019 Conquering WFH Chaos + Answers!
Dive into strategies for conquering work-from-home chaos and offers practical solutions to enhance productivity and personal branding for small business owners.
Quirky Quiz Time 🥳
What is one method Zoë suggests to create a clear separation between work and home life when working remotely?
A) Take a short walk outside to simulate a commute.
B) Wear business attire during work hours.
C) Work from multiple locations throughout the house.
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Answer: A) Take a short walk outside to simulate a commute.
Conquering Work-from-Home Chaos + Your Personal Branding Questions Answered!
In today’s livestream, we explore how to transform working from home from a frustrating challenge into a smooth, productive experience. We also dive into questions about personal branding and business strategy to help you stand out in your industry, all while staying sane and balanced in your home office.
Working from home presents both opportunities and challenges. One crucial strategy is setting up a dedicated workspace, whether it's a full room or a defined area in your home, to help you mentally shift between work and personal life. For those lacking the space, solutions like dividers or curtains can create this separation. Establishing a "commute" ritual, such as stepping outside briefly before beginning work, can also help mentally shift gears.
Time management is another cornerstone of successful remote work. It’s essential to identify when you're most productive and plan your most demanding tasks for that period. Tools like the Pomodoro technique may work for some, though everyone should experiment with various strategies to discover what best fits their work style. Staying adaptable is key.
Finally, maintaining social connections while working remotely is crucial. Virtual coworking, online meetups, or regular chats with peers can combat feelings of isolation. Routine reflection on what you miss from an office environment can help you recreate that positive atmosphere at home. For personalised strategies and support, you can book a Glow and Grow session through VCC’s site to refine your work-from-home setup and brand presence.
If you’re ready to build a work-from-home routine and personal brand that suits your unique needs, work with Zoë Wood of the Video Confidence Coach! Learn more at vcc.training and book your Glow and Grow session today.
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00:00 – Acknowledgement of Country and introduction to the Video Confidence Connect livestream.
05:00 – Updates on upcoming networking events, podcasts, and new content releases.
10:00 – Introduction to today's topic: tips for working from home effectively.
17:30 – Importance of separating work and home spaces and creating physical boundaries.
23:00 – Rituals to simulate a work commute and shift into work mode mentally.
28:00 – Time management strategies for those with flexible or unconventional work schedules.
34:00 – Tips for eliminating distractions, including noise-cancelling headphones and visual blockers.
40:00 – Setting boundaries with those you live with and managing mid-day resets.
45:00 – Combating loneliness through virtual coworking, networking, and recreating social office habits.
49:00 – Summary of key takeaways: the gift of flexibility and building a home work routine that suits you.
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Zoë Wood 2:35
I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the wadawurrung people of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians on the land on which I conduct my business. I pay my respects to their elders, past and present. I stand with the traditional custodians of these lands and working towards a more equal future Aboriginal and Torres Strait is. the video confidence. Connect for this week, the seventh of February, 2025. Five, with me, your host. Can everyone, and welcome to the. confidence Connect For this week, the seventh of February, 2025 with me. Your host, Zoe the video confidence coach, smashing your mark, smashing your marketing. Mayhem with killer video strategies. Don't worry. One of these days, I will get my own elevator pitch that I have worked hard on, and I will recite it word for word. In the meantime, are you feeling stuck building a personal brand that actually turns heads. Women and non binary superstars deserve more than just cookie cutter approaches to their worries. The video confidence coach entangles, untangles, marketing mayhem, helping you own the camera. Craft killer video strategies and connect with your audience like never before. You'll leave with the tools to show up, stand out and smash your goals. I'm getting there, I promise. So welcome everyone to our weekly live stream, the video confidence connect, where you have a chance to watch and listen and interact with the live stream that we hold every week on Friday from 10 to 11am Australian Easter, Australian Easter, daylight savings time, or in a couple months, just standard time, we say live and hello on LinkedIn and on YouTube, and within the next couple of weeks, we will be streaming to also be streaming to twitch and Facebook and possibly Tiktok, depending on if I can get that to work or not. We'll see how we go. If you have any questions about personal branding, video marketing, small business, networking, everything that we touch on here at the video confidence, connect. Make sure that you Comment your questions, your thoughts and any ideas for podcast topics or just conversations that you want to have during the live stream, and even if you're watching on the hashtag replay squad, don't worry. You can always make sure. You can always comment below, and I'll do my best to respond to all of your queries. You can also find out more information about our live streams, our podcasts and our events at our website, VCC, dot training. All right, that's the intro out of the way. We'll go straight to acknowledgement to country, and then we'll get on with today's connect Under people continue to face discrimination due to other countries blowing up past, I stand with them in their fight and get some justice. