Ep. 19: Systems, Soul & Saying Yes: The Freedom Formula with Sara Ritchie
When structure meets soul—this is the episode for every high-achiever who's secretly dreaming of doing their own thing but terrified to take the leap.
In this heartfelt and hilarious conversation, Laura sits down with systems queen and fractional COO Sara Ritchie, who went from managing dental practices to running her own thriving operations consultancy. They unpack what it really looks like to walk away from corporate safety, redefine success on your own terms, and build a business with structure and soul.
From calling a “family meeting” to announce her pivot, to landing her first three clients in one weekend, Sara’s story is pure permission slip energy. She shares how she navigated fear, planned financially, and built daily routines that keep her calm, confident, and in control—without falling into burnout.
If you’ve ever thought, “I could never do that—I need structure!” this episode will lovingly prove you wrong.
What You’ll Hear:
✔️How Sara went from corporate dentistry to running her own operations firm
✔️The pivotal “family meeting” that changed everything
✔️Real talk on money, savings, and planning for your leap
✔️Why systems and creativity can coexist
✔️Sara’s exact daily routine as her own boss
✔️The weekly check-in habit that keeps her grounded and growing
“You have to tell the people to get the thing. Say it out loud. The moment you claim it, doors open.” — Sara Ritchie
If this episode lit a spark, grab the Heart-Aligned Career Transition Starter at https://www.leadintact.com/freebies/heart-aligned-career or book your free 20-min call https://leadintactwithlaura.as.me/free-consultation to start your next bold move.
— your first step toward an aligned, fulfilled career.
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You are listening to the pivot point where we unpack the defining moments that shift careers and lives. I'm your host, Laura Dionisio, a founder of Lead Intact, and my mission is to spotlight the raw real stories behind career pivots, the fears, the hopes. The messy middles and the bold decisions that follow if you're feeling stuck or quietly wondering what's next?
I hope these stories help you see yourself a little more clearly and inspire you to start moving toward your own dream life. Let's begin.
Sarah. to the pivot point. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it and we are inadvertently matching, but that's
Yes,
that means that the vibe is there.
absolutely.
Yeah, so how I usually do this is I'm gonna go ahead and read your bio because I know you're awesome. We've worked together, you built me the most amazing Asana board. Now I'm asing all over the place. The listeners' like, what
Nice.
but let me read your bio so that the listener can get to know who you are. Sarah Richie is a powerhouse behind some of dentistry's most efficient practices and most impactful events with extensive experience as an operations manager, event planner, and strategic director. has a proven track record of transforming businesses through organization, leadership, and scalable growth strategies. As a fractional COO, Sarah helps dental practices and companies streamline operations, optimize teams, and increase profitability without the overwhelm. specializes in building systems and leadership frameworks that strengthen team culture, drive revenue, and create sustainable success. As an event planner and manager, Sarah designs and executes high impact dental conferences, masterminds, and networking experiences that elevate brands, foster collaboration, and inspire industry-wide growth. works with private dental practices ready to boost efficiency and revenue, dental companies seeking operational leadership and scalable systems and event hosts looking for world-class planning and execution. She helps through operational efficiency and scalable systems, culture and leadership development, revenue growth strategies, and event strategy and execution. When she's not helping businesses grow or producing unforgettable events, Sarah enjoys reading, practicing yoga, and traveling with her daughters. Thank you so much for being here, Sarah. Yay.
that was the first time I've heard that, like spoken out loud. I love it.
Yeah.
That was exciting.
that's why I like to read people, because when I started this podcast, I thought about like the format, you know, like as a fellow systems person, right? We're like, how are
Yeah,
this system structure? And I was like, I could record it afterwards, but I know it feels different when you're hearing somebody else say it.
'cause you're just like, my god, that's me. Wow.
power. Yeah, there's huge power in that. Huge power in that.
Yeah, like I was telling you before we started recording, we like to like here at the pivot point with Laura Dionisio. I like to ask people's intention for the time we have together. Sarah had a really beautiful intention. Go ahead, share your intention with a listener.
Oh gosh, I'm gonna have to remember it again. Oh. We are going to let women know that it's okay and that you can be out in your own in the world creating, doing, and making a living. I just extended it by like four sentences, but that's the whole intention.
