Episode Summary:
Even pros need permission to let go. In this candid conversation, author, speaker, podcaster, and mother of eight Amy Liz Harrison shares the repeatable systems that keep her home—and her events—running with heart. From compostable paper-plate stations and strategic trash cans to a living “word doc” playbook anyone can follow, Amy shows how simplicity beats “picture-perfect” every time.
We also get her on-stage mindset for heavy topics like recovery, how she flips audience anxiety into authenticity (yes, there’s a contacts-out speaking hack), and her end-of-event decompression routine. Plus, the now-legendary neighbor noise complaint that turned a sober book launch into a story for the ages—DJ, Fresca, cops and all.
Takeaways:
-Sustainable beats perfect. Build simple, repeatable systems (plates, utensils, signage, trash/recycle staging) so you’ll actually host more often.
-Model or let them own it. Give one “example” place setting to copy—or turn kids loose to create. Then let it be.
-Pre-plan early, communicate clearly. Do what you can a week or two ahead; write it down so day-of interruptions don’t derail you.
-Audience jitters? Pretend they aren’t there and remove visual noise (her “no-contacts” trick) to stay authentic and present.
-Aftercare matters. Say “yes” when people offer cleanup help, avoid next-day commitments and resist over-analyzing the event
Key Timestamps:
[01:28] — Meet Amy: Mom of eight, author, speaker, and master of turning mayhem into meaning.
[04:12] — Systems that scale: From ditching “matchy-matchy” to compostable plates and rolling supply baskets.
[10:00] — Expectations & pre-planning: What to finish days early so the show can truly go on.
[18:14] — When the cops came to a sober book launch: Why guests loved the “disaster” Amy feared.
[25:16] — Speaking without the jitters: The “no-contacts” trick to stay raw, real and present.
[29:57] — Decompress & don’t overthink: Accept what was, then rest.
Resources & Links:
-Amy Liz Harrison: Website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram
-Eternally Amy Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify
-Amy’s Writing: Books, The Sober Curator
-Alysse & Libby: Bios & LinkedIn
Connect with Us:
-Website: www.beatsworkingpodcast.com
-LinkedIn: @BEATS WORKING Show
-Instagram: @beatsworkingshow
-Facebook: @Beats Working Show
-YouTube: @BEATSWORKINGPODCAST
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Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:00:00]:
It can also be so, like, take so much pressure off and be really releasing as the person who plans the event and who manages the event to, you know, to let go of things like that and not fixate on them. Because, like you said, there are so many other things that you need to worry about, like putting pants on before people get there. It’s very important.
Alysse Bryson [00:00:23]:
Well, you guys know how I feel. I’m very proud. Very pro pants in my house. I will say that I know both of you very well, and I know you both as moms, and you both have the gift of rolling with it. Seriously. Because you both love aesthetically pleasing things. You like order, you like systems, you like things to be done correctly. But you can also roll with it.
Alysse Bryson [00:00:55]:
Welcome to Beats Working Winning the Game of Events, where we share stories and strategies to turn any event or life moment into something unforgettable.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:01:04]:
Events are wild, and the people who work in them are some of the most resilient humans on earth. If you know, you know.
Alysse Bryson [00:01:12]:
So come with us behind the curtain for a look at their most memorable experiences.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:01:17]:
As they say, the show must go on.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:01:20]:
So.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:01:20]:
So let’s get on with the show.
Alysse Bryson [00:01:27]:
Welcome back to another episode of Beats Working Winning the Game of Events. Our guest today is a master, and I mean a master of managing mayhem and turning it into meaning. She’s a mom of eight. Yes, eight. And there are no twins in there, folks. And she had them all herself. An author, a speaker, a podcast host, one of My Ride or Dies, and one of our beloved voices of the fun table. I Crab Amy Liz Harrison.
