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Hello friends.

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I'm Kendra Losee from KendraLosee.com
and you've tuned in to the Invisible to

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Invincible podcast where unapologetically
driven business owners share their journey

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from hidden gems to industry leaders.

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Together, we'll uncover the
secrets, mental shifts, and

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business strategies that turn
hidden gems into undeniable forces.

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So hit that subscribe
button and let's dive in.

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Our guest today is Dr.

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Amanda Bell.

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Amanda has a Ph.

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D.

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and Educational Policy.

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What this has meant for her is that she
knows a lot about data, how to collect

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it, and how to make it meaningful
for organizations and individuals.

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Her company, Context Matters, is on
a mission to spread the word that

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data can be a form of compassion.

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Amanda has been doing organizational
effectiveness and developmental

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research for the past 15 years.

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She is a certified life coach
because she knows that someone can

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have the best data, But not get to
the point that they're using it.

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She works with individuals
and organizations to reimagine

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their relationship to work.

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Welcome, Amanda.

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It's great to have you here.

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I am so glad to be here.

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I always love talking
about all things business.

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Fantastic.

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So you have a business
called Context Matters.

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And clearly we're talking today
about practicing compassion

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with time tracking and I am so
fascinated by both of those topics.

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So can you start by telling
us a little bit about your

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business and when you started it?

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Sure.

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I started my business in
um, in August of 2021.

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When I filled out the paperwork, um,
on the state's website to get my LLC.

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Um, and I, I, it would be really funny to
sit next to that version of myself because

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she would be completely flabbergasted
that, um, I'm doing now what I am doing.

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Um, and, um, yes.

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And yes, so what was the motivation
to start your own business?

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Because it's such a big leap,
especially with your background

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and the places you've worked.

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So I have worked for about
15 years in academia around

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organizational development.

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And I like to say that, like, my career
has basically, basically been around

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measuring things that are hard to measure.

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Um, and I have.

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Brilliant.

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Loved it.

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I, if I had again, a version
of me in my like early twenties

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would also be flabbergasted.

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So I have two degrees in humanities
and my plan, like my plan was

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to get a PhD in art history.

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Like I used to study new
media art and psychoanalysis.

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Art history, while it does have a lot
of facts, is a little bit different than

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data and organizational development.

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And so that's where all of my
compassion stuff and my different

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perspective on data comes in.

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Because it is, it's like, I, one
conversation that I need to have somewhere

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is about visual language and, and
about the information that is in that.

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Um, but the reason why I ended up doing
the work I'm doing is because I realized

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that I wanted to, like, make a difference.

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I wanted to have an impact on how.

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Change happens, essentially, um,
which is what has motivated me to

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help motivated me to understand,
um, what pieces come into play when

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it comes to organizational change,
personal development, things like that.

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Um, and, um, I promise the
humanities and art history background

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really helps with that part.

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I'm sure it does.

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It's always fascinating.

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One of the things that I've always said
that I love about marketing and business

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is that it's the combination of you
get the science side and the analytical

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plus the creative in order to like solve
problems and communicate with people.

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Well, and the thing about data
is, um, I had a mentor once.

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We probably didn't even know she was
a mentor, but she said so many things

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that I was just like, Oh my God.

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So in part of measuring things that are
hard to measure is building rubrics.

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I don't like to call them rubrics
because they have a bad name because

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we've all had bad experiences with them.

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It's basically trying to
qualify what success looks like.

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Um, and you know, it's like if you
think about like good, right, this,

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um, whatever, uh, good, better,
best, or something like that.

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That's a bad example.

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But, and the, the story that she told
was that when she was working in academic

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departments, she would go to like the
chemistry faculty and in a rubric,

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you can write words in the boxes.

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Like you can say good, or it
can be like a scale of a one.

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And so she'd go to the chemistry
department and they're like,

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We don't care if it's good.

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Just give us the number.

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Like we want to know if
they're a one or a five.

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Um, and then she'd go to like
the art faculty and they would be

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like, we don't want these numbers.

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We just want the words like we want
to know if they're good or excellent.

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And there's a huge difference
between good and excellent.

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And so that's the thing about data.

