Hi everybody. Cheryl Knowlton, CEO of Dynamite Productions, here to talk about my ninja road warrior travel tip of the day, which is how not to be an idiot.
So here’s the thing, my number one tool that I teach people in my Burn the Hamster Wheel book starts with your miracle morning. And I talk about, plan your day the night before. It would be super if I actually took my own advice and practice what I preach, not just sometimes, all of the time.
I have an amazing travel assistant who books all of my travel, my hotels, my flights, all of my car rentals when I am nationally speaking. Typically, this works great and it also speaks to systems, which I also talk about in my Burn the Hamster Wheel book. It works great when it works great.
Sometimes the blonde goes all the way to the roots
Here’s the thing, sometimes the blonde goes all the way to the roots. And here’s what I did. Problem number one, I had two national convention speaking opportunities a week apart. One in Texas, one in Virginia, both on Wednesdays a week apart. Here’s what I did. I got the flight information right for Texas and I copied that information for Virginia so that I wrote down that I was to be at the airport for a two o’clock flight by noon because I leave myself a two-hour window. Right?
That works great unless the flight is at 6:00 AM. And there were so many systems that broke down. If I had taken the time to look at that the night before, I would not have missed the flight. Here’s what happened. American Airlines at 8:13 sent me a text reminding me that I had an 11 o’clock flight to Virginia, and I freaked out because, remember, I wrote it down that I was going to be on the plane at 2:00 leaving myself a two-hour window so that I had plenty of time. Not if the flight’s at 10:30 kids, that’s a problem.
So I start hyperventilating, freaking out. I tell my husband, “Oh my gosh, we got to go.” I was mostly nearly packed, but now I’m like throwing things like a cartoon into my suitcases. It was ridiculous. And then I realized, “Wait a minute, I need to look at that again.” The 10:30 flight was from Dallas, Texas to Virginia. At this point, that is highly problematic because I’m in Salt Lake City. I cannot be in Dallas, Texas in two hours, meaning so I went back, looked at it again. I was supposed to be on the original flight from Salt Lake to Dallas, Texas at 6:00 AM.
I needed to haul out the oxygen
At this point, I needed to haul out the oxygen and breathe into a bag, practice meditation, yoga, so that I’m not freaking out. Of course, I still freaked out. I got on the phone, talked to my travel assistant right away.
Bottom line, check everything the night before, plan your day the night before. That way, we don’t miss these very important details like the fact that I had a 6:00 AM flight, not a 2:00 PM flight. Absolutely would have made the flight had I made that catch the night before.
Second of all, those systems and protocols that we put in place, they work as well as they work. So obviously, we needed to make a few changes about making sure that things got put into my calendar. And it would also be very, very helpful if I wasn’t an idiot and I did not write down the wrong time. So planning your day the night before can save you, even if all of your systems break down down the line. And that is my ninja road warrior tip of the day.