Episode 18
Your Procrastination Prevention Partner, Eric Twiggs
Multiple ways to enjoy the podcast:
Read the show notes | Read the transcript
Listen/Subscribe on your favorite podcast app:
Show notes
Eric Twiggs comes on the show today to discuss productivity and accountability. He is a procrastination prevention partner whose mission is to build high performing entrepreneurs, authors, and career professionals, who are prepared for life’s unexpected curve balls. He shares about his journey from working in auto sales, how he enjoyed teaching and training in that setting, and how that eventually led him to him becoming a time management expert.
Eric is author of The Discipline of Now: 12 Practical Principles to Overcome Procrastination. He is also a founding partner and president of The What Now Movement as well as the host of a weekly inspirational podcast titled "The 30 Minute Hour." As a certified life and business coach, Eric has conducted over 28,000 coaching sessions, helping executive leaders and entrepreneurs who have moved from feeling frustrated, to finding fulfillment.
Transcript
April Malone 0:12
Hello, hello. My name is April Malone, and I am with Yes, I Work From Home; and this is the podcast. Today, I have Eric Twiggs with me. He is a procrastination coach, and you're gonna have to just tell us more about what that is. I had an interview a few weeks ago with Brenden, the speech coach, and he introduced us. So come on in, Eric, and tell us what do you do?
Eric Twiggs 0:37
Fantastic, April. I'm glad to be on your show. So I'm your procrastination-prevention partner. I am the author of the Discipline of Now, and I'm the host of the 30-Minute Hour podcast, and what I do is I help entrepreneurs and executive leaders to ditch their excuses, to beat procrastination so they can make more money, get more done, and feel more confident.
April Malone 1:06
So I like that you said that we're doing the 30-minute hour because we're actually doing that today. Usually, I run about an hour or 45 minutes to an hour, and we're gonna try to do this in 30 minutes, so tell me what that means; I'm not familiar with your products, and so you're just gonna have to explain them.
Eric Twiggs 1:24
So what does the 30-minute hour mean? Yeah so that's the name of our podcast, right. So you have myself; I'm the host. Ted Phils is the co-host, and so we want to be able to provide just that value and that content. So we want it so--the funny thing is our shows typically go around an hour.
April Malone 1:43
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs 1:44
Funny, but we want it to feel like it was 30 minutes because of the--like "Man, that was fast."
April Malone 1:49
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs 1:51
And when you see the name, it just really makes you think is it 30 minutes, is it an hour, and it just kind of piques your curiosity, so that's what we were thinking when we named it that.
April Malone 2:00
How did you get into procrastination prevention?
Eric Twiggs 2:04
So really for me, it started back when I was in college. It was my senior year at Hampton University, and I'm having this conversation--I talk about this in the book--I'm having this conversation with my good friend Darnell. Now April, I have to tell you: Darnell and I, at the time, we were a little different. So he was all about his purpose, and I was all about the party.
April Malone 2:26
Okay.
Eric Twiggs 2:28
He's always given me a hard time right. He used to always say, "Man, you need to get it together, figure out what you want to do. You need to get serious," And I'm like, "Man, Darnell. Loosen up. We have plenty of time for all that. Are you coming to the party with me or not?"
April Malone 2:41
Uh huh.
Eric Twiggs 2:41
So several weeks go by, I don't talk to him, and then I get a phone call from his mother informing me of the fact that he was killed in a car accident.
April Malone 2:51
I'm so sorry to hear this.
Eric Twiggs 2:52
Yeah. And so that sent me the message that maybe I don't have the time that I think to do the things that I need to do. And that's really what started me on this whole journey, and that's really the foundational experience as to why you and I are even talking right now.
April Malone 3:11
Okay. Yes, it's true; life is short, so you're just trying to pack in as much as you can and be productive. He was all about purpose, so what is your purpose now?
Eric Twiggs 3:23
So my purpose is to help people move forward. I'd like to help 100 million people to move in the direction of their goals. I just want people to "don't delay," because you know--and my co-host and I always say this--"The easiest thing to do is nothing."
April Malone 3:40
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs 3:41
Right, so my purpose in life is to help people, to inspire you to move in the direction of your goal.
April Malone 3:50
Now you do your coaching from home. ***Are you working from home full-time or do you have anything else that you're in the mix with--I guess I should say*** Are you working from home full-time, or do you have anything else that you are doing this as a side gig, or is this your full-time thing?
Eric Twiggs 4:06
Yeah, I work from home full-time; I am in my office especially with the latest pandemic situation.
April Malone 4:14
Yep.
Eric Twiggs 4:14
Yeah, so I'm on more Zoom meetings than I care to be.
April Malone 4:20
Do you do one-on-one coaching, or do you do group coaching?
Eric Twiggs 4:23
I do it all so--
April Malone 4:25
Okay.
Eric Twiggs 4:25
--One-on-one. I'll do group coaching. I'll do workshops with people where they can, you know--we talk about procrastination. I also do keynote presentations at virtual summits and things of that nature.
April Malone 4:40
Well, that's right up my alley. I hope we can do this again then very soon. We--procrastination is definitely a thing, and I've had a few conversations now through these podcast episodes. There was one, in particular, we talked about fear; it was with Adam Weber, and he's the CallCast; he has a podcast episode every single day, and he talks about fear. And as we were having this conversation I started to realize, you know, I think that my procrastination is actually a form of fear. Can you talk to that at all?
Eric Twiggs 5:13
Oh, for sure. So it's funny that you say that because when I do the workshops, and you know, we talk about what causes people to procrastinate, and I have them break out, fear always comes up. I would say that fear is the leading cause of procrastination, so it's three parts of it, right. You have the fear of success, which is common believe it or not.
April Malone 5:34
Oh yeah.
Eric Twiggs 5:35
Fear of failure is big as well, and then you have fear of the unknown. Probably the number one out of those three is probably that fear of failure.
April Malone 5:45
Mmhmm.
Eric Twiggs 5:45
You know, "What if I get rejected," what if, what if, what if.
April Malone 5:50
Yep.
Eric Twiggs 5:51
And so really the key I found if you want to overcome that fear of failure is to focus more on the process than you do the outcome.
April Malone 6:02
Okay, yeah.
Eric Twiggs 6:03
You have to focus on--okay, so if it's someone that's studying for an exam, you know, focus on the study habits; focus on, you know, how much you're gonna read per day, how much you're gonna practice--
April Malone 6:15
Okay.
