Focus On This Podcast

210. Goodbye & Hello: It’s a Season of Change at Focus on This

Audio

Overview

It is the last episode of Focus on This with Verbs and Blake as your intrepid hosts. They, along with a very exciting surprise guest, reflect on what they’ve learned through doing 200+ episodes. They also talk about what’s next for them and we meet the new hosts of Focus on This.

This is definitely an episode worth checking out on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-CGrgW9xdlw

Support Verbs by checking out Village KNG:

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@villagekng

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/village-kng/1671233517

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6SnUxpitK0rM5MKQFJ7NmZ

Check out Blake’s newsletter and sign-up for personal coaching:

www.blakestratton.com

Check out “AI Knowhow” – Courtney’s new podcast all about leadership in the AI Era*:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4umjv0k2QPRUibC2zwzPjW

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-knowhow/id1707117410

For more on Knownwell, visit www.knownwell.com.

Make sure that YOU are in the Full Focus Planner Community to see what Focus on This has in store: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ffpthinktank

For more, visit www.focusonthispodcast.com

(*A favorite producer of yours might also work on it…)

Episode Transcript

Nick Jaworski:

Everybody, today is a day that perhaps people haven’t been aware of from the listeners. Today is not the last time we’re going to hear from Verbs and Blake. I’m going to be clear about that. But it is the last time that this is they’re the permanent, full-time hosts of Focus on this cue the ah.

Blake Stratton:

On the YouTube, you could put the crying Jordan meme over my face right here, okay?

Nick Jaworski:

Hey, for you I will.

Verbs Boyer:

Wait, wait. I might have one. I might have one. I’m doing the crying meme.

Blake Stratton:

Oh wow.

Nick Jaworski:

Oh my gosh.

Blake Stratton:

How do you do that?

Nick Jaworski:

Oh my gosh. That was legit horror, Verbs.

Verbs Boyer:

It was scary. I scared myself.

Blake Stratton:

Wow.

Verbs Boyer:

I second guessed my decision, when I clicked that.

Blake Stratton:

This podcast really meant something to Verbs. It’s a part of him-

Verbs Boyer:

Absolutely.

Blake Stratton:

… is dying today.

Nick Jaworski:

You’re going to have to hop online to see that. But here, I’ll spare you. I want to get into the show here. But we, of course, couldn’t do this and have this conversation unless we had the old clan back together.

Blake Stratton:

No.

Verbs Boyer:

Let’s go.

Blake Stratton:

Yes.

Nick Jaworski:

Hopefully her computer cooperates.

Verbs Boyer:

Come on, AirPods.

Blake Stratton:

Come on.

Nick Jaworski:

There she is.

Courtney Baker:

Yes.

Blake Stratton:

Yes. Whoa. Oh my gosh.

Nick Jaworski:

Courtney Baker has entered the chat, everybody.

Blake Stratton:

I’m consumed with joy.

Nick Jaworski:

Hi Courtney.

Courtney Baker:

Hi. How’s everybody doing?

Verbs Boyer:

Wait, now I’m crying. I’m going to cry with joy. Here we go.

Nick Jaworski:

Don’t do this again. This is so scary.

Blake Stratton:

Courtney’s back. Y’all, she’s back.

Verbs Boyer:

All right, I’m going to stop. I’m scared.

Courtney Baker:

That is scary.

Nick Jaworski:

It’s like real horror film. Courtney, I keep saying hi.

Courtney Baker:

Hi.

Nick Jaworski:

Welcome back to the show.

Courtney Baker:

Yes, it feels so normal. It feels right. I miss all three of you. It is so good to see your faces.

Nick Jaworski:

Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ve got Courtney here. We had some technical difficulties. We’re going to push ahead. We’ve got Courtney. We’ve got Verbs. We’ve got Blake. We’re going to talk about what we’ve learned-

Courtney Baker:

Dream Team, baby.

Nick Jaworski:

… since the start of the show. We’re going to talk about what comes next for everybody.

