Episode 67: [GUEST] Collaboration is Key to Reaching Your Goals with Amanda McKinney

Set your 90-Day Goal with PATH (use code INSPIRED for 20% off)

We're back with Amanda McKinney, an accountability coach for women entrepreneurs, this week to share our results after setting a 90-Day goal upon the completion of Amanda's course PATH.

We’ve been talking a lot this week about how this is the year for collaboration.

Why is collaboration so important?

When you collaborate you build community.

Your productivity increases along with your confidence.

Especially for women entrepreneurs and women writers!

When women support and raise up other women, amazing things happen.

Collaboration enhances creativity and brings together diverse opinions allowing you to learn from others.

This is the year to connect and grow with people who build you up.

A team that helps you cross the finish line.

If you’re working on anything creative, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

You’re in it for the long haul.

Find your hype crowd that shouts your name, cheers, claps and encourages you at every mile marker along the way.
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Your voice and your writing have purpose.

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If you prefer video versions of the podcast or want to leave a comment on this specific episode, you can find all of them on our YouTube channel.

We hope you've found guidance and inspiration for your own writing.

Here are two resources for you:

Get your list of 4 Essential Reads for Memoir Writers

Get your Character Coffee Chat Guide for Character Development

Transcript

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Welcome to the Inspired Writer Collective podcast. We're your hosts, Elizabeth and Stephanie book coaches who help you finish your book. Tune in each week as we dig into the writing process, including reaching your goals and silencing your inner critic. You'll learn how to deepen your characters, hone your authentic storytelling style, and strengthen your writing muscles by exploring books in and out of your own genre. You'll also hear from published authors, industry experts, and marketing specialists who will give you tools to navigate this. Self-publishing landscape. We are here to provide the support and accountability you need throughout the marathon of writing so you stop running in place, editing the same chapter over and over, and find the confidence to move forward. Get your copy of a curated list of four essential craft books to assist your memoir writing or a character coffee chat for fiction writers through the links in the show notes, let's bring your book to life together. This is gonna be a really fun, collaborative podcast episode where I'm gonna release it on my podcast and you're releasing it on your podcast. So, so much fun. I love these opportunities to collaborate, especially when we have kind of a unified, broader purpose, but our own like specialties or niches within it. I just think that's gonna deliver so much to all of our listeners. Yes. Yeah. I'm so excited to be able to have this conversation and share our experiences with your work and share what we do as well. Yeah. It's just so fun and you know, I found myself connecting with so many women lately and this thread of like. Collaboration over competition. Like we can rise together, we can help each other, and this is a perfect example of this where we get to shout out each other's work, but also really showcase with other people how it's helped influence. What we're doing. So the behind the scenes here is that the two of you amazing ladies, used my course path and used it to set your 90 day goal and actually achieve those 90 day goals. So this is very exciting. So I would love to hear from both of you how you approached it and just your experience overall. Who wants to go first? I'll take the lead. Okay. So I completed the course first and then immediately told Stephanie, you've gotta get on this. So for me, my bigger goal is getting my memoir published. Now, this has been like an ongoing goal. I think I'm over two years into this process. I've been through multiple drafts and. About a year ago, I redesigned my outline, updated. It felt really, really good with where it landed, but just needed to carve out the time in order to get those new stories written. Basically, I had cut a bunch of historic stuff and I needed to write more present day stories because of the shift of my timeline, but I had started a job in August with the school system, so my time was suddenly went from the whole school day while my daughter was at school to. An hour between when my job ended and I had to pick her up. So suddenly I was really pressed for time. So I was introduced to you. I got to learn about you and this accountable podcast, and I went ham on those early episodes that you have that really give the background of all of it, and that is really how you and I connected and going through the process of coming up with my 90 day plan. Your program is so different than all of the goal setting stuff that I've done before, and I didn't really appreciate how different it was going through the process of like the actual, like completing the DIY course. I mean, that's just a couple of hours that it takes to get through the PATH program itself, but within this 90 day cycle. Oh my God, there's so many things I appreciate and we can break those down, but like just in synopsis, the capacity calculator was fundamental in helping me see what time I actually had and then holding myself accountable to sit down at those times and write addressing the like setbacks and roadblocks and especially your. Reminder that 70% is passing was so helpful when I invariably hit a roadblock that I wasn't expecting and I already had the tools in place, I reminded myself in your voice of, I still shown up more than 70% of the time. If I skip this writing date, it's okay, and I might not get it back. You know, I might not be able to scrape the time out of something else, but like. I'll be okay. Normally, that would derail me and if I thought I wasn't going to achieve a goal in the end, I would just let it all go and not even try anymore. And then the other thing is when I finished writing my last story just a couple of days ago, for one, it was super impactful because I did not feel the progress as I was writing each story. I only felt. The completion of my goal once it was actually complete, and maybe that's just'cause of the type of goal I set, but I could not appreciate any sort of incremental progress. It was only once it was all done and when I looked around at my life after that point, I. I was so pleasantly surprised that nothing was in shambles. I had kept up with my workouts. I had kept up with my family time because you encourage people to build their goal around their life. So I wasn't abandoning all these other areas that were important to me for the sake of meeting this big goal. This, you know, needle