I just picked them up. We were at this cool lunch place. And I mean, I spent 10 minutes at the table and 50 minutes on the phone. And I remember my mom, she could have cared less. I'm like, man, that was, that was this guy. And that was this girl. And that was, she didn't give a. I mean, she doesn't care. She didn't even know who some of them were. And that was a little moment. She never said anything to me, except she did look at me and say, you know, Molly, there's more to the world than sports. And I remember being like, really? Really? There is. And that was pretty powerful. And then there was another moment when my daughters were young and the guy that lived at the end of our street was a neonatal intensive care doc. And, you know, he worked with infants that were just struggling. And I remember it was like a beautiful Saturday morning. And, you know, my girls were like three, three and four or something. And I'm down at his, they have sort of a, you know, swing set and a trampoline. And so we're down there and I'm swinging the girls and jumped on trampoline. And my phone's ringing nonstop and I'm taking every call. And I remember he looked at me after, I don't know, the third or fourth call. And he literally didn't get it. Like in the sense that he said, I mean, he did get it, but he didn't get it. He said, what do they want? Like, what do they want? And I was like, oh, and it was like I turned the fire hose on him. I was like, oh, dude, that guy's clubs didn't get to the tournament. That guy thinks he's getting fired. This guy moved down in the lineup. You know, this coach is frustrated because his staff. And I mean, I just was like, this is what they want. What do you mean, what do they want? And I remember him just looking at me. Like you're crazy. Like you don't get it. And it was what was interesting was he's a knee cue doc. Right. And I'm turning the hose on and like, oh, dude, man, like this really matters. I'm saving people's lives over here too. He needs this club so he can make a million bucks this weekend. So that was a moment. Right. And I hear that's where he not because what I was doing didn't matter because it did in the world that that I was in for sure. And no different. I mean, anybody in any career can ladder up to that really matters more. And that really matters more. I mean, there's always that opportunity to do that. But what it did give me was a moment of pause of like, OK, wow, perspective, perspective. But I would say the biggest one was the girls were young. They were in elementary school and I had like a keynote on a Monday in Dallas. And then I had like Tuesday afternoon in Vegas. And then I had to go to Boston for a Wednesday afternoon. And then I sort of had this optional board meeting in Miami on like Friday. And so I'd flown my mom down to Atlanta to help with the girls while I was going to be traveling. And I remember on like Wednesday boarding the flight to head to Miami, I think. And I could be getting the days off a little bit, but I remember sitting down on the airplane and I was so tired. I mean, I was just smoked and I was just exhausted. And I felt disconnected from my girls and I was homesick truthfully. I was just totally homesick. And I'm sitting there and I remember like little tears in my eyes and I remember thinking, what the hell is going on? Like I speak on peak performance. Like I speak and I'm helping motivate individuals and I'm fricking exhausted right now and drained. And I called my mom before I was taken off and I had my head and my, you know, down in my because I'm crying on the airplane. And I'm like, mom, I miss the girls and I miss my husband and I miss. And she's like, honey, we're good. Girls are good. And I was like, well, I'm not. And I rerouted to Atlanta and came home for a night, got to the Miami thing late, I think, but I went and got my girls out of school and we went and had ice cream and had a picnic and like hung out. And so I got home, I went to Miami, then I got home. And my mom is like, no nonsense. And so she looks at me when I get home and she goes, all right. How are we going to make sure that doesn't happen again? I go, what do you mean? And she was like, like the way you felt and how. And she and then we literally, that was the birth of my energy clock book, which was she sort of said, you've you've got to get more intentional about managing your schedule. You've got to determine better what to say yes and no to. And it was a moment when we pulled back and sort of got really clear on how many keynotes can you do in a week? You know, how many other things can be happening? How can you look at your schedule through the lens of energy so that you can perform at your best in the moments that matter most so that you have this alignment around your values? And I think, you know, for women, which I know a lot of your, your audience is women. And, you know, we're told like, find balance, right? Like chase balance, like just get it just right at work and just right at home, get it just right with your health and fitness, get it just right with your faith, get it just right. And to me, it's impossible. And so I think it's about alignment. I think it's about saying what matters most? What are my values? And then getting really clear on that and then having the courage and the discipline to say no to the things that don't ladder up. And that's the hard part. I mean, that's the part that's really hard is saying no to things that you thought maybe 10 years ago, I never would say no to that. Like 10 years ago, I would have pinched myself. But you're saying no because you want to be at something personal or you want to be there for your children or you want to be there, you know, for your for your spouse, for an anniversary or whatever it might be. And so to me, it's about getting that level of clarity allows you to live into balance if you were alignment, not balanced really, but it helps you live into the alignment of life that you really want. And offset those moments, hopefully of crashing, which I've, as I just explained, have done.