Blake Stratton:

What work and what didn’t work.

Nick Jaworski:

I feel like I should have said this before. There is a focus on this happening. Next week we will meet the new hosts. That’s all happening in this episode. Let’s hit it, Verbs.

Verbs Boyer:

Welcome to another episode of Focus On This, the most productive podcast on the internet, so you can banish distractions, get the right things done. Finally, start loving Mondays. My name is Verbs here with Courtney Baker and Blake Stratton. Happy Monday to you both. Courtney, back in the mix.

Courtney Baker:

Happy Monday.

Blake Stratton:

Happy Monday unto you.

Nick Jaworski:

Courtney’s here. What we’re doing is we’re going to celebrate and talk about the general, what have we learned. That’s the TV version of if you were in the 80’s, it’d be an episode on what have we learned. It might be even be a clip episode, but I got to be honest with you, I’m not doing that. Instead, we’re going to …

Verbs Boyer:

No, people don’t want a clip show. Those are always disappointing.

Nick Jaworski:

I asked our three hosts here to think of two or three things that they’ve learned. It could be related to the show. It could also just be just a message of growth or things that they’ve learned since starting this show over 200 episodes ago.

Blake Stratton:

Which is insane.

Nick Jaworski:

A lot’s happened since the show started.

Verbs Boyer:

A few things.

Nick Jaworski:

A few things have happened. Anyway, Courtney, let’s just start with you since we haven’t heard from you at all recently. What’s something you’ve learned in the last four plus years?

Courtney Baker:

Yeah, I think for me, the last four years, I think I discovered this early on, but it kept being reiterated at deeper and deeper levels. But that productivity before this podcast, really felt like a tactical let’s how to get just more done quickly. Over the last four years, I’ve really realized that productivity is actually a very deep journey because ultimately, productivity is about getting the right things done. That’s really hard to do if you don’t know what you actually want.

That’s been the culmination of great productivity is grounded in knowing what you want, what you want to pursue. Without that, it’s just a lot of check boxes and getting more done, which can be helpful. But I think the real power for me is when those two things go together. I think that’s been one of the most powerful lessons.

Blake Stratton:

So important, so important. I recently saved, I think it’s a quote from Oprah, people often compare me to Oprah having listened to the show. They’re like, “Oh my gosh. You’re totally an Oprah type, Blake.” But she has this quote where she essentially says what you just said, that one of the most important choices that you’ll make, things that you can decide or learn is what you really, really want. It seems like a simple question, but it can get profound and challenging in a hurry.

Nick Jaworski:

Verbs, over the last four years, lots happened. It’s been a crazy time. As you look back and look forward, what’s something that you’re going to take with you that was going to help you reach the goals that you’ve set for yourself?

Verbs Boyer:

The last four years have had big ups, big downs. But I would say if I could capture it all just in my time at full focus one, obviously love the weekly preview. That’s something I didn’t have going on in my life before I got here. But just the idea of looking forward into your week and accounting for everything that needs to go in there, really makes it what we always talk about, the secret sauce. There’s that. There’s this idea of goals not only being actions to accomplish, but really setting goals around who you want to become.

I believe Courtney alluded to that earlier as well. I think really, again, zooming even further out, there’s a verse in the book of Psalms. It says, “Teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” I think even just this whole full focus system that we’ve been talking about for the last four years and we’ll continue to talk about, really teaches us to number our days in such a way that we’re stewards over our time, we’re stewards over our energy and what we do with our days, how we work, how we care for each of our life domains.

Through all of that, hopefully we’re growing as people and we’re gaining more life wisdom as we go along. There’s going to be some things we get right, there’s going to be a lot of things we don’t get right. But I think when we have a system in place to help us map it out, helps us reflect back on what might not have gone the way we wanted it to, but also a place where we can figure out how that can go better. Then I think we’re winning. I appreciate being submerged in all of this talk, content and topics that we’ve discussed here on the podcast. It’s really helped me grow in new ways as well.