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land. And as we go in today for the Connect, just so you know, it is getting quite warm around here. So because we are currently in the middle of summer, and especially in Victoria, the weather is very crazy. For example, earlier this week, we had chaotic storms where there's a fair bit of flooding and people have lost various infrastructure and trees. So if you are wondering why I'm slowly getting more sweaty as we go on, and I'm going to need to take some breaks to just blast the fan at me, please. I apologize, but you're going to need to bear with me for that I forgot to press it over. First of all, I'd like to touch on what we accomplished this week, and then we're going to go straight into a podcast episode, recording, specifically my podcast that I run out, that I release every Sunday at 3pm the unboring your brand Podcast. I'm currently been working on a new intro and outro and a whole animated sequence. So for those of you who are enjoying the podcast and have been very patiently waiting as I've been trying to figure out a name and the branding to go along with it. Thank you so much for your patience. We are releasing it now, so it's going to be beautiful. It's going to be awesome. But today's podcast, topic that we are going to record is essentially tips from working, from home, from someone who's been there. And this is can and this also works with a lot of people who are in that stage where they might be, you know, moving to working from home, or working in a hybrid environment, or maybe you're moving into working for yourself, and the only opportunity that you have is to work from home. What are the pitfalls and what are the good things to keep an eye on as someone who has done it fairly successfully for the past couple of years. Like, yeah, so for the past around four to five years, I've been working from home, and I have many things that need to be done beforehand, but that's what we can touch on today. And like I said, if you have any questions or anything, we do have a fair bit of time today to answer a couple of questions. I do have a running list of community questions that I have in my own system that I refer to here, and of course, they are absolutely messy and do not have any sort of context or anything that is helpful to me in this moment that could make it easier for you to be able to respond. So I apologize if we're not going to be able to do any of those today. I'm going to work on that during the week and be able to break it down into simpler questions and more complex questions that allow me to focus a little bit more for you, but on with today's accomplishments of the past week for the video, confidence coach, this is just a little section where I let you know what's happening with the video. Confidence coach, you can also tune that if you so choose, but this is a little update just to let people know what's happening, and also for me, when I look back and check out the replay. So again, we are currently running our campaign, our promotional campaign for our glow and grow branding sessions, our one hour sessions that are able to get your brand back on track. You can find those all at Vcc dot training, you can join our email list. The email list is finally up on the website and working. I have tested it multiple times, so make sure you check that out again at Vcc dot training. You'll see it like prominently on the on the homepage of the website, and also in any aware there's contact information. You will find that information I'm so proud of that took me a long time to do it, and I thank you all for your patience on that front, thank you everyone that I met at the C training networking event this week. I apologize if I wasn't the my made up self, to be perfectly honest, I was kind of thrown into there without really knowing what I was doing. So I was initially, I thought I was just having a meeting, a one on one meeting, and then I kind of got thrown into the bus into a networking event. So apologies. Hi. Hopefully you got the best version of me first thing on morning on a day off. So thank you again. Don't worry, I will catch up and make sure that I follow up all of you within the next week or so, and for all of those who have been asking me, both in person and virtually, yes, I will disclose my process of networking and following up. I do have a lot of people who find it not creepy, but kind of close to creepy, how I'm able to keep on top of things and network fairly effectively. And this is coming from someone who has been networking almost, I would say 1314, years of constant networking in both local and state and like, national networking events and being able to keep on top of like, how do you go about fostering the connections, keeping on top of that that is a full, deep. Itself. So I will definitely check into that, into a future both future podcasts and a future video. That'll give me a chance to be able to break everything down for you. The other things that you need to check out for next week, we have the Geelong chamber after five on the Thursday, so that will be at Avalon airport for the air show. So there is going to be a bunch of military aircraft flying around, scaring all the dogs, and we're all gonna have fun for that weekend. So I look forward to meeting everyone there, getting a chance to see everyone after the holidays, and be able to just say hi with everyone. It'll be awesome to see and for my friends at one roof, the women's networking group, the National networking group. I will definitely, as of this coming week, I will have the full opportunity to be at almost every virtual event that I can get my hands on, and making sure that I am taking the most out of my membership, but also making sure that I do my best to network with all the lovely women