Awesomely Off-Topic: Books, Brands, Business and Everything Else We’re Not Supposed to Say Out Loud
🎙️ Awesomely Off-Topic is the podcast that dives headfirst into the business of being brilliantly, messily, unapologetically you.
Hosted by award-winning speaker trainer and business and personal empowerment coach Taz Thornton, alongside publishing powerhouse, book mentor and content coach Asha Clearwater – expect bold conversations about building a business and life that actually fits you, not the other way round.
We’ll talk personal brand, visibility without the ick, microbooks with major impact, ADHD-friendly approaches, messy launches, business flops, spiritual sidequests and all the stuff no one told you you were allowed to say out loud.
We’re doing this on a shoestring – raw, unedited and totally unscripted. No fancy studio, no big budget, no gatekeeping. Just hit record and go.
Real talk. Tangents. Swearing (probably). Useful insights. And a whole lot of permission to do it your way.
It’s chaos. It’s clarity. It’s Awesomely Off-Topic.
Awesomely Off-Topic: Books, Brands, Business and Everything Else We’re Not Supposed to Say Out Loud
🎙️ Episode 33: The Ideas Smorgasbord
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
We asked for your topic suggestions and, wow, did you put us to the test?!
This episode's a proper mashup of ideas, opinions and wisdom, from what makes the perfect cuppa to confidence, reincarnation, network marketing, RPGs, books and pet grief - there's probably something for everyone!
Enjoy... and keep those ideas coming in!
Something you’d love us to know? Send us a message - we’d love to hear from you.
✨ Unfiltered. Unedited. Awesomely Off-Topic. New episodes every Tuesday.
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👋 @thetazthornton + @ashaclearwater
Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Awesomely Off Topic. Again, tiny little caveat at the start. We're recording at home with dogs all around. Next door keeps drilling, so anything could happen. And everything probably. Absolutely, absolutely. So we put out a call a few weeks back to to come up with topic ideas that you'd like us to talk about. We've got loads of par sleeves, but we know that we'd like to hear from you guys as well. So we thought we'd just go through the list that people had submitted so far. Not all of them are going to be appropriate for our podcast, but we thought we'd go through everything to show you the mix of ideas that we're getting and to maybe encourage you to send us more as well. So we're going to almost treat like treat this like a bit of an an ask me anything, but essentially talk about the suggestions and then say what we think about them. Sounds like a plan, does okay. Over to you. Sounds like a plan, Stan. Right, so our first suggestion.
SPEAKER_00:That's the name of my car, it's not the name of me, just so you know.
SPEAKER_01:Stan. Stan is your car, it's lovely.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Stanley T song.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So the first suggestion came from a lovely friend and client, Kay Downey, who asked, How many things do you have to do to make a cup of tea? Now honestly, I was a bit, what? What do you mean? And so tell us more, Kay. And she said, Well, we just think it's simply a case of dropping a tea bag in the cup and adding boiling water. But it's more complex about that, isn't it? And then another one of our lovely clients, uh Claire, went off and read that and wrote a wonderful piece about it. Did she? She did indeed. She did, she did. That sounds good. Yeah. So, um, what do we think about that? I suppose the basic premise, now I understand it a bit more.
SPEAKER_02:Go on.
SPEAKER_01:Or the way I'd frame this, and this ties beautifully into our lives as ADHDers with a little bit of the Tism thrown in.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:How often we underestimate how long it's going to take us to do something?
SPEAKER_02:Oh.
SPEAKER_01:Hugely. Because we both have terrible b time blindness. Yeah. So again, just making a cup of tea sounds like it's a you know quick job. It's not always, particularly as we'd go to get the milk out of the fridge and then remember something else and go off on a side quest three hours later.
SPEAKER_00:Have you made the tea? I did that yesterday actually. I did that. I'd left the milk out. I said, Oh, I hope it's going to be alright, because it had been out on the side and I'd meant to make a cup of tea and then got distracted by something. Yeah, do it all the time.
SPEAKER_01:Have you made the tea? No. But I have cleared the desktop. I have changed the tablecloth cloth on the kit the table in the dining room. To get rid of the colour. We haven't actually without the Christmas table. So yeah, distractions. Being aware of distractions. And also being aware of how long a task actually takes. Now you, Ash, are particularly bad at this. When it comes to I refute that suggestion.
SPEAKER_00:I don't actually. You're absolutely right. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:If it comes to somebody asking you to prove something, for instance, and you guesstimating how long it will take you.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, with gay abandon, I just go, I'll go, oh, it'll take me half an hour and it'll take me. Six hours later. Six hours, three hours.
SPEAKER_01:She's still going through it, but oh no, I can't charge them all because I only quoted them for thirty minutes.
SPEAKER_00:So slight exaggeration, but you'll get the you I think they get the picture.
SPEAKER_01:I don't think it is an exaggeration.
SPEAKER_00:I meant I mean, yeah, I don't do that all the time, Taz. Just occasionally. Quite often. She's looking at me, she's giving that look now, and even the dogs are looking at the colour.
SPEAKER_01:She's a chronic underestimator of time.
SPEAKER_00:I've got a I've got a cockka poo and a golden doodle just giving me that look that says, She's right, mum, she's right.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Now there are other times, of course, we have some people who overestimate how long it will take them. So I have one lovely client, I'm not going to mention any names, who might say, Oh, I think I can get that done in two weeks. And I'll be sitting there scratching my head thinking, Well, actually, with the tools I've given you for that, you should be able to do that in about an hour. So I'm a big fan of building yourself in a little bit of regal room.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:In Asher's case, build yourself in about 48 hours of regal room. And yeah, see what happens.
SPEAKER_00:But in a literal way, because that's my literal think sometimes, how do you make a cup of tea towels? Because I come from an old-fashioned way of making a cup of tea. I don't do it now. But anybody else remember, anybody old enough to remember this? The days when we had teapots and we used them, maybe you still do. And you had to warm the pot. You have to warm the pot. You do. And then once you've put the whole you've put the boiling water into the t the teapot with the tea bags, and how many do you put in the teapot? That's the other thing, isn't it? Depending on the strength of the tea bags. I go for it. And how long do you leave it? Depending on how many people. If you're putting it in a mug. Bailey.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, you don't stop scratching at the settee when we're recording a podcast. Thank you very much. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:He just sighed at it. Did you hear that then?
SPEAKER_01:I don't know if it'll pick up on here, but our youngest it's not our youngest now, our middle dog, our cockpoo.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:She did a massive sigh when we told him off.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So cups of tea. So yes, so when you put the tea bags in, if you're putting them in a pot, how many do you put in? Well, it plans how many people are there? And also how strong the tea the the type of tea you've got.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so if you've got say four people, I might put in three teabags. Okay. But if you've got twenty people, this'd be a really bloody big teapot. If you've got say twenty people, I wouldn't put in nineteen teabags.
SPEAKER_00:I remember when we used to use the Avenue Shaw quite a bit and they had a massive tea pot. Remember the massive tea I know but the teapot as well, they had a massive teapot. And it was like a you're doing a workout lifting it up. Just reminded me of that strangely. But yeah, no, is it so you leave it to yeah, so but if you're using a mug, because these days we do don't wear it? Go on, you're telling me the proper way. No, I was just gonna say, how long do you leave it for as well? Because you know you get that horrible thing where it kind of stews and you've left it for too long, and you get like that layer of sediment on the top, don't you? No, that'd be at the bottom if it was sediment, wouldn't it? No. It would, wouldn't it? Yes, it would. What is it that floats at the top of the knees? It's just a skirt. Oh god, but scum, no, I don't know, but you get that. And do you know what anybody else noticed? I don't know, because we're in a hard water area and it's been with all the rain and stuff, it's been really chalky and really myth.
SPEAKER_01:So how do you make a cup of tea?
