Transcript

0:00

This question is for those of you who are introverts. I think you can relate to this question. So the the person wrote, My social energy and capacity to interact fluctuates throughout the month and even throughout the day. I can only be on for a couple hours a day, after which I have this strong need to turn it off. And I may even require days to recharge.

0:25

From a highly interactive experience, especially introverts if you're with, like, a group of people. Right? With that said, can you provide any tips and strategies on energy management for introverts who value authenticity, both in a way that we work with clients, and and a coach this person's a coach, and also how we show up online and in person. Hope this makes sense. Yeah.

0:50

It's a really good question. Give me one moment here. This so, yeah, this is such an important question because a lot of sulfeners don't realize that one of the key skills that we need to develop is energy management. And we don't tend to learn about this growing up and in our in in the corporate workplace, sure, we might need to learn about that a bit as well. But, like, when it comes to our own business, it's crucial because most of us particularly coaches, we make money when we meet with clients.

1:33

So, like, the meeting with clients is where the money is generated. And so it's incredibly important that we can't like, we have to have a certain number of meetings per week in order to have enough business. And so this is why it's kind of like I invite you to think of yourself as an athlete Right? Like, if you're a professional athlete, you have to keep your fitness up because you're you're paid to play the game well. And if you're not energized to play the game, your, you know, your stats or your ability to score or whatever the game is will go down and you'll make less money or even be kicked off the team.

2:10

And so the same thing here as an introverted coach is, well, you gotta really become an athlete in your energy management. You can't just wing this stuff It has to be something you take seriously. You set a system for it. You dedicate to it like you dedicate yourself to training for a marathon. Because it is a marathon.

2:33

Okay? It's actually more like a series of sprints throughout the day. A series of a series of you know, 10 k runs throughout the week, something like that. And if you're gonna if you're gonna do several, you know, runs every day, and and longer runs every week. Wow.

2:51

You gotta really rest up. You gotta really prepare your mindset. You gotta, you know, have have have a way to warm up and to cool down and all that stuff. Right? So here's the thing.

3:03

Everyone does that differently. So I really welcome those of you watching this who ever late as an introverted service provider who who makes money meeting with people, how do you manage your energy? What is your athletic training plan for your energy management? I mean, some of it may literally involve exercise. Right?

3:28

Physical exercise or So I I encourage you to Comment below. Share with us any anything that works for you to manage, to to resource yourself effectively and strongly so that you have the maximum number of client spots per week that you can meet with and still be sustainable for decades. Okay? Most well, a lot of us who are watching this are gonna work for another couple decades. So how the heck are you gonna manage that?

4:01

You know? So go ahead and comment below because I'll tell you, I I think one of the reasons why my business is successful and I'm I'm I I say that, you know, truly, like, I am grateful that I have a very good income and a very sustainable business. The reason why it's a success successful is because I I outlasted most of my competitors. I started in 2009. And I'm so grateful that since 2009, I've been taking seriously the idea of joyful productivity.

4:42

I really saw myself early on as, like I said, an athlete in training. Like, I'm like, If I'm doing this, I'm doing this for 40 years. I'm not playing around here. I'm not I'm not one of those people who are gonna like make I'm trying to try and make a lot of money, you know, do whatever I can and make a bunch of money and retire early. I have no interest in that.

5:01

I wanna work and probably make money until the day I have too much dementia, then I'll stop making money. Because I do believe that there's a it's funny for me to say this, but there is a sacred purpose in making money, not just volunteering, but making money because the the exchange well, I should say, They wanna turn not worshiping famine here, but but there is this there is this exchange of reciprocity particularly while the economy is lasting that. Anyway, so that's long story short, I'm still here because I I'll I'll lasted many people. And that's what has gonna happen for you too. Like, if you're able to outlast other coaches, other introverted coaches, which is, by the way, is is not hard.

5:47

Introverted coaches burn out, sadly, much more quickly than other types of coaches. Especially authentic introverted coaches burn out much more quickly than others. So if you can last 10, 20 years, you'll be you'll be like one of the top people in your industry. It's you know? So because everyone else has already, you know, burned out and they have to go do something else.

6:10

Right? So Okay. So, basically, I wanna share with you so so so so athlete, one important concept. The second concept is just like an athlete, there is something called stamina. Okay?

6:28

Your current level of stamina. Is this important? Okay? Look me in the eye. It's your current level of stamina.

