Episode 53 Linh Podetti

[00:00:00] Introduction and Intentional Time Design

[00:00:00] Linh: And so I realized that if we don't be intentional about how we design our time, we'll create the time. We'll fill it up with more work, with more money, and with that money. We would probably buy things and use it unintentionally, and it doesn't actually give us back any fulfillment.

[00:00:17] ​

[00:00:20] Allan: Welcome to the Lean Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Allan Dib. Today I'm joined with a very special guest Linh Podeti. Linh is an incredible entrepreneur. She's someone who I think has kind of mastered the art of living, right?

[00:00:35] Allan: She's not only financially successful, she's a successful business person. She runs a a large outsourcing business, she's. Very balanced from a health family perspective. She's certainly inspired my health journey and she's uh, inspired me to do better every day.

[00:00:50] Allan: So welcome to the podcast, Linh.

[00:00:52] Linh: Oh, thank you, A, that was a beautiful, beautiful introduction.

[00:00:56] Allan: My pleasure. Well, it's all true.

[00:00:58] Meet Linh Podeti: The Mompreneur

[00:00:58] Allan: Linh for people who don't know [00:01:00] you what's the kind of one paragraph intro to who you are and what do you do and who do you do it for?

[00:01:06] Linh: Yeah, so I guess I would describe myself as a mompreneur. Uh, I've been a single mom or had a child since. I was 20 years old, so I think I've always had to wear that hat really early on. And because of that, I also decided I really wanted to start my own business so that I could have the flexibility and freedom for my son. So that led me into my entrepreneurship journey. But other than being a mompreneur, I run an outsourcing company. So people do come to me for kind of expertise around time freedom. How do you actually remove yourself from the business by having resources to help you to scale your business?

[00:01:40] Allan: Yep.

[00:01:41] Outsourcing and Virtual Assistants

[00:01:43] Allan: And so your business, is mainly about providing people to help with tasks in the Philippines, you know, helping with outsourcing and virtual assistant kind of tasks. Is that right?

[00:01:53] Linh: Yes, that's correct. Yes. We still do that. Yeah, we try to provide more quality. uh, yeah. At this moment I'm [00:02:00] actually on a mission to get my virtual assistant to really think outside of just being you know, task doers? I want them to actually be part of my journey to transform lives of their clients, to be able to have more balance.

[00:02:11] Linh: How can they, you know, not just achieve tasks within the business, but to actually free up time to work on their other parts of their life. But anyway, it's still an early journey. Uh,

[00:02:21] Allan: Yeah.

[00:02:21] Linh: just something that really ignited me again.

[00:02:24] Allan: Amazing. Amazing.

[00:02:25] The Role of Technology in Business

[00:02:26] Allan: So, now with AI and things technology coming in, we need less and less labor to do more and more, and so. The way I think of business systems is business systems are kind of you know, series of checklists to do things.

[00:02:40] Allan: So let's say I wanna do accounts payable. Okay, I need to run this report, then I need to send invoices to people who are late. Then I need to do that and that. And the way I see business systems is some of it can be done by people and some of it can be done by technology. And more and more of it now is being done by technology.

[00:02:56] Allan: You know, like AI, automation, all of those sorts of things. [00:03:00] So how are you thinking about that from a labor perspective?

[00:03:03] Linh: Yeah. look, at the end of the day, I think that it's a beautiful thing to see technology advancing and it's just making our lives so much easier. You know, to make sure that we are always relevant, we should always be upskilling, right? Like back in the days YouTube was something new and now YouTube is nothing, right?

[00:03:20] Linh: And

[00:03:20] Allan: yeah.

[00:03:21] Linh: is new and anything you. You see for the first time, you're like, oh, what's this? But when you catch on and you learn, then you will never become irrelevant. So this comes to like my own staff as well, my virtual assistants who I've had for over 10 years. Right. So I'll give you an example.

[00:03:34] Linh: Yesterday's task, I wanted to do a survey and you know. I personally still need to really think what do I want out of this survey? And so I created the questions with the help of ChatGPT is just it up, but it still was something that I need to know. What is the purpose of why I wanted to do it.

[00:03:50] Linh: But when I gave her those questions. I don't wanna be the one creating those forms. You know, I'm not very good with like, creating Google forms and making certain questions, compulsory or not. [00:04:00] that's what my virtual assistant was able to do, create me that full form, ready to go, right? And then when I got the results back I was like, gimme the results actually, and analyze it.

[00:04:10] Linh: And I was so impressed. She turned it around in like five minutes.

[00:04:14] Linh: Thanks to the power of ChatGPT, because in it really interpreted like, you know, the percentage of people that filled out what was the top result and things like that. Now I love that she actually used it. I don't need her to be doing it manually the old way, but this is where I really am so excited about the future.

[00:04:30] Linh: It's making my VAs who normally it wouldn't be as strategic or might take a lot more time to analyze data, but because of that, she knew what I wanted and she knew how to get the system to work for her. So it is such a win-win.

[00:04:44] Allan: It is a win-win. And one of the goals that we've got in our business this year is to triple our revenue and not add any new team members. So, we've really gone full steam ahead with that and it's. Super powerful. I mean, obviously even beyond ChatGPT, even for example, editing this [00:05:00] podcast, my editor, she uses Descript and that massively reduces the time to edit. It automatically cuts to the active camera and things like that. So really powerful tools there.