Eric Twiggs 6:15
--as opposed to thinking about the grade because the grade--if you're doing the right thing the grade takes care of itself.
April Malone 6:20
It comes; it comes along with the process. Okay, I like this; keep going.
Eric Twiggs 6:25
So yeah, so we talked about--so that's the fear of failure. The fear of success is you know what maybe I won't measure up to the new standard; it's really common. So for example, let's say I do a presentation for April, and it goes well. And so if I have a fear of success, I may say, "Well what if April calls me back, and I don't have another really good presentation?"
April Malone 6:49
Okay.
Eric Twiggs 6:51
So the solution for that is a formula I call be do have, and this has everything to do with what you should be focusing on instead of the fear of success. Focus on--so if I can become more and do more and, ultimately, if I can do more, I can add more. If you're always focusing on becoming more, you don't fear success because you're ready for the moment. If you're always just focused on getting better and reading and listening to audio and listening to great podcasts like this one, you know, you'll find when that door opens, that you're ready to walk through it.
April Malone 7:30
So, when you're talking about the fear of success, it does make me think a little bit about the imposter syndrome stuff. Do you come into that a lot as well?
Eric Twiggs 7:38
Yes, it's 100% true. I know Amy Cuddy did this fantastic TED talk, and she talked about this whole idea of the imposter syndrome where you feel like that, you know, the police gonna--they're gonna find out that you're not as good as you're trying to present yourself to be.
April Malone 7:56
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs 7:57
Yeah, but again I think it goes back to focusing on the process. You know, it's funny talking about the imposter syndrome. There's a friend of mine who--she has a PhD, and she will never introduce herself as Dr. So-and-so. She just never will because of that; because she's afraid that you'll start trying to have an intellectual conversation with her and realize that maybe she isn't as smart as they thought in the beginning, so she says that, you know, "When I'm at a social gathering, I never say I'm Dr. So-and-so. I just say 'I am Lisa.'"
April Malone 8:33
I see. Yeah, I can see that. Like, I definitely find that I have--I had a conversation with a lady the other day; she's actually an imposter syndrome coach, and I haven't interviewed her yet, and I would love to bring her on soon so--I should make a note to get this done. But it definitely comes up; like I sometimes think well hey, I had a desk job that I didn't really--I wasn't really proud of it. I mean at times I was; like I worked for Mayo Clinic. I know you actually quote them in the form that you filled out for me, you know, "Sitting is the new smoking."
Eric Twiggs 9:11
Mmhmm, absolutely.
April Malone 9:12
I worked for them for 17 years, and it was, you know, a prestigious place, you know, as far as the medical community is concerned. But when I'm coming now into this different fear of, you know, helping people who work from home, I have 12 years of experience of working from home in lots of lots of different capacities, but I still sometimes am like, "Well I haven't changed the lives of 100 people who work from home yet." I hope to, but I haven't done that yet, so yeah there's definitely that like, people might know that about me. I'm pretty open; obviously, I just said it, you know. I haven't helped 100 people who work from home yet, but I'm hoping that maybe through this podcast I will, and as we, you know, grow the company that I had this vision for, that we will, but I definitely get caught up in, you know, that "Well I haven't yet, but you know, maybe it won't work or maybe it'll all just fizzle out, or maybe I'll--I don't know. It definitely is impacting my day. I watched ***Queen's Gimlet with my husband--Gambit?--with my husband*** last night; we finished it up, and afterward, we were just chatting for a little while and I was like, you know, things aren't moving maybe as quickly as I would like them to, but I really feel like we're getting momentum, but I can really get stuck sometimes in the mindset stuff, and I never knew that that was a real thing. I guess I always thought that mindset stuff was kind of "woowoo" or, you know, for yoga instructors or something--I don't know. And now I'm like, "I definitely find myself hitting roadblocks, and you have to one day just buckle up and move past it, and then there's gonna be the next one." So now this podcast is running. You know, we've got it working; we've got a system to, you know, get it published and everything. Really, I'm enjoying this, but there's the next hurdle. Now I'm looking--now that we've got this going, I have got the next thing that's coming up for the new year; you know, I've got some big plans and ehh, you know, am I gonna be able to implement them?
Eric Twiggs 11:04
Yeah, and so one of the things is we talk about imposter syndrome. So like I work with people to--I tell them to create a win log *** they have to literally get a notepad out, and they need to be tracking their wins.
April Malone 11:21
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs 11:21
So the wins could be something small; the wins could be, "I got a great review from a customer," "Hey, I sold, you know--I converted this sale I didn't think I was going to be able to convert," "I launched my first podcast episode," and it can help you to overcome that imposter syndrome because you realize--you know our mind focuses on what we don't have, what we haven't done. Hey, I haven't helped 100 people, but you know what, I helped one person. And literally, if you think about it, if you help one person, you can potentially impact their world, and you just never know who that person is going to come in contact with. So I help people to really focus on their wins, and I always say, you know, "The more you write your wins down, the more wins you'll have to write down."
April Malone 12:05
Yeah, yeah. So, if you are that person that I have helped through this podcast, please reach out to me and let me know because I would love to hear from you.
Eric Twiggs 12:14
I'll tell you what, you know, because with what we do, you don't always get immediate feedback that you're making a difference right, and like you, I've gotten into these things where I'm like, "Oh man, you know, I'm doing this; is anybody really listening?" And then every now and then, somebody would just reach out to me out of the blue and say, "Hey Eric, you know what? I heard that episode, and it really inspired me," or like one time I was at a trade show, and I was in one of those moods and a lady, "You know what? Seven years ago I listened to your audio, and that inspired me to start my business."
April Malone 12:47
It's reminded me that I should probably reach out to a few people that have inspired me through their podcast because I'm not usually, you know, just like sending them an email randomly unless I'm inviting them to be on my podcast like, "Oh yeah I started listening,"--Oh I have this guy in California I've been listening to him for six years on and off, and it's about time that I reach out to him and be like, "You really inspired me. Thank you for that." Eric, can you tell us a little bit about, for those of us (me included, big time) who want to improve the procrastination; I don't know. How would you say--what's the opposite of procrastinating?
Eric Twiggs 13:23
Being productive.
April Malone 13:24
Yes. How could someone who really struggles in that area go ahead and make some baby steps towards improving that and turn it into like a lifetime habit of, you know, progress.
Eric Twiggs 13:37
So one basic thing you can do--I don't care what your personality type is; I don't care if you're a morning person or a night owl--get in the habit of making appointments with yourself.
April Malone 13:47
Okay.
