Hello, and welcome to another episode of behind the madness. I'm your host, James Roberts, founder, and owner of method. We are a growth agency who are hell bent on unlocking company's potential through creative and marketing techniques. Today on the pod, we are talking about health and wellbeing for your business. I am joined by Paul and Jamie. Once again, it's great to have them on the pod. It helps you guys get something more interesting than just my dulcet tones for 13 or 15 minutes.
So let's jump straight in today. I think it's a lovely topic topic and one which is very close to my heart. So let's get going Hi, both. I hope you're both well feeling happy, feeling healthy and ready for today's topic.
Good to be here James.
likewise.
So Jamie, we are talking about health and wellbeing in the office, and within a business. So do you want to get us started? What are we going to be covering today? What are we going to be going over and yeah, fill us in a bit.
It's a really important topic today because over the last number of years, as more and more businesses have popped up, those almost been a badge of honor for people who are working 24 7 and saying, oh, I only slept three hours last night because I was working on my business. That badge of honor is slowly over time deteriorated their mental capacities, both in terms of mental health, from a personal point of view, but also their output for their business.
So it's those kinds of things that we're looking today, we want to give back to business owners really who are put under enormous pressure by themselves and by society by maybe it's their social status or what they're doing in a personal life, but mainly by themselves demanding so much of themselves that they're actually hindering their business efforts. So it's stuff like walking away from your desk, eating lunch in separate places.
All these little tips can really help someone excel, not hinder, excel their business and grow it forward.
Yeah, I think that's a really good point. I think that certainly today's society still does believe that you have got to work and work hard until you die. think there's this whole middle ground that we're kind of missing out on and if we go back to our last episode, when we were talking about another one of my favorite topics on optimization and workflows and things like that, we touched on optimizing your self and your time and time management. And if you are.
Struggling either with some, uh, sleep deprivation or you're having mental health issues or anything along these lines, trying to push through that, push through those barriers is only going to make it harder in the long run. You're not going to be as effective as you could be, you are going to struggle with everyday tasks. In some instances, mistakes within the business could be hugely costly.
So I think, yeah, taking a step back and looking after yourself is in turn looking after the business helping the business thrive.
Massively, this is nothing new, in terms of the wellbeing of a business owner or founder or founding team, or down to the team themselves, because you look at some of the big figureheads, the Richard Bransons, the Jeff Bezos, these guys who I think we can all agree have done pretty well for themselves. Jeff Bezos makes sure he gets eight hours a night. Like he screams at the other end of the scale of not oh I only slept two hours last night. He says, no, no, that's a non-negotiable for me.
Richard Branson, he evangelises how teams should be treated. These are the kinds of well-being tricks that they will fuel the growth, not hindering.
Yeah, absolutely. Let's think about our days then? Obviously, you know, we have our best scenarios, which are great when we can keep to them. Obviously, sometimes we can't sometimes needs must, sometimes you're going to have a day, which is just jam packed full of meetings and it is then difficult to focus more on yourself, but that's where, you know, you know, you're aware of what's happening and then maybe the next day, you can try and combat that.
But I will always try and have my lunch away from the office. I'll generally, you know, we're lucky here. Like most people are now that they work from home. So I will come out the office and I will have my lunch in my kitchen and try and turn off and just have that downtime where I can refocus and then almost go again but I can collect my thoughts.
The adrenaline is usually pumping through our day because we spoke about the monkey mind, where we are jumping from one thing to another, swinging from one branch to the next and able to stop and just take a check of how I feel and then go again is a must, And we always do that within our lunch break but you know, certain times we're going to have to, you know, El Desco our lunch because got to get something done.
And I think that's the balance, I think it's understanding yourself and knowing when you, sometimes you just got to push through and other times when you need to step back or definitely should step back. So in terms of those kinds of ideas, what do you guys, you know, we'll tap up for first, what tips or things do you do to break your day up to basically keep you on top of your game.
