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Welcome to episode 26 of the Mindful & Driven podcast! It’s all about how to not lose sight of what really matters whilst chasing your dreams.
Episode 26’s guest is Fab Giovanetti. She is the founder of Creative Impact Co, a collective of hundreds of creatives all trying to make a difference on the planet. Through her community and her work as a founder of a marketing school, she has reached over a hundred thousand people all across the world. She is a keen speaker, writer, published author as well as a guest lecturer across the UK.
Her most recent book is ‘Reclaim Your Time Off: The 3-Step Solution to Overworking’.
I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation! I’d love it if you could subscribe, leave me a review and follow me on social channels.
- You can find all my work and socials here: http://amardeep.co
- Download my free Anti-Burnout Toolkit here: http://antiburnout.mindfuldriven.com
- United for Global Mental Health: https://unitedgmh.org/mental-health-support
- Find more about Fab: https://fabgiovanetti.com/ and: https://creativeimpact.group/
- Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fabgiovanetti
Topics discussed in this episode:
- How to improve your energy levels.
- How to better manage your time.
- Why you should pay attention to burnout before having the “symptoms.”
- Tips to reclaim your time back.
- How to manage your schedule to achieve more balance in your life.
- What can you do to free more time in your schedule.
- Tips to better manage your energy throughout the day.
- How to increase your energy levels. Why it’s important to take care of yourself. How to start taking care of yourself.
Keynotes:
- Introduction (0:00)
- We are all different (2:04)
- Struggling with balance (6:37)
- Working too much (10:54)
- Being mindful of where your time is going (16:37)
- More about balance (22:21)
- Play more! (25:18 )
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Intro Music:
“Himalayas” by Mona Wonderlick — bit.ly/youtube-monawonderlick
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free download: bit.ly/himalayas-download
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Fab:
I went blind once when I was really young, because I was distressed. Just
literally for like half an hour, I couldn’t see anymore, and they were like,
probably it’s just, you know, a nervous breakdown. I was like, excellent, I’m
only 15. Our body can tell us so much about how much we’re struggling. Last
time that I really had a really big burnout. I realized that something needed
to change and since then, it was probably five or six years ago, and then I
slowly started to work on making the change. Then I did everything constantly
and now it’s a journey, it’s a practice, you know, to find balance every single
day.
[00:00:36] Amardeep:
Welcome to the Mindful and Driven Podcast, where we help you to not lose sight
of what’s really important whilst chasing your dreams. Today’s guest is Fab
Giovanetti. She is the founder of Creative Impact Co, a collective of hundreds
of creatives all trying to make a difference on the planet. Through her
community and her work as a founder of a marketing school, she has reached over
a hundred thousand people all across the world. She is a keen speaker, writer,
published author as well as a guest lecturer across the UK.Her most recent book
is ‘Reclaim Your Time Off: The 3-Step Solution to Overworking’.
I hope you enjoy our conversation today.
[00:01:09] Welcome Fab. It’s great to have you.
So for the people who are joining us now, we’ve actually just done a double
recording. So I’ve just appeared on Fab’s podcasts for Alt Marketing School. So
you’re going to be joining us where, we’ve just been talking for an hour
anyway, but now you’re on my podcast. Thank you for being here.
[00:01:27] Fab:
Thank you for having me in your lovely home. I even have coffee. I’m going to
present that you made me coffee, it’s even better.
[00:01:32] Amardeep:
Yeah, that’s what I do for my guests. I send them a coffee.
[00:01:37] Fab:
So, yeah. Yeah. That’s exactly what happens every time. That was a lovely
surprise.
[00:01:41] Amardeep:
Yeah. Yeah. First question I start off with is what are some common advice you
disagree with?
[00:01:46] Fab:
The problem is with that question is I ask it all the time in both of my
podcasts. And the problem is there are many things that I disagree with these
days. And I’m wondering that is because I’m becoming older and I’m just like, I
tried this thing, it doesn’t work. So please stop saying that people. One of
the, one of the great pieces of advice that I give you the most, and it’s
funny, you have to wake up early in the morning. I’ll explain why. The reason why
is that? It does not, it’s not because I don’t because I’m an early bird and I
love it. I wake up at six and I get so much stuff done. I get my exercise done
all the way before eight. However, one of the things I learned from my writing,
but especially when I was writing my book, Reclaim Your Time Off, is that some
people literally have, require a lot more time to get their energy levels up.
