Eliminating Distractions: The Science Behind Focus Sessions for Entrepreneurs

May 18

Featuring Megan Flatt, founder of Let’s collective and Focus sessions

Megan Flatt is the Founder of Let's Collective, a business growth strategy firm devoted to making entrepreneurship easier. Megan has launched a sister brand, Focus Sessions, providing dedicated, distraction-free virtual coworking to get your most important work done.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

How to approach problem-solving in a way that focuses on how you want to feel.
The importance of establishing boundaries for maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
How to provide flexibility while still respecting business hours and time zones.
The similarities between business consulting and therapy, and how consultants can help with hypothetical situations or challenges.
The benefits of partnering with Focus Sessions, a virtual co-working service, for individuals and businesses.
The importance of intentional focus and avoiding distractions during a 90-minute window.
The recurring nature of business issues and decisions and the importance of aligning them with your values and impact goals.
The struggles parents face in balancing work and parenting, and how to create a hybrid career or business.
The science and research behind Focus Sessions and how it can help entrepreneurs and small businesses eliminate distractions and accomplish their most important work.
How the pandemic has changed the way we work and increased the demand for virtual co-working services like Focus Sessions.

In this episode…

In today's fast-paced digital age, distractions are a common enemy of productivity. For entrepreneurs and small business owners, staying focused on their most important work can be a challenge, especially with the added pressures of running a business. In this episode of “The Kennedy Events Podcast,” we’re joined by Megan Flatt, founder of Let’s Collective, a business growth strategy firm devoted to making entrepreneurship easier, and Focus Sessions, a brand dedicated to providing dedicated, distraction-free virtual co-working to get your most important work done.

Megan identified that entrepreneurs and small business owners have their focus pulled in a million directions all at once which makes it difficult to move the needle on any one project, let alone top-priority initiatives. Her solution? Focus Sessions. A virtual co-working service designed to help entrepreneurs and small businesses, Focus Sessions help leaders stay on track and eliminate distractions while working from home. The program uses brain science, neuroscience, and research around accountability to provide a structured environment that helps entrepreneurs and small businesses focus and accomplish their work in less time. With Focus Sessions, entrepreneurs don't have to struggle alone, as they can join virtual co-working sessions where they can connect with like-minded individuals and work in a supportive environment. By offering a proven methodology of virtual co-working sessions, entrepreneurs and small businesses can bring back accountability and structure to their workdays, enabling them to optimize productivity, stay on top of their most important work, and find time for the important things in life.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Megan Flatt on LinkedIn
Megan Flatt’s book “Focused”
Let’s Collective
Focus Sessions
The Social Slowdown with Meg Casebolt
Atomic Habits by James Clear
You're a Badass at Making Money by
The Sweet Spot by Christine Carter
Leah Neaderthal of Smart Gets Paid
“Cultivating Your Markeitng Approach for Customer Trust” with Julie Liu of Avepoint
“Navigating The New Normal Of Workplace Culture And Experience” With Kim Alpert Of Udemy
Paige Buck on LinkedIn
Kennedy Events

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Kennedy Events.

Kennedy Events creates stress-free conferences and events, providing expert management and design for all your corporate event needs — from in-person to hybrid and virtual events.

To learn more about our services, visit our website at www.kennedyevents.com and schedule a consultation today to find out how we can guide you in making your event successful.

Transcript

Paige Buck [00:00:00]:

Thank you. Okay. Three, two, one. Welcome to the Kennedy Events podcast, where we uncover the future of bringing people together through the eyes of industry leaders. Whether that's retaining top talent for your business, attracting your ideal partners, or retaining your best customers, learn from professionals who have been there and done it so you can too. I'm your host. Paige Buck. Past guests include Kim Alpert of Udemy, Russell Benaroya of Stride, and Elise Napolitano of the Sprezzatura Entrepreneur. Today I have Megan Flat, the founder of Let's Collective, a business growth strategy firm devoted to making entrepreneurship easier. Megan has launched a sister brand, Focus Sessions, providing dedicated, distraction-free virtual coworking to get your most important work done. I'm excited to talk to her. And before we dive in, today's episode is brought to you by Kennedy Events. Kennedy Events creates stress-free conferences and events providing expert management and design for all of your corporate event needs, from in-person to virtual and hybrid. You can learn more about us@kennedyevents.com. Hey, Megan, how are you doing?

Megan Flatt [00:01:16]:

Thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Me too.

