352: Richard Medcalf—Why Is Strategy So Challenging When Running Your Business? Shouldn’t It Be The Best Part?

Hear what good leaders should really be thinking about

Richard Medcalf describes himself as “what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor and an entrepreneur into a blender.” In this podcast, you’ll hear from an amazing thinker who has tackled strategic challenges in companies all over the world. In his new book, Making Time for Strategy, Richard speaks about the difficulties he has encountered working with high-powered leaders. Far too often, they find themselves focused on the wrong things—from how to respond to emails to how to get tasks completed on time. Instead, Richard preaches that a leader’s mindset should be focused on the future, where the organization is going, and how everyone in that organization needs to be aligned around a core strategy to get it there. Listen and learn!

Watch and listen to our conversation here

Richard M video-1

Richard outlines four important ways you can refocus your time and energy to get where you want to go and find pleasure in the journey of getting there (TIME):

  • Tactics
  • Influence
  • Mindset
  • Environment

making time for strategyAbout Richard Medcalf

Richard founded xquadrant in 2017 with the mission of helping elite
leaders reinvent their success formula and multiply their impact on their purpose, their people and their profit. He is bi-national (English and French), lives near Paris, and is also a licensed lay minister in the Anglican Church. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the xquadrant website.

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Read the transcript of our podcast here

Andi Simon: Welcome to On the Brink With Andi Simon. Hi, I’m Andi Simon. I’m your host and your guide. And my job is to help you get off the brink. I want you to see, feel and think in new ways, so that you can change. And if you come here and listen, you know that each time I bring you somebody new, it’s because they’ve done something that really is transformative in some fashion. They’re tackling a problem that my listeners, my audiences, my viewers are all tackling as well.

And I’m so really honored today to have Richard Medcalf here from Paris. And it’s a wonderful opportunity for us to share his new book, Making Time for Strategy, but also to share Richard. Let me give you a little bit of Richard’s personality. He sends me an email, and he wants to be on my podcast. Why? “The first thing is because I’m a fan,” he said. “I will thank you for the time and energy you invest in putting this out into the world.” I have not had many of those emails, even though I have lots of emails from our listeners. But that was really a sweet opener.

The second: he said he was sure that my audience, our audience, will find value in the topic, because many of our listeners will be running teams or businesses and hitting the ceiling of complexity, as daily operational demands suck all their time, leaving no space for strategic thinking. Now I’m a Blue Ocean Strategist. I work with lots and lots of companies who are seeking to create markets, not simply compete in them, which is Blue Ocean thinking. And they often get so tied up in making the plan, they forget they have to do something with it.

And conversely, though, if they don’t think about the plan, all their actions can take them nowhere, a very good point we’re going to focus on. And Richard thinks I’m a good speaker, which we will see today, because I think he’s a good speaker. He describes himself as what you get if you were to put a McKinsey consultant, a slightly unorthodox pastor, and an entrepreneur into a blender. So you have an idea of what we’re going to talk about today.

He’s the founder of xquadrant, and a trusted adviser to exceptional CEOs and entrepreneurs and their leadership teams. I think you’re going to enjoy him because he has advised all kinds of folks in all large and small companies. We’re going to let you hear his story from his own perspective. It’s much better than reading it. But he’s binational. He’s both English and French and lives near Paris, happily married and the proud father of two. He’s also a licensed lay minister in the Anglican Church, and has an insatiable love for spicy food and the electric guitar. Is that enough for us to think of this mash up today? Richard Medcalf is joining me now. So happy to have you on today.

Richard Medcalf: Yeah, thank you, Andi. Pleasure to be here. And thank you for the great intro.

Andi Simon: Tell our listeners and our viewers who is Richard Medcalf, because your background is rich with experiences that have led you now into your own business. I liked what you discovered as you were wandering through. You have been very successful, whether it was Cisco or elsewhere, and who are you so that they can now understand why you’re so focused on making time for strategy.

Richard Medcalf: Yeah, thanks, Andi. Well, obviously strap yourself in if you’ve got a spare six hours, because talking about myself is my favorite topic. So here we go. I’ll try to keep it brief. I better keep it brief. But so yeah, so I grew up in the UK. Started at Oxford University, went into strategy consulting, started at that point to move over to Paris. Five years later, I’m still here. I’m married to a French woman and have bilingual kids and everything else. So life doesn’t always take you in ways that you expect.