moving. Effort, and that was such a relief to not then feel like I had to spend the next few weeks putting back together the pieces of my life. Hmm. Thank you, Elizabeth. I feel like my heart is just so warm hearing all of this.'cause it's, it's one thing to think, you know, I'm creating something and I'm, I'm hoping it's gonna work. I believe it's gonna work because I've worked with so many different clients and it's worked when we've worked one-on-one. Putting something into a DIY option is very difficult because it's putting something into more of a generic bucket, if that makes any sense. But doing it in a way mm-hmm. That I hope and pray that is going to work for people, you know? And so to hear that it is, is so helpful and I just appreciate that your life didn't feel like everything had fallen to the wayside. Like that is a beautiful thing. So thank you for doing that. And can I ask, so are we at the very end? Of the 90 days as we're recording this right now, like you hit the goal, did you hit it early or did you hit it after time? I didn't hit it early. I'd actually built in two weeks of a little bit of leeway time in case I needed it, like a grace period because I was planning to finish the writing right before spring break. This is actually my spring break week, so I knew if I hadn't finished by that point, I would have extra time this week. And also a, an important part of this. 90 day phase was to do a full read through of the manuscript once I completed the last story so that I could be prepared for the next phase, which is gonna be editing. So I, I had built in this two weeks to read the manuscript over again and to finish up any writing that I identify in that read that. Maybe I didn't, I missed a story that I needed to write or something. So we're still technically in it, but the biggest part of it of getting all those stories written and added to the manuscript is complete. That's awesome. So something you've wanted to do for two years, you did, I'm not saying the whole thing's done, but you did a good chunk of it in 90 days. Mm-hmm. Is that fair to say? Oh, that's so fair to say. And it's just phenomenal because I was even dreading the next 90 day period, which for me honestly is gonna be 60 days.'cause my, my life changes so drastically in summer, so it's not April, may, and June for me, it's. April and May, and then I'll have to redesign things for June depending on where I'm at. And so I was dreading like, how do I even set the goal or figure out the time of how long it's gonna take me to do edits? I haven't done that before. I don't know how much editing is needed. So in the reread this week, that's helping me really come to terms with. How much editing is really needed. Mm-hmm. I thought it was gonna be a lot more than what I'm seeing as I, I go through it, I'm about halfway through the manuscript now and just move to tears with how phenomenal it's been and how moving it is, even though it's my own writing. And what a page turner it's been as well. So that makes me feel a lot better going into the next cycle. That two months should be pretty sufficient to get the edits done that I need to. That's awesome and we'll come back to that'cause I know you wanna talk about next quarter for sure. Which is so exciting. So Stephanie, I would love to hear about your experience as well.'cause I know everyone's is different. Yes. Well I really was so excited when Elizabeth was talking about your course and shared it with me and I jumped right in and. I appreciated the opportunity to be able to, you know, speed things up as I needed on the videos or slow things down. And so that was, I really appreciated that. And I, I, one of the things I loved at the beginning was how you approached talking about how you wanted to feel in the process. And I had never approached goal setting in that way. And so coming up with, well, how do I wanna feel? And my big word for the year is simplify. So I wanted good word to really think about, you know, keeping it simple. And it's been a really powerful word for me because I tend to overthink over, complicate make things harder than they need to be. This has been a little bit true with my process of working on my manuscript. As Elizabeth knows, I've been back and forth between is it a ya romance is an adult, not, you know, is an adult romance and what is the story and where am I going? And in going through your course and setting the goal of, I'm gonna finish my act one during this time, it really. Kept it simple for me and I was like, this is what I'm going to focus on. And like Elizabeth, the capacity calculator was also a really powerful tool in the sense that, you know, when you say 90 days, it's like, oh, I have all this time, 90 days. But then by using that calculator and really breaking it down to, oh, wait a minute, I don't exactly have that time, you know, it's cut down to maybe. 40 days or maybe it's even less, or, you know, and, and allowing for aspects of life to happen because I mean, my life is busy and things come up unexpectedly. And then in the past I've usually, you know, I'm hard on myself. I'm super critical and, but this really allowed me to say. Oh wait, I still have time. I still have space. And it was also really helpful that Elizabeth and I used time where we're like, Hey, do you have time to write today? Let's hop on for an hour. And even if we wrote for 20 minutes, we were like, 20 minutes is better than zero minutes. And you know, and so we, yeah. Yeah. So we were like really like, you know, encouraging each other in that way, which was really helpful to have along the journey. And last night I sent Elizabeth a text with a picture of what I, of my printout, and I have gotten through my Act one, and I have so much more than I thought I had because of course, going through my files on Scrivener, I'm like, oh, I'm in this chat. Oh, I'm in here, I'm here. And I don't have the visual, but then actually printing it out, I was like, oh my goodness. I've done this and I've been working on mine probably for over a year. So to have that really narrowed down is huge for me because I also kind of self-diagnose myself as a DHD and changing my mind and changing my direction. So this, I mean, going through your course just really helped create that. Pathway for me to keep it simple, stay focused, and know that I could accomplish it. I love this. I love it so much. So I'm so curious. Did you make a decision? Is it ya or adult? I. It's ya. So, okay, now I'm really excited. So did you make that decision before jumping in or was it throughout taking action that you made the decision? It was. It was throughout taking action and apparently I. Even from feedback from different people. I've shared parts of it. I, I'm a very good snarky teenage girl. So Play to your strength, Stephanie. I know exactly. Oh, that's fantastic. You know, I mean, I asked that question and I kind of knew like internally what the answer was going to be because it usually is through taking action. But I think