Building Businesses That Breathe: Trust, Tools & Letting Go

Show Notes

Join Sian Murphy and guests for a lively, honest look behind the scenes of modern business life.

From learning to truly let go (and actually enjoy a holiday!) to tackling tricky clients and saying no without guilt.  

Plus time-blocking, building trust with your team, choosing clients who respect your worth, and using smart tools to keep your business flowing.  

Perfect for entrepreneurs who want to build businesses that work with them, not against them, and who enjoy a laugh along the way.

Created and hosted by Sian Murphy with regular co-hosts Michele Yianni Attard, Kay Best, Rachael Bryant and occasionally Adelle Martin.

Find out how to be a guest or patron of the show at https://thewomeninbusinessradioshow.com

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-women-in-business-radio-show--1228431/support.

Created and hosted by Sian Murphy with regular co-hosts Michele Yianni Attard, Kay Best, Rachael Bryant and occasionally Adelle Martin.

Find out how to be a guest or patron of the show at https://thewomeninbusinessradioshow.com ★ Support this podcast ★

Creators and Guests

Host

Adelle Martin

Host

Michele Yianni-Attard

Host

Sian Murphy

What is The Women In Business Radio Show?

Tune in for fun, inspiration and unfiltered discussions as host Sian Murphy interviews down-to-earth businesswomen sharing ideas, tactics and stories.

Regular features include recommended books, tools, lessons learned and top tips for business.

