Fixations: Farmer’s Dog, Waymo, switchers, and manila folders

Summary

Fixable Podcast – "Fixations: Farmer’s Dog, Waymo, Switchers, and Manila Folders"

Hosted by Anne Morriss & Frances Frei, TED
Date: November 17, 2025

---

Episode Overview

In this special inaugural "Fixations" episode, leadership coaches Frances Frei and Anne Morriss share the ideas, products, and tools they've been "fixated on" lately—swapping stories and insights for the first time live on air. They take turns highlighting companies, technologies, and rituals that exemplify their core show theme: practical ways to fix workplace (and life) friction. The structure is spontaneous and conversational, designed to surface actionable wisdom and spark curiosity for listeners' own organizational and professional lives.

---

1. The "Fixations" Format: Why Try It?

• A fresh format: Rather than caller Q&A, today's episode spotlights what’s inspiring and energizing Frances and Anne in the moment.
• Rules: Each shares three "fixations" they've not revealed to each other beforehand for genuine surprise and real-time reactions.
• Objective: As Anne puts it, “These fixations can be anything. An idea, a company, a tool, a leader that's inspiring us, a food that's helping us get through the day.” (Anne, 01:47)
• Goal: Deliver actionable, relatable insights listeners can use to "fix things" in work and life.

---

2. Key Discussion Points & Insights

A. Organizations That Captivate

Frances: The Farmer’s Dog – Transforming Pet Food

[03:14–13:35]

• Personal Story: Frances shares a moving journey of struggling to get one of their dogs to eat, spending 2–4 hours per day for over a year.
• Turning Point: Trying Farmer’s Dog, a direct-to-consumer, fresh pet food company, transformed the experience. Their dog devoured the food immediately, providing emotional relief.
• Customer Experience: Frances mentions the proactive and personal customer support, including sending recipes and instructions when there was a shipping delay.
  • "So they sent...instructions. I believe, Anne Morriss, you have seen me cook just once or just for one period...mixing the chicken and putting in the rice and the potatoes." (Frances, 05:12)
• Business Lessons:
  • Origin story: The founders were personally motivated by a need to solve an urgent problem (dogs with eating/digestive issues).
  • Needs-Based Innovation:
    • "To me, a needs based. A dramatic needs based. If something isn't there, don't stop looking..." (Frances, 07:13)
  • Painkiller > Vitamin: Solve real, acute problems—don’t just offer incremental improvement.
    • "You want to be in the painkiller business, not the vitamin business. You want to be in the business of solving somebody's urgent, acute problem." (Anne, 08:29)
  • Segmentation & Direct-to-Consumer: Focusing on the most passionate customer segment expands later.
  • Relational Value: Direct relationships (not intermediated by stores) enable customization and deep customer care.
    • "I text them once a month...I text them and I'm like, oh, my dog has gained two pounds. Can you adjust the packages?" (Frances, 11:16)
• Broad Lesson: Start with deeply felt, acute pain. Fix that first before expanding to broader markets (“start with painkiller, add vitamins later”).
• Disclaimer: No investments/advisory relationships—just “superfans.”

Anne: Waymo – Riding in the Future

[13:35–20:06]

• First Experience: Anne describes her first solo ride in a Waymo self-driving taxi in San Francisco—and the unexpected emotional impact.
  • "It is my first experience with technology in a long time that really captured my imagination and really made me excited about the future." (Anne, 13:44)
• Safety & Inclusivity:
  • Profound sense of safety and relaxation, especially as a woman traveling alone at night. She waited 45 minutes for a Waymo rather than use a standard rideshare.
    • "There’s a value proposition around self driving cars that I think is specific to women and people who feel vulnerable...you walk around with a certain amount of armor...for the 20 minutes I’m in the car, I get to take off my urban armor." (Anne, 16:04/17:56)
  • Frances highlights that the original target audience likely wasn’t “people for whom it’s a painkiller, not a vitamin.”
• Designing for All: Both note the importance of having diverse voices in the room—otherwise, critical value propositions (like safety or child impact in social media) are missed.
  • "If you don’t carry around armor of safety, you don’t know it exists." (Frances, 19:17)
• Diffusion of Innovation: Anne references Everett Rogers' model—stressing the need to focus on non-tech (human) aspects of adoption.
• Lesson: Innovations may have unexpected, deeply human benefits unnoticed by designers. Diverse design/testing teams reveal these.

