00:00:50One of the things we don't talk about all the time on the show, is my background in Tech. I worked for the last 10 years in Tech as a woman in Tech on six and seven-figure Tech projects before I started Jennifer Island Consulting formerly known as Foster growth.

00:01:58How it's come to dominate so much of our world and I have been feeling this fragmentation in my life where I wasn't even able to concentrate on things at times because I was being pulled in so many different directions and not on big deep thinking projects, but by my email, or by social media, or some other little annoying thing that I felt like I had to be responsive to and if we think about email in a different way, it's a productivity tool that is supposed to allow us to connect quicker. But any more email has become like this game of ping-pong, right? Where you send me a message to get it off for your plate, and I just slap it back to get it off of mine. And that's not to say there aren't really great constructive conversations done by email. There totally are.

00:03:26And it relates back to a lot of my experiences in technology where many of my clients on large projects and small projects as well, think of tack as a Panacea. It's going to solve everything and it's going to fix everything. And the truth is that

00:03:58You won't do that. And so many times we focus on the small concerns and save the big decisions for later.

00:04:20Are interesting to me for a couple of different reasons. One is that I love how computer scientists are all about digital, minimalism or when you read that Bill Gates doesn't allow his kids to have smartphones. I think it just really speaks volumes to this idea of how addicted we are to technology so much so that the people who are running technology don't allow their kids to use it and encounter thrips latest book digital minimalism. He actually talks about an episode of Bill Maher where Bill Maher compares.

00:05:12And their interviews in the book, with the people who designed the iPhone, and how the whole purpose of an iPhone back. When they first developed. It was, merely to allow you to listen to your iPod at the same time that you can make phone calls. So you wouldn't have to carry your iPad and a smartphone at the same time, your iPod and your smartphone. At the same time. It was all just in the same place and then during Steve Jobs keynote, like, buried way way down in the speech was, oh, by the way, you can use social media with it. So it wasn't actually like the thing, you know, that one of the central idea that we would be using our Androids and iPhones to be so connected. And

00:06:49And so, what I'm coming to is that for many business owners and this is even if your business is being a good mom. If you're in the business of being a good mom, or you're in the business of making money from a business and supporting other people, or if you're in the business of being the best spouse. So you can doesn't matter what it is that you are valuing trying to be the best at

00:07:25the technology tools that you're using the computer. The tablet, the smartphone, social media email, all of these different things. How are all of these different tools that are built to engage us and increase productivity. How are all of these tools supporting your goals?

00:07:50Meaningful way.

00:08:01How is it enabling you to be your best? You how is it helping you be?

00:08:19but increasingly more and more. I look at it as, as of War, like we're in a battle between fomo and our values. So what is going to win? Is it fear of missing out, or is it our core values?

00:08:42Or is it building these really shallow relationships with other people? And then when the chips are down, you can't really rely on any of those people because do you really know them? Have you really talk to them?

00:09:12These programs are designed to be like slot machines. Again. That's a reference to the Cal Newport book, but I want you to think about that for a second.

00:09:49So I'm asking you to look at social media in particular.

00:09:59And ask yourself.

00:10:08On social media.

00:10:17And the revenue in your business.

00:10:25Or is it creating more fragmentation?

00:10:39Because these programs are designed for you to be checking them again and again and again, and in fact, I had the most annoying thing on my phone, which is every Sunday afternoon. It was telling me how much screen time I was using and then I actually looked at it and I realized that I was spending hours and hours a day on my phone and I've got to tell you.

00:11:08And I was in a marketing course. And I suggested the Deep workbook because all of the fragmentation, all of this checking things constantly, weathers your email or social media. It's a lot like a pavlovian dog, like you ring the bell and you're just going to keep going, right? And

00:11:51I'm not getting that much out of texting for the by the time dammit cuz I love texting. So I'm asking you how much time you have for deep thinking how much time you have for mindfulness. And if you are relating to all of this technology in a mindful way, with intentionality meaning.

00:12:21And that's definitely true in life. But do you have the same level of control?

00:12:35Because when I worked in graphic design, we had another thing which was garbage in garbage out, and that means like,

00:13:11And it's not really connecting you in any sort of meaningful way.

00:14:03It takes a special kind of magic to be.

00:14:14the question I have is,

00:14:20Operating in a supportive model.

00:14:34Operating in a servant model.

00:14:39Are you?

00:14:48because,

00:15:02Hate to say it. But what I think it means is, we've got to be very mindful of how much time we spend on these platforms have to be very mindful of.

