🎙️ Episode 38: Out In The Wild

WE'RE OUT IN THE WILD - AND YOU'RE COMING WITH US!

We've been banging on about the importance of 'Inspiration Days' for yonks and, this week, we've decided to bring you along for the experience.

We have our posh new microphones (though there was a bit of a technical panic when we realised we'd forgotten the adaptor, plus we need to remember not to get too close while we're recording - apologies for occasional reverb!), our walking shoes, open minds, water and an inhaler... just in case! :D

There's some uphill heavy breathing, an abundance of gorgeous wildlife and plenty of chat about everything from AI to writers' block, using descriptive language on podcasts to what makes a good hug.

Listen carefully... you might hear red kites, buzzards and even the occasional woodpecker.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:19

And wherever else are IDHD brand titles. It is unfiltered and unscripted.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

So we are awesomely off topic and we're experimenting today. We've got the new microphones on and we're out and about. It's a windy day. We are about to walk through the woodlands, find Shadeswoods at Wakerley. Northamptonshire.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yeah, the Cambridgeshire. So we uh we talked a lot about our inspiration days, haven't we? We have a lot in several podcasts, I think, over the last year. I thought today we've not been going a year yet actually, have we? No, not quite. The podcast, no, not quite. No. Not quite.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Well we didn't start till the summer, I think. No, we didn't. Um so we thought today we'd we'd take you with us on an inspiration day. So what have we done so far today, Ash?

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Um we've driven here. We've um after having to go back to the house because we've forgotten to lock the front door, that was good. We're only two minutes into the journey though, at least. Luckily, and then um then we came to the nice cafe to have a cupper and sit down and get all our bits and bobs together, and then we didn't have a bigger one. We did some control, we did, and then we did a content, well, a bit of a plan, didn't we? Right some content. Um yeah, it was good. Had a chat, talked about what we're gonna talk about today on this podcast, and then here we are. So we're just coming to the edge of the car park now.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

It's a really beautiful day, it's bright, sunshiny, crisp, a really blue sky. We're just at the edge of the woodlands. There's an inf there's a crow above, thank you. There's a sign talking about the check and skipper butterfly, beautiful and all the way through, big bumblebees just buzzed past me. There are beautiful tall trees at the entrance that are bare of leaves, and there's a lot of um room on the broom stuff through these woods, and the first bit is a little carved mouse sitting on a tree stump with an acorn. He is. You think if we stand up to next to him, he comes to just beneath my shoulder.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Well, to me, it'll be like you know, it'll be taller than me, it'll be above my head, won't it? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

So quite good, they're wood carvings. Well really lovely. We sometimes bring the dogs here, but we decided today that as we were going to be experimenting with the microphones and bringing you with us on this and bringing you with us on this podcast, that we'd leave them at home largely because we didn't want to be so focused on the podcast that we didn't notice if one of them went running off towards another dog or a family or something.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Oh that's nice. See you room on the broom again, and look, there's the witch.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

There's the witch with the cat. So we were at uh an information board now, how the cat purred and how the witch grinned as they sat on their broomstick and flew through the wind. And it's beautiful the way they've tied this in because they're they're talking about how different animals fly. How do they fly? So they're talking about birds using special feathered wings to propel themselves through the air. Thank you. Yeah, bats having wings made of thin skin stretched between their fingers. Did you know that bats can't take off from the ground, so they have to climb up and drop down to begin flying? It's amazing, isn't it? Like a tiny little glider. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

I love the facts, all these lovely little facts that you find on these boards.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

And pretty cool, clap their delicate wings to push themselves along. And then he says, How would you fly? Well, obviously, I brimst it, but actually on the diner.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

But this is why we need to get out and about Mortaz, and what a beautiful day to do it.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

We're just coming into the furs area now, so we've moved through the place where the the trees are bare and naked, like that scene in the original Snow White when she was running through the forest, all the trees are grabbing for her. Like that. And now we're just coming into fir trees, so the coverage is more dense, the birds are singing, there's a gentle wind. Yeah, it's nice. It's just a really beautiful down. It's the first time we've been to this woodlands for how long?

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Oh months and months, I think. We I was gonna say I can't remember, it was last year sometime, wasn't it? We are yeah you came with a client, I think, didn't you?

SPEAKER_02 4:27

I've brought a couple of clients out here. I find it's really great to do for if we if we have a deep dive with a client that's oh a new play area! The lizard play area.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Children must be supervised by an adult at all times, but it doesn't say adults need to be supervised by a child at all times, then it should really be. Where was I going with that?

SPEAKER_02 4:47

If I have a client who wants a full-day deep dive, providing that you know slightly adventurous and their their inner child is still vaguely awake, um, we come here and we leave the notebooks and the planning stuff in the car, and we come and do one of the circuits around the woodlands, and we usually I say usually, when I say usually I mean always, stop off at there's a kids' play area part way around called the the um the tree house, which is one of those wooden kind of adventure tree house. There's another carving, there's an owl sticking out of hole in a tree. Um, yeah, there's one of those big wooden tree house players. I just stopped to look at a picture of a dog with the witch's hat in his mouth.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Yes, cool. Oh, there's a blue blue tit on the sign. There you go. Hello, that's it. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

We saw uh there was a goldfish yet. Goldfish, a goldfish. There wasn't a goldfish in the tree yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

I hope not, that would be in trouble, probably.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

There was a goldfinch singing away in our garden yesterday. It was really beautiful to see it. It's it's lovely to see them because I noticed that some of the wild birds that we hadn't seen for a while started to come back a little bit during lockdown, so it was really lovely to see them there. When we first moved in to the house we're in now, which is 20 plus years ago, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 6:08

It's gonna be our transitionary house, yeah. But obviously, you haven't transitioned, right? Because we're not yet, because we're still there, but that's typical of us, really.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Yeah, but when we first moved in, there were all kinds of beautiful wild birds and finches. There were green finches, uh there were little gold finches, uh, blue tits, grey tits. You even saw some coal tits, loads of swifts and house martins. Really, really lovely. Yeah, when we've rescued them. Yeah, but gradually that's declined and declined and declined until there's you know occasional blackbirds and some ringneck doves. And starlings, we get very and sparrows, yeah. So to see the the the goldfinch back again was really lovely. Anyway, so we'll bring people here and we spend the time just talking, just talking about what fires people up, what are their deepest desires, why are they doing the work they're doing, because there's something that helps people to really get in touch with themselves at a much deeper level when they're not surrounded by any office kit. And by the time we got about halfway around the circuit and then we stop at the tree house for a bit of a climb in a play, it's amazing what comes out of people. I remember one guy, quite a high-level consultant. Hi John, if you're listening. He just stood bouncing up and down on some of the ropes on the adventure playground, and you could see, I could almost hear the cogs whirring, yeah. And he started coming up with all these amazing ideas. Well, I could do this, I could do that, and I could do that, I could get sponsorship for that, and that would and it just completely changed things. So yeah, it's one of my favourite things to do if somebody wants a full-day deep dive and the weather's good enough, because yeah, I am a bit of a fair weather walker if I'm honest. Get out of here, do the circuit.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

You've got some you've got some walkers that are serious, they come in the right kit. I've got this gentleman in the cafe just now who was obviously doing that. I've got Merrill shoes on and a Birchhouse jacket, but he's got his socks up over, you know, to protect in case any insects got in underneath his trousers, he got all that on, got all his footwear on, everything else all done up, yeah, and he's walking in his stick and all the rest of it, and um and then there's us, but we are fair weather walkers, but you're in a Columbia fleece. I am. You've got waterproof walking shoes on. I have, it's all good, see? That's me being organised, yeah. And it is actually a little bit, there's still we've had quite a lot of rain recently, so there is a bit, there's a few muddy bits and bobs, but we're currently as you I don't know how much you can hear, but you can hear us stomping along on the uh path, the well-worn path. But it's there are lots of different routes to choose from here depending on fitness levels, how much time you've got for your day to to take some time out and walk around. So that's what we like about it. You whether you're just here for 20 minutes, half hour, or you want to be here for three or four hours, you can do all of that.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