Blake Stratton:

All right, great. Yeah, make me follow Verbs. Really fair.

Nick Jaworski:

I thought you already went.

Blake Stratton:

No, I’ve got to feel all my feelings. I’m tremendously grateful. I feel like I’ve gotten to do this a little bit last year when I sort of shifted, but it’s worth restating. I have so much gratitude for being able to be a part of this small group right here and getting to be in your ears if you’re listening to this or in your car speakers on your Monday morning, what an immense privilege.

I was meeting with a new client that we just met last week. I was asking him, “How did you even find me on the internet?” He’s like, “Oh, of course.” I listened to the podcast for years. There are so many conversations that I’ve been able to have that start that way. For multitude of reasons, very grateful. In terms of what I’ve learned, there’s a couple of things I thought would be worth sharing just as reminders or ideas for you listening. Probably the most profound thing that I learned is what rolling quarters were. That was pretty game changing.

Courtney Baker:

What about that impact, though?

Nick Jaworski:

I like that little walk.

Courtney Baker:

What about that impact?

Blake Stratton:

I’m just kidding. No, absolutely.

Nick Jaworski:

That index [inaudible 00:09:18].

Blake Stratton:

Four years later, I still don’t use the index. Full confession. These are my confessions. I still sing Usher on commando. That is one thing. Two things that came to mind. One is that community creates consistency. I’ve done many different projects in my life, many different podcasts, even. None have scratched the surface in terms of impact and longevity as this project has. None have pushed me to continually dig deeper around a subject as much as this one has.

If I was just operating all this by myself, I may have hit 10 or 20 episodes much less, 200 plus. The team here has been amazing. Even beyond that, I’ve seen a huge difference in people who listen to the podcast or people who just get the planner and people who engage in our community or who have taken another step and engaged in community, whether it was Business Accelerator or other forms of community that we’ve had, or people that have been a part of my community that I host online.

Just community is one of the most powerful forms of productivity automation that you can install. That’s been a huge learning for me. The second thing is an even deeper scuba dive probably, but when I was thinking, if I only get an audience with these lovely listeners one more time, what is something that I would love for them to know? It’s something that I learned while we were recording this podcast. It started I think late 2019 when I got pretty sick. Do you all remember when I got shingles?

Courtney Baker:

Yes.

Blake Stratton:

I don’t know if you guys even remember that.

Courtney Baker:

I do.

Blake Stratton:

Because I kept it quiet. We were actually recording a podcast once, but I was dealing with, this was starting back before I even worked at Full Focus. But very interested in productivity, but I still struggled with chronic stress. My health was paying the price for that.

I think what I’ve learned over these years, and I’m still continuing to learn, is that time management is only partly about how well you use your time. I used to think that was all time management was about is yeah, how do you make the most of your time? How do you use your time well? That’s what time management is. But what I’ve learned is that there is a huge component of time management, which is how you feel or emotionally relate to your time, to your past, to your present, to your future.

It wasn’t until I started to grab a hold of that, I think going deep into productivity, learning tools and realizing, “Oh, even if I check all these boxes or even if I get these things done, of course it can help alleviate some things in the short term, but that doesn’t necessarily protect me from burnout, help me process anxiety or even optimize my performance.” I’ve got to take a look at this other side of time management. That’s been a huge learning point for me. That’s a very deep scuba dive.

If you lost oxygen there, you can go right back up to the surface, that’s fine. But that has honestly changed my life. I think being a part of this team and going deep into our tools at Full Focus have really brought me to that point in a powerful way.

Courtney Baker:

That’s awesome.

Nick Jaworski:

Courtney, I know that originally, we were going to go one at a time, but such great thoughts have come in bunches here from Verbs and Blake. Did you have anything else that you wanted to share from anything that you’ve learned?

Courtney Baker:

I really echo what Verbs and Blake both said. I would say the only other thing that I really feel as I look back on the last four years, I think is helpful for everybody listening, is the emphasis on other parts of my life besides just my career or health. Those to me, before these four years felt very obvious, it felt like something I did kind of naturally. I was always achievement-oriented. But there are those other sides, like your spiritual life, your relationships where you just don’t think about the intentionality, or even parenting, of creating goals and working towards those things intentionally.

