Sept. 22, 2021

Ask The Expert: Productivity Hacks for Podcasters with James Allen

Ask The Expert: Productivity Hacks for Podcasters with James Allen

International performance & productivity coach, Performance & Productivity podcast host, author, content creator and speaker, James Allen is our today’s guest for Behind The Mic Interview with Michelle Abraham. James specializes in teaching entrepreneurs and busy professionals how to 10x their productivity. In this episode, James shares about his podcasting journey and how multiplying productivity could help you earn more money and have more free time.

Don’t miss:

●      Having to learn the systems and the scheduling allows more freedom

●      With more money comes more responsibility

●      You'll never gonna be able to do everything

●      Productivity tricks to end your day and switch that into relaxing time

●      Defining borders between work and home life

●      Setting an intention before making a transition

About James Allen:

James Allen is an international Performance & Productivity coach, author, and speaker.

James helps his clients 10x their productivity so they can get the right things done, earn more money, and have more time to do what they want, with who they want.

He takes a very holistic approach to success by helping his clients create a life and business that surpasses their expectations in their health, wealth, and relationships.

To James, success is an inner game. This is why he helps his clients with things like mindset, confidence, health & well-being, courage, leadership, performance & productivity, on top of business strategy.

He believes that, in order to live a rich, successful, and meaningful life, you will need to master the skills of productivity and efficiency.

About the Host:

Michelle Abraham - Podcast Producer, Host and International Speaker.

Michelle was speaking on stages about podcasting before most people knew what they were. She started a Vancouver-based Podcasting Group in 2012 and has learned the ins and outs of the industry. Michelle helped create and launched over 30 Podcasts in 2018 and has gone on to launch over 200 shows in the last few years. She wants to launch YOURS this year!

17 years as an Entrepreneur and 10 years as a Mom has led her to a lifestyle shift, spending more time with family while running location independent 7 Figure Podcast Management Agency, Amplifyou. Michelle and her family have been living completely off the grid lakeside boat access for the last 5 years and loving life! 


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Transcript
Michelle Abraham:

This is amplify you the podcast about you discovering your message and broadcasting to the world. If you're a coach, author or speaker, you'll want to tune in. If you're looking for the best return on your time investment, to get your message out to the world in a bigger way, we're giving you full access behind the scenes look of how we're running our podcasts, how our clients have found success, and what you can do to launch your podcast today. The world needs your message. I'm Michelle Abraham, the host. Join my family as we unleash your unique genius and find the connections you need to launch your venture today. Join us and let's get amplified. Hello, hello amplify your family. Michelle Abraham, your host here today. I'm super excited to bring you a behind the mic interview. today. I'm interviewing James Allen. So let me say hi to James first before I tell you a bit more about him. Hey, James, how you doing?

James Allen:

Doing awesome. Michelle, thank you for having me. Super excited about this.

Michelle Abraham:

Welcome. I'm glad you're here. So guys, let me tell you about James. So he is got the performance of productivity podcast. So he is the host of that show. And he's an international performance and productivity coach, author, speaker, and he helps his clients 10 extra productivity so they can write the right things done, earn more money and have more time to do what they want to do with. He said a very holistic approach to this, which is great because he helps his clients create a business that surpasses expectations and health, wealth and relationships. And James is all about the inner game. So confidence, mindset, health and well being encouraged leadership performance and productivity. The James, I love what you're all about. Love the name of your show. We were just talking about that. So tell us a bit about your podcasting journey. And how long have you had this show? When did you start? Why did you start it?

