We're all creative leaders. And as leaders, we struggle when the need to lead takes a break. So our brains fill that space with other things we should be doing. And we often feel lazy or afraid an opportunity is slipping away from us if we don't "take advantage of the downtime." Let's collectively say to hell with that. Join us with the 12 steps to relaxing over the holidays.
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Carl: Seriously? You didn't even let me start to tell you.
Gene: You can't do it.
Carl: And now that we're in the live episode, the audio, I can share it.
Gene: No, you can't. It's-
Carl: I can just say, go see it on your way home.
Gene: All though, we could officially go into the YouTube spoiler verse if you want-
Carl: No. No, no, no. But I'll also say, stay for the end credits because the very end credit is the ultimate tease.
Gene: Bro.
Carl: Oh my God.
Gene: Are you getting ready for the holidays?
Carl: Yeah, man. No.
Gene: I know. I feel the same way. I don't ...
Carl: Getting ready for the holidays means working harder, right?
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: And feeling bad you haven't got the lights on the house.
Gene: I haven't done that yet either.
Carl: Oh, dude. This happens every year. I should not try to get the lights on the house because it causes harm to somebody I love every time. This time, it was my poor mom having to go to the hospital the day I was going to put the lights on the house. And then that happens, and then we go out of town, and then we come back, and now there's a monsoon hitting the city.
Gene: Right, yeah.
Carl: Anything to keep me from getting up on the roof. And it's really ... It takes a couple of hours. I'm not Griswolding this thing.
Gene: Do you put lights on your roof?
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: Why?
Carl: That's a big deal. Everybody does that.
Gene: Mm-mm (negative). I don't do that.
Carl: Y'all don't do that? No. Well, y'all just shoot up fireworks or something. That's a South Carolina thing.
Gene: The roof on my house is very, very steep. I'd probably die, but I do put them on the front of the house.
Carl: Well ... Okay. I don't want you to die. So, but all of that said ... So, but. So a little but.
Gene: Okay.
Carl: That's disgusting. So, last week's newsletter was all about how to unwind over the holidays and I did some research on this because I am horrible at it. Are you good at not working?
Gene: Yes.
Carl: That explains a lot.
Gene: [crosstalk 00:02:49].
Carl: I'm good at worrying about not working.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: I had a post it note on my laptop for a while that said, "Worry and work both start the same, but end very differently." It was just ... Yeah. For example, this is how stupid things can be. Our front door, the latch was sticking.
Gene: Okay.
Carl: And it's been like that for three or four months.
Gene: Okay.
Carl: And today, as I was ... I mean, to the point where we're pricing out new doors, we're doing other stuff. Today, as I'm walking out, I grabbed a screw driver. I turned one screw just a little bit in on the deadbolt, I think it's fine. I sent a text to the family.
Gene: Fixed the door.
Carl: I sent a text to the family, "Hey, let me know if the door keeps sticking." Or I said, "Let me know when the door sticks on you next." Because if I say, if, then they'll be like, "It's still sticking." But if I say when, then they'll forget. Right?
Gene: Yeah, right.
Carl: But seriously, quarter turn one screw.
Gene: You're now a door expert.
Carl: Saved $3,500 bucks replacing front doors with one damn turn of a screw.
Gene: Wow.
Carl: But that's the kind of thing that I think we just wait to get these little things done.
Gene: Right.
Carl: And then, there's some sort of a trigger. I think the end of the year is this crazy trigger because in our brains, when a new calendar year rolls over, we're like, "I didn't do the thing."
Gene: Right, I've got to go do the things. It's like when-
Carl: I just went on a tirade, I apologize. Hopefully, the door's not sticking.
Gene: You didn't say MF'er.
Carl: Hey. Actually, that's my new sign off. Did you see that, that comment?
Gene: No.
Carl: Somebody said, "What a great sign off. Sorry for all the MF'ers everybody."
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: So now, that's my new sign off. I'm drinking my cup like this because there's a sticker on the bottom. Hold on, I'm going to just show you.
Gene: Doing the Trump.
Carl: Oh, God no. Ugh.
