Achieving Your Ideal Life: Alice Dartnell Unveils the Power of Energy Management

This week on the podcast, Athena is joined by Alice Dartnell, a life and success coach residing in Cambodia, on a mission to guide you on a journey to create a purposeful "Life by Design."

In this episode, Alice takes a deep dive into her strategies for effective time management and heightened productivity. She shares insights into the application of "Energy Management" and a powerful mindset, offering practical lessons for both the realms of business and property.

Key takeaways from today's session include:

1. Energy Management: Explore the dimensions of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energy to enhance overall well-being.
2. Conquering Procrastination: Learn strategies to overcome procrastination and navigate feelings of overwhelm.
3. Mindset: Understand the crucial role of mindset in achieving success and fulfillment.
4. Focus: Discover techniques for maintaining focus in the midst of challenges.

Alice and Athena delve into applying these principles to provide valuable insights for those starting out in business as well as those looking to scale their endeavors. Don't forget to join the conversation today and share your thoughts on what drains and fills your energy!

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Transcript

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You're listening to the Girls and Property podcast, where we explore the world of property, meet amazing guests, hear their stories, and support you on your property journey. Hello, welcome. How are we? I am joined today by Alice Dartnell. How are you? I'm so excited to be here. I'm like buzzing for our conversation. No idea what it's gonna bring but I'm excited already. I know, and we've already had drama this morning. This is the first time I'm basically using this, this piece of software for podcasting. And we were supposed to do this podcast about half an hour ago and I called Alice and I was like, no, I don't think we're podcasting today. I don't, I don't have, this isn't working. My microphone's not working, but you know what? I managed to make it work and here we are. So well done, Alice. I'm very proud. Perfect. So why don't you go ahead and tell everybody. Oh no, before we do that, we want to do our celebrations this week, don't we? So, what are you celebrating, Alice? But this has come at such a timely thing because I was reflecting on something really similar the other day about how we don't celebrate enough. And maybe that's just me. But this came up when I was coaching my clients and I was like, we just don't celebrate enough. Like we just move on. We just kind of tick for her to do this and move on. So I am trying to make more of a conscious effort of celebrating. every single little milestone deadline and stuff like that. So I think the thing that I want to celebrate with you today is I pressed submit on my book chapter for the book that I'm co-authoring that's out in January and I just kind of glossed over it because you know life drama stuff's happening and I just was like boom yeah right tick next to what's on the to-do list and then I suddenly had this moment of like oh that's quite a big thing like oh but awesome like I should So that's the thing I'd like to celebrate. You should celebrate it, absolutely. What's the book called? It's going to be called Unstoppable and I'm a co-author on the book. So there's other authors and writers within the book sharing their story. And yeah, it's out in January. So it's my first book that I've co-authored. I'm about to co-author on a second one and I'm kind of using it as a bit of a practice for writing my own book next year. But yeah, I kind of feel it's like a stepping stone into writing my own book. So I'm like, yeah, celebrate that as well. Well, we'll keep all posted on that one And I assume you're gonna tell us a little bit more about the book in terms of what you kind of specialize in and everything Like that as we go through the podcast, which is amazing. Um What I am celebrating is being able to do this podcast. I'm The podcast but no I think that I'm celebrating also at the moment is I'm I feel like I'm moving into the next chapter of Of kind of my professional life now. I've been in the full-time property game being a full-time property investor for about a year now and the word I've been using for this year is kind of Discovering and discovering what I enjoy what I don't enjoy Maybe the new directions I want to take and I'm working behind the scenes on something at the moment that I can't really disclose But it's very exciting and it's gonna be fully Launched in January, which is really exciting. So January for me and you seems to be a seems to be quite a fun month Yeah, and I think it's really important as well, not just to celebrate like the big tick box milestones, but like your growth. And sometimes we forget that and we forget how far we've come. And I always say to like my clients, look at this time last year, where were you? And it's not just tick box goals. It's also about your growth and guarantee you will be like a total new, different. improved you than you were 12 months ago and I think we should celebrate that as well. So I love that your year is about discovery and just celebrating that as well. Absolutely and you know I say this to people all the time because it's very