting that you just added that to what you said. Because while you were sometimes when I’m interviewing people, I know that there is a thought that I have that I feel is very relevant to the conversation, but I have to sit and listen to them. And also think, which is the beauty of ADHD to be able to think like five solid thoughts clearly at a time. But I have to also think well, how does this thought that I’m thinking relate to what they’re saying, right? So what I’ve come down to is everything that you just explained when it comes to like the momentum is it’s kind of a two part thing. When we think of it according to your approach. It’s both mindset and action. The mindset part is if we have these great plans and we over kind of overwhelm ourselves right? Before we can even take action, we fail ourself when we set things that are too lofty. Now however, the 15:00 opposite, you know, talking about the bag of Doritos. Now we’re here we are taking action, we say we’re just gonna have a couple, but then we fail, then we are failing in action, right? So in some ways, I think that what we need to do if we scale back when we’re talking about keeping momentum is bringing it back to that baby step kind of an approach, right? So it’s like, if we’re looking at the dimmer scale here, I really don’t want to harp on this Doritos thing is because especially the whole New Year’s let’s be healthy thing drives me bananas. But if it is, if we’re just taking Doritos for a second, maybe it’s that you pack yourself many bags of Doritos right instead of the big bag. And that’s just that visual indicator for you like that’s, that’s your tree, right? So I think that we can set up things to be have more of that dimmer skill. But I found it really interesting when I was hearing you speak to think about the fact that like, it is both in our head maybe behavior I don’t know if mindsets the right word, but something within ourself slash the way we take action is how we lose momentum, because we set ourselves up for failure before we really can get started. But one thing I found myself specifically that works, and I would say, maybe I’m projecting this on you for a second, like your coach wise, because I’m not sure if this is one of those like, coping mechanisms that I haven’t quite recognized. But one thing that I have done to set myself up what feels like success is proving things to myself with action. And that’s what helps me keep momentum. So I definitely like the dimmer switch. And I feel like for me, that’s where it’s like healthy, like I can see that healthy growth and approach to work. But I also know that sometimes if I say to myself for the podcast, for example, originally, when I first started I was doing every other week, because I thought to myself, Okay, cool, like it gives me some space, I don’t have to be on all the time. But I needed the constraint of a weekly show to show up and do it. And then every time that I showed up and did it, I proved to myself that I could do it that I was 17:04 getting my work done on time that I was able to add this new chunk of business into my business. So in the proving that helped me keep the momentum. So again, I don’t know if what I’m saying is exactly a coping mechanism to like force action. But I think at least the small steps into into setting constraints to the removing the decision fatigue by just saying, Hey, I’m doing this every week period, did help me prove that to myself to keep the momentum going. There’s a lot that’s really, really good here. And I want to make sure that I tease it out a little bit even more. The reason why I function so well as a person with ADHD is because I embrace things that a lot of people with ADHD and also other creative and entrepreneurial folks who don’t identify with this label, struggle with, and that is related to the topic of momentum. A lot of us believe we cannot be creative on demand. And we believe that we cannot be consistent. And I think fundamentally, whether we are having a conversation about mindset, skill set, thinking versus doing, you know, experimenting versus setting expectations of ourselves, all the ways that we learn to manage busy brains. I think fundamentally, it comes down to identity. And, you know, we could talk about tips and tricks and hacks and systems and frameworks and all that because that’s what people want, because it makes a challenging, behavioral issue seem more manageable. But in reality, at the deepest level, we need to shift our identity to becoming a person who acts. So for example, I cannot tell you this started when I was a psychotherapist and continued as a coach, I cannot tell you how I lost count, because so many people say so everything was going great until x happened. 19:10 And it was just fascinating to me, like how many people saw their lives, their business, their ability to be successful, their ability to stay in momentum, their ability to recover from setbacks, their ability to be consistent, all of that as sort of externally determined, like I was doing all to paraphrase, I was doing all the things right and they were paying off until something out of my control happened to me and just fucked everything up. And I think fundamentally at our core, we don’t even look for solutions. We don’t even try trial and error to see what’s going to help us get back 20:00 back on the horse or get back up to speed or whatever we want to think, unless we decide to adopt this belief as part of our identity. 