Eric Twiggs 13:48
So if you think about it--so here's the problem I would have, right. I would say, "I've got this business. I'm going to recruit employees. I need to start hiring." And then, so I say "I'm going to do that this week." And what I would find is, it'd be Friday at 5 o'clock and I hadn't done anything because, you know, life gets in the way. So, what I would say if you just get in the habit of making appointments with yourself, so if there's something you're saying that, "You know what. I'm going to write an article this week." Don't say "this week;" say, "I'm going to write an article on Monday at 1 o'clock," and make that appointment, and use that appointment.
April Malone 14:25
I love this.
Eric Twiggs 14:26
The chances of you doing it go up by like 80%, based on some studies, if you've got it as an appointment with yourself, so you figure out what are those priorities. And one of the things that bothers me, April, is when people say to me, "Oh yeah, Eric. I didn't have time." You had time, and I've had to ask people--I've had people--we have a weekly coaching session the same date and time, and they're like--I'll list off four things they said they wanted to do, and in all four instances, they say, "You know what, I didn't have time to do it." And I'm like, "How do you have time to talk to me right now--"
April Malone 14:58
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs 14:59
--"if you don't have any time?"
April Malone 15:02
Did you have time to watch Netflix? Because that Queen's Gambit movie or video or show we watched was, you know, seven episodes; it was seven hours, and we fit that in this week. We did.
Eric Twiggs 15:13
Because that's something that was a priority for you.
April Malone 15:16
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs 15:17
That's important, so you're gonna make time and find a way to make it happen. And so that's the power of just making an appointment with yourself.
April Malone 15:25
Like physically put it onto your calendar?
Eric Twiggs 15:28
Take your Google Calendar, wherever--
April Malone 15:30
Get the reminder.
Eric Twiggs 15:31
Set a reminder, and make an appointment to do it. If you just do that--and then here's the other side to that as well is, you know, if you can block off that time as your time. So, if people are around, you need to know that for that window of time, that's your, you know, blog time; that's your website update time, or whatever you've dedicated it to, and they need to hold your phone calls. So yeah, if you just set that appointment with yourself, make that a priority--even if it's family time; even if it's, "You know what, I'm gonna be with the kids for this hour block." You know, really make it an appointment with yourself.
April Malone 16:11
I really like this suggestion, and I've probably heard people say it before, but it's really hitting home right now because you know what? If I set this appointment with you, Eric, to have this podcast, I wouldn't have like just skipped it or just gotten distracted with, you know, looking at my phone or something because I've had that reminder; I don't want to let you down, you know, or leave you just wondering where I am, and so I show up, right? And if we could show up for ourselves the same way that we'll show up for other people? Hmm. This is gold. Thank you.
Eric Twiggs 16:42
My pleasure.
April Malone 16:43
Talk about daily routines for a minute if you can.
Eric Twiggs 16:46
Yeah. I mean, they're very important, you know. I think the more you can put things on autopilot, you know, and the more habits you can create, you know, that's just one less thing that, you know, you have to struggle to a do. The goal is you want to get certain things to the point it's almost like where it's like brushing your teeth.
April Malone 17:03
Mmhmm.
Eric Twiggs 17:04
You know, so you don't have to think, "Oh man. I gotta brush my teeth." No, it's just part of what you do. So one of the things--this is another tool--is a 3x5 card. So I always have this 3x5 card--
April Malone 17:18
Okay, I've got a stack of them over here.
Eric Twiggs 17:20
Right. And so, I have something I call the Twiggs' Top Five.
April Malone 17:25
Okay.
Eric Twiggs 17:25
And it just kind of helps you to get into routines and really prioritize. And so, "What are the five critical things that I need to be doing on a daily basis that line up with my ultimate goal and my purpose?"
April Malone 17:40
Right, so the recurring things that need to happen on a routine basis.
Eric Twiggs 17:44
Right, what are some things that need to happen that, you know, it hasn't become a habit yet.
April Malone 17:50
Okay.
Eric Twiggs 17:50
And one of those things could be going to the gym and working out.
April Malone 17:54
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs 17:55
Right. For me, I don't need to. I'm at a point I don't need to write that down because it's just, it's like brushing my teeth. I'm just gonna wake up in the morning--
April Malone 18:02
Yep.
Eric Twiggs 18:02
--and I'm just gonna do it. But for some people, that's a part of your plan, you know, losing weight or what have you, that's something you write down. And there's something psychological; when you start writing it down, you feel more compelled to do it than if you just say, "I'm going to do it." So that's another thing; you'll find that you start setting good habits, and then you get to the point where you don't have to write it down anymore--
April Malone 18:27
You can replace it with the next thing that has been a struggle for you.
Eric Twiggs 18:32
Right.
April Malone 18:32
I've learned that--a few months ago, I think, kind of when I was getting started with the podcast and trying to get--preparing for the podcast actually. I'm like, "Man, I am going to be starting a business while I am doing online school with three children, which is like a full-time job; I won't lie. I might as well homeschool them. It'd probably take me less time than trying to coordinate everything with all these different teachers and papers and anyway. And so, I really struggle sometimes when I have my kids home to get my work done, and now I have all three kids home and trying to do more work than I had been before. And so I'm like, "I really need to up my game and make some changes in my routines," and I have learned that I do really well if I take one of those things that I routinely do without thinking about it. Like I'm always going to drink--I'm really good at drinking enough water, and I'm gonna drink a little coffee every morning to keep the headache away. So I don't forget to drink my coffee, and then I usually don't forget to drink water. Well what I did forget a lot was taking my vitamins, and for whatever reason, I have a supplement regimen stuff like--it's not like prescriptions or anything, but I just take some things that help me feel better because of whatever, and I had to pair it. I had to say, "If I drink coffee, then I will take my vitamins every day." And if I tell myself that, like with this little mantra, "If I drink my coffee, I need to take my vitamins every day," it really upped my, you know, 80% success, you know. When I come down the stairs, I need to stretch my arms because there's a certain doorway that's just the right size, and I struggle a lot with, you know, if I'm not really on top of that game I really struggle with upper neck, shoulder stuff just from previous injuries and things like that and also being a transcriptionist for 17 years typing, you know. And if I go through that doorway, I stop; I take a moment; and I stretch it, and it really has helped. So what about you? I'm assuming that pairing things together is part of the plan.
Eric Twiggs 20:32
That's a good technique to do if you--especially if it's something that isn't desirable for you.
