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Ryan & Becca are back to chat about Becca's next challenge as she's made her way back east for the summer. She's planning ahead for diving head first into online teaching in clay. It's not something too foreign for her, but she's been planning for months (maybe even years) to get to this point. There's a lot of unknowns still, but the plan is set in motion. Ryan also shares a bit about a new throwing challenge he's started the past few weeks.Listener QuestionsOn this episode:-  Hi Ryan and Becca! I have tried to get an answer to this question and apparently am struggling. I want to make some olla pots (bury them in the garden, fill them with water that slowly leaks through to water plants) but no clay store near me sells terracotta. I have found a clay with an absorption of 22% at cone 2 though. My question is: does absorption equal porosity if I don't glaze it? THANK YOU!!!! @mspiveyceramicsSend us questions so we can answer anything you've been thinking about on a future episode. Send those through Instagram @wheeltalkpodcast or email us at wheeltalkpodcast@gmail.com.SponsorsL&L Kilns - The durable kiln that potters trust to fire evenly & consistently. Find your L&L kiln at hotkilns.comSupport the show on Patreon for as little as $3 per month: https://patreon.com/WheeltalkpodcastFollow us on Instagram:@wheeltalkpodcast@rdceramics@5linespotteryVisit our website:www.wheeltalkpotcast.comWheel Talk YouTube ChannelSupport the Show.

This week, what's holding you back from becoming better at managing your time and ultimately being more productive? You can subscribe to this podcast on: Podbean | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | TUNEIN Links: Email Me | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Linkedin   The CP Learning Centre Membership Programme The Working With… Weekly Newsletter The FREE Beginners Guide To Building Your Own COD System Carl Pullein Learning Centre Carl's YouTube Channel Carl Pullein Coaching Programmes The Working With… Podcast Previous episodes page Hello, and welcome to episode 295 of the Working With Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host for this show. A lot of getting better with your time management and being more productive is finding ways to do your work more effectively and quicker. I was reminded of that last weekend when the McLaren Formula One team broke the world record for a pit stop. They managed to change four tired in 1.8 seconds. Think about that for a moment. In the time it takes you to pick up your coffee cup, take a sip and put it back on the table, the McLaren pitstop crew will have taken four tires off and put four new ones on.  How did they do that? Well, it's more than just practising. Of course, practising will play a large part in it, but it will start with someone breaking down the process and looking for better and faster ways to do each part.  Now, how much of the work you do is similar in nature? My guess is it will be 80 to 90%. You may not think so, but if you are a salesperson, there is a process to selling. If you are a doctor, there is a process for diagnosing a patient, and if you are a designer, there will be a process you follow to create your designs.  Now, each customer, patient and design will be different, but how you begin and do your work will be the same steps.  It's here where you will discover ways to do your work more efficiently, and that leads to you having more time for other things and giving you a wealth of information you can use to make your processes better and faster. That's how McLaren broke the world pitstop record, and it's how you can save yourself a lot more time.  Now, before I get into the details, let me hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week's question.  This week's question comes from Ryan. Ryan asks, hi Carl, I've been following you for a long time now, and I've always wanted to ask you, how do you become more efficient at getting your work done? Hi Ryan, Thank you for your question. One of the things I've always found fascinating is observing how skilled, productive people get their work done. That could be an author, a bricklayer or a Formula One Mechanic. There's an art to doing our work; it's how we become better and how we master the skills we have.  I feel so fortunate that I have been able to work for large and small companies. To watch brilliant people do their work. I remember working in a very fancy restaurant many years ago as the bar manager, and each day, I got to see one of the UK's top chefs do his work. The food he created was exquisite, and how he created it was simply brilliant.  I got to see how he chose ingredients, how he experimented with ideas and how he designed the food he served to customers. It was an obsessive attention to detail, breaking down the ingredients, creating the recipes and workflows to cooking the food and ensuring the standards were always maintained.  Three or four times a year, he would change the menus, and the process (there's that word again) of changing the menus was followed each time. He learned the process from his mentor, and he passed it on to the chefs he was mentoring.  One thing I noticed was none of them ever considered it as a project. It was simply a process. When the season began to change, there was a week when the kitchen team disappeared in the afternoons and tested, experimented and appeared to have a lot of fun. It was hard work; these chefs were starting early and finishing late, but at the end of the week, there was a finished new menu.  Today, I will consume as many videos and articles as I can find on how successful people do their work. These people are successful because of what they do, and I want to know how they do it. How did they learn their skills, and more importantly, what do they do each day to master their skills?  So, Ryan, a lot of my ideas have come from other people.  One thing that stands out about highly efficient people is they are incredibly strict about how they use their time. They say “no” far more than “yes”, and rather than accept a meeting request, will challenge the host to justify their presence (even if it's their boss) Most people will not do that. They are afraid to challenge and question. There seems to be a preference to complain rather than take action.  This is about knowing the value of your time. This was probably the hardest thing to learn. Once you know the value of your time and that one day, you will no longer have any time left, you start to realise all those yeses need to mean something important.  The most productive people I have learned about, both historical and contemporary, have something in common. They value their solitude. They will lock themselves away for several hours a day to do their work without distractions. I found it interesting that Jeffrey Archer, the author, will not have a phone or computer in his writing room. He writes by hand. Similarly, John Grisham's writing room has no internet or telephone. The thinking is writing time is sacred, and nothing should be allowed to interrupt that.  How could you better protect your time? You don't have to be extreme. You only need to find an hour or two each day. Could you do that?  However, one other way I can improve the way I work is not to be afraid to experiment. It's through experimentation that I learn what works and what does not.  My email process was developed ten years ago. I was getting thirty to fifty emails a day, and it was becoming overwhelming. I needed a better way to manage it all. So, I did some research, tested a few different approaches, and eventually, Inbox Zero 2.0 was born. It's simple, fast and has meant email is never overwhelming. Today, I get around 120 to 150 emails a day, and it's never a problem.  But that did not happen overnight. It took many months of practice, evolution and adjustments. It also meant I had to stick to a single email app. The only way this would work is the tools I used needed to be consistent.  Think about it for a moment: would McLaren have been able to break the world record for pitstops if they were constantly changing the equipment? No chance. The wheel gun operator knows their wheel gun intimately. They've used it thousands of times, and they have a feel for it. They know how to micro-adjust it so it hits the mark perfectly.  This is the same thing with your tools. You need to get a “feel” for them. To understand them inside out so when things go wrong, and they will go wrong, you can fix the problem in minutes instead of wasting a whole day searching around on YouTube or Google trying to figure out how to fix the problem.  Ultimately, it all comes back to processes. As I mentioned earlier, the vast majority of what you day at work will be a process, not a project. The key is to find that process, externalise it by writing out the steps and then looking at each one to see where you can do it better.  One key part of this is timing. For me, I am at my most creative in the mornings. I've tried doing creative work in the afternoons and struggled. I also find I am creative in the evenings too. Armed with this information, has meant I can structure my day to optimise my effectiveness.  It turns out most people are at their most creative in the mornings; it's when your brain is at its freshest. So, spending all morning dealing with email and sitting in meetings is such a waste of your creative energy. Far better to push meetings and email writing until the afternoons when that little extra stimulation from other people can help you push through the afternoon slump.  And then there are the three unsung heroes of productivity—sleep, diet and movement. If you think you are going to be productive on two and a half hours of sleep, you're fooling yourself. You will not be. Likewise, if your lunches are a feat of carbohydrates, you've just destroyed your afternoon. You'll spend all afternoon struggling to keep your eyes open. And if you rarely move from your seat, all your blood will drain to your feet, and you'll run out of creative energy. (Not really, but it will feel like that). You need enough sleep, a low-carbohydrate diet and movement. Even walking up the stairs once or twice between sessions of work will do wonders for your productivity. You don't need to go to the gym or out for a run. You just need to move.  And that's really about it, Ryan. A willingness to experiment, defaulting to finding the process rather than thinking everything is a project. Figuring out where I can make those processes more efficient and making sure I know the tools I use inside out.  Everything productive people do is doable by you. It's not easy, but it's simple. Avoiding distractions, protecting your time and getting very good at saying “no”.  Plus, understanding your own biorhythms. When are you at your most productive, and when not? Then, structure your day around your most focused times. Make it easy for yourself rather than fighting between wanting to check Instagram and doing the focused work you know you need to do.  And trust me, if you take a stand on your time and challenge people to justify “stealing” your time, they will fall into line—even your boss! I hope that helps, Ryan and thank you for your question.  Thank you to you, too, for listening; it just remains for me now to wish you all a very, very productive week.   