So they actually prefer to have more focus time during the afternoons. And I
think this because it’s such a, it’s such a belief, it’s such a piece of
advice. Everybody tells you, you have to wake up a 5:00 AM. You have to a cup
of 5:00 AM. It’s almost a great reminder of all the other pieces of advice that
I don’t like, which are like, especially in the world of entrepreneurship,
productivity, self-help, you name it. We feel like we need to fit that box. We
need, you know, there’s one person that will tell us exactly the thing that we
have to do in order to be successful or productive and stuff. And the waking up
early is my token one that, that goes back to this idea that we’re all
different. I believe that I know that you believe in this as well, because that
you said that we talked for an hour, so I know that. That it’s important to
remember that your work and whether you want to live, should be lead, should be
led by your values and your lifestyle. Your goals are great, but you need to
make sure that you’re living a life that doesn’t make you miserable at 5:00 in
the morning, because you’re waking up and having to like throw coffee in your
face, you know it, to be able to function.
[00:03:35] Amardeep:
I’ve had a few friends who’ve read, it’s Robin Sharma’s book isn’t it about
waking up at 5:00 PM? 5:00 AM. Oh waking up at 5:00 PM would be great. And they
followed it really rigorously for two weeks and then they’ve hated it. But
they’ve had this burst of motivation. I need to do what Robin Sharma says, but
it’s like, why, why do you need to do that? It’s you’ve got to do what’s right
for you. And I think I’ve changed my own routine quite significantly over the
last couple of years, because for awhile, I was waking up rolling out of bed
and working straight away. So sleeping for as long as I possibly could then I
just feel like, I felt rushed because I was going straight from sleep to work.
Whereas now, I have that time. I’m just laying in bed for half an hour, like
staring at the ceiling, looking out the window, scrolling on my phone, reading
a book, whatever. And it’s just me time. It’s just time for me to slowly wake up
and get ready for the world. Whereas you don’t need to wake up, meditate for
two hours, then go to the gym, then make you’re like, extra special breakfast
that’s going to give you everything that you ever need in life. It’s, you just
find out your routine that works for you and if what you’re doing at the moment
isn’t working for you, adjust it, try something else, experiment. And coming to
that, it’s one of the things I disagree with as well is this idea that you need
to stick to your routines because if a routine is not working for you, ditch
it. Find a new routine. Don’t just do it just because somebody told you this is
going to make a successful. And that’s why I think the 5:00 AM thing really is,
at its core, isn’t it? It’s this idea that, this person is successful and they
do wake up at 5:00 PM. So I need to have a cup of 5:00 AM too,
[00:05:21] Fab:
And there’s also an element of going back to what you just said, there’s also
an element of you will change your priorities in life because life changes and
I’m not 20 no more. I mean, maybe looking like it because of this lighting. Not
20, no more. And when I was 20 and our responsibilities, you know, my life
plans were further away. It was all about again, talking about struggles. We’ll
talk about balance in a bit, but not very balanced because it was all about
work. And I was really passionate about my work. And then, and now I am getting
married and now, and then I will probably look at having a family and I need to
appreciate that that will change the way that my routines work, because there
are other people in your life that you need to start thinking about. And again,
I don’t understand why we have to be so stubborn about the way that we want to
be. As in this worked five years ago, it has to work right now. We are humans.
We change. We grow. We evolve. And also we want to make sure that we have a
social life as well. I want to show that people like us. We want to make sure
that we fill our life with more than just goals and spreadsheets and targets, and
I’m a marketer, so and I like goals, spreadsheets, and targets, but they’re not
everything they’re all cracked to be. There’s so much more than that and I
think we need to sometimes remember that.
[00:06:32] Amardeep:
Well, firstly, congratulations on your wedding next month. Looking at that, you
said in your twenties, you struggled with the balance where you you’re working
too hard because you loved your job and it affected other areas of your life.
Can you go and say a bit more detail? Like how did you get through that stage
and woke you to kind of change your mindset around that?
