Episode 98: How to let your career evolve to find your purpose – with Bunny Young of A Better Place Consulting

Episode 98: How to let your career evolve to find your purpose - with Bunny Young of A Better Place Consulting

Jeremy Cline 0:00
A complete change of career would be right for some people, where you move from having done one thing to doing something completely different. But what about if you want your career to evolve? What about if you let it flow naturally from one thing to another? That's what my guest this week has done. And that's what we talk about in this episode. I'm Jeremy Cline, and this is Change Work Life.

Jeremy Cline 0:34
Hello, and welcome to Change Work Life, the show we're all about beating the Sunday evening blues and enjoying Mondays again. We've talked in the past about how your identity and your job can become closely intertwined. So, how do you break the co-dependency between yourself and the place you work? Well, that's what this week's guest is all about. Bunny Young is a former stunt woman and founder of A Better Place Consulting, where she makes it her business to define negative trends and helps professionals make the most of their business and personal life. Bunny, welcome to the podcast.

Bunny Young 1:06
Thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here.

Jeremy Cline 1:08
Talking first about your business, who is your typical client, and what are the sorts of challenges that they're usually facing?

Bunny Young 1:14
Yeah, that's a really great question, because I was thinking about that, when you said you were going to ask me this. And I think there's really, the only typical thing about our clients is that they're humans pretty much all experiencing some kind of divide or gap between the person that they want to be and the person they feel that they are today. And so, there's a discrepancy between what they believe their life could be and what they're doing today. So, I think that's how they feel, but they range from, we work with military individuals, to individuals that are still in the corporate environment, and just want to start a side hustle. So, I know, in the power of business, there should be that niche standard sentence that I give you. And I would just say, a human that knows that they're capable of more.

Jeremy Cline 1:59
With that potential client base being virtually the entire population of the planet, how do people find you and know that you're the person who can help them?

Bunny Young 2:08
Well, it takes a deep level of self-awareness in order to step up to the plate, as my grandfather would say, and know this about yourself, but also pursue this path, and to be willing to get uncomfortable and admit to yourself that your life, as it is today, is not everything that you want in order to fulfil your purpose. And it's a question that I don't think we're asked as adults, as far as like what do you want to do when you grow up. And so, I appreciate and wish that it was the entire population that had this sense that they can give themselves permission in order to step out and fulfil their purpose and do something that is meaningful for them and makes a difference for the world. And the more time I spend in this space, the more I realise that not nearly enough people are giving themselves that specific permission. And when a client reaches out to us, it's because they've given themselves that permission, or a company has decided that they want to focus on work-life alignment, and be able to give their teams that permission to bring their whole selves to work. And they understand that there's not this thing called work-life balance, that there's just life, and everything you do in life contributes to your sanity or lack thereof. That's really the starting place, is that self-awareness. We work on four levels, self-awareness, self-management, team awareness, team management, and we do that with companies and governments and military. And then, I do individual coaching myself. That's really, we're not selling anything, we're just supporting people and accomplishing what it is that they want to do.

Jeremy Cline 3:42
And so, what brings these people to you, how do they find you and know that you're the person that can help them?

Bunny Young 3:48
You know, that is a matter of me having complete and total confidence in the universe, because it seems like every time I've done a traditional advertising route in business, it's never as fruitful as when I sit back and just pour myself into the work that we do, and then speaking opportunities and clients and word of mouth referrals come. And A Better Place Consulting is now seven years old. And it's funny because it's at the times where I'm not focused on growth and just focus on powerfully supporting the clients that we do have and showing up in amazing places, like your podcast, that we end up getting people inquiring as to what life could be like if they fully invested in themselves. It's not something that you typically advertise for. And we are a boutique consulting and coaching firm. And so, it's not like we have a programme that we're putting hundreds of thousands of people through. It's very intimate. That's working for us right now. Sometimes business and life is not always about just the P&L growth. Sometimes it's about the personal growth and having a company that fulfils your life and fulfils the lifestyle that you want, rather than just growing into this billion dollar conglomerate.

