Own Your Time Suzanne Ulph
I’m joined this week by Suzanne Ulph on Own Your Time.
In today’s episode I’m going to be chatting with Suzanne Ulph.
With over two decades of teaching experience, Suzanne transitioned from her role as an English teacher to establish a community centred on creative writing and connection.
In 2023, she launched The Curious Wolf, offering writing workshops, mentoring, and book coaching to help individuals harness their inner creativity and bring their stories to life. Beyond her passion for writing, Suzanne is also the co-founder of Combossa and Combossa Studio, two stationery brands she runs with her husband.
Let’s get into it…
Key takeaways from this episode:
Writing is a powerful tool for business growth – It establishes credibility and builds a deeper connection with your audience.
Your brain works in "gears" – Knowing when to focus and when to rest leads to greater productivity.
You don’t need hours to write – Small, intentional time blocks can lead to big results.
Balance is key – Success isn’t just about working harder; it’s about working smarter and managing energy.
Read the transcript:
Please note - this podcast episode was transcribed by an AI tool, there may be some typos or errors.
00:00 Welcome to Own Your Time, a podcast for small business owners. Get ready to harness your most precious asset, your time, with intention, enabling you to create a life that thrives in simplicity, ease and joy.
00:17 I'm your host, Sarah Stewart, Glasgow-based time management expert. My approach combines the wisdom of traditional time management strategies with the transformative power of mindfulness.
00:30 My commitment is to help you to get more time for the things that really matter. If you are ready to ditch the hustle culture and overwhelm, and instead embrace peaceful productivity, you are in the right place.
00:43 In today's episode, I'm going to be chatting with Suzanne, the founder of the Curious Wolf, with over two decades of teaching experience, Suzanne transitioned from her role as a teacher at Wellington School to establish a community centered on creative writing and connection.
01:02 In 2023, she launched the Curious Wolf, offering workshops and mentoring to help individuals harness their inner creativity. And more recently, Suzanne has also started working as a book coach.
01:17 Beyond her passion for writing, Suzanne is also the co-founder of Combos and Combos Studio to stationary brands which she runs with her husband.
01:27 Her journey exemplifies the power of embracing change and following your passions. Let's get into it. Welcome, Suzanne. It is a real pleasure to have you as a guest on my podcast.
01:42 Thank you, so lovely to be here. How are you today? I'm good. I'm good having a lovely day so far.
01:48 What about you? Good. Yeah, I am having a nice day. It's been quite relaxed, which is nice. So for the listeners, I would love for you to just explain in your own words a little bit about you and your business or businesses, I should say.
02:05 Okay, I am Suzanne of the Curious Wheel. That's my most important business to me at the moment. I'm a bit coach and a writing mentor, so the curious world is all about empowering people to believe that they can write, whether they want to write a book, whether they want to write a short story, any type
02:24 of writing really whatsoever. I can identify there was a bit of a gap in the market at the starting end of writing, you know, for people who are thinking they want to write something but they're not sure what to start with, how to start, how to structure things.
02:40 so I'd come in at that end as opposed to the opposite end, like the editing end of things. So that's been really, that's only really been in the last year and it's grown quite, quite cleanly, so I'm really, really enjoying that.
02:52 Aside from that, I have two stationary businesses that I've co-owned with my husband, and the first one is Combota, and that's for Wade in the stationery, and the other one is Combota Studio, which is all about greeting cards and and things like that as well so yes a lot of juggling of different things
03:08 but it's all good amazing and tell me a little bit about sort of pre going into business and like what led you into this line of work well actually I was a teacher for 23 years I was an English teacher and I loved it I did actually really love it I didn't leave teaching because I thought I want to you
03:32 know, I don't like teaching. I could have stayed there for the rest of my career, actually. But I always kind of felt like I wanted to try something different and I had an idea about starting the Curious Wolf and creating sort of events for in local areas, you know, when people could get together and
03:49 , you know, talk about writing and try some different things and just give things a go. But it was more about connection for me at that point than it was actually about working with people we wanted to publish books.
04:00 So that was a big part of why I wanted to leave teaching. Plus our reading stationery business was getting to the point it just wasn't really manageable for one person anymore so that was what was going to be doing initially.