[00:06:48] Fab:
It actually goes back, again I want him to go back to my book because that’s
the reason why I wanted to write the book for such a long time because again,
it’s called Reclaim Your Time Off. It’s all about obviously, you know, finding
a way to stop overworking. And there’s an assumption that I wrote this because
the pandemic happened.. The truth is, this book, I’ve been working on it and
looking at the research of what we do my clients for the past eight years,
because since pretty much, the first year in business, I got to the point where
I was like, I’m working 60 hours a week on my own dream, call it. I was
working, obviously, I had one business at the time called Creative Impact,
which is what I still have. And I was working all the time. And I was finding
that because I was, I had this mentality that the first five years were going
to struggle. You were going to work pretty hard and then magically, the work fairy
comes up and she’s like, you’re done now. Now the time is expanding for you.
And I was like, yes. After five years, that didn’t happen. I was like, okay,
maybe I am the one that has to change or something has to change when it comes
to me and the way that I’m approaching this. And this is, as I said, why I
started thinking about how can I help other people reclaim my time and myself.
So, it literally came from me realizing that I will push myself to the point of
burnout because I felt that I was so passionate about what I, what I did that
again, I’m not just saying that I love, but I also hate, was that find your
passion and the work one day in your life or something like that, is the idea
that obviously, you know, if you do what you love, that’s the one. Do what you
love and you never work one day in your life. And I’m like, yes, but kind of
no. You still have to put the work in. You still have to potentially do the
admin. You still have to do the emails. You still have to do some of this
stuff. You still have to be in front of your desk. Maybe you’re enjoying it,
but it’s still not you going on an adventure or having a date with your friends
or doing other things. So we need to appreciate that that time is standard.
We’re spending on things that might not be all the life is about. And I think
that to me, it came from a form of literally being not able to get out of bed.
Or I went blind once when I was really young because I was too stressed, just
literally for like half an hour, I couldn’t see anymore, and they were like,
probably is just, you know, a nervous breakdown. I was like, excellent. I’m
only 15. Just to give you an idea. Our body can tell us so much about how much
we’re struggling. And I think the last time that I really had a really big burnout,
I realized that something needed to change. And since then it was probably five
or six years ago. And then I slowly started to work on making the change. Again
I don’t want people to believe that again, I then somehow I have this epiphany
about the system that I talk about in the book, and in a day it was all
changed. Now then, I did everything constantly, and now it’s a journey, it’s a
practice, you know, to find balance every single day. And that’s kind of how it
developed.
[00:09:34] Amardeep:
Yeah. So you’ve mentioned quite a few interesting things there. One thing I
want to pick up on is, so my background is economics. I studied economics at
university and a lot of the people I went to university with then went on to
become bankers or consultants and the kind of lifestyle that a lot of us lived
was this idea that, oh yeah, we’re going to do this for two years, we have to
work 80 hour weeks, whatever, and then we’re going to get out. Most people
haven’t got out. Most people are still doing that because you get used to a
certain kind of lifestyle. And it’s what I went through when I quit my job now,
where you have a kind of prestige that comes with that, where people think, oh,
he’s a banker or a consultant, and it’s hard to dissociate your identity from
that, even though, you know, you’re kind of burning out, you know, that you’re
working a bit too hard and it’s quite difficult to break that psychology of
why? Like, why am I still doing this? Even though I kept saying to myself, when
I was younger, like I’m going to quit by this age, I’m going to then do
something that matters to me. But you find yourself getting sucked in, and you
still say in that thing that you like, 21 year old you said, you’re never going
to do what you’re doing now, but here you are. So I think that’s interesting
and it’s a shame that it took a massive burnout for you to kind of make that
shift. What were kind of some of the warning signs for you when you were
approaching that big burnout stage? Because if people are listening now, where
if they can try and pick it up early, that’s obviously better than they wait
until the disaster stage.
