Key insights from the conversation

Personal backgrounds and stories

• Kate's transition from luxury fashion and hospitality to coaching and productivity.

• Roberto's multifaceted life, balancing a full-time job, content creation, family responsibilities, and personal interests.

Productivity insights

• The distinction between being busy and being productively busy.

• The consequences of not using time intentionally and the importance of planning and prioritizing tasks.

• The challenge of underestimating the time needed for tasks, and strategies for overcoming procrastination and time mismanagement.

Strategies for personal and professional growth

• Avoiding excessive media consumption, particularly news, to maintain a positive outlook and focus on personal priorities.

• Setting daily intentions and goals to stay aligned with personal values and aspirations.

• The significance of integrating work and life rather than seeking a strict balance, and finding joy and value in work.

• The importance of sharing, crediting, and building on others' ideas to foster creativity and innovation.

• Encouraging having fun, experimenting, and not fearing failure as part of the creative and professional process.

Advice and reflections

• Embracing challenges and difficult conversations for personal growth.

• The value of reaching out, networking, and asking for help.

• Building a supportive community or "army" for mutual success.

Full transcript

Here is the entire conversation transcript, edited for clarity and conciseness. Here's also the link to the conversation on LinkedIn Live.

Roberto

Hello. How are you?

I am very excited to do this live with you.

Kate

Me too! And thank you again for inviting me. That means a lot.

Roberto

Thanks to you for finding the time and for all the preparation. And by the way, thank you to all those who connected because I saw 85 people already connected. Thank you to everyone. And this also reminds me of something: when we are nervous about something, we can reframe this nervousness into I'm excited about doing this. One more thing is that the excitement also comes from the respect for the people's time of all these people who are connecting and investing one hour of their time, plus your time. And this is also something important; as you know, you are a time reclaimer as you define yourself.

And this is also something that it also gives me a big responsibility because you chose to invest one hour of your time. You are one of the people in this community I appreciate most because you're always supportive, always sharing, and always with something additional to build and add to every conversation. And this is something that I value a lot.

Many months have passed since we connected virtually and saw each other in person, and I'm thrilled that I met you in this place. So thank you.

My first question to people who don't know you and who just connected is, Kate, what's your story? You have a fantastic story. So I would love to hear your story and how you're living this moment.

Kate

I rarely tell my story, I think. I try to put it in my posts, but I don't necessarily tell it. You're probably right. Maybe it's an excellent opportunity to reintroduce myself to those following me. So, my background is in client relationship management and client experience. I worked in luxury fashion, hospitality, and watches for almost 15 years.

I was always an organization freak. So, I started training about ten years ago. I loved it, and then I met someone in the company I was working for who introduced me to coaching. I started to resonate with coaching because this was something that I was doing when I was little. I was 11 years old when I was playing tennis. I played tennis for ten years, so coaching for me was linked with sports, and that spoke to me. I started coaching more and more in the company and received positive feedback and energy from myself.

I started connecting the dots between the two because I was looking for something to do on my own for a long time. Coaching and training spoke to me, so I asked my company to support my training education, and that's how I became an accredited coach. Then, I decided to leave the company and do it independently. I chose to do productivity because I value time a lot.

I think some things happened in my life that made me realize that we overestimate the amount of time we have in life. That's why I started thinking about how I can use my time more intentionally. I realized that being busy has always been a good thing, but many people around me suffered from being busy. So I started asking myself questions: why is that? And the answer I gave and still give to myself is that we do not necessarily use our time intentionally daily.

And that's why I said, maybe it's selfish, but I want to have happier people around me. And I think we can achieve that by becoming good busy and more intentional with our time. And that's why I started talking about good busy.

Roberto

I love it. I also love how you combine all these things: the coaching from the sports, the leadership and the team, and the learning and your learning to find what impact you want to have. And when you said that we overestimate the amount of time we have, and at the same time, we are not intentional.

So it looks like it's a devilish combination. We are not intentional on one side, so we do whatever pops out and then overestimate. Perhaps what comes to me is that we overestimate the time we have, and at the same time, we underestimate the time we need to do something. So it's an explosive combination.

Kate

It is. Yeah.

