Transcript
Jess Carter [00:00:01]: The power of data is undeniable and unharnessed. It's nothing but chaos.
Speaker 1[00:00:06]: The amount of data, it was crazy.
Speaker 2 [00:00:08]: Can I trust it?
Speaker 3 [00:00:09]: You will waste money.
Speaker 4 [00:00:11]: Held together with duct tape.
Speaker 5 [00:00:12] Doomed to failure.
Jess Carter [00:00:13]: This season, we're solving problems in real-time to reveal the art of the possible. Making data your ally, using it to lead with confidence and clarity, helping communities and people thrive. This is Data Driven Leadership, a show by Resultant.
Chelsea Gill [00:00:30]: Welcome to the holiday edition of Data Driven Leadership.
Jess Carter [00:00:34]: I wanted like, bells to ring when you said that. Yeah.
Chelsea Gill [00:00:37]: Jingle bells, jingle bells. Wow.
Jess Carter [00:00:39]: This is amazing. I know. Yeah, that's good.
Chelsea Gill [00:00:42]: Well, the holidays are upon us, and we wanted to take a moment and just wish you all the happiest of holidays. Right?
Jess Carter [00:00:50]: Yes.
Chelsea Gill [00:00:51]: And an amazing new year. And also, thank you so much for all the support and love shown.
Jess Carter [00:00:58]: Yeah. Well, for those of you who don't know, Chelsea is our producer extraordinaire and our VP of marketing at Resultant, so she's the genius behind the podcast.
Chelsea Gill [00:01:08]: I'm interested, Jess, in not so much like holiday information, but I really want to know from you, do you have any New Year's resolutions? Are you even a New Year's resolution kind of gal, or do you use this time more as like, a reflection point?
Jess Carter [00:01:23]: Yes, to both. It's a reflection point that yields resolutions. So I'm a resolution person, but I think that those should not be like, off-the-cuff things that you just randomly decide. I mean, you do you but for me it's more of like, what am I proud of this year? What do I wish I'd done better? What are things that I want to stretch to do next year and what does it look like? So I don't know. I think that resolutions, a lot of people say that they're over it. I think resolutions are super healthy. I think it represents your ability to hope and think about kind of like, what you need and actually lean into it a little bit.
Chelsea Gill [00:01:57]: Have you ever had a resolution that you followed through on for the entire year? I've had one, I was in 8th grade, and I decided that for one entire year, I was going to avoid soda. And my aunt was like, I don't think you can do this. I don't think you have it in you to avoid soda. “Pop,” as we called it in my hometown. I don't know.
Jess Carter [00:02:18]: Just pop.
Chelsea Gill [00:02:19]: Yeah, for a year. And so she got me $100. And when I was, what, in 8th grade, $100 was like, I've got to do it right. So, that was the only resolution I was ever able to fully accomplish.
Jess Carter [00:02:32]: That's it, though. That's it. What is the resolution that you wish you would have accomplished? What's, like the one?
Chelsea Gill [00:02:43]: I mean, I'm like every other normal adult in America that thinks that the new year is going to result in me getting into shape and being healthy or I set forth to have a green smoothie every day that lasted all three days. I think that I do better at starting habits at a time in my life where I feel like it's relevant, not necessarily at the New Year, so that's when I perform better, when I am feeling like, you know what, I really need to make sure I floss every single day.
Jess Carter [00:03:18]: Thank you. Or whatever. Or whatever it is. Right? Yeah.
Chelsea Gill [00:03:22]: I mean, how many of you all floss your teeth every single day?
Jess Carter [00:03:25]: I will admit I just got this new floss I'm obsessed with, and I floss every day right now. It's been like,
Chelsea Gill: Because you love the floss.
Jess Carter: I'm obsessed with the floss.
Chelsea Gill [00:03:33]: Okay, well, here's a weird, data-driven, personal thing for you. I have a toothbrush that comes with Bluetooth and syncs to an app and tells me all kinds of data about the way I brush my teeth. And I think it's so fascinating. I literally look forward to looking at the data in the app. It's telling me how often I'm brushing my teeth. Like, is it twice a day? For how long am I brushing my teeth? The pressure of which I'm applying the toothbrush, really? The angle of which I'm using the tooth. I mean, it is insane, but I'm so fascinated by the data behind brushing my teeth.
