Welcome to Take Control with Nicole, as business owners we experience first hand the fine line between our personal and business lives. During our conversations, we will look at simple hints and tips to create time, reduce overwhelm, and help you to navigate through your journey to where you want to be. If you’re looking for smarter ways to work, and create space and time freedom in your day, then you’re in the right place. All right, let’s go.

Nicole Smith
Hello, hello and thank you for joining me for another episode of Take Control with Nicole. Today I am speaking with the amazing AJ Davis all about why you need to tell yourself a better lie.

AJ is a Rapid Transformation Hypnotherapist with years of experience supporting high-profile entrepreneurs in the role of part-Business Manager and part-Therapist. Having moved full-time into the therapy and mindset space, she specialises in helping service-based small business owners to overcome negative, limiting beliefs and self-doubt, and create unshakeable self-belief so they are free to bring their business dreams to life! AJ strongly believes in the power of understanding how our mind works, so we can program it to work in our favour. Her work focuses on overcoming challenges like perfectionism, procrastination and fear of failure, by uncovering the reasons behind them, rather than just addressing the symptoms. With a superpower of making people feel seen and heard, AJ is known for providing a safe space for her clients to get to the root cause of their beliefs, break free of the repetitive patterns holding them back and change their life by changing their thoughts.

Nicole Smith
I’m excited, like what a person to have in your world because I know for my own journey, there’s been a lot of that involved. And many of my community, I’ve heard some of those words pop on over. So thanks so much for joining me. I’m really excited about our chat today.

AJ Davis
Thanks, Nicole. I’m so excited to have this chat too.

Nicole Smith
It’s gonna be so cool. Well, let’s start. I want to know more about you. I’d love to know about your background, your journey, why did you start your business, all the fun stuff.

AJ Davis
So I have a somewhat typical story of the corporate cycle of what I would like to say, selling my soul and constantly over giving, over delivering and thinking, not realising that I was thinking it, but thinking if I just give even more, then it will be you know, I’ll get then I’ll be appreciated. And I’ll be recognised and I’ll be part of something. And shockingly enough, that never happened. So eventually, I got tired of that cycle, because I would just burn myself out, give everything to the role, and then have to leave because I just have nothing left to give. And eventually, so in 2019, I just I got sick of that cycle, I was like, there has to be something more than this. I always knew corporate wasn’t my thing. But I never really thought about what else that would be. So then I left corporate 2019 I was like, okay, I’m going to take a break, and then I’ll figure something out. That’s kind of my style. And so I started my first business, which was doing online business management with female entrepreneurs, predominately female. And I loved that because I love business, I love systems, I love tech, I love launching, I love all of the things. And when I was doing that, like I would say that was my zone of excellence, but not my zone of genius. And when I was doing that, one of the big things that I saw a lot was how much mindset would get in the way and stop people bringing their business dreams to life. So they do all the planning and the strategy and be like, yeah, I’m gonna do this and I’m motivated and energised and this is what I’m going to do. And it would come time to the launching and the selling and the pitching. And the mindset, all that I like to call them the self doubt Gremlins, they just pop up and start with the stories of why you can’t do it, why you’re not good enough, all these things. And those awesome plans and strategies more often than not, didn’t get executed. So I really, yeah, I’ve always been really passionate about the mindset space. And then I found RTT, which is rapid transformation therapy. And I started my second business a little over a year ago and it’s really my sole business, I would say, so I get to still be in the business world. But really in the mindset and the belief space, which I love.

Nicole Smith
What a fabulous area to be in to really see, it’s in the name transformation. You know, being able to be there to support fabulous humans to move through to where they I know they want to be, you know, they can see it. They see what their business wants to be like they see what they want to work with, and being able to help them to understand the strategies and all of that stuff. Maybe instead of me telling you what it is, why don’t you tell me what is it or and our listeners, what is rapid transformation hypnotherapy? One day, I’ll get that word.

