101: Cristina Amigoni and Alex Cullimore
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About This Episode
Today we are talking to Alex Cullimore and Cristina Amigoni from Siamo. Now, Alex and Cristina are at a point in their business that I'm sure a lot of entrepreneurs are going to recognize where they are doing all of the things and wearing all of the hats, and they are stretched to the max. So they know they need support in order to grow, but they also feel as though they need to grow a little bit more before they feel a hundred percent comfortable taking that leap and hiring someone to support them.
About Our Guests
Siamo was founded in the traditional way - two people meeting at happy hour to scribble workplace improvement ideas on a napkin. Founders Cristina Amigoni and Alex Cullimore connected over a mutual desire to make work more human and treat humans like humans. Both from a traditional consulting background, Cristina and Alex discovered a passion for coaching through professional coach training and realized the potential of blending coaching and consulting approaches. Combining the improvement mindset of consulting with a love for uncovering the authentic potential of people and organizations, Siamo emerged to guide leaders to uplift their organizational cultures and infuse human-centric practices into the workplace. Get to know them better
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TAE-101-Cristina Amigoni-Alex Cullimore
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[00:00:00] Jude Schweppe: Hi there. I'm Jude Schwepp.
[00:00:04] Gabe Ratliff: And I'm Gabe Ratliff.
[00:00:05] Jude Schweppe: Welcome to the Artful Experience where we have conversations with creative entrepreneurs and business owners, giving them as much support and value as we can pack into 60 minutes.
[00:00:15] Gabe Ratliff: So tell us what's been keeping you up at night? What's been nagging at you?
[00:00:20] Jude Schweppe: What challenges are you facing in your business that you could use some outside perspective on?
[00:00:25] Gabe Ratliff: Maybe you've got an amazing idea. But you're not sure how to bring it to life.
[00:00:29] Jude Schweppe: We're here to help you bring the topic and we'll bring the ideas.
[00:00:34] Gabe Ratliff: Our goal is to give you clarity on your chosen topic and some exciting ideas that you can start implementing right away.
[00:00:45] Jude Schweppe: Today we are talking to Alex Cullimore and Cristina Amigoni from Siamo. Now, Alex and Cristina are at a point in their business that I'm sure a lot of entrepreneurs are going to recognize where they are doing all of the things and wearing all of the hats, and they are stretched to the max. So they know they need support in order to grow, but they also feel as though they need to grow a little bit more before they feel a hundred percent comfortable taking that leap and hiring someone to support them. So let's dive in and see where we got to by the end of the conversation.
[00:01:20] Alex and Christina, welcome to the Artful Experience. So lovely to have you guys with us. Thank you for joining us.
[00:01:27] Alex Cullimore: us.
[00:01:29] Jude Schweppe: Um, excited to get into this with you guys. It's always an interesting conversation. So tell us what's on your mind at the moment, what's on your business mind, what can we dive into with you, give you some creative thinking and brainstorming around.
[00:01:45] Alex Cullimore: Well, I, I mean, Christina, please, please that. Divert, uh, if I'm going off a cliff here, but I think top of minds currently we're looking at some marketing efforts cuz we're, we're, we've got, we wanna be able to kind of diversify some of our, um, current client portfolio. And we have, uh, a lot more services we've developed over the last year.
[00:02:04] And what we're kind of excited to do is see what we can do to take that to the masses. Um, And actually along those lines, we, we also have a podcast that we kind of love to see if we can make direct that towards, um, some marketing efforts as well. So those are the first two things that come to my mind. I don't know, Christina, you got thoughts?
[00:02:23] Cristina Amigoni: You went for the easy stuff.
[00:02:25] Alex Cullimore: No. Okay. Let's go,
[00:02:26] Cristina Amigoni: go right deep in, into the disturbances. Um,
[00:02:32] Alex Cullimore: All right. Let's go
[00:02:33] Cristina Amigoni: and then we. Which one, but, uh, the, the one that's on, on top of mind right now for me is we've been kind of, uh, in this never ending. It feels rollercoaster ride for the last, uh, three or four weeks, uh, with our key client.
[00:02:51] Uh, And it's, uh, and, and part of it, it's good because, like Alex says, it is triggering like, oh, we gotta focus on our marketing efforts. And now we're excited about moving in, in, internally on working on the business instead of in the business. Uh, but part of the, the, the transition and the rollercoaster is the fact that, uh, as we look to transition out from our roles with this, uh, company, uh, we have, we have to get to that point of. You know, letting go and, and be fine with it, basically.
[00:03:31] Jude Schweppe: Okay. So Big step, big step.
[00:03:34] Cristina Amigoni: Yes. Uh, but we only choose a easy topic. We don't have to choose this one.
[00:03:40] Jude Schweppe: So, which one do you feel would be more useful to discuss? Which one would you like the artful experience on?
[00:03:48] Alex Cullimore: I think the coaches of us would lean into the, uh, ones with heavier resistance.
[00:03:56] Jude Schweppe: Shall we lean into the words with heavy resistance?
[00:03:59] Alex Cullimore: Yeah. Let's dive in.
[00:04:01] Gabe Ratliff: Let's play.
[00:04:02] Cristina Amigoni: it.
[00:04:03] Jude Schweppe: Does that feel
[00:04:03] Cristina Amigoni: I think we can play in the marketing one too, cuz it is related, so it can help us kind of move through that as well. So.
[00:04:11] Jude Schweppe: Okay. So essentially making this transition, this big leap, stretching, taking your business to the next level, uh, going beyond the comfort zone and taking what you do, the amazing stuff that you do to a bigger, wider audience. Does that sound like where we are with the topic? Okay. So,
[00:04:32] Cristina Amigoni: that sounds perfect.
[00:04:33] Jude Schweppe: What is important about this for you guys right now?
[00:04:37] Alex Cullimore: Well, I think it's a lot of, some of what Christina was saying. I mean, we, we are kind of in this transition flex point and there's, there's a lot of kind of excitements to it and it's also a chance to, we, we kind of grew very quickly over the last year in terms of what we had been doing. And, uh, we were even joking yesterday that, uh, Christine was saying that, uh, when, um, you know, when you look at businesses from the outside, you're like, I mean, when I have a business, I'll definitely have all the operations in place.
[00:05:02] I'll get this set, and then you, you have one and just, you know, life comes at you really fast and we have suddenly this chance to go back and, and make it, uh, a little bit more structured, a little bit more, um, I guess put the scaffolding in to give ourselves some room to grow here. Um, and so we, we, we kinda wanna see, seize this opportunity since it, it kind of came outta nowhere to have, we have this rollercoaster, so, uh, there is an opportunity to make this more stable and, and get ourselves ready for that, that growth.
[00:05:31] Jude Schweppe: Okay, so essentially putting, as you said, the scaffolding in. Getting the processes in place so that that can do the heavy lifting for you. And this is freed up to think creatively, to think about where you want to go, how you want to go, and who you want to go for. Um, where would you like to get to by the end of this session?