Jess Carter [00:04:09]: That is fascinating.
Chelsea Gill [00:04:10]: It's kind of where the whole flossing thing came in as well, and it's a new habit. So anyway, back to the original question. Do you have any New Year's resolutions?
Jess Carter [00:04:20]: A big one for me is reading. I have found that if I'm reading not just anything, but it's like there's two levels. There's read something, and then when I get to where I have time in my life to read some decent fiction. Jess is in a happy place. I'm a happier version of myself. I'm thrilled. I am an introvert, even though I hide it. And so if I have that time to myself to read a good book and enjoy it, if you look over on the couch and I'm giggling to myself as I flip the page, we're in a good place. So, usually, there is something for me about the number of books I'm trying to read in a year.
Jess Carter [00:04:56]: So I think last year I wanted… I mean, I'm not, there's so many people who read so many more books than me. It was like, 25 or 50 years.
Chelsea Gill [00:05:02]: That is so funny because I had the exact same New Year's resolution.
Jess Carter [00:05:05]: Oh, really?
Chelsea Gill [00:05:05]: I wanted to read 20 books.
Jess Carter [00:05:06]: Okay.
Chelsea Gill [00:05:07]: And I think I'm at, like, 13.
Jess Carter [00:05:11]: Okay.
Chelsea Gill [00:05:12]: But I eb and flow with reading. Right. There are periods in my life where I am a reading machine. You cannot stop. And I have sleepless nights.
Jess Carter [00:05:19]: That's right.
Chelsea Gill [00:05:19]: All I can think about is reading that book.
Jess Carter [00:05:21]: That's right.
Chelsea Gill [00:05:21]: And then there are dry periods.
Jess Carter [00:05:24]: It's gardening season. It goes away, and we're gardening. Yeah.
Chelsea Gill [00:05:28]: Exactly.
Jess Carter [00:05:29]: So we're about to hit, I call it my book and my puzzle time. We're in the winter months of books and puzzles, and the kids are kind of at the point where they enjoy puzzles, so they can get their own puzzles because I don't want them messing with mine.
Chelsea Gill [00:05:41]: Right.
Jess Carter [00:05:42]: And then I can work on mine, or I can read. And so those are like I do, I think. I don't know. It'd be nice to hit 50 more than 50 books in a year. That'd be cool.
Chelsea Gill [00:05:49]: What are you doing on a monthly basis or daily basis to even think back to your New Year's resolution and whether you are on track or behind? Do you have a system in place? Because I do not, other than I use my notes on my phone to keep track of the books that I've read. But it's not like I have a cadence where the first Monday of every month I go and look and see, am I on track or am I behind?
Jess Carter [00:06:13]: Okay. Yeah. No, I have a few that work for me. So one, people might think this is crazy, but for some reason, we just go back to the bathroom with flossing and brushing, like using a dry erase marker on my mirror, putting it on my mirror, where every day I'm washing my face, every day I'm brushing my teeth, I'm going to wake up and see it. And what I really love is if you're trying to save money or trying to get through a number of books, if it's something quantitative, my ability to scratch it off, like, hey, we saved $1,000, or like, hey, I read two books. I'm sort of like checking off the two books out of the 50. I'm an achiever, naturally, on the enneagram I’m a three. And so the ability to sort of feel like I'm making quantitative progress toward a goal, so that's a good one for me is on my mirror.
Jess Carter [00:06:57]: But that's like first thing in the morning, and then it's like a lot of morning habits that's really helpful for me. And then time blocking. So figuring out what calendar you really live off of with whoever, your loved ones, if you have a shared calendar or if you have your own calendar. But I block things in. It's not just about meetings. You're blocking your time. You're making a priority. So if you're going to do like when I was trying to do some working out in the day, I was working from home, and I blocked not just twelve to one, I blocked like 1145 to 115.
Jess Carter [00:07:26]: So I could actually work out. And I wasn't stressed about jumping to a meeting. And if I started late, I kind of missed my workout. Really thinking through the time blocking. So those are two that I've used. And then, of course, there's a zillion apps for different stuff.