Gene: Remember how he used to drink-
Carl: Yeah, yeah. Just a little sip. But anyway, I researched how to unwind over the holidays. I read a-
Gene: You researched how to unwind.
Carl: I researched unwind because-
Gene: I think that statement explains the whole thing.
Carl: I'm the worst at it and I will constantly find myself trying to do one of the things or trying to, hey, it's quiet. I can make big plans now. Not that that's wrong, if it's what gets your jam going.
Gene: We've talked about this before with work-life balance.
Carl: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Gene: I think that's where a lot of the angst for people in these same issues come from, which is we're trying to find this balance between work and life. When we're at home, we're like I should be life'ing. I could be relaxing or whatever. I mean, for me, when I have ... You say, "Are you good at relaxing?" For me, relaxing is I write a blog post, or I'm researching something I'm interested in, or I'm upstairs designing a t-shirt for the gym because it's fun.
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: That's not really relaxing, I guess. I mean, I'm doing things on my computer or I'm creating things, but it's relaxing to me. It makes my mind ... It gives me that same, what is that serotonin? What is it your brain needs, dopamine, whatever? Gives me the same sort of thing that you need-
Carl: A massage. I need a brain massage. You're right, we've talked about this and what you just shared is really important. Work when you feel like working, life when you feel like life'ing. I love that you called it life'ing. That's a new one for me, but there is something to that, right? I think the difference is worrying about email when you're having family dinner.
Gene: Yes, there you go.
Carl: When you're having a holiday dinner and you're like, I should probably just check to make sure. That becomes a challenge. That's one of those things where if you have your phone out, and a lot of people have talked about this, but if you have your phone out, it's kind of like saying, Hey, there may be something more important than you-
Gene: Well, that's what it's saying.
Carl: If that thing comes up-
Gene: I'm going this way.
Carl: Then I need to deal with it. Anyway, I kind of created ... I did not call it 12 steps because I felt that would be not cool for people who are going through a different 12 step program.
Gene: I don't know.
Carl: One which I probably should have gone through a long time ago, but this was just giving myself a path to being chill for the holidays.
Gene: Okay. Give me the steps.
Carl: Okay, so first of all, get as much done as you can before the break.
Gene: Okay.
Carl: Define when the break is.
Gene: Okay, all right, cool.
Carl: The break, for me, is the end of day, Wednesday. I have got a list of things that have been bugging me for a few months that I haven't got done, that I know are taking up major head space.
Gene: Okay.
Carl: And I've prioritized based on what's taking up the most head space, versus even what could be the most revenue, or what could be the biggest profit for the company, or what could be the biggest benefit for the community, which sounds horrible. But if I am going to be the best I can be for the community, then I've got to give myself this permission to recharge over the break.
Gene: Okay.
Carl: What are the things that are taking up the most head space for me? And so, one of those is this idea of Bureau Insiders, right? It's this idea of EO and Vistage, but what would the Bureau do with it? I had committed to a group of really good people that I was going to move forward on this. And for the last few weeks, I've just been analysis paralysis, don't know how to move forward. And then yesterday I was like rip cord jumping out, here we go, we're going to make it happen.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: I think there's certain things that you can prioritize and say, "I'm going to get this done before the break." And you know what, here's the other thing. There's going to be a bunch of stuff you don't get done. Instead of just being bummed out about the shit you didn't get done, celebrate the stuff you did.
Gene: Right.
Carl: Right? Focus on that. I'm so excited that I got the Bureau Insider stuff out last week. I'm so excited about the newsletter today. It's going to talk about new things we're doing. Because one of the challenges for me is, knowing that five or six things that I'm going to try in the community, one of them is going to make a difference. And so if I'm really attached emotionally to one of them and it may fail, it can make it hard to push it out there because I get to live with it potentially succeeding until I put it out there.
Carl: Anyway, so that first step is just get as much done as you can, before the defined break that you make, and then celebrate that you got that stuff done.
Gene: Right.
Carl: You know? Do you have stuff that you're really focusing on? And I know you're kind of hemming and hawing on that one, but I think it's important because it leads into the others. Right?
Gene: No, absolutely I have things I need to get done. Yeah. I mean, there's things that I can't break until I get them done.