And there are lovely little benches along the way here as well now. There are these are really ancient woodlands as well. It's part of Rockingham Forest. So if you cross the road straight opposite of Fineshades, which is the kind of built-up, more touristy area with the cafe and the toilets and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Oh, I like on the on the things now. And they've got armrests on the benches. On the benches are cool, and benches, they're really cool.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Um, yeah, over the road at Wakerley, the the road has literally just gone through the middle and divided into the road.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

In the middle of that house, by the way. Sounds like everybody will say, well, every bench has got armrests on it, but the diff the thing with that is there's almost like dividers in the middle of the bench.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

The armrests are in the middle to make it. Yes, sorry, just to you know sorry to interrupt you. Anyway, so if you drive straight out of Fineshades and keep driving straight over the road, you end up up in Wakeley Great Woods, which would have been the same what the same woodland at one time until the road went through the middle of it by the time. And in there, you've still got the ancient deer ditches, and if you know where to look, there are a couple of burial cans in there as well. And the energy in there is absolutely beautiful. But in this part too, it's also um a uh one it was one of the earliest red kite breeding grounds, I believe, where they were reintroduced, so that's been really really plentiful and successful here. When we first moved over, there used to be an RSP bit. Oh beautiful. There used to be um, I'm just looking at the the the different flora and fauna around us. Um there used to be an RSPB base here as well, and they had nest box cameras set up so you could look at the red kite chicks, but they fiercely protected the protection of the nest, they wouldn't tell anyone where they were quite rightly. Quite rightly. But that's not here now, but the red kites are still here. You see deer here occasionally if you if you're careful and quiet, you see little mice and shrews and occasional stoats or weasels running across in front of you. There was a slow worm I once tried to rescue because it was basking right in the middle of a cycle path. And I picked it up to move it, and it slid under my bracelet and nicked itself on the edge of my bracelet, and I felt awful.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Stuff there, a little squirrel on the bottom of the tree. You can't see him can you? He's just coating running around from the corner of the tree. Hooching with squirrels too.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

But all of this, Ash, so what? How is this helping our business? What's this got to do with with anything? Beautiful lichen growing up that tree. Yeah, gorgeous.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

It feels lovely, doesn't it? It's like a beautiful tree. Yeah, nothing like hugging a tree.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Honestly, if you've never tried to try it. A face to a tree. If you tune in, here we're going, I'm going a bit woo. If you tune in to a tree, there is actually a front and a back. So tune in before you just run at a tree and hug it, check where its face is and ask it.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

But you're saying what's that all got to do with Yeah, what what does this? What's this got to do with this? Well, firstly, we all know the benefits of it, you know, we're talking about it now, we talk about forest bathing, um, all of that. Well, basically that's you know, it's going out into nature and connecting with nature and being mindful in that mindfulness moment of just being with the trees, the place that you're in, taking a deep breath, breathing in the fresh air, the sun, the rain, whatever it may be, but it's that, isn't it? Getting out away from that desk. We all know the benefits of that now because we talk about it a lot. But that's the first thing for us as individuals. Yeah. But I think also you can't. There's something about the movement, isn't there, of walking around into a place like this. Yeah, where everything is just going, everything's got its place and its job if you like. You know, you there's always something to learn, new to learn. Whatever time of year you come to this wood, it always looks different. Yeah. So, yeah, that's really enough. I know. Hello, hi, you're putting us to shame now. I really admire you.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

Wonderful lady jogging along with a couple of spaniels. Um we've been watching the the other dogs here in awe, haven't we? And thinking, yeah, ours would not behave like that. No. Actually, to be fair, if we bring Gladys on her own, she's pretty well behaved. If you bring Bailey on his own, pretty well behaved, bring them back together. Oh, they're they're fighting for hierarchy kicks in. Competition, so they're at home.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

I know the beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

I'm having a brain melt moment, but when they're going to the fluffy element that you can use as tinder if you need to.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah, so yeah, so we were saying about obviously the personal benefits of being out in fresh air, in the environment, even if it's fresh rain. There's nothing like dancing in rain. When was the last time you did that? It's fabulous. A couple of weeks ago, actually. And my t-shirts and hammock late at night. Do you surprise me? But also, what are the benefits? It gets the old creative juices flowing, without a doubt. It absolutely does. It gets you thinking about things in a slightly different way. It gives your ideas room to breathe. What am I looking at? Little blue chip straight through there, look terrible. See, right at the top? Yeah. Oh yeah, that look at the yeah, gorgeous. Yeah, so it's all of that. So it starts us thinking about things, it gives us it gives us room to breathe, but the idea is room to breathe as well. Which, when you're stuck in an office environment, even if that's a home office and you're at home and you know, two minutes 30 seconds away from your kettle or and your widescreen TV, whatever it may be, if you want to take a break, you can. But there's something about being out and about somewhere like here and getting those ideas, giving them room to develop and breathe and yeah, and grow, grow as well.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

What else did it do, Ash? Because we were talking earlier, we had we we had an hour or so sitting in the cafe first, and I was getting some social posts on. And the idea was that we'd sit and we'd plan some social posts, we'd we'd schedule a few because we know that one of the blocks that we have is that we tend to be anti-scheduling posts because we like to be in the moment. Yeah, but then what happens because we don't plan, or we do plan and then we forget we've done a plan. And then I know personally I'll I'll do things like oh shit, that programme ends next month, and I've done nothing to promote the new co-hilt. Here's the tree house. Let's have a little wander on the tree house. The tree house play area. We take a quick snap of it so that I can't picture. Yeah. Yeah, go on, you'll say. I tend to come around here, let's take a quick snap while we're recording our podcast. Let's do that. So we can use it to promote the podcast. In fact, let's video it a bit as well.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Okay, let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Oh look, videoing and audio and video and images.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Look at my hair, it's so red right above. I wonder if we can capture that.

unknown 15:37

Hello.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

There's a red kite soaring straight above us. Hello, gorgeous. Gorgeous, right on cue. Good time, you red kite. Thank you. So today, just for the point of the video, you're gonna get this as well on the podcast. Sorry, listeners, we are here, we've taken you with us on one of our inspiration days. You're gonna have to tune in and listen to the full podcast to reap the rewards. Um, yeah, and I very very, very often, because I have we set these plans. I always say planning is brilliant because it gets all your creative juices flowing, but plans are shite.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Oh, doesn't that feel nice? Sorry, when you're on the wood chips.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Yeah, it's like the videos of Stella the Labrador that jumps into all the leaf piles.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Yeah, it's lovely. I'm just at the top of it. So there's a big thing.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Ashley's just climbing on a sphere. Freshly chipped chipped wood where they've been doing some of the forestry and it smells, I don't know if you can look at this. Wood chips. It smells beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

It's got that that that resinous, piny, fresh smell just oh, floating up from it, particularly if you dig your hands in and of course have a dog that's weed on it, but hey, we couldn't think about that. Bring us down to earth with a bum. So I tend no, that was me getting off the wood pile. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

I'm gonna climb up the rope now and get away. Well then, you can, I shall watch from afar. I tend to get so engrossed in the work that I'm doing that all of a sudden I'll just think, oh bugger. I've got a new programme starting in, I don't know, three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, and I've done nothing to promote it. So that's where really we need to be far more disciplined with the post that we schedule. I'm not actually in the treehouse but it's at the top. I've just gone up like a climbing net and I'm about to turn around and go across a rope bridge. So actually, scheduling more would help me stick to those plans more. I'm very good at telling everybody else to do it. Less good myself, which I I tend to blame on my ADHD quite a lot, and it has a lot to do with that because I just get so caught in the moment. But that does mean that it comes and bites me on the bum every now and then. It would go over the rope bridge. So we decided, I don't know if you'll hear it creaking because we've got the noise reduction on.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

I can hear it creaking from the side.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yeah, I can hear it creaking.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Hang on, I've got to go down, I've got to get you on the slide.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

And now we can either go across the dangly rope or we can go down the slide. And of course we know what I'm gonna do, don't we? I'm gonna go down the slide. Of course I'm gonna go down the slide. It's one of those big tube slides, it's green on the inside. Here we go. Whee! Woo!

unknown 18:08

Ah!

