‘Device Free And Happy’ With Productivity Expert And Author Marcey Rader

Andrew Wayfinder Hryniewicz
7 min readOct 12, 2021

The Destiny Awakening Interviews is a podcast with Andrew Wayfinder and his guests.

Every week (sometimes more) we have a short focused interview with an expert, author, speaker designed to bring you powerful insights, inspiration and ways to break free, live life by your vision and values, and make a difference in our changing and challenging world.

Listen to the podcast at: https://www.andrewwayfinder.com/blog/DA0040

Andrew Hryniewicz

Hello everyone and a very warm welcome to another edition of the Destiny Awakening Interviews.

I’m Andrew Wayfinder Hryniewicz and I’m joined today by Marcey Rader, health and productivity expert, three-time best-selling author and an award winning global keynote speaker.

So a very warm welcome to you Marcey, where are you hanging out tonight?

Marcey Rader

I am in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Andrew Hryniewicz

Oh, how’s the weather there?

Marcey Rader

It’s beautiful. It’s about 80 degrees and sunny and I couldn’t have asked for anything different.

Andrew Hryniewicz

Oh, well, not quite the same here in London, but good for you.

So let’s move on to your work and your experience. As the founder of Rader Co, Marcey helps individuals and teams banish burnout, keep good people on board, and keep your business and company moving forward.

Her work is based on her real life personal experience. In her 20s and 30s, Marcey was a type A, high intensity, high achieving, go getter, always pushing for the next promotion, the next ultra-marathon, the next client or level in her life.

However, at age 39, burnout in the form of multiple autoimmune diseases and early menopause, caused Marcey to rethink her work and her life.

And to focus on helping her clients create healthy, sustainable productivity and growth.

Off camera, Marcey is married to Kevin a professional drummer, and has finally learned how to end her day with a crossword puzzle in her infrared sauna.

So thank you, Marcey, for your time today. And the topic is “Device Free Productivity” and Marcey’s gonna unpack that in answering six questions.

So the first question, Marcey, who is your ideal client? And what’s the transformation your work helps them achieve?

Marcey Rader

Well, I’m lucky in that, you know, my focus on productivity and health behaviors can work for anyone. But I tend to work mostly in the pharma and biotech Industry, because that’s where I came from.

And also the accounting industry. And I just kind of fell into that, but those are the people that I tend to work with. And their jobs, you know, definitely didn’t stop during the pandemic, in either of those areas.

Then I also work with a lot of business owners as well, especially people with rapidly growing teams, or rapidly growing companies.

Andrew Hryniewicz

Okay, and question number two, what’s the biggest challenge they’re facing, when they come through the door for you?

Marcey Rader

“Over communication, email, text messaging, instant message.” They feel extreme burnout and overwhelm, with the massive amounts of communication that they’re getting from work, from family.

You know, we go home, or we walk into the next room, if we’re working from home. And we’re still getting it from news alerts, and weather alerts, and we have Alexa’s and Google homes.

And it just kind of feels like there isn’t whitespace anymore. Or just quiet time to think.

And we’ve gotten to the point where we don’t even like that quiet time.

Or you know, we want to fill it. And I was actually one of those people. I always felt like I needed to have a… you know, read it… listening to a book… or a podcast… or doing something.

Always to be learning or just trying to ingest all this information.

And so most of the people that come to me, you know, they just want some quiet and they don’t know how to get it.

Andrew Hryniewicz

Okay, so what’s the transformation you help them create when you work with them?

Marcey Rader

Well, for teams, it’s figuring out a way to communicate that is respectful, and that allows people to have guardrails”.

And guardrails are not boundaries.

Guardrails keep us safe. And we want a guardrail, when we’re driving around the mountains, so we don’t careen off the edge.

And sometimes when people give guardrails for their communication, they feel like it’s a barrier for people to get to them. And that’s not true.

And we need to, from a team perspective, from a company perspective, allow people to disconnect during their off hours.

Or to have guardrails set up so that we can give them that whitespace. Or that time to revitalize themselves. To let their brains reset and not feel like they have to always be on.

Because if you feel like you are always on, you can never truly relax.