Welcome to the Women in Business Radio Show with Sean Murphy, connecting women in business around the globe. Hello, and welcome back into the Women in Business Radio Show. I'm just fiddling around with all the knobs and things on the keyboard because I keep getting the wrong microphones turned up in the wrong way, which doesn't really work. It's not very good at all. So welcome back into the studio. I'm Sean Murphy and my co host today is Mikhael of Future Insight and also now Savvy Skills. Yeah, what are you doing? What are you doing? You're looking up books, aren't you. It's all very distracting, playing with their phones. I'm here, I'm here. My phone's turned down. Playing with their phone? Your phone? I use my phone for notes. Also in the studio we've got Mark Jennings of Storm Shoses Digital. Hello, I'll be honest to it's tetris. Yes, no, can you take can you? Can you come off your phones and take this seriously? Honestly? Oh, I don't know. So this is our business roundup show for the month, where we look at what's worked, what hasn't worked, tools that people are using, what we're listening to, perhaps projects that we're we're doing. I don't know why. I've only got about fifteen hundred projects. Many of you. Hundreds and thousands. They're all somewhere else. They're all starting to draw. So I look, I'm totally thrown now as to where we are. So that's what we're going to be doing. So I think should we do announcements? Should we should do announce we Okay, so first off, the first they're going to be really bored. Some people listen to these shows two years after. It's entirely irrelevant for them now, isn't it. But let's do a shout out for the Women in Business Big Show twenty twenty five. It is on the seventh of August this year. It is at Wilmington Academy, which is near Dartford, correct in Kent, southeast of England, Kent bordering Essex London. It's really good fun. It is free for visitors to enter. We have some exhibited tables from forty pounds, so a really good space to come along and have some fun, to share your business without either breaking the bank or getting everything too stressed. You don't have leaflets, business cards, pull up banners, that's okay, get creative, go down to the range, get your crayons out. If you do have those, bring them along obviously, but certainly don't go and get any new ones made. And you really don't need any branded gonks, whimses, tea mats or whatever else it is or pens. So that's about it, really amazing. I don't think I've got anything else to do with shout Out. That's the main focus at the moment. So I think we are going to start off with let's start off with something positive. So what's worked this week? What's well actually more like this month, isn't it? What has gone right for you this month? Michael. Let's add a little bit of context in here. So Michel is the CEO of Future Insight, which is an accountancy company. There is also a bookkeeping company alongside of that, so there's a financial consultancy and also a property property management business. So Michel, who also works internationally, specifically from Malta but sort of across the globe, has got sort of a wealth of experience in the finance side of as well as running a business. So we've started her nicely into a pigeon hole there, haven't we any fact? I think we'll also do an introduction from Mark So Marcus is one of the directors of storm Chases Digital. They are a WordPress management company, so really managing large, small multiplet specifically WordPress websites for small business small business clients, but also sort of local government that sort of thing, and so very much interactive with clients. But there's a mix of this being very techy driven but also needing to speak in the same language that some of their clients speak in, so really sort of juggling those sorts of things. Yeah, so that's what they do. May I've got no idea what I do I have, what do I do? I work with businesses, don't I really do. I used to say I was an event manager, but I'm not. You're an entrepreneur. The events are part of the events and the radio show a part of what we have to support our businesses, to support small businesses, large businesses, to pull small bitches businesses and large businesses together. It's actually sort of part of an ecosystem. I'm not an event manager. I run events absolutely so I work with loads and loads of businesses, some large, some small. I chair various bits and pieces linked to business growth, business development, connecting businesses with local government. So that's what I just bimble around a long Yeah. Absolutely, did you say not bimble. Like that, you're just making. Somebody like gives you a big swack. No, no, no Bibles. That's sort of where we're coming from. We've got I don't know what I do to Michael, who really has sort of a very business that has to be really really structured. He actually has to work within a regulatory framework. Absolutely. We've got Mark whose business also needs to be really structured because he's playing around with people's websites, technical and also dealing with people who maybe as both of you are, in perhaps being upset something's not working, something's gone down, and maybe having money issues or having communication problems with people like HMRC, you know, people's Mark, maybe dealing with people who don't understand why their website doesn't work or they may need to be doing all sorts of things with hosting. It can be very distressing when your website goes down and you don't know why, and then there's me bimbling. So that's where we're coming from. We are I think we're all we're all quite busy, aren't we. Well, we all race around doing things and not thinking as much as we maybe should do. So let's start with, well went well this week? What's what's worked this week? What's gone well for you? Michael? Okay, So I'm going to go back to a week ago. So I went on holiday and it's the