Paige Buck [00:01:19]:

All right, I realize I don't know this and you and I know each other pretty well. How did you get started in coaching?

Megan Flatt [00:01:28]:Oh, my goodness. Well, so my background and my college degree are actually in fitness, and so I was actually working as a personal trainer for many years here in the San Francisco Bay Area. And my area of expertise was pre and postnatal fitness. So I was working with women who either were pregnant or had just had babies. And so, obviously, while we're working out, we're having all of these conversations about what they're going to do next. And in the Bay Area, you have this amazing pool of people and parents that have these amazing companies and amazing businesses and amazing careers and Ivy League degrees and all the things. And so there was always this conversation about, do I go back to work? Do I leave my new baby home with a nanny? And do I go back to this career that I've spent so long building, or do I leave my career and stay home with my child? And it was always this kind of conversation that we were having. I always joke, like, between the bicep curls and myself, I've been an entrepreneur my entire life. So I've never had a corporate job. I've never had a nine-to-five job. I ran a dance studio. I taught swim lessons. I was a personal trainer. I've always done something very entrepreneurial. And so these conversations that I would have with my clients would kind of start to turn to, what if there was a hybrid? What if you created your own thing and that led to these conversations that then it's like, okay, let's talk about that. Let's look at how we could do that.

Paige Buck [00:03:21]:

Yeah, I hear you. I think it's fascinating that you found yourself in those dialogues, and then you're like, I can make this a business too.

Megan Flatt [00:03:30]:

Exactly.

Paige Buck [00:03:31]:

Yeah, I'm a guide. I'm a good guide for this. When you made that transition to strategic business consulting and out of bicep curls and tracking fitness progress, what were some of the early days like for you?

Megan Flatt [00:03:49]:

Well, yeah, and that's what I can picture it. I can picture the client that I was with. And it was one day when I was training her in her home, and it was one day when I showed up at her door and she was wearing street clothes, she wasn't wearing her workout clothes. And she said to me, and I thought, oh, maybe she's sick or she's not feeling like working out today. And she said to me, I'll pay you for this session. Can we spend the whole time talking about the business idea that we came up with during my last personal training session? And that was the light bulb where I went, oh my gosh, yes we can. And people need this, and people need this help and people need this advice. I'm going to pause us, and clearly, my computer is not on Do Not Disturb.

Paige Buck [00:04:36]:

Oh, you go right ahead. I mean, this is the real world. Hey, we just paused for a second because the real world intruded. And we'll talk later about how that's very much part of your new business model.

Megan Flatt [00:04:53]:

But before that exactly right.

Paige Buck [00:04:55]:

Before we do that, I realize as you're telling me this origin story, that you've seen a lot of people have an idea and build it into something, and then you've probably seen a lot of people, like midway in the mid stages of that. They've launched it and they're trying to figure out the next stage. Do you have some observations of watching people do that and what that's like?

Megan Flatt [00:05:23]:

Yeah, it's so fun. Thank you for acknowledging that for me too, because this was over, this was close to 15 years ago that I had this conversation, and I've been running my consulting business for over ten. And so to think back to that origin story and to think about one of the things that I started out, that really starting out, helping people through a transition, right through a life transition. And if I look at even when I left the fitness industry and became completely focused on business consulting, that thread has really stayed true. That really I think what business consulting is, is helping people, helping business owners through the various transitions that are entrepreneurship. And so I look at different journeys. One of the analogies you've probably heard me use, and one of the analogies that I always talk about is this idea of the spiral staircase in business and where as business owners, we revisit similar topics over and over again. And it's easy to get frustrated, it's easy to get discouraged. It's like, well, I'm back to square one. Or here I am trying to figure out my ideal team, who my ideal team is. Or here I am trying to figure out my marketing strategy again. And it can be really discouraging because you feel like, gosh, haven't I done this already? And I tell my clients, no, you're not back to square one. You're coming around the rung of a spiral staircase, and you're back to the same topic, but you're a rung hire. You've brought all of that experience, you've brought all of that knowledge with you, and now you're making another decision about marketing, about your team, about your ideal client, whatever it is. And the truth of the matter is you're going to go around the spiral again, and at some point in the future, you're going to visit this concept again. And so I think transitions, it's really what entrepreneurship is all about, and it's making the next best decision for you, for your family, for your business, for your community, wherever it is that you want to make that impact.