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And that's where I think kind of thinking
about it in different frames comes into

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place is that there are Like there has
been a bit of a tyranny is a bit of a

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strong word, but I'm going to use it
tyranny around what data is, who gets

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to interpret it, how to do it, but
really it's just a bunch of rules that

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are less exact than one might think.

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think.

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Um, and so when you kind of
look at them more holistically,

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rigorously, of course, right?

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I'm not doing anything
unethical or whatever.

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It really starts to broaden the
picture of what data can, and I say

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it like this, feel like in your body.

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Because most people experience it of like
something that's very separate from them.

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Like for a while, I was doing a
lot of research around a concept

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called mathematical self efficacy,
which is basically the idea of

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how good we think we are at math.

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And that how good we think we are at math
actually predicts how good we are at math.

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It's like not a chicken or egg.

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It's like that.

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Belief in ourselves.

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Um, so that then kind of really starts
to narrow down who can and can't,

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can, let's see, can and can't do math.

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Isn't that part of the like, well
first, I love that quote by Henry Ford

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that's whether you think you can or
you think you can't, it's you're right.

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And then the second thing is that
isn't that part of like the problem why

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they had to recall that one, Barbie.

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Like a million years ago that
was like math is hard, right?

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Yes.

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I mean, but what's so funny about
that generation of girls who are

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playing with that Barbie to think
that math is hard so we can't do math

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and recalling the Barbie didn't help.

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No, of course not.

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Of course not.

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I mean, the Barbie was not
actually the problem there.

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And that is why context matters, right?

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We think the Barbie is the problem,
but it's actually the, you know, like.

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As an art historian, you know, looking
at the ways in which photographs were

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taken, for example, um, like there's
ho so much more to the picture.

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Mm-Hmm.

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of a phenomenon than we really
are able to give it credit.

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It's so interesting 'cause whenever, and
I know I wanna talk about you and your

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story and your personal brand and all
that too, but first I wanna talk about

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data here for a second because it all
goes into the mindset and the beliefs

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that people have about themselves.

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Because when you start to look at.

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Data.

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Like, for example, I was doing some
research for my program to teach

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women how to, women business owners
specifically, how to use live video.

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And one of the stats I came across
was like video is 60 times, 60,

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000 times more effective and you
can build deeper learnings and

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connections with people than text.

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So I started chasing down that fact
through the rabbit hole of the internet,

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as one does, and ended up in like,
entrepreneur India, and then that had,

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you know, and it ended up nowhere, right?

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Like that fact and chasing that fact
just basically took a couple hours out

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of my life, but didn't take me anywhere
other than I'm not going to use that fact

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because there wasn't any basis behind it.

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So I think that it's really easy
for us to find those facts online

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and say, okay, this is happening.

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So this is what we see.

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So this is what we perceive.

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So there's a woman who has started a
company named, her name is Heather Krause

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and her company is called We All Count.

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And she has a data equity
framework that points to what

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you're talking about, which is.

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To kind of ask questions of information
that we're collecting so that we can get a

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better sense of where it's coming from in
terms of who's saying it, how it's funded,

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how they came up with the information,
because what you're talking about.

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In, in terms of the long term for me,
my, my own personal, you know, want

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to say brand or mission is to empower
more folks to understand that there are

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frameworks like that, that they can use
to empower themselves to be a data user.

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Because the fact is people who are
data people just have sometimes the

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guts to like stand up for something
because they think they have a

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rationale that's going to support them.

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So like, As soon as you have a rationale
and like you have at least like two

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layers of of like support you're just
as much of a smart data person as like

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the economists that I've worked with.

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That's so interesting because it's
always interesting that When you can

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look at data and one of the things
that I always talk to business owners

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about is because there's a lot of when
you look online and when you look on

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YouTube and when you look on TikTok
and the social media platforms, right?

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There's a lot of younger faces that
are business owners and they're

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promoting their business and awesome.

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I love that.

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It's great for them.

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But when you look at the data, most
business owners are over the age of 40.

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And so there's a yes.

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Yes.

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Also, also male.

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So when you start to look at like the
top voices and the top people, it's,

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you're seeing male faces and you're
seeing older male faces and younger, you

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know, and then the women are typically
seeing younger female faces because

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they're, they're not afraid of technology.

