#326 Ange Ritchie – Transcript

Jess Brady
This week, I am excited to chat to Ange Ritchie. She’s the founder of my goals squad, she can probably tell by the name. She has created a business by getting people to understand exactly what’s important to them to set goals and then more importantly to achieving them. It’s a really great conversation about how we can achieve goals for ourselves, our staff, and our clients. Enjoy. Hi, Ange.

Ange Ritchie
Hi, Jess, how are you?

Jess Brady
I am so excited to be talking to you. Because I know very well that you have lots and lots of knowledge on this particular topic. And it can sometimes be a bit overwhelming for a lot of people to sort of go through. So we’re going to look at goals in great detail today. And I want to look at it both from a personal lens. So how we as advisors, or business owners or as humans that do all the things can stay on track. But I also want to talk about it through the lens of us who helped clients with goals. I don’t think there’s anyone better than you to help with this.

Ange Ritchie
Ah, Thanks, Jess. I’m super excited. I mean, I always love talking about my passion. But if what we talk about can help people feel a bit more empowered, talking to their clients, and then for them in their own life, because you can apply it everyone can apply this to them. I’ll be stoked.

Jess Brady
Wonderful. So before we get stuck in I think it perhaps makes sense for people to get a little bit more background on you. So and can you please share your story?

Ange Ritchie
Yes, sure. So I’m a coach for overwhelmed business women, so I help them get unstuck, find clarity in their business and their life and help them find positive flow, because we don’t always have that. So then they can take clear actions and get results that they are choosing to want choosing to have sorry. So when you set goals, really it’s about curating your your life and curating a life that you choose and that you’ll love. And how I got into this is I worked at Lululemon for eight amazing years. And I was surrounded by incredible leaders. But one of the key parts of the culture, there was goal setting. And now I had been already doing this as a teenager and was passionate always about helping other people be happier. And I guess that’s the basics of what I knew was the terms to be used. And so I’d always help people achieve what they wanted to achieve or talk through any of people’s challenges not knowing really what I was doing as a teenager, necessarily. And then working at Lululemon, the term goal setting and goal coach came around and we would go coach all our staff, we I would run events around goal setting. And it was just incredible at Lululemon to see that the whole culture around, setting your own goals, sharing them with other people being held accountable. Really led you to be II, an inspiring leader. Because when you do set goals, you have to lead yourself powerfully, you have to get out of your own way, you have to break through the challenges and the obstacles that you face to keep on going. And so in this company of, of leaders that are all achieving and setting incredible goals, I then got to a point where I was taking this to external businesses and coaching them taking the culture from Lululemon to them and sharing it. And I just see this ripple effect in the community that had had and happy people that were empowered. And then I left Lululemon and I thought, Oh, my God, what happened in the world? Why are people so sad? And they’re victims? And why don’t they want to go to work. And I realized that outside of the bubble of the Lululemon empowered culture, that all knew about goal setting that could get them to where they wanted, would get them the things that made them happy. I realized that people didn’t have the skills that would get them through the challenges they were facing that would help them understand if they know where they are. And they want to go from A to over here, which is b, then they didn’t have the tools to get them from A to B. So they’d sit stressed and stuck. And then I had people coming up to me that would say, from Lululemon or people that I coach saying, Oh, you’ve got to start a business, my cousin needs to come and see you. And then someone else would be like, I just wanted to share the amazing results I’ve had, since we did a goal setting session, now my friend wants to come to you have you got a business. So that’s how it all started. So I ended up starting my golf squad. So now, I work with women, I work with men, and I do corporates. And I absolutely love the ripple effect that I can have. It’s not about me, it’s about me being a switch for the people that are learning the skills that they can then apply in their life, in their business at any point in their in their life or business really

Jess Brady
amazing. And do you think at the moment talking about sort of distressed and stuck terminology that you use, which just smacked me between the eyes when you were talking about it? Do you think that because of the world that we’ve had, for the last little while, people are in a bit more of a state of stressed and stuck than usual and they need to have some sort of, you know, like fire lit under them to get them back? Or what are you noticing from people at the minimum?