[00:05:12] Allan: I've never kind of resonated with the term virtual assistant. I've always just thought, Hey, we have team members. Some team members are in the same country, some most are in other countries.

[00:05:21] Allan: We've got people in the Philippines, in the United States, in Canada or in South Africa or whatever, and they're just team members, they have a role. You know, someone's in sales, someone's in marketing, someone's in an assistant or whatever. So, can you like, clarify like what's a virtual assistant and how does it differ from just remote team members?

[00:05:41] Linh: Yeah. Oh don't worry. I'm so confused myself. I've been it for over 15 in in that sense. And the terms are so interchangeable and you know, some people who understand virtual assistants and don't know the term when I mention they know exactly it is, but when people don't know what a virtual assistant term mean, they might think it's an AI [00:06:00] tool, an agent or something, or they really could think it's a virtual EA. And so, you know, at the end of the day, I think depending on the client, like we've worked with clients who don't resonate with VAs and they're like, look, I want a team member. I want someone that can handle sales support. And so we place those people with them. And so yeah, even us as a business, we've been struggling to kind of demonstrate that a VA is still just a person who can work virtually.

[00:06:26] Linh: If you give them a role, they really are a customer support person. But I think after being in it for so long and really listening to the market and data I, I think generally the more percentage of people actually think virtual assistant is more like a virtual EA who happens to know how to do some other tech work.

[00:06:44] Linh: Right?

[00:06:44] Linh: And so there's a place for that. There is virtual. Assistant or virtual EA that can handle that. Because the thing is, a lot of my virtual staff who've been with me for so long, they continue to upskill, they continue to take off load off me. And so their role has changed over time, right?

[00:06:58] Linh: They started off as a content [00:07:00] writer to then become a payroll officer. And so, at the end of the day, they are just a person that I've hired, I trained, and I upskill, and now they can do all these different roles. And so what we do in our own business is we kind of explain to people, do you want a virtual assistant who is we kind of define them as someone that can help to free up time as a founder, right?

[00:07:18] Linh: So, someone that is gonna be able to book calendar, manage your email, can probably still edit some of your content and basically make the founder's life easy. And then if you are looking for a particular role with a skillset, Hey, I want someone that can do sales support, or someone that can do social media management.

[00:07:37] Linh: So then we hire those roles for them. But to be honest, every client comes in with different terms. They straightaway goes, I wanna a virtual system that knows how to do active campaign and da. So it's very interchangeable.

[00:07:48] Allan: What's the stuff that is just the dumb stuff that you should not be doing as an entrepreneur that you know, you should just get completely off your plate. It's kind of blocking your [00:08:00] growth and scalability. I mean, you would see that every single day.

[00:08:03] Linh: Yeah. Yeah. There's so many minor tasks. That's why I always encourage people to audit their day. Like literally take every, half an hour kind of think back, what did I actually do? Because we take for granted the little manual thing, the five minute, you know, upload something on your stories or quickly respond to a, an email or respond to a social media post. All those little things actually add up to a someone's role and you shouldn't be doing it.

[00:08:28] Linh: Right?

[00:08:29] Linh: And when you hire someone dedicated, whether it's part-time or full-time, I mean 20 hours or 40 hours, you then have someone that you want to continue to give jobs to them and it forces you to actually think about.

[00:08:39] Linh: Look, I know I need help and I know I'm not doing the impactful things. And so when I hire someone, I'm gonna force myself to actually delegate these things. Otherwise I'm always gonna be stuck like that, right? And so sometimes I hear people go, I don't think I have many tasks. I'm like, really?

[00:08:54] Linh: It's like I have endless tasks and it's because I continuously audit. And so some of the key thing is I do not book [00:09:00] my own. Meetings. Right. And I remember there was times that I used to book, 'cause I'm thinking, well, I kind of know my calendar. If I just reply one, then you know it, it's only a few minutes.

[00:09:10] Linh: But then when you get used to delegating, you realize that task can take so long because it's the rescheduling, it's the, Follow through that really happens. So calendar management is something that people should definitely do. But even following up, so we have an assistant for every local person.

[00:09:25] Linh: So our company, we are not, we don't just hire in the Philippines to save costs. We look at it as, what are the best skill set that someone can do? And, And so like our sales managers from Australia, our client success is from Australia, but I want them to utilize their skillset and their experience working with the clients rather than following up, the proposal, you know, doing following up with leads

[00:09:48] Allan: Yeah.

[00:09:49] Linh: with client success, it's like booking in all the client calls and then rescheduling. So every local person has an assistance so that they are the most optimized. So before you go, and let's say you [00:10:00] needed another Australian sales person before you go and hire another one, it's like looking into their task and go. How can maybe one sales admin person be a support to maybe that role and another local person's role, and then it frees 'em up so that you might not even need to hire anyone just yet.

[00:10:17] Allan: Yeah, so. So, yeah, a lot of it that I found is the person doesn't have the process already, which, if it's all in your head, it's gonna be very hard to get somebody else to do that. Like, like for example um, just, you know, one of the really dumb things that I was doing until recently, even though I've got a big team, I've got like 20 people on my, team.