I think we always want better in those realms, but very rarely did I before this podcast make concerted effort towards those. I think that that has produced some really beautiful change in my own life. I think it’s worth restating here for everybody listening to just encourage you if that’s where you fall into, where you always think about pursuing things in maybe work, health, maybe financial, it’s just those more common areas to really take a minute to spend some time thinking about how can I invest more, think more intentionally about those other life domains like relationships, like your spirituality, and really make progress in those areas.

For me, those were incredibly challenging a lot of times. Do y’all remember when I was meeting with a spiritual director?

Nick Jaworski:

Yep.

Courtney Baker:

It was one of my goals. I don’t know. That was really hard for me. It was a very hard goal, but it stretched me. It was so powerful on the other side. I think that’s another thing that as I look back, was a really great tool in my own life.

Nick Jaworski:

Nobody asked me, which is fine. But I’ll say that the …

Courtney Baker:

You’re still on the show, buddy.

Nick Jaworski:

That’s true. But I will say that the show for me, I think that people who listen to the show know this, that I’ve had to really come into a space where I can go, “This is for me.” I am capable of being somebody who can set a goal and set a path. I don’t know if that would’ve happened had I not been forced into a virtual room for multiple hours. Then listening back in editing show, I’m talking, everybody, if you’ve listened to every episode of Focus on This, I’ve heard it at least twice. Take all of that and go, “Oh, some of these ideas have really started to filter in.” That’s a direct result of spending time with the three of you. That’s been very, very helpful.

I must say nobody, even though I primed Blake and Verbs for this morning, nobody’s talked about the dishwasher yet.

Courtney Baker:

I actually thought about that. Yes.

Nick Jaworski:

That’s the big takeaway for me is also you’re always using your dishwashers wrong.

Courtney Baker:

Exactly. I think about that every night. Every night resetting my kitchen, I think about this dishwasher.

Verbs Boyer:

There are many highlights, many highlights. I’m sure we could all point to guys guess who we also need to send a shoutout to from the very beginning. He was in the room with us while we were there, in studio is Larry. Big shout out to Larry.

Nick Jaworski:

100%.

Verbs Boyer:

He’s one of the pioneers as well.

Courtney Baker:

Larry honestly walked through with us probably the darkest days of us not knowing what the heck we were doing. I was always-

Verbs Boyer:

Factuals.

Courtney Baker:

… so grateful for Larry because at the end of the episode, I was very insecure about my accent, about the way that I sounded. Larry would look at me and just say, “I don’t want you to change one thing. Don’t change one thing. Just be you and show up.” It was so powerful. I am always so thankful to Larry for that. Now look, I’m on another podcast. What is happening?

Nick Jaworski:

Spoiler.

Blake Stratton:

The fame.

Courtney Baker:

Stop it.

Nick Jaworski:

I do want to point out because I won’t have this opportunity again. It’s come up on the show before, maybe, I don’t remember. But the pandemic for me started with Blake and Courtney.

Courtney Baker:

Yeah.

Nick Jaworski:

The pandemic was not happening yet until we were sitting in the conference room over the course of a morning realizing, “Oh, they’re closing this. They’re closing this.” Courtney freaking out going, “This is kind of a big deal.” Blake telling, “It’s not a big deal.”

Blake Stratton:

Yeah. I was like, “This is going to be the hardest two weeks of our lives.”

Courtney Baker:

I remember really vividly the day that Blake left the Full Focus office to go undertake his own work. Y’all, I cried. I really cried. I was so sad. Thankfully I didn’t even realize at the time that I was going to get to see Blake all the time, still he was going to be on the show every now and then still get to see him a lot. But even today when I thought about showing up to talk to the three of you, I just thought, “Y’all are some of my favorite people.”