6:37

Is not going to be your level of stamina in a year, in 5 years. It's certainly not in 30 years. But what I mean by that is your stamina right now might be quite low. Because you haven't been a joyful productivity athlete. You haven't been a joyful pro.

6:59

You haven't been practicing You haven't had a system. You haven't had training schedules. You haven't I take this stuff seriously like I tell you. I I'll tell you I'll tell you an example. I take 4 naps.

7:11

Not per week, per day. Per day. Let me say this again. I take 4 naps of day. I just got up from 1.

7:19

My naps are 15 to 20 minutes, so I don't always fall asleep, but I certainly lay down horizontal. I relax. I drift a little bit usually. And sometimes I fall asleep. I take 4.

7:31

Who the heck takes 4 naps a day? An athlete does. Okay? Because I recognize that if I don't, I am not in the space. I I ran I ran a q and a call this is my second q and a call, group call today.

7:47

Plus, I taught a a very active class with, you know, 30 some people who are asked and questions, and I had to teach in a very energetic manner. Plus, I had other I had I I wrote a blog post today, and I did a bunch of other stuff today. I can't do all that without 4 naps a day for me anyway. I know. And and some of you're like, oh, George, I when I take a nap, I can't do 15 minutes.

8:10

I take two a half hours. An hour a half nap. No. It's because you're not an athlete. That's what my wife said.

8:16

My wife said, I can't sleep. I can't not like you. I can't. She's an introverted coach. I'm not like you.

8:21

I'm more introverted. I I when I lay down, it's gotta be an hour a half. I'm like, no. It's because you haven't never practiced it. So I wake her up.

8:28

I get her up after 20, 30 minutes and she's like, yeah, that was helpful. Like, no one ever trained her. No one trained no one's ever trained you. You see what I mean? Like, the so it's just and we can't assume that our current level of stamina is gonna be like this for life.

8:45

Or get worse as you get older, obviously. No. You you can train to be have higher stamina, to to have to be stronger, to be longer lasting, to be able to go from meeting to meeting without, you know, burning out. You can do that. It's called stamina, and you don't have very much stamina right now.

9:05

For another example, when I first started using FOCUSMA, which is another part of my training system too. I mean, for myself, productivity athlete here, I use FocusMate. I do co working. Whatever I'm not in a meeting during the day, I'm doing either taking a nap, eating eating a meal or or doing co working or taking a break or whatever, co working, meaning I'm meeting I'm using focusmate or other co working. Anyway, so When I started doing co working, I was only able to do 3 hours a day.

9:35

And then I I was tired after that. It was just This was 7 years ago. I could only do 3 hours a day. I was like, oh my god. I'm gonna help people.

9:43

Now, 7 years later, I can easily do 8 hours 6 hours a day for sure. And I myself lead, I'm facilitating an 8 hour co working on Saturday. I've been doing this for several several months now. I'm not only am I in co working for 8 hours, I'm facilitating it. Telling people I'm setting timers and I'm telling people take it for for 8 hours.

10:07

And afterwards, I can still feel good the rest of the night. My stamina has definitely improved in the last 7 years. It's called training. It's called training. And so that's why I feel strongly about energy management.

10:24

It's not something that it's not you're not gonna hear some tips from me and go, oh, da da da da. And and then you're gonna be the same person for years? No. What you're gonna hear from me is ways to help you train so that you're not gonna be the same person next year. You're gonna be stronger, more capable.

10:40

You're still introverted. I'm not saying you could become an extrovert. I am actually funny thing. I am more introverted today than I was 7 years ago. Whenever I take the Myers Briggs test, I take it every, like, 5 years or so, I get more introverted over the years.

10:54

I was the most extroverted in college When I took that, I took a test in high school and college, and I was the most extroverted in college. And ever since then, I've been going down because I've been getting older, less energy. But I use my energy well, and I manage well. So anyway, this is why I'm asking everyone. Please comment below.

11:12

How are you training as an athlete? For your joyful productivity. Most of you are saying, I I don't. I don't. I don't.

11:17

I don't train. I don't have a system. Because that's true for most soul pernerves. There's no system for training, yourself, your physical, your mental, your emotional, how you handle all that stuff. So another another tip I'll give you, which is actually a part of the system, I guess, is when I meet with clients I lean back.

11:42

And when I say lean back, I don't really mean leaning back physically. Sometimes I do. I I usually lean forward to make them feel cared for physically, but I lean back metaphorically. Meaning, if I'm meeting with I might if I if you're my one on one client, okay, a small group client, whatever client, I have made the decision years ago, I am not responsible for your transformation or your growth. No way.

