The Tailoring Talk Magazine
Welcome to The Tailoring Talk Magazine: Your Stylish Guide to Business, Personal Development, Pop Culture, Fashion & Tech!
Tailoring Talk is the ultimate magazine-style podcast where we blend business, personal development, pop culture trends, fashion tips and the latest in technology—all delivered with a dash of style.
Hosted by Award-Winning Bespoke Tailor Roberto Revilla with co-hosts Jon Evans & Alex Hansford this show is designed for listeners who want to get ahead in various aspects of their lives.
Tailoring Talk is your go-to resource for stylish living, offering a diverse range of topics that you can dip in and out of, just like your favourite magazine. Whether you're looking to improve your business skills, develop personally, stay trendy, or simply enjoy some engaging content, there's something here for everyone.
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The Tailoring Talk Magazine
TT127 The Entrepreneur's Guide to Work-Life Balance with Karrington Warfield
Join me as I chat with Karrington Warfield, a distinguished author and event industry leader, about her journey from a small town to becoming a prominent figure in Georgia’s event planning scene.
We explore her passion for creating events, balancing entrepreneurship with family life, and the reality that perfection in business is an illusion.
Karrington shares insights on systemizing processes for efficiency and scaling, and we discuss mastering time management and maintaining flexibility.
Tune in for practical tips and wisdom for your entrepreneurial journey.
Enjoy!
Connect with Karrington and book a free strategy session at https://calendly.com/coachkarrington/eventstrategysession or head to her Instagram at @karringtonwar
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Edited & Produced by Roberto Revilla
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Email the show at tailoringtalkpodcast@gmail.com
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Credits
Tailoring Talk Intro and Outro Music by Wataboy / TVARI on Pixabay
Edited & Produced by Roberto Revilla
Connect with Roberto head to https://allmylinks.com/robertorevilla
Email the show at tailoringtalkpodcast@gmail.com
Welcome to the Tailoring Talk Show with your host, roberto Rivera. Bespoke tailor, mentor, designer and owner of Roberto Rivera London Custom Clothing and Footwear. I activate your superpowers for this clothing I create and the conversations on this podcast will meet self starters and creators to learn about their journeys, while they share valuable lessons to help you be the very best you can be. Please support the show by subscribing, and it helps so much if you take a few seconds to leave a rating and a review. Today's guest is the acclaimed co-author of your virtual events guide to creating an engaging experience. She is renowned in the event industry with features in Canvas and Speak-a-con magazines and is an executive contributor for Brains magazine. Known for her keynote at SuccessFest 21 and participating in panels like Black Woman Confidential and Success Woman on Fire. She's an avid reader, writer, traveler, plant-based designer and movie watcher. Currently residing in Georgia. She's here to help us decode that art of balancing untapped ownership and family life. Tatering Talkers, please welcome Carrington Moorfield to Tatering Talk, carrington, how are you Awesome?
Speaker 2:I'm great, Roberto, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're so welcome. Thank you so much for bringing your beautiful self and that beautiful accent to my show. I will probably drift off at various points as I close my eyes and just listen to that drawl because I love it. But you're not originally from Georgia, are you?
Speaker 2:No, I'm originally from Pennsylvania, western Pennsylvania. Amish country actually? Oh, really yes.
Speaker 1:So it's two people of color. There's another whole kind of sub-conversation that I want to get into, but it might not be quite appropriate for this platform. But yeah, what was that like? How old were you when you escaped?
Speaker 2:I was, I think, 24 years old when I moved to Georgia and just was ready to go like ripping, a small town. Amish country is a very, very small town, very rural area, but great place to grow up. Small town, everybody knows everybody. I was always the type I wanted to just kind of get out and see more. I was always a city girl and so I decided to move to Georgia years later.
Speaker 1:Now my brain is racing, carrington, I'm going to apologize to you upfront, but my mind wanders like crazy. And now I'm thinking about the US office. Right, okay, which is Scranton, pennsylvania, but then have you seen the American office? I have not. Oh, you haven't.