Paige Buck [00:07:39]:

Yeah. And I think it can be helpful to have that. You've got the spiral staircase perspective where you're looking at it from higher up and you're like, okay, maybe it feels scarier because you are higher up. Like the risks feel greater than all would be further. But as you said, you're bringing that perspective with you. What do you think? I wonder, how often are you having to bring that back around? Sort of like straight talk, give a straight talk or calming talk me down, but not down off the spiral staircase. Talk to your clients.

Megan Flatt [00:08:19]:

Oh, well, every time. All the time. I joke that business consulting is parallel to therapy, right, right? All the time. But I think that, again, that's what I'm here for. And that's what a business consultant, whether it's a paid business consultant, whether it's a mentorship program that you're participating in, whether it's a good business friend that you're able to have this kind of solid conversations with, it's a safe place to I sound like parenting advice right here, but it's the same in parenting, right? It's like it's a safe place to test limits, right? So my clients come to me and they kind of say, like, what if, what if? Or I'm frustrated with this or this situation is feeling sticky, this is feeling uncomfortable. This isn't feeling the way I want it to feel. And then we start saying together, like, well, what if, what if you did this and kind of trying it on again? I'm full of analogies. We'll get about 400 during this podcast interview. But it's kind of like trying on a pair of shoes, right? Like, you try on a pair of shoes and you're kind of deciding these are uncomfortable, or you know what, these are a little tight right now, but I think they're going to stretch and be perfect. And so that's what I feel like I do with my clients, is like, hey, let's try on a bunch of different shoes in this conversation so that then you can go back into your business wearing the best possible fit and then try those out for a while.

Paige Buck [00:09:56]:

I know from talking with you about other projects, other experiences, you've watched people move through that sometimes I have this belief that I've probably been this client to you. Sometimes people come to you and they say, I'm stuck. I'm coming to you because I'm stuck. But then every new opportunity you give them, the path you offer them, they're like, no, been there, done that, tried that. I told you, Megan, I'm stuck. And yet I feel like you are gifted at helping people get unstuck. What do you think that looks like when people start moving off of their arms crossed, leaning back, super resistant, and into? Like, let's try something. What's the magic there?

Megan Flatt [00:10:49]:

Yeah, okay. So before I share that, I'm going to share talking about the fitness industry, I'm going to share a quick story. So I just had my 45th birthday. So this is the difference between being 22 and being 45. When I was 22 and I was in personal training. And it's funny on the video how you just kind of sat back and sat back and crossed your arms. And I remember the gym that I was working at. I remember having this woman come to me. You got a free session when you joined the gym, you got a free session with the personal trainer. And I remember her coming to me, and I was new to the industry and young, and she did exactly that. She sat down in the chair, crossed her arms, and she said, I hate vegetables, and I won't do a squat. I want to see you make me lose weight. And 22-year-old me was like, oh, okay, well, we could do this, and we could try this, and I could tell you this, and here's my education and here's what I know, and here's all my things. 45-year-old me would say, I can't help you, right? And maybe not quite that direct. But I also realized that people it's not my job to make you at 22, it wasn't my job to make that woman lose weight, and it's not my job to make my clients change their businesses, change the path they're on. Do something different. Hire someone, fire someone, offer a new product, offer a different product. I had a personal training friend that used to say, like, I can't hold the fork for you, right? And it's the same thing in business consulting. I think I realized that I was afraid in that situation that I looked like I didn't know what I was doing if I couldn't help this woman. And now I'm confident enough and I realize enough that that's not my job.

Paige Buck [00:12:46]:

And I imagine I was going to say, well, what you just said is a really great place to move somebody. If you say, well, then I'm not going to be able to help you, that woman might very well say, oh, no, wait. But I'm here.

Megan Flatt [00:13:06]:

To give you the actual answer. So that is what I really focus on. And again, I'm sure you and I have talked about this, but when someone comes to me, it's usually because something is uncomfortable, something feels stuck, something doesn't feel right, something's not flowing. And so I really go from a place of we don't start with what are you going to do? We start with how do you want to feel? So you are feeling a certain way right now, and you don't like the way that feels. So how do you want to feel? Let's not even worry about how we're going to get there, but how do you want to feel? How do you want your team to feel? How do you want your day to feel? How do you want the way you make money? Like, how do you want it to feel? And I know that feels a little kind of esoteric or a little bit in the clouds, but I think if we start from there, then it eliminates that. It doesn't eliminate, but it helps to break down that, oh, wait, I've tried that. I don't want to do that. There's all these things. It's like, okay, well, you want to feel different. How are we going to get there? And then we're kind of coming we can usually agree on the end result. We can usually agree on we want to solve this problem so that you can feel this way, and then we can just start backing it out, right? Okay, so what do you need to do? What do we need to do to make you feel this way? Or what does this ideal situation look like? Or how is your team different when you feel this way? And we can start kind of going through those questions and kind of back into an answer, which isn't always easy for me because I want to jump into, you know what you should do. You know what would be good, right?