I love it. And then my intention was to be selfish
I love it.
and learn from Sarah because here's the thing, so Sarah and I know each other because we are both in this amazing ease and abundance course
Yes.
And Sarah has helped me, like I mentioned Asana, she's helped me operationally with, with me and my VA to have a system in place. And, then she briefly mentioned like, oh I remember how that felt when I left corporate and I was like, I'm sorry, what?
Ooh.
at the time I haven't left corporate. So really this whole thing asking Sarah to be a guest was for me, yes. But also like I'm, I'm joking. I mean, I'm not joking. It is for me, but also I know there's a listener out there who's in corporate, has been in corporate for a long time, has a secret dream that they're not even letting themselves talk about.
Think about. Let alone speak out out loud. And I know that they're gonna resonate with what you have to say. And so I, I love your intention. It speaks beautifully to this podcast and what I always hope to inspire others to do.
so walk us through the highlight reel of like, how did you get to where you are?
Like what was that like?
Oh gosh. I, I will say I wish I would've had a podcast like this or other female entrepreneurs to say like, Hey, this is what I wanna do. How did you do it? There's not that many out there and there, there's not that many out there that are actually like, are like, oh, hey, I did this step by step by step. So I love Laura that you're doing this.
my journey is I was a practice manager in a dental company years ago for a practice for several practices, and then. I decided I wanted something bigger. I'm a single mom, so I know there's gonna be single moms out there too, and I wanted something bigger and better for my children, but I also wanted, I have two daughters.
I wanted them to see that as women, we can do. Whatever the heck we want to, like we are, don't have to conform to what somebody says we are. We don't have to sit in a box. And so I started working kind of in corporate, in dentistry for another company where I helped grow that company. We went from just me as a team member to 10 team members.
We went from just a couple of dental practices to over a hundred dental practices, expanded into events and all that. And after seven years I kind of was like. Like, why can't I do this for me? Like, why am I doing this for someone else? Why can't I do it for myself?
And funny enough, last October I was moving one of my daughters, her husband's Air Force, and I was like, called a, a.
Family meeting, which we had those when the girls were young, right? Where you have like a spatula and only one person can talk 'cause everybody wants to talk. So my, my poor daughters thought that something was terribly wrong with me. 'cause they were like, why mom? Why do you want a family meeting? And I was like, oh, because I actually wanted to talk to you.
I don't wanna work for somebody else anymore. I actually wanna go out on my own. But there's a lot of steps and I don't even know what the steps are. It this idea. Maybe a week old. I think it'd been simmering for quite some time, but I think it had been like a week that I was like, I'm going to do this. I need to do this for myself.
I want to do this and I'm going to do this. And as we've learned, like I get to do this and I was telling my daughters, I just need you guys to know money eventually is like, I'm not gonna be able to throw money around. Like, we have been, we're not gonna, maybe it'll take a year or two to get off the ground, we're gonna have to pull in.
And my daughters were like, finally, finally, finally, mom, go out on your own. Of course you can do this by yourself. Like, why would you ever think I know I cried. Still so emotional because my kids were like, just do it. Like
like
their minds it was like, what do you mean there's a process? Just, just go.
Just go do it, mom. Of course you can. So that was like a big boost for me. And then I actually. Sat on it for quite some time kind of internally. So I started internally, I bought Sarah richie.com off of GoDaddy. I created my own email address and then kind of like sat there and looked at it like, oh, sarah@sarahrichie.com.
Like, look what I did. Um, and just kind of like started building out the process.
And then I went to an event here in Charlotte. For all women in dentistry, and it's a super popular event and it's a networking event for women. And the first night you had to stand up with the microphone and say who you worked for, what you did, and I had not told.
Many people actually at this point had even told my family, just my daughters. And I was like, why would I say I'm working for somebody else when, by this time next year I'm gonna be working for myself? So I stood up and I said that I now work at Sarah Richie Consulting for dental practices.
And I did put in the other company and, and I'm here, but I did mine first. And I, I was shaking. I was shaking, and I sat down and a friend of mine was sitting beside me and she goes. What, what did you say? You're doing what? How, how do I hire you? Can I hire you? Do I have to go through anybody else? And that was like immediately a chat box for me to be, okay, I'm, I'm moving in the right direction.