20:12 I’m a creative problem solver. I am resilient. I fall down. But I always get up, I fall down 10 times, I get up 10 times, like if we truly believe, if our narrative is that even when I’m doing everything, right, something always comes along to F things up. No trick, no tip, no strategy, no coach, is going to be able to override that belief because the brain always has to prove itself, right. And the mind is right in there for the action. So I think one of the things that helps us more than anything else, when it comes to maintaining momentum, restoring momentum is the belief that we can, that we can that we have it within ourselves to do so. Because otherwise, we’re always going to be looking for somebody who has the answer. To alleviate this distress. I refer to that as the magic pill. I did a podcast episode on that back in November, I believe number 2020. Do. There is no magic pill, you are the magic pill, you create the magic. So believing that yeah, I found out I had a failed launch, I was all geared up to launch a group coaching program. Then I got sick with COVID. For three weeks, my dog was diagnosed with a terminal illness and literally died in my arms on the first day of the launch. Obviously, things did not work out the way I expected them to. But my personal narrative includes the belief that I can overcome challenges. If I’m not indulging too much in thinking I can’t. We have to give ourselves a little grace. A lot of people in January are feeling a little disgusted with themselves. A little discouraged, a little defeated, depleted, disappointed. I got a whole bunch of D words. But I think that’s enough. Because we did we overdid things. During the holidays that we promised ourselves we wouldn’t be spending, eating, drinking, shopping, gossiping, like whatever lazing about. 22:33 Or maybe we overworked and ignored our family like whatever it is. Most people spend time during the holidays doing things they don’t feel so great about right about now. And that’s part of the momentum too. So I think one of the things that I like to teach and that I use a lot is knowing what your drivers are, like, literally, let’s say you’re at a dead stop. Let’s say your dimmer switch is broken. Let’s say you’ve got no gas in your tank, no electricity, it’s a total blackout. What are you going to do? Knowing what fires you up knowing what gets you going stimulates you is crucial. And a lot of people can’t quite put their finger on it. So I put it into four categories. I call them fancy, gritty, shiny and FOMO. That’s my terminology. But they in more common vernacular. They are interest, challenge, novelty and urgency to get yourself to take action, which really that’s all momentum is. How do you get yourself fired up again. The first and best is interest. Like I don’t have to tell you as a person with ADHD if you’re interested in something you will go at it like a beaver building a dam and nothing can tear you away. Like we forget to eat you forget to sleep you and forget to go to the bathroom if it didn’t become urgent. Interest is the first and best driver. So if there’s any way you can get yourself more interested in that thing. Looking at it in a different way, challenging yourself to do it differently, approach it differently. 24:14 So that it doesn’t seem boring because of course boring is kryptonite for us. 24:20 If you can make it more interesting if you can find something interesting about it, that will absolutely draw you in like a moth to a flame and all of a sudden mood energy motivation which equals momentum is right there for you. You have other options challenge a lot of people don’t like the sound of this one. That’s what I call gritty. A lot of people don’t like challenge because they think bitch I am already fucking challenge I can barely get myself out of bed and showered. Forget about brushing the teeth. Um, that’s not what I’m referring to challenge means, like even a healthy competition with yourself 25:00 or if you have a bestie, who’s not like always out to zero sum game everything and when we’re up your nose in it, but like, hey, I want to get this done by the end of the day, what do you want to get done by the end of the day, game on, and it inspires you to actually get up and do the thing. Because now you have a little bit of challenge challenge can also come in the form of somebody that you don’t hate, tells you, I don’t think you can do it. I know a lot of people, they happen to usually be men. But I know a lot of people that are ridiculously effective and successful, to prove other people wrong. Usually they’re dead, because they didn’t think they could do something. And you can just borrow that from your environment. I bet so and so doesn’t think I could get this done by the end of the week, you know? And those are ways to challenge yourself or if you think the task is boring, how do you make it a little more challenging? How do you make it a little more effortful that will help to engage your drive? The third is novelty. This is absolutely one of my favorites, because you know, shiny, bright, shiny, sparkly, new different. Oh, I haven’t seen that before. I learned before years before I even knew I had ADHD, Erin, I realized that most people when they encounter each other socially, they say how are you? I always said what’s new? And I still do. And I’m like, that’s the thing, because I’m not interested in necessarily how they are. I want to know what’s new, what’s new. So if you know that about yourself, look