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And then it creates that perception of.

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This is all I see.

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This is who that's for, and
that is an incorrect perception.

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And so when you start to look at
that data or, you know, those like

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internal studies that people do,
how do you, how do you help people?

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Unwind that because it's
not necessarily data point.

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It's one that collected in their head.

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So one of I so one of the things that I do
most in my work, either with organizations

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or individuals is mapping mindset.

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Let's see.

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Mindset and underlying beliefs.

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Two practices.

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Um, so that we take what you call
those like internal data points and

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we put them up against something else.

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Like in the qualitative research
world, it's called triangulation.

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Um, and so it's this idea that,
um, okay, so let's first verbalize.

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This is true.

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You know, let's say there are only
younger women who are starting businesses.

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So then it's like, okay, all
right, let's be nice to myself.

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Let's either be, let's,
let's be nice to myself.

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Let's go see where there
are a couple places.

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Um, and then to kind of think
about where are these places

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coming up with their information?

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Um, so that you can create a more
holistic picture of what is true.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I think that's really interesting.

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Now I have a question for you
about starting your own business.

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Given all of this, and given your
propensity for planning and organization

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and leaving academia, which is, I've
been in academia as well, it can be

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very stable and people that go there
can stay there for a lifetime basically.

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What made you decide, what was your
motivation to start your own business

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and to be able to practice all of this?

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Um, honestly, my motive, lots of
different motivations, actually get

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my boss to fire me so that I could
get severance and it didn't work.

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Um, but I, um, One thing is that I knew
I was meant to do bigger and greater

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things and that it was very clear
where I was working given my, the way I

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look as well as my approach was not as
welcome as I needed it to be to continue.

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Um, so I like owed it to myself to
believe in myself essentially and in my

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experience the best way to to Learn how
to believe in myself is to do things

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that show me that I believe in myself.

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That's really powerful because I
think that one of the things that I

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run into a lot is people who believe
in their self, they, they have this

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feeling that they were meant for
more, but they either don't act on it.

232
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They don't, you know, and then
the reasons why they don't

233
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act on it are varied, right?

234
00:14:00,270 --> 00:14:02,080
Time, money, beliefs that they can't.

235
00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:05,290
All of those things,
the risk is too great.

236
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That kind of approach.

237
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So the fact that you did, especially
being the planner coming from a very

238
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stable type of place into this unknown.

239
00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:15,590
Did you know how unknown
business ownership would be?

240
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I mean, literally, I, uh.

241
00:14:19,575 --> 00:14:24,945
I didn't want to leave my job until I had
like at least gotten a couple clients and

242
00:14:24,945 --> 00:14:29,695
like made a plan of like what my financial
picture would look like six months down

243
00:14:29,695 --> 00:14:34,975
the road, what my client structure would
look like and, uh, you know, within

244
00:14:35,435 --> 00:14:37,605
an hour that like went out the window.

245
00:14:37,605 --> 00:14:39,915
I mean, it wasn't an hour because
I probably would have freaked

246
00:14:39,915 --> 00:14:42,045
out and like put the brakes on.

247
00:14:42,115 --> 00:14:48,120
Um, but the version of my business now, I
mean, I even I Anyways, the version of my

248
00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:53,080
business now is categorically different
than what it was in August of 2021.

249
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And how do you feel about that?

250
00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:58,800
Oh, I have lots of feelings about that.

251
00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:05,909
Um, you know, what I keep coming
back to is that I choose, I

252
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still choose this every day.

253
00:15:07,950 --> 00:15:14,440
And that, um, I am glad I didn't
know then what I know now.

254
00:15:14,790 --> 00:15:17,030
Um, because it's.

255
00:15:17,295 --> 00:15:19,605
It was, it would have been too much.

256
00:15:19,615 --> 00:15:20,675
It would have been too overwhelming.

257
00:15:20,675 --> 00:15:25,725
And I am a person that for better or
worse, I have to learn things on my own.

258
00:15:25,735 --> 00:15:27,604
Like no one can tell me,
Oh, this will be this way.

259
00:15:27,604 --> 00:15:28,394
I'll be like, sure.

260
00:15:28,394 --> 00:15:28,614
Great.