AJ Davis
Whenever I do a podcast and have a conversation with someone that has to say it back to me, I’m like, I’m so sorry, it’s such a mouthful, but you can’t take the rapid out. That’s important. People want rapid change, I can’t take the transformation out. That’s what they want. And the therapy is kind of important.
So what it is, is, it’s actually it’s a combination of a couple of different techniques to this CBT, some NLP, but predominantly, it’s hypnotherapy. But where it really differs is that we get to the root cause of things. So we find out what the beliefs are behind something. So rather than just addressing the perfectionism, or the procrastination or this that self doubt, get to the beliefs behind that, find out what the story is. And then when we can transform and upgrade the belief, then we’re transforming the symptoms and the problems as well. But in a way, that means they don’t come back when changing the belief behind it. And that’s why I love it. Because it’s real transformation. It’s not just like, okay, if you think you doubt yourself, well, here’s the pep talk. You don’t have to any more. You’re great, which is awesome.

Nicole Smith
Read your daily affirmations, and you’ll be fabulous.

AJ Davis
And I have nothing against affirmations. They’re not a transformation. So yeah, it’s awesome. I just like to say I have the best job in the world.
Well, as I said before, it’s that real ability to see and influence change in a human, which has so much impact far past when you’re working together, right? Because those things flow in all facets of the world and of life.
One of the things I love so much is, I mean, I predominantly work with women who have service based businesses, but a lot of them are mums. And one of my absolute favourite things is my clients will message me and say are, you know, I’ve stopped saying this to my children, or I don’t criticise my body around my children anymore. Because you know what? The other day one of my clients messaged me, and she was on holiday with their kids. And she said, I was the fun mum, I, you know, got to my babies and went on the waterslides with my kids and didn’t get hung up on, you know, some of the beliefs that she’d had before. And that kind of stuff is just, yeah, that makes my soul happy to think like, yeah, we’re not passing some of the stuff down. And we’ll never be perfect parents, no such thing but not passing on some of that generational stuff is, yeah, that that makes me feel pretty awesome. Pretty happy.

Nicole Smith
And it’s just yelling freedom. Freedom is yelling through that screen on me right now. It’s just the the ability to yeah, do those things that before you might have taken a hot moment to be like, oh, no, I don’t want to walk like mine is I don’t like walking out of the beach into up to the thing. You know, like those things? It’s real things. Right? And that’s just an example that can flow across wherever else.

AJ Davis
Yeah, absolutely.

Nicole Smith
So tell us where do you begin? Like, if you’ve got a new client that comes on board, and I know, everybody is fabulously unique, so it will be slightly different. But there must be is there like a process that you go through? When you sort of start?

AJ Davis
Yeah, so I mean, I even would say like, obviously, you know, if you want to do it quickly, and wanted to come and work with me or work with someone, do that, but you can do some of the stuff for yourself. And it starts with awareness. And it’s not the easiest thing in the world to become aware of your beliefs. But when you can become aware of them. That is the first step to kind of knowing so you know, there’s there’s hundreds of limiting beliefs, unfortunately, but some of the really common ones that I see in female entrepreneurs are things like, I’m not qualified, not experienced enough.

Nicole Smith
I have the piece of paper on the wall. Yeah, absolutely. Who asked me that? Someone asked me, “what qualifications do you have to do your business?”

AJ Davis
I was going to say worse Nicole, I was gonna say that it was a man.

Nicole Smith
No, she’s a lovely doctor. But that’s, you know, because you have a doctor your hope you’ve got a few certificates on the wall, to be fair, but it was interesting. Yeah. She’s like, so “what qualifications do you have to do business?” and I said, it’s self taught. It’s like it’s years of pressing buttons and, and absorbing and learning and all those sorts of things so I can see how that can be a big one.