Ange Ritchie
Yeah, I feel like there’s a lot of people recognizing that they want change now. So we’ve heard of the great resignation. No doubt, you’ve probably talked about this a few times in various conversations. But and there’s a there’s the gap, again, between what someone’s been doing maybe for the last five to 10 years in a career, and now realizing after we’ve had COVID, oh, this company doesn’t actually align with my own values anymore. I don’t love what I’m doing. I think that there’s more that I could be contributing in a more aligned way to me, or I think I’m ready for a change, but I’m not sure what that is. And so people are stuck in that way where they go, or I just I want to change, I’m ready to change. But I don’t know how to find a career or a company or a different role, that is actually going to suit me, because a lot of people don’t know their values. And the most essential thing in your life in getting a life that is full of positive flow and results that you choose, you have to go back to understanding and unfailing the values within you because they’re the innate parts of you that drive what you think what actions you take what you say. And once you understand what your values are, and typically we have sort of five outstanding ones, then you notice how your life aligns with those values when you feel good. So let’s say that one of your values is integrity, then you will be committing and you will often see in your life, how you’re then doing things when you say you’re going to do them and what you said you would do. So you will turn up on time to pick up your friends or you’ll be there on time to meet them for dinner. You’ll get that report done on the Friday that you said you would get it done by so when we aren’t sure of what our values are, we can’t build our life or we can’t take a role in a company that also share the same values or find a type of working style whether it’s At time, or whether it’s by the beach that will align with our values if we don’t know them. So I think the first point for anyone that does feel stuck is unveil and identify what are your top five values? Because that’s the starting point for anyone that I typically work with. We look at that first, to then unroll. What Where do you want to go? And what lights you up? What? What gives you the fire in your belly? And then how do we

Jess Brady
get you there? Yeah. And we use this a lot in our financial advice business. And it’s so interesting that so many people, irrespective of their background, actually don’t know what drives them and don’t know what’s important to them. And, and similarly, don’t know if the partner that they’ve chosen to be with has aligned or competing values. And it can be a really insightful session, and sometimes quite a confronting session, do you find that people often are confronted by the idea that they don’t know yet? What drives them?

Ange Ritchie
Yes, yes, I completely agree. It’s okay. If you don’t know what does drive you or what drives your partner, once you understand how to unveil the values, then you can then start on that journey. And it’s better to know, sooner rather than later. And if you don’t know what you don’t know, then you can’t have done it earlier. But it is really important and even business partners, making sure that you’re aligned in values with them. So relationship partners as well, I don’t know which one you’re referring to. But both types of partners, right. So in business, in relationships, values is so important. And you’ll also notice that your friends will reflect a lot of your values, and that’s a place to find them. So when you think about some of your best friends, what are the things you love about them? Is it their integrity that they always stick to their word? Is it that they’re all about health and well being and that’s what you love and thrive off? Is it that they love going on adventures and that’s what you share time doing together? So you’ll notice some of those values that you have through your closest friends that you just get on like a house on fire with a

Jess Brady
good place to start if you are feeling like I don’t even I don’t know. What do you do on for people? Who Are there many people that come to you as a gold coach as a gold expert, and don’t have good goals?

Ange Ritchie
Totally, totally. Everyone always worries about am I goals good? Really, it doesn’t matter what I think it’s totally about the person that’s setting the goals. And often people will hesitating, even just reaching out to have a chat with me, which I always love having whether it’s a five minute chat or you might become a client, you might not you might in five years, it doesn’t matter. I’m I’m passionate about helping you take the next step, whatever it is. So they they worry about. I don’t even have goals, but I should everyone talks about goal setting and how successful people set goals which they do look at Oprah look at Richard Branson, my gosh, I reckon he might have maybe a few too many. But he’s got a great team so he can execute them all through outsourcing. Look at all the prime ministers or the the top athletes in the world. The common theme with all of them is they all have goals that they set, and they all have systems that support those goals to be achieved. And then they’ve also got a team of support people because whilst we think that we can achieve everything on our own all the time, we can’t. So the best in the world, they’re not doing it by themselves. There’s always someone around them to help them with their mindset to get through the blocks or to help execute what might be a massive goal and they have support to help with that. But when people come in, they’re like, oh, I should I should have goals, but I don’t have any. Everyone has them. It’s just about how we discover what your goals are, and putting them into the wording of a goal. So what I love to start with is alright, so when you’re sitting at work one day, and you’re staring out the window thinking you could possibly be somewhere else and doing something else. What’s that? What do you wish for when you’re not loving life? Where do you wish you would be? Who do you wish you’re spending In time with, what do you wish you would have achieved. And then what’s on the should do list because maybe there’s something on there, that is actually a goal. But maybe it’s just so big that it seems overwhelming and you haven’t got any traction because you don’t know where to start. So I always believe that everyone’s got some goals hidden away, but it’s just about teasing them out of the person or the client, to articulate them into the language of how we write a goal in a really positive, powerful way. But everyone has them.