[00:10:37] Allan: I was still booking my own flights, my hotels, all of that. And it's because I've got in my head all of these preferences. I'm like, you know, I prefer to be, to stay in a Marriott. I prefer certain airlines you know, always wanna fly, direct as much as possible. You know, I've got certain airports I prefer or whatever.

[00:10:55] Allan: And like all this was in my head, so now I've gotta put it in an, in a standard [00:11:00] operating procedure for someone else to do it, right. So. I had to kind of sit down and like list out all of the things that I would've done if I was booking it. I would be like, you know, this is the airport. I prefer if I'm traveling into this location and things like that.

[00:11:14] Allan: So, that's I think probably one of the biggest challenges, isn't it? Like a lot of it is stuck between your head and you're like, no one else can do this other than me. Well, that's true if it's all in your head, but once you get it out into a standard procedure, then that becomes a lot easier.

[00:11:29] Linh: Yeah, exactly. And my example for outsourcing something like that is I actually don't use my own virtual staff for that. I actually have a local friend who loves event planning, loves booking holidays,

[00:11:40] Linh: And she said to me, Hey, this is my passion. I wanna start a business on this. And I'm like. Lemme just outsource to you, you know, like she still has a full-time job, but she, oh my God.

[00:11:49] Linh: Like my Europe trip that I'm going to in July has been fully planned out you know, because the thing is you kind of also need a bit of a knowledge around the area.

[00:11:59] Linh: Like I don't [00:12:00] know where to stay or what activities to do. And so she kinda suggests all that and all I had to do was like, yep, I like that.

[00:12:07] Linh: And so that made my job easier. And you know, for the longest time I've been booking my own flights as well, but. Hello. I just started using a travel agency and so I was like, what is the best flight to go here? And you know, they usually take a commission from the airline anyway. Or even if they did take something like 25 bucks, it's not much.

[00:12:25] Linh: And the beauty is when I had to make a change yesterday, I said, oh, actually I wanna extend my, flight and I wanna fly from here to there, and boom, they came out to it. So I think don't limit yourself to outsourcing, just thinking it's always this offshore person, or it has to be this local role.

[00:12:39] Linh: It's really finding the right talent at the right time. Just like you're looking for a cleaner, you go and find a cleaner, right?

[00:12:45] Allan: Yeah who can do this instead of me is who? Who is a very powerful question, right? So a lot of time we're trying to figure out how, right, how do I do this? How do I figure out how when, a lot of times the question is who, rather than how.

[00:12:58] Linh: Yeah, exactly. And look, we're in [00:13:00] an EO community, right? We have the power of the community. So if we haven't are stuck, anything we should be asking, you know, I'm stuck here. How have you solved that?

[00:13:09] Linh: And so so someone else, if you ask me that question, I would be able to give you the contact that I use.

[00:13:13] Allan: Well, I may well use that contact because, you know, my last trip, I couldn't believe how many hours I wasted, you know, just scheduling a hotel. Then schedule change. I had to reschedule, extend another day, remove another day, change a flight or whatever. And I'm like, I'm an idiot for doing this to almost myself.

[00:13:31] Allan: Like, so,

[00:13:32] Linh: yeah, it is fun on some weekends, right? You get carried away

[00:13:35] Allan: yeah.

[00:13:36] Linh: at holidays. You convinced yourself that I enjoyed this. But yes, it does take hours away of your time.

[00:13:42] Achieving 360 Degree Success

[00:13:42] Allan: So obviously a lot of people listening to this are interested in marketing, entrepreneurship, how to get successful, but really those are kind of, tools and the end game is to live an amazing life. To live life on your own terms.

[00:13:55] Allan: And you talk a lot about 360 degree success. What is that? And how do, how are [00:14:00] you thinking about that?

[00:14:00] Linh: Yeah. Well, let me tell you a little bit of a story or context in how I got here.

[00:14:05] Allan: Sure.

[00:14:06] Linh: obviously I was a single mom. I came from a family that didn't actually, my parents didn't believe I would ever be amount to anything and didn't believe in my dream. So I was determined to be successful. Money was all I could think about.

[00:14:18] Linh: I really wanted to. Be wealthy because I didn't grow up with anything.

[00:14:22] Allan: Yeah.

[00:14:22] Linh: and so, you know, to cut the story short, I did end up starting my own business. I married a also an entrepreneur and we're both business people making money and you know, he would work sometimes six days a week even though he's been in business now for 25 years, I've been married for 15 years, but 10 years in, he's still working long hours.

[00:14:40] Linh: And I understood, I'm like. I'll be, you know, not just be a mompreneur, but I will take care of the kids because I know you are working really hard

[00:14:49] Linh: And

[00:14:49] Linh: I know that when you move to the new factory, when you hire the next person, you will have more time for me, right?

[00:14:56] Linh: And I believe that he believed it too. And so years would [00:15:00] go by His life never changed. He was still working long hours, 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM and he was still stuck in his mindset and in the business and on the other side, yes, I was running a business. I had more staff. I automated, I had more team members, but there was, I was still hustling. I still felt like

[00:15:17] Linh: I was pressured, I was stressed because I was always trying to, make more money, right? When we make more money, we need to hire more people. We wanna move that revenue goal again. And so about six, seven years ago. I kind of just felt like something's missing, like I don't know what it is. And so I started working with a life coach. And look, my husband's not into coaching at all, and so it was just me working on myself, how to become a better mother. How do I become a better wife and a better boss ultimately? How do I just feel happier?