AJ Davis
Yeah, it can be a huge one for some people, or, I mean, I was working with a client the other day, and she was telling me all about this great idea she had. And then she finished her. And I said, oh, cool, like, what’s the launch plan? When are you gonna give it out? Then she’s like, Oh, no, I’m not. I’m not competitive. And I was like, so she’s like, other I’m not competitive. So I can’t be successful at business. And I was like, okay, just so you know, that’s a belief like this. Where is it written that you have to be competitive, and that’s, I’m not minimising that. For her. That’s what was a really big deal, but you to win us to win, you can see how that stops you. Yes, you have a belief that to be successful in business, you need to be hyper competitive, or you need to be as you said, qualified, or you need to be, you know, people get very, very hung up on like, looking stupid or being judged or being criticised or failing. Because a lot of its public, in terms of business, and all of that stuff. Like when your mind is coming up with all these things, these stories. The question that it puts on the end, I call it like, the silent question is, it’s saying back to you, why bother? Why brisket, like if you’re not qualified enough, or no one’s gonna listen to you. And someone else has already said this before, blah, blah, blah, all the things. Why would we risk it? That sounds terrifying. So becoming aware of what the story is, is a big part of like, it’s the first step. And then we want to interrupt it. Yeah. Because the thing is, every single person experiences self doubt. Like I bet you have, right?

Nicole Smith
I find hands up all the time. I remember for me, I was gonna say and something that I’ve heard other of my colleagues, I’m not salesy, so I can’t sell. And then I realised that well, it’s actually not about selling, actually, it’s about connection and community and, you know, building relationships. And as soon as that was like, okay, that’s my thing. Guess what happened? The clients came? Because, you know, and I’m like, Yeah, I’m not gonna go to, you know, hand out hundreds of business cards. That’s not my way. Other people are fabulous at it, but that’s not me. But right at the start, it was, oh, well, I can’t because I not gone into, you know, absolutely. Yeah.

AJ Davis
And that’s, that’s it. That story is very common with that. I don’t want to be salesy and I’m like, neither do I. Yeah, I don’t want to be salesy. You know, that sounds gross. Like, but do you believe in your product? Because that’s where often people will believe in their product and believe in their service? And not believe in themselves? Yeah, that there’s a thing of like, if I’m just selling myself, my services my time, who who buy that, like, you know, and there’s a real worth story under that, like, a huge amount, like I would say, 98% of my sessions go back to the root cause of low self worth. It’s so sad. But we all experience self doubt I do for sure. Like, I help women not to, but I do as well. Because it’s not the experiencing it. That’s the problem. It’s the letting it stop us. So like you said, when you found that reframe of, oh, actually, it’s connection, it’s relationship building, I’m awesome at those things I can make offers people can choose that doesn’t have to be a hard push or a hard sell that reframe, interrupted that belief. Because that belief wasn’t true that you’d have to be salesy, or you’d never have a successful business. But if you stopped there and let that be your full stop, your business either wouldn’t exist or would look very different.

Nicole Smith
And I’m very much of the belief that it’s collecting evidence as well. So each and every time, you know, like, I was just on a podcast recording before I was the guest. And at the end of it, she said, Because you guys, so how do I work with you? And I was like, Oh, okay. Oh, okay, fine. That’s cool. That’s the thing. It’s like, that’s another piece of evidence that shows me that when I talk about what I do, and I’m passionate about, and I just love what I do, people that are right at the right moment in time will come and find me and connect with me. And it’s just, it’s easy. It’s another piece of evidence to add to that Lego block to say this is a thing.

AJ Davis
And I’m such a fan of that because confidence is not a destination, we do not get to a level of business, this this is something that surprises a huge amount of people don’t get to a level of success, or a level of experience. And that’s it. We’re done with doubting ourselves because you get to a new level and there’s something else to overcome. Yeah, either that or you’re staying stagnant. But as soon as you want to achieve more or learn more or grow more, there are new things and your mind isn’t sure about things that are unfamiliar. So it will come up with all these reasons of doubt and all those things so if you let it stop you, but yeah, people get super surprised that like, oh, but surely like aren’t you confident and like confidence, it’s not a state. It’s a feeling. It’s, it’s a habit. It’s a practice. And as you said, you get more evidence. And the only way to get any evidence in any confidence is to take action. It doesn’t.