SPEAKER_00:So then you so I would in an ideal world I'd use a pot, and then once you've put the hot the water in and you leave it, you stir it. You've got to stir it before you serve it. You've got to open it, take it. And if I'm out somewhere, if you ever see me in a random cafe having a cup of tea, wherever I get it from, and it's in one of those little metal pots, and it doesn't taste the same in those metal pots, it just doesn't.
SPEAKER_01:Stick your tea bag into a mug pour hot water on it, leave it for the shortest amount of time you can to get a work get away with it being the strength of the person who needs it, chuck a bit of milk in, take the bag out, job's done.
SPEAKER_00:And there lies the difference between us, dear listeners. There you go. I mean, I still I do of course I do that now because it's usually in a break between clients, and then one of us is on TGT, nine times out of ten it's me, and so therefore it's done really quickly just to get on to our next lot of work. But in an ideal world, when I've got my huge library with all my books and my lovely comfy armchair and I should have. Shaking my head, listeners. I'm shaking it. There I would be making my tea and just leaving it in there and just a never-ending cup of tea. Kind of very magic y styly.
SPEAKER_01:And what about people who put the milk in first?
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's that used to be that for me, that was the proper way of doing it. I must confess I don't know. And the tea isn't boiling on the bottom. But that is certainly the way you I was taught that you do it. You put the milk in first.
SPEAKER_01:You could put the milk in first if you had a pot of tea.
SPEAKER_00:Jenny, if you're listening, I know Jenny, our lovely lady Jenny.
SPEAKER_01:As in Dr. Jenny Gordon.
SPEAKER_00:Mother-in-lawson. Beautiful lady. Yes, hello, lovely lady. Um, I think you'd know the answer to that. So do let us know, please, because you have an amazing podcast with Rachel Hayes. We'll just give that a plug. Yeah. Um everybody listen to it, it's fantastic. What's it called? Um, my brain's going to be. The Renny Show. The Rennie Show. And where did they get the idea from the Renny show? We got that from our Unleashed group. Yes. We got people chatting to get to know each other.
SPEAKER_01:We have a a coaching and mentoring and training group we run. It's ongoing called Unleashed. It's specifically for coaches, healers, and therapists. And we give them everything from marketing, personal brand, uh sales technique, um, how to create packages, how to create bundles, different AI stuff, everything they need, actual coaching techniques, everything they need to create a successful business.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And so they can they from that came their podcast. Amazing.
SPEAKER_01:If you're a coach, therapist, or healer listening to this and you want to find out more, drop us a line, we'll send you a link. It's only 65 a month.
SPEAKER_00:How do you like to make your tea? There you go, there's the question. Including um an online mentoring call every month with us. What on tea making?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. So what I was gonna say, surely, you'd own we don't run this to plug ourselves, but every now and now and then an opportunity arises. Surely, if you put the milk in first, that's okay if you've got a teapot with the tea. Brewing or mashing? Oh, it's brewing.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah, it's brewing. It's brewing. Is mashing? No, I think you can use the word mashing as well, but I think I'm more of a brewing girl, really. Anyway, so if you have a teapot with your tea.
SPEAKER_01:Trying to think what that is.
SPEAKER_00:Probably something from the door.
SPEAKER_01:It's probably a cat.
SPEAKER_00:It's a bit of fluff, there's your bit of fluff.
SPEAKER_01:That's my bit of fluff, that was my bit of fluff. You've you've taken it away from me. Torn it away cruelly with no warning. Come on. If you have a teapot with the tea inside that has brewed or mashed or whatever, then you could put the milk in first. Yeah. But if you're making it in a mug and you put the milk in first, then the tea isn't boiling on the bag. And it doesn't taste the same if the tea isn't boiling when you put it on the bag.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yes.
SPEAKER_01:Remember that contraption we bought a few years back on a wheel. Or the squeezy thing. What squeezy thing? The squeezy thing.
SPEAKER_00:What squeezy thing do you think? No, I'm thinking of a teabag squeeze squeezing. No, that's something different. It's alright.
SPEAKER_01:No, I like to call that a teaspoon.
unknown:What?
SPEAKER_00:No, no, that's messy then, because then it unless you get the squeezing squeezer, it's too easy to cut the bag with it. It drips on the way to the bin. But you have a little dish, you see, ideally a spoon restaurant, or a little dish that's quite a bit.
SPEAKER_01:So that you don't anybody understand that, please, or is it just if you put the milk in for I was going to the place. Do you remember that thing we bought? Not the teabag squeezer.
SPEAKER_02:What do you mean then?
SPEAKER_01:Well, it was instead of a kettle. And you kept like a reservoir of water in the back. Oh, yeah. And then you could just push a button and the water would come out.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it wasn't the same at temperature.
SPEAKER_01:It was never boiling. It was okay for coffee. No, it's never boiling. It never worked for tea because it wasn't boiling.
SPEAKER_00:It's not right at all.
SPEAKER_01:So that's my point. If you put the milk in first and the tea isn't already mashed, and then you're putting a teabag into cold milk and putting the water onto it, it's not boiling water.
SPEAKER_00:That reminds me I need to get a water filter. I promise myself I'm going to get one. Anyway, sorry. Yeah, we're really, really going off.
SPEAKER_01:So what we were saying earlier about making side quests. Now you know what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly. Okay, so have we answered that one? I think we have.
SPEAKER_01:Right, three hours later. The lovely Donna Clark.
SPEAKER_00:Hello, Donna. Hello, Donna! Donna Donna.
SPEAKER_01:Who says? I'm not sure it's a whole episode, but there's no H in HR. And that you sent a wink and a grin.
SPEAKER_00:Not that c oh, we can't talk about it. Oh, she knows that's one of my pet hates. I'm in a whole series of podcasts.
SPEAKER_01:One of my pet pet H there is only one H with an H. Oh, there's only one H in H. The amount of times I'm at a networking meeting and somebody will say something like, I'm in HR or I work for HSBC. No, you don't.
SPEAKER_00:And interviews, you get journalists now on TV and they're saying, H, no, you don't.
SPEAKER_01:And before somebody shouts at me, no, it is not a geographical thing. I don't care if people in one part of the country pronounce it with a hard H at the front. There isn't one in the dictionary. I T C H. There is not. I know it's weird, our language is weird. It should be H, but it isn't.
SPEAKER_00:When it changes and evolves, and that's what it is. No, it is not. But it is one. No, it's ignorant.
SPEAKER_01:One of our friends who's um Julia Knight would tell us about the evolution of language. I don't care, it's incorrect, and I'm being a pedant. But it's one of my I've got cockabillo just thrown himself back into your arms. He has. It is one of my blue-in-the-face pet hates. Is he a hound dog or a hound dog? It's a hound dog, but that's pronounced H O U N D.
SPEAKER_00:Are you happy, Taz, or happy?
SPEAKER_01:I am very happy, but I'm H A P P Y. Not H A P P Y. So do not be a Hignorman.
SPEAKER_00:Excuse me.
SPEAKER_01:Oh Donna, look what you've done now, Donna. Oh Donna, Donna, Donna, what are you doing to me, Donna? Crikey.
SPEAKER_00:Is it horrible, Taz, or horrible? Could be either.
SPEAKER_01:It could be either.
SPEAKER_00:Anyway, it's one of those things, isn't it? We notice it all the time.
SPEAKER_01:Speaking of, I said uh I said Claire earlier without saying it was Claire. Hamilton from Butterfly Cat Claire. Hamilton. It's Hamilton. Butterfly butterfly care. Not butterfly clare. Can you imagine if we did that with what you'd get up to any personal line lovers?
SPEAKER_00:It's horrific.
SPEAKER_01:Right, moving away. Moving away. Yeah, don't hesitate, Tads. Carry on. Be careful, we'll start talking about misplaced apostrophes. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Apostrophe Avengers. That's right.
SPEAKER_01:So carrying on with Horton Lee half time.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for that though, Donna. It was funny. Thanks, Donna.
SPEAKER_01:Um, okay. Tanya Stevens. Hello, Tanya.
SPEAKER_00:Hi Tanya, nice to see you. Tony.