Roberto

Do you have any anecdote or something that pops out when you think about this?

Kate

I think, I mean even myself, there are tasks I really don't like to do. Accounting is one of them. So every time I sort of put, as they say, eat that frog. So I set it in the morning; I know I'm super productive, so it's there, you know, I just got to eat it. And every single time, it's just like tomorrow. It's like tomorrow. Like I do it, but as you said, I underestimate how long it will take. And it's not because I'm not productive. It's because I don't like doing it. And so these emotions slow me down, and because I want to do it fast, I underestimate the time. And then, at the end, I said it was not one hour. I have one hour more, but tomorrow.

It's human as well. Especially when we talk about productivity, we try to believe that we need to squeeze every minute of the day and we need to become, you know, perfect robots, but we're not going to be robots. We are humans. So it's important to embrace that humanity. And what helps me is laughter.

There are moments when I know, for example, that I'm less productive in the afternoon. So I understand this. I close everything, and I procrastinate, but I do it mindfully, so it's not that I procrastinate, you know, every single day. Still, I understand that I need half an hour of mindful procrastination to get back on track because if I'm going to push myself through this, it's just going to be too slow, and it's not worth it so I think it's just laughing about it, and I just be accepting.

Roberto

Absolutely. And it's beautiful how you are a productivity coach, and we can imagine that you have everything figured out; everything is perfectly tied. And you're here telling of your weaknesses. And we all have also, I also have, and this is also something that I value. Because when we see someone, oh, I do it, everything is perfect. I'm the master of the universe. And then you know what you show outside and compare the people's outside with our insides. And then I say, how did they do this? It's impossible. And then the reality is that they don't. And people always show you what the good part is.

Kate

Exactly. Yeah. But that's again being human, you know? And speaking of perfect, that's how I look at you. You know? When I see the amount of work, and for me, this is great; you are the most outstanding example that it's possible. It's possible to be good busy because I don't know if people know, but you have a full-time job, do all your illustrations yourself, and keep saying, "It's easy, Kate".

I don't believe that I don't. Then, you also create posts, and you post every single day. On top of this, you have your newsletter, you are a father to two kids, and your Instagram. And now you're doing your amazing lives talking to wonderful people.

So my question to you that I've been dying to ask all this time, although I've met you personally, is how do you do that? What's the secret that I haven't figured out? Because I honestly think it's admirable. I very much admire everything that you do, how consistently you do that, and the attitude that you do it with.

Roberto

Thank you, Kate. So, the truth is that I have ten clones of myself. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. We're getting there. I don't know if we're getting there.

OK, now, seriously. And as you see, I also love to laugh a little bit and not take us too seriously because we are human, as you said.

One of the biggest time savers is not watching television or series. I know I miss a lot of things.

I don't even watch the news. And my mother is like, "What! You're not watching the news". And I always say, "Mom, don't worry; if something huge happens, everyone will talk about this. So I will not miss it". And at the same time, this is something that I believe because the news is always focused on the negatives, what's wrong, and make you worry. So I take out all this from my life, and it's like a liberation when I started not watching the news and not, and I don't even, let's say care, of course, yes, I care what happens, but it's so out of my control that I cannot do anything.

So this is the first. And then is to have my priorities. What's the most important thing? The most important thing in this case, for example, now is my family. Now, and more than ever, and then comes everything else. And as you said, this also connects with being intentional. I want to be intentional.

I have a little practice that Amir Peled shared with me in an agile conference from Management 3.0, which, by the way, is a fantastic community. And I remember he said, I have this practice, and every morning, I set up my three top goals and my intention for the day. So, I think about the intention in terms of emotion and what I want to express today. And this helps a lot.

Remember Tim Urban's Ted Talk? The instant gratification monkey says, oh, I want to do this. I say, yeah, but what's the intention? And this helps to ward off the monkey. And I found it is advantageous, especially for the emotion. Because if I said, oh, today I want to be patient; I want to be

grateful for what I have, it helps a lot when the temptation comes. And then one thing, which is also the beautiful thing of doing things for quite a long time, you start combining things. And for example, the illustration. In illustration, when you have a specific work that you did, you can build on this work. And then when I am, for example, with my daughter, some idea may come, and then I write it down. Or vice versa, I'm doing something with my daughter, and inspiration comes.