easy to get wrapped up in Just trying to every single day do more and more and more, but you're absolutely right actually to stop and to say well what am I celebrating today and People do this all the time, and I actually don't do it enough I feel and it's something that I'm trying to work on constantly and one thing that's really exciting is I think about where I was A year ago around about this time which was when I was actually starting my first proper business, which was Rooms Bournemouth. And we were literally in the process of just looking at the shareholder agreements. We were looking at, um, how the franchise structure was going to work. Me and Sophie's relationship, who's now my business partner for Rooms Bournemouth. And it's crazy to think that since then I've grown all these other businesses. Um, and it's mad, it's mad. And I, and I remember thinking to myself the other day, I am so excited to see where I am in a year's time. Yeah. have no doubt I'm gonna look at me today and go wow you've grown so much in a year so it's really exciting and I hope listeners really feel the same way in terms of looking at their own growth and feeling really proud of themselves in terms of maybe how far they've come so yeah really great go us. So in terms of who Alistair Artnil is and what you do and what your background is tell us a little bit about you. Yeah, well, thank you so much. I always find it hard to label myself. So I just always go in with like, I'm a life coach, but I do coaching, I also do consultancy, and I do like, I suppose, course content creation. I don't know what the fancy term is, but basically I'll put my own courses together, my own programs together around my specialist area, which is time management and energy management. And people always ask me like, how did I get into that? And to be honest, it had nothing to do with my corporate world or my background. It's like not a transferable thing that I've learned or anything like that. But kind of really from my own journey and my own story. So I teach time management in a slightly different way to perhaps, you know, what people are typically being exposed to in terms of time management. And I teach people energy management. So I teach how to enhance your time management or how to upgrade your time management. but through a concept I call energy management. And the reason for that is because I burnt out in 2019 and I was amazing at time management. You know, I was a planner, I was productive, I prioritized, you know, I'm ticking all the boxes here, but I still burnt out. And that for me was a big, big shock. Like I didn't see that coming. And I was like, what has gone wrong here? Like I'm great at time management. And it suddenly hit me that I wasn't looking after my energy. And I wasn't looking after that physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. I was a perfectionist, people pleaser. Um, just there's only so much you can give before you bankrupt yourself. Um, and that's then when I started my business in January, 2020, I knew that I needed to help people. Time management is my passion, but I wanted to teach in this slightly different way of, of energy management. So that's what I do today. I love that. And you know, that's one thing that I've really taken from you as well is it's not just about time management because I thought I was doing really well at the fact that I had my diary, I had booked everybody in, I was really bad and you're going to tell me off for doing this, really bad where I literally didn't even have any slots in between my meetings. So for example, I'd have a meeting at 11 for an hour, then the meeting at 12, then the meeting at 1, then the meeting at 2. So there was no break for lunch. There was no break for a toilet break. There was no breaks in between because all that I was trying to do was fill my diary with as much as possible to feel that I was moving forward in life, to feel that I was working hard. And what you've said to me on a recent staff collective call, which is our accountability mentoring group, which I loved, is it's not just about time management, it's about energy management. And what I'd love for you to really touch on is the fact that energy management is completely different. For me, how I took that on board is, what if you don't enjoy doing a certain admin or a certain topic that can really pull your energy from you as opposed to doing something that you love if you're a really creative person, maybe making something in Canva. And I really love how you spoke to our accountability group about that. So can you touch a bit about that for our listeners? Yeah, oh my God, of course. So I think what you've just described is classic time management, because I was exactly the same, and I felt like, you know, what's the aim of the game with time management? Maximizing your time, right? Everyone wants more time. So then you go, right, I need to plan, I need to be productive, I need to prioritize, and then you end up, you know, with this rammed calendar that you haven't even got time for a pee break. And the problem with that is that We're being governed by the clock. And that's what I kind of call like clock time management, but for energy management, it's completely different. And it's about saying, yeah, okay, cool. You can put yourself in back to back meetings, 11, 12, one, blah, blah. But actually where's your energy at? And