April Malone 20:38
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs 20:39
Because one of the leading causes of procrastination is something that's called task aversion. Like, I don't like doing it. It's not something that, you know, you just enjoy doing. Like for example for me with those tasks is every time I'm going to take the trash out, I'm listening to an audio.
April Malone 21:00
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs 21:00
So my wife always looks at me like I'm crazy when I go to take--I'm always putting my headphones on when I'm going to take the trash out.
April Malone 21:07
Okay, so you're pairing it with something pleasurable.
Eric Twiggs 21:10
Right, because so then while I'm taking the trash out, I'm learning, I'm getting better, and I'm still getting the task done, so that's a way that pairing for me is something that kind of helps me to get through, you know, some of the tedious things that, you know, have to be done. So if I'm doing like some type of expense report or auditing something, you know, I might be listening to music.
April Malone 21:38
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs 21:38
So I pair that, and that makes it easier for me to do. So no, I would definitely encourage people to try to pair tasks, and it kind of helps--it'll help you to get more done.
April Malone 21:50
Can you tell me a little bit more about how you can stop distractions because I don't know if I have like undiagnosed ADHD, but I definitely have the shiny syndrome, you know, and all of the things that can just distract me from my task. I'll even tell myself, "I need to do this, this, and this today," and then I will let so many things interrupt my day, and then at the end of the day, I'm like, "Oh, I'll have to try again tomorrow."
Eric Twiggs 22:18
Yeah, so one of the things I recommend because I believe the best defense is a good offense, so you just want to stay on offense. So one of the things like I try to help people to not--like when you look at your email right, I encourage people not to check their email when they come off of a big break.
April Malone 22:40
Okay.
Eric Twiggs 22:40
When it's like first thing in the morning, let's say.
April Malone 22:42
Yep.
Eric Twiggs 22:43
You know, because what happens is now you're in reaction mode.
April Malone 22:47
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs 22:47
You see an email and think, "Oh, I gotta call this guy and gotta do that."
April Malone 22:47
Yep.
Eric Twiggs 22:51
So now you're distracted because you're not really on your agenda. So the big one thing you can do is don't check your email right after a break; even if you're taking a 15-minute break to get exercise, don't come back and check email.
April Malone 23:06
Okay.
Eric Twiggs 23:07
Come back and really focus on your creative thing. So that's one thing to do. The other thing is just eliminate the distraction; like on your phone, get rid of those alerts.
April Malone 23:19
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs 23:20
You know, get rid of the notifications.
April Malone 23:21
The sounds and dings and even the badges that--
Eric Twiggs 23:26
So check this out. Check this out. You may have heard this one. There was a study that was done. They studied these college students, and the study concluded that 88% of them could feel their phone vibrating even when it was powered off.
April Malone 23:43
Oh.
Eric Twiggs 23:43
They call it phantom notification syndrome.
April Malone 23:47
Wow.
Eric Twiggs 23:48
So your phone is so distracting, it can distract you even when it's powered off.
April Malone 23:53
There have been times that I have had to physically take my phone--my husband works through the bathroom in our bedroom, and sometimes I'll just say, "Can you babysit my phone for me?" I have a thing--I have a really hard time powering my phone off because we've had some emergencies in the past where you need to be available on phone, and that was even 20 years ago, but I've never really felt comfortable turning off my phone all the way. And so sometimes I'll just say, "If my phone rings, you can bring it to me." Otherwise, you know, it's just taking, you know, my focus away.
Eric Twiggs 24:25
Yeah, so basically like I don't even sleep with my phone on the same floor.
April Malone 24:29
Oh, wow.
Eric Twiggs 24:31
But just for that reason because I don't want to be tempted to--I don't want to disrupt my creativity. I don't want to be sitting there, all of a sudden it goes off, and I'm like, "Oh, what's that?" So like literally mine is just on a completely separate floor, so I have to go all the way downstairs to get it.
April Malone 24:45
I at least try to put mine at like the foot of the bed like where I can't just like reach it and start, you know, getting distracted. The light wakes me up. I've worked nights for all these years, and I have to be very careful to not disrupt my circadian rhythm. So definitely like the blue light and everything like that can really affect us. I do use a lot of like--I use Newsfeed Eradicator for my Facebook, and that helps me not be able to see the feed unless I'm very intentional, and I can set a 5-minute time limit on that, and I definitely have had to remove apps from my phone in the past. And then, I mean, we just went through an election, you know. I mean I definitely kind of like let it go for a little while and kept up with the news more than I normally would, but I'm trying to suppress that again because I can find myself sitting on my phone for 6 hours when I had 6 hours of other things I could do.
Eric Twiggs 25:36
Mmhmm.
April Malone 25:37
Eric, tell us how we can find you and what kind of coaching you provide.
Eric Twiggs 25:41
Yeah, so you can find me, you can go to my website: thedisciplineofnow.com. You can get the book The Discipline of Now. It's on audio; it's on paperback, and it's an ebook format. You can also find me. I'm the president of this thing called the What Now Movement; you can go to that Facebook group. We've got close to 1500 entrepreneurs, executives, authors, and we provide content to help people to pivot, you know. So when you face a crisis, you say, "What now?" Right. That's why we call it the What Now Movement; you don't just stop, you keep moving. So you can actually go to the What Now Movement Facebook group. It's free; you can join. Like I said, there's 1500, people in there that are very supportive, and we provide these live videos every day that are 15 minutes to keep you motivated and to keep you moving.
April Malone 26:38
I love it.
Eric Twiggs 26:38
And then as far as the coaching I provide, like I said, I do one-on-one coaching; I do group coaching; and I certainly speak at different types of events.
April Malone 26:49
Yeah, I'm looking at your bio, and it's like you've done 28,000 coaching sessions. Gosh, that's pretty impressive.
Eric Twiggs 26:56
It's a lot of coaching.
April Malone 26:57
Yes. And you've done a lot with organizations, so if anyone needs a speaker like a keynote speaker--and virtual summits you said?
Eric Twiggs 27:06
Yes.
April Malone 27:07
Okay. Well this has been wonderful, Eric. I actually am hoping that I can continue this conversation with you so we'll be in touch.
Eric Twiggs 27:14
Yes.
April Malone 27:15
But do you have any final words you'd like to leave our audience with. If someone just needs an infusion of productivity into their life, what would you tell them?
Eric Twiggs 27:22
Yep, here's the thing: Don't allow perfect to become the enemy of progress.
April Malone 27:30
Okay, yeah. Oh.