at the one group. So one roof networking group, the upcoming podcast that will be the first episode for this year, for the unborn your brand podcast will be about marketing burnout, which is a hell of a thing for me to have the topic as my first episode of the year. But to be perfectly honest with the climate that's happening right now. I have so many people coming to me saying, Zo, I'm just tired. I'm done. And also how that when that comes specifically to marketing, because, again, that is my shtick. Of course, I talk a lot about networking, and I talk a lot about business mindset and a lot of other aspects of running a small business. But of course, networking is magic, so I have a tendency of focusing in on that. So if you find me, whenever I talk about things, I always put it in the marketing lens. Again, that's just because it's my area of focus and of interest. And last thing to touch on is the group that I've mentioned a couple of times in previous connects. Vic podcast is is now official. I have now rebranded all the groups, so the Facebook and the LinkedIn group, I have generated a bunch of useful content that will be fed out over the next couple of months. The email list is be out to be generated, and we'll get started going as that, as soon as I click go on that front and the podcast itself will have a episode this Sunday at 3pm because that's my usual best time. I'll just welcome everyone to the year and letting know what are the changes. So essentially, for those who may not know, I used to run so I'm not used to the group that I initially started in 2019 was called Geelong podcasters. And as you can imagine, it's for podcasters based in the Geelong and Bellerin region, which is an area outside of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. But I had so many people reach out to me saying, Hey, can I'm from Melton? Can I, you know, I'm from motion grove. Can I I'm from surround Sorrento. I'm from Sorrento. Can I join us, like people who are outside of the scope of the Geelong and ballerina, wanting to join the community, but also wanting to be able to have a group of local podcasters that a you can meet in person, because there are so many great podcasters out there, but they're all say across the country and across the world. So to be able to have a community that isn't, yes, it's a state which is very large in Australia, as you can imagine, but to be able to have that opportunity, to have a place where you can see collaboration, seek support, because podcasting outside of the one on one groups or the or the podcast where there's like two hosts, for example, or two hosts and producers. It's a very lonely thing to do, especially with those who must, who enjoy podcasting. And I both do it in my client work, but I also run two podcasts myself, because I enjoy doing it, and it is a great opportunity and community, and I hope to grow it more over this year, to be able to support more people. And we have a couple of grants that we've been able to find that is very useful. So if you are a Victorian resident, or you're just down here for however long, join us on Facebook, LinkedIn, or our email newsletter or on the website, of course, and you can find out details about grants that can maybe help boost your ability in podcasting, or you can find out regular news and updates that will be very beneficial to you, because that's the idea I want something that is helpful to big podcasters. And the last thing before we move on to the podcast breakdown, and I sit in front of that fan for a couple of minutes while of minutes while you have a nice video playing in front of you.
Zoë Wood 14:48
Behind me usually is a screen. Now, I thought I would be smart, and I was having a lot of issues with my rig. So my laptop that I was using, my laptop is about 10 years old. You. It wasn't a great laptop to begin with, and I just kind of needed something to go to have something behind me on the screen. So what I did was I put, I made a Linux machine. So essentially that what that is, is there is, like three different types of operating systems on computers. There is Windows, which a lot of people are familiar with, Mac, which is for Apple products, and Linux, which is an open source software I followed all the instructions. It worked really well. And then this morning, it says there's something wrong. And so get what I need to do. So that'll be fun for me to figure out how to fix that. So for the moment, you're going to get the shiny fabric to cover up the screen. For now, until I figure out how to fix that computer, I'm not absolutely devastated. Like, you know, if it was a really important machine, I probably would. But, like, that's why I as someone who is not entirely like, Yes, I'm tech savvy, because I grew up with it and I have, you know, the know how and ability to research, how to do things. But I'm not that tech of a person. I'm not tax, tax heavy of a person. So we're gonna see how we go. Wish me luck and Hayden, who is my business friend, who does it? Shush. You do you don't get to comment on anything. So in the meantime, I will take a break, stand in front of that fan, and we'll get into tips From working, from home, from Someone who's Been there. You
Zoë Wood 17:32
ah, working from home, it can be an absolute blessing or a real nightmare. Let's figure out which is which for you and your situation, and let's try it. Make it lean more towards the blessing than a nightmare. Shall we? Apologies for everyone who was in the live I don't know what's going on with my videos that usually show in the meantime, so I apologize if that's not working. I don't know what's wrong, and I don't have the capacity to fix it right now. Apologies. I will make sure that that in between time, while I'm cooling my face, my air conditioning is not too taxing for you. All right, getting back into it you
Zoë Wood 18:23