are you planning to the clock or are you going to plan to your energy? And what I mean by that is exactly what you've just touched on. Like there's energy drainers and fillers. That's what I call them. basic terminology, but it does what it says in the tin. Like there's energy trainers and there's energy fillers in life. And some stuff's going to drain you and some stuff's going to fill you. And if you have too many energy drainers in one day, one week, one month, one year, you're going to end up like me and bankrupting yourself. So when you start looking at your calendar and going, well, I've got the time, but hang on a minute, how have I got the energy? It's suddenly a bit of a game changer. And then when you start looking a bit deeper and you're like, well, hang on a minute, Monday, bit of an energy drain day for whatever reason. Okay, well maybe try to make Tuesday a bit of an energy filler. And when you start understanding what tasks as well fill and drain you, that's so important as well because you wanna fill your life and your business with as much energy fillers as possible and everybody's different. So what fills me up might drain someone else. I quite like public speaking and stuff like that. But for some people that like, no, that's a drainer. So they would not want to fill their time with that. So we've got to learn in ourselves, in our business, like what's going to fill you up and what's going to drain you and actually try to gear your diary and your schedule to the fillers, like put as many fillers in your diary as possible, not just boom, 11, 10, you know, like this is happening and we just like cram our diaries. Do you know what though? I don't think anybody can ever really explain that to you as a person until you actually live it. And I don't know if listeners can really relate to that. When I was starting my business, someone could have said to me all they wanted, look, I really advise that you don't plan your diary by filling it with lots of meetings. And my response to them would be, well, I've got so much to do. I've got so many businesses. How else do I do it all? And it was only when I really burnt out and it was only when I really, when I just can't keep doing this, it's not sustainable. You know, we talk about sustainability. I'm like, you can do it for a couple of days, but you cannot keep going with it. And for me, I feel like nobody, I'm very stubborn as I'm sure most entrepreneurs are, and I feel like nobody could have told me how to do it until I experienced it for myself, and then I was able to tell myself, and I don't know if people relate to that one question I would ask you, Alice is It's very easy for us to sit here and say, you know, fill your day with energy fillers and fill your day with happiness and things. Let's face it, life isn't always like that. Sometimes, especially for example, I've talked to a lot of moms and dads who have got children, for example, full-time jobs, children, where do they find time for their entrepreneurial businesses? Where do they find time for themselves? Like, what would your advice be for people who don't have the luxury of time and don't have the luxury of... having all that energy for themselves, what can they do? Yeah, oh my gosh, such a good question because life isn't perfect and regardless of who you are, what you're doing, like your circumstances are never going to be perfect. So I think there's two main things I'd love for your listeners to realise and that first thing is like, look for the micro moments. And what I mean by that is it doesn't have to be all or nothing. I think we get very, very conditioned into we're either... working or we're not. We're either having fun or we're working or we're either resting or we're hustling. And actually, it doesn't have to be as clear as that. It can just be like these little micro-moments. So for example, if you've got a super busy day and it's flat out and you cannot shift the meetings, that happens. I have days, especially because I work weird hours and time zones because I'm currently living in Cambodia, but my clients are based in US, UK, Middle East. 5am start because I've got calls with the US and it's a 9, 10pm finish because I've got calls in the US. And you know, there's no, I'm not saying you can't do that, but on those kind of days, it's like, okay, well where are the little micro moments? Where are those little moments that I can catch a breath, do five minutes of meditation, make sure they've scheduled in a lunch break so that even if I'm like mega busy, I've got that time. And just look for those little moments that you can snatch to yourself. or to snatch to top up your energy. So if you're a busy mom and you're running around looking after the kids and it's half term and you're ready to like tear your hair out, I get that, but where are those little micro moments that you can have? You just save those little like five minutes of breath work or just you know a bit of journaling in the morning or whatever it is your energy filler. Like I think it's really important to look for those micro moments and that kind of leads me on to the second thing actually which is letting go of the perfectionism. and I am preaching to myself here as a recovering perfectionist, but I think we try to get everything so perfect, whether that's our calendars, our diaries, our lives, but actually sometimes we just need to let go