Speaker 1:No, Okay well, this all goes out the window. Anyway, there's a character played by um Brayne Wilson called Dwight Schultz and he's kind of Steve Carell's number two unofficial in the office and his family basically have that sort of typical Amish look to them. Okay, so where my brain is going is like okay, so the office is set in Scranton, but then whenever they take you to Dwight's family it's somewhere else, and I'm now wondering if that somewhere else is actually Amish country, because they never actually say that.
Speaker 2:but they're all wearing the kind of hats and the oh, and the long dresses and yeah, and the color of the beards and you know, it's all no technology and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:It was really weird or not weird, I'll say it was actually pretty cool growing up because you would be riding out. You'd be like riding out in the country. Sometimes you kind of take a back road to kind of maybe a little bit of traffic that we did get to avoid that, and or the scenic route and you would see them just kind of in their horse and buggy. They literally still ride in the horse and buggy and they chop at Walmart and all of that good stuff and they're very, very, really good carpenters.
Speaker 2:Very very good carpenters Totally.
Speaker 1:Must be so strange, though the same like really cool but strange at the same time, because almost like you kind of take a detour to get away from traffic and you're driving through the countryside and then all of a sudden you're seeing horse and carts and stuff and it's like you've literally gone through like a mini time warp or like a wormhole or something that's where in the space of time, of fabric. So you've gone back like 200 years and then when you pass by that community, then you're kind of back into the modern world again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they kind of stay to themselves, but they do offer contracting services. They do roofing, all of that stuff. So it's actually really cool when you think about it. We didn't really think about it as a kid, but as you get older you learn to appreciate those things.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, totally, and because they're kind of off the technology thing. At least you know when they're doing your roof that they're not kind of on Instagram or whatever.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Exactly Best contractors in the world. Anyway, we're not here to talk about the Irish community, we're here to talk about you, Carrington. So event space how did you get into that industry? So just give us a little bit of your origin story and how you kind of got into that space and got to be so renowned.
Speaker 2:Well, so it's funny is because I never set out to be an event planner that was something I never really even thought about and I was working at a job at a large corporation and they were hosting an event, or my manager was in charge of hosting an event and because I was his admin, he needed my assistance and I'd never done it before outside of a kid's birthday party or you know a birthday party, had never done anything like it. So it was very it was a challenge for me. I had to book the space you know, get people to respond or RSVP, all of that good stuff. So it was a challenge to me but I actually enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:One of the things that for me is that when you is like creating a from a blank canvas and then, after it's over, you get to see like what you were able to help create based on the ideas from the client, and so that's kind of how I fell into it. So after I did that first event, I really enjoyed it. I was like, hey, I could do this. And then I started applying to different positions. I ended up being in a marketing position. You do a ton of events in marketing, right? Because you work with sales. So I just the job just kind of started me on my journey to event planning at one job and then each individual job after that ended up with the event planning piece.
Speaker 1:Yeah, certainly, I'm thinking. I've got a friend who's in the corporate event planning space over here in the UK and I remember that whole industry just got knocked for six. When you know what happened a couple years ago, right, right. And then there was that move to virtual. From a human perspective, what was the difference that you saw over there?
Speaker 1:Because over here what clients would say to me is that they'd start to run virtual events, but then they found the engagement was quite a tricky one to navigate, because when you've got people who are physically at an event, they're in front of each other. You have to interact and you know, typically with events smaller events, I guess you have your kind of initial everybody turns up and there's tea and coffee, and then you're kind of doing the initial mixing and then you go into your breakout sessions and there's no real hiding at all, whereas in the virtual space, what I was starting to hear from clients is like I call them up and they go, oh, yeah, I'm running a virtual event and I say, oh, I'll give you a call back another time, and they say, no, it's fine, I'm on mute, okay. And then they would say, yeah, it's really, really difficult because we've got all of these attendees, but I know, out of 1000 people that are here virtually, that only maybe 25% of them are actually checked in Because you know people were doing the whole zoom thing, turning their screens off, going and walking the dog or doing whatever it was. He said what the point of what he was trying to tell me was that engagement is so much harder to achieve in a virtual space as opposed to when you're doing events physically. So for him he just could not wait for the whole world to come back to some sort of normality and just get people back together physically again.
Speaker 1:How was it for you all over there?