it's so powerful to hear that because I don't know about you two. I love to have, or I like to think that I have all the answers before I move forward. And that's just not the case for most goals that we are pushing for. Whether it's writing something, launching something in our business anything that we're doing, scaling down our business, scaling up our business, whatever it is, we don't have all the answers. And so I love that you got the answer in the middle of taking action. It felt, it felt really good and it just has really helped catapult the story along now. So now I have momentum, which is even better going into the next quarter. Oh, I love it. Oh, so exciting. Okay, so I wanna talk about next quarter, but I have a question first. So the two of you went through this. Together. Obviously you purchased the course separately, right? But you went through it together. How impactful do you think that that component was in terms of if someone is thinking like, oh, like it's finding the accountability buddy, but you use this system to do it and now you can use the system over and over again, but how impactful do you think having an accountability buddy to go through? It was Elizabeth, I'll start with you. For me, it didn't matter if Stephanie went through the same like. PATH program because you do such a good job in the very last lesson of helping the person assess what level of accountability they need for that particular goal. And so I knew I was landing on peer accountability. And I was gonna recruit Stephanie for that. Regardless of whether she went through the program herself or not. I certainly encouraged her to, because I just found it to be so helpful to have that clear plan. And I know she tends to be all over the place as her business partner. I know this about her, and so I encouraged her to do, to do the program. But ultimately, I think, as you say, in the program itself, like the key is just finding the right level of accountability, and I don't think it mattered greatly. Stephanie had been exposed to the capacity calculator or the feeling thing. I mean, that helps her own reaching her own goals. But as far as showing up for each other, that was all negotiated, you know, after the program and as we were achieving our goals. Awesome. What about you, Stephanie? Well, well, and we've shown up for each other so much on our journey anyways, just as business partners. And I mean, one of the things I say to Elizabeth all the time is how much I appreciate that she lets me show up as my, you know, messy self, which is really great. I mean, we just have this way where we compliment each other so well as business partners. But with that being said, like with this journey of writing together, we both knew that we were going to lean on each other in some way, but we do know, and we've talked about this in other episodes of our podcast, that having community is so powerful as a writer to have someone who. Shows up with you and you don't even, I mean, we don't, we usually check in with each other just'cause that's what we do. But you can even show up in a space where you don't even have to talk. It's like, okay, we're gonna meet on Zoom at this time and we're gonna go. But having that piece has been, IM important. I love it. I think it's so cool that you, you two did it together and went along that journey. And I think it's such a creative way. I mean, you two are very creative people, but it's a creative way to utilize something that, you know, one-on-one coaching is often not accessible financially or time for some people, sometimes both. Right. And so it's really difficult because it's like, I. I want to have support, but I can't quite figure it out on my own, and I can't sign up for this higher ticket thing because of time or money. And I think what you two did was so clever and so smart, which is you purchased something at a one time fee that you can use over and over and over again, and then recruited a friend to say, let's do this together. And for a fraction of the price, we're able to get a result that landed in achieving a goal, which I think is fabulous and which is why I created the thing. You know, absolutely. I mean, your program is like I, I have my own writing program to help people come up with their core message for their memoir and to do their outline so that when they sit down to write like I did, they don't waste time figuring out what they need to do. They simply look at their detailed outline and they can start writing. My capacity calculator showed I had 53 hours over the quarter to get it done. So I knew every moment was important and I couldn't waste time. I say all of that because. I totally lost my train of thought. And now I don't know where I was going with this. Remind me what you just said. I was just talking about how you two went and did this together, and what I think you were going towards, which I'll, it'll hopefully it'll come back, is that you do this for other people as they're trying to write their memoir. Yes. Memoir. I said that weirdly as they're trying to write. Which is a really difficult thing to do. I've written a book, right? I've only written one, but it was hard, and when you're trying to write, that's really hard. And it's like I'm sitting down, I don't know what to do. You guide people in how to finish that dang thing. But my guess is you were about to say, but I, you got stuck somewhere. Whereas where I was able to help you and you help other people. Yes. So despite the fact that I have that program to help people with that part of the process, I want them to start with your program because it was so fundamental for me in order to hack the system to find a different way to goal set that I could actually achieve it. And somehow, maybe it's because you're so like. Research based in your approaches, but somehow you helped me get outta my own way. I went from, you have the section on like exploring limiting beliefs and I went from questioning how disciplined I am and like that was really an area of like insecurity for me. I really believed I was not disciplined and in 90 days I've totally reframed that. Belief about myself. Yes, I am hyper disciplined. I sat down almost every darn day that I said I was going to, with the exception of the one day that I gave myself grace for.'cause it was an emotionally rough day and I would not have produced anything of quality. Right. But like that's, that's the value of, of your program and why I believe that your program and the memoir writing program goes so well together. And that's why I love collaborating. Yeah. It's so great and I mean, you better believe I'm sending everyone I know to the two of you when they're looking to write, because I'm not a book writing coach. I mean, I can certainly hold someone accountable as they are finishing the writing, finishing the editing, getting it through a certain area, but there's gotta be someone else on the other side. Like, I'm not the, I'm not the person doing all of these things. Whereas you