04:14 So I did decide to leave and we couldn't fill my job because I was joe-qualified and I was doing a few different things.
04:21 So it took three attempts for them to find one bidig which meant then actually leave, although I handed in my notice in the April of 2019, didn't leave until the end of November 2019, and of course that was only a few short months before lockdown, when the wedding industry collapsed altogether pretty
04:40 much. Oh gosh! The timing of that wasn't exactly ideal, which is why we then built Combos of Studio for Britain Cards and Christmas Cards and you know all that sort of thing.
04:51 So the next couple of years after that was really just a case or survival, just building and also back up and getting it to where it had been but the curious world never left me the ideas for it never left me so last year I decided just to go for it and I didn't and it's good.
05:09 Amazing and so when you think about you know that transition then from teaching and to being a business owner and when we like think about it through a lens of time then what how's your perspective shifted maybe or you know what have you learned about managing your time?
05:31 I think actually what's quite interesting is that teachers are incredibly good managers of time so I think it's more of the opposite way around it's what I've brought with me from teaching that's helped me cope just now you know when you think of the average day in a classroom you've got usually that
05:48 six classes five a couple of days a week or six classes so it's every ever on the air just about another 20 to 30 people appearing your room with each of their own individual needs as well as what you're doing as a full-class.
06:02 So unless you are absolutely organised today's degree, you can't cope with it. And that's why you hear enough of a lot of teachers who are working till midnight, past midnight, every night and you just can't live like that.
06:15 You know, you have to have it so organised that you're dealing with things as they come up and everything is completely planned all day.
06:23 So I think I probably brought that with me to what I'm doing now. I think it's more of the opposite way now in that I actually feel like it more time for what I'm doing now than what I previously did.
06:36 So I brought a lot of the kind of planning and destruction and the organizational tips that you know that and things that I would do in teaching with me nowadays.
06:45 Probably from a year perspective though it was a bit strange at first when school holidays and that would be working, that was a bit strange, but then it only actually took a couple of years and then I would realise that it was the middle of July, and I hadn't realised that it had been an end of term
07:00 , so that was quite a nice shift as well. Yeah, interesting, because yeah you forget that teach, you know, that's the sense sort of terms and stuff, which, which will influence your sort of perspective on time, I guess.
07:21 Interesting. And when we, when you sort of put in your pitch for the show, you had mentioned about this concept of three gears of the brain, which I haven't heard of.
07:35 This is something that's totally new to me. Do you want to maybe explain in a little bit about that and how that's sort of connected with our time.
07:45 Yeah, it's really interesting and I wouldn't say I fully understand it all yet at all. It came from a podcast I was listening to a few weeks ago and the wrong in chaturgy one, I don't know if you know what I'm saying.
07:56 Yeah, okay, no, I know the podcast, but it's not one that I actively listened to. It's really good, really really good.
08:05 Anyway, so he had and a doctor met those dr Roni, I wrote in her name, so I would remember it, and on it, and it's she who has come up with this idea of the three separate years in her brain, and I mean there's obviously technical terms for it, a lot of it on it, and various different things, but she
08:21 calls it three years just to make it more accessible, I suppose. So first year is when you are relaxing or you could be working as well, but in a task that's not taxing in any way, something that you can do without thinking about it.
08:37 So for me, if I'm creating Christmas card orders at the moment, you know, that's not, I'm not really having to think, well I'm doing that.
08:44 Third gear is when you are really fully focused on what you're doing and you're using, you know, your full powers of concentration to work.
08:54 And second gear is when you switch between first and third gear. So, ultimately, we should be in second gear most of the day.
09:04 But sadly, what she finds is that we're in third gear, we're far too often in third gear, so we're not giving our brains a rest.
09:12 So, she likened it to running a marathon by sprinting, you know, instead of realizing that you've got to place yourself in things.
09:19 So, I think it's really fascinating. So, she was saying from her studies that if you're spending too much of your day in third gear, then even with adequate rest in the evening and proper sleep and things, you'll still be quite fitty the next day.
09:34 So you wonder if an awful lot of you know tiredness and brain fog and various things that people talk about might actually be down to spending too much of their day in third gear.