so yes, we are talking about working from home. So I am talking to any of you who are struggling with working from home, be it in a full time capacity, a hybrid capacity, so you still maybe go into the office a couple of days a week, or maybe it's alternate shifts or whatever, however it be if you are working from home, be it at any point, all these tips that I'm going to give you today are going to be incredibly useful and hopefully very helpful for any of you who need or want that ability to make it work. You want the ability to work from home and have that work from home life fit your life and your needs. So tried and true methods is what we're going to touch in today, and these things and these tips have mostly kept me sane, mostly, and have kept me productive with my business. I have been able to grow my business fairly significantly since working from home, and been able to maintain that relatively easily by using these methods as we go on. So first of all, one thing that I will tell you, and I'm sure that you have come across this whenever you've researched any methods regarding how to work from home effectively, is separating your work from home spaces. So what I mean by this is having a physical space that you can separate, that is purely for one aspect of your life. So if you have the flexibility and availability to be able to have a separate room, for example, like me, i. Work in a the smallest room in my house, which, unfortunately, as you may be able to tell, is the warmest room in the house, which in summer, is not helpful. But I digress. So having that physical space, in all honesty, and this is my main trick, something that you can close the door on. So when you're in your space, you close the door. You're in work mode. When you leave the space, you close the door, and you when you're at home, you're at home when it comes to anything that is work related, or either be it like a physical thing, or maybe an email or something like that, you're able to physically put it in your office or your workspace and have it be there for when you need to work. And in those opportunities that you, for example, don't have a room or a closet or a shed or something that you could work out in those opportunities, I highly recommend looking at dividers or curtains or something that you could or maybe even strategically placed furniture, something that you can do to carve out a work zone, space within your own space. I definitely was doing that type of work when I was doing that as a temporary measure, when I was living by myself in a very, very small apartment. Sorry, not apartment, really just a room, to be perfectly honest. And what I would do is I'd have my desk and of course, do not if this is something that you could do, I do not recommend it, but my desk was at least, like, less than a meter away from where I slept. And what I would do is that I put up these divider petitions, so when I would be working, I would like have this partition, and I just divider, and I move it towards my bed so I had room to move, but then I wasn't looking at my bed, because it was a separate space. I water. And the following tips also helped me get into that mindset for work. And then when I came home, I moved that divider out of the way so I wasn't physically looking at the space. It is separate to me, because I'm no longer in work mode. I'm allowed to rest. I'm allowed to relax. It may be hard, but that's something that will help you be able to differentiate that as your first port of call. And it will also stop you looking at that laundry or that housework and going, oh, I need to do that. No, because you can't see it, therefore you should forget about it, hopefully replacing your commute, replacing your longer commute with a 32nd commute, even if it's not exactly leaving your house. So this one might sound weird, so please do hear me out creating a ritual where you mentally shift into work mode by physically taking yourself out of the home and coming back in, but for work, sorry. So sit with me here. So my trick when I go to work in the morning is that I literally leave my house out of one door. Take a short walk, or walk around the a circle, walk around the front yard, whatever I've got the time and energy to do, to be perfectly honest, and then I come through a back door that is closer to my office space. So I have taken that time and that energy to physically, you know, take that commute, and now I am in work mode because I have taken that time to have a commute. But also it can be as something as simple as 30 seconds. I've usually used the technique of having like three breaths, like something that takes three breaths, so like going outside, 123, breaths and then coming back inside again, that commute to be able to help set you into work mode, will be a lot better than just going straight from, say, the family room into your small office and then being like having to bring all that baggage with you, the goal and in those events where, for example, you do not have the ability, like you don't have a backyard, or you only have one Door. For example, you may live in apartment complex, or you don't have the functionality of being able to leave out your door and come back. Try walking around like leaving like physical again, physically leaving your house, if you have the opportunity to walking around the block and getting some fresh air and then coming in. But what I used to use, or what I would recommend a couple of clients, even though I'm mentoring and marketing this kind of comes up is I had a client of mine who would work in a who lived in an apartment complex. They would leave the front door, go around, go around the block, come back in, and when they would come back in, they would have left, I think it was like a pink ribbon or something on their doorknob. So when they would look down to open their front door, they saw the pink they saw the pink ribbon, and they were already like, Okay, I'm looking at the my doorknob. I'm opening the door. Okay, I'm seeing the pink ribbon. I'm already priming myself. I'm in work mode, so I take the ribbon in with them. Them, and then