Speaker 2:Wow, that was a challenge. At the time I had a virtual event planning business with a friend of mine because we were like we wanted to start our own business Event planning. But at the time you know what, like we said, that all happened kind of suddenly, right, and so you kind of had to make a shift. A lot of businesses or entrepreneurs had to shift, and so that was why we came up with the book. We figured out different ways that you had to learn how to engage. So what you have to understand is that you can network right. You can network at virtual events.
Speaker 2:What we started doing was asking people to. When you're promoting it, I'll say this asking people to turn your cameras on right. And then you've got to engage and interact right. You've got to keep them engaged, ask questions, interact with them, allow them to ask questions, come off, mute and again, like I said, having your cameras on is important. Sometimes they can't. Sometimes people join because I've done it before where I'm literally driving, but I don't want to miss the information, but I usually log in and turn my camera on, but engagement is the important piece.
Speaker 2:Even the breakout rooms are really good. You can break out like you do at a regular event or in person event. Use that same thing in Zoom or a webinar. You can do the same thing and make the I think the the web app. I'm sorry, but the breakout rooms are good because it's a little bit more intimate and people don't feel as some people are a little bit more shy about speaking, so sometimes those are really good. But you can do the networking. You just have to know how to do it, right, yeah yeah, totally, I think preparation is obviously key as well.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:You know. So some of the best online virtual events that I went to did exactly that. You know, very, very engaging opening asked everybody to turn their cameras on, and then, when they kind of put people into breakout sessions, they'd actually pre-prepared based on who the guests were, so they kind of already had a loose idea of okay, well, you know, for this section, we're gonna send these people in to breakouts together and then, for this section, we're gonna send these people and we're very, very good at being very attentive as well and working out how they could kind of adjust and pivot throughout the entire virtual, and I think that's what really really also helps to providing a really good, engaging virtual experience.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And why am I telling you all of this? You're the expert. I am so sorry.
Speaker 2:No, I love it.
Speaker 1:And you can tell that if you put me in a breakout session with four other people, I'm gonna be the one that eventually, kind of you know, starts to take over.
Speaker 2:I'm the same way. Don't feel bad, I promise.
Speaker 1:Well, you just like you go into these breakout sessions, right. And then there's this moment, at the start of about 10 seconds, which feels like forever when it's like who's gonna?
Speaker 1:go first Right, and then for me, because I have ADHD and all the rest of it as well. So I'm like, right, okay, okay, right, someone's gonna do something here. Let's just take the bull by the horns and get this going Cool, and so writing the book. I'm glad you mentioned it. What was the experience of that like for you, and what was it like having a co-author to do it with, because you've never done anything like that before, right?
Speaker 2:No, not at all, not at all. But I know that the person that I wrote the book with she was my best friend or we're still best friends and we worked really well together but she's also a writer, so it's good to actually write with someone that I was actually written before. We were able to bounce things off of each other. We agreed on some things, we didn't, but it was never. It didn't really seem like a challenge. So we decided on some things that she was gonna write about, things that I was gonna write about. We would read each other, provide feedback, and then we just kind of went from there. So it was really an easy process for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no offense, and do you? So you're running your own business now.
Speaker 2:I am.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have quite a busy family life too, and you're very, very involved with your family. It's one of the things that you say when you're. One sheet is important because otherwise you wouldn't list it. What does family look like for you? Do you have children? Are they young? How busy is your household?
Speaker 2:You'll see what are going with this. I do. My children are adults now. We don't even live in the same state, but we do try to spend as much time as possible. We do family, we travel together.
Speaker 2:But for the trying to decide, or trying to work between working and having a business entrepreneurship it is very, very challenging and I would probably think that all entrepreneurs would tell you that it is not for the faint of heart. It's a lot, because I'm working a full-time job right Up until December 8th. So I'll be done with my full-time job on December 8th of this year. But working full-time it can get to be really, really hectic, because there's a lot of times when your full-time job is really, really challenging. You've had a really, really hard day and then you still have things that you need to do for your business.
Speaker 2:And I'll be honest, if I can be transparent, sometimes I just didn't have it in me to do anything right, whether send another email, read another email, but you've got to kind of push through. You really do. So. The balance for me, I'll say, was not always easy and I didn't always get it right. I think that was gonna help me is that I'll be done on December 8th. So I'm really, really excited about that, and so I think that kind of gave me the push that I needed to just keep moving forward right, to keep going to be working like diligently at what it is that I do every day, even if it's two things that I need to get done getting those things done and feeling like I've accomplished some things from my business, because to me my business is more important than working for somebody else.
