Episode 63

Embracing Breaks: Manish Dudharejia on Balancing Hustle and Rest

Published on: 5th March, 2025

Welcome to another episode of Digital Coffee: Marketing Brew, where we blend insightful conversations with industry experts to perk up your marketing strategy. In today's episode, your host Brett Deister is joined by Manish Dudharejia, a seasoned entrepreneur and the founder of e2m Solutions, a leading digital agency specializing in white label outsourcing services. Manish discusses the importance of taking real breaks to combat burnout and maintain creativity, sharing insights on the effective lion framework of rest, sprint, and repeat. He also delves into the significance of understanding personal productivity patterns and making time for reflection amidst the hustle. Whether you're an entrepreneur, founder, or creative professional, tune in to discover practical tips to recharge and enhance your work-life balance. Grab your favorite brew and let's get started!

✅ Ready to unleash your potential with the right balance of hustle and rest?

✅ Join us on this week's episode of Digital Coffee: Marketing Brew! Host Brett Deister dives deep with guest Manish Dudharejia on how taking strategic breaks can boost creativity and productivity.

✅ Discover how Manish went from starting with just $1,200 to building a team of over 300 while mastering the art of pacing.

✅ Tune in to learn how the "Lion Method" can be your game-changer for maintaining momentum without the burnout. Listen now and transform your approach to work!

3 Fun Facts

  1. Manish Dudharejia prefers tea over coffee but enjoys both due to his Indian heritage and travels in the US.
  2. The 'masala chai' Manish mentions is a blend of black tea, milk, and Indian herbs like cardamom and ginger.
  3. Manish uses a "lion framework," which includes rest, repeat, and sprint, to maintain productivity and creativity in his work.
Transcript
Manish Dudharejia:

Which is very common.

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It's if you see the pattern of more

successful people, success is all

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about doing boring things consistently

over the longer period of time.

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And entrepreneurship

is all about hustling.

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Doing business is all about hustling.

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But at the same time, find

some time for yourself.

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Reflect.

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Brett: Mm, that's good.

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And welcome to a new episode of

Digital Coffee Marketing Brew, and I'm

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your host, Brett Deister interview.

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Please subscribe to this podcast and

all your favorite podcasting apps.

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Really does help with the rankings

and let me know how I am doing.

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But this week we're gonna talking about.

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A break not your little five, 10 minute

breaks that your company makes you take

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no actual like rest and keeping yourself

from getting a burnout or at least.

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Getting away from the burnout.

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Anyways, I have Monish with me,

and he started this in:

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He was determined to create

a positive company culture.

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He founded E two M, leveraging his

SEO expertise to grow the business,

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starting only with $1,200 in investment.

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Years later, E two M is now a 200.

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Two full-time employee digital agency

specializing in providing white label

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outsourcing services to digital agency.

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But welcome to the show.

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Thank you Grant.

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Thank you for hanging me on the show.

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You're welcome.

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The first question I ask all my guests

is, are you a coffee or tea drinker?

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Manish Dudharejia: I am a tea

drinker, but I love coffee as well.

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Because I'm originally from India and

I'm born and brought up over here.

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You know the history, right?

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Like British people ruled India

and that's the reason, like tea

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is more popular or here in India.

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But I lived in the US and I traveled

a lot in the states as well.

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So I.

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I love coffee, but if I have to choose

one, I'll definitely choose the tea.

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Lower.

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Brett: There's any specific

types of tea do you like?

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Do you like the white,

the black, the ONGs?

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Manish Dudharejia: It's mainly

black tea which is mainly root

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here, like specifically in northeast

part of India, that's where

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we have the biggest thi farms.

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I like green tea as well, so

I love drinking green teas.

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But on a day to day basis I love,

I drink more of a black tea, but

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it's more about, we there is a chai

word for tea which is now popular.

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I see that, a lot of copies.

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Coffee is in the US as well.

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Chai is actually, it's not just the

tea it's blended with milk and, all

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the sort of like Indian herbs like

Cardi and sometimes ginger as well.

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So that's we call it like, masala, chai.

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It's a mix of Indian

herbs with a tea and milk.

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That does it taste really good.

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Brett: Nice.

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Now you have a brief

summary of your expertise.

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Can you little, with the listeners

a little bit more about what you do?

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Manish Dudharejia: I.

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Sure.

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I'm the founder and CEO of E two M.