SPEAKER_02 18:10

And I'm down the slide and they're lying in the wood pile. Probably. Can't get up now.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

You're covered.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Yeah. Hang on, don't let me do that. So we need to do that more. But anyway, the point was we sat in the cafe doing it, didn't we? Not doing the slide. No, not doing the slide. Starting to schedule some posts. I've been doing some work with AI. I'm currently in the process of trying to build and train a custom uh a chat GPT custom build so that it will recognise my voice more. Not that I particularly want to write my stuff with GPT, but I know a lot of my clients would like to be able to put ideas in and have it churn out in their voice. And get me being out of breath after going up playing uh climbing fork thang tree house, that's the word I'm looking for. And a lot of my clients would like to be able to just throw ideas into it and have it produce something in their voice. So I'm experimenting more with that. So I was doing some more training with that this morning, and I'm doing that by giving it an idea, getting it to form it in my voice as best it can, then keep correcting it, and then taking it out and editing it and rewriting it and then giving it the version that I've rewritten to help it learn. So by the end of it, I'd done a bit on threads, I'd done uh I'd done a couple of photographics, not AI don't I like doing those by hand. Um I've written a couple of posts, again, actually written because I've rewritten them to show the custom GPT how to do properly. And I was feeling quite chilled and ready to go, but you were feeling quite stressed, weren't you? I don't know what you mean.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

That's me stressed. Yeah, I was. I just I think the writer in me, as much as I love Chat GPT, what I found was what's happening is I'm becoming more of an editor, and there's nothing wrong with being an editor, I spent a lot of my professional life being an editor, but sometimes nothing beats that creativity from scratch for me in terms of self-satisfaction and sense of accomplishment. And as much as I love Chat GPT and what it can do and how it can work with me to fine-tune it, to improve it in inverted commas, depending on points of view, but tighten up the the all of that. It wasn't I tried doing that today and it just wasn't working for me. And the more I tried to do it, and if anybody's listening, if this really makes sense to you, if this has happened to you, then please get in touch and tell me about it. Because tell me I'm not the only one feeling like that. Sometimes I think it's to do with my what's the matter, you write your checking my checking my microphone. Sometimes I think it's to do maybe with my background, um, in terms of always being an editor and writer, so therefore, you know, letting somebody else do that, maybe it's a sense of control, maybe as well. But also there is something about actually writing from scratch from a blank piece of paper or or piece of paper in your mind, if you like, your creativity. And sometimes if I rely too heavily on Chat GPT, then I lose me, and then the role, my role becomes different, and I struggle a bit with that because I'm an editor for lots of other people, but for me, sometimes I just need to write and enjoy it. So I think that's what was going on for me this morning. So I got stuck in that. I did about I came up with the ideas for it, I voiced it into Chat GPT, it came back with stuff, but it had all that broetry in it, all the kind of triad, you know, the threes, groups of three stuff, and in the end I spent so much time trying to correct it or put more of my voice into it that I could have done that in like a quarter of the time. But that's because of the way that I input, I think, and you've shown me that, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

So if I I don't want to sound like an old fossil. No, no, no, but but again, we've talked about this before, I've talked to Ellen Blue in the face about it before. I think we've moved on with Chat GPT now from the days where it will just write something in your voice. Because every time there's an open AI update, it resets it. So again, that's why I'm experimenting more with custom chat GPTs. I've bought a couple of custom GPTs for different people now, for different mechanisms, one for business strategy, one for specifically for proofing in a particular way. And I'm experimenting with this one on voice. You can create custom chat GPTs for for imagery for all kinds of stuff. When you see someone selling something like a an AI photo package where it will put you into lots of different scenarios, that's a custom model that they've built. And I've just started teaching some of the people, all of the people in my um in Taz's AI Power Lab how to start to create their own custom GPTs. But I think we've moved on from the letter just write for us, and it's it's much better as a strategy tool. So what I'm interested in, because we both started out by giving it a strategy question about business.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

Well that's where we started, wasn't it? And actually it's important to say that because in the last we were having a long discussion on it, so I went back into old ways with it. Admittedly, I did do that, and I hadn't thought about it like that. So that will of course impact on what I get out of the system, if you like.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

Whereas I went into some business strategy and business development and started talking to it about thought leadership and differences in my profession and how to what are what were the kinds of messages I needed to be putting out them, or where using it to look at where the gaps were in my current content, and then said, Right, so from there, what are three powerful messages I should be talking I should be sharing today? Yeah, but then I write the posts from that, whereas you went from there, and then it just it just automatically kind of segued into writing the posts for you, and you got stuck in that.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Yeah, and I and again it's user, you know, user lack of knowledge, etc. not listening to what you're suggesting, for instance. No, but I also I know the mood I was in today, it was like I just want to get a post out there. I've got a busy day, as much as this is lovely coming out here and I love it, yeah, I'd got quite a few things I wanted to get done today, and that was one of the things, and I'm sure listeners, some listeners will really relate to this. I hope they will anyway, but I just wanted to get the post done and then on to the next thing. And so I guess I was being a bit lazy because I didn't want to have to retrain it and go, and because it took me down that route, then it became this quagmire of information. I was like, I don't want that, I just want so. In the end, what I did was I stripped it right back, wrote it myself, um, had a couple of bits that came from the the conversation I'd had with the AI, added that in as well, but it was mostly my wording, and then just tightened it up a bit.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

So what it was a long way around. Yeah, how long did it take you to actually write the post yourself?

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Oh god, I don't Oh, to actually write it?

SPEAKER_02 24:46

Yeah, 15 minutes. And how long would you spent dicking about with chat trying to get it to do it in your voice? Yeah. So how many posts could you have written if you didn't?

SPEAKER_01 24:55

I know, well and that just makes me feel more peed off. And we've probably all listened to saying well you know she's peed off, we know that peed off voice. I am, because I feel like I've just thrown away like an hour and a half of my time today when I could have been working on something else or on a you know on a client's work instead of and again that then the old pattern's creeping, which is the guilt around hang on a minute, this is my stuff. I'm not working on my client's work at the moment, but actually we all know the importance of working on our business, uh not just in our business, etc. etc. Is that the right word?

SPEAKER_02 25:23

Yeah, but that to be fair is is one of the challenges we both have.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

If I didn't have my, for want of a better word, newsletters, because that makes them sound boring as about shit. If I didn't have awesome source going out every week that has a list of at least five Tazzings in it, yeah, that keeps me accountable in the same way that when we were working with with uh Gemma, awesome PT, we're not working with her at the moment because we had to take so many sick that I'm not gonna see her for at least six months because I've only just started getting fitter.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

But in the same way Gemma, if you see me, just it's it's my body double, but they are double, the body's double size.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Um but one of the big reasons we kept going to a PT was accountability.

unknown 26:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Because again, we joined the gym over Christmas, have we seen yet? You know? Um, and it's the same with awesome sauce. If I didn't have that going out every week where I knew I had to have a number of posts out there, I would probably just forget. Or go, I'm not in the mood. Yeah. And I've really switched there, so I've moved from from having a really strong routine where every morning without fail I would get up, get on the exercise bike, yeah, and while I was on the exercise bike, I'd write a LinkedIn post. I was doing that every day, sometimes seven days a week, sometimes more than that. We now know that the that the kind of sweet spot for LinkedIn is talking about your specific area of expertise, ideally, about three times a week is all you need on LinkedIn, which should make it easier because I've found that I've been doing far more on Facebook again over the past 18 months or so where that's started to change and I'm really enjoying it again. I'm doing I'm going through fits and starts with threads, I'm not being very consistent, I'm having a binge and then forgetting again. And you know, a few with Insta and TikTok, but you don't have that same accountability because you don't have something that goes out every week that's got to have those posts. So I've slipped right out of that routine, and we've been talking about needing to get some routines back again, and again, our ADHD brains hate the idea of routine. Oh, but we know we need them.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