James Allen:

Oh, yeah, I, I don't even know how long it's been. It's been over a year for sure that I've overall been podcasting. But I recently just made the shift to performance and productivity because I was like really into performance. But I really loved the whole productivity aspect. I was like, wait, that's it, like a great niche that I could just focus on, you know, in my last podcast wasn't really getting discovered. It's kind of what we were talking about. It was called MPI radio. And it was cool. And I explained it to people. But to find it, you know, in terms of SEO and whatnot, it was really difficult. And it had to be explained. So I was like, I want something it doesn't need to be explained. And yeah, kind of made that shift. The reason I started a podcast, really in the beginning was just to connect with people. Having a show is a great opportunity to connect with people, you know, you meet someone cool, or especially someone who's doing very well that you just want to have a conversation with you like, Hey, I have a show. Can I interview you for 2030 minutes? They're like, yeah, that's totally cool. Because like, okay, I'll put it out on the internet, I'll put on my blog, etc, etc. So that was kind of the first thing I started doing it with. But um, yeah, it just evolved from there. And I still do interviews as well. I love doing them. So

Michelle Abraham:

yeah, I think we are coming from the same mindset with it's so great to have a platform to be able to offer someone to showcase them on you get to know reach out to people that you admire, people that you've never thought you'd have the chance to have a conversation with. And then all of a sudden, you're having this interview with someone that you admire, it's really cool, because now this is something that you because of a podcast get to do says, you know, amazing. So we're making it back for a second because we were talking about this way before we started how you switched your name to your podcast. And I think this is a really important thing is a really important message. Because I also has been finding that my podcast is very hard to search the name is not super easy. And I've always coached my clients on having a really literal name for your podcast, like performance or productivity is really literally, you know, what you're going to talk about on my show. And it's interesting that you also had that shift. So I want to talk about how did you make that shift? So did you make a new season? Did you just switch the name and carry on? or What was that? What was that like on your podcast?

James Allen:

Yeah, so I didn't want to just like switch and not tell anyone just be like, oh, now it's a performance productivity. And there was a couple things like obviously the name, which a friend of mine we talked about, he kind of inspired me with the keyword idea because his podcast called science and spirituality, which is a great podcast, by the way, go check it out. If you're into like quantum fields, and you know, universal stuff. So he's really cool, super intelligent. I'm like, This is crazy. It's him and his brother. But anyway, that's kind of what opened me up to like the importance of the keywords and looking at my podcasts, NPR radio, I was like, I don't really have those keywords. So I tried like typing out massive positive impact radio, it was just a little too too wordy. So I mean, the performance of productivity podcasts is still kind of wordy, but it has those keywords. So really, if you actually type in my podcast, it's not the performance and productivity podcast, it just says performance and productivity. That's it. And that's how my friends is too. So I was like, it works for that. I'm gonna do it too. And it's been good so far. But to make the transition, when I would interview people, it's kind of like a cool little end to like a kickoff to this new chapter in my podcasting journey. But when I interview people, I would always ask them one question that was guaranteed. I was gonna ask at the end of the interview, and it was what's your MPI? So like, Michelle, what's your MPI? What's the massive positive impact that you want to see create or be a part of in this world? It's just kind of like what you're working on. And what you just love to see. It's like, I'd love to see like happier people, or whatever it is. And everybody had a different MPI. So what I did was I went through and I actually rounded up a handful of some of my favorite mpis. And I just edited out that part where I asked him, what's your NPI, and I like tag their name and whatnot. And before we went into the mpis, I just kind of explained, like, here's why I'm doing this, you know, it's because in terms of me and a business and like podcasts and whatnot, SEO is terrible, everything I've basically explained to you, in this podcast, I just explained that in the episode, and then I went into the npis that people had, and then I close it out and just ask people to rate the podcast, because that's another big thing that I'm really focusing on right now, taking you more seriously is just like ratings, because with ratings, we really can grow. So that's like a big focus of mine right now.

Michelle Abraham:

Awesome. Yeah, I like how you pivoted and we think you'll do all sorts of different ways. We're like creating a new season or creating a whole different show. But it's so nice to continue on with the same c listeners you already have. But just now, like having that show, that's kind of that bridge between the two different different kind of styles now. Yeah, yeah.