Alysse Bryson [00:02:00]:
She writes, she speaks about recovery and redemption with real life humor and heart. And speaking of heart, she’s also a heart disease survivor. She’s a woman who lives by the mantra, keep going no matter what. And today she’s here to talk with us about events that have shaped her journey from book launch parties to parenting, because she basically has an event going at her house, like every other Tuesday to speaking on stages across the country. Amy, welcome to the show.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:02:32]:
Yay. Thanks. Thanks for having me.
Alysse Bryson [00:02:35]:
Well, you know, I’m going to rewind back to when we first met, which was in the pandemic. So we met virtually and we immediately clicked because of our love for the 80s and the 90s and hip hop and everything that goes along with that, but also because we’re party girls, and even though we don’t drink anymore, like, we still love a good party.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:03:02]:
Yep.
Alysse Bryson [00:03:03]:
And so you, although you’re not a party planner by trade or by you don’t get paid for it. At least I don’t know that you do. You get paid in hugs and kisses and high fives. I think you go to so many events and host so many events. You go to so many events because your husband is in corporate America and you have a large family, so your house is always an event. I’ve been there many, many times. And there’s all. I mean, it’s so dialed in.
Alysse Bryson [00:03:35]:
You have so many systems. Like, how did that all. How. How did all those systems come to be? Where do you even start it? Does it just. Did you just grow into it?
Amy Liz Harrison [00:03:47]:
Yes. And this is going to sound like I’m being negative about myself, but it’s not. It’s just that this is literally the story is I am. I’m kind of a lazy person. Okay? So when it comes to shortcuts, when it comes to. Let me figure out, like, the simplest way to do this and dial that in, because I like to work smarter, not harder. Right? And so I was kind of born out of necessity, you know, at the beginning of my marriage, I had the matchy matchy, like, the china sets and all of the things. And I just quickly learned once I started having babies and life got chaotic, that that was not going to be sustainable for me, especially when I had four kids under five.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:04:36]:
And I kind of finally got to that point where it was like, I can either have people over with a perfectly set table, be stressed, annoyed, sweating, you know, prep for it for two weeks and just be unpleasant on the day, or I can call you up, see if you’re available, if you order pizza and throw out some paper plates. And I opted for that because I knew I just would never have anybody over ever, if I had to go with option A. And so that’s kind of how it all was birthed, that I have to just set up some systems that are sustainable, repeatable, and easy. And so, you know, I kind of have the roving basket of the paper plates. I do try to purchase compostable when possible and just kind of winged it from there. Just kind of let things be.
Alysse Bryson [00:05:34]:
Amy, I love how you kind of throw in birth jokes when you don’t even realize you’re doing it because you birthed a new plan. I’ve been to your house, and it is a system. It’s not just your rolling cart of plates and utensils and napkins, but, like, there are strategic garbage cans, like, all over the place, indoors, outdoors, which you have to. And recycle to be clear and recycle. Which you have to do with like so many people coming in and out of a space. Because it’s not usually just the 10 of you. Like there’s always somebody who has somebody else with them, like their bestie or there’s just a lot of people coming and going at your house. And that’s not, that’s just on the normal day to day.