You're in constant battle with your with that little voice saying, Don't be ridiculous, you don't need that. Um, that's why I've reintroduced simple things like keep going on about the simple thing of journaling every morning. Let's do some more walking, Daz. We need to. So next time we see Gemma, we can say we've done some walking. Um, but it's yeah, I think what I'm realising is even the simple things, I lose those. When I say you're covered in wood chips at the back, you are. Um but that's right, that makes me look like a proper walker.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

Yeah, it does.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Covered in the back when we lose the basics, which is what I've done over the last three or four months, just reintroducing simple things like doing my journaling every morning. Now, this morning I didn't do it, I did it yesterday. Yeah, it's sporadic, but I'm on average I'm journaling about five times a week.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

And I've stopped journaling because I I fell out of love with the journal I was using, and I've just stopped journaling. Instead of picking up another one or free writing, yeah. I've got out of that anyway. We've gone off at the tangent, we've gone off on a side a side quest. We were talking about what was it that made you because you're a writer, you're an editor, you love writing. But what was it that made you fall into the the chat GPT go into the fall into the the chat GPT treadmill for some strategy instead of using chat GPT for some strategy powers which are using your own creative powers today for whatever reason it could be quite a few weeks of not sleeping particularly well, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

I don't think I had the spoons, as we say, to actually go with the strategy. Yeah, I think for me at the moment a result honestly is getting a post done. Honestly, yeah, and making sense of that post and helping my clients. That's the spoons I have at the moment.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

This will resonate a lot with our listeners because writing is is your passion, it's your joy is what you do. That bird song is just stunning, isn't it? And yet, for whatever reason, because your spoons are low, another blue tits should flow.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

It's definitely the day for blue tits today.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Hang on, the difference between the boys and the girls. Is it to do with the cat, the size of the tits? Sorry everybody, you just knew that joke was coming, didn't you? Everybody would have known like 20 minutes ago that that joke was coming. You line up with the colour. So go on.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

You love writing, it's your passion, it's what you do, and I'm sure this will resonate with so many people, and yet for whatever reason, over the past probably 18 months or so, exactly. You've found it harder and harder and harder to prioritise your own content. You're you're you know, you're you're you're you're at the treadmill with your clients' content and editing and serving the people who are working with you every day, and that's beautiful and it's admirable, but you've stopped greasing the wheels of your own content machine.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

So how how do you I know that's one of the things that you're actively working on on breaking at the minute because again, so many fall into this trap. We we get busy and we stop promoting ourselves. It's like you get busy and you stop networking, but then all of a sudden the business disappears and you've got there's no bridges built. Yeah. What are you doing to get yourself back into that routine of loving your own content and putting that first again?

SPEAKER_01 30:35

Well, that's it starts, it sounds really stupid, but it doesn't sound stupid, it's really simple, but the journaling is the first step in that. Yeah, and then it's about working in time for me and and telling myself that I'm worth it and I deserve it, I deserve that time. And enjoying it actually, that's the other thing, not getting to the end, because what primarily happens is I'll get to the end of two-thirds of the way through the day, and my dip, my natural dip in the day, is about now, which is about three o'clock, I think.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

We're just going past some really beautiful silver birches, by the way, everyone, just so you can kind of picture where we're at. There are firs in the background, there are lines of silver birch down the edges of the path. One of my favourite trees, and also one of my favourite trees to use for firewalking.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

Sorry, Ashcaman, so it's about so it's like it's um it's going through that the other side of that and actually enjoying it again, finding time for me and doing stuff when I'm still in a good space to be able to do it, instead of waiting to the end of the day and then thinking I haven't got the spoons for it now. You've got to flip it and do your own stuff first, haven't you? Well they've put a gate on that now, haven't they? Didn't used to be like that, did it? Can you still get in though?

SPEAKER_02 31:48

So there's there's a little bit here that's that's for kind of scouts and guides and stuff. And there's lots of little wooden shelters that you can you can stay in overnight. Can you still actually get in? Well you can, it's still open. Yeah. There's a brilliant picture of us with a bunch of friends somewhere um lying upside down with them with our heads hanging over the edges. Yeah. Come on. That's why there's a go now.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

That was a few years ago. Yeah. What were we saying? Um we were talking about finding doing your own stuff first.

SPEAKER_02 32:25

It's it's the classic, isn't it? And we all we all groan when we hear this, I do too. So your cliche, put your own oxygen mask on first. True. But how many of us don't do that? And it's so important because when you step into the into the role of any kind of coaching, as you are, whether you're editing, whether you're helping people with a great tip.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Really? I might helping them with those. Okay, that's fine. Whether you do it. I want a badge with that on anybody. Somebody's gonna send my badge on. It'd have to be two badges, actually, really, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_02 32:59

It would, yeah, it's just to be equally balanced. But would one badge need to be slightly bigger than the other? Yes. I was having that conversation with someone the other day.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

Oh, you'd see the sound of my way.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

Taking your bra around. Yeah, exactly. I was having that conversation with someone the other day who was absolutely agast when I said actually mine have or at least appear to be quite the same size, they're quite even. What? But everybody's a different sizes, don't think mine are. Or it's too minuscule to sell. Anyway. Anyway, okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

Carry on.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

It's about when you're in any in any form of coaching as you are, you are essentially coaching, training, anything where you're providing a service for someone, you are stepping into the place of leadership. So inherently, leadership means being at the front. So that means if you look at content created on a daily basis, yours should be out there in front. Yeah, it should.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

There's that should word again.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

Yeah. You know, you can you can't be ahead of the Sherpa and expect us expect success. If you don't know where you're going, you're just going to end up. And now my brain's gone into all those bodies on Everest and Oh goodness, man, crumbs. So how do we get back into that routine? I mean that's one of the reasons I structure my working day as I do. Where I I don't have any face-to-face clients usually until 11.30, because that first part of the day, could you? That first part of the day is my stuff coming to having a cup of doing some journaling if I'm feeling like it again, creating some content, engaging with people.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

Yeah, and the best sort of days for me are days like that was a kite. Did you it? Yes. Oh look, two above us. Oh, right above. Yeah. Beautiful. Hello, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

They're our biggest bird of prey. They are. They're absolutely magnificent, aren't they?

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Do you start to have a look at them now? There's three now, actually. Is that the third one? Yeah. And the medicine of kite ash? Oh my goodness, mate. Well, it's it's in the bigger picture, isn't it? Flying high above to see the full picture instead of getting stuck in the drama at ground level.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

Places who have without going to further northern areas of the UK to Eagle. Yeah. Yeah. Seeing the full picture. And again, pounting on your opportunities. And if you miss, you don't have a massive salt. I'm not doing that again. They'll just go back up, don't waste their energy and go for the next bit. Try again. None of this dicking about and going into massive victim mode. You would never hear a bird of prey, would you go, I'm never going to get some dinner ever again. I went in the case of a kite, I went down to get that badger carcass because they're scavengers. Yeah. And a car came and it nearly got me, so I'm never eating ever again. It just wouldn't happen.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Or you need it, would they?

SPEAKER_02 35:47

No. Or a barn owl or a kestrel or anything else. I followed that trail of phosphorus and the mouse wasn't at the end of it. But just get on with it. We need to learn from that. Yeah, we do. There's so much. Well it's again big picture energy. Stop getting caught in the drama right at the bottom. Fly up above and look at the full situation. So Ashra, if you're gonna fly up above your I'm I've fallen out of the habit of getting my own content on first.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

What's needed? Well I need to get my own content done first, Taz. I'm sure we talked about this on episode one or two of Apple. You still haven't done it. No.

SPEAKER_02 36:21

Lovely gentle listeners, we are now approaching the slightly. This is where we'll start wheezing. Well, and before we came here today, because my uh lung capacity has not been wonderful. The seats all the way up, Tazia, but Asher went. I think we need to find a different route because I don't think you're gonna manage being able to record a podcast going up that hill. You won't manage.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

Bless her, really lovely, and look after me.