You were like the best of the best people. That is truly, if there are any tears about to come, it’s because I truly think you three are amazing. If y’all just want to get together and talk for 12 hours a day, just hang out. That’s great. I’m down.

But truly, I know we joked about the pandemic, but y’all really were my pandemic people. I’m so thankful that I had y’all in that season and the laughs. Man, it was such a hard time, but y’all made it really doable. Anyways, I just thank you three for being so awesome, genuinely. I really appreciate each one of you.

Blake Stratton:

Well dang.

Nick Jaworski:

That’s it for our show. No, Courtney, we love you. No, Verbs don’t, don’t Verbs.

Verbs Boyer:

No, just I love the show, man. I love y’all.

Blake Stratton:

But real talk. I don’t know how to follow that, Courtney. I feel, as I said, really grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it. But also, I think that, this is maybe peeked behind the curtain for those listening, the secret sauce of a lot of this productivity system and this company that produces this podcast, that produces the tools, it is just the absolute high caliber people that comprise this group.

It starts with Michael, Megan and on down. But I’ve just been, even now as people have moved on to other things, it’s like some of my most faithful supporters and encouragers, Nick, Verbs, Courtney, you being among them, are people that I got to know and meet here. For you listening, I don’t know. I hope you take inspiration and comfort and continue on with this podcast even after we’re not here. Just because the quality of people is just such a high bar. I feel grateful to gotten to be among this crew.

Verbs Boyer:

Yeah, I agree. Multiple times I’ve come on. We’ve logged on to record an episode and I continue to be amazed by both. All three of you obviously Nick, he just comes in and that’s who he is. He does what he does because of who he is. Thank you for being you, Nick. Then Courtney and Blake, any topic could be thrown out there and you all have the ability just to go and speak wisdom to it as well as if it’s a topic to where you’re still learning, you’re vulnerable about that and sharing that upfront. Just being able to sit in this room with you guys, I’ve definitely learned a lot just about not only thinking about business, about thinking through this whole system, but just how all that applies to all of life really. I appreciate your guys’ wisdom and again, your ability to just get on here and do what you do. I’m going to do the crying face right now again, so flash the warning.

No, but secondly, the last thing I wanted to say was, man, I’m grateful for Michael, Megan, Joel, just for entrusting us, especially as some of us have transitioned out into other opportunities to allow us to continue to go as long as we did as representatives and voices for Full Focus as well. There’s not many organizations when your last day hits, you turn your keys and all your passcodes. That’s it. We shake hands and depart. But I’m grateful that they allowed us to continue on doing what we’ve been doing here for the last, I don’t know, years or months. I don’t know how long. When did you leave, Blake?

Courtney Baker:

A year and a half ago.

Blake Stratton:

Last May. Yeah. Wow.

Verbs Boyer:

Shoot. Thank you Full Focus. Thank you, Michael. Thank you Megan. Thank you Joel and whoever else played a role in that, in letting these ragtag kids stay around talking about planner stuff.

Nick Jaworski:

Before we move on with the show, we thought it’d be nice to … People don’t panic. I’m still going to be here, which is why you’re all here on the show for sure. You’re all here to hear what producer Nick has to say. But we are joined by the new upcoming hosts of Focus on This. You know him. You love him. You’ve seen him before. Marissa and Ken, cue the applause.

Marissa Hyatt:

I feel like this is a very surreal experience. I’m looking at three friends, all four, Nick including you. But you’re staying. So we’re not.

Nick Jaworski:

No.

Marissa Hyatt:

Then it’s like, “This is the end of an era.” It’s really weird.

Ken Friere:

You’re about to cry.

Marissa Hyatt:

Don’t, don’t.

Ken Friere:

I see it.

Marissa Hyatt:

I’m not going to cry. I’m not going to cry.

Verbs Boyer:

I’m already crying.

Nick Jaworski:

Stop it.

Marissa Hyatt:

It really is a big moment. I think that you guys have carried this show for, how long has it been? Three years.