SPEAKER_01:Tanya asks, is there anything that you could do around moving from burnout or illness to getting back to business again? We kind of talked about that on our previous episode, but Tanya was specifically asking both how to get to that stage and how to recognise when you're ready or actually worse for not working, working towards self-employment when you're still struggling and convinced you're not up to it, but want to be able to. Asher, what would be your take on that? Asher.
SPEAKER_00:I think I've been there. For me, it's like is that not wanting to get out of bed in the morning thing for me? This is my own personal thing, it's almost like my barometer. When I'm getting to that point, that's telling me, right, I really need to do something now. I've had lots of the usually probably had quite a few signals before that to get me to that point, but for whatever reason I'm either not seeing it, hearing it, noticing it, because I'm wrapped up in my own my own stuff going on. Um I think the first thing to do is to just take a moment and think, what would this is going to sound really tweak, but what would give me just a little tiny bit of joy, a bit of happiness, a bit of you know, something to make me smile a little bit, that might be related to dare I say it, to work, or it might not, or it might be loosely connected to what you do in your work. But something that you could do that might only take five, ten minutes of your time, what could you do today that would just get you out of that and it isn't I don't want to use the word slump because we know it's far more than that. That's really quite offensive to use the word slump in that in that way accurately to get you out of that space that you're in. And I think sometimes the simplest things that you can do. So for me, one of the simplest things I always go on about it, but it'll be something usually around one of the pets that I've got. So it'll be sitting as I am at the moment, I've got a beautiful golden doodle sitting here having a cuddle. She's a fantastic cuddler. And if I'm feeling like that and I can't be able to get on, I'm not sure where to go with stuff, I will sit and have five minutes with her. And then often I'll from that I might feel a little bit braver to do something else. I don't know. For me, it might be uh writing a little piece just for ten minutes, just free writing, journaling, that sort of stuff because of what I do, and that's loosely connected, but it's quite firmly connected to what I do. But what can you do to just bring you out of that space into something else? And again, we always mention it on a lot of our podcasts, but change body change is a you know, that's the starting point for me. But does that answer to us? I'm not sure if it does.
SPEAKER_01:Um I think it's it's a comfort zone thing, isn't it? That the longer you haven't been doing something for, the harder it is to get back into it because your comfort zone shrinks, and with that comfort zone comes your levels of confidence and self-belief.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um but it I think it's like anything, and I know we're really, really condensing this now, Tanya. So sorry, this is really kind of off the cuff quick um response, and it's it's a much deeper topic.
SPEAKER_00:Excuse me, I'm just gonna shout at the dog because he's about to nick something shouldn't do. Bailey, stop stealing things.
SPEAKER_01:What have you got now? Come here. Bailey, come here. Oh, he's got a piece of paper in his mouth that we're supposed to notice in order to give him attention. Wait for it, there might be a dog spat any second.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-uh-uh. No.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, let him chew it. Bailey is in the habit, if Gladys is getting too much attention, particularly or Tilly, of going and stealing something so that then he gets attention because any attention he shouldn't chew. She's growling because he's standing over her trying to get your attention. Anyway, so the thing is, and again I know I'm really, really cond condensing this and oversimplifying it, but if I go back to when I was first a journalist at the tender age of 16, I remember being really, really nervous about doing telephone interviews. And you know, I started at 16, I couldn't drive then. So And we didn't have email back then. So oh Gladys, for goodness sake. If you can hear grumbling, I don't know if our sound modifying kit will cut that out. It's sibling rivalry.
SPEAKER_00:It is sibling rivalry.
SPEAKER_01:Stop being a dick, Gladys. Bailey, you stop being a dick as well.
SPEAKER_00:Stop it.
SPEAKER_01:You're both lovely and we love you both equally. Stop it. So there.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:As we do you, dear listeners.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, nice three dumb.
SPEAKER_01:Um I remember I used to be really, really scared of doing a telephone interview, particularly where people could hear me. I'd literally write down all the questions I wanted to ask in my little reporter's notebook. And that w then what I'd do is I'd grab my notebook and when I thought nobody was going to notice, I'd sneak out of the newsroom and down to the empty, disused office at the back of the building where I knew there was a telephone.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I'd do my telephone interview in there and come back up. And the only thing that broke that fear of speaking to people on the phone while other people could listen was getting on and doing it.
SPEAKER_00:That rings a bell with me, and I when I was working on a weekly newspaper in Kent and my chief reporter and senior reporters had been doing the job for many, many years, and I was quite new to that office. And I had to make calls in that open plan office with them listening in Inverted Commons, I don't know whether they were or not. And the only way I could get over that was to actually do it. And it and it was, and it took me quite a long time. I used to go out at lunchtime and think, I've got to make that call this afternoon. I'm dreading it. I'd dread it for the whole week thinking about this big interview I'd got to do, which in reality was like a 15-minute call with somebody talking about I don't know, the golden wedding or something. But to me it became this massive thing. Yeah. And the only way I could get through it was to actually just go and do something around that. Do do it. Because the more you build it up into something that it probably isn't, the the more difficult it becomes to actually action it and do something. I think for me, but again it's we're all different, but for me that's the only way I could do it.
SPEAKER_01:I think it's it's I think when you've not done something for that long, the nearest comparison is doing something for the first time you're nervous about it. So like those phone calls, but also like um the first time I ran a solo firewalk for people after a after a trained as a firewalk instructor. The first time I ran a group breath work session after training in breath work and breath work for trauma relief. The first time I did a one-on-one breathing and rebirthing session, the first time I ran a shamanic circle, the first time I used a fast photophobia cure for someone after I trained in hypnosis and NLP.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:The first time I did some timeline therapy with someone, the first time I did a coaching call. You know, all of these things. The first time I stood up and spoke in front of an audience. At first, they feel so nerve-wracking, but we learn by doing and we grow our confidence by doing. So, Tanya, the best way I think, is to just dip a toe out there. And I'm talking now about confidence, not the burnout thing. Um if you listen to the episode before this, we talked an awful lot about sustainability with burnout. You're not going to cure burnout just by resting, it's by sustainability. But depending on how long you've been resting or taking time out or trying to build sustainability for that burnout, you will know is it still truly b burnout now or is it habit?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's a really good point. I'm just thinking about all the times. I'm thinking about next week, I've got something that going into details, but I've got something that will be a first for me. Yeah. And the conversation I'm having uh meeting and I'm really nervous about it, and on the day I'll be really nervous about it, but I'll do it. Um because if I don't then I'm not I'm not gonna grow and I'm not gonna grow my business. So it's it's that, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01:It's about self-questioning as well, isn't it? So you say convin if you're convinced that you're not up to it, well you need to question yourself, but what if I am? What if I am up to it? Yeah. I sometimes do that before a call or before an event. Well, I've got an event coming up um later this month. And when I look at the other speakers on the on the bill, I think, oh my goodness, why have they chosen me?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Crikey, how am I gonna live up to that? Oh my goodness, I need to go and buy a new designer jacket so that I feel better, all of this daft stuff. But I know that's my head talk, and I'm just gonna get up there and do my best in my own way, which might be very, very different. I've spoken on some massive stages for massive audiences all over the bloody world. You know, virtually and in person. Why am I worried about this one? Because I'm not the only speaker. No, I've done that before.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know. I think it's also about where you are, isn't it, in that moment, in that day, in that time of your own. Yeah, I'm just coming out of burnout and I'm going into this thing. Exactly. And I think you just gotta, you know, you've got to cut yourself some slack with that too, but also not use that as a procrastination tool and not actually. Yeah, and not get on and and do it. So I hope that helps, yeah, Tanya, and and you know, let's know you get on.
SPEAKER_01:Totally, as gently as possible. I think we all go through that. Definitely the difference between those who get on and do it and those who don't is that they start and keep going. If you look at anybody in a place of what you perceive to be success, it's because they made a decision, they started and they kept going. That's the only difference.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think you I think that's part of the thing. If you want to remain pretty humble and grounded and down to earth, I think that's just part of the the the trajectory. But when you run your own business and you do your own stuff and or whatever, or whether you're in business, you're employed, whatever job you're doing, when you're you're challenged because you're moving up a level, you're going back into things. I think it's just part of the you. Yeah, there's another flip as well.