SPEAKER_02 36:43

As much as I don't think I'll manage either, so it's been fun, so one of my lungs only works at a third of capacity, and then after a couple of bouts of COVID and some chest infections, let's just say it um yeah, needs a bit of cranking up. Take your steady, it's fine. There are there are benches all the way up. You got a bench there if you need one. No, all good. Okay. So what's what oh no a kite straight ahead. Where? Right over us. They are so stunning.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

How can you tell a kite from a buzzard? Difference? Apart from the size.

SPEAKER_02 37:25

Goodness me, hold on, I'm just gonna video and try and get something of that noise on there. Um well buzzards have uh more of a flat tail.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

And the kites of course have the forked tail.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

Hello, thank you. Thank you. Thinking about are we carcasses? Are they a big carcass?

SPEAKER_02 37:46

We're just really still. We're not going very fast, but I promise we're not a carcass. Um and you can usually tell as well with um with a kite, the way they steer with their um their their kind of fault fan tail is really evident if you watch them. And of course they have the paler head and a paler underbelly, yeah, and they'll have uh creamish-coloured paler bars underneath the wings, but then brothers have those too.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

The actual main body is kind of a russet, kind of beautiful colour.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Yeah. You can understand why when you see them at a far, every now and then someone will think they've seen a bald eagle. Yeah. Yeah, which of course we don't have over here outside of captivity. So, what advice do you have, Ash, for people listening who are maybe feeling that same sense of I don't know, is it apathy? How can we start getting back into that? I know when I fall off that that wagon, there is a bench here I'm gonna.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

So I'm gonna stop as well in the I'm just thinking, can I stay quiet until I get to the bench comes up showing? I'm nearly 60 now, everybody, can you say? You're not nearly 60. I'm in my 59th year now, I was 58. You've just turned 58, just a week ago. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 39:09

It's nothing to do with age, it's to do with famous levels. So what can what would your advice be? Because again, I know for me, when I stop creating my own stuff first, a lot of that has to do with when my own confidence dips, my own self-worth dips, and I start to drop into that place of who am I to be saying that? You know, there are so many others out there who's gonna listen to me, which is absolute bollocks. But what's your advice to people? I know this is something you're actively working on at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

So what would you say to people going through that? Just start somewhere with a small step, a little thing, like for instance, with me I keep going on about journaling, but that's actually saved me from going totally into a really negative space and change that. I look enormous. Um, again. Um I think start small. Start with something small. Oh the irony. Um start with something small, small stuff and um do a for me it's journaling, it just gets me back into a good space, even if it's just for 15 minutes. There's a dog coming up now. Yay! Um, just get into the space of doing something for you. And it might be either a I don't know, it just might be a few paragraphs of writing, it might be free writing. If if journals, sometimes journals, there's some really good ones out there, and there's some that aren't quite so good, or aren't right for you in that time. And the worst thing I found is if you try and stick with the journal because that's the journey you've got, if you're one of those people that likes to progress through a journal, don't be afraid to ditch the journal for a while and do some free writing if it doesn't feel right, don't push it because for me that's that actually can actually stop the creativity and it can become almost like a task that you've got to do, and then that's you lose a half of the the benefits of journaling in doing that.

SPEAKER_02 41:06

But how do you then move from journaling on to actually creating your your social content for your business?

SPEAKER_01 41:13

You just you need to put in time to do it, and you need to find the sweet spot for you. So for me, it wouldn't be this time of day. As you can probably tell if you're watching this or you're listening to this, I'm a little bit low energy now. It's my kind of I could go for a snooze, there's a dog coming, there's a beautiful spaghill that they're all about energy. Hello, um, and we can learn a lot from that. Thank you very much for the timing of that. Exactly, being in the moment and enjoying the energy of it. And I think that's that's the um it's finding the sweet spot for you when you're most at your best in terms of being open to creativity. Hello, hi. Um I think that's a really good starting point. So for me, I'd say I'm not a morning person, but when I do make the effort and I get up, actually the quiet first thing is lovely because I can get loads done, I feel quite I can potter around with a mug of tea in my hand and and get writing, and I don't feel I like the quiet of it. And if you live in a busy house, maybe that's how you get your energy and you love that energy. As I get older, the older I get, the more I like the quiet. And if there's too much going on, I get distracted. Squirrel, oh over there, there's over there, there's over there, and I never get anything done. So for me, Taz brought me some lovely um headphones, didn't you? Over Christmas, on from my birthday. Oh yeah, which are really good. Um, and it just takes you mean your noise cancellers, my noise can. My cans.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Yeah, you've also got those little in-air buying bees.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

Yeah, I prefer the ones you've got me for my birthday, but it just takes the edge off it so I can actually focus on what I'm doing and actually relax a bit, relax my body. I can feel my body relaxing, my shoulders come down a bit more. Um, so if it's really noisy for me, I have to be in a really good place to be able to get the benefit from a place like that. Normally, I'd much prefer the quiet. So, first thing in the morning for me is really good. Sometimes it's just I get probably about 45 minutes if I'm lucky an hour. If Taz is still in bed, the dogs are sometimes with you, aren't they? Or sometimes they'll come down with me and then I'll let them out, they'll go and do their ablutions, come back in, then they settle down until it's time for the other mum to come downstairs. And I find that time is a really good time for me, so that's when I usually journal. So find your sweet spot in terms of timing. That's what I'd say firstly. That's a really simple thing. And if you don't know what it is, then experiment. But give yourself just ten minutes, just ten minutes. Just ten minutes. If you don't want to write anything, you can be creative in lots of other ways. Paint, draw, sing.

SPEAKER_02 43:36

But then that's still gotta convert to putting stuff out for you.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

Marketing.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

But I've find if you think about it as marketing, then you that's gonna be a massive turn off anyway.

SPEAKER_01 43:45

But sometimes if you speak it now, say if you're speaking something, you think out of that, God, that would be a great post, just record it as you're doing it. Yeah. And then have it trans you know, transcribe it.

SPEAKER_02 43:54

It's the perspective for me as well. It's rather than what how can I sell today? It's who can I serve. Who needs me to bring my A game today? Who is it? What do I need to say that could help somebody else today? Whatever that is. And that's a reframe that sometimes helps me. And the the other thing, one of the headlines I wrote this morning when I was rewriting a boring one that ChatGPT had come up with when I was trying to chat uh train that model. The headline I rewrote from its boring one was you cannot scale and shrink at the same time. And I thought that that's a really interesting point because that's what so many of us are trying to do. We get stuck in this treadmill of thinking we're trying to grow, we're trying to expand our business, we're trying to get new clients, we're trying to get more money coming in, we're trying to sort out our cash flow, but we're not, we pay attention. Hello, we pay attention to everything in our business apart from us, the people sitting at the middle of it. It's where so many people groan when you talk about personal development or personal brand or personal growth, and you go, Yeah, but I've got to do my business.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

But that is at the heart, you can only take your clients as far as you're willing to go yourself. You know, in terms of mindset, not what they're actually doing. I don't mean that in order to coach an astronaut, you need to have walked on the moon. Of course you don't, but you do need to be able to talk in terms of aspiration and setting goals and setting your intention and being committed to something. And I think it's the same thing. We are all neglecting, so many of us neglect the person. So to come back to what I said a few minutes ago, with what stops me is when my self-worth dips, and that's often when I get just too tired or have taken on too much or said yes too often, which again I would never tell a client to do that. Um that's when it starts to slide. It's when we start working on ourselves, everything else stops working, and what stops working, and when we start working on ourselves, that will show up for us commercially, whether we want it to or not, because it shows up in I don't know, setting prices but then dropping them the second someone negotiates, joining a networking organisation and and never showing up. Uh, for end people will be laughing at me now because I've been a member of that for years and I only show up to do a foresight because just too bloody busy. Um, and also I don't have a lot of capacity right now, so I still network online and in the places where it suits, but I ain't got capacity to show up several times a week to an online uh meeting at the moment. Um but that doesn't mean that we stop networking, we can be networking online, our social content is part of our networking. How else is that gonna show up? Um not working on our personal development is gonna be um going to the networking meeting but feeling so overwhelmed with imposter syndrome that you stand up the corner pretending to be busy on your phone instead of talking to people. Um it's gonna be it will show up when you maybe you rewrite your your bio on social media or your LinkedIn bio or something, and then you soften it at the last minute, you look at it and you go, I can't say that, that's not me, and you dumb it all down. Or maybe that opportunity that you kind of circle around for a bit and think that's amazing, and you start to gaze at it adoringly and think that could be me, and then talk yourself out of it and don't go for it at all, and leave it to somebody else who's probably less qualified and less capable, and then sit and get bitter and resentful because somebody else not as good, not as good as you got that role. That is where not doing the personal development work shows up commercially, so it does impact on your business, and you've got to start with you. I stop recording on my phone now, I'll run out of battery.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

Good, I just moved out of the way because I've got fed up of looking at myself on the sitting on the bench.

