[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to episode 56 of the Rebecca Saunders Show, doing a bit of a change of pace, this episode and moving forward. If you are watching the video version of this episode, you'll see that I am in a new space that you haven't seen before. I have got a bright pink wall behind me, which I am absolutely loving and

[00:00:59] my face just beams because I'm creating a space that is just mine. Somewhere that I can be creative, somewhere that I can think, and somewhere where I can just be. So where is this space and why today have I decided to talk around the magic of space? And I'm not just talking about the magic of the space that I'm creating here, I'm actually wanting to talk about the magic of

[00:01:21] giving ourselves permission to have more space in our lives, in our business, in our worlds. So my new space here, we have made the decision as a little family unit to up sticks and move to regional New South Wales. So I'm currently residing my main residence in Mudgee, which is a wine region about three and a half hours inland from Sydney in Australia.

[00:01:49] And I am loving it. I am loving country life. We have bought an old heritage house, so it's gonna be a lot of reno work coming up to do that. The change of pace compared to the city [00:02:00] has been phenomenal. And just the joy and the beauty and the happiness in the people that are here in this town

[00:02:09] just resonates and vibes, and you can feel it as you're walking around the town. And so from that, from a whole year of travel and giving myself space, which I will come to about the importance of giving myself that gift this year has been the ability to take this converted attic space and

[00:02:30] make it my own. I have painted it bright white. I've got rid of the hideous peach that was here before. I've given myself a nice hot pink wall and I'm in the very early stages of picking out what furnishings I want in here, utilizing my video team to set me up so that I've got a set filming space and a set podcasting space and a set working space.

[00:02:54] So it's all gonna be made up of little modules up here with everything set and ready to go. I have the luxury of physical space to set all of that up so that when I'm wanting to film a video or get into podcasting mode or just get creative on my computer, I can walk into the relevant space in this room

[00:03:15] and everything will be set, ready to go, and all I've gotta do is show up. It is the dream scenario to have this space, and I know it's gonna take me a little bit of time to get it right. I know I can hear birds singing out the window. Which I'm quite enjoying. So if you're picking up on that enjoy that country vibe.

[00:03:35] And apologies to my podcast editor if you can hear that as well, because I'm sure they're going, Rebecca, be in a nice, quiet space. But right now, I am loving the joy of country living and I enjoy having the windows wide open to hear that. So there are no blowers there are just birds today, which is pretty phenomenal.

[00:03:52] But the reason I talk about this physical, leads into why I've titled this episode today the [00:04:00] magic of space. This year for me has very much been around taking time to have bigger conversations, meet new people, experience new things. I have gone and travelled to Necker Island with business chicks and spent time with some phenomenal women on Richard Branson's private island.

[00:04:22] I've had a couple of conversations with him while I was on that island in terms of just bigger picture thinking and the way of just designing business and life differently, which. Oh, blew my mind, the level of which that level of conversation was and I'm still processing that. And that was back in May when I went on that trip.

[00:04:43] I've tracked the Lara Pinter in the middle of Australia's red Desert country where there was no phone signal and I put myself in a group of women that I didn't know to go hiking for four days in the middle of nowhere. Just giving myself time to think and be present. I have gone on a number of micro retreats with myself and with my close group of girlfriends that we do on a regular basis.

[00:05:11] I've taken myself to Hawaii to take myself to a bigger retreat and really get that bigger thinking of what life could possibly be like when I go really big. And all of these conversations and all of these experiences including that week that I spent alone, eh, in New York. I say alone because I did catch up with a lot of people.

[00:05:31] But including that time that gave myself space in a new environment, in a new head space, gave me a totally new head space to go. , what's working for me and what's not? What do I want more of next year? What do I want to do less of next year? How do I want to structure my life and my business serving my clients to the best of my ability,

[00:05:55] but whilst I'm living the dream in Mudgee in [00:06:00] my country house. How can I split my time nicely and evenly and most importantly for me, stress freely between Sydney and our house in Mudgee. So between our apartment in Sydney and our house in Mudgee and clients that I've got all over the country and all over the world, how can I now use this gift of space that I've given myself and level up into

[00:06:26] doing something different. How do I make it the best it could possibly be? How can I go on and continue to build on the best life that I'm living already and make it even better into next year? What does that look of space mean? And so for me, I've really thought about how to give myself more space day to day.

[00:06:49] How to give myself more space in the business to be more creative to actually get things done for my business, for me, and to be showing up as the best version of myself. And that looks to me like removing some things, from my life that

[00:07:08] not serving me a purpose anymore that is not ensuring that I'm living the best life possible. In fact, I was listening to a podcast this morning from Allie Brown who was also talking very similarly, and I think she called it subtraction and she was talking about it from an event perspective of not putting so much into an event but giving space and white space

[00:07:28] for that magic to happen in that uncomfortable space of percolation. And it resonated with me so much that I bumped this episode forward a few weeks to talk about the magic of space because taking things out gives room for new things to come in, and that is vital in the growth of yourselves personally, in the growth of us as individuals in the growth of our businesses, giving ourself space and taking away all the [00:08:00] things that don't serve us anymore gives us so much more capacity to, for the universe to deliver the really cool stuff that our dreams are made of, that we want to create.