It's funny because as you were talking about the time with your parents and your mom was noticing that you were not spending time with her, I remember when I was a corporate lawyer working at the Swell firm, my sister had come all the way to Japan to spend her birthday with me. And on her birthday, I remember it was 11 p.m. Midnight, we were sitting on the floor of my office and I was working and she was just sitting there bonding with me because that's all I could do. And obviously you look back and in the moment, it does feel like, oh, well, the steel is so important. My boss is going to get mad. All these things you realize, once you get perspective, which often requires leaving that little bubble that you're in, you realize, what was the point of that? And so I think a lot of what you were saying is really resonating with me. I want to dig into the energy clock. Yeah, because this sounds like what I need to be like. So what are the steps that we should go about to figure out how to most

efficiently use our energy? I actually did a webinar on this, Erica, that that kind of breaks down this thing. I call it an energy audit. And so I think, you know, at the highest level, right, we've got to figure out what we're chasing and why and all those things that we've talked about. But to really get tactical, there's this energy audit. And what I encourage people to do is to sort of pull back and say, what gives you energy? Right? Like, what really gives you energy? What are the things that like you see on your calendar and your pumps that fill you out, right? Like, what are those things? And so so we can do one. You want to do it right now? Let's make it real. Let's keep it real because she says she's in this place. So what are the things that give you energy?

The podcast. I love the conversations I get to have on the podcast. Obviously, everything leading up to it. And after it is exhausting, but the actual act of filming it and having to engage in these conversations is fun. I enjoy helping people. And specifically when I hear from people that I've helped them or inspired them, is that a good list?

Give me a couple more. So think about it in this sense, potentially. Think about it mentally, emotionally, physically, relationally, what gives you energy. So mentally might be the interviews, right? They, you know, they make you kind of think a little bit, right? What else?

I have nothing that physically challenges me right now. I'm not being I'm OK with working out, but I'm not great. That's OK.

OK. So physically, there's nothing physical that gives you energy right now. But is there something in theory, right? Like, do you like to go to yoga? You just don't have time. Do you like to take a walk? You just don't have time. I've gotten into reformer Pilates recently.

And then I have. Yeah, it's very good. It's expensive. So it drives me nuts every time I buy it. That's about it for physical.

OK, and, man, what about emotional? What gives you emotional energy? I don't know.

I'm really bad at this exercise.

OK, what? No, you're doing great. What about relationally? Who gives you energy relationally? My husband. OK. He gives you energy. How does he give you energy relationally?

I don't know. But we were apart for the last three weeks. And when we were apart, the most I could sleep in a night was five hours. And suddenly when we're back together, I can sleep eight hours. So there must be something he's giving me emotionally.

OK, so those are some of the things that give you energy. So question. What drains your energy? Like, what are the trainers? And you can think about it again, physically, mentally, emotionally, but just just fly. What what drains? What do you see on your calendar? And you're like, shoot me. Right now, honestly, filming TikToks. OK, filming TikToks. OK, got it. And how many of those do you try to do a day?

Ideally, I'm supposed to do three a week, but I love the idea generation. I love the feedback that I get from the audience when they say, oh, this video has helped me. But the actual process of going in for the camera and talking to myself, I'm pretty drained with. OK.

What else drains your energy?

Some team management, I have a lot of people. My team is a lot of times trying to coordinate what everyone is doing. And being the boss is a bit draining.

Does anybody drain your energy relationally?

No, that I've been pretty good with. I've had a few people come on the podcast and teach me that you have to do an audit of your friends. Yeah. And cut out the friends that are draining you. So I've been very good about that. OK, good. Good.

