The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 109 Natalie Sisson: A Clear Vision, Discipline, & Leveling Up Can Lead To The Life You Want

Episode Date: March 23, 2016

Episode 109 Natalie Sisson:  A Clear Vision, Discipline, & Leveling Up Can Lead To The Life You Want Natalie Sisson is an adventurous leader… I really appreciate the way she approaches her work.  She is incredibly passionate about building amazing online businesses and that passion is evident in her voice!  We had a fascinating conversation on this episode of The Learning Leader Show. Natalie Sisson is the Suitcase Entrepreneur because, since leaving New Zealand in 2006, she’s travelled and explored the world (69 countries and counting), lived out of her suitcase and run an online business that allows her massive freedom while generating a multiple six-figure income in 2015 alone. Natalie was destined to live out of a suitcase – both from a physical sense – she prefers to buy experiences over stuff, and she has a mental attitude of minimalism and a carefree attitude of no burdens. Natalie is on a mission to help 1,000,000+ entrepreneurs create true freedom in life by 2020. Episode 109 Natalie Sisson:  A Clear Vision, Discipline, & Leveling Up Can Lead To The Life You Want Subscribe on iTunes  or Stitcher Radio The Learning Leader Show “I’m on a mission to help 1,000,000 entrepreneurs create true freedom in life by 2020” – Natalie Sisson In This Episode, You Will Learn: Having a clear vision, being disciplined, & surrounding yourself with others who “level you up” leads to sustained excellence You’ll learn the 4 things you need to be truly free How to create your own personal freedom plan Natalie defines the future of work Why air bnb is so great How traveling helps people become more aware The best places in the world to travel The power of Mastermind retreats and Natalie’s process for creating them Travel hacking ideas – how to do it without spending a lot of money People trust their leaders when the leaders trust them first Being a learning leader – Scaling and learning enough to teach others  “I’m a multi-faceted, multi-potentialite woman intent on changing my world and yours for the better” – Natalie Sisson Continue Learning: Go To: SuitCaseEntrepreneur.com Follow David on Twitter: @suitcasepreneur Read: The Suitcase Entrepreneur To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12 You may also like these episodes: Episode 001: How To Become A Master Connector W/ Jayson Gaignard From MasterMind Talks Episode 078: Kat Cole – From Hooters Waitress To President of Cinnabon Episode 082: Dan Pink – The Science of Motivation, Legendary Writer & Ted Talk Episode 086: Seth Godin – How To Become Indispensable & Build Your Tribe Did you enjoy the podcast? If you enjoyed hearing Michelle Gielan on the show, please don’t hesitate to send me a note on Twitter or email me. Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell Bio From suitcaseentrepreneur.com Natalie Sisson is the Suitcase Entrepreneur because, since leaving New Zealand in 2006, she’s travelled and explored the world (69 countries and counting), lived out of her suitcase and run an online business that allows her massive freedom while generating a multiple six-figure income in 2015 alone. Natalie was destined to live out of a suitcase – both from a physical sense – she prefers to buy experiences over stuff, and she has a mental attitude of minimalism and a carefree attitude of no burdens. Building a freedom-based life doesn’t always have to mean living constantly on the road though. It means grabbing the freedom to make choices that feed your soul. Which is why in August 2015, she dropped everything she was doing in Portugal to go back home to Wellington, New Zealand to be with her family and her father who became ill. She is incredibly thankful to have a freedom based business that allowed her to do that and spend quality time, especially with her father, before he passed away on December 1st. Had she still been in a corporate job, she may not have had the leave or the money to be able to do this at all, and that’s when it really hit her how important it was to build a business or career that supports your ideal lifestyle, and why EVERYONE deserves the right to freedom. Natalie is on a mission to help 1,000,000+ entrepreneurs create true freedom in life by 2020.

life is short. Like everybody says that, right? But until you lose somebody or until something becomes very significant or until somebody says to you, you can't do this anymore, you realize how much you probably would have wanted to do that. So my rebuff to those people would be, well, like, how much do you really want this awesome life? Because every single decision that you make from today onwards

can help towards getting you on that path. You can start getting yourself out of financial debt. You could start a side hustle on the weekend. You could work with your family to create another form of revenue to help you get there. You could potentially sell your house in every single position in it so that you're not inundated with stuff and you could go off traveling around the world in an RV and homeschooling. So, I mean, there's every single example in the world of how to do it that relates to every

single excuse I've heard. And I do call them excuses because at the end of the day, you're in charge of your own life. So why not make it happen? Are leaders born or are they made? Our host, Ryan Hawk, believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders. Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success. You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk.