Alysse Bryson [00:06:14]:
That doesn’t even factor in the, the birthday parties, the family gatherings, the book launches that you’ve had at your house. You know, I’ve been to at least two of them, I think. And, and I mean, you’ve got a parking system down. I mean, you, you have signage for parking. Like you have it dialed. So I think you’re more home edit than you realize you are.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:06:36]:
Thank you, I appreciate that. Yeah. And then the other. Well, this kind of a character defect. But look, okay, I’m working on it, it’s fine. But the other part of that is I have to put all of that into a Word document, all of those systems, because I will get irritated on the day of the event if 10,000 people are coming to me asking, where does this go? Where do I find this? Where do I put this? And I’m like, go see the work document.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:07:08]:
It’s in there.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:07:08]:
Like, how many times do I have to tell you? So I just don’t like having to repeat myself 10 billion times. And also I have raging ADHD, so I need to kind of stay focused on whatever it is that I’m trying to accomplish. And then if I’m constantly interrupted, I get really upset that I can’t finish one task. So I’m working on it. But if I keep that Word document, it really helps me.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:07:37]:
I mean, I know not all eight kids are always home at the same time because, you know, some are in college, some are just out of college. Oh, they look so cute. It’s so young and just ready for the world. Oh, the days. But daily life’s still is an event in itself. And so how, you know, we’re all moms here and we all have experienced this, but how do you transition from that structure and system of daily life as a mom? And literally every meal is an event into shifting into the role of, you know, a speaker or moving into like a book launch event. Like, how do you, what do you do to mentally move yourself from one role to the other? And I say that knowing that you’re never not a mom, that’s always in the back of your mind, top of your head. Always something that I’m thinking About at all times.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:08:40]:
But what do you, what do you do? How do you do that?
Amy Liz Harrison [00:08:43]:
I think mostly it’s about putting on a different costume for me. So it’s like. Or a different hat maybe. Okay, this is my home hat, no makeup, non matching outfit, non matching fluffy socks, whatever. And possibly washed sweatshirt. We’re not sure to going into this kind of mode where like, okay, this needs to be a little more polished. And there are certain expectations that people are going to have. They don’t want to come over and see my teriyaki leftovers from last night, you know, hanging out in the sink with like fruit flies around them or something.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:09:27]:
So just having that expectation that that’s kind of where I need to be and then I need to communicate that that’s the, the big one is communicate that to my other family members. A good example would be Thanksgiving where I do realize that’s kind of a family thing. It’s not like any kind of a fancy gig per se, but there are certain things that need to get done right. And I mean, I need to like be dressed that day, for example. And you know, so there’s a certain level of expectation. And so I think that’s one of the things actually is looking at what’s the expectation here? Not that I’m going for perfection, but pants, right, would be helpful. It’s a start. And so once I get that kind of going and I communicate that usually what I do, if I’m involving family members or a team or something and somebody for setup, I have to communicate, hey, I need this done.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:10:29]:
Let’s do it on Wednesday before the event so that I don’t have to worry about it. Because that’s really the big thing is the pre planning. I like to plan super early because I’ve just been there so many times that the day arrives and I’m just like, oh, fantastic. Like this thing that I could have prepared two weeks ago and just put in a closet safely, like, you know, the, the sign with everybody’s senior pictures on it or whatever it is, you know, is now not ready and I’m stressed out. So I’ve just learned through a lot of failures to back everything up and you know, have it happen early if it can, because things get sabotaged in my life at the drop of a hat. You know, someone needs to go to the er, someone needs to do this. And then, you know, I’m just scrambling. So I think for me that’s the big, big deal is communicating and really looking at what is it that I Can do early and get that out of the way.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:11:34]:
And then writing down what I did with that item or that situation or what I thought of, you know, just different things and keeping track of that in a note on my phone, just because I can’t really trust my brain, especially on the day of the event.
Alysse Bryson [00:11:51]:
So you talk a lot about communication, which I know there’s good communication in your house. Cause I’ve experienced it. You’re also very good at delegating, and I think it helps. You know, your eight kids, you’ve got the four older ones and you’ve got the four littles. But it, you know, from. From where I have sat, my vantage point, they all get some kind of role, responsibility and job, and they all seem to do it for pretty willingly. I know that doesn’t always happen, right? Like, I know, I know, I know that kids are not always angels, but so, you know, but that also requires a little bit of trust on your part to hand off a responsibility to them. And then whatever happens with it is.
Alysse Bryson [00:12:32]:
What happens with it. What is that journey like? Because it’s good. I mean, it’s good for them, right?