[00:05:51] What would feel like a, it's been a useful way to spend your hour?
[00:05:54] Cristina Amigoni: I would say probably a. More peaceful sense, uh, of what's next. Uh, and uh, almost like, you know, if we think about the rollercoaster, the. The advantage, the benefits of having been on the rollercoaster is that when we've gotten on the top of the hill, we've kind of been forced to look up and around and be like, oh wow, look at all that.
[00:06:21] We've been in the valley for so long that we forgot there's a world out there. Um, and so I, I guess like getting to the end of this and feeling like. We know what to do with the world around us that we see from the top of the, of the rollercoaster. Uh, as opposed to not like, no, no, no. Get, get us back down.
[00:06:41] That's what we're familiar with.
[00:06:43] Jude Schweppe: Okay.
[00:06:43] Cristina Amigoni: We know it's out there, but we don't know what to do with it.
[00:06:47] Jude Schweppe: Okay, so take me to the top of the rollercoaster. What are you seeing up there? I.
[00:06:52] Cristina Amigoni: Okay. It's a good question. Alex, what do you see up there? And I just forced you to be in the rollercoaster with me. So what do you
[00:07:05] Jude Schweppe: You are driving the rollercoaster at the moment. Alex, up there?
[00:07:11] Alex Cullimore: So seeing, so I'm sorry, just to clarify where we are in the, in the metaphor of this rollercoaster. This is, this is what we're seeing from the opportunities is what we, um,
[00:07:22] Cristina Amigoni: Yeah.
[00:07:23] Alex Cullimore: well, so a couple different things. So we, we've. Gotten this, we got this chance over the last year to do some consulting work, which we had originally moved away from, but we kind of got to do this in our own style and bring a lot of coaching approach to consulting.
[00:07:36] So now we have kind of the side of our business that we didn't really expect. We were kind of thinking we wouldn't do as much consulting. And on top of that, we ended up building out, uh, like some leadership training, which has been really fun to like see that delivered and making an impact in people's lives.
[00:07:52] Um, and all of that has been happening essentially in lieu of. Um, cause it's just, it's only a couple of us, so there's just, it hasn't been time to do some of the other goals that we had set originally, or some other thoughts that we wanted to get into. Like getting into speaking engagements and doing things like writing a book and kind of thinking more, uh, discreetly about our approach to how we've done work and how we can help people understand that so they can help them.
[00:08:16] Um, so those are the, some, some of the like, Opportunities outside of the two kind of, uh, training and consulting portions of the business that have really gotten a chance to get their feet under them in the last year, um, with basically just on the job creating it as we go.
[00:08:35] Jude Schweppe: Hmm. And what else is out there? When you look to the, from the top of the rollercoaster, what's the prettiest view?
[00:08:49] Cristina Amigoni: Alex's background. Uh,
[00:08:54] Alex Cullimore: Oh, actually, that does bring it up though week. The, uh, you, you also mentioned things like retreats. Uh, you wanted to do like international retreats, so that does kind of, uh, fit in with the background speaking, which my background's a beach, by the way, for those who are listening.
[00:09:09] Cristina Amigoni: yeah. Uh, but yeah, I would say yeah, just, uh, retreats. So beach, lots of sun, uh, green. Uh, peaceful, just feeling and just almost like a never ending world. Like you can just know that there, there's more and more and more, which at the same time, it's also also overwhelming because it brings, you know, I'm, I'm, IM top of that and I know the rollercoaster is about to dip down again.
[00:09:37] Uh, and if I wanted to leap out of my seat at this point is where do I choose to land? That's weird. It's like, I don't know where the next step is. Like I, I know we have a million of them that we wanna do, but where, where do I choose to land? Um, if I don't wanna completely smash my face in the ground when that happens.
[00:09:57] Jude Schweppe: Okay, so if I was to ask you what the top three landing spots are right now, could we narrow it down to three?
[00:10:07] Cristina Amigoni: I'm sure we could.
[00:10:08] Jude Schweppe: would you, what would you choose for the top three?
[00:10:11] Cristina Amigoni: I would say writing a book, uh, I think I'm getting to that point where I'm sick of saying I'm gonna do it and not actually do it. Uh, so I'm gonna choose that and say it out loud. Well, I've been saying it out loud. Say it even louder. Um. I would say definitely taking the leadership, uh, program that we've developed and make it into something that we can spread out, uh, and reach more people, uh, whether, um, you know, as it is and it's never gonna be as it is, but whether in small chunks or bigger chunks.
[00:10:45] Uh, and I would say the, the third landing spot for me, uh, is having a team that supports us. So, kind of getting out of this, we are still doing everything mode,
[00:10:54] Jude Schweppe: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Alex, what about you? What are your three landing spots?
[00:11:01] Alex Cullimore: Actually, it's kind of funny that that is almost exactly what I would've put in that order.
[00:11:05] Jude Schweppe: Okay, so we've got the
[00:11:07] Cristina Amigoni: One brain, two faces.
[00:11:09] Jude Schweppe: One Brain, two Places. We've got the book, we've got the leadership program, and we have got, sorry, what was the third one? Christina?
[00:11:18] Cristina Amigoni: Oh, just having a team that is working with us and supports us so that we can focus on not doing everything all the time.
[00:11:25] Jude Schweppe: Okay, so book. Leadership program. Can you tell it's Friday evening and having a team, what feel like the most, if you were to put those in a, in an order of priority, what is going to allow you to do the next thing? What is the first thing that will allow you to do the next thing?
[00:11:48] Alex Cullimore: I think I end up walking myself in circles trying to decide that. So, uh, my thought is, My initial thought is that like having a team helps us do things like scale the leadership program and get that out there and have that running without us doing necessarily every, every piece of day-to-day work. But obviously being involved to help support and make sure it's getting off the ground right.
[00:12:08] And when that's a little more stable, it gives us the room to do things like write the book. On the flip side, uh, the, the realities of cashflow become, you wanna bring in enough cash to be able to have that team. And so that ends up being like, now, now do we concentrate on like the leadership program first so that we have the cashflow to bring in that team?
[00:12:26] That's where I kind of, uh, I, I find myself going back and forth.
[00:12:29] Jude Schweppe: Okay, so what are the things that are causing the most, kind of stretching you guys the most in terms of, it would be amazing if we had somebody to support us on that. So I, in an ideal world, the team would be doing all of the things that you don't wanna do. But are there, are there a couple of things in particular that you feel.
[00:12:49] We could really do what's important in this.
[00:12:52] Cristina Amigoni: I think, uh, Alex mentioned it at the beginning of the call, like, is, you know, organizing us. Is, you know, for, for a small company that had the intention to not turn into chaos, it's chaos.
[00:13:07] Jude Schweppe: Okay?
[00:13:08] Cristina Amigoni: And it, it's chaos. And it's chaos in our heads, which is a horrible combination. Uh, and so I would say the first thing would be to organize us, uh, and, and really kind of, Not necessarily automate because of the connotations of humans, don't automate machines do.