Hey, guys, before we get to this great conversation, I want to let you know that this episode was brought to you by Mizan and Maine. You'll probably remember from episode 64, I spoke with a CEO of Miznit and Maine, Kevin Lavelle, and we promised to continue that dialogue as we both progressed on our journeys. and we certainly have and we formed a partnership. And Kevin and his great companies and support and people that he works with have agreed to sponsor my podcast. But for me, I'm very picky when it comes to this.

I only wanted to work with people who I truly believed in their products. So this is not just a sponsor to me. This is an endorsement. I absolutely believe in everything that Kevin and his company stands for. I love who they partner with, whether it's Tony Shays, Vegas Tech, Fund or the lone survivor, Marcus LaTrell's Fund, or Chris Kyle Frog Foundation. I love that, but I also most importantly love the product. Their shirts are my absolute favorite shirts.

They feel very similar to the clothes that I wear when I go and work out. And I didn't really believe that was possible until I tried one. But the four-way stretch fabric is literally like nothing I've ever felt before. And so originally I bought one just to try them out to see if this is really true. button down shirt that looks great with a suit or in business casual. I'm like, there's no way this thing is going to feel like people tell me it will. Well, it felt even better than that. And so after I bought that first shirt, I ended up buying six more shirts and two Henleys. And so we've set up a deal for you guys to go to ryan.misen and mane.com. So that's ryan.misen and mane.com. Pick your

favorite shirts. I love the button downs. You'll see on that site my favorite shirts. And when you're out, use the code Ryan Hawk to get free shipping if you're only buying one shirt. If you happen to want to buy three button downs like I've done a couple times, use the code Ryan Hawk 3 and you'll get $50 off. Again, I love Miz and Maine. I love everything they stand for and I promise when you try the search, you will too. Hey and welcome to the Learning Leader Show. I am Ryan Hawk. Really interesting featured leader tonight. It's Natalie Sisson, known as the suitcase entrepreneur, because since leaving New Zealand in 2006, she's traveled and explored the world, 69 countries and counting, living out of her suitcase and running an online business that

allows her massive freedom while generating a multiple six-figure income in 2015 alone. I love Natalie's attitude in her approach to life, as well as her common characteristics of successful people. A few of the other things we got into during our conversation. The only four things you need to truly be free. She answers that question. Then productivity hacks for getting important tasks done and done on time. Natalie then defines the future of work and what it means for all of us and some of the great news she shares in this answer.

I think you're going to love it. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, it's Natalie Sisson. Natalie, I'm so excited to have you here on The Learning Leader Show. You grace us with your presence all the way from New Zealand, quite a world away, which is so neat about the technology that we're able to have this conversation. I got a quick question to get us rolling, and that's around people who have sustained excellence. You spent time around these types of people. You certainly are someone who has sustained excellence over an extended period of time.

In your opinion, what are some of the common characteristics that those people all see? to share? Successful people? Wow, that's a big ask questions to start with. So I would say they have a really clear vision for what they want out of life and business and they go after it with a singular focus. They're really successful people. They're also very disciplined, which gives them more freedom. So I've found discipline shouldn't be a non-fund thing, but it does allow you to focus in on exactly what you need to be doing. So they have their priorities sorted and they're they don't distract themselves with a bazillion other things that are going on in their life or

outside their external world. And I would say, as you mentioned at the beginning, they surround themselves with other excellent people who are leveling up, who are playing a bigger game, so that they're constantly in the, I guess they're constantly surrounded with people that are doing amazing things, and that really helps you elevate what you're doing as well. So you're living and working on a different scale to many other people. Who are the first people that come to mind when you think of success? Oh, well, it depends on which area we're talking about.

