Esther Brown wakes up at 4 AM to swim. She runs a diagnostic lab, gets her MBA, takes upholstery class with her mom every Tuesday, and is building a wellness brand on the side. She's had COVID five times. She's experienced burnout. And she told her friends she wants to start "dating" them because monthly is all she has time for.

Now she treats her life like her lab: constant risk mitigation. Every morning starts with an energy check. Her entire to-do list adjusts based on that number.

What You'll Learn:

Why she bases her entire to-do list on her energy level each morning (low, medium, or high)

The magnet method: how she redesigned a million-dollar lab using Staples poster board and cutouts

Why thinking is harder than doing (and how she protects time for deep work)

How she spent her first three months as VP at the bench, not in her office

The "Do Not Do" list: protecting energy by writing down what you won't touch today

Dating your friends: making a monthly pact when that's all you have capacity for

Her Sunday ritual with jazz music: planning what must be true by Friday

About Esther: Esther Brown is VP of Operations at Nexus Medical Labs. She's getting her MBA, building a wellness brand for working women, and applying risk mitigation thinking to everything from lab workflows to burnout prevention.

Links:

Discover your To-Do List personality: thetodoshow.com/quizMore episodes: thetodoshow.com

When Jennifer Ruiz tells people she makes paper flowers, they say "how cute." Then they see her four-foot installations for Valentino and L'Oreal and the reaction shifts to "oh." She works as a caregiver from 10:30pm to 6:30am, comes home to take her son to school, then creates massive floral installations on four hours of sleep. She's exactly at the financial breaking point where her business income matches her caregiver income. Not above it. Not below it. Right there.

What You'll Learn:

Why "paper florist" gets a different reaction than "I make paper flowers"

How she learned to create giant flowers by watching YouTube tutorials in Russian and Korean

The language kit she created so crafters can speak corporate to luxury brands

Why her rental flowers (which last three years) are her biggest money maker

How the paper florist community shares leads and pricing instead of competing

What it's like to keep 80% of your business details stored in your head

Why flowers became her escape and healing during a difficult time in her marriage

About Jennifer: Jennifer Ruiz is a paper florist based in California who creates massive floral installations for luxury brands and weddings. She teaches monthly classes and is working toward running Petal Loft full-time.

Links:

Discover your To-Do List personality: thetodoshow.com/quizJennifer's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petal_loft/?hl=enMore episodes: thetodoshow.com

Lauryn creates dark, moody wedding photos. Not the bright, airy Pinterest style everyone expects. Her style makes people feel something they can't name. She edits each gallery two or three times, uploads it, then sometimes pulls it back down to re-edit more. While doing this obsessive perfectionism, she's listening to Stephen King and wondering who the killer is. Her 8-year-old daughter has adapted. She doesn't ask "Mom can you do this?" anymore. She says "Mom, can you set an alarm?"

What You'll Learn:

How constantly witnessing the deepest sentiment of people's hearts at weddings makes her "kinder to my husband. I'm like, aw my God, I guess I love you too."

The printed list method: checking off every shot so the next 45 minutes are free to just be creative

Why one bride grabbed scissors and redid her entire bouquet mid-wedding (and Lauryn just said "okay I'll be back")

Her slow season list includes: taxes (sad face emoji), call Fidelity, make welcome guide, blog 47 weddings

The question creative people face: "It's generally creatives who have the most awful evil taxes, and it's like, this is the opposite of what our brains were built for"

What Taylor Swift knows about work-life balance that wedding photographers should steal

About Lauryn: Lauryn is a moody wedding photographer based in the Philadelphia area who specializes in dark, saturated, atmospheric images. She got diagnosed with ADHD a little over a year ago and runs her business through a system of alarms, post-its, and organized chaos.

Links: Discover your To-Do List personality: thetodoshow.com/quiz More episodes: thetodoshow.com