EP 12 // How to be an Engaging Virtual Speaker and How to Deal with Your Inbox

NOTE: Please excuse any errors in this transcript; it was created using an AI tool. Akua Nyame-Mensah 0:07 Welcome to the open door podcast. My name is Akua Nyame-Mensah Chaos respond to Aqua. And yeah, I'm a certified executive and leadership coach recognised facilitator and former sort of leader that loves supporting reluctant firefighting and overwhelmed leaders. I've worked with them to help them clarify where they should focus their time, and energy each and every day so that they can love themselves, love their work, and ultimately love their life. If you're looking to learn leadership information and hear different perspectives, you are in the right place. My aim in this podcast is to help you see that one of the most productive and profitable things you can do is deeply understand yourself. Understand how you show up, understand how you thrive, and allow yourself to align everything in your work in your life, and in your business to support that, think of this podcast as your weekly opportunity to receive leadership support. And remember, there is no one right way to lead yourself or others. Thank you so much for taking the time to join me today. Let's get started. Hello, and welcome to this new episode of the open door conversations podcast. And today I'm doing one of my favourite types of episodes. And that is our hashtag Akua episode where I answer your questions. So today I have two questions for you. The first is we're gonna be talking all about speaking better. So recently, I've been getting a lot of questions around public speaking, how to do good virtual speaking and how to do virtual facilitating. And so I wanted to touch on that and share some of my resources really around speaking because that is definitely one of the biggest things I've learned over the last few years. And one of the hardest skills. I think that I've had to learn over the last few years as well, with the second question, we're going to be talking all about emails, and I'll be sharing a little bit of my approach to dealing with email. So emails are really interesting. I think emails make a lot of people anxious. I don't think everyone recognises that they actually make them anxious. But I'll be talking a little bit about how I approach emails. And some of the feedback that I actually gave one of my clients are around trying to manage her inbox. And I think it's really, really great sort of advice that anyone can implement, or anyone can sort of leverage to really move forward. So let's get into this first topic around speaking better and around really trying to create an amazing environment to be able to be a an effective virtual facilitator and an effective virtual speaker. And I definitely use those two words interchangeably. But I do think that there is a difference between being a speaker and a facilitator, I'm a lot more of a facilitator. And to me, what that means is I really love to engage, I really love to have the audience participate. And I really love that dialogue and having the opportunity to respond as opposed to just talk at people. And I recognise that speakers don't just talk at people. But I am a lot better when I am not just trying to motivate or inspire, but by really providing actual insights that people can think about how they will implement it right away. So that's really the way I think about it. But to start a little bit at the beginning, why is this important? Why did I actually want to share this. So being able to communicate and connect with all types of stakeholders is key to being a successful leader. And I know for me, it was definitely one of the hardest skills that I've had to learn. And I'm continuing to sort of hone that skill. And every single time I do a presentation every single time I record a podcast, I'm getting just a little bit better at it. So the most important thing I think, in speaking or facilitating or even coaching is building your self awareness. And to me, any of you who've been listening to my podcast know that self awareness is really key to the work that I do. It's really the first step that I take all my clients through. And when I'm putting together presentations, or workshops, I really try to help my participants build their self awareness to start with, right really, where do they stand? How do they feel about something? What emotions does that evoke? What are the first thoughts that come to their mind based on the topic that we're going over today? That's really what I try to start off with. And so having that self awareness or building your self awareness will really help you understand where you are and also how you can improve, right? So communicating, facilitating speaking, like all soft skills is a muscle that needs to be worked out, right. So speaking, even virtually used to scare me, and there still is a bit of fear that comes up. And I think that that's actually a good thing for the most part, but using tools such as checklists, you know, recording myself and listening back practising. And actually, what I will do is I will leave one of my checklists all around speaking better, I call it I want to speak better, or the ultimate speaking checklist, as you could probably tell, I'm really bad at naming things and make things so obvious in my titles. But that's really what this checklist is all about. And it's a checklist, actually, that I've been working on for a while. And I got a lot of really great feedback on it. So I've actually updated it to include other people's thoughts as well. So as I mentioned, before, speaking, even virtually used to scare me. And what I've had to do was leverage tools and really practice to build my confidence and pinpoint what I can work on. So even after every workshop I do now or every conversation I have, whether it's a coaching conversation, one on one or a conversation with more people, I try to solicit feedback to get an understanding of what did people learn? What are they going to do differently moving forward? Did my point land? And what