Amy Liz Harrison [00:12:37]:
Yeah, I mean, I think. So there are two ways that I accomplish that, and I think that’s a great question. And the first way is, let’s say I want the table set a certain way. I’ll make one place setting example of how I want it. And then I’ll say, could you please repeat this for every seat at this table? And so that is a really helpful way for me to do it. And then another way to do it, which I also subscribe to and adopt, is, hey, do whatever you want. Make it yours. Create, you know, whatever kind of centerpiece you want to do.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:13:23]:
Or, hey, can you roll out that cooler and throw a bunch of drinks in it? And I don’t really care what those are, you know, I mean, it could be RC Cola and Tab and Hanson soda from 1982. You know, I don’t care. So I think it’s. It’s just kind of a matter of, again, looking at the event and just seeing, like, you know, is this something that I can just let people be themselves and learn how to kind of do their own thing? Or is it something where I. I’d like to maybe have a little bit of modeling in there so they can mirror whatever it is that I’m trying to accomplish, but then letting it go. So not micromanaging and walking in there and like, straightening things and being like, you did this wrong, you know, but just Trying to have a spirit of like, well, that’s what they did with it and isn’t it great? And you know, just telling them I’m proud of them. And then also, like, I do this thing where I’ll have a sign up sheet. So the best jobs own, they go first, right? I mean, the best jobs are like, I mean, if I put out a text, hey, I’m signing up for Thanksgiving Eve help and assistance.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:14:42]:
I mean, immediately I get people running into the kitchen, where’s the dry erase marker? Okay, I’m going to sign up for that because nobody wants to do the trash, for example, right? I mean, there are just jobs that go quicker. So I have like certain little motivational tricks or I’m not, look, I’m not against bribery for small bribery for things. So I’ll totally do that too. I’ll be like, hey, I really need this inconvenient thing done. Can someone wipe down the toilet seat in the bathroom with Clorox wipes? You know, I’m going to throw five bucks in there and someone will take it. It just depends on how desperate they are, you know.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:15:27]:
I mean, that’s such a good lesson though. And I think something that if you’re willing to let children teach you, they will teach you that, that perfection is not necessary. And letting go and letting them do it their way, even if you give an ex, give them an example and they don’t actually do it, it’s still their own version of it. And you’re like, gosh, I really just want to go through and fix all of these things to make them exactly perfect. Because that’s just how my brain works and wants to do it. But you can see the, you know, the pride and the sense of accomplishment that they’ll get when you’re like, that is great. Thank you so much for doing that. Like, that helped me so much.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:16:18]:
I don’t need to rearrange the gourds in the middle of the table. Like, whatever side they put ended up putting the forks on. It really doesn’t matter. They don’t all need to look the same and good for both sides. But I think it can also be so, like, take so much pressure off and be really releasing as the person who plans the event and who manages the event to, you know, to let go of things like that and not fixate on them. Because like you said, there are so many other things that you need to worry about, like putting pants on before people get there. It’s very important.
Alysse Bryson [00:16:56]:
Well, you guys know how I feel. I’m very pro, very pro pants in my house. I will say that I know both of you very well and I know you both as moms, and you both have the gift of rolling with it. Seriously. Because you both love esthetically pleasing things. You like order, you like systems, you like things to be done correctly. But you can also roll with it. And like, that’s a gift.