[00:13:25] And you know, not getting to that, but, you know, but really no, like, you know, things are, are happening on autopilot almost because they are organized and it's not just, oh, here's, you know, 45,000 items in my head that I have to remember to do and, you know, and there's nowhere else to track them. Um, so I would say that's one.
[00:13:45] Um, and I can't remember, um, am I coming up with two? Or
[00:13:50] Jude Schweppe: that's the, if that's the key one at the moment, um, somebody organizing you, somebody just helping you to sort of make space and make room in your head, what would be the biggest impact of having that key organizer?
[00:14:04] Alex Cullimore: I. I think mental freedom weighing at, uh, loosening some of that mental weight. We actually just heard, uh, on, on our podcast, one of our guests used the term head trash. Like you just have a lot of head trash going on. And it does feel like that, like when you're, when you're thinking about enough things in circles, like, and it, uh, I'm, I'm getting better at doing things like writing down the, that list of to-dos.
[00:14:24] But occasionally you go back and look at that list and you're like, oh my God, that's so long.
[00:14:28] Jude Schweppe: Mm.
[00:14:28] Alex Cullimore: And then that becomes its own version of like just one thing that's a stress. So I think. For, for me. And, uh, please feel free to chime in Christina if there's something. Uh, additionally to that, it's the mental load that that would take off.
[00:14:39] And, uh, Christina and I both also. For better and worse, we both have the same trait of liking to do some of the, uh, like higher level strategic thinking. We like, um, winging it a little bit to understand and get to experiment and, and test things and make sure we know what's going on. And we, we don't necessarily love repeating, um, things after we've tried them out and see if they, if they're working.
[00:14:59] So getting somebody who's able to help us with that and, and freeing up the, the cycle of feeling like we have to repeat, um, what we have done. And also just that, that mental clarity of, hey, you know, rather than having 10,000 to dues, we know that they're delegated somewhere and that somebody can help, help us keep track of that.
[00:15:17] Jude Schweppe: Yeah. Do you know what's just popping into my head, Gabe, as, as they're talking, Gabe and I have just been working on various different business archetypes, so the different kind of personalities and sensibilities and ways of working that you have when you're an entrepreneur. Um, and it sounds as though what you guys need is an integrator.
[00:15:36] Gabe Ratliff: That was the question I wrote down a couple minutes ago.
[00:15:40] Jude Schweppe: Yeah, because we can so relate to this, we can so relate to this. Like, you know, you guys are visionaries, you have the ideas, you're strategic thinkers, you're very high level. You know, you can get to the top of the rollercoaster and you can see the vision. Um, but it's having somebody who can integrate all of that is a key to moving forward and expanding and growth.
[00:16:02] Um, so, okay, so we've got a lighter mental load. Less head trash. There's more space in here. What is the impact on your business and the things that you want to do of having a lighter mental load?
[00:16:16] Cristina Amigoni: I would say, um, it definitely frees us up. To do more of those things, uh, time-wise, um, I guess we can, we can spend more time. From a business development and marketing perspective, really narrowing down those messages and, and figuring those out. Um, you know, again, like we have them, it's just the integrating piece that's missing.
[00:16:41] Uh, but once they're integrated, uh, then it's easier for us to speak about them. And so it's easier for us to spend more time. I would say networking. I, I don't particularly like networking in the definition of walking into a room of strangers and having to say hi, but our, our form of networking, which is more one-on-one and, and, and, uh, you know, really getting in front of people and helping them.
[00:17:05] Uh, so that's what it would free us like in the, in the magic wand is we would now be having the strategy conversations with. Three new clients on how we help them, uh, and coming up with a plan and then having the team help implement it.
[00:17:23] Alex Cullimore: Yeah.
[00:17:24] Jude Schweppe: Okay.
[00:17:25] Alex Cullimore: I think additionally that like, it gives us the freedom to do things like improve things like the leadership development program. Cause there's things we're like, oh hey, we could tweak this, we could tweak this. And when we know what that picture is, we know what that structure is. It's easy to do.
[00:17:35] Just say, Hey, let's try testing this out. And cuz we, cuz we know and it's been integrated much better. I love that term in integrator because it's been integrated better, then we know what the impact of making that change is. And it's a little easier to make those dynamic changes on top of exactly what Christina's saying, which is like getting to that strategic first portions, um, as well.
[00:17:54] Jude Schweppe: Okay, so I'm just gonna reflect back to you. You said, Alex, that you were kind of walking yourself around in circles as to which comes first having just sort of d d dived, dived into this a little bit more. Um, are you still walking around in circles?
[00:18:13] Alex Cullimore: Um, I guess I don't have a, I, I. I have an idea in my head of what an integrator could be, and it's this like superhuman. Um, we've, we've had the, the fortune to work with a couple people who really have been good at like, taking some of the chaos in our heads and creating, um, organization out of it. So the question then, I guess becomes what do we do to afford that person?
[00:18:32] Cause I think, you know, that if we, if we get, if we can, um, know that number and that, that seems like a great investment for us. So I guess that does clarify that. As long as we know, um, what we can, how we can get to that.
[00:18:46] Jude Schweppe: and could you just riff on this for a couple of minutes? Just list off the things that you would like your integrator to do.
[00:18:55] Cristina Amigoni: Uh, my first one, and again, it comes from having the experience of having worked with people that can handle this of me, uh, and seeing what I can then focus on and what I'm able to do because of these people. Um, which, you know, some of them are on our list of you're gonna get hired as soon as we can. Um, but it's, um, That head trash well in the head.
[00:19:21] Trash in my head. There's also a lot of the, the visionary, the ideas, the, what I'm seeing from the top of the rollercoaster. Here's the image of where I wanna get us to. Here's, you know, all the, the different pieces. And I have worked with a couple of people that are great at really, truly phenomenal at taking all of that just.
[00:19:43] Spewing information that comes out of my head and then going, you know, just like taking it all in and then be like, okay, great. I'll, you know, let me, I'll come back with questions, but let me come back with a plan. And then we figure out what to work on first, and then that's what happens. They come back with a plan.
[00:19:59] I'm like, okay, I'm thinking this, this, and this and this, and I'm gonna work on this, this, this, and the this, and then we're gonna get here. And I'm like, great. Go do. That's, you know, that, that, that's where I, that's where I thrive because then I can go onto the next thing. It's like, yep, that's taken care of.
[00:20:13] I'm done next.
[00:20:15] Jude Schweppe: Okay. So. you were to start testing the waters with this type of
[00:20:23] Cristina Amigoni: Mm-hmm.
[00:20:24] Jude Schweppe: and if you were to sort of get quite practical about it and say, these are the projects that we would like some support on. These are the number of hours that we think would really make a difference to our working week. Um, and this is the type of person that we're looking for.
[00:20:38] If we could just take skim off the top, sim skim some of the head trash off the top. How many hours do you think. That person could work with you a week, a day, a month.