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: That's priority. I'm not ... Like you say, I'm not focusing on the things that I potentially won't be able to get to. I have to focus on this one thing. Anything else is gravy. You know?
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: I like that, I like reversing that and sort of celebrating, versus lamenting.
Carl: Well, you know and this is to-do list methodology. But for me, also especially as we get close to the holidays, I stop having a half dozen things on a day list. I just put one thing.
Gene: Yeah, yeah.
Carl: Like this is it. Right?
Gene: Right.
Carl: And then, there'll be secondary email or whatever, making sure you keep the flow going for other people.
Gene: Right.
Carl: If you're an inbox zero person, like I am, it's like oh, even if I have to defer it to some other time. But so then the second step is, the stuff you didn't get done, schedule it for when you get back. Go ahead, put it in your calendar, put it in your to-do list, whatever. Don't let it drag from day-to-day.
Gene: Right.
Carl: Go ahead and put that ... I've got it scheduled for that first week of January when we come back. When I get done tomorrow, anything that's still on that list, which I think I'll be pretty good, because I was pretty aggressive in strategizing what makes sense now and what's going to be fine then. The other thing is, for me, the community will go on break, but there'll still be people who show up.
Gene: Right.
Carl: And so even with me and Lori, it's like there's certain parts of the Bureau that are manual. When somebody becomes a member, that's a very manual process. Another part of things that you can't turn off, that you have to do, depending on who you are, share that responsibility. Lori is going to be checking every other day and I'll check the day she doesn't.
Gene: Okay.
Carl: And then that way ... And maybe that's not the right way to do it. I need to talk to her because thinking about it now, it means that none of us actually get multiple days off. So maybe, she could take up to Christmas, and I can take up to New Year's, or something like that. But we talked about it yesterday where, we'll each just circle once a day. And basically, if somebody becomes a new member, we don't want them to pay the money, and get there, and sit there. Right?
Gene: Yeah, wait until January. Right.
Carl: Yeah, so anyway, that's definitely a big part, is scheduling that week-
Gene: I like that.
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: Because it also gives you this mental, I don't want to say break, but you're putting it on a shelf, where you're like, I've recognized that this stuff needs to get done. I'm going to put it here until I can get to it. It's not like shit floating around, like, I don't know what I've got to do with this stuff. You've at least thought through it. You put it here. It's there when I get back. You know it's there.
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: You can think about it being there when you get back, and not like, what all is there to do when I get back?
Carl: And it actually, I don't want to say tricks your brain, but it gives your brain confidence that you have taken care of that thing.
Gene: Yeah, your word.
Carl: Because what causes ... What leaves that open loop in your brain, is when you haven't captured the thing, and it doesn't want you to forget.
Gene: That's right.
Carl: If you can capture it and say, "It's scheduled for then." Cool, right?
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: The third one, after you do that ... Now, you have to do this in advance. I just put it down here because it felt a little bit less than a priority, is that clients know you're gone. Let them know a couple of weeks out, "Hey, as of this date, we will be very slow to respond to anything." But also, give them an emergency email.
Carl: This was something that we did. We've got a help @, at the Bureau email. Nobody really uses it too much, but I think if clients have that ... But it has to be a real emergency.
Gene: Right.
Carl: It has to be an emergency as we define it, not as you define it.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: And we would even put that in our pre-holiday emails and say, "This is an emergency. The site is down. This is an emergency."
Gene: Is it really?
Carl: "The e-com shopping cart is not closing."
Gene: Broken.
Carl: Yeah, it's broken. It has to be a functional block for it to be something.
Gene: Right.
Carl: Now, there's one exception. I'll tell you the story of BUBBA burgers.
Gene: I wanted to hear this story.
Carl: We had landed BUBBA burgers, which I think they're national. I'm not even sure if they're around anymore, honestly. I'm sure they are-
Gene: No, they are. They absolutely are.
Carl: In your grocer's freezer.