can I improve on the next time I have this conversation or host this workshop. So as I mentioned before, I still do have a bit of anxiety before I begin all presentations. And what I try to do is remind myself that I am prepared. And so one of the ways I prepare is through this checklist that once again, I will have in the show notes that you can download super easily. And I remind myself that I can prepare for it. And that each opportunity to communicate is also an opportunity to learn. So this interactive checklist that I'm putting in the show notes is definitely inspired by the people who had a chance to download it. So download it, sorry, so I updated it. And you know, a lot of people I think, have gotten a lot of confidence from it. So just to give you an idea of some of the feedback that I've received, actually, from people that actually use this checklist, you know, one person said, I love this, this is actually the first time I've come across a self assessment, not for the audience, but for the presenter and speaker. And it also serves as a guide for a first time speaker. So this is a great tool. Another person said, I love how easy this is to read and check against the presentation, as well as a guide to prepping. So there's some really great thoughts in there about how to prep and maybe what to keep in mind. Another person said, this is a very helpful document. Thank you so much for the gift, I find myself presenting a lot to leadership teams and other peers. And most times I forget and miss the basic stuff, this checklist right here is it in capital letters. Thank you Akua. So those are just some of the things that people have said about this checklist that I think is a really, really great starting point for anyone really looking to update their speaking and really be able to come across as an effective speaker and leader. So based on some of the feedback, some of the things that I added were really around helping people think about how to be intentional when they're showing up. So I think in order to be a great public speaker, a great facilitator, the first thing you want to do is make sure that you're very clear on the intention, right? So what is it that you want the audience to say do or think differently, I think is very much the first step, give yourself the opportunity really to try to define the audience and get an understanding once again, of what might resonate with them. What might be helpful for them to hear a lot of the work I do is around helping people with shifting their perspective or their mindset. So I typically will start off with sharing what they might be feeling or their stories that they're telling themselves. And also reminding them that those stories or the things they're feeling are completely natural and normal. But this is another way that they could potentially look at it. And there might be a benefit to shifting the way in which they're thinking about it, especially if their goals look like X, Y and Z. Right. So really just recognising that there are certain things you can say there are certain ways you can approach things to really help people rethink some of the assumptions that they're making. Another key thing to keep in mind, in terms of public speaking and virtual facilitating is rehearsing. So so many people probably might laugh at this, but even when I start off my podcast, I might rehearse certain parts that feel a little unnatural to me to make sure that it's in a language that really resonates with me and I think I can deliver it in a way that has a lot of confidence. So rehearsing can be as simple as practising in front of the mirror. When I rehearse I just say things out loud, just wherever I am. And you can also rehearse in front of close friends or family, you can also record it and listen back to it as well. So that's another thing you can keep in mind as well. I think another thing to keep in mind, especially more thinking about virtual facilitating, and virtual speaking is thinking about your boundaries. So when it comes time to leveraging technology, and I know for many people trying to do things online, and speaking virtually can seem a bit overwhelming, whether using zoom, or Google Hangouts, or whatever you're using in order to engage with participants and engage with clients. So really make sure that you are comfortable with the technology, and set boundaries and share those boundaries with your audience as well. So for example, if you want the audience to engage with you, let them know that and also share how you would like them to engage. So whenever I start off my presentations, I'll always say I'd love to have very engaging conversations, you can unmute at any time you can interrupt me, and I honestly don't mind because I really love having engaging conversations. And I like being able to respond to people and make sure that they're getting what they need out of the conversation. And that it's, it's really something that they can use moving forward. So I always love to let them know that, hey, I don't actually have that many boundaries, and you are free to interrupt me at any point in time. And it hasn't been a problem. And I've done hundreds and hundreds of workshops. So that's something to keep in mind. Another thing you can also keep in mind is actually directing them to do certain things. So one thing I think that works really well for virtual facilitation is actually having slides that's directing people to either raise their hands, use the chat, use a specific emoji, and once again, that will help add to the engagement and also sort of bring people along. And it also helps to keep people engaged and awake within your communication. So when you're really thinking about having an engaging virtual speaking opportunity, or virtual facilitation opportunity, a key thing to keep in mind around setting your boundaries is also recognising that you might need to get comfortable with pauses that might seem like they're very long. So when I first started, especially online, I would try and hurry through things when I was asking for engagement