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Like you said, I started this back in

:

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over 200 people working with over 200

plus agency clients all across the

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world and mainly in the United States.

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And we solve a specific problem.

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Which is like helping agencies

solve bandwidth capacity problems

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with our white level services.

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That includes like building websites with

WordPress, building e-commerce stores,

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doing an SEO and content marketing.

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And also, as we speak we just

acquired another white level WordPress

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deal company this month itself.

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So with that equation, we are gonna add

80 plus new team members to our team.

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And we'll be adding 100 plus agency

clients to our client's portfolio.

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Starting from July, we'll be a team

of over 300 people serving 300 plus

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agency clients and all across the world.

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And that will make us one

of the largest white level

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workplace developer in the world.

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So it's sounds exciting.

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And yeah, there are a lot

of exciting things going on.

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Brett: Nice.

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We're specifically talking about taking

breaks, and so one of the things I saw

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was that this like idea of a 90 day break,

so let's say like an entrepreneur or

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someone or a founder or someone's trying

to start a business, like how can they

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incorporate that into a startup life?

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Because startups are just like fast paced.

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There are barely any breaks and you don't

see many founders taking a lot of breaks.

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Manish Dudharejia: No I agree.

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When I started 12 years back,

I still remember I used to

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work like 18, 20 hours a day.

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I barely used to take like

four to six hours of sleep.

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And taking a break when you

are specifically starting

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up is always challeng me.

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It's always hard, I have some frameworks,

which will be helpful for people who

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are starting up, or people who feel

like burned out and they don't know,

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like how to take a break in between

and, get recharged in order to make sure

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you don't lose your creativity and then

you still keep the momentum going on.

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And I wish I would've learned this way

earlier when I started my business but I'm

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glad I learned that one and a half year

back which is a really good framework I

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learned, and it works out really well.

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So I think we are, we live in a society

where we believe that okay, the weekdays.

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Like Monday to Friday, we have to

have, business hours nine to five

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and then week weekends are more

to get energized and get relaxed.

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But unfortunately that's

not, how it works.

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And I would say it's more of a,

fortunately because I don't think, the

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creativity, intelligence understands.

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The limitations of nine to

five and Monday to Friday.

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So we, human beings are not designed

to think during the specific time

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and during the specific days, right?

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So we often make that mistakes that

we try to be creative during the

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weekdays or during the business

hours, but that's not how it works.

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I understand.

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There are so many things which

are more time sensitive which

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you have to do it anyway, whether

you . You feel like doing it or not?

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Which I get it.

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But here is the thing that you just have

to think like that In order to be creative

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you have to just break this barrier and

you have to just break this a wall of

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understanding that, okay, these are the

times only where you can be creative.

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So I'll just put a really

good example, ago I.

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Ran into a situation where there

were days in the weekdays where I

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wasn't feeling like doing anything.

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I wasn't productive.

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And at the end of day I felt I felt

like the regretting that I was seeing

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that, my team was really productive.

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I didn't accomplish anything.

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And I felt kind of regret.

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And that kind of made me

more think about that.

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Whether should I feel it regretting

or not or that's how I am.

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And that led me, made me more

curious and started, I started

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learning more and more about it.

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I started reading more and more about it.

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And that's how, I ended up into finding.

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Some of the like, validations and I would

say more of a conclusion for myself, and

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which I found a common pattern in highly

successful people as well that you should

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really follow a lion framework, right?

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And I learned about this lion

framework one and a half year ago.

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And there is a guy called Noel . He

is a very popular philosopher.

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Highly reput and highly popular

guy in startup tech investments.

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And I always love the way he

thinks and then I got to learn

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about this line framework while

reading his wisdoms and stuffs.

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Essentially it's rest,

repeat, and sprint, right?

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So ideally you should . There are always

days there are times in a week where

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you are fully energized and when you

are highly motivated and that's where

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you should be working on your all the

priority things and all the things

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which you have on your to-do list.

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And that's your sprint time.

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So there are days where I take an example

of myself, there are still days, where

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I work like 12 to 15, 16 hours a day.

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But those are the days when I'm super,

super energized and I'm super supercharged

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and I'm super, super motivated.

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That's my sprint time, right?

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And there are one or two days I work

like that and there are one or two days

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where I don't feel like working where

I'm just doing some other stuff and.

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That is my rest time, right?