So if we're talking in business, I mean, two of my sort of, I guess, what I would say inadvertent mentors that I really look up to, a Richard Branson, the normal ones that always looks at, right? Richard Branson, just for how he manages to bring on super smart people and his teams to take his ideas through to profitable companies. Tony Robbins just for building out and scaling out a business purely based around self-development, personal development, and living and breathing that for, you know, the guy's in his 50s and he's on fire still. It's an incredible amount of energy and built up, you know, a billion

plus business. And I would also say, obviously everybody always talks about Oprah, but I just love seeing people's journeys of how they've come from literally nothing and just continue to work away at defining their skills and up-leveling and increasing their experience and continuing to take opportunities when they come to them and building businesses around themselves, but also that they have a lot of giving back within them. So there's a huge purpose behind it. They're leaving a legacy, but there's also a deeper purpose to what they're doing. I love it. Let's dive into your story now, Natalie, and you know, you're nicknamed or called the suitcase entrepreneur. You've traveled the world since leaving New Zealand in 2006. And I know you've explored

so many, I don't even want to name the countries that I'm sure. of my stats are out of day, but I'd love to hear you dive into what the impetus was for you to leave in 2006 and travel and explore the world and really the why behind everything that you do. Yeah, my why behind everything I do is freedom, so I'm obsessed and addicted to freedom. I want to have more of it in my life. I think I live a very free life, but I'd also love for more people to have it. and I get really constantly frustrated and tired of hearing and seeing people in jobs or careers or even businesses that they just don't love that are draining them and always saying,

I don't have time, I couldn't do this, I didn't do that. It just frustrates the heck out of me because I think we're all more than fully capable of building businesses and careers that support our lifestyle that don't overtake it. So that's my why behind everything. I'm on a mission to help a million entrepreneurs by 2020 create freedom and business and adventure in life, and that's behind, I guess, every single thing that I do. So what is it your life like on a daily basis? And what has it been like since 2006?

It's been going on 10 years now. Yeah. It's actually six years in the business, 10 or 11 years that I've been away from New Zealand and traveling the world, living out of my suitcase. And I don't think any day is particularly the same. But the one thing that I do is to keep some sense of routine in it. So even if I'm traveling, living out of a suitcase, or if I'm based somewhere like I am just for the last month, almost in New Zealand, I will attempt to have a daily morning ritual. And for me right now, that is getting up fairly early.

I'm working on increasing that to be earlier and earlier until it's around 6am. And I'm doing a short burst of yoga anywhere between 10 minutes to half an hour, followed by a short meditation. And then either exercise or breakfast, depending on what the day holds for me. but essentially exercising before I go into breakfast and writing and creating or the other way around. So it's been working really, really well for me and just setting off the day in absolutely the right way. And then depending on the day of the week, Mondays and Tuesdays is reserved for VIP coaching clients and for doing all my podcast interviews on my own show and also interviews with other lovely people like yourself. And then the rest of the week is carved up to be on content creation strategy, also any launches that might

might be coming up any media-based things, financial strategy, planning, team events or, you know, team meetings and catch-ups and learning and development, really. So it's, it totally depends on the day. And if I'm traveling, then I usually go out in adventures during the day and sort of set my hours for the morning and maybe in the evening and just really take it as it comes and make sure that I have a lot of fun time in there, meeting up with other entrepreneurs, playing lots of sports. So it's a pretty good lifestyle, really. How many countries have you been to now? 69.

69 countries. Why, what is your, obviously you love traveling. What is it about traveling that you love so much? I think it just creates such an amazing, I think it, I was going to say, it creates amazing people because when you're traveling, you realize that you're just one tiny little person on this earth. So I think it opens you up. culturally. I think it makes you more aware, more appreciative, more grateful for the life that you

do have. I think it makes you more tolerant of other people and I think it's probably one of the best educations that you technically can't buy. And it just puts you in so many situations where you have to be better organized or take opportunities or take advantage or when things don't go your way and so you have to change tactics and see what else comes of it. It also puts you in front of people you may never have met in situations you may never have experience and I think all of those add to growing you as a person. So I think it's, I would love more kids to start traveling from a young age to be exposed to that because typically people I've met who have traveled a lot are very worldly wise and very open-minded and just far more interesting people.

Absolutely. I understand. From a culture perspective, it makes complete sense. So let's say you're speaking with an American who is 30 years old and the only, well, let's say they've never traveled outside of the United States of America. What are some of the first places you would tell them to go and why? Outside of America? Yeah, because there is a world outside of America. Some of my best friends are Americans, and they're like, oh, I just love traveling. It really depends.