they walk into the office again, into that separate space, because even though they're coming back into their home, they're able to be able to have a ritual that reminds them, hey, I'm going to work. I am in work mode. This is like this pink ribbon. Simplify simplifies that I am going into work. So again, I know this is all very pop psychology, mind trickery stuff, but it actually just does work. You just have to do it a fair few times to get into the habit of things. And if you are someone who experiences any sort of neurodivergency, it is going to be a hard slog at the beginning, because you have such change. And usually with that change, there's gonna be a lot that comes with it, not just hey, now you're working from home or working from home in a hybrid style, you're it's usually because maybe you've changed jobs, or maybe you've moved from a different position to another position, like there's also gonna be a lot of change with it, because there's a reason why you're working from home now. So with that change, giving yourself that opportunity to follow these recommendations, hopefully, but also to give yourself a bit of grace of, hey, not every time. I'm not always going to be able to go from like being, you know, helping out the home, to going into the office, and I don't, maybe I won't have a chance to go do a little bit around the block of between, you know, between meetings. Maybe I don't have that opportunity. That's okay, but doing your best to keep that to that routine will help you in the long run and help you be more productive, or just get you in the work mode sooner and make you feel better about being in that work mode. Next one is time management, working smarter, not longer. So finding a schedule that works for you. So for I'm talking with people who may not be working a regular nine to five. For those of us who do, hats off to you, your schedule is already done. But for the rest of us who may have either a small business or you're working in a more hybrid, flexible, flexible schedule, where they more care about your output as opposed to how many hours you're putting in, making sure that you find a schedule that works for you, and making sure that you again give yourself time to move around like that, especially during peak periods, or times of crunch, as we like to Call it in the biz, where things get very hectic, usually before a deadline or a project or something like that. I personally find that for me, I work best in the mornings, despite how my body and brain might feel, I do work best in the mornings. I have a lot more focus to get bigger tasks done between the times of about 8am to 1pm so what I do is I make sure that even though I don't feel like it, I get up, I go for a walk of some kind, I come back in and work pretty solidly from about 8am to 1pm and then once I take that 1pm so for me, that works best with my neurodivergency of just being able To just hard line. Get it done. Get the work done. And then once I hit that one 2pm stuff, I take a break. Look out the window, take, you know, go for a walk. Don't do them scroll. But I take that opportunity to just take a break. Go have lunch. And then, depending on how
Zoë Wood 28:18
I'm feeling, if I'm incredibly tired, go have a sleep just because the amount of chronic pain that's just sleeping is the best thing to do. Or for those opportunities where I just need to get that work done, working when I'm at my most optimal, and then in the afternoon, say, do some more grudge work, or more work that doesn't require my full attention, requires me to do it, but doesn't require all of my attention. That is something that is very useful, and hopefully will make it more useful for you, and again, for these are this tip is specifically for the people. And say, for example, if you are someone who works better in the afternoon, maybe schedule your meetings for the afternoon. And if that doesn't work for the project or the business or the company that you're working for, trying to find or being able to have that flexibility in your schedule, to know when you work best and for my night hours, does it work in your life and your schedule to be able to say, sleep during the day and work at night? If you can, awesome, if you can't, what can you do to meet in the middle? Because you know when you work optimally and when you work best. And I'm not talking about like burning the candle at both ends and burning yourself out. I'm talking about every day, what is the best time for you to work, even if your body may complain, what is the best time for you to work and what can be replicatable for you, day in, day out. Other productivity tips that you can try is the Pomodoro tip method, which I believe is 25 minutes on five minute break. For me, that doesn't exactly work personally, just because every time I'm getting into that 25 minutes, I'm already in flow. I'm already doing the thing I. And taking a break just kind of annoys me. It works for some people. That might work for you and whatever. Or do you know, I push myself through the work in the morning and then I save the mindless stuff for the afternoon. Will that work for you? I don't know, but that's the point. You chest it out and you try it out. I do recommend giving yourself at least two weeks of whatever method you're trying out. Because, of course, when you first do something and when you first change, it's going to be hard, because you're changing for the first time, but then after that two weeks, will Is it working, or is it not working? Or you're like, are you dreading your own hell that you put yourself into? If that is the case, then change that hell to suit yourself better, because you're working from home, I imagine you have some sort of level of autonomy, and in that case, let's make the autonomy work for you. So let's move on to eliminating distractions. So for me personally, having noise canceling headphones. I have one pair here that I can see, and I have another pair in the home. These noise canceling