Alysse Bryson [00:17:29]:
That or a skill, maybe both. That you. That I think anyone can have. Some people might have to work on it more than others. But both of you, from my vantage point when I’ve seen you at events, like, you’re just, you’re just rolling with it. Like, once the event starts, like, it’s just, it’s what’s going to happen is going to happen.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:17:50]:
I mean, I, I totally subscribe to that for sure. Because there’s so much that’s out of my control once it starts. And what I’ve learned, you guys attend events all the time. So I know you know this from putting on events and attending is it’s like I never really have a meter that is accurate for if people are having a good time or not. I can think something is a complete flop. And then people are like, I had the best time ever. Like the time the cops showed up at my house at the end of the book launch. Because it was like almost 9 o’ clock and it was a sober event and everyone was drinking Fresca, but there was a dj, right? So one of my neighbors filed a noise complaint.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:18:40]:
Oh my gosh.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:18:42]:
And the cops showed up and it was this moment. And I don’t know if it’s the old drunken Amy that kind of came up, this fear based, like, oh my gosh, the cops are here. You know, my dad is going to kill me. But like, it was this instant knee jerk reaction of like, this is the worst thing ever. And of course am. Everyone thought it was a riot. I don’t know how many people said to me after that, well, it’s not a good event until the cops show up. And I was like, oh my gosh.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:19:16]:
Okay. They thought it was funny, they liked it, you know, but from my perspective, it was like, this is so bad. I’m an adult. Someone called the cops on me. I’m sober. And like, why?
Amy Liz Harrison [00:19:28]:
Oh, it’s so true. I mean, I did an event one time in an airplane hangar. It wasn’t Alaska, but still my dream. But we set up like little kind of neighborhoods. It was like a celebration of Seattle, basically. And so there were these little neighborhoods, you know, that were set up all over, and there were restaurants in each of them. And so, you know, we had temporary food permits for each restaurant. You know, there are like 15 or, I don’t know, a lot of them.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:20:03]:
I’d never had that many food vendors, especially that spread out. Because Amy knows an airplane hangar. You don’t think it’s going to be that big. They are huge. You can’t yell across a hangar to somebody. I mean, I got like 50,000 steps that day, and that week, I probably got more steps than I ever have in my entire life. We had to have. I had to call people.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:20:27]:
We had radios. It was just carts. You have to drive in carts because it takes 20 minutes to walk across the airplane hangar. Anyway, there were all these restaurants, of course, the food. The health department came to check to make sure everybody was following all the rules. She found there were no major violations. All the food was safe, Everything was fine. Everything was prepared properly.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:20:57]:
But she found lots of little things. And because it was so spread out, she had to walk all around this hangar. I mean, she was there for the entire event, just going from place to place, going through all the checklists, being like, this sneeze guard needs to be 1 inch higher or whatever, you know, like, I. I don’t know. There were all kinds of things that she. So I had. We had to pay her for her time, because that’s part of the deal when you have a, you know, temporary health permit, you have to pay for the inspector to come and check stuff. And if it takes them a long time, then, you know, you pay more.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:21:35]:
And so I just was mortified that she was there the entire time. And I was like, oh, my God. People are gonna. This is the worst event I’ve ever managed. I can’t believe I had a health instructor here for four hours. Like, this is awful. But nobody knew. I mean, there were also a lot of people there.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:21:51]:
How would they know? But it just. They’re like, no food was great. Nobody got sick. It was really fun. We had a great time. Like, okay, I guess, you know, whatever. We also had an event where there was no power and the caterer didn’t bring forks or something, so that I had one ripping complaint, and I’ll still never forget it. It was awful.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:22:18]:
But nobody else said anything. Everybody else said it was great.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:22:23]:
So who needs forks yet? Who needs forks? Sidebar. Fun fact. Last night, I couldn’t find a fork. So I was standing there with a chicken skewer and a. And a, like, boat of rice. And I’M like, I don’t know how I’m going to. Is it appropriate for me to just kind of eat rice?
Amy Liz Harrison [00:22:41]:
Just.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:22:43]:
That’s what I had to do. I’m like, okay, I know their pain.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:22:48]:
No forks. What do you do?
Amy Liz Harrison [00:22:50]:
Right. But on the flip side, if I’m going to reframe it, it caused me to have to like, improvise and be creative. So whatever.
Alysse Bryson [00:22:59]:
Not a bad thing. Not a bad thing. Well, speaking of your resilience, you know, you speak publicly on topics like recovery and resilience frequently. And what’s going through your mind when you step on a stage or get behind a podcast mic. How do you keep an audience engaged, especially when it’s an emotional topic? Because a lot of times events have emotions. We hope that they’re always funny. Haha. Right.