[00:20:50] Cristina Amigoni: I would say depending on the person and the ones that you know, um, I've had experience with are very fast and efficient. Uh, so knowing that type of person, I would say 10, 15 hours a week, 20 I think at the beginning would free up a lot of stuff.
[00:21:09] Jude Schweppe: Okay. Okay. So it's a part-time. So, Part-time role you're
[00:21:12] Cristina Amigoni: Lemme think,
[00:21:14] Jude Schweppe: Okay.
[00:21:14] Cristina Amigoni: think we could ha we could have enough work for full time. But I think even just part-time would help. Will help a ton.
[00:21:22] Jude Schweppe: Okay, so could I set a little bit of homework for you guys? If you're up to it? Could you write a list of the most important things at the moment that you would like some support with, and the type of person that you're looking for, roughly the number of hours that you think this person could support you with and put it out there. see, and see what the universe sends you, see what kind of person it sends you. How, how does it feel to do that? Does it feel scary? Does it feel like the, the load is being lifted? Do you feel like you're ready?
[00:22:04] Alex Cullimore: I love the idea and immediately in my mind, I, I'm already like flooding such a list of tasks and project ideas. I'm already like losing my own prioritization in that.
[00:22:15] Jude Schweppe: So,
[00:22:15] Alex Cullimore: The idea of having somebody like organize all of that is, is incredibly liberating and, um, I mean, I just, I think I have a just common mental trap personally of, um, generating lists in my head that then, uh, become quickly disorganized.
[00:22:31] Jude Schweppe: Yeah,
[00:22:32] Gabe Ratliff: I'd love to jump in here for a sec if that's okay.
[00:22:35] Jude Schweppe: go for it.
[00:22:36] Gabe Ratliff: So what I'm hearing is a lot that's happening up here
[00:22:41] Cristina Amigoni: Mm-hmm.
[00:22:42] Gabe Ratliff: what we are asking is to get that out on the paper, right? And it's really about what do you need this person to do? Not what are the tasks that they need to do, right? Like that's what you're getting them to help you with.
[00:22:58] And so I wanna kind of create that, that space for that distinction of. This isn't about, what's the list? Of things, right? That you're like, oh God, I need them to do this. Like, that's fine if that happens, right? Like if you need to get that outta your head, please do I invite you to do that? Right. Get it on paper.
[00:23:16] I do this, so I I I do this with my wife who is an integrator. She is a to-do is she's always to doing. And I have my own honeydew list as well, right? And so, and I love her dearly, so. I love that she like operates in that way. It's how we actually can work. Cuz I'm the creative idea guy and then she's the integrator.
[00:23:38] Well, there's also this, this thing that I've learned in our relationship that like there's so much stewing up here constantly, right? Whether that's personal plus professional and all the to doing and. And what I'll reflect back on her is I can see this is weighing on you and that you're burning out because you're, because there's too much you have and she uses the same language that you did about that mental load.
[00:24:06] And she's like, I'm not stressed, I just have this mental load. And I'm like, well, then what you've told, what she's literally told me is I need to get it out of my head on a piece of paper, get it outta here so I can look at it and we can start to cross it off, you know? And so we would put things like a whiteboard on the, on the fridge so that we could like be aware of the things that we both need to be aware of.
[00:24:25] Right. And then we can like mark it out or wipe it off, you know, and, and be like, Woohoo, and celebrate. Right? And so I just, I wanna share that little quick little story and just like what I was hearing of like, hey, I get that and what, what, what we are talking about is not necessarily the like full cuz they're gonna go through this with you.
[00:24:43] Just like, just exactly like what Christina said. I lit up when she said that because I was like, Ooh, I know those people too. Those people are amazing. I'm like, you have a fucking superpower and I love you for it. I remember the first time I worked with someone like that and I was like, ah, you're amazing.
[00:25:01] Because I was, I just felt like light, right? Like just free as a bird, because I was like, you just took all my shit and you put it up on this board and now I can see it and you organized it, you know? And I'm like, thank you. So I just wanna like put that possibility out there, right? Like you're, you see it, you see it, right?
[00:25:21] And it's really just about, like you said that, that this would just be so delightful. To have this person, right? And so what what we're inviting you to do is just, Hey, write this out. Just get it out. Like what does this, what does this person need to help you do? We've also taken notes of this. That's what I've been doing, so that you can use this and you already have a fresh start.
[00:25:40] I'm sorry. You don't have to start from from scratch. You can jump in, uh, with this cuz we've already taken this right? We've already taken this out of your mind and from what you've said. And, and you can like take that and then put that into what? Would be we, we just did this with another client and they're like, oh my God, we ha we have a job description, right?
[00:26:02] And then all of a sudden it like, becomes real and it's like, okay, well you gotta post it, right? And it's, and then you get into this space of like, okay, now we gotta, we gotta actually invite this person in to our space, right? And we gotta like, reach out to our network because they're out there, your person is out there, your person, not anybody else's.
[00:26:19] The person that sees si. And goes, yes, yes. I wanna be a part of that. Right.
[00:26:30] Cristina Amigoni: Mm-hmm.
[00:26:31] Gabe Ratliff: it's really just about saying it cuz all this is doing is you are basically packaging up this amoeba shaped container for this amazing human. And you're saying human. Uncovering the human. And you're basically saying to the universe, please send us this person cuz we're ready.
[00:26:50] Right.
[00:26:51] Cristina Amigoni: Yeah.
[00:26:54] Jude Schweppe: You're nodding. You're nodding.
[00:26:56] Cristina Amigoni: Yes,
[00:26:56] Jude Schweppe: Both of you're nodding at
[00:26:57] Cristina Amigoni: we're definitely ready.
[00:26:59] Jude Schweppe: Yeah, you're definitely ready. So does, does that feel like a, a, a good thing to do to sit down and go, what do we need this person to facilitate for us? Um, and see where it goes. To see where it goes. It's the first humble step. Um, which we, we are big fans of here.
[00:27:17] Um, okay, awesome. So we've got your integrator. We have identified that we need one, and we're calling the integrator in. Let's look at the second thing on your list, which was your leadership program. So can you describe where you feel it's at now and where you want to take it to?
[00:27:37] Cristina Amigoni: Okay. Yes. Uh, so I say that, um, right now it's, well, it's built, which is a big milestone. It exists. Uh, it's proven so, Because we've facilitated it, uh, a couple of times already, and it's proven to be successful and to be impactful. Uh, and so where we want to take it is, uh, look at what we've built, what we have developed, and, and repackage it and use it for both marketing reasons so that we can explain to people what the options are.
[00:28:11] And, and also repackages in, in other ways. So instead of saying like, this is the only way you can go through, you can learn these things, but be more flexible and figure out like, here's the Lego pieces. Um, what could we now. Develop, like, is it, you know, what's, what a three day retreat would look like or what a, a three, you know, a two day workshop would, would look like.
[00:28:33] And so that's really the next step is figuring out like, what are all those ways to combine these and at the same time, how do we get it out there? How do we let people know this exists and you want it because it's gonna change. You know, everything about your organization and your leaders are actually gonna lead.
