EASY WAYS TO MAKE TIME FOR FRIENDSHIPS | CAMILLE AND JESSIE

JESSIE [00:00]

If you are scrolling on your Facebook or Instagram, whatever, and you see a meme that reminds you of someone, click that little arrow button and send it and say, “This made me think of you (laugh emoji).”

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CAMILLE [00:18]

So, you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business sharing your voice? How do women do it that handle motherhood, family, and still chase after those dreams? We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know. This is Call Me CEO.

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JESSIE [00:39]

Hey everybody. It is our last friendship Friday before fFriends and Favorites nights. So holy cow this month has flown by so fast and I can't believe that our event is in less than a week. It is next Thursday, October 14th from 7:00 to 9:00 PM at the Caseville Space.

Here comes Camille. I am getting so excited for Friends and Favorites Night. It's going to be such a blast and there she is Camille.

So I was just telling everybody that are less than a week away from Friends and Favorites Night.

CAMILLE [01:13]

So excited. I’m so...

JESSIE [01:15]

Right?

CAMILLE [01:16]

Yes.

JESSIE [01:17]

Oh my goodness, I can't wait. So I'm just giving the details. If you don't have your ticket already, you can go to jesselarson.com/friends-night. I was like what is the thing? Tickets are $20. You can go on there right now. It's at the Caseville Space, Thursday, October 14th from 7:00 to 9:00 PM. I cannot wait to see all of you there and hug you and see what your favorites are and give you all cool awesome favorite things so.

CAMILLE [01:41]

Yeah, and if you're popping in right now, do you know that we are giving away a ticket today on this live? So depending on how things go and how many people actually, we might have to do the giveaway part later. So if you're not watching it live, chances are it's hard to get.

JESSIE [01:58]

Five yes.

CAMILLE [02:00]

Get a ticket today. So if you are local and you're like “I want to go to this. But I'm feeling kind of nervous or I don't know, I'm not sure.” We want to encourage you by giving you a free ticket.

JESSIE [02:12]

A free ticket. And you know what, I think we should actually do two free tickets. What do you say?

CAMILLE [02:18]

Yes. For Sure.

JESSIE [02:19]

Okay.

CAMILLE [02:20]

Bring a friend because over the hump it's like “I'm not sure,” but if we're going to give away a ticket and you can bring a friend today, so Jessie, how are we going to give away that ticket?

JESSIE [02:30]

I love that. Well, actually while you were being super fitnesse and getting your workout on today, I sat in my bed with my laptop and made a little post to throw up to giveaway. So after this live, we'll go ahead and we'll both post.

A post on Instagram that's a giveaway post that you guys can tag and share and enter there. So okay, look forward after the live.

CAMILLE [02:51]

That sounds good.

JESSIE [02:51]

I figured that was easier than trying to get the, the people on here. So yeah.

CAMILLE [02:57]

That's fine.

JESSIE [02:58]

Yeah okay so, with friends and favorites. We've had different topics that we've talked about and we didn't really coordinate on this, so. See the surprise Camille with what I want to talk about today. But I know one of the big things is as moms and as we grow up that fitting in that time to have friends is a little bit.

It's one of the blocks, right? It's one of the excuses that we have. So I want to talk about that. About the ways that we can get over that mental block of we don't have time for friends, and little ways that we can make time and have it not be like these big extravagant things.

It's not going to be like when we were teenagers where we stay out till midnight driving around with our bestie and listening to music. I mean that actually does sound really amazing.

But we’re moms now. And we've got to be a little bit more creative and a little bit more intentional, so making time for friends and how we can do that.

CAMILLE [03:46]

I love it.

I think we should give examples from our own lives of when we've had best with that.

JESSIE [0:54]

Yeah, you go.

CAMILLE [03:55]

Okay, I mean not all experiences are like this. But one of my favorite ways to develop a relationship is do friendship calls when I'm driving and I don't get a ton of alone time in the car. But it happens enough that there are people in my life that I know.Either if I'm getting a lot of like laundry done, or like you know stuff around the house that maybe you don't need to be right answering anyone's questions or if you're in the car driving.