Paige Buck [00:14:53]:

Tapping into the emotions can feel both, like, the hardest thing, but it's the most powerful thing, and it's at the center of everything else. I love when you've asked me this question because I'm often in I'm often in my head and not my heart. I'm in tactics, like, well, okay, we can do this, we can do this, we can do this, we can do this. Or I can implement the plan that I was taught in this book, or the chart could look like this. And when you get me and Maggie together, when we shift into, this is what I want it to feel, it feels like this now, I want it to feel like this later, and then the path becomes easier to discover together.

Megan Flatt [00:15:40]:

Well, and you can start to peel it back like an onion, too. It's like, okay, if it feels like this and you want it to feel like this, what are the individual pieces of that? Business owners, despite making a career around task management and time management and project management, and focus and all of those things, business owners don't have a problem taking action. Right? We don't. That's why we're able to own our own businesses. That's why we're able to be entrepreneurs, is because there's something innate inside of us that makes us action-takers. And so I think with entrepreneurs, it's actually getting people to stop taking action long enough to think about how they want to feel.

Paige Buck [00:16:27]:

Right. I imagine that what can come from thinking about actually being able to name some feelings is that then when somebody says when you move into something like a vision exercise, it's less scary. It used to feel, like, very shut down to me. Like, think about a year from now. I'm like, think about five years from now. Absolutely not. No. That's just very untenable and incalculable to me. But what do you want? How do you want to feel? Is really powerful.

Megan Flatt [00:17:04]:

I was just going to say I had a business friend of mine mention once, and this was in the middle of I think this was the beginning of 2021 when she mentioned this to me. So the middle of a pandemic, we're all kind of going we've all had to completely, one way or another, we've completely reinvented something about our businesses and our lives during the pandemic. And I remember her saying it was, you know, I mean, it was January 4. Like, I can picture it. It was January 4, 2021. And she said to me, she said, I want to make sure I'm building the house I want to live in. And that was such a like, for.

Paige Buck [00:17:41]:

Me.

Megan Flatt [00:17:44]:

To think about my own business. Sometimes we just get on it. As you said, we get on this path. We do the thing the book said, we do what we think we have to do to scale, what we think we have to do to grow, and being able to step back and say, what kind of house do I want to live in? And am I building that house?

Paige Buck [00:18:10]:

Come to find you're like, building something and it's big, and you wouldn't want to be there. It's not appealing to you at all.

Megan Flatt [00:18:17]:

Yeah, exactly. Sometimes we get so heads down that we just go forward.

Paige Buck [00:18:27]:

I'm building a condo complex that reaches all the way to the sky, and I wouldn't want to live in one of those units. It might bring me money, but it's not going to bring me happiness. Or the inverse, which is bigger challenge. You were talking about major transitions, and we are living through transition after transition. It seems like a never-ending moment of change. You've had a big business-like growth and change for yourself. Tell me about your new offering. Focus Sessions.

Megan Flatt [00:19:04]:

Yes. So before we even get to focus sessions, I'll back up a little bit. My whole career, since the day my client opened her door and wanted to talk about her business, I've always really focused on kind of some version of one on one consulting. And I've done group programs, and I've done masterminds and I've done one on one consulting. But at the end of the day, it's always me downloading my brain into someone else's brain. And in 2019, an organization that you and I are both a part of, one of the mentors in that organization said to me, and it's so funny because other people have been upset that he said this to me, but he said to me, he said, you're really running a practice, not a business.

Paige Buck [00:19:54]:

And.