first time I've left the team without my laptop, just my phone and let them get on with it. Now, if you can do that, no, but I'm just saying, if you can do that and you've got a team member and the team member are looking after things for you, that is brilliant. You know. I didn't. I probably had a couple of calls, but that was it. Nothing, nothing too to majorly, but it's good because you've got to find your owner piece. Yeah, it's all about business. But if you go on holiday, it's probably like that. There's an advert that going on in the UK at the moment, and I think it's a Britch Airways advert that you basically have a laptop and you're working and you've got to stop it because no one has download time and you need that to Because when I went back into the office this week, they went becall you look so refreshed and do you know are actually felt refreshed. It was great to have that week, but you need to. Yeah, if you've got team members, maybe do a handover with them before you go on holiday and make sure everything's done up to date. And then there's just a few things that they need to do while you're away. You need time out from your business because if you don't, you're just going to get burnt out. And so that's what I've learned. I've learned that it is okay. You know, things can wait till you get back from holiday, and you know, if you need someone, there are lots of ambassador groups out there in the world that you might be a member of that you can just say to someone, could you keep an eye on things for me? Or maybe get somebody like a not a call center, but an overflow telephone. System answering service. To take calls on your behalf and if it's anything urgent texts you you know to deal with. But you need to have that, you know, you need that. If I didn't have that, I yeah, I was getting stressed to the point that needed this break and it was good. And I said to myself, no, I've got to take my laptop away. I've got my mobile phone if it's really urgent. But yeah, and where as before I used to keep taking my laptop away with me, which wasn't sold in anything. Sometimes you sort of have to cut the tie, don't you. Yeah, you know what I mean. You have to. You know, if you've taken the laptop away, you're sort of ready for something to go wrong, aren't absolutely, And sometimes you have to say, no, I've put a plan in place, I'm not taking my laptop. Yeah, and you know what's the worst that could happen is Okay, if there really is an absolute disaster, I may need to go and find a laptop. Yeah, I may need to find I may need to go to a library and find a computer and get online someway. But actually you're not setting you're setting it up in your head and also for your team as well. If your team know that you haven't taken your laptop away, they know that they're trusted and that you're not there for a silly thing. Yeah. I agree, you know, every silly thing that happens you are not there, they're gonna have to get on with it. Yeah. As you know, my daughter is in my business, and she said last week to me when I spoke to her, says everything okay, and she went, you should go away more often, mchel because she calls me Michael. It works. She actually she said, I've just warted two new clients. I went, what, and she went, yeah. She said, you know, it was less stress in the office because people were relaxed in their roles because I'm not there, you know, asking loads of questions about the team. She said, it was a much better environment. Last week. Sort of shows how stressed you were if they picking up on you. Yeah. Absolutely, so you definitely definitely away. Yeah, brilliant, Well done, Mark, What worked for you this week? It wasn't this week. This month. Staying till the end an event, okay, because we were at the Medway Business Showcase and we stayed right untill the end, although a lot of people left sort of before we did, but had some really good conversations okay at the close that would have been missed if I'd gone with the herd. I think, so, you know, you've allocated a set period of time stayed till the end. That's interesting. That's also sort of follows on from something that I have trouble with. But one of the questions I most asked about events. You know, so somebody's thinking of putting on as an exhibitor event, how many people, how many visitors are there? One of the most common questions. I've not asked it so much now because people as exhibitors come back and so they sort of know what my answer is going to be. And my answer generally is, it doesn't matter how many visitors are there. Yeah. In fact, you can have too many visitors. It can look absolutely fantastic, but nobody's actually doing anything. Nobody's talking properly to each other because it's so busy. You know, you that the people either side of you that you are exhibiting with you are your best contacts, That's right, And that sort of shows that, doesn't it, you know, because it's all happening middle of the day, and whenever it was you were there and it was happening. It's all happening middle of the day. Buzz bus bus bus bus. And yet the best conversations are when most people have gone, there's only a couple of people left and you get to have a talk. Yeah, definitely, Yeah, I like that. But it was also that for me, it was that bit that this time has been blocked utilizing Yeah, don't sort of sacrifice some of it for something that you haven't planned. Yeah, okay, yeah, you don't know who's staying to the end. Could be your biggest customer and you've left early. Yeah, like you say, Yeah, it's really important that. The most valuable conversations don't always happen in the middle of the throng. No, I might just write that. Excuse me a minute, yeah from Yeah, we are on a radio here, I might change it right, moving swiftly on what worked for me recently. Actually, do you know? It was this morning? It was this morning somebody said something to me that just was It was like somebody