I agree with you about the lunch, obviously, I work remotely from home as well in my office. I'll go downstairs and cook myself something or make a sandwich or something I'll not to eat at my desk, I'll sit down in the dining room, away from the computer. Sometimes we need to eat at our desks because we've got stuff or stuff to watch, whether it's educational or just catching up on stuff.
But I think it's really important to be mindful of looking out for yourself day to day, because, you'll just make it worse and you will exhaust yourself and you won't be good to anyone then. Before I worked for method, I worked for a newspaper as a photographer and I was out driving a hundred miles a day in the countryside of the Cotswolds, the Malverns, it was a great job. I was in the fresh air all the time was meeting tens of people every day.
I mean, you chat everyone And then I'll start working from home, it's completely different, you didn't see anyone, so I find it really important to go out and do other stuff. Perhaps in the evenings, I play tennis socially two or three times a week and that sort of making sure I get the fresh air, get a of exercise, meet other people because I could go a week with just talking to my partner and son quite easily and not see anyone else.
That is very interesting, and I'm going to come in with the classic bombshell question for the two of you, becoming a reoccurring, behind the madness topic. How do you think it's changed since COVID because that element, you said Paul, you've been remote working for a long time, now, then last two years, I haven't been too different from a working stance. For a lot of people that has. how think it's changed how can people adapt to that change better?
I think people have a understanding, more that working from isn't just dossing around. You have to get stuff done. And before hand, when you say you worked from home. Oh, that must be very convenient, must be really nice, just sort of rolling into the office five minutes after you wake up, but then now they understand that actually you're using your home as an office and it's not ideal. You've got a work family barrier there that you've got a separate.
One thing you should do really is separate your work life from your family life. So when at five 30, when you leave the office, go and do something, whether it's a walk around the block or have your tea, just do something that tells your body that works finished.
Yeah, I a hundred percent agree. and I think building on Paul's point. I look for outlets, in terms of what I can do, that changes things like I'm a very avid learner and I love learning. My role as social media manager, I learned a lot daily because it changes all the time.
But even if I'm still what I would call maybe working, if I'm off learning about, say content creation or photography, something that I can link back to my job, still gives me that sense of differentiating and it changes the mental space within my head. So I never used to be a big reader, but now I've really, really got into reading. But then another outlet for me is the other end of the scale of going to the gym. So I think finding those outlets that you can really unplug and go, okay.
I may still be working in my mind, but actually I'm getting a of different enjoyment from it the end of the day, you can love what you do, but work is work.
There's a temptation that upstairs or the garden office is there to just pop back into five minutes and then you're there till 11 o'clock at night it's still working and you haven't seen your family.
We are the most accessible generations in history, so it's about finding, and I kind of want to flick this conversation a little bit because we are highlighting a few of the, the real big issues, but it's then, okay. So what do we do about it?
So we've got stuff like eating away from your desk, changing that setting, what outlets they could be hobbies, they could be stuff like going to the gym, or even if you are into your learning, your reading, whatever it may be, just because it's work doesn't mean you can't use your laptop or your phone still. So what other things can we think that would help people with their mindset as well?
Because a lot of clarity and a lot of awareness has been put on the importance of checking with people mentally, important than ever in the last two years where people have been restricted. We do something where we have about once a month, we have a content day, where we head down to James' house, and we record a load of our reels.
We record a load of stories, I know you guys have probably seen Tips with Tea, to our Instagram and check those out because they are hilarious and obviously packed full of value. But alongside that, we'd be lying if we said to you that 16 hours of work. It's not, it's probably a couple of hours of recording reels and then double that messing around, playing football in the park, goofing each other's outtakes.
And it's that social touch that then reinvigorates us personally to better ourselves in role.
We're all social creatures. That's the thing. That's where, you know, the last two years. have been tough for a lot of people because of that social interaction. I mean, we can count ourselves very, very lucky in terms of work that we already had certain protocols and certain systems in place, which we were already used to working from working remotely, but still had the option to come into the office. We still had the option to kind of do all of that social interaction when we needed it.