SPEAKER_01:Um so many people ask me things like how do how do I get rid of the the nerves before I stand on stage? And I say you don't. Don't try to get rid of the nerves. Because if you ever completely get rid of the nerves, you've tipped over into arrogance and complacency. The nerves are there because you care about the people that you're delivering to. You care about the standard of the work, you care about the impacts you're gonna make. That's a good thing. The nerves show you care. The difference is in whether you allow the nerves to stop you or recognise that they are part of caring and get on with it anyway.
SPEAKER_00:I was just gonna say that for me the nerves are massive. So last year, it was the biggest stage I've ever spoken on before you staunched it. And I and I spoke to the. That was before Christmas too. It's big months this year. Right, anybody who's thinking of employing me as a speaker at some point this year, make sure you've got a really strong stage. Don't jump up and down. No, don't ever do with excitement, you're allowed to, but don't let me jump up and down with excitement. Um, the point I was gonna make with that was that I had a gig this well last year, you had on the same bill with me, which was in itself was never happened before. Um, and I was really nervous. But one of the things that that ner that nervousness fueled me. It was rocket fuel once I worked with it, and actually one of the things I was really nervous about was because I'd got some new boots on, they weren't particularly high, but I was worried about it. Kind of stomped a bit onto the stage, and in the end, I went, you know what, these are really hurting, I'm gonna take them off. Halfway through the tool. I did, well not even halfway, I think it was about a third of the way through, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_01:I wouldn't mind if I take my boots off.
SPEAKER_00:Well I did, and do you know what? I had the audience go with me, and actually as soon as I did that, the nerves just went right, right, this is me, love me or not, you know, this is who I am.
SPEAKER_01:It really went uh well, didn't it?
SPEAKER_00:But it did, so I think, yeah, sometimes it's just those nerves, you know, working with them because they can be sometimes you're you know they can be useful.
SPEAKER_01:There's one more flip as well, and this is a really shitty one. Um, but I did this with a client a few a few weeks back, but it must have been in the before Christmas, I think. And the questioning went along the lines of what is it that you want to do? Do you feel that is what you're here to do? Why are you doing it? And we ascertained that they were doing it because they wanted to help people. So then I flipped it and said, Well, if you know that you're here to do that and that it will help people, who are you to not do it? How dare you not do that? How dare you not bring this thing into the world that you know will be a comfort to even one person? How dare you? So that's a bit of a harsh flip, but I don't know, that might be worth thinking about as well. Definitely. Yeah. Right, moving on. So the lovely Jess Ebbs. Hello Jess. Hello, Jess. Jess asks, have you ever discussed network marketing businesses and how a lot of people view them as schemes or scams, but that they do actually work.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, obviously, we're not in network marketing, so uh my expertise is not in that area at all.
SPEAKER_01:I've coached network marketers and I've delivered talks for network marketing groups. I can tell you that people in network marketing generally are far more engaged, far more open to personal development and lifting their energy. They're great people to work with in that way.
SPEAKER_00:And also there's a lot of training, isn't there? People that join um these organisations with network marketing, and it does get a rough deal sometimes. People look at it, look down their noses a little bit at it. And I have to confess, that was kind of me until fairly recently, until we started working more closely through Taz's work with some of the network marketing organisations. Um, and we found some fantastic people. We met some great people, we met we learnt an awful lot, um, and had a really good time too. And you said about the energy. I mean, I know you know that's what we've done. There's a lot of really good ones out there, and I think, yeah, sometimes it can get put in, you know, sort of almost fouled away under not proper business. Um but yeah, my experience certainly in recent years has been very positive. And I so I really had to take a look at myself and think, why am I having this limiting belief about these these organizations?
SPEAKER_01:I think one of the things I've found, and and Jess, please do feedback to us. We can follow up on this in another episode. Um, if if you disagree or there's something else, please do please do tell us. For me, I think one of the big issues, or the one of the biggest issues with network marketing is managing expectations. I think a lot of times people try to recruit to their teams by using the do you need an extra bit of money thing. So I had one client that was coaching a while back who couldn't understand why her team weren't making money. And I said, Well, how are you how are you recruiting? And they were sitting in a coffee shop waiting until somebody came in who looked like, you know, that they'd got crappy shoes and you know, managing three kids and looked in in air quotes hard up, and she'd go and say, I think I can help. And give them a card. But of course, there they're there are all those sayings, aren't they, about you know where you are born is not your fault, but where you end up is entirely on you. And you've got to look at the the vibe of the people that you're bringing into your team. And who knows why somebody might might be hard up. It might be maybe in their world they're not hard up. You know, just because we see someone and make a judgment call that we think they should or shouldn't be dressed in better clothes or managing their lives better, that's none of our business. That might be quite happy. Yeah, better in their quotes. Yeah, what if somebody's quite happy though? What if they're in that b position because they don't want to work? That's not going to be true for everybody. That's that's not casting any broad brush at all. But again, the the point is, what is not drilled home enough for me with network marketing is that it's ultimately a sales job. You have to be willing to get out there and sell, and it doesn't matter how much we call it marketing, you've got to sell. And selling well takes a certain amount of drive. So if you are going out and recruiting people who, for whatever reason, do not currently have drive, whether they just don't have drive or they've been through illness or breakdown, or maybe they've been through some really appalling things and they just don't have the energy for it. If you're recruiting people into a team where people need to sell in order to create that cash and in order to send that up and down the chain, that is not going to work. So I think number one, that's one of the big misconceptions about network marketing. Oh, you just need to invite all your friends to buy some of your makeup or health product or uh or or or manage bills, utilities, whatever it happens to be. Tupperware in our days growing up.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, crumbs that's showing our age now.
SPEAKER_01:It is a sales job, and you need to be really driven and really committed to make a lot of money with it. And you also need to look at the balance. For some people, that's going to work. I know for me, the return on the amount of effort I'd need to put in for that is not going to work for my personality and for my uh for my level of drive. Yeah. For me, I'm happy to go and support. I wouldn't want to buy into a company that's already there to use the existing brand and be to be kind of constrained within their rules. That doesn't fit with me at all. But I know for some people they want to be able to lean on an existing brand and existing marketing techniques and something that's recognised on the high streets. Yeah, so it's isn't it? You've got to look at that. And also I think one of the mistakes that that has been made perpetually is people showing pictures of, for instance, the car that you could get by just doing this in your spare time. And we all know it takes a lot more effort and a lot more drive to get to that point than people realise. So I think that's that's that I think is one of the biggest problems.
SPEAKER_00:Can I throw something else in there as well? And this is something for discussion again. Feel free to come back on it. And anybody else that's in network marketing, put do put me put me right if you if you need to. But um, one of the things I notice as well, which I think is maybe it's changed now, but was in terms of how the marketing is done for the individual within that organisation. So what you can and can't say, how much control do they have do you have to kind of do your own version of some of those marketing stories and putting your own your own spin but your own personality into some of the marketing. Um it may not be the case now, but I know when I was networking a few years back now, it seemed very restrictive in terms of what you could say as an individual, even though you were all working for the same team. Yeah, um, and I think that maybe needs looking at as well, the way you're marketing your products and services, so that it's not the same that's the royal you, not you, Jess. No, no, no, not at all. That the the way it's marketed so that it enables the unique personality that's working for that organisation to um to promote things in their way. I mean, obviously you've got to have guidelines, I appreciate that. You can't have people running amok with stuff, and you've got to have some level of control. But I think there's a balance point there. That's the neighbour drilling again. And it's anybody else. No, we've not had this yet. So this is the first I think today. We're recording a few today, we should have done well. But yeah, so think about I don't know, think about that. How do you feel about that in terms of the marketing? How much freedom is there for people to market in their own way?