When I was at Bynum, in my strategy consulting company, I became the youngest ever partner. I’d been there about 10 years, and decided it was time to become a smaller fish in a bigger pond, rather than a big fish in a small pond. And Cisco was knocking at my door, and I thought it’d be interesting, you know, a huge tech company. Joining them, I did various roles. The last role was a small team set up by the CEO of Cisco and its chairman in order to kind of catalyze strategic relationships between Cisco and its key customers.

I like to describe it as fulfilling rash commitments made by the chief exec when he was talking to big customers. And that was all great. And I enjoyed that. And it was quite prestigious in its own way and all the rest of it. But I got to a moment when I said, you know, Richard, what do you want as a legacy? What do you want to tell your great grandchildren in the future when you’re 90 and they’re on your knee, and they’re asking you about your professional life, what you did in your job? And I realized that although I really enjoy and I still enjoy creating financial results for my clients, and back in the day, I was doing that a lot. I realized I didn’t want to just talk about how I helped AT or whoever it was, increase the EBITDA margin by 1%.

So I started to think, well, what do I really want? What are the real stories that I want to tell, you know, of my life and my professional life? And that’s when I started to really deep dive into, what makes me different? What’s my biggest gift? What’s my passion, all that kind of stuff. And I started to realize that I went to work at this intersection of leadership, strategy and purpose, or to put it another way, helping people, great leaders. I suppose the way I now describe it, or they didn’t describe it that way at the time, was, I want to help great leaders reinvent themselves to achieve breakthrough goals that change the world.

So there’s a few things in there, that personal transformation, and it’s about making a positive impact in the world. So up to now, I’ve given you all the external facts that allowed me to build this business and my new business. You know, I work with amazing leaders, CEOs of billion dollar companies, some of the founders of scaleups, tech unicorns.

One of my clients is an Olympic medalist and is now building a billion dollar business. Another of my clients was nominated as Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young. These are amazing people. But they’re already impressive, but they’re looking to connect their impact or make it make a big difference.

But let me take you back to my childhood. With me, my sister was born mentally handicapped, very seriously mentally handicapped. She passed away just a couple of months ago. And she made a huge impact on me. She was an amazing character, very determined, very joyful. But we had very different paths. You know, like she stayed at home, she needed 24 hour care, a whole care team. She couldn’t be left alone. Basically, she was so needy.

Andi Simon: Yes, but it sounds like it had a big impact on who you were.

Richard Medcalf: And yeah, I’ve realized that recently. Yeah, I realized that recently. I mean, I had this high flying career, went to Oxford. I went to a high tier strategy consulting company. I went to Cisco. I started my business. I move countries, all this stuff. And she didn’t do any of that.

And so I have this real sense that when we have the gifts, the talents, the resources, the opportunities, we kind of owe it to the world to make it a better place and to make an impact. And yet I see so often, we end up in our comfort zone, scared of doing things because we’re a bit worried about what we might lose if we were to dare to do something different. Even when we’re playing a big game, we can be busy, but in our comfort zone. So impact is a huge word for me because of that impact.

Andi Simon: It’s interesting, I read an article this morning about purpose. And don’t worry about purpose unless you have an impact. Purpose-driven companies don’t necessarily do anything, they just have a purpose, and actually I worked with one about a month ago. But your point about having impact is important for our listeners, because you are coming to that epiphany, that aha moment, where more of the same of what you’re doing, even if it’s financially lucrative, or even if it’s for good companies, isn’t personally purposeful.

And that becomes a real interesting driver for you of what your calling is and why it’s so important that you choose where you go, and you do it in a very intentional fashion, so that you have your own legacy and can answer to those kids and grand kids. You know why I’ve done what I’ve done in this life? Because it has made other lives better. So tell us from your company perspective, as well as from the book. You know, my segue is, how are you doing that?

Richard Medcalf: How am I making that impact? Well, I think concretely, what I do, we’re one-on-one with high-end leaders, CEOs or founders, entrepreneurs, sometimes C-suite leaders with their teams. I have a couple of programs that I run with perhaps more junior leaders. And I’m always helping them think about how they don’t need to challenge my thinking. Where do I need to shift who I’m being as a leader in order to achieve things which right now are outside my zone as a reference? And, you know, what is that? What’s really important?

I think it’s the fundamental question of what’s really important in terms of what I want to accomplish, what’s really important in terms of where I put my attention and my focus? What’s really important in terms of where I build my skills? I think I described myself as being strategically lazy. I’ve always been a strategist. So my life, you know, it’s why I got to the top, first at Oxford University, because I just knew where to put the focus, and what was important, what wasn’t so important when I was studying. And I think it’s strategic laziness. I just want to get a big result by focusing my efforts on the key areas.