or asking people to respond to a poll or type something in the chat. And I wouldn't wait very long because it felt uncomfortable. Now it's almost second nature. And literally, sometimes I'll even have a bottle of water so that I forced myself to take a sip. And that also prolongs the amount of time that I will wait for people to respond. And what I find is that by just taking that extra second, you might need that extra second because right? Sometimes, you know, there might be a second or two of delay, or someone maybe wasn't comfortable unmuting right away. So you don't want to cut off people who want to potentially participate. So making sure that you take a little bit longer breaks, it might seem awkward, but it's gonna be fine, I promise. And another thing you probably also want to keep in mind is, if no one responds, that's absolutely fine. So prepare for the fact that people might not respond. And you can call it out, I do this all the time, I'll say, Hey, anybody want to, you know, share something, feel free to raise your hand, you can unmute or use the chat. I'll wait a few seconds, you can count it out. If you want maybe to about 10 seconds, if you feel that's helpful, you can take a gulp of water or a sip of water if you think that's helpful. And if no one responds, you can say, hey, that's fine. You know, let's move on. Right. So really just recognising that there's nothing wrong with people not participating people not participating doesn't mean that what you're sharing is invaluable. It just maybe means that at this point in time, there's nothing for them to say. Another thing I've also learned around thinking about setting your boundaries, and thinking about how you know what your expectations are. And what Yeah, of of the participants is, you know, deciding whether or not you want to cold call people. So a lot of the conversations I have are quite difficult conversations to a certain extent. So these are conversations, or these are topics that people don't normally have the time and space to reflect on. And even with a lot of my coaching, you know, a lot of people will say, Hey, that's a great question, or I've never had a chance to think about that, or, you know, I need some time. And that's absolutely fine. Everyone processes information at different rates. So really just recognising that you shouldn't push people who aren't ready. If if someone you know, yeah, you shouldn't push people who aren't ready and you should really just give them the time and space and grace, right. So once again, just making sure that there is space there so they can reflect and also give them the option of you know, writing things down as well. Right. So that can be another thing that you can share with them that they can write this down. It doesn't have to be something that they share out loud because I find and that there are some people who maybe don't participate, but after the fact, they'll send me a DM on LinkedIn and be like, that was such a great conversation. Thank you so much. And you know, sometimes I'm like, oh, this person didn't say anything. But that doesn't mean they didn't get something from it. So really just recognising that you want to be, you know, clear with your expectations. But you also want to make sure that you aren't, you know, overpowering, or calling out or cold calling people who aren't ready to actually participate. And the last thing I want to talk about in terms of expectations, and sort of setting boundaries, is also recognising with virtual speaking and virtual facilitating that not everyone will want to have their video on. And that's okay, that is absolutely fine. As someone who spends a lot of time on Zoom, and on Google Hangouts, when I join other people's trainings, and other workshops, a lot of times my video is not on. But that doesn't mean that I'm not participating. That just means that I don't need that screen time, right? There is some really interesting research out there around how you know, even being on our computers and sort of behind the screen and the video on that does take a toll on you. So give people the opportunity not to have their videos on if that's something that they feel they need at that point in time. And once again, that does not mean that they aren't listening, it doesn't mean they aren't taking things away from it. A lot of times when I do my workshops, these days, I see people who will turn on their videos when they're talking and then turn it off. And I think that's absolutely fine. And depending on where you are in the world, turning off your video can also be really good for the internet, and actually allow them to be able to participate and stay on and not be cut off. So those are just some things to think about in terms of setting expectations and setting boundaries, really around, being able to have a better experience for your participants and your clients. Okay, the last thing I really wanted to share here in terms of thinking about how to, you know, speak better public speaking, virtual speaking, virtual facilitating, is potentially planning for the worse. So some of you listening to this may not agree with this. But I find that planning for the worst can be incredibly helpful. And actually, today, I had one coaching client who also felt like they they got a lot of confidence from just taking the time to plan for the worst, and then recognising that the worst will never happen. But the fact that they took the time to take themselves there really just gives them a little bit more flexibility and allows them to just be a little bit more grateful as well for whatever outcome there is. So in terms of thinking about planning for the worse, when we're talking about virtual facilitating, or virtual speaking, specifically, like really recognising that you could, you know, lose internet connection, that is totally happened to me for some really important conversation. So recognising that that could happen. So make sure you always have a backup, okay? And if we're thinking about physical speaking, what's the worst thing that can happen? And