headphones are a game changer for me, especially when you live in a shared space with others, or like me, you live very close to neighbors who are very loud. So to be able to have those noise canceling headphones both allow you to focus and allow me to like, listen to podcasts, listen to meditation music, be able to take myself out of my own head with a tool that say can cost as minimal as 50 to 60 bucks. I usually recommend investing a little higher, but that is because I use mine all the time. So that's what works for me, for any of us who have visual distractions. So for example, for those of us who are working and living in the same confined space, or for those of us who maybe like are in a situation where you're working from, say, the kitchen table, or you don't have that flexibility right now to be able to carve out that space within wherever you happen to be living. At the time, I had one client who literally made DIY horse blinders. So what horse blinders are, or are essentially pieces of, I think, leather for actual horses. You may see these at horse racing, or old fashioned like Clydesdale, like horse and horse and cart, essentially these blinders cup on the sides of their heads, usually made out of leather. But of leather, but of course, for our purposes, wearing some glasses and putting the like they use, like pieces of cardboard either side that physically stop you from being able to see out of your periphery vision, and distract you from and stop you from being distracted from whatever you can see around you. Now this may seem stupid, and they probably looked a little stupid at the same time, but it worked, though. It stopped them being so overwhelmed that they couldn't focus. They were able to focus on the screen in front of them. They weren't looking off to various things happening inside of them. Now, of course, they don't use this in public, which, as you can imagine. Yeah, but in private, you do what you need to do. And of course, they have two different glasses. They have one with the blinders on, and then one that they take off, and then they can put on again, one that they can put on again for when they're having meetings or anything like that that they need to see. But if you are able to tune out what pulls your focus, it gives you that control and that reassurance that you're able to move through the noise, the movement and any sudden urge to rearrange your pantry, your bookshelf, or the various lotions and potions that are in the bathroom. In the bathroom, because if you can't see it, and if you can't be reminded of its existence as you're in work mode, it's going to be a lot easier to be able to achieve that in the future, and also to keep that habit going. You may not need the blinders forever, but maybe for that month when you're in crunch mode and you're like, Hey, I gotta work from this time to this time with no distractions. Put on the things that eliminate distractions, and if that helps, put on the noise canceling headphones. We are going to take a break, because my face is literally melting off right now. It is so hot in here, so I'm going to turn on the air conditioning and I'm going to take a little break. So apologies. It isn't going to work, but you're going to have to deal with me here. Thank you. I
Zoë Wood 35:29
Thank you, everyone for your patience. Like I said, it is summer here in Australia, and it is getting hot, hot, hot, and lights are all led but it doesn't help the feeling of the hotness. So we're going to move that out of my face. We're gonna focus zo carrying on from where we were in the podcast. Next is setting boundaries for both yourself and others. Now, as you can imagine, you are probably not living alone, and I if you are living alone, hats off to you. Congratulations for the rest of us who are living with housemates, family, pets or other living arrangements that you're currently working in, making sure that you let them know when you're working like what your schedule is going to look like, and also give them an understanding that, say a closed door or a sign, or giving them like the look says, Hey, I am working, please. No loud noises, no distractions. And if they are someone who is not acknowledging that, or someone who is repeatedly pushing that boundary with you, having a nice chat with them and just saying, Hey, do you respect me? Sure. Good. Well, then respect me and respect my time and the ability for me to make an income. So that is a little bit of a personal texture. But thank you for bearing with me, and if in those events that you again don't have that ability to close the door or put up a sign or put something that just says, Hey, other than just like, Hey, I am in work mode. Here is the things, the blinkers that I've got on if you need to mentally reset during the day, or if something is happening in the household that needs your attention. So say, for example, a chore like laundry, or even just yourself that you're like, Hey, I just need to not be working right now for like, I need a breather, setting a timer for 10 to 15 minutes so you can do, go do that chore, but then not accidentally end up doing like, all of the chores, or dec cleaning your entire house, or doing anything that is not work, because procrastination is a bitch. It is going to keep going there, and it's going to keep pushing you so in those moments to be able to give yourself that timer of like, hey, 10 minutes, I've folded the laundry, I have done some dishes, I have vacuumed the floor, I have whatever that chore that you had in mind, hey, I'm going to take a mental reset, do it for that time, but then go back to work, or go do the routine of going outside, coming back in again, whatever you need to get reset most employee employers, but also, if you are self employed. Having that ability to have that routine, and also that self control to get yourself back into your own routines is going to be more helpful for you in the long run, as someone who has been there and repeatedly has been there, moving