Practice Without Stress | Understand Pressure, Shift Your Mindset, and Create Effective Sessions

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Hello and welcome to the Confident Musicianing Podcast.
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My name is Eleanor and I am a British American oboist studying at the Royal Conservatory of Scotland.
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Literally my dream school.
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And it took me a long way to get there.
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I applied and auditioned for 12 schools in three different countries.
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It was a lot of hard work.
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But oh my gosh, so worth it.
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I want you to have the confidence to work hard in achieving your goals.
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So come with me as we go on this journey together.
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So sit down, pull up a chair, take a seat, or if you're on the go, welcome to the Confident Musitioning Podcast.
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When you have a deadline or an audition, practice sessions can feel quite stressful, especially ones that you are using to prepare for this audition or deadline.
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And you might sit down to practice and you feel the pressure of the big goal weighing upon you.
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It's like a big goal, and you're like, oh my gosh, is this gonna work out?
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Am I gonna be okay?
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And you're a little nervous, and you feel like this practice session is gonna be the practice session that determines whether the goal is gonna be met or the thing is gonna get done.
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And that's a lot of pressure.
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I am feeling this personally because I am preparing for my midterm exam at my conservatoire, and it is quite stressful.
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It is quite stressful, and it can feel really scary.
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But the thing is, there are some things that I'm doing to really take that pressure off so that I can not only have effective practice sessions, but I can enjoy those practice sessions and enjoy the preparation of what I am doing.
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And I'm not the kind of girl that Kate keeps, so let's dive right into it because I want you to have these tools in your toolbox as well, okay?
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Alright, let's dive into it.
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Here are a couple strategies for not letting the pressure of the audition or exam affect the actual practice sessions.
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Because if they do affect the sessions, then the sessions aren't gonna be as good and then it's gonna actually affect the outcome.
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So it's like a bad circle of like, it's a bad, it's a bad cycle, spiral downwards, right?
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So let's dive into it.
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So the first idea is the phrase, what if it works out?
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I used to be so afraid of this phrase because I thought, okay, if I start asking myself, what if it works out, then I'm gonna be disappointed when it doesn't.
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Whoa! That's a bit, that's a bit kind of like self-prophesizing the fact that it won't work out.
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Do you know what I mean?
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But then I've started to say, what if it works out?
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And actually genuinely believe it.
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It's a simple question that has been honestly really helpful.
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Whenever I feel stressed about an audition or an exam, I stop myself and I say, what if it works out?
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This can mean to the entire goal.
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What if the exam works out?
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What if the audition works out?
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But in this context, it can also be to the exact practice session.
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What if this session works out?
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Forget the goal, forget the exam, forget the like the whole thing about that, the thing that's causing pressure.
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I just want to focus on this practice session.
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What if this session works out?
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And you can break it down even further.
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What if this first 20 minutes of this practice session works out?
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What if this first thing I'm practicing works out?
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What if this scale works out?
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What if this phrase works out?
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What if this note works out?
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Do you know what I mean?
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Like you can really bring it down to like nothing.
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You can really bring it down to very specific stuff.
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What if it works out?
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And you can honestly get curious about it.
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It is a very curious statement.
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Hang on.
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Hang on.
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Stop.
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What if it works out?
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What if this practice session works out?
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What if you assembling your instrument works out?
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What if that first note works out?
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What if the scale works out?
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What if the first attude works out?
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Do you see what I mean?
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What if it works out?
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And then when you start focusing on just that, what you can control in the moment, it's so much more helpful of like, what if it works out?
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You know, because then you're like, okay, I'm gonna just focus on this and see if it works out.
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It's a curious thing, it's like an experiment.
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Oh, let's just experiment.
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What if this works out?
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What if this works out?
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And then before you know it, you're kind of like realizing the things that are working out.
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You're like, oh my gosh, this practice session is working out, oh my gosh, this this thing is working out.
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All of a sudden you're like, okay, I think I I think I think I get the point.
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I think I feel more excited about this, I think I feel a little better about this.
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For this, this has really helped me because it takes away the context and everything outside of that practice room, and you really just focuses on what if this works out.
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And then when you start um worrying about the actual goal, maybe you finish the session and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm worried about the goal again.
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What if it works out?
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You know, for me, I I literally every single time I doubt, what if it works out?
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And I say it out loud, I just stop myself.
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What if it works out?
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I say it out loud.
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It's a weird thing, but you just kind of stop the thoughts.
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What if it works out?
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Over and over and over.
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And your brain starts to then wonder, what if it does work out?
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And then you start to notice the things that are working out, and then it's a spiral upwards, it's a positive spiral, which is really helpful.
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So I challenge you next time, next time that you're nervous in a practice room.
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What if it works out?
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Even if you're not nervous, just ask yourself, what if this practice session works out?