Eric Twiggs 27:32
You know, you figure, "Oh, you know what. I've got to do more research. I've got to find out more. I've got to have all the details worked out before I start." No. Sometimes you just have to move forward based off of what you know.
April Malone 27:45
Yes.
Eric Twiggs 27:45
Yep, and the key is there is someone who has the result that you're looking for. Okay, what if you're looking to start a podcast, and a lot of people say, "Oh, I don't understand. I'm not a 'techie,' so I can't start a podcast."
April Malone 27:58
Mmhmm.
Eric Twiggs 27:58
No. There's someone who's less "techie" than you who has a successful podcast.
April Malone 28:04
Okay, yep.
Eric Twiggs 28:05
So for example, you can go to the What Now Movement, and you can find one of these people, and they will literally tell you what they did, and they can save you from having to reinvent the wheel. But definitely don't allow perfect to become the enemy of progress. Focus on taking the next step, no matter how small it seems.
April Malone 28:23
Wow. Good stuff, Eric.
Thank you so much for coming today. I know you have a hard stop here, so we're gonna say goodbyes. But I will reach out to you; I want to continue this conversation and think that our team, our group, our community could really benefit from having, you know, more from someone like you. So thank you. I'll make sure to put all of your contact information into the show notes. Where you can find him, the contact, coaching, and those websites you just--the Facebook groups you just mentioned so..
Eric Twiggs 28:51
Fantastic.
April Malone 28:52
Alright, well this is April Malone with Yes I Work From Home and Eric Twigg. Thank you--Twiggs right? Twiggs.
Eric Twiggs 28:58
Twiggs, yes.
April Malone 28:59
Thank you so much, Eric. I'll see you next time.
Eric Twiggs 29:01
Thank you. It's been an honor.
April Malone 29:03
Yes, thank you.
April Malone
Alright. Actually, we're doing a bonus section. Welcome back, Eric. Thank you.
Eric Twiggs
Glad to be back.
April Malone
Yes, well we'd gotten about 30 minutes earlier, and I just had so many more burning questions I needed to ask you, so thank you for resuming. So I've changed my shirt, if you're watching the video; I put the headphone on the other side, and well let's just keep going. Eric, what I didn't get to ask you about earlier is your own journey, like how you ended up working from home, and what that looks like for you. And honestly, there's a little tidbit that I'm really curious about. Brendon mentioned something me; he said that--maybe he was talking about someone else, or was this you? Did you ever work in the automotive industry?
Eric Twiggs
I did, I did.
April Malone
Okay, so tell me, how did that work?
Eric Twiggs
Yeah, so I mean it's actually part of my story. So I told you how my friend passed away, and yeah, so I knew that I needed to really pay attention to time. So after that, I figured, you know what, I need to make as much money as I possibly could. I need to climb the corporate ladder, so I did, and I got to a point where I started working in the automotive field, and I worked my way up through the ranks. I was a district manager. I had 17 locations; I had 500 employees.
April Malone
Wow.
Eric Twiggs
Yeah, you know, it was a good time. We were winning awards, and you know, I'm driving a big car, and then I remember this clear as day that, you know, I'm sitting at the light in my BMW. I look at the rearview mirror, and the eyes that were looking back at me were those of someone who hated what he was doing.
April Malone
Ah.
Eric Twiggs
Right, so what happened was I had become successful, but I didn't feel significant, and I felt like there's got to be more; there's got to be something else that I could be doing. And that really kind of started this journey where I said, "Okay, you know, what should I really be doing?" And I started looking back, and it was always--when I thought about times I felt the most fulfilled, it was always when I was speaking in front of a group.
April Malone
Okay, yeah.
Eric Twiggs
For part of my career in automotive, I was a corporate trainer, and that's the job I really loved. I remember whenever I would do these training sessions, I could just do that all the time, and then I got promoted and all this other stuff happened. But yeah, so that really--so then I just started pursuing the speaking. I joined Toastmasters International, and then from there, I joined the National Speakers Association, and then here we are.
April Malone
Okay, so what was the timeline for all of this? Did you go to school expecting to be in the automotive industry, or is that something that just happened.
Eric Twiggs
Oh, it just happened, so like right when I graduated from college, they offered me a position, and I just figured, "Okay, I'll do this for a little while until something better comes along," and then every time I'd be close to leaving, I'd get some type of promotion. But you know what--and I don't think that--I don't think that's an accident. I just think things happen for a reason, and I mean literally, you know, I'd never get like--I got this position like right when I was like 5 minutes away from--I ended up being like 5 minutes away from where I lived, and it just worked out. But yeah, so I spent time in the automotive field, but I think that was all by design--
April Malone
Mmhmm
Eric Twiggs
--to really help me to get to where I am right now.
April Malone
It gave you that speaking opportunity. Now, what did you study in school?
Eric Twiggs
I was a marketing major.
April Malone
Okay, I can see that. And then you just really enjoyed the teaching aspect, and you decided, "How can I run with this." So how did you get from teaching in the industry like that to deciding on procrastination as your topic?
Eric Twiggs
Well so first off, you know, I'm your procrastination provision partner. So from the time I realized that I should be speaking that was like 3 years--
April Malone
Okay.
Eric Twiggs
From the time I realized that I was speaking--I should be speaking to the time I acutally started; you know, that was like a 3-year time window because I kept talking to myself like, "Okay, who's gonna bring me in to speak to their organization? What am I going to say that hasn't been said already?" So I had all of those questions running through my mind.
April Malone
The imposter syndrome you had talked about.
Eric Twiggs
Yeah, I mean so I procrastinated, but then finally, I took that step. I took the step of joining Toastmasters, and then when I joined Toastmasters, I met someone who trained professional speakers, and then I took that step. And then after I met that person, I met someone who was in the National Speakers Association; then I joined the National Speakers Association.
April Malone
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs
And then when I took that step, I met someone who ended up writing the foreword to my book.
April Malone
Okay.
Eric Twiggs
And so all of these steps just started coming up, but they didn't start revealing themselves until I started moving forward.
April Malone
Hmm. So move forward, and things might reveal themselves?
Eric Twiggs
Yeah, that's what it's all about. No, I mean, you know, as I said earlier, "You can't allow perfect to become the enemy of progress." And a lot of times you don't know what the next step is, and once you start moving, you start to see what to do next.
April Malone
Right, did you spend any time--were you able to do more teaching and coaching in the automotive industry once you decided that's what you wanted to do, or were you just kind of like stuck in that job, you know, turning the wheels until you could be released to do what you wanted to do?
