BIRD WILLIAMS: You're listening to Bird Means Business podcast Episode 42. 

You have to get quiet, to live loud. I'm gonna say it one more time. You have to get quiet, to live loud. My husband, Terry said that the other day and I thought, Yes! Because I found that this quiet, at the beginning of my day, has really empowered me to move through my day confidently and I'm really excited to share some tips on that today. I guess I've learned that people don't just happen to consistently win in life. There has to be strategy or intention, or some kind of grounding. And morning routines are a great example of that. So sure everyone is different. I know some people could hear the phrase morning routine, and feel like they're being put in a box or controlled and they don't like that. But I've actually found it to be the flip. Like I feel like I'm in more control when I have a regimen. You know, I've actually found that these daily systems, like a morning routine, have made huge differences in my productivity, in my happiness, and my peace. I'm having less anxiety. And the more that I have to manage, whether it's a business or just life stuff. The more I'm kind of called to do and things that I have to own and run, the more important these types of systems become. So I'm going to share all about my morning routine with really hoping that you're going to be able to pull ideas on how to start your day strong. I'm also going to expand on some of the tools and products that I use. But I want to make sure I'm really clear to say that none of these products are sponsored. These aren't ads. I'm just really sharing with you what I use. 

So let's just get right into it. Okay, first things first, my mornings start at 5 AM. And y'all, this is a big deal. Like, a huge colossal deal, because I am not or historically I have not been a morning person. I've always been a night owl. I'm the kind of person who gets like a burst of energy at 11 PM, and I can easily work till 2 AM, like not a problem. It's just how I was wired, right? That was what I told myself. And that actually worked fine. It wasn't a big deal until I had children. I have two little boys. Terry's three. He's who you hear at the end of the episode for Terry's Takes, which are always hilarious. And then Trenton is one. 

So y'all for years, I just struggled in the mornings because it used to be that most mornings, my husband, Terry, taught morning classes at our gym. And so I was solo-dolo, getting two little rowdy boys fed and clothed and all the things, and out of the house. And I was always rushing to get them to school on time. It was honestly a whole hot mess for real. I would like set an alarm, but just snooze it a million times, and only actually wake up when I heard one of them crying or talking to themselves on the baby monitor. And I would have to almost literally drag myself out of bed to go get them. This was my morning situation before I was intentional about my morning routine. So y'all, the whole process in the mornings was just super rough because I'd be basically trying to adjust to waking up while wrangling them and just not having the energy to move quickly at all. And it wasn't working. So I had to have a mindset shift. And before I kind of dive into my morning routine and what you can pull out and like even two things that I think are really important for thinking about your morning routine. I want to lay out this mindset shift because I think it's important. Also because I think there may be someone out there who needs to make a similar shift around waking up in the morning or being disciplined in some area of their life or really anything. So I'm going to really lay out this mindset shift to how to work through, okay? 

First things first, I had to identify the lie. This was the lie. I am a night owl, and I cannot wake up early. My body clock just doesn't work that way. And it's just not how I'm wired so yeah I can't. Y'all I can't tell you how many times I told my husband, Terry that. Like I can see his face if he's listening to this right now because that was my thing. Hey, I can't do that. That's not how I'm wired. And I would actually be mad when Terry would kind of nudge me into, "Just try waking up earlier and going to bed earlier." I would just roll my eyes and think, it's easy for you to say that because it comes naturally to you. He's always been the kind of person who just popped up in the morning. And so I'm like, frustrated by him encouraging me. But I was getting message after message after message, just through random stuff. Like I need to get a handle on this. Actually his mom, Mignon explained to me that she too used to be a night owl, and then she had kids and she realized that the morning was her only time of her day to have to herself. I'm kind of like yeah you know, just like going to avoid it because I didn't want to accept that I was going to have to make this shift in my life. But one day, I got tired. I got tired of fighting it and I just really just gave up and I said, You know what, I'm gonna try. I'm gonna just try and see what happens. 