And we recognized when we need it. Sometimes people just needed to come into the office for a day. Now it's obviously harder than ever during those two years to do that, we couldn't do it. So people have found benefits in working from home. And I think that's down to the employers as well at the same stage that don't think that company has to run the nine to five. Shifts.
This is something again, which is very much something which we've put on from society where it doesn't actually have to be that time, it's a decent time because it's kind of the, the middle part of the day. We have a, an early part to get the kids to school. It kind of runs around that. we also have a portion at the end where the kids are finishing, where we can enjoy time as a family. Again.
But, you know, if you want to go and get the kids from school at three o'clock, if you've need that break to go for a walk at lunch, or if you've just been staring at a screen, you shouldn't feel as a member of the team to be staring at a screen when you are not being productive, again, it's, counter-intuitive go for a walk, go take the dog out. Especially if you know, we're in a creative environment. So we know this more than most.
But you have to find that balance and find, as you said, you know, going to the gym, finding these outlets where you can do something where you're still keeping yourself engaged. A lot of business owners flip that you would think that you need to turn off and you would think that you'd need to stop your brain from kind of working and do something like watching telly.
But in fact, the opposite has been found to be more beneficial, where you are still engaging the brain in something which is still difficult to problem solving, but in a different avenue, chess, rock climbing, some of the big hobbies a lot of company owners, CEOs take up because their brain is still being worked and they are still engaging and still finding that use out of the brain. But they're almost relaxing at the same point.
So I think having that balance, Maybe changing these hours and you know, here, we're very flexible, as long as we have deadlines on jobs.
And to be honest I don't care if they're done at nine o'clock at night, or if they're done at six o'clock in the morning, as long as if the time set that it needs to be done by X they're done by X. I think the point and this then aids this whole better culture within an organization where people can thrive but also not have this fear of having to be chained to your desk between nine to five, I've spoken to friends before and they've
gone I'm supposed to be working, but I've just gone and hung out the washing. this guilt, I was like, go and hang out the washing, go and that for five minutes. But what you'll tend to find within an organization is the more you let go of these rains, the more you'll get back. Staff are difficult to train as there's time that you need to train staff. They're costly. They're usually the biggest part of the outgoings of a company. So why would want to burn them out?.
Why would you want to, try and drill them to the ground and not let them enjoy their job? It's madness Really.
So James, I know you're a big advocate for a bit of health, a bit of looking after your body and mind, do you burn yourself out? You get up in the morning, I think a ridiculous early time. Uh, it's just me. But you dive straight into your emails as soon as you get up, because it's a really productive time for you, but then you set aside a certain amount of time for that, and then you go and do something else and then you do start work properly.
What else do you do that sort of helps your mind and body.
Before he answers that, should we make sure that he gets the plugin for the thing on his wrist that we know he's dying to talk about
Of the several names I'm expecting pop up here, let's, uh, let's let him loose with his affiliate marketing.
So I wasn't actually going to, obviously I love whoop. It gives me the feedback that I need. It is a brilliant tool to understand how my body is feeling, but it also allows me to recognize when I need to step back, which is why I love it, but I'm not, completely like if I need to do something, if I need to go for a run, if I need to do this, I'm not going to go one, hang on a minute, I'm in the red, I'm in the orange I'm not going to do it so I think there's that flip side to it.
But yes, I love my Whoop and yes, it does help me
So the people that don't know Whoop is?
Whoop is a device that you wear on your wrist that it's not like a watch or anything like that doesn't give you any feedback. It is constantly tracking you throughout your day. And will break down your day into, strain and recovery, essentially. So it will know how well you've slept, but it will also know how much strain you've put on your body throughout a day. Normally we're very good at tracking exercises or tracking activities. What Whoop does is track your whole day.
So it will know when you've gone for a run, but it will also know when you've had an intensive meeting at work. And at the end of the day, you will have a score out of 21, of how much strain you have put on your body for that day. It will then analyze you throughout the night and your sleep and tell you the next day, how well you are recovered. So if you've had a high intensity day, you obviously need more rest to be better recovered to go again the next day.