Eric Twiggs
It just basically was in that same district manager position. Now I mean, there were elements of that job that involved teaching, so you know, there were times where I'd have meetings, and I would teach you on a certain selling process. So yeah, I did get to speak to a group, but the funny thing though is--and you were asking, you know, how did I end up talking about procrastination you know, like I would have a coach, and the coach would always tell me, "You know, it's interesting like all your speeches involve time, one way or another."
April Malone
Oh.
Eric Twiggs
So like even back when I was--yeah, there was always some aspect of "You got to do it now. You can't wait. You got to pursue your purpose. Don't procrastinate."
April Malone
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs
And I was trying to, when I was starting to get into the speaking space, figure out, "Okay, what's my niche, and what's my lane?"
April Malone
Right.
Eric Twiggs
And then there-- the person kept telling me, "You seem to talk about time a lot. Every speech I hear from you has got some element of time management in it." And then-- so whenever I-- like if I created a product about overcoming procrastination, it flew off the shelf. It was the craziest thing; if I went and-- I mean people literally would-- I would do a trade show; I'd have the product at my table, and "Oh yeah, I definitely-- I need that. My mother needs that. My relative needs that," you know. So those were just kind of signs that this is what I should be talking about.
April Malone
That's amazing. I love it. And how long have you been doing just the coaching now?
Eric Twiggs
So I started this in 2011.
April Malone
Okay. Oh, so you've been doing this for a while.
Eric Twiggs
Mhmm.
April Malone
What kind of hours were you working when you were in corporate, and what kind of hours are you working now?
Eric Twiggs
So when I was in corporate, you know, it was 60-65, but it would be, you know, Saturdays, Sundays; things just would come up because I had like, you know, 17 locations. So something could happen in one of the locations. It could be on a Saturday; it could be on a Sunday.
April Malone
On call.
Eric Twiggs
So yeah, you were just kind of on call. You know the vice president of the company could be visiting one of my stores at random, you know, cuz that's what they did; they would just do unannounced visits.
April Malone
Right.
Eric Twiggs
So you know, it was just nonstop. So now as far as my hours, I would say probably 40 to 50 hours a week is probably how much.
April Malone
And is that what you want to be working?
Eric Twiggs
Yeah, usually it's just how it works out
based off of things I've got to do when you know especially if you factor in just the news. I do a lot of interviews on podcasts and doing things for my podcast. So there's you know and combined with coaching, combined with speaking. Speaking of virtual summits and things like that so
April Malone
I'm always curious to hear how people, you know cuz I want to make that distinction like how many hours are you working and what you really want to be doing because some people want, like they'd like to keep their life full and that way, you know, keep busy and that's their enjoyment. And some people would feel burned out at 40 to 50 hours and they need to reduce it and so I was just curious like how that works for you especially as a procrastination coach.
Eric Twiggs
Yeah man, I think, I mean, I think it's better to, you know, you have to understand there's a difference between being active and being effective. You know, so it's very easy to think that you're doing a lot of things that, but you're not, may not be being affected by I feel like the things I'm doing, or the things that I shouldn't be doing.
April Malone
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs
Yeah.
April Malone
Can you talk a little bit about home life and like how you manage your household stuff, compared to your work because that whole work from home thing is a big deal as far as like, you know you're in your space right now and I know you got up and you closed your door I don't know if you have household members or not but like here. Yeah, we've got three kids. My husband is off work today and it was like, Oh, I'm gonna try to sneak in another episode today because you know he could manage the kids and keep them out of this office, which I'm in the closet, by the way. I always like to mention that, um, and, you know, otherwise it gets a little bit tricky as far as like fitting in my work and getting interrupted by you know my kids have real needs like sometimes their computer won't work or you know their teacher needed them to need me to come and talk to them or something like that so I'm pulled away a lot. How do you manage it. Yeah, so
Eric Twiggs
that so the challenge is, especially when I first started, you know really work from home. Yeah, you, you tend to work more like I found that I was just working more but I'm like, oh man, you know what, I can start earlier I can stay later I don't have to worry about traffic. You know I can just, just keep going. So, you know, I started 630, and be working into the evenings, and then my wife was like wait a minute what's going on. Yeah. Yeah. So I had to really get to a point where I set a clear, start time and stop. Okay, and then just, I think that that's very helpful if you work at home. You really just kind of set that time where you start. I want to stop. And then really making a point to be present, you know with the family when I'm with the family.
April Malone
I think there's so much of it has to do with personalities because some people are aiming to get maybe the fewest amount of hours into their workweek was the same result you know some people are really saying I want to try to get the sorry I'm like, trying to talk and some people are trying to get as many things done in a, in a work day in as few hours as possible and so that they have like the rest of the day to be free, and other people are like, I just can't stop working, or like for me I have to rearrange my schedule around like the family needs. So I was trying to work a nine to five, you know, while my kids are gonna be at school this year and then the pandemic came, and I'm trying to like squeeze in as much as I can before they have to wake up and go to school, and as much as I can. After and so that does eat into that family time. But, children too so.
Eric Twiggs
So like last son is seven my daughter's 10. Yeah. So, yeah, there's certain times. I need to help with homework, so that that's one reason why I need to shut it off so you know I've gone with homework or scan and working with a virtual world now where you know there. There weren't you know, yeah. Dad, you're the teacher and you're the parent, you dealing with with with that dynamic. But I tell you I mean balance. Balance is key. And, and I think people misunderstand what balance really means right so balance isn't necessarily working less no balance could be working more, but balance is the idea of that you're not neglecting other areas of your life. Right, so, so everybody, like in my house, they understand that I'm pushing to get to a certain place with, you know, the book and the coaching and everything else. So, for this season I need to be working more, but when I'm not working, I'm fully present with them. I'm not neglecting them. So, you know, there's time for the weekend, we'll just go somewhere where we can you know we'll, we'll get away. We'll do something where it's about them.
April Malone
I like it. My schedule just shifted a little bit again, I have a virtual assistant, and he was working in his nighttime hours which would be my daytime hours and we just switched him. So he's working days, and he's coming in out after my kids finish school, we're starting to work together. And so I can get some things kind of prepared for him during the day and then he can take over and we'll chat here and there, a little bit, but what what was a little bit unexpected I forgot that if he switched to his daytime hours that means that he will be starting on Sunday with me and, you know, a lot of people don't like to work on Sundays, but actually, I kind of like having that Friday off, because then my husband is, you know, off of work and we usually have like a Friday night, movie night or something like that. So my weekend is now basically Friday evening through, you know, Sunday afternoon. And I'm kind of liking the shift it's a little different but it's working.