Gene: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Carl: But part of BUBBA burger's whole thing was, they're flash frozen. They quickly go to negative infinity degrees. On Christmas Eve, I get an email that I didn't know about because I wasn't checking email, but then I get a phone call and it's from the president of BUBBA burgers. I'm like, is the site down? So I go in, no the site is up. I'm like, what's happening?
Carl: And so, anyway, I checked the message. Mad cow disease had become a national story earlier that day and they were talking about how to be very careful over the holidays of eating beef because of mad cow disease. Now, BUBBA burgers, because of the flash frozen process, it kills anything.
Gene: Gotcha.
Carl: Even if there was mad cow disease in those burgers, the flash frozen, according to them, come at me, kills it. They were like, "We need a quick message on the homepage that addresses this issue."
Gene: Right.
Carl: The thing was, it was a flash site. There was no content management system. There was no way they could do anything.
Gene: Yeah, we're not-
Carl: I remember we broke the no work rule for them because this was potentially a lot of lost revenue. But here's the other thing, how many people are really going to the website? I mean, I love them and I appreciate the money-
Gene: BUBBA burgers website on Christmas.
Carl: But do you go to the BUBBA burger's website when you're in the grocery and go, "I wonder if?" Yeah, so maybe we shouldn't have, but we allowed it. Have you ever had a case like that there, where something was just ... Uh-oh.
Gene: I'm having trouble remembering. I'm sure I have because it all just blends together after a while. Those are like ... The me, of now, would totally not answer that phone call.
Carl: I know, man. You were one of the best at just being like, "Hey, your emergency, not my emergency." I've seen you do it at events. I've seen you do it all over the place, where you're just like, "Wow, I hope that works out for him."
Gene: You make me sound like a-
Carl: You just move on. No, dude. It's like it zen as anything.
Gene: You've got to ... I used to not be like that-
Carl: I'm not cussing.
Gene: I don't know how many ... I mean, we talked about this before, but I don't know how many vacations I've spent three or four nights in a row staying up till two in the morning, working on bullshit, and waking up early to take phone calls. I'm just over it, man.
Carl: Oh, yeah.
Gene: I mean, I will help you-
Carl: Your family knows. When you go to the bathroom the fourth time, they know you're doing emails stuff.
Gene: Yeah. You just have to be like, "Hey, I'm going to go work in the basement or whatever for a little while."
Carl: Yeah. I just got to do this for a little while.
Gene: Yeah, just got to ... It's fucking important. But that sucks, man.
Carl: So anyway, let them know way in advance, remind them-
Gene: But that's an interesting story about the mad cow. I don't have anything mad cow.
Carl: Yeah, but also, if you give them some sort of an emergency number or email, and define what an emergency is ... Now, you have to have a good relationship with your clients. I've never heard of anybody losing a client because of this because here's the thing, they're supposed be doing their holiday stuff too.
Gene: I know that some people are worried about doing that sort of thing. I know that for a fact, because I used to be that way, but I've talked to people here at the co-work. They're worried about putting that signature on their email or setting up that auto out of office thing.
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: They're worried about telling their clients, "Well, I won't be around for three or four days." Because they're scared their client will go, "Well, I'll just find someone to do it while you're out." They're scared to lose the client, but-
Carl: That's a whole other episode.
Gene: It is, but I think this one in particular, we can say, "It's okay. They won't leave."
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: You'll be okay.
Carl: I mean, and even if you want to put in there the importance of recharging so that when you come back, you can do better work, whatever. Make it real to you and that relationship.
Gene: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Right.
Carl: And this, I think this next one, step four, if you're playing at home, planned time to worry about stuff. Put in your calendar, "Tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM, I am going to worry about stuff and I am going to make a list to capture it."
Gene: I've heard Pomodoro technique. Is this the Worrydoro technique?
Carl: It's the Worrydoro technique because the thing is, if you schedule time to worry, you probably won't do it. I mean, honestly, you're just going to be like-
Gene: No. You're going to worry about the time you're spending worrying.
Carl: For me, honestly, I have set aside time Thursday around 3:00, because I'm supposed to take off on Wednesday, but Thursday is not technically the holidays. I know my brain is going to be like I could just do this, I could just do that.