really think about? How can you potentially mitigate that or make sure that doesn't happen? So another thing that you could also keep in mind is what should you definitely not say? So what is something that you think definitely wouldn't land especially for that specific audience? If you've taken the time to define the audience, and really think about what would be important to them? And what would resonate with them? Okay, another thing you could potentially keep in mind, especially if you are sort of not you don't have a script, you're just sort of talking is what might you say? That could upset the audience? And then vice versa? What could the audience say to potentially upset you? And this is something I do think a bit about, you know, what are my triggers. And I think it's really important that all leaders, all speakers really think about what potentially could trigger them, and how they could work through that. So for me, one way I worked through that is through breathing exercises, may be taking a sip of water, just doing something to distract me for a bit and then trying to decide whether or not it's worth engaging the majority of the time, it is not worth engaging. Alright, another thing to keep in mind in terms of planning for the worst, and I think that this is helpful for any type of speaking. And I will say that this particular resource that I put together, I was using with some some executives and VPs, that were doing some board presentation. So this really might be helpful for board presentations as well is asking yourself, What will you say if you don't know the answer to a question or have another issue? So once again, just sort of planning for the words planning for you know, potential things that could happen? And just thinking about what could you say that would sound professional, but just give you that space and grace to maybe find the answer or come back to them? And just to help them recognise that, okay, hey, I am thinking about this, but maybe I don't have the answer right now. Alright, so those are some of the things that I wanted to share around sort of speaking better public speaking, thinking about how to do a better job really engaging with participants, really engaging with potentially clients in terms of virtual speaking and virtual facilitating. If you want to learn a little bit more about my approach once again, I will put a link to the resource in the description. And like I said, it continues to talk a little bit more about sort of prep that you can do, how you can think about the message, how you can also keep in mind body language. Even with the work I do virtually, I use a lot of body language, I'm incredibly expressive, I have a lot of energy, you can probably even tell just from this podcast, I do a lot of stuff with my tone, and my voice as well. So really just recognising that all of us are a work in progress when it comes to speaking. And yeah, if you're interested in learning a little bit more, or wanting to really improve on your speaking, this particular document might be a really helpful starting point. And yeah, I think that's probably all I want to share in terms of thinking about speaking and, yeah, virtual facilitating. So let's get to the second question. So with this second question, this is actually something that I talked to a client about. So I actually put down some notes with all my coaching clients, I take notes for them, or support them or taking notes. So they, they have their learnings, and they can think about how they can use this moving forward. And so what I've done is actually written down some of the thoughts that we talked through. And I thought that many of you who listened to my podcast might find this helpful, because I think so many of us get so many emails every single day. And some of us might really have a hard time or get anxious with dealing with these emails. But just some some quick stats that I found online. So this is from The Guardian a few years ago. But according to this article, the average office worker apparently receives 121 emails and sends about 40 Each day, and that number is rising. That is shocking. That is absolutely shocking. So I know I get a lot of emails, but that's just because I'm obsessed with newsletters. And so I love newsletters and reading newsletters. But I guess I do get a quite a bit of emails, I try to do a lot of different things with my emails. And once again, just really wanted to share my perspective on a potential way in which you could approach it. But I think the first thing really to keep in mind about emails is that there is no one right way to deal with your emails. So I think a really good example of this is the fact that I'm fine with a high unread count, I'm fine with a lot of emails in my inbox doesn't bother me, I don't care, it's not a big deal to me, I have a process of dealing with my emails, that works really, really well. I'm not going to share it. But I'm happy to share it with you if you're working with me, you know, one on one, but I'm not going to share it on here because it is a bit complicated. But on the flip side, there are others who get really anxious with having emails in their inbox. So I know one time I posted a screenshot of my inbox, I think on Instagram, and a friend of mine was like, how Speaker 2 22:43 can you have that many emails in your inbox like OMG. And I'm like, well, it doesn't Akua Nyame-Mensah 22:47 doesn't bother me, I really don't care. But I will say the one thing that I do always share with my clients. And some of you listening to this may not agree, but this is how I feel is that your inbox should not be used as a task list. I don't think it should be. I think there's some interesting research out there that suggest it shouldn't be, there are some apps that sort of turn your inbox into sort of a task list. But I think that we all should get out of our inboxes as quickly as possible. And with some of my clients, I even recommend that they should draft emails outside of their email client, that's something that I do to you know, sort of