[00:28:53] Jude Schweppe: Okay. Okay. So, uh, Alex, can you describe what it, what the product is at the moment? Essentially, is it like a one day workshop? Is it a week long? What does it look like currently?
[00:29:04] Alex Cullimore: So we've actually got a fairly large program at this point, so we, we took a bunch of different ideas about like how to get people to look like, connect a little bit more socially and then have kind some repeated, um, touch points over time to get that relat. Internship solidified, and then we've spun up a multiple days worth of curriculum, um, that we, at this point, we probably have about five days worth of, um, content that we can kind of modularize and split into different pieces.
[00:29:32] Um, but currently the, the full program that we, we have delivered is around what, 15 weeks and has all, all kinds of different, um, aspects within it, uh, with about five days of dedicated kind of in-person learning.
[00:29:46] Jude Schweppe: Okay, and so how are you currently delivering it? Is it in person? Is it online? How does it break out over those 15 weeks?
[00:29:54] Alex Cullimore: It's hybrid. Um, so we, we have like in-person to, to kick it off, put some, uh, virtual touch points in between that and the next in-person one. And then, uh, just some, some follow up work after that. So, um, the, the bulk of it is the in-person portions. It's a lot more minimal on the, uh, the virtual sessions between, but, uh, there are aspects of both.
[00:30:14] Jude Schweppe: Okay. And how does it, how does that 15 week package feel? Does it feel about right? Do you feel like you could expand it, shrink. It down in terms of the delivery.
[00:30:26] Cristina Amigoni: I wouldn't expand it. I think it's probably at the, at the max from a, from a duration and effort point of view, uh, it could shrink. Depending on the objectives. So because this was cost made, it, it had a certain, very specific objectives for the people that are participating in them.
[00:30:44] Jude Schweppe: Mm-hmm.
[00:30:44] Cristina Amigoni: Uh, and so the customization, I think it's definitely something that we can continue to do based on the need.
[00:30:50] What's the need of the organization? What's the need of the team? If we think about it, you know, from a, let's say public point of view where it's a program that's out there and people sign up and they don't necessarily know each other, that's where I would definitely change how it is, cuz. 15 weeks or even four weeks, maybe four weeks would be probably the maximum with people that you don't know, uh, that you don't necessarily work with.
[00:31:13] Uh, because the program, the way it was developed, now it is specific to getting this, these people, this team to collaborate with each other. Uh, and so I think, uh, we would like to. Do the same, not exact same program, but do the same type of value for companies that would like to say, Hey, all my middle managers need to go through this, or All my senior leaders need to go through this.
[00:31:36] And then how do we, so that the, the result is not just individual skills, but it's really team. The team coming together and becoming a team and creating that empathy. So I think that that piece I would still like to do, uh, at companies that, uh, would get, would allow us to do that. Uh, and also figure out like what, what, what are some smaller chunks, uh, of that.
[00:32:01] Jude Schweppe: Okay. So in terms of, of the bigger piece, let's call it like the, the, the top tier leadership program, how would you guys really love to deliver it? In terms of, I'm really enjoying this. It's causing minimal stress. It's radically simple. It is, you know, from a, a practical and logistical point of view, this is a, this is a really working for us as a business.
[00:32:28] Alex Cullimore: So in total, like, um, you know, wa waving the magic wand and getting that in a perfect scenario, I think it would be the one thing that we, we've. Just from kind of a, a coaching background, one thing we really love, uh, about getting to work with clients is making it pretty individualized, right? You get to see what, you know, this organization needs, what this team needs, and so we have like a good scope of curriculums that, that we can, like, it's, they're a little bit more modular, so being able to kind of, Identify what that is in a team and then create kind of a custom package for that would be really cool.
[00:32:59] And ideally have somebody who's helping us with running some of those logistics. So that really what we're doing is figuring out what that custom piece is and what, what makes this, um, particularly the right puzzle piece for this organization and what we can do to shape that puzzle piece and add the little customizations.
[00:33:15] So again, going back to some of that integrator idea of like, once we know that scaffolding, we can make those small adjustments. So I think some of the real fun, um, And at least for me, um, is that, uh, getting to figure out what individually the, that person and or team or organization needs and making it, um, taking, taking that, that foundation that we have and tweaking it enough to really fit that need.
[00:33:40] Jude Schweppe: Okay. And is this you going into an organization or are you going in delivering in person? In-person workshops? How does it work best for you guys?
[00:33:51] Cristina Amigoni: I would say, uh, going into the organization and getting to understand them enough to then be able to customize. So really doing that strategy piece to figure out like what is it that this organization needs, uh, and then. Having, you know, at least like maybe a first cohort that we facilitate just as that we can see how the adaptation is working out and then having a team that then takes over from that and can, you know if there's more groups.
[00:34:19] Ideally there will be more groups, maybe not. You know, a huge amount. But, uh, then having a team that can just rinse and repeat, uh, for the rest of the groups. So the impact wouldn't just be these 10 people, but the impact would be, you know, larger than, that doesn't have to be thousands. But how do we, how do we, how make an impact that will actually lift the organization.
[00:34:41] So it's not just this pocket, like, oh, you know, like only this elite group got to do this, but we've got a hundred of them.
[00:34:48] Jude Schweppe: Okay.
[00:34:48] Cristina Amigoni: the, the, the repetition is where we would get out of the way and just be present from a, you know, from a higher level point of view of making sure things are happening and the, the quality and the satisfaction and the value is still there, but we're not necessarily the ones facilitating every single session.
[00:35:06] Jude Schweppe: Okay. So with that in mind, is it about training facilitators in the way that you deliver this work?
[00:35:14] Cristina Amigoni: Yes. Yeah. And then having somebody that takes the, the, the program management piece and the logistics piece, that's the piece that's, you know, if we can get to the point where I don't have to do it ever again, it'll be a good point.
[00:35:31] Jude Schweppe: Okay, so what comes next? What comes next? Is it training the new facilitators? Is it getting another client? Is it working this through with another client and making sure that the bespoke element works really well? I. What's the priority?
[00:35:47] Cristina Amigoni: I don't, do you have ideas Alex?
[00:35:50] Alex Cullimore: um, but yeah, I think, um, The, the. Thing that ends up dragging down the ability to do so. The bespoke pieces as well as selling it is having that like the, the, the whole program management and logistics piece, um, figured out. So I think getting somebody who can understand the program and would be able to kind of follow each of the, the, the things and, and know, you know, when, when we adjust things, what they would still kind of need to do and, and run down and facilitate.
[00:36:16] I think that would take off a huge amount of the mental load and give it the ability to give us the ability to, um, Start putting this into other organizations as well. Seeking out organizations we can do that for. Um, so that, cuz that that, um, you know, if we get buried in that we can't, we can't try this out with multiple people very quickly.
[00:36:34] We can do that, you know, kind of one at a time and then we're still doing, um, just it pure raw hours spent trying to get the logistics pieces.