I try to look at all these things as if they are overlapping and not separate. I'm not 100% OK; this is work, this is life, and I must draw a red line.

Also, because I would miss opportunities, things I see outside my work, and vice versa, I see something amazing or something in a relationship. Then, I use it as an inspiration for what I share. So, this also gives me energy. And it's very intentional at the same time because you cannot focus on 3,000 things.

Kate

It's so interesting, but what you shared is exactly what I have incorporated into my life. So, in my twenties, I watched the news every morning. In my thirties, I replaced it, and I talk about it in my content. I replaced the morning news with TED Talks. That's why I watched over 2,000 TED Talks.

And it's incredible how it changes your perspective of the world, not necessarily because you learn new things and stuff, but because of the negativity the news brings us daily. The other day, I was listening to a podcast. I think it was Jay Shetty who said that he read that today; in one day, we

would consume the tragedy we saw 25 years ago in our whole lifetime.

It's incredible how much negativity enters through TV. I don't have a TV, for example. I watch movies, I watch this, but I use a projector so I don't have a TV. And it's incredible when you stop watching the news how your life and your perspective of life changes immediately. In my 20s, I heard people saying often, "Why are you so negative?" And I didn't realize this until, in my 30s, people started asking me, how are you so optimistic? And it shocked me because I'm like, am I? I never considered myself a positive person because I learned how I was in my 20s. But the news made a huge difference when I stopped watching it, and that was the intention.

About what you mentioned about writing the goal, I'm not writing daily goals, but I plan my day the day before. I also have a gratitude journal where I write three things I'm grateful for before bed. And every single time in that gratitude journal, I write the intention for the day, for the next day, because I already know my plan. And I know exactly the emotions. You mentioned the feelings. I understand precisely the emotions I need to make it through that day and be good busy throughout the day, to be stress-free and say, OK, I'm satisfied with what I achieved today. So yeah.

And then the last thing that you said about the connection, I think that's also why I'm not, and I love how you always talk about it in your posts; you say it's work and life integration because the idea of work and life balance sort of doesn't necessarily resonate with me. After all, if we're leaving work aside, we spend considerable time at work.

And we often talk about it and see only one side of the coin. We always talk about work in terms of, oh, you know, it takes us away from our families, but we never think of what work brings to our family. So we all have to work one way or another. We have to make a living. We have to put food on our table. We have to have a home. We must care for the kids, maybe parents, and other things, right? And we also want to enjoy the joys of life. But for this, this is what work helps us to do, and whatever work it is, it can be an entrepreneurship, it can also be, you know, you can be an employee. Some so many people love being an employee, and there is nothing wrong with it. And I think it's the whole mindset of putting it all together and bringing it together to realize it's not one or another.

I talked to many people who have retired, and they are having difficulties. It's a difficult period in their time because they have stopped working. Well, that's the dream. They don't work anymore, but somehow they are not happy. Why? Because they don't feel helpful.

And this is what we want. We want to feel useful. We like to feel valued. And I think that integrating all of it kind of helps. I listened to Nick Kirgius talking to Jay Shetty at lunch today, and he said something incredible. He's like, I don't like tennis. You know, it's like, I'm doing it only because then I can provide for my family. I can spend more time with my family. And that's OK, not to, you see, even as an athlete, who's the top athlete does not like his work. And sometimes it's OK.

Of course, it's ideal when you love what you do, but he finds meaning in it differently. And that's, I think, the connection that you're talking about. So that's beautiful. But it's when you were talking about your daughter and illustrations. Another question I was always dying to ask you, and I didn't ask you when we met, is how you get into illustrations. How did you start?

Roberto

That's an exciting story. And let me add one thing before it comes out of your mind. It's also connected to the illustration; you talked about intentions. And when you put your intention on something, you start seeing this in the world. And this is valid for work, life, and for creativity.