Carl: And to your point, if it's something I want to do, and there's not a family thing that I'm missing, if you have your own space and you just want to do something, but also don't trigger other people to work. Make sure it is something that is contained because if your team sees you in slack or they see an email or whatever, then you're a problem.
Gene: Yeah, you're creating issues.
Carl: You don't want that. But to that step, of just schedule time to worry. Again, your brain will be like, "Well, we're going to worry tomorrow." I know this sounds ridiculous, but it works.
Gene: Look. I mean, write those emails, just schedule them for Monday.
Carl: Yeah, yeah. Or write them and keep them in draft mode.
Gene: Yeah, whatever you do, I use the Google Schedule thing like a fiend.
Carl: Yeah, yeah.
Gene: Just do it, schedule it for Monday. I mean, if you can't resist, don't send your people emails over Christmas.
Carl: Okay. Step five, actually schedule your holiday activities. Put them in your calendar.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: Tonight, we're going to have dinner with the family.
Gene: Sure.
Carl: Tomorrow morning, I need to wrap those presents before everybody wakes up, because I'm a lazy bastard and I haven't done it yet. Fill your to-do list like you normally would, but make it with family stuff. Make it with holiday stuff. Make it with, this morning I'm going to sleep in until 10:00. I put it in the calendar. Right? Whatever.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: If you're into certain types, like if you're a runner, or maybe you love chess, or whatever it is, whatever your thing is ... Today, I've put down four hours to binge watch Ted Lasso because I'm sick of everybody talking about it. Speaking of which, the new Spiderman movie, okay moving on. Schedule those holiday activities.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: Schedule them. Make that your new job for the time. I think that's important. And then if you're going to worry about something, worry that you're not going to have room for that second helping of whatever, horrible dessert somebody brought over. I don't know.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: Six, take time to just think about the year. This is one thing I do. Every year I get a new journal in January. I know not everybody journals, but you could do it a lot of different ways. Actually, go back and read. I won't read the whole thing because I journal every day and it's like five or six pages, but I'll just go back through and skim it, and remember different things from the year.
Gene: Wow, yeah.
Carl: The thing that's amazing to me about it, is it reminds me of when I was really down. I may find a section where something was really wrong.
Gene: Right.
Carl: I can go, wow, I really recovered from that.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: Or maybe there's something amazing that happened and I'm like, wow, this year wasn't so bad. But I think taking the time to just go back and reflect, is pretty cool.
Gene: Yeah. I dig that. I dig that. Hopefully, you do that more than once a year.
Carl: Yeah. I mean, I don't really with the journal. It's become a thing for me.
Gene: Okay.
Carl: Right after Christmas, on the 26th, that's normally when I'll go in and look at it. But then, you're going to have gaps, so step seven, fill gaps over the downtime with personal stuff.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: Go for a walk, see a movie, read a book, go see Spiderman because you need to.
Gene: Couldn't stop it.
Carl: I can't. I can't stop it. I'm so excited. So anyway, yeah, step seven. Where you have those gaps, just fill it with something that you want to do personally. You know, transitioning your PS4 to your PS5. That's on my list. Got to bring that stuff over.
Gene: Rub it in.
Carl: That's pretty cool. Yeah. Backing up all of your family's phones for the new phones that are coming in. Figuring out how to download a draft on TikTok for your daughter who has 900 of them, and they don't transition over, and they don't want it to be a manual process.
Carl: Yeah, step eight, phone a friend who's struggling with not working.
Gene: That's a good one.
Carl: Right?
Gene: I mean, the holidays are a great time to reach out to someone who you haven't spoken to in a long time.
Carl: I think that's so true-
Gene: [crosstalk 00:24:03].
Carl: And there's a lot ... Go ahead.
Gene: No, I was going to say-
Carl: No, this is what podcasting is. We don't interrupt each other.
Gene: No. It's a good time. I mean-
Carl: I want to hear what you have to say.
Gene: Sometimes ... I'm done, goodbye.
Carl: Seriously. No, come on. Don't end our relationship like that.
Gene: No, I mean, you could reach out to that ... I mean, I've got a couple friends that I haven't spoken to in probably three or four years. Just it happens, man. People get busy, you fall out of sync with each other, and it's that time to do that.