[00:36:43] Jude Schweppe: Okay, so again, it's coming back to this additional person who can take a lot of this load from you. So I, I just wanna reflect back to you guys. It feels like this is quite a crucial. Addition to the team.
[00:36:58] Cristina Amigoni: is.
[00:36:59] Alex Cullimore: Yes.
[00:37:00] Cristina Amigoni: It is. Yeah. It definitely is. Uh, cuz it is the integration piece, but it's also the. The doing, the implementing, like, so, you know, so the, the, the person, you know, the person, which again, you know, I lucked out and worked with somebody like that, that was both an integrator and ridiculously detailed.
[00:37:18] Like this is, there's details. So it's gotta be somebody that loves just being swimming in details, uh, all day long. Uh, and tiny little minuscule pieces and all the ts and all the eyes, uh, because it is very detailed work. Uh, it's not the high, it's not the 30,000 foot, you know, strategic designing view.
[00:37:41] This is the, I'm on the ground and, you know, I'm making sure that every single piece is there every single time and they love doing it.
[00:37:49] Jude Schweppe: Yeah. So I have a question. Does the business move forward without this person?
[00:37:56] Cristina Amigoni: Painfully,
[00:37:58] Alex Cullimore: It hobbles along. Yes.
[00:38:00] Cristina Amigoni: yes. It along.
[00:38:02] Jude Schweppe: Okay.
[00:38:03] Cristina Amigoni: It probably spit spins in place and then that somehow gives him momentum to move.
[00:38:09] Jude Schweppe: Okay. And I have another question. Are you done with hobbling?
[00:38:14] Cristina Amigoni: Yes.
[00:38:15] Alex Cullimore: Yeah.
[00:38:18] Cristina Amigoni: Yes,
[00:38:18] Jude Schweppe: I can feel it coming through the Zoom screen, Christina.
[00:38:22] Cristina Amigoni: yes.
[00:38:22] Jude Schweppe: She's like, hell yeah, I'm done with the hobbling. Okay. So what's what's the big, bold leap you're going to make in terms of this person?
[00:38:34] Cristina Amigoni: The ironic part about all of this is that the name of the program is Leap.
[00:38:42] Jude Schweppe: You need to take your own
[00:38:43] Cristina Amigoni: helping everybody else leap while holding ourselves soon, not leaping. So, yeah.
[00:38:50] Jude Schweppe: Okay, so what's, what's the action that you're going to take to facilitate this leap bearing in mind that. We've come back again to the fact that you guys can't do this all on your own. What action would you like to commit to?
[00:39:11] Alex Cullimore: So the first two things that come to mind is, is coming up with, and, and I really appreciate your clarification, Gabe, about thinking about like what, what this person does kind of in the abstract. Cause I think, um, it's, it's really narrowing down what we need that person to do. Not on the discrete task level, but on the, uh, as a general person level and then finding out how we can evaluate people on that.
[00:39:29] And then really committing to that search, um, of finding that person. Cuz I think, I think we probably need to just spend a little time clarifying what we're really asking for so we can better ask and ask that of, of people. And then it would be just committing to actually asking.
[00:39:46] Cristina Amigoni: Mm-hmm.
[00:39:47] Gabe Ratliff: And I'm curious about if you could put it in one word or one phrase, what do you think is the like most prevalent resistance to this? What's been holding you back from this?
[00:40:11] Cristina Amigoni: The, for me at least, it's the emotional leaping that I'm not doing. Uh, when it comes to. I guess the financial side of things. Uh, and so really thinking like, you know, if I, if I believe in us and I believe in this, I'll believe that we can bring this person on and grow instead of collapse. And so the fear that it's gonna collapse us, um, if we bring this person on before we have more work, which we just discussed, we're not gonna get more work without this person.
[00:40:47] But that, that fear is what? Holds me back. It's like, how do we, how do we not collapse? Um,
[00:40:57] Jude Schweppe: Okay, so I'll, I'll ask you, I'll ask you that question. How do you bring this person on and not collapse?
[00:41:03] Alex Cullimore: First, I think it's. Understanding what, um, a person like that might cost. Understanding what the, what our cash flow then becomes and how long we can sustain that. And then if we, uh, and maybe considering things like, okay, what, what would this look like maybe on a more part-time or contract basis, if we start that way, what might this look like?
[00:41:23] Or, you know, if we, if we know we're shortening our runway by X amount, what is this? You know, what are, what are our backup plans? I think maybe gives us a little comfort of. Okay, that if we're, we're going to, we're gonna make the, what the, the j curve as they talk about, we're gonna have that dip first in the hopes that we, we pull this back up higher than it was.
[00:41:41] Um, so maybe it's, it's knowing a little bit more of that.
[00:41:46] Jude Schweppe: Sure. Okay, so, so let's imagine that you have this person and they're working with you for 20 hours a week, and you've got them for a three month period initially, so we're just gonna commit to three months.
[00:42:01] Cristina Amigoni: Okay.
[00:42:02] Jude Schweppe: How, how does that feel? Where is it kind of registering on the fear level for you, Christina, and what's it opening up?
[00:42:11] Cristina Amigoni: Well, it's opening up the world and it's, uh, yeah, from a fear level, I, that's doable.
[00:42:17] Jude Schweppe: Yeah,
[00:42:18] Cristina Amigoni: To me, that's doable. So I think that, not the fear, but the hesitation shifts more what Alex said. It's like how do we find the right person so that we don't end up spinning again for another three months?
[00:42:32] Gabe Ratliff: something I'd love to say there is that it's also being okay with, you may not find the right person, immediate, the first person, right? It may take a person or two that can happen and it does happen, right? Like let's go ahead and get that out of here. Let's go ahead and put that out here. Let's,
[00:42:47] Cristina Amigoni: Yeah,
[00:42:49] Gabe Ratliff: right.
[00:42:50] Like that can happen. I've done it. And I was like,
[00:42:54] Cristina Amigoni: yeah.
[00:42:55] Gabe Ratliff: well, I botched that one. You know, and it's a learning lesson. And you go, yeah, they weren't right. And you, they, you know, people, some people they, they interview well. Some people are just really good at that. It's like some people are really good at taking tests, right?
[00:43:10] But then they get in and they do the work, but that's also, you all know what you need. It's really just like, like what I heard you say, Alex, right? It's really articulating that the best way you can and then just get it out there. Ask everybody. Just put it out there and say, look, we are ready for this person.
[00:43:28] Do you know this person? Do you know? And, and, and, and I put this in the notes. Start from your. Epicenter, right. Start from your network
[00:43:39] Cristina Amigoni: Yeah.
[00:43:39] Gabe Ratliff: so that people know you, they know how you show up, they know how you show up as people, how you show up for businesses, how si amo shows up, right? So that they get it. Because then they're gonna be able to help filter for you. They're gonna go, they're gonna be that additional brain power that's gonna take what you are asking for. And they go, it's just gonna click. Right. And that takes that pressure that I'm hearing you both have right? Of this, like, we have to find this person.