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What if this rehearsal works out?
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What if this read-making session works out?
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If you make reads, if you're a novelist or a personist, what if it works out?
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Because chances are maybe it will.
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Maybe it will.
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Just see.
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Think of it as an experiment.
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Think of you as a scientist and you're trying to figure it out.
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What if it works out?
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Okay, it's really fun.
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I am really enjoying doing it.
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Okay, that's the first thing.
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The second thing is planning your practice.
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Okay, now that you have started saying, what if it works out?
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and you're starting to be kind of more focused on the actual session, what are you gonna do in that session?
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Let's plan it out.
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Planning your practice means that you know exactly what to do.
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It also means that you know when you've done the things that you need to do.
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Like you know when the practice session is over.
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For me, my nerves can really come like a lot when I am um when I am practicing and I feel like okay, I think I'm done, but I don't actually know if I'm done.
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Do you know what I mean?
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Maybe I like haven't planned my practice session, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I could do more, I could do more, I could do more.
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Then you get stressed.
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Then you stop looking at, oh, what have you done?
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What has worked out, and you're like, what is not working out?
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Do you know what I mean?
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So with planning your practice, write down what you're going to do, write down when you're going to stop.
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Okay.
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And then you already have that plan and you know when you're done, and that can help with your nerves and the pressure.
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And you then you'll also start getting a log of all the things that you have done.
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You can look back and be like, oh my gosh, I practiced this yesterday and the day before, and the day before, and the day, you know what I mean?
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Like, oh, and I did this last week and I did this then, and you know, and I've done all these things, and and you can see how much progress you've actually made.
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That is really, really helpful.
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Honestly, when to know, when to stop in the session is really, really good.
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It's really good, alright?
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And one tool that I use in planning my practice is a notable practice journal.
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Honestly, this has been really helpful for me in my practice sessions because honestly, for all of the reasons that I've just told you, I know how to plan my sessions and I reflect on my sessions, and I kind of know what I'm gonna do next time and what I've done, and I know when to stop, and that's really helpful.
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Reflecting on your practice sessions can be really, really helpful as well because you write what works, you write what didn't work, and then in the next session you can read it again, and you can be like, Okay, I'm gonna try this differently, or I'm gonna do this the same way.
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And not only have you started to kind of not focus on the pressure, on the scary bits, on the fact that there's a goal, on the fact that there's an audition coming up or performance, but you're focusing on the actual practice itself.
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You're focusing on the playfulness of it.
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You're it's kind of experimentation.
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You're like, okay, I've planned this and I'm gonna reflect on this, but what about next time?
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What if I do it a little different next time?
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Let me just reflect on this and say, just like write a little note to my future self, being like, okay, well, try it like this or do it like this.
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Now you are experimenting like a scientist and wondering if it works out.
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Do you know what I mean?
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So a notable practice journal is really helpful for me.
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And as soon as I realized that it was helpful for me, I knew that I needed to share it with you and give you a code.
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So use code Eleanor15 for 15% off your journal.
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That is E-L-E-A-N-O-R 15 for 15% off your journal.
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And yeah, start planning your practice with more like focus so that you can have more effective sessions and so that you can really stay focused on the actual practice itself rather than the stress of what might be the goal or the audition.
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Okay.
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You know that I only recommend things that I absolutely love.
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This journal code is an affiliate code, which means I do receive a commission with no extra cost to you.
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All right.
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And the code will be um down below in the description in the show notes, and so will the link for that as well.
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So kind of overall these two things together.
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The overall idea is it makes it more experimental, it makes it more curious, playful, interesting, right?
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Instead of worrying about the actual exam or audition or goal or whatever is looming over your head, you're like, okay, well, what if this practice session works out?
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Because that's all I can control.
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And part of the way that you can control it is you can plan it.
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Okay.
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So these two things I think together are really helpful.
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We have one kind of more mental thing and one more logistical thing.
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And together I think they create something really helpful in the practice room.
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And I hope that this was helpful for you.
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If it was, please do let me know.
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Um, you can contact me via email at Eleanor.
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No, that's my Instagram, hang on, at Eleanor at confidentmusitioning.com, that is Eleanor at confidentmusitioning.com, or um through Instagram at Eleanor.obo.
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I would love to hear from you.
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And I challenge you to take one of these things, either what if it works out, that mental idea, or planning your practice, or both if you really want to do that, but at least one and just try it out.
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Just try it out because it has been so helpful for me, and I really want to share these things with you.
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So just try one out and see what happens, okay?
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What if it works out?
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What if it works out?
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All right, that is about it for this episode.
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Thank you so much for hanging out with me.
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If you found this helpful and insightful, please do like, subscribe, follow, comment, and share with anyone who you think might need this.
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And I will see you in the next episode.
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All right, take care.
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Bye bye.