261
00:15:28,615 --> 00:15:28,865
Thanks.

262
00:15:29,465 --> 00:15:31,045
But I have to do it.

263
00:15:31,795 --> 00:15:32,155
Right.

264
00:15:33,145 --> 00:15:39,265
Um, and one of the things that I have
had to kind of settle into in terms of

265
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Where I am now versus where I was then.

266
00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:47,500
And this goes to time tracking actually
is so one of the first times I tracked

267
00:15:47,500 --> 00:15:54,700
my time, um, I felt like shit because
I looked at my time and I was spending

268
00:15:54,700 --> 00:16:02,240
so much time like talk, like meeting
with other entrepreneurial women or

269
00:16:02,300 --> 00:16:08,180
in coaching or um, on walks by myself.

270
00:16:08,795 --> 00:16:15,965
And then after sort of the shame spiral
went away, what I have come to realize is

271
00:16:15,965 --> 00:16:20,955
that being the person that I am, building
my business is as much about building

272
00:16:20,965 --> 00:16:23,755
me as it is about building my business.

273
00:16:24,204 --> 00:16:30,054
And so I had left a marriage or I
got divorced a number of years ago.

274
00:16:30,105 --> 00:16:33,795
And when I left my marriage, I didn't
really have a network of folks.

275
00:16:34,265 --> 00:16:37,065
And so in order to have this,
the, the supports and the.

276
00:16:37,630 --> 00:16:39,980
I don't like the word resilience,
but in order to have what I

277
00:16:39,980 --> 00:16:43,970
needed for this business, that
was something I had to build.

278
00:16:43,970 --> 00:16:48,319
And I had to have compassion for
myself that it didn't look the way

279
00:16:48,319 --> 00:16:49,919
I thought it was supposed to, right?

280
00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:57,380
Like I wasn't churning out content five
hours at least every day, but that I was

281
00:16:57,390 --> 00:17:02,900
spending at least two hour, you know,
five to 10 hours a week with colleagues,

282
00:17:02,990 --> 00:17:05,019
mentors, those sorts of things.

283
00:17:05,019 --> 00:17:06,270
And that, that was what.

284
00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:10,670
I needed in my business at the time,
isn't it amazing how we get to the

285
00:17:10,670 --> 00:17:12,570
same place I've been talking about.

286
00:17:12,570 --> 00:17:16,839
I did several lives earlier this
year and I was talking about how

287
00:17:17,839 --> 00:17:22,859
what we think is going to, it
needs to be this perception, right?

288
00:17:22,899 --> 00:17:26,389
Like all those videos about the
perfect morning routine for business

289
00:17:26,599 --> 00:17:31,979
of successful people or whatever those
perceptions are of what we think we need.

290
00:17:32,494 --> 00:17:36,364
We still get back to
what we actually need.

291
00:17:37,364 --> 00:17:43,334
And one of the things that I really was
focusing on earlier was, I was really

292
00:17:43,334 --> 00:17:47,104
successful in my corporate career,
you know, academia and corporate,

293
00:17:47,124 --> 00:17:48,164
however you want to describe it.

294
00:17:48,584 --> 00:17:56,204
When I started my own business, I had no
idea the mindset work that I had not done.

295
00:17:57,204 --> 00:17:58,834
That needed to be done.

296
00:17:58,974 --> 00:18:02,514
And that is absolutely a journey
that's changed everything in terms

297
00:18:02,514 --> 00:18:03,954
of what I do, how I approach stuff.

298
00:18:04,294 --> 00:18:07,334
And I think it was always there,
like these ideas that I have, but

299
00:18:07,334 --> 00:18:09,414
they were just so buried down.

300
00:18:09,884 --> 00:18:12,794
Because it's easy to bury stuff
down when you keep yourself

301
00:18:12,794 --> 00:18:15,014
busy 60 plus hours a week.

302
00:18:16,014 --> 00:18:19,444
Well, there's a difference between
thinking something and actually doing it.

303
00:18:20,284 --> 00:18:24,064
Like we can convince ourselves that we
think something and we think something

304
00:18:24,064 --> 00:18:28,774
is going to work, but it's a whole
other thing when we actually embody it.

305
00:18:29,404 --> 00:18:30,094
Absolutely.