[00:44:09] Right. I mean, you were using language like hobbling, painful,
[00:44:14] Jude Schweppe: Hmm.
[00:44:15] Gabe Ratliff: I. Scribbling, right? I mean, so this is, this is a pain point. This is a pain point, like deep, and there's a, there's a fear of failure. There's a, on both ends, right? There's a, like, if we don't get this person, we're hobbling forward and there's a, oh, what if we get the wrong person?
[00:44:36] You know, what's that gonna do? Right? And it's like, what I was just hearing Jude present right as this, how can we, what's enough?
[00:44:45] Cristina Amigoni: Mm-hmm.
[00:44:45] Gabe Ratliff: enough, and then like, let's, let's just see, let's just see how this unfolds. Like let's give them the, the benefit of the doubt, right? And let them prove to us over, you know, see how the first month goes,
[00:45:00] Cristina Amigoni: Mm-hmm.
[00:45:01] Gabe Ratliff: and then look at the next month, right?
[00:45:03] And then, and then just keep checking in with them and use your tools that you develop for teams and take the leap. You like what I did there?
[00:45:14] Jude Schweppe: I believe you guys.
[00:45:16] Cristina Amigoni: was very good.
[00:45:18] Jude Schweppe: Um, awesome. Okay. I'd like to swivel back around because it's just popped into my head, Christina, to talk about your book. So let's imagine
[00:45:32] Cristina Amigoni: Mm-hmm.
[00:45:33] Jude Schweppe: longer hobbling, you're building up the strength, you're getting your fitness back, you're getting your energy back. This person has taken a huge mental load.
[00:45:42] They're starting to integrate and things are starting to flow, and you've got your scaffolding and your process in place. What's the book about?
[00:45:50] Alex Cullimore: Right. Ironically, that's something that I would love to bounce off of the integrator cuz we've, we've had a number of different kind of versions and ideas and, uh, we shouldn't say, you know, any of them even have to be put off the table. There's probably a prioritization task in there, figuring out what's most important and we'd wanna like write up first.
[00:46:08] Um, There's a lot of different ideas. I think what it's, you know, in, in my mind, the thing that I, I kind of continue, continually go back to is trying to help people understand and access for themselves some of the freedom that comes with, um, understanding and treating people like humans and what happens when you create space for people.
[00:46:29] Because it's, it's an abstract concept until you start to do it. And when you see that power, it's. Incredible. And so being able to help, uh, people understand that is, would be one of the first things I would want to try and give and, and, and have be the message to take home that like, hey, there's, there's a way to do this.
[00:46:46] That requires a lot less resistance is a lot more natural to people and it's extremely powerful, so,
[00:46:53] Cristina Amigoni: Yeah. Yeah, I would say the
[00:46:56] Jude Schweppe: too, Christina?
[00:46:58] Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, I'd say it's the same, the same concept for sure. Um, I mean, when I look at the title of our podcast, I think, you know, in my mind, like that would be a great title for the book too. Uncover the Human, uh, with a subtitle of where are we actually applying this? And yes, we are applying this to life, but we're mostly focused on the business side of things, on humanizing the workplace.
[00:47:19] And what does that look? You know, uh, mean, so some of these like abstract concepts that everybody use, like human-centered culture and people first, and what does that actually mean? And that's what I would want the book to, to, to be about, which is like, what are the actions? What do I do day-to-day? How do I make decisions?
[00:47:36] How do I pause before I act? Uh, which is a combination of what we have learned, what we continues to continue to learn, uh, what's in our leadership. Program. And as well, it's also combination of the, you know, a hundred conversations we've had in our podcast. So I can see those being a huge asset to a book, uh, because we've had, we have the, the research, we have the data from other people's experience, and we have great stories that we could get out of the podcast to insert in the book.
[00:48:09] Jude Schweppe: Okay. It sounds like the book wants to be written.
[00:48:12] Cristina Amigoni: Yeah. The book wants to be written.
[00:48:15] Jude Schweppe: The book wants to be written.
[00:48:16] Gabe Ratliff: And you know what it's about.
[00:48:19] Jude Schweppe: You, you know exactly what it's.
[00:48:21] Cristina Amigoni: Yes.
[00:48:24] Gabe Ratliff: already have the title Uncover the Human, humanizing the Workplace and what that means. There you go. You said
[00:48:31] Cristina Amigoni: go.
[00:48:31] Gabe Ratliff: What's it about? Trying to help people access and understand how to engage with humans naturally and with less resistance. And you know what? We have hundreds of conversations from our podcast with tons of great stories.
[00:48:42] There's your book. There you go.
[00:48:45] Cristina Amigoni: have a book.
[00:48:47] Jude Schweppe: So
[00:48:48] Gabe Ratliff: You also know someone who's written several books
[00:48:52] Cristina Amigoni: Yes.
[00:48:52] Gabe Ratliff: a lot of great w that we both know. And I sat down with him and he shared 90 minutes of his time and gave me a full list, which I'm happy to share with you. I'm happy to share that with you after the, after we finish. Um, of, he like helped me unpack like, here's how to write a book.
[00:49:10] Here's what I've learned after the several books I've written. So, you know, You've got a network of people too that are also authors that, you know, we know several people. Right? So, um, you know, I invite you to also do that, right? Like reach out and maybe like find that kind of accountability outside of yourselves that can kinda help keep pushing you towards, okay, we're stuck.
[00:49:33] What you got for me? You know? Or We're doing great. We're halfway through the book. Oh my gosh. What you got for me? You know?
[00:49:42] Jude Schweppe: So a piece of homework around the book, if you guys are open to doing this, is like a mind map. Or a simple word doc or somewhere where you can literally sit down and dump all of your ideas
[00:49:56] Cristina Amigoni: Yeah.
[00:49:57] Jude Schweppe: and, and I would love to set you the challenge of spending a minimum of 60 minutes at some point next week with your mind map or with your word doc.
[00:50:09] Doesn't have to be fancy and just literally everything that has literally just come out there as we've been speaking. And just bullet point, bullet point, bullet point heading, three bullet points for each one. This is what I wanna say about that. And those are the key points, and I guarantee you, you will have the structure of your book in 60 minutes. Then it's just a case of sitting your, sitting your butts in the chair, um, once a week. And just, just the first 10 words is all you have to do each time. And if, if I could share something from my absolute guru, Elizabeth Gilbert, um, on the creative process, the least creative thing that you have to do is physically get your bum in the chair.
[00:51:01] The next thing you have to do is open the document. The next thing you have to do is literally write the first word. And then inspiration and the story knows that you're ready. You've showed up, you have physically showed up, and you've set your intention. And I guarantee you, if you say, I'm gonna write one sentence, you will have at least a page, if not more written before you even realize it.
[00:51:29] Because when a story wants to be told and when the book wants to be written, which your guys' book clearly does, it will work with you. It will work with you. And it and, and I always say to clients who want to write a book, you don't have to write a book. You have to open the laptop. That's it.
[00:51:48] Cristina Amigoni: I like that a lot.