09:45 And I find the whole thing that's fascinating because I think probably from being a teacher, I'm normally running my day as it's got to be you know high power stuff that I'm doing it's got to be like the things that you're really thinking about from one thing to another and if I'm doing low brain activity
10:03 stuff like Christmas cards I'll listen to a podcast or something else so that there's definitely still some brain work going and that's made me realize that I really need to stop take a break maybe have just have music on if I'm doing something like that, a first-grade activity, make a point of making
10:19 sure that I get outside with the dogs a couple of times during the day, you know, in the middle of things, instead of always just first thing in the morning and then, you know, last thing at night, which was the way I was maybe doing it before.
10:31 So yeah, it's something I want to find out enough a lot more about, because I think the whole thing is absolutely fascinating, because we know we need to give our bodies a rest from exercise, but we don't give our brains a rest, ever really do we?
10:45 That is interesting, and I think the, it's probably something that I do, but I maybe don't cut, I wouldn't have called it out as that, because I do talk to my clients around, yeah, you've got sort of those two types of tasks and it is the ones where you need to be fully focused or there are ones where
11:10 you can do maybe when you've got less energy and it's starting to then like through the time audits that I do it's figuring out so which part of the day are you at your most productive or are able to focus more easily so that you can step into those like third gear tasks I guess and then when your energy
11:31 is dipping what are what are then the first gear tasks that you would be doing in those time slots as well as like you've mentioned like the weaving in the the rest and you know there's so many different kinds of rest as well because I think a lot of people think of rest as you know like you're sleeping
11:54 or like having an app or whatever whereas like you know for me rest might be that walk with a dog or maybe doing some writing or something creative or whatever.
12:10 That's so interesting. I will go away. I'll have a look at, have a listen of that podcast episode then. It's really good.
12:20 I know I don't want to work with too many authors at the one time, but it's given me clarity on why that is as well, you know, like I know that if I do a book strategy session, it's incredibly draining because it's so intense, and so I don't book more than one in a day, even though the session's only
12:36 90 minutes, I don't, but it's making me think of what what would ever do in the rest of that day that makes sense to do and not do something that's going to potentially lead to problems and then a waste of time, because you're going to have to redo it.
12:49 I'm thinking like building websites, you know, that's it. Yes, yeah. You know, so try and balance the day and the week like that because of it, so yeah.
12:58 interesting. So I also have sort of these rules to live by that I try and stick to. So for me, one of the big drains on my energy is networking.
13:12 And I can find that if I have to be in a room with loads of people, I just find it exhausting.
13:20 So and at the start, when I first went self-employed, I was probably doing a lot more networking than I am now and sometimes I'd be like, you know, two or three events in a day, which it was, it was just far too much.
13:39 So I very quickly learned my lesson and then that was it, like, you know, no more than one networking event in a day, no more than two in a week or like, you know, two networking coffees or whatever.
13:52 And I also sort of limit the number of like one to one sessions I would do in a day as well because it really does impact your energy.
14:02 It does because you're giving so much to the people that you're working with. So yeah. I think I had it in my head as a teacher.
14:08 Well, I would see 180 people a day. Of course I can do more than one a day, but it's different.
14:13 It's really, really different. Yeah. And then there's also, I think with, you know, maybe customers, they sort of see, okay, well, I'm having a one hour session with a coach or whatever.
14:28 But what they're maybe not thinking about is the prep that we have to do before that session and then the follow-up prep at the end as well.
14:37 So, you know, the customer will benefit from that extra effort that we're putting in but they're maybe not sort of initially seeing that so through their eyes they might be like well why can't you only do one in a day but it's not just that session there's so much more that goes into it as well and yeah
15:00 okay and you talk there about walking the dog and sort of the thing that ties in like you mentioned about like your morning routine and this is an area that fascinates me sort of how people, I guess just how people spend their days, but like there does seem to be with business owners quite an emphasis
15:22 on how you spend your morning. So do you want to just share me a little bit about your sort of practices that you that you have?