So I think I bring that to all these different parts of leadership, from ambition to goal setting to habit formation to dealing with people. That’s kind of, I guess, the fundamental part. But what I find is that in all those conversations, whenever I sat down with a new leader, and we were looking at how you’re going to multiply your impact, how you’re going to, really just in the exponential, how you’re going to break through, the first conversation we would always have, and he was like, “Yeah, I’d love to do that Richard. But right now, to be honest, I’m just so overloaded. I’ve got so much on my plate. You know, where do I go? Where do I go from here? And how do I even make time for all this exciting stuff?” I know, it’s possible for me because that really was the seed of the book that I’ve now written.

Andi Simon: But it’s an interesting reflection. I am an anthropologist, and you’re an observer. And as you’re talking, I’m thinking about you meeting with your clients and listening to their stories, because we’re story creators. And the story was a catalyst to change your own story in your mind. And I often preach that because telling stories isn’t incidental, it doesn’t stay outside of the other person. And as you’re talking and sharing your story, our listeners’ stories are also changing.

But what’s important is, as you’re coaching your clients and they’re sharing their sense of pain, success has now turned into, “I no longer have a vision, I no longer can see where we’re going. I’m not even quite sure how it’s all aligned with a strategy.” You had an epiphany, a moment, which said, Wow, there’s something here beyond simply helping them personally transform it that could be instrumental for them to get back to being the big leaders who are supposed to be visionaries. And they’re not supposed to be worried about managing the tactical details. They’re supposed to be leading people into some particular direction. So once you had this epiphany, then the book came out of it.

Richard Medcalf: The first thing I want to just clarify is, for me, strategy is really a shorthand for strategic activity. So as a top leader, we might lead literally focusing on corporate strategy. But no matter where we are in the organization, we always need to focus on what is the most strategic, what’s going to move the needle, what’s going to have the biggest leverage. And that’s really, when I talk about strategy, I mean that.

So for somebody, that literally is: “I need to think about the vision and strategy for my company.” But then I need to just step back and think about how am I going to maximize the impact for my business unit, or my department or my team or myself? So, yes, I think the book came out not necessarily immediately, but I started to go, “I’ve got stories here.” I realized that a lot of people think that what they need is a time management book, a productivity tip that you think about how to maximize, filter their emails better or something.

What I realized was that no, the breakthorughs my clients had were in these deep conversations. They weren’t just in the area of tactics, which can be important, but it’s not everything. So with the book, I wanted to really bring, if you like a transformation perspective, to this question of how do I free myself up for this? So because I realized that was what my clients were dealing with, they knew that theory about, you know, working on the important things, even if they’re not urgent, and this kind of stuff, they knew all that. But what was really getting in their way.

And when I realized this, I came to a few key areas I wanted to share. I tested it with those leaders. I tested it with a couple of group programs that I ran with multiple leaders from different companies in and then I realized, yeah, there’s a book in this. It’s actually quite easy to write because they’ve got the experience.

Andi Simon: Pause for a second, Richard, because what you’re saying is, while they didn’t need time management, the title of your book is Making Time for Strategy. And so I just want to make sure that the listener understands that it isn’t simply reorganizing your to-do list or your calendar for the day, it’s a different way of thinking about what is important, and you’re seeing, also it’s not just for the senior leadership teams. This should be on every person in that organization’s thinking about what it is that matters. So I can also not do things that are off-strategy and are done the way we’ve always done it, but don’t need to be done anymore. Am I hearing you correctly?

Richard Medcalf: Yeah, that’s right. I mean, the way I see it, we live in a world of infinity. There is infinite stuff available to us for the first time ever. We’ve got infinite messages in our inbox, IM messaging platforms, infinite social media opportunities to converse and connect with people, infinite content to consume, to stream, to read, to whatever. It’s just like, the more we look at, the more recommendations we get, and we have more to look at. So it’s never ending.

And so there’s so many opportunities for every leader. It’s infinity. And so we can’t beat infinity with productivity. Most people, they hit the accelerator, they try to go faster and faster. And they find within hours in the day, they’ve hit the ceiling of complexity, as it can be called. Where do we go from here? And what I found is, we need to level up. We need to change gear, we can’t change gear when one foot’s on the accelerator.