Jess Brady
And then you end up with a beautiful, powerful goal that resonates with someone. Yeah, but

Ange Ritchie
then one, yeah. So once we get to writing the goal in a really powerful way. So typically, the process will first start with the values that I was talking about before. And then we go to the vision because everyone will typically have that vision, whether it starts from the thoughts of when you sitting at work, and he’s staring out the window, wishing you were in Bali, or you worked for yourself, or you started that product business that you’ve always been dreaming about. But you’ve never really got stuck in and started it. Then we create the vision of what would you love in life and in business or in your career, and then we create this sort of, I guess it’s a bit like a dream board. But it’s, if you could have whatever you wanted, and an awesome life that you chose a new creative, what would be the components. And maybe you can only tell me about a day in the life of, of your dream self. And that’s awesome. So what do you do from when you wake up? What do you do next? Do you go to yoga? Do you go hiking? Do you hang out with friends? Do you work for half a day instead of a whole eight hours? And where are you working from. So we do this really awesome exercise that creates this vision, and then we pull down the goals from there. So the goals need to be written in a really positive way. And I sort of joke in the way of imagine that I’m filling the ferry goal Mother, I’m gonna come down, grab your goal sheet. And I’m going to do it one day, once you’ve filled it all in, and I’m going to complete them for you, I need to know exactly what you want in your life. Because if you put in, I don’t want this or I am not eating chips, or I don’t want to be working, then I won’t know what to put in place of that. So I just there’s a void. So you always want to write and fill your goal sheet with what you want in your life. So we break it up into four areas, typically, so career or business, health and, and wellness and fitness, finance, and then personal goals. So once we have that awesome, exciting goal, there’s a really, really awesome kicker question, which is why so surely I know, you’ve heard of Simon Sinek. The big the big guy about the why. So I love diving deep into why do you want that goal? What is that goal going to give you? And it’s okay, if it takes time. And you need to keep asking why? Why? Why to the same thing. So you might say, I want to start my own business. Why do you want to start your own business? What because I want the freedom? Okay, cool. Awesome. Why do you want the freedom. So you can keep asking the wise to the wise, until you get to the base? Why. And when you hit that perfect, why you should feel this gut feeling, which is a combination of like the oh my gosh, and the I’m so excited. So it’ll be this like emotional state that you can feel it’s like a trigger that then makes you want to go and take action towards it. But then we take we need to go and break the steps out. So it’s achievable. So we typically break it out for into monthly actions, and then down to weekly for the next month. But I think that’s the gap that many people miss, right? Like you would have seen people that set new year’s resolutions and they run out. I’m gonna be so healthy. I’m gonna weigh 55 kilos by December and this is January, and then that’s it.

Jess Brady
That then they still hit the challenge or the overwhelm when it gets to June and they haven’t started maybe. And they go oh my gosh, how am I going to do this? So the biggest gap that I often see See is, people getting stuck in that overwhelm, which is where we all started at the start of this conversation, people in overwhelm. And so when you’ve got someone else that’s not emotionally attached to the outcome, they can help you break down the stepping stones that are that are achievable. And then you can literally see the ladder that goes from the goal that you’ve set. And now in as a point in time now, to the time that you want to ever achieve that goal, and all the steps, and then all you need to look at is what’s the next step you need to take? And all of a sudden, with all your goals, and you’re just looking at the next steps, you’re like, Whoa, I can do this. I can take that next step. Awesome. I mean, so it’s, I think it’s a really empowering process, where you take someone from overwhelm, and a fuzzy brain maybe not knowing what they want in life, do they want to change, maybe they don’t end up needing the change that they thought they wanted? Often we can be in conflict as well, we can think we want one thing, but we might want something else as well, well, how do you bring that together? So we get a bit of an alignment within ourselves. And then I’m feeling like they’ve got clarity over their life and their business. And then they start taking action. So, but the biggest step is the breaking down, and then someone that that you then need to take action, and so ensuring that you’re not going to get stuck.

Ange Ritchie
Yeah, I think accountability of the daily, weekly, monthly components of it is such such an important piece. And you know, the irony is that you get so busy in life, that you don’t do it, despite the fact that actually what you’re preaching is to move you towards a life that you really want. And things get in the way, which is so common. And please know that I have been guilty of this. What do you do when life gets in the way? Feel? Like you don’t have capacity or have time or have the energy? How do you see the best people show up?