Speaker 1:Sorry, no, of course it is. If not now, hopefully in time your business will be paying you more than somebody else is paying you too.
Speaker 1:So again we wait, two things up. So we both use the word balance a few times in the last couple of minutes and I remember quite a few episodes ago I was having this conversation with someone and I was trying to find an analogy for how I feel about balance and, having run my own business now for the best part of 12, 13 years and even before that, when I was working for other people, my role within that business I treated like it was my own. I come from a family of business starters, so I guess I've always had that kind of thing in me and what I was saying to them is for me, balance is like being on a seesaw.
Speaker 1:You can say if you have a seesaw and you have yourself on one side and a clone, an exact clone of yourself on the other, dressed exactly the same, exactly the same body, fat composition, everything like everything is the same. You've got the same weight on each end and then one of you kicks your legs off, like you remember when we were kids, you kick your legs off and then you get the seesaw going. Next person kicks their legs off, you go up and then you come back down and you do the same. Now, if you're trying to achieve balance. You've kind of got to get to about the same level at some point, and then you've got to try and hold it there Right, and you might be able to hold it there for a fraction of a second, but you're never going to be in perfect balance. One side's always going to be up, one side's always going to be down in life, and they're always going to oscillate like that too and fro.
Speaker 2:Oh, I agree with that for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, I think once you, if you agree with that concept, once you come to accept it, then the task of approaching how you bring some form of balance to your life doesn't become easier, but you can kind of start to approach it in a slightly different way. So, rather than trying to be balanced throughout all areas of your life, if you realize that you're always going to have one area that's going to be a little bit up, another that's going to be a little bit down, and then you've got three or four other things that are going to be exactly the same as well, you can then start to sort of maybe work out how you balance your energy into those different areas, because at some point, something that's up doesn't need your attention or your energy as much, but the thing that is kind of slipping and is a little bit down like doing the dishes or laundry, personal example right now is going to need a bit more of your time and your care and your attention and your energy.
Speaker 2:right, Does that make sense to?
Speaker 1:you and how do you manage to kind of approach everything that you've had going on in your life at one time or another and try to sort of balance things out?
Speaker 2:I had to realize that I'm only one person, right, we talked about, or you talked about, the cloning. Well, I'm not a clone, right, we're not clones. And so I've heard someone say that, you know, becoming successful, there are absolutely going to be things that are going to fall by the wayside, and you have to be okay with that. And I agree with what you're saying is that those things that are doing well right now okay, now you can take those and those are coasting right now. Right, and so the things that I've kind of dropped the ball on or dropping the ball on those are now the things that I need to focus on so I can get them to where they're coasting right. So it's always going to be something when you're juggling a bunch of different things. You're writing, you've got emails that need to go out, you're hosting an event, all of the things you can't do everything, right, and I'm a one person shopped right now, right, so I don't have a team, you know, and you host events.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you have to pay people to volunteer to help you, and that's what happens when you're a solopreneur. But you just kind of have to not beat yourself up and just understand do the best that you can do. Figure out what's the most important work on that, look over complicate things. You know, don't give yourself too much in one day. Right Every week to determine what's the most important work on those things and then the following week do the same thing and that's all you can do. And, like you said, you just have to realize that you're just one person and you can't do everything. Until you get this huge team and you become this huge, successful person. You've got this amazing, you know, successful company that's just not reality is an entrepreneur. You know that's starting out.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And even when you've got the quote unquote successful company, that's still a juggling act in itself, because I, one of my clients I was with recently their realtors, state agents we call them over here because we have to give everything a longer word or name and very, very successful local they're not national but very, very successful at a local level.
Speaker 1:And his head of sales quit all of a sudden after like 20 plus years or something.