So it's kind of helping you just be a, I mean, it is, it obviously is designed for athletes. It came from that kind of community, but it is essentially going to make people better versions of themselves because it's going to help them understand how they're feeling.
That Is the key. Is that personalization and understanding what you need some people can get by on seven hours, sleep. And some people need nine and it is personalizing what, you know, you need, some people eat at different times. Some people will prefer getting up really early or getting up later and going to bed really late. It is about understanding yourself. So with that in mind, personalize what you're doing, okay.
Make sure you understand yourself and then use the other things we've spoken about the outlets, the distractions that are positive to your life, but you are going to still become the person you kind of want to become and the business owner you want to become. Before we go, I want to flip the script and talk about. The other side of the thing, other side of this conversation, which is making sure you're still being ambitious. There is a certain mindset you need when you're being a business owner.
And it's great to talk about the ways to stay healthy and stay positive because that's what fuels this side of things. As a business owner, you have to juggle so many plates. There is so many different things going on. So head over and look at some of our other podcasts in terms of stuff like optimization and how you can free up your time. Boys I want to have about the mindset of a business owner and what you think is really key ingredient to that side of the ambition.
I think you're right. We've got to have a drive because we've got to continue pushing your company forward. I think as well as a kind of a side note, I think there's so many topics that I would like to explore that I think we open this up and have a few other podcasts on more specific topics kind of going forward. So we'll kind of get them down. Obviously if you are interested in this, make sure you're following our podcast and then the new ones will pop up as they kind of come through.
But I think there's so much that we can obviously cover and we've obviously gone over today more than we normally do, because it's such a valid topic, but I think. Yes. It's about balance. Yes. It's about drive looking after yourself. They will give you that mindset, that fresher mind to be able to push, you know, if you are tired, if you are struggling with all this, you're not gonna, you're just gonna get up and think work is work.
Even if you're a business owner, just got to do this to pay the bills, whereas the better recovered you are the more likely you are to push some time into pushing and growing that business rather than pressures. I think business owners, anyway, entrepreneurs, people like that already have a certain mindset, and a passion. And I think, you know, I love what we do. I love helping companies grow and that's kind of, our ethos really is to help. I'm passionate about trying to help companies.
So every time I get up, I want to help people grow. I want to talk to new people. I want to learn about their ideas and what makes them tick. I find fascinating and how we can help them reach where they want to grow is really enjoyable. We are very lucky in what we do, that we hit loads of different sectors. We hit different markets and meet lots and lots of different people and, That's in itself is enough drive for me because of what we want to achieve.
And I think if you look at any successful companies, their mission is the driving force. It's not the, I only do this to make money. I think you've generally then the love and the drive would disappear out of an organization. And that's generally then where business owners will drop it and try and get that new buzz because they've lost interest.
But again, you know, it comes back to being recovered and focused on that end goal and really wanting to achieve that and whatever it might be, it doesn't have to be these worldbeater goals, you can start off, just start that journey of trying to get up the hill by taking your first step.
And that's what I think again, like you said, Jamie is a lot of the topics that we push out is helping people move along that journey and reach their bigger goals by breaking that up, you know, how do you eat an elephant, whereas one piece at a time and focusing that on that big goal is also going to really, really help you drive your company forward, but focus again down on your message. Why are you doing it? Why are you wanting to be who you are?
And I think that should be enough drive for anybody to push something forward. Again, thanks, boys for being on the podcast with me. It's always a joy to have you to helping me along and get our content out. So thanks for listening to behind the madness with me, James Paul and Jamie. I hope you obviously enjoyed this episode all about health and wellbeing within business.
Make sure, as I mentioned before that you subscribe to get all of our new episodes pop up on your device and as always head over to hello method.co.uk, sign up to receive some of our blog where we are giving some amazing content out for free, why wouldn't you as well as checking out all of the links and the resources in the show notes. So that's it for this episode folks, and I'll see you next.