I knew, two things. One, my trying could not be half-hearted. I couldn't just halfway try to do something and just say, oh well, it didn't work. No. I was like I have to take this very seriously and be intentional about it. And then number two, I had to just tell myself from the beginning that the change wouldn't happen overnight. And I'd have to be open to it taking some time. Because I can see myself. You know how it is whenever you don't want to believe something is true. So you say, okay I'll try. And then it didn't work the first day. Yeah, see I told you I was right. No, I was like I know this is gonna take time and be a journey and a process. So I'm going to from the beginning tell myself it's going to take time. 

So what I did was I started going to bed earlier. It was so annoying because I would just lay awake and think, oh my god this is just dumb because I'm just sitting here for hours in the bed. Terry's snoring. And I'm awake thinking of all the things, and I could be really just working right now and being productive because again this is just how I'm wired. But then I started setting my alarm for earlier in the morning, which was even harder because I had been laying awake all night. And now I got less sleep and was waking up earlier. But when you do that enough times, when you go to sleep early, and you get up early enough times. You eventually go to sleep quicker. You just start to actually fall asleep because you're tired. I was tired from waking up earlier. 

So weeks into it, it got easier. But I was still stuck on hitting snooze. It was like this last challenge I had to cross in this whole journey of me trying to be a morning person and wake up earlier. So the problem was my alarm would go off and in an effort to not just hit snooze I would grab my phone and start going through my email, going through Instagram. But what would happen is I would kind of just like be half asleep and fall back asleep. What I realized I needed to do was move my phone across the room, and the reason it was the difference maker is because now it's actually, my alarm is a Drake song and he's like, yelling rapping. And it's annoying. But I have to almost jump out of bed to go and turn the alarm off. But now I'm out of the warm lovely comfort of my bed, and I'm awake, right? 

Those are the kind of steps that I took as I made this shift, not only in my life. But in my mind too like, yes I can be a morning person if I choose to be. And what do I need to practically do in my life to make that happen? So you might need to make a similar mindset shift if you're not a morning person. And I just wanted to kind of share that because that's important. 

Okay. All right, so now that we've talked about the mindset shift I had to make. Let's talk about two factors that can really make your morning routine powerful. They are stillness and gratitude. Don't we need more of that in our life, like all of us, in every area of our life? More stillness, more pause for reflecting, and then also more gratitude. There's so many messages out there that are coming at us all day, every day, and it's sometimes hard to remember what you can be grateful for. So I want to kind of share how stillness in gratitude looks for me and my morning routine. As soon as I turn off that annoying Drake song alarm. I really just pause and I stretch. I kind of move my body and get a sense of how my body feels. And I have a positive thought, I think about something positive. It can be as simple as, today is going to be a really great day, or I won't be anxious today, or I love my husband. It could be whatever. But it's just something positive to start the day with, and it usually is super simple because again it's five o'clock in the morning and I'm still processing all the things. 

Then after that, I actually turn on the Robinhood Snacks podcast for the market update. This might be something that stuck with me from my time in New York. I worked as an investment banker on Wall Street as my first job out of college. And I worked in equities so a lot of what I did revolved around the market. And so, I enjoy kind of getting a sense for what's going on in the market, and Robinhood Snacks is a great way to get that. Terry and I invest on the Robin Hood app, and they have a podcast called Robinhood Snacks and it's like 15 and 20 minutes. It's on the markets. And I just listen while I do what I'm about to explain next. 

So I make my bed. It's something that I really like to do. Yep, I'm one of those people that I almost make my bed immediately after I wake up. I just like the sense of honestly it's like something that I can do, and have done. Like a task, I could have completed early in the morning so it kind of makes me feel like I'm already productive. Also, I just like how it looks when I walk into my room and the bed is made. It makes me feel like my day isn't hectic or my morning isn't hectic. It's neat and put together and made up. And so that's why I make my bed right away. It's something that I just naturally do. 

I also open all the blinds, because I love natural light. It's like my love language. Now that I'm waking up earlier, it's often dark. So sometimes I'll wait if it's dark. It depends obviously on the time of the year. But I really love having natural light pour in. So even if I don't do that right when I wake up, I'll do it soon after, whenever it gets bright outside. 