Jeremy Cline 5:00
I want to find out more about how you got to where you are now. And I am going to start with the very obvious place, for which I make no apologies, but stuntwoman, how did you get into that? What sort of stuff were you doing?

Bunny Young 5:14
I got married, that's how I got into that. The individual that I fell in love with happens to be a stunt professional. And I think, to answer that question fully, I am going to take a 10-second detour to the fact that I have a heart condition. And so, the moment that I got diagnosed with that heart condition, as opposed to, I think, how I was supposed to feel, which was limited and disabled, I found this unique sense of permission to just live my life fully, and do these things that were going to make me happy and were going to leave a legacy. And so, when the opportunity to move to China and be a professional stuntwoman was presented, it was more of a question of why not, instead of, you know, why. And I didn't worry about the fact that I was in college, I just jumped and figured out how to move my classes online. And this is in the early 2000s. So, it wasn't as much of an online atmosphere for learning as there is now. And I've been a model, and I knew that being in this industry and in the entertainment industry was something that was fun. It was a one-year contract, and I got to experience a new place. And stunts, it was an amazing job to be able to be paid to be active and do all of these fun things. And it helped that I got to, for my first year of marriage, got to shoot my husband and light him on fire four or five times a day and also was kissed by another man in the show and got paid for it. Jeremy, that definitely helped.

Jeremy Cline 6:47
So, what was the stuff you were working on?

Bunny Young 6:50
Fire burns, we did a fight scene about 45 feet up in the air, I did what's called an Australian repel, which is a face first repel, an Aussie repel, which was my favourite stunt. And then, there's a slide for life, which is a combination of like a slackline and repelling or zip-line and rappelling. We did car stunts, we did motorcycle stunts, there was a fire burn on a motorcycle. So, I got to learn all of these things, which was a very big part of my husband's life when we got together. But I was not a professional stuntwoman until we were married and moved over to China. It was this combination of building this relationship with this person, and then, also learning this new job and new craft. And it was just kind of amazing in that aspect to be able to do this with him. Prior to us moving to China, I had done stunts on horseback, because I've ridden horses my entire life. And my husband and I met at a movie studio. So, that was really the only stunt that I'd done. But honestly, Jeremy, it didn't seem like stunts to me, it just seemed like fun and horseback riding. I knew it was dangerous, but it was just a skill that I had. Whereas doing all of these stunts was the beginning of learning how to trust a team and learn these new different kind of things that the human body was capable of. I mean, who would think that you could set yourself on fire safely. That, like I said, it really goes back to this foundation of give yourself permission to just do the things that you never thought was possible and just enjoy the ride.

Jeremy Cline 8:15
So, where did being a stunt person take you? Maybe where did you think it was going to take you? Was it always going to be a short-term thing? Or was it something that kind of went its course?