Nicole Smith
You’re singing my words. Absolutely. And talking about the whole confidence thing. I just had lunch with a fabulous, fabulous human. And I was talking about my new dress that I’m wearing today, right, and I got it yesterday, and I loved it. And it’s my colours, and I put it on and instantly today, I felt taller. I felt I was walking differently. I was like, excited to come to this beautiful space today and who knew what I was going to meet, the possibilities were endless. But you know, if I have maybe worn something else, I might’ve been feeling a bit different. But it’s really like a game when you experience the thing that’s right for you, whatever that obviously mine’s a dress today. But it could be a service or a client you’re working with or an experience that you’ve done, when you have that, you know, the feelings that starts to become part of you. It’s really easy to then replicate it again.

AJ Davis
And that’s because your mind is becoming more familiar with it. So the first time you wore a dress that maybe was out of your comfort zone or something, it may have been a very different experience. And you still took the action you still you know, and I know it’s funny, we’re talking about wearing a dress, but it’s the same as anything going on Instagram Stories, posting a reel, like, hosting a masterclass any of those things. When it’s unfamiliar, it feels terrifying. And it’s so easy to not do it. But if we overcome it, and we do it, that becomes more familiar. Like, I bet you the second time you go on Instagram Stories. Okay, the second time, that’s probably still fairly scary, but it’s slightly less, you know, and then by the time you’ve done your 12th one, you’re like, oh, what, it’s so easy, I push this button, I say something and that’s that like, but the first time if you didn’t do the first time, you’ll never get to the 12th time.

Nicole Smith
I don’t know if you’ve heard me share that story before. But like, I’m from a background of singing and theatre and dance. So performance and being on camera is not new to me. But those first little waves of stories terrified me. No one was even watching. You know, it’s just that repetitive action or small micro actions that we gain that evidence, again, that makes it a thing and makes it easier each and every time but taking action, it’s what I’m all about. Just do it, just get it done. Give it a go.

AJ Davis
I’m a big fan of it. Because I do see that that is a missing piece with a lot of personal development where people will read the books and listen to the podcast and do the online courses and no criticism about that. I totally get it. But if you don’t take any action out of doing all of those things, they’re not gonna have much of an impact on your life. And people will often do the course and stop. And that’s not their fault. But yeah, like you can do all the strategy and all of the mindset work and I’m in the mindset space. I’m a huge fan of it. But the whole reason I want to help anybody work on their mindset is to take action.

Nicole Smith
Can’t we all. We always are very fabulous and getting in our own way.

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Me as well and I am the take action person but when it comes to personal development on my own things, you know I’m working with someone at the moment about money mindset and she’s done this beautiful tapping thing for me that I’m supposed to be doing every day. Sorry, Stephanie, if you’re listening, I haven’t yet. Right. So something’s blocking me. I just haven’t taken that action yet. And I know it’s a thing. And I know I haven’t done it. But it is that, you know, getting into the habit of doing the things because I know when I start doing it, even more magical things will happen. So I’ve seen the evidence over in another space.

AJ Davis
But that’s the thing. You’re so not alone in that, like, we all do that where we like, because that’s one of the biggest reasons people will work with me is the question, why do I do what I do when I know what I know? It’s not a lack of knowledge. No one’s coming to me because they’re like, oh, I think doing a reel or going on, like Instagram Stories is going to kill me. Like, no one’s saying that. But in their mind, their minds like, whoa, it’s so terrifying. It’s too dangerous. It’s too risky.

Nicole Smith
What is everyone gonna think of me? I’m gonna look funny. I’m gonna sound funny. No one’s gonna watch it, you know.

AJ Davis
All of the things. So yeah, you’re not alone, we don’t take the action, even when we know we need to take the action. And that’s, that’s the whole thing. There is a belief, there is something behind that, like money blocks, like your money blocks, they think they’re serving a purpose. So there’s a reason they’re stopping you from doing nothing to release your money block.