[00:08:11] What we have there is the ability in ourselves as business owners, as business leaders, to take stock of how we're doing things now and evaluate them as to whether or not we should be actually subtracting things out in order to move forward, grow bigger, and get better. And so for me, what does that look like?

[00:08:34] So for me, that creative space is going to become reality in a number of ways. I've decided I want to be working client-facing Tuesday to Thursday, so I already give myself

[00:08:47] creative Mondays, like that space to be super creative. And I don't put anything into the diary apart from space just for me to get creative, but I'm gonna take Fridays away and give myself that chance to have a long weekend so that I can be creative when I want to be so that I don't feel rushed when I'm doing the things that I love and enjoy doing.

[00:09:09] I don't want to be at the mercy of client-facing phone calls and coaching sessions every single day of the week. So I'm condensing that down into Tuesday to Thursday. I'm giving myself permission to prioritize my self care. So for me, I know that I, that's the one thing that drops off the radar every time I get busy.

[00:09:33] So I'm working very hard to put it in my calendar to give myself what I'm calling sacred time between the hours of 6:00 AM and 10:00 AM every morning. The ability to have space so that nothing can get booked in that time where I can go and walk the dog and experience the countryside, where I can go and enjoy coffee down the road and have a chat with my husband before we start the day. Where I can go and do my exercise [00:10:00] in the morning if I want to pop into the gym, all of those things that I stop doing when I get busy, I am prioritizing them upfront.

[00:10:08] So my calendar for next year has this white space, has this magical space already planned into the calendar. I've already got that in place for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I've already got in place blocking out Mondays and Fridays, and so for me, that opens up a little bit of joy in terms of knowing that I am running

[00:10:33] client-facing three days a week and I get to be creative and have fun the rest of the time. Now, that may sound very strange to those of you that are listening and watching that are working standard nine to five, or business owners and business leaders who started their own businesses to have ultimately that creative freedom, but are finding themselves working

[00:10:58] 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM and later because there are always things to do in business and there are always things that we can be tinkering on. And there's always more, and there's always more, and there's always more, and there's always more. And I'm just urging you to stop. Just stop and think and evaluate what's actually important.

[00:11:18] What are the tasks that is gonna move that needle forward so that you are projecting yourself as far forward as possible? With the minimum amount of resistance, so in front of me on my computer, I have a post-it note that has been on my desk for the last 12 months that says, slow down to speed up. I'm sharing this because I have to remind myself every single day that it is okay not to be consistently busy.

[00:11:54] Burnout is real. I have a number of friends that have gone through it. I've been on the verge of it myself [00:12:00] a number of times, and it's not a fun place to be in, and it takes so much more energy and more time to get out of it once you've got into it. And so knowing that and having gifted myself the ability of having space and having that creative outlet and time to just be creative and

[00:12:22] be present and get to know myself and what I want for my life and my business moving forward, gives me the opportunity to remind myself that it's okay not to be constantly busy. So as I go into planning 2023, which is what I'm gonna share in next week's episode, so if you are interested to know how I get so much done in very short periods of time, tune in for that episode next week where I'll be talking all around how I'm mapping out 2023.

[00:12:58] What that looks like and how I'm gonna be doing things slightly differently to previous years, but sharing my planning process, which has held steady and held fast for the last decade in growing my big production company and growing my speaking platform and into next year what the new opportunities coming forward will look like.

[00:13:19] So from this episode. What I really want you to think about this week and when you're listening to the show is what are the things that you can let go of that are no longer serving you? What are the things that you are doing week in, week out, maybe day in, day out, that you are doing out of sheer habit?

[00:13:41] Not out of joy? Not because they actually serve a specific purpose necessarily, but because you're doing it out of habit and you haven't changed the way you've been thinking about it, and therefore you keep doing the same things and making yourself feel ridiculously busy. So my challenge to you this episode, [00:14:00] where can you give yourself

[00:14:03] the time and the space to be creative. As we are running into holiday season, it's gonna be really easy to keep that momentum going, crash into the holidays, get busy with family and friends and festivities, and then pick up in January and start the rat race again.

[00:14:19] Stop, think, reflect. Where can you in your life and your business? Gift yourself the magic of space. Let me know in the comments, find me on Instagram @therebeccasaunders. I would love to know where you are finding those little pockets of space to give yourself that creativity and give yourself that space for the universe to deliver you everything your hopes and dreams can dream of.

[00:14:47] So until next time, thank you so much for tuning in, and I will see you next week for an episode on mapping out the year ahead.