[00:15:47] Linh: When I started working on myself through the help of a coach, I realized that I don't even know what a definition of success is for a mom, or like I knew what money I think could give me.

[00:15:57] Linh: But other than that, I haven't really defined that. [00:16:00] And surprisingly, all it came down to is how I would spend my day. So I, I would, I remember saying that it would be nice to travel twice a year, you know, with my husband, or it would be nice to be able to take my kids every second week or do something. So it was very like, I guess. was tangible, it was clear. You can actually do it and see what happens. Like, I didn't know how my life was gonna change, but what we did was we mapped it out my year, we started plugging in those dates whether it's my own holidays, my holidays with my husband, things that I wanna do with my kids. And as I plugged it in and I started doing it, I started to feel this sense of achievement cause business. It's always stressful.

[00:16:39] Allan: Yeah.

[00:16:39] Linh: The next goal is always hard.

[00:16:41] Allan: Yeah.

[00:16:41] Linh: And when you are so focused on just business, your life gets it kind of flies by and you haven't really done anything. Likewise, I didn't make time for fitness. It wasn't in my routine, you know? Then I made it as a goal that it's always this day and oh, how many times I would do it, and when it became a habit, a ritual that [00:17:00] this is the way I live my life, doesn't matter if it might take me longer to get to my business goal.

[00:17:05] Linh: I know is these are the really important things as well. And so I started doing that. And so my relationship got better without even my husband's contribution. My husband didn't have to do anything. And my relationship with my kids got better. I started traveling more. I started to enjoy life more.

[00:17:21] Linh: And then at the same time, I was waiting for my husband for that day that he could take even one day off a month to be able to be there for the kids and he never could. And so I started to realize something and it wasn't just him, I started to listen and really tune in to other entrepreneurs.

[00:17:39] Linh: And feelings. And I've seen people that are running $50 million business and their goal is to get to a hundred

[00:17:45] Allan: Yeah.

[00:17:45] Linh: The ones that are so high, they're onto IPO, right?

[00:17:48] Allan: Yeah.

[00:17:49] Linh: And so, there's this lack of gratitude of where you are realizing that you are actually trapped in another rat race and your future is actually right now.

[00:17:58] Linh: Like if you don't create it now, [00:18:00] there is really no future. And when you get older, you know I'm 40 something now, and you start to hear stories of people at 48. Die out of nowhere

[00:18:09] Allan: Yeah.

[00:18:10] Linh: you know, on a treadmill and then all of a sudden collapse or something like that. And so you realize that we don't know when we have, how long we have, we get to live in this world. And so people are procrastinating, they're success in other areas because they think they have forever, but they don't. And so I realized that if we don't be intentional about how we design our time, we'll create the time. We'll fill it up with more work, with more money, and with that money. We would probably buy things and use it unintentionally, and it doesn't actually give us back any fulfillment.

[00:18:42] Allan: Yeah. Yeah. I heard someone say the other day, you know, the, life you're living today the day you're living today that you're just taking for granted was like your goal like five or 10 years ago, like you were dreaming of getting to this and I'm like, yeah, you know what? Like, you know where I'm living, what I'm [00:19:00] doing, how I'm working, and everything like that.

[00:19:02] Allan: Like 10 years ago, that was like my wildest dream and I thought, when I get there, I'll be happy. And then you get there and you just reset the goal. It's like, all right the next mountain up, the next mountain up, the next mountain up. And it's kind of, never ending. So, I think you and I probably had a similar kind of midlife crisis or whatever.

[00:19:20] Allan: So, uh, probably about five years ago I reset a lot of my priorities as well. So, I was doing well financially as well, but you know. Healthwise relationship wise, a lot of different ways. It just wasn't working. So you've, I found you've gotta kind of schedule in just like, you know, you and I would ha had a calendar appointment for today and I wouldn't just not show up because I didn't feel like it, or, you know, I don't feel like doing a podcast today or whatever.

[00:19:49] Allan: You've gotta treat all the other stuff the same way. The time with your partner, the health time, the time to read all of these things that often feel not [00:20:00] urgent. They're urgent because you're not gonna get to them if you the time, someone will fill up your time or it'll just get filled up by default if you don't.

[00:20:08] Allan: So in my calendar, the exact same way that I've got an appointment with someone in my team, or a client or anyone else, I've got an appointment with myself to be in the gym. I've got an appointment with myself to read. I've got an appointment with myself to do all of those things that kind of, you often feel like, ah, I'll do it on another time.

[00:20:26] Linh: Yeah, exactly. And yeah, ultimately I feel like. The first step is actually understanding your self-worth. Got a lot of entrepreneurs, even myself, I was hustling. I was working with this pressure because deep down I wanted to prove my parents wrong. For so long they never believed in me, and I carried that kind of inner child trauma to just.

