I’m putting my notes for the episode that I recorded with my friend, Amber Glus, of the “School of Copy and Messaging” podcast. If you’d like to hear more about my programs and her feelings as she took my programs, please listen to the full episode HERE.
1: Thanks for having me Amber. I’ll just be honest, this is my first ever interview on a podcast, so everyone realizes that I’m a complete newbie!!
As Amber said, I’m Marla Beech and I am the owner of Hunkeedori. I started my company 6 years ago and I still love what I do. I started by designing and creating custom Travelers Notebooks and fabric inserts that were what I wanted to combine my wallet and my planner and my notebooks. I wanted each one to be unique because I believe that we are all unique and so I will never just sew a bunch of Travelers Notebooks and sell them in my shop. You get to design your own with different sizes and styles and have over 250 fabrics to choose from. I want every person that gets a Travelers Notebook made by me to feel they are as unique and special as it is. My business has evolved into teaching workshops and programs that focuses on what goes into those Travelers Notebooks that help busy and overburdened women to “Keep it all together”. Basically, I teach simple, daily practices that help you to connect to yourself so you can create deeper connections with those that you love and what’s most important to you.
2: First, I have to say this about “Keeping it all together”. No one is Keeping it All Together all the time. I am definitely one that does not have it all together in the sense that most people think about when they hear that. BUT having daily practices that keep you focused, make it possible more often. I feel like I’m keeping it all together when I am in a place of calm, knowing that whatever comes at me, I’m ready to handle, if only because I’ve chosen that that’s how I’m going to come at it. Doesn’t mean perfection. It means I will perfectly keep trying.
OK. So, a Travelers Notebook, also known as a TN is basically a square or rectangle, made of leather or fabrics, with elastics strung through the center that hold inserts, like notebooks, planners and other types of inserts like the fabric inserts that I also make. It all folds in half into a book that is kept closed by an elastic. You can exchange the inserts for whatever you need. They go in and out really easily. It’s really versatile which is what drew me to them in the first place. The Travelers Notebook system has filled every paper/pen/office supply nerd need of my heart!!!
3: In my main program I teach about connecting to your TIME. Connecting to your LIFE and Connecting to your SELF. These 3 systems are what make up the Uniquee Connection program. The intention of this program is that you’ll come away from the program not only believing in the dreams you feel pulled towards but knowing you’ve had the ability within you to do them all along.
You’ll also:
Define your top priorities
Plan your life around those priorities and record them and
Trust yourself while you figure it all out.
The first system is
- Connect to your TIME: by Defining your #1 priority. There are lots of things that want our attention but when you know your #1, and focus on fitting that in first, before anything else, everything else falls into place. Having a #1 doesn’t mean you don’t do anything else. It also doesn’t mean that it takes up the majority of your time, BUT it is something that you spend time consistently doing. You’d drop anything else to take care of this. Our priorities are not written in stone. There might be something that works its way higher up on your list for a little while. #1 usually doesn’t change. In fact, my top 3 never change.
Knowing your priorities:
-it makes planning your life easier
-it becomes easier to say NO to things and let’s face it, we all have a hard time doing that
-Makes what I choose to do feel more important
-Empowers me because I’m doing what’s important to me
-helps me to set healthier personal boundaries and knowing “WHY” I’m choosing to do what I do, helps me to stick to them
-It’s been very empowering to get in touch with my deepest desires by defining my priorities and I know it does that for my students too
-Relieves stress and feelings of overwhelm by:
-you being the one to make the choices
-being able to change your mind
-knowing you’re the one in charge
-being the one to decide what’s important
-Think about it…don’t you want to know that you get to choose how to get to your destination? Don’t you want to design your own map?
One of my favorite insights I’ve been given when Connecting to my TIME was realizing that Heavenly Father was a weekly planner. He didn’t try to fit everything that He wanted to accomplish into one day. He did what he could each day and then the entire plan happened. I bet He didn’t feel overburdened.
The second system
- Connect to your LIFE: Using your priorities to decide how you spend your time. Actually living the plan you created.
Do you want to enjoy the journey of getting to where you’re going or do you just want to sleep through the trip OR get there as fast as you can?
When you say NO to the things that aren’t your top priorities, you give yourself more time for the things that are. Planning things that are meaningful to you actually makes your time slow down instead of speeding by so quickly. Mindless things you do makes your time speed up. Just a quick example is when you get sucked into mindless scrolling on social media. No touch points/memories made. When you do it with a purpose in mind, that’s different.
Memory Keeping is also a big part of connecting to you LIFE. Recording the moments you think you’ll never forget, actually make it so you don’t. We’ve all been there when something really important happens and we think it will be burned into our brains forever. We all know it looses so much of the initial impact over time. BUT if you take a few minutes to write it down, then it becomes a permanent memory. There’s lots of ways to record memories. You can choose the one that fits your personality best. Scrapbooking, taking pictures, writing it down in a journal are just a few.
Moments to Memories freebie. Gives three ways to record memories, quickly, and you can keep it in your Travelers Notebook. Carry it with you in your purse. Or sit it on your desk. You can download that free at Hunkeedori.com or I’m sure Amber will put it in the shownotes too.