James Allen:

The other thing is that it's not like like MPI radio, I would still talk about performance and productivity as well. But it just in terms of like, for sake of the podcast, I was like, I need to come up with something different. So for them, the listeners, it's still relative to them, you know, maybe is even more focused on specifically their productivity, which is going to be really big for them as well. One more thing that I did was I never like numbered my podcast episodes. In MPI radio, I think I did. I did like three, and I just like lost track or whatever. And I just stopped doing it. So I'll just kind of put out episodes. Now I'm actually numbering the episodes. So I can refer because I noticed in MPI radio, I'd be like, Oh, yeah, I did this one episode way back, you know, but it's like, I had a ton of episodes. There's a timer. I was doing, like daily episodes, for a little period. And yeah, I just now I can actually number them be like, Oh, yeah, that's episode number three, or episode number, you know, 11, or whatever it is. So

Michelle Abraham:

right. Yeah, that's great to send people back to the episodes with the, with the numbers on them. I love that idea, too. And it's funny, we were just talking about the names of our podcast before, one thing I discovered with the name of my podcast, was that because I have a capital Y in the middle of amplify you, if you don't put that into the search in iTunes, it doesn't come up at all, which is crazy. And so the other thing you said it reminded me of this is your not the performance of productivity podcast, because if you did, if you just wrote performance and productivity, it wouldn't show up. Because there was no lie if you have a thought in the name. So even those small little words, so guys, it's so important. You're naming your podcasts crazy. The thing that has a huge impact on people searching your show. Like that just blows my mind. Yeah, go ahead. It's

James Allen:

a it's also like, I mean, with YouTube as well, like using tools like vid IQ. That's what I just started using recently. And I went my SEO score was just kind of like, Oh, it's okay. Sometimes I'd nail it but I never knew why. So using vid IQ has been great, because it's all about SEO, you know, to get discovered and that's one of the biggest challenges for people like they have great content, but they're not getting found, you know, and that's why having a great name like we're talking about is so big. But with vid IQ I use that for YouTube and now my SEO score that it shows you is that 100% you know for that episode, I just did one today it was like the first official one of doing this process took me a little bit longer, but I'm finding my flow you know, but that's something huge like I make my YouTube videos and I just upload the audio and anchor which puts it on to everything else so I'm doing what you hear on the podcast is also a YouTube video for me, but yeah, that's it's such a big thing. I would recommend whoever's listening if they're starting a podcast or making some kind of pivot like I've been doing this for like a year. nothing's really happening. really pay attention to like SEO and podcasts read articles. That's what I did I watch videos like keywords, all these different things just like indulge in that kind of information. It's probably the biggest tip I could give you.

Michelle Abraham:

Yeah, it's pretty interesting that the keywords play such a big part and I always say like the most frequently asked questions to that you get asked in your business those make really good episodes because your customers back there and like where someone's asking you though Google it's in Episode Three where he talks about that question that I get asked all the time. Lacey Lisa podcast, so it's useful, so useful your business. So that's really awesome. Now switching the keys, a kid gears right now over to productivity. What have you learned being a podcast or using your productivity skills and your efficiency skills? I'd love to know how you have kind of incorporated that in your workflow of how you do your podcast and you talked a little bit about seconds ago how that repurposing from YouTube to to the podcast. In space, which is great.

James Allen:

Yeah, totally. So what I did for a little while to do even more honestly haven't been doing as much social media, I've been focusing more like YouTube, and my blog and things like that, with the time that I do have, in terms of content, I do put up some stuff on social media, but not like focusing heavily on that some people love me, some people despise me for that. But what you can do is, the flow that I would do is I would even make it super sharp, I was like, I need something to be easy for me and used to take me like a day to create a piece of content. And that's like, I want to minimize the amount of time it takes to still create a quality piece of content. So what I would do is I would record a zoom video, and I just set it up, and I would just do zoom and just speak my piece of content, whatever it is, I could look up stuff on my computer to which was cool. And so look like I'm looking at the camera, you know, but um, I would do that. And then I would also open up anchor and just record straight into anchor, but you can always like record on zoom, and then upload it and it'll take away the audio. So that's a YouTube video right there. That's a podcast episode right there. And then in the description, when I was writing it out, I would do like a long form post, which is I another example, it's your blog post. Now you can do like transcripts as well. And just like, I mean, if you want like a good transcript, you'd have to pay like rev.com or something like that. But you pay for what you get, you know, there's a lot of transcripts, but they're not good or accurate. I've seen that even in my own videos, I was like it like put in, like the F word. And I was like, shit, like, I didn't mean to say I didn't even say that. But it just like mixed it up, you know. So it'll, you have to like you kind of pay for what you get in terms of transcripts. But yeah, basically, if you in the description of your YouTube channel, or your YouTube video and podcast, write out a long form copy of something or a long blog post, you can break that up into pieces, and use that as posting content, you know, and you can use something like subtitle as well, which is something I would do so with my YouTube video that got uploaded, I would keep the video clip put into subtitle. And what subtitles does is it creates like a heading, you know, and it has the or like a title on the video, and it has the the captions, or the subtitles, and then it has the progress bar, like all those kinds of things. It does all that for you super easy. So I love subtitles, I have like an affiliate link or whatever. Because I keep telling people about like affiliate link. And you can use that and break up your YouTube content into smaller pieces of content, and then repurpose that as well. So those are just like a couple things that I would do in terms of productivity.