We have to start to invest our time, rather than investing more in your business and you’re making like zero profit. You’ve got to invest in the future. You can’t make things better, probably you’re going to have your costs go up over time and you’re going to get a business. Most leaders are running their life like that business. They’re using their time. Every day is going and they’ve not got any margin available to invest in the breakthrough activities to invest in the future. And so they’re just running along on a hamster wheel.

Andi Simon: So I’m curious, what did you advise in your book Making Time for Strategy to help them get off that hamster wheel, reassess, and now invest in time? And I love your comments. You can’t touch infinity with productivity. And I have a hunch you have a bunch of things that I want to make sure that we have time to discuss with our listeners because I think there’s something of great value for them. And I think your discovery is very powerful. Please share.

Richard Medcalf: So in the book, I talked quite a bit to start with about what you want to put your time on. It’s really important. So I like to say, you can’t free yourself up from things, you’ve got to free yourself up for something. What if you’ve actually got a spare minute or spare hour? What do you want to put your time on? What’s going to make a breakthrough? So I spend a bit of time talking about that.

And for me, people get clear on that. But in terms of how much we actually get into that freeing ourselves up, there’s four strategies to use. And they actually spell the word TIME, which I was very happy about when I noticed that.

So there’s TACTICS. We do need a plan to get back into profitability. If you’d like more time, we do need a plan to go get rid of things which are not serving us and to stay at that level. So there is a tactical issue. The issue is that most people have over rotated on tactics, and they haven’t thought about the other parts. But if we’re actually finding diaries too full, we need to deal tactically with it.

Then I is for INFLUENCE. I like to say, if you want to go on a diet or exercise, the people that are going to get in the way are your own family. Other people are going to want the chocolate cake under your nose, because they’re used to dealing with you in a certain way. And when you’re trying to change who you are and what you focus on, it impacts them. So in a business situation, you can make your plan or tactical plan for what you want to do and meetings you don’t want to be in anymore and projects you don’t want to do anymore. But you’ve got to sell that internally, but tell your boss that “I don’t want to be in that. It’s not helpful for me to be in that meeting anymore.”

But you’ve got a colleague saying, “I don’t want this stuff coming from your department into my department because it’s not what we should be focusing on.” You’ve got to sell it to your team. “I need you to deal with things in a different way and stop involving me in the details.” So influence is a really key part. That’s what I call the Leadership Challenge. How are we actually leading other people so that we can take that higher ground?

Then M is for MINDSET. Mindset is really important. That defines the bounds of what is necessary, possible, desirable in our lives. If we don’t, if we don’t have a good mindset, a broad enough mindset, well, we believe that we haven’t got any choices in this matter.

So I’ll give you an example of one of my clients. I was helping him drive some transformational projects for a large company. He was in the C-suite of a several-billion-dollar company. And he was driving through internal transformation projects. I was helping him with that as he was onboarding into the C-suite. One day he comes to me and says, “Richard, I need some tips. I’m spending too much time on my email.”

So I joke and say, “Well, you pay me too much money if you want me to go and go through those, but tell me more.” He explains, “Well, you know, I don’t want to be the guy who’s untrustworthy, unreliable or not a team player, who people are waiting on to reply to them, that you’re stuck on projects.”

Andi Simon: So it’s not alone. And it’s a common recurring theme. My clients say, “I have to manage my email.” But what did you tell him?

Richard Medcalf: So he’ll say, “Yeah, so that’s why I have to regularly go into my inbox and help people.” So I was like, “Okay, I can’t help you.” “You can’t help me?” “Well, whatever I tell you about spending more time on these important projects, you’re not going to do it because you want to be a reliable, trustworthy team player. And if I tell you not to do that, you’re not going to do it. It’s against your values. And I totally understand.” “So, okay, well, what do I do?”

“Tell me about your CEO. What does he want us to do?” “Oh, these transformational projects are going to make a big difference.” “Okay. Where is your board? That, you know, makes a big impact on the bottom line.” “They really want these big projects to happen.” “Okay, what about your customers?” “If they were to know about it, they’d really want this internal transformation because it’s going to free up the team to work on their projects.” “Okay. What about the team itself?” “Oh, yeah. Well, they’re desperate for more modern work experience.”

“Okay, so you’re telling me that all these people want you to focus on these transformational projects?” “Yeah, that’s right.” “Okay. Well, I put it to you that that’s what you’re paid the big bucks for, and that when you’re in your inbox, you’re doing the easy stuff. You’re actually being unreliable, untrustworthy, and not a team player. When you’re doing the big stuff, then you’re being the reliable trustworthy team player that you’ve been.”