Ken Friere:

200 episodes.

Marissa Hyatt:

Three years.

Courtney Baker:

Yes, four.

Ken Friere:

Four years before I was counting.

Marissa Hyatt:

After the pandemic, but it might’ve been right before. It’s bizarre that you guys have taken our audience through all kinds of things in the world and through all different phases of our business and the Full Focus Planner. Then now we get to send you on your way. I don’t know. It’s bizarre. It’s really kind of crazy. I don’t know how we’re going to fill your shoes for sure.

Ken Friere:

Yeah. The way I like to think about it is you left an amazing legacy. We get to continue on that legacy with the current people and any new people who decide to join the Focus on This fans. But we’re never going to replace any of you because you have a very special place in everybody’s heart. If you ever look at the Facebook group, they’re like, “Where’s Blake? Where was Verbs this time? Where’s Courtney?”

Hey, it’s called Vacation. It’s okay if you’re not able to go at some point. But you guys all hold a special place in their hearts. I’m specifically into a shoutout to Courtney. Courtney, you hold a very special place in my heart, because you brought me here to Full Focus. We had a very fun and exciting time on ramping. We’ve been texting each other back and forth here and there. I appreciate you so much. I know whatever you guys are going to do next is going to be amazing.

Nick Jaworski:

Before we talk about what’s next for our crew here, I do quickly want to give Ken and Marissa an opportunity just to talk about what you’re looking forward to doing on the new Focus on This, a new Coke that worked out well.

Verbs Boyer:

Did it?

Courtney Baker:

Did it?

Ken Friere:

Y’all have made such a great stuff.

Verbs Boyer:

After 150 years of this.

Ken Friere:

Oh, are they going to be good? Did it?

Marissa Hyatt:

We’re definitely going to have to prove ourselves. That’s the truth. These guys have big shoes to fill.

I think that it’s the same show first of all, so don’t freak out. I jokingly said we should rename the show Focus on That instead of Focus on This. But I think that there’s going to be a lot that’s the same. For those of you guys who have been listening for a long time, it’s not like we’re reinventing the show from the bottom.

Obviously, we are going to have different voices. We’re going to have different angles. You’re going to hear a lot from our lives that we’re going to be talking about. I’m excited to share that.

I think one thing that Ken and I, as we’ve been gearing up for the show and talking through content ideas is we’re super excited about widening the lens a little bit with Focus on This to where we are able to really show more of our lives. We are really going to give you guys a peek behind the scenes of Goal Achievement, whether it’s with us or with our listeners, which we’re super excited. We’re going to be bringing some of you on from the community to talk through big goals that you’re going through. We want this to feel like this is your show. It’s not just for us, but it’s for you guys really. We’re excited about that.

Ken Friere:

Yeah, I definitely know that out of the 30,000 people who are in the Facebook group, there are so many fantastic stories of people using the planner or people just achieving some amazing goals. We just want to share that with people. I think so many times people think about Goal Achievement as like, “Oh, yeah, of course they’re doing it because that’s all they focus on all day at Full Focus.” Or you think about Navy CEOs or these epic people, but there are average people who can actually accomplish great things every single day. We want to start showcasing that more and more, at the same time talking about productivity and everything that we have been talking about. We also have some new segments that we’re going to try. Some of them are going to be amazing. Other of them, maybe epic tales.

Marissa Hyatt:

Ken, I’m just going to give a little preview. Ken is trying to rope me in to doing a 30-day CrossFit challenge.

Verbs Boyer:

Do it. Do it.

Nick Jaworski:

Do you do CrossFit, Verbs?

Ken Friere:

Yeah, you’re going to do it. The old guard is trying to pass it up.

Marissa Hyatt:

We’re going to be doing different challenges and things like that to get out of our comfort zone, accomplish goals and it’s going to be fun. We’re really excited about it.

Ken Friere:

Yeah.

I think there’s opportunities to ask the old crew here, which we have so many people in this room right now, this virtual room. Especially Verbs, I think people may not realize this whole time. What are you doing now and what is happening next for our intrepid three here?