Bunny Young 8:27
Contrary to how I live my life now, I don't think I've really had a plan. I was just trusting in this opportunity and in this relationship with my husband, which I think was a good plan at the time. And so, when we got back from China, I had another opportunity to work in social services. And what I found in China, I had known, because I lived in Ecuador prior to going to China, I spent a summer in Ecuador, and I wanted to do international civil rights. And then, after being in China, I really doubled down on helping kids in disadvantaged situations. And so, when I got home, I had an opportunity to go to work in social services, and I had an opportunity to either go back to China or go to Germany and continue on this stunt path. And while it was fun, it wasn't my calling. It didn't fulfil me. It was definitely my husband's calling, and he's incredibly gifted. And although, I could make all of the stunts work, it just didn't fulfil me the way that supporting children in mental health crisis did. And I felt more in line with my life at that level, than I did just having fun being a stuntwoman. So, I have absolutely no regrets about making that choice and doing it. I just had to listen to myself and honour myself, which did mean that my husband went to Germany to be a stuntman and do professional live action stunts, and I stayed stateside and was doing social service work, which again, I don't regret. It just made our lives a little bit more difficult. And what made the decision easier is that I got pregnant in between us coming back from China and him leaving for Germany. And that gave me this additional sense of, okay, you know, I knew that there had been a husband and wife that had a child on set, and they had a nanny, and all of that while we were living in China. And I knew it was possible. But again, it just didn't feel like that was my purpose. And so, I stayed stateside, and I started my career as a therapist. And so, how do you go from being a stuntwoman to a therapist? Well, there's calculated risks, and there's being able to kind of see opportunities, and see how to push and not push too far. And then, ultimately, that parlayed into me being a businesswoman, and being able to start companies and evaluate risk and hire team members. Because being a stuntwoman, you can't do it by yourself, you have to have the proper team to keep you safe, and to choreograph fights and all of this kind of stuff. So, I think being a stuntwoman was definitely a huge part of my journey, and it was a whole lot of fun, and I use that knowledge today in business. I don't know that I knew it was going to be just a year, and still today, obviously, I am still married to my husband, he's still stunt professional, and so, we still do stunts at home with our kids, most children my daughter's age are learning how to play soccer and all that kind of stuff. And my daughter is learning how to ride horses and do fire burns. She has yet to do a fire burn, Jeremy, but she knows all of the safety of setting it up. And she's watched her dad do several. So, it's just a very interesting chapter of our lives. And it's not to say I never do stunts again, because I still do them. But it's just to say that this is more in line with my purpose.

Jeremy Cline 11:49
So, you said that the opportunity came up to do the therapist work and the work with children. Can you talk more about how did the opportunity come up? Was this something that, when you returned to the USU, were actively looking for, or perhaps you can talk to me a bit more about that?

Bunny Young 12:04
No, it wasn't something I was actively looking for. So, while I was in China, I finished my bachelor's degree in counselling and psychology, and I had minored in Spanish, French and sign language. And where we were living, they had a school for individuals who are deaf. And it was a, you know, kindergarten through high school, and then a little bit of college, and they lived on site. And they were in desperate need of more mental health professionals that could sign and do American Sign Language. And so, I started to do it as a volunteer-basis, in which I had previously started through a programme called Casa prior to moving to China. And that was where I was using my Spanish. And it was part of my degree. I already had knowledge of both of these programmes, and volunteering very quickly turned into a full-time job opportunity. And I felt like being able to work in these populations and speak another language and kind of serve both the kids and also support the adults was just such a unique experience, and I just felt like it used so many of my skills and assets. And I just came home from work feeling like I made the world a better place each and every day. And the work was incredibly difficult and challenging. But it's something as a stuntwoman, you know, you finish the show, everybody applauds, and then, you know, they go on about their day and the rest of the park, and you go back to the green room. You don't really feel like you made a significant contribution to the world. And whereas, watching these kids transform from shy and scared to confident and capable was just incredible. The opportunity found me, and that goes back to the question about our ideal clients is, I've just always found that the more that I focus on leaning into that purpose and leaning into fulfilling work, the opportunities show up and find me.

Jeremy Cline 13:59
You've touched a bit on the sort of work you were doing as a therapist. Can you expand on that? So, you were working with children and what difficulties were they facing in particular that you were helping them with?