Awesome.
So, do you have anything else you want to wrap up from what we left, where we left off this morning I don't know if you remember our conversation.
Eric Twiggs
I mean it's just something else ,I think clarity is the starting point of success. I think it just really helps to be clear on where it is that you're trying to go, and any that can even help as relates to balancing all the dynamics of working from home and keeping everybody on the same page. And then so the key thing to read from working from home standpoint, is that sometimes different members of the family perceive working from home differently. Like some people work from home they don't really work at all, they just kind of at home, they don't have to really check in, right, but then others like myself, let's say when I'm working I'm actually you know, on coaching calls and this and that. So, it. Get that we have to understand everybody's boundaries. I think that's key.
April Malone
Yeah, I worked for, I think it was over, It was about 10 years from home for the medical industry and I was doing medical transcription and we had to clock in and clock out. And like we had to basically schedule our lunch around, you know, to make sure that we had coverage because we were working for the emergency department and you know typing, emergency you know things and emergency things that we were typing like emergency notes and also like surgical things and clinical things for the hospital and the clinic so, there was a lot of talk about coverage and when you could take your break and had to get permission if you wanted to extend your time and so people I think had the idea that I had like this laptop where I could work in coffee shops kind of job and I didn't, I was basically tied to my computer, you know in my office that time. And so now I'm kind of moving into something where I can take my laptop and move somewhere else, I can go on a vacation with it. What about you, do you ever travel while you're working?
Eric Twiggs
Not as much lately.
April Malone
obviously.
Eric Twiggs
But yeah, but, in the past I have, certainly.
April Malone
And were you doing this intentionally from home, or did you ever have like an office space once you started your coaching procrastination prevention?
Eric Twiggs
I've been home for a while now.
April Malone
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs
Yeah.
April Malone
And what about your partner, your wife, does she also work or how does that work for you guys?
Eric Twiggs
Yeah, so, I mean she works, but she's home too, which helps because the kids are home. and yeah, so she can spend a lot of the time helping them with different homework lessons and making sure they're set up on their computers and all that good stuff. And then I kind of come in afterwards.
Yeah. Yeah. We do a lot of juggling back and forth like when he takes his lunch break, he's helping, and I get my break to come up here and do something and then, yeah, it's kind of constant, isn't it?
Oh, for sure. Absolutely.
April Malone
What do you struggle with when it comes to procrastination, now that you are like the guru right? You've been speaking on this for what, nine years now? have you mastered it all yourself or where do you, where do you continue to lead?
Eric Twiggs
Well, so the title of my book is "The Discipline of Now". I think I always just have to make sure I've got the right disciplines in place. I would say, my biggest procrastination challenge is the whole thing of perfectionism.
April Malone
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs
Right? Because that's, you know, I wanted to be perfect, I wanted that I can easily slip into that but, It's, yeah, I just have to monitor that even like I ran into that when I was writing the book where I would try to write and edit at the same time as opposed to just, you know, get, get the ideas out on paper, no matter how bad I think it sounds, then go back, go back and edit. So that's something I just always have to be mindful of is I could slip back into this whole perfectionism thing. Right.
April Malone
I know we're in November right now and it's the Novel Writing Month where people are trying to, what, do 50,000 words or something I can't even, I haven't participated and written novels, but do you have any other books in the works now or one and done?
Eric Twiggs
No, actually. We're, I'm actually working on a project with my partners, you know, the President is what now movement. We're coming out with a book is going to be coming out it's called the "What Now" mindset.
Okay.
And we're really, we're interviewing people that have overcome these challenges, and instead of stopping, they said "What now?", you know. and so we talked about how to do that, we provide tools. So that'll be coming out towards the end of the first quarter of 2021, so that's that's the next book project that we have going on, and then I'm going to write books, other books down the road.
April Malone
I actually did look it up and I can find it on Amazon, but is there a better place for people to look for your book to buy?
Eric Twiggs
Yeah, they can go to the disciplineofnow.com. They can get right directly from the website as well.
April Malone
That's a good place to get it. And you mentioned a couple of Facebook groups earlier and the one that you were telling me about. Is that one that you have started, or is that part of you said you have like a network of people that are-
Eric Twiggs
Yeah, that's the one. I started it. it's the "What Now" Movement Facebook group. And so I'm the head of it and the whole point of the group is to get people to pivot when they face a challenge and not just stop. And so we provide, you know Monday so everyday is themed in the "What Now" movement group. So Monday is motivational Monday, somebody will get in and talk for 15 minutes on a motivational topic. Tuesdays is Time Management Tuesday, they'll talk 15 minutes on that. Wednesday is Wellness Wednesday, Thursday is Thankful Thursday, Friday is Fitness Friday. So we have that. So there's tools, it's very encouraging in the group and it's is a good place to collaborate and network. And yeah, so that as the group.
April Malone
Sounds like lot of things that I want to have in our community here to so, we'll have to chat a little bit more about that. Do you find that you have a lot of people in your, in your group that are entrepreneurs, or do you have a mix of people who are employees working for a company versus the, you know, small business owners or entrepreneurs?
Eric Twiggs
Yeah, it's a mixture. So we have, entrepreneurs, we have people that are career professionals. Maybe they've written a book, you know, so they're promoting them, and maybe they're podcast hosts. Then we have people that you know have businesses and they have jobs, but they're trying to make the business a full time thing, so it's a mixture.
April Malone
So, same with this audience and sometimes it's a little bit of a challenge to find information or help that will be applicable across, you know, both worlds but I'm assuming you're probably pretty good at bridging that gap.
Eric Twiggs
Yeah, we're learning. We're starting to learn, kind of what- You kind of see what people respond to every now and then we put little surveys out as far as kind of what what are people looking for. And then we kind of take it from there.
April Malone
Well, let's wrap this up, I appreciate your coming back on and kind of helping round out the conversation that we started with earlier,. Do you have anything else that you'd like to add as far as... Actually I don't think I asked you this question yet. I asked you earlier, what do you have, you know, advice but, do you have any products that you recommend that have helped you in your work from home experience, either digital tools or physical tools?
Eric Twiggs
so I know there's a, there's an app, it's called Rescue Time.
April Malone
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs
It helps you to track, like, how much time you're spending on different social media sites. So it helps you to be more productive because you can see "Hey, I've been spending three hours a day on Facebook. Maybe I need to cut that off."