Alysse Bryson [00:23:28]:
But they can also be serious in nature, especially if it’s a fundraising event and, you know, they play the sad movie or they have the real powerful speaker in the middle. So like, do you have any tips or tricks that you can share on how you can keep an audience engaged regardless of what the emotional energy of the room is?
Amy Liz Harrison [00:23:51]:
It’s a really good question.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:23:52]:
I do have two tricks that I do use. And the first one is I. This is going to sound bad. Okay. I pretend like they’re not there. And what I mean by that is I don’t get nervous public speaking anymore. I used to just have the shaky knees, the shaky voice, the whole thing, Right. But thankfully, I think just by sharing in 12 step meetings so often, I’ve gotten over that.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:24:24]:
But if I pretend like they’re not there or, you know, sometimes in some situations you have a really bright spotlight shining in your eyes and that’s always helpful too. But if I do that, I find the more authentic, less polished version of myself comes out. And that’s who I like to be when I’m in a public speaking situation. And yeah, that’s what I need to do to kind of get there is just pretend like I’m just talking to a friend. And that helps me a lot. And the second thing that helps me a lot with that particular thing that I’m trying to accomplish, being genuine, being raw is. I don’t know that I recommend this for everybody, but I’m just going to share. I don’t wear my contacts, so I can’t see very well.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:25:22]:
I know it’s a win, let me tell you. So I can read without my contacts, no problem. I need my readers when my contacts are in SO A. It’s Just less stuff to carry around. Right. And then B, I mean, I have no problem reading, but I can’t see distance, so I can’t make out if people are, like, doing this or, like, kind of, you know, because people just have a. On their face times when they’re listening. And a speaker’s tendency is to try and be like, oh, is that about me? Or, you know what I mean? Am I not hitting this? Right? Did that joke not land?
Amy Liz Harrison [00:26:01]:
You know, but things are not reflecting what I want them to. Like, oh, my God, I. What’s going on? What do I need to change?
Amy Liz Harrison [00:26:09]:
Yes. So the more I can just kind of go off of the cues of, okay, are people getting up and leaving and throwing tomatoes at me? No. Okay, I’m just going to continue on. The more I can just kind of adopt that and not be hypercritical of the audience. It’s helpful. And, you know, not that I’m hypercritical of them as people, but I just am wondering, you know, am I doing okay? Is this going all right? If I can let that go, I’m in a much better place, and no contacts helps me to get there.
Alysse Bryson [00:26:45]:
That’s. That’s a really good hack. I’m gonna. I’m probably gonna try that sometime as a contact wearing also readers packing woman in her 50s. Oh, my God, I can actually say that now. I’m gonna try that hack. That’s a good hack. Because if you can’t see them, you can’t see their facial expressions, and you can just not be stressed about it.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:27:08]:
Right. It’s a good one.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:27:10]:
Can’t take my contacts out anymore, but maybe I still have my old glasses. So maybe I’ll wear my glasses even though I don’t publicly speak anywhere except in a zoom meeting for work. So. And I don’t feel weird there, but I’m going to remember that because I think that is so good to do that at an event, too, to see people’s faces and take. At least for me, take everything very personally.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:27:39]:
And yes.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:27:40]:
You know, some people just have RBs or sometimes. Exactly. Their normal state is just not. It’s a normal frown, even though it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile. Maybe they’re just getting a workout in the face. I don’t know.
Alysse Bryson [00:27:56]:
Well, Amy, as we wind down here, we also. We’ve talked about the beginning of event. We’ve talked about the middle of event. Now we want to kind of wrap it up with, the event is over. You’ve either done a big speaking engagement or You’ve, you know, had a small victory at home with a house party of sorts. What do you do to decompress? Reflect reset, either right after the event or the next day. Like, what is your. What is your unraveling of the event look like? Because as we all know, events take weeks and months and even some cases years to plan.