Bunny Young 14:08
Yeah, I think there's a lot of difficulties in being a child today. So, the kids at the school for the deaf and blind were actively, they didn't live, they lived on the campus for the most part. So, they're away from their parents and dealing with depression, dealing with anxiety, dealing with fitting in at school, dealing with knowing what their future is going to hold, because of their limited sight or hearing capabilities, and adapting to all of these opportunities. And so, that was how I served them. And in addition, you know, being able to understand where they fit in this world. My therapist duties evolved from specifically working with children with anxiety disorders in Spanish and sign language, and then children that were in the foster programme, our group homes, to providing respite for those children, so taking them on field trips, so they could experience entertainment parks, so that they could experience going to a waterpark, they could experience going hiking, and get out of the group home and just have these opportunities and have these experiences. And then, it evolved into, I decided to go into animal assisted therapy. So, this was using mainly dogs and horses to be able to work with individuals in a therapeutic environment. And that happened by accident, because I had a service animal, and I have a service animal, but at the time, it was another service animal that was in the sessions with me. And I found that the kids were attracted to speaking to the dog. And in fact, I had a situation where we took a little boy into custody, into our custody of the state, and he would not tell the detectives what was going on. Like he wouldn't speak ill about his father. And in Spanish, he ended up telling my dog the entire story. While we were just standing there trying to figure out what to do next, he was whispering to the dog. And that was really this big 'aha' moment about the power of animals in human recovery and healing. And I got burned out on being able to do therapy in an office. And my supervisor at the time introduced me to equine therapy. And so, we developed eating disorder programmes, trauma programmes, and post-traumatic stress, just a variety of different modalities that we brought to the ranch and were able to help people, and then, that ultimately turned into equine assisted learning. So, professional development, and we brought companies and teams. So, I kept taking steps, in every single one of my professions, I was drawn to making the process more efficient, making the business side of things more efficient. Here's the big secret. I have a master's degree in mental health counselling psychology. I have my licence as a licenced professional counsellor, but nobody teaches you in your master's programme how to run a company, how to run a business, how to start a private practice. It just didn't happen. They teach you how to be a therapist. You go to stunt school, they teach you how to be a stunt person, they don't teach you how to build relationships, build opportunities, mitigate your risks, all of this kind of stuff from the business side, and I was just attracted to it. I just kept seeing these gaps, these opportunities to be better, to be more efficient and to reach more people. And so, I kept doing it. And people were like, you know, this is not normal. I was like why? You know, I see now being the granddaughter of an entrepreneur and the daughter of entrepreneurial parents how it was part of my upbringing. But it's like every opportunity that I had was another tool that I could add to my toolbox where ultimately, I just wanted to go into businesses and companies and the world and make things better. And so, using my mental health knowledge, using my business knowledge, I am uniquely equipped to do this now. But at the time, it was just, well, there was no box that I fit in. And so, it took all those years of being a therapist and getting my master's degree and then finding out that I didn't like doing this, or I didn't like doing that, to just get more on the path of where I'm meant to be. And I ended up having to create my own job description, because every job I ever had, I coloured outside the lines. And not in a not following a law or anything like that. But I just I went above and beyond my responsibilities, because there were certain aspects of the job I couldn't stand, and there were certain aspects of the job that I absolutely loved, and there were certain aspects of the job that weren't aspects of the job that I love to do. So, I pulled them in. And I found myself mentoring a lot of individuals in my journey because of my tools. And so, being able to get permission to just do that, and do it throughout the world, has been the most amazing gift of my life. And it seems very scary to go on this entrepreneurial journey, but betting on yourself is really the only sure bet that you're ever going to have in life.

Jeremy Cline 15:42
When you're doing this in the environment of working for other people, you're employed, and before you take the step to become a business owner, what's the reaction of other people to what you're doing, as you kind of said, you know, outside of the lines, you know, doing things that people maybe perceived that you weren't supposed to be doing or not doing things that people perceive that you were? How did that play out with the people you were working with?