Megan Flatt [00:19:57]:

It was so impactful for me to hear that because there are completely amazing, wonderful, legitimate ways to scale consulting businesses. And it wasn't what I wanted to do. I loved working one on one. I loved getting under the hood and digging into my clients business. And so it didn't matter. It didn't matter how much I raised my rates. It didn't matter. It was still, at the end of the day, the business relied on my brain and my being the face of the brand. Although that sounds kind of ridiculous, but that's what a consulting business is. You get someone to trust you. Whether they're trusting you for 1 hour a week or 1 hour a year, they still have to decide, like, I want the information that you have in your brain, right? And then we go into a pandemic. So I have this kind of quote in my head, and then we move into a pandemic. And most of my clients were parents and were primary caregivers. And so we get into this pandemic, and everyone is all of a sudden most of my clients run online businesses. Not all of them, but most of my clients run online businesses. Most of my clients were already working from home when the pandemic hit.

Paige Buck [00:21:33]:

And.

Megan Flatt [00:21:34]:

Everyone's lives shifted, mine included. Now all of a sudden, kids are home partners. Businesses are changing. Our businesses are changing. Your business changing.

Paige Buck [00:21:46]:

Schedules are nonsense.

Megan Flatt [00:21:48]:

Yeah, schedules are nonsense. It was kind of this compounding thing that was happening. It was like, okay, I was already looking for a change, or what's this next iteration? What's this next transition for me? What's this next iteration? And then the pandemic came and the consulting and honestly, if we're being super transparent and if I'm pulling back the curtain on this podcast, I feel a little bit like I sabotaged my own business because all of a sudden, I had these two kids home with me. I had spent my entire career to that point telling people how they could be a parent and run a business at the same time and teaching them time management tips and teaching them project management tips and teaching them how to structure their business so that it would work for their life. And then all of a sudden, I had two kids that were home needing to do their school from home. I had a husband in the senior care industry who was going through his own traumatic COVID events and needing to have support around that. I had two parents who had both had significant health crisis in 2019 that were recovering from that. And I got into 2020, and all of a sudden I was like, I don't know what I'm talking about anymore. Like, who am I to tell anyone how to run their business when I felt like my head was going to explode?

Paige Buck [00:23:20]:

You had a crisis of doubt. It doesn't sound like sabotage. It sounds like a legit, like questioning your own foundation.

Megan Flatt [00:23:33]:

Well, it was sabotage when I questioned my own foundation and then said, well, maybe I should shut down my coaching practice. So then I kind of started like and it wasn't that I ever made that decision, like, I'm shutting the doors, but if you're not feeling confident, it's harder to sell coaching. It's harder to convince people that when my clients would come to me and say, I need to take a break from coaching, I'd be like, okay, probably should. Yes, I get it.

Paige Buck [00:24:00]:

Off you go.

Megan Flatt [00:24:03]:

I feel you. Exactly. And so kind of fast forward to the end of 2021 of the things I'd been running Masterminds and Group Coaching since about 2014. And we had always in our Masterminds because we're all virtual, because so many of my clients work from home by themselves, solopreneurs, we had always done something in our Masterminds called Virtual Coworking, where just this, we don't have coworkers. We don't have that office environment. And people missed it and missed that accountability. They missed that connection, that collaboration. So as part of our program, we started doing these virtual coworking sessions. And so at the end of 2020, I got the idea through seeing what was out there in the market, through hearing what my clients were needing, what they were struggling with. We were all trapped at home. The co-working spaces were closed, the coffee shops were closed. All of that was there were no conferences, business conferences happening in person. All of that connection had been eliminated. And so that was when I came up with the idea of, like, what if this virtual coworking that we were offering once a month or once a week, what if that was a standalone service? And so in 2021, I launched Focus Sessions. And Focus Sessions is, I like to say, my fitness background. It's like a gym but for productivity. We offer 1690 minutes virtual co working sessions a week. And the idea is, it's a place where people can get their most important work done. We know as entrepreneurs and as small businesses that we are constantly distracted because we wear a million hats. We're the CEO, but we're also the VP of Marketing, and we're the janitor, and we're everything in between. And so I would see myself and I would see my clients. Our days filled with slack pings and text messages and calls and meetings and all of the things, and we weren't doing the activities that we needed to do to move our business forward. And so using brain science, using neuroscience, using research around accountability, we created. I put together a team because I had learned from my business, okay, if I'm going to start something new, I don't want it built on my shoulders alone. I'm not the expert or the only expert at this. So I brought in a team. I brought in people to help me build this program based on their expertise. I brought in a former client of mine, Miriam Burke, who is kind of our program manager. She is a former lawyer, a mediator. She's got a background in neuroscience and a background in coaching. And so she brings that kind of mindset piece to it. And we created this program with the rest of our team. We created this program where people could set aside dedicated time during the day to get their most important work done. So then they can turn the computer off, they can get back to the other things that are important to them in life. And that's where focus sessions came from.