[00:20:48] Linh: Prove to them, and it wasn't until I was aware of this pattern that I was like, hang on. They're not sitting there waiting for me to prove to them, or they're not sitting there thinking about me. I'm the one that's thinking about this all the time, [00:21:00] subconsciously that is. And so then when I realized that, I just wrote them a forgiveness letter, like, thank you. Mom and dad for not believing me, but I know you didn't mean it. And for the longest time, I wanted to prove that I could be rich to prove to you that I'm worthy, but I'm letting you go. And I didn't even give that letter to my parents. And from that moment onward, I just felt that peace where. business, I wanna make money just because it's a fun game.

[00:21:26] Linh: It's giving back, it's not proving anything. And I think it's so important for people to realize that because it can be disguised as I love working, you know? Working is fun. It's like, I love the game, I love this challenge, but I just think if it affects your other li life areas, like are more good for people wanting to make their business 10 x 20 x. all the other areas are happy, like your wife is happy, your wife is, you know,

[00:21:49] Linh: always seeing you. You're present with your family and your kids are happy and you've got time for the gym, and yet you still have time to grow at next level because it's fun game. Sure. But most of the time I've seen [00:22:00] it's the other way around.

[00:22:01] Linh: It's like let me get to my financial goal or business goal first, and then I'll make time for other things.

[00:22:08] Allan: And to be clear, like, making money and being wealthy is awesome, right? And because I say that from someone who's been completely broke, when I got married, my net worth was $300. Um, And so, um, I've been broke and you know, now I'm doing pretty well, and it's awesome. It's awesome to be able to order from the left side of the menu.

[00:22:29] Allan: It's awesome not to have to worry about how much something costs or if something breaks or whatever, all of those sorts of things. But it's not a win.

[00:22:37] Overcoming Skepticism and Finding Peace

[00:22:37] Allan: You've kind of won the battle, but lost the war. If your life is going to shit, your health is crap, your relationship, people in your life hate you, all of that sort of thing.

[00:22:46] Allan: And I can definitely relate to family not believing you in you and things like that. And that being a driver it's kind of the dirty fuel, right? That drives you to prove people wrong. And the only problem with that is [00:23:00] like, now what I've started encountering is, okay, people didn't believe you in the beginning.

[00:23:04] Allan: Now you're doing really well. And people are like, oh, it must be nice to be rich. You know, like, and they're like, what the hell? I can't, you can't win either way. And I'm like. What do you mean? Must be nice. I didn't get an inheritance. I didn't fall from the sky. We grew up in the same neighborhood on welfare, you know, so like, you know where I came from?

[00:23:21] Allan: Like, and yeah, it's funny like it.

[00:23:25] Linh: Yeah, and I think it's important, like once we are just confident who we are, we know why we're what we are doing. It doesn't matter whether someone's jealous that we've made it or someone didn't believe us and we had to prove it. It's just you get to live life in your own way with no pressure, with nothing to proof.

[00:23:41] Linh: And I think that's where I think the biggest thing that I realize I want outta life is just peace. and when there's that lack of peace in an area, it's because you are either pushing too hard, you are resisting the flow. There's just, why I'm always going back to am I feeling at peace in certain areas and then I [00:24:00] work at that.

[00:24:00] Linh: I.

[00:24:01] Allan: And peace is different to kind of Joy or whatever, like, or excitement or whatever, like, so, peace is kind of boring, right? Peace is just like, you know, nothing, nothing's terrible's going wrong or whatever. But like, it's not an exciting thing. Like, it's not like jumping out of a skydiving or whatever, that sort of thing.

[00:24:17] Allan: So people kind of mix up joy, happiness, peace, all of those sorts of things. But I think you're right. I think peace is very much the goal where, you know. Stress levels are low. I remember when I was a kid and I had a, I was learning piano and like I'd play in the, in front of the piano teacher, and then she, she slapped my hand and she's going relax.

[00:24:35] Allan: Because if you're too tense, it comes out in the music. And then she'd show me, she goes, see, this is how you do it. And she'd do it in a really re relaxed manner. And she goes, see, that sounds so much better than when you're tense, right? So when you're stressed out, tense all the time it's gonna affect your performance. So if you're at peace and you can work at a, at an easy pace and still get results, you're gonna, your achievement's gonna be so much better.

[00:24:59] Linh: [00:25:00] Yes, a hundred percent.

[00:25:01] The S3C Method for a Balanced Life

[00:25:01] Linh: I mean, I would love to share my S3 C method that I've created, that I'm actually writing in my book. You know, just to get people to go from. Feeling chaotic in their life and going, yes, I need to have a balanced life, but how do I actually get there? And so I would say the first step is self-worth.

[00:25:18] Linh: And then the second thing is actually clarity. So like your financial goal, like what does it mean to be successful in the other areas, right? And meaning like you as a son to your parents or you as a husband to your wife. What does that actually mean? And. What do you need to do? And b, to know that you are successful in those areas.

[00:25:38] Linh: And after clarity, then you need to also have consistency. So this is where the habits that we have, right, is because we know that we want that, but we don't build calendar systems. Accountability, and then we don't do it. So if we don't have consistency, then we won't do it. 'cause a lot of times people. I'm gonna put my husband under the bus again. Come on honey. It's been a while that you haven't initiated [00:26:00] the date. He's like, oh, yes, I'm sorry. And he books it and then he'll forget again. Right.

[00:26:03] Allan: Yeah.