Speaker 1:And then when he so suddenly he had to get involved with that side of the business and roll his sleeves up and kind of work out what was going on, and then he, it was like a whole Pandora's box, like so many things were not being done systems, processes that had failed months, if not years ago. It was fundamentally broken. And so the day I turn up at his office to, you know, pick out new clothes and stuff we spent the first kind of 20 minutes talking about all of that, and then I was able to at least act as a kind of sounding board for him to get it all out, and then, you know, maybe start to figure out how to start sorting that horrific mess out. And he's getting there. But again, it goes to show that even when you've got the big organization and you've got structures and departments and department managers and a finance team and this, and that you still someone has got to be keeping an overall eye on everything that's going on to make sure that you know there isn't.
Speaker 1:You know, while it looks sunny over here, it's not raining thunder down here, because then that leads to bigger issues as well. So yeah, it's. Wouldn't it just be easier if we all just won the lottery and then we didn't have to work?
Speaker 2:Wouldn't that be awesome, but for me you've got to play to win, so I don't even play the lottery. Me, neither Me neither you know.
Speaker 1:I always say because my wife was like we should play the lottery, so I don't even play the lottery and I'm just like listen, honey, the odds of the lottery. I've got more chance of actually just picking up the phone and making things happen in my business and making some money that way than wasting, you know, having many bucks a week on the lottery ticket Right Anyway it's a nice idea yeah.
Speaker 1:So again, I've gone off on a tangent, but so, where you were talking about being very aware that you're just one person, if you're a solopreneur, or what your limitations are, that brings to mind my favorite word at the moment, which is bandwidth. Now, us Brits are known for being very polite. We don't like offending people and, generally speaking, we will talk around the houses rather than just getting to the damn point. And bandwidth is my favorite word at the moment because I have very little bandwidth for much these days. So my favorite phrase is thank you, thanks for the opportunity, or I hear what you're saying you need, but I just don't have the bandwidth for that right now. And I'm becoming very, very aware of my limitations as our business grows, and so on.
Speaker 1:I was interviewing the Arte Chalet recently, who is based out in California. She started a photography syndication business which eventually got bought by Bill Gates, one of Bill Gates' companies. So she's done really, really well. She now spends her time doing what she loves doing. She's passionate about helping people entrepreneurs, et cetera grow their businesses. And she was saying and what the hell was she saying? Oh, yeah, she was saying On troffiners that make it, they get to a point where they maybe get to around $400,000, $500,000, $600,000 worth of revenue and then, if they don't have the systems and processes in place, to start to scale.
Speaker 1:Because that generally is the scale point where you kind of pivot from I'm running a business, I take everything, but now we're at that level where I need to flip the switch, I need to start building systems, processes in so I can replicate what I'm doing and bring other people in, start to scale and move to the next level, or they blow up because they don't figure that out, which is kind of the stage where we're at and where you will definitely get to for sure. But if I could do it all over again, I think, being aware of my limitations, our limitations, what we can actually feasibly take on, I think that's probably the biggest thing that I would want to know then at the start, then after 12, 13 years, oh, absolutely, I agree with that for sure.
Speaker 2:I've got this money that you said that about the bandwidth and the systems, is that because I'm a very, very new entrepreneur, new business? I hear people talk about systems all the time. I'm like what the crap is that? Right, I didn't understand what systems was. But it's funny is because I've got a webinar tonight that I'm joining, where I have a coach and she's got a huge program and one of the ladies that I've met at some of the events that our coach has hosted, she's about systems. So she's got a webinar tonight that I'm joining. Because my business is so new, I want to, at the ground floor, understand the systems, understand what it is that I need, because when you get there, I don't want to be trying to catch up, right, I don't want to catch up. I want to already have that ready when I get to the 400,000, 500,000, end up, right. So that's the goal.
Speaker 1:Oh no, absolutely no, and that's so a sensible sounds, so so pedantic a word to use. But I mean it is because you know, again, if I use one of my analogies, I'm very visual. So you imagine when your kids were younger, right? Yep, and they're easier to find things in their bedrooms when it's all organized, and if they keep it that way, that's not likely, no exactly.