Nicole Smith
I don’t know. I do like buying new things. And it’s funny, like, so that’s part of it is being able to, clearly an episode about my money blocks but anyway, hey, open air, you can come and ask me, it’s fine. My business, I was fine. I’m like totally confident, money’s flowing in and out beautifully and comfortably. On the personal side, there was blocks happening there. And I’m starting to now you know, allow that free flowing energy of things. And every little action I take, like, we bought the most beautiful TV cabinet the other day. And it’s something that Simon and I have been talking about for let’s go for three years. Three years. We’ve got to make a decision on it. And then last weekend, we saw something we liked, we said yes, it was delivered on the Sunday. And it was easy. And all my things are if it’s easy, it’s easy, it’s meant to be and it’s transformed the room, it’s like the whole house feels amazing, from one piece of furniture, one action, to you know, doing that sort of flying through. So anyway, I digress on topic, but digress. So to overcome it, we’ve just got to take some action?

AJ Davis
So I mean, I’d love to say it’s that easy. But the awareness is the first piece so knowing so finding out yet what the story is. So a good way to do that is when you find yourself procrastinating, see if you can dig into why just a little bit, I know it’s not the most comfortable thing in the world, but to dig into a little bit of see what the stories are that are coming up. So you know, I use social media, because it is something that terrifies a lot of people. And when you go to do it, or when you think about doing it, and then quickly come up with a reason not to what’s that reason? What is it? Because that will give you some clues about the beliefs that are going on. And what we want to do once we’re aware of them is to interrupt them. So the best way to do that, like there’s there’s multiple ways, but one of the ways that will actually get you some real transformation. Are these two questions. So let’s say you’re gonna post your first reel, and then up comes like, oh my God, no one’s gonna watch this. It’s going to be so shit, I’ve got nothing useful to say. All right. So straight away, ask yourself, is that true? Is that true that you’ve got nothing useful to say? Because I guarantee you could not possibly be in business if you have nothing useful to say. Like, that’s just yeah, I don’t know. So ask yourself if it’s true now, probably because of the beliefs you’ll get the answer back, yes, it’s true. Next question. Prove it. Prove to me that you’ve got nothing useful to say, you will not be able to because your thoughts and beliefs like negative limiting beliefs, 99% of them, absolute BS, they are completely not true. And that’s why I say your mind is lying to you. Now it’s lying to you with good intentions because it’s trying to keep you safe. But it’s lying. There’s no way you’re actually going to be able to find evidence that you’re stupid or that you have nothing valuable to say. No chance.

Nicole Smith
I just got this picture of my almost four year old Charlotte and when she tells us a little porcupine, we’re like Charlotte, are you lying? And she looks she says no, with little cheeky face and like imagine a little cheeky face smiling. No.

AJ Davis
It’s funny that you say that Nicole because our beliefs come from our first seven years of life. All these things that we’re carrying around and that’s why I feel so strongly about helping women to break these. They’re from our first seven years of life. So they’re seriously, the sentence you’re doing with your beliefs is, will be life if you don’t action them and challenge them. And they don’t serve you like there’s no way you’re stupid. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, nobody listening to this podcast is stupid. Absolutely know it. So asking those two questions, is it true? And how do I know? That will very often interrupt that thought pattern of the self doubt Gremlins, whatever’s going on that’s stopping you from taking the action to just ask those questions. And it’s not the most easy or comfortable at first, but it has become a habit. So you can very quickly start getting used to hearing those thoughts. And I actually made myself a pep talk. Like it’s self doubt silence yourself doubt pep talk. Sometimes I just want to outsource my thought interruptions to myself. But I actually put it on my website for people to download if they want, because I used it for a couple of weeks. And I found it super useful. It’s like, seven minutes, but just find anything. Even tapping, like, tapping is another great way to just interrupt the thought. Because it’s not true. And if you’re thinking thoughts that aren’t true, which we all are, interrupt that shit, man, like, it’s not serving you at all. And we want to take the action. So we need to turn down the self doubt. It’s not serving us.

Nicole Smith
I love that. Yeah, that’s so good. I’m just thinking as well like the interruption. Got a lot going on at my house right now. I’ve got like two kids, the dog, puppies. And it’s that like, break state. You know, it’s like a noise or something, or it’s a redirection, or it’s, for us, it’s always laughter with the kids. Like, if they’re going down a spiral of wherever they’re heading. If we make laughter, we sing, we tickle, like whatever it might be, and it just completely transforms it into a different direction. And that’s what we’re talking about. Right?