306
00:18:30,124 --> 00:18:31,884
So back to time tracking
here for a second.

307
00:18:31,884 --> 00:18:37,654
One of the things that I was talking to
Amanda about before we went live is that,

308
00:18:37,714 --> 00:18:42,384
um, you know, it was really interesting
because I was working so much when I

309
00:18:42,384 --> 00:18:47,164
first started and I was so exhausted
because I had these beliefs where I went

310
00:18:47,164 --> 00:18:51,574
from being like a VP at a university
and their marketing department and then,

311
00:18:51,944 --> 00:18:54,114
you know, running agency departments.

312
00:18:54,164 --> 00:18:57,879
And when I started my own business, I
had this belief that I didn't know Like

313
00:18:57,879 --> 00:19:01,529
I needed to get my hands dirty again to
truly understand how to best help clients.

314
00:19:02,359 --> 00:19:04,949
And so I was constantly listening
to podcasts, trying to update my

315
00:19:04,959 --> 00:19:07,729
brain, trying to learn everything
I could and work with clients.

316
00:19:07,729 --> 00:19:10,199
And I just, I was exhausted all the time.

317
00:19:10,269 --> 00:19:12,939
And it wasn't until I pulled out
and just did a couple days of time

318
00:19:12,939 --> 00:19:16,109
tracking because my ADHD doesn't
love many days of time tracking.

319
00:19:16,639 --> 00:19:20,299
Um, but I found that I
wasn't taking breaks.

320
00:19:20,339 --> 00:19:23,079
I thought I was taking like half
hour, 45 minute breaks and just

321
00:19:23,079 --> 00:19:26,159
like squirreling away time, but it
was really like five or 10 minutes.

322
00:19:26,789 --> 00:19:30,949
And then the amount of time I thought
that I was like relaxing, walking my dog,

323
00:19:30,999 --> 00:19:35,299
I was actually listening to podcasts and
things that would help me for my business.

324
00:19:35,349 --> 00:19:38,849
And so my actual down and creative time
that actually, and that we all need

325
00:19:38,849 --> 00:19:43,579
to recharge was down to like some, it
was something stupidly embarrassing.

326
00:19:43,579 --> 00:19:46,909
So we're not going to talk
about it, but just understanding

327
00:19:47,609 --> 00:19:49,259
the importance of looking at.

328
00:19:50,014 --> 00:19:54,914
Where we're spending our time looking at
how we treat ourselves once we find that.

329
00:19:55,914 --> 00:19:58,374
Can you talk a little bit about
some of your insights and working

330
00:19:58,374 --> 00:19:59,754
with clients around that area?

331
00:20:00,754 --> 00:20:05,914
So one of the things that I
do for everything is I adopt.

332
00:20:05,974 --> 00:20:08,394
I've adopted what I call
a values neutral lens.

333
00:20:09,214 --> 00:20:12,124
So from a data perspective,
it's that there's no bad.

334
00:20:12,184 --> 00:20:14,994
There's nothing there, no
wrong or broken things.

335
00:20:15,054 --> 00:20:18,244
There's only places that
we can ask more questions.

336
00:20:19,154 --> 00:20:20,064
And so.

337
00:20:20,304 --> 00:20:23,964
Because one of the things that I
get often, um, so the, I've started

338
00:20:23,964 --> 00:20:25,354
calling it the conscious calendar.

339
00:20:25,394 --> 00:20:29,304
So it's the idea of being a conscious
business owner and building our

340
00:20:29,304 --> 00:20:35,744
calendar around that is that Um, most
folks are like, I really just don't,

341
00:20:35,794 --> 00:20:37,404
I don't, like, I don't want to see it.

342
00:20:37,684 --> 00:20:40,914
Like, if I don't look at it, then
maybe it won't feel so shitty.

343
00:20:41,354 --> 00:20:47,975
Um, and the thing about it is, is
that, um, it's also an experience

344
00:20:48,035 --> 00:20:54,155
to be in a place where you get to
be accepted and compassionate about.

345
00:20:54,375 --> 00:20:55,274
Everything you do.

346
00:20:55,365 --> 00:20:59,395
Like, of course you didn't get to
work until 10 o'clock because your

347
00:20:59,405 --> 00:21:01,865
child didn't sleep the night before.