Andi Simon: He really had to change his mindset, didn’t he?

Richard Medcalf: So in that one conversation, he got it and it was the aha moment. He didn’t need any other tips from me because he had shifted his identity in the way he saw things. And so for all of us, we have places in our mind which are holding us back. And that’s the mindset challenge.

And actually, before that, let me pause. You don’t have to do these in order, actually, in the book, and you can do it even before buying the book. I have an assessment that allows you to actually identify each of these areas. What’s your score? What’s your total score? What’s your score on each category? And therefore, where’s your weak spot? Where should you focus first? Because perhaps there’s no point doing the tactics if your mindset is getting in the way. Or, you know, if actually you’ve got the plan, but you haven’t got enough influence, then you need to start there. So you can read the book, but not only…

Andi Simon: I’m sure you heard a little pause in our conversation. Richard in Paris froze for a moment. So we’re going to pick up the conversation here, because we’re down to the E. And the E is an important part of TIME. If in case you haven’t noticed, it ends it but it also creates a setting for which everything else is taking place. Richard, please share with us what E stands for.

Richard Medcalf: The final part of the type acronym is E for ENVIRONMENT. Environment is important because I wanted this to be a book for leaders. And as a leader, we have a responsibility to make time for our own strategy, our own focus, but also we need to create an environment where our team can thrive, where our team can focus on what’s important as well. And that’s our whole organization.

So many organizations, they get caught up in busy work with too many priorities, mindlessly doing what the boss said, without thinking about “Why all this stuff?” And the question for the environment challenge is, how do I scale this into my team? How do I actually create a culture where, when I have something to delegate, my team is able to receive it because they’ve got TIME.

Or if I’ve got a new project that I wanted to deliver because I’ve been thinking strategically, that we have capacity in the organization to take it on. And so for me, that’s a really important part. We often focus on our own personal productivity. But in the book, I wanted to focus more on how do I go about changing the culture of my team in my organization, on this topic as well.

Andi Simon: Do you have a client situation you can describe that might illustrate these four points and make them come alive a little bit? I can see them because I’m working with them. I hope my audience can as well. Anything you might share?

Richard Medcalf: Yeah, so often I find that the breakthrough is on an individual basis for one of these points. So you don’t necessarily need them all at the same time to get your breakthrough. That’s why I said at the start of the book, you can take an assessment to find out which area you should focus on first. But I’ll give you some examples.

I’ve talked about mindset already, the fact that it’s one conversation. Let’s say around influence, it’s quite a key one. Now, often one thing about influence is around not setting the boundaries with people. So often what happens is, we take on things from people and we haven’t actually created an agreement with them. So yeah, I’ve had several clients who’ve realized, as we’ve talked about influence, that actually they have not had a real conversation with their own team about what do I expect from you in our relationship? When should you bring a problem to me? And how would you know where you need my support? And how do I want you to bring it to me?

So many times, team members seem like leaders and feel they’re being Sherlock Holmes, trying to diagnose the problems that their team brings to them because their team just says, “Hey, can we talk about x. I’ve got a problem with x.” So in the book, for example, it’s been one of the tactics which works really well, is the thing called SCARS. It’s a five step acronym. It’s a way we can bring a subject to a manager in a way that the manager can then really deal with.

So Situation: what are we talking about here? Context: what’s the background I need to know? Analysis: what have I actually done to examine the different options available? Recommendation: what’s the one or two options that you’d want to put forward on the table at this point that’s memorable, and then Stakeholders is the last one, which is, don’t use me as your manager to have to pull rank. Have you spoken to the other people who might be affected by this decision? Do they agree?

So often, many team members come to us wanting us to make a decision so that they can then pull rank and say, “The boss said we’re doing it this way.” So the Stakeholders are actually key parts of SCARS. The S is quite important to make sure that they’re actually managing the stakeholder environment, not just putting that back on it. The point is, when you’ve got this, when you’ve got those points, your team starts to come to you with what I call fully formed requests. But they actually know, “Hey, boss, I want to talk to you about the new, unknown Austrian office that we want to open. There are three options, ABC, these are the pros and cons.”

That’s the analysis. The recommendation is: given all that, I think we should go for the city center office, because ABC, if that’s too expensive for our budget, I’d recommend we go for an office by the airport, because of X Y, Z. And we explain that and then stakeholders: by the way, I’ve talked to the country manager, and he is happy with any of those options. And we’ve got something we can work with.