on to the next topic. So I have a couple more, but then that's it for today's podcast. The last thing is, um, so not last thing. The next topic I want to touch on is combating loneliness and cabin fever. So we're gonna do do that part again. Zo, because I was terrible. The next topic is combating loneliness and the cabin fever. So of course, we all went through the pandemic, and some of us had a lot more of a more intense lockdown than others, depending where you are in the world. So if you are someone who misses that office chat environment or that ability to talk with others, be it in a office environment or regular like maybe a co working setting or something of that nature, and you find that you thrive or have that ability to work with like you like to be able to chat with others. Try having virtual coffee breaks with co workers in like slack on team or zoom, and making sure that in those moments where you're having that coffee break with your co workers, if you work in a company or a environment with other staff, making sure that you talk about something other than work, is a project that I like to use in those times where you're just like, hey, can we have a five minute chat to. Like have a coffee break, and you will find that it will definitely reinvigorate you if you find these office chats to be helpful rather than hurtful for you, if you are self employed or someone who maybe does not have that ability, or other co workers that you can lean on in those moments, looking out for local meetups or virtual co working spaces. Essentially, co working spaces are places where freelancers and self employed people can go to a one space, either a physical or a virtual space, where they can work around other people who are in the mindset of, we are working. We are here working. And also there are a lot of perks that come along with it. So definitely research that if that's something that, again, helps you, not hinders you. And also keep an eye out for networking events that connect you with other humans, be them virtually or in person, depending on what you have capabilities for, because it is very important to not close yourself off from the rest of the world, because yes, you need to work, but also you are human, and you need connection. At the end of the day, it's very important someone who is works by themselves to have that connection with other people and regular connection with other people, beyond just the people that you live with. Chef kiss, it's also important to figure out what you're missing from the office. Say, for example, if you're moving from a in person office environment to a hybrid or a work from home environment, actually sitting down and thinking to yourself, What did you miss about the office, and what can you recreate in your own home, in your own office? Is there something that you can organize with another staff member, or maybe, if you work by yourself, another, like other small business owner or a friend that you can have regular chats with to break up the isolation? So for example, I used to work with various virtual, virtual people, where we met up just, you know, once a week, virtually on a Wednesday, on a zoom chat. And it was glorious. It was just something, it was look it was something to look forward to during the week. And of course, yes, we talked about work, but we mainly just talked about life. And we had that opportunity to break up that monotony, especially if you're working by yourself, for yourself, and taking that opportunity to make sure to break that loneliness and actually self reflect in those moments of okay, what do I miss? Do I miss the chance to go outside and have a smoker? You don't have to smoke. You can just have a coffee. You can just chat outside. Okay. Do you have that opportunity to take your phone with you and chat with someone on the phone, or can you meet up with them in person? Whatever works for you, that's what you need to that's what you need to try out, and you need to trial and error. Speaking of trialing an area, the next thing is to trial and error and find out what works for you. Everything that I've mentioned so far on this podcast, there is going to be an element of trial and error, because not every method that you try is going to work for you. Things that work for me may not work for you and they may not stick. They may work for a short period of time, but then not work when the seasons change, when the sun rises and sets. What have you making sure that you test out different routines, environments and strategies until you find out what works for you. Because if something doesn't feel right, make a change. You have the power, because you work from home, and you have the power to change your environment. And some people thrive in a nine to in a strict nine to five, Hey, um, you know, nine to five with my hour break in the middle, and they thrive in that environment at home. And some people like myself, I think, Oh, God, no. I want the flexibility to arrange my day how I see fit, and I work better in longer bursts or unconventional bursts, compared to shorter bursts, where we take regular breaks finding out what works for you is going to take trialing and erroring and practicing over time, but making sure that you give yourself that grace of, hey, this isn't going to work right now. I'm going to find out what works for me and trial and error later on, and the last things that I will get to today is to remember the gift of flexibility. Working from home is a privilege, and it is such a treat. And I say this So say, for example, you might be working from home because your company is, you know, moving around, down scaling size. You're maybe a freelancer, whatever the situation that you are working from home, or if you're a small business owner or a personal brand builder, hit me up on my website, VCC, dot training. Yes, it's going to be a challenge to balance both your home life and your work life, especially when they're in the same physical space. So.