Michelle Abraham:

Yeah, that's a great I love those. And we use a wave we've got IO for our waves co for ours are subtitles and stuff. But I think, you know, the subtitles are also recently just worked with someone who's blind as a podcaster. And it's interesting, like, Oh, yeah, the accessibility part is really important to having those subtitles for different for also the captions for also different people with different disabilities to be able to, to read them if they can't, if they can't, they're hard of hearing. So it's interesting just also that Google loves those captions, because more one is more SEO. And then to it's more accessible. So they love showcasing those videos and things that are accessible, which is great.

James Allen:

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, I put out one video a week with the productivity and just what I would do with MPI radio as well as I'd like them to be short. I don't want it to be super long. I want someone to come in and be like, that's one episode about one specific thing. I could have three quick little like pieces to whatever that framework is or teaching. But uh, yeah, I just have like a quick episode. Like I just uploaded one today, and it's a seven minute video. So you know, seven minutes is pretty short for people instead of like a 30 minute or a 40 minute or something like that. So that also helps us having like short bite sized information. Also, people's attention spans are like tiny nowadays, no offense to people, but you know what I mean, it's it's pretty crazy. So having shorter videos, I found people really enjoying the feedback that I get. They're like I liked your episodes are short, and then they can also binge your episodes more. And those short videos actually accumulate for more watch time, which is like you for YouTube anyway. But people will binge more of your material I found with short episodes.

Michelle Abraham:

So really, yeah, it's really cool. We have a podcast we work on a six minute show, which is pretty awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I remember Russell Brunson used to do is like five minute marketing from his car podcast. I always say like, there's there's some five minute podcasts that are too long and some two hour ones are too short. So but I think more on the side of now today. I think it's better to have shorter concise content that kind of gets a few main points over and then and then move on right then less of the just the filler stuff.

James Allen:

Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's a huge thing is like be concise. You know, and it helps also to like, right Do your content and create the game plan before you start the content, as well, it's also

Michelle Abraham:

huge. Yeah, and that's a great repurposing plan that you've got there, too, that creates a lot of efficient use of your content. It sounds like so that's awesome. So now tell us a bit about your business, when you're working with entrepreneurs, how are you tend to axing their, their productivity so they can get more things done, earn more money, have more time to do what they want to do? So take us through some of your best tips.

James Allen:

Yeah, I mean, there's there's a lot, it also depends on where someone's at 200%, and like, what position they're in how much money they're making in their business, or what role they play, the entrepreneur, just starting out is gonna be way different than the entrepreneur making 50 100k a month, you know, it's like, it's a whole different animal, a whole different person. So it's where it's a very tailored approach. But what I do is a huge calendar audit, I want to like literally break open your calendar and see what's in there. And I don't want to just see calls, I want to see, like, you are literally scheduling everything, I have a workshop called schedule everything, and I'm gonna deliver it to you this one sales Association, but we were talking about and it's like, yeah, people just don't do that, you know, I met one person who did way better. And it's like, it's just not common enough. And it's, people think that it's like, kind of controlling of your time. And it is because your time is the most precious resource that you have. That's really what I'm helping people with is dial in that time on the things that matter, most of them not just work. Like, you want to know what I mean, I want to know when this person is the most productive as well. And everything that we accumulate, all this information goes into the calendar, because you know, you have certain hours where you're very productive, it could be in the morning, it could be in the middle of the day, it could be in the evening, you know, depending on you and it's called your chronotype. And there's actually a quiz you can take called the power of when quiz.com and it's by this doctors, like a sleep doctor, and he wrote this book called The power of when it's like when you should wake up when you should go to bed when you should eat. You know, it's it's crazy. It's a but he goes into all the science. So if you take the quiz, it tells you what your chronotype is, mine's a bear. So that means that my most like efficient time is going to sleep around 11pm 10 or 11. Waking up around six or seven, you know, and then my power hours are between 10 and 2pm. That's where I'm like the most alert, the most awake and that's when I'm creating content or that's when I'm you know writing sales pages or doing you know, sales calls, things like that. So knowing when you do your best work is a huge part of it in terms of productivity, and then calendaring everything, like calendaring the rest time calendaring, family and friends time. calendaring, your work time, of course, you know what specific tasks you want to get done each day. And it's actually really liberating when you do it's kind of weird. At first, it may seem like a little overwhelming, but it is it's a lot more freeing. And even still, that my calendar if you see it, you're like, wow, that's crazy. I still have a lot of freedom and free time. You know, it's just I'm prioritizing the things that matter most to me, which is why it makes it a lot easier to be more disciplined to follow that schedule, and you have a good structure. So that's probably like the biggest thing and understanding as well like what the MITs are for that specific person. Those are your most important tasks for whatever position you're in. Because a lot of people spend so much time just doing the busy work, quote, unquote, and they feel like they're being productive, but they're not actually being productive. So helping them distinguish those MIT's and then putting those MIT's where, where they need to be on the calendar in terms of the person's energy. So

Michelle Abraham:

yeah, that makes sense. I love that working with your energy to say, No, I'm definitely not in work in the evening kind of person. can't do it anymore. fall asleep on my computer desk. So yeah, it's interesting to work it following those, I'm sure if you're following your, your natural rhythms, that's also as much more productive. But you know, it's interesting, I think a lot of entrepreneurs, students entry, finding your business to go into being an entrepreneur because they want the freedom. And then I know, this is what happened to me as I went into being an entrepreneur, so I have flexibility in my schedule, and morph time freedom and all this stuff that actually, I was working a lot harder, a lot more hours than I would have had just gone to a nine to five job. So having to learn the systems and the scheduling allows that freedom. Is that right? Yeah. So any any tips for people who are in that kind of still spacing when they'd be an entrepreneur because they want the freedom but I've not got that freedom yet.

James Allen:

Yeah, well, you got to earn the freedom, that's for sure. People are like, Oh, I'm an entrepreneur, you know, I'm free, but it's like, you're not really free until you're making the money. And then you can, like do the freedom. But another thing too, is that oftentimes in entrepreneurship, you either have one or the other and it balances the challenge. You got to have a lot of free time and no money or you have a lot of money and no free time because with more money comes more responsibility. You know, so, again, it totally depends on where the person's at. I think one of the biggest things that I could share with someone as An entrepreneur, especially if they're like, getting the snowball kind of rolling down the mountain into this, like moving or pushing the car, wherever you want to put it that first, like initial push to build momentum, it's that you're never gonna be able to do everything, you know. And I believe in like, do all the things that you love to do absolutely keep an abundant mindset as well. But you do have a limited amount of time in a day, you have 1440 minutes per day. And when you kind of think about that 1440 it really puts into perspective, like I only have this amount of time today, how do I want to spend that time. And the more that you more responsibility, you have more income that you generate, the more you realize how precious those minutes are, and that time really is. But I think the one of the biggest challenges is like, if you have in your calendar that at 2pm, I'm going to switch to a less intense task. And maybe I'm still working till like 5pm, or whatever it is like setting those hours. And those times that I'm working, or I'm spending time with family. And establishing those boundaries with yourself is huge, because what people tend to do and what I've been guilty of in the past is that when it's family friend time, and I'm hanging out with my girlfriend going on a date, I'm still thinking about work, I'm still in work mode, you know what I mean? So the ability to detach is so huge, it's Paramount, you know, because it's so easy as an entrepreneur to be like, oh, there's so much more to work on. There's other things to create, you know, and there's always going to be more to work on, there's always going to be more to create. And to keep building as well. It's a forever thing, and you're always going to have it. So your ability to detach and be content with what did get done. And that's what happened, the productivity practices and making the most of that time is going to make it easier, because you'll be like I did my best. I did everything that I possibly could. And now I'm going to spend time with my family or my friends or whatever's most important to you.