for what’s new, boom, mood, energy motivation are dialed up. And then coupled with action, you’re back in momentum. Most of us with ADHD tend to default to urgency. It’s because we don’t understand how much more effective the others are, and that we have a lot more control over them than we think if we have time, I do want to say something about this whole idea of waiting for the muse to get back in momentum. But when it comes to urgency, this notion of I do my best to work under pressure. No, no, no, that’s not what’s happening. You procrastinate until they’re about to be consequences, and then you do what you could have done earlier. Right? Urgency can be leveraged, though. And this is how I do it. If I’m procrastinating on something, which is also goes hand in hand with being out of momentum, because once we know we’re out of momentum, there’s all kinds of sloth let’s face it goes on during the holidays. Now it’s the new year, we automatically think we’re going to be focused fired up and flame retardant. No, you won’t. You have to ease your way back into it. And yes, everything counts. Because I can’t tell you how many people say, baby steps don’t count, bitch, they count everything counts, because you’re not doing shit now. So every little baby step adds up to something. And eventually you’re going to feel like I can do more than this. So you do. But a sense of urgency. 28:15 And especially if it’s coupled with accountability can get you there faster? Because I mean, have you noticed how much you can get done when you’re running out of time? And have you noticed that the more time you have to do something, the more time you waste. So urgency, yes, and yes. 28:38 Or urgency is a faithful driver, but I caution people from over using it. If it’s the only pony in your stable, you will be experiencing a lot of stress related physiological symptoms that are not good for the body over time. And I know this from many years of personal experience that if you don’t acquaint yourself and learn some mastery with the other drivers, which are so much more fun, your adrenal system gets pretty shot as the years go by. And that will zap your ability to execute nevermind your desire to do so like you literally will physically burn yourself out. And I think that needs to be avoided at all cost. I know I’ve been talking for a really long time. Do you want to ask any questions? Or do you want me to talk about the creativity on demand? We’re gonna jump into that in one second. But everything that you said was so perfect. I didn’t want to interrupt you. It was really helpful to kind of hear how that all played out. I’m sidestepping for about three seconds, just because in some way I have to do this all the time. It’s like the I guess, the agvhd urge to also remind people about copy but of those four things. You said if you’re listening to this, and you’re like, Okay, well, here’s where I’m struggling. It’s my marketing right now. I had these big ideas 30:00 As our like, I’m not a writer. And suddenly I committed to writing a blog seven days a week, right? Here’s how I think how you can approach those four areas when it comes to interest. What are you interested in writing about like? Or how are you interested in showing up? Because all of my clients, every single one of them say, well, in their own terms, it doesn’t have to be this thing. I don’t want to be on reels are like, oh, gosh, I know it. LinkedIn is where I should be. But it’s just not my crowd. Cool. Don’t show up in that way. What do you like if we’re, if we’re looking for ways to like kickstart our marketing momentum or motivation? In we’re looking at the interest, like section, pick something you like and do it right? challenge, I think that’s a great way to approach copy our content in any way, shape, or form is a light constraint. Or, like a project like challenge, you want to pull in a friend to do something where you both commit to doing like, let’s say your about page and that’s it, you’re gonna sit down, you guys are gonna do your about page, we’re gonna do it within a month even because we don’t have to have time constraints that are so overwhelming that we can’t achieve. Just just do that. Right, novelty. Try something absolutely new to you. Because I think that’s also how we in the creative field, find out we have skills we don’t know that we have. I’m pretty damn good at this podcast thing. I mean, I always knew I was a good talker. I love the quote from the movie. Thank You for Smoking. And I think it’s like Nick Naylor, whatever his name is, he says something like, you know, 31:30 Michael Jordan plays ball, Charles Manson kills people I talk, that’s my superpower, or something that effect and I was like, Well, I That sounds a lot like me, right? But my point is, is like, you know, you don’t know what you can excel at, you don’t know where that interest may lie, unless you actually try something new. And if you don’t like it, that routes right back to interest, just stop doing it. And then urgency. You know, this is, I think, a really, really helpful thing, when you’re feeling overwhelmed when it comes to marketing. Here’s the shortcut. And I mean, I actually hate the word shortcut. But here’s the like, go to from Aaron, what is financially driving your marketing right now or your business? So for example, if you are one of those people that say like, oh, like, yeah, let’s get have a discovery call, whatever you do, don’t look at my website, fix your damn website, you