shining a light. It became like a beacon. So I have people who know me know I will have I have lots and lots of projects on the going or ever trying to tie them all together. And I have this little magazine that i'm publishing could stepping out, which for a while I've been thinking, this is the key, this is the way to go, and I'm one of the things I need to do is improve the publication process on it because it's quite cumbersome, but it's a resource for businesses in the southeast to find out what's going on, you know, what grants are available and what local authorities are doing, what are other businesses doing, what networking's out there, what support is available, not what support is available if you pay ten thousand pounds, but actually what support is available from people like Kent County counsel or of that sort of thing. And a lady who works for a government organization came up to me and she said, your magazine. She said, I'm at this event today because it was in your magazine. Wow, she said, it was in there. That's the only way I found out about it. And I've been passing it around my colleagues and they think it's brilliant, that's brand that for me. That for me, it just sort of solidified in my mind. Yea, that I that because I've been dithering a bit. You know, this needs to grow, but that's quite a big it's quite a big step. Actually, there's a lot of learning that needs to happen before before it takes off. So I've sort of been holding back and you know, bimbling around a bit. I'd bimble a lot, just sort of you know, refreshing. It just refreshing it and keeping it simple as it is now and but oh I need to change and her saying that actually went yes. So the best piece of unintentional market research ever. Yes, yeah, it was. I just thought yes, and government offices yes. And if she if she thinks it's good. She said, I've been passing it around people. She said, they just love it. You know, I want to She said, I'm passing it on to people that are coming into the office. And I thought, oh my goodness, okay, this is this is the way to go, definitely, And so that's what worked for me. I didn't intend it. I wasn't expecting it. It was an ad hoc, just an ad hoc conversation from a chance meeting. So see, I'm very grateful to the universe for that. So we've done this the wrong way around, haven't we, Because now we're going what didn't work, and now it's all depressing again. I won't be boring at all, but I think I I think it's important to look up what's gone wrong, because from what goes wrong is what we work out what should go right. And it's put a face. That I'm trying to think of difference. I don't like that one. This is radio, I can't might actually take a pinon. I'm going to I'm going to insist that you do that again, and I'm going to know what it is along No I know, no, no, no. It unrepeatable. Now apparently so no no, no, that was nowhere near as bad as it was, but very disappointing. I think it's so important to acknowledge her and stuff goes wrong. And you know, I probably have people dislike me for this. I've been disliked for far more, for far worse. But you know when people say, you know, when people say, oh what there isn't anything is There's no such thing as failure. It's all learning. Actually you do learn stuff, but there is failure, Yeah, there is. You have to acknowledge that something's failed. If nothing failed, you never ever had a target, if nothing ever went wrong, you know how if you if it can't, if it can't fail, how well you know when it's when it's worked. Absolutely, you know. Acknowledging our failures is right, and I think it's also important. One of the things I find quite inspiring is hearing that somebody, you know, somebody, it went horror horribly wrong. Sounds horrible, so I don't inflict that on people, but it's gone horribly horribly wrong. Five years later, they're still here. Actually that was a turning point. So out of it came something absolutely brilliant. You may not have learnt anything, but something actually comes out of it. You may have lost a massive, massive contract, which then which you thought at the time, Okay, I'm going to bankrupt, but now I'm going to have to make all my staff redundant. But actually out of that came more solidity, is a better grounding in your business. It created space for different clients because actually that client who was paying loads of money was cut a complete and utter pain in the bum and now they've gone. You fought in a different set of clients. Things changed and things move forward, and I think it's really important that we acknowledge when something's gone wrong. So when you say that, actually, basically a lot of when you first start in business, a lot of people say, right, I've got to build my clientele up. I got build my clientail up. But at the end of the day, you've got to work with people don't want to work with you, basically not work against you. You've got to be from what you were saying, You've got to. Be careful just to be going out there getting all those clients because you're thinking, oh, I need to make this because I've made the sacrifice. But at the end of the day, you can't say that your net worth is nothing. You've got to say that, Okay, my clients that I'm going to work with, other clients that I choose to work with. I'll tell you what. It is a deal breaker. Absolutely, it is a deal breaker if you have you can sometimes have one bad client. One bad client. Yeah, that is a mona or wine. They expect ten times more than you know than you know. There's a fair exchange in business, isn't. Some money is paid and value is exchanged exactly. And the more people pay, the more of your personal time is involvement and everything that they get. And then there are other people. There are some people who sort of want to pay if you're like online training rates for one to one personal care exactly for days and days on end, and it can sometimes sort of drag you