Bunny Young 19:24
I think for the most part, I initially received support. And then, I think there was at times a little bit of intimidation. So, one of the first examples that I can give you and I have to thank my mom for pointing this out, because I often discount my entrepreneurial experience until my mom brought me back to the fact that I was working for a swimming company that did lessons in lifeguarding, and I lived on one part of the town, and the company did this higher-end part of the city, and there was a ton of opportunity on the side of town that I lived in, and I thought, 'Well, then you don't have to pay me mileage, then you know, I'm not having to drive 45 minutes.' So, I brought this proposal to them to start a division on my side of the town. And they didn't want to do it. And I said, 'Okay, well then can I do it?' And I started my own swimming and lifeguarding company on that side of town while still working for them, and using the experience that I had in working for them, and the certifications that I had as a lifeguard and as a water safety instructor. And I grew my little book of business and ended up selling it. And it was funny, because it's not something they were interested in. And then, you know, about a year and a half after they saw how lucrative it was, all of a sudden, it was like, 'Well, you can't really do that and continue to work for us.' I was like, 'Okay, well, at this point, I don't need to.' So, and I did that with A Better Place Consulting. I mean, I started A Better Place Consulting and the work that I was doing when I was still employed by somebody else. And I told them, you know, this is something that I'm interested in, this work-life alignment consulting, and mental health in the workplace and helping people with burnout, and I'd like to specifically focus on that. And they said, 'Well, that's great, but that's not really, you know, your job.' And I said, 'Okay, well, is it okay if I do it on my time off?' And they said, 'That's fine, you know, we can't stop you from doing that.' And I did it, and it grew, and I ended up asking to go part-time, because I still wanted to do my job, and I still loved it, or I thought I did at the time. And I actually loved the job, I just didn't like my supervisor anymore. Not my supervisor, the CEO of the company, because there was just this constant trying to like hold me back, wanting to bring stuff in from other aspects of my life to make the company better, and he was like, 'No, you know, we're going to do it this way, because we've always done it this way.' It's like, well, acquainted a little bit to being like in the equine world, it's like a mare chomping at the bit. And I've always kind of been that way. And what's the funny thing about horses is the second that they have peace, they calm down. And I think that's really what I was looking for is just that peace, that sense of calm, you know, because if it was somebody else's company, then I always needed permission to make it better. If it was my company, I could just do that. And I could unapologetically help other people do it. And so, that's really kind of the 'aha' that I had, was being able to just be okay being me, and stop seeking everybody else's permission and approval to live my life. And my life just didn't fit in somebody else's job description.

Jeremy Cline 22:25
I'm interested to push that a little bit more. And whilst it certainly wasn't the case with the company that you work working for at the time, that they weren't going to sort of, in the widest sense of the word, allow you to do what you wanted to do, would it have been possible for you to do that in the context of another company and another place where the environment was more flexible, perhaps more forward thinking? Or was there an inevitability that you had to do this as your own thing, starting as a side hustle and then transforming that into your own full-time business?

Bunny Young 22:57
Yeah, if I look back on the journey, when I moved from Arizona to Virginia, I decided that I was going to be a stay-at-home mom and take a break. And our second weekend here, we went to a fair, and I was asked to come and volunteer at a company that was doing adult day care for adults with dementia and Alzheimer's. And about three weeks into volunteering, I was offered the executive director position. And I bring that up to say that, you know, it feels like the opportunities have always come. And to answer your question, when I decided to leave my full-time job, after not being able to do the part-time and quitting, there was an opportunity for me to move our family and make a significant amount of money basically creating my own position inside another company. And this was before really coaches were on staff for major companies. And I remember talking to my husband about it, and he was looking at it as money. And I was looking at it as the freedom aspect. So, picking up and moving my family and going to work for somebody, and I just have myself. Like knowing myself, I give 150% when I say yes, and what I found was that every time I was saying yes to working for somebody else, I had very little self-control on holding back. And so, it was like, I could always stay an hour later. I could always, and this is when, you know, we were starting to be able to have access to email on our phones and being able to just have this 24/7 mentality of being available. And so, my commitment at the time was that I would work for myself to teach myself how to not work 24/7, and set up my own boundaries. And if I could do that, and this opportunity was still there, then I would do that. And what I found was, once I learned how efficient I could be, a 40-hour-a-week job didn't make sense anymore, because If I could do it and make the money in 15, then why do it in 40. And with a heart condition, time was this resource, the most precious resource of all, and I really wanted to spend it with my family. And now, we have two beautiful children. And my husband's also in the military now. And so, you know, there's a lot of times where I need to step in, because he's gone. And my health is also a huge priority, and my parents aren't getting any younger. And so, navigating life with the priorities as my family, meant that I don't have 40 hours left over for another position, to work for somebody else. And so, really prioritising myself, my life, and then figuring out without the assumption that 40 hours is what I was going to work, and then I'd fit my family and with the rest of the week that I had, it started out as a learning experience, and it ended up being the most incredible opportunity to learn more about myself and the assumptions that I had made on what I can and cannot do. And also, this assumption that, while I'm going to go work for, you know, a salary for 40 hours a week, if not more, because that's what I've always done. And it's true. If you do the things you've always done, you're going to get the results you always have gotten. But if you do the things that you haven't always done, you're going to get some shocking, brand new results.