I'm doing what I'm supposed to. From that event itself, I had three clients,
Okay.
from the get get-go.
so beautiful. I wanna pause for a second because I am, first of all, I love the story. I love your daughters.
I know. Aren't they great? They're the best.
How amazing that they were. They weren't like, what are you doing? They were like, why did it take so long?
Yeah.
through? ' cause I'm thinking of the listener who hasn't even acknowledged to themself that they want something more.
I think you mentioned that seven years ago you, you had the thought of like,
Mm-hmm.
I do this for myself? Can you walk us through like what happened in those seven years? Like how did you get to the point? Of that initial thought seven years ago to like, I think you just said back in October,
Yeah,
a family meeting.
What was that like for you?
I have always been told that I am a systems girl. I am. An organized girl. I've never, and I actually don't have any immediate family members who have ever been entrepreneurs, so I've never had anybody say or show the way where you can look and be like, oh, look, look what they did. I can do that too.
Everybody is al like in my family, which is not wrong, right? It's not wrong. It's just not been shown to me. And so I've always said, I am the integrator. I am the doer. Do we cuss on this podcast? It's always been Sarah, get shit done. Like for a long time it was like GSD. If it was a GSD, go get Sarah, get shit done.
Like, that's just how I have always been. That person I've never even imagined like. Can I own my own business? So even though it was there, it was like, no, you can't because you're not that person. I've never even considered to be that person. And because, you know, no, we put ourselves in boxes that everybody else.
Cs. Nobody has ever said Sarah, go start like, you can do that. Why wouldn't you be able to do that? I've been the person who says, oh, you're gonna start a business here. Let me help you. I'll build the systems out for you. I'll organize everything. Laura, I gave you like, I'll do the Asana board for you, but I've never said I know, I know.
And it's like nobody tells us, well, duh. Of course you can go. I had a, how old were they? 20. Four and 22-year-old look at me and go, duh. Like, why wouldn't you be able to do that? So I'm glad that my kids can see that, but it's not something I ever saw for myself. I just, I've even like have been told like, well, if you're a systems girl, then you're not creative.
And of course to be an entrepreneur, you have to be creative, right? You have to be a visionary. You have to have come up all the. All these ideas so much. So I was in an event this past week and I was talking to someone and I made the statement, I wish I was more of a visionary because now I'm an entrepreneur and I have my own business.
And my friend, her name Sarah as well, she goes, no. She was like, your zone of genius is systems organization, so you systemize and organize your business and everybody else's. That's your creative outlook. And I was like, well damn. Yeah. That's it. That's it. So we have to like, we don't recognize that if it's in us, but if nobody's like looking at you going, of course you can.
We've gotta do that ourselves. Like we have to be able to tell ourselves.
Yes. And I will say that yes, your daughters did see it in you, you first had to call the family meeting to say, this is what you're gonna do. So like
Yeah, this is,
like that you were finally like, I'm gonna, I'm
I didn't wanna work. Yeah, I didn't wanna work for anybody else. I didn't want anybody else making decisions for me. I didn't want anybody else to say, you can't take off now, but you can do it in July, or you can't do this, but you can do that. I just decided after building businesses for other people, like.
Of I can build my own business. I've built 'em for other people like, like lots of companies for other people. Like, so if I can do that, I can do it for myself. But I also wanted the opportunity, I'd already had the work from home. Pleasure of, you know, I love working from home and it's so nice, but I was so working from home from somebody else.
I wanted to be able to call my own shots is what I wanted. I just wanted to be like, you know what? Today's not a working day. I just don't wanna work, so I'm gonna go to the beach. Or I wanted to say like I wanted to take off for my 50th birthday last week, but I didn't wanna take off Monday through Friday.
I wanted to take off. I. Thursday through Wednesday. 'cause that worked better for my schedule and my daughter's schedule. Like I want to, I have the new puppy, I wanna take 30 minute break because I feel like it and go take her on a walk. Like those are the things that interested me. Instead of asking permission, I just wanted to do what I wanted to do.