Jess Brady
Yeah, awesome question. I mean, you asked me, what sort of, you know, how did I get to having my gold squad and what was my background to this sort of work. And what I missed in sharing was, when I started my gold squad, I wish that there was someone like me that could help me in saving money in saving time, and saving a bucketload of emotion and fear and doubt and getting stuck, which meant I wasted time. And then I tried this, this and this and then that didn’t work. And then I thought nothing would work. I and I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere. And yet I was but I didn’t know no one told me. Why don’t you look back at the progress you’ve made already, like, look where you were when you started. And I was like, Ah, I would just look at where I wanted to be. And I was nowhere near it. And so I feel like having someone, or what I’ve become is that someone that other people can come to where I help you save money, save stress, save the overwhelm, feeling and save time in getting stuck in your own brain and wasting time where you might not be taking action. And that’s totally fine. Everyone falls off the radar or falls off the train, when they’re taking big action and goals. Also, like, I know that I need to give my clients a bit of a break because you can’t always be on because goals are above and beyond your normal life. It’s not just, Oh, you didn’t eat a meal today. So it’s you know, it does take a lot more energy, and you need breaks as well to have that excitement and power to go back into it. But I like you were saying it’s the accountability that is a game changer for goal setting. And actually, this is cool study about by the American Society of someone or other. But they’ve basically listed out all the percentages of your achievement towards a goal based on what stages you’re up to. So it’s if you’ve thought of a goal, you’re going to have 10% more chance of actually achieving it. But it’s still just a thought in your brain. If you write it down, it’s like 40% chance or increase in your results of achieving that goal. If you tell somebody else about the goal that you’ve just set and you’re gonna take on it’s like 50% chance, but when you have a scheduled accountability session When set up, then you increase your results by 95%. It’s not really, it’s not really surprising, I’d say because let’s say just that I said to you, Jess, what are you going to do over the next week? Give me one thing that you’re going to do in the next week, you can make it up over the next

week, I made no, no, no, I mean, you know, me, I’m quite an authentic person. I as in a big goal, or a small goal. Any goal?

Ange Ritchie
Just a small, a small action,

Jess Brady
I need to book some tours for my next part of my trip in Israel.

Ange Ritchie
Awesome. Cool. So if I said to you, then when do you need to have those booked by? Is it in four days? Or is it in seven days?

Jess Brady
I would say the next seven days.

Ange Ritchie
Cool. Great. So if I said to you, Jess, I’m going to just drop your text message to say, Hey, Jess, how are you going on booking the tours in Israel? And I’m going to drop it through, maybe in six days time, you’re going to know over those next six days, oh, my gosh, and just going to check in with me. And she’s gonna ask, Have I done this? And what were you want to say?

Jess Brady
Obviously, I want to say yes.

Ange Ritchie
Yes, one you want the tours. But two, when we have someone ask us something, as humans, we’re Yes, people. This is why we end up in relationships that maybe we shouldn’t be in. It’s why we end up at parties we sometimes don’t want to go to because we like to say yes, because it’s positive. And it makes the other people feel good. And it makes us feel good. But often, we really should be saying no to things that we know aren’t going to serve us. So this is how accountability works so powerfully that when we have someone else that’s going to that we know is going to follow up and ask us about something. We want to be saying yes to them then. And so we keep in the back of mind, we have to get that done. We have to get that done, because we want to say yes to them. So this is the power of accountability. Yeah. And so how does this work for you? Is that something that you love to say yes to and you use accountability in your life, Jess? Oh, this

Jess Brady
has been, I think the most impactful thing that I have done. And I am someone who if you know me, you know that I’m fiercely optimistic, sometimes too optimistic. I do this thing where I bite off way more than I can chew because why we’re still trying to figure it out. And then, but Contrastingly, I can get really easily overwhelmed. So I say yes to these things that I’m really passionate about, because I love lots of cool things. Then I sit back and think, Oh, my God, why do I keep committing to all of these crazy things? And how do I start? And so, you know, in a full disclosure, I’ve been working with ang, for how long have I been working with you for two years. What I am not good at is the teeny, tiny, seemingly inconsequential micro steps if you like to get me there, because I’m lofty, and I’m like, I’m not overly process driven. Actually, I’m much more people driven. And a lot of advisors are the same. And so you know, someone like and it can be sometimes painful. But to have those weekly accountability calls, which is what I have, and to have this giant spreadsheet of everything that I need to do to move my goals forward. It does create a hit list. And, frankly, some of the things, some of the really big things that I’ve achieved in my life, I would definitely have had as a dream, and not as a reality. I’m sitting here right now talking to you from Morocco. Starting to say, you know, one of the things that I’ve noticed on my travels so far is that there are a lot of people traveling at the moment that are really in health states that are not optimal for traveling. And it’s amazing that they’re still doing it. But I think to myself, goodness, I wonder what difference it would have made for them if they could have gone either earlier in their life, which I know sometimes it’s just clearly not possible for lots of different reasons. Or in better health. I wonder what sort of outcome and difference they would have because, frankly, Europe in places like Morocco, if you’ve been you know, there isn’t a lot that you can do if you don’t have good mobility and I just think we’re always so busy with life, that we don’t actually do the things that we want to do in our life. So I definitely know that for me, it has been game changing and it’s not so stylistically how I work, and it can sometimes feel a bit painful, but it’s the it’s the only way. It’s the only way to get stuff done. Mm hmm.