Sometimes, people ask me how I can do all these illustrations. I don't think I do so many. I have more in the backlog that I can do. I always have a big backlog. And part of the beauty is that you notice these things when you put your mind to something. If I say go around and count all the red cars you see, you will see a lot of red cars. Also, the same as if I said, find black cars. The difference is that you're looking for something. And this is the intention.

And this also connects with the creative practice because the story of starting the illustration is quite funny. And I was, again, talking about consuming. I was amazed by the work of other illustrators here, especially in the beginning on Twitter, where I discovered all these forms of communication, which are also some art, art, and communication mix.

I found Janis Ozolins, who also has this brilliant course on explaining ideas visually and shares everything he knows. And I started to follow him as an experiment. This was in 2021 when we had this NFT craze. To experiment and support his work, I bought one of Janis's NFTs and reached out and said: "I bought this. I love your work." And he said, "Oh, do you want access to the course to learn how to explain ideas visually?". And I said, oh, yeah, why not? Let's play. And then I started this game. I bought the iPad for me and my daughter, and now it's for me 99% of the time.

So, I found a helpful overlap between family and hobby. Then I started to do it more and more, and then fast forward, I have 767 illustrations and counting.

And it's fun. And I also love how, in the visual community and in general, in this space, we can inspire each other on social media. It's not like you're on your own; you have to do this and do it for yourself, which is also true. I believe that you have to do this because you like it and you have fun. But at the same time, you share it. And by sharing it, you can first have ideas from others, which I had many from you also, from your comments, ideas, and other articles. Then, you see something from another illustration. Oh, I like this. I want to do the same but with a twist.

And then you see another one. And so we build on each other, and it's beautiful. And it's also a way to connect with people, share, and go deeper into ideas. And it's interesting. I would encourage everyone who wants to try to give it a try. You don't need to be an artist or designer. We talked talk about Tim Urban's talk. For those who didn't see it, there is this very, very ugly drawing, which is brilliant at the same time as a monkey in the person's brain. It is done by hand. Maybe he didn't even use software. He did it with paint on Windows, and it's fantastic because it's a way to communicate. And now, this has been seen by millions of people. So it's a way to connect and to express your ideas in your way.

Kate

I wish I could draw, but I have many talents, but that's not one of them. My sister draws; she's a designer, but, you know, the genes decided to go on one side, and other genes went on the other. I'm now reading a book called The Laws of Creativity.

And I think that's what the book's primary, key message is: creativity is connectivity. So it's that idea, and I believe we talked with you once about it, that it's tough to invent something completely new. So it's just getting that inspiration, you know, from right and left, connecting it and seeing and sharing, you know, with the world, what you connected through your lens, what you see through your lens. And I think that's why many people fear being creative: they believe they need to invent something new. In reality, it's tough to invent something new.

Roberto

Yes, absolutely. This also reminds me of one of the things that I greatly appreciate about what you do because you are always sharing your sources. You don't say, oh, this is mine. No, you have an idea. You take something here, something there, and you give it your perspective. And this is something that I also believe because, for example, stoic ideas have been here for millennia. And we are constantly spinning it.

The ideas are probably the same. There's one that I love, which is the arrow. You can aim. You can do everything. But then, you don't know what will happen when you shoot. And this was true in the Roman Empire and is true now. The difference is that now we are in 2024. And the context is different. The relationships are different. Your view of the world is different.

For example, you have the combination of working in luxury, being a team leader, a coach, and a sports professional. All these things are unique to you. No one will have this same perspective. And this is probably an eye value for what you share, not the big idea, but how? What's your take on it? So, I also admire how you share the ideas and cite the sources because this gives you more credibility. After all, you're not trying to say, OK, this is my "original idea." No, I have nothing original. I'm just connecting things. And the connection is the unique part. No one can, on one side, copy. But at the same time, everyone has his own. So this is perfect. Fine.

Kate

And I think this is why I believe it's the values, right? And I guess we also connect on these values because you always credit people you learn from in your posts. And even when you share, you know, you mentioned the ideas; it's fantastic when you credit me for the idea and do that several times in your post, which is rare these days, and we value what's rare. And I think that we are not born with skills. Nobody's born with skills.