AJ Davis
The pattern interrupt is so helpful. And laughter is a great one. It’s just that sometimes to get from self doubt, to laughter. I mean, you got to be pretty good at coaching yourself to do that, that’s quite a leap. But if you can do it, you’re a rock star, go for gold. Yeah, anything like that, whatever it is, but something to stop the lie, because it’s a lie. Even if you just say that, stop lying. Stop lying. Lie, Lie, Lie.

Nicole Smith
Oh, anyone listening, pop over and have a look at that little pep talk on your website, we might put the link in the show notes. So what would be your top tip to you know, anyone’s listening here that they really want to take some more action, what would you suggest? Where, what could they do?

AJ Davis
So I would say, don’t wait to feel ready, or motivated, or even to feel like it. You can do things that you don’t feel like doing. I do it all the time, because I got into the space to work with clients. Now, I also love business so I don’t get too mad about working on my business. But there are things that you know, like, I’m not going to jump for joy at sending invoices. Like I would rather be doing client work, but it needs to be done. So you don’t have to feel like it. You can literally sit there and be like, I really don’t feel like doing this while you’re doing it. You don’t need to feel like it. Like that’s the thing we do. If you want to be in business, we have to do things we don’t feel like it. So I would say that is a big one. Because like we were talking about the action is what builds the confidence builds the evidence. And the next time you go to do something, you’re like, oh, yeah, that’s right. I didn’t feel like it last time. I did it and it took me 15 minutes. You’re proving that to yourself. And yeah, and then, you know, of course, I would say work on your beliefs. It isn’t the easiest, most comfortable space to be in. But it is a space that can have massive results like I, you know, clients will come to me and they are stuck in that self doubt, and want to take their business to the next level. But just with all those stories of not smart enough, not qualified and working on those beliefs, finding out what’s behind it. Like I’ve had clients, literally within six weeks of doing the work on their beliefs, launch their online programmes, which then they turn into a membership, like, really take massive action, because that belief is not holding them back. So I would say yeah, whether you do it with someone, whether you do it by yourself, journaling, I’m a huge fan of journaling I think it’s awesome. Like, just start even just those two questions, just that questioning those beliefs and those thoughts because they lies this such lie Isn’t they just hold us back and keep us so stuck. And you can make massive differences to yourself. But yeah, there’s lots of ways to take action, but just do it, just do it, sometimes it’s such as. But we have to, we do have to find ways to just do it. Because without it, we just don’t get anywhere.

Nicole Smith
It’s just freedom afterwards, that example you gave before is that just feeling of freedom. And that’s, you know, that’s a big reason why I started my businesses, for freedom. And, you know, if we’re standing in our own way, whatever it is, you know, it’s gonna feel a lot harder than if we actually just feel a little bit uncomfortable for a moment in time, you know, do the work that we need to do take that action. And then we can ensure why we can be doing the things and exploring and being curious on something else. And as you said, this is not a one stop fix or solution. Life is life, where every stage, there’ll be new things but we’ll become more experienced in identifying. I know I’ve experienced that myself with with some other things is I can easily see the trigger point now and catch it. Shift it and then go on the journey on the other way. And that’s the skills that we’re learning by every moment.

AJ Davis
Yeah and so by taking the action, building the evidence and the confidence, you’re also building self trust. And that’s actually the opposite of self doubt. And you are trustworthy. Like, you’d come into the world and you trust yourself, then we get conditioned out of us and yeah, not trustworthy. Like we have to trust ourselves, not be looking externally for all that validation. I promise you life feels way better when you trust yourself. And when you believe in yourself, like, the other stuff becomes a lot less important.

Nicole Smith
Is there anything you’d like to leave us with? Before we jump into our three questions?

AJ Davis
No, I think I mean, I think we’ve we’ve packed a lot of value. Yeah, I would just say, like, find what works for you different things work for different people. But if I can just say anything is trust yourself and question your thoughts. It’s so important.