Jeremy Cline 26:16
What you've just described, working 15 hours a week, instead of 40 hours a week, and getting the same or better results, sounds on the face of it like most people's dream. I mean, you know, the idea of just being able to work three hours a day and having the rest of the time to do your own thing, to spend time with your family, your hobbies, working out whatever it might be, how does one start to create that sort of life for themselves? How can you get to that place?

Bunny Young 26:43
If I was starting all over again now, I would look at how your any money that you make can work harder than you. Because there's a ton of opportunities to have your money work harder than you, and to not trade time for money. Because once you get stuck in that trading time for money, it's very difficult to get out of it. And it's very difficult to get your time back. And for those of you listening, it took me about two years, maybe two years and four months to get back to that magical place of making my income and having the stability for my family on an appropriate time schedule. So, how do you start is you start by setting up some boundaries. So, for me, what that looks like today is that I have an autoresponder, I have an automated scheduling assistant, I have a personal assistant who books my speaking engagements, my podcasts and anything else. So, I know this about me, that I have a very difficult time saying no. And so, having somebody in between me and those opportunities, being able to outline what my ideal week looks like, and then it's almost been a game. If I can do it in 15, can I do it in 10? Can I do it in five? And it's really about relationships, too. So, how do you start is you start, right, and it's going to look very incremental at first. But pick one way that your money can work while you're asleep and pick one aspect of your life that you're going to say no to, whether it is shutting your emails off after 4:30, whether it's just checking your email once a day. I mean, I check my email once every four days. And it's okay, because I set that expectation, that I'm not going to be available. In this world where everybody's available 24/7, we're all like 7-Elevens, instead of, you know, Spago, which is Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, if people like don't get it, think about your town's most incredible steak house. And I think that, when it's initially a shock to the system for people, where they email me and they get an autoresponder and they're like, 'Well, you're not on vacation, how can you have an autoresponder up?' It's like, because there are so many better ways to get resources, our specific website that has been carefully curated and designed to give anybody resources that they need, without having to wait those four days. It's not to say I don't want to talk to you. It's to say that, if you want immediate help, like we've built the website for that, we've built our social media for that. There are a ton of ways to get started. And I think the foundational step honestly, prior to that, is you valuing your time. Because if you're going to say, 'Well, Bunny, this or Bunny, that, I can't do this', you have to value your time first, because if you continue down this road, chances are your lack of valuing the best resource in your life is going to lead to you being forced to take a break. And this is coming from somebody who has spent a lot of time sitting in a hospital bed, evaluating whether the decisions that I made and the time that I had invested in my family or in my business or in the things that I enjoyed the most was going to be enough to leave a legacy, or if I had any regrets. So, just think about it, because a lot of us end up flat on our back in a medical situation, because we don't take the time daily to invest in ourselves.

Jeremy Cline 30:00
Can you do any of this whilst still being an employee? I mean, the sorts of things that you've described, you know, autoresponders, making time efficiencies, that kind of thing, to me, it sounds like, well, that's great if you've got your own business and your own boss, and you've got your own product, your own product or service, that you're confident it can bring in the money. But if you're a professional who is under contract to work 40 hours a week, and if you're in say, one of those professions, where it's done on a time basis, where you're expected to record your time, bill your hours, that kind of thing, to me, at the moment, and I can't wait to be corrected, this sounds a bit like a pipe dream. So, how can you sort of implement this sort of thing against that sort of background?