But I make a specific effort to make friendship calls. And I think that this is something that we often think, “Oh, we have to get together. We have to be together to push your relationship where we have to be doing something super fun, you know.

And that's not the case. More often than not, we as humans need people and we need conversation. And so making a priority of picking up the phone and calling a friend or using Marco Polo, which is a face app kind of like a walkie talkie but through conversation that I love and really user friendly.

If you have little kids at home and you can't be on a phone call. And you need to be more like, when you have little spurts of time, those spaces that I think, yeah, we use that all the time. We'll use phone calls or we'll use Marco Polo like we did this morning.

And sometimes you get to a point where we're like, “Oh, we're both here. Let's talk on the phone.” But I think the effort to make conversations and create that connection is one of the best ways to make friendship happen.

JESSIE [05:26]

That's awesome and I love that and I did a poll either last week or two weeks ago. There was just kind of some friendship questions and I asked, “Are you a talker or are you a texter?.” And majority was texters. It was like 90% to 10%. And I'll tell you what, I'm definitely a texter.

When me and Camille, when we started being friends, I remember you would call me on the phone and I was like, “Why is she calling me on the phone?” Like, Connor was like, “Why is she calling you on the phone?” Because I was not a phone call person at all.

And so that was really funny, but it did. I feel like that like help jumpstart our friendship a little bit more when I got on the phone with you and it was. It wasn't that I needed to set aside all of this time. But as we were both driving, you know we’re moms, we're driving too in front of all these different places. And it was just, “Hey I've got a quick 5 minutes. Let's chat really fast.”

And I love that. But it definitely was like, at first, if you're not a caller, if you're not a talker on the phone, I really was like “Why is she calling me?” Like and I hit the red button as you do and then you're like text me why are you calling me.

So if, if calling weirds you, it's okay. It's just because you haven't done it a lot. But now I talk on the phone all the time and I really do find it like I love talking on the phone now. So, thanks for like opening my world that uhm.

CAMILLE [06:46]

I still have. I know I will not answer the phone like I have my friend across. Well, I shouldn't say where she lives 'cause maybe she is watching. But she is here by a mile like she would rather text. She doesn't want to talk on the phone. And it's really funny 'cause I'll, I'll just leave a message that says “Hey, I'm thinking about you.” And then I'll text her because I know that she doesn't like to pick up the phone and that's okay. But then with my sister, she's funny too. Cause she is really hard to get a hold of and like a norm for me is I will call her twice two times in a row. And if she doesn't pick up, then I know she really can't talk.

If it's an emergency, like I need to talk to her, then I call three or four times. But if I think I really need to talk to you otherwise like average for her is 2 calls. So I think with your friends, you just kind of feel it out and you know who texts and who likes to call and who you need to call four times.

Honestly, if I didn't call my sister more, we would probably hardly ever talk 'cause she's so busy and she and my mom are so similar. That they typically don't call each other because they're in that way, and so they'll ask me sometimes, like, “Well, I never talked to Jenny. How is she doing?”Or my or Jenny will say, “How is mom? I haven't talked to her” And I'm like, pick up the phone. Just call that they know that I really make that effort to call, and it's not that it's bad, it's just you need to develop that practice and it gets easier.

JESSIE [08:16]

Yeah, yeah, I love that so much and also you know, I'm always saying like get a little bit outside your comfort zone and do something that makes you a little bit uncomfortable. So put that on. If you're not a caller, maybe try calling. But that's why I love Marco Polo. It's kind of that like in the middle where, like you said, it's like walkie talkie so it's not like FaceTime where you have to be on there together but you can still have that like verbal talking and not just through chat or through text or whatever. So I love those two suggestions. Thanks.