down into before you notice what's happened, especially when you're brand new, because you want to be delivering value. You want to make sure that you're doing a really good job for people, and it can be it can take a while before you sort of realized, do you know this person, this is not an equal No, it's notice, it's not an equal exchange, and you. Need to have that equal exchange. You need to have a relationship with the person that you're working for, providing the service for. You know, everyone thinks, oh, it's a customer. I got to do everything to make this customer happy. Yes, there is that point to it. But at the end of the day, if you're not happy, why are you working with that customer? It's a very very difficult balance, actually it is. It's very difficult to recognize. Sometimes it's a bit like having an abusive relative that's right where they're chipping away and chipping away and sipping away, and then somebody else hears a conversation, who goes, why are you being abused by your whatever the relative is, And you go, exactly, oh, my goodness, you don't Yeah, but you don't realize you're so in it, yeah, that you don't see. It's like, how do they say it? Love is blind? But you can walk around with blinkers. Sometimes you do that because you're just like, oh, I need that. Money, especially when you're just starting out. Yeah, exactly, such scary time, that's right, and saying no to people because you don't feel it's right. It's very difficult at that point. So let's get this back on track, because I think what's happened is I've gone wandering off as usual. So you know, something goes wrong, you lose that big client. At the time, it's oh, it's a disaster, it's all. Actually, it very often will free you up to other things, but you have at that time when it happens, you haven't learned a lesson it has you sometimes have to wait quite some time for other things to emerge. So getting back to where we were, what hasn't worked for you recently? Recently? Okay, So talking about clients. So a particular client of ours did something quite naughty, which is annoyed our team. So we did all the groundwork for their tax information. Their information, presented them with a tax return and they didn't like the figures because they had to pay more tax. And guess what, they fodged the figures themselves on HMRC and that's what's gone wrong HMRC, just so they can get a bigger rebate and now they're not paying for the time. So I kind of say, right, okay, so we sent them to debt management. They've tried to call me twice a day because they're now at debt management because they know that they got to pay our Wise, the debt management will go after them. But it's not just that it's over here. We're governed by AML anti money laundering. What he's basically done is said, well, actually my expenses were higher, so I'm entitled to a bigger rebate, and that's not what his figures were saying. So that's what went wrong is that we you know, my team, two members were on his he was the most difficult client, and it was rushing to get this rebate. And yes he was entitled to a rebate, but not as high as he got back. So yeah, so that's it's unpleasant. What it just shows you, you know, people perhaps in hindsight, people do behave as we expect to behave. So we have to We had to report him because it's the law here. That's a horrible thing to have to do. But you're in a regulated. I mean, in a regulated industry, is actually your responsibility. We didn't submit really want to do. I think I think this is one of the realities of being in business, being in anything really, is that there are times when we actually we have to do the right thing, both morally and legally. Absolutely. Yeah, okay, yeah, thank you for sharing that one. Not a very nice experience. Mark. What hasn't worked for you recently? Well, it was back to time blocking again because I was time blocking more time to do stuff for me and failed to keep it. So some of the stuff has from work has flowed over into personal time. I suppose it's used this way to describe it, and my resolution to change it and have it properly time blocked hasn't worked out. So I need to slap myself on the wrist and maybe take a quick review and see why it failed, and then we reinforce it or maybe tweak it. I don't know, do you know what I do exactly what you do? Mark? But I look at it and I go, it's okay, I'll carry on with what I'm doing, and I'll go, yeah, I've still got some time, and then the time just gets away with you. And yeah, time management is so important to the business and yourself because sometimes you need that key downtime as well. Maybe what about because we've got a I'm using maybe an app or something to I don't know, alarm going off and saying, you know, because that will really annoy you if it keeps going to go off and go right, I've got to take that break now and do what you need to do. Put an alarm in a different office. Yeah, so you've got to get up. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, because we have had phones right next to us, don't wear switch that off. But like you say, if you move it maybe on to a dressing table, you've got fizzilian get up of that alarm and keep going. Yeah, that's a good idea as a physical interrupt, but I think this is possibly a mindset thing as well. Probably, but one may help the other exactly. So my what went wrong? It's a bit of a counterfoil to that, really, And it also sounds like that thing when you know when that there is this interview question where you're being interviewed for a job and the person interviewing you says, so you know what's your greatest fault? And you go, well, I'm too much of a perfectionist. I want in the days off and what Mark's just been talking about about not taking time off. So in the current climate of looking after yourself and well being and self care, which is a word that I just hate, the sort of mine is a bit like that because I was supposed