And if you are a high learner like… I’m a big fan of the “Gallup Strengths Finders Test” and I’m number one learner. And a lot of high achievers are, you know, high learner.

So you feel like you have to ingest all of the information, and all of the things.

And we get so much information now that, when people say things to us, even like, “Have you watched this new series on Netflix?” We almost feel like we’re behind, like, we have to be able to catch up, and we just will never catch up.

There’s just too much out there…

Andrew Hryniewicz

So that ties into question number three then. What’s the number one insight you would share with people to help them right now? I think you’ve already said it. But…

Marcey Rader

Yeah, well, setting up those “guardrails”.

But starting off with turning off as many notifications as they can. You know, all of our apps and programs come with the notifications or the badges on as the default.

So people will automatically think that’s the best way for them to start with that app or program. But the default is there to make us use it more.

It’s not there to help us.

And every time we get one of these notifications, it’s this dopamine response. And our brain gets used to it, and we like it.

So starting with the things that you’re going to go to anyway… you’re going to go to your inbox anyway, you don’t need that pop up. You know you’re going to check the weather channel anyway… you don’t need a weather alert every five minutes.

And you know, news. Every news is breaking, right? So you don’t need that alert for everything coming through.

So think about, you know, what am I going to go to anyway? Microsoft Teams, Slack, whatever it is, and turn those notifications off? You don’t need them.

Andrew Hryniewicz

Great. Question number four, in your own development, what concept, book, program, talk, experience had the greatest impact for you?

Marcey Rader

For me, it’s the “Ohio concept”. And that is “Only handle it once”.

So, if I can tell from the subject line that I will not have time to address that email right then, I do not even open it.

And you know, often people will open it, knowing that they’re going to have to go back and address it later. And this is an issue — it takes some willpower and discipline that you can practice, and get much better at it.

But instead of going back and making that decision again… if you can tell by the subject line you cannot do anything with it right then, it does you no good to open it.

Just hold off and wait.

Andrew Hryniewicz

That’s a great tip.

Question number five, what free resource would you like to share with the audience to help them out?

Marcey Rader

I wrote a book called “Work Well, Play More: Productive, Clutter Free, Healthy Living One Step at A Time”. And I wrote it as a behavior change book in each of those three areas, over the course of a year.

So every month, there’s a different tip or hack or concept in areas of productivity, clutter and health. And each of those areas, there’s levels of novice, pro and master because we’re all coming to different levels, right.

So I am offering the introduction and the novice habits for month one as a free download. And if you like it, you can read the book.

Andrew Hryniewicz

Okay, great. So that’ll be in the show notes. It’s radergoodies.com/gift.

And the last question, question number six: Marcey, what should I have asked you that I didn’t?

Marcey Rader

How do people at Rader Co. handle their email? And we actually have a manifesto on our website.

If you go to helloraderco.com/email-manifesto. It’s also in our signature line.

It clearly explains — to customers and clients and prospects — how they can expect us to respond to their email. And I’ve been told that it’s given other companies, you know, some options and ways to rethink their email as well.

Andrew Hryniewicz

Because I remember a couple of years, some time ago reading an article about how overwhelming email has become for people, you know, in the hundreds to thousands a day.

Marcey Rader

Yes, companies are… I worked with a company last year and this year, and they were able to pull how many emails people were sending and receiving every day.

And, you know, what I would love to see is how many of those are like one word or two word emails, where people are just replying back, “Thanks”, “Got it”, “Okay”, you know, like, unnecessary emails.

And, you know, we really need to rethink our communication.

You know, we were just given email. Nobody was taught how to use it. And then it just became this beast.

And it’s a necessity, you know, we need it. It’s important, but it’s typically not the thing that we were hired for, unless we are in support or customer service.

You know, nobody says, when they’re interviewing for job, “I’m the best person at checking email”. Nobody says that, and yet is very important, but it’s not where our line of genius lies.

Andrew Hryniewicz

Okay, great. Marcey, thank you so much for your time today.

Marcey Rader

You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.

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Andrew Wayfinder Hryniewicz

Philosopher. Shaman. Architect. Therapist. I love time spent with friends and family, creating beauty and magic, and this amazing planet we all share.