Ryan and Becca compare various ways of teaching: in-person and virtually. They have both taught in community studios settings in-person and virtually on various topics. Enjoy the discussion and let us know how you prefer to teach.Upcoming Workshops from Ryan/BeccaThrowing Efficiency with Becca - Sept 25thJewelry Making with Becca - Sept 27thCincinnati Coffee Festival - Oct 21-22ResourcesGet Business Insurance - SBAListener QuestionsOn this episode:- Hi Ryan and Becca, love the show, especially the banter at the beginning. You recently had a person on the show talking about the business side of stuff, which was great and got me thinking of other things I don't normally think of, particularly insurance. I know you have discussed a little about ACT insurance for shows. Have you guys discussed studio insurance? I just recently reached out to car and apartment insurance agent. I'm trying to figure out coverage and is the amount worth spending per year. Any of your thoughts would be great. Thank you so much and keep up the great work!! @portzpotterySend us questions so we can answer anything you've been thinking about on a future episode. Send those through Instagram @wheeltalkpodcast or email us at wheeltalkpodcast@gmail.com.Sponsors - L&L KilnsThe durable kiln that potters trust to fire evenly & consistently. Find your L&L kiln at hotkilns.comSupport the show on Patreon for as little as $3 per month: https://patreon.com/WheeltalkpodcastFollow us on Instagram:@wheeltalkpodcast@rdceramics@5linespotteryVisit our website:www.wheeltalkpotcast.comWheel Talk YouTube ChannelSupport the show

Wir haben einen neuen Defensive Coordinator und Dominik hat sich ihn ein wenig genauer angeschaut. Weiter werden wir uns über die Erweiterung des Cap Space unterhalten und schon mal vorab die 16,6 Millionen Dollar für Terry ausgeben. Wir widmen uns auch wieder der NFC South und natürlich schauen wir auch kurz auf das Champion Game Weekend.

This week, we're looking at the unsexy part of becoming more productive and better with our time management. You can subscribe to this podcast on: Podbean | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | TUNEIN Links: Email Me | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Linkedin Email Mastery Course The Time Blocking Course The Working With… Weekly Newsletter The Time And Life Mastery Course The FREE Beginners Guide To Building Your Own COD System Carl Pullein Learning Centre Carl's YouTube Channel Carl Pullein Coaching Programmes The Working With… Podcast Previous episodes page   Episode 254 | Script Hello and welcome to episode 254 of the Working With Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein and I am your host for this show. Now, most people in the time management and productivity field, such as myself, will generally talk about systems, routines and applications. And while these do have an important place in the helping us be more productive, there are three other parts to the productivity equation rarely talked about and often overlooked.  What are those?  They are Sleep, exercise and diet.  For many people, these three elements are elephants in their otherwise well-ordered life. You know, deep down, if you are not getting sufficient sleep, not getting outside and moving, and eating highly processed and unnatural foods, you are destroying your ability to focus, concentrate and ultimately that effects your overall output. (Not to mention what these will do to your long-term health) And I am not just talking about work output. If you are constantly tired and unable to concentrate, that's going to have negative effects on your family life. You will be too tired for quality time with your kids and partner, and that poor diet and lack of sleep will adversely affect your mood when you do have time for your family life.  We have a lot to look at here so, let me hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week's question. This week's question comes from Ryan. Ryan asks: Hi Carl, I've been so busy at work this year that when I get home all I want to do is crash on the sofa and do nothing. I end up watching TV or watching YouTube videos until very late and then not getting enough sleep. I know I should spend some time planning my day and doing some exercise, but I just don't have the energy. How do you fit in time for exercise and planning?  Hi Ryan, thank you for your question.  This is a problem I know many people face. Planning the day at the end of the day when you're tired and just want to do nothing because you are exhausted. It's not going to be something high on your list of priorities.  Let's be honest, we can all operate a reasonably productive day without doing daily planning. For most people, this is how they have operated for years without any immediate adverse effects. However, a question I would ask is without following a few simple daily practices, how are things turning out?  If you are stressed out, anxious and exhausted at the end of your working day, is that a good thing? Is that how you want to feel at the end the of the day?  So, what can we do? Well, this is what I mentioned at the beginning of this episode. While new systems and apps are exciting, and the sexy part of productivity and time management, these things will only go so far. No new app or system will change the work you still have to do. Just because a task is in Things 3 instead of Todoist, won't change the fact that the task still needs doing.  No app is going to plan the day for you—even with machine learning or artificial intelligence. Only you, as an individual knows what's important to you. I find it interesting that Outlook Calendar's AI will fill your blank times with work, never tell you to call your partner, or go for a walk.  Now, I've been studying productivity and time management long enough to know that it's never the case of not having time. You have time. You have more than enough time to fit everything in. The real reason you “feel” you don't have time is you have not prioritised what's important to you.  But, let's step back a little and look at the three absolute basics of being more productive. Let's start with sleep. When you get sufficient amount sleep, you are more awake, more creative and focused. Those three on their own will give you a far more productive day than being half asleep, and distracted.  I did a little experiment earlier this year. I spent a week surviving on four and half hours sleep each day. That week was a complete disaster for my overall productivity. Work that I was normally able to easily get done in a week, was a struggle. In fact, I had to give up trying to do some of the work I wanted to do.  By the end of that week, I had a backlog. I NEVER have backlogs. I was too tired to clear my actionable email each day. I became irritable towards the end of the week, and I started craving sugary snacks after only two days.  By the end of the week, I was exhausted. My exercise was terrible. Even taking my dog for a work became a chore—something I normally love doing.  Now, I've never been a good sleeper. But The lessons I learned from that little experiment got me serious about my sleep. I will cancel meetings and appointments now if I need to, to ensure I get my minimum number of hours (six and half).  So, Ryan, my first tip is sort your sleep out. If you don't know how much sleep you need, do an experiment over the end of year break and sleep with no alarm for seven days. Make a note of how many hours sleep you get each night and average it out. That will tell you how much sleep you naturally need. We are all different here.  From my experiment during my last break, I discovered I actually need an average of 7 hours 20 minutes. I'm not there yet. As I say, I have a minimum of 6 ½ hours, but next year I will work towards moving that to the seven hours twenty minutes.  I would strongly recommend to all of you that you read Matthew Walker's book, Why We Sleep. That will change your whole thinking about sleep.  Just getting enough sleep each day will radically improve your overall productivity as well as your mood, so you are a lot more attentive to the people you care about.  Now, what about exercise? Now here's the problem with exercise. A lot of people hate exercise. Possibly because how they were introduced to exercise at school has left a scar that still lives with them today. Yet exercise is essential for productivity. However, to get the benefit of exercise, you do not need to go to a gym or out running. Really, what is meant by “exercise” is movement. We need to move.  It's interesting that when Apple were developing the Apple Watch, the two key parts to their exercise app were number of “active” minutes and the number of times you stood up per day. They even put a target on these: Thirty minutes of activity and standing twelve times per day. The standing metric was measured by making sure you stood at least once for sixty seconds or more every hour or so.  So, what is involved in movement or activity. Well, a thirty minute intentional walk would do. But you can go further. Stop using lifts (or elevators as they are called in North America) and escalators. Reintroduce yourself to stairs. The stairs are a great source for getting the blood flowing and improving your focus and productivity.  Even if you have a disability and are unable to walk unaided, any kind of activity you can do that will raise your heart rate counts as exercise. A non-motorised wheel chair gives you wonderful opportunities to move with your upper body for example.  One tip I learned from a preventative medicine doctor (Dr Mark Hyman) is to get yourself outside and walk for twenty minutes after a meal. That movement will prevent your blood sugar levels from spiking after a meal and help you to avoid the ‘afternoon slump' that affects so many people.  Seventy years ago, it would have been very hard to find a gym. Lifting weights was an exclusive and minority sport and unless you were into body building—a sport most people had never heard of back then—your only introduction to a gymnasium was at school and most people treated those as a wicket form of torture netted out my evil PE teachers. Why were gyms so rare back then? Well, that's because we moved a lot more and never needed them. There wasn't the convenience we have today. Escalators were rare, very few people had TVs in their home (and those that did had to keep getting up to change channel) and if someone called you, you again had to get up, go to the hall and answer the phone.  There was no home delivery pizza or other convenience foods, so we had to cook. Our whole lives were based around movement.  Today, it's perfectly normal for many people to get home, sit down on the sofa and not move again until they head off to bed four or five hours later. They left their home, walked the three metres to their car, drove to the office, parked in the car park, walked the five metres to the lifts, got to their desks, and spend the next eight or nine hours sat down. Then repeated the homeward journey, to spend the evening sat on a sofa.  Is it any wonder in the developed world over 60% of people are dangerously overweight and suffering from some form of preventable cardiovascular disease? And that leads me to the final piece in the mix. Diet.  Yes, convenience food is often delicious. It's also quick and can fill a hole instantly. You would think if all I have to do is order something through an app, have it delivered to my door within thirty minutes that would allow me more time to get more stuff done.  Well, no. The majority of food we eat today is highly processed, full of sugar and is not satiating. It leaves you craving more which has disastrous effects on your blood sugars. This then leads to spikes in your insulin levels and if repeated over a long period of time will result in you becoming pre-diabetic or full blown diabetic.  And diabetes is not a disease you want. It's linked to the increasing numbers of dementia, not to mention the likelihood of limb amputations, irreversible heart disease and kidney failure. You really do not want to develop this horrible disease.  The effects of all that sugar and highly processed food on your productivity is devastating. It's what leaves you feeing hungry mid-morning, sleepy in the afternoon and exhausted in the evenings. You're not in the mood to focus your attention on anything. This is why we are so easily distracted by email, messages and our co-workers gossiping.  The trouble is most people are in denial about the state of their diet. They think the problem is they have too much work, they are overwhelmed or their systems are a mess (so they need to find a new app).  No. If you're not getting enough sleep or exercise and your diet is a disaster zone, that is the reason why you are stressed out, overwhelmed and tired all the time. It's not your work or the things you have to do.  Now, as we come towards the end of the year, my advice is start with these three unsexy parts of the productivity mix. Make a commitment to yourself to start moving and sleeping more and sort out your diet.  As I mentioned before read Matthew Walker's Why We Sleep book. In addition, I would recommend Dr Mark Hyman's Pecan Diet book as well as Dr David Perlmutter's Drop Acid.  Once you've read those three books read Dr Jason Fung's Obesity Code.  If you commit to reading those four books over the end of year break, you will furnish yourself with the knowledge to make better choices about how and when to sleep as well as what to eat. They will dramatically change your life.  Making changes in these three areas of your life: your sleep, movement and diet will have a profound impact on your energy levels through the day which will impact the quality and quantity not only on what you do last work, but with your relationships with the people that matter most to you.  Plus, of course, you will significantly reduce your risk of developing debilitating lifestyle diseases that will ultimately prevent you from living the life you have always dreamed of.  Thank you, Ryan, for you question. And thank you to you too for listening. It just remains for me now to wish you all a very very productive week.   