I love that. Okay, so now take us back to that event where, when you introduced yourself, you introduced yourself as a consultant at Sarah Richie Consulting,
Yeah.
and what did you say? Like somebody came up to, was it somebody that you
No, she was, yeah, she was sitting beside me and the irony is, five minutes before that she was like, how do, can I clone you? Can I clone you? And you come work with me? She was like, there's so many things that you're doing that I meet and I was like.
was.
I mean, we can talk about it. And she was like, really?
And I was like, yeah. And then that was the other thing. So when I stood up, I was like, just say it and see what happens. Right. And for let's say 70% of the room, there's like 125 women, 70% of the room. It went over their heads. Like they just didn't even hear it. The ones that did were like, what?
And so when I sat back down, she was like we need to talk. And I was like, yeah, let's talk. And then I had tons of friends that were like, what are you doing, Sarah? Like, tell us what you're doing. And then from that, the three clients, two came from referrals and one came where the lady seemed beside me, was like, we're working together.
Like we're now, right now we're working together.
Oh my
So it was like, it was one of those things that you have to put it out there. We have to learn, we can't just keep it internally. You have to, you have to tell the people to get the thing. It just doesn't happen.
Yeah. 'cause otherwise they also see you in that box They're not gonna
Exactly.
like, oh, she could work for me because she's her own thing. Because that's
Yeah.
you as as well.
Yeah. That's all they know is us. Same thing like with you. You're like you, we have to tell the world. I quit corporate. I am out on my own. Like we have to. I built a website. I have these things. They're mine now. This is how. I was even thinking, somebody told me the other day on my Instagram, they're like, you know, you need to go in there and put, how do you work with me?
And I was like, oh, okay. Let me go put in. How do you work with me? We have to literally get on the mountaintops and shout it. This is what we're doing now. This is mine and this is how you can work with me.
Mm-hmm.
And I want you, I, I want you, I want the people. We want the clients to come, right?
We want them. We don't want to push for it. We want them to come to us.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So like, how did, because that's one of the things that I, I mean, I've had to work on myself, but other people who I know are like entrepreneurial spirits, but are scared of, they're always thinking about like, oh, what about the financial uncertainty? I don't know if I can leap without the certainty first.
So what would you say to a listener who feels that way, who's like. I don't know. I have responsibility. I have kids, people
Yeah.
on me. I I can't just, I can't just jump
Yeah, we all do. I have a daughter right now in graduate school that's living with me that I'm paying for. I have a grand baby on the way that I'm getting ready to spoil completely rotten. So we all have like rent and or a home or cars and water and electricity and wifi. Like we all have to pay it.
what I did for myself is I built, I saved, I saved from October until. I actually wanted to leave my due. My date was July. And I got really lucky. I was actually released from my position in March and I had already been building, which was nice, but I also built my savings so that I had something to draw from because I will say from, um, because I thought July would be my, like.
Kickoff date full-time in my own, so it was March. So I am glad I had that nest egg because I did have, of course, like I had to pull from it April, may, June, and July because I didn't have the clients that I like the full roster. And so I did pull, but I just, I had a savings account to say like, this is.
This is in case I need it and you know, so I can use for, I also figured out what it costs a month for me to live and feed my daughter and the puppy and like make sure we have extra spending money. And then I took that time it by six and I was like, this is my savings account for when we make the leap.
Mm-hmm. I love that you said when not if like you're not,
Yeah, when, yeah,
Yeah.
had gotten to the point where I was like, I am, I have my clients. I'm doing this, I'm doing this, I'm doing this. I got released early and that day it happened. It was March 31st. I was like, oh shit, I'm not ready. And the universe, the world, everybody else was like, yeah, guess what girlfriend you are.
So now you gotta. Now you gotta go, like now you have to do the thing, you know? And, and that's what I did. I actually spent the month of April off of social media, like not posting, not doing anything. I just really like double down internally and figured out like, this is exactly what I want. I'm ready, and, and let's do this.
Mm-hmm. Okay. love that. And I'm curious because, and this is where I get to be selfish and ask questions, but you know, for anyone else who's going through that transition. 'cause I think part of the fear. One is where's the financial security coming from? So you just, you just gave like a, a way that they like that you don't have an excuse.