15:31 Yeah. Yeah, mine is going to be bald over time. So when I was teaching and still living in the south side of Glasgow, my morning routine was up, sure, it can't go kind of thing and not be late, which invariably didn't actually work in the traffic and it removed to the country to be between where I was
15:50 teaching and where Richard was working at that point because I actually wanted to have the typical kind of picket fence breakfast together, you know, but that idea because I thought it set shop so much better for the day so that became the first, before I knew the term, that became the first kind of
16:06 non-negotiable that, you know, we would have breakfast together and then each go to work. Then when I became self-employed and went through the turmoil of the wedding industry closing, I started working with a mindset coach, Andrea Callanan, amazing, she's absolutely amazing.
16:23 So she can have introduced the whole concept of an actual morning routine and the fact that it's got a name to it, so I can have developed it on from there.
16:32 So it's not, I mean, it's not hugely different from what many people do, but the non-negotiables I have in that is that there will be exercise there will be walking, really, and pixie.
16:43 There will be breakfast together, and we do do that, and it's a proper breakfast, you know, not just a quick thing.
16:50 Well, it's quite quick, but you know what I mean. And gratitude, Didey, you know, to set up, because I think if you start the day in that sense of feeling gratitude, then you can cope with what comes your way, even German packaging lots, which I had to go with.
17:07 So yeah, and that's actually the key thing. So you've got gratitude, you've got movement, you've got nutrition, and you've got connection.
17:14 So to me, that's the kind of the key areas. And I always think about there's different things that I want to bring into it.
17:21 But you've got to constantly think of time as well and think about what you can bring in at different points of the day.
17:27 So like I'm now doing, for example, I'm now doing arm weights exercises, we can have short program and I was planning to bring that in first thing but I've changed that to be more towards lunchtime now so that I don't feel that the morning is too packed with too many things that might stop me getting
17:42 started with work so yeah yeah and that makes sense and I love the idea of a nice breakfast in the morning and that like connection piece that's lovely, as well as the dog walk.
17:56 Although I tend, I don't know, I don't know if it's maybe because the time of recording this, we're sort of winter in Scotland.
18:05 So I'm not really going out first thing in the morning with a dog at the moment, because I get a little bit scared going out in the dark.
18:13 Oh yeah, we fear a lot of the mid-morning, just now, the still in the morning, but it's not, it's not first thing, no, you know, we see people out, because we really live with the river in the back, so there's no houses, it's pitch black, and there's paths and things, and you see people out at six o'clock
18:28 with torches, and you think, oh no, that's creepy. Yeah, I don't think I could go out with a torch either.
18:34 I, um, in my, in my free time, I like to watch like police and crime dramas like on the, on the TV, that's, that's one of my things that I like to do, But the, but the issue is I do get quite scared with it.
18:50 So then it's like, you know, dark outside and it meant to be walking it and I just can't, I can't do it.
18:56 No. So, yeah. How does it even thank you for it at that time? Either she'd probably like to see you later too.
19:04 Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. And on the gratitude piece, and I guess this ties in with you and your writing and stuff, like how important is it to actually write these things down rather than maybe just having, like, thinking it?
19:27 Does that make sense? Yeah, it does, it does. And I do run sessions on gratitude journaling. And, you know, So I always say in those sessions, it doesn't matter what you do, as long as it's working for you.
19:40 So you can do things like if you've not got any time, you can do like the gratitude walk, for example, and that's like you think of a different thing you're grateful for with each step you take between your bed and shower or something.
19:52 So that's not going to be much time, then that's something that you can do easily. I personally think you need to start by writing it down because it gets you into the habit of thinking that way.
20:03 So if you're right, if you give yourself like I say I will write three things every morning for 30 days or 100 days or something like that, you'll get yourself into the routine of thinking gratefully and that's the whole point of gratitude.
20:19 It's not just about writing your list in the morning and then just going about your day not thinking about it.
20:24 It's having it coming in as second nature that when things are stressful or things are go wrong, things are difficult, your thoughts are immediately on what you're grateful for.
20:34 It's putting yourself into the kind of victor mode instead of victim mode, you know, instead of feeling hard done by it, something you immediately feel but this side of it is something really good or this is something I can learn from or I'm lucky to be in the position where I've got the tools to actually
20:49 deal with this or whatever it is that you're actually thinking of. So from that point of view writing is important until that becomes a teenager.
20:57 Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I do like writing, like, I think if I was writing something probably, you know, if I was writing a book or whatever, I probably would be inclined to type it out.