and be okay with it not being this perfect life. And yeah, it is a little bit messy and a little bit whatever. And I kind of was joking to you earlier, like when we kind of rocked up for the like... the testing session and stuff and you know, I'm not 100% at the moment and I had to put this cape on me to cool my body temperature down. I was like, I know this looks really unprofessional but like with my wet cape but I was like, do you know what Alice, let the perfectionism go because the way to fit this in is to do that and you know, generally the other person doesn't care anyway. We get more caught up in our own heads about what we care about and that's so yeah, I would say just... let go of the perfectionism as well. we were talking about this, weren't we? Before we actually started recording the podcast, we were doing our little test run, which was hilarious because it was half working half not. And yeah, I think what we should all share with our listeners, because I think it's so incredible and it really shows you as a person is, number one, you live in Cambodia. So from a time element, talking about time management, I think we've done really well to get this podcast off the ground, number one. And number two, you recently found out you've actually got typhoid, don't you? I mean, that's insane. I know it's been saying that because I didn't even know that I've, well, I've got it right now because unfortunately the first round of antibiotics didn't work because I've got some kind of like super variant that is resistant to antibiotics so I'm still tyvoided and I don't know if that's a real word but yeah so but he's teaching me again about energy management because like I'm not well enough to not do stuff like I'm not bedridden, I'm not in hospital drip, you know, thank God. But I also know that I need to slow down at the moment. And I also know because I need to slow down, I need to be okay with letting some of that perfectionism shit go and I need to be okay with saying no and I need to be okay with cancelling things or rescheduling things and that I know that is so hard as a business owner and I know you'll understand that as well. Like it's so hard to just do that. But I think if that You mentioned a really beautiful word earlier, sustainability. You've got to think in your business, what is sustainable? And you know, if, if you keep going this pace, are you going to break? And if the answer is yes, then it's okay to slow down and it's okay to prioritize other stuff and prioritize your health or prioritize your family when you need and you know, sometimes you do need to let go of certain things in the business or being things being perfect and you know, shuffling stuff about that, that is okay. I think the best advice I can give to listeners who might be in a similar position to myself when I was starting out, so anyone who's starting out, the best advice I can give you is, I was in your shoes about a year ago where in your mindset, if you're the same as I was, you were so desperate to make it a success, you were so desperate to do well, so you automatically think to yourself in your brain, I must be working on my business every day, I must be doing something for my business every day, and if I stop doing something for my business every day, I'm failing. I feel guilty, how dare I sit down? If the business fails, it's all my fault because I'm not working hard enough. And what actually happens is, is you don't allow yourself to be in the correct frame of mind. And then what happened to me was, as I experienced really bad burnout and then I was really ill for at least a week. And that week that I was out, I was so frustrated with myself because then I physically couldn't work. If I had just taken things a little bit slower. and a little bit more thoughtful as I went through the process, I don't believe I'd have had that week off in bed where my body literally was screaming at me to stop. And you must, must listen to your body. So my advice to you guys, because I've literally been through it for the year is just slow and steady, slow and steady. Make sure you eat lunch, make sure you take those little micro, micro wins and, and you will feel better for it. And you are still pushing forward. don't feel guilty to have that time off would be my advice that I would give to any listener right now. Oh my God, I could not agree more with you. And I think as well, this has really helped me and this really helps my clients as well. Because one of the other things that I specialize in is mindset. And I love things like neuroscience and neuroplasticity and NLP. And for me, it was reframing it. So when I say time off, it makes me go, like how dare you, you don't, you can't have time off, you've got your empire to build and then like that guilt kicks in and you feel like it's not productive. When I started looking at things from an energy management perspective and I started reframing it as rest and recovery or rejuvenation or insert whatever other word you want to use, it made me feel like that time was valuable and that time was just as important. as the hustle time. So it's a bit like an athlete, you know, yes, they're pushing in the gym five days a week, but they make sure that they have rest and recovery days and the massages and the ice baths and stuff like that. That is just as bloody important as part of the training program. So when I started