Next, I brush my teeth and wash my face. And that might seem simple or not important. But it is and let me explain why. So my skin kind of went haywire whenever I got pregnant. And for years I just struggled with bad acne and all the stuff. And so I started to search for something that was supernatural and just lovely and like it was really my first time to have a real skincare routine for my face. And my friend, Jordan suggested Dr. Hauschka. Y'all, it has been amazing. And the reason why I point all of this out is because you might not think about it. But something as simple as this is an example of self-care. It's something your body will thank you for years from now. And it's also something that I would skip on those days when my one year old was screaming on the baby monitor, and I wasn't getting a headstart on my day. I was having to just kind of rush to get my child. I would skip this a lot. And so I love to think of self-care, as in the everyday things you do. And this is one of those things for me. 

I actually have a free guide on this.  It's called "Self Care is in the Everyday". And I'll make sure to link it in the show notes because again, there's so many ways to add being nice to yourself in your daily life and so this is one of those for me. 

Moving right along. You drink coffee. I drink water with four shakes of pink Himalayan salt. So, I started seeing a holistic doctor, years ago, when I had this random autoimmune scare. And he changed my life. One of the first things he put me on was pink Himalayan salt. And you have to make sure you get the good kind, cause there's a lot of Himalayan salt out there that has other stuff in it that you don't need. So what I learned is that your body needs salt and other minerals to absorb the water that you're intaking. It's important that you don't just drink tons of water, but that your body can actually absorb it. And basically, he gave me a formula for how many shakes you need to have every single morning in your water. And he suggested that the first thing I consume is this water. So before I have breakfast or drink anything else. I'll make sure that I'll have my four shakes of pink Himalayan salt and some water and drink all of that and then move on to whatever else I'm gonna have. So, yeah, it's like my coffee. Everyone's like, but first coffee. I'm like, or at first, pink salt in my water. Yeah. So, it also helps with digestion and boosts energy, and has tons of other benefits. If it's something you're interested in, look it up because, again, it's a great start to my day and I feel like I'm doing something good for my body. 

So once I have my water I get settled on my couch, and I connect, and I center in my quiet time. And this is definitely one of the favorite moments of my entire day. If there is a particular devotional I'm doing, I'll just kind of read through it and work through that. Or I might just lay and listen to worship music or pray or journal, or really any mixture of any of those. But my faith is really my anchor so starting my day with this intentional time really sets a tone of gratitude for me. I used to not do this every day. I would just kind of get to it when I could because, again, I was in struggle mode trying to get my kids out of the house and to school on time. And then I would just be rushing to my office for the day, whatever that looked like before quarantine because I was officing from all over the place. And what would happen is, I'd sit down and start working and I'd be hit with a barrage of emails and missed texts and all the things. And then I would be trying to squeeze in my quiet time at some point in the day whenever I could. But I would find that if I didn't have that quiet time, too many days in a row. I would start to feel disconnected and anxious and overwhelmed. For the last year, it really has been a top priority, something that I just don't skip and it's really made all the difference. I love it so much. 

After I have my quiet time, I sit and I review my day in my Full Focus Planner. And y'all I love this one because the Full Focus Planner framework has you list out your Daily Big 3. And these are your top priority tasks. Like if nothing else gets done, these have to get done. And I also list out you know other tasks and even like the day's meetings and calls. And what I found is that before I used my Full Focus Planner, I just kind of went with my iCal. My iCal is ridiculous and crazy and color-coded and wild. It's messy and aggressive and all of that. But the Full Focus Planner system helped me kind of identify what is most important. And then also distinguish between like meetings, what is a meeting and what is a task. And that was really good for me because it made me realize that there are some tasks that needed a lot more time than I realized. And there were also more tasks in my day that I wasn't accounting for. Which really was the reason why I would be frustrated at the end of the day because I didn't get as much done because I wasn't really providing the time containers that I needed for certain tasks. So I highly recommend it. 

I actually, typically plan my day out the night before. So I'll get in my Full Focus Planner for the next day. Based on what I have in my calendar kind of map everything out and make my priorities and all of that. So in this moment in my morning routine, I'm kind of just reviewing it and recalling kind of like what the day holds. And then I get to work. 