Ryan is back, but he is also gone. Enjoy us simply talk. that's it, we explore the meaning of language, specifically curse words and why they are a thing. Enjoy.   Shambam website: https://www.shambampod.com Shambam insta: @shambampod HMU if you want to hear a topic brought up in the next episode! Want to be featured in an episode? DM or Email me and we can talk details!

On this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy and Smart Podcast, I welcome Ryan Estis on the show to discuss excellence in business. Ryan Estis has more than 20 years of experience as a top-performing sales professional and leader. As the former chief strategy officer for the McCann Worldgroup advertising agency, he brings a fresh perspective to business events. As a keynote speaker, Ryan is known for his innovative ideas on leading change, improving sales effectiveness and preparing for the future of work. In this episode, we discuss: -Three actionable tips to constantly reinvent your business -How to stay relevant and achieve excellence with changing customer expectations -Four key practices you should adopt to thrive and avoid stagnation -Why you need to reframe problems in order to produce lifetime customers -And so much more! Resources: Ryan Estis Website Ryan Estis Facebook Ryan Estis LinkedIn Ryan Estis Twitter Ryan Estis Instagram   For more information on Ryan: Ryan Estis has more than 20 years of experience as a top-performing sales professional and leader. As the former chief strategy officer for the McCann Worldgroup advertising agency, he brings a fresh perspective to business events. As a keynote speaker, Ryan is known for his innovative ideas on leading change, improving sales effectiveness and preparing for the future of work. He was recently recognized as one of “the best keynote speakers ever heard” by Meetings & Conventions magazine alongside Tony Robbins, Bill Gates, Colin Powell and Mike Ditka. Ryan delivers keynote speeches, courses and online learning with an emphasis on actionable content designed to elevate business performance. His curriculum emphasizes emerging trends influencing leadership effectiveness, sales performance and customer experience. Ryan helps participants prepare to thrive in today’s ultra-competitive, hyper-connected business environment. Ryan supports the world’s leading brands, including AT&T, Motorola, MasterCard, Adobe, MassMutual, the National Basketball Association, the Mayo Clinic, Honeywell, Thomson Reuters, Ernst & Young, Lowes and Prudential. Ryan and his team publish original research featuring client case studies to expand the live event experience. He is also the author of a popular blog on business performance. His writing has been featured in Inc., Forbes, Entrepreneur, FastCompany, SmartBrief, Business News Network, Crain’s Business, and Yahoo Business.   Read the full transcript below: Karen Litzy:                   00:01                Hi Ryan, welcome to the podcast. I'm excited to have you on. So thank you so much for joining me. Ryan Estis:                    00:07                Thanks Karen. It’s great to be here. Karen Litzy:                   00:09                Yes. And so like I mentioned in the introduction, Ryan was one of the keynote speakers this year at the private practice section annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. And I really loved the keynote, which is why I reached out to you. I took action now like you suggested and we'll get into that as part of my tan plan. We'll get into that a little later. I reached out to you via social media. And so here we are, but I have to say I really enjoyed the keynote and yeah, and it took a really like emotional interesting turn in the middle and I feel like in speaking with other participants that was unexpected and welcomed and really got people to sort of grab onto your words and take it to the end. So well done from a speech blueprint standpoint. Ryan Estis:                    01:06                Well I appreciate it, you know, and I think an experience like that a little more emotional resonance is a good thing because I think that helps. Helps the tan plan, which I know we're going to talk about get a lot of attention. So that's always the goal. Karen Litzy:                   01:20                Yeah, it was great. So thanks so much for that. But now let's let the listeners who weren't at PPS get a little bit more information from you. A little taste of that keynote. And one of the things that you know we were kind of talking about before we went on the air is at the private practice section. There are a lot of small business owners, a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of my audience are yes, maybe work in healthcare but are also entrepreneurs. And we were talking about kind of customer expectations and how those expectations has changed over maybe the past couple of years. You probably have better research than I do on this, but can you talk a little bit about customer expectations and how they are kind of changing the small business or entrepreneurial landscape? Ryan Estis:                    02:09                Right. Well, customer expectations are skyrocketing. They're changing fast because the world around us is changing so fast. I mean, I'm actually sitting at home right now and you know, when we get off this podcast I can turn to my lap and say, Alexa, paper towels and then an hour paper towels are at my front door. And that experience and experiences like those are elevating my expectations of everything. So as a consumer, I have a whole new set of standards with respect to customization, personalization of efficiency, expertise, sense of urgency and how I spend my time. And for those small business owners and entrepreneurs that are astute, aware of that and have evolving their customer experience to meet customers where they are, the future looks pretty bright. Karen Litzy:                   03:03                And let's say, okay, we'll take me as an example. So I'm a small business owner and I really liked the way my business is running. I'm successful, I've been in business for 10 years. If it ain't broke, why fix it? So what kind of advice would you give to me? Ryan Estis:                    03:23                I'd have some real thoughts about that. I would say if it ain't broke, it's the perfect time to break it because success breeds complacency. And complacency is the ultimate recipe for disruption. And the reality is for so many small businesses and small business owners, they don't change until there's a crisis, or they're experiencing some significant pain. And so, at that threshold, it's too late and you're on the verge of losing market share and getting commoditized, having your margin squeeze. And I know this from personal experience, if you remember from the keynote, my opening story was about exiting the advertising agency I worked for. And the reality of that situation is we had just deep pockets of resistance to change. You know, we wanted to kind of continue to do what we've always done, follow the playbook. And when the world around you changes and the marketplace changes, that's just such a recipe for disruption. And so having lived through that, I vowed personally, I am never going to experience that pain again. So the mindset of a small business owner today has to be continuous reinvention. Change is no longer an event. It's simply a way of existing. If you want to reign, remain relevant, thrive into the future. Karen Litzy:                   04:51                And can you give some examples of maybe what you do with your own business to constantly reinvent? Because I feel like we can say you need to constantly reinvent and I feel listeners out there going, okay, great. Well what does that mean? Ryan Estis:                    05:07                Yeah, yeah. So I'll get real, real specifics. Because here's the reality. If things are going pretty well and like the scenario you outlined, I had my business for 10 years, it's going well and I'm just going to continue to do what I'm doing. I don't see a real need or I have an appetite for change. And when things are going well that's true because change is uncomfortable. But, I've forced myself to get uncomfortable because that's where I'm evolving, stretched and growing. So we'll see a few things that I do. Three things, three very specific actionable tips. I am always in my business conducting what I refer to as three little experiments. I could be experimenting with my marketing on partnership, new software and the goal of the experiment isn't necessarily to have wild success. Ryan Estis:                    06:03                The goal of the experiment is to learn and iterate forwards. So I'm trying new things that I think could help our business. And a part of that is it puts me in a position where I'm expanding my knowledge, acquiring new skills, getting education feedback, and then pantsing the business forward. So I would say some successes iterative, but you want to get out of your comfort zone and into the learning lane. So we have three very specific experiments that we're running in our business right now and there are tasks and we're getting feedback and evolving as a result. So that's one thing that I do. A second thing that I just really encourage or recommend is that in addition to working in your business, like you do, like probably a lot of your listeners do, and I do as a practitioner and a small business owner, you have to make time to work on yourself and on your business. Ryan Estis:                    06:59                So for me, we just came out of a two and a half day meeting that I refer to as our 2020 growth summit. So this is literally shutting down emails, shutting down the phones, two and a half days with my team and some of our partners. There were eight of us attending in a room for two days with a very buttoned up agenda talking about the future of our organization. And you know, we're tearing apart the business and challenging ourselves to think about growth into the future. What are our priorities, budget assessment, looking back, looking forward recommendations, competitive intelligence, I mean all of it. So you know, that type of time kind of out of the business to working on that I think is imperative to having kind of a good solid plan and direction ahead. So that's a second recommendation is make you know, take time out to strategically work on your business. Ryan Estis:                    08:03                Well, the third recommendation I have, and this is something I may have talked about it in the keynote, but I'm a big fan for small business owners of having what I refer to as a personal board of directors. And I have eight people that I've invited formerly this, that