Chelsea Gill [00:07:38]: Right. Something that I found really useful. And this isn't applicable to every New Year's resolution or even any habit that you're tracking or not every habit that you're trying to track towards. But I have realized that when I get my husband involved also in the habit, he is a lot more disciplined than I am. So I find myself following through with these habits more so if it's like a joint venture versus me just individually trying to accomplish this all by myself. The flossing is a great example of this because every night we have this routine that we're doing together. Right.
Chelsea Gill [00:08:13]: As far as our self care routine and what that looks like. And flossing has been a part of it for both of us, which that's just one example of many, right? But it's just so much easier for us to do it with you.
Jess Carter [00:08:24]: Yeah.
Chelsea Gill [00:08:25]: When someone's doing it with you, when you got a partner in crime, it is easy, but I don't think they're robbing a bank, whatever.
Jess Carter [00:08:31]: Making sure that you are equal parts contributing. Because I think what's difficult is if my husband and I have done that when we both don't feel like it, it’s a disaster. It's like it helps if one of like, we have to make sure somebody is even if it's like, hey, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I will make sure that we are Tuesday, Thursday, the weekend. You make sure we're doing the thing.
Chelsea Gill [00:08:53]: Well and something our audience may or may not know is that Jess Carter likes to drop some wisdom bombs on LinkedIn. So if you're not following her, make sure you go follow her. But just recently, you had posted something and I thought about this the other night.
Jess Carter [00:09:05]: The habit thing. The habit thing about right.
Chelsea Gill [00:09:07]: You can skip one night; you can't skip two. You cannot skip two because it's all downhill from there.
Jess Carter [00:09:12]: Boom. You have a habit. Didn't you hear the 21-day thing? I was raised thinking you had to do something for 21 days. That's not a habit. It's not true.
Chelsea Gill [00:09:20]: It's not true. I've done a million things 21 days, and I fall flat on day 22.
Jess Carter [00:09:24]: That's right. But if you just never missed two days in a row, you're done. You did it. You're at least 50% done. It makes things so much more simple. And I think we always where I tend to fail is I will overcomplicate something. So I'm trying to get something done. Well, I'm trying to work out five days a week, but does my volleyball night count? And you can't get into this.
Jess Carter [00:09:46]: Well, I didn't sleep well enough, so maybe I should sleep instead of working. And you're just fooling yourself.
Chelsea Gill [00:09:51]: Right.
Jess Carter [00:09:51]: And so the sense of, like, forget it. Did I work out yesterday? Yes. I can take anything off. Go to sleep. We'll do this tomorrow. And it helps you make your decision quicker and move on.
Chelsea Gill [00:10:01]: I mean, I've literally thought about this two or three times since you posted that wisdom bomb. And I thought, you know what? That is so true.
Jess Carter [00:10:07]: And then you went and flossed.
Chelsea Gill [00:10:09]: I was like, I skipped last night on accident. I cannot skip tonight. According to Jess Carter, it's like all downhill. Tonight's the night.
Jess Carter [00:10:19]: I do geek out over those little research items, little sentiments I hear where I'm like, why doesn't everyone know this? Everyone should know this. Yeah, and then I post it and pretend that everyone reads I liked it. Okay, that's going to do it.
Chelsea Gill [00:10:30]: Hey, let's get back to the holidays really quickly. I'm curious, Jess, do you have a favorite holiday song?
Jess Carter [00:10:37]: {singing}
‘Merry Christmas and happy holidays.’
Chelsea Gill [00:10:43]: That's good. A little NSYNC magic for you.
Jess Carter [00:10:46]: Great. I would say NSYNC, and this is going to be a weird one. Sorry, what's his name? Bill Crosby. Oh, so I'm a big Bill Crosby Christmas girl.
Chelsea Gill [00:10:57]: Yeah.
Jess Carter [00:10:57]: So I love the old, old stuff. And then, like, little NSYNC in my life.
Chelsea Gill [00:11:00]: I actually think his most popular Christmas song is like the most popular of all time.
Jess Carter [00:11:05]: Probably as it should be. What about you?
Chelsea Gill [00:11:09]: So truthfully I blare NSYNC Christmas album. The entire album, every single Christmas. When I'm putting up my Christmas tree and decorating for the holidays, I always go back to NYSNC.