---

B. Tools That Change the Game

Frances: The Switcher (Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini)

[23:14–29:14]

• What is it? A "prosumer" video tool allowing dynamic switching among cameras, slides, and devices for presentations/Zoom.
  • "It allows you to switch the inputs that are showing when you're on zoom calls...camera, iPad, slides...I can design them any way I want." (Frances, 23:14/25:08)
• Why Use It?
  • No need to use screen sharing in clunky or unpredictable ways—viewers see a polished, blended feed decided by the presenter.
  • Gives the presenter creative control—design the visual experience for teaching, sales, coaching.
    • "If you're in sales and you're sharing screen, you are leaving so much on the table...Now you can do it in so much more of a professional way." (Frances, 26:30)
• Accessibility: Formerly a “broadcast-level” tool, now affordable ($250–$2,000). “Prosumers” are regular people doing professional-like virtual events.
• User Experience:
  • "They took professional and made it available for consumers... Blackmagic has had people for decades testing their stuff. They're just simplifying it for consumers. It always works. It's not finicky at all." (Frances, 28:03/28:37)
• Lesson: Thoughtful tools can "democratize" professional-grade experiences, leveling up communication for everyone.

Anne: The Manila Folder – Physical Rituals to Tame Chaos

[31:36–36:54]

• Old-School Solution: Anne advocates for the overlooked power of physical manila folders to bring order and ritual to work (and life).
  • "I really need rituals that allowed me to put work away...it's the tactile experience of putting work into the folder and up on the shelf...my brain is convinced that I’m actually done." (Anne, 32:07)
• Why It Matters:
  • Tangible, deliberate acts signal transitions ("work is done for now") the digital world can’t replicate.
  • Reduces anxiety and creates boundaries in an always-on culture.
• Example System: Folders aren’t just for vital documents, but for every project (e.g., a folder labeled "Interview" for podcast prep materials). - "Anytime I'm being interviewed, you go to the folder interview and you open it up and it has useful things that you don't have to rely on memorizing." (Frances, 36:51)
• Contrast with Frances: Frances jokes about her own scatter of papers, prompting Anne to point out the anxiety from physical chaos.
• Lesson:
  • Find and ritualize your own transition cues—physical or digital.
  • "Find something that signals to you that your life is under control and work is done...the payoff, the nervous system payoff, is invaluable." (Anne, 35:12)

---

3. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Painkiller vs. Vitamin:
  • "You want to be in the painkiller business, not the vitamin business." (Anne, 08:29)
  • "It's much easier to build a painkiller business because your customers will gnaw off a limb to get to you." (Frances, 08:52)
• On Diverse Design:
  • "If you don’t carry around armor of safety, you don’t know it exists." (Frances, 19:17)
  • "It’s just cognitively impossible to imagine what that experience feels like and then to be surprised when that sensation goes away." (Anne, 19:37)
• On Rituals for Sanity:
  • "I really need rituals that allow me to put work away...it's the tactile experience of putting work into [a] folder and up on the shelf." (Anne, 32:07)
• On Prosumer Tools:
  • "They took a professional thing and made it available to consumers...now you can do it in so much more of a professional way." (Frances, 27:24)
  • "I never do anything...I don't ever touch Share Screen in any of these things and hope it works." (Frances, 25:24)

---

4. Timestamps for Key Segments

• Intro & "Fixations" Format: 01:41–03:07
• Farmer’s Dog Fixation & Lessons: 03:14–13:35
• Waymo Fixation & Safety Insight: 13:35–20:06
• Switcher Tool (Blackmagic ATEM Mini): 23:14–29:14
• Manila Folder Rituals: 31:36–36:54

---

5. Tone and Style

Conversational, spontaneous, and witty, with the friendly banter and warmth of a couple who live and work together. The hosts deliver practical, no-nonsense wisdom shot through with humor, humility, and a relentless focus on "fixing" what doesn't serve us.

---

6. Takeaways for Listeners

• Find systems, products, and rituals that solve acute pains—not just for you, but for those you serve (customers, employees, even pets).
• Inclusive design is more than a buzzword; people’s lived experiences surface hidden needs and opportunities.
• Democratized tools (physical and digital) empower everyone to work better—whether that’s a professional video switcher or a humble manila folder.
• Ritual and intentional transitions (digital or physical) can support sanity and well-being in an always-on world.

---

Want more episodes like this? The hosts invite listener fixations, feedback, and workplace dilemmas for future episodes.

Transcript

[Elise Hu]

TED Talks Daily is supported by Northwestern Mutual. Just like all of us, Northwestern Mutual financial professionals love a good talk. They'll take the time to ask better questions to get to know you and your unique goals. They'll help you find any financial blind spots you might have and uncover opportunities that others may miss. Then they'll partner with you to build a personalized financial plan designed to help you reach your short and long term financial goals. It's a better way to money. Learn [e-mail] the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

[Anne Morris]

This episode of Fixable is brought to you by Scrum alliance and their course Agile for hr. One of the patterns I see over and over in organizations is that HR teams are expected to drive change, but often they're the last ones given the tools to do it. Agile for HR helps flip that script. It's a practical four hour course that shows you how to bring agility into your everyday HR work so you can respond, not react, to the constant shifts in your business and workforce. You'll explore real world HR case studies, discover new ways to shape resilient teams, and learn how to align HR strategy with evolving company goals. Agile HR helps HR teams work better together and keep pace with the demands of modern work so the whole organization can adapt and thrive. Learn more and enroll [e-mail] hello everyone. Welcome to Fixable, a podcast from Ted. I'm your host, Anne Morris. I am a company builder and leadership.