two really help people through that process, and I will absolutely be linking to. Everything on my podcast when it's on mine because you two do amazing things. And Stephanie, I know you do amazing things on the romance side, so did you have that same experience where you felt like I should be able to do this myself'cause I help these other people do this? Well, I, I definitely had that feeling and it's interesting because I also completed a PhD many, many years ago when I had two. Boys under two, running around and you know, so I'm thinking to myself like, I should be able to do this. Like, I mean, I was chasing toddlers around and I finished a, you know, a manuscript length thing. And so it was really interesting to reflect on that. And I too have that feeling like, oh, maybe this isn't what I should be writing because I've written a lot of nonfiction and academic, and so this. The shift to fiction has been new for me, but I'm such an avid reader of romance and I'm like, these are my people. This is who I'm meant to help. And in the same way that Elizabeth helps with the memoir and getting that organized, I help romance writers specifically for ya. And contemporary romance. Really what's called spreadsheet, their novels. So, you know, get all the beats down to be prepared to write. And it's just so important to have that support along the way, much like your course. Provides that support for this goal setting process. And I agree with Elizabeth, like, this is gonna be something I'm directing people to. I mean, I, I talk about it as, you know, people in my life as have asked me like, how have you gotten so far in what you're doing? And I'm like, you have to check out this program because. It's really been so different than other types of goal setting where, you know, maybe I've picked up a book about it, or I've read something, or I've watched a YouTube video and it's like, oh, you know, write your goals every day. Well, that hasn't worked for me. Mm-hmm. But the way you structure it going from, you know, sort of the heart of the matter, I think of, you know, what, how do you wanna feel? To the different pieces that you apply for setting the goal and the capacity calculator and all of those components, and then choosing how you wanna be accountable. It just makes it so attainable. I mean, you just, and for me, it just really clicked in my mind like, okay, this makes so much sense. And that was huge. I love it. Thank you for all the kind words you two are saying. I swear for everyone on my podcast and yours, I did not pay you two to say any of this. This is honest reviews and the two of you have just been so kind to share it with me. So I really appreciate that It deserves. So we appreciate you. Aww, well thank you. And now I know you both have questions about their, your next 90 days and so I'm, I'm all yours. Yeah, I was, I mean, I was a little bit nervous. Now I feel a little better because I'm actually read the manuscript and I do think it's gonna be more manageable than. Than I originally was anticipating, but I, I was really feeling uncertain about how to set the goal and'cause my time is limited, it's, I've got 60 days instead of 90. Mm-hmm. The quote unquote goal or the like. What I would like it to be is to edit this manuscript. But is that feasible in the two months that I have? I don't know. But what I do know is that in June, my house becomes a childcare mecca, and I also then start hitting the ground running with recording our podcast guests for the fall season. So it's like that timeframe is already accounted for when we have to rotate back into business stuff because we. We are always balancing both the, the writing of our books and the managing of our podcast and business endeavors. So I felt weird around setting the goal of editing the manuscript as being it. And so going into it, and of course hearing what you said just earlier in this recording, that like just taking the action sometimes is. Enough. That was sort of my sense of what I was gonna do is I was just gonna start at the beginning. I was gonna edit for 60 days or however much of that I actually have and see where I got, and then shape the next goal around however far I get, knowing that if I show up for the times that I've already designated in April and May, then that's me doing what I need to do. Mm-hmm. I love that. There's a few things in there. The first thing was that you feel better now that you are reading the manuscript and you have a better handle of what the edits are gonna look like. Mm-hmm. I'm bringing this up because we can catastrophize things real freaking fast. In our minds of like, this is going to be a disaster. I don't have enough time for this, and therefore we don't even start. I'm not saying that's what you're doing, but before we kind of like look at things, we can, a lot of us, myself included, very much can think, oh, that's gonna be too much. Therefore I'm paralyzed and I won't do anything. Mm-hmm. And so I really appreciate that you continued to go and you're like, oh, it's actually not, it's not gonna be as bad as I thought. Mm-hmm. Which I find a lot, a lot of people really, really get to that place. The other part is that you're just gonna take action, which is great, and. With, I love that you're thinking about this and we have to think about the seasonality of our life. So you're really taking that capacity into play and understanding, okay, June not happening, so I've got April and May, what can I do? And you've got that scheduled time. One of the things you had asked me, and I can't, I don't think you just said it, but you send it in an email, was I don't even know how long editing takes. Mm-hmm. Like, because that's not what you've done yet with this particular one. And so. I was thinking, okay, whether it's editing or something else, how do I help any of my clients navigate this? The first thing is, is that you'll probably, knowing you probably write another book or help other people with writing books, and so what I want you to do now is to start tracking your time if you're not already. Just track your time. It's not gonna help you right now with estimating time because you're getting started. Mm-hmm. But the next time you go to do this, you'll know exactly how much time, so you won't have that thought anymore. So tracking your time, some people hate it when I say that, but man, it really helps. You don't have to be so rigid about it. It's just a generalized like, oh, I did an hour here in two hours here, and eventually it was a five hour edit for one chapter, whatever. Mm-hmm. I don't know what the shake out's gonna be. Look at the first chapter. As basically a test and to look at the second one and then start to see an average, because I would guess I'm thinking back to my own book writing process, which is going to be different. Mm-hmm. But there were some that took longer to edit and some were like a breeze, you know? So it was like you gotta kind of look at the average, and when in doubt I want you to estimate