April Malone
I have screen time on my iPhone and it has a little bit of that but I find that I just ignore it. So, how do you how do you use the Rescue app, like, to be more productive?
Eric Twiggs
Well, So, One time I had it on my phone. But now, I just have where I can look at it on my desktop, where you can see what percentage of the time you're spending where, and then it's just me seeing it, you know, it can help me to make adjustments accordingly.
April Malone
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs
Yeah and, they've got a setting where you can actually turn off access after a certain time.
April Malone
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs
It's pretty serious.
Yeah, I use the Newsfeed Eradicator, I think I mentioned that earlier for my Facebook but I noticed the other day that you can now use it for a few of the other social media platforms. And you can also, like snooze the blockage that they have for like five minutes and after five minutes or 10 or 15 or 30 or whatever. But then it'll turn off again and it just gives you an inspirational quote to get back to business. Yeah.
So the other thing, I think you mentioned this too. So, I also have a virtual assistant.
April Malone
Okay, good. Yeah.
Eric Twiggs
And I'm telling you. She makes it, I mean, I can get so much more done with.. her name is Esther. And, you know, and the good thing is, she thinks of things, way before I can even think of it, you know. Sometimes I'm like, "you know..." And I love it, because she's done it already.
April Malone
How long have you been working together to get to this point?
Eric Twiggs
Well it's only been a few months, actually. But it's just some people, you come across and just kind of get it. Yeah, you know, and she's one of those people, Fortunately. So yeah she helps to schedule what my interviews you know I've got.. I use Google Calendar, and so she basically manages my calendar, so you know, the general process is if someone wants to interview me for something, they talk to her, she looks at my calendar and you know, if it works, she scheduls it. And so I can just basically look at my calendar and know what I've got coming.
April Malone
I think I actually did schedule with her, I think I popped in and told me what time that would work well for you, so...
Eric Twiggs
Yeah.
April Malone
And how about physical products? Do you have anything like... I know a lot of people use planners or like bullet journals and things like that to like manage their time. Are you into those things or not so much?
Eric Twiggs
Not really, I like just having the calendar and having the virtual assistant. You know, every now and then I'll use Evernote. That's something I use where and I like it just because I can, I can talk into it and just kind of make notes for myself if I need to.
April Malone
I can't think of... I was thinking OneNote but what is Evernote?
Eric Twiggs
Same concept. So basically, Evernote is where you can take notes, but it, you know, it can be as an app. So it could be on your desktop. You know, it could be on your smartphone. So a lot of times if I'm listening to an audio book, let's say, I'll have Evernote. And then, if there's somethin that's said that I need to remember, you know, I can just record into Evernote. And then now, I've got the information that I just heard in the book that I wanted to capture.
April Malone
Oh, wow.
Eric Twiggs
Well if I'm out somewhere andm you know. I don't have access, you know, I can't get right to my three by five card, you know, I can just put it in Evernote.
April Malone
Is it an audio thing or you just type it in?
Eric Twiggs
Both, either one. So you can... if you prefer to type, you can type, but you can also hit the little microphone and just talk it into your phone.
April Malone
Voice dictate it in.
Eric Twiggs
Voice dictate, oh sure. And you always have it. And now, I can go back to it. So, if I read a book, you know, four months ago, you know, and there was a point that they said, I can always go back to my Evernote and see, "oh yeah there you go.".
April Malone
Yeah, I think I use the notes, I use a MacBook and an iPhone and they can communicate and I use notes in a similar way. But yeah, it's nice to have that search feature where you can search for keywords and find things again. I'll have to look into the platform and see how that works.
Eric Twiggs
It works really well, I like it. Yeah.
April Malone
Well this has been wonderful. I felt like I had one more burning question that I didn't get to and I'm going to try to conjure that up really quick. Oh, yes, your book. Who is the book for? Who will best learn, or who will learn best from your book?
Eric Twiggs
So, the entrepreneur or the executive leader. That entrepreneurial person that's looking to go from good to great.
April Malone
Okay.
Eric Twiggs
That's really kind of the ideal person that's going to benefit.
April Malone
And is it mostly mindset stuff or is it more like hands-on?
Eric Twiggs
Oh it's both. So you have mindset things, but then you got specific tools and specific things that you can do depending on your personality type, depending on your circadian rhythm, if your morning person, if you're a night owl. One of the things that frustrated me to know in with some of these books, it was just all the same cookie cutter information. It was all, "Oh you got to wake up early...you got to wake up at 3:30 in the morning."
April Malone
Actually I do, but that's because I'm teaching about that time.
Eric Twiggs
I wake up at 4, but not everybody is built that way.
April Malone
Yeah.
Eric Twiggs
And a lot of times you feel like a slacker if you don't wake up at four o'clock and run and do like all the stuff that I do, but that's not how you're wired. I know you could be a night owl. You're... That's your circadian rhythm, but really that, I talked about this in the book. So the bottom line is to schedule your high-priority activities during the time of day when you've got the most energy. You know, So basically, that's it. So you can find tools within the book, you know whether you're a morning person, whether you're a night owl, if you're a type-A personality, if you're more analytical, you will find a tool to help you to overcome procrastination.
April Malone
I feel like I'm glowing because I'm so excited that you're recognizing that not everyone has that nine-to-five job and that nine-to-five for them because I've been what I worked for, you know, those 10 years during that transcription, I was working nights, it was 11 PM to 9 AM, or I mean terrible hours. It's terrible for your health. And then now, in the more recent years, I've been teaching English in China. So I'm on their schedule, you know, their primetime hours or, you know, start at 4am here and I would be getting up at 2:15 sometimes to teach a little bit earlier. So yeah, basically all of that stuff, didn't apply to me because I was constantly trying to find, like, sleep hacks and you know, how to how to fool my system into you know getting tired and vacations I felt like I was jet-lagged, you know, every single day or every single week. So thank you for acknowledging that not everyone has that same exact schedule.
Eric Twiggs
Right.
April Malone
Or just, you know, some people are just morning people naturally or not. So..
Eric Twiggs
Yeah.
April Malone
Good, good. Well, I know that we still have more to talk about but let's call this for now. I think we're right around an hour, and I appreciate your coming back and in doing part B of this conversation.
Eric Twiggs
I appreciate you inviting me back.
April Malone
Yeah. All right. Well, thank you Eric, and this is Yes I Work From Home. I'm April Malone This is Eric Twiggs, with an S at the end, I apologize, I took it off earlier but alright,we'll see you next time.
Eric Twiggs
All right. All right, bye bye.