[Frances Fry]

Coach and I'm your co host, Frances Fry. I'm a Harvard Business School professor and I'm Ann's wife.

[Anne Morris]

Listeners this week on the show, we want to try something new. It's a new format we're calling Fixations. These are episodes where Frances and I will be sharing, as you probably guessed, things we've been fixated on. We'll each bring three things we're excited about at the moment that are relevant to the mission of the show, which is to help you, our listeners, fix things. These fixations can be anything. An idea, a company, a tool, a leader that's inspiring us, a food that's helping us get through the day.

[Frances Fry]

Anything. I'm so excited for this. I'm fixated on so many things and you know what? I haven't had an outlet.

[Anne Morris]

I know I do kind of think that we are doing this for you so you can share in a more structured format. The other twist is that we're going to keep our fixations to ourselves until we record, so we'll be hearing each other's passions for the first time, the surprise will be genuine, folks. The conversation, spontaneous. That is the goal.

[Frances Fry]

I think. We're having the fixations for me and we're having the surprise for you because I'm now not allowed to tell you about my fixations until we record.

[Anne Morris]

There are. There are some advantages. Yes. For the marriage in doing it this way. We're just gonna do it. We're just gonna do it. All at once, Frances.

[Frances Fry]

All at once.

[Anne Morris]

All right, Frances. Let's do organization company that's captivating you.

[Frances Fry]

Oh, Farmer's Dog. Oh, so what?

[Anne Morris]

Life changing.

[Frances Fry]

Life changing.

[Anne Morris]

Tell the listeners about our experience with Farmer's Dog.

[Frances Fry]

So Farmer's Dog is a pet food company, and they send you fresh food, frozen, and you thaw it and then feed it to your dogs listeners. We used to spend between two and four hours a day trying to get calories into one of our dogs. Between two and four hours a day.

[Anne Morris]

Yeah. Super stressful. We couldn't get the dog to eat. And even when we did get her to eat, we would trick her with all these other, you know, delicious, like, human slices of turkey. All these things.

[Frances Fry]

Yeah. So amidst that anxious time that went on for more than a year, Amidst that anxious time, I saw a testimonial of someone who said I could never get my dog to eat until I introduced Farmer's Dog. And so I went on the website, it said, here's a trial. And so they gave, like, I don't know, three meals worth of food that they sent that was frozen, and you got it, thawed it, put it in a dish for Rosie, and she devoured it. And I was like, oh, my gosh.

[Anne Morris]

So then I did cry.

[Frances Fry]

Yeah, I mean, it was.

[Anne Morris]

I did cry at this moment.

[Frances Fry]

And then we were like, well, maybe it's just one meal. So for the next meal, put it in the. She devoured it. And now I'm looking at. I only have one meal left in the food. And so I call up Farmer's Dog, and I was like, you know, S.O.S. you have to send more food. And they said, well, we make it just for your dog, so we can't get it to you for four days. I was like, so sorry, we can't go back.

[Anne Morris]

There's no going back.

[Frances Fry]

What do I do? They said, no problem. We'll send you the recipe and the cooking instructions. And so they sent. So I believe, Anne Morris, you have seen me cook just once or just for one period of time, which was the couple of days in between the trial packet and the steady Packet. And I was mixing the chicken and putting in the rice and the potato. Potatoes.

[Anne Morris]

I was so slack jawed in this whole, first of all, the dog's eating and then Francis is like, you maybe even had an apron on.

[Frances Fry]

I didn't have an apron.

[Anne Morris]

You turned the stove on. You knew what to do with it. I also felt a little gaslit by this whole thing. Like we've been operating under something that you were totally incompetent and then suddenly you were very competent. But I was so happy the dog was eating. So I just rode this whole wave of emotion. Now let me ask you this, because this beautiful promotional moment for the farmer's dog can go. Could go on forever. We could spend an hour in this conversation.

[Frances Fry]

Yeah.

[Anne Morris]

What do you think the lesson is like for people listening, interested in the themes of this show? What is the lesson, do you think, from the success of this company? Because this is a company that is hitting it out of the park. Yeah.

[Frances Fry]

So I think the lesson is in the origin story of the company. So the two founders, Brett Podolsky and Jonathan Rajeev, who I've never met either of them, don't know either of them, but I looked up their origin story and one of them had a dog that had digestive issues. So I think was in the same traumatic moment as us and did what we did, which was tried everything. And we did the same thing. We went to the premium. Like we went to Blue Buffalo and I used to be on the board of Blue Buffalo and I love that company. And I was so sad when that food didn't work. And so they tried that, couldn't do it. So they started cooking for their dog and found simple ingredients worked. And so when their dog got healthy, they were like, well, why doesn't this exist? So what's the lesson? To me, a needs based. A dramatic needs based. If something isn't there, don't stop looking and get and tinker. Figure out what it is. And then, oh my gosh, if it's not in the market, you can ask yourself, well, it's either not in the market because it's unsustainable or it's not in the market because nobody's figured out how to do it. And then they went and studied companies and found out, oh, all the pet food is designed to have long shelf life. That is probably what's getting in the way. But making it fresh, it's designed for high quality, that doesn't actually last a long time. You have to use it over a certain amount of time. So just went in and occupied a completely different space in the pet food market. But if you aren't going to have long shelf life, you can't have retailers because they need it to be long shelf life. So they had to do it direct to consumer.