348
00:21:02,254 --> 00:21:05,694
Or like, of course, like, you
only worked for three hours that

349
00:21:05,694 --> 00:21:10,114
day, but like, in that three hour,
like, just one day this week.

350
00:21:11,114 --> 00:21:14,194
I could not seem to sit down and work.

351
00:21:14,374 --> 00:21:20,074
I, like, was in my feelings, and
had some tears around some things,

352
00:21:20,114 --> 00:21:27,094
and called a friend, and took a nap,
and probably did something else.

353
00:21:27,769 --> 00:21:30,779
I was feeling really shitty about myself,
but then I happened to sit down at my

354
00:21:30,779 --> 00:21:34,889
desk before going out into the woods
because I love being in the woods and

355
00:21:34,889 --> 00:21:38,749
picked up the phone and called this person
who's like been in the back of my head.

356
00:21:38,809 --> 00:21:40,509
I haven't talked to
you in like five years.

357
00:21:41,329 --> 00:21:43,929
Um, but I was like, I, I heard
something was going on in her

358
00:21:43,929 --> 00:21:48,424
organization and You know, just
on a whim, I called, called her.

359
00:21:48,444 --> 00:21:50,064
I'm not a fan of calling people.

360
00:21:50,094 --> 00:21:51,084
It's not my favorite.

361
00:21:52,024 --> 00:21:54,384
And I've never done something
like this before in my life.

362
00:21:54,754 --> 00:21:55,624
Picked up the phone.

363
00:21:55,774 --> 00:21:56,764
She answered.

364
00:21:56,924 --> 00:21:58,804
I have a meeting with her in three weeks.

365
00:21:59,264 --> 00:22:04,769
So it was like, so this is one picture of
like, Yeah, I probably did 30 minutes of

366
00:22:04,769 --> 00:22:09,699
work that day, but the 30 minutes of work
that I did in terms of entrepreneurial

367
00:22:09,699 --> 00:22:13,599
work is going to be like a potential
really great lead generation for me.

368
00:22:14,599 --> 00:22:17,409
Wesley's really, my dog's really excited
about you doing that, by the way.

369
00:22:17,550 --> 00:22:19,229
I'm so glad.

370
00:22:19,239 --> 00:22:19,549
Me too.

371
00:22:21,899 --> 00:22:26,769
But I think it's an opportunity to
really reframe this idea of like,

372
00:22:27,019 --> 00:22:29,379
what our calendars should look like.

373
00:22:30,339 --> 00:22:33,829
So it's like to take off that
lens of like, okay, one, I'm

374
00:22:33,829 --> 00:22:35,049
going to see that I'm bad.

375
00:22:35,149 --> 00:22:39,649
Two, I'm going to see that I didn't
work enough to kind of scale that back.

376
00:22:39,679 --> 00:22:43,839
And one of the things I like to think
about is one, first, let's talk about what

377
00:22:43,839 --> 00:22:49,849
are the things that are Uh, part of your
capacity, like what are things that you

378
00:22:49,859 --> 00:22:54,959
have to have capacity for on a regular
day, you know, and I love working with

379
00:22:54,999 --> 00:23:01,279
women entrepreneurs because oftentimes,
you know, it's like that list of things

380
00:23:01,279 --> 00:23:06,209
that we're keeping track of with our kids
all of the time, or like doing laundry or

381
00:23:06,219 --> 00:23:10,829
all of that sort of hidden labor that we
talk about that we really don't account

382
00:23:10,839 --> 00:23:13,959
for when we think about how we're doing.

383
00:23:13,969 --> 00:23:18,109
It's like I have one client, you
know, Who's actually a coach and,

384
00:23:18,109 --> 00:23:19,749
you know, she did the whole process.

385
00:23:19,789 --> 00:23:20,679
She tracked her time.

386
00:23:20,719 --> 00:23:24,129
I also analyze a good Google
calendar to get a more historical

387
00:23:24,129 --> 00:23:27,859
analysis so that time tracking
part doesn't have to be so painful.

388
00:23:28,299 --> 00:23:32,099
And then I also analyze an interview
and like after the whole process,

389
00:23:32,099 --> 00:23:33,149
she was like, you know what?