Speaker 1:But what happens with most kids is that you kind of do the big tidy up at the weekend and by Wednesday if you're lucky, probably Monday bang right. And then they shout at you Right, where did you move this? What have you done with this? I can't find this Right. And your business is kind of that way. If you go in at the start, organize, work your processes out and so on and your, your systems and all of that stuff and almost kind of write the guidebook this is how my system runs and then you have that as something that evolves as you continue to develop and grow and things happen and change. When you do get to 10, 15 years down the line and you're a lot bigger, you've already done all of the work, it's all there. You're not in a situation that someone like me is in, where you've been running for 12 years, have been successful to a degree, but we've now got to really systemize everything that we do so we can then start to think about the next level.
Speaker 2:Right and it is what I was going to say. The good thing is that you realize that now, even though it was 12 or 13 years, don't beat yourself up Right, you don't know what you don't know Right. So at least you are now saying OK, before we go any further, I've got to get this done. This is important because we're obviously growing Right, and that's the great thing about having being an entrepreneur is that you can make adjustments as needed, when you want to and how often, or you know, whatever you're, you can afford to do Right, so I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly I was going to say because you get 12, 13 years down the line and it's like opening the door to a teenager's bedroom saying, hey, don't worry, honey, I'll tidy up for you. Oh, really, great Thanks. I'm going out like get out the door quick, slam. You open the door and it's like what the hell? I don't even know where to start with this. It's a lot, yeah.
Speaker 1:But the other thing as well is that it can, if you let it get so bad and you don't realize at the point probably where you need to kind of pivot change if you want to start skating to get to the next level, that can be a real problem and that can be a growth inhibitor, which is what I've also worked out recently as well.
Speaker 1:I'm just sharing this with you and everybody who's listening, because anyone who's at an early stage I don't want them to get into that mess at all. You got to, you know, you look at there's so many examples of people who've built amazing businesses, but you know, one of the best ones that I can think of right now are people like Ray Kroc. You know, with McDonald's, when he okay, he did what he did to the McDonald's brothers, but still, you know, he's systemized and took their process and made it replicatable, but very, very early, and that's how it became the success that it did. It is, and you know, I think, if we can all take lessons like that, even if we're not looking to achieve, you know, a multi-billion dollar, worldwide most recognized brand in the world type business, we're just doing what we're doing in our own little world. I still think the principle the lines Works. Yeah, the lines exactly.
Speaker 2:I love that and I love the transparency for you right, because we don't know everything you know. As an entrepreneur, you're constantly learning and one thing I would say is that it's important to invest in yourself. I do all the time. I can't tell you how much I've probably spent on myself investing in you know. We talked about systems. I used to be like what is systems? Like somebody explain that to me. It's just like automation calendars. You know your payment, payment outputs and all that stuff should be in place, but once you're starting out, you just don't know. You don't understand, and I didn't come from a family of entrepreneurs. The good thing is that you already kind of had that in you. That probably was already like generational for you. I'm starting from scratch, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's more the work ethic than anything. It's like you know, my parents didn't really teach me anything. They used to just put me to work all the damn time. Right, right.
Speaker 2:It helped?
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, it does help. I mean, that's what most entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, do they just work all the time. What ends up happening is that, you know, they thought they were leaving, whatever their job was, for whatever reason, sometimes for an easier life, and what happens is they just give themselves the same job, but it's just 200 times harder and they're doing 20 times the hours that they were doing before.
Speaker 2:And sure, they're probably earning more money, but they can't enjoy any of it Absolutely, because they're doing all the work.
Speaker 1:Exactly, which brings us back to balance again. So when you know you talk about kind of protecting time and so on, you know I would guess to. So let's go back to the book and use that as an example, if I may. When did you start writing that the two of you.
Speaker 2:I believe we started writing that in 20, maybe the end of 2020, going into 21. We do some research kind of work, some things on our own right, at our own events. So I think we started at the close to the end of 2020 and then finished it in 2021.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you had to get a book run whilst trying to keep business going in this kind of new world, but we didn't know how long it was going to last and how long we'd be stuck staring at each other down a camera. How did you discipline yourselves to make sure that you were getting everything that you needed done? Because that book, when it got written in how long it took 12 months, whatever. Unless there was something you were doing, both of you, to make sure that you were protecting the time that you needed for that project, as well as everything else you had going on in your lives.