Andi Simon: I am fascinated by your insights into how to change people so that they can be more effective, thinking beyond the immediate tactical thing, and how do I get this done. They can do it in a way which shifts their minds, their mindset, so they can see a bigger picture and a better way, changing that culture and culture.

As an anthropologist, cultural change is one of the most challenging things, but one person at a time is extremely effective. We’re getting to the point where we need to wrap up, as much as I would love to keep going on. But you know, as you said, you could talk all day. I have no doubt that you have great wisdom to share. Share with us two or three things you don’t want our listeners to forget. And then we’ll talk about where they can reach you and how they can get the book.

Richard Medcalf: Sure. So I think the first thing to realize is that the number one key performance indicator governing your future success as a leader is strategic time. I view investing in the future to make the future better. It’s the difference between leaders who plateau and stagnate and find it hard to progress, and leaders where every year seems to bring new opportunities. It’s that investing in the future that’s so important and many leaders said they’re running on empty. They hardly have any time in the week to work on those game changing projects, so it really matters.

Second thing I want you to remember is that it’s not just a productivity challenge.All these four areas: tactics, environment, mindset, and environment are really important. Work on the one that’s most important for you. Go and take the test, if you want, on my website; it will help you. But, find out which one is important and really focus on that. Deal with the limiting factor and everything else will become a lot easier.

And thirdly, always get really clear on what that breakthrough project would be. If you’ve got three minutes, just put a timer on your phone and brainstorm. Just write down questions. If I could answer some questions, if I had time to think and time to work, what would those powerful questions be? That would be a game changer for me. So you might write down, How can I get the best out of so-and-so on my team? How is artificial intelligence going to change my industry or change my workflows in the next three years? You know, how can I be more influential with a CEO? What new networks? Do I need to become part of it?

Whatever it is, start to brainstorm interesting questions. When you do that, I guarantee after three or four minutes of writing ideas down, you’ll suddenly go, Oh, there is a new level available to me. There is a new level that I could be involved with if I wasn’t so stuck in the day-to-day.

Andi Simon: Richard, I love our conversation. I have all kinds of thoughts, but where can they reach you and get your book?

Richard Medcalf: So the book is available on Amazon. It’s called Making Time for Strategy: How to be Less Busy and More Successful. And if you can also go to makingtimeforstrategy.com. Find out details about the book there. If you’re interested, I put some resources specifically for listeners of the podcast at my company website, which is xquadrant.com/onthebrink. And there’ll be a link to the assessment I mentioned, a link to the book, and a few other resources as well. That could be the best place to start.

Andi Simon: Good, good. And we’ll certainly have it up here. And we’ll be promoting it as well. I want to make sure the listener understands a couple of things that I was struck by in Richard’s conversation. Remember that humans are really futurists. And the only way you can live today is to see where we’re going tomorrow, what’s the future and the future you don’t really know so you create and craft an illusion story about it.

And now the interesting part for you, as a CEO or member of a C-suite or a manager in your organization, is to help the organization see where it’s going, for its customers, its stakeholders, its board, whoever else you’re really concerned about. But don’t do it by just simply looking at that email list that comes in, or the immediacy of something you need to change.

And humans hate change since that amygdala of yours will hijack the new, which is why I bring people like Richard here to talk to you because your brain hates him already. And we are going to love what it can teach you about time and how to invest in it. Because infinity can only be really captured and used well with not productivity, but with reframing it. The changes are here.

Now if you haven’t read Bernard Marr’s book Future Skills, the skills for looking at data, AI, all types of things that are really right in front of us, please don’t wait. But I do think making time for strategy can help you prepare yourself emotionally as well as intelligently for intentional transformation. All the time. Somebody once said the future is all around us. It’s just not widely distributed. And I love that. I also know that the future is really here. It’s today. And now we have to go push our way out.

Richard, thank you for joining me today. It’s been a pleasure. Now for all of our listeners, thank you for your ideas. Send your emails to info@Andisimon.com and our website is www.simonassociates.net where we talk about all the stuff we have for you there to help you see, feel and think in new ways. My two books are both on Amazon: Rethink: Smashing The Myths of Women in Business and On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights. I’m here to help you see, feel and think in new ways. That’s what I love to do.

My third book coming out in September 2023 is called Women Mean Business. You can’t quite get it yet, but I promise to keep you as you subscribe to our podcast in the loop and let you know when it’s available. It’s going to be a cool book with 101 women telling you their wisdom so that you can soar. On that note, I’m going to say goodbye. Have a wonderful day Richard. Enjoy Paris.