[00:51:49] Jude Schweppe: That's it.
[00:51:50] Humble steps. Break it down into its most humble unit, which is opening the laptop.
[00:51:58] Gabe Ratliff: Next step.
[00:51:59] Cristina Amigoni: Yeah.
[00:52:00] Jude Schweppe: Yeah. And then you take the next step. So ca, can I ask you to commit to 60 minutes next week?
[00:52:08] Alex Cullimore: Yeah.
[00:52:09] Jude Schweppe: Yeah. Could you, could you look at your diaries now? Could you look at your diaries now and, and look it in.
[00:52:18] Cristina Amigoni: Yes, we can.
[00:52:19] Alex Cullimore: There it is.
[00:52:21] Jude Schweppe: When do you have a 60 minute window?
[00:52:24] Cristina Amigoni: Um, do Monday afternoon.
[00:52:30] Alex Cullimore: Yeah, the entirety of Monday afternoon is open.
[00:52:33] Cristina Amigoni: uh, Thursday. I.
[00:52:35] Jude Schweppe: Okay, if, if you've got the entirety of Monday afternoon, I'm gonna crack the whip and ask if you can do your, uh, integrator job description, stroke. What do we need this person to help us with and how do they take the load off? And then the second thing is sit down and do 60 minutes on the book.
[00:52:58] Cristina Amigoni: Okay.
[00:52:59] Jude Schweppe: How does that feel?
[00:53:02] Alex Cullimore: Like the next business day from now, we can get a lot in place.
[00:53:06] Cristina Amigoni: Yes. Yeah.
[00:53:10] Gabe Ratliff: Just imagine how much lighter you'll feel when you get past this hump,
[00:53:15] Cristina Amigoni: Mm-hmm.
[00:53:16] Gabe Ratliff: and this isn't the hump anymore. You go, oh, that's out of the way. What's
[00:53:21] Alex Cullimore: Yeah.
[00:53:22] Jude Schweppe: Done.
[00:53:22] Gabe Ratliff: It's so funny how we get in our, in our own way. Right? The other thing I was gonna mention is the 80 20 rule. I love to use this with clients, spend 80%, we're already talking about doing it and you, what you just proposed, right?
[00:53:36] Spend 80% of your time working on the business, but then save that 20% for this future facing stuff. That's gonna be the 80% that's gonna support your business, right? And that's something I have to constantly do this for myself, but it's like just, and it's okay to be like, I'm gonna block this little bit of time and it's gonna feel weird. But I know cuz you've just broken it down for us over this hour, like just this hour for you.
[00:54:06] Cristina Amigoni: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
[00:54:08] Gabe Ratliff: Look at how much has just completely unlocked for you, and you're like, oh yeah, here's what's next. Okay, so we're gonna work on an integrator. We're gonna like write the job description. We're gonna, you know, plan to be putting that out to our network.
[00:54:21] We have this, what we wanna work with them on to develop out our leadership program. And we're also gonna work on our outline for our book, because we already have a title. Working title and you know, an idea of like, what this about. And we, oh, we've got all this great stuff to pull from our podcast
[00:54:40] Cristina Amigoni: Yeah.
[00:54:40] Gabe Ratliff: and, uh, all the stories and all this.
[00:54:42] And that's, that's where you get to get creative again. Right? Which is what you wanna be doing. That's what I heard you say earlier, Christina. You're like, oh, I wanna be doing that stuff. Like, that's the exciting stuff, right? And that's where you get to like, you know, be in that space of like, oh, this, this is what, this is fun and effortless.
[00:54:58] This is where si amo is fun and effortless, which is like the two main things. That I'm, at least for me, like what I speak to whoever we're talking to and help stay focused on as a goal is how to make our businesses fun and effortless. It doesn't have to be soul crushing. You know's like th this that's been like the way it's been and it's like, hell nah, you guys had your turn.
[00:55:24] Let's try it a different way.
[00:55:25] Cristina Amigoni: yeah,
[00:55:27] Gabe Ratliff: I don't know why not. What do we got to lose? So I just wanna invite you into that possibility as well, you know?
[00:55:34] Jude Schweppe: Yeah, you guys are so ready to fly. Ready to
[00:55:38] Cristina Amigoni: We are.
[00:55:39] Jude Schweppe: No more hobbling.
[00:55:40] Alex Cullimore: it's
[00:55:41] Cristina Amigoni: It's like we're, we're tying our wings down. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. Stay down.
[00:55:46] Jude Schweppe: you're ready for the leap. You're so ready for the leap. Um, can we support you with anything else today? Is there anything else that you'd like to unpick? Um,
[00:55:57] Alex Cullimore: I wanna offer just a, a huge. Bit of gratitude. This is a really excellent exercise and thank you guys so much for walking through this one. I also love that this is like, the idea of how you guys are, are doing this podcast is a really cool idea. Like, uh, this, this hour session and just to share from the feeling internally, like I, I feel lighter and, and I've been swimming in thoughts for about four weeks here.
[00:56:19] Um, just trying to like muddle through. Had trash and soups. So this is, uh, I feel a lot better and I really appreciate that. So I just wanted say thank you guys so much for this. It is a great opportunity and I really, truly appreciate the conversation.
[00:56:33] Jude Schweppe: Absolute pleasure. Absolute pleasure. We are excited to see. Where you guys go, because I know that you have amazing, amazing, impactful and powerful work. Um, and it, and it's so, it is frustrating when we find ourselves caught in the weeds of our own making, but also, you know, it's hard to see your own trees.
[00:56:52] It's really hard to see your own trees. Um, so we will check in with you next week if that's okay to see how you're getting on.
[00:56:59] Cristina Amigoni: Please do.
[00:57:00] Jude Schweppe: Um, and thank you so much for reaching out and being, you know, being on the show and having the artful experience. It's been an absolute delight as always speaking to you guys.
[00:57:08] So we are waiting with breath to see where the leap takes you.
[00:57:14] Alex Cullimore: you guys so
[00:57:15] Cristina Amigoni: Thank you. No, thank you. Seriously.
[00:57:17] Jude Schweppe: And that brings us to the end of another episode of The Artful Experience,
[00:57:26] Gabe Ratliff: whether you're a first time listener or a diehard fan. We want to thank you for being here.
[00:57:31] Jude Schweppe: We hope you enjoyed today's show and got loads of value from the conversation.
[00:57:36] Gabe Ratliff: And hey, if you're itching for more, don't worry. You can find all the juicy links and show notes for this episode@theartful.co.
[00:57:44] Jude Schweppe: But before you go, we have a little favor to ask If you haven't already, please hit that subscribe button and leave a rating or review wherever you get your podcast fixed. And do tune in for our next episode.
[00:57:56] Gabe Ratliff: Your support means the world to us, and it helps us reach even more amazing artful entrepreneurs out there like you.
[00:58:03] Jude Schweppe: Thanks again for joining us. We appreciate every single one of you.
[00:58:08] Gabe Ratliff: Until next time, keep unleashing your creative genius and stay artful.
