Introducing... Two Booked Up

Shelley You’re listening to Two Booked Up, a podcast about business and personal development books and the conversations they ignite. I’m Shelley Tonkin Smith, business owner, writer, homeschooling mom of two boys, who are currently 8 and 5. Rowena And I’m Rowena Mabbott, a career and life confidence coach. I have a lifelong fascination with psychology and a recent obsession with minimalism. My two boys are currently 15 and 11. Shelley In addition to us both being moms and small business owners, we’re also a pair of bookworms. I don’t think we’ve ever had a conversation where the question, “Have you read such and such a book” has not come up! Rowena Yes, or: “I’m busy reading this particular book” — and then there’s us for the next 30 minutes! Now, if you’re a parent or a business owner – or both! – then you may love reading, but you also might not have the time to read all the business or personal development books you’d like to. So, in Two Booked Up, we’re going to be profiling some of our favourite books and giving you the gist of what they teach. Our overview might be enough to support you – or you might decide to go and grab yourself a copy or follow the author. Shelley Yes, we’ll share what we enjoyed about each book and what didn’t resonate with us, so that you can make an informed choice about whether the book would help you. But then, the magic really happens! We’re going to be adding to the conversation that the book started and looking at it through our respective lenses – me as an entrepreneur and a copywriter, and Rowena as a career and life confidence coach – so that YOU can apply the lessons from the book to your life and business. Rowena Our plan is to do four episodes on each book, and we’ll be working hard to keep them quick and punchy! The first episode will cover the book itself and our top takeaways. Then in the second episode we’ll talk about how the teachings in the book have helped us in our personal lives and with our parenting. The focus of the third episode will be business, specifically for how to apply the teachings of the book to starting or running your own business – but I expect there’ll also be lots of insights for people who are in full-time employment as well. Shelley Yes, and then as for the fourth episode, you’ll have to wait and see…! What we’re going to be doing is using the book as inspiration to zero in on a particular aspect of our areas of expertise – all in the service of making your life simpler or more joyful; or making your business easier to run and more successful – on your own terms. Rowena All good things!! It’s all here at Two Booked Up! I am so excited to nerd out on books with you, Shelley. Now before we go on, please can you tell our listeners a bit more about the lady behind this South African accent. Shelley Hah! Yes, proudly South African, fo sho! I am Shelley Tonkin Smith and I have been a business owner for going on 13 years. In that time, I’ve done different things, but the common thread is writing. I do high-impact copywriting, like for websites, sales pages, email nurture sequences (so where you want to onboard customers and not only make them feel welcome, but tell them about your offerings in a very helpful, educational way). On that note, I also love online courses and online education in general. I have a passion for teaching – my boys would sometimes say I’m a little too passionate! Because as you heard at the start, we’re homeschooling. It’s a challenge to juggle business and homeschooling, but I’m determined to prove that it is possible; and I believe that one of the absolute essentials to make it all possible is to have support. My biggest supporter is my husband Garren. He also works from home, he is in charge of maths instruction in our homeschool, and – supportive though he is – he cannot stand listening to podcasts! So, in that respect, we are very different! I love podcasts – both listening to them and creating them! I’m the host of The Playful Mompreneur Podcast, I co-hosted a podcast series called Simply Biz Besties, and I’m delighted to be combining my interests in podcasting, books, business, and living a multi-passionate life – as Rowena and I kick off the Two Booked Up Podcast! Now astute listeners will notice that we have a bit of a southern hemisphere vibe going on here. So, Rowena, tell us about the lady behind that Australian accent! Rowena Yes, absolutely! I’m Rowena Mabbott, and I am a Career and Life Confidence Coach. My background is in psychology and business law, and prior to starting my own business, I worked in the corporate world in human resources with a focus on organizational design. So, I have a life-long love of psychology and get excited about all things personal development – and I am most passionate about helping people embrace their unique strengths in their career, business or life. I have three boys; one angel and two living boys, who are 15 and 11. The loss of my son was part of the reason that I eventually decided to retrain as a coach. Having lost a child, I realised how precious this gift of life really is, and so I wanted to live my life with intention and that’s led me to help others to do the same. And I love reading, in all formats; where you will find Shelley listening to a podcast, I’m more likely listening to an audiobook. Speaking of books, I absolutely cannot go past a book or article about minimalism, and living and embracing simplicity! Aside from gazing at gorgeous, streamlined spaces from around the world, what I also love about minimalism and simplicity is not the mindset around it, because it prompts you to think about what is important, what is enough, your priorities – all those deeper questions! Shelley I’m so looking forward to diving into some of those areas of interest with you on Two Booked Up! And yes, I can relate to feeling like the only lady in an all-boy household! I talked about support earlier and Rowena, you are also one of my most treasured supporters – as a fellow business owner and as my coach at various points in the past. We now have an accountability partner arrangement and as we meet and chat, the conversation invariably turns to a book we’re reading. Either that, or something toilet humour related, thanks to our boys’ influence! But don’t worry, we’ll keep the toilet humour out of the podcast and focus on the books. Rowena We’ll try anyway! Now you might be wondering if you need to have read the books that we feature on the podcast to get the maximum benefit. And the answer is: it’s up to you. The podcast is called “T-W-O Booked Up,” because you’ve got the two of us discussing these books. But it’s also a play on “T-O-O Booked Up” — as in we know you have a busy schedule and so we’re going to be helping you to get the best takeaways from these books and help you to decide whether you’d like to invest the time into reading the book. Shelley Yes, and on the note of time and busy schedules, our aim is to help you get maximum value and application out of reading the book. So often, I’ve read a book cover-to-cover, but then I haven’t really applied what I’ve learnt. But by reading a book together, talking about what resonated and how we’re all applying the principles from the book — I think that makes the experience more richer — and more worth the time investment in reading the book! Rowena So on that note, we’d love to hear from you. Whether you’d like to share your experiences as you’ve applied the book, or you’ve got questions about what we’ve discussed, you can find us on Instagram. I’m RowenaMabbott on Instagram. And Shelley, where can our listeners find you? Shelley I’m ShelleySmithCreative on Instagram. You can send us a DM or we’ll also be putting up a post on our Instagram feeds when a podcast goes live. So you can just leave either of us a comment on that post. It’ll be great to continue the conversation! Rowena Talking of conversation, we’d love it if you’d tell your friends about Two Booked Up. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Shelley And please SUBSCRIBE to the podcast in your podcast player. That’s the best way to get all our future episodes. Rowena OK, that’s all for this introductory episode. Our next, and first official episode is out now, so keep listening! Shelley Yes, we’re talking about The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin. This book is essentially about WHY WE ACT or DON’T ACT. Once I knew the answer to that question, it blew my mind and revolutionised the way I ran my business and got things done in my life. I’m sure you’re going to enjoy it! Rowena Yes, I’m sure you’re going to enjoy it too! So join us for Episode 1 of Two Booked Up. Shelley That’s T-W-O Booked Up! Goodbye for now!