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Brandon Dyson returns with a two part series on Residency Interview Questions. He is the founder of  www.tldrpharmacy.com - which provides cheat sheets and easy to understand overviews of dense clinical topics. He is a clinical pharmacist for an academic medical center in Austin, Texas and an Assistant Professor of pharmacology for the online nurse practitioner program at the Georgetown University School of Nursing. He graduated from Howard University College of Pharmacy and completed a PGY1 practice residency at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. He is board certified in pharmacotherapy. He can be reached at brandon@tldrpharmacy.com In this show we first talk about the dos and don'ts of the pharmacy interview, then in Part II it's game on for a mock interview. Will he get the residency? Okay, okay, he got a residency at Georgetown, so he's qualified.  He’ll trade you one email address on his website for an: Antibiotic Cheat Sheet Residency/Job Interview Evaluation Form Chapter 1 of the book, Pharmacy School: The Missing Manual Full Transcript: Male speaker: Welcome to the Pharmacy Leaders Podcast, with your host, Tony Guerra. The Pharmacy Leaders Podcast is a member of the Pharmacy Podcast Network. With interviews and advice on building your professional network, brand, and a purposeful second income from students, residents, and innovative professionals. Tony: Welcome to the Pharmacy Leaders Podcast. Brandon Dyson from TLDR pharmacy has been nice enough to talk to me over the next two shows and we're going to talk about residency interviews. Now the first thing we're going to talk about is some best practices, some ideas that we had about residency interviews and do's and don'ts and then the second episode is going to be me asking questions as if I was an interviewer and he is an interviewee. Not only just answering the question, but also the logic behind the question.  So again, I hope you enjoy this two-part series.  So, first Brandon tell us a little bit about yourself. What you have in terms of the materials that can help us and then we'll go through some sample questions.  Brandon: All right, absolutely. So first off there is tldrpharmacy.com where I wrote that whole website is the thing that I wish existed when I was in pharmacy school and so that goes through clinical stuff, but it is also pertinent to what we're talking about tonight goes through residency stuff. Namely how to get into residency how to survive the residency once you get in it. All important things and then how to you know get a job afterwards, all important stuff.  So, there's several multiple free articles that you can read to help prep yourself for interviews for the showcase which is passed now and then also we have two guides that are relevant. There's Interview Mastery which is a collection of job interview questions that I can almost guarantee you'll get asked a number of them on any residency and really any job interview and there's also Mastering the Match which is sort of here is everything that I know about getting into a residency, how to do it and here's your best way to position yourself. The cool thing is if you s this if you purchase Mastering the Match you actually get Interview Mastery for free along with it, so they're kind of bundled together.  So, anyway we have those there as the sum total of everything that I know on the subject, but we're hoping to give you guys all a lot of that stuff tonight and kind of go through some scenarios and give you some more specific advice as it can pertain to you.  Tony: Okay. So, let's say I get the, I'd say letter in the mail but that doesn't happen, it's a letter in the inbox, right? And I say, "Oh my gosh, yay. I got an interview" and when does that happen? Do all the interview yes and no's come at the same time? Do you get no’s, or do you just get an empty inbox? Is there a deadline, like an 11:59 p.m. where you might get one? Is it like The Voice where you know you can get saved and somebody can push the button and grab you? How does that work?  Brandon: Yes, they find out oh they offered her an interview and so then they can push the button too, no. Basically every residency program has their own timeline. Some will say our cutoff is January 15. Some will say that's very early it's not that like they're gonna say it's this time or it's this time and it's different for everyone when they decide okay this is when we're gonna have invited everyone to an interview. There isn't a, at least not that I'm aware of, a formal you have to have you know cut off by this time or whatever or made all of your invites by this time.  That being said I also don't think -- so you can get emails at any given time basically. You're gonna start getting them invites for interviews mid to late January and on through middle of February and remember the match happens mid-March. So certainly, by mid-February I think is a reasonably decent cutoff for when you're gonna have found out if you're going to have an interview and you may have even had an interview at that point and I would like to think that most if not all programs will let you know if you didn't interview, if only because you're going to start bothering them. Your like, "Hey, I applied".  It's a very -- what you would expect from a denial, "Hey we really appreciate your interest. Unfortunately, we've decided that even though you're a very qualified kid" you know it's the same kind of corporate speak.  Tony: The pain is real, and it doesn't soften the blow. Brandon: It hurts. I received it too and it does not feel good. Tony: Let's talk about some of the practical aspects of this. So, the average person applies to eight to ten and you would think oh great maybe I get ten interviews that would be fantastic, but maybe that would be actually disastrous. How does a fourth-year student afford to go jet-setting in the middle of their appe rotations around the country? Brandon: So, be very careful with that. Thank you for bringing that up Tony. Let's say you get ten interviews. One, congrats. That's your baller, kudos to you. In some ways it's a good problem to have but especially if you've clustered them all over or if you've got them spread out all over the country that's a flight and if you don't know someone where you can crash on a couch, it's a hotel. Residency interviews are five to eight hours long in some cases, so it's not like you can just like fly in really quick do a quick interview have some coffee and be on your way back home. You're gonna be wasted at the end of it, it's grueling.  So, you have to keep cost in mind and make sure you can afford that, like really price it and you obviously it's not a good idea to just try to max out your student loan. You don't want to borrow money at six and a half percent to pay for all of this. So, do kind of keep that in mind. Tony: Okay. Let’s say I do get an interview. I've gotten my first-class seat on Southwest Airlines, I'm in the front row ready to get moving. I carried everything on to make sure that I don't lose luggage. I get off the plane. Is there somebody there to greet me?  Brandon: I really don't know. You won't be greeted until the lobby, the morning of the interview, and it'll either be by probably the residency director or most likely the current residence will meet you there and a lot of programs will have them buy you coffee or tea or whatever and try to soften you up a little bit so to speak, but don't forget the interview has started. It’s like, "Oh we're gonna get coffee and we're just gonna chat". No, you're interviewing at that point in time, so don't forget that. Tony: We won't tell, what happens at the coffee stay at the coffee. The real interview is later, but just tell me how do you get along with people?  Brandon: Right. Can you tell me about a time where you had a bad experience with a coworker?  Tony: So, before we get into the specific questions let's talk about that day. So, I've landed, let's say that the interviews maybe start later in the morning. Either I got in really early or I got in the night before which might be a little bit better, but I've gone, and I've met with them. What does it look like to go through the interview process from beginning of day to end? I know it's exhausting, especially doing multiples, especially with the appe's and A-P-P-Es and trying to balance all of that stuff.  