So and then there's this whole neutral component. Like what are the things that are energy neutral, right? Which are, you know, going to the grocery store for people, right? Clean out your inbox on email, whatever it might be. So what are a couple of neutrals for you that are just kind of there? They're there. They don't get you going. They don't drain you. They're just there email inbox. I feel like it's draining because people always want stuff from me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What about neutrals? What are the things that are just kind of like they don't drain you, but they don't get you going brushing your teeth. Sure.

Right. Stuff like that. I never I feel like if I've never had to think about it like this, it's very difficult to

think it's different. So here's the deal. So we'll fast forward this. So basically what I would sort of offer for you to consider is to take your calendar, identify the things that give you energy, go insert those in your calendar, really protect those things that give you energy. And I would argue that there's also things to consider like micro breaks. Something physical that you really enjoy, I think is incredibly important. You know, meditating journaling for mental clarity can be pretty powerful. Making sure your husband isn't gone for three weeks. So you get your rest, right? Physically, we need sleep. You know, people always run around. I think it's so great. I didn't sleep. I don't need sleep. We need sleep. So I would challenge you to consider both the things that you share, but also, you know, there's a lot of data around the power of micro breaks. We live in a world now where people, you know, they go from one thing to the next. Boom, boom. One zoom call. The next zoom call. It's driving me crazy right now because after COVID, so during COVID, everything was video. That was just kind of this new default. And now it's stayed that way. And it's like, what happened to just calling, right? Like, because it takes more physical and mental energy to be on a zoom call than just to make a phone call. So I think what we want to be really intentional about is identifying those things mentally, physically, emotionally, relationally that give you energy. And then inserting those into your calendar and then recognizing things that you could, you know, start to be more intentional about like micro breaks, sleep, hydration, food, all those things that are important for our physical energy, right? Physical energy isn't just are working out. It's also what we consume and things. And then I think it's important to say, what are those trainers? Like the tic-tacs. Is there a way to do that in such a way that maybe it's you identify one time in the week or the day and you just knock them all out, you hand them to your team, you queue them all up and you just departmentalize it for 30 minutes and you get it over with. So it's not hanging over you like, man, I got to do those tic-tacs. I'm going to do them tomorrow. Obviously it's a tic-tac tomorrow. I'm going to do them later or whatever. You know, because I think what we want to do with trainers is we want to be as efficient as we can with them. If we can delegate and we can, you can't delegate that. But the things that are draining us, if we can delegate them, if we can minimize them, if we can shorten them, if we can bookend them or departmentalize, you know, and we want to do them, you know, like maybe after an interview that gives you energy, queue up your tic-tacs. You're already, you know, feeling good at that moment, right? Knock those three tic-tacs out right away just because you're inspired, you're energized. So we want to do things that maybe are potential trainers after maybe we've got something that gives us energy. So at the highest level, the book really helps people get clear on what gives them energy, what drains their energy, the neutrals, purpose, all those things. But then taking and going out into your calendar for 30 days, at least, and protecting the things that give you your energy, minimizing and removing the things that drain your energy, being as efficient as you can or delegating the neutrals or turning neutrals into energizers, you know, you can do. And, and that's what I learned from the athletes that I worked with, right? It was, they don't operate off of their calendars. They operate off of the things in the moments in their weeks or their days where they have to show up with the kind of energy they need to perform really well. So an NFL player is going to make sure that they protect their energy for Sunday. Right? A golfer is going to make sure they protect their energy so they can tee it up on a Thursday for a golf tournament and show up. They're going to do that with their whole schedule. And I think business people react to things, react to meeting requests, react to, you know, coffees and lunches that maybe don't move the needle. And then they don't have the energy for the four o'clock, huge pitch conversation, podcast interview, whatever it is that they really need their energy for. Cause it's really the sort of the thing that A gives them energy. And it's also the thing that really matters. So that's what I learned from my athletes that I think is so transferable to the business world is for us as business people to look at our schedule with more intentionality around our energy. So I think if we can be intentional about our schedules relative to energy, we can show up better for the things that matter. And that's a big deal.