Hey, something that I was thinking about that’s easy. Like you said, we always think that we like, we need to get together. We need to have a girls’ night. We need to have a Book Club. Go about and all of these things and it's like I can't commit to that and it can feel like a lot.

And so, start like way smaller. Hi, that's like what I'm all about is like the smallest thing you can do. If you are scrolling on your Facebook or your Instagram, whatever, and you see a meme that reminds you of someone, click that little arrow button and send it and say “This made me think of you (laugh emoji).

You know what I mean? Like it's just these little touches of contact that you can have where it's like “Oh, thanks.”

I can't tell you how many friendships have developed over like little tiny things like that where you just know like “Oh that person knows something about me. They thought about me and they were intentional about sending it to me.” So it might seem like the simplest thing sending a meme, but the behind like what that actually means to a person is so much bigger than like just sending a meme, you know.

CAMILLE [09:39]

I agree. It also helps creators like us who need those tags include friend and say “Hey, this made me think of you.” And there's a conversation that starts. I love when people do that on my account because it shows me that they appreciate the work I put into putting something out there and it brings in friendships where there's like fun organic conversations that happen. And it really means a lot to the creator and the person sharing that information with you.

So just a side note. I'm like that's like showing your creator friend that you like them. They like that you appreciate what they do. So added bonus, you do that.

JESSIE [10:16]

Totally, it's just putting some more like good juju out in the world, right? I love that. Okay, do you have another tip?

CAMILLE [10:25]

I think another tip would be too, a lot of times I know, especially when my kids were a lot younger, I felt guilt for leaving my husband when he was home and a lot of times I would think. Well I have been home with kids all day. Now he gets a chance to be home with kids. But he's tired too. I would feel guilty to leave or I would feel guilty that I should. That I want to go out or even like to go work out at night or whatever it is. Whatever it is. And pretty early on in my marriage, I maybe you know, not early on. It was probably after I had like two or three kids, so we've been married like I don't know, a decade or something.

I need a night that I can go, that I can go and typically for me it was like I went and did a workout class which had was beneficial in many ways for my mental health, but it will also just getting out and doing things with people that like to do things I did. So it, sometimes it was a bunco night. That was rare. More often it was like a night that I went out and worked out and I think that, that was something. That through periods of our lives that's been more consistent than others. But especially when you have little ones at home and you,if, if you are at home all day, it is really important for you to go outside of your house and feel like a human, like an independent human that doesn't have to carry other little people everywhere you go.

And it can be difficult to navigate that. But I think if you have a real heart to heart with your partner about needing that for your physical, mental state and also for those relationships that you can form outside, it's a really important factor of mental health.

JESSIE [12:10]

Yes. Oh gosh, I love that so much.

You don't exist just to make life easier for other people. You exist to enjoy your life too, and I think that's really, really important.

Okay, so I'll share my other tip like you just said. I don't think that you need to have these big things. I like the little touches. I like the phone calls, the texts, the sending of good things that remind you of whatever.

And now I'm going to go the opposite way. I'm going to go to the other end of the spectrum and say that I think if you can take the time to plan something like our event that we have on Thursday. That it's on the calendar. You treat it the same way that you would treat a doctor's appointment, at kids’ well check, a meeting with your school, whatever like you schedule in that time and I'm not saying you need one every single week or even every single month, like once a quarter even.

It's like when you schedule a vacation and you've got a vacation eight months out. But you're looking forward to that. You know, you've got that vacation coming. And it's even if the anticipation science says actually that you are happy. Yes, happiest. I will find the study like at the peak of the anticipation before, like a vacation or an event or something like that.

So if you know, hey, in two weeks I've got a girls’ night out or I'm going to this event or I'm going to be meeting new people then you are happy leading up to that because that anticipation is filling your cup.

And so, while I don't think that you always need to have these big night outs. I do think that they are important for you to say, “hey, I'm putting myself on the schedule. I'm scheduling it out, therefore I've got the time.” I can you know have everything in place. They can have the babysitter or the husband or the partner or whatever home. So that I can take this night out for me.