You're already homeless as a fourth-year student, so it's the homeless person just sitting around trying to find an Airbnb or trying to find a friend. What's that day look like? Can we break it into parts in some way? Brandon: Yes, absolutely. So, it probably starts in the hospital between eight and nine o'clock, so early. I definitely recommend getting in the night before. Make sure you sleep as much as you can beforehand because it's a long day and try to eat a little breakfast if you can and make sure you have a water bottle because you have no idea. The day might change throughout the day. But to break it in parts. You go there you're typically going to have coffee. It's totally fine they're going to offer to buy you coffee, it's not uncouth to accept it or whatever, go for it man, take that coffee. If they offer a muffin and you feel like a muffin go for it too. Absolutely go nuts. So, you're gonna have that and a lot of times that will be with the current residents or whoever it's with and they're just gonna talk to you, get to know you, maybe they give you a quick tour of the hospital, it all depends and tell you about the program. Remember that once you've gotten invited to the interview, that's step one, and at this point in the game you're qualified for the residency. So, the fact that you even got invited to the interview you're in the running and it's now a personality based thing. It's making sure your personality fits with the program more so than on paper they've already decided that you're a fit. Now it's just how do you mesh with the program. So really, I can't stress enough to be yourself, don't try to be what you think the program wants you to be, be yourself and be an honest evaluation of the program as well.  So, you'll have that initial part. You'll typically then if you haven't already met with the residency director and they'll give you through the institution and outs what the program is. Here are the required rotations, here's yada-yada-yada. At various points throughout the day you can expect to do a clinical case where you go through -- they'll typically on paper here's a sample case, we want you to give you our thoughts on it.  You already probably know this going in, but you can expect to give a 15 ish minute presentation on some clinical topic and you can expect to be subjected to a battering-ram of interview questions from the residency director, current residents, every clinical preceptor, the operations manager, the director and like name at any one that you might talk to throughout the year is a potential interviewee. It maybe even just a, I say just a, but a tech or a staff pharmacist because they really are treating this like a job interview for someone that you are going to be working very closely with these people many hours throughout the whole next year. Tony: That presentation though, I just want to stop you right there. So, I was at ASHP, I saw 3,000 of those poster tubes, like you're carrying them around and I think there was even like a poster tube rest station where you could rest the poster tubes and if you would trust the people there. That presentation, are you bringing around like a stick or USB are you presenting from memory are you bringing handouts? Do you really bring your poster and pin it up on the wall like what does that look like? Brandon: I love the poster parking, say it's like a stroller station. Tony: It is. It's right next to the massage station. They had six massage therapists working around the clock at ASHP and it just happened to be next to the showcase next to the stroller parking or poster parking, but tell me about this presentation. I think that's kind of a little bit, I guess it's fuzzy for me. Brandon: So, the presentation, I doubt you're gonna be bringing a poster or anything you're gonna have probably emailed it to the residency director PowerPoint slides unless they asked some other format. I recommend printing out a few copies ahead of time unless they specifically say, "No don't worry about it" and you can ask that in an email, that's totally fine. No matter what even if the resident residency director is like, "Ah don't worry about a flash drive or whatever or stick you know we've got it" bring a stick, please, and email it to yourself too. Have as many safety nets as you can because stuff can and will go wrong and I'll pick on the VA here, but if you're presenting at the VA you can't just put any flash drive into one of their laptops, your flash drive isn't gonna work, it's like Fort Knox. Tony: I didn't know that. My wife works for the VA, but I didn't even think about something like that. Brandon: Yes. It's like it's secure lockdown. Even like, "Oh it's cool it’s on this flash drive" nope. So, stuff can and will go wrong. Your presentation may get moved like, "Oh we were going to have you present at 11:30 but now we're gonna have you present at 12:30" stuff like that can happen. So just have as many safety nets like I said as you can. Email it to yourself email it to the residence director have it on a flash drive and unless they say not to bring a couple of printouts just in case. Tony: What does the room look like? I'm picturing warm leather chairs, coffee pot in the corner, there's a little mini fridge with waters for you, lab coats all around. Everybody's got time off to spend and just hang out with you. Nobody's getting up and interrupting you. Nobody's coming in late. It's just they're all there to see you. Brandon: Yes, that's exactly -- no. Nailed it.  This is happening, those are typical times, let’s say 11:30. This is happening during people's lunches. People are going to shuffle in and out. Most programs are going to assign. So, like you preceptor you preceptor you resident you preceptor are going to watch this presentation, like they'll assign like a certain number so that they have enough people, enough eyes on your presentation to evaluate you and then anyone else that can come in will. But like at my institution, I'll get a sign, you're going to see this presentation and this presentation at a minimum and then if you can make the other ones cool. So, you're guaranteed some and sometimes they'll try to pick it out. I do oncology so if someone has the has the gall to do an oncology presentation they'll definitely be like, "Brandon's going to go to this presentation" they'll do stuff like that just so that you can get peppered with questions. That's the real answer. Tony: We'll talk about the questions a little, bit later but can you give us a little bit of caution in terms of trying to impress with this presentation. Brandon: Yes, remember it's 15 minutes and so you have to be able to do something that's digestible in about 15 minutes. I've seen people come in and try to do diabetes or the chest guidelines God forbid and it's like you can't do that, you just can't. You're presenting to an -- it's not going to work. You’re in a little conference room in the hospital typically, you get 15, you can't cover something that diverse. So, pick something much smaller. Instead of the chest guidelines if you have to do anticoagulant do the use of noags, there is prophylaxis in cancer patients.  You can pick a much much much narrower topic where you're dealing with only a handful of studies at best and saying here's this or you can do a clinical case review, "Hey here's this neat patient I saw on an appe rotation that had whatever. I saw a really good one once on hyperthyroidism where they ended up doing X Y -- or no sorry, was hypo in myxedema coma and she went through the whole clinical case and how it related to guidelines and where we differed from guidelines and where we didn't and why this. It was very well done, and you can do something like that in 15 minutes to where it's informative for the people and you're not skipping 90% of the guidelines. So, make sure it's digestible. Tony: How do you handle disinterest? I don't mean that they don't care it's just maybe you are the sixteenth of the sixteen they invited, and they are glazing over. I'm not saying they were disinterested in your presentation, but how do you not take their energy and kind of bring your energy? Brandon: I'm one of the most boring people alive, so I'm sure they were disinterested. Tony: You still got a residency. Brandon: Yes. Touché. It's in your presentation. It's their 16th time, but unless you've got 16 interviews it's not your 16th time. This is your thing, your subject, and you don't have to be an expert world-class presenter, but we still have very little to go by from you. So, your presentation is a big part of your on-site evaluation. Your enthusiasm, your correctness in the print. If you're giving a presentation that you've had time to prepare you had better be an expert in it. You better know it backwards and forwards and know every single study you included. So, you have got to just be mindful of that. Look at people, don't mumble, really don't mumble, and tape yourself, practice in a mirror, and really watch your um's ah's mm and your awkward pauses that you don't realize you do because you do them I promise. I just did it right there. I do it to, I need to practice better. Oh my God, now I'm like self-conscious about it. But be mindful. Tony: And he's not doing this on purpose, it just happened. It's a Toastmasters thing. We would ring a bell every time you did an um and after a while you're just like, "All right this Pavlov dog thing. We just gotta stop" and eventually you just breathe and remember to breathe and all of that stuff.  