SPEAKER_01:It's like a dumb French comedy where every time she's she swears that something else to block it. It was in a vicar of Dibbly episode, wasn't it? So yeah, I think they're not scams, they can work really, really well for people, but the biggest issue is in expectations being managed and in the way they are being described to people and in the recruitment process. People are coming in thinking it's gonna be really easy, and it's not easy, it's a job like anything else, and you have to treat it that seriously. And now but again, they work really well for a lot of people, so don't rule them out, don't listen to all the stuff about them being scams. But you if you want to be at the top of the tree, you've got to put the effort in. Thank you, lovely neighbours, for the drilling on the podcast. I don't know how well our um noise software will cut that out, but our but our neighbour. They're expecting a new baby, it's very exciting.
SPEAKER_00:They are, it's very exciting.
SPEAKER_01:So they're making lots of lots of alterations to the house at the minute. Okay, so next. Oh, Morgan. Morgan Gleave, excellent cartoonist. If you've ever seen any of the Taz Talks uh comic strip sips comic strip series, easy for you to say. Um, they were created by Morgan, who read Unleash Your Awesome and literally created comics for each each of the chapters. Brilliant, brilliant stuff, such a creative genius.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. Hi Morgan.
SPEAKER_01:Morgan's got a podcast starting soon as well. Yeah, he has. Brilliant, off the back of the podcast training we run. Yep. If you want to run a podcast and you don't know how yet, let us know. Um Morgan says, I'm pretty sure you've talked about it already, Taz, but how about a deep dive into shamanism? We kind of talked about it a little one on the big one. And I think rather than doing a deep dive dive into shamanism, we could talk more about some of the mindset tools that we use, um, some of the um some of the elements around journeying and how it works, but that's definitely one that we could look at more deeply on another episode, I think.
SPEAKER_00:So we've gone around it a little bit, haven't we?
SPEAKER_01:Whilst very much keeping it in kind of the way we do things rather than doing any misappropriation stuff. But yeah, that's that's one we'll definitely talk about. Uh Morgan's been to the big one, our 13-month empowerment circle a couple of times now, which shamanism is is quite big as part of the work there. So um yeah, that's a good one. Anyone here who wants to ask more about that, please do send us your questions and we'll do an episode just about that and answer everything you would like to know. Yeah, definitely. Okay, cool. What have we got next, does? Jesse Smith says, Have you covered All Fours by Miranda July? A rather interesting discussion at our book club.
SPEAKER_02:Oh no.
SPEAKER_01:No, thank you.
SPEAKER_00:I shall have a look and listen to that one or read that one. Thank you very much. No, but Asher, well, we'll add that to everyone. I will do, thank you very much.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so that was a quick one. Yeah. Lisa Hogg. Love this one, Lisa. Just as one word. Reincarnation. Asher, as I'm currently being molested by a cockapoo. Over to you.
SPEAKER_00:Reincarnate. Oh my goodness, just a small topic for the afternoon. Um goodness. Um, we've done some ver some work around that with some of the um work that we've done, spiritual work that we've done in the past. How do I feel about it? Um I think we have more than one life. I definitely believe that. I think we're here for a for whatever amount of time. I think it's agreed before we're we're born or when we're born about what that might be, and there'll be choices to take us down one road or another. But actually we can come back and be somebody else, something else, maybe. If we believe everything's energy, we're all energy, that means that we can be a different type of energy, which means we could be human, we could be animal, we could be extraterrestrial, just to get things a little bit more interesting. So, in terms of uh yeah, reincarnation, I think definitely, I think, yeah, I think that's possible. We're just scratching the surface as to what we can be. I mean, it comes back to that thing about timelines as well, doesn't it? You know, what's to say that there aren't all these different timelines going on so that we've got you know this version, so it's it's never ending, so things don't end at all, it just keeps going. So even if we're looking at, I don't know, Egyptian histories and things as well, and maybe there's a version of that is still playing out somewhere in another universe, another galaxy, or something that's going on just on a different timeline to us, and sometimes those timelines interlink, and that really floats my boat a little bit. So, yeah, and just what I really struggle with is when you get people saying, Oh yes, I was sitting bull in another life.
SPEAKER_01:There must have been an awful amount of Joan of Arc's and Cleopatras and sitting bulls and general customs.
SPEAKER_00:But yeah, this is my cynical journalist in me. But why can't I be Joe Bloggs who was an a accountant and sorry, that's no dissing accountants. I love my accountants, especially at the moment because it's end of year tax, thank you very much. Um, but yeah, you know, why can't I be Mr. Smith down the road who, you know, walks his dog once or twice a day and rides a bicycle, you know, and I've been reincarnated as him instead of something more grand in inverted colours. So yeah, I'll get a little bit sick with that sometimes when we get that kind of thing coming out, and you get told you're this. There's nothing to say that you couldn't be, I suppose, but yeah, it's fascinating. What about you, Taz? How do you feel about it?
SPEAKER_01:Pretty much the same. Um, yes, I believe in reincarnation. Yes, I believe I have been. No, I don't necessarily believe I've been anybody famous. I do snigger when I that was for this time, Taz. Of course, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That's my sweetening the wife up for the day.
SPEAKER_01:That's me on strictly next year.
unknown:Yeah. You are.
SPEAKER_01:You all laugh if I am unstrictly next year, aren't you?
SPEAKER_02:I know.
SPEAKER_01:Um I think the amount of people we hear of who again swear they were Cleopatra or Sitting Bull or you know, Joan of Arc in a previous life. It's like, really? How many of them were there? You can't all be. You can't be you can't all be. How how long's it gonna be? The next generation we're gonna start getting over.
SPEAKER_00:How amazing would this be? There must be a book out there that's done this. But what if you get to you get to choose? So when you when you come back a second time, you can come back as one of those in a different time. Yeah, if time organs that's what I mean.
SPEAKER_01:Parallel and time is not limited.
SPEAKER_00:So you could come back as somebody like that. Who would you and actually here's a question for who would you come back as? Who would you come back as? I'd come back as me. Would you? Really? Yeah. Nobody else that you'd ever want to come back as.
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01:I have precisely the skills and the understanding and the knowledge I need to be me in this lifetime, and I trust that that the the learning my soul needs will be determined by who I am born into next time. I don't need to choose.
SPEAKER_00:I was having a bit of a light hearted bound with that. You've got a very serious face. It's like goodness me, Tazm. You're gonna chill, baby, chill.
SPEAKER_01:Rest in which phase.
SPEAKER_00:It was like that was a bit intense. Sorry, I'm very I'm obviously not as good as.
SPEAKER_01:Who would I like to meet from another lifetime? That would be an interesting one.
SPEAKER_00:Who would it be? Buddhika. I was just gonna say that would be the opposite. I don't believe it. What really happened to be the case? What happened to her, you know? Um, because we've got all these isn't it rupture.
SPEAKER_01:All the next door's banging. That's how babies stop it now.
SPEAKER_00:That'd be rude. Um so yeah, so I hope that's there's so much we could do a whole podcast series.
SPEAKER_01:There's a little parallel to that that ties back into the the previous question as well, with all the different people thinking they've been insisting they've been famous scientists and and you know, explorers and adventurers and warriors. It's the same thing that when so many people, when they hear that we practice shamanism, will say something, they'll lean in and they'll say something like, Did you know you've got a red Indian chief standing behind your shoulder? Well, number one, don't use that terminology, that's completely not right, not PC. And number two, you're thinking that because you think that shamanism comes from the North Americas and it doesn't. So whack whack, but again, projection. And I think sorry, that's me trying to knock the dog off my arm. Um it does make me smile because I don't have a guide of that variety that I know of, but so many people who have believed the Hollywood version of what shamanism is and what shamanism isn't. Yeah, it's like some so many people say, Oh, did you know? Do you know you've got a he's got a full headdress, and no, he hasn't, is what you've seen in the movies. But yeah, projection. Projection happens a lot, and that's not to say that people who believe they were Joan of Arc, for instance.