21:12 But I do like writing with pen and paper. And it's like, I guess it's the sensory, you know, the feel of the paper and the weight of the pen, and there is just something nice about doing it that way rather than typing or like, or putting into an app in the foot like I've never been, I've not enjoyed
21:37 apps for these kind of things. No, I'm with you, and I think we all crave the kind of simple things in life as well, so I think that's why calligraphy classes are so booming at the moment, you know, everybody wants because I think they want that connection of physically doing something it's the same
21:54 you know why people go camping when they could afford to go to five-star hotels and places you still want that simple life and connection with nature and things so I think all that does go back to that but yeah I'm completely with you to me you have to write if you're writing a gratitude diary or journaling
22:13 or any kind of writing it doesn't connect with me when it's online now yeah interesting And then when we think about, so you touched about on them, like your creative brain.
22:28 And I don't, like for me, I feel like I probably am able to focus more in the morning. And so I tend to find I probably am more creative in the morning.
22:42 Is that a general thing that everyone's creative in the morning? I think, yes, I think everybody is more focused at certain times, not always because there always will be exceptions, but people tend to be more focused first thing in the morning and I suppose if you're more focused then it's perhaps easier
23:03 to be creative as well at that point because you're feeling more on top of everything, so you're not feeling restricted.
23:10 So I think the way it goes is morning and then for me anyway from like four o'clock onwards I can get quite a lot of focus time at that point as well, but not so much between maybe C1 and C4.
23:24 And I've kind of played about with food, you know, cutting out of statues or sugars or various different things to see if that makes a difference.
23:30 And while it does make a bit of a difference, it doesn't totally. So I definitely think it's about like your brain can work really hard for you and then it needs to have a bit of a rest no matter what else you're doing.
23:42 then it can work really hard for you again. So, whether you're doing something highly creative or highly scientific or whatever, I think these things just work better at these times.
23:53 Yeah, and it is just that like you said they are like experimenting a little bit around what's gonna work for you and I was the weather, I'm like laughing at myself, I'm about to share with the wet with the weather being so cold, I've started taking to having my lunch break in bed.
24:16 I'm like today, I made myself my lunch and then just went back to bed for a little bit to sort of sit and enjoy my food and rest.
24:29 So that was like my, that was my pause. And then I'm now coming back to like, like, yeah, I get some more sort of productive work done this afternoon.
24:40 That's a brilliant idea. I haven't actually done that yet, but I mean, give it a go. I get the problem, maybe, if you then get too comfy.
24:49 Yeah. I know. I do sometimes I break up the bed, actually, and it's amazing how productive you can actually be sitting with a laptop, which is great.
24:58 So I do. I normally, my morning routine is sort of, I get up before the kids get up, I'll make my breakfast and normally take it back to bed and I'll either like do a little bit of reading or I'll get my journal I in like do some journaling or whatever and that does tense So I and I do quite like just
25:17 being able to be back in bed and it's cozy and warm and like you know Got my book or whatever and just having that time for me before then having to jump into work Make such a difference because I think like you when you were shading before that it was a case of you were up and I and not wanting to be
25:38 late. That was me as well when I was in my corporate job. You know, I would leave it to the last minute and I would hit snooze so many times and then it would be like literally giving myself two minutes for a shower and to throw my clothes on before having to get out the door.
25:56 Which isn't in any way. I'm sorry, you're in your shower then you're in work and you don't even remember them between.
26:03 So, yeah, not a nice way to be. Yeah, I definitely like the sort of the slower pace and whether that's, I don't know, I probably haven't reflected loads on it, but like whether that's an age thing, like, you know, starting to get older and a bit wiser, I think also with my Crohn's disease and like, I
26:26 think I recognize that a slower pace just works better for me so that I'm not burning out or whatever because there even though I've got a good handle on my time and it sounds like you do as well.
26:42 The last thing I would want is to burn out and especially I think more prone when you've got other conditions or different things that you have to deal with forever.
26:53 Yeah, absolutely. I think When you're, you know, when I was teaching a new one in corporate, you had no option, really, you know, with the way things would go.
27:00 But I think when you're self-employed, A, you've got the option, and B, you've also got the knowledge that there isn't really any sick pay.
27:07 You know, you have to really have to really have yourself, you have to make sure that you don't get exhausted and you don't burn out.