But take us from that presentation. So now we've we've given a presentation, we've been around the hospital a little bit. What's that afternoon like? What makes it five hours or eight hours? That just sounds miserable. Brandon: It is. So, there's a lunch, you get a lunch that's nice. You're still interviewing, so be careful. Obviously again they're going to buy you lunch, most programs buy you lunch. Start ringing a bell, now I'm self-conscious about it. So, most programs will buy you lunch. So just be mindful, don't get sloppy spaghetti. Just do like you are wearing your best professional suit and a tie and everything. So, don't do something that's gonna be awkward to eat while you're while you're still interviewing because you are still talking. So, kind of keep that in mind. I was not hungry even a little bit, so I just forced myself to eat what I could when I interviewed because I was a lot of nerves. So, there's that.  There's still the clinical case where they're going to give you a case and they want you to walk through a treatment plan for it, so there's that. There are just multiple rounds of interviews with preceptors, like I said, with direct anyone that might have hands-on with you. Tony: Can we be more specific about how we approach an interview if we know who the person is? For example, residency director walks in, do you treat the residency director any different than you would a pharmacy technician a staff pharmacist or GGY1? Brandon: I really don't think so, no. I think depending on the question, you kind of like butter up to the residency director and talk down to a tech. That is not like- Tony: Bad judge -- you have chosen poorly. Brandon: You chose very poorly. So, you don't want to do that. To me, again, on the interview you've already won on paper. You've already been from a pool of 80 or a hundred people down to 15 or so that get interviewed, so you've already made a huge cut. It's just your personality and the questions that they're asking you on these things are standard job interview questions. So, no matter who's asking there's not a way to game the system. If it's a resident, "I'm gonna really do this thing that I think she wants to hear" there's no real way to do that. It's just giving an honest kind of thoughtful answer. That's what we're looking for. Tony: Okay. Well let's talk about these specific questions, I think it'd be good to go through them now. You have 30 questions, we're not going to go through that many. Neither of us needs a residency, we're just trying to help here. Brandon: This is for the listeners. Tony: Yes, but let me kind of frame the way that it's set up. It's color coded general job performance related questions pharmacy specific questions professional growth-related questions and personality related questions. So, before we get into the weeds I want to know if you can go over exactly what that means each time. So, what is a general job performance related question? Brandon: So, a general job performance related question, to give you a little preface I've been a hiring manager before, not for pharmacists specifically, but I was a hiring manager for Walgreens. I was a store manager or an executive assistant store manager there before getting into pharmacy school and I've done it before that as well.  They're the same exact questions. The same questions that if you go to an Applebee's and apply for a hostess they will ask you questions like this because they're questions about how you interact with other co-workers. How do you interact? Are you a problem solver or a self-motivator? Do you get along well with others? What happens if you disagree with the co-worker or with a customer/patient in our field. The premise behind the questions is identical no matter what field you're on and they're asked in any field and their intent is to figure out how you performed in some past situation using that as a proxy for how you might perform in a future situation. Tony: Okay, so a pharmacy specific question or these pharmacotherapy, what does that mean? Brandon: They are going be closer. So, you might get asked about a clinical intervention you made. You might get asked about rotations that you've had or what you think is a good clinical pharmacist versus a bad one. So, they're not about you specifically reciting drug knowledge per se, even the clinical interview or the clinical intervention you may have made. It's not about the actual intervention you made, it's how you approached, I don't want to say correcting a doctor, but how you approach bringing up a recommendation or a suggestion. How did you integrate with the medical patient care team to improve patient care?  It's not about, "Oh well you can't, you should streamline antibiotics because he's been afebrile for 40". It's not about that. Most of these end up being interpersonal relations even across all four of the kinds of categories that we've made in interview mastery. Whether pharmacy specific or job performance related almost all of them are under the umbrella of interpersonal relations. Tony: So, what is a professional growth-related question then? Brandon: So, the idea there is where do you see yourself? Is residency an end game for you just so that you can get a staff inpatient pharmacist job and sit there for the next thirty years or do you want to go specialize in something? What do you think about the pharmacy profession as a whole, like not even just outside of you but where do you see the profession going? We've started doing vaccinations immunizations in the last ten years. We're starting to see collaborative practice agreements. Techs are starting to get increased span of responsibilities. We're getting mild prescribing rights for birth control and things like that in some states. So where do you see that going? So, asking you stuff like that.  Tony: Then the last group is the personality related questions. I've actually read that students will like or dislike a teacher within the first 30 seconds of the entire semester. Brandon: Ouch. Tony: I know right? It happened near where you are down in Charlottesville. I think it was out of the University of Virginia that they did this study, but basically nothing the professor did changed. So, the authenticity, who they were, it was so apparent so quickly that these people kind of latched on to it. So, what is a personality related question as it relates to residency? Brandon: A lot of it honestly is just they want to know what you do for fun and maybe how you handle stress because you're gonna be dealing with a lot of stress as a resident. So, if your answer is like, "Oh I'd like to go out and get really drunk" that is not a good answer. What  it's what they want to see is do you have a support system that you can cope with. So, it like what do you for fun? It's also just to get to know. Again, you're going to be spending 50 60 hours a week for an entire year with these people, so it's like. "Oh, you play guitar that's cool, so does my son or so do I" "Oh I love that movie too. You like that book?" it's like literally they're going to be your co-workers and compadres. So, there's really not a way to game those questions at all, just be you, and go through and say, "Oh well I do this here's my hobbies" again don't showcase that you like to go get really drunk when you're stressed obviously. Maybe don't showcase all of your hobbies if they're bad, but kind of go through and that's what they're looking for, who are you as a person. Ignore the field of pharmacy, pharmacies just a little slice of your life. Do you have family? Do you have kids? They're just looking at everything. Tony: Well let's actually address that and then we'll go into the actual questions. In terms of when you go to an interview there are things that you are allowed to ask and there are things that are not allowed to ask. So, let’s say I have and I'm not trying to catch you, I'm just saying- Brandon: Got you. Tony: I'm calling someone while we're talking. So, let's pretend that instead of applying for residency when I did with no kids with a new wife, instead I am applying with three six-year-old daughters and I'm not sure how this is going to impact them. I'm just kind of feeling my way through and things like that. What are they allowed to ask and what are they not? Is it covered in the same way that it was covered when you were EXA at Walgreens? Brandon: Yes, absolutely it was. It's illegal to ask that question, I mean as it pertains to hiring. You can't base a hiring decision based on if you plan on having children or if you currently have children or anything like that or even if you're getting married. So, stuff like that can naturally come up and just to ease fear so you don't have to feel secretive, one of my good friends is a resident this year he has four kids. He did it. I know someone else that went on maternity leave during residency, she did fine and got where she needed to be. I know someone else at Georgetown in fact, she got married during residency. Nuts crazy crazy lady, crazy people. In my at least limited experience admittedly I have not seen it affect whether you get a residency or not.  I was saying not specifically those questions, I'm glad you pointed that out Tony. Those personality related questions are really just to get to know more about you. Tony: The reason I ask is because I also worked for Walgreens as a pharmacist, but I was part of admissions and they just over and over again made so clear you cannot ask this. They never said ask this ask this ask this, I mean we did and a lot of times they would try to script questions, but it sounded that way and it didn't really work. So that's the end of part one and next episode we're going to have part two where we'll have a back and forth, a mock interview as if Brandon was coming in as a potential resident and I as either a residency director or someone interviewing him. I think you'll get quite a bit out of it. Brandon: Hi, what up. This is Brandon Dyson from tldrpharmacy.com. Why am i interrupting you in the middle of this excellent podcast because as soon as you're finished with it I want you to come to my website, obviously. At tldrpharmacy.com you'll find a whole boatload of free clinical guides and cheat sheets. They'll save you hours of time and they'll make learning pharmacy easy. Also, our guides are fun whether you're a student or a practicing pharmacist you'll enjoy reading them, I promise. Check out tldrpharmacy.com and get better at pharmacy. 