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Which is more about like you are

not being harsh on yourself and you

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don't feel regret if you don't do it

because you are mentally prepared.

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This is my more of a rest

time and that ans that kind of

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brings to your thing as well.

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Taking a break.

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So let's take an example.

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You know that there are times when you are

super charged and you run a sprint, then

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you, there is a time you take a break.

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And then you repeat, right?

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So ideally what you have to do

is being, when you are starting a

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business or you are at a position

in your business where you feel

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like, okay, your schedule is crazy.

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It's very hard for you to take a long

breaks, then this is the framework you

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feel you should really try to follow.

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And you can actually Google it

in so called a lion framework.

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Rest, repeat.

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And sprint sprint, rest and

repeat, I would call it.

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Put it like that.

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So that is something you should

really focus on, which kind of helps

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you to take in between your weeks

rather than taking long breaks.

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Brett: Yeah, that's it's pretty

interesting about the lion method.

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'cause you're right, we don't always.

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We're not always creative.

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Nine to five.

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Hell, sometimes I'm creative at

3:00 AM in the morning or I have a

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dream and it's oh, now I'm creative.

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Or I go on a walk with my

very noisy dogs right now.

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But let's say they can't take a 90 break.

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Let's say they can only

do like maybe once a week.

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Is that beneficial for them as well?

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Taking that one time off?

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Maybe doing some chores, but not really

focusing on like heavy, like work.

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Manish Dudharejia: Yeah, I think,

you e everyone have their own time

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of identifying that, okay, these

are the days and these are the times

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I'm super, super charged, right?

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And these are the times I

don't feel like productive.

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So if I take in my example

I'm more productive at night.

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So I'm not an early riser.

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I, some of the things, sometimes I

have to do some of the most important

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items and then things to work on.

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I usually stay up till late

when I'm fully focused.

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I don't have any disturbance.

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I don't have any kind of notifications

and I can actually do a focused

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work and I'm, I prefer to do, not

doing any meetings before 11 and I

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prefer to do my important meetings.

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Which is in the before lunch,

in the morning and post lunch, I

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don't feel super, super productive.

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So that's where I'll keep my other

meetings where it's more about the

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discussions and we don't have to do a

lot of brainstorming and in the evening

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time I don't feel so much productive.

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So take that time off.

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To do something different, right?

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So I think, you identified called

like hyper productive type.

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So when you are super hyper productive

those are the times, you try to finish

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as much as you have on your plate and the

times when you are not productive those

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are the times, like you said, you take

a walk or if you love to play any sort

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of musical instruments, you play that.

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Or you maybe hit the gym or

whatever it works for you.

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Start feeling like lethargic

you start moving your body.

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So that's the sign where you don't

force yourself to work on something.

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That's the time you have to move your

body and just do it what you really like

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instead of like just, where you sit and

keep working where you know that you

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will not be getting the desired output.

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Brett: Got you.

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And maybe people aren't like convinced

right now, like how, what are the

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benefits of actually taking a break

besides rest, but what are the benefits?

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Is it creating, is it

making your mind sharper?

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Is it being more creative that way?

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Is the rest actually like

that beneficial for them?

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Because I'm pretty sure like

everybody's focused on their job.

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They're like, I wanna

do the best job I can.

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But sometimes it's just convincing

people that breast actually does

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make you better at your job.

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Manish Dudharejia: That's a good question.

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See, it breaks the pattern, right?

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Technically what happens, I'll

take an analogy of driving, right?

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Think like that.

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All this, fancy cars and all the

latest cars when you are driving

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and when you are driving for an

hour or two at certain kilometers,

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it'll give you a kind of a warning

that, hey, you should take a break.

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And.

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Have some coffee or something.

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It'll show it on your

speedometer screen itself.

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The reason is, there is a pattern, right?

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You are driving for two to three hours.

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The chances are most likely high, where

you start feeling like busy, where you

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might fi start like feeling like sleepy.

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Now we have all these autonomous cars,

so thanks to that, but think like that.

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The same goes with work as well.

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When you are working and there

is a . There is one technique

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called, I think it's a Pomodoro.

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Yeah it's called a Pomodoro.

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It's a Pomodoro timer, right?

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Pomodoro technique.

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A Pomodoro technique is you set,

like if there is a one hour of task.

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You could like 15 minutes of task and

then 10 minutes break, another 15 minutes

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of task and 10 minutes break, right?