[Anne Morris]

So, Francis, the first thought I'm having is this idea you sometimes hear about in the entrepreneurial space, which is that you want to be in the painkiller business, not the vitamin business.

[Frances Fry]

Oh, why?

[Anne Morris]

So you want to be in the business of solving somebody's urgent, acute problem.

[Frances Fry]

Oh, so it's a need to have, not a nice to have.

[Anne Morris]

Need to have versus nice to have.

[Frances Fry]

I see.

[Anne Morris]

Versus making their lives a little bit better.

[Frances Fry]

Yeah. Right.

[Anne Morris]

And so they, I mean, these guys solved a serious problem for us. We were in a whole bunch of pain.

[Frances Fry]

We were in so much pain around.

[Anne Morris]

Getting food into this dog.

[Frances Fry]

That's a really nice observation around this. And it is much easier to build a painkiller business than a vitamin business because your customers will gnaw off a limb to get to you.

[Anne Morris]

Yeah. And I feel like with the sequence I'm casually observing with the company is they started in the painkiller business by finding people like us and then they can now they can market as, oh, be a, be a better dog mom. But that's not. But it's a beautiful sequence. And to start with the painkiller and add the vitamins along the way.

[Frances Fry]

Oh, yeah, Great public service announcements. Start with the painkiller, get to the vitamin later. Both of our dogs now use farmer's dog out of convenience, even though our other dog, there doesn't exist anything she won't eat. Like animate, inanimate.

[Anne Morris]

Yeah, yeah. No one to sell you out. But she's gained more than £2.

[Frances Fry]

Like.

[Anne Morris]

7 at this time.

[Frances Fry]

It's not farmer's dog's problem, it's my problem.

[Anne Morris]

I think there's something else here around really adopting the perspective of a stakeholder whose pain we have normalized for a very long time. And it's very hard to do in this case because it's very hard to adopt the perspective of a dog. But the dogs of the world have been letting us know for a long time that the typical food solution is not really working for them. And our dog was an extreme case. But I also think this company, the culture of this company, the values of this company reveals, really puts this, that your pet at the center of its ecosystem and then designs everything around that. And I think they broke open this very cool problem.

[Frances Fry]

And because it's direct to consumer. Like when I. When we buy kibble. We don't have a relationship with Blue Buffalo. As much as I loved it. We have a relationship with the retailer.

[Anne Morris]

You were a former board member. Board company.

[Frances Fry]

Love the company. Loved it. But our dog wouldn't eat that food. Yeah. So then because Farmer's dog learned how to interact with us directly, it is a pleasure. I text them once a month.

[Anne Morris]

Yeah. You have a deep relationship with this team. I have a deep relationship with them too.

[Frances Fry]

Yeah. And I text them and I'm like, oh, my dog has gained two pounds. Can you adjust the packages that you send so that it will adjust the rate? No problem. Glad to hear Rosie's doing well. They text back or I recently texted and said, we're gonna be splitting up our two dogs. Cause one of them's gonna have surgery and is gonna be recuperating somewhere else. Can you send the food? Can you send half of it to one place and half of it to another place? I text, they write back, no problem. Hope Scout recovers quickly. Just tell us the address and we'll get the food to you. Like, it's like when you said, put the pet at the center. It's the pet and the pet.

[Anne Morris]

It's the pet and the pet owner. Yeah, the pet family.

[Frances Fry]

In ways that it would be impossible for someone who has the retailer as the intermediary to do.

[Anne Morris]

Yes, Yes. I think that's a really powerful insight. I used to do a lot of work in Latin America as, you know, rural health work. And I'm just thinking of the farmer who said to me, oh, Anita, when I die, I want to come back as a dog in America because they are so pampered and over, over loved or. He had a point. But there is a segment of people like you and me, and it did start with this journey where the traditional solutions for our dog and you as a fry. You do have a strong preference for dogs.

[Frances Fry]

Dogs over people.

[Anne Morris]

Yeah, for sure.

[Frances Fry]

Yeah.

[Anne Morris]

And I don't think you're that hard to find because you reveal yourselves in lots of ways. And so I think there's also a segmentation story here where you pick off the people who are most passionate about your mission and build momentum there. So, Francis, give us a disclaimer on this one.

[Frances Fry]

We are neither investors nor advisors nor anything. I've never met anyone who works at Farmer's Dog. Never invest. It's impossible to invest. It's a private company.