Ange Ritchie
Absolutely. And thanks for sharing all of that, Jess, because, you know, most people think, Oh, I’ve got this, I can do it myself. I’ve been taught goal setting, I did the smart method thing at school. But there’s so much more to it, don’t you think it’s not just writing out the goals, it’s the accountability and having someone else that is your cheer squad, your vent listener, the person that you can talk to when you can’t maybe talk to your business partners about an issue that you’ve got or a partner about the issues you’ve got, because you don’t always be want to be sharing with your colleagues, the things that you’ve got as an issue, whether it’s home, or whether it’s work. And sometimes, like you’re saying about the health, sometimes what gets in our way isn’t always a challenge with the actual goal thing, is it? It might be, I’ve totally injured my back, I can barely move and I have a conference, I need to present that I have a trip I need to travel for to go and meet clients, what am I going to do? How am I going to do this so or maybe it’s something you know, something’s happened in a personal relationship, and then that’s impacting you at work. So it’s not always necessarily the goal thing that we always need help with. But sometimes someone outside outside of our own mind and heart can just help bridge that gap with a bit of support to get you through and go, it’s okay. And you’re gonna make it and keep going sort of thing. And, obviously, talk through the issues and how you make it through. But sometimes it is your health, like you’re saying, and if you talk to the people that are traveling, it’s like, Well, do you wish that if you took some action on getting yourself fitter for this trip with that walking tour that you’re going on have been easier and more enjoyable? Possibly. They didn’t have an accountability for us and did they

Jess Brady
might not have or maybe they did to get there in the first place. But I also think it’s the tough love, you know, like, it’s the beautiful balance between empathy and compassion and understanding and also saying, no, like, that’s no, you know, I remember one day you said to me, Oh, you don’t want to achieve that anymore. That’s okay. And how was that? Excuse me? I do want to achieve that. And it was this really good moment where I was like, Alright, yes, you’re telling the world that you don’t want to achieve it? Because you’re not doing the things do you want it or not? Because here is where you get to decide you’re going to put in the work, or you’re going to turn away from it. And it was such a confronting moment, a moment that I wouldn’t have given myself that I needed to hear. I really did need to hear that.

Ange Ritchie
And sometimes friends don’t actually tell you the stuff that you need to hear. Don’t you find that?

Jess Brady
Yeah, of course, because. And I think that that’s,

Ange Ritchie
yeah. And so often, they’re going to be like, Oh, if you just don’t feel like it, then don’t worry about it. Like, relax, don’t worry, like, yeah, I have a family. What’s that? Well, it’s actually what you need to hit yes, yes. And I found actually a bit of a motivator for me in my life, in my own goals that I’ve achieved, has actually come from, I think I can say it on here, but family that are not supportive of what my goal has been. And it’s almost driven me even harder to go and achieve it. And one of those things was a goal that I set about going to the World Championships in triathlon. And I know that it was a selfish thing, because it took me it took time away from spending it with my family. And yes, I was a little more tired, and you say, add a little more food. And I was a bit more specific with the foods that I was consuming. But if, if that’s something I’m going to pursue for my greater fulfillment, and then to know that in 10 years time, I’m not going to look back and regret it. They’re only giving me their opinions because they wouldn’t necessarily do it or they’re thinking that it’s going to make me tired, or it’s going to be hard on me and put pressure on me. But that’s sometimes what people thrive off. And I thrived in doing and going through and then achieving that goal. Even though they didn’t support me, I went and found other supporting fans to really encourage me going through that process, but I that sometimes that like, Oh, do you really need to do that sort of question is a bit of a motivator isn’t it helps.

Jess Brady
It definitely is. And I think we have a culture where you’re right. We don’t always support people in their endeavors. I’ll give you a really good example. I was talking to someone who has tried to stop drinking. And I think this is a, this is a male in his 40s. And he talked a lot about just how difficult the people around him really made it. And I really confronted me because I thought, What’s wrong with us? And I think this is something that we can all learn from, you know, if someone’s on the diet, we tried to offer them cake, if someone’s trying to, you know, for example, this person who is trying to stop drinking, you know, many of his very close people in his life were like, you know, you can just have one, or why do you need to do that, or, you know, it was this weird self projection onto him. And he said, you know, this Australian drinking culture is crazy. And I didn’t really realize it, and possibly have been someone who did this. And, and even though I hardly imagined the people that are listening and doing that for their clients, but it did get me thinking, gosh, we kind of assume that we know what is important to people. And when people tell you explicitly what they’re working towards, and it’s something great, we have to get out of their way.