Speaker 2:Well, I know my friend at the time was out of work, so that gave her a lot more extra time For myself I was still working a full-time job. But one thing about me is I'm a planner, and so it's important for me. In order to get things done, I have to kind of have my week figured out, and the great thing about it is when you already have your week planned out and you can make adjustments, because sometimes things come up you may need to go take your car to get maintenance, or you got a flat tire, and so something may kind of fall by the wayside. But I planned things out and so I had to actually take the time to plan a couple hours a day, whether it was research or maybe talking with her, getting some feedback from her. It was really just a planning piece for us, and her having the time when she was not working was nice too.
Speaker 1:It allowed her to have more time to dedicate so you, effectively, before the week starts, you know pretty much what your Monday to Sunday is going to look like.
Speaker 2:I do. I have a whole whiteboard that I figure.
Speaker 2:Usually on Sundays I'll go to church and then on Sundays that's kind of my chill day and that's my time to kind of figure out my week. Hey, what do I need to do? Okay, I have a masterclass coming up. I've got to get some emails out. I do a Facebook. I have a Facebook group Got to put that. You know I do that on Monday. I usually send something to them on Monday Some tips and tricks. I know that I like to write articles, or whatever I put in my Facebook group is usually what I share in LinkedIn. So those are things that I do weekly. And then you have some things that kind of come up that you don't do. That's not in the rotation, so I usually just plan the entire week out. It's funny because I have a whole whiteboard. It's like Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, sunday, so there's really no time off for an entrepreneur, to be honest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I love that. That's how I tend to work. The thing I struggle with I don't know if you do too, and if you don't, then tell me, and everybody else listening who struggles with the same thing, how to overcome it. But when things come up unexpectedly, no matter how well planned my week is, if something comes up it just seems to be like a good night in my schedule and so everything for the rest of that day just falls apart. I find it so, so hard when something comes up unexpectedly that has to be dealt with. If it's something that comes up and it's important, not urgent go away. But if it's something that is urgent and important and it has to be dealt with, I just find it just like a black hole for the rest of my day, sometimes even my week. How do you deal with those situations and make sure that you, kind of, are bringing yourself back on track with your plan?
Speaker 2:What I usually do is there may be two or three things that I didn't get an opportunity to get to, even if it's one thing, because it can kind of blow up and especially it depends on how long it takes to kind of finish that thing that came up unexpectedly.
Speaker 2:But even if it's one thing I can kind of get done, I do that, and then the things that I needed to get done on that particular day, I'll take those, and those will be two of the things that I do, one or two of the things that I do first the next day. So it's okay If something happens and you just don't even have the energy for it, it's okay because we know that you're working around the clock, right. So even if it just messes up your day usually not my entire week, but sometimes you just never know something could happen in the family, anything I usually just take whatever it was that I wasn't able to do that I know has to be done, and I move it to the next day or even the day after that and you just get back to it and, like you said, like we talked about earlier, don't beat yourself up. You're only one person. You can only do what you can do. Figure out the most important and go from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I love that. So I think again and you've said it a few times since we started chatting but it's realising that it's okay.
Speaker 2:It is. I used to beat myself up and guess what. I can't anymore, because it is what it is. I'm the boss and the CEO and the president and all of the things of my business, so I can make adjustments as needed and I know what needs to be done. So I'm not going to just if it's something that has to be done, it's going to get done. I know that, even if I have to stay up late and that's the great thing about not working anymore is that you can stay up a half the night and finish what it is that you need to finish but it's going to get done, I know it is. And then you know yourself right. You know that you're disciplined in some areas, some areas you may not be as good in, and those are things you maybe just need to work on. But again, we're only human. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I have this constant fight with myself because, as a creative, as a kind of business person, I have to make things happen. So if it's something that needs to be executed, I'm very, very fast. You know, I'm the person that jumps out of a plane without a parachute and then figures it out on the way down. I haven't physically actually done that yet. I hope not. Yeah. But then as a creative, when it comes to that side of what I have to do, I'm the complete opposite. It's so weird because, like the universe, everything has to be in balance before I actually then pull myself to whatever it is that needs to get done and then start doing it. Any of my clients listening now will realize that's why our lead times are what they are. It is just so strange.