[00:26:04] Linh: because he doesn't have a system, nor. It, to be honest, he's doing it inspired from within, yet it's still like, I should do this.

[00:26:11] Linh: I know it's good for me, but it ha hasn't been something that he's been able to adopt yet. And so after you have consistency, I also believe that you need to understand a lot of calming techniques. When I say calming techniques is knowing certain ways to not get caught up in challenges. So for example I love the control test, so you know, people get so carried away with like. happening on the news, things going wrong. Someone just did something and they are like feeling, oh my God, like this is outta my control.

[00:26:42] Linh: But I would always say, focus on what you can actually control. Like can you do something about it? And you know, instead of thinking about worst case, they're all imaginary truth, you could what is the fact and how to actually feel.

[00:26:54] Linh: Yeah. So it's ways that you have to be able to feel better because if you don't stay calm, know how to be calm, then it doesn't [00:27:00] matter if you have all these habits. And it doesn't matter if you know what you're supposed to do, you are always reacting to life. So that's why I love journaling as part of my calming techniques.

[00:27:09] Linh: Every single day, I'm journaling, I'm creating gratitude. I have a really great perspective and challenges. I guess it comes down to having faith, knowing that I'm not living in this world on my own. You know, there's, God has things designed and I just need to go with the flow. I don't have to feel like I have to figure everything out.

[00:27:26] Allan: Yeah.

[00:27:26] Linh: Sleep it off tomorrow be will be okay. And I think it comes down to self-mastery, knowing how to master your own mindset and techniques to stay calm, then all of that steps would be easy to change your life rather than is just a quick motivation.

[00:27:43] Allan: Nice. So it's it's S3, three C is

[00:27:48] Linh: So there's three

[00:27:48] Allan: self-worth, clarity, consistency, and calm was the.

[00:27:52] Linh: Yes.

[00:27:53] Allan: Love it.

[00:27:54] Allan: Hey, Alan here. Want to dive deeper into today's episode? Head to lean [00:28:00] marketing.com/podcast for links to all the resources we mentioned, plus some exclusive ones. Just for podcast listeners, you can also subscribe to get notified when new episodes drop and receive my latest marketing and business tips right in your inbox.

[00:28:13] Allan: That's lean marketing.com/podcast. Now back to the show.

[00:28:18] Achieving Clarity and Setting Goals

[00:28:18] Allan: With clarity, how do you get that clarity? because a lot of people are like, you know, I dunno what my purpose is. I dunno what, you know, what I want to do?

[00:28:26] Allan: All of that sort of thing. How do you get that clarity?

[00:28:28] Linh: Yeah. Well, when I think of clarity now, I think of the different roles that I play because as a business owner, the goal that I want for my business is very different. And I don't also always focus on financial goals. Like, okay, I wanna 10 x my business and have these revenue. It's also about like, who am I as a leader to my team?

[00:28:48] Linh: So I'm always focused on being that inspiring leader, that generous leader. I really enjoy calculating I guess the result of how I make others feel in my own company. And [00:29:00] so my goals are not just a outcome goal, it's a be and do goal as well. And I mean, there's some other goals that make me a great leader is, I invest in my VAs to catch up with each other every three months for connection.

[00:29:15] Linh: I make sure we have company trips for connection. So I set goals that I know that it will make you know, outcome as a inspiring or generous leader. And so it, it reminds me of the same way as when I said, you know, to be a great wife, I want or it makes me feel like I, I'm a great wife, is that we have date nights every two weeks that we go on a staycation. because in order to have a great passionate relationship, then there are certain habits. And things you need to do to be that, right? If you want a fit body, you want six pack, then the clarity in that is that you need to be going to the gym or eating certain things. So I started to have that clarity and what I need to do and be in order to get to the goal that we want, [00:30:00] because ultimately we all want the same thing.

[00:30:01] Linh: We want a thriving marriage. You know, we want kids that love and listen to us, but it's like, what are we doing and being in order to get there. And so I think that sometimes we have to invest in professional help. You know, with my life coach, you go deeper into why, you know, and there was so many things that I had to unblock first around the growing up not feeling worthy feeling that I need to prove and all that. You need to kind of clear all that web out first,

[00:30:28] Linh: So then you can get to your clarity better. And because sometimes your goals could be given by someone else. there were times when I got caught up in success that the number that I had in my mind about what I, my revenue should be, or how my big my business should be was someone else's goal,

[00:30:44] Allan: Yeah.

[00:30:45] Linh: right? And so then you just have to re really customize that experience and work on yourself and go, what is it for you? It will look very different other people.

[00:30:55] The Power of Identity and Habits

[00:30:55] Allan: The other thing that I found is the power of identity. Who do you think you are? [00:31:00] Like, you know, so many times people will use a negative identity on themselves. Like they'll, they're like, I'm lazy, or I'm, you know, I'm not cut out for this, or I'm not or even just. Jokingly, and I think just the word words are so powerful.

[00:31:13] Allan: Words are not just descriptive where words are creative. And I remember a couple of identity shifts in my life. So number one was when I thought of myself as a marketer rather than just a person running an IT business, which was in my first business, and I'm like, that identity shift changed everything.