avoid getting sucked into, you know, the next email that comes. And I have other clients who also will turn off their internet to make sure that they're not trying to check, right their email. And, you know, for those of you who've taken you know, a second or have, you know, read anything about how or read about how, you know, email products, and a lot of different things on our phones, and our computers are actually created in a way to make us want to engage with them, right? They're very addictive. Like, that's one of the reasons why you want to spend as little time as possible in there. Because the more time you spend in there, the more time you kind of want to spend in there. And I think there's a lot of really a lot of really interesting stuff out there and a lot of really interesting research out there. And a lot of research goes into actually building out these apps and these email clients to keep you wanting to come back in there. So I think the least amount of time that you can spend in your inbox, the better. So, you know, one of the things that that we really need to keep in mind around emails and why this is so important. And emails are just one of the many types of distractions that we can deal with, is really just recognising that it can take over 20 minutes for you to get back to a task after being interrupted by an email. So the question always is is like, is that email that important? Is that email that urgent that you need to respond to it right away? For the majority of people? That is not the case, and I'm actually going to be sharing? Yeah, some mind shifts, some mantras some things you can really keep in mind or tell yourself if you have that that little bit of anxiety or you're feeling like hey, I need to do this. Someone's waiting for me Jorge, you know, I don't want to be that person who doesn't respond super fast or I have to be that human who does X, Y, and Z related to emails. So some some key things really just to keep in mind. At the end of the day, it's really up to you to decide when, how, how often where if you want to even put that in there, you reply to emails, so each of us really needs to come up with our own. Yeah, our own I don't know, SOPs. SLAs Yeah, our own process is really related to dealing with emails. And if you're open to it, I would suggest that you write it down and just remind yourself of it every so often, I don't necessarily have a process that's written down. But I do have a bit of a system around how I decide which emails to respond to right away. A lot of times, I actually will create time on my calendar to respond to specific emails, because those specific emails are tied directly either to my revenue, or some of my other goals. So I definitely have a prioritisation process that I go through. And so the first step really is recognising that you need to prioritise I think I have a podcast around prioritisation, probably the last hashtag ask Akua episode. So I'll put that in the show notes just to help you really think about how you can start to prioritise related to that and really recognise because prioritisation is a habit, once you start doing it, it becomes so much easier. So the first thing really to keep in mind in terms of your email is that you actually have to set aside time to go through your emails. And you know, when I was thinking about this with my, my client, who's a really awesome client, I'm someone that I'm working with through another organisation where I actually give my time. So it's not something I'm financially rewarded for. And so I just give my time, and she's actually a really great client. But you know, one of the things that she talks a little bit about, and I think that this is true, and this is something that I actually do is I create time to actually go through my emails and start to prioritise. So I think the first step is really recognising that you need to prioritise and then maybe you need to create time to actually do whatever that work or task or responsibility is associated with that email. And those are two separate things, I think, two very separate things. So create the time to actually go through your emails, and maybe have one or two times within the day that you do that, that's just an idea. Once again, you can accept it, you can reject it, that's sort of how I try and approach it. So if you get a lot of emails, and a lot of them do require additional action, here are some of the things that you can think about, you know, think about in terms of trying to help you prioritise. So once you know some of the things that are important, the first thing you can do is filter emails that aren't important. So I do this myself, I use Gmail. But you can do this, I think in any email client is that that's just really filtering out any emails that are not urgent, or not important that you can respond to at any point in time. And putting that I think, into another folder, I wouldn't recommend maybe putting it directly into the trash, but put it into another folder and set aside a time on your calendar to go through it. So that's something that I do. The second thing I would suggest you keep in mind is that you star and label emails from important stakeholders. So you need to decide based on your business based on your career, who are the important stakeholders, those might be clients, they might be customers, they may be your co founder, they may be your immediate boss, they may be direct reports, right. So star those at a specific label, you can leave those in your inbox, if you like. Or once again, you can have them filter to a specific folder. And once again, that that activity of going through those specific emails might already be on your calendar, and might be some sort of recurring event on your calendar. So that's a really great, I think, first two steps to do really, with your email, filter unimportant emails, and then make sure that you're automatically storing and labelling important stakeholder emails, okay? That's really something that can be done automatically. And then the next step would be to filter the