Paige Buck [00:27:22]:

So I've dipped my toe into focus sessions. I know you offer like, a free trial session, and I used it recently because I find for me, the challenge I'm having is focusing on anything but work. I do a great job when I I will get it done if I'm accountable to somebody else. And in my work life, most of my stuff has consequences for other people, or there's going to be a meeting with my partner or even our virtual CFO, even though he is a consultant to me, I'm still like, I got to show up. I have to have done my homework before I have this meeting.

Megan Flatt [00:27:57]:

I have to have done my but.

Paige Buck [00:27:59]:

I'm really bad at being accountable to myself about, say, that scheduling the optometrist appointments or the things. I told my spouse I would do some household improvement, some flight. I need to look at whatever it might be. So I was like, maybe I would use this especially for this. And I've experienced it now, and it was illuminating. It absolutely could be one of the tools and a really big part of solving that for myself, because I love the energy that it puts you in. I assume they all run the same field, is that right?

Megan Flatt [00:28:43]:

Yeah. So that's what we did. Everything is built around science, and there's some research that backs up everything we do in a Focus Session. So all of the sessions are hosted and all of the hosts follow the exact same flow because we know that that is the sequence that will get people into the best state to focus. And exactly what you said. I love that you brought that up because we recommend and whether you join focus sessions or whether you do these sessions on your own, it's this idea of, I am blocking out a certain amount of time. We do 90 minutes because science tells us 90 minutes is about the right amount of time for our brains to focus. We're not supposed to focus all day long. We're not supposed to be we're supposed to focus in shorter chunks. So whether for you, it's right to do a 15 minutes sprint or a 30-minute sprint or a 90 minutes sprint, deciding that time and then being really intentional with what you're going to do with that time and what you're not going to do with that time. So even if you're using the time to book all of the medical appointments that you need to book, then you need to be dedicated to that and not be checking Slack, or sending a quick work email. Because we all know, we've heard the statistics that if you're multitasking or you get distracted, it takes you 20 minutes to get back. And that's what we're trying to avoid. It's like, deciding what you want to do, focus on that, and then be done with it and move on to the next thing. And if the next thing is something else for work, or if the next thing is taking your kids to the beach or like, whatever it is, you move on to the next thing.

Paige Buck [00:30:24]:

Yeah, the intention setting was powerful. The sort of grounding meditation at the top and then there's that very easy to take for granted, but like, shared experience of even though I'm on Zoom and I'm with other people, and I feel like I do that a lot anyway, we've made a collective agreement to be present in this way together. And so I feel some camaraderie and some like, I don't know you, but I still feel accountable to you, works really well for you.

Megan Flatt [00:30:53]:

There was a study in 1930 or maybe 1920, there was a study in 1920 that said that when people were working on a task, working on tasks sitting at the same table, even if they weren't collaborating or competing, they performed better on that series of tasks than when they were alone. And this is before smartphones, this is before the distraction of social media, all of these other things. We've learned that when you work in kind of tandem with someone, even if it's not someone you know, even if you're not working on the same thing, even if you're not racing to finish something, that you're more likely to get it done. And again, whether that is this important sales email that you have to write, or whether it's making those appointments that have kind of fallen off your to do list. If you've said to the group, we declare in the chat what we're going to be working on, if you've said, hey, this is what I'm going to be working on, and at the end we ask you, how did you do? Nobody wants to say like, oh, I scrolled Facebook for the last hour. Yeah, I spent the whole time responding to my team in Slack. You want to be held accountable to that?

Paige Buck [00:32:11]:

You want that? Yes. This is an ongoing conversation as our team grows, and now we are 100% virtual. We're among more time zones than we used to be. We have new members and people who've been on the team for a little more than a year and people who've been on the team for more than five years. So there's constant knowledge sharing that needs to happen as well. Transfer and collaboration and how to move the ball forward when we're sometimes in we're asynchronous you're in a meeting, I have a question. It's after business hours for me. You need my approval. So what are some ways that you see for teams to harness some of the same neuroscience lessons that you learned to work more effectively together?