and add 20%. That's the buffer to do that and see how that shakes out. I, I very much relate to the whole catastrophizing because I really was under the impression that I was gonna print out the manuscript and read those early stories again and feel like I wanted to totally rewrite them because I wrote them. A year, year and a half, two years ago. Right. But as I was reading it, I was sending Stephanie a text and I'm like, oh my gosh, these are actually really polished. Not taking into consideration that like, I've already been through this man. Well, an earlier version of this manuscript, all the way through the editing process, these chapters, the first half of the book has already been edited at least two times. Mm-hmm. So there really isn't a lot left. It's more about integrating it in with the new stuff and making sure I'm not. Saying the same thing here in this earlier chapter that I then go into more detail at a later chapter and whether I want that or don't want that when I change people's names, making sure I'm consistently changing their names in the memoir, all throughout the manuscript, it's little things. So now that I've had a chance to read, at least from what I can tell, the first half of the book is largely polished. So I really think I can breeze through that in like the first couple of weeks. Mm-hmm. Now my Phil, my. Theory is that the sections I just wrote will need more of a standard couple hour edit per chapter simply because they haven't been edited at all. And I made a very conscious effort not to edit while I was drafting them this last quarter. Mm-hmm. So I imagine what I will, how I will kind of frame my time is maybe two weeks on the first half of the book and then the remaining six weeks. Breaking down the later chapters that I just finished writing. Look at you. You have your plan. I know all in like three minutes that you just decided on that. And I know we're laughing about it, but it's like it can be that loose. Mm-hmm. It can be that loose when you know what the overall goal is and you know your capacity and you, you've done this system once. And now it's so easy to repeat it. Mm-hmm. You may have to go revisit something here and there, but typically it's like you learn the system and now you're so much more comfortable already. So I think it's wonderful. Well, and that's what I was just gonna jump in and say was just about for me, it's just gonna be repetition of what I've already done because I finished act one now going into Act two and. My goal is just to keep moving forward and to maintain the same momentum and focus and you know, keep the framework around it, which has been really helpful and it's really helpful having your course as the foundational piece for knowing that, okay, I reached this 90 days. I can do the next and I can do the next and, and keep going without feeling like, oh, okay, now I have to figure it out. Like am I gonna do something different? And so having something that's so structured and so useful and that has really helped. I. Make it make sense. And like we said, you know, really integrates life in, because I think so often, you know, I mean 90 days are such a common, you know, benchmark in terms of the quarters and you know, we think like, oh, things happen and we don't allow for that. I. Just knowing what's coming up and you know, I know there's a lot coming up for the, like the, all the end of the school year stuff and different things that happen and transitioning into summer, just like Elizabeth was talking about. I mean, all those pieces, things start to change. My, my time with my kids changes and all types of demands are stretched. And so just having, you know, the capacity calculator again to go back to and say, okay, what is. Realistic about this and then saying like, oh, well I already achieved this here. Like I'm just gonna keep the momentum going. And it's so helpful to have that without having to like reinvent something or figure something out or, or feel like, oh my goodness, summer is coming and everything's gonna fall apart and I'm not gonna be able to hold it together. So yeah, we all do. I will. We're all laughing because we know it's true. For like summer. I have a question about, yeah. For you, Amanda, about how you would recommend someone build in a little bit of buffer time between quarters if they are the type of person. So maybe a little bit more background would be helpful with this question. I listened to your human design episode. Oh yes. And I looked mine up and I'm a projector. What are you now? I'm curious. I'm a projector, which is why I was able to give you such feedback on this course because that's what I do, right? I optimize, I make things more efficient. I take whatever anyone else has created and I digest it and have ideas about it. But it also means that I'm very prone to energy burnout and I have to be very mindful of my energy. And after I did that writing sprint on Monday to finish the last of my stories so I could stay on schedule, there was a definitely a strong voice in my head that was like, are you ready to jump into another quarter where you're pushing yourself like this? Or do you need to like come up with a different plan that builds in more downtime, more chill time? Mm-hmm. More. You know, time for energy rejuvenation, and I, I know that may be foreign for you as a manifester generator, but I'm curious when you work with clients who are different in that way. Yes. What, what would you say? What would you recommend? I. This is great. Thank you for telling me this, and you two are getting like a little bit of an insider scoop Right now. I'm doing a massive research project right now, as you know. I love the research side of things and I'm basically looking at all the different personality types. I'm human design is in there, but Myers Briggs, Enneagram, Colby, like they're all in there, the big five, all of them, and layering in. Overlaps and really go, I will be updating path once I have this to really layer that in of like, if you're this type of person, this might be a helpful tool. Same idea path will stay the same in terms of the concept. Like you're not losing any of that, like I'm not changing it. It'll just have some extra, some extra tools for people who are not. The Energizer bunny like myself, that will just keep on keeping on. But I eventually burn out. I mean, this is not a, a healthy thing, it's just something I can do a little bit longer. But I actually work with a lot of projectors and so this is not uncommon at all for me to hear. And I would say know that about yourself and build it into the plan at the beginning. Mm-hmm. So now you know, okay, I'm going to create a plan. And you just mapped out. You know your eight weeks? Mm-hmm. Maybe it's a seven week now. We're also looking at June. You may have some rejuvenation time. I know you're gonna be doing podcasting things. Mm-hmm. And you'll be dealing with a lot of kid stuff, but you're not gonna be writing as much. So that may be enough for you to have a break from writing and editing, where you don't have to try and cram it into the eight weeks. I don't know. You'll have to kind of base that off of the energy level that you think you. Will need or the energy level, you'll think you'll have. I think it's just doing something and then learning from it is the best thing I can say because you as a projector are gonna be different from a another client of mine who's a projector, who I'm thinking of right now, that hers is more weekly. Like she loves to work a lot on Sundays, which doesn't work for everyone, but she doesn't do. As much throughout the week. Mm-hmm. Because she's got a full-time job. She's doing all these things, but she can get a chunk of things done on Sunday that I'm like, I don't even know how you got it done in that amount of time. But she can do a, a short spurt like that. But then she's like, I can that projector focus. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Short spurts. So for her, I know, oh, okay, I know her timeframe is on, on Sundays, and so she knows this about herself. Now you'll learn your system that works really a lot better for you, and you build it into the plan. Hmm. Now, if someone was just coming to me and we didn't know and it was like, I don't know, I just know I'm a projector, then I would say, okay, we're looking at 12 weeks. Definitely say it's 10. Mm-hmm. And but you did that. Like intuitively, you said I gave myself two week buffer. Mm-hmm. So like you just naturally did what you needed to do. Oh, lordy. So fun. Stephanie, do you know your human design or any personality type? Well, I know I'm an INFJ. Okay. So advocate. And that's I mean, from what I understand, that's pretty rare in, in the general population. Yeah, I definitely can, I definitely can relate to the burnout. I definitely tend towards the very strong introversion, needing, needing the time to, you know, regenerate my. Energy I need the rest. A lot of, a lot of people exhausts me, so yeah, I do know that about myself. That's great. But yeah, that's, yeah. Knowing that, how does it relate to not just being around people, but around your. Ability to focus. Have you noticed anything about your ability to focus on a specific task? Like do you have a long window, a short window, or have you noticed anything like that? Well, definitely if I'm really in it, like even this time where I finally landed on, okay, this is my book is a y romance, and I like, I know my characters better, then I can just go, I mean, I just, you know, I open the laptop, I look at the last sentence and. It just starts to flow. Mm. And it, and it's that piece of like the characters are taking over and almost like I'm channeling that to the, to the page. And that's been a whole new experience in and of itself for me. Writing fiction is that whole experience. But yeah, I can definitely get focused and if I'm not that interested, I have a hard time. Focusing. So that's where, you know, if I am doing something and I have to give attention, but I'm not that interested, sometimes that's a little bit of a challenge to, to focus for me. Yeah. And how have you, in those moments where,'cause not everything that we have to do to reach a goal is going to be like the most fun. Some of it will be, let's hope, right? Or else it's not probably a good goal for us to be going after, but I. Not everything is so there. I don't know what that is in your process. Maybe it's writing a certain type of, part of the chapter or part of the act. Maybe it's the editing, I don't know. But what are the things like when you know, well, this is not my favorite thing. What helps you get focused or just power through, or whatever phrasing you wanna use to like, get the thing done? Usually, I mean, when I think of like tasks in life that have to get done, like if I make a list for myself, that's really helpful because that just that act of like crossing things off a list are really just, it's very concrete. It's like, okay, I crossed it off the list, I did it, you know? And it's already like, okay, these are things I told myself I'm gonna do. And so that can be. Really helpful because I will distract myself if I don't really wanna sit down and do it. And sometimes there are the moments of just powering through, like, I may not really wanna do this right now, but I'm going to do it. And I've had a lot of those experiences across the board in a lot of different things I've done in life where I'm like, I really don't wanna be doing this right now, but. I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna figure it out. And like, I know Elizabeth is kind of smiling'cause she's like, you're superpower is, you just jump in and we'll like figure stuff out. And I hadn't ever really thought about it, but I kind of do. Like there're just those moments where I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna figure this out'cause I am just gonna get it done. And I, and I do, and. Yeah. I love that. I love when someone in our life like Elizabeth just did for you. Like we can often see other people's superpower when we can't see our own. And so that's beautiful that you were able to do that, and I'm sure, Stephanie, you've done that for Elizabeth too. Yeah. When I said I was undisciplined, she was like, you're one of the most disciplined people I know. Oh, am I? Okay. So we all need to find those friends that can say, this is your superpower, because in inevitably we're gonna doubt them. So I have something written down here.'cause I was like, neither one of you talked about this, but I'm going to put you on the spot and ask you a question so you can take a pause if you need to A, if you needed to think about this. But I wanna know how each of you, whether together or separate, are going to celebrate the fact that, that you hit your dang goals. This is such a good question because, because, and, and I'm saying that because one is I, I know that one of the things that I'm not always good at is taking the time to celebrate. And Elizabeth and I just had this conversation the other day where I was saying to her like, you need to let this land that. You did this thing, ah, and you know, what, what is it that you're gonna do to celebrate? And I was like, I would probably go to Sida Pharmacy and get a milkshake since we live in Sida, Colorado, they have some of the best milkshakes. So that was part of a conversation we had, but. Definitely remembering to celebrate, and we try to do that even in our business work, and we're not always very good at keeping up on it. But yes. No, I appreciate that question. Okay. I wrote down milkshake, you know, as the accountability coach. I'm gonna be emailing you to see if you had that milkshake, but you notice that she said that's what I should do to celebrate. She did not answer what she's doing to celebrate her wins. Oh, I thought that's what you wanted to do. Well, I know it, it would be what I would do. Okay. It would be what it would be. Okay. So that's what you would do. It would be what would