to go out networking last night. I was supposed to go to a woman in business meeting, and I was supposed to go swimming beforehand and then trot off to the meeting, and I was supposed to leave the house at five point thirty and I was just tired. So I had some cheese and rose instead. But that's doing something good for. Yourself and a bottle of rose, And I thought, actually, do you know, I think that's so I much prefer that. So I managed to beat myself up a little bit because I had decided I was going to go to the meeting, but I just, I don't know, I just didn't. I just really I was tired. I've got a long day to day. I've got the radio showered networking this morning. I thought, you know, no, sorry. But sometimes that's prioritize. Cheese and wine. Yeah, but it sounds like it's one of those things for everybody saying, oh, no, prioritize yourself as self care. That is that That is question, isn't it is? That? You know? What do you do? You know if there is something wrong with you? So my what went wrong is actually a bit of a what went right? Isn't it? I had? I had, I was determined to go to this meeting. As long as you weren't speaking or sharing. That meats Hello, where are you? You expect me to be there? But well I'm drinking Why the wine and olives are lovely? Jeez? That's my speech? Yeah, so no, so I am I should have gone along. I'm shulting myself on tie right, Okay, moving, moving swiftly on. But so let's talk about some of the tools that we have been using. So this could be anything. It could be from a pen and paper, could be absolutely anything. It doesn't it doesn't matter. So what have you been? Okay? So we're doing a project at the moment called Savvy Skill. We are how strange I know? So actually, hang on a moment, I think we need to say something. So McKell and I have started a business because I only had a few. You know. So McKell and I have started a business called Savvy Skills, where we are basically delivering business training to either people who are starting up as a business, so for instance, somebody who may want to start their own business or become self employed as a bookkeeper and accountant. We are going to be running training for those people. People who are already in business who may want to expand some of their skills, so they may want to start understanding their own cash flow, understanding their own websites, all sorts of things. So that basically is i'y it's quite a formal company. It is, isn't it very structure, is structured, structured company. It is structured training in person, online so we can go internationally. But it's structured training. It's not just hey, come along, I'm going to do a day of There's going to be certificate. And stuff, yeah, there is, and qualifications. So yeah. So the tool I'm going to mention because I was given a demo of it last week and I really think it's going to be useful for us, and it's so simple for anyone that has a who needs a booking system in their life, in their in their business. I think we just need to explain that the booking system is not for the training. It's not the training system. It's because we also have we also have boardrooms correctly and workpaces for higher. It can be used in any industry. You know. We got Calendly a book book. Simple book Me it's called simple book dot me is an online system designed for small businesses and freelancers and professionals and straightforward way. But it does client scheduling. Sort of blocks out, doesn't. The point which is why I said it's more so what we will be using it for is not the training. But actually because we have board rooms and coworking spaces and desks, is that you can go on and you can book it and it will then take that slot away other people won't it. So definitely, so you can go on and say, okay, I can't go I can't book the boardroom for Monday because it's booked. I can book it for Tuesday, that's right. So that's why it's good for coaches, consultants, therapists, saladdress, yeah, fitness training, yoga studios. So they have got so basically they've got an interface. So I'll tell you what it does. So it has an online booking page accepts bookings twenty four to seven. If that's the way you go calender is sinking with Google or out Look or whatever calendar you might have SMS and email reminders. It does what I love. Also, it does. Payment integration with Strike, PayPal and Square and most of the most of your bank systems online bank systems. It has an admin panel for staff and service management, and it's mobile friendly interface. Does it work if so, say you've run a salon and you have more than one stylist, would will it managed multiple? Absolutely? Lets you put staff in and services in so you can categorize. So you could book in with Marco. I don't know what Marco. I don't know. Perhaps perhaps something nice just stuck, so you want to book in with Marco. What's happening is deteriorated. So yeah, So so you want to book in with Marco to have your head cuts? Absolutely, or nice beauty who knows to have whatever whatever service you you're providing or you're booking. Yeah right, okay, I like that. I can think of a number of applications for that actual. Yeah. So it's got different prices. So you get a free plan and that's just one staff member. So if you are freelancer, it's ideal one location up to fifty bookings a month on the free plan, which I don't think is bad. Basic bookkeeping page, email notifications and no customer branding or payments. It's okay if you're starting up, Yeah, as a free lancer, it's ideal. But then the Basic plan it's got up to one hundred bookings a month, one staff, one location, emails, SMS, payments, accepting basic reports, and it's only nine point nine dollars a month, so in the UK probably eight pounds a month, obviously in America it's nine point nine a month. And then the standard plan where you can put two staff and ultimate book unlimited bookings, full branding, compensation, Google