Ange Ritchie
Absolutely, and be a fan of whatever that is for them, because they’ve chosen that. And that’s what’s going to give them fulfillment, that’s what’s going to give them happiness in life. I mean, I always, I always look for goals to deliver fulfillment, over happiness, because I sort of classify happiness as a temporary state. And I’d rather more long term fulfillment. And for everyone I work with, I want you to be happier in a longer lasting period. So I always think about goals to be a more long term thing. So when you are setting a goal, have it be a six month or have a be a one year goal, because even as part of that process, so if we think about your friend who is wanting to stop drinking, every day, he can have this awesome feeling of feeling proud that he’s had one day of no alcohol. And then the next day, he builds on that, and he has another day of no alcohol. And the more and more he can get those days in and build that momentum, it will get to a point where it won’t matter what other people say to him. Because feeling the momentum and the power that comes from momentum of taking that action towards your goal. And then you’re just unstoppable. It’s kind of like a hay. Well, who says hay bales roll down the road? No one. You know, like a wheel, let’s use a term that’s actually going to be applicable and actually happen, a wheel that’s rolling and stop a ball down there down the road. So it’s a hard place to sometimes start but sometimes removing yourself from the people that are discouraging because they’re thinking like you were saying it’s them deflecting our own sorry, them putting their own thoughts onto him. It’s not thinking, What does he want to do? Yeah, absolutely.

Jess Brady
Possibly, that this is controversial. Send hate mail to the usual place. I think often men, some men can see goal setting

Unknown Speaker
as sort of wishy washy. Cute See,

Jess Brady
I don’t know if I’m making sense. But do you see that adage? Like, people see it as like, Oh, that’s cute, like, good for you. But actually, we know that the athletes that they watch every weekend, as you say, are the most high performing business people that they probably strive to be like, are extreme goal setters. Do you think there is this weird connotation for some people around goals and goal setting?

Ange Ritchie
Yeah. And I find it’s a bit sometimes people can be a bit embarrassed, like they’re seeing a psychologist or a seeing a counselor or something, and they don’t want to talk about it. And yet, I actually think that it’s maybe more of a fear around other people being a bit envious of you having something that you have clarity around, and you are more excited and empowered and have a more positive energy, having set the goals and now you’re in process of achieving them. I think sometimes people can be envious of that and then take you down. And I was running a workshop yesterday with a group of teachers for personal development day. And it was really great in hearing them share about over the six months of 2022 that we’ve had so far, what’s something that you have achieved in terms of a goal or what’s a win if you don’t have if you haven’t had it set as a goal as such, but something that you might have started that you feel proud of? And it’s working for you and you want to keep going with? And one of the ladies said she actually has started a side business, and I think it’s in candlemaking Actually, they’re they’re really funky. And she said a number of her friends or this group of friends, they’re now taking her down because she’s doing something that really fulfills her. And it means that, okay, so she can’t spend so much time with this group of friends anymore. And they’re like, Why do you have to do that all the time? Why don’t you come and hang out with us? And in? So she sort of said, well, how do I, how do I deal with that? And I said, Well, I think usually it comes from place of them being a bit envious of you having something you having found something that really does light your fire. And what you can offer them is, what can you help them in finding so them that’s going to light their fire? And maybe it is starting with? Or do you want to come and do it with me. And there’s that accountability piece where if you have someone that comes and does it with you, it seems easier, there’s less energy that you seem to put out because someone’s doing it with you. And then there’s this great momentum that you build, because you’ve got such a partner in crime and doing it. And the other thing is having a conversation around all I’m actually, it actually is lighting my fire, and I love it. And I still love hanging out with you guys, too. Why don’t we hang out in two weeks time? Let’s go for dinner or something. I mean, it’s how do you have those conversations with the people that seem to be a bit negative around your goal achievement, or what you love doing? Once you’ve set some goals and start finding this awesome life in in going and spending more time. So it was really cool conversation to have. But I think a lot of people are missing this skill or seeing, seeing goal setting is something that’s available to everyone. In any level, you might set one goal for the year. Awesome, that’s great. You don’t have to set 100 If you’re going to set goals, you might set one goal. And a lot of people miss the point, which I do my best in reiterating as often as I can. Goal setting isn’t always about adding stuff. Goal setting can be about what are you going to remove in your life? Because maybe if you are doing too much, you’re working too much. And your kids are saying to you, Dad, why do you seem happier on the weekend when you’re not working then? Or we don’t see you during the week, then what can you remove from your wife? Maybe there’s a goal around things you might start saying no to. But a nice No. No. Have you ever noticed a shift? Have you done a shift from where you’ve said yes to everything? And then you start saying no to things that aren’t serving you?