do to, to celebrate my win. Yes. So I want you to go get that milkshake and I hope you enjoy it. If, if I, I know we're connected on Instagram, but this would be the thing to post on Instagram, is that a cup, you know, picture of that cup that's like, I did it and this is how I'm celebrating. Elizabeth, what are you gonna do? I've struggled with what to do because I feel like it deserves way more celebration than I even have the capacity to do. Mm-hmm. But I've made some Instagram reels to show my excitement with it. I've reached out to like all the people that are supporting my writing journey, I have a like monthly email newsletter, so I'm gearing up to send that out in April that will announce that I've. Accomplish this major feat and I know those recipients will be super excited'cause they're eager to get this book and I am eager to get it in their hands. So there's a lot of just kind of communication and stuff. With this being spring break week, I do have the next. Three days as down days, they're gonna be family oriented days. I just bought our tickets to go see Snow White, which releases in theaters. Oh, fun. Tomorrow. So my daughter's five and a half. That'll be something that she'll really enjoy. I don't know exactly what we'll do on Saturday. Maybe go to the arcade or take a hike. But it'll just be, you know, a lot of family centric. Mm-hmm. Things, you know, step away a little bit, kind of rebuild that, that energy reserve for sure. I love that, but I'm gonna push a little bit. Everything you just listed was o other people. What are you gonna do? That's for me too. I love that stuff. Stuff that I don't feel like mean. It's good. You're right. You're right. It is for you. But. I, I just like you said, emailing and all these things, and I want you to do all of those things because I love celebrating with you. When you posted on Instagram, I think I was the first one to be like, I am pumped for you. I'm dancing in my office, but what are you gonna do for you? Even if it's taking five minutes to just sit there and tell yourself. If I did enough, like what could you do to refill that cup for you to let yourself know?'cause it sounds like for you with your goals, it like you didn't feel progress for 90 days until it was completely over and now you're moving on to the next one. And so I don't want you to miss that beat. And I'm really, I am good at catching this because I am terrible at doing this. So you're in good company and that's why I'm pushing hard. I want you to just take a minute for yourself. My sister reminded me after I called her the other day to tell her it was done. She was like, now I'm gonna go to bed.'cause there was a time difference. She's like, I'm gonna go to bed, but you go sit down with your journal and you write about this. And I was like, you're right, you're right. I totally forgot about my journal. So I had been journaling about like, what this feels like to accomplish this huge thing. I mean. Guys, this is my third full manuscript of this book, but this one feels so good. It's the, ugh. I'm finally sharing the story in the way that I wanna share it. And even reading it, I feel is how I'm celebrating it because I'm just relishing in the story, in the writing, in I, I don't know, I'm still a little bit in disbelief that it's. Tangibly in my hands, like I'm pinching myself all the time. We were watching TV the other night and I just kept randomly tapping my boyfriend's arm and being like, I did it. I did it. Can you believe it? I did it. Yay. Okay, so you, so there are moments of celebrating or at least feeling that immense pride over Good. This huge accomplishment. Good. Because it's so easy to move on to the next, you know, you ask that question of like the buffer time. Mm-hmm. And, and I am so guilty of I plan my next quarter, one month before that quarter has started, right? Mm-hmm. Because I have to think ahead and that puts me in a weird spot. I'm already looking ahead and I haven't finished one goal and it's this weird overlap. And so I'm recognizing in this moment of like. That's why I probably didn't celebrate very much. I'm better about it. Mm-hmm. Not perfect, but better about it now that I've recognized it, and that's why I always make sure that people know that that's important too, because so many of us forget. Yeah. It's important to take a moment, tap someone on the shoulder, or tap yourself on the shoulder and say, you freaking did this. You accomplished this because it's hard to be disciplined. It's hard to do the things when you really don't wanna do them. It's hard to do all that, and you two did hard things for the last 90 days, and I am so excited for you. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm, I'm curious for you, Amanda, like what is your, like hope with this, with this program, with this course. Like I know why you, you built it. I understand both from like an entrepreneurial space, how this is a great thing to bring in potential clients and also to offer something that is time and resource minded for those who don't have that same capacity, but like what is. What is it that you hope people get out of this course or how you hope they use it? I love this question and it's like, it makes me feel like so thankful that you even asked this question.'cause I think, I mean, I don't know how often I've thought about that of people creating courses or programs and thought, I wonder what they hope for. But it's a beautiful question to ask for me. I realized when, actually, when I was writing my book. You too. I love that. So when I was writing my book, my book coach said, Amanda, it sounds like, and this is at the beginning, he said, it sounds like you're about to write a book that you feel like you should write. What book do you want to write? And ladies, I did not have that answer in that moment. I was like, I don't know. And it took me a little bit, but through that thought process, it really started to bubble up for me that it breaks my heart when people feel like they failed. I. Very specifically women. When women feel like they've failed at something, it hurts me so bad and I just wanna be like, you did not fail. Here's what you did. And remind them of what they did and say that they can get back up and you can, you can do all the things right. And so basically all of my work comes back to that, all of my work. And so path is just a piece of that. And I hope with this. With this, you know, coursework and with the implementation, because I, I can't do it for people. You two had to do it for yourself. But I hope that through this process you recognize I didn't fail even when you didn't take the action that one day or whatever. So I hope you have a sense of pride in the progress that you make, even when it doesn't feel like you've hit the nail on the head perfectly. Yeah. I think that's such a, a beautiful sentiment because we, especially as women, are so prone to like judge ourselves so harshly when we quote unquote miss the mark. And I think, I think that's what