emails in the first session and really action them right. So decide, okay, you know, these are emails that aren't important. So when you delete a free a few, and then these are emails that I'm gonna deal with within that second session, where you're going to reply to them, and then decide which of those emails you're going to spend time on. So if you need to maybe spend an hour crafting something that needs to be attached to the email, that's what you would potentially do in the second session, or schedule it within the second session. All right. So I'm sure one of the things that's going to come up for many of you listening to this is that oh my gosh, all my emails are important or everything I do is important. And for most of us listening to this, we probably are not, you know, emergency doctors, we probably aren't doing things that are life and death and I always like to joke that it's by design. I'm not working within an industry that is life or death. Me not responding to an email is not going to lead to an emergency. So what are some of the things that we can remove? find ourselves around, you know, this feeling of oh my gosh, I have to do this right now. Oh my gosh, like, this person is expecting X, Y and Z, even though for the majority of time, they're not expecting X, Y, and Z. A lot of people will just call you or send you a WhatsApp, if it's really that important to be honest. And maybe that's even a process that you can create within your company, that hey, if something is that important, call me, send me a WhatsApp, don't send me an email. So really just recognising these are some of the things that you can remind yourself if you're starting to feel anxious, or have some anxiety around your emails, first and foremost, that not all emails are important. So you can maybe say to yourself, not all emails are created equal. Okay? The second thing you potentially say to yourself is, if it's that important, they will call me or what's happening, right? Or if you're physically with an office, maybe they will get up and actually come and tell me in my face. Okay. Another thing you can remind yourself is, and this will depend on where you are within the organisation, let me make sure that I say that, but the company will not go down because I did not respond to an email. So if you have a very important role, or the CEO, it's possible that could happen. But just really recognising that for the majority of emails that you get, they are probably not going to change many things. Okay. Another thing that you can keep in mind is just because a request comes in via email that you don't have to do it right. So once again, really trying to recognise what are those boundaries? What am I saying yes to? And what am I saying no to? And what does that really mean? Is it getting me closer or further? For what I've decided? Are my priorities? Is it getting me closer or further from actually impacting my bottom line? Another thing I like to say, I actually don't say this to people directly. But this is definitely something that's going on in my head. And I know some of you listen to this, this is probably going on in your head as well, sometimes, but really recognising that your emergency is not my urgency. I hope I said that, right? I don't know, maybe it's like your emergency is not my emergency, but just really recognising that all of us have different priorities. And for the most part, my priority is not other people's priorities. And that's okay. I don't see anything wrong with it. And I think you need to remind yourself of that. And other people have that as well. So when we're thinking about this last sort of thought of your emergencies, not my urgency or your emergencies, not my emergency, how can we actually help people decide whether or not something is urgent or not. And so the last point I wanted to share around this is that one of the things that I tried to do is I tried to include the level of urgency in the subject matter in my emails, right. So when we're thinking about engaging with other people, so I'll use very directive language such as select a time, please reply urgent to start off the subject. And that I feel gets really good. Yeah, it gets a really good, people respond a lot faster to that. So that's just, you know, something to keep in mind. And then when it comes to important emails that I actually really do need feedback on, or response on, I'll usually schedule a reminder to follow up on my end, and just follow up via email. So those are just some of my thoughts that I wanted to share really around, you know, inboxes, and emails and really recognising that for so many people, for them to be able to focus and have the energy they need to get things done email can really get in the way. So those are just some of the things that I wanted to share. From my perspective. I'd love to hear from you. What are you taking from this conversation? What Should I've shared? Any other ideas you think other people might be interested in hearing or could support them? Feel free to let me know as always, thank you so very much for taking the time to listen. If you have a question or thoughts, something you want me to respond to please make sure that you use the form in the description box. To let us know I would love to reply. I'd love to share my perspective. I'd love to give you some ideas, how you can approach an issue or challenge or thought that you have. So once again, thank you so much for taking the time to listen. I hope that you enjoy the rest of your day. Bye. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to today's episode. If you enjoyed what you heard today, please share it with your friends. We can continue this conversation on social media the links to my socials so that is LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. You can find them in the show notes. If you tagged me in a story and include the hashtag hashtag ask Akua I will share a special little gift with you. Thank you so much once again for your time and I cannot wait to share my next episode with you stay safe and sane.