If you really
Yeah.
you can figure it out.
Yeah.
is and I've heard this recently because a lot of people, once I put it out there, have been reaching out to me and the thing I've said is, oh, I'm so happy for you. I know you're gonna be successful. I could never do it because I need structure and routine in my life.
Mm-hmm.
as a systems person, what was that transition like between having your day structured, knowing like exactly day by day what you needed to do, and then being your own boss?
Being your own boss. Yeah, I'm a calendar girly. I, and I actually help, I teach and help my dentist and other entrepreneurial women on how to set up a calendar. Because there's like, we have like, again, those boxes, but some people just don't, just don't know. And so my calendar is set up every day, Monday through Friday, um, at five 30 in the morning.
I get up and I spend five 30 to like seven. I like a slow morning. I'm gonna be slow. I'm gonna drink my coffee, I'm gonna play with my puppy. I'm gonna journal. I'm not gonna, I'm not, I wanna be somebody who just gets right up and like, goes to work out. I already know I'm not, so I'm not gonna force myself because I, I'll be miserable.
So first hour and a half, five 30 to seven. I'm slow. I have coffee. I play with a puppy. I journal, I play on social media. I have meditations that I listen to. And then at seven o'clock is my, okay. Now from seven to eight I'm gonna work out. Usually my workout's, 30 minutes. I get myself an hour again, slow morning.
Sometimes it's seven 15 when I put on my workout clothes, like it doesn't matter. And again, I get to, you get to run your own schedule. And so from seven to eight I work out eight to nine. I have it built in for my shower and doing whatever. So maybe that's laundry, maybe that's empty. The dishwasher, I don't know.
Like we work from home. So you, I also know that you have to build in the things that we know we're gonna do. 'cause we're at home, you know, that's emptying the dishwasher sometimes talking to my daughter doing whatever. And then after that from, I. From nine to, or depends.
So allotted, sometimes I have time built in what I call CEO time, which is answering emails going through Asana boards making sure like I know what I need to get done.
I know my assistant knows what she needs to get done for the day. And then meetings, I try to, I like to work between nine and three. I don't like to take meetings any earlier. I don't like to take meetings anytime later unless it's necessary, but my calendar is not gonna have four o'clock and five o'clock meetings all week long.
'cause I, I just, in it, I'm miserable and I know that about myself. I, I actually, I'm kind of opposite of most people. I like to.
Sit on my couch in the afternoons and type things out. Organizing things, creating things, sending emails, going through transcripts, and of course, like we take a chat class together, AI class together, doing all that stuff I like to do in the afternoon.
And then I have on my calendar at five o'clock it says. Put down computer and go on a walk. So I like literally telling myself what to do. And so I get up and I go on a walk. I also have 30 minutes built in every day. And it says, take Dottie on, walk like Dottie break. Dottie's a puppy. So I make sure I get outside with her.
She has time outside. It's also like a good lunchtime for me too. And so I just plan it around. What I like.
I actually spent June doing one calendar and I was like, ah, that didn't feel great. So July I made it a little bit different. August, I've made it a little bit different. September, I'm gonna play with a little more.
Also, knowing we're going into winter months, which, you know, the time is gonna change, daylight is gonna change. So I've just decided it's my calendar and I'm gonna make it mine.
Okay. I love that you took total ownership of the calendar,
Yeah.
about what you said is that you're not attached to whatever calendar you have for that month. You're just kind of like tweaking based on what you noticed worked, what didn't work.
Yeah.
that's like really valuable for people to hear, like starting entrepreneurs who might be scared of like, I don't know how to go from super structured to nothing.
Yeah.
like that first calendar that you made for yourself, like what was that? Process like, and I'm only asking this, I wouldn't even have known to ask this if it wasn't for me experiencing this for myself for the
Yeah,
' cause at least for me, I'm learning like, oops. I accidentally did the, I'm learning by doing.
So I'm curious, like what was it like for you, like that first month? How did you decide that, okay, this is the calendar I'm gonna try out
I well, I just decided to, I just threw things on the calendar. I was like, let's just see how this works. Let's just see what works. I will say too, for new entrepreneur, if, for any entrepreneur, we also need to remember, we need time to do things. So don't fill your calendar with just meetings, right? So like on my calendar from three until five, it's actually just blocked off time.