27:14 And I don't know if it's an age thing as well. but maybe it's actually just a hell of a way to start the day, possibly, but it's just not something that's encouraged because we work in this kind of post-industrial society where we work as if we're machines, productivity machines, they were not.
27:32 So yeah, that's a whole other topic, isn't it? Yeah, it really is, yeah. Okay. And from your perspective, if there was some one that was sort of feeling overwhelmed or whatever.
27:50 What would your tips be when it comes to thinking about time and energy and creativity and things? I think my tips would be to really, really take the type, like even though it's the opposite of what you want to do when you're feeling overwhelmed but take the time to really create lists of the things
28:12 that you have to do. So I know you like us Anna, I've got Trello and I like having different boards of what's urgent in other words, it has to be done within the next 24 hours, what's important and all the different things on it, take the clock, take the time to fill all that up and decide at the start
28:29 of each day which I do in a paper planner actually what you're going to get through that day and do that and plan out for the week, plan out for the day, plan out for the month, whatever you need to do the planet out, if you finish early, then stop.
28:43 If you finish later, then accept that that's what you had to do to get through that that day and just do that, but try not see the whole thing, try and just see the steps that you need to, you know, accomplish to get to the end of what you want to do.
28:57 I think that was harder to stick to, I think that's harder to stick to know than it was with teaching possibly, but maybe I was just more in the habit of it when I was teaching because you know there was there was curtailed every day but there were fewer you know longer ones as you can maybe get now
29:13 but yeah and I think that's the most important thing being as organized as you possibly can be with what you need to do and being completely honest with yourself about how long tasks actually take to what you think that they're going to take because they always take longer than you think so give yourself
29:32 extra time for them if they take less time than that's just a bonus and that's when win really isn't it.
29:38 So I said from that, trying to move as much as you can as well during the day, trying not being the habit of just staying in front of a computer for too long.
29:46 We actually have wobble stools in our studio so they're meant to be quite good for your core because you're going to constantly moving slightly.
29:52 Yep, so that's that's quite good in trying to out for a walk. I mean, you know, with our dogs, have no option, they need quite a lot of exercise, but if you don't have dogs, they'll make yourself, just walk around the block, just do something to change your, we remind you that at that time.
30:08 I got myself a standing desk this year and I've got a walking pad as well. But I thought that I would be able to walk and work at the same time and it's actually a lot harder than I thought it was going to be so if it's if it's not nice outside I can like track you know walk but it's more likely that
30:37 I would walk and watch something like a youtuber you know whatever and I can't walk and like type properly. I definitely am not able to like focus fully on something and stay on it and stay on it.
30:55 Yeah, exactly. That's just too tricky for my brain to cope with that. But I do think the whole like yeah, moving your body is really important.
31:06 And can I ask a question about the whole and the book coaching part. So and there and there's a lot of, you know, business owners that will be listeners of this.
31:18 And then it's obviously a curious question for me. But what do you see like writing as a business owner like having a book?
31:28 Is that like a time saver? Is there a real benefit in having a book as a business owner? I think they're really, yeah I think it is.
31:38 I mean obviously it does take a lot of time to build in the first place but again not when it's broken down into steps and then it's not overwhelming, it's like the small sections that can build when they're time to build them.
31:51 What I find when I work with different business owners who want to about their particular businesses and their ideas and things is that they have the ideas, they know what they're doing, they have the ideas, they know why they're doing it, but they haven't really crystallized how everything all connects
32:07 . So actually the journey of writing the book creates a kind of much deeper knowledge of the actual business, you know, and it also creates then lots of ideas for using and messaging, using and copying, using all sorts of different things.
32:20 It just suddenly all makes sense, all knicks, so from that point of view, I think it saves time going forward.
32:27 And I think it's, you know, obviously all the, you know, the visibility piece and PR and all that sort of thing.
32:32 It's obviously good for that as well. But I think the most important thing is it gives confidence of, yeah, I am an expert in this.
32:40 I absolutely am an expert and people are going to benefit from reading this. And I think that kind of thing is priceless.
32:47 So, yeah, yeah, I love that. And so, you do, is it the, for the book coaching, is it just one to one that you work with people?