[Anne Morris]

Let's just say, though, we are available.

[Frances Fry]

If anyone's listening But Farmer's dog, we are available.

[Anne Morris]

You need a board member, you need some unsolicited advice. We are here for you.

[Frances Fry]

We are here for you.

[Anne Morris]

Okay, Frances. My turn on company or organization? As you know, I'm so excited to.

[Frances Fry]

Hear whatever is coming next.

[Anne Morris]

I had my first experience in a self driving taxi in the last month in San Francisco in a Waymo and I cannot stop thinking about it and I want to tell you why. It is my first experience with technology in a long time that really captured my imagination and really made me excited about the future. By the way, I sent my mother a video from the car. She was like, young lady, you get out of that vehicle right now. And what does make me think about. And you're not going to be surprised by where this goes, but there is currently an enthusiasm gap between people at the top of organizations in their relationship to AI and everyone else.

[Frances Fry]

Everyone else.

[Anne Morris]

And so it's made me think about Mr. Everett Rogers, the great thinker behind the diffusion of innovation work. And I'm going to talk about that work in a second but I just want to give you the headline and get your response. I think we are not spending enough time thinking about the non tech part of tech adoption because I was so delighted by this experience and it opened my heart to robots, to AI, to the idea of this digital world that gets integrated into our human world and there's nothing else. Not even like the cool stuff that I've been able to do with ChatGPT and we're all doing with ChatGPT. This really got to me in a.

[Frances Fry]

Different way and is one of the reasons that it got to you. And I've never been in one. I'm. I haven't been lucky enough yet. But there's nobody else in the car, right? You get into the car and you don't have to have as this introvert really doesn't like the awkward conversation, even just the awkward coexistence. But you're the only person in the car, right?

[Anne Morris]

You're the only person in the car. And this was my point number two on this one, that there is this, there's a value proposition around self driving cars that is I think the specific to women and people who feel vulnerable out in the world that I don't think the designers of this technology were thinking about. But I was in an urban environment. It was not my own urban environment. And as a woman in a new urban environment, you walk around with a certain amount of armor. You walk around with a, with your threat assessment machinery Operating at all time. Is the street lit? Is it not lit? I'm going to the place. Is it gonna be dark when I get how am I getting home like that you just. It's so normalized, we don't even think about it. But so the experience of like on my little app, getting the vehicle to come, getting in, exhaling, there is no threat and the driving is so good that you. I'm not at all thinking about the decision making of the vehicle. So there really is. You're in this cocoon and you are getting this nervous system break from your threat assessment. And it is such a powerful value proposition that I waited.

[Frances Fry]

Right.

[Anne Morris]

Because you get well, am I going to do this traditional ride share app and you see the wait times or I'm going to get into this. And I was willing to wait up to 45 minutes for the Waymo to come because it was such and the tech is cool and the novelty is cool and I'm excited about the future. But this prize inside where for the 20 minutes I'm in the car get to take off my like my urban armor was like, was mind blowing to be honest.

[Frances Fry]

I love it so much. And I bet that is not the person who was originally marketed to is the person for whom it's a painkiller.

[Anne Morris]

Yeah.

[Frances Fry]

Not a vitamin.

[Anne Morris]

Yeah. And I think this we have spent a lot of time thinking and writing about what is the cost of not having a room with lots of different perspectives designing the thing. So the fact that I think there were very few parents in the room when social media was designed means that the impact on kids was not being factored into the design. Like this is something we're cleaning up at the other side. And I would argue with a lot of harm as a price we are paying for that. So there's a lesson there in the design phase. But I also think there's a lesson there in this early phase of testing of really understanding the full value proposition of the thing that you made. Because there's something really powerful here that I don't think is being factored in to as far as I can tell which we don't have any in again Waymo, we are not disclaimer, not advising or have any special exposure to any of the companies making these cars. But there's something very cool here that is is also at the heart of this experience.

[Frances Fry]

And to your point you get the sense of that probably the early designers weren't overwhelmingly women. The use case of people that carry around armor. If you don't carry around armor of safety. You don't know it exists.

[Anne Morris]

It's just cognitively impossible to imagine what that experience feels like and then to be surprised when that sensation goes away. It was the last thing I was thinking about. I was like, oh, it's this cool thing. And I was like, oh my God, wait a minute. I am not like assessing the like threat of the human driving the vehicle right now.

[Frances Fry]

So beautiful.