Michelle Abraham:

Yeah, that's a good idea. And especially seniors, when I do this, a lot of us are working from home or we have other people working from home during the last year and a half, it's that turn off switch to then switch to family only time or significant other time. And so is there a productivity trick to like ending your day and switching that into into then the relaxing family time?

James Allen:

Yeah, absolutely. So what happens to is like, if you're writing a book, for example, you're doing you're doing a bunch of coaching calls or whatever it is, and then you just kind of like, close your computer, get up and go hang out with the family in the other room. You just walk out there from your little office or wherever you work. No, no, well, that's the thing too, is that you're not, you're still like, you're still in work mode. So the ability to transition into now I'm going to be in family mode. And this actually comes from Brendon Burchard. In his book, high performance habits, giving credit where credit is due, I learned it from him. And it's been so valuable for me and even my clients when I share with them. But it's just a, it's setting an intention before you go make a transition. So the transition, for example, would be being in work, and then going into hang out with your family, that's a completely different thing. And there's a little transition right there in the middle that you have to make to be fully present with who you're with. So he calls in, what is it, it's a release meditation. So what you do is you can do it for as long as you want. He says he'll do it for like 510 15, even 20 minutes. But even like, even doing just a really quick, just taking a couple breaths is still really valuable and take you like two minutes. But what you do is you just close your eyes, and you just take deep breaths. And as you're doing it, you say release, release, release, and you keep telling yourself to release. And as you do it, you mentally are releasing and at the same time you're physically releasing, like dropping your shoulders and just relaxing. And just keep saying release until you personally feel that you have genuinely released. And when you're relaxed, then you can open your eyes and say I'm about to go do x. So I'm about to go hang out with my family with my kids, or my girlfriend or whatever it is or boyfriend. Who do I want to be when I do that. And that's what you ask yourself. And then you come up with an answer, like what would my best self do in this situation. And this also works when you're going from family time maybe in the morning to go to work. You know, it's like all these transitions that we have throughout the day, instead of just bleeding them together. So you say you take that deep breath, you say I'm about to go hang out with my family who don't want to be while I do that. You say well, I want to be present with my family, I want to play with my kids, I want to laugh. I want to enjoy the time that I spend with them because it's limited my kids maybe we're going to grow up or whatever it is. And you think about that. And then what that does is that you like pre frame yourself. So right when you walk through that door or curtain or whatever you got, then you get to be present with your family and you're focused on that intention. So setting that intention as you make transitions.

Michelle Abraham:

I love it. Yeah, that's really great. And those I can see that how that can work so well to just say more compartmentalizing your, your life so that you know even if it's all in the same kitchen kitchen table area there's defined borders between the work And the home life. That's awesome. Love it. James, this has been super helpful for our podcasters. And people are thinking about starting their podcasts, our audience at home, who are, you know, in the entrepreneurial space and looking for ways to get more of their freedom back what has been the one thing that you have learned from having your podcast that's really changed. The chiefs are huge in your business.

James Allen:

One thing I've learned from having the podcast is

Michelle Abraham:

something you've learned from all your guests or you know, something you've learned from just doing the podcast.