to reframe that in my head where I was like, yeah, I will hustle hard, I will be productive. And when I'm sat on my computer, I'm not sidetracked, I'm fully focused, but. I will pepper that in now with the rest of the recovery. The, you know, I'm fortunate of living in Cambodia, so enjoying the sun and chilling by the pool or whatever you deem as like rest and recovery. And now I see it more kind of like in the athlete terms where it's like, oh my God, this is just as important. This recuperation time is just as important as the hustle time because this is helping the hustle time. So I'm more focused and can show up better. And that reframe was a game changer for me. Like I wouldn't say I'm perfect. And sometimes that guilt creeps in. I definitely am going to be tested over the next three weeks. It's like I recover from this typhoid and I can hear that little niggity voice in my head being like, you should be working. And I'm going to have to like really test my mindset. But it has been a game changer, that reframe. I love that little impersonation that you just did. That was so funny. I loved it, I loved it, perfect. I would say that advice also I would give for somebody who maybe struggles like me to take time off, one thing that really helped me with my reframe is I actually diarized myself an hour of self care and I put it in the diary so that I had to do it because it was in my diary. Just like I have to do my meetings, just like I have to do my accounting, just like I have to do all my other things. Oh, self care, okay, I have to do this now. And don't get me wrong, for the first couple of times that I had to do it in my diary, I'm gonna be really honest with the listeners, maybe I only did it for 20 minutes rather than the hour. Maybe I only did it for half an hour. Maybe I felt really guilty the fact that I was even doing it at all. But you know what, the more you do it and the more consistent you are, you're like, yes, one hour of self care. What should I do? And that could be having a cup of tea. That could be being with your family. That could be watching a guilty programme that you love. My thing at the moment is Married at First Sight UK. Love it. Like I'm just gonna... There you go, we all have our guilty pleasure. Guys, please comment and tell us your guilty pleasure. We would love to know. And anybody who's watching Married at First Sight UK, let's chat because it's brilliant. absolutely and you know what I do and I've never done this before during that time and it's a new thing for me that I've only started about a month ago and it's a big thing for other people it might not be but for me it is I turn my phone over so I cannot hear my phone and I cannot see my phone and in that hour it does not matter what happens I will fix it in an hour it doesn't need to be fixed in that moment and for me that was a massive curveball in me and my because I used to be very reactive and I used to react to things and it had to be reacted to in that moment. Now, if somebody messages me or a tenant messages me, I'm like, you can wait an hour. I'm watching, uh, I'm watching Married at First Sight. Yeah, oh my god, that's such a good muscle to flex. And I think sometimes a lot of what we do, yeah, yeah. But I think a lot of what we do is reactionary. And let's be honest, 95% of what we do is habitual. We know that from studies. So ping, phone, pick it up, look at it, respond. That is just auto inbuilt in now. And I think we sometimes have to really force ourselves to be like, don't look at the phone. don't look at the phone, just be present and enjoy the crap TV or whatever it is you're indulging in or doing. And I think that being present bit is really critical for your time management, for your energy management, but as a business owner as well, I think that helps you be able to switch off and know your mode and know that you're still serving your clients or your tenants or whoever it is you need to serve, but also not break yourself because you're on demand 24-7. Exactly. And do you know what else I'd really love you to sort of touch on for our listeners would be I speak to quite a lot of mums for example. I'm not a mum myself so I take my hat off to mums, I really do and I've always said this, where they come to me and they say to me, I feel guilty when I'm working and I'm not giving my attention to the children and then I feel guilty when I'm giving all of my attention to the children and I'm not giving any attention to work. What would your advice be for the mums out there in that kind of guilty place of, well, where do I give my time to? Yeah, I think it goes back to that like being present and I call this like knowing your mode. So when you're in mummy mode, be in mummy mode, you know, that is your priority, that is your focus. And a bit like your example of like, the phone gets turned over in the hour that I'm watching Netflix, you know? Like know who you are at the moment, okay? So I'm mummy mode and we're baking cookies and it doesn't matter what's blowing up on my phone or in my inbox for that hour. Like I'm gonna be present and enjoy this. And then when you're in work mode, exactly the same. Like, okay, right, you know, I'm in work mode now, I'm gonna bash out an hour of X, Y, and Z, and just be present and focused. Because we spend so much of our time and energy worrying and thinking about the other thing. And if we directed that to