Megan Flatt [00:33:04]:

Yeah, really. I mean, it's all about and this is kind of the double-edged sword of being able to work virtually, of being so connected, of having cell phones, of having wireless, of having all of these things where we're not. All walking into the same office building, punching the clock, staying. Leaving for an hour for lunch, coming back, walking out, punching the clock. Because we're not doing that anymore. We've lost a lot of those parameters that were just innately set. Pre-Internet, pre-WiFi, pre-COVID, pre.

Paige Buck [00:33:42]:

Smartphones, pre all those things, pre-break with dopamine triggers. Yeah.

Megan Flatt [00:33:50]:

And so I think kind of to answer your question, I think it really does come about putting those boundaries back in place. I love this story that and I've never seen it firsthand, but I've heard this story about Slack as a workplace. When they were developing the program Slack, they wanted there to be the do not disturb button. They wanted there to be settings where you could turn off Slack, and the company apparently has a very good culture around boundaries, and they apparently have a neon sign in their offices that say, work hard and go home. I think the bigger piece is really having this company culture where even if you're the boss, even if someone else is waiting for you, you're not expected to approve something after business hours or just create some ground rules. And maybe it is I'll approve something after business hours, whatever the ground rules are, but kind of setting those ground rules. And we made a decision. My team is also completely virtual. We're also in multiple different time zones. And so we decided to set business hours and we set them their Pacific time zone. Because I'm in the Pacific Time Zone. But when I hire someone new, my most recent hire is on the East Coast. But when I hired her, I said, these are the business you need to work between. I want it to be flexible for people. So we say that 75% of your hours have to fall in this chunk of time. Now, if she wants to at 06:00 a.m. Her time, which is 03:00 a.m. My time, that's fine. But she's not going to get a response from me until between nine and two Pacific Time and vice versa. I don't expect I might expect her to still be checking her Slack at 05:00 p.m. Her time, because that's 02:00 p.m. My time. And that's what we've established, her business hours. But just because I'm working until 05:00 p.m. Pacific Time, I don't expect her to still be working at 08:00 p.m. East Coast time. And it's just having that conversation and being upfront about it.

Paige Buck [00:36:11]:

And.

Megan Flatt [00:36:14]:

We made decisions to close as an office, like the week of 4 July, no one's working. We made some of those kind of cultural decisions to help build in some of those boundaries.

Paige Buck [00:36:27]:

I love that. Yeah, it's an evolving thing for us, and I imagine it is for a lot of places. Since you used the analogy before. Can you get a corporate gym membership to Focus Sessions?

Megan Flatt [00:36:43]:

Yeah. So that's one of the things that is really fun about Focus Sessions is we started offering these partnerships and basically they work kind of two different ways. We've partnered with some people to provide just like a gym membership to provide Focus Sessions to their clients. So, for example, we are partnered with a woman who runs a coaching program for moms and helping them with healthy habits and healthy eating and all of these things. And she gives them a Focus Session membership as part of the cost that they're paying to her to do their meal planning, do the work and things, the homework from her program in Focus Sessions. And then she pays us a wholesale price to be able to offer that. So that's one way is that people are offering it as a perk to their clients. And then the other way that we do that is, like you said, that corporate membership. So working with teams where their team is dispersed and then the CEO buys a Focus Session membership for all of the team members and that's a really fun way for them. I've hosted sessions where you'll have all of the team members will show up for a 09:00 a.m. Focus Session. And even though they're all working on the same thing and we do it within our own team, we'll be in our team slack channel saying, okay, I'm about to jump into the 09:00 a.m. Focus Session. I'm going to have that email series for you to review at 1030. And so then we're using the Focus Sessions to kind of hold each other accountable or we'll even say someone will say, can you get this done for me? And the person might say, yes, I'll do it in the noon focus session on Friday. And so we can use it as.

Paige Buck [00:38:35]:

A way I think it's a great way for a business to say we care about deep work and not distraction, but then to model that and say, and here's an opportunity, here's a tool to practice it. That sounds really good.

Megan Flatt [00:38:51]:

Here's where you can do your deep work. That it's. Okay, here's a focus session membership. Go into a focus session, turn off your Slack channel, don't check email. Do the deep work you need to move the business forward. And we know that people are more productive and actually like the true sense of more productive. They actually produce more when they have that focus time.