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It's called the promoter timer,

and there is an app for that.

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You can activate, install it on your

computer or mobile phone as well.

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So essentially it's all about the

breaking the pattern when you are working

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for a longer period of time, taking

a break, it just breaks the pattern.

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It resets your mind by switching your mind

to doing something different, completely

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different than what you are doing, right?

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And essentially, if you see the sleep

is sleep does the same thing to your

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mind, it is breaking the pattern, right?

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And sometimes you like, taking a

shower, just breaking your pattern.

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The biggest benefit of taking

a break is it helps you.

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Break the pattern in order for your mind

to be open for any creative new ideas.

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Brett: Got you.

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And for that is, is like

breaking the pattern connect.

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Can that also be part of the pattern too?

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Because there's something

called like block scheduling

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or block or blocking on your.

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Calendar where you block time out.

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Is that the more beneficial way of

doing it by blocking your time so

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you can actually take the breaks?

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Or is it more spontaneous?

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Just, I'm gonna take a break now because

I'm trying to be spontaneous and break

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the cycle or the habit or whatever.

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Manish Dudharejia: So I would say

at least once a week you should

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block your entire calendar.

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And you don't decide what you will

be, what you are gonna do on that

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day unless at the same time as an

entrepreneur, as a, like a business

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owner, you should not be raise yet

that, Hey, I have blocked my calendar.

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So today I said I'm not gonna do

anything, which is fine, but there are

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times, there are days where you have

to do it, although it's boring, right?

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Because that's what the need

of a business, although it's

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boring, you still have to do it.

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But I would say, yeah, I think that's

a, that's the way I also do it where

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sometimes you just block entire day.

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And if that's not the,

privilege you have probably like

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blocking some hours of the day.

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When you are more proactive, those are

the times you block on your calendar.

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And then those are the times.

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Ideally you don't decide anything.

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This is the thing I'm gonna

work on because, sometimes our

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minds are not ready for that.

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You are blocked.

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Particular, my, my classic example

is like that, think like that you

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have blocked the calendar and you

have sent, send an invite to your,

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one of your team member that okay.

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Of, in afternoon three to five, we are

gonna discuss marketing ideas, right?

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And believe me, that's not

how you will get ideas.

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Not at all, right?

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Probably you just have to.

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Hang out with your marketing team

more casually, maybe take out them

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on a lunch or dinner and then,

start having that casual discussion.

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Those are the times when you'll come

up with a really good ideas other

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than scheduling that brainstorming

ideas meeting on your calendar.

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Yeah, I think there is no rule of thumb.

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That you block entire day or

you just block couple of hours.

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It really depends on what your

business schedule looks like.

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Not everyone have that luxury or

privilege to block entire day.

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In that case, you just block

certain number of hours.

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Brett: Got you.

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And and how has it helped you

for doing this type of thing?

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Ha.

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Have you seen the benefit of you

working better to be more creative?

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Being nicer to your team at more times?

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Manish Dudharejia: Yeah.

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It worked out for me actually really

well, because, now I have more clarity,

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and I do accomplish more this way

rather than feeling like an obligation

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that, okay, I have to work this many.

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Days and I have to work

during these hours.

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Yeah, I have to available

during the critical times.

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Although, I don't like to do that as

well, but it's more about when your job

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does not have a schedule that you have to

accomplish this every single day, then you

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should definitely plan it in a way where

you are accomplishing what is needed.

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But at the same time you are, you

don't have an obligation for days and

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hours where you have to manually work

on the things because that's where you

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will feel, you'll feel more exhausted.

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So it's like that.

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If there is a day where you are working

like 16, 18 hours a day, because.

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That's where you are

more inspired naturally.

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Then obviously the second

day you go slowly, right?

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Because you will not be able to be

creative and you really need a rest

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to get charged off for the day after.

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So you just have to identify your

pattern based on your business needs.

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But yeah, it personally definitely helped

me a lot to accomplish actually more

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and helped me be more organized and.

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It helped me a lot to be clear

in my head what's actually looks

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like to be really productive.

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Brett: Got it.

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Got you.

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And I mean for the founders, it seems

like if you're on your boss, you could

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do that for the regular employees.

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How do they convince their

boss or maybe how do they find

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ways of taking that break?

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Because most bosses are like, you gotta

get here nine to five, you gotta work.