[00:11:03] Fab:
Lovely that you called it a disaster stage. Yeah, I could, I could see that
being that at the time. I think the first time we can, now it sounds like I
have zero burnouts, but I’m crawling to work in too much. It’s just the why I
am, so I know that I’m prone to kind of giving too much. So that’s one of the
things I need to be mindful of. So as somebody that had it a few times, probably
the first few times, I didn’t realize, you know, especially again, going back
to feeling old, when you’re 20, you can also get a bit of leeway in a lot of
things, you know, and that also includes like pushing your body a bit or
pushing your brain a bit. But for example, most recently talking about
struggles and balance again, very recently just ironically publishing a book
called Reclaim Your Time Off, pushed me again to a very, very, very deep edge,
because it takes so much time, and obviously I couldn’t stop running my
businesses. So for, for this time, when I really knew that I was going to kind
of push myself, that’s when I started to recognize the signs. So I think it
took me a couple of times, sadly, to figure out. One thing I’ll say is that we
are all different. So if, especially in your body, it will be different. I also
have to say again, disclaimer, I am a lifelong experience of depression. Also
that’s where I would fall into, as some people might have anxiety, you know? So
there might be tightness in your chest or for me, it would literally have been
not wanting to get out of bed as this was like, no, I’m going to stay here.
And, you know, I go into that place. So again, we all have, it’s almost like a
coping mechanism that starts coming in before the burnout comes. And that could
be again, an anxiety feeling that could be more of a very sad feeling, but it
is also, I find for me personally, before that it was, my body was telling me
things. So, you know, from, from the element of exhaustion to headaches, I’ve
had it all. And when he came into to the book, I already knew that I was going
to have some of that. So I kind of made sure that I would, every single week, I
would check in with myself for the eight weeks around book launch, literally
every single week I’d be like, how am I feeling? How am I doing? Am I taking on
too much? Am I feeling exhausted? How am I feeling at the end of the day?
That’s also a big thing. Because if at the end of the day, you literally feel
like your brain is not working anymore or that you’re exhausted and you think,
okay, well, what I’ve done is literally Zoom calls, for example, I shouldn’t be
exhausted. It’s because you’re piling on too much. So it’s hard for me to say
exactly what to look for when it comes to that. But I would say one of the
things that can help you the most is checking with yourself and your energy
levels. And if you know you’re going to have a very busy period of time, or
you’re going to take on a lot of work, then have that daily check in at the end
of every single day. And then at the end of the week, be like, am I okay for
real? Should I actually take some time back? Should I actually say I’m going to
pretend to be sick? Because that’s the thing, you know, when you’re on sick
day, then you’re not working. Nobody’s going to know and just say, this is my
own sick day as my check-in day as my day to actually reset. I do that
sometimes. You know, when I have a big launch, I have a day when I’m not doing
anything and I pretend to be off, but I am off, but because I need to take that
time back for myself. So I hope that answered the question. It was a very long
winded answer, but I wanted to kind of be quite honest about what I’ve
experienced
[00:14:05] Amardeep:
And it’s really helpful I think and one of the points to pick up from that is
this idea that daily checkups or weekly checkups, because I know for me, that’s
something I didn’t do where I’d be working hard. I knew I was kind of burning
out, but I wouldn’t track that properly. So I wouldn’t really realize if it was
getting better or worse or how long I’d been in that state for. And it’ll
almost be in till I get exhausted where I can’t ignore it anymore. That’s when
I start reacting. But this idea of knowing, okay, this can be a stressful
period. Let me actually track. This is how I feel. This is how I feel. And then
you can look back through that, so you can look back through the weeks and see,
am I starting to get to the breaking point rather than waiting until the
breaking point, which I think is what most people do.
[00:14:53] Fab:
It’s a funny little process that we have where, because you’re looking for the
signs. That you’re going to wait for the signs. It’s quite as you said, it’s
quite natural. You’re waiting for the signs and the sign comes but, there’s no
hard science to say there, when the signs come, then it might be too late. And
then you’re like, and then you cannot function for a week. So this is why
again, may make sure that you can check in, when you know, I mean, just looking
at your calendar, hopefully you kind of reflect like commitments and things
that you’re doing, or look at your projects for the next week and month. And
just be honest with you. Because if you can do that then, okay. You might have
a day where you’re feeling a bit pooped, but it’s much better than not being
able to function for a week. And I’ve been able to get out of bed. You know,
it’s really about self care. It sounds very corny sometimes, but I think it’s,
you know, it’s pretty much simply making sure that you can actually have a life
outside of your work and be able to be driven, but also be able to, you know,
show some love for yourself.