the thing that we're actually meant to be doing, we'd probably get through the stuff quicker. And it's about that being present and knowing what mode you're in, but also planning it in. You know, plan that family time in. Plan your self-care and plan that workout in so you don't feel guilty going to the gym. Plan in the work that needs to be done. And again, I use myself as an example at the moment. I've had to push back loads of projects, cancel things. I rather than freak out about it, I'm trying to plan it in now so that I can go, well, do you know what? I don't have to freak out and worry about blah, blah not being done this week because I know I'm gonna scoop it up. Oh, there we go, Monday the 20th. I've already booked it in kind of thing. And I think that can really help. And this is kind of like where time management, energy management blends and works together because you want that like planner side of time management where you know what you're doing when you're doing it. But then helps you like be present. And I was actually having this conversation with my friend earlier where she suggested to hubby, like, you know, put the kids to bed. And she was like, right, you know, let's watch a film, it's Friday. Let's watch a film and have some wine. But then the guilt creeps in. So then she's kind of like on the phone, trying to do a couple of emails. And she was like... halfway into, like maybe half an hour into the film. And she was like, I don't know what is going on with this film when I've sent two emails. I've literally done both jobs, like a half hearted effort on both things. So it's like, actually if I'm just present on one or the other, it would be so much better. 100% and that's something that is so important for people to learn really early on and it took me about a year to learn that was if you try and do too many things at once, watch the movie, try and be the best girlfriend, try and be the best mom, whilst trying to be the best business person at the same time, you end up actually not being the best of either because you're not concentrating on the email and you're not concentrating on being the best person present in the room. And I speak a lot about... about this actually being present in the moment. It's a new thing that I'm really trying to get to grips with because I feel like for almost a year I haven't really been present in the moment, if I'm completely honest, and I've spoken to a lot of people about this. I feel like my brain space is always somewhere else when I'm speaking to people. It's either in the future, it's in the past, but it's very rarely over the last year been in the present moment of what I'm doing. For example, I could be having a Zoom or a meeting with somebody and I'm already thinking about what the next... what the next zoom is, what the next thing I have to do is. And I've almost had to rewire my brain to go, no, you have to be in the present moment because so many things can happen in your personal life, professional life where tomorrow literally might never come. And it's a really sort of somber thought but a very true thought. And so it's taken me a year, so I'm not perfect. It's taken me a whole year to do it. But I feel that if I could reach out to a listener and kind of just have a moment with them to say, Take my advice and just try it. Just try your hardest to be in the moment at any given time and keep it and make it habitual. Me and Sophie talk about habits all the time. We've done a whole podcast on atomic habits. It's a great podcast. If you haven't heard it, go listen to it and try and make it part of your habit to be more in that moment. So for me, my biggest thing, and you're probably seeing me on my Instagram all the time, go hashtag self-care because I'm really trying to push forward with that now. and it's actually making me better at my business and better at my job because I'm a happier person for it. And it's so important to reflect on that and to have those moments. And don't feel guilty and don't feel like, oh, I'm not having self care and therefore I'm a bad person and I'm not doing everything that the girls are telling me to do, so therefore I'm a bad person. No, just learn and grow and do what's right for you. Every single person is different and on their own journey. and don't worry about everybody else, just do what's right for you. And have those micro moments, even a cup of tea. You know, God almighty, I remember there was one time where I was, I had a cup of tea, but I was doing everything at the same time. And I remember saying to someone, I cannot remember the last time I finished a cup of tea. Because I was drinking it, but I was never finishing it. And I remember somebody came to my house and it was a friend of mine. And she said to me, you never finish a cup of tea. I said, what do you mean? She's like, every time I've seen you, you've never finished a cup of tea. And it really, really hit home. And I was like, wow. And so now I try and finish a cup of tea. Ha ha ha. I love that! Little wins, but they add up. That is good energy management. Good energy management. So I think it's great. And are there any sort of like tips and tricks you would give for, as I said, kind of just people starting out or maybe people looking to level up? How about this? Let's say that people are looking, who've been in it for a while, because we always talk about the starters, but