So in my suitcase entrepreneur book, I do get you to first think about what are your preferences. So are you looking for adventure or are you looking for stability? Are you looking for a place where there's a different language and you get to, experience that and learn it, or are you looking for an English-speaking country? Are you looking for cheap? Are you looking for, you know, more luxurious? Are you looking for hot weather, warm weather, mountains, beaches? So all of those things make quite a difference to where you're going to go or where I'm going to suggest. I do particularly love South America down Argentina, Brazil, way, Bolivia, Peru. I just, I speak some Spanish marginally well, and I just love those areas for

the adventures that you can go on, the people, the generosity, the warmth of them, and just, I just find it really fascinating there. I also love Southeast Asia. I find it's like a completely different culture to what I'm used to. Obviously way more crowded and just tons more people, but their food is amazing. It can be ridiculously cheap in places like Vietnam and Laos. And I just find the culture's fascinating. Plus, the way of life is pretty good. You can live like a king or queen for very little and experience a lot. The internet's usually pretty good. There's usually a hub of digital nomads and entrepreneurs from around the world there. And then, of course, Europe is probably one of my all-time favorite places,

just because you can just travel so easily between countries and by train, by foot, by car, and you're in a completely different place. I mean, it's fantastic from that point of view. So it really, oh, so many places. It just depends on what you're looking for as to where I would suggest people go. You say there's only four things you need to be free. What are those four things? Yeah, it's well read.

So first off is, well, that relates mainly to building an online business, should give you your freedom. So obviously you need the internet as a really great start because you can pretty much do anything with that. You need a laptop or a smartphone. I truly believe you can actually almost run a business from a smartphone these days. But yeah, so that would be helpful. And you need what I would say is an idea or, yeah, an idea or a service or a product that people are willing to pay. you for. Those are some of the most useful ones. But I think the thing that you're about to ask me to talk about that people don't have is that freedom-based mindset. So actually believing that you

have the right to be free, that you can work from anywhere, that you don't have to work, you know, a typical week you could work a midweek weekend in there. So it's just all about that mindset. Are you willing to and prepared to kind of create life on your own terms? And that's the thing and I think takes the longest for people who are traditionally from the corporate world where I was from to get over and actually like implement in your everyday life. How do you help people do that? I would like to think that I get them to create their own freedom plan. I have a program I'm really proud of called the Freedom Plan and it gets them to first of all go through the mindset piece. So what vision do you have for your life and business?

What does your perfect day look like? You know, ultimately how do you want to be spending your time and then work backwards from there to the right business model that's going to suit them. based off their experience and knowledge and expertise, and then the lifestyle that they want to go along with that. So specifically how I help them is, I really think, just getting them to be very clear on what they want out of life. So, you know, I talked a little bit about this before we started recording, but I got a question for you around. Let's say somebody is 35 years old. They have a spouse. They have a mortgage.

They have two car payments. They have kids in private school. They have a lot of bills. And they are listening to this. They're like, oh, God, Natalie, that sounds great. I would love to do that, but it's just not possible for what I have going on. It just isn't. And trust me, I know that's a fixed mindset, and that's not, and you teach something opposite.

But when somebody says that, because I promise you right now, there's more than one person listening who was literally saying that exact quote. How do you respond to people like that? I mean, I totally get that. I realize that I'm, you know, single and fancy free and get to do whatever I want. I don't have kids. I do have a mortgage. but it's covered by rent. So I've set myself up to live in this way,

but I appreciate people have commitments and overhead and financial burdens, etc. But ultimately I've met and worked with a lot of people who have worked their way out of that. And once again, I guess it's how important is your deferred life plan? Like if you could wake up tomorrow morning, it'd be any way you wanted doing what you wanted,

what would that look like? And why aren't you taking a step closer to that? And it may sound pretty harsh, but I recently lost my dad a lot earlier than I thought, and that's precisely why I'm back in New Zealand, I came back to be with family and with him. And if there's one thing he taught me is that dad just lived life to the full, I wouldn't think he'd have any regrets in his life.