Verbs Boyer:

Glad you asked. Currently, I serve at an organization here in Nashville called Rocketown as a venue director. Basically what I do is we have a music and event venue. My job is to make sure we get cool stuff that’s family-oriented entertainment and events that come into the Rocketown space as well as Courtney said, I did have a music career.

But last year we picked that back up. We got music constantly coming and dropping on Spotify. If you’re there on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, wherever you get your music from, make sure you look for us. The group’s name is Village KNG. Village KNG, king with no I, K-N-G. Village KNG.

Ken Friere:

We’ll put a link in the show notes. Of course, show description.

Verbs Boyer:

Since we have 30,000 people in the Facebook community group.

Courtney Baker:

Yeah, show us love.

Blake Stratton:

Yeah, show some love to the Village KNG.

Ken Friere:

You see those streams coming up.

Blake Stratton:

What kind of music is it?

Verbs Boyer:

I’m a hip hop artist, so it is hip hop music.

Ken Friere:

Blake, what’s the plan? What are you up to? What’s next?

Blake Stratton:

Yeah, these days I’m focusing on helping burned out leaders or leaders who are nearing burnout, automate their productivity. For those that have listened for a while, I like to scuba dive. That’s a lot of what I do with folks nowadays. I’ve developed some of my own scuba diving tools, if you will. I should probably clarify, that’s a metaphor. I’m not actually a certified scuba diver.

Marissa Hyatt:

Have you trademarked?

Blake Stratton:

Yeah, it’s more the, there’s some tools that I’ve learned over the years that have helped me recover from that or revive passion or vision and begin to automate progress towards that vision. That’s my focus nowadays. I do that in a newsletter. I have a community of folks I work with. I do some one-on-one coaching as well. Yeah, if you want to hear about that, you can go to blakestratton.com, a website of mine. Or if you’re on LinkedIn, I share stuff on there almost every day.

Ken Friere:

Of course, Blake, are you still going to be around the community?

Blake Stratton:

Yeah, still be around the community. In fact, I know I’ve gotten to know a lot of you actually over the last year just via Facebook messaging or you’ve come to some of my free events that I host online. That’ll still happen. Who knows? Maybe get into the podcasting game again myself. We’ll see. We’ll see what people want. All right.

Marissa Hyatt:

Speaking of podcasts, Courtney.

Courtney Baker:

Is that my cue for my updates?

Verbs Boyer:

That’s your cue.

Courtney Baker:

Yeah, for the last several months, I have been working on founding a new company. Actually we just launched earlier this month to really help businesses navigate through AI, really looking at your organization from the highest level and really determines strategically how you’re going to leverage AI. It’s such an important conversation this moment in time, this new transformational technology and helping executives do that really well. We just launched our company called Knownwell.

Actually, this week just launched a brand new podcast called AI Knowhow. That’s really going to be talking about, obviously the technology around AI is coming so quickly, there’s so much to absorb. What we’re really helping executives do is translate that technology into practical business application. If you’re not tired of listening to me for the last four years, we would love for you to come join us over there. It’s a little different vibe, but it’s awesome. It’s very fast-paced.

In 20 minutes, you’re going to stay up-to-date on what’s happening in the world of AI. Did I think four years ago that I would be founding a company working in the AI? No. I don’t know what the odds were, Blake on that one, but …

Ken Friere:

You should have asked ChatGPT and they would’ve told you-

Courtney Baker:

There you go.

Ken Friere:

… if it was coming.

Verbs Boyer:

Nice.

Blake Stratton:

I just subscribed. I just subscribed. Here I am.

Courtney Baker:

Thank you. Blake, if you would leave a five star review, I don’t know.

Blake Stratton:

I’m way ahead of you. I’ve literally already done it.

Marissa Hyatt:

Use ChatGPT to create that review.

Blake Stratton:

That’s right. Yeah.