what about people that have been in it for some time and they're now looking to grow their business? They're now looking to take it forward. They're now looking to employ people. They're now looking to take more opportunities on. What's your advice for them? God, yeah. If you're looking to grow and scale your business, you've got to be maybe even more diligent with your time and energy than the very start, because you're now looking after other people, your empires expanding. So I think the energy management thing is even more important, actually, when you're looking to grow and scale, it's important for everyone. But, you know, we often, as you say, neglect the people that are maybe, you know, growing. So I would say Look at, really look at your energy fillers and drainers, because if you are growing in scaling, number one, that is going to be so important as part of your strategy, but also you probably are going to have the privilege that you can probably get to the stage where you're delegating out the stuff that drains you. So I think it's Gay Hendricks talks about this in his book, The Big Leap. Yeah, The Big Leap. And he talks about the zones, the zones of genius. And he's like... you've got to operate in your zone of genius. And the way that I interpret that is, yeah, absolutely. We've all got areas where we excel at and where areas we don't. So actually focus on the areas that you're excelling. However, think about that from an energy management perspective as well. It's not just the areas that you excel, but the areas that fill you up. The more you do of those, the more that your cup is overflowing, the more you can give. The better you're going to be able to serve, the better your business is going to be. So if you're in a position where you're looking to scout and grow, look to do more of the fillers and less of the drainers. And that could be like getting an accountant, getting an admin assistant, or just saying no to those meetings that don't fill you up. Or maybe you can't say no, so you do half an hour instead of an hour or whatever it might be. And even if it's not business related and you just love walking the dog because being out in nature fills you up. prioritize that, make sure you go do that every day because that is going to be the thing that kind of lights you up and people don't necessarily make the connection between the personal and the business but it's integrated. You know your personal life is your business life and vice versa I think because if you're in your personal life filling up your cup and looking after your energy more and doing those fillers that's obviously going to overspill to your business. So I'd say absolutely even more so look at the energy drainers and fillers but then start getting rid of those drainers that aren't serving you or your business. Absolutely. And I think the advice I would also give, because I'm at a crossroads in my life, where it's a case of, because you're not quite where you want to be yet, from a financial point of view, you've got to be quite, you almost feel like a bit scared or a bit worried about, well, shall I hire someone? If I hire someone, it's gonna cost me money, whereas I could just do it myself. And I've got that dilemma at the moment. Do I outsource? Do I leverage? But what I realized was, well, if I was to leverage... this person, let's say I got a VA and I had to pay them X amount of money. Okay. That's X amount of money each month I've got to pay, but that means I'm not doing all of the drainers as you call them. The admin asks everything that I don't enjoy. What I'm doing instead is I'm working on growing the business, which is the bit that I do enjoy, which would then make me more money to therefore profit and be able to then pay for it. So it's a tricky one because I'm with, I'm with a lot of people on this where You have to think to yourself, well, do I risk it? Do I spend a bit of money and make less profit right now to get a team in place to be able to help me to grow? And it's a very scary thing to do. But if you do that, you then have more time to do the fillers and the more things that you love. And as a result of that, you work on the business instead of in the business. And I think that is a really good place to be where you learn about, well, okay, I have to invest this money. Yes, it will hurt for a little bit. but in the long term, it is the right thing to do. And I think that's a crossroads that a lot of people face when they're looking to grow their businesses. And it's quite a scary place to be, but if you can get it just to the right level, and then you can outsource the majority of the things, you can really take off from there. So that would be my advice for everyone is try and leverage and invest. agree with that totally. Yeah, perfect. I've loved today's session, Alice. It's been absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much. It's been great. You're welcome. One thing that we love to do on this podcast is we love to talk about our property disasters. Now this could either be literally something that's happened to you personally. This could be something from your past, something that's currently happening. Cause I know you're in Cambodia. So what would you like to share with us as a property disaster? Do you know what? This is a little known fact about me, but when I was younger, I actually was in property And one day I