I think it's nice to share where you learn that from because if the person is curious, it simply allows them to learn more if they want to. It directs them to that source because they say sharing is caring, right? So this is what sort of you do. You spread the word about what you like and inspired you so that they can inspire others.

Roberto

Absolutely. And it doesn't remove anything from who you are or your actions. It's precisely the same. At the same time, you show your appreciation and can even reach out to the person to say, Oh, I love this. And it's beautiful when, at the same time, both sides, sometimes someone tells me, Oh, Roberto, I did this iteration. I hope you don't mind. And I say: don't worry? It's amazing. Thank you for doing an iteration of my work!

And at the same time, when I reach out to a person, from genuine, of course, not like, OK, I love it, and then you don't. But when I see something I usually like, which I learned over time, I didn't do this initially. And then I say, why not? If I enjoy it, I send a message. If they don't see it, no problem. But if they see it, maybe they will appreciate it. And that's it, with no second intention that I understand. So yeah, we also share this.

Kate

Yeah, absolutely. And I think we live by the values we want to see in the world. So, my idea of creating the post is that I always have one objective when I create content: at least one person takes action. And there are going to be a few where I planted the seeds. But overall, I create content that reflects the world I want to live in. And again, it might be a bit selfish, but if everybody did that, we probably would live in a much nicer world today. And I think another thing is that there is a commonality to that, and that's why I resonate so much with you because your content is always very positive. So you give that the perspective you always give; there is a comparison each time.

But in the end, the message is very positive. And I think that's something we lack in today's world because it's here, you know, news that we talked about, or it's very easy to bash and go into negativity bias and say that everything is terrible and wrong. And many people can jump on it, and you can go viral, etc., but is it the world I want to live in? Not necessarily.

So, I like to put out content there that will allow me to create the world where I want to live, and I believe in positive psychology; again, I was not necessarily that kind of person in my 20s, but we all learn, and now I can say something negative don't do this. However, the person will only remember what not to do, but they still don't know what to do, so I prefer to immediately tell them what to do so that they can eliminate what not to do. I think that's another common thing that we have.

Roberto

Absolutely. This connects with one thing. Maybe it's loosely connected, but it reminds me of playing to win versus not to lose. And yeah, what do you think about it?

Kate

Well, look, this is, so when I worked in Thailand, I participated in a leadership workshop. It was a leadership workshop by Duncan Coombe, a professor from IMD school in Lausanne. He introduced this concept; he co-wrote a book called Care to Dare. The whole idea of leadership, the leadership framework that resonated the most, is based on the idea that we can't push people to perform unless we show them that we care.

And there is this concept: when you don't care enough, you are set to lose because people will not follow you. They are going to be anxious and maybe angry that you dare them, that you push them to the limits, and there's going to be a lot of burnout, anxiety, and people leaving the companies. However, if you take this mindset of playing to win, you are first becoming a team member because many managers and leaders position themselves outside the team. So when you decide I'm going to play to win, you're playing with them, and you first show them that you care. So whatever you do, whatever you know, you challenge them with, when you push them, they understand that you're doing that in their service because you want to win together.

I love this idea, and it resonated with me because of sports because, in the corporate world, when we talk about feedback, we immediately think of something negative. Well, I've done something wrong. They want to give me feedback. In contrast, in sports, if your coach doesn't provide you with feedback, you don't grow; it's like, and you want to win, so in sports, it's like, give me feedback.

Come on, what did I do right? What did I do wrong? And that's how you improve. And that's why I believe there is so much happening in sports that we can bring into corporate life, including hard work. Because we all think it's, you know, we get this promotion, and you don't need to work hard. But the people we admire in sports all work extremely hard. They love working because they know the only way to get to where they want to be is to put in the effort. If we get this mentality and bring it to the corporate world, again, we'll get more people who are happy, fulfilled, and successful because working is a process, and as long as you enjoy the process, you'll get to where you're going.

But if you don't enjoy it, you will be miserable, and miserable people won't get to where they want to be. It's just this.

Roberto

Yeah, absolutely. And this is also contagious. If you're happy, you'll probably see happier people, and it will expand.

By the way, I love everything from George Kohlrieser, and he has another book called "Hostage at the Table," which is also excellent. It's probably my number-one recommended book ever. I've listened to it four times.