Often, when you do something that you know you need to do, there will be consequences.  In this episode you'll hear how getting rid of 2000 people from an email list led me to being removed as a speaker from an even happening in April. was it worth it?... well, check out the episode and find out. Automated Transcript below ----- 0:00 Hey this is Dean Soto, founder of prosulum.com and freedominfiveminutes.com and we're here again with another freedom in five minutes episode Today's topic is this 0:19 I got cut 0:23 that end more coming up 0:27 well good night this is actually night it is about 1130 and I'm doing this podcast I'm out here in the freezing cold but it's so worth it to be with you again gosh I'm so sorry that it has been a while man things had been crazy crazy crazy in fact it got crazy right when Oliver the guest our very first guest in the last episode left so 1:01 I'm going to get I'll give you a quick quick preview cuz I'm going to talk about what the craziness was in the next episode. But a quick preview for the next episode we had 1:13 literally had five puppies handed to us, and they were crapping all over the place. And it was interesting. It was a test of stress, but it worked out in the end and I'll tell you how it all worked out in the end in the next episode, but today's story goes a little bit something like this. So over the last few over the last few weeks, actually I have been preparing for what is called warrior week in the wake of warrior community there is a crucible there is a gauntlet a full 2:00 week that you go through if you want to get the whole the entire wake up warrior experience. Okay now I'm not affiliated with wake up warrior at all. I'm not a very affiliated with warrior book but if you have been listening to this podcast for any time you know that that is a big part of my life and a big part that is a big reason why I am even doing this podcast in the first place 2:33 it has literally changed my life It has given me the tools to 2:40 to not only live a meaningful and a very purposeful life it's given me the tools to also do things that I would have been terrified 2:55 to do in the past 2:58 now because of this training that 3:00 Basically how it works is where week is one week that you go and lack of a better word, you get the crap beat out of you with a whole bunch of different exercises and things like that. But it's not meant as not meant to be just like a boot camp type thing. It is meant to unleash a lot of emotions that are within you. And for you to face, your pit face. The things that you lie about, face the things that you are putting on a mask about because we all do this and we lock ourselves into these roles that 3:37 that other people try to put us in that we also put on ourselves. Okay, so that is what warrior week is when you were actually there. Of course, I've never even been there yet. But this is what I've at least from what I've seen so far and is a life changing event well 4:00 Pretty much a month before going into warrior week, you go into 4:09 a preparation mode, you go into a group of a bunch of other guys who have one or two coaches who are preparing you for warrior week. And it is it is not easy. It is not easy at all. Every day, every single day you have something to do you have an assignment and the assignment is something that you cannot escape from 4:41 you either you either do it or you don't go to worry a week 4:46 you are a member of the team, but you're also having to lead at some points and because of all of this, it even though it seems simple. 5:00 Even though sometimes it seems repetitive there are a lot of emotions that come from doing this because every day you're looking at something about yourself and you're sharing something about yourself with these other men who are essentially become your brothers you're sharing something about yourself 5:25 and slowly slowly starting to unmask the things about you that you've hidden or that if they've come out you've beaten back beat it back into yourself into the way that that that you think you're supposed to be or other people will come and say, hey, that's not you. That's where did that come from? And you go right back here. I you know, you're right. That was really bad on me to do then you go right back to where you were, 5:59 and so on. 6:04 Hopefully I'm not waking up my son up there, he always has his window open even though it's freezing. 6:11 And so 6:13 with all of this, you're constantly unveiling things about yourself that 6:22 that you that you 6:25 just imagine. Imagine if you ask yourself questions about yourself every day, if you really took a hard look at yourself every day, all of the changes that would occur Well, that is what is happening in this case. And a lot of the times is happening even more because not only do you have to look at yourself, you have to process it and explain it to other people. 6:49 And so there have been emotions inside of me. There have been things inside of me that I have either never felt before or either 7:00 felt him and I've suppressed them and there's things that are going on that 7:10 that 7:13 in some respects I like it even though it's dark 7:19 and that sounds very scary. But there are parts of me coming out that 7:27 that I that I thought were dark or I thought were not how I should feel or how I should act and it's coming out and I actually do like it 7:45 so which leads me to this entire story of me getting cut from being a speaker at a an Amazon Amazon 8:00 event that I was going to speak at in April. 8:08 Well, 8:11 so 8:13 one of the things that came up 8:16 is that 8:19 I had a very 8:24 nice guy demeanor. 8:27 And then on top of that, I always wanted to I wanted I had this feeling like this, this fear that I that I wanted everyone to like me and if they didn't like me, then something was wrong. That's not me. People have to like me. Everyone likes Dean right everyone like is Dean and so 8:49 So through this entire process. I started seeing things specifically about my business where I'm like, you know what, 8:59 I have a lot of 9:00 People who 9:03 who 9:07 I'm basically super boring absolutely super boring especially with the online Empire Academy stuff that I that I had been doing that and I don't really do much with it anymore but I actually think I am going to do some things with the email list and because I do not 9:27 take one side or the other, I do not challenge anybody. I am very very boring on that email list. I have I basically out of you know, I have 2000 I was looking at my Convert Kit. I had 2000 people who had never opened an email for like the last few months and I had been sending email after email after email, trying to give some really valuable stuff but 2000 people who were doing nothing literally just ignoring my email. 10:00 know and I'm like, you know what, 10:02 one of my things one of the things that I want one of the things that I want 10:10 is that 10:13 I want to have an impact on people for one and two, I want to hang around with people. I want people to be in my network in my social circles who are getting value from me, okay, value from me 10:33 value. 10:36 So if when I saw that there were 2000 people who were on my email list who literally never opened up an email in the last few months and I sent at least minimum 10 emails. I looked at that and said, You know what, 10:57 I need to I need to give them an ultimatum. 