12:13

No way am I responsible for that. I can't be responsible. Are you crazy? If I'm responsible, I'm I'll be I'll be dead today. Too many people to be responsible for.

12:24

So I lean back and let the client lean forward metaphorically. So as an example, I don't take notes during client sessions. I know oh, especially nowadays with with Zoom AI, I literally copy paste the Zoom AI summary. If I have a one on one client, I copy paste Zoom AI summary. I put it in our Google doc our joint Google document, and I said and I write Zoom AI summary.

12:47

Paste, and sometimes it's wrong, but I don't care. I let them correct it. I don't send any follow-up notes. I don't send any pre notes. I have a follow-up email that goes out automatically because I use my scheduling thing, and the scheduling thing has a follow-up email.

13:02

I can program to go But you see, I lean back. I don't I don't I do very little with my clients. It's a very light touch. You see? I I say you're in charge of your transformation.

13:14

I'm here sounding board supportive. I might facilitate exercises. I might give guidance. I do whatever you expect me to do, but energetically, I'm leaning back very much. That's why I'm still here.

13:29

So this is an example. Right? I'm just I've given you a couple examples of how I train, how my my joyful productivity client working system, which is why I can go from meeting to meeting to And and the other thing I do and, again, this is also part of my training and system is is I do energy reboots throughout the day. So if you don't know what energy reboot is, you can Google it. Thankfully, Google knows my energy reboot.

13:54

So you'll you'll find the article, the video, all that stuff. It's all there. It's free. I do that stuff throughout the day, and I and I and I've gotten so good at I'm Scott and because I've done it for for 10 years now. I I recently saw a Facebook memory.

14:09

You know, Facebook gives you memories, oh, we care about your memories or whatever, and it gives you a memory. And I saw this memory from 10 years ago was when I started doing the energy reboot. I'm like, oh, I didn't realize it was in 10 years. So I'm I'm I'm so good at managed reboot now that I can do an energy reboot in the middle of a session without you even knowing. I just did it.

14:29

Like, I do this throughout my client sessions. I just And so this is the kind of stuff that allows me to keep going, and you need to come up with a system for yourself. What works for you. Maybe 4 naps is too crazy for you. Maybe no naps.

14:44

I don't know. An energy reboot is gonna be different for you as it is for me. Everyone does it differently. But you need a system. And and this is true for whether you're meeting with clients or whether you are do handling the onslaught of online comments or online presence activity that if you're gonna grow your audience, you're gonna have to deal with that too.

15:08

That's also energy management. How do I deal with comments coming at me every day? And because I lean back, again, like, take naps. I do energy repos. All this stuff.

15:19

Right? Beautiful productivity. So, anyway, I hope this is helpful. And I look forward to seeing your comments below. Everyone who's watching this, how do you manage your energy, or how are you building up to that system for yourself?

15:33

And I wanna thank the person who asked the question reminded me of something, which is one of the earliest books that got me into this whole energy management game. Was the power of full engagement is written, but 20 plus years ago. How how when when was when was it written? It was written a long time ago. I'm just looking it up here.

15:53

2003, literally, 21 years ago. And I thankfully read it, you know, early in my business. And I'm like, oh, oh, wow. This perspective of energy management being an energy athlete. Like a woah.

16:06

You know, changed my world and really gave birth partly to joyful productivity. And one of the my favorite definitions of fitness came from that book. I believe it was from that book. And fitness, they defined as the speed and effectiveness at which you recover after expanding energy. That's fitness.

16:31

The quicker and more effectively you recover after an event, the more the greater your fitness. And vice versa. If you need 3 days off after you see someone or after you do some social event, Then right now, your social fitness is very low. Your energy management is very weak for social events. Right?

16:55

And so, I mean, that it's an example where it's like and it's different parts of your life. Like, for right now for me, my my energy management is excellent in my business. In my social life, I have not paid attention to it at all, and I become really flabby. Like, I can barely stand to hang out with people anymore socially. But it's not because I'm a convert you know, conversion, maybe I am, socially.

17:19

But it's that I just haven't trained for that. It's not my priority. So therefore, I just I get You know? So anyway But so so think about that. Think about building up your fitness in your business is essential.

17:32

It's part of your livelihood. You have to. And it and it makes you a better person. It makes you a stronger person. So anyway, I I hope this is helpful, and and thanks for asking.