calendar sinks and other calendar sinks more report him. I'll tell you what I really do like the sound of that. I think there's gonna be lots of businesses, lots of business people are going to be able to use that. And if it also you may be able to use it for free, but if not, at least you can start off using it for free a month. I'll tell you what if you can integrate it into word Press as well. That is because some of the other services that are doing that are actually really quite expensive and complicated. I think that is going to annoy quite a few people actually who are looking to build those salon booking systems into websites. Yeah, that's exactly it, and you can do that. So just look at their price structure and what's ideal for you. It's easy to set up and use. I mean, it's very I'm going to be honest, it's idiot proof. I don't mean to say that, but it's great for us. It needs to be sole professionals, a small deed galible as your business growth. So you could just do it in stages. I'll tell you what. That's going to take up hours. Now I'm going to be playing with that. Mark. What tool can you recommend? Well, I've gone back to paper and pen. Ooh, just laying out my day. Yeah, basically, so I have my calendar in the morning, my Google calendar that tells me what's what I've got to do. But then if I write it down a piece of paper, I can quickly juggle things around and prioritize them quickly. I found that a lot of the tools that were available software tools weren't really working for me, so I've gone back to paper and pen. That's good. I use a notepad notebook all the time. I I do. I have to always be writing something down. If you could see what's going on here, I'm just scribbling. I'm covered in scribble and googling. But I have trouble with that. I have a bit of a conflict in between sort of having stuff written down by actually then losing it needing to carry it with me. But my tool recommendations, I've recently come across two new tools. Actually, these are brilliant tools. If your brain doesn't work like some other people's brains work, I mean. If you're not one of the average. Yeah, oh no, I don't like to say that. That sounds. That sounds I don't know. Nobody wants to be averaged, do they know? But if your brain doesn't fit into so here's an example. If you have tried to use notion, no t ion. Notion an immensely popular tool, and everybody's shouting about it, and you've started with it, you got it's fantastic, brilliant, And then in three days you've got everything in all of the colors and all of the sizes, and you've built four separate databases that all link in six different ways to each other and it's full automation, and now you've done it, but you have no idea how you look at it, and it's just totally overwhelming. Or the other one Motion, which is sort of an AI scheduling tool, anything anything along those lines where you've tried to use those and they've gone it's actually sort of fallen apart after a period of time. I'm going to recommend a tool called Craft to you. I don't really know how to describe Craft except it's I suppose the closest is it's like Notion, but simpler. Okay. It Notion enables you to make it immensely complicated, whereas I think Craft does enough without doing too much, which sometimes is where the gift lies. Actually, Okay, so what would you use Craft to do? So? I am using Craft to set up documents for each project that I have, which I can then share with people. It does it It's very very difficult to explain what it does, but it basically also has a really cool calendar in there, and so it brings together all of your tasks. You can have different tasks in different projects and different documents, and then you have one calendar that sort of you can put the whole lot onto and you can do time blocking on it. I recommend that you just go and have a look at it because it's quite difficult to explain because if I say what it does, it sort of sounds like everything else, but it isn't. Okay, it's like stripped. I'll tell you what. I had this washing machine, all right. It was a great big American washing machine, okay, And you opened the top up and you put the clothes in and shut the door, and then there was like you could just you turn this dial and you put it on and you went, I want that wash there, and it would swill around a bit, and then after a while, if you wanted to stop it or add something else in, you could lift the top up and throw stuff in. There was no programming, there was no led lighting, there was no pressing loads of lots of buttons and knobs until start certain things started happening. It was just really simple, and it was a fantastic washing machine. Yeah. Yeah. You could just see everything and there was nothing hidden and no fancy stuff. And this is what craft is like. Okay, they've stripped back on the fancy hidden stuff, so simplicity it's simple, but it has enough in it. Yeah, it has enough complexity to make it work. Really brilliant tool for sharing what i'd call proper documents with people as well. Okay, so Craft great. The other one, very quickly is a tool called Bear, which is it works on computers and it works on iPads and iPhones. I'm sure it works on something else as well, but I have a feeling it was developed for iOS products, so for Mac products, and it's just really simple to type into. It's you know, if you write, if you're a writer, if you want to take some notes, Bear is really really good, whereas I find with things like Apple Notes, good notes, you know, you open it up and I'd have to get it into the mode to type, and then it won't do that, and he won't do this, and he puts it in strange places and that. You know, but by the time I've worked out what buttons depressed, I've actually forgotten what I wanted to write, Whereas with Bear, it just opens up, you can type into it, you can talk into it. It's once again, it's like stripped back. It's really simple. Okay, So