11:01 If because here's, here's the deal, if they're on my email list, I'm literally taking value from them. If they're on my email list, and they don't want to be, I'm taking value from them. They are, 11:15 they are, 11:18 they are basically getting their email bought their inbox full. It's, that's it, they see an unboxing it, you know, it's just one added little thing. And literally, that's taking value. They're not getting any value from my email. And it's actually taking value because it's filling up their inbox, 11:35 right? So I'm like, No, I do not want that. That is not how I roll. That is not what I want. And I don't want to be around people who don't want to be around me. And so I drafted up an email. This was after some of the warrior exercises I was doing. I drafted up an email and basically said, Okay, look, you have not open an email in 10 days. 12:00 And even these emails that as the last few emails I've invited you 12:05 to the person I've invited you to the event that I'm going to speak at plus 12:12 invited you to give to get you give you dinner 12:17 dinner with me for free at a really nice restaurant I had a really really nice restaurant planned like really really really nice restaurant 12:28 and 12:31 and then there you would essentially get one on one coaching and consulting from me so you I would literally pay you to come be with me and to consult just because you're a member of my community. Right so I so this is what I said in the email I sent you know, hey, you haven't opened the email 12:50 in I've sent about 10 and and I've even invited you to all these amazing things 12:58 you still haven't opened the 13:00 Email. 13:02 So here's the thing, here's the deal. You're getting subscriber unsubscribed. In fact, the title said, bye bye. You're being unsubscribed. 13:10 So, here 13:12 is the here are the three options that you have. The first option is to respond, keep me subscribed. And also, just tell me why you want to stay subscribed. 13:25 Second option 13:28 is you can reply with a nasty, nasty 13:34 comment, 13:37 you know, and asked me to unsubscribe you. And I put in parentheses you know, these are the loser types. these are these are the people who literally have not opened an email 13:49 not open an email in months from me, 13:54 but yet when they see that they're going to be subscribed. unsubscribed. 14:00 They look at the email and they go oh how 14:03 oh how Dean. 14:07 unsubscribe me. Oh my gosh. How Oh my I know they're clutching their pearls and then they go home well 14:15 I'm going to look up the courage to respond to him with a nasty email Oh I'd never wanted to be on your email list anyway Dean yeah let me let me draft up a I had one guy who dropped he drafted up like a huge paragraph 14:33 telling me why you know people aren't opening my emails or whatever and I'm like the dude you literally have not opened up my email any of them until I told you ravines unsubscribed and then now you 14:52 you're going to start coming back. I didn't respond. I really didn't even read anything that he wrote. 15:00 But now you're going to come back and just complain and complain and complain. So I said this in parentheses I basically said in the in 15:10 in summary I said you know, hey losers are going to complain. So this is number two number two option you know, this is the basically the loser option you know, you can respond with a with a complaint, you can respond with a nasty comment, but that's what losers do. You know, you you you'll take action. You won't take action on me on my dream drop shipping, which I've had several people who have become financially free because of that. They won't take action on systems. They won't take action on consulting. They won't take action on my free stuff. They won't it won't take any type of action, but they will take action to come back and complain. That's what losers do. They make some excuse Oh, Dean. I didn't take action because you guys 16:00 Cuz you're you're just not this or you're not that are you know oh gosh Thank you for subscribing me I had I had one guy who's like thank you for subscribing me I I've been trying to unsubscribe forever I don't like really you don't know how to frickin click a stupid button at the bottom of an email you're retarded you could if it was taking you that long you could have replied insistence just said unsubscribe me you're literally retarded. Okay so 16:33 so that was option number two. So anyone who responded with that type of email is a loser they are you know it to to respond with a nasty email like that you're a loser or Option number three was just click the unsubscribe button and below that's it. So option number one your winner because you stay on my email list and you want to you actually want to 17:00 to, you know, get some good information, you know, and so on so forth. Option number three, you're a winner because you just said, Okay, yeah, you know, good ideas. Just I'm going to click that unsubscribe button your winner. That's it. Option number two, 17:18 you're a loser you are because you're literally taking action to just complain and to make an excuse, 17:28 okay. 17:30 And so 17:33 one of the comments in there that I said was, you know, at least I took me at least I forced you to take action on something, even though it was option number two. So you took action on something, even if it was just complaining. So good job. Yay. But But ultimately, it's Dean, you're so mean. You're so mean. Oh, and so 17:56 so option number four. There was no option number four, but there were some 18:00 People who took an option number four and these are the super duper 18:06 super super super losers who 18:10 who basically went to the person who was putting on the event 18:15 it's still going to be an amazing event by the way like it's totally understandable that they you know if they get pressured part part of life not a big deal I'm not worried about it 18:27 but went to the person who's putting on the event and said oh Dean so mean he doesn't look at what he said he called everyone losers know I called you a loser because you're the one who is going and just complaining rather than just subscribing or saying, Hey, keep me on the list. You know, because yeah, I do like what you're doing either one you're going and complaining. And so they complained. Oh man, gosh, he's been he said all these bad things. And the host basically said hey, you know, 18:59 you know I'm getting a lot of pressure. 19:00 Sure and so on and so forth I'm gonna have to remove you as a speaker and I said yeah no problem I was just glad that it happened today because this is I booked my I booked my flight and hotel today and so at least I was able to cancel first class first past fight the flights are not cheap so so yeah that was that that was good 19:23 but anyway so yet you know she sent me a nice thing saying hey you know, you know it was gut wrenching when you said this in your email and blah blah blah and you know I can't you know use the word loser and stuff and I mean if you if once again if you looked at the email literally the only people who were losers are the people who complain who I knew were going to write back with some nasty comment and you know, she asked, you know, you should send you should send an apology, email, and yada yada and I'm like 20:01 Know fully understand, thanks for letting me know and canceled no apologies necessary on your part or on my part. And that's it. 20:10 So why is this important? Why is this important? It's important because there are going to be times where you have to make a decision to essentially cross the Rubicon, 20:25 essentially, to go with your heart and to to make a hard decision that, you know, is going to cause some kind of blowback. 20:36 You know, it's going to cause some kind of blowback For me it was getting cancelled and getting a lot of nasty comments and so on and so forth. do I care? No, because guess what, out of this I had two people I had two people, one lady who got burned by some stupid guru 20:59 quote unquote guru 21:00 Who took all of her money essentially? And what did what did I do? She responded because of that email telling me about all this and I'm giving her free 30 minute free 30 minute consulting session just so I can help her to get back on track. 21:24 If I did not do this, I would not help. Her 21:29 second person 21:31 was a wife who's taking care of her husband with cancer and has a disabled child 21:40 and said that she could not open her my my emails because she was so busy taking care of them but wanted to start an Amazon business 21:50 wanted to start an Amazon business 21:54 but could not do it because of all the stuff that was happening that she liked. 22:00 The content that she loved what I was saying but but I couldn't but she could not open emails over the last few months because of all of this stuff 22:08 and she's and and because of that I offered actually offered one of my courses to her for free 22:18 so that she could build wealth but you know what she did this is a real winner this is a real winner she already had based off of the last email she actually went back and looked at the the emails that I was sending and looked at the merge by Amazon emails that I was sending that had step by step freaking documentation step by step frickin systems 22:45 instead I think I'm gonna go with these actually because it's very, very hands off and it's perfect for my situation. So had I not sent this email out 22:57 how to not send this email out. 23:00 You would not have had access or even known I had sent those emails 23:07 and her family would continue to suffer would have continued to suffer 23:14 that to me those two situations to me 23:21 far outweigh getting cancelled far outweigh getting the losers 23:30 responding to me the way they were the losers going to the event coordinator 23:38 and getting the cancelled and everything like that 23:44 far outweigh 23:47 there's gonna be times when you need to make decisions like this 23:52 there's going to be times when you need to make decisions like this for me I'm going to be sharing a lot of inside stuff 24:00 with everybody that is in my circle, 24:04 so if you're on this podcast if you're on my email list and freedom in five minutes calm if you're on my client with pro Sue 24:14 anybody in my social circle is going to start seeing more of my inner workings, things that I'm not going to share. I'm simply not going to share with people who are deadweight 24:33 sometimes you're gonna have to make a decision like this 24:38 it's gonna hurt 24:40 and it's going to challenge you and people are going to say no, that's not who you are. 24:46 That's not who you are 24:50 in a set that time you have to make decision to say you know it should I go back? Yeah. Should I should I should I stay where I'm at and who other 25:00 People want me to be or am I going to be real to myself? 