So adding your little touches but also schedule the big things every so often so that you've got something to look forward to. It's on the schedule and your brain knows.

Hey, I'm important. I'm making time for me and then I’m making time for others.

CAMILLE [13:58]

I love that. I love that so much.

And anticipation for me is a big part of pushing through those really hard days. When you're feeling like you have no gas left in your tank and that you're giving, giving, giving, but then you can think, oh, but I have this event coming up where I'm going on this vacation or I'm having this girls’ night out like we're going to have and we want, we want that for you. We want you to feel that excitement and that anticipation to take time for yourself.

JESSIE [14:30]

Yeah, yeah, I love that so much. So, any other tips Or should we wrap this one up?

CAMILLE [14:36]

I think this is good, though I think..

I think it’s nice to have it sweet and short. And just to say again, don't stop YOU. Many of the people who have bought tickets are coming alone, so if you're “yes, oh, I wanted to go, but Susan couldn't come with me” or whoever. We are your friends like come and hang out with us and know that so many people are in that exact same scenario where they are feeling the same thing.

JESSIE [15:02]

Yes, yeah, don't let that stop you. Don't let that like, “I don't want to show up a lot. I don't want to show up a lot.” Hi, like I will be there to be your like best, like “Hello here, I'm hugging you unless you don't want to be hugged and then I won't hug you. But come like don't let that hold you back please come. I'm so excited to meet you to hang out with you and for you to just have fun and meet some people.

And then, of course, give away our amazing swag bags. We're starting to put them together and it's so much fun. I'm so grateful for all of the companies and brands that have supported us in the giveaway post that I will be posting later.

I have, if you swipe you can see a list of all of the people that have donated and are sponsoring the event, and I'll tag them all. You can go give them some love as well, but thank you for tuning in every single week for friends and favorites. It's been so fun.

CAMILLE [15:53]

It's been so fun.

And remember on top of all of it, be your own best friend. I know that we're talking a lot about making friends, making friends, making friends, but start with you. Do something for yourself today that is taking yourself and loving yourself and treating yourself as a priority. And I think that that is one of the best first steps of creating good relationships.

The best relationship is when a whole person comes into contact with another whole person and you lift each other up and so that starts with you like, loving yourself. And I really believe in that.

JESSIE [16:28]

Oh I love it. What a good note to end on. You are beautiful. Everyone of you listening I love you. Do something for yourself today and make that thing. Go buy a ticket.

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CAMILLE [16:44]

Hey, CEOs. Thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you found this episode inspiring or helpful, please let me know in a comment and a 5-star review. You could have the chance of being a featured review on an upcoming episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram @callmeceopodcast. And remember, you are the boss.

Over the last 10 years, my life has been greatly blessed by being able to work as a stay-at-home mom to help us pay down debt and also have more financial independence to do things we like, like vacationing and having fun activities for the kids. A question I get asked a lot is, how can I too create my own at home business? And after racking my mind for quite a long time, I decided that a virtual assistant business is where it's at right now.

There are so many ways to be a successful virtual assistant and this is something that I wanted to help other moms be able to do. And that is why I created this 60 Days to VA program and it has been so wonderful to see these women who had no previous experience be able to create a business of their own with clients and success.

I have a recent graduate, Rachel, who says, "I can't believe how much I learned in only 7 weeks. When I started the course, I learned how to do administrative work that I found online, to have my own LLC, beautiful website, knowledge how to properly market myself on any platform, and the ability to use my different business programs. I feel so professional and confident to take on new clients. I would highly recommend this course to anyone who is thinking about joining. The live sessions with Camille and other experts are worth the investment alone. You will complete the course with all the tools and resources you need to be your own boss, make additional income for your family, and really feel content in the value you add to the business world."

I want this for all of you and I can tell you that this is the kind of confidence that will come to you as well when you take my virtual assistance course. If you are interested, go to camillewalker.co/VA. Again, that's camillewalker.co/VA.

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