Zoë Wood 45:00
But it also gives you the flexibility to work your day how you want. Because I, I remember predicting, I want to say, around 2017 that I predicted that working from home was going to become a lot more ubiquitous, because commuting to and from work is not sustainable. Going to work in a building, and then coming all the way back home, you are spending so much time and energy and resources just to move from one place to another, where a lot of people who work from home or shoot or can work from home should work from home. But I digress, I have an entire rant to go on about that, but in those moments, I want you to think about if you are able to work from home, be it because you're a small business owner, or you have the hybrid model, or you're able to walk from home because you've been given that privilege, making sure to take breaks, find Your flow and appreciate the fact that you can work in trackies if necessary, because no one's gonna see the bottom half of you all in all to say is that working from home isn't a one size fits all situation, and I've met plenty of people who found that working from home absolutely, absolutely bloody sucked. So for them, they found working in a co working environment that was closer to their home made more sense for them, and if they are willing to take whatever communities to the office and back, awesome, you do. You just have fun getting up in the morning when you have to get there for the fifth day in a row that week. It's about working from home. Is about creating routines, space and habits that suit your life and your work style, whether it's about all in one remote working or dipping your toes into the hybrid lifestyle, staying adaptable and also being kinder to yourself, because you now have this power, this flexibility, to work from home. So what is your top tip from working from home? So for anyone who's worked from home, then I'd say a majority of us during the pandemic, and also possibly now have that opportunity. Now, what is your best tip? What is the weird thing that you do to stay not exactly productive, but to be able to focus in on your work, share your stories. Either you can reach out to me privately by a DM or email, or make sure you just comment below however you see fit, and I'll make sure to follow up with those. I love to hear people's stories and techniques that people use to help them in their home working environment, make sure to keep crushing it on your home office or your couch or your kitchen table. There is no shame either way, and I will definitely see you next week.
Zoë Wood 48:02
You you. Thank you everyone. That is the conclusion of today's connect, I will just quickly check and make sure that I didn't miss out any comments or any beautiful I've touched in with everyone. Thank you that is awesome. Thank you for your questions and comments and thoughts and ideas for future podcasts that we record here at Video, confidence, connect on hashtag, replay, squad, we don't just record podcast episodes. We also answer people's questions that I've been asked during the week. We also conduct like interviews. So for anyone who maybe doesn't have the cash or cash flow right now to be able to hire my services. I bring them on board here live as an opportunity to be able to pick my brain live, and have the opportunity to get a marketing strategy session while being able to produce content for you all. If you've missed part, any part of this stream, make sure that you can watch and re listen on LinkedIn or on YouTube with more up with more platforms coming in the future. You can find the show notes. Yes, I do show notes for each of my live streams to make sure that I break down everything for you in both a written and video format. You can find that at Vcc dot training. Slash video confidence connect, that is Vcc dot training, slash video confidence connect, smashing your goal, smashing your marketing mayhem with killer video strategies with me, Zoe, the video confidence coach. And as you can probably imagine, by my face and the amount of sweat that I am producing, we are going to finish up here early today, the the aircon, the short bursts, are not working as well as I would like. So I'm going to take this opportunity to finish up today, and thank you all for your time, and I will see you next week at 10am Australian Eastern Standard Time Bye.
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Feeling stuck trying to build a personal brand that actually turns heads? Women and non-binary super-stars deserve more than just a cookie-cutter approach to their worries. Zoë Wood the Video Confidence Coach untangles your marketing mayhem, helping you own the camera, craft killer video strategies, and connect with your audience like never before. You’ll leave with the tools to show up, stand out, and smash your goals.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
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