But there were a couple of things that came out of this for me that really made me sit up and rethink things. One, I had the freedom to just drop everything I was in Berlin at the time and been speaking in an event. I had the freedom to just book the first flight home to New Zealand, which, you know, they're not cheap. You generally don't try and book them a day ahead. I had the freedom to just basically leave my business behind while I was dealing with

being there for him and not to have my head in that game so that I could focus fully on family. And I'm so grateful for that. Had I still been in a job, I probably wouldn't have had leave. I wouldn't maybe not have been able to afford the flight. I certainly wouldn't have been able to be here for four months while that was happening. So that's a version of freedom that I didn't realize was so important to me. And the second thing that it really taught me in him passing was life is short. Like everybody says that, right? But until you lose somebody or until something becomes very significant or until somebody says to you, you can't do this anymore, you realize how much you probably would have wanted to do that. So my rebuff to those people would be,

well, like, how much do you really want this awesome life? Because every single decision that you make from today onwards can help towards getting you on that path. You can start getting yourself out of financial debt. You could start a side hustle on the weekend. You could work with your family to create another form of revenue to help you get there. You could potentially sell your house and every single position in it so that you're not inundated with stuff and you could go off traveling around the world in an RV and homeschooling. So, I mean, there's every single example in the world of how to do it that relates to every single excuse I've heard.

And I do call them excuses because at the end of the day, you're in charge of your own life. So why not make it happen? Very, it's inspiring and power. I appreciate you sharing that story. And in relation to that, you talk about the future of work. Can you, in your opinion, your beliefs, what is, can you define the future of work? Ooh, great question. Well, I think, ironically, I talk about this in my book, but I feel like the future of work is already here.

And we're really lucky to be a part of that. So it is the ability to be able to work from anywhere should we choose. It's the ability to be able to use all these free tools and software and subscription services to essentially run our businesses, our lives and our team from a laptop or a smartphone. and I think the future of work really is working across borders with international teams and different time zones who you work with virtually or in person and being able to set up a business for less than $100 in a day

it kind of blows my mind, I think, right there and then you can test and experiment with ideas and thoughts and things that you want to be doing without really putting yourself out on the line without investing tons of money or time or energy and it's just incredible that we're able to do this and to be able to tap into talent and experience from around the world at super low cost compared to before.

And I'm loving starting to see big businesses and organizations do more flexi-working, having more kind of co-working-style spaces where rather than have their employees commute for hours, you can go to a co-working hub that that business has in the local town. I'm just loving all the abilities and options to be able to connect into Wi-Fi and Internet wherever you can. And I love the shared economy with Airbnb,

and Uber and types of services where basically you're tapping into what's already existing and being able to pull your resources for the better. So those are the ideas of the future of work that I'm really focused on and enjoy. What's the setup of your current team? Where is everybody located? How do you guys work together? So currently I have my virtual assistant Angelene, who's been with me for several years. She's based in the Philippines. She works between 10 to 20 hours a week for me. I hire her through Upwork, which is a really cool online community of tons of talented people around the world. And then I have Raleigh, who is also based in the Philippines. He's my podcast and video editor.

So he only does a couple of hours a week. I have two podcasts that go out a week and any other ad hoc projects. I've got a recent hire of a strategist who's Desire based in the US, and she's on a retainer. So I don't track any hours with her, but basically she gets results for me based on social media engagement and reach, specifically right now through Facebook, but growing that community. And I have copywriters, designers and developers that I bring in from time to time. They're based in Portugal. One's a Swiss designer, but he's based in Taiwan.

So I really just, in the meantime, we'll pull people in from different areas and potentially taking on a sort of a project manager right now based in the US as well. But all of these people, you know, I will likely hopefully meet at some point in the future, but they're based all around the world. So time zone-wise, it can be challenging, but it can also be quite fun because when I'm waking up, there's already stuff there for me. And when I'm going to bed, you know, they're just coming on board. So you've kind of got this constant team working around the clock. Do you, and you do mashmind retreats in person, correct?

I do because I still love being able to actually need to be. So what exactly? Tell me what are those like, where are you? How many people, you know, walk us through or take me inside what one of those looks like and feels like? Yeah, so for example, I have one coming up in March. I generally try to hold two retreats a year, and these retreats are meant to be all-inclusive and a massively amazing experience

where we focus on mindset, business and lifestyle. So I have one coming up in March in Bali, in Ubud, and I've rented and hired out this entire sort of, it's not even a resort, it's just a beautiful, special place in the mountains that can host around 10 people. So we'll all be gathering for four to five days and working through workshop-style training and masterminding for a day

when people get their time in the hot seat to have everybody looking in on their particular challenge. In addition to that, we're doing yoga each morning. We're eating super healthy, lovely food. We have plenty of time in the afternoons for relaxing and lazing around the two pools and just looking out at the amazing scenery. We have breakfast, lunch and dinner together.