Bunny Young 30:43
I think the first thing is to have a conversation with whoever necessary, that I call the puppy conversation, of let me try this for four weeks, one month, and show you how it not only will improve my efficiency and productivity, but also my health. And so, my longevity at this company will be impacted, and my team will be impacted. And my goal is to be more efficient, not less available, and switch from an hourly billable structure to a project billable structure. People pay for outcomes. So, if I want to go get a massage, and in 15 minutes, they could accomplish what they could in an hour and a half, I would still pay that money. I'm not going to get an hour and a half massage. Now, there are people listening who are like, 'I do want that hour and a half massage, I want to lay there and relax for an hour and a half.' Well, that's wonderful, that is absolutely wonderful. But if you could get that same amount of relaxation, if I asked you why a couple of times, you would probably get to the relaxation, and you know, the feeling that you have after an hour and a half of being on that table. Now, if I could give you that in five minutes, and then you could have an hour and 25 minutes to go do whatever else you wanted to do with your life, I think the answer would be yes. And so, people pay for outcomes, they don't pay for time. If you told me that your company was going to be able to treat my migraines, and you were going to do it in five days, instead of five months, I would pay you for the five months' worth of treatment if I'm just looking for the outcome. The only difference is you've told me how much time it normally takes, five months, right? And so, that expectation's been set. You can go to your boss and have this conversation. And you don't need to do something as dramatic as cut an hour and 25 minutes off a massage. But just be able to look at the fact that if you are in an industry where you're doing billable hours, most companies that are doing billable hours, they have a sense of how many hours it's going to take for the average person. But you're not average, you aren't. And to have four people lined up and say this person, it's going to take all of you an hour to accomplish the same task that, watch any race, watch any competitive sport, it takes people different amounts of time to accomplish different tasks, because we're different. And that's one of the big highlights of the world right now, is how different we are. If you are gifted and you are talented, and you can do something in a third of the time than the average person, does that mean that you only deserve a third of the money? No, no. So, if you can structure in a system that still gets the outcomes without being dependent on the time, then I would strongly encourage you to do that. And the other part of it, if you still have a job, you can absolutely set a budget with your salary and start to put 10-15% of your budget into some form of making your money work for you. Because that's essentially taking that time and being able on every time you get a pay check, that 15% is now working for you instead of you spending it and then having to work again to recover it. And you can do it with 5% if you wanted to.

Jeremy Cline 33:40
There's several topics there, which we could probably devote an entire podcast episode to by themselves. But I'd like to bring this back round to your own business. Clearly, it's been quite an evolution getting to where you are now, where do you think the next evolution of your business is going to take you? What have you still got to achieve or accomplish or what goals do you have that are going to see your business going in maybe a slightly different direction to where it is now?

Bunny Young 34:08
So, there's been two paths with the company, in the aspect that I now have five companies that I own or am a part of, business partners. And I'm still dedicated to that limited amount of hours per week that I actually spend working on the companies, which has meant that, instead of just growing for growth sake, I'm very intentional about the things that I show up to do. And so, I don't actually spend a whole lot of time running the companies but for A Better Place Consulting, the two things that I still love and enjoy doing and will do for as long as I possibly can at this point, is individual coaching and speaking. And so, the evolution, the next evolution is being able to be focused on those things, where I show up and be able to speak and make an impact and inspire people to take action, and then there's a very small select few that I will be working with individually. And for the most part, they're individuals that have had this concurrent relationship with our company, either we've worked with the companies that they work with, or I've spoke, and they've stayed in touch. And we'll work individually. Now, the other part of that, with me not doing as much individual coaching, and not doing as many like group coaching opportunities, is being able to create resources for individuals who do get inspired to take action, and they just want that support. And that looks like, I've written three books in the past year, two of which are in the process of being published, one just came out. And the other is being able to create larger resource programmes, where people can with videos and developing our YouTube channel, so that people can get involved and start this course and start this path that they want and that they're inspired to take, and feel supported even though I'm not there for every minute of their experience, but make it feel like I am there. Those are the two areas, the two evolutions, as you said it, that I'm focused on, is to make all of these concepts available to the masses that are inspired to do it, and make it feel like I'm there every step of the way. And the other portion is to actually activate and make people aware that this is your life and work-life balance is unachievable, but work-life alignment is an absolute must. It's not a luxury, it is life.