- Connect to your SELF: I have loved watching myself learn that the things I experienced in the past are what has prepared me for the future. Spending time accessing your wisest self can help you make progress with what you’re doing now. That’s what journaling has done for me. Journaling is different that keeping a journal. Journaling is free writing, just letting whatever comes to your mind just flow out. It doesn’t even have to make sense at first. I do this first thing every morning. Every morning isn’t an AH-ha moment but they come often. Sometimes I write with a specific question, like when I think about how I want to explain Uniquee Connection. Sometimes I start by saying something like…feeling pretty yucky and foggy this morning. Not sure what I’m going to write. My brain eventually takes over and pulls things up that I had forgotten. I become my own teacher. It seriously is the most powerful practice!!!
- Travelers Notebook hold all of these systems I created. They can hold your planner, your notebook to keep track of memories as well as a notebook that you do your journaling in. I love it because they easily move in and out, not bound together so when you finish up one part, the rest gets wasted because you can’t finish it. That always drove me crazy with other systems. Plus, they ALWAYS had parts in them that I never used. They weren’t a part of my systems. This way, I only put in there what I use.
My motto for this program is:
The past is behind, learn from it.
The future is ahead, plan for it.
The present is here, live it.
4: I love teaching Camp Connection! I was using these daily practices for a while when one morning when I was out running, and they all came together onto a double page spread for a planner. They have definitely helped “save me” from feeling overburdened.
In my daily devotional that I do each morning I use these supplies:
Compass: Getting headed in the right direction every morning. Daily practices that help you to do this. I find a way to show love to myself, so my cup is full so I can serve others, I do a spiritual practice, and I decide on an affirmation for the day. Something I need to hear to keep encouraging myself when I get discouraged or hit a problem. Getting my compass straightened out to where I want to go, is very important in the first-aid kit.
Binoculars: LOOKING FORWARD. More than a to-do list. Thinking through what you’re going to do, how you want to feel, what do you want to have happen, who will you be with, and how do you want to affect them? This gets my mind straight to remember why I’m doing what I’m doing that day.
The next two parts of the first-aid kit I do at the end of the day.
Magnifying Glass: LOOKING BACKWARD. What are things that you don’t want to forget? Decided how you’re going to record these things. Scrapbook. Journal. Pictures. Doesn’t matter. Choose one and be consistent. You will forget!! I make sure to write at least one thing down every night.
Field Notebook and a good pen: A notebook is needed to do a GRATITUDE practice. Gratitude is strongly connected to experiencing greater happiness. Don’t believe me, next time you’re in a bad mood, start listing off things in your life that you are grateful for, and that bad mood will leave pretty quickly. We always hear that we should have an attitude of gratitude, but how often do we really do it? Making this something I do every night really sends me off to bed in a peaceful state which, if you remember, is the way that I TRULY feel like I am Keeping it all together.
5: This has become everything to me. All of these systems were added into my life, one at a time, as I was digging my way out of depression. It was a long, 10-year battle, one that I’m still fighting. BUT because of these systems, when the depression shows up again, and really, when I feel overburdened by the demands of my business and family, when there are more needs than I feel like I can meet, these simple, daily practices that I am committed to doing, they put my head and my heart and my spirit back into a good place. When I don’t use them regularly, daily, I can feel the difference. LOOKING FORWARD and JOURNALING are non-negotiable. They are the two that give me the most peace. Whether I’m journaling about business or family or looking forward to how I’m going to meet the demands of my day, just taking the time puts me in a place of peace. I can refer back to any of my practices when I begin to feel overburdened. I love sharing them with others because I know they can do the same for them. There’s so much depth involved with each one that it’s hard to share it all here.
6: The best way to start learning about these daily systems is to start with Camp Connection. We spend a week together learning about each of the supplies that go into your first-aid kit. If I’m not currently running the camp when you hear this, you can join the wait list and I’ll let you know when Camp opens up again. The next program I offer is called Uniquee Connection where we dive deep into connecting to your TIME, LIFE, and SELF. This program is 5 weeks and we really get into the important parts of each. The crowing part of what I offer is my membership, called Club Connection. This is a monthly membership where we put it all into practice and support each other. The most important thing in all of this is to find Connection. With yourself and with others. That’s what I love to see in all of these programs I offer. Of course, it all begins with falling in love with the Travelers Notebook. Of course, they are not required, plain old paper always works, but they sure are fun! I’d love to make one for you too. I am happy to help you walk through the process of designing the perfect one for you. Message me in my etsy shop at hunkeedori.etsy.com. Everything is also available at hunkeedori.com. Amber is currently helping me redesign and get all of these things on my website, so if it’s not all there yet, it will be soon. You can also find me @hunkeedori on Instagram and youTube, you can join my private Hunkeedori Facebook group where we all share how we use our TN’s. I’m on pinterest and share tons of ideas there as well. My podcast is called, OVERBURDENED NO MORE and I teach a short little idea each week that has to do with all the things we talked about today.