00:15:43if we are constantly living in this distracted, disrupted 24-hour news cycle, fragmented place.

00:16:15Because I'll be honest with you when I started realizing how much of my time I was spending doing these things when I started looking at the time on it and not just dismissing my screen time alert. As an annoyance. I made some pretty big changes to my life and

00:16:55It's so freeing. It feels so good. And so.

00:17:24Record. Like, how much time you've been spending on different social media? And then

00:17:41The cost-benefit analysis, the fragmentation and the ways and strategies that you can use to.

00:18:06So, I hope you'll download it and really think about it and really think about.

00:18:18And if you really like it and you like this episode, please be sure to share it on social media of all things. So, I'm telling you not to use it as much and that I'm asking you to share it. And that's a crazy world that we live in because, no matter what, I'm not going to tell you, you don't ever have to use it.

00:18:44But there are a lot of us who can actually be completely without these digital tools, as I want to acknowledge that.

00:19:44Don't spend all your time there.

00:20:51All of the, the bad things that are happening, all of the things that are different and how weird it is and how it is. Just uncomfortable. And

00:21:35And it took a deep breath and considered what I wanted to say. Because

00:21:52And yet, I knew it was what she needed to hear.

00:22:09And I sent it. And then I was really surprised, because I felt fear and discomfort in my body. After saying, that I think I felt may be vulnerable in this weird way to say, to my friend who I'm very close to your a gift.

00:22:44But at the same time, I found myself saying it to myself and that was what it really felt. Like. Was your a gift you.

00:22:57And I realize how much I I needed that myself. Not just my friend, but how much, I needed to feel that too. And so I started thinking about all of you and thinking about,

00:23:24And I mean it today right now, you are a gift not if you lose 15 lb not if you make 500 more dollars not if you win the lottery tomorrow or run a marathon or find your husband or leave your husband or whatever it is that you have on your horizon. Whatever it is you today right now are a gift and

00:24:01It makes us a treasure. That makes us a gift. What is it about you? That makes you a gift. I see you. I see you as a gift right now. For all of the things that you bring it, when we look inside of ourselves and we consider what gifts it is that we bring. You might be saying to yourself. I don't, I don't know. I don't know what kind of gifts I have. And if you're like me, you may be focusing on those liabilities. Those things that that bother you and you might be thinking. Well, it's not that, it's not this, it's not that and yet

00:25:39Beerus that it took two three weeks of back and forth with this friend being supportive before. I pause long enough to say you're a gift. See you. You're important to me. I feel like we danced around that subject for a long time. I feel like we

00:26:25And then, when you begin to see those gifts within yourself, I think it really helps you to be able to pay it forward and to give more of yourself. Once you see what it is within you, that makes you so great because I could tell you.

00:26:50There's still something great about you. You're still a gift, a gift to other people.

00:27:09But sometimes what we need to do is just look at those little things because it's those little things that we can latch onto that. Take us out of our worst day and bring us back home into all of the things that are still going, right? Because sometimes we just need to see what's going, right? So that we can stop focusing on what's going wrong.

00:27:59This week, we're introducing a new segment to the show called Equity corner. What's equity corner? It's intended to raise awareness around the issues of the day, including words and phrases. We might think twice before using. It's a look at not only current events, but also history so we can consider the unintended consequences, including whether it's a history. We want to repeat this week. I want to take a look at the phrase grandfathered in,

00:28:33But those services will remain for a certain group, but future customers will not get the same benefits. At least. That's how I've always understood the term grandfathered in.

00:29:26No, these closets were eventually ruled unconstitutional, but it led to the disenfranchisement of countless African-Americans and it continues to happen throughout the South even today.

00:29:51It's definitely made me more aware of the equities of treating, a different subset of customers differently than new customers. And on previous episodes of the show. We've talked about how the cable industry and cellphone industry has, all these specials for new customers. That the old customers, don't get.

00:30:23I'm going to think twice and do everything I can to not use the term grandfathered in in my own lexicon, and I'm also going to consider.

00:30:44Be sure to tune in next week. When I talked to sent to Scarborough at award-winning journalist and emmy-nominated producer. Her work has appeared in adweek into USA Today. He knew US Weekly Magazine and Asheville poetry of you among others, including, when I met her, when she was a crime reporter for the Arizona Republic. You're not going to want to miss this interview. It's super awesome. Check it out next week and thank you for listening. Thank you for listening to the third title podcast. Be sure to catch every episode by subscribing on iTunes, to learn more. Check out our website at www.ge.com. The third pedal podcast is sponsored by Foster growth. LLC online at ww.w., Foster growth.