need to stop that, right. So like your urgency is you need to update that. If it is something like your workflows are not set up, and your client satisfaction is a little bit lower. That’s where you spend your marketing time you fix your workflows, you fix your client experience. So that was my takeaway from everything that you just said. Super quick question though. If someone is feeling a little demotivated or they’re looking to get momentum back, they hear those four different ways that you explained it in, they’re just really not sure which of those they should go, is there a general advice on, on how to pick one like, where to start with one of those four, just as you gave the advice about, do what works for you, I think we have to experiment. And if you are literally, I have no frickin clue. Ask your bestie. They know what gets you going. Ask your sister, presuming you have a good relationship with her. Ask somebody close to you. Because you already have a driver that is fully installed, fully operational, you’ve been using it your whole life to get you going. But it’s unconscious for you. Because it’s you. It’s like I always say you can’t read the label from inside the jar. So ask someone to read the label as someone that knows you well, and if that doesn’t fit for you, or work for you, or you just don’t want to do that experiment. One of the ways and this is also a recommendation that I want to make for talking about creativity on demand. I think one of the best ideas that I’ve come across and I love to use and recommend to other people is the artist date. And the artists date is one of the concepts from Julia Cameron’s, you know, iconic book, the two things that from that book that everybody talks about, and many people use are the morning pages, which is a great way to get your brain revved up and into momentum for writers. And you could be like Bart Simpson writing, I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it. Like for three pages, because I have done that actually. And it still works because it gets you from stop in to go. Like if you are at a dead stop. You need something to start your ignition. And it doesn’t have to be that hard. So I think we need to experiment. The artists date is like, hey, pretend you’re a kid. I think a lot of creative people already know this about themselves. But there are so many brilliant people. Many of them are the kind of people I work with, who don’t think of themselves as creative because 35:00 they’re, they’ve been indoctrinated into a professional identity that doesn’t focus on creativity. Or they may think I’m not creative because I’m not an artist, a lot of writers, strangely enough, think they’re not creative because they don’t make something with our hands. I’m like, you make something with your brain, it counts. So the artists date is Take yourself somewhere you have to don’t go by yourself, can I take anyone with you, including your dog, nobody just you to date with you for a couple of hours, two to four hours at the place that stimulates a sense of playfulness, and fun. For me, I like to go to places like card shops that have little snarky gifts, you know, we’ll be cushions like stuff like that stuff that’s like meant for kids, and probably everyone else in the store is like a preteen or a teen, I will get myself so tickled. After spending some time in there, I actually even read the greeting cards out loud and laugh my ass off. Because for me laughter generates energy and energy generates momentum. So you made it go to Lego Land, is some people get really charged up going to Home Depot, like if that’s your thing, like whatever, but going on an artist’s date to get yourself into a sense of creative energy and experiment. Like you don’t have to know before you do. This is maybe the biggest takeaway of this conversation of all people try to think their way out of feeling stuck. And you cannot it’s not a thinking problem. It’s a doing problem. You’re not doing anything. So how do you get yourself out of that? By doing something, maybe it’s just like skipping jump rope, or hula hooping or jumping on a trampoline or something that’s a doing that you may not think is related to writing that blog post or you know, that email series or whatever. But your body is the gateway to your mind. So do something even if you don’t think it counts for you don’t know what it is, or if it’s even fitting if this formula, anything is better than sitting and thinking which very quickly becomes overthinking that is the antithesis of momentum. Yeah. Which is what kind of brings me right back to that point that I said in the beginning. It’s like, momentum and all this is both in your mind and in the actions, right, because, you know, I think for me, in some ways, I would have held myself back in previous situations, it’s the mind I don’t, it’s the refusing to take action and dooming myself, right. And I hear that with my friends, I hear it with my clients. But a quick completion to what you just said, you know, I actually have an artist degree, you know, I have my MFA, I went to school for creative writing. And if there’s anything that I think anyone can just know, when they think of a writer, or if you’re in the writing field, you hear and it might maybe you jump on one side of the fence here, it’s the muse, which is what you kind of said like waiting on the muse. Dear Lord, there is no damn muse. I don’t not care. I do not care what famous writer talked about the muse, the muse, the