SPEAKER_02 47:41

I'm trying to be moved moving about a bit. So, anything else that we need to be saying today for people listening? I hope this has brought some insight for you in terms of what happens for us on our inspiration days and where it's helpful. I mean, even the conversations we've been able to have that we've been having with you about blocking our own creativity, for instance. We probably wouldn't have sat and talked about that in any great depth.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

It would have been a snatched conversation, wouldn't it, between appointments, between different meetings and yeah, yeah, and we wouldn't have been able to drill down into it.

SPEAKER_02 48:17

You wouldn't have taken the time, Ash, um, to sit down and actively display that frustration you were feeling so we could so we wouldn't have found it to start working through it. Yeah, exactly. Because you would have dismissed it and got on to more client work.

SPEAKER_01 48:33

Yeah, exactly. I wouldn't have had time for it anyway to come as well.

SPEAKER_02 48:37

And that's an important point, is it, that, isn't it, that sometimes you need to have give yourself time for your I don't know, frustration, negativity, pessimism for insert your own less than, you know, less than roses round the door and sunshining word in there. Sometimes you need to give yourself the space for that to surface so that you can recognise it, look at what's underneath it, and plenty do the work to heal it. But we don't even give ourselves the time for that. Or we go into that that kind of I hate the phrase toxic positivity. Who came up with that? I don't know. But I think this is actually one of the areas where it is worth mentioning. How can my breath go? We're still walking uphill. Yeah, we are dear listeners.

SPEAKER_01 49:28

That's why I'm quiet at this moment. And that's why you're already out of breath because you've been doing all the talking. But I haven't actually wheezed, so this is good. I think you can say weed. No, that either.

SPEAKER_02 49:39

We're not doing a wee in the world on a podcast.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

No, that's not a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 49:42

I think the where that toxic posity in air quotes does show up and where I'm happy to use the term is when people will not address the stuff that's making them falter or they're struggling with. Because no, no, no, I've got to be positive all the time. I can't go there and work on that because that's negative, and that's going into my victim mindset, isn't it? No. Going into your victim mindset is finding that low point and staying there and sinking into it and getting comfortable there.

SPEAKER_00 50:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:14

It's getting to the point where you can recognise where those potential negativity swamps are hiding within your system, within your mindset, within your energy body, and actively doing the work to heal them, to clear them out. Create a beautiful meadow in its place. There I am, full of uh analogies today. That's the spiritual warrior. If you just keep avoiding it all the time, no, no, because that's negative, and that's not sorting anything out, and you're never gonna recover from it. It's just that swamp's gonna get deeper and deeper and murkier. So you need to give yourself time. And honestly, even for us, you know, we talk about doing these inspiration days once a month, but this is probably the first one we've done properly since way before Christmas. This is the first one we've done properly since probably I don't know, what, autumn 2025 Ash? What's that? Sorry, I was recording something. Even we've allowed those to slide a little bit because this is probably the first one we've done properly. Oh, in months. Since case maybe autumn 25. Yeah, I was gonna say. You know we've had dogs that have been poorly, we've had Tilly being poorly, we've had us being poorly, we've had you know poorly family members we've had to look after, we've had ridiculous deadlines, and every time we've sacrificed our own our own ring-fenced time to deal with somebody else. We've deprioritised our own needs, which is why it's Monday afternoon and we are recording a podcast that's due out at 5am tomorrow morning. Yes, we we started out making sure we got at least five or six in the bag at any one time.

SPEAKER_01 52:08

That's where we start out, and we always said that, didn't we, at the beginning when people were setting up their own podcasts, and we would still highly recommend that because again it's that feeling of being slightly on the back foot, yeah, which is not a positive place to be necessarily. So um, yeah, I'm glad that we've uh we've got this one in the bag today, and hopefully we might do another one on the way home.

SPEAKER_02 52:28

Yeah, and we've said that Friday we're going to take the afternoon, go and hire an office somewhere on Friday afternoon, take a half day and get some more in the bag.

SPEAKER_01 52:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:36

Because again, we have used every reason, but reason and excuse in the same in the same pile, the same drawer, aren't they? Pile them together, reasons and excuses. Yeah. Because we're too busy, because we don't want to leave Tilly for that long, because because because because because of the wonderful things he does. Yeah. And we're having to give our heads a wobble, give ourselves a shake, and walk ourselves back from that and find the balance. No, we don't want to lose leave Tills for too long at the moment. That's our elderly dog for anyone who's listening. Which is why we've come here, which is what 45-55 minutes away from home. Yeah. Hour or so in the cafe, hour of walking around the woods, hour and a bit, depending on our pace. And we're back. Then back home again, ready for a few hours with them before we go to Rockwell tonight. So it's all of those reasons, oblique excuses, might seem really valid, but that doesn't mean that we need to heed them.

SPEAKER_01 53:43

Oh you're taking a picture. I just saw I was looking over your shoulder to see what you're doing. You're doing taking the picture. Oh, you're doing video, okay cool. Because this will be great B roll footage. It will be always good. I'd like a smaller shadow, if I'm honest.

SPEAKER_02 53:58

We've got we're very, very tall in our shadows, though, we're very, very tall. I'm just quite no, you're quite tall as well. Yeah. I think I'm as wide as I am tall at the moment. But we've got really, really big legs and tiny bodies. Tiny little heads. Actually, my head is tiny anyway, but yours is unfeasibly large.

SPEAKER_01 54:16

Well it looks small there, it does. It does. It looks as small as yours.

SPEAKER_02 54:20

That's why hats spin round on my head and look like a pimple on a pea in yours.

SPEAKER_01 54:23

I know. Bizarre. We're all different. B-roll footage, people.

SPEAKER_02 54:28

It's available everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 54:29

Another hill coming up. Here we'll know. No!

SPEAKER_02 54:32

Well, there is a dip first. Scream if you want to go faster.

SPEAKER_01 54:37

So, what else do we want to talk about, Taz? I don't know. Um, have we talked about enough on this one? Probably listeners. Yes, I know. Have they fallen asleep?

SPEAKER_02 54:46

Have you been fallen asleep? Have you got something from this podcast? From the importance of getting out and about and yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 54:51

When are you next getting out and about? I mean it's easier, isn't it? When the weather's like this, it's very it's so much easier to make the effort to go out.

SPEAKER_02 54:58

I'm not always that good at my tree ID, but the bit that we're walking past now have those trees that are really really slim and spindly, and there's lots of kind of trunks coming up from one place, and it's created this beautiful tangled wall almost of trees that are reaching out across the path. It looks beautiful without all the leaves on. It does look lovely. And I hope as well that from us every now and then stopping and just there's a big dip down there that you see right into the valley and then straight up to the other side. Yeah. So that will be one of the deer paths, I think across there. Yeah, definitely. And then just beyond all the the bare, slim, tangly trees. You might notice if you look at the base of the trees, you'll see if they've been kind of ignored or stripped of bark.

SPEAKER_01 55:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:46

Then just beyond the the bear trees, the there's beautiful. Yeah. And the contrast is stunning. Yeah. Yeah, we're hoping as well that for those of you who don't have woodlands or outdoors near to you, that hopefully where we've been stopping and just trying to describe what we see in here and what it's like and what the atmosphere's like, that in some way you've been able to come with us and enjoy this with us.