Now, I would love to hear what excites you the most.

Kate

When you work for yourself, you want to do everything simultaneously. And I was like, no, I just got to do one thing at a time. So, I think my course was one thing I accomplished last year. So, I released my course in December, which was huge for me. Thank you. I think I stopped talking to people for four months to release the course, but I'm proud because I got it, you know, and yeah.

This is the number one thing, and now I am building a team workshop around the course because I honestly love working with groups. I think there is an entirely different energy, and there is the social intelligence that I enjoy the most, where I'm learning a lot. So this is sort of what I'm trying to put together, and yeah, let's see how it comes up.

Roberto

I'm sure it will be super fun. And what's the most unexpected or fantastic thing you learned during the course?

Kate

Oh, that I underestimated the work.

I started writing the course two years ago, to be honest. So it was the same, so the idea is probably the same. I know that when you read, you take notes, you track everything. Writing the course was a way of learning more, trying, experimenting with those things, and sharing what I discovered.

And I was keeping the track in one place as well. So, I started writing the course and LinkedIn last year; creating content allowed me to streamline because most of the things I shared last year were from the course, but it helped me streamline to see what resonates. What didn't resonate, where people had more challenges, where it was a little less concrete to be put in the course. So, it helped me to streamline. So the workload itself was.

I never expected it to be so big because we've all written a thesis; we've probably written huge presentations at work and stuff, but working on a course is entirely different. So, I think the biggest surprise, challenge, and fulfillment came from having learned so much creating the course. Yeah, so I'm rarely saying that I'm proud, but I am proud.

Roberto

I think you should be because I also hear what you say initially; I want this to have an impact. I want someone to take one action, and you didn't put something out. You iterated, collaborated, and co-created with the people who interact with you and the things you share. So you say, OK, this is what people are worried about this. Let's do something more. It's not like something completely separate. And this is probably why you are rightfully proud of this because it's a result of all this iterative work, which builds on top of each other. And also the workshop, again, you have the course, all this knowledge, all these things, and you build on top of this and don't lose it. You have all this knowledge and add the live interaction. And I'm sure the experiment will be unique. I'm curious to see how it goes.

Kate

I always give this analogy of building the house: there is the foundation, and then you put the first brick, the second, the third, the fourth, and so forth. And that's how you build your house, your business, your work, your career, you know, or even life in general. So yes, it's also one of the productivity rules I learned early on.

My dad had several businesses, but he never built two businesses simultaneously. He always built one business, then he built the house, and when the house was stable enough, he moved to the next one. He built a new foundation, the house, and the next one. And I think this focus allows us to build stronger things, more sustainable things, and things with a much stronger impact.

Roberto

It sounds like a sprint. You make a sprint, focus on the sprint, then you rest, then you do another sprint, then you rest, reassess, and see what happens.

What about we check the chat if we have some questions?

We have a question from Lewis here for you, Kate. If you could only recommend one book from that shelf behind you, which is not a virtual background, what would it be and why? Oh, great question. I'm curious.

Kate

I think, well when it comes to productivity books, if you want to read a productivity book, I would probably say Make Time. That would be a great productivity book and likely the only one you would need to read overall. But if I have to recommend any other book from my shelf, I like this one. You don't see it, but it's The Book of Joy anyway. So it's by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. I love that book because it just brings a different perspective to life. When we live in our environment, that's the only life we imagine. I think that broke opens that world of imagination to you for a different kind of life that you can have and different joys available to us in everyday life that we might not even notice regularly. That's what traveling is for me as well. It's an opportunity you didn't even know existed. So that book is that way of traveling through different minds and especially beautiful minds.

Roberto

Thank you. Beautiful, I will also note it for me. I will also add one more. I already mentioned one, Hostage at the Table, from George Kohlrieser. And I think one of the central and compelling ideas is not to avoid uncomfortable conversations and to go and care for the person. And also conflict. We believe that conflict is bad, and we want to avoid conflict. At the same time, when we have a conflict from a place of caring, I do not want it to win or destroy the other person, but I care. And because I care, I want to have this conflict because if I didn't care, I would just let it go. And this is a beautiful way to strengthen even a relationship.