[00:15:51] Amardeep:
Hi
everyone. I hope you’re enjoying the episode so far. I want to take a quick
break to ask you to check in with yourself. There’s many people struggling with
balance and it’s nothing to be ashamed about. It’s tips that my guests might
share can hopefully help you along the way, but if you already feel overwhelmed
or burnt out, it’s probably best that you ask somebody for help too. For some,
this might be a friend or family member, while others might feel like they have
nobody they can talk to. If you’re one of these people, check out the link in
the show notes, it’s for United for Global Mental Health. They’ve got health
plans all across the world, with people willing to listen on the other side.
It’s important to let somebody know how you’re feeling. Now, back to the show.
[00:16:25] I think one of the things I’ve heard
from other people as well is that they try to balance a social life with what
they’re doing on the side and their job. And they almost feel guilty when
they’re out and about with their friends, because they think, oh, I need to go
home, and then I need to do this when I’m back. Did you ever get that feeling
as well? That almost like guilt having a life?
[00:16:40] Fab:
Not, not necessarily, because I think when I started taking my business quite
seriously, then I know the people [unintelligible] people within that circle. I
used to live in London. I’m still close, but I used to live in London and, you
know, I still had people in the online world, but the circles and because of
the more Creative Impact is as well, other people will be like business
buddies, you know? So I was kind of friends, but it’s kind of business. So, you
know, while being invited to lots of events, just for the food industry, just
for work. So I would basically, I started slowly to replace my quote, unquote,
normal friends with work friends. So it kind of needed to become that because
that was my way to actually get out. And what happened was at some point I had
to kind of step back and be like, I just want to see my normal friends and talk
about normal things and just talk about like randomness instead of just
constantly talking about how your business is going, which is great. Don’t
underestimate the power of networking and connecting with peers. But sometimes
it’s just nice just to have a LOL or just go karaoke and you know, these little
things make a massive difference, I think. So that’s kind of what I find for
myself. That’s basically what I, what I’ve done.
[00:17:48] Amardeep:
It’s one of these points again, where I’ve heard people say about, kind of
ditching the friends that aren’t in the same world as them. And I agree with
you completely. It’s really important to have friends who don’t understand what
you do and don’t really care what you do. They’re friends of you because your
personality outside of your business. And for example, with me and most of my
friends, don’t read my articles. I’m hoping they listen to this podcast now,
but it’s the truth, it’s that they’re not friends with me because I’m a creator
or because of what I produce. They’re friends with me because all the stuff I
don’t talk about, and all of the shared memories that we have. And I think it’s
really important for people not to wrap up their entire identity in their
career and their work which I’m finding is happening a bit too often. Now
especially with people who are doing a job, then a side hustle, they kind of
see having the frivolous time of just time with friends who are just chilling
out with you as time that could be cut because it’s not productive. So replace
them with work friends instead, like you ended up doing one. One of the things
you mentioned before this is that you keep one day free per week where you
don’t have any meetings. Could you like talk a bit more about that?
[00:18:55] Fab:
It’s one of my favorite things that I started doing before the book came out
and then kind of went out the window slightly, like for that time. And then I
kind of, it’s kind of one of those things where I, so I add that to it and just
want to people to listen again, not to think, OMG, that’s what she does now,
all the time is I know, but when, when I can, the times that I know there’s nothing
big happening, that’s what I would do. What I try then that has been working
really well was understanding what was, when was my time spent basically most,
most of the week. And again, it goes back to the book in Reclaim Your Time Off.
I talk about the step zero. The three step solution is actually be mindful of
where your time is going and understanding exactly, not just assuming and
guessing. And what happened then is that I realize that meetings were taking so
much time and that’s fine, but also, on a part-time basis, I also write a lot.
And so it’s kind of then basically what I’m going to spend all of my weekends
writing because during the week, I just don’t have like a three-hour slot,
let’s say, to really focus on a couple of articles or, you know, obviously
writer to writer and probably not a lot of people that are watching and
listening are writers. Most of us need that kind of quiet time, and if you have
a lot of meetings or a lot of calls, or a lot of things that interrupt you,
it’s going to be really hard to get that focus back. So I just tried it and
what it taught me, like having this, this free, no, this meeting free day. And
that’s the one was that the first thing I needed to do is just understand how
to set people’s expectations, cause once I could explain to them that, you
know, for example, this is what’s going to happen. Like I’m not going to be
around on Fridays. And what I did for that, I’ve been pulling up to respond to.