We have a spa pool. We have informal conversations. And really, it's meant to be a whole sort of experience four or five days together where you're really super pumped up, but at the same time opening up your mind to all these possibilities. And on the final day, we're actually going off to cook Balani-style, which would be like a sort of a My Kitchen Rules type. What are those programs that are super popular right now, like Master Chef?

It's kind of like that. So you get to cook live together and just to experience that. So typically these retreats, I think the most beneficial thing that comes out of it is actually the connections and relationships that people make, no matter for all the training and the guest speakers that I bring in, it's almost always the relationships and just being around like-minded people. I've been to certainly nothing at that level, but similar type events over the last couple of years, and I've found that is absolutely the best part.

While there's certainly learnings and great takeaways of, you know, full of notes and really impressive speakers, usually the relationships that I've built are people. that I talk to on a regular basis leaving that. It's not everybody, but if I go to a great one, you know you've got some friends for life and people who are like-minded who are leveling you up. And I think that's what's so powerful about having some of those mastermind events that I absolutely adore. And I think going to one or two a year is a fantastic investment for anybody regardless

of what you're currently doing today. Exactly. I totally agree. And in addition to that, I'm holding some one-day master. mind slash workshops this year just because I know it depends on people some people can't commit four or five days away and so these one day ones are really intense but super valuable as well I saw you've written a book with Derek Sivers yes I'd love to hear about that I'm a huge Derek Sivers fan he's going to be on this podcast coming up and uh uh talk to me about that fantastic

well um I was actually traveling over in Asia at the time in Vietnam when I saw this thing come out that he was looking for co-authors for his startup series of e-books, a little bit like Lonely Planet, but for startup entrepreneurs who want to go to a new place, particularly in Southeast Asia, but know all about the cultural interactions and illegal aspects, how to deal with people, how to be respectful, just all those things that you need to know. And so I applied to be the co-author for Vietnam because I was there at the time. And he managed to hire me, which was really neat. So we co-well, I pretty much, he had researchers pull the information. I had to then make sense of all the different answers that I got and compile it into one really useful book.

And that got published, I believe it was last year. I should know, shouldn't I? It was really neat to be part of that. And I've been in a couple of other books that I always feel have been just really great for being able to bring in other authors and be able to crowdsource a lot of that information. Yeah, I thought it was really interesting to see that. and I'm like I said, a big fan of his work as well. Another thing that you've written about that I am interested in, I want to expand on,

is simple travel hacking tips and tools that will save you both time and money. I think this is applicable to anybody who is listening as well as I'm interested to dive deeper into this topic. Yeah, well, where do we start? So there's tools for business, there's tools for personal productivity. Let's start with personal, personal productivity. Yeah, so I guess, yeah, I love talking about tools. I'm a big fan of the Pomodoro technique, so in and above all the other tools that I use, I think that's probably one of the most useful, and I have to be more disciplined about using it.

Have you heard of this as well, Ryan? I have not. Explain, please do. Oh, cool. So it's called the Pomodoro Technique or a Pomodoro timer, and basically you work pretty hard out for 25 minutes on one thing. So that may be, I don't know, if you're a Mr. or Mrs. Fix it, you might be saying, look, I'm going to fix that cupboard door. but if we're talking about business,

it might be that you're going to start writing that blog post or you're going to work on your auto-responder series or you're going to just do one specific task that you've been wanting to do. And you set the timer on your phone or on your clock or you can actually download the free app. And it just goes for 25 minutes. And the point behind it is that human beings are inherently lazy.

And so if we have an actual deadline or a time line by which to do something, we work a lot harder to do that. Otherwise we fill the time to fill the, you know, fill the time with activities and stuff that maybe aren't priorities. So you work hard on, and the 25-minute buzzer goes off, you're actually meant to get up for about a minute, move around, take a break, dancing, grab some water, go to the toilet, whatever it may be,

and then you go on to the next task, or you come back to continue on that task. But the research behind it is that if you work in smaller chunks, you're way more productive. It seems less overwhelming to work on just one segment, for example, of a launch, as opposed to every single moving part. And then in addition to that, taking a break, even though it seems like you're interrupting your flow, has actually also been proven to make you more effective and productive

and to keep your energy going. So the aim is to do two to three rounds of that, and then after the third round, take a proper half an hour break. So go out and get some exercise, go for lunch, you know, whatever it may be to just even just meditate, do some yoga, quiet your mind. And it really does work if you chunk your days and times down into these Pomodoro sessions.