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You're not gonna have these

like breaks that you want to

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take, or all day off breaks.

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So how do you like balance that part

out for just the regular employees?

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Manish Dudharejia: No, that's a

great question and a lot of people

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have asked me this similar question.

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So here is the thing.

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Now, unfortunately, that's not the

luxury and that's not the privilege.

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Everyone have c certain types of jobs

which required to be, available during the

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specific days and specific time period.

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Let's take an example of customer

service people where they have to be

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available during the specific days

and specific hours, because that's

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a nature of their job is but there

are lot of jobs, creatives where,

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you know, you, at the end of day you

have to produce an output, right?

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And it doesn't matter that whether you

are working nine to five or whether

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you start working early and you.

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Finish off your day early or

you start working late and

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finish your day late as well.

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So I think, like I said, it's

not luxury or plus for everyone.

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It really depends on your job profile.

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But I think everyone have that I would

say majority have that flexibility.

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So what we do at our company,

people have their flexibility.

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In certain jobs.

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Yeah, I understand.

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They have to accomplish at the same

time, like I was saying, even as

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a founder, although, we have the

privilege, we have the luxury to decide

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where we want to when we want to work.

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There are days where we

cannot have that luxury.

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We have to do it because

that's the business need.

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So now that's, that goes same with

people who also have flexibility in

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their jobs, where although they have

flexibility, but there are days.

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When they have to be available,

although they don't like it.

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And that kind of relates to one

of the favorite things which I

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read and which is very common.

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It's if you see the pattern of more

successful people, success is all

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about doing boring things consistently

over the longer period of time.

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If you see the successful people,

the one of the most qualities you

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will see in them is persistence.

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Like they have a pattern of doing the

most boring things on a consistent basis.

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So that's a reality as well.

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But that's not true all the times.

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And there are and if you are

creative and if you need to function.

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Without working in specific time,

you'll always figure out these.

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Brett: And so people are listening

to this and they're like more

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interested in what you do and like more

learning about how they can do this.

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So where can they find you online?

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Manish Dudharejia: I'm more

active on LinkedIn, Twitter.

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It's, my name is Manis reia.

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It's only me on this

first name and last name.

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And we, our website,

e two m solutions com.

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That's our company's website.

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That's where you can learn more

about what we do and that's what

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pretty much majority of time I do.

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No.

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I believe I just one advice from

from a founder to a founder and,

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from one business person to other

business person is don't go.

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I know.

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And entrepreneurship

is all about hustling.

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Doing business is all about hustling.

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But at the same time, find some

time for yourself, reflect on

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your experiencing thoughts.

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And take it easy.

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You, it's a sprint.

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You are gonna, you are

playing a long-term game.

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So yes, there are days where you will

find, you'll feel burned out, but

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always think remember, remind yourself

like, why did you start it here?

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Regionally, right?

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And that will always.

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Keeps you going on.

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Brett: All right, thank you Manish for

joining Digital Coffee Marketing brand

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sharing knowledge on taking breaks.

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Manish Dudharejia: Yeah, thank you.

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Thank you, Brett, for having me,

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Brett: and thank you for listening.

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As always, please subscribe to this

podcast on all your favorite podcasting.

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:

Have a five star review, really

does help with the rankings.

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:

Let me know I'm doing and join me next

week as a talk to the great thought

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:

leader in the PR and marketing industry.

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:

Alright guys, stay safe.

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:

Get the understanding how to take a break

that works for you and see you next week.

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:

Later.

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About the Podcast

Digital Coffee: Marketing Brew
Get your does of marketing with your favorite coffee brew
Welcome to Digital Coffee: Marketing Brew, your go-to podcast for a steaming cup of marketing insights and strategies in the digital realm. Hosted by the ever-knowledgeable Brett Deister, this dynamic and informative channel is designed to kickstart your day with a jolt of inspiration and knowledge to fuel your marketing endeavors.

Each episode of Digital Coffee delivers a rich blend of content, covering the latest trends, tools, and techniques in the ever-evolving world of PR and digital marketing. Whether you're a seasoned professional looking to stay ahead of the curve or a newcomer eager to learn the ropes, this podcast caters to all levels of expertise. From cutting-edge strategies to tried-and-true tactics, Digital Coffee ensures you're always in the know.

Join us for your daily dose of marketing excellence, and let's brew up some success together!
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Brett Deister