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Introducing the Easeful Uplevel Podcast- where we talk about entrepreneurship, spirituality and living a life in harmony in tune with your natural talents. This podcast is inspired by conversations we’ve been having our entire life as childhood friends and now as entrepreneurs. We are dreamers and we love to achieve big, but refuse to burn out while doing it. This is our journey on the Easeful Uplevel, we hope you come along for the ride & we can't wait to cheer on your own big dreams.
Allison (00:00.046)
supposed to work. I