Jess Carter [00:11:21]: Yeah. I was raised on, Christmas morning, we woke up to cinnamon rolls and coffee and behind the scenes, this quiet, there's a fire on. And Kenny G Christmas.
Chelsea Gill [00:11:34]: We had the exact same childhood. Oh, my gosh. My mom listens to Kenny G Christmas every single year and she'd be in the kitchen making a breakfast casserole or cinnamon rolls or something. We had the exact same upbringing.
Jess Carter [00:11:49]: My husband thought it was the weirdest thing.
Chelsea Gill [00:11:51]: My mom is going to die when she hears this.
Jess Carter [00:11:53]: Brad will be glad. He was going to say, like, you alive if I didn't admit that Kenny G. Was part of this. Yes, I like the other two. But that Christmas morning is Kenny G time. That is so good.
Chelsea Gill [00:12:04]: I'm so glad I'm not alone.
Jess Carter [00:12:05]: Yeah.
Chelsea Gill [00:12:06]: What do you think about when we're planning for next year, 2024? And you think about the podcast and where it goes and how Data Driven Leadership just evolves? Do you have a wish?
Jess Carter [00:12:18]: The sky is the limit to me. I never thought that we would be where we are with the kind of listenership we have. And so for me, it is like, to your point, it's whatever the listeners want to hear. To me, the best thing we can do is continue to hear them out on what they want to understand, what they want to learn, what they want to share. And so for me, it's just that it continues to be valuable to them. That it's not just, I don't know, smoke and mirrors or us talking in a closet. It's like a real thing that seems to be added value.
Jess Carter [00:12:47]: So, to me, like the pragmatic piece, how do we continue to make data and tech make more sense to more people. To me, that would be a delight, with exciting stories that make it easy to do that. It’s great stories that also help you understand more about a different part of data or tech that you didn't know before.
Chelsea Gill [00:13:05]: So we spent the last year and a half really talking about folks that have already had data journey and what that looks like and the problems that they've solved. What I am really hoping for as far as 2024 is concerned is I want to start hearing stories of what people solved because they were inspired by an episode or by a certain guest that we had that would be really powerful and really fun to hear. And just a pipe dream of mine as it relates to how people are internalizing this content, how they're thinking about it, how they're solving their own problems and challenges based off of what they heard, or maybe they were inspired or whatever the case may be. I think that, to me, is the dream for 2024.
Jess Carter [00:13:44]: Well, we've already heard some of that, but I get surprised. I think it's always easy to do that. It's hard to remember, to tell us, like to share, hey, this was actually valuable to me. Here's what I did with it. We've had a few people reach out, and it's been amazing. But to think about to your point, what if that happened in spades? What if this became truly so valuable that people kind of couldn't help? But it's a dream.
Chelsea Gill [00:14:07]: Yeah.
Jess Carter [00:14:07]: I like it.
Chelsea Gill [00:14:08]: Okay, awesome.
Jess Carter [00:14:10]: Let's just make that happen. Is that easy?
Chelsea Gill [00:14:11]: Yeah. So, I mean, if you're listening and you've been inspired, please tell us, right?
Jess Carter [00:14:15]: Oh, yeah.
Chelsea Gill [00:14:15]: They do it.
Jess Carter [00:14:16]: We don't have anything to do.
Chelsea Gill [00:14:17]: Right?
Jess Carter [00:14:17]: They have to tell us that.
Chelsea Gill [00:14:18]: You have to tell us.
Jess Carter [00:14:19]: Can you guys tell us?
Chelsea Gill [00:14:20]: Do you want to be a guest and come and tell your story? I mean, one way to do it.
Jess Carter [00:14:24]: Okay. That would be another way to accentuate your wish. Like to have somebody who's a listener join us on the podcast and talk about that. Yeah. Okay. All right, well, inspired.
Chelsea Gill [00:14:34]: I want you all to go chew on that.
Jess Carter [00:14:36]: I have a new resolution. It's that.
Jess Carter [00:14:40]: Thank you for listening. I'm your host, Jess Carter, and don't forget to follow the Data Driven Leadership wherever you get your podcasts, rate and review, letting us know how these data topics are transforming your business. We can't wait for you to join us on the next episode.
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