on my board of directors. And I invited people that I had a relationship with. I have a lot of trust and respect for their opinion or what they were doing say in their specific area of expertise. And the invitations were fairly informal, but what it's done is it's given me access to these eight people who have competency and skills perhaps to shore up some of my gaps. And I am able at inflection points when facing a critical decision or a juncture or I'm considering making an investment. Ryan Estis:                    08:58                I had a group of people that, you know, I can reach out to and schedule a time with to use as a sounding board. And I think entrepreneurship at times can be very isolating. And you know, you feel you can get to a point where you feel like you're making decisions in a vacuum. And having an advisory board is moonshine option and valuable part of my growth, particularly over the course of the last couple of years. So those are three very kind of tactical things that I think everybody listening to can think about as it relates to their own business. Karen Litzy:                   09:29                And, all of those three examples are things that are pretty doable for everyone. You know, it's not like there are things that are so outrageous. Like when you say three little experiments, you mean small, not like I'm going to restructure my entire business, but you know, you constantly throughout the year are doing this. Do you say I'm gonna do three little experiments a year or is it like every quarter or six months? Ryan Estis:                    10:00                No, these are good questions. I would say I'm always running three experiments simultaneously. So let's say we're working on a marketing project that's a bit of an outlier, an experiment, something we wanted to do, try it. Sponsorship around some of our content branded content. And I'm not sure where this is going to go or if it's realistic. And so what we're testing this, I've reserved a little bit of budget, a little bit of investment, a little bit of capital. We're going to go down this path and then evaluate it. But through this process we'll learn things, we'll uncover things, we'll get customer feedback. We're working with, you know, our marketing partner. And so it's those, they're small tasks that, you know, if there's traction and the evaluation is, yeah, this is beneficial and we could build it then, you know, that we may expand an experiment. Ryan Estis:                    10:57                So, that's the idea. They're small because I'm a big believer in that. Success is iiterative, you know, you want to be doing little things. There’s been a thought about that. It's like the minimum viable effort. There's BJ Fogg, he wrote a book about tiny habits and small changes and his ideas that to create these, he's a professor at Stanford. And his idea is that you create a new habit, you need to simplify the behavior and then make the change so tiny, so little, so ridiculous that it's just something that's easy to do. So no, you don't want to and you want to take calculated risks, you know, not something that's going to jeopardize your core business. So that's when I think of three little experiments and then you build on those things based on your expanded knowledge, experience, exposure, you know, you can start to iterate your business forward. Karen Litzy:                   11:59                Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So like in my world, in the physical therapy world, for me, I can think of changes that I made over the last year. And we're joking before going on air, like I went into these changes with like white knuckles. Like I did not want to let go of the things that I was doing because like you said, it's very uncomfortable so that it works. So for me in the healthcare world, something that was, it was just simply switching my electronic medical records from one company to another and it was very uncomfortable. But now that I've been doing it for, I don't know, eight months or so or nine months, I think to myself, this is so much better. What was I thinking before? Things are better. My patients are getting reminders that they have appointments, the platform's easy, or I can do it on my phone. I don't need a computer. So you know, that's an example of something small and at least in the healthcare world that you can do. And like you said, I was getting feedback from my patients and they were like, I love this new system. This is great. I love getting these reminders. I love that I can pay through the system. So it worked. Ryan Estis:                    13:14                It works. But I also think it illustrates a very, very relevant point to our conversation that, you know, it's the psychology of change, right? So our brains are wired for safety and survival, not innovation and change, the mechanism in our psychology is trying to keep us safe and alerting us when danger is near. And that's trying to keep us away from these unknown elements. And that was pretty useful in times where there were reptiles running around trying to meet us. But in the modern day society, when you're running a small business, you have to condition yourself to navigate those feelings. So the discomfort, the uncertainty, the trepidation, the anxiousness that you felt upon making this change, that's a sign that you're in the learning lane, that you're expanding, you're growing, you need to kind of learn to welcome a little bit of that tension because that discomfort means you're on the cusp of a breakthrough and you broke through in an area of your business that elevated the client experience that's better for you, that's better for your team. And you just had to navigate that tension inside yourself. And you know what, it's like a muscle cause the next time then you invest in new software or taking intelligent risks or conduct an experiment, you'll recognize that tension of assignment. Yep. I'm in that. I'm in the learning, I call it the learning lane of your comfort zone and into the learning layer. And that's where growth happens. Karen Litzy:                   14:51                And it's not easy, but it's not easy and it's a little scary. But you know, I guess I love the third point you made kind of having a personal board of directors and I guess I do have this without even kind of categorizing it as such, but I do kind of run things by people and it's interesting even when you run things by this group of, let's say you have eight people to shore up your ideas with, what do you do when they come back to you with feedback that doesn't align with what your thoughts are? Ryan Estis:                    14:52                Yeah. So ultimately I would say I'm the decision driver, but if I'm out of my comfort zone or I'm entering unchartered territory, then it's useful to gain some outside perspective. And so I'm taking their advice under advising and helping it shape my decision. Ryan Estis:                    16:04                So if I get feedback or advice or counsel that's counter to what I anticipated and my own opinion, then that means I'm probably going to have to do a better, more thorough job of convincing myself that I was right in the first place. And, then taking that step forward. The other thing about the advisory board, I would just also recommend is I hand selected these people for their particular skill or competency. So I have a technology entrepreneur that's an expert at scaling a business. I have a good friend who owns a research business that's complimentary to mine and he built and scaled that business and sold it. And so he has a lot of expertise that's related to my business. We partner together, but I value the way he ran his business and the organization he'd built. Ryan Estis:                    16:56                I have my business manager who's known me for 20 years and is a good friend. And I also have my life coaches and spiritual advisors. So, my point in kind of sharing some of that context is, you know, I reach out to the people that I think would have relevant context based on the decision I'm navigating. So, if it's a financial decision, I'll probably reach out to my good friend who's worked in finance on wall street for 20 years and say, I'm thinking about borrowing money to do this and what's your perspective and how does this look good? And these are the terms. And so I have kind of carefully vetted these people based on their experience, exposure and the competency and thinking they could bring to support mine, if that makes sense. Karen Litzy:                   17:43                That makes perfect sense. And did you do any sort of like self evaluation to see really where your gaps are, whether conscious or unconscious gaps? Ryan Estis:                    17:54                Yeah, I've gone through coaching programs and have done some assessment work and then I also just recognize, you know, after having been in this business for a decade now, what some of the things that I'm really good at, some of the things that, you know, I'm not strong in. And so I just, I think in this kind of point on the journey, I have some exposure, I have some exposure to that. And some of it's based on my previous experience too. You know, I'm not a finance expert. I've never scaled the business and sold one. And you know, I'm not a technology expert. I've never launched an app. So these are things I'm like, Oh, these are things that, you know, as I move forward and navigate these waters, you know, it'd be good to have people that occasionally can jump in the boat and row with me and that elevates my confidence too. Karen Litzy:                   18:47                Sure, sure. Yeah. And I'm sure it gives you more confidence in your decisions. And you know, I'm thinking of those like brand new entrepreneurs who feel like completely overwhelmed with absolutely everything. What advice would you give to them to kind of really hone in on what their zone of geniuses or greatnesses if you will, and then what may be they need to fill in the gaps? Ryan Estis:                    19:12                Yeah. You know, a new honor, first of all, new entrepreneurship is overwhelming. So the best advice I have is be patient with yourself and be honest with yourself and you know, because everyone talks about entrepreneurship and freelancing and the gig economy. And you know, I guess when I quit my job, people thought I was crazy and I don't know, we weren't, entrepreneurship is so celebrated in our culture today and it's really happened in the last 10 years. You know, we've got magazines like fast company and we're putting, you know, these YouTube millionaires on the cover of ink. And I don't know, I think there's