[00:31:31] Allan: I'm like, no, now I'm a marketer of IT services. So, that completely changed everything. Then a few years ago, I was having a blood test and I was going over it with my friend who's kind of into health and fitness, and we were going I was saying, see, it's in the normal range, right? And he was going, no, it's too low.

[00:31:49] Allan: He goes, it's in the normal range for the normal population. But he goes, you're an athlete. And I'm going, I'm like, wow, I'm an athlete. Yeah. Well, well, you know, so, so he is going like, it's gotta be, it's gotta be higher if you're [00:32:00] an athlete, right. So, from then on I'm like, yeah, I think goes up until then I mean, I was still trying to get healthy, trying to get fit or whatever, but I never had that identity of, Hey, I'm an athlete. So that's, that totally changed how I saw things. So, that was a powerful identity shift.

[00:32:15] Linh: it's the most powerful shift just like in Atomic Habit. James Clear talked about that too. If you wanna change any habit, you kind gotta change your identity and believe in that. You know, I never used to be able to wake up early because I thought it was only successful people who were odd could do that.

[00:32:31] Allan: Yeah.

[00:32:32] Linh: The Oprah, the Mark Wahlberg, and it wasn't until one of my VA that I was traveling with, she woke up, I woke up at eight. She has woken up at four and she, good morning, Ms. Linh. What coffee would you like? And I was like, oh my God, where did you get that energy from? What time did you wake up?

[00:32:47] Linh: And she said, I always wake up at four. And it was because I saw someone in real life that I believe if she can do it, I can do it too. It shifted my belief and then I came back and started doing it. And now I've been an early [00:33:00] riser for many years now because of belief.

[00:33:04] Allan: Totally.

[00:33:05] Journaling and Gratitude Practices

[00:33:05] Allan: You talked a little bit about journaling before. I've never had the journaling habit. I hear from a lot of people that it's powerful, useful. If I was to start today or tomorrow what do I write in my journal? how do you start journaling?

[00:33:17] Linh: Okay. So, at first when I started journaling, I just practiced gratitude journaling. Like, what are you actually grateful for? Because back in the days I was struggling, you know, mentally my life was in chaos, and even journaling, what you're grateful for was so hard. I was like, there's nothing to be grateful for, to be honest.

[00:33:35] Linh: But then I knew that I needed to do something different, right? whatever the guru said, and then you potentially could get the same result. And so I forced myself to write down what I'm grateful for. And over time it became a habit. I just was easy to just wake up and write, you know, at least three things to 10 things.

[00:33:53] Linh: And I felt like, you know, so it's been like 15 years practice, but whenever I feel the worst is when I need as [00:34:00] long of a list of gratitude as possible. So I started off with gratitude, but then I also. At the time when I was going through a lot of challenges, it was easy to actually just talk out what's going on in my life and go, right now I'm feeling this.

[00:34:14] Linh: This just happened, and oh my God, I don't know what to do. And the venting of it was so therapeutic. Like it was like you're talking to a friend who isn't going to reply back with their own judgment or with their own like, you know, opinion of your life. You're just talking it out and every time you talk it out. There's, it's like you just, there was a big weight off your shoulder. And so journaling became a lot easier. And nowadays, I do a little bit different. I create a notion kind of dashboard or you create your own note format. And my journal looks very different now. It has a column that says. What is your rating, one to five, you know, five, like how are you feeling?

[00:34:53] Linh: One to five? And then I go, what is that feeling that you're feeling? So I've already got a dropdown of all these feelings [00:35:00] and it's good to check in with yourself. Like this morning I felt hopeful, you know, and I just wanted to note that down. I have another column that tracks my dreams. 'cause I dream almost every day and I love just remembering that dream and then reading back and go, that's so weird. Or there's dreams that became a premonition. I'm like, oh my God, I dreamt that. Right?

[00:35:19] Allan: Oh wow.

[00:35:19] Linh: is customized to what I want. Another one is intention. Who do I need to be today? And surprisingly, every time I read my intention that yesterday, I am like, oh my God, I actually was that.

[00:35:29] Linh: Yesterday, I said I'm gonna be present with my son at his sports carnival today. And enjoy the day because in the morning I kind of didn't want to be there. I was like, oh, I had to cancel my meetings yesterday. I set the different intention and I ended up enjoying it. And not only did I enjoy his sports carnival, I even invited the friends over, made them spring rolls, and I had a very good day.

[00:35:52] Linh: I just felt really good. And then the other segment is challenges. You know, and I even just put a section for [00:36:00] journaling. Like, whatever you wanna say it, it's just up to you whether you just wanna comment on that day or whatever else. And yeah, and I think another column is what do you wanna pray for?

[00:36:09] Linh: 'cause I'm a Christian, I like to pray.

[00:36:10] Allan: Sure.

[00:36:11] Linh: So you can create what you want to create. It could be a mantra for today. It could be, oh, actually one column that is key is a kindness column. So I track what kind things did I do.

[00:36:23] Linh: Me to go yesterday, oh yeah, I did this. And then some days, oh crap, I didn't do anything.

[00:36:28] Linh: And I don't like that I didn't do anything.

[00:36:30] Linh: Tomorrow I ended up doing something kind to someone, whether it's taking out, out for lunch or offering to drop, you know, a child home.