[Anne Morris]

This episode is brought to you by Ambetter Health Group health insurance can put businesses in a tough position if you're a business owner, a CFO, or an HR leader, this is probably going to sound familiar. It's fall and you find out your group health insurance premium will be more expensive next year, maybe by a lot. And as usual, you have to pick one carrier and a few plans for all of the employees. But they each have different medical needs, different budgets, and different preferences for doctors. Plus, the carrier's network might not be strong where all employees live. Fortunately, there's a new approach. It's called an Ichra or ichra. And it's a game changer. Ichras make costs predictable with stable pre tax contributions and a larger risk pool. And they make health plans personal because employees can buy any plan that fits their needs from any carrier. You choose how much to contribute. They choose what works for them. It's about time, right for coverage. You control plan on an ichra. Learn [e-mail] Ichra this episode is brought to you by LinkedIn. If you're a small business owner, work rarely stops. When the day ends, your business is always on. And when it's time to hire, you need a partner who's just as committed. That's where LinkedIn jobs comes in. When you clock out, LinkedIn clocks in. LinkedIn makes hiring simple. Post your job for free and share it with your network. Their new feature even helps. Write job descriptions and get your posting in front of the right candidates with deep insights. Want more reach? Promoted jobs get three times more qualified applicants. Here's what matters most. Quality. Based on LinkedIn data, 72% of small businesses using LinkedIn said that it's helped them find high quality candidates. Find out why more than 2.5 million small businesses use LinkedIn for hiring and find your next great hire. Today. Post your job for [e-mail] fixable. That's LinkedIn.com fixable to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply.

[Elise Hu]

TED Talks Daily is supported by Northwestern Mutual. Just like all of us Northwestern Mutual financial professionals love a good talk they'll take the time to ask better questions to get to know you and your unique goals. They'll help you find any financial blind spots you might have and uncover opportunities that others may miss. Then they'll partner with you to build a personalized financial plan designed to help you reach your short and long term financial goals. It's a better way to money. Learn [e-mail] the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

[Anne Morris]

All right, Frances, let's go to tools. Give me a tool that is making a difference in your life right now that the world doesn't already know about it because this is a conversation you like to have.

[Frances Fry]

Yeah, I would say the tool that has made the biggest difference in my life is made by blackmagic Design, an Australian company. And it's called a switcher. That's the category and it allows you to switch the inputs that are showing when you're on zoom calls, for example. So I can have it show a camera or I could have it show my iPad. I could switch back and forth. That's why it's called a switcher. That's a category that has existed for a long time. And if you ever see like a news show or any kind of big production, there were always professionals using these switchers to do very fancy things. It's the people who are in the broadcasting booth.

[Anne Morris]

So usually you will use the word switcher and I will look for the conversational exit.

[Frances Fry]

Yeah. Cause you want me to bring some. You want me to.

[Anne Morris]

No, no, I. I want you to tell. I want you to tell me and the people like me who may be listening what I might possibly use a switcher for.

[Frances Fry]

Oh.

[Anne Morris]

So.

[Frances Fry]

If you ever use slides, if you ever share screen.

[Anne Morris]

Yes, I share screen. I use slides.

[Frances Fry]

You share screen in a primitive way.

[Anne Morris]

Yeah, I just. The tool. I use the tool, the screen and you're either sharing share screen and you're.

[Frances Fry]

Either sharing the whole thing or you're not. So you're sharing your slides or you're not.

[Anne Morris]

And I don't like that because I don't get. I don't get to see the people.

[Frances Fry]

It's so old fashioned. What the switcher lets me do is I can take the things that you're sharing and more. Let's say I wanted to share two things like my handwritten notes and the slides and the camera angle. I can put them, I can design them any way I want. So.

[Anne Morris]

So without adding another screen, without adding another screen, so I could be able to see my slide deck and also see the Audience, you can see your slides without having to rely on.

[Frances Fry]

Let me go into Zoom and Share Screen and do all of that.

[Anne Morris]

Okay.

[Frances Fry]

All right. I never do anything. Okay.

[Anne Morris]

You have my attention.

[Frances Fry]

Yeah, that's cool. I don't ever touch Share Screen in any of these things and hope it works.

[Anne Morris]

But what I do is this creates a lot of anxiety for me, like hitting that button and wondering what's going to happen next and what.

[Frances Fry]

And then you don't know what people are seeing.

[Anne Morris]

And then. Because I can't read the body language in the room.

[Frances Fry]

Yeah. So what a switcher lets you do is bring all of these inputs together and it's called a switcher because you can switch from one to the other, but you can also intermingle. You can take parts of one and design it, and then I can send that out. So if I want me to be one third of the screen and I want the slides to be two thirds, or if I wanted to be two thirds and have my handwriting, one third, I can design it any way I want.

[Anne Morris]

Oh, so you mean when you send it out, you mean the. What the audience experiences?

[Frances Fry]

What the audience experiences is anything I want now I can design it.

[Anne Morris]

Currently, like, Zoom is deciding how big I am compared to the slides, compared to the audience. And you would be with this category called Switcher, I now have control as the artist, communicate as the artist, and.

[Frances Fry]

Everyone else just sees you as they would if you were doing nothing. You get to take up that. But now I get to design what and it lets you be very intentional. So I teach a lot online. It changed my effectiveness and now I coach people who give presentations. So, like, if you're in sales and you're sharing screen, you are leaving so much on the table. You can do it in so much more of a professional way. Now, before blackmagic Design made what they call an ATEM Mini, which just is they took a professional thing and they made it available to consumers. Before this was available, the only thing you could do if you were in sales is share screen and just and apologize. But now you can do it state of the art.