Nicole Smith
Trust yourself and question your thoughts. I love it. Thank you. That’s amazing. Well, let’s go in and ask you our fabulous three questions that we ask all our guests. So first, off the bat, what is your go to app that creates ease in your day?

AJ Davis
Okay, so I tried to be original with this because I know like all of the ones that will have been said like Canva. I’m obsessed with Canva. Like everyone, InShot is great. Insight Timer if you want to dabble in meditation, those are ones I use a lot. But what I would say and it’s slightly a cheat, because it’s not exactly an app, but it’s voice memos and voice to text typing.

Nicole Smith
Amazing.

AJ Davis
Shocking, I know. And when I’m either writing my EDMs or creating content, I find it so much easier to talk to text, like I can talk and then you know my written content is in my authentic voice, because authenticity is such a high value for me. I always, you know, that’s the most important thing like integrity and authenticity. You know, that’s so important. So I find it so much easier to talk than to type. So that’s my sort of app. But I think it makes things so much easier with content creation.

Nicole Smith
Absolutely, it is. And funnily, you share that with me now, because I’ve just started obviously, ClickUp hello, you know that. I plan my newsletters in ClickUp docs. And so I’ve got the ClickUp app on my phone, and I open up the doc in there, and I press that little microphone, and I talk the talk and I do the things. And yes, you have to clean up a little editing afterwards. But yeah, it was great. Oh, so easy, because I’ve been avoiding doing it for some reason, probably because I didn’t want to sit down and type it. I was literally like standing in my bathroom, doing my makeup, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then my team were like, yes, you’ve done the newsletter and everyone’s happy. Right? So I love that. That’s a great tip.

AJ Davis
Because we always say like you talk to your friends. It comes out in your voice a lot better than like, backspace, backspace, backspace, backspace. Like five times. Oh, no, no, that doesn’t sound good. Oh, blah, blah.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, once upon a time instead of hey, how’re you doing amazing. Okay, number two. Are you an online, paper or hybrid to do lists lover?

AJ Davis
I do love tech and I do love systems. So my someday list is digital. Because then I can just add to it when things you know when I need to get things out of my brain, but day to day 100% paper because I need the satisfaction of crossing things like scribbling things out, I need it. And something I’ve been doing lately with my to do list that’s been working really well for me is I mean, a, I always have to be very mindful of being realistic. Like when I get too busy, I get so unrealistic about what I’m going to get done. And I feel so crappy at the end of the day, because I just feel like, didn’t get anywhere near enough done. So I have to watch out for that self sabotage. And I know a lot of us do.

Nicole Smith
But that’s such a common thing as well. I think the busier we get, the more we think we can do that actually, it just builds up that rush and we end up probably doing not any of what we probably should do. And we focus on I don’t know, doing an Instagram reel, whatever it might be.

AJ Davis
I’m trying to focus a lot on how I want to feel because especially when I think about how do I want to feel like the end of my work day. And then working like that I’ve got way more done. So I’ve actually been way more productive, but it’s felt so much better. And I don’t feel at the end of my day, like I’m just depleting myself completely. So yeah, that’s been working really well for me. And then I also like to do, I like to do quick wins and then jump into my MITs rather than, like, I’m not someone that can go straight into the deep work. I like to get some momentum by crossing some things off. And I’m like, Yeah, doing it. 100%.

Nicole Smith
Confetti.. That’s great talking about. I mean, I get to come to your question, but I’m diverging for a second. You know, that whole push, push, push, busy, busy, busy, go, go go, more and more and more corporate land, right? I was the same. Like I remember back to us working in an investment bank in London. And I was in the ops team. I was looking after the CFO and the ops manager and the CIO, all the people. And I was the yes person, all the secretaries would come to me because they felt comfortable talking to me about situation. I was like, hey, Charles, I T I was up so as to as all the things yes, yes. Yes. Busy, busy, busy. Not a great feeling.

AJ Davis
Letting other people dictate your list, dictate your day, dictate your time. That’s right, doesn’t get you anywhere. I relate to that so much.