So kind of like quiet on it. It’d be like, actually I’m pretending not to be
working, even if I’m doing my own things really allow me to be like, if I want
to check in on something, I can check in on something. If I don’t want to, I
didn’t have to, because people will know that I’m not going to be around today.
And the second thing that I did for that, so that’s the major. I mean, if
you’re going to have meetings and that’s not applying to you even just saying,
I know it’s almost like a not email day kind of works the same is really
powerful. And if you do have meetings and that’s one of the issues, then set up
a calendar, a shared calendar schedule, goddammit, I’m going to add the
goddammit because that’s such a simple thing to do. And then you make sure that
you say you can have slots every day. For example, I usually that I’ve stopped
on Monday either because I’m talking to my team and I want to make sure that I
have time for them. So, you know, just have slots take, you know, the Friday
off or take your Tuesday off, or take your Monday off those slots. And then people
ask you, are you available on Monday? No. That’s the reason why I have
availability. The availability says I’m available these days at these times,
swords. So it’s a combination. I find that if you don’t need to have a frame, a
meeting free day, because meetings are not your issue. Even just having,
starting to having an autoresponder on, I don’t have it all the time. Some
people do. Personally, i, it just feels a bit too much for me, but on Fridays,
cause I know that I need to have this space for myself. I usually would set it
up unless it’s a really busy time. Or I got like something big coming up in
which case I just need to be more flexible. But these are the two practical
things that will say you can do for yourself. Just find the day that works best
for you, and then start setting those expectations and people won’t get the
hang of it and we’ll learn it.
[00:22:09] Amardeep:
Are there any other lifestyle change to make the moment? So here’s your current
balance where you have at the moment where you have email free days and you
have meeting free days. Do you feel like you got the balance right at the
moment or is it still things you’re working and then trying to change and what
kind of your ideal week look like or ideal lifestyle?
[00:22:27] Fab:
But I’m I’m a, I mean, this is a really tough time to answer that question
because when I’m not working, I’m looking at like color palettes. So it’s
probably like now my personal life is, it’s a very intense as well. So the
answer to the question is basically no for now, but it’s also because life, you
know, when a big life event happens, then, you know, if you’re working for
yourself, nobody else is going to pick up that slack. So, you know, I, I have
to kind of adjust a bit more, but if I were to say then what I would like me to
go next, I think one of the big things is that I still do some consulting
one-to-one, and with some clients and also some startups, both individuals and
startups, but I want to launch properly the new project or marketing school. I
want to properly launch it, but I just need to have a bit of time to do that.
And I need to have a bit of time to understand how to kind of get the next
steps, like all lined up. And that is a problem in itself because, and I don’t
have time. So this is kind of been where I have to be able to find that
balance. So in an ideal world, what I have now, I wish I would like to make
even better because I have different, not even streams, different brands.
Right. So I have Monday and Tuesday is usually Creative Impact. and I’m happy
with that. And then Wednesday, Thursday, Fridays are a bit more rocky. There is
a bit of everything else going on. So in an ideal world, I would even have
Monday and Tuesday creative impact. And then maybe again, one day, just for
writing, just to really focus on that. And then maybe like two days of all
marketing school stuff. So kind of being able to manage everything without
doing everything, obviously context for Creative Impact. I’ve had a couple of
team members. So you know, manage everything so that I know on each day, kind
of what is my main focus and I can have meetings or talks or, or communication
for the different brands on the different days. Right now, I’m halfway there.
And I think until probably autumn if not the beginning of next year, I’m not
going to be falling down, but I’m okay with that, cause I know I’m working
towards it. That’s the way that works best for me. If I know that that one day
and focusing on that one thing, it gives, I can give everything to it and I’m
not feeling guilty or angry because I’m not putting enough time or something
else.