SPEAKER_00:It's extremely offensive, isn't it? Ultimately. The way it's been described, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but they don't know that. There's there's so much cultural misappropriation that goes on, particularly in spiritual circles, and headdresses, particularly, you know, I'm not I'm not here to be a spokesperson for for First Nations people, you know, I don't have any lineage there as far as I'm aware. But I do have, particularly because of my interest in shamanism and indigenous cultures and the medicine path, which was North America, still is, I do have enough nouse about me to recognise when it's inappropriate misappropriation. And the amount of people I see in spiritual circles who have photo shoots with a chieftain headdress on, for instance, or stick a feather in their hair, or even outs, or even people in business who have photo shoots with the chieftain's headdress or similar, don't do that. Go and do some research, look at the spiritual meaning of that to those people. It's you know, you wouldn't turn up wearing a uh unless you're Moira Rose, you wouldn't turn up wearing a Pope's hat, whatever they're called, for a photo shoot.
SPEAKER_00:So I've just got I'm not loving just Maura Rose. But anybody loves um shit creek, shit creek, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's shit's think about any other religion or spiritual path as we know it. You would not turn up to a photo shoot with something taken from another spiritual or religious path if you were not part of that. So stop nicking other people's shit just to polish your marketing up. Number one, it's massively offensive. Number two, you're looking like a dick. Number three, park your ego. Number four, educate yourselves.
SPEAKER_00:Taz is off on one. This is Taz, I know and love. Well done, Taz. Good point to make though. Um but coming back to reincarnation. Reincarnation, yes, totally believe in it. I think it yes, it's part of who we are, what we are. Um fascinating, definitely one for a future podcast on a on the whole topic of, I think, at some point. But yeah, I think. What about you? Who would you like to be reincarnated? Who do you believe you are? Maybe you've got somebody that you maybe Joan of Arc is listening. Right now, no, exactly. So, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe we have several Cleopatras.
SPEAKER_00:Maybe we do.
SPEAKER_01:They're always such a pain in the asp.
SPEAKER_00:What would be the collective? Here we go. You know what I normally ask? What's the collective noun? Cleopatra. Yeah, an asp. Asps. Asps. Yeah. Yeah. Weirdo. I know. Carry on. Next one. Thank you very much for the question. I hope that's with lighthearted approach to it, but yeah, so much more to say about that one.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, the lovely Dave Muckle. Dave Muckle Mike. Um Matt Dave when I went to lead part of the firewalk instructor training uh last year, yeah before.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Must be two years now, is it? Yeah. Don't know. I think it was last year.
SPEAKER_01:Anyway, Dave has said a conversation about letting go of in quotes fixing people and focusing instead on space, safety, support, and what that really looks like. I reckon that's worth a whole episode in its own in its own right.
SPEAKER_00:Definitely.
SPEAKER_01:But such a brilliant, brilliant topic to bring up. Yeah, it's not about fixing. No. There's so many um completely clashing conversations as well about whether people are broken or not. And nobody's broken, and nobody needs fixing. And and here's responsibility that is, if it's anybody's, and there's a whole industry that's been built up around the idea that people can fix others. Yeah. And I think again, it's a bit like the network marketing conversation, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:Huge things wrong, doesn't it? Approach to things. I have a massive ego around it. It can be. That's the danger of it, taking that approach and looking at it from that angle. So yeah, that's definitely one. I reckon that's a whole conversation.
SPEAKER_01:So we'll do an episode on that. Thanks, Dave. Brilliant one. Uh Haley Hilton, Early Hilton.
SPEAKER_00:Hi, Hayley.
SPEAKER_01:Hands on her clinical canine massage. Hayley's eight, she's been in our spiritual circle the 30 months, the big one a few times as well. And the three years. Um pet grief not being seen as real by non-animal people, i.e., they're only a dog.
SPEAKER_00:Oh crumbs. I that reminds me of, I think we had that, didn't we, years ago, when somebody at work in one of our workplaces was a bit like that around it was over.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, we're going to have our cat put to sleep all the time.
SPEAKER_00:Um anybody that's listening that's ever had a pet, if you've got a pet, maybe you've lost a pet recently, whether it's recently, ten years ago, five years ago, whenever, six months ago, it hurts like I don't know, it hurts like a billion. And uh I think it's so important that we talk about that. It's fantastic that now we have a lot of the pet organisations now have um amazing bereavement services um available for people when they lose a pet. Um because of my work with National Pet Month, um I link in with quite a few of those on Facebook and and various other social planner uh pet channels, and they're really useful, helpful, really supportive. So that's I would say to people, reach out if you've got that. But yeah, it's of course it's not just a pet. They're part of your family. Um and however long you've had them for, whether it's six months, six years, fifteen years if you're lucky enough to have that along with them. However long you've had them, they become part of your family. You love them dearly. They teach and animals teach us so much about ourselves, don't they?
SPEAKER_01:The comments about this as well. So the questions have appeared in my uh in Taz Thorn Thornton's Inspiration Tribe on Facebook, which is free to join, come on in if you'd like to. Um uh Lacia Zhanovsky says also, forgive me if I've mispronounced that, Latia, it's a long time since we've worked together. Um she lost her beloved cat very suddenly as well. Only a couple of days ago. Oh, so sorry to hear about that. Only eight. Had a tumour that but had been masking well. And we know that Haley lost her beloved dog four years ago and still misses her, and um anyone who knows us and has been following us for a while will know that we are big believers. And I think statistically it's been proven that pet grief can hit harder than human grief.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um we I did a talk um at an event last year about we lost our pet dog and our cat who were both only seven. They came into the into our lives together within a few weeks of each other. And they went out within a few weeks of each other as well. And similar to Lacia's story, our our cat had a massive tumour that hadn't been a parent and had been masking. And our lovely, lovely Labrador rescue Labrador had had a really aggressive cancer. So we still mourn them now, and you know, you'll find on my blog somewhere somewhere a blog about losing Benji, our first dog, our little rescue last um teen years ago. I still feel that now.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you know, and it's that's part of it, isn't it? And those final moments with it, if you can have that moment with them, if you feel able to do that, and I would say to people you possibly can, please do that if it's possible for you. Because, you know, however difficult it is, it's for me, it's the least we can do for them in their last moments. But yeah, you know, and have the support around you to support you and don't feel embarrassed about talking about it. That's the other thing as well. You know, people I I kind of joke, we used to joke with people, some of the people we work with that weren't pet people, and we'd you know joke with them would say, Well, you know, how would you feel if that was friends or dear friends or relatives? Well, they really are, they are the closest we have to children. So let people ha have that. If that's your way of working through things, you need to talk about it. Allow people the space to do that, whether it's an animal, it's a person, you know, they're going through grief, so please support people in that grief. So yeah, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_01:And also the grieving and the heartache that happens before they go over the rainbow bridge. Yeah. So I know with Thea in particular, you know, we'd been nursing her through this, through her cancer for a long time before it got to the point where we knew it was terminal. And we're very much of the opinion that the animal lets you know when it's time to go. Yeah. And all the time she wanted to fight, we did everything we could to help her. And when it was too much for her, then we advocated for her there as well. But I know that we were almost starting to grieve before she passed. Yeah. And trying to not show that in front of her as well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Trying for her to keep it business as usual and then going and have a look around in the bedroom or whatever it was.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, taking it.
SPEAKER_01:It's hard.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And even with dogs who are older, and we've been talking a lot about our older girl Tilly, who's sleeping outside.
SPEAKER_00:She might have heard she was snoring earlier. I don't know if you heard that, you might have done, but she's snoring in the.