Jess Brady
Yes, because one of the things that you also make me do because I’m not naturally very good at it is actually putting the thing in my diary with the amount of time that it takes because in my brain, I’m like, Yeah, I’ll do it. I’ll do it this week, I’ll do it this week. But actually, when I start to then have to fill in the time that it takes to do all the things. It’s amazing how quickly you realize I actually can’t do all of the things must curate the things. Yeah. And that gives you a huge amount of laser focus. So I think also, my learning has been to put it in the diary for the allocated amount of time rather than just on a to do list which is forever, never ending. And it’s hard to then understand the time commitment that that thing brings, that’s been really great for me to be able to say I would love to. But I literally cannot. And I know that I cannot. And I say that with compassion and conviction because I know it, I know it very well.

Ange Ritchie
So I’ve been working with a client recently who gets overwhelmed by a to do list. And so often I talk about, keep the goal. And if we’re not walking working towards the goal, and we’re not taking action the way and getting the results, then let’s change the strategy but don’t reduce the goal to make it easier. So we’ve been looking at a different strategy to reduce her overwhelm when she looks at these massive to do list. And whether it be for home, whether it be for work, or both. The strategy that we’re using is actually getting her to write and allocate just like you were talking about Jesse’s allocate the tasks and the time it’s going to take exactly to the day and anything you’ve got on the to do list that doesn’t have to happen that week or might be floating, then put it on a totally separate to do list. So when you look you’re only looking at the bite sized things that you need to do for that day. And then you don’t get this overwhelmed because if you only looked at a goal of like I want to buy a million dollar house by December this year, and you don’t take action until sage And then how on earth you learn to save up in six months, you’re like, ah, overwhelming.

Jess Brady
I also think. So this has two parts. I think this is all for us as the listeners about how we should create change in our own lives. But I also, as you’re speaking, I’m thinking about the overwhelm that we can create, implementing financial strategies for people like, we know what it takes to move super funds. We know what it takes for insurance applications to change budgets to move things. Our clients don’t. And often they can feel after they’ve signed a statement of advice. Like there’s an enormous wave of things that need to happen. And I’m wondering if actually, we could chunk down the steps and make it sort of more obvious around how long we think things should take what we think action number one should be, then how that sort of almost like journey map should flow for them. I think that’s a huge missed opportunity. Because I know that we say to people all the time, how are you going like, everything’s implemented? Isn’t that awesome? And the feedback we get is, yeah, but like, it was a lot. I’m like, yes, we need to do a better job at that. So I can see this coming from both angles. Actually,

Ange Ritchie
I actually really love that idea. Because something that I love is, you know, when you’re going through filling in a form online, and you go to the next screen, and it has like a dot and a bar across the top, and yes, yes, I love that. Because I know how long it’s going to take me. Or it says at the start kind of like articles, this is a five minute read, that’s a seven minute read. This is a two month process. And you’re gonna have six stages in this. You’ve got six documents, and you might get like a progress, like, awesome, you’re 50% through filling in all your bits for you’re getting on track with your finances. People love progress. Because if there’s a lot, and it’s overwhelming, and not everyone is as comfortable with finances as you then they might be like, Wow, this is so much how much more have I got to do where they might be a bit fearful. But if I go in you celebrate this, Hey, you’re awesome. You’ve achieved 50%. We’re halfway there. Not long to go. You’re killing it, whatever it is, that’s probably way more casual language that might not fit into a finance lingo. But we can. Yeah, that’s right. People like to be feeling good about the progress they can look back on. Because even with goals, and the way we write our goal sheet, the powerful thing is that we can go through, take our actions for one month, two months, and then look back to be like, Whoa, we’ve come so far, sure, we’ve got that little way to go. But look back to feel good and confident in the progress you’ve made. And often people don’t look back and see that progress. So I love that as steps. with clients in the finance world, I think that’d be really helpful.

Jess Brady
Yeah, amazing. I could talk to you all day, you know that because I tried to talk to you all day and all night about. But before we get into rapid fire questions, I mean, everything that you’ve talked about today, to me just fits in every element of life, like whether you’re in a paid employment role, but you have a life that you need to have really great goals around whether you run a business, whether you manage a team of people, and you can empower and have that culture that you had that you saw was so unique. And also to an alliance, I see this as something that we should all be trying to learn more about. I know for me had, it has truly changed my life. And I have achieved things that were on my to do list for several years before I started the process. And I know, without a doubt, they wouldn’t have happened without the framework and in the micro steps. And so a huge thank you. How can people learn more about you and your work and what you do? And then we’re going to get into rapid fire questions.