390
00:23:33,679 --> 00:23:36,829
I didn't even write down where
I was responding to my clients

391
00:23:36,859 --> 00:23:39,099
either over text or email.

392
00:23:39,644 --> 00:23:43,624
I was doing all of that other work and
I didn't put it in any of this, right?

393
00:23:44,554 --> 00:23:47,854
Um, so yeah, I could talk about this
forever because there's just in terms

394
00:23:47,854 --> 00:23:53,014
of broadening out that picture of like
context matters when we talk about time.

395
00:23:53,024 --> 00:23:54,344
I mean, it's like Salesforce.

396
00:23:54,344 --> 00:23:58,484
I think it's the company that has
everyone's hourly rate in their

397
00:23:58,484 --> 00:24:00,784
calendar invites, which I think.

398
00:24:00,974 --> 00:24:05,654
you know, meetings, you know, we've all
been in those meetings, but like, that

399
00:24:05,654 --> 00:24:10,654
is one way of looking at time, but there
also needs to be another like, okay, like,

400
00:24:11,034 --> 00:24:14,234
what is the quality of my participation?

401
00:24:14,414 --> 00:24:17,714
What is the quality of the
container that we're looking at?

402
00:24:18,214 --> 00:24:23,714
That is just a bigger picture in
terms of what we track around time.

403
00:24:24,464 --> 00:24:28,494
That's super interesting, especially
with, like I said, I've had a lot of

404
00:24:28,494 --> 00:24:33,914
clients that are similar with me with
ADHD where the idea of tracking something,

405
00:24:34,054 --> 00:24:36,894
like you actually have to do it.

406
00:24:37,014 --> 00:24:41,064
And it's like becomes this monolithic
thing of like, okay, I'm only

407
00:24:41,064 --> 00:24:42,104
going to do it for these days.

408
00:24:42,374 --> 00:24:45,144
But then to your point, like one of
the things that I took away from.

409
00:24:45,164 --> 00:24:48,994
from time blocking because I got tired
of moving all the blocks around, but I

410
00:24:49,014 --> 00:24:52,804
kept the ones where I have to walk my dog
and do my morning process in the morning.

411
00:24:52,824 --> 00:24:54,664
And I have to walk my dog in the evenings.

412
00:24:55,114 --> 00:24:57,884
Like these are the non
negotiable time blocks of time.

413
00:24:58,344 --> 00:25:00,144
And then everything else
has to fit in there.

414
00:25:01,144 --> 00:25:03,834
Cause after that, I'm not, you know,
unless I do yoga in the morning and

415
00:25:03,834 --> 00:25:07,954
then, you know, things shift around,
but the dog walk time absolutely stays

416
00:25:08,934 --> 00:25:10,684
because that's, it has to happen.

417
00:25:10,704 --> 00:25:12,824
It's non negotiable and it's
something I enjoy doing.

418
00:25:13,694 --> 00:25:14,944
It's just so fascinating.

419
00:25:15,609 --> 00:25:15,959
Yeah.

420
00:25:16,479 --> 00:25:21,429
And I think the, you know, I, um, have,
I talk about time all of, all of the

421
00:25:21,429 --> 00:25:26,129
time, and I encounter a lot of people
who either say, like, I cannot hear

422
00:25:26,129 --> 00:25:31,259
one more time management anything, or
please don't tell me to time block.

423
00:25:31,979 --> 00:25:37,879
And the thing about this idea of having
compassion and like the conscious calendar

424
00:25:38,289 --> 00:25:43,879
is that One of the things that we have not
really been, that has not been normalized

425
00:25:43,899 --> 00:25:49,819
for us is really having the ability to
create a baseline of what is real for us

426
00:25:50,619 --> 00:25:52,969
versus what we think we should be doing.

427
00:25:53,969 --> 00:25:54,799
That's really interesting.

428
00:25:55,799 --> 00:26:03,759
And for people who want to know more about
that, how can they reach you, Amanda?

429
00:26:04,759 --> 00:26:06,909
So my website is contextmatters.

430
00:26:06,919 --> 00:26:07,409
work.

431
00:26:08,099 --> 00:26:11,499
Um, right now I'm in the
process of changing the name.