Jeremy Cline 36:26
So, you mentioned that you're working on your own resources. Are there any other resources which either you found particularly have helped you or which you recommend to your clients, books, quotes, anything like that?

Bunny Young 36:38
Yeah, I think I'm a huge book junkie. So, I think the book that I would, I'm going to share with you two books, one is The Untethered Soul. So, I think that's an amazing book to be able to work on your personal development. And as far as your professional development, being able to look at a book like The 4-hour Workweek from Tim Ferriss, if you're in a job position, or a profit-first, if you're in an entrepreneurial position, to just kind of wake up to what is possible, and how little it can take today to start, the most important part, most important thing is that you start. It's not how you start, it's not when you start, it's that you start. And the second is going to be a quote. I have this tattooed, and I never thought I would get a tattoo of a quote, but it's 'unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's ever going to get better. It's not'. And it's from Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. And the one thing I would add is, 'unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot about yourself, nothing's ever going to get better. It's not.' And the reason that's my quote is because I think that the first step to saving the world is saving yourself, and people are going to treat you how you treat yourself. And even if people treat you less than you treat yourself, if you treat yourself really well, it's not going to matter because you know that what they're saying to you is more about them and less about you. And you'll be resourced enough to have that self-love to move on and continue to make the world a better place.

Jeremy Cline 38:04
Very wise words. Bunny, if people want to find you, where's the best place that they can do that?

Bunny Young 38:08
bunnyyoung.com is a great place to start or abetterplaceconsulting.com. And if you just want to connect on social media, we're there as well. My personal account is Bunny Has Six Legs, and the business account is A Better Place Consulting, but you can find YouTube, social media everywhere, I'm so happy to connect with you all. And please just share with me where you're at in your journey to making this world a better place.

Jeremy Cline 38:32
Worth stressing that if you send Bunny an email, you will probably get an autoresponder, but she'll get back to you eventually.

Bunny Young 38:38
I didn't give you my email. So, there's that. It's not the best form of communication.

Jeremy Cline 38:43
Bunny, thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. It's been quite inspirational. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Bunny Young 38:50
Thank you so much for having me. Thanks, everybody.

Jeremy Cline 38:52
Okay, hope you enjoyed the interview with Bunny Young. I really like the way that Bunny had kind of let her career revolve. So, she'd worked for organisations, she'd done things which she thought were right, and either they'd been appreciated by her employer or hadn't. And if not, it had caused her to move on to other things. I was also really taken by what she was saying about not necessarily having to work 40 hours a week, if you can actually do all the work that you need to in, say, 15 hours. It's so ingrained in us to work five days a week, eight hours a day, that the idea of being able to work fewer hours and fewer days, just it's quite hard to get your head around, especially if you're in a job. I'd be interested to hear from any other lawyers, accountants or other professionals where you tend to spend your days recording your time, what you made of what Bunny was saying about moving away from the model of recording time. Certainly, I'd love to see it happen, but I have to say, at the moment, depending on what practice area you're in, I can't see it happening anytime soon. But hey, hopefully I'll be proved wrong. Show notes for this episode are at changeworklife.com/98. So, there at changeworklife.com/98, you'll find a full transcript show notes and links to everything we talked about. And if you haven't already, do check out the exercises on my website. You'll find them at changeworklife.com/happy that's changeworklife.com/happy, and it's a couple of exercises to help you figure out really what you want out of your own career. One exercise helps you reflect back on what roles you've had in the past and what you've enjoyed and what you've not enjoyed. And the other one makes you think more about the future, and what you would like the future to look like, and how your job or career might support that future. So, go to changeworklife.com/happy and check those out. Next week is another episode all about how the coronavirus pandemic has directly affected some people in their jobs or careers. And then we've got Episode 100. And it's going to be a special one. So, if you haven't already, make sure you subscribe to the show, you really don't want to miss the next few episodes, and you don't really want to miss any of the episodes, so make sure you're subscribed, and I can't wait to see you in next week's episode. Cheers. Bye.