SPEAKER_01:Tilly's our gorgeous uh Labrador, or the black one in the pictures with a lot of grey rounder muzzle now. She was 14 in September. So, you know, she's getting weaker in her back legs now. She's got a little bit of canine dementia going on, but she's still bright enough. But again, every day with her is a blessing. And we don't know. She could be going for another few years, she could be going for another few days, another few weeks. It's that unknown.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So even that now, I know a part of my heart is already starting to ache at the thought of. Um, but we don't like to go there. So yeah, pet grief is absolutely huge. Um, I'd recommend if anyone's going through any kind of grief, go and look up um Julie Randall at Enlivened, who was on one of our earlier podcasts with us. She's amazing, lady. She's a she's a wonderful coach and she specialises in helping people through all kinds of different grief. Grief not just necessarily around death, but loss of all kinds. So if you're struggling, go look up Julie. She's a wonderful, wonderful, compassionate lady with lots of tools and ideas up her sleeve that will that can help. Right, next down, Victoria Monk Steel Monksteel. Crikey, it's been a long time since we've seen you, Victoria. Hi. A convention, yes, I believe. It was a bad girl's convention, wasn't it? Crikey.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Um, she's asking, could we talk about psilocybin and its use as a treatment for mental health conditions? Uh short answer, no. Because we don't use it, we haven't used it. I know some people have, yeah, and I know it's worked wonders for that.
SPEAKER_00:So we're not really from a place of being able to comment on it.
SPEAKER_01:Um offer to slight tangent to that though. What I will say, so many people when they hear we uh practice shamanic uh practices.
SPEAKER_00:That's me moving on the sofa, just so you know.
SPEAKER_01:She says it's the setting. You can never make it make the same noise again, though, can you? Oh, it was the chair.
SPEAKER_00:Hang on, I'll see if I can do it now. I can't. Oh, can't see?
SPEAKER_01:See? Oh, yeah, it was the chair. Anyway, so many people when they're here we practice shamanism start talking to us as if we take psychotropics, hallucinogens, and we don't. You know, shamanism is not inherently linked to ayahuasca, coyote, any of the big medicine plants. There are different branches, and actually, if you look at the global map of spiritual practices which are broadly thought of as shamanic, it's only a tiny, tiny part of a tiny ceremony in a tiny geographical area that uses those hallucinogens, it's just of course they've attracted lots of media over the years. So I know we don't see headline. In fact, it's quite the opposite. We practice what's known as clean shamanism, which doesn't mean that medicine plants is dirty shamanism, it's just a very different branch. Um so no, uh, never done anything like psilocybin or ayahua or um paiote. That's not to link them together and say the same, they're not. One's been used very, very medicinally in um very organised and sterile clinical environments as well. Um, but no. Sometimes I have an aspirin if my head hurts a bit, or a parasitomal. Um Daniel Holmes um asks, Daniel Holmes from Black Nova. The previous episode, a lot of that came from came from this suggestion. Maybe something along the lines of the myth that working 22 hours a day brings success. The old-fashioned corporate style, the ones that work more hours get more rewards, so we become programmed to believe eight hours plus per day, um, or always be available and online is necessary. How to adjust to working flexible hours and not having guilt from turning off more often? I think we've done a lot of that in our previous episode. We can always go into that more if people want to go into that in more depth. And Danielle, maybe that's something to come on and chat to us about at some point in the future.
SPEAKER_00:Fantastic. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Jen OT Intuition asks a question I've asked to some business peers, but maybe a topic. Can anyone give me advice about online or smart video interactive ways of working with clients, children and adults, online as an OT and MH practitioner? I can't. We can talk a lot about business without and video in business without a doubt. But for those specifics, nobody, if anyone here is listening, has any advice on that, please do go look up Gen OT Intuition on Facebook and share your knowledge with her, please. That'd be really helpful. Thank you. Uh Stella Maria is asking about divorce and starting over. Well, we've both been through um big separations and started afresh. So again, yeah, we could.
SPEAKER_00:That's quite a big episode, maybe one for yeah, and I'm sure there's lots of people that relate to that topic, definitely.
SPEAKER_01:In fact, to be fair, there's probably lots of podcasts better than this one to talk about that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because I mean we could obviously talk about it from our own personal experiences, but everybody's gonna be different. I think in terms of advice and yeah, maybe have a look at some other of the podcasts that are out there primarily talking about that.
SPEAKER_01:If anybody knows of podcasts that are out there specifically about divorce and starting over, please do again drop a line, uh, find Stella Maria over on Facebook and let her know.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks, Stella, nice to hear from you.
SPEAKER_01:Linda Reynolds. I'm gonna just let you rant on this one, Ash. Hello, Linda, Linda's a lovely, lovely personal travel agent, brilliant lady. Um Linda asks, are books a thing of the past? Our podcasts, the next books. I'm just gonna be quiet and cuddle our cockpoo and leave Asher to rant.
SPEAKER_00:Over to you. No, I mean the two work beautifully together, but no, books are not a thing of the past. That shows that from the stats we had during lockdown. Lockdown actually rejuvenated the book industry, without a doubt. Um, and reading books became a thing again. And podcasts are fantastic. You know, people use Audible, there's a reason for that. Some people like to read their books by listening, they prefer to learn through listening. But no, books, books, books will always be always be here. Um, hopefully, unless we get so many taken out because people don't agree with the topics. Um, if we go the way of certain other nations at the moment, that's a horrible possibility. But I hope that books will always be part of the na the narrative, no pun intended, for us. Um, because we can learn so much from them. And for me, again, you can have an all you can listen to a book, which is amazing, and you can have your um Kindle and take it on holiday with you, which is brilliant. So you don't need to you know take loads of really heavy books onto a flight, which is brilliant. But there's also something, and I do talk about it a lot, and again I'm showing my age, but there is something for me about the actual experience of reading a good old-fashioned printed book. And okay, we know that you know there's a lot of trees that went for that book, but obviously sustainability, we need to look at that.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, you plant trees for every book you produce, don't you?
SPEAKER_00:I do. Um I want to do some more on that actually on the PR side of things because I haven't really talked about it. But I do do that. I've got a we've got a grove of trees which uh is um for Turquoise Tiger Press Scotland in Scotland. And it's kind of part of the rewilding project and and bringing in and planting trees. Um beautiful idea, so we've we've tied into that. But um plant a tree for every book that you publish for someone, yeah, and it's a lovely way of of giving something back. So I think yeah, books how what would we be with that? But you know, books are just part of so many of our childhoods, and if they're not even as adults, sometimes getting into books when you're older in age as well, learning that reading a book can be a great thing, a great thing to do to settle your mind, to widen your knowledge. Why would you not want to be enjoying reading a book? And so I hope that we'll never go, and I think podcasts have their place. Crumbs, we're doing one, but again, I think the two can work together. You can use one to promote your book, and you can use the book to promote your podcast, and vice versa. Or in our case, nice little plug coming up, Taz. What have we just done?
SPEAKER_01:We've just written a book about how to create a podcast on a shoestring.
SPEAKER_00:There you go. So it's not out yet, but it might be by the time you hear this. It's another fantastic value marketing tool, and the two together can be fabulous. Plus, it's really lovely to read a book and chill out with a book.
SPEAKER_01:I think it also depends on how people prefer to receive their information. Yeah. So some people prefer a Kindle for a book or similar. Uh some people prefer audiobooks.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Some people like a good old-fashioned book. There's n nothing like the tactile feel of a book and opening it and smelling a new book.
SPEAKER_00:Oh god, the smell of a new book. And also for a lot of people that that smells.
SPEAKER_01:That smell of going into a secondhand bookshop or an antiquarian bookshop. Yeah. It's a different smell entirely, isn't it? It is. Yeah, so it engages different senses. So I guess those who prefer audio books might prefer podcasts more.
SPEAKER_00:That's the thing, like, you know, because again, I'm in the days of remembering libraries and what it was like to go into a library. I spent a lot of my early professional career as a library. Do still exist and people still use them. Because we had to go and do do you remember the old microfiche? Yeah. To go and research stuff and find actually ironically copies of your.
SPEAKER_01:Do you not explain what that is for anyone who doesn't know what it is?
SPEAKER_00:But how do I describe it? You go on, you want to do it.