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: You might not be able to go visit them or something, you know?
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: Phone call is great.
Carl: Yeah. Another way to do that, is just cut and paste a text that says-
Gene: Oh, man. Yeah!
Carl: "Hey, just been a long time. Was thinking about you. Hope you're having a good holiday."
Gene: Yeah. Yeah.
Carl: And just scroll your old texts and when you see a name that makes you smile-
Gene: Boom.
Carl: Send it to them. Right?
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: Let that start to fill some of the gap, is just remembering people that have just fallen off your world, but you absolutely loved. I think that's really important.
Carl: But the phone a friend one, step eight, who's struggling not working, commit to not working together, that's like a gym thing. Right?
Gene: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Carl: That's like when you sign up for the gym with a friend and you don't want to let the friend down, so checking in with each other and just saying, "Just making sure you're not working."
Gene: Yeah. Hey, I mean it's important.
Carl: "But if you are working, hey share with me what you're working on. What is it that got you excited?"
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: Making time, like I mentioned, knock out some of those home improvement projects.
Gene: Turn that screw, hinge-
Carl: Right or whatever it might be or passion project, right?
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: But yeah, quarter inch turn, dude. Literally, took longer to find the screwdriver than it did to turn the screw.
Gene: Sometimes, that's all it takes.
Carl: Let's see what happens next.
Gene: Hey.
Carl: Step 10, I think is super important, and that's just take a tech detox. When you ... For me and Lori, I know the days she's going to be covering, which means checking in once just to see. The only thing that's going to be qualified for work, is a new member.
Gene: Right.
Carl: New member comes in and just saying, "Hey, we're out for the holidays. We wanted to go ahead and get you in slack and say welcome. We'll be back in touch on January 3rd."
Carl: Outside of that, when you know you've got a few days, turn shit off.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: Turn shit off. And the other thing that's amazing about that, is how slow a day actually takes. 25 hours is a long time, especially if you're up that whole time, that would be ridiculous. Let's just say 14 hours is a long time, 16 hours is a long time.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: And if you fill it with reading, or hanging out with loved ones, or whatever instead of technology ... Does the PS5 count? I guess it ... Does it? Maybe just disconnect from the internet.
Gene: Depends on the game.
Carl: Which that would be connected to. But no, but seriously, do a mini tech detox.
Gene: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Carl: You know?
Gene: Or just ... I mean, you're talking about PS5 or whatever. I mean, a lot of times when you say detox from technology or whatever, you really mean social media detox.
Carl: I mean anything that's-
Gene: Unplug from news, from Facebook, from InstaFace. Just unplug yourself-
Carl: Anything that pulls you into the internet.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: Anything that pulls your brain put of the reality you're in right now, that pulls you out of your present location and present space, into a world that somebody else is controlling.
Gene: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Carl: I know this is kind of weird, but for me, getting the PS5 set up, I know that I'm going to back to playing Resident Evil Villages with my daughters and that, to me, doesn't feel like a necessary tech detox. I'm sure psychologists would say, "Actually."
Gene: No, whatever-
Carl: But for me-
Gene: You're doing something with your family though.
Carl: Yeah. Family that plays together stays together. This is-
Gene: Invaluable.
Carl: We've always played games together, so it wouldn't be like that for me, but it would be putting my phone somewhere where I'm not going to see it and making sure.
Gene: Right.
Carl: I don't do alerts to my watch anyway, but making sure. And also at the same time I'm doing the tech detox, not getting upset with my family who's not. Right?
Gene: Right.
Carl: Make sure that you're not expecting other people to do that.
Gene: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Carl: But just like you did with your clients, I think it's important for you to let family members know. I'll let my siblings know and my mom know, "Hey, over the next two days, I am not going to be online, but mom I'll come see you in person." I think that's just as important, so they don't worry what's going on.
Gene: Yeah, why didn't he respond-
Carl: Why haven't I heard? There are no auto responders for texts that allow you to say, "I'm taking two days off." Right?
Gene: There should be.
Carl: Yeah. We're almost there, Gene. We're on step 11.
Gene: I'm on pins and needles.