[Anne Morris]

And so your. Your endorsement. And again, no relationship.

[Frances Fry]

You've never met them, not on the board.

[Anne Morris]

Your favorite in this category, Switcher is the blackmagic.

[Frances Fry]

This is the blackmagic Design ATEM Mini because they took professional and made it available for consumers. It's a segment that has now become known as prosumers. It's the professional stuff made for consumers. You can get one of these. I just learned a new word yeah. And you can get one of these. The lowest end one is like $250 and the highest end one is $2,000. So which. But the broadcast ones are like 10 grand and more.

[Anne Morris]

Yeah.

[Frances Fry]

So this really took something that makes a big difference. And particularly because we're all on zoom so much more than we were before, we now get to do it in a really beautiful way.

[Anne Morris]

Cool. I like that one. And I'm intrigued by this prosumer value proposition too. Yeah, I think if I imagine that making the UI accessible, even to someone like me, is an important part of that translation.

[Frances Fry]

Well, we're recording this right now on Riverside and I think Riverside is prosumer. I think it's taking very professional things and making it available to the consumer and I think you have to have some lead scouts that are willing to use it and work it out. The reason I like blackmagic design so much is they have had people for decades testing their stuff. They didn't come up with the idea. They're now simplifying it for consumers. So it always works. It's not finicky at all.

[Anne Morris]

Love it. Love it.

[Elise Hu]

Hey, I'm Elise Hu, host of the podcast TED Talks Daily. Did you know paylocity offers one platform for HR finance and it that means innovative solutions like on demand payment which offers employees access to wages prior to payday, flexible time tracking features which enables staff to clock in through their mobile device and numerous other cutting edge integrations are available to all your teams in one single place. Learn more about how Paylocity can help streamline work and bring teams [e-mail] 1.

[Instacart Advertiser]

Did you see the game last night? Of course you did. Because you used Instacart to do your grocery restock. Plus you got snacks for the game, all without missing a single play. And that's on multitasking. So we're not saying that Instacart is a hack for game day, but it might be the ultimate play this football season. Enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees apply for three orders in 14 days. Excludes restaurants. Instacart, we're here.

[Vanta Advertiser]

In today's fast changing digital world, proving your company is trustworthy isn't just important for growth, it's essential. That's why Vanta is here. Vanta helps companies of all sizes get compliant fast and stay that way with industry leading AI, automation and continuous monitoring. So whether you're a startup tackling your first SoC2 or ISO 20, an O01 or an enterprise managing vendor risk Vanta's trust management platform makes it quicker, easier, and more scalable. Vanta also helps you complete security questionnaires up to five times faster so you can win bigger deals sooner. The results? According to a recent IDC study, Vanta customers slash over $500,000 a year in costs and are three times more productive. Establishing trust isn't optional. Vanta makes it automatic. 10,000 global companies trust Vanta, including Atlassian, Quora, Chili Piper and fact. Visit vanta.comtedaudio to sign up for a free demo today. That's V-A-N-T-A.com Tedaudio.

[Anne Morris]

Francis I'm going to close this out on tools at the opposite end of the technological spectrum. And I'm going to make the case for folders.

[Frances Fry]

Manila folders.

[Anne Morris]

Like manila folders. Like old school 1950s office. You're gonna have to know a folder.

[Frances Fry]

A case, my goodness. Go ahead, make it so that's I now feel like you felt.

[Anne Morris]

Yeah, that's right. You're looking for the conversational exit. So that's where I'm trying to land the plane. So I'm starting way over here.

[Frances Fry]

All right.

[Anne Morris]

I have learned the hard way as I age, as this always on culture of work absorbs us all with its gravitational pull that I really need rituals that allowed me to put work away and for my brain to be convinced that I'm actually doing needs literally to be ritualized. I have to have a place that I go. I have to have a place I put things. I have a place a thing to do to signal to myself work is done for the moment, work is done for the day. Work is switching between this project and that project. And one of the ways that I have figured out, and this has become more meaningful to me over time is just the simple use of lots of folders that I then put in a old I line them up in my office in like old school folder files, like little shelves with and what I have found that is most important about this is it's the tactile experience of putting work into the folder and up on the shelf. And I know we are done with it for now and we're going to pick it up at another time.

[Frances Fry]

It's a very good sales pitch because the it's so tempting to never put it away and the formality of putting it away and then it can't sneak back in until you go and get the folder. And if you're on your computer, you can't open the folder, can't just pop Back up again. You have to actually do it. So that's actually quite cool that it allows you to put it away and take it out. And it's a deliberate act. It's like what people say about your iPhone, right? You have to put it away and then take it back or otherwise you're going to always be using it. So I'm intrigued. It also helps me understand something. Any important thing in our life you're the quarterback of and there's almost always paper involved and there's no paper in my office. But I bet you have all of the important things in our lives like medical and financial and otherwise. I bet you have that stuff in folders, don't you?