25:07 So what is one thing right now 25:13 that you know deep down inside you need to do 25:19 that is going to cause other people 25:24 to say that's not you. 25:27 That's not you. 25:29 You're You're this person over here. 25:34 What's that one thing that you've been dying to do? We're dying to say 25:48 and I challenge you 25:50 in five minutes to make the decision to do it 25:55 to make the decision to do it. It might be going on to your Facebook group. 26:00 or on Facebook in general and saying, Hey, I'm starting a business, this is what I'm doing. I'm going to start a side business. It might be where 26:10 you go to your boss, and you say, Hey, you know, this is, you know, I, I deserve a raise, I deserve a raise. Because this is who I am, this is what I've been doing for you 26:23 might be going to your employees and saying, Hey, we're going to be measuring here are the measurements that we are going to implement. 26:33 And they're going to say, well, you're happy go lucky. What? Why would you've never had us measure anything before? what's what's up with this? And I guarantee you some people are going to not like it. They might leave where they might cause chaos, but when you push through it, it's going to deliver massive results. 26:55 What's that one thing that you know you need to do? 27:05 Alright this Dean Soto freedom in five minutes.com. 27:11 com yes is a longer podcast longer podcast but it's necessary it's this was a tough one I'm not gonna lie This is tough this is it's it's a tough one for me but it feels right it feels right and I know it's right because I've already got to change to people's lives in a way that I would not have changed them otherwise and I was hoping to change a bunch of people's lives at this event but 27:40 you know 27:42 the the losers one that round but there will be plenty more in the future not I'm not worried about it in the least so anyway Dean Soto freedom environments com pros calm and I will see you in the next 28:00 freedom in five minutes podcast. Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Oh I'd love a pug! No, you absolutely wouldn't. Animals - our enemies and our saviours. 

So the Quest for Freedom goes on. I know in this episode I was going to talk about some of the life changing moments that I experienced at New Frontiers and Enspiral Summerfest but given that this episode's name is called "Changing Plans", I've changed my plan for this week! And the reason for that is pretty simple. I've been tossing up between two completely different paths that I can take and as I mentioned to you when I started the Quest for Freedom, I did say there'd be an element of choose your own adventure in it. Now I'm pretty close to making this choice but there is still some sway here, some room for you to have your say. And so, today's episode is about why it's okay to change your mind. Why you can choose to change your mind and why you are free to change your mind. And of course as always I would love your feedback on this episode. It all kind of started recently. If I am really honest I've talked about this decision to take a business sabbatical this year and while I am still doing that, the business sabbatical itself has changed quite a lot in my mind. I think at the time I made that decision I was very much like, I am so over 7 or almost 7 years in business and I am over doing all these things and I am just wanting a break. And as I've stepped away from my business a lot of people have asked me, "How are you doing it". I am happy to explain that in this episode, but as I've removed myself bit by bit, I've realized it's actually pretty hard to remove yourself from your own business when your business IS you. When you are a personal brand. Had I chosen to go into the software development business, or a kind of a customized service that was part of a team and not dependent on me, it might have been way easier. But I realized that some of my stuff is actually flawed, because the key things that I guess I give to my business, that are sort of irreplaceable (and I am not saying that from an ego driven perspective at all), but the things that I bring to my business that nobody else can really replace are the social capital that I have. The relationships that I have with friends, with influencers, with partners, with companies who have been on this journey with me as I've grown my business, who have supported me along the way. Where we've done promotions together, we've partnered together on really cool education aspects and we've gotten to know each other at conferences, at events and experiences. And that's stuff that you just can't hand over to somebody else that's coming in to replace you. You can't just say, "Hey! Here's this awesome person that will be dealing with you now." It just doesn't really fully cut it. This is by no means me hanging on to my baby or holding on to my business. This is the reality of things. The things that drive revenue on my business all come down to relationships. I've even noticed a little in my community just with saying, "Hey! I am going to be on a sabbatical!", that people have been really supportive of it and saying things like, "Hey Natalie! That totally aligns with who you are and what you always preach to us." But I also feel there's been a little bit of a drop away from people in the community, like just this general dip, and I am going to be straight up honest here. - my business over the last couple of months took a bit of a dive. I think part of it was related to the brand new website, which was received extremely well. But changing hosting companies and SEO rankings kind of going down the toilet with that change ...well we always knew that there'd be this momentary aspect when some of the rankings would drop and things would decline but then they'd stabilize. We also switched over to all new systems ConvertKit, Teachable, Clickfunnels and while I think they've been an excellent change, there's just that hand over time, in that change over there's things clicking together and sticking together and working. And all of that combined being done all at the same time, kind of played havoc with the business. I think that in combination with the community kind of going "Where the heck is Natalie at?" in combination with 'energy in versus energy out'. I am a big believer that the more energy you put into something, the more energy you are going to get out. "If you do a half-hearted job, you'll get a half-hearted result. If you go all in, you'll get amazing results." And so I think those three sets of combinations all affected the business. And had you talked to me a couple of weeks ago, I might have said: "You know what? I am not sure I can take a business sabbatical". Things have kind of changed the minute I made that decision and made it public. Things changed - it was like my business said to me, "Well, if you are buggering off, I might bugger off too." So the good news is that recently things have started looking up again and stabilizing and you know, the business is pretty self-managing. My awesome, humble, nifty, agile and talented team are doing a great job. They know what they are doing. And I, as CEO and founder of my company, I am happy to step aside to a point, but I've also been somewhat reinvigorated (ironically) with the business. I still love my community. I still love what I do and I think just even the thought of taking a break from it gave me a break from it. Does that make sense? Have you ever experienced that in your business? Like when you kind of put everything in place to go 'I am going to step back for a bit', and you think about how is that going to feel and what it's going to look like. And you start removing yourself a little. You take a little less responsibility. You put more responsibility onto others. They do a great job. You see things starting to work and you just ease off a little bit and you place time and importance on other things: new networks, new relationships, new friendships, new areas of learning. And it's like you are already