SPEAKER_01 56:11

I think this is the best kind of for me, storytelling. I grew up with this reminds me, I mean crumbs comparing us to Radio 4. I don't think that's a fair comparison. But I was brought up on Radio 4. And we have, and lots of the things that Radio 4. Yes, lots of things that really stay with me. Things like this when people are out and about and you've got real lives going on, you've got all the sounds of it, you've got people talking about it and being in the space together, and that's what we're trying to do. So occasionally we're going to be doing things like this. Now we've got an exciting new kit.

SPEAKER_02 56:44

Yeah, massive shout out to Danny and the Uncanny podcast. Oh yeah. You know, we started we're we're late to the show with with Uncanny. We started listening to it over the Christmas break, didn't we? Yep. And one of the things we loved was that Danny Robbins would very often take time out between seeing the guest or at the start of the show, and he'd be there in the kitchen putting himself a copper, telling you what he's doing. You'd hear the spoon in the mug or the can. And the sound was brilliant, and that's where we started researching. Okay, what do we need to be able to record better in the car? Because we know we have that episode that sounded like it was underwater before we'd invested in these mics. We're going to try another one. On the way to the hospital, won't we, for your appointment? That's right, we'll try another one with them in the car. And we started doing some research and went how can we emulate that? How can we do walking podcasts? How can we do podcasts in in the car? How can we do podcasts where there are background noises where we can pick up some of that ambient sound as well, but not have our voices so distorted. Firstly, don't walk uphill a lot that we can't use. So massive shout out to the uh the the Danny Robbins team, the the uncanny team. Yeah, because that was the inspiration for us upgrading and getting this.

SPEAKER_01 57:59

And it wasn't just all the microphones, all the special effects, it wasn't just that, the special effects for the ghostly aspect of it, which in itself is brilliant. And I would say, quick, you know, warning to you if you're of a nervous disposition, don't listen to it on your own late at night. Um but unless you're Lisa Townsend. I hope you're listening on the train station again, Lisa, and it makes you giggle out loud again. Yay! Um, but yes, the sound effects were amazing, weren't they? But I love the way how he brought his own voice in right at the beginning, and it was a really relaxed style, and I like that.

SPEAKER_02 58:30

And he'll sit in front of one with one of the guests and describe them. Not just in terms of the way they look, but their energy, um, their vibe, the um the way they're dressed, their personality. Oh, that's a good one. Let's describe each other. And that really adds to the time.

SPEAKER_01 58:51

We've done that already, haven't we?

SPEAKER_02 58:52

Because it makes it feel as though you are there.

SPEAKER_01 58:56

Let's laugh at that.

SPEAKER_02 58:57

Because I was thinking in my head. So I'm walking along now with with my wife, Asha Clearwater. She says that she is five foot three and a half, she's actually more like five foot one and a quarter. Not true. She's got really short, punky, kind of spiky, curly, deep red hair, really funky hair. She's got the most beautiful deep green eyes I've ever seen in my life that I could just drown in. She has the kind of smile that lights up her heart from the inside out. She has a really goofy little chuckle every now and then that always makes my heart sing. She hates her legs, I think they're beautiful. She is wearing a kind of wedgewood blue Columbia zip-up fleece that I bought for me and then she snaffled. A pair of faded black Levi's jeans, a pair of waterproof walking shoes that again I bought for me and then she snaffled. Now what is under this? Let me unzip you. Oh no, don't cause your microphone. Oh, she's wearing um uh a t-shirt that makes reference to her being a robin. Hello, beautiful. Doesn't make reference to you being a robin.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:16

I actually make quite a good robin because I'm the right kind of you would make a good robin.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:21

Quite the right sort of uh they're also real warrior birds. They are. She's wearing a t-shirt that makes reference to her being a magical editor full of wonderful powers with a unicorn on it. Yeah, of course. Um she's wearing some makeup, mascara, a bit of blusher. Oh, you are going into detail, have I got to try and follow this? She has um goodness, no pressure. She has really wiggly eyebrows when she talks. Sometimes when she's having a mardy time, I describe them as being like jack of hearts eyebrows. If you've got to look at the jack of hearts and the playing card parts, look at the eyebrows. I should get the eyebrows like a jack of hearts. Um she has the perfect amount of weathering. Careful now, careful weathering. Yeah, but the word weathering to show that we have enjoyed life to the full. You're gonna say jured, we're no. She does not look old, but she does look wise. And she's beautifully done.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:18

You can tell me you used to be in PR.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:19

And she's wearing glasses that have turquoise arms. Do they? And bright red. Do they? Yeah. She's now taking her glasses off to the turquoise arms. Not turquoise, tortoise shell. I was just gonna say turquoise. I used to have some that were too tortoise shell.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:35

I've been red frames.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:37

Yes, and she's wearing silver fossil hoop earrings that were gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:42

I always wear I always wear those. Hardly ever take them out.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:46

Yeah. And that's about it, really. A cute little name.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:50

So much detail. You started this one.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:54

You laid down the gauntlet. Okay. So remember you've done a descriptive podcast with people who come together.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:01

Okay, so I aren't here with the okay. So I'm walking with my beautiful wife Taz, short for Tamzin with a Z. Not Tamazin with an S or Tazmin, that's why she's Taz, because so many people get the name wrong and call her TAMZI. She has wonderfully, beautifully funky pink hair that's just fabulous, that leans to one side more than the other. Don't be afraid now. She's wearing some. She means it's asymmetrical, I think. That's the word. She's got a little heart tattoo behind her right ear that she tells me felt really weird when she had it done. Because it felt like you could feel it on the inside of your head. We're going that way, Ted. Okay. Following the thing, can't we?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:55

Rather than a pink path. I'd the one who's on brown.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:57

Oh, we'll do that then. You two. Oh no, you go where you want to go.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:00

No, we'll do purple, this is fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:01

Okay. Um she's got a stride on now because she's been talked about, so that's good. I know she's got a stride on, she's feeling quite confident and comfortable. Okay. No, she has, which is lovely. Um she's wearing her sunglasses, which are what sort of glasses are they? I don't know what they are. They're Levi sunglasses to look after and care for her poor Lee eye in the sunshine, because it struggles a bit. Oh, isn't that lovely up here with a little tree line? Look at that, it's beautiful. Yeah, we've got a beautiful tree line. We're going through a what do we say, Taz? Usually tunnel! Which is fabulous. Look at that. Beautiful silver birch, I believe, Taz, aren't they? Are they silver birch? No. No, they're not. They're fir trees. They're what? They're fir trees. Oh yeah, they are fir trees. Goodness me, I should know by now. Anyway, um, she's wearing a pair of beautifully fitted levies and a black fleece, which is what is it? I don't know what it is. Berghouse. She's wearing a lovely t-shirt with a magpie on it. And she's got her sleeves rolled up slightly same as me on her fleece, exposing her arms with her lovely tattoos on, which are beautiful. She has so many of those now. Um and uh she's wearing walking shoes, which are what are they? They're purple and grey, purple and grey, and I don't know what sort they are because Merrill. Merrill, of course they're Merrill. Um and she's wearing a lovely watch. Very descriptive, Dad. I'm better at writing things down than saying things. The art of a descriptive podcast. I hope this helps you. And um what can I say about her? She's amazing, she makes me laugh. She's got a twinkle in her eye most of the times. When she's thinking she's gonna pull a fast one on me. I don't know what you mean. Wind me up. I know what you mean. She gets an even deeper twinkle in her eye, and I just I know there's something going on. She's up to something, that mischief making. She walks at an absolutely fast pace, either that or absolutely dead slow. At the moment she's going quite fast, hence why I'm out of breath a bit. I don't realise what I've only got little legs. Hello, they're lovely little legs. Um and she always has got a phone on her somewhere about her personage. Um and if she's not replying to her clients or potential new clients, she is absolutely playing silly games on her phone or sending or pebbling people that she loves, including me. And I've learnt the art of pebbling because I didn't even know what it was until recently. So I'm a learner, I need a little L plate on my pebbling. Um She's just an amazing human. She's a part far better human than me. No, I'm not. No, you are. You're much more forgiving.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:06