[Anne Morris]

Yes, because I'm the grown ass adult in this relationship. Of course. What kind of a question is that? Of course I am. I have a support paper somewhere. Yes. And the case I'm making is to dial that up. Even more is to dial it up. Folders are not just for birth certificates, people, is what I'm saying. Folders are for all of your projects. And you do have papers in your office. If you look around, they are just scattered fucking everywhere. And it's the reason I can't walk in there because I get anxious listeners. She is pausing to look around and she is speechless. She cannot find her words because I am right there.

[Frances Fry]

I will admit at this moment there are some scattered papers in a variety of places, I'm going to be honest.

[Anne Morris]

So you could introduce an elaborate system of folders. I'm not going to go all the way. We're going to just start with organizing the papers. But for people listening, I want you to not just drive past Staples on your way home. I want you to consider a ritual. For me, it's folders and it has really worked. And there is more structure than I have described. If you are interested, find me. I will tell you how this folders are labeled and now I put them away, but just find something. The case I want to make is find something that signals to you that your life is under control and work is done. Whatever that is for you, dial it up. Because the payoff, the nervous system payoff is invaluable.

[Frances Fry]

It's beautiful. So, Ann, what are you keeping in all of these folders?

[Anne Morris]

Great question. There is an elaborate system, so there's not an easy answer. But for example, I have a folder labeled Interview. So every time, like you and I go on a podcast, there's a couple of like frameworks I like to have in case we prefer to em the structure of our latest book or. And I just pull out that folder. So I have it. Yeah, I just have it. Oh, I know. You know the tools that make me. That liberate me from the page to go have a conversation. Cause I know I can look down and remember what the hell I was talking about.

[Frances Fry]

So anytime Thursday. So anytime you're being interviewed, you go to the folder interview and you open it up and it has useful things that you don't have to rely on memorizing.

[Anne Morris]

Correct.

[Frances Fry]

My mind is blown.

[Anne Morris]

And that folder just, that's. That folder is there all the time. So, Frances, this is our inaugural Fixation episode. First of all, did you enjoy yourself?

[Frances Fry]

Oh my gosh. I mean, even if we don't use these for our listeners, I want them. I want to learn from them. I spend all day, every day with you. No idea.

[Anne Morris]

I know that was kind of fun from a marital standpoint is that I'm looking at like 35 folders, for example, and that's the first time you've ever asked what's in the folder. So it was helpful to us. I don't know. We'll find out if it's helpful. If you liked this. If you want more of these kinds of episodes, please do not be shy and reach out.

[Frances Fry]

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Your participation helps make great episodes. We'd love to hear about your fixations and of course we want to continue to hear about your problems at work. Please reach out. You can email, call or text [e-mail] or 234- Fixable. That's 234-349-2253.

[Anne Morris]

Fixable is a podcast from Ted. It's hosted by me, Anne Morris and me, Frances Fry. This episode was produced by Rahima Nassa from Pushkin Industries. Our team includes Constanza Gallardo, Banban Chang, Daniela Balareso and Roxanne. Hi Lash.

[Frances Fry]

And our show was mixed by Louis at Storyyard.

[Elise Hu]

Hey, I'm Elise Hu, host of the podcast TED Talks Daily. Did you know Paylocity offers one platform for HR finance and it that means innovative solutions like on demand payment which offers employees access to wages prior to payday. Flexible time tracking features which enable staff to clock in through their mobile device. And numerous other cutting edge integrations are available to all your teams in one single place. Learn more about how Paylocity can help streamline work and bring teams [e-mail] 1.

[Instacart Advertiser]

Introducing Family Freedom from T Mobile. We'll pay off four phones up to $3200 and give you four free phones, all on America's largest 5G network. Visit T Mobile.com FamilyFreedom up to $800 per line via virtual prepaid card typically takes 15 days. Free phone via 24 monthly bill credits with finance agreement. Example Apple iPhone 16128 gigs $829.99 Eligible trade in example iPhone 11 Pro for well qualified credits end and balance due if you pay off early or cancel.

[Vanta Advertiser]

Contact us this holiday Give the gift that says let's cancel plans and just lounge. Meundies has dropped their new holiday collection and it's made for max cozy. We're talking soft as snow, ultra modal fabric, festive prints and loungewear so comfy your couch might get jealous. Onesies, hoodies, joggers, even delightfully quirky holiday designs. You're welcome. Knock out all your holiday gifting needs with deals up to 60% off at Meundies.com acast enter promo code acast that's Meundies.com acast code acast meet pura4 the.

[Anne Morris]

Smart way to scent your home year round.

[Vanta Advertiser]

Get your diffuser free when you subscribe for 12 months plus a 30 day risk free trial. Visit pura.com before this offer ends.