The second book I recommend is one I have read a few times, called Design Your Life. It's a way to apply design thinking to our own lives and run experiments to see what you like, and there are a lot of practical questions and exercises that help you see. And how can I experiment and prototype, as you said, the house? You can build your house, but at the same time, you can do some very tiny little prototypes and see what the project can be next.

Another question from Lewis: could you talk more about your workflow?

Oh, that's interesting. I will go first. Everyone has their own system. So, I would say find something that works for you and doesn't feel like a chore. It has to be fun. It doesn't work to swallow ten frogs a day. It has to be something that you are looking for. You see, oh, I'm so excited. I'm going to do this. So this would be my first piece of advice: find whatever works for you.

And for me, I mentioned a little. My system captures many things and puts them into a huge backlog. So I always have more things to write about than time. So when the time comes, I usually pick the things that excite me the most. And I do it from one week to two, two weeks in advance. So, it never looks like a chore. I never feel pressure. I always do it two weeks in advance, so it's always a fun moment that I look forward to, and so far, it's pretty satisfying. How about you?

Kate

It's pretty similar, and it's also on the weekend. I don't work on Saturdays. That's my day off. I don't do content. I don't do LinkedIn. I think it's essential to rest. Rest is productive. Again, this comes from my sports days, I guess. That's the mindset. I do my content in one batch. I do it on Sunday morning. It feels that the world is sleeping or doing something else, and I'm alone in my little world.

Like you, I have a list of ideas, I have sort of thoughts, and every time I listen to something; for example, I posted today that I wrote because I was listening to podcasts I was like, that's an idea, so then it goes into a sort of as you call it backlog and then from there I pick up the topics for the week, and it can be anything. Tomorrow, I'm posting about something weird. People will think I'm crazy, but I'm taking the risk.

Roberto

Ah, yeah. And that's the spirit. Yeah, I love it. And I love what you say about capturing things. This is super important. Capture everything. Capture, capture, capture. And this is much easier. And by capturing, you also notice more. So, this is a loop. And one more thing that you said about the repurposing. Of course, yes. If there is something that you like, you can do it again with a twist. You can add something when you post something, and then you have a comment. And then the next time you do an iteration and add this perspective, so it's fresh, you're not just copying and pasting, which is also fine because I listen to songs many times a year, and it's the same. And I always love it because it's a classic.

Don't fear repurposing, copying, and pasting if you're communicating. If it feels authentic to you, and you genuinely think that if you saw this in another person, you will love it, that's OK. And if someone remembers it, it's because they liked it, so it's perfect. And if they don't know it, maybe they want it, maybe not, perhaps there is so much information that people will not remember. So, no problem, you can experiment. And as you said, you try, it works, OK, doesn't work, it's OK, you have fun, you experiment.

Kate

Yeah, I also think fun is a keyword here. And well, when I started doing content last year, many people were saying, you know, to get ahead of the game, you need to post on weekends as well. And I tried, and it didn't work for me. Like I ate too many frogs, and it didn't feel good. So I said the weekend is not for me. That doesn't work for me.

So, when we talk about consistency and posting, it doesn't necessarily have to be daily. It can be twice a week, three times a week, or even once weekly. I think that people generally like regularity, which makes it familiar. So, if you post every Monday, people know you post every Monday, and that's it. And so they are waiting for you.

And I think giving people a little time to digest is good because there is so much information. Then, if you picked up the speed and you have your system, and it works, and you feel comfortable and you don't feel like you're eating too many frogs simultaneously, you can add one more and one more and one more and one more. But it's essential to keep it fun. Otherwise, it becomes not a nice feeling, and emotions are very much responsible for the work we produce out there and how we feel at the end of the day. So, it would be best if you were mindful of that.

Roberto

Absolutely. I love it. We have more questions. Let's see.

Kate

I found an excellent question for you. This is from Rohan. If we were to go back five years, what advice would you give yourself if you were to take the same career life journey to be where you are today?

Roberto

That's a good question.