32:59 Yes, it is at the moment because it's reasonably new, so I start with book coaching sessions, strategy sessions that are only 90 minutes, and that just lets me work with people to see if there's a good fit there to see, you know, how it's going to actually work out, and it lets people that I'm working
33:14 with see if it's something that they actually really want to do. But what I find in these sessions is they're incredibly powerful because we really drill down into like overall purpose and overall message of the book, and then break that down into different key areas of messaging.
33:30 And then really just get into grips with the why, and then marking it out how best to show that by, and that can that can be enough in itself, you know, some of the people that have worked with have gone away and just written their book basically based on that, but I think that can be a really powerful
33:46 session because it really gives confidence that this is something that can be done, because the idea of a whole book is just so overwhelming.
33:53 If you see it in all of these, these are the umbrella sections and within these sections are these areas, then it becomes, well, actually, I can do that, I can build this because I can just focus on that area, then that one, in that one.
34:06 So yeah, after the strategy session that can lead into different packages of different lens and support levels because everybody's different in what they need.
34:15 So at the moment it's one to one because I tend to feel that every person is different, every book is different.
34:22 At the moment I can't really see that group work would work in the same way or work as well. But it's something that's developed things, it's not something I'm close to, but for the moment yes it's one to one only.
34:34 interesting. Okay, love that. Thank you, Suzanne. Do you have anything that you would like to share with the listeners? No, I think we've kind of covered everything really, haven't we?
34:46 I think the only thing I would say is that whatever you set your mind to do, you can do it.
34:52 And I think you have to think about how you try time can be used to your benefit instead of it seeing as being a thing that you don't have.
34:59 It's a thing that you do have and it's about just organizing how you use it, think about what your priorities are within the time that you use.
35:09 Yeah, so important. I put up a real the other week and it was like you don't lack time, you lack time management.
35:19 Exactly and that's so true. I totally agree with you with that. What I don't like is people saying things like well if you watch Netflix then you've time to run a business or whatever.
35:29 And I think, well, no, because you do, as you said, before you need free time, you need total downtime, total escapism for whatever that is for you.
35:39 So yes, I agree with you. It's time management that's really important. Yeah. Yay. What a great note to end on.
35:50 So where can everyone find you, Suzanne? Where can we find you online. Well, I'm LinkedIn, I'm just there as my name, Susanne Elf, on Facebook and Instagram and there as the Curious Wheels and as Combossa and as Combossa Studio but the Curious Wheels mainly.
36:08 And TikTok, I'm not on yet, that's in the plans for next year. Okay, I do have a TikTok but I don't really use it.
36:18 I think because I don't use at myself. Like I'm not a consumer of content there. Like I don't love it.
36:28 So my plans for next year are YouTube. So I've got the podcast now and then the aim is to then start a YouTube channel.
36:41 So whether I do TikTok, I don't know. I'm not keen. Yeah, I know. Yeah, it's one of those. You feel like, should I?
36:52 Should I give it a go? See what happens? But yeah, well, watch this space. Sometimes it becomes a bit overwhelming.
36:58 How many different platforms? Yeah. You know, one of them's it. So, yeah. Yeah. Well, and it's also like on that note, you know, for the business owners, so I'd like looking at the metrics and taking that time to pause and figure out what's working and what's not and it took me a bit of time to then
37:18 realize actually my customers are not really coming from social media most most people come from it comes from Google so my you know search engine optimization is working really well for my business and so people tend to Google and find me rather than like searching TikTok for time management or whatever
37:41 like my audience I think they would go to Google first if they're searching for stuff like that so yeah it's a bit of seeing that isn't it it's a bit doing the research to check yeah yeah anyway I will make sure that all of your links are in the show notes and everything and we can all go and make sure
38:02 that they follow you. Yeah, that would be great. Fantastic. Well, thank you so so much for joining me. It's been a great conversation.
38:10 Thanks, Susan. Thank you so much for having me. It's been great. Thank you. Okay, bye for now. Bye. Thank you for joining me on another episode of Own Your Time.
38:20 If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, write, and leave a review if you can. Connect with me on social media for additional resources, community engagement, and updates.
38:34 You'll find me on Instagram at www.sadeoutsteward.co.uk Until next time, bye for now.