James Allen:

I think the thing I think what I've learned is how to become like better at talking better at delivering, which has been huge. And I think I challenge whoever listened to this as well, not to edit your podcast, because I've been on it, I have a friend actually who I won't mention their name, but they would edit their podcast, like all the time, and a lot of people do it, you know, they're like, Oh, we can just edit that, edit that out. But I challenge you not to edit. Because I started doing that. And then my interviews, like one time, I was interviewing this girl, and she was really short to where feet wouldn't actually touch the ground in her chair, like super tiny. And her cat came over and started like brushing against the chair. And her chair just started turning. And she's just sitting there like turning. And I thought it was so funny. She started laughing. She said it was a Kappa, we left it in there, you know? And I challenge you to do because if you get present, did you know people find your content or whatever. And maybe someone says, Hey, I'd love to have you come speak to our group of 100 entrepreneurs are your ideal customer. And you get up there, you don't get to edit. You don't you don't get the opportunity to edit that and say, Wait, can we do another take like no, you're on you're on stage, you know, you have an opportunity to deliver right there. So when you do that you get way better at thinking on your feet, because you're going to trip up I still do. There's times where it happens, you know? And yeah, I just kind of challenge you to do it. Because doing that has really helped me become a better speaker and better presenter just in general.

Michelle Abraham:

Awesome. I love that. Tim, I definitely do not edit my podcast, either. I think in the 150 episodes or so what we've done, you've done, I think I've had like new four edited points. And it's mostly when you drop something or microphone has been hit or something loud noise that would be uncomfortable for the ears. But like I love, love what you said, and I challenge everybody to do it. James says, Just pretend as if you're live, because because it forces you to become a better speaker. And also for having a gas. It doesn't give them permission to make to stop and oh, that didn't sound good. I want to change what I said here. I don't think I've ever had a guest say that before. It's so helpful, right? Because if you give them permission if they keep you see anything to worry about explore edit this out. They're gonna get you to edit something.

James Allen:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I told my friend about that. He was like, Whoa, he's like, that's, that's intense. And it's like, Well, yeah, but the more you do it, like you're just gonna get better, because he wants to do more speaking in general, and I'm like, if you go on a stage, like, you're gonna have to be concise, be present, you know, and be able to deliver without editing. So yeah, those

Michelle Abraham:

filler words, you got to take them out of your vocabulary instead of

James Allen:

I'm still I'm still working on it. The, the alarm? Yeah, you know, it's for everything. And when you challenge yourself, it causes you to your brain just starts to get trained of like, Oh, I'm about to say I'm or whatever your video sequency is.

Michelle Abraham:

We had a workshop a few weeks ago about using filler words and how to get them out of your vocabulary. And the challenge was to give yourself a topic like vacuum cleaners and like one minute to talk about vacuum cleaners without saying or, or pausing. was challenging when it's mostly is very interesting. And so that was a really cool way of being able to help your vocabulary and learn to pause and not use the filler words. When you're not sure what else to say. I thought that was a really cool exercise that we really liked. We liked doing the workshop I was super cool. I wasn't just teaching it it was Rebecca and her partner as see that tall small productions. It was really cool. Cool activity for us. Awesome. Very good. Very cool. And I love the authenticity of not knowing not doing the editing, right because then people get you there's no you can't fake it. You can't You can't pretend to be someone else because it over time that you can't keep that up over time on a podcast. You just got to be real and there's no other way around.

James Allen:

Yeah, pretty much that's awesome. Yeah, that's probably been like the biggest. I think one of the biggest takeaways just get it it's helped me really, you know, get better presenting and being more concise, etc. So,

Michelle Abraham:

no, I love it. That's great advice. Thank you so much. James has been awesome having you on amplify you today. Thank you for being with us today. amplify your audience mishi going check out James's podcast and James, where can we find more information about you and working with you?

James Allen:

Yeah, the biggest thing is just go to my website. It's James Allen coaching.com. And Alan is a Ll E. And if you type in James Allen coaching, I'm sure I will come up.

Michelle Abraham:

Awesome. All right. And for more productivity hacks and tips, head over to James's podcast, the productivity and oh my gosh, productivity and productivity. I was gonna say it the other way around. I was gonna say,

James Allen:

on the website, too, if you go to the website and just go to the blog tab, that's all the YouTube videos that I also upload to my podcast as well.