those those are two tools, so that I would recommend amazing. Actually, yeah, so I think we're now on to what are people listening and reading to reading? So you know, and that doesn't mean it could be fiction. It could be non fiction, it could be audio. It doesn't really make could be podcasts. So what are you listening and reading? So I'm reading the fiction it's called The Midnight Library. It was The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Oh I've heard. Yes, I've got to keeps popping up on audible every now and then. Yeah, what is it about? It's amazing. So in the start, it's quite sad, and you know, it's about this lady and things are not going right in her life and she tries to commit suicide, so it sounds like it's not but when she goes into a self conscience, she ends up in the Midnight Library and it's almost like she's that. People could say it's an angel or a guide or someone like that that takes her back to different scenarios. So her book, she said, well, you went down that path, but if you could go down this path, this is what your life would be in that path. It was all about decision making and that's what I liked about the book. It was about decision on what path you want to go on, and it would from scenarios of different What would happen if the guy next door she built a relationship with, What would happen if she stayed with the guy that she was with when she was younger and they were in a band together, you know, would. She have a chance. So she was told that she she kept going into It was almost like other dimensions of herself in another life. And it was interesting because when her conclusion at the end of the book, sorry to put this if you're still reading it. I haven't ready. I read the conclusion. Yes, so there's a conclusion, all right. I won't say what the conclusion is, basically obviously, Yeah, so the conclusion was No, No, it's not like that. Yeah, anyway, but you must it's a really good read. Matt Hag has done a really good scenario book about you know, when things are not going well, what what if? And then what you can do At the end. I'm going to stop you now because I've got a feeling any minute now you're going to tell us the end. No, I'm not going to tell you the book does end, but that it does, and I don't want to know what the end is because I want to read that. It's amazing, It's amazing. I loved it, absolutely loved this book. So thank you, Matt. So that's The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Are you reading it or listening to it? I've already read it, listened to it. You listened to it. I listened to it a sorry, okay, yeah, Mark, what are you reading? Listening? Yeah? Through a couple of shows on BBC sounds and one is The News Quiz like that and the other one is Evil Genius with Russell Kine. So was people from history evil or were they a genius? That sounds interesting, but they're both with the comic comedic tones. So yeah, I. Like the sounds for that. Me too. I have been listening too. I can't. Ah, God, now you see now I need to look at this. Oh Sarah Millican. I've been listening to a book by an audio book by Sarah Milican. Cannot remember what on earth it's called. Hang on a minute, it's not now, it's not a period. How annoying is this? Oh? Okay? Oh, here we go, Sarah Sarah Milican, How to Be Champion. It's an it's a really good book. It's about it's about the breakup of her marriage, but it's also about her becoming a comedian and some of the things that she went through, about her physical appearance, the way she's been pulled apart, the way people are commenting on her dresses and all of that sort of thing, and how she's dealt with that, and I mean, some of it is absolutely appalling, you know, some of the criticism that she receives, you know, for going to being nominated at the Bafters, you know, that's why she was there at the Bafters and people are ripping apart her dress and sort of spine, you know, and you just think, honestly, is this what you know? This is what people are really like? But you know they are they are And I read a brilliant quote on substack this week where somebody had been had had sort of a tirade of abuse, but somebody was sort of picking them apart and you know, don't take this the wrong way, but perhaps you could do this, or don't take this over perhaps you could do that, or you know, your hair, you look really unprofessional. And she wrote quite a long post about it, and in part of that post, she said this one thing, which was I don't have to carry your baggage exactly. I exactly. I don't have to carry your baggage exactly because anybody that's picking holes in your clothes or judgment or you know, what your eyebrows look like, or your hair, or how you behave or anything that you do, that's their stuff. That is their stuff. It's gotten it. They didn't the opinion. Is it doing quite well? Thank you very much. I don't need you to comment on various bits of my body or what I'm wearing, or how I behave or things I say, that's your stuff. Is there insecurities. If that comment wasn't invited, that is your baggage. Feeling that you need to point out some faults on me. Thank you so much. And I just love that. I don't need to carry your baggage. Yeah, definitely. So that's basically what Sarah Milican that book is. It's really and it's funny. Actually it's funny. So i'd certainly give that a go. Now, look we have oh we've not even got two minutes left, so I think we need to be saying goodbye. Thank you so much for listening to our business round up. We will be back next month with a business round, So thank you to a Future Insight and now Survey Skills. Thank you to Mark Jennings of storm Chases Digital. I'm Sseel Murphy and we will be back well next time with the Women in Business Right Now Show. We're saying then take care in the meantime. Bye. Tune in next week to the Women in Business radio show for more stories, ideas and inspiration to help you grow your business