all this pressure to succeed and scale and get and just I would say just remember, focus on the next most important thing. Ryan Estis:                    20:09                Build what you'd want and make and you know, achieve some semblance of success before you move onto the next thing. Focus is so critical for an early stage entrepreneur. It's so easy to get distracted and trying to do seventeens that we try and do 17 things at once. Well, and then you want to be networking. So you're meeting with people in a coffee shop that did it before you and you're just slow down, focus, get the next thing right, be patient, success of build. So that kind of perspective I think is so important. Karen Litzy:                   20:47                Awesome. Thank you for that advice. That was great. I'm trying to take notes as quickly as I can here, but I'm going to have to go back and listen to this again. Now, you know, before you said you were kind of built to survive, you know, our nervous systems are built as human beings for us to survive. But something that you had mentioned in the keynote was, yeah, it's great to survive, but we also need to adapt and thrive. And you had sort of four keys to this breakthrough for poor performance are four keys to really help us adapt and thrive. So, can you kind of go through those for the listener? Ryan Estis:                    21:27                I can. So the first one is very related to kind of where we started, which is about change. And the first one's initiate continuous reinvention. So you want to be an agent of change. You want to look at change in challenge through the lens of opportunity. And you want to be invested in this idea of successes that are rid of them to constantly be conducting experiments. And really I'm going to disrupt myself before the marketplace or competition does it for me. So stay in the learning lane, push yourself, get uncomfortable. That's the first one. The second one is really about customer experience, the idea of brand, the customer experience. We're in the experience and kind of, we touched based on how fast customer expectations are changing. The actionable recommendation around that as audit your own customer experience. Ryan Estis:                    22:20                Look at every customer touch point your app online, offline, and look for opportunities to elevate it and add more value and make the experience better for your customers, meet customers where they are. Then the third one was it's related, but it's really about kind of, you know, the internal operation of your business, which was be a culture champion. I think culture is a catalyst for, you know, employee engagement, discretionary effort and contribution and culture is merely a reflection around how you lead. So think about purpose, vision, values, why are you doing what it is you're doing and what are the people who join you on this journey? Gonna get out of it. And employee experience and customer experience will always be directly correlated. And then the last one was take action. Now you talked about a Tan plan pan is, that's the acronym. Ryan Estis:                    23:16                Take action now. And it's that, you know, great leaders, entrepreneurs, small business owners, they have a healthy action orientation so they don't get paralyzed. They're able to make decisions. The idea that you take in new information and then you immediately take action on those ideas, right? So, just like this, your listening to this podcast, you invest 30 minutes, 45 minutes or reading a new book, it's then taking a pause after you've taken that information in and say, what can I decide and commit to doing and doing differently that's going to create some momentum or advanced my clots. And that's, you know, really successful people they have, they're hungry for information, but then they back it up with action orientation. And those were the four tips. Karen Litzy:                   24:04                Great tips. And I want to go back briefly to where you have branding the customer experience or patient experience in the healthcare world. Often times people use the B word, I call the B word branding to be all encompassing, right? Like you just have to, Oh, you just did your work in your branding, or B, be a better brand. But Ryan Estis:                    24:32                Yeah, that's not really it. Karen Litzy:                   24:34                It's sort of this term, you know? Ryan Estis:                    24:37                Yeah. I have an ad agency background, so I'd probably throw that word out too much. I liked how you call it, the B word that's actually good for me. But let me clarify. So I guess a more specific way to describe what I mean by brand. It's establishing an identity, standards of excellence right away you go to market, tell your story, engage customers, deliver service, follow up and follow through that differentiates you from the competition. And that delivers value or resonates in a compelling way with customers, right? It's how you do things and if that, you know, look every touch point with the customers and opportunity to add value in advance or relationship. And it's just imperative in the experience economy that we're carefully thinking about that and looking for ways to elevate. Karen Litzy:                   25:36                Yeah, and I love the example that you use. Where were you at? A Ritz Carlton or something. Is that where you were? So if you want to like briefly tell that story because I think, you know, when people hear Ritz Carlton, I mean, I know the first thing I think of is expensive, very elevated sense of customer service and is the same thing with like, a St. Regis. And you know, this is what I want to do real quick. I'm going to tell a story about my stay at st Regis and then we can contrast to your stay at a Ritz Carlton, which I would say are on par, right? So I was at a st Regis, I went out, it was like in a very warm part of the country and in the middle of the summer, came back, the air conditioner in the room, not only broke, but flooded the room and like you walked in and it was steamy and it smelled and it was like the carpet was all like squishy with water. Karen Litzy:                   26:46                So we called down and said, Hey, you know, our air conditioner broke, there's water everywhere. And you know this just like one in the morning, I realize it's like the seed team on but still, so the guy knocks on the door with a mop and a bucket and I was like, Oh no buddy, you're going to need more than that. Like this is not good. So we have to call back down. Say, yeah, no, like we can't actually stay in the room. It's really bad. So someone came up, knocked on the door, handed me a key and said, you're in room three 47 and walked away. I was like, boy that wasn't very st Regis of them was it? And then the next morning I went to the front desk and I was like, well maybe cause everybody was like real tired and like I was with my boyfriend at the time. We just wanted acknowledgement and maybe like have breakfast on us, have a drink at the bar. I went back down and said, yeah, my room flooded last night and they just came up and handed us a key and now we're in this room. The girls like, yep. Got it. Karen Litzy:                   27:46                And that was my experience. So I wrote a letter and what the st Regis did is probably more along the lines of your experience at the Ritz Carlton. I wrote a letter, I didn't make a big deal while I was there. Wrote a letter, said what happened to general manager, came back and he said, thank you so much for not ranting and raving and making a big deal of things. Any weekend you want. No blackouts. It's on me. So we took him back and they gave us a whole redo. And now I'm like, I would stay at a st Regis again in a heartbeat. They were fantastic Ryan Estis:                    28:25                There and that's the ultimate lesson for any entrepreneur. It's the last sentence. You just say, cause here, here's the key. And it's similar to my Ritz Carlton experience and their philosophy is that problems are our best opportunities in business to deepen a relationship and that. So it's a real reframing of the problem, opportunity and customer relationship. It's so interesting. The best customer service stories always start out with a problem. My room got flooded, I lost my Ray-Bans in the Bay and was, you know, frustrated. And then some heroes steps in and resolves the problem beyond our wildest expectations. And it deepens our affinity, loyalty and evangelism for that particular brand. And so it's just, it's important to remember, it's never the problem, it's the way it gets resolved that people remember. And that ultimately shapes how they feel about doing business with you and Ritz Carlton leaving keys like PR. Ryan Estis:                    29:38                It's almost celebrated. We have a guest that has a problem. Here's our moment to shine, to be magic, to create that wonderful, memorable feeling. And you know, so often I think in business and small businesses, you know, we get aggravated, Oh, customer's upset. Oh there's a complaint. And just next time that happens, pause and say, how can we turn this problem into an experience that creates a customer for life? And you'll reframe it. And you know, it's just interesting it's when problems come up for me. Now I have some of my, God, there it is. Now we've got a real opera, a magic moment as arrived. Karen Litzy:                   30:16                Yeah. Ryan Estis:                    30:17                How are we going to raise, how are we going to respond? Karen Litzy:                   30:20                Exactly. And, you know, for the listeners who weren't at PPS, and you correct me if I'm wrong, but you were like paddle boarding and the Bay, you lost your sunglasses. And like some guy that worked at the Ritz Carlton went snorkeling down and got them for you and returned them to you. And you were like, what in the hell? Ryan Estis:                    30:40                Yeah. And keep in mind, I never said, Hey, I mean I lost it. It was my fault. Karen Litzy:                   30:47                Yeah. Ryan Estis:                    30:48                And he just overheard me talking about it. I never, you know, I never went and said, Hey, this happened to me, you know, so it was just totally my thing. And the fact that they picked up on that and did what they did. And I was just, you know, I was dumbfounded and the more I researched and unpacked it and learned and actually spent some time with one of the executives at Ritz Carlton that runs a leadership Academy, you learn how based in their culture that is, right. So it's their values, it's their service standards. I mean, one of the great things at Ritz Carlton is that, you know, they have these very simple standards for how they greet and interact with guests. And part of what's great about that is that it creates consistency across all Ritz Carlton properties, right? So there's a way they greet and interact with the guests and they train on that, not what I mean by brand and things standard of excellence that's repeatable, that differentiates them, that resonates with the customer. So it's just a great takeaway from that is do you have standards? You know, you say customer service excellence that may mean something very different to me than it does to you. And that's my point is you don't leave customer experience up to the subjective interpretation of each individual. You standardize it, create protocol around it, process discipline around it so you can deliver a world class experience every single time. That's the idea. Karen Litzy:                   32:20                Yeah. So really get specific. Ryan Estis:                    32:23                Yeah, get specific. Karen Litzy:                   32:25                Yeah. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. All right, so before we wrap things up here, I just have a couple more questions, but first one is, is there anything we missed? Any key takeaways that you want the audience to get? Ryan Estis:                    32:41                You know, I think to just, you know, and this isn't new, but I think really spending some time as a small business owner, looking out, being forward thinking, you know, spending a little time, this is a great time of year to do it. We're coming up on the end of the year and I know it's an exercise I'm going through. I'm asking myself, you know, why am I doing this, first of all, and then what do I really want this to be a few months from now, but even five or 10 years from now? And some of that forward thinking and visioning and purpose, solidification. It helps reconnect me to why I got into this in the first place. Why it still matters to me. And the solidification and the articulation of that can really be beneficial to a culture and connecting your people to it and being able with clarity to say, this is where we're going, this is what we're building and this is why we're doing it. This is the impact that it's having. And I think for your listeners in your industry, some of that work could be, so useful and so, so meaningful. So I would think that's another, you know, Simon Sinek did the great Ted talk. He wrote the book and starts with why. And I think that's true. Karen Litzy:                   33:55                Awesome. Well, thank you for that. And then the last question, I probably should have prefaced this question, but I forgot. So here we go. It's a question that I kind of ask everyone at the end of the interview. And that's knowing where you are now in your business and in your life. What advice would you give to yourself straight out of college? Ryan Estis:                    34:19                Yeah, I would say, relax, have fun and enjoy the ride because it goes by pretty quick and you know, if it's not something that is going to matter five years from now, don't give it more than five minutes of your time and attention. I think for a lot of, you know, achievement oriented, entrepreneurial type a people, which I am one of, we can tend to get perfectionist and stress about the details and kind of, you know, that creates low grade anxiety and overwhelm when things go wrong. And it's just, as I've gotten a little older and wiser, I think just relaxed and letting some of that stuff go and really making sure that, you know, yeah, hard work is great and building something that you care about and are proud of matters, but just really make sure that you're enjoying the moments and the journey your on, you know, while you're moving through it. Ryan Estis:                    35:14                I think that's just so critical. I think we project outward and delay our happiness until, you know, I call it the if when happiness travel, if my business gets to this point, you know that then I'll take a vacation or once I get here, then I'll finally be happy. That's a real, a real miss. And so I let some time go by. I think it's certain phases of early phases, my career and my life where I would have been a little more relaxed about things and that's important. Karen Litzy:                   35:46                Yeah. I know I'm guilty of everything you just said for sure. And now totally guilty. Oh 100% guilty of everything that you just said. And I'm trying to work through that myself. So that's wonderful advice. Now, where can people find you if they want more information and they want to connect with you? They want to hear you speak, all that fun stuff. Ryan Estis:                    36:11                So I would say that the website's a great place. We do a weekly newsletter called prepare for impact. It comes out every Sunday and it's just kind of a couple of actionable tips to help you get ready to be the best version of who you are and the week ahead. And then social media. LinkedIn, I'm pretty active on Instagram. We have a company Facebook page, pretty pretty active YouTube channel. So all of the social properties. But I'd love to connect with any of your listeners. This was a lot of fun. Karen Litzy:                   36:45                Fabulous. Thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. And do you have anything coming up? Anything in the works Ryan Estis:                    36:55                And I do. So, you know, we're working on a book. Karen Litzy:                   37:02                Yes. Ryan Estis:                    37:04                I think we're at the point now that we're at the point now where I think it's actually gonna be a pretty good book and it's about sales, service and leadership. I think it'd be very relevant to the, you know, small business owners and practitioners listening and that'll be out sometime next year. So for anybody listening that's interested in, you know, if they subscribe to the newsletter and stuff, we'll be sure and do promotion on it. Karen Litzy:                   37:32                Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time out and coming on. I appreciate it. Ryan Estis:                    37:36                Yeah. Thanks for having me. Karen Litzy:                   37:38                And everyone, thanks so much for listening. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy, and smart.   Thanks for listening and subscribing to the podcast! Make sure to connect with me on twitter, instagram  and facebook to stay updated on all of the latest!  Show your support for the show by leaving a rating and review on iTunes!

In this episode, we dive into the gender spectrum exploring how parents and caring adults can support transgender youth. I chat with Ryan Dillon, a licensed professional counselor in private practice at Pride Counseling Austin, who specializes in working with trans, LGBQ+ youth and their families. Ryan offers an empathetic safe space for folx to explore their identities and also teaches comprehensive sex ed classes to middle school-aged students with an organization and curriculum called Unhushed. This episode offers empowering perspectives on how we can support gender identity and expression for the children in our lives. Want to connect with Ryan? Check out Pride Counseling Austin and sign up for the monthly newsletter here. Follow on Instagram here and like on the Facebook page here. Learn more about the Unhushed organization and comprehensive sex education curriculum here. For additional Austin-area and national resources for transgender and queer youth: OutYouth in Austin, Texas Central Texas Transgender Health Coalition  National Center for Transgender Equality Gender Spectrum And as always: Be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for regular sex-positive content and updates. Sign up for our email list and receive your free download of 'Preparing for the Sex Talks: An Action Plan for Parents & Caretakers.' Join our Patreon community to access monthly live videos, interactive activities and exclusive resources for parents and caring adults, to support your sexual health talks. Shop sex-positive swag and merchandise for parents, caring adults and sexual health advocates here. Leave a review in iTunes to let us know how much you’re enjoying the podcast. This gives us great feedback from our community as well as expands the reach and visibility so we can serve more families! Transcript {Soft instrumental music plays as introduction}  {Person speaking} “Welcome to Sex Positive Families where parents, caring adults, and advocates come to grow and learn about sexual health in a supportive community. I'm your host, and the founder of SPF, Melissa Carnagey. Join me, and special guests, as we dive into the art of sex-positive parenting. Together, we will shake the shame and trash the taboos to strengthen sexual health talks with the children in our lives. Thank you so much for joining us!" {Same Person Speaking}  “Hi families, in today's episode we dive into the gender spectrum exploring how parents and caring adults can support transgender youth. I chat with Ryan Dillon, a Licensed Professional Counselor in private practice at Pride Counseling Austin who specializes in working with Trans, LGBTQ+ youth and their families. Ryan offers an empathetic safe space for folx to explore their identities and also teaches comprehensive sex ed classes to middle school age students with an organization and curriculum called, Unhushed. This episode offers empowering perspectives on how we can support gender identity and expression for the children in our lives. Let's have a listen.” M.C.: “Hi Ryan it is amazing to have you on the SPF podcast. How are you? Ryan Dillon: “I’m doing well. Thank you for having me!” M.C.: “Thank you so much. We are excited to learn from you and to get us started; what has your journey been to the work that you're doing now?” R.D.: “Of course! I grew up in a very accepting family, and I feel very privileged to have done that. I had parents that were always encouraging when I wanted to express my selves in something that was out of societal norms, which happened quite a bit since I was a very expressive young child and then a very, let’s say, handful as a teenager. And I was always expressing myself very feminine and wearing traditional women's clothing, and not once did they bat an eye at it. It set me up for a lot of confidence going forward, and when I say confidence I don’t mean like chest puffed up being able to walk into a room being ...