probably will return but yeah when I was younger I think I was about 19 and I was left a little pot of money from my great-granddad and I didn't know what to do with it. And For some reason my dad was like why don't you invest it in a flat and rent it out which at 19? I look back at that and I'm like, that's insane. But anyway, so we I did this with my dad and I had a flat in Sheffield. And unfortunately I had a tenant that would not move out. And yeah, unfortunately the tenant wouldn't move out. I couldn't get like any support from anyone to like deal with this tenant. And I remember going up to Sheffield. So I live in Kent. I was living in Kent in London at the time. So I had to get a train up to Sheffield. And I was going to, like, not obviously knock on her door, she'd been ignoring all my emails, she now owed me like 10 months of rent or something crazy. So I, yeah, 10 months, yeah, it was, it was insane. It took, in the end we ended up going to court and it took her like years to pay it off. But anyway, now for those of you that have never seen or met me, I am not the biggest person. I am about five foot three. Like I'm not tall, I'm not big, big gob, but not big body and I get off the station at Sheffield and there's two policemen waiting for me and they were like, are you Alistair? And I was like, yeah, who's asking? And they were like, yeah, we've got a complaint about you for harassment. I was like, what? And apparently I had been knocking on my... property door with a baseball bat threatening my tenant and which is what she told the police. So when the police rocked up and saw me and they were like, you're quite small, where's the baseball bat? And I was like, what is going on? It was absolute chaos. And then, yeah, at the time my dad was also working in the police. So they were like, we're going to call the police. And he was sort of like, I am, I am part of the police. It was just absolute disaster. But anyway, luckily it all got. sorted but yeah it was it was a really surreal experience to be kind of be met by some coppers and I was like no I don't know where that came from so she was that's some actual fabrication of me knocking down the door with a baseball bat and I was like I mean look at the size of me I'm not that big I could I don't know it was hilarious I'm going to say something really controversial, right? But why not? Let's just go for it. I think, so I, I know, I've got my own stories about this and I hear a lot of stories within the industry. I actually think that these, these people that do these things like calling the police on you and everything, it's almost genius in a way. Cause you think how creative, how creative, and I often think to myself, if the tenants were to just channel their energy of, of these creative ways of thinking, they could be fantastic. And I almost want to say to them, because I had it myself where I had a tenant who had three Rottweilers in my house. And it got to the point where she hid them in the shed. I talk about it on one of the podcasts, she hid them in the shed. And then the agent actually went around to my neighbors when a barf and was taking a video and said, I can see you putting the Rottweilers in the house. And she's on the phone to the agent, literally the agent looking at her. And she says, oh no, that's not me. That's my sister that you're looking at. As she's speaking on the phone, and I'm thinking to myself, that is so creative. So creative. And I always think to myself, how genius, you know? Or not genius, but I think if they just... They could channel that and be like the next J.K. Rowling or something, right? Yeah, exactly. I'm thinking to myself, how creative, why don't you channel that energy, pay your rent and do something great. So that's my thought of the day. Amazing. And Alice, if people want to find you on socials and things, where can everyone find you? Oh my god yeah, I always love it when people come say hi and if you've taken something from today that's resonated then yeah I would love to connect. I mainly hang out on Instagram I'm a visual girl so you can come find me there. It's just my name Alice underscore Darknull Also, I'm trying to get more involved in LinkedIn as well. So I do hang out there as well, but they're my two primary kind of social media channels, so yeah come say hi and obviously Anyone wants to find out a little bit more about me, come say hi on the website as well, alistartnall.com. I'm not going to lie, tech is not my favorite, it's an energy drainer. So the website does need a major revamp, I'm not going to lie. But yeah, come to social media for more up to date, nicer content and tips. Perfect, thanks so much. And if you want to find us, we are girls and property pods at gmail.com. If you want to email in anything, any questions you want us to get answered or any guests you want us to have on, but you can mainly find us on Instagram at girls in property. Best place to do is just DM us if you want to get in touch. And if you want to find me directly, I'm Athena Dobson, underscore official. Alice, thank you so much. You have been an amazing guest. I'm sure our listeners absolutely love the tips and tricks. Thank you, thank you. And have an amazing day. And I hope you feel better soon as well. Oh well thank you so much for having me lovely it's been an absolute blast I've loved it. pleasure. Speak to you soon guys. Bye. It's stopping.