SPEAKER_01:So it was a way, again, before the internet and the kind of technology we have now. Um, if you wanted to go and look through old newspapers, for instance, to try and find details of something, they had what was called microfiche. So it was essentially film, wasn't it? Yeah. Uh a bit like a bit like an old overhead projector.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But but you could sit in the library with this machine that was a microfiche machine and you had a little handling you could wind through and click through all these old articles in newspapers, magazines.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that were on film.
SPEAKER_01:And so very often what we'd do is we'd have to Not as in video film, as in see through printed onto clear film.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So you'd go and research, so very often we'd have like what was happening ten years ago, twenty years ago, and they'd send Well if you ran out of archives in your own newspaper you went back further than you did the micro feature at the library. So yeah. So things like how did I get onto that? I can't remember that. Libraries. Oh, libraries. So for me, there's there's a lovely space of a library. I I've got lots of fond memories of spending time in libraries for that reason also because I used to go off and do a two-hour stint and get local stories from local people and I'd sit in the l sit in the library for two hours with a cup of tea and wait for the body.
SPEAKER_01:When people could come to you with stories.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, oh that was an interesting experience. But yeah, some real cool cuz many of which didn't make it into uh print, but a great experience. But honestly, it was always been for me. Libraries have got I've got fond memories of libraries. So we've the fact that we've got a lot less now makes me quite sad, really. But I suppose I'm a child and my stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I love the idea of these phone boxes now, the old um phone boxes you see popping up week if you can't extra exchange books.
SPEAKER_00:I think that's fair.
SPEAKER_01:And some of the supermarkets as well now have book book exchange banks.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and and some of the restaurant chains. I'm thinking about one in particular that we go to occasionally.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the loungers often have books you can exchange in there as well.
SPEAKER_00:So that's really good. So yeah, so I think the two go together, and I love both. If I had to choose one, uh it'd probably be books. It's always gonna be books. And I'm just looking at my bookshelves as I say this and thinking I really do need to tidy them up a bit.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. We're talking about decluttering a lot at the moment, and the one thing we keep saying, and we were listening to a decluttering expert on an old episode of Woman's Hour on Radio 4 Podcast. Yeah, it was and she agreed. The one thing you can never have too many of is books.
SPEAKER_00:And actually, here's a shout out again for the lovely Louise Huntskelly. Louise Huntskelly who gave me a lovely gift, and I've got it on my bookshelf, and it says, May your shelves always overflow with books.
SPEAKER_01:Always, always overflow with books. It's not. It is.
SPEAKER_00:Where's the second all word?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it's not, I haven't got my glasses on. I was reading shelves always.
SPEAKER_00:I was thinking what?
SPEAKER_01:I know that it's printed on the page of a book, though, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:It is printed on the page of a book and it's lovely, so thank you for that, Louise. I love that gift. Um and you so get me, and you get why I love books so much, because I had the privilege of helping you to write yours. So um thank you. So I hope that answers some of your questions, but do feel free, Linda, to come back and was it it was Linda. So let's go. Do you love books?
SPEAKER_01:You're talking about your surgery you used to run at the library. Yeah, I used to have to do one of those as a journalist as well. So mine was some kind of community hub. I used to have to go and sit in in was it Meesham or Moira? Moira, I think. Right. And I'd sit there for a morning or afternoon, once a month, once a week, something like that. And only one person used to come in. And it was the same old boy every time, and he'd would always come in and ask me how to roast a chicken. Nothing to do with what was there for.
SPEAKER_00:He should go and read a book.
SPEAKER_01:She should go and read a book about that. Um another book question straight after that comes from Lucia again, asking about role-playing game books. Oh, I don't know anything about that. I went back and hunt and went interesting one, not really our area of expertise, and she came back saying there are some wonderful indie RPGs and LARPs, that's live action roleplay for anyone who doesn't know that. That deal with social or personal issues, such as many of the topics mentioned in the comments. I've asked for some recommendations because I don't know about those. But I would love to know more about those. I used to be part of an RPG, a couple of RPGs that ran online through the old Yahoo groups that dates it. Oh dear. Um, I'd love to I'd love to know more about that. Um moving from there, we have um Stephen Comrade Consulting says anxiety, we all face it, most of us struggle with it. How the how the heck or how the hack is put, is it possible to navigate? So that's definitely one that we could potentially do an episode of.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for that. So watch this space.
SPEAKER_01:So anyone who has anxiety, hints, tips, come into Inspiration Tribe on Facebook, find this thread and drop them on there because let's bring them into another episode. That deserves an episode of its of its own nature.
SPEAKER_00:And although this is kind of that was the sophra again, tell us.
SPEAKER_01:That was the sofa again. Although this is books, brands, and business, it's also awesomely off topic. And as we're both coaches and deal with anxiety a lot, I think we can talk on that. Okay, cool. Tracy Baum asking for something asking for something LGBTQIA plus. Well, yes, we are both things that are LGBTQIA plus. So we take that every only on Fridays.
SPEAKER_00:Wait, it's Friday.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, that's fine.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we're cool.
SPEAKER_01:We could deal with something like that, and we could potentially deal with an episode that talks about um dealing with trolls as well and dealing with some of the hatred you get when you talk about those things.
SPEAKER_00:I know we talked about that before, but with our um video on that went in it viral. Yeah. Um and it was still growing until fairly recently, actually, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And again, addressing some of the misconceptions, there's still an awful lot of hate crimes out there that's growing, particularly since um the thing where we left Europe. Brexit, especially since Brexit, and more and more so since um and NF, not national front, the other one that's probably almost as bad. It rhymes with Higel Parrage has come to the front four more. It's more and more of it. So yeah, that's probably an episode as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, definitely. So we just think about. We will definitely come back to you on that one.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, Tracy. And uh final question we have on this thread is from Field Fair Escapes. Leaving a career you fought to build along with your reputation, only to end up feeling like you could achieve nothing more. Nothing anymore. Nothing anymore. And that ties into all of those things where people feel that you know management's brought in a a younger model, or when uh you have such a massive chunk of your life changes so suddenly that it triggers more of that grief, transitions. There's still so much we can talk about there, and again, that might be one to bring Julie back in for.
SPEAKER_00:I think so too.
SPEAKER_01:Um because she's brilliant on talking about that kind of topic entirely. She should have her own podcast, Julie. She should, Julie. Hint, hint.
SPEAKER_00:Definitely. You need to read our book, Julie, when it's out.
SPEAKER_01:So um I reckon we've we've covered all of those suggestions so far. We've also got loads of our own suggestions up our sleeve for our next episodes. Bless you, Gladys. She just sneezed behind the behind the the laptop. So please, if you'd like us to expand on any more of those, please do tell us. But more than that, please, please, please keep your topic suggestions coming into us. As you can tell from these, not all of them are going to necessarily be be right for our podcast. But we'll always do our best to mention them where we can and to answer as best we can. And we would always, always love to hear your suggestions of what you would like us to be talking about in more depth. We're creating this, yes, for us, but more so for you. And rather than us just bringing all our topics to the table, we'd love to hear topics that are relevant for us to cover that would help you. So please, please do keep them coming in. You can email us, you can find us, you can find me or Ash or online. You can also, as I said in the last episode, look up Awesomely Off Topic on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Threads. And if you want to come and join that discussion, search for Taz Thornton's Inspiration Tribe on Facebook, ask to join that, and then you can come and join the big long discussion about what you'd like us to bring there too, or feel free to come and suggest it on one of our social channels.
SPEAKER_00:So I hope you've enjoyed this day. It's been a bit of a whirlwind tour of various questions, and some of which will go into things more deeply when we do individual uh podcasts. But it's been a good it's been a good session, I think, hasn't it? What a variety, what a variety of different topics. Totally.
SPEAKER_01:Send us your responses to this episode with the things you'd like us to drill deeper on and any of the suggestions as well. We always love to hear from you. We certainly do, so thank you very much. But in the meantime, we will see you next Tuesday.
SPEAKER_00:You've been listening to Awesome We Off Topic.