Ryan answers two questions from listeners. ryan@craniosacralpodcast.com Transcription of answers to the two questions in today's episode: Okay, so I guess now we can shift over to some questions from listeners today. Let's start with a question from Niamh in Ireland: Audio:  “Hi Ryan. Thank you so much for this podcast. It's just perfect for me right now. Niamh Dempsy is my name and I'm based in Ireland. I just completed the Upledger training … did my exam just a few weeks ago. I guess my question is …  I am in that phase where I'm like “Upledger, what now?” Things are falling away rapidly - doing and tractioning and inducing. So I'm reading Franklyn Sills at the moment and I've just been drawn to any kind of biodynamic teaching that I can find. So I guess I'm asking about that space that's opening up that's kind of terrifying. It's a space of not doing and not knowing. I suppose I'm asking the classic question “How do you do not doing?” I'm just looking to explore how that movement happens in the therapeutic setting. Thank you again. I'll be listening in.” Hi Niamh, thanks for speakpiping in with some feedback. I'm really glad you are enjoying the podcast. Just to clarify for everybody, I emailed Niamh and asked her how far she has gone through the Upledger curriculum, and she replied that she has finished the first two classes and qualified as a CST-T, which is the techniques designation. Well, Niamh hit on a really big topic right off the bat here – this concept of doing vs not doing and “doing not-doing.” She left me a lot of room with her question to hit on several topics, so I'll just kind of set into this question with a loose boundary and we'll just see what comes out. Let me start by saying congratulations on your success so far with Upledger Institute training. I tend to call Upledger Institute “UI.” Just to let you guys know, UI for short. So when I say UI, you'll all know what I mean, that's Upledger Institute. UI has been around for a long time for a good reason. They have created a path for many practitioners to do this work for a living. There are many great people at UI who have worked very hard to establish CST as a legitimate healthcare modality. I regularly have people come to my office who are seeking out craniosacral care because of past success they have had with Upledger-trained therapists. So I am in debt to them for laying a groundwork that I benefit from and for creating so much good will in the past – all over the world, actually. So far with UI, Niamh, you've had a great introduction to what is often called the biomechanical approach to craniosacral therapy. I'm careful about broadly categorizing UI work as mechanical, because I think that's a little unfair of a classification, and there's a little more room in the approach for fluid interaction than that term implies, but overall like you said, there is a lot of doing in that style of craniosacral. If you've gone through CST 1 and 2, then you've been in the world of sacral traction, medial compression of the ASIS, hard induction of stillpoints at the occiput, propping up c1 to disengage it from the occiput (OCB release), you've been doing various lifts (frontal, parietal, ), you've been pulling on the temporal bones via the ears, and even when you move into oral work, you are still actively balancing the hard palate, etc.  and even the v-spread technique, which is pretty subtle is an active direction of energy. So, there really is a lot of doing in this style of work.  And I think that's an okay place to start. Sutherland himself did a lot of doing via direct and indirect action with tissues for decades while he explored the nature of the matter he was dealing with in the craniosacral system, and I'm sure he helped a lot of people along the way with that approach. I am really grateful that I started with UI work and spent time utilizing it in the treatment room. I learned a lot form that work, and it still serves me today. I still “do” some of those techniques at times, but much more sparingly than I used to. I believe that anyone who is serious about craniosacral therapy should have an understanding and a proficiency with the more active, mechanical approaches to the work that are often associated with the faster rhythmic expressions of primary respiration. I believe that technique-based work, when explored consciensciously,  can actually fortify the therapist's grounding from working with tissues and sensitize the hands to anatomical subtleties in the tissues. I've found many of the direct and indirect techniques taught in a curriculum like Upledger's to be very practical at times. Actually, over the years I have become increasingly concerned for graduates of biodynamic foundation trainings who are out there in the real world trying to address the wide variety of health issues that are presented to them armed only with the deep passivity of biodynamic work. Mature biodynamic contact is eventually very powerful, but it might take a while moving along the path to reach that maturity, and, the therapists life would at times be much easier if they had an understanding of effective “doing” regarding tissue techniques while they grow into biodynamic work. Let's not forget that biodynamics is advanced work. It took a lifetime for Sutherland to walk fully into it. We can indeed benefit from the groundwork done by the forefathers of this work, but to think we can skip completely the basics of “harder-boundaried” touch might not be helpful to some therapists' development. The pioneers of this work earned their way to the subtle powerful refinement of biodynamic work over decades of practice. So I think a clinical practitioner is best served by having a working knowledge of both classical and bd approaches. Personally I think it is usually easier to step into biodynamics from a mechanical background than the other way around. We get really spoiled in biodynamics for deep comfort, and this is (of course) not  a bad thing at all. But to get worked on with technique based work after experiencing all the innate freedom and spaciousness in biodynamics can be hard. Conversely, the technique oriented students who are in the process of moving into biodynamics, if they possess just a little bit of patience, often find a great sense of growth and freedom from exploring the new space offered them by biodynamics perception and interaction.  I think this direction of transition, from mechanical to biodynamics is naturally a little bit easier for most learners. So Niamh, it seems to me you are at a great place right now. Armed with some understanding and effective tools, but interested in exploring the work at greater depth. I think it is great you are reading biodynamic texts like Franklyn Sills. Reading fuels my understanding as well, but I think it is important to say that nothing can replace experience in the classroom within the group field and guidance of a teacher. The group field of like-minded students is a very powerful resource for the biodynamic learner. So, it seems to me that your next move would be to explore your options for attending a biodynamic training (which I'm guessing you already are) – I encourage you to connect with several different teachers and perhaps even get a feel for their teaching style in an intro class before committing to a full foundation training. But more directly to the concern you raised about “not doing, not knowing.” I think you said “how do you do not doing?” wow. That's a biggie, but I'll go ahead and share a few ideas about that. Firstly, let me give you a down-to-earth, practical, no BS answer : “Doing not doing” is basically just allowing. I don't know where you are in Franklyn's text, but I bet that's probably what he means. We have to learn how to allow the system to express itself at deeper and deeper levels. We put our efforts into allowing rather than changing things. That's a basic form of doing not doing. Now, “Doing not doing” can be also fleshed out in a little more complicated way, a way that points to some of the higher aspects of consciousness. So I'm going to get a little more sophisticated here for a minute to try to honor some of the higher realities of the work. The higher levels of biodynamic work do introduce to us some pretty incredible experiences of awareness similar to those invoked by spiritual practices like, say, Buddhist koans or Christian contemplation. They are experiences that are hard to explain because their nature is illogical to our minds. So we have to resort to logical talk to try to get closer to understanding what to do with this illogical experience we sometimes have in biodynamics. In order to clarify this, let's have some logical talk about doing: when you are learning biodynamic perceptual skills, you are indeed doing something. At times, you can be doing many things. For instance, even though you are not initiating and interjecting willful movement into the body of the client like you would be with a cranial technique, you are still actively exploring varying levels of sensory information that unfold within and around you. There is actually work involved for most newcomers to learn the practice of deep neutrality. For example, you may need to spend time identifying your reflexive urges to respond to stimuli arising in yourself, the client, and the environment, and learn to  uncouple from these urges. So there is some activity around identifying and uncoupling. For some learners, this feels like doing. At times it can feel like work. You may also be active in the sense of directing your awareness to see the client and treatment space from different physical angles and spatial frameworks in order to expand your understanding of the forces of movement in nature. In biodynamics, we don't just sit there doing nothing. It's not an absent-minded nothingness. We are looking for an avenue to enter proper relationship with both the client and the natural world - simultaneously.  But over time, as we become more familiar with the natural spatial language of PR we exert increasingly smaller amounts of effort to enter into this sweet spot of relationship – and we are able stay there for longer periods of time without exertion. In this sweet spot we can begin to explore the deeper aspects of doing non-doing, of witnessing instantaneous physiological and metaphysical correction arising within the moment, free from our effort. You have plenty of time to work your way into those lands. It takes most practitioners years to really move into doing non-doing. It is about making friends with Primary Respiration. On that note I think it is important to understand that learning biodynamics requires some discipline – not the kind of discipline that builds pressure in oneself, but the kind that builds stability. Biodynamics also requires patience. It requires new forms of trust for many of us. As we move into a biodynamic space, the work we do is largely upon our own psyche as we cleanse the old ways of our will and cultivate a new willingness to be re-formed in present time, to allow our sense of self to be made anew. The quicker and more thoroughly we can adopt that posture of trust and patience toward the remolding of ourselves, the farther we progress in our understanding of how to effectively partner with the Breath of Life for the sake of therapeutics. So the initial doing in the process of learning biodynamics is directed toward better understanding our internal world and clarifying our relationship with sensory phenomenon so that we can better understand how to best relate to natural principles. While we aren't doing to the client, we are doing to ourselves in a sense … gently … gently preparing ourselves for a higher order of experience. This is the work, the doing, as we enter into the biodynamic path.   I know that uninitiated onlookers sometimes think that we just sit there with a head in our hands and hope for the best. And I can see why they would think that based on some of our more visible quotes about the work like “be still and know” or “trust the tide and get out of the way.