Paige Buck [00:39:18]:

I love that. Okay, I'm going to do a quick lightning round with you as we bring this plane in for a landing. I think of you as hungry mind, like you can't help but be like you're consuming and using new things to stimulate new ideas for you and your clients all the time. So podcast of the moment for you if you're a podcast listener.

Megan Flatt [00:39:41]:

Oh my goodness. Okay, so now podcasts have a little bit been my COVID casualty if you will.

Paige Buck [00:39:52]:

But a couple of things that you had to let go of, right?

Megan Flatt [00:39:57]:

Exactly. Yeah, the thing that I kind of had to let go of because I would often listen to podcasts during my commute and during travel. But I will tell you a couple of my favorites. My friend Meg Casebolt hosts a podcast called The Social Slowdown. And that is definitely what I'm constantly like, I almost use it as a research tool. She is all about how are we building businesses without relying on social and what are the longer, more sustainable ways to build businesses. And I always joke that I want to pay her just to introduce me to the people she knows. So she always has the most amazing podcast guests. And then my other dear friend Leah Nederethal Smart gets paid, and has a podcast where she talks with female leaders about all sorts of different things but definitely along that kind of sales strategy. She had someone that was talking about building confidence recently. And so those are definitely two of the podcasts that when I can tune in, I listen to, tune into.

Paige Buck [00:40:59]:

Recent favorite business book.

Megan Flatt [00:41:04]:

Goodness, I can't say one, but Atomic Habits is one of my all-time favorite business books. Another all-time favorite business book is You're a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero. I read that three times in a row in 2017 and it changed my life every time I read it. The Sweet Spot by Christine Carter. Another kind of life-changing book.

Paige Buck [00:41:30]:

Love that.

Paige Buck [00:41:33]:

Unheard of to me. So you're like giving me, giving me fuel and then I'll just wrap by. Those are my faves. Tell me somebody that you're grateful to.

Megan Flatt [00:41:46]:

I love this, and I just think because we work, the nature of our work is solo. And even when you have teams and you've got other people that you're working with, sometimes you really need a place where you can talk about whatever it is. You can talk about wanting to burn your business down. You can talk about something you're excited about, but you're not ready to share with the world yet. And so I think business besties are so important. And Leah I just mentioned her podcast Leah Neaderthal is my business bestie, for sure. We have a robust Voxer relationship. We Voxer back and forth every day, probably. And it is those things that it's like, hey, I had this idea. What do you think? Oh, I'm feeling uncomfortable about raising my prices. What do you think? Oh, I'm so frustrated by this. Or, oh, I don't feel like working today. What should I do? Or, I had this big win. I wanted to share it with you. And I think that those are such important relationships that we all need. So she is definitely someone I'm grateful for.

Paige Buck [00:42:56]:

I love that. What a great reminder. But also, that's a prompt to think about the way you harness and make use of that relationship, get the most out of that relationship, and give in that relationship, too. So you and Lita sound like you have something special.

Megan Flatt [00:43:12]:

Yeah, it's great. And I always recommend this. I think it's important for us as business owners to have regular conversations with other business owners. However you facilitate that, I think it's a really important thing.

Paige Buck [00:43:29]:

So, Megan, we've been talking with you for a while now, and I'm so grateful for your time. And where can people find out about you? Let's Collective and strategy sessions.

Megan Flatt [00:43:41]:

Yes. So if you definitely go to Let's Collective Co, and if you want to check out anything about my business consulting, or my business coaching, then I'd love to send you to Focussessions.com to learn more about Focus Sessions. As you said, there's a free trial on the membership. Come try out a session, join us for a session, and see what it's all about. And I'm at either Megan Flat or Focus Sessions on most social channels, so you can always find me there as well.

Paige Buck [00:44:10]:

Awesome. Thanks so much.

Megan Flatt [00:44:11]:

Much. Thanks for having me.

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PAIGE BUCK

Paige Buck is the co-owner of Kennedy Events, a large-scale event management company based in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. Our team creates stress-free conferences and events with a positive impact, which allows our clients to resonate with their audience. Kennedy Events specializes in producing flawless product launches, award ceremonies, fundraisers, and multi-day conferences while keeping our eye on retention and engagement goals.

About Kennedy Events

Kennedy Events began with one goal in mind—to produce high-level corporate events with just as much strategy as style. Maggie founded the company in 2000, found her match in Paige, and in 2011 the two became official partners. Since then, these two resourceful and brilliant creatives have pooled their strengths to build one one of the most the most sought after corporate event companies in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.