Speaker 1:But I guess with the effectively, what you described was kind of time blocking. Right Is plan, block your time, work out what tasks you need to do through the week, allocate your time for them, get them in the calendar or the whiteboard or on your fridge or whatever it is that works for you, and then, when things do come up, either you say to yourself I'm going to put the extra hours in at the end of the day to get that done, so it doesn't come into the next day or, if you're okay with it running into the next day or to a different day. You literally just move your time blocks around a little bit to fit the thing in that wasn't able to get done and it's fine.
Speaker 2:There you go, because you're running the show, it's your show, you're running it, and so you can run it how you want, whatever works for you.
Speaker 1:Exactly Now, talking about running things. You are running a free masterclass on the 30th of November, Are you not?
Speaker 2:I am. So I'm hosting a free masterclass on Thursday, november 30th, at 7 pm Eastern Standard Time, and we'll be talking about event strategies. So we're going to be talking about things like showcasing your expertise, value add, fostering ongoing communication, things of that nature. So these are things that I encourage those that are hosting their own events.
Speaker 2:You don't necessarily have to be a planner to host your own events right, you just need to understand it's more to it than the logistics, which is the planning piece. So I see where a lot of times, there's a gap in that area, and so that's kind of where I like to come in and bridge the gap and teach people about some things that you should be doing pre post, some things you can actually do during your event, but you should be implementing them, and then all of them may not apply to you, but I think that there are some people that are implementing some of the things and some that they are not. So I do believe that there's some information that I can actually help you with that you can use and apply into your business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, perfect. And then for people to go check that out, I'll put the link in the show notes, but I just want to make sure I've got it right. Calendlycom forward slash coach Carrington. Forward slash event strategy session.
Speaker 2:That's a if you want to do a one on one with me like a consultation, but my free masterclass I have that if you go to the link in my bio and Instagram, you can click right on the link. It'll take you right to the registration page.
Speaker 1:Oh, perfect. What's your Instagram handle?
Speaker 2:My Instagram handle is Carrington or K-A-R-R-I-N-G-T-O-N-W-A-R.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow Cool, that sounds so powerful.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know what the wall stands for, but someone else might not. They might be like oh my God, this girl's getting ready to go to war. Exactly, go to war. There we go. But we didn't go to war, we had fun. I always ask everybody have you had fun today?
Speaker 2:I had an amazing time. It was so cool talking to you and you've got amazing style. I can definitely tell you're into the, into the. You know the styling and I love it. I've been looking for one of those jackets, by the way.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love the patches Elbow patches.
Speaker 2:Yes, I love those with a cute hat. I love it oh thank you.
Speaker 1:I was wearing my flat cap earlier and then I decided to take it off before I call because it's rude in front of a lady indoors, all of that stuff, right? I?
Speaker 2:love it and that's funny that you said that, because that's, I have the flat caps, but I'm looking for the patch blazer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know elbow patches. You can make out of anything.
Speaker 2:I'm not a sewer, that is not my ministry.
Speaker 1:You just get a piece of fabric and you know, get a template which you can make out of card or whatever and then sort of draw around on your fabric and then cut out your patch, and then you could always take it to a local alterations, tater or seamstress or whatever and just get them to put them onto your jackets for you.
Speaker 2:I didn't think about that. You know what I may just do that. I think that is so cute because I love it for guys, but I also like that look for women too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, I totally agree. Oh, thank you so much. It's been such a delight having you today.
Speaker 2:I really, really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thank you, and thank you so much for everything that you've taught us. So, yeah, and I wish you all the very best with your new business.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, december the eighth is party time, because that's when sorry, I hope Carrington's employer is not listening, but anyway, but yeah, but yeah, stay focused. And you've got I'm sure you've got your little process whiteboard and you're going to start.
Speaker 2:I do it's literally right here on the side of me.
Speaker 1:She's already started. Thank you so much, carrington, and thank you all so much for joining Carrington and I on this episode. Don't forget, tatering talk is on Instagram at tatering talk podcast, and you know I love feedback, so keep emailing me at tateringtalkpodcastcom. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review. You can also click the share button in your player to send this episode on to someone you know who might get some help or be inspired by what Carrington shared with us today. And if you enjoy tatering talk and want to support the show, you can do so at the link in the show notes. Have a great week, be good to each other and I will see you on the next one.