muse, it is all BS, right? Completely 100% You want to be a good writer, you want to be a good creative, you want to be a good marketer, if you want to be a good professional entrepreneur, enter your own word here. It’s building muscles, just like any sport, just like anything else. And you know why we don’t do it? Because it’s hard, right? Because you know why Aaron does not go to the gym, because it’s hard, right? So when we sit down, and we talk about things like marketing, it’s because we have to condition ourselves. So when Diane says, sit down with those morning pages, or, you know, just do something to get that like flowing. When I do outline sometimes or when I start like wireframing, a site for my client, I will literally write blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah for a paragraph, or I’ll write absolutely no freaking clue what to write here and just keep going. Because then what happens is I have a full draft. Sure, I might have 10 places within that draft that I’m like, literally don’t know what to say. But it’s you know how easy it is to go back into something that’s completely created, and make it better than to stare at a blank page to stare at a canvas and wish that you had something on it. So I think that’s kind of the perfect way to end our conversation on momentum. In general. It’s just momentum itself is a muscle, right? Like you want to keep the momentum going. You want to stay motivated. I completely echo what you said before about baby steps counting. That has literally been like a phrase that has guided me throughout these past six and a half years in my business, especially because it was happening with babies alongside me literal babies, is Oh, take the damn little itty bitty step and you will grow right so yeah, I mean, I absolutely encourage people 40:00 keep the momentum, work the muscle, it’s totally fine. If you’re if you feel like you have no muscle, because if you just do the tiny effort and prove to yourself that you can be consistent, and that you can do these things, you will get momentum that’s continuing. But going back to the very beginning of a conversation, just keep that filter of, you know, are there are these realistic expectations? Are you setting the priorities right? Or are you do you have the bandwidth? Because we, I think it’s a slippery slope, right? So like, keep those filters on and just forged through would be, I think, a best way to sum up what we’ve been saying here. Yep. And if you are hardcore attached to the idea of amuse, even though that pitch keeps standing you up. Something I have done with a few of my clients is we create their own personal action figure, which is the ideal version of themselves. And some of them have the full like, you know, there she Rob princes power there, Wonder Woman there, whoever their favorite, but they imagine we’ve been really creative people can create a mountain, they use it as their screensaver, because it reminds them, what is the ideal version of yourself, who’s doing the things that you aspire to do on a consistent basis, put your face on that summon her, summon her, she will come if you train her to come? I love that. So Diane, I always end these episodes with a few questions. One of which is, if listening to everything that we just said, people are like, Okay, I’m ready to take action. If you could give a tiny homework assignment to the listeners, what would it be based on what we talked about? I’m gonna say the very first thing that people can do if they’re really, really resisting, taking action, but they really want to need to get in momentum. If you do not already have a free focus paid account, get one immediately, do not get the paid account, get the free account. And the reason why I recommend the free account is not just because who doesn’t love free, but because the paid account may encourage you to overuse it. And like any tool, when we overuse it, it doesn’t work as well. And we’re not discriminating about how and when to use it. Focus mate is like the accountability partner you wish you had. And just go to the website and check it out. It is brilliant. Because sometimes we just need to know that someone else is expecting us to do something to start that momentum engine. And if you can meet anyone in the online business, well, who would it be and why? I would really like to meet Mel Robbins. She literally appeared on the scene 42:42 just a few years ago, and I’ve literally watched her become a superstar. In the meantime, and I like her vibe. Yeah, I would like to meet Mel Robbins. Is there anything major that you’re working on that you want to keep momentum on this year in 2023? Actually, in November, I started working on my very first audio course. Cool, because I realized and the topic is boundaries. And I’m just gonna leave it at that because boundaries have an awful lot to do with bandwidth and burnout. Which burnout is the opposite of momentum so you can find everything you might want to know and maybe some stuff you don’t even really care to know at Diane Wingert coaching, all the things are there, my podcast and a whole lot more. Yeah, and I love Diane’s podcast, so absolutely. Check it out. Thank you so much for being here today. I think this is an awesome episode to start the year and really just make sure people feel confident and excited and you know that they have everything that they need to walk into the New Year successfully in a way that feels good for them. It was a pleasure.