makes your program so different because like. The goal setting is not as like, I don't know, rigid as the standard, like smart goals and, and things like that. Like it just felt, well, for one, it felt more feminine in that it was feeling based and, and mm-hmm. It was, you know, what do you really have the capacity for? As opposed to, well, if you really wanted to do this thing, you would give up your whole life in the next, you know, 90 days to see it through. Like there wasn't any of that kind of. I don't know, domineering feel over it. It was just like, Hey, what do you have the capacity for? What would make a meaningful impact in your life? Like, what's that needle moving, you know, effort that you could put in even at 70% and feel really good that you began this next quarter in a different place than you know, than you started and. I, I, I think what I really enjoy too is, especially in like the entrepreneurial space, there's so much like they're feeding you the whole fire hose of what you need to do. And here's how you do it, and here's the method that worked for me and built my business, or here's how I created a, you know, course that everyone loves, or a downloadable that made me, you know, six figures every month or something. But what I really value and what I continue to seek out is coaches and professionals, and experts that are able to just tap into asking me the questions and giving me the tools to find the answers within myself. Because every time I've tried to put on someone else's. Process or philosophy, it just does not work for me. And I think you've really crafted a program that lands on simply providing those tools that participants can adapt in their own way. Like as much as I rave about the capacity calculator, I did not use it. In the way that you've designed it By looking at days, because frankly, I don't have full days. I have hours. Mm-hmm. Like I described, I have that one hour, several days a week between work and school pickup, and then my weekends very greatly as to whether it's a week. That I have custody or not. So I have, you know, two weekends a month where I have a lot more time, and then I have two weekends a month where I have no time. So for me, I adapted it to my life and my schedule. You provided the tool, you provided the insight. I got to apply it to my life and my understanding of myself and look at how many hours I had. And then because they're scheduled. Then I just, I stuck to them. And, and that's just the value of what you've brought with this program, where you provide the tools, you provide some framework, but then you ask the participant to figure out what it is for them. You don't tell them, okay, you need to show up consistently and that looks like this, or you need to somehow find X number of hours within this 90 day period. You let them. You know, decide how big of a goal it's gonna be or when they're gonna do it. Maybe they're gonna work in sprints or batch their work. Or maybe, maybe they're gonna just work very gradually like I did. And I think that's a lot of the beauty and the difference that this program has made for me. Thank you so much. And I, I really appreciate that because it really taps into that idea of. Adaptability, which comes more natural to some people than others, but it's this idea of, especially if you consume any DIY course, not just mine, but any DIY course, you have to know, okay, they're teaching me a lesson, they're teaching me the thing that worked. How can it work for me? Look at the underlying. You know, piece of information. And so I love that you even brought up the, the calculator and there's an AI bot within path and she helps you. She can create the, the plan for you, all of that. But it's simply a tool. Some people love it, some people don't. Some people use it, some people don't. That's okay. It's like however it works for you. It's there. And thank you for sharing that perspective because it's, it's the way I wanted to create a course because as a course creator, I've done it many times and the average is 30%. 30% of people actually finish A-A-D-I-Y type of course. And that is awful. That is like the worst when you poured your heart and soul and energy into something. And so for this one, I was like, how can I make that not. 30%, how can I make it 70, 80, 90% of not just course completion, but also implementation. And so that's how I, that's the lens at which I created this for or like through. And the tools are just an extra something, kind of like the personality stuff when I get to add that in, you know, it's just an extra thing that can be a tool in your tool belt. So I'm glad that that worked. Well, I appreciate you both. So I'm gonna say thank you for being on my podcast, and then you can say, thanks for being on our podcast. Thank you for me on our podcast. Yeah, because I mean, it's been so fun and I'm really excited for both of you. Thank you so much for sharing, and I just really appreciate it and I wanna direct everyone to you. So I'll talk to the people on my podcast for a moment, and then you got, you two ladies can take it as well, but I'll make sure all of the links are in the show notes so that they can find you and find your amazing podcast, the Inspired Writer. And is it Inspired Writer Collective? Yes. Okay. Collective is in there? Yes. Okay. And. You two, because you've talked so wonderfully about the course, I want you two to mention the coupon code because if people use a coupon code because they've found my path course through you, then they can save some money. And I want them to see your code and your your because you have done such an amazing job of explaining your experience and spending time with me today. So I want them to make, to get your code. Yes, please use the code inspired. Thus, not only will provide you with a discount to Amanda's course, but you are going to love it. It was life changing for both Stephanie and I as far as actually achieving our writing goals, but it's not. To writing. So if you have any goal in mind, jump on this course. It's a one-time purchase and you can reuse it over and over and over again. And clearly Amanda is gonna keep adding to it. So the value of what you're receiving is only going to increase. Thank you both so much. Thank you, Amanda. Thank you. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Inspired Writer Collective podcast. We hope you found inspiration, valuable tips, and connection to yourself as a writer. Thank you for sharing this episode with your writing friends and leaving us a review. The power of storytelling lies within each of us, and by supporting one another, we can amplify our voices and craft narratives that resonate with our audience. We're not just about words on a page. We're passionate about the craft, the process in building a supportive community. Become a part of our community by connecting with us using the links in the show description or join our weekly email newsletter for updates and a dose of inspiration straight to your inbox. I.