having a bit of a refresher. It's kind of like you are going on a mini holiday in real time. I guess that is what's happened to me in the last couple of weeks. So as I said I thought I'd bring in some snippets from New Frontiers, but I don't think this is the episode to do it in. I am going to bring that in in the next episode. Because today's topic is all about changing plans and why it's totally cool if you want to change your mind. And this is where I want to insert a little message from one my community members, Kim Morrisson, because she posted on my Facebook page the other day and I asked her to turn her comment into this audio message. So it could be included in this episode and here is what she said: "Hi Natalie, Kim Morrisson here from Portugal. First congratulations on your book deal, so exciting! I loved reading your original Suitcase Entrepreneur book. In your Facebook Live, you said that it's as if the world is opening up some fantastic new opportunities for you. And as a result you haven't rethink what your plans for this year might be. While I accept it, we need to plan in order to achieve our goals or we can drift aimlessly. Isn't being able to change exactly what freedom is all about? The ability to change direction, follow your heart, rather than stick to what you originally planned otherwise we are just locked into a world that we can't move from. After all, your lifestyle property was one of your goals anyway. Maybe not in your plan for this year but does that really matter? I believe that your true freedom is actually having the opportunity to choose what you want to do and the direction you're going. And that of course can change. I hope that helps." And I sat back and I thought, you know what Kim, you are actually right. Like I'm always attempting to do the right thing, to be a guide to others, to show people the way, to prove that you can do whatever you want, that you get to design your lifestyle and you get to design your business to support that lifestyle. And in doing so I kind of feel like I've become a little bit of my own poster child for be adventurous, be free, travel the world, do whatever you want. And one thing that I wanted most was just to: sort of settle, and be own a lifestyle property grow and develop my relationship with Josh have chickens and a dog and; BE in one place for a decent period of time and; experience my first winter in something like 7 years. I realized that was okay. That was more than okay, because that's what my heart desired. Yet somewhere in this bubble of my intuition, in my years of experience in building this brand of adventure and freedom, I thought that might not be okay. So thank you to Kim for bringing that up, and for the multitude of awesome people in my community and my friends and my networks, who have all been really supportive of this decision to step away from the business and to go on a business sabbatical. And so when you next hear from me, I might have some very exciting news. At this point of my time, I have two options: The first option, which I am going to tell you right now is the one that I thought I'd naturally be taking. At the start of the year I thought, "Great! I'll hand over, train people up, get the business to a point that come first of April, my birthday month, I am going to take that entire month off for sure (and probably several months after that). I am going to go to Bali and run my retreat. I am going to celebrate my birthday in Bali with my family and friends and then I am going to head on to Portugal and surf and read books. I am going to go to Tony Robbins in London. I am going to stay in Europe for summer. And then I'll come back to New Zealand, kind of like I do nearing summer. And just take it from there." Sounds tempting I know. And then the second option was, "No I am going to commit and I am going to stick around in New Zealand. And I am going to build a community in my hometown of Wellington, where I grew up, but actually don't really have a strong base of friends and people because I've been away for 10 years." That sounds really appealing. The sense of community on the ground. Not just globally, not just online and not just having to travel so far to meet people that I care about, but right here in my hometown. And I've been away long enough that that excites me. And then I thought I'd take that further like: What about business opportunities here? What about being on a co-founding team of a tech startup? What about creating other business opportunities? What about partnering with Josh? What about partnering with my sister? All these things that came into the light. What about living in one place for more than three months at a time? What about owning a place that feels like a real home? Not that my apartment in Wellington isn't awesome, but it's kind of.. I am a little bit in transition when I am here. I've had Airbnb guests all the time. I've been away a little bit and even though I have loved having it as a base because it's right in the heart of the city, it's awesome. But it's not a home with nature on your doorstep. It hasn't got animals right there. It's not a real home. It doesn't have a fireplace. You know? Not that you need a fireplace to have a real home but.. I don't know why I said that. So there are my two options. And if I was to allow you to choose my own adventure, I'd say this. If you'd like Natalie to head of to Bali and onto adventures in Portugal with surfing, lovely people, sunshine and the freedom to do whatever you want, turn to page 45. If you'd like Natalie to go into an adventure, spend all her money on a big lifestyle property that she has no idea how to handle, get a dog and some free range chickens, turn to page 72. I can almost hear you guys kind of going, "What the heck?". Those are two such different decisions... and they are. This relates back to probably the first episode where I talked about what is a quest? And even the second episode where I sort of talked about this paralysis by analysis. This paradox of choice that you actually need limitations in order to be free. Because when you have no limitations it can actually be quite devastating, which sounds so freaking ironic. But earlier this year when I had these big choices to make I was really in limbo. I was just wishing somebody would give me a limitation. Say to me, "Natalie you need to stay in New Zealand for a whole year." If somebody has said that to me I would be like, "Okay, great!". Now I have a limitation, what are my freedom aspects within that? What can I do within that limitation? And I was like, "Oh my God! I could explore all of New Zealand. There are so many things within this country." If they'd said, "Natalie, you have to stay in Wellington". I would have been like, "Great!". Even more of a limitation, but with so much freedom within that because the thing about limiting the number of decisions you have to make actually gives you more freedom. That's why Steve Jobs used to wear the exact same outfit to work everyday. So he didn't have to think about or make a decision or spend time on what his wardrobe was. That's why people like bodybuilders eat the same thing every single day, which might seem really odd to you and me and boring, but they know exactly what they are going to eat, they know how to prepare it. It's satisfying, it's nutritious, it's probably tasty, it's one less thing to think about. And I know when I was doing my body sculpting competition, I got into such a great routine being at the gym at 5:30 every single morning. Similar food every single day: chicken and broccoli, chicken and broccoli, eggs. It actually made it incredibly freeing, because if I think back on that time I had very few decisions to make and that freed up my time to be able to do more thinking, to engage more in the work that I was doing. It allowed me to be more present for people around me because I wasn't filled with, "Where do I need to travel next? What do I need to book? How do I book the accommodation? Who do I need to see? How do I get there? What should I pack? How can i do this? How can I do that? How do I run my business at the same time? Who do I need to speak to? What timezone am I on? Like seriously, it gets exhausting. First world problem I appreciate, but one that I am kind of ready to put a little hold on. I want fewer decisions. I want less freedom (weirdest thing ever but just stick with me). I want less freedom so that ultimately I have more freedom in the things that I really want to do. If that didn't really make sense to you I would love for you to listen to episode 4 where Connie and I talked about why freedom has dropped off her values list. It used to be number 1, it's not even on it anymore. We talked about why wanting freedom so much can actually make you a slave to it. Now I just want to bring your attention to a short snippet about how to think less and live more - analysis paralysis. And this is by Preston Smiles, who's a pretty big motivational guy on Youtube who does sort of beautiful poetry to get you to think about life abundantly. This one I thought was just so pertinent what I am discussing here. How to think less and live more, let's hit it: The key part I've included in my podcast audio is this: "You got to do something. You got to step up in your life and jump! So many people are sitting on the fence of life: watching and waiting and trying to figure out if it's time. Well, it's never going to be the right time. The right time is now. Now, now, now, now! Every time. Don't wait for the right job or the perfect mate or the right money. "I got to pay my mortgage off before I live". "I am going to take that trip two years from now when I get the right job". Live it now! Because you never know, you never know when that day comes. We all have an expiration date and I have seen it too many times where people die with the dance still in them. We don't want to die with our dance still in us. You want to die with it all out on the field. You want to know that you left it all out on the field."   