Courtney Baker:

Exactly. Yeah, it’s been really great. I cannot think of two better people to be handing off this baton. When I was thinking about joining this episode, I just was like, “Can I even make it through without crying?” I thought Blake would be so excited for those tears, but also just so happy I did.

Blake Stratton:

See your feelings, feel them.

Courtney Baker:

Blake, I know. I’m so excited for Ken and Marissa. I was like, “Marissa, you filled in for me during the four years, several times, including several months when I was on maternity leave.” I know Ken has had so much podcasting experience himself that you two are just going to do an amazing job. I know our audience is in such great capable hands. Not to mention Nick. I’m excited for this new era. Yeah.

Verbs Boyer:

Absolutely.

Marissa Hyatt:

Thanks. I’m really excited for all of you. I love that this is something that’s really important to us at Full Focus is we believe that we’re stewards of the people that we employ for the time that they’re here. We really want to leave people better than we found them. You guys are such great examples of that.

The fact that you guys are all doing such incredible business opportunities and really exciting creative things, it’s really fun. I cannot wait to keep up with y’all. You guys will have to stay in our community because the people are going to want to keep up with you guys too. Share what you’re doing. But yeah, we’re really excited.

Nick Jaworski:

I do want to say real quick that as far as I know, and I believe this is true for Ken and Marissa, that of course if you’re looking to be on a podcast to scratch that itch, you are always welcome to come say, “Hey, on the Focus on This podcast.”

Courtney Baker:

We’ll love that.

Nick Jaworski:

You have not been kicked out and told never to come back, of course.

Marissa Hyatt:

That goes for everybody, all of you guys. You’re always welcome.

Nick Jaworski:

For sure. I guess I feel like I should say this. I haven’t really said it because I’m doing producer stuff. But I just want to say thank you to Verbs, Courtney and Blake. I might get emotional right now.

Verbs Boyer:

Don’t do it. Don’t do it.

Nick Jaworski:

This little house, this little home that you built, coming in. I’m very, very appreciative for all this time that we’ve spent. I’m actually really sad that we’re not going to have this time anymore. We’ll have to get together and pretend like we’re making a podcast.

Verbs Boyer:

That would be awesome.

Nick Jaworski:

We’ll have all the tech issues that we always had.

Blake Stratton:

Our show’s 10 minutes late. It’ll be perfect.

Nick Jaworski:

But I hope you guys come back. I will tell you this, that there is talk about finally doing a writing utensil showdown on this show after two years.

Marissa Hyatt:

We’re going to do it.

Nick Jaworski:

Maybe you can participate in that. I know we’ll keep in touch and all the other stuff. Thank you so much for all these years. This is crazy.

Verbs Boyer:

Yeah. Are we making this outro, extra dramatic? How should we do this, Nick?

Nick Jaworski:

I don’t know. Do you want lightning in it?

Verbs Boyer:

Lightning, splitting of the oceans. You have your one side leaving, the other side coming in.

Thank you for joining us on Focus on This. This is the most productive podcast on the internet. Share it with all of your friends. Make sure you join us at the Full Focus Planner Community right there on Facebook. We won’t be here next week. But Marissa and Ken, two powerhouses of Podcast Power, we’ll be here ready with another great episode. Until then and the whole house said …

Stay focused.

Nick Jaworski:

Always perfect.

Here’s a pitch. We like to make a podcast together. What if we do a reaction podcast to the original podcast?

Courtney Baker:

We actually should do that for this podcast.

Blake Stratton:

That’s hilarious.

Nick Jaworski:

That’s very popular right now.

Courtney Baker:

We really could.

Nick Jaworski:

We can call it Focus on That. It’ll just be a little secret. It’ll be not through Full Focus, but we can just respond through about this.

Courtney Baker:

A lot of me being like, “What am I even saying? Why are you even saying it like that?”

Nick Jaworski:

We can pause it and go, “I really need to sneeze then.”

Verbs Boyer:

It’ll be a whole lot of that. What was even the question?

Courtney Baker:

Yeah.