Nicole Smith
So I love that. How do I want to feel today? That’s beautiful, love it. Final question. What would you do if you created more space in your world?

AJ Davis
It’s such a beautiful question. I think I would read more. Because I have so many books that I really want to read, and I just on my shelf, they’re right over there. And they just call out to me and be like, judge me for not picking them up.

Nicole Smith
Read me, I’m here, open the pages. Let’s do it.

AJ Davis
I would love to read more, I’d love to read more fiction, like I don’t read hardly any fiction, I would love to do that. I would love to complete some of those courses that I was talking about when we do the online course like, you know, part of memberships and courses where there’s so much value in there, and just yet so hard to make the time to prioritise that. So I would love to do that. And I would love to work from some other places as well. Because I always tell myself, I’m going to and I love it when I do it.

Nicole Smith
Physical locations you’re talking about?

AJ Davis
Yeah like I love working from a cafe or something. It’s part of that freedom of being given your business. But more often than not, when I go to do it or I think about doing it, like it’s easier to just stay here I have my whole setup, my furbabies are here like it’s just, and I don’t do it. And that’s just BS, I’m telling myself. So yeah, I think those and then I would love to find some more ways to help elevate other women in business. You know, I’ve got some ideas percolating. But I would love to spend a bit more time on that, because I see what huge shifts can happen when you can shift your mindset. And I would love, I would love more women to be able to be free to have the impact that they want to have. Because I just think we’re such cool creatures.

Nicole Smith
Cool cats. I’m going to challenge you to go and work from a co working space or a cafe for next week. So tag me, tag me. It’s just very relevant to me right now because I’ve been going to the same thing because it’s so easy to work from home. I like get out of bed, I get ready. The kids go to school. I’ve got my Emmet puppy, who’s eight months so he just comes in, chews everything but he’s on the floor. And that’s easy. You know that I’ve just increased my membership here at Watermans in Melbourne and I’ve committed to two days a week, I’m going to work from a site because there’s many of them so it’s got that variety. Not too many at Chadstone though, it’s going thr dangers of shopping. But I can tell you like already, I’ve done two days this week, and I’ve been at a client site, and it’s lifted, lifted me. So good. So let me know, shoot me a message when you do it. Thank you so much for this conversation. It’s been so amazing. And really what you do is such a powerful thing for lots of people in business, and being able to, you know, shift some of those thoughts that are underlying and unblocking. So thank you, thank you so much. Where can we find you? Most importantly, where are you hanging about?

AJ Davis
Thank you, I’ve really loved this conversation as well. It’s been super fun. My platform of choice is Instagram. So I would say come find me on Instagram, which is @changeyourthoughts_au, and on my website, which is changeyourthoughts.com.au. And as mentioned, I’ll give you the link for the pep talk. Yeah, seven, under seven minutes. I use it. I’ve had some great feedback from my community about it. So I have to share that with anyone who wants it. But yeah, I love to, if you can’t tell, I love talking about anything to do with mindset. So jump on over on Instagram and if you’ve got any questions or anything you want to know, hit me up. I love chatting about it.

Nicole Smith
Pop on over, say hi. Jump on and get that pep talk. Because that sounds pretty fun. I think we all need a pep talk every now and again. All of those details are going to be in the show notes. So if you didn’t catch it, pop on over to the show notes, click the links and you can just go straight there. Nice and easy. Let’s make it easy for people. Thank you again. Thank you.

AJ Davis
Thanks, Nicole.

Nicole Smith
My pleasure. Well, for everybody else who’s out there listening today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. And enjoy creating space and time freedom. Bye now.

Well, there we go. Thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been such a pleasure having you on board. Have we connected on social jazz? If not, please come on over. Say hi, I’m on all the platforms at the artisan solutions. So I’d really look forward to seeing you over there. And if you enjoy today’s episode, don’t forget to tag me and I’d love it if you could leave a review. And of course, share this with others so others can come and join us next time. All right, that everyone have a fabulous rest of the week and until next time, see you then.