Alysse Bryson [00:28:30]:
And then they happen in a blink of an eye. But then the unraveling, it doesn’t take as long as the building, but there’s still usually quite a bit of unraveling. So what. What does all that look like? What’s your. What’s your process there?
Amy Liz Harrison [00:28:42]:
Yeah, a couple things as I’m wrapping up an event. If anybody says, hey, do you need some help cleaning up? I always say yes. Now, I never used to say yes, but what I do now is I go, that would be great. Yeah. Because it’s just a way that people, you know, they want to help. There’s. They want to do something, they want to kind of, you know, even if it’s, hey, I’ll carry out these, you know, two things to the car, whatever. Great.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:29:16]:
Thank you so much. And it’s just a gift to myself to let somebody else come in and. And help me even with a tiny thing. So I always say yes. And then the second thing that I do is I try, if possible, not to plan anything the next day where I need to kind of get up and, you know, get going and look good, and I try and just have a chill, at least chill morning, if not, you know, chill day. And the lastly, I will say that, you know, my brain will tend to start to micromanage, you know, that whole, did everybody have a good time? Did everybody. How do you think this went? And then what I have to do sometimes is just stand back and just go. It was what it was.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:30:04]:
And the people who I talked to, I was supposed to talk to in a deep conversation, the people who I didn’t get much connection time with, and it was just quick. That was supposed to be that way and it’s okay. And not to get really in deep, like, trenches with myself in overanalyzing how things went. So those would be my. My ways of decompressing.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:30:31]:
That’s really good because it is easy to overthink an event after it’s over and to. I mean, not for everybody, but for me it is. And to think about all the things I definitely should have done different or that I need to do different next time and, you know, just accepting it for what it was and just Moving on to the next one, not the next day, but a couple days later maybe, is a really helpful tip. One more question before we go. We have a segment called It Ain’t Bragging if It’s True. Okay. You’ve published many books, done the whole speaking tour. You’ve raised a basketball team, soccer team, stage crew of humans, whatever group we’re ascribing to.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:31:20]:
But what is something that you are proud of that doesn’t always get the spotlight? Something we didn’t mention in our intro. Because while you are skilled at all of those things and an expert, I know just from the time I’ve spent with you that you are good at so many other things.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:31:44]:
That is such a powerful question. Thank you for asking it. You know, the first thing that comes to mind is not a tangible thing, but I think I’m really good at being present in the moment. It’s not always possible. Sometimes, you know, life gets lifey and we have things that are going on, you know, that kind of are swirling in our brains and we’re checking our phone to see how this, that or the other thing is, is going or turning out. But I’m pretty good at, and I think it’s thanks to my adhd, I’m pretty good at. Like, I can’t focus on a bunch of different things at the same time. I’m really not great at multitasking, and I think that becomes a benefit in some situations.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:32:36]:
And so I think that whether it is an event, a speaking engagement, something that I’m attending, something that I’m doing with a friend or a kid or whatever, I think I’m pretty good at being able to be present.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:32:51]:
That’s a skill, a gift. For sure. We’re all present here, but the episode has to end sometimes. So that is a wrap for this episode of Beats Working with our very favorite fun table table mate, Amy Liz Harrison. If you’ve got an idea or you want to reach out, email us at infoatsworking Show. Remember that every detail matters, every moment counts, and no matter what, the show must go on.
Alysse Bryson [00:33:21]:
Thanks for listening to Beats Winning the Game of Events, where we explore what it takes to to make moments unforgettable.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:33:27]:
If you’re leaving with a little more inspiration, a little more perspective, and a big sideache from all of the laughing at our funny jokes, then we’ve done our job.
Alysse Bryson [00:33:37]:
Beats Working is a work P2P production if you’ve enjoyed this episode, please don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review us on your favorite podcast platforms.
Amy Liz Harrison [00:33:47]:
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