Ange Ritchie
Yeah, awesome. I totally agree. And I’m just going to second to what you said, about you’ve achieved so much more than what you ever thought you could have. And guess that’s also where I have the belief behind the system that we’ve created and the framework and how we go about it and the accountability. I have all my life since I’ve started this goal setting framework and system. I have achieved more than I ever thought was possible. And sometimes I put goals down for a year. And I might be like, oh, we’ll see whether I can actually pull that off and you pull it off and you’re like, Whoa, okay, so this does work. And so I guess it’s the continued belief and then seeing results with clients. And it just is, I just wonder, why isn’t everyone doing this? We do it in business. It’s just called a strategy document. And then you set up project timeline with it exactly the same. Why don’t we do it for our own fulfillment, our own happiness for our own life? So totally agree. Where can people learn more so on my website, which is my goal squad, or on Instagram, or Facebook, which is also just at my goal squad, and reach out, I’d love to start any conversation about goals. And maybe it’s you’re sharing a goal that you’ve achieved already this year, or you’re wondering whether you might even set a goal for the rest of the year, it’s definitely not too late and six months, it’s, well, if you work to a financial year, then you’re at the start of the year. So now’s a perfect time to set your yearly, your yearly goals. Otherwise, six months is a shorter timeframe. And you can achieve a lot still in six months.

Jess Brady
Agree great, a great, great, okay, let’s do some rapid fire questions and then wrap up so. And what’s one thing that you do to look after your mental health?

Ange Ritchie
Yes, I love talking about this. So in the mornings, what I am doing is listening to meditation. And so one of the best things actually a meditation teacher gave me as a resource was the Insight time app, it’s actually free. This isn’t a plug for that, well, it is a plug for them. But it’s a totally free plug. And they’ve got so many meditations, they’ve got music that you can put on to go to sleep to. Anyway, I listened to one of their meditations in the morning. And then I journal out three things that I’m grateful for what my goals are. So I pick five goals, and I write out what I need to do this week. What’s what I need to do this month, and then what in the one year will I achieve? And then I write out what I really want to get done that day. And how am I choosing to show up that day. So guaranteed every time every day that I do that process, I always feel a million bucks. Like it’s it’s got nothing really to do with what I look like, but I feel from the inside out. So set up for an awesome positive day. And the flow on effects are just night and day difference when I do or don’t do that. So that’s one of my favorites.

Jess Brady
Amazing, you’ve given me something to think about a piece that you would give to your younger self.

Ange Ritchie
Oh, definitely get a coach. Because my younger self has started this business without support and the stress the money the time it it was so not worth it. And it took me so long to actually build into what I’ve got now. And if I had someone else that was had already been through a business that then could mentor me, it would have been amazing, even if it was for say a six month stint. But it would have definitely been to get a mentor or a coach. I was getting a business partner but they weren’t aligned. And it wasn’t their idea. So it didn’t work. So that didn’t work. And that put me back a bit. So mentor or coach. It is

Jess Brady
beautiful. Ah, and good advice. What’s something that’s on your bucket list?

Ange Ritchie
Oh, I love this. There’s so many. One of them is to live and work overseas for six months. I really would love to go to New York. It’s getting a bit harder with getting visas but that’s definitely something on my bucket list. And if I can share another one, it’ll be to go and ski in Japan and go to one of those Japanese spa houses.

Jess Brady
Oh, an onsen? Yes, yes.

Ange Ritchie
Yes. On my hitlist,

Jess Brady
last question. Before we wrap up. What is a book suggestion for my fake

Ange Ritchie
book club? Oh, yes. So currently my favorite is atomic habits by James clear, it is a bit contradictory because opening opening chapter it says don’t set goals. And I was like, Huh, what, how can you write this. But really what it talks about is it does reinforce goals. It’s just about right, the goal first, but don’t be overly fixated on that. Look to the systems and the habits that you can implement that are going to deliver you that goal and I was like, Oh, that’s okay. That’s exactly what I set my clients up to do. And that’s what my process is looking for the habits and the smallest steps and only focusing on those smallest steps because that will take care of that goal as long as you stay consistent. So atomic habits is really, really great because you can pick it up and read one chapter Do it and you’ll get so much value out of it. And you can pick it up in another six months time and read another chapter. And so it’s not really like something you have to read front to back in one go. But it’s great. It’s got solid value.

Jess Brady
You’re amazing. The work that you do is amazing. And I want to say a huge thank you on behalf of the expat community for being part of today’s podcast.

Ange Ritchie
Thanks so much for having me. I’ve loved our chat, I could continue for another few hours, saying we have to wrap up but I hope it delivers value, and it helps hopefully inspire some people to maybe set a goal maybe take action on the goals that you already set and they haven’t quite started yet for this year. But even some of the other tips that we’ve shared and the impact that it’s had even on you and I Jess, hopefully that’s provided some inspiration enough to get some perspiration and then to take action.

Jess Brady
I have no doubt that it will and please write to us and tell us what you’ve managed to achieve off the back of today’s chat. Thanks.

Ange Ritchie
Thanks, Jess. And wonderful time in Morocco.