So that's where I am at. I am at this point of the time is right, right now. I don't feel like I've ever been a person to hold back on life. I feel like I've lived it to the full but one thing I've noticed on my journey through adventuring around the world is this absolutely desire.. just hear me out on his.. to have a dog. I am a big animal lover and for those of you who have travelled with me, or been with me in person you will know that I pretty much stop and say hello to every single dog no matter what. Like I got ringworm from a dog in the Caribbean because I was patting this stray dog and I didn't realize I got that. But the point is you know, I am not afraid of dogs. I love them to bits and they just strike out this emotion of happiness in me and playfulness and abundance that I love. And I've realized it for the last couple of years I've been talking about, "Oh I'd really love a dog, but you can't travel with a dog when you're living out of a suitcase." And I thought about it in the last couple of months, around Christmas time and I was like, "Well, Nat, you get to make a choice here. If you really want a dog then you need to adapt your lifestyle to have one in it." And it's not like dogs are a huge problem that means you can never travel again. I have plenty of people that I've actually had as case studies in my book and on my blog who travel with their dogs every three months, they go somewhere different. They go through the immigration and the forms for the dog and they come with them. And I'm like, "Awesome!". You know, it's a bit more work but they get to have their lovable pooches with them. I've done house sitting where I've absolutely adored being with dogs and cats and any other animal. I was like, if you don't make time for this what if tomorrow never happened and you never had that opportunity to have a dog in your life again. I've had a dog once in my life for about a year when I bought my first house. I was a lot younger and it was just a lot of responsibility and I loved Zoe to bits, but I rehoused her with an awesome family and a little dog when I sold my house a year later. We had the coolest adventure year together. We were like best buddies. She is a beautiful dog, a Huntaway German Shepherd X, and just the lickiest, cuddliest dog in the world. But that was ages ago, that was 2002 and I thought about it and I was like, "Is my lifestyle actually stopping me from the very things that I want to be in it?". So dog is one of those things I want to be in it. The second thing that I want to be in it is nature. Nature on my doorstep. I want the ability to have a garden. I want to have an orchard. I would like to grow my own vegetables. I would like to get into organic farming. I would like to understand and learn more about permaculture, which came to my attention big time at New Frontiers. I would like to build tiny houses. You guys know I am a minimalist. I would really like to understand how to build a tiny house. I would like to put tiny houses on my land. I would like to help with the housing shortage around New Zealand and actually frankly, around the world. And this just stemmed into a bigger and bigger and bigger vision that all started with sticking around in one place and following my dreams. So did you choose page 45 or page 72? Let me know in the comments below. And now I am going to divulge a little secret, I may have put an offer on a lifestyle property with Josh on Monday night, February 27th. What the heck is a lifestyle property? A lifestyle property sounds really fantastic doesn't it? It sounds like you're just going to live the dream. You are going to have an awesome lifestyle. You are going to relax with your pool and your tennis court and your beautiful house and your block of land. But for most people who I know who are on a lifestyle property, it means you are taking on a project and a lot of work. So it might sound like you are going to sit back and relax and live the lifestyle but ultimately you are making a big decision. So the property that we have put an offer in is over a million dollars (Crazy!). It has over a hectare of land which is around 2.5 acres.. It has four bedrooms and two bathrooms and just beautiful space and a really lovely entertaining area and a deck built the whole way around it. It has ability to host family and friends which a the big thing on our must have list. It has a beautiful garden that can be even more beautiful if I get my hands on it and figure out how to garden. My mums an amazing gardener. And it has a massive barn/implementation shed which the minute I saw it. I was like, "Oh! Co-working space. Oh! Tiny house creation. Oh! Crossfit gym. Oh! Office. Oh! So many things. Art workshop. Oh! holding events and retreats. So you know whatever I look at here in my life is always a business element to it. And excitingly we saw this house on a Sunday. We put in an offer on the Monday. Our offer got shown on the Wednesday. It got accepted on the Friday. And it is subject to somebody else who has put an offer in the house who have to sell the property first. So at the time of this recording we get to hear one way or the other: whether we got it and the other contract was relinquished or whether we didn't. And either way I am okay, because this entire process of looking at properties, figuring out our wish list together of what's really important to Josh and I, of going through financial analysis of how to afford this - because that is a pretty big financial commitment, even for two people, has been great! Understanding the commitment behind this like looking after the land, tending to a vegetable garden, creating an orchard, having animals like chickens and dogs and maybe more, as well as maintenance on the house, maintenance on the land and furnishing a house that's a lot bigger than I am used to as a minimalist with really not much to my name - it's all quite the change. So pretty massive endeavor here, but I realized in this entire process of going through this analysis with Josh and doing a weighted matrix on what's important to us and non-negotiables and everything that we wanted if this was our dream property, has proven to me big time that I would drop everything in a heartbeat to have a lifestyle property in New Zealand right now. Right here, right now. Right here, right now. You know that song. If you don't know that song I am not just singing to myself. That is super exciting to me and I guess I just want to ask you this question right now is: What are you putting off or telling yourself that you think you want? When you might be wanting something entirely different. What are you not living up to in your life right now or pushing down the priority list because you think that you have to be a certain other way? Or you think that you should be dealing life in a different way. Or you think that you need to be supporting other people before you support yourself first. It's your Freedom plan. It's your quest for freedom. You have the right to change your mind. You have the right to choose. I choose lifestyle property. I choose creating a life with my partner Josh and all the exciting dreams that we've been scheming up. I choose to go on a shorter business sabbatical but I am still going to my sabbatical. I choose to run my business in the manner that fits me and still stay excited about it while stepping back from it. I choose to build a community in my home country. I choose to travel less for now. And I choose to be happy with my decision and to remain in the present. And as you know this whole quest in Season 1 is about personal freedom and for me that is very much coming back to being present, being mindful, being grateful, being happy and choosing the best version of freedom for me in this moment. And that's exactly what I want for you. So if you've enjoyed this, if you want to weigh in on this, If you want to help me choose my own adventure even though you pretty much know that I've made up my mind - then comment below and have your say! Plus tune in next week for hacking happiness. I'd like you to know that this episode is brought to you by the one and only DRIP! Are you looking to build your email list? 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