Carl: Step 11, hang out with people you love or family. It's either of those two, is fine.
Gene: I like it.
Carl: I did put it that way and then I put, "Kidding. I kid." But no, I think it's important. For example, I would gladly spend some time with you over the holiday.
Gene: Aw.
Carl: You're one of those people in my life that I feel like I can share anything with. I've got a handful of those people.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: But also, my family. We've been through a lot this year. A lot of people have been through a lot and I think it's important to spend that time playing board games, doing whatever that just helps you laugh.
Gene: Yep, whatever it is your family does.
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: Yeah, that's important. Damn. Yeah, that's a deep cut.
Carl: And then number 12, you earned this.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: It's only two weeks or for me, it's only a week and a half. Or for some people, it's only a week, or for some people it's just Christmas Eve and then because it falls Saturday, Christmas falls on a Saturday and it's New Years Eve. For some people, it's just a couple of segments, but even then, the rest of their world is going to get really quiet.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: I think it's just important to realize you fucking earned this. You deserve this.
Gene: Enjoy it.
Carl: Yeah. Don't feel bad for being human and needing to recharge.
Gene: Everybody needs a break, man.
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: I think we need to get comfortable with saying, "Hey, I need a break. I need some time away from this crap."
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: It's okay.
Carl: Well, totally. And you know, this was one of the big things at Owner Camp in Palm Springs, was just this concept that as owners of web shops, we are doing so much to try to protect the mental health of the team, but we're not taking our own medicine. This is a perfect opportunity, when the whole world is going to get quiet, for you to give yourself permission not to worry.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: Not to work, but just to recharge. And to your part, Gene, I think you made a huge point at the beginning, maybe it's writing. Maybe it's writing something that will later be a blog post. Maybe it's something that you have not had the time to get out and you needed a full day, or a several days, or whatever. Maybe it's, as silly as it sounds for me, one of the things I've been excited about over the break, and this may sound like being a hypocrite to some people, I'm excited about doing some projections. Like, if we do this, what would that look like in 2022?
Gene: Right.
Carl: Because you know what? That's just going to make future Carl really happy, that current Carl did something like that. Again, not in place of being present with my family, but when my family decides, the girls decide, "Hey we're going to go see our friends and have a Christmas with them." And my wife's like, "I'm just going to lay down, this was exhausting." And I'm just sitting out there with the dogs-
Gene: Yep, trying to find something to spin your brain on.
Carl: You know what? I may open a Google Sheet and start just popping in some numbers, but that will be something that's fun and relaxing for me, not something like ... I don't know. I don't really do work, Gene.
Gene: Well, there you go.
Carl: Can we edit that out, where I was struggling to think about what the thing was that I do. I think that would not be good-
Gene: What do you do every day? Going to do that.
Carl: I'm going to stop doing the thing I should be doing, that I don't do anyway.
Gene: Well, there you go.
Carl: Yeah. There you go. It's probably the 100 plus emails a day. That's probably the thing.
Gene: That's most of it.
Carl: Now, I'm being defensive against myself. This is the thing not to do. Dammit, can we postpone the holidays? I need time to regroup?
Gene: Yeah. That's a really good list, man.
Carl: Yeah. I heard back from a lot of people. A lot of people said they shared it with their team and I think that's important. As an owner, if you have not necessarily this list, but just a way to share with your team, this is why it's important, these are the things to do for yourself, I think that sends a really great message. But then also< you got to believe it and you got to do it too.
Gene: Yeah. Man, good stuff.
Carl: All right, brother. Happy holidays. Are we releasing this on Friday, which would be Christmas Eve?
Gene: Yeah. What do you want to do?
Carl: I say we just put it out there.
Gene: I mean, for all those people whose downtime is spent with us on our show, all me and you of them-
Carl: Yeah, get a life.
Gene: [crosstalk 00:33:57].
Carl: No. There you go. All right, everybody happy holidays. Gene, love and respect, my friend.
Gene: You too, man.
Carl: Namaste or whatever that is.
Gene: Yeah, namaste.
Carl: And we'll see you on the other side.
Gene: Happy stuff.