No, I love you more positive than I am.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:10

And I learn from you every day. I learn from you too. In a beautiful way. And we do laugh a lot, and that for me is what gets us through the tough times. Laughter is the best medicine, and we always find something silly to laugh about. Sometimes really ridiculous things. There was something at the weekend I said, you know, yes, we'll laugh at that. We went into hysterics. It's worth something rhymed, wasn't it? Yeah, we come up with a-Why is that funny? Weird and wonderful rhymes. Um yeah. And uh you always look after me. If I'm poor, you look after me. You give the best hugs. Uh bring me treats like chocolate and things. I need a drive, you've been known to drive out to places in the middle of the night to get me chocolate. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:55

What makes my hugs good? Here's the lead learning point, because we probably should wrap this podcast. We should. I don't know how long we've got to. I'm that good, I don't know. But we've moved way beyond describing each other and describing the podcast. You can being able to let people picture it. But what Okay, I'm sorry. No, no, don't. Um you can talk about me in those wonderful terms as much as you like.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:16

Yeah, you did for me, so I was just trying to return the phone.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:18

Good. So this is the path where I found the um slow worm that time. Ah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:24

Along this one. It's probably hiding with its scarred body from where you coach on your in the summer.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:29

So plastic surgery. Yeah. In the summer along here, I was here with doing a coaching day with Sam Munslow once, and we were both wearing shorts and little vests up high at summer, and there were the most massive swarms of flying ants. It was just like walking through a thick black cloud of them, anyway. What makes my hugs good? Because actually, here's an interesting learning point because, particularly since COVID, I think the the polarisation has become more obvious or more talked about, actually, which is a good thing because not everybody's a hugger. Yeah. You know, there are lots of people in the kind of neurodivergent circles that we're part of who just don't really like physical comments.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:08

Exactly, and I always I always remember, try to remember to ask if that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:12

Yeah, I always check now. Are you a hugger or a handshake or a fist bumper or an elbow nodge or what I or just a nod from a distance? But what is it? You just said something about my hugs being really good. What makes my hugs good?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:24

Because there you can feel it, it's a heart connection, and you can feel the genuine care. It's a full-body thing experience. It's not one of those, you know, when you get like people that just do that or they pat a couple of times on the back and do that, and I know there's reasons for that, and again, everybody's different.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:43

You're doing a bit of a Claire of the Moon analogy now, aren't you?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:45

Am I?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:46

Which is a lesbian movie from probably early 80s. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:51

And they talked about the difference between a lesbian hug and a straight woman's hook. And the woman with the weird snugging thing. Yeah. It's very strange.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:59

But anyway, I think that's important. One of the reasons I love being hugged and particularly being spooned by people I trust by you, yeah, is the pressure and the safety. And I think that taps into some of my autistic elements. Yeah. And there's one of our dear friends who is way more onto the autistic spectrum than I am. I'm ADHD combined with some autistic traits. She's far more balanced of both. And she ordinarily does not like being hugged. But she'll nine times out of ten hug me.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:31

And I've asked her why is it why is it okay? Because you know, if you don't want to hug, tell me. And she said something along the lines of no, I don't mind hugging you because number one, I know you mean it and it's not performative. And number two, you give proper hugs with the right amount of pressure. I can feel you hugging me. And that feels good. Yeah, that makes sense. And that's the difference, I think. It's like when people do air kisses. What for? Or limp handshakes, the worst handshake ever. Worst handshake I've ever had. Who am we gonna say? Go on. Gleniskinnock. The limpest, most pathetic lettuce leaf handshake ever in the world. I like a nice firm handshake. Anyway, on that note. So when you go into contact with have contact with people, whether it's physical or whether it's online or whether it's virtual in somewhere or on the phone, please make sure you're connecting properly.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:29

And make sure you're connecting in a way that suits them. There's that old saying, isn't there? You know, treat everyone as you'd like to be treated. And I think that's not quite right. Treat everyone as they would like to be treated. And that requires that you ask some questions, you get to know them a bit first. Love that.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:45

Yeah, it's good. I'm just sorry, I'm just going, oh, because we had quite a gust of wind then. I was thinking because we haven't got a little bit of a mic. I've got my furry mic today. It's just my mic has gone naked, it's not furry. Naked mic. Did I just say that? That's that's gonna come back and haunt me that first.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:01

We are just walking through a place in the woodlands now where it's actually a we're walking next to kind of scrubland with only a few trees. And one of the things we've learned during our research is one of the best places for a walking podcast is in the middle of dense woodland because the trees cut out a lot of the the kind of the noise of the the wind and stuff on the road. You're right. I did you went down the ditch, and that would have been good. So it's I've no idea how long we've been talking for, but I'm pretty sure it's been done.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:33

I think everybody's emigrated and gone somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:35

I really hope this recording has worked. So do I. And we won't even know until we get home. At least we've walked a good distance. We have. So, Ash, anything else we need to say before we just say goodbye.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:47

Especially on the days when you're not feeling like doing it, and I think that's just pushing yourself to do that. Same with your content or your writing or just journaling, whatever that may be. Find something even if it's just 10 minutes in your day to just get to devote to you and you know appreciate it and be in the moment with it, because when we're not, it's so easy to go down that path of uh you know losing that spark within us, and I know I've got to that point. I certainly was there before Christmas. Coming back again now, but it's this is beautiful to come out and do this, but not everybody can do that, no. But even if it's just five minutes in your garden, if you've got a garden or somewhere apart nearby you can go to just to get out and do something.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:25

And if you can't do that, I know that during lockdown when you were doing a lot on your exercise bike, yeah. You wanted to get outside. Yeah, one of the things you did was set up a tablet or your laptop on the front of your exercise bike. And there are lots of videos on YouTube of people walking or cycling along paths with the kind of Oh yeah, I've done loads.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:43

I've done Switzerland and Canada and Switzerland.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:46

So if you can't get out, maybe that's another way to do it. Yeah, it's a really easy way to do it. Speak your headphones on, plug into the ambient noise, and go for a virtual walk or a cycle or whatever with with along an actual video of a path that someone has recorded for your delectation and enjoyment.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:06

Fabious.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:06

And one more one other big thing I think we've learned today, or we've relearned today, is don't ever be scared of changing direction. So you know Ash and I have both done that in our careers, we talk about that a lot, but we had a plan for these last five episodes of of the the last bit of series one. And today's episode was scheduled to be an even deeper look into why you should never ever ever need to pay to speak, as well as how people who are perhaps thinking it's the norm to charge speakers to speak, like charging people to work for them, how they can get money in in different ways. But then we decided we needed an inspiration day, we decided it would be hopefully it's been a good idea to bring you along with us, and we thought, you know, we talked about that enough on the last one in passing, and we can do that maybe maybe next season.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:03

Yeah, I think today was about getting out and about, getting some fresh air in our lungs, getting our body moving again. I'm starting to regret the cycling of 40k I did last night though, when I've not done it for ages. You are woodpecker.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:16

Is it? Just heard it hammering on a tree. Did you? Like a refreshing change and all that. No, they're really well beautiful. Is that? Yeah. I have seen woodpeckers here a couple of times, and I've seen a spotted a greater spotted one once.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:34

Oh, it's stopped now. It's stopped now.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:36

Anyway, so of course we could have kept with the same topic and gone for a walk around the woodlands, but we both agreed. Do we want to be walking around a beautiful place in nature and be effectively ranting? No. We wanted to be chilled and just kind of see what came and hope that's been of some use to you. Yeah. And we hope it has. We do.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:56

So we have to make ourselves our way back to our car, meander on home, and see how the fur babies are, and we will see you.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:10

You've been listening to Awesome, we're off topic with Ted Thornton and Water. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcast. And if you want to connect, you'll find us online. Just search for online attack. Stay awesome, stay off topic, and we'll see you next time.