So, when I do all of this, what I've just described in terms of my morning routine. I have about an hour before I need to get the boys up, and it's amazing. I can work on something then. I usually try to eat the frog, which is doing the things that I don't really want to do. Those tasks that I'm avoiding. I do those first as best I can. And then I get my boys up and it's beautiful because the time that I have with my kids in the morning, when I have this actual morning routine, and have time to myself ahead at getting them up. It's so beautiful, because I'm centered, and I'm grateful, and I've already been so productive that I can really enjoy that time with them and not feel like I have to rush and all of that. 

I want to mention two things real quick. One, there are days that I can actually get a morning run in. It really just kind of depends on our family's schedule. But it's not every day. I can tell you when I get that time to run, I just love it. Moving your body in the morning, kind of helps get all the juices flowing, but not just physically. Also mentally in your mind. I just started running this summer. I was in this challenge in July to run a 5k 5 days a week for the whole month of July. Yes, it is as aggressive as it sounds. But it's like made me a runner and I love it so much. And I experienced for the first time a runner's high. And y'all, I mean, the powerful ideas that I had in those moments were seriously next level. So it's something that I wish I could do every day but I can't but I do get my run in when I can. 

And the second thing is no screen time. So, again, there were those mornings where for a long time that I would just grab my phone and start immediately going through my apps, my phone, my emails, the bank, Instagram, whatever it is. And it's just so terrible on so many levels when I think about it now and that's a no-judgment thing. It's just for me. First of all, it's probably terrible for my eyes as they're adjusting in the dark to this bright screen, even when I lower the brightness. But then also just the barrage of images and content information in my brain before I can stretch and be grateful for something. And before I can have my water with my pink Himalayan salt. And before I can do some self-care and wash my face. I know it seems simple, but it's powerful, right? I'm getting all these images, so I don't do screen time until after I'm reviewing my Full Focus Planner. 

After my quiet time, once I get into my schedule for the day, that's when I open up email and see if I need to adjust anything if I need to get back to any urgent texts. I will say that there are times where I’ll just glance at my phone to make sure that there's no one from the gym who's reached out to me. I do own a gym and we have early morning classes. I need to make sure that there's not a team member reaching out about something urgent. But I don't go into Instagram or anything like that until I've kind of had that time to myself in the morning and it's amazing, I feel super centered and ready for it all. 

So, this is how it looks for me. And I hope that you are inspired to either create a morning routine or improve your morning routine in some way. And I want you to remember stillness, and gratitude because it will make a huge difference when you think about how can I incorporate those into what I do every single morning. And I promise you it might seem like the most. I mean some people are loving this. Other people might be like, oh, that's a lot. It seems like a lot to do the same thing every morning. Just try it. You might start with two or three things. But I feel like when you do it again and again and again and it'll get easier and you'll find ways to tweak it. I've tweaked my morning routine so much over the years. But find something that works for you.

And if you've never had a morning routine, I really want you to give it a try. I want you to get past whatever limiting beliefs you might have like I had. I had to get past those limiting beliefs too. And I want you to give yourself time. It took me weeks to really consistently wake up at 5 AM. And remember, this isn't putting you in a box. It’s actually freeing you to start your day strong and to take control of your day from the very beginning. 

Now lastly, make sure you give yourself grace. No one is perfect with this. No one does their morning routine perfectly. So just do the very best you can with what's in your hands. All right? 

I am rooting for you to win. And I'll always share business tips and business perspectives. It’s also important that you’re right too. Like you, the human. The person behind the business because the success of your business is so closely tied to your personal success, especially in those early years, and especially when you are the majority of your team. So my approach to business is always going to be holistic in this way. So I'm always going to have episodes that don't just address the business, but also address the person, the business owner, the entrepreneur because that is what I believe will really set you up to win.

I hope this has been helpful and that you leave with a practical tool to apply to your life, this week. All right?

Well, thank you so, so much for being a part of the Bird Means Business podcast tribe. Thank you for telling all your friends about the podcast, for subscribing. Also, it would be amazing, so amazing, if you would leave me a review. If you would go on to Apple Podcasts, and leave me a review and share how the podcast has helped you. It would mean a whole lot to me. Thank you so much and I'll talk to you next week.