432
00:26:11,519 --> 00:26:16,159
There's a page it's backslash time audit
for what I'm now calling the conscious

433
00:26:16,159 --> 00:26:17,529
calendar because I think it makes sense.

434
00:26:17,549 --> 00:26:18,799
Does more justice to it.

435
00:26:19,189 --> 00:26:24,329
Um, and then I'm also on Instagram where
I like to play around probably too much.

436
00:26:24,379 --> 00:26:29,829
Um, at Amanda underscore context
matters and the links will be below.

437
00:26:29,929 --> 00:26:33,939
And if you are listening to this,
they'll be in the show notes and you

438
00:26:33,949 --> 00:26:37,819
can find and reach out to Amanda because
I know I am really curious about the

439
00:26:37,819 --> 00:26:42,069
conscious calendar because anything
that can go with the flow of how I work

440
00:26:42,069 --> 00:26:46,299
versus me feeling like I have to like
set these huge guardrails of shame.

441
00:26:46,309 --> 00:26:49,859
Like if you go over it, Don't go over it.

442
00:26:50,699 --> 00:26:52,779
I want to know what the guardrails
of shame would look like.

443
00:26:52,779 --> 00:26:55,559
Like, would they be
like giant chain fences?

444
00:26:56,559 --> 00:27:01,079
Um, I pictured, yeah, I kind of
pictured, so I'm located in San

445
00:27:01,079 --> 00:27:05,839
Diego, so I did picture a little bit
of that Mexican California border.

446
00:27:06,794 --> 00:27:07,084
Right?

447
00:27:07,084 --> 00:27:08,554
Like, that's a really big guardrail.

448
00:27:08,554 --> 00:27:13,054
I'm not talking about like little bumpers
on the side of Yeah, like a bling.

449
00:27:13,254 --> 00:27:17,704
Yeah, like I'm talking about like giant
guardrails of shame where if you like

450
00:27:17,704 --> 00:27:21,464
don't go over this or if you don't do this
thing, all of a sudden that shame hits.

451
00:27:21,944 --> 00:27:29,314
And as a business owner, I think it's
really hard for us as a woman business

452
00:27:29,314 --> 00:27:32,174
owner, I think it's hard for us to let
go of those things that we're supposed

453
00:27:32,184 --> 00:27:39,504
to do because the list of things we are
supposed to do is so overwhelming that a

454
00:27:39,504 --> 00:27:43,294
lot of times we find ourselves adding more
to it when it doesn't need to be there.

455
00:27:43,714 --> 00:27:45,004
Yes, 100%.

456
00:27:45,034 --> 00:27:46,854
There are lots of books
that can help with that too.

457
00:27:46,855 --> 00:27:50,804
Everything.

458
00:27:51,464 --> 00:27:52,354
Fantastic.

459
00:27:52,404 --> 00:27:55,344
Amanda, this has been so
great having you here.

460
00:27:55,364 --> 00:27:57,054
I really appreciate you.

461
00:27:57,619 --> 00:28:04,589
Being a fantastic guest and those of you
listening, absolutely tune in, follow

462
00:28:04,589 --> 00:28:08,929
Amanda, find her, learn more about the
conscious calendar, because it sounds

463
00:28:08,929 --> 00:28:12,289
like it can just do a tremendous amount
of help for all of us as business

464
00:28:12,289 --> 00:28:17,959
owners and, you know, corporate people
too, because it's just so powerful and

465
00:28:17,969 --> 00:28:21,339
no matter how you look at your time,
how you look at data, how you look

466
00:28:21,339 --> 00:28:22,829
at the things that you're perceiving.

467
00:28:23,829 --> 00:28:27,219
That are working against you when
actually you can work with it.

468
00:28:27,479 --> 00:28:29,199
There's no against, times a thing.

469
00:28:30,199 --> 00:28:31,819
So thank you all for joining.

470
00:28:31,859 --> 00:28:34,969
Amanda, thank you, thank you, thank you
for being here and being so patient.

471
00:28:34,979 --> 00:28:36,489
It's been fantastic.

472
00:28:36,889 --> 00:28:39,389
And until next time, I'm
Kendra Losee and thank you.