So that's probably one of my favorite productivity tips. It just requires you to be disciplined to, like, sit down and sort of nut out what you want to do and then get started on it. I love it. Do you have some more from a travel perspective? Yeah, I guess from the tools that I love to use that keep me productive and also my team is Asana. I used to always call it Asana, but unfortunately it's Asana. Sounds a bit strange. And I think it's a fantastic tool for actually writing down your task, not necessarily always your to-do.

do's, but putting down your tasks, linking them to a specific project and getting more organized about really realistically what is the due date for that task and how does it relate to the other work you're doing. It's also a great way to delegate and defer to your team so you can set them tasks and projects. You can have conversations, upload files, keep a thread going so you know for one specific project or task that everybody is following it and they're kept up to date. So I really love it from that perspective. And between that and Google, everything, so Google calendars and Google Docs, I find that our team pretty much is as organized as they need to be. I've been recently trying out Slack, which is a really cool communications tool,

especially for teams, especially for teams and people across continents, whereby it's a constant sort of ongoing communication tool thread that you can start for specific projects or tasks or, yeah, work projects. So between those, I think, pretty set, really. And on a personal product, to very front. I know like everybody else, I sometimes have, you know, 17 browsers open because I'm trying to read this article and listen to that podcast and do this thing. And what I've found is I'm using Evernote much more effectively now to just literally clip all of those sites that I've got open because I'm interested in and then basically put aside a time, for example, on a Sunday morning or a Friday afternoon where I block out an hour or two to just sit through and just read

through and learn from those things that I've clipped rather than keeping all the browsers opening, flicking between them, getting distracted, going down that rabbit Warren of other things that I should look at. So that's really helped in terms of personal productivity. What a great tip. I have that same issue and I've really amped up my Evernote use as well, both for writing my own notes at any day, night, middle of the night time. I find that some of my ideas come at the weirdest places and Evernote's good to make sure it captures that. I can just pull up my phone quickly and write it in there as well as clipping other important things. I think that's, if you're not, not using Evernote, regardless of what you do, I think it could be implemented into your daily

life and it will make it better once you learn how to actually use it to capture ideas. It's a very helpful tool. Now, I got one more question for you before we get rolling. And that's around, you know, I mentioned again before we were recording about the whole purpose behind what I do, learning and leading. The fact that the best leaders in the world are, and I'm in my opinion, are constantly learning on a daily basis. Like you mentioned, you're clipping articles and reading the things.

them on a Sunday morning for an hour or two, things of that nature, reading books, listening to podcast, constantly trying to level yourself up by being surrounded by other great ones. When you hear the phrase learning leader, what's the first thing that pops into your mind is from a definitional perspective? Well, interesting, in my book, I call people leading learners. So I don't know if it's a similar thing, but in my definition of a leading learner, maybe for a learning leader, is somebody who is upskilling and learning just enough that they're a couple of steps ahead of the person behind them that they then want to teach.

So, you know, throughout all my life, I've might position myself now as an expert in areas, but when I was just beginning and just starting out and facing that whole, who am I to, you know, tell people how to do this, or to be paid to do this, I always had to remember that I had just that little bit more experience and knowledge and I'd actually been applying and implementing it, that somebody who was two or even three steps behind me who had no idea would find that invaluable and, you know, pay me for it so that it could help fast-track them to where I was. So that's what I call a leading learner is somebody who's, you know, a couple of steps

ahead, constantly developing their skills, not trying to look everywhere, but really honing in on becoming the niche expert in that area, and then making sure that they're also teaching and helping others to be able to do the same. I love it. I love it. That is a great way to end the show. So Natalie, thank you so much for being here. Where would you send everyone to find more about you online?

I would love to send them to suitcase entrepreneur.com. It's a great start. You can find my podcast there and my blog post, but also a pretty cool opt-in. And I'd love for them to shout out on Twitter or Instagram. Come and connect with me. I'm at Natalie Sisson, and we'd just love for them to say that they've heard us talking here and say hello. Perfect. Well, thanks again, Natalie, for being here.

I really appreciate it. And I certainly want to stay connected as we both progress on our journey. I love seeing what you're up to, and I really appreciate you investing your time with me today. Thank you so much. It's been a blast. Thanks. This episode of The Learning Leader Show is over,

but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time. Head over to Learningleadershow.com for more information and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world-class athlete, or anyone else that inspires you. You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time on The Learning Leader Show.