[00:24:33] Amardeep:
Yeah. I think I’m going to try and introduce a similar structure myself, where
I’ve got so many different things I’m doing, but if I’m doing a bit of it each
day, I end up getting nothing done and I just feel exhausted. Whereas if I
block it out, so let’s say Friday morning, I’m editing podcasts or whatever it
is. So I know that that’s my time to do it. It just gives you a bit more
structure as well to the week. Whereas if it’s just, here’s a million different
tasks now try and slot them in somewhere. It’s no circuit. This is going to
happen on this day. This is going to happen on this day and you get that nice
routine going. The next thing I want to find out from you is, what’s one
mindset shift that you think people could make that would make a positive
difference in their life?
[00:25:15] Fab:
It’s like reintroducing play, literally. I had a lovely chat with a great lady.
Like an author. She’s called Bernadette Russell. Her book is called How to Get
Hopeful. We talked about the book for Creative Impact. And she said like the
importance of laughter, especially in times where we’re trying to look for
hope. So I’m going to actually take it wider and just saying generally in life.
I think if we were to laugh a bit more, if we were to be embracing play and
even boredom. In the book, in Reclaiming Time Off, I talk a lot about boredom
specifically, but even just play is a massive mindset shift. Like oh, play’s for
children or oh, play is, you know, not enough time to play, and I’m like, yeah,
you have it doesn’t mean you have to literally go and play with Play-Doh or you
have to go, and I don’t know, join a football match if you like football. It’s
not that. It’s just, they should do something for the hell of it or maybe play
for you is adventure and exploring, and that’s totally fine. But genuinely
embracing more play, it’s something that I think we can all do and embracing
more laughter as well. When you try to add that every day, just like you will
have your meditation every day, or you will have your other highly functioning,
productive thing going on. Add play everyday and a bit more of that, like
levity and a bit of lightness. Like the world has given us a lot of heaviness
these days, which is fair enough. It is what it is. So let’s bring back a bit
of the light, a bit of the joy and bit of the LOL and the goofs. We’re talking
about embracing the weird, I know that I’m a bit weird. I’m Italian. I have
that vibe of me like, you know, and I embraced that, but it also reminds me
that I’m feeling at my best when I just have a bit more fun and I just take
myself a bit less seriously.
[00:26:50] Amardeep:
There’s a quote that I’m trying to remember now, which is, I think I’m getting
this right. It’s the opposite of play, isn’t work. It’s depression. Because
people often say like, work hard, play hard and things like that. They’re
putting work and play as opposites. When he doesn’t need to be like that. It’s
not like work has to be really, you have to hate your work work, and then you
pay in your own time. If you can do it right then work can be enjoyable too.
And you can have a laugh with people. So I have like several meetings every
week, right? And it’s like people reaching out to me that I’ve never spoken to
before, and the, my calls often overun because I’ll have a chat with them. And
for them it’s really refreshing because they’re used to people being so
business focused and it being point after point after point and efficiency, but
like life isn’t all about efficiency. I could get way more done in a small
amount of time if I wanted to, but then I wouldn’t build the same
relationships. I wouldn’t have as much laughter in my day if all my meetings
were so cold because it was just about the work and it means I get to know
people a bit better. Like it’s worth those taking a bit more time to make them
more enjoyable to me. And I think that’s one of the ideas, like I said about
just introducing more play. Like you don’t need to be so serious all the time
because it doesn’t matter who you’re speaking to. Like everybody wants to have
fun. Like there’s nobody in this world that you’re working with, who just like,
they just care about like the business or they just care about productivity.
Most people will want to have friendships and relationships as well. So I think
that’s one kind of thing to just think about is, it’s being professional, yes.
But that doesn’t mean you need to be boring.
[00:28:32] Fab:
That’s an actually an excellent point. I was again during yesterday, on the
podcast, and they were asking me about what makes me unique and such. And I
said, I started embracing my weirdness and who I am. Not feeling like I had to
feel professional because then the way that I conduct business, whether it’s
Creative Impact, whether it’s Medium, whether it is my website or my
consulting, anything, I’m so very professional in the way that, set
expectations, meet deadlines. You know, I’m clear on things, obviously, if
something is falling out of the cracks, I apologize and stuff like. However it
doesn’t mean that I cannot be me. And I think once I understood that I was
like, oh, okay. I can just, oh, I can just rest. I can just relax and
professionalism doesn’t come from you being quote unquote stuffed? It actually
comes from you being able to you know, to deliver on what you said, to be on
time, to meet expectations. It’s not about how many big words you use or
whether you have tattoos or not. Even just my appearance sometimes when we feel
a bit conscious, I was like, plenty of tattoos on my, on my body. It doesn’t
mean I’m not professional. No, I know my shizzle. I’ve been doing marketing for
10 years. Own that. And then again, bring your personality to it. That’s what
people want, isn’t it. They want to connect with people, not with LinkedIn
profiles.