And it's just, but it is blocked so that I don't go, like, I don't have anything to do and like go shopping or whatever. It's, I actually block it off.
So one of my favorite things I do do is on Sundays, it's on my calendar at six o'clock, from six to seven to do a weekly check-in. And I have a list of things that, questions I ask myself. How did things work? Our weekly review, I'm gonna pull it up on my notes. So what it is, is I just have listed out questions to ask myself, and so it's a date pretty much with myself to say what went good last week what did not feel good. And then what on my calendar didn't work? So then that's how I'm figuring out my calendar for the next month.
I can go in and see, and then I have a list of like, what things can I not get done? So then I know
know,
what do I need to move forward to the next week? And then I ask questions for the next week, like, what is the top three things I need to do for the next week? And that's for my business. Like, what do I need to do for my business?
Right now, like as a new entrepreneur, it's creating social media posts, right? It's reaching out to get new clients. It's doing those things. And then what I do is I take that list that I create and that two o'clock spot or three o'clock spot, Monday through Friday, I put it in my calendar. So it's living there.
So at two, three o'clock, when it happens, I just click on it and I'm like, I'm gonna contact these four people, or I'm gonna make these four social media posts, or I'm gonna do these things so that I'm not like sitting there going, huh? I wonder what I'm gonna do during this two hours of free time and not get on social media and play right.
Or not get into the weeds of emails. I just, so I just do that weekly review to check in, like, what, what happened last week and what's most important for the week ahead?
I love that I'm like
Makes it easy.
I'm like, that's,
Yeah.
that's such a great idea. And plus like I made up this term called productive procrastination, and I.
Yes.
feel like probably new entrepreneurs and even me before I called myself out on it, it's really easy to do the productive things like make your landing page and website perfect instead of like reaching out to people for new clients because
Yeah.
like easier
That's
that.
yes, yes. And for me, being an entrepreneur and then it's like, oh, you have to call people to get clients. Like you actually have to reach out. You have to call, you have to email, you have to follow up. You have to send the voice notes. For me, that's harder than being like, oh, you want me to create you an Asana board?
Sure, I'd love to. What would you like on it? I can do that in my all day long. That brings me joy. That makes. Me happy. Happy. I love it. You want me to organize your emails? Abso freaking ly. Give it to me. I'll do it like a Monday Board. Sure. But to pick up the phone and call and like try to sell myself,
Myself
feels uncomfortable to me, so I actually have to schedule that out.
What I did do for that is every Monday at, I think it's 11:00 AM on my calendar, I have sales calls. Like, that's it. That's for one hour. And I just sit down and, and again, every Monday I put a list of people to call and follow up with and I open up my calendar and I'm like, I'm gonna call these people.
I'm gonna talk to these people. I'm gonna do it. So just so that I can get it done.
Having said all of that, my coach. Elise Archer told me one day, she was like, you're too calendar driven. You don't have any white space on your calendar. And I was like, what's white space? I don't know what that is. And she was like, you need a date every month on your calendar where you don't schedule anything.
And I was like. No, that's weird. Like why would I do that? And so that was actually, so I know, I was like, I don't, that doesn't even sound fun to me. Like, what do you mean? I have no plans for the day. It was, it was a great conversation. It was really funny. And so I picked now, the last Wednesday of every month.
'cause in dentistry, like the last week of the month is easier to block time. And I have it blocked on my calendar and I just made it reoccurring task forever and ever. And always it just says white space day. So sometimes things get scheduled because like it just has to get done or, or it would be fun to do it, but that's a day where, um, and I am still not used to it.
I soak it up and I'm like. Can somebody tell me what to do? 'Cause I need that, like, I need the structure in my life. But I, our favorite coach says, no, you actually need time just to, just to be. And so I have it on my white space was yesterday, which I actually flew home from the beach, so it was nice.
Like I actually didn't do anything because I flew home from the beach. Right. So
Yeah.
still kind of getting used to that. But I, I will say like as structured as. We need to be, we also need to be unstructured. And so how I've added that into my life is my evening walks. I no longer put earphones in my ears.