“ Yes, those sayings make things sound really easy, but it omits a whole strata of disciplined activity and practice that is essential for the learner to pass through before he or she can actually know if they are still, or where they might be still, or if they really are out of the way – at least this is the case for most of us. Occasionally I do meet a person blessed by grace who can step easily into states of clear awareness and transparency within biodynamic sensory phenomenon. But these are rare people indeed.  Most of us require some priming before we understand how to effectively become effortless. We are all growing.   But after you've laid the groundwork and come to understand yourself better and begin to learn how to let yourself be expanded into what I think you called the “terrifying space that's opening up” the reality of doing no-doing becomes increasingly clear. It becomes clear because we come to see more and more that the intelligence doing the most accurate work in sessions is not our own. We see this, experience this understanding when we learn to step into the sensory world of Primary Respiration in an increasingly immersive manner, and better understand its true value for human health. From the biodynamic perspective, primary respiration and the Breath of Life are the spatially active elements that initiate and complete therapeutic corrections in tissue, chemistry, fluid dynamics, emotional residue, and at times the structure and contents of the mind. The Breath of Life constantly emits accessible versions of perfection in a vast field of vibrant stillness. This intention for wholeness is delivered to us via primary respiration, the deep breathing of life into form, which largely speaks in a language of movement and shape. One of my favorite quotes of all times is “Man cognizes, God geometizes.” from Dr. Randolph Stone, the Osteopath and founder of Polarity Therapy. Over time we come to see that the ever-arising forces of geometization that shape life give us an opportunity to experience creation at a greater depth than most of us could have imagined. And working from this deeper realm enables us to help many people. In biodynamics it is primary respiration and the elemental forces of the BOL that do the work and make the decisions so we don't have to. Once we get proficient at quieting the desires of our will and opening the faculties of awareness to contain a broad field of slow natural action, we really start to experience in a guttural, primordial way what it means to be witness to the arising of life. And, at times, the biodynamic path takes us to a place where we reach an experience of understanding that no movement of our will or mind can add anything to the perfection that permeates each unique moment of creation in a treatment, be it manifest in stillness or motion. Now that is a true experience of “doing not doing.” So for the beginner, doing not doing is largely just allowing and accepting the movements and shapes that arise in and around the treatment space. But for the advanced practitioner, doing not doing is a favorable peak event that can't really be earned. We can prepare for it, but can't grasp it. It must be given to us. And when it is, it is usually accompanied by significant therapeutic progress in the treatment. Well I'm getting pretty philosophical here, and I'm concerned about getting too far "out there" for some listeners. So I digress … and for the benefit of newcomers who might not have a reference point for understanding some of the ideological points I've made so far, let me just list some of the practical things that we, as biodynamic  practitioners might be doing at any one time during a session, just to give you some ideas if you are new to this approach: We stay aware of what we are orienting to – for example we might be asking ourselves:  Am I primarily oriented to motion or stillness in this moment? How wide or narrow is my perceptual field right now? Might the client be more greatly benefited if I were to change my perceptual field? Am I orienting to ideas that might be inhibiting a more full physical expression of the potency of the breath of life or primary respiration? Some of us choose to actively engage in a continual recognition of the presence of love in treatment space or in the universe. This may involve some activity, some doing. We may be monitoring the autonomic nervous system of the client. A very fundamental skill that involves a little bit of doing ... looking for signs of overwhelm or just simply tracking autonomic shifts to get an idea of how the nervous system is responding to our relationship. We may be verbally interacting with the client, which is very active in my experience. We may need to monitor movement in our own will to ensure that we maintain spontaneity to the moment by not anticipating too much. So that's just a few things we might be doing. You experienced practitioners out there could add many things to that list. On the other hand, what are we not doing? In deep biodynamic experience, we are not attempting to correct anything, for we do not know what really needs correction. No matter how much training you have, you can't really know the details of what needs to happen for that depth of correction to arise. That information, if important, is given to us when or after the correction occurs. So were not attempting to correct anything. We are not anticipating anything specific to occur, for anticipating something denies to the moment its inherent freedom.  We have no right to do that.  We have the ability, but not the right if we want to be of utmost service to the client. We are not spacing out or fading out of consciousness. We are not holding judgements about the client's situation based on our own personal or broader social beliefs or norms. Those will act against the deep service of the client. These are just a few considerations, but I hope you see that sometimes it requires quite a bit of doing to eventually get to a place where we can truly rest and get out of the way. So Niamh, I wish you the best on your ongoing journey with the work. I hope that the deeply receptive experience of BD opens up a world of discovery for you about your own depths of health and better enables you to facilitate correction and ease in the lives of your clients. I hope that you come to discover some of the beauty that I and others have found in the primordial flow of life that at times envelopes every aspect of our senses, delivering to us a greater experience of wholeness. I'd like to respond to one other question that arrived via email from Nadine in New Zealand. Nadine listened to the interview that I did with Judah Lyons (Episode 4 I believe) in which we both shared that we try to limit verbal interaction with clients during a session.  She says that she used to take a similar approach, but over the last year she has found it useful to ask questions as shifts occur in the client, especially with clients that appear to be disembodied. She credits Steve Haine's postgrad training for shifting her perspective on this. She is asking if I have considered this. This is a great point, and honestly I was expecting a question like this because I really didn't explain myself much during that interview or even some of the interviews that will be following this episode, so let me clarify a little bit about this. Overall, yes, I tend to be conservative with verbal discussion during a treatment, but this does not mean that I don't check in with the client at times to better understand what their experience is like. There are so many things to discuss here, but let me just make a few points to better explain how I see this. Some of my training has included learning verbal techniques employing therapeutic imagery in which the therapist takes a pretty active role in soliciting information about the contents of the client's mind and then examining images and/or beliefs held by the client. While I used to employ lines of inquiry like this, I often found that things got pretty darn complicated and digging through the contents of the mind felt a lot like we were chasing our own tails, frequently ending up in dead ends. While some therapists have a gift for this kind of inquiry, it never really suited me well. Also, I've had new clients come to me who had severed their relationship with another cst practitioner because they got tired of being asked what their inner physician or spirit guide wanted to do or being asked to explain the details of their experience ad nauseum. So I tend to avoid those types of verbal interactions. Where I am at now is that I try to keep things focused on the sensory experience of the client., which I think speaks to what you are talking about, Nadine. The senses are more concrete than the world of ideas, and sensory exploration tends to keep the client in present time. As far as when I do choose to verbally engage the client, I see it divided into two main situations. Firstly, I will check in with them when I establish the first contact of the session, or when I move to a new contact. This is just good practice and helps to establish good relationship and facilitate comfort. But I will also check in with them if I sense aspects of distress or pressure in the ANS. Some clients are caught up in a very small, intense, challenging sensory world because of past or current events in their lives - they are hyper-somatized. And the other side of this coin is dissociation, which can run along a broad spectrum. If I come to beleive that the client is leaning toward extremes of hyper-somatization or dissociation, then I will engage in inquiry, then listening, and perhaps a little coaching, or resourcing, to help them experience their embodiment in a different way, to maybe bring them back to the middle so to speak.  I might do this by leading them through a body-scan or give them an alternative viewpoint for how to be with their felt-sense that hopefully will facilitate some ease in their experience by connecting them with some sensations of comfort. With that being said, though, I think periods of dissociation in the course of treatment can actually be helpful. Let's take sleep for example, which is a form of disembodiment. Many people that come to see me are pretty tired in their core. There are a lot of demands placed upon the modern person - most modern people. They are exhausted, and they might quickly fall into a state of sleep as treatment unfolds. I actually find this to be helpful, as it can allow the system to blow out some noise and relieve some internal pressure. At times the consciousness needs to just get out of the way in order for the biology to make much-needed shifts. Coaching the client to stay conscious like some teachers do when they are tired or seeking to be out of the body can be counter-productive at times. So I try to just be aware of this and give them some space to correct at the tempo they present to me. I don't get overly concerned if people space out at times. Big shifts can occur during those windows. Perhaps later we can then explore their felt-sense with greater clarity after they rested or renegotiated their embodiment a bit. Thanks for bringing this up, Nadine, and giving me a chance to clarify myself a little. I have put out feelers to get some guests on the show who have developed classes on verbal interaction in a BD setting, so this is a topic that will get more attention and detail in the future. I know I could definitely learn more about this, and I'm sure we could all benefit from learning more about this important part of the practice. Well that's about it for today's episode. I hope you picked up something useful. I will be getting up bright and early tomorrow to teach a 4-day Level 1 training in classical cranial work. I'm super-stoked to introduce this work to some new people. Thank you everybody for listening in today, and thanks for the questions. Next week we will get back to interviews. I've got a great one lined up that I think you will really enjoy. Until then, I wish you all rich, rewarding experiences in life and at the treatment table. www.craniosaccralpodcast.com  

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