[00:36:39] Allan: Yeah. Amazing. So, you've got like a digital one. You've set it up in, in notion. I tried the gratitude thing, but I kept finding that I just was writing the same stuff. Like, I'm like grateful for this, that, and the other. It was just kept like, I don't know, I couldn't find new things.

[00:36:54] Allan: I guess may, maybe it's my lack of imagination or something like that. I don't know.

[00:36:58] Linh: So I'll give you an example. I [00:37:00] wanted to teach my kids gratitude because it was the most life changing experience for me, and I also felt that. I could give them the ability to change their mindset, to be positive, then I think it'll be a winner in any circumstance they'll face in the future. So at first, my son, who was only like four at the time or something, he struggled. I said, what are you grateful? He goes, nothing. You know, I'm angry that Monica did this. You did this. He could only think of the bad things. And, you know, one thing I learned from interviewing a lot of spiritual leaders for example, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, he said that.

[00:37:31] Linh: We are default to negativity even as a baby, when we are born, the first thing we do is we cry. A baby who is one years old is already throwing tantrum, who's already don't want someone else to play with their toy, who thinks it's all about them. So we as human beings are default to actually being negative. So what is it that we are gonna do every day to shift? To be positive. It's actually a effort, a conscious effort. And so that's what I did with my son and my daughter. I said, what are you great for? Nah, just struggled. Next [00:38:00] day, struggle, third, fourth day, it got easier. And now they can't live without it. Some days at night, they're like, mom, you forgot something. What? Oh, we haven't done our gratitude. And they could quickly say what they're grateful for so fast. I've seen, you know, where they were to where they're now, and how my son does it so well is he likes to focus on what happened today.

[00:38:22] Linh: My kids have now been trained to really think intentionally. I'm grateful that I saw my friends today. I'm grateful. That I got to eat a particular meal. So they're focusing on a lot of more menial things, but it all comes down to practice.

[00:38:36] Linh: If you practice it, you'll get better at it. And if a 4-year-old can do it, you can do it too.

[00:38:41] Allan: Well, I'm grateful we got to talk today. You've inspired me, that's for sure. So I. I'm gonna have another go at journaling. So, like I said I've had a few false starts, but I haven't got there. And, you know, you've inspired me to put in other good habits in my life. So I think I can do this.[00:39:00]

[00:39:00] Linh: If you need any other tools app. 'cause I'm a little bit obsessed with tools and apps and gratitude, so I, you're gonna laugh, but I have notion. Then I have another app called I think it's called Gratitude. And so it prompts you different question. It's just simple. It's just ask you another question and I just never feel like it's a waste of double answering like I answered there. And then when I go into this app, it might just ask me, so this morning, like I told you, you said, what do you take for granted? You know, what health thing do you take for granted? And then I can also change the prompts to whatever question I want. But number two is that every day it does change the prompt, right?

[00:39:36] Linh: And so I do that and that could be easy for you to be on your phone and you could start answering that until you get into notion. So. Lots of ways.

[00:39:46] Allan: Alright I'll definitely do that. . I can't wait to read your book, by the way, but when's the book coming out?

[00:39:54] Linh: So I am giving myself till the end of this month to finalize it. I've been writing for the last few [00:40:00] months and it's, you know, when you are writing a book, as you know, you are always, don't feel like it's ready yet, and you keep on

[00:40:06] Allan: Totally. It, it will never be ready up until the last day you're handing in the manuscript and you're like, could've done it better or whatever. But you've just gotta, you gotta stop at one stage. Yeah.

[00:40:16] Linh: Yes. So I also learned that, it reminds me of when I first got into videos or got first got into podcasts, right? You think it has to be this perfect thing that you produce, but it came down to just get used to and doing it, and then you eventually get better over time. And so yeah I'm convincing myself not to have to be perfect and get it out there.

[00:40:34] Linh: So

[00:40:35] Allan: well. if it's any consolation, I, what I've found is that the concept is far more important than the writing. Like the writing can even be mediocre or whatever, but if the concept is strong, the book's gonna really resonate with people. So, and I think, you know from what you've told me so far, it sounds really cool.

[00:40:53] Allan: It sounds like an amazing concept. So, uh.

[00:40:56] Linh: alan, for your support.

[00:40:57] Allan: I can't wait to read it. Thank you, Linh. It was such a [00:41:00] pleasure to have you on. Where can people find you if they need some help with outsourcing or virtual assistance or virtual team members or whatever you wanna call it where can they find you?

[00:41:09] Allan: And we.

[00:41:10] Linh: so if you visit outsourcingangel.com, that's where we can help you with outsourcing. But of course, come and connect with me. I'm all over the internet. LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook at me. I'm very friendly.

[00:41:22] Allan: Awesome. Awesome. And we'll link to all those resources. Of course. Thank you so much, Linh. It was such a pleasure to have you.

[00:41:28] Linh: Thanks. Thanks all.

[00:41:30] Allan: Thanks for tuning in to the Lean Marketing Podcast. This podcast is sponsored by the Lean Marketing Accelerator. Wanna take control of your marketing and see real results with the accelerator. You get proven strategies, tools, and personalized support to scale your business. Visit lean marketing.com/accelerator to learn how we can help you get bigger results with less marketing.

[00:41:53] Allan: And if you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review or share it with someone who would find it helpful. [00:42:00] See you next time.