[00:29:47] Amardeep:
Yeah. I completely agree. I just see it so often where I think sometimes it’s a
coping mechanism for imposter syndrome, right? Where, because you don’t believe
in your own abilities, you put on this really professional, not professional,
but like polished personality, which doesn’t really affect who you are. And
what I find is most people are very good at what they do. Often it’s showing
much more of their personality because they have the confidence in their
abilities and it shines through. Like, you trust them because they’re willing
to make jokes. They’re willing to say things, whereas somebody who’s, looks
like they’re reading from a script, you start worrying about, well, do I want
to trust this person? Because it’s, doesn’t seem like they seem so stressed
about what they’re doing. So having that levity there can actually help you in
your business and whatever you’re doing as well. It’s not like an antagonistic
thing. It’s not like you need to sacrifice what you’re doing for that, like
it’s helping you, it makes you more relatable. It makes you easier to work
with, so it helps you on all fronts. You’re happier and you get more done.
[00:30:49] Fab:
I love the word levity as well. I think it’s a range of really good word. So it
just kind of, again, it just goes back to that light and, lightness that I
think we all need. Excellent, those semantics of an excellent word.
[00:30:59] Amardeep:
Yeah. I think you used levity first. It’s not a word that I say very often, but
I liked you saying it. So I copied it.
[00:31:04] Fab:
Well I mean, we’re both going for it. I’m, I’m enjoying it. And I think, you
know, it goes back to what we just said and when we can do it, those little
differences, I think, you know, we need a bit more of that, all of us. So you
know, why not?
[00:31:16] Amardeep:
Yeah. It’s been great to have you Fab. When can people hear more from you?
[00:31:21] Fab:
You can find me everywhere. That’s the perks of being a marketer, literally.
Well it’s not, actually not as Snapchat, we would let you know, I joke about
it, but I’m not on Snapchat and you can find me online, both on my website or
on social at Fab Giovanetti. So obviously at fabgiovanetti.com or everywhere on
social F A B G I O V A N E T T I. Also on Medium
fabgiovanettiliterally.medium.com. If you are more of a creator or an expert,
when it comes to making a positive impact in the world, you can check Creative
Impact. If you’re interested in marketing and or are a marketer,
altmarketingschool.com can also be a cool place to go. And yeah, finally.
Apologies. My book. Reclaim Your Time Off. You can find that in all good
bookstores, but if you can give to independents, that’s a good thing. I always
like to say that. So bookshop.org actually is a great place to get the book as
well.
[00:32:11] Amardeep:
I always find it funny when people are saying all good book shops, but it’s
like, what if there are some bad bookshops too. What if this is an evil one?.
[00:32:19] Fab:
We don’t want the evil ones to win.
[00:32:24] Amardeep:
The final thing is, what’s one small thing that’s brought you joy recently?
[00:32:28] Fab:
Karaoke night. Probably would have been a different answer, like if it wasn’t
that last weekend we went karaoke and it was an absolute blast, our singing,
you know, Dance With Somebody, [unintelligible] Whitney Houston and Bon Jovi
Living On a Prayer, like nobody’s business. And Journey as well, obviously
Don’t Stop Believing. It was an absolute blast. And again, going back to play,
it’s a great reminder of that. It was excellent.
[00:32:56] Amardeep:
If
you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, I’d love it If you could leave me a five
star review, it really helps get the message out further. Wherever you’re
listening, it would be awesome If you could subscribe and share in your social
media channels. If you want to see more of my work and advice, you can find all
of the links in the show notes.
Thank you again for listening and I hope you have a lovely
day.
Amar is a coach, podcast host and writer. He helps ambitious people to grow without burning out. His articles have been read millions of times and he’s interviewed founders of companies such as Netflix and Twitter.
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