The first thing I would say is, as you stated, have fun. Have fun because this is contagious, and find something you can enjoy. And one other thing is that you can see something we like from every context. No perfect job or life exists, but we can always focus on something we like. And then from this, we can make it bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And if we focus on that, the chances are it will become bigger because we will like that. So you will also attract similar things. So this will be the first focus on the positive, and always there is something good.

And then one more thing is about having difficult conversations: don't shy away from the conflict because this is where we grow. And even if it's uncomfortable and not the first thing we would love to do in the morning, it's what makes us grow and have better relationships.

And then one more thing, which also connects with what we talk about, giving credit, etc., is to reach out to people and not think that everyone has everything figured out or that what we have to share is not worth it. And maybe it's not interesting to someone, but maybe there's someone who finds what you are sharing enjoyable. And perhaps you have a connection, maybe you're learning, there's nothing to lose.

I like to think about everything I share here on this platform, and in general, I want to think about it like a lottery ticket. You never know who is going to read. And maybe someone will respond or send you a message. And you make a connection as we did, for example. Now we are talking one year after when we shared many things. And this would not have been possible if I hadn't shared and you hadn't reached out. So this is a beautiful example of the result for me.

You are also trusting the process. And don't be worried about the short-term results, which is very easy to say. And it's not so easy at the same time to do something day after day, day after day, and not see the result. This is also why it connects with having fun. If you have fun, it will not be something that I don't feel like doing. You will keep on, keep on, keep on doing, and maybe you will do something different, but it's also OK. Finding something you are excited about enough to keep doing regardless of the result.

And then, of course, the results and the validation are all important. I'm not saying it doesn't matter. I'm saying that don't do it just for them.

What's your take?

Kate

I love the wisdom you shared on point three, the connection, and you don't know what people are going through and what you can learn from them or if it will be helpful for them. I think one, one advice, one piece of advice I would give to myself five years ago is to ask for more help.

I am not great at asking for help. It's a process. I'm still learning, but I think I realized that so many more people are willing to help but don't know that others need help.

Suppose I start thinking that help is only one question away. And when we don't ask, we don't get. And it's something that I'm trying to do more of today. It's never too late. So it's advice I would have given to myself five years ago, but I still say to myself every day, ask for help. I realize people are willing to help, and I think you discussed giving and the book Give and Take. I believe there are so many givers out there in this world. We need to ask questions to meet them.

Roberto

You are humble enough to recognize that you don't have all the answers and can do it alone. And at the same time, you're confident because I know what I don't understand, and I want to improve. At the same time, you send a message to the person: I respect you, and this is why I'm asking for help, and I'm asking for your advice. Then you can choose. You can say yes, no, no compromise. But it's a message that you're given. It's beautiful.

Kate

I'm taking a communications course now, and there is one message that the teacher said: to succeed, we need an army, and it doesn't necessarily mean that this army needs to report to you anything. Still, it would help if you created an army around you of people who are willing to be there for you and eager to support you, and you can also be part of an army of other people. And I love that kind of message, so I don't believe individual sports exist. No tennis player wins the tournaments and says I want to thank myself. No, the first thing that they do is they thank their opponent, and then the second message goes to the team because there is always an army behind the people that you see, but there is a massive army behind those people, and so it's our job to also create the army for ourselves.

Roberto

Oh, I love it. And this also connects with me with the idea of co-creation. And then you create something with people, and sometimes you take a role, sometimes you take another, and then you change, and you don't always have to be in the front, or you can be in the back. You can rest. And you know you have all these resources and these fantastic people at your disposal. This is brilliant. Thank you, Kate.

Kate

Well, thank you. Thank you again for inviting me. I enjoyed our conversation. So thank you. And for everyone, for everyone who came. Thank you.

Roberto

Before we wrap up, one more thing: how can people reach out to you?

Kate

LinkedIn! DM, DM. I honestly reply to every DM. It might take a few days, but I'll reply. So DM me, DM me.

Roberto

Great. OK. So thank you, Kate. Thank you, everyone, for tuning in. Thank you for your investing this time. We hope it has been worthwhile. This has been useful for me. I learned a lot, and I have many things I want to write down later. So thank you. Thank you, everyone.

Kate

Thank you everyone. Bye.