I don't listen to a podcast. I don't listen to a book. I used to like listen to a podcast or a book or do something. I just, I don't even take my headphones. I just take a walk for 30 minutes and that gives my brain time to kind of like. Start creating. I've had a lot of really good ideas at that time.
It's scheduled on my calendar, but you know, don't tell anybody, but it's on my calendar, so I know I need to go walk outside so that I do it. So, but it's, it's actually like my white space time during the day so that I don't have anything plugged into my head where I just, you know, I'm just walking.
Yeah, Sarah, I'm so glad we met up because like, I didn't, I knew we were similar from the systems thing. didn't realize how similar until you told me about the calendar thing. So I this was somebody that I had dated in the past told me the reason that he doesn't like to be too scheduled is because it doesn't leave room for the magic to come through.
And that stuck with
Yeah.
was like. shit. That's
Oh
So
yeah, that is true.
this because I'm so calendar driven as well. I was like, I wanna be more spontaneous. You know what, I guess what I
You put it on your calendar spontaneous time. I know you did. I was gonna say, I should say like spontaneous magical time is what it actually should say. If, if he say it like, we gotta make room for the magic. I would do the same thing. I would have like a Saturday afternoon blocked out. It says Make time for magic or something on my calendar.
I don't know.
yeah. No, I started doing that except I wasn't that creative at the time. I just called it a no plans block because I am such a planned person. You get this, that
Mm-hmm.
you are not allowed to make any plans. And when that time comes, you decide what you wanna do. Sometimes it was staying home, sometimes it was going out.
Yeah.
for the
love that. That's so fun. Yeah.
but I'm, that's why when you said it, I'm like, I get it. And here's the thing. It's like, it sounds ridiculous, but the way I see it is like, not use the tools that we're good at to
Yes.
Like why not? I
Yeah. Yeah.
I have been doing the no plans thing, so this was like two years ago that I started doing it
I.
intrinsically I like the white space now. I used to not, it's not that I didn't like it, it's just kind of like, like it just didn't compute. Right. You
Yeah, it's weird. It's weird. It's like, yeah. It's like, can I read? Like for me it was almost like, well, what do I do? Can I read a book? Can I listen to podcasts? Is that scheduled? Do I, can I pick, like, how do I not like, am I gonna go shopping? Am I gonna do lunch? But if I meet somebody for lunch, I need to schedule that, or I'm gonna forget.
Like it was like this whole like bizarre. Feeling. So now I have it blocked as a white space day. But if I schedule things in there so that as a reminder, like to go meet so somebody for lunch, right? Then I, I have that. Then I give myself permission that I can schedule it on there as part of my white Space Day experience.
Yeah. I'm laughing
so funny though. I know. It's so funny.
feel, you make me feel so much better because when I, like, what did I tell my friends? I'm like, it's called planned spontaneity, and they're like, that is the opposite
Exactly.
I
Yeah,
it's, it's a stepping stone. Okay. Like, I'm gonna
exactly. We're well, and you know what I've learned, like we don't have to though. We don't have to get there. If we live in planned spontaneity, then and if that works for us and we're still being semis. Semi, then it's okay. It's okay. My brain would never operate on being spontaneous every single day.
Like I feel like I would like combust. Like that's not, that's not joy for me at all, and I want to be joyful in my life. That's not joyful at all. I have, one of my closest friends is very, very, very, very, like, she's just like. Hey, do you wanna go do this? Do you wanna go do that? And I'm like, don't you have plans today?
Like, don't you have a calendar? Aren't you like working? And she owns her like, and she does own her own business. And she's like, yeah, but I hate it and I'm gonna blow off like that whole thing and let's just go get lunch. And like, that's who she is. And I'm like, and she, if I gave her a full calendar, like her assistant knows, like, don't book her out all day long.
She'll be miserable all day. My assistant knows, make sure Sarah knows what she's doing all day and she's gonna be happy. Like it's beautiful. It works for like, you just have to do what works for you to bring, especially as we're entrepreneurs, we don't want to. Like, look at our calendar and be like, Ugh, like this isn't fun today.
I've worked with an entrepreneur, Allison, and which, you know, Allison, who's doing ease and abundance and one of our things, the first quarter I worked with her is to make her calendar joyful for her.
Mm-hmm.
That was a task for me is how do I make this calendar joyful for Allison? And we worked on that and it was like trial, just like I'm doing with my own calendar, trial and error.
Like, you have to figure out how it works for you to make you happy. My calendar ain't gonna make anybody else happy. My calendar may scare people. They may be like, oh yeah, no. Like, they'll run away. You may look at my calendar, Laura and be like, oh, hell yeah. Like, yes, this is good. But other people are going to run.
And if I looked at somebody else's calendar, I'd be like, oh, what do you, how do you know what to do? Like whatcha doing during the day? So, I mean, we just gotta do what works for us and what brings us joy.
Yeah. I, oh my God. I
Just so funny.
I've never felt, so just.
I'm like imagining right now women listening to it and being like, oh my gosh. Yes. Yes. And I think that's the thing too, as we're creating our own businesses. We're creating our own lives, which we get to create our own calendars. We get to create our own day, our own structure, like how it works for us, because we're running it, we're running the show, and you don't wanna run a show that is terrible or.
Like you look at your calendar, I know there's a million women out there, whether they're in corporate or working for themselves, and they look at their calendar and they hate it and it like makes 'em cry or brings them anxiety, or they just would be like, forget this, I don't even wanna work today. Right.
So it's like you gotta make it your own. However, whatever that looks like for you. And I think one of my favorite things is, is that it doesn't have to stay the same. If you didn't like July change, August. If you don't like August, there's some things in August. So I was like, I didn't particularly care for that, so I'm gonna do it differently in September because it's mine.
I get to, I get to do whatever I want to with it.
I love that. And you know, what I'm hearing you say is like number one, so the, the biggest thing is you get to change it. Two is like
Yeah.
how your calendar looks and the flow, whether it's packed or whatever is up to you. But three is, it sounds like regardless of where you are in the spectrum, a calendar is needed to support the life that you. Desire. Right?
Yeah, we need it to support ourselves.
yeah.
Absolutely.
I love it.
So before we wrap up, if somebody's like, my God, I must work with her because she's so organized, I want to know what my joyful calendar looks like.
Oh, I love that.
yeah. How can people find you?
Uh, they can find me, um, on my Brandly new launch website. Woohoo. Um, at sarah richie.com. And Sarah is no h so it's Sarah without an h richie.com.
Amazing. I'll put that in the show notes. And before we wrap up, I like to ask this questions of all of our guests. If you were an item at a coffee shop, so you could be a drink or a pastry or something like that, what would you be and why?
Oh, I would be. I, you know what? Right now I would be a pumpkin spice latte because it is pumpkin spice latte season, and I, it's fall is my favorite season. I'm a football girl. I'm a fall girl. I'm a watch the leaves change. We were first in line to get our PSL on Tuesday when it launched on Starbucks.
I love, I love the changing of the drinks, so if you ask me this in a couple months, I'm gonna change my drink, but right now I would be a PSL.
I love that.
It's fall season.
I thought you were gonna say I would be the calendar. This is a better answer than I expected
I in the back of the employee schedules
Yeah. Of everyone's schedules.
and yeah. And in September it would have like the PS L stickers all over it. 'cause it's pumpkin spice latte season.
Love it, Sarah. you so much. I
This.
a lot. I learned a lot. I'm sure the listeners have learned a lot. One of them is that there's two very calendar driven people right now
I know on a podcast together
on a, on
Matchings
and matching pinks like having a calendar event called white space counts as white space.
Yes.
I, I love it though. I,
I.
think a lot of people, if, even if they don't resonate with like specifically that, I think it's gonna get people to think of, oh, how else can I use my calendar to support what I actually want to do in a way that, that feels nice.
Absolutely. I love it.
thank you much. And for the listeners, definitely check Sarah out brand new website and follow her into social
Thank you. I.
Thank you.
Big thanks again to Sarah Richie for sharing her story so openly. These conversations are such a reminder that no pivot is too messy, too late, or too unconventional. If something she said resonated, don't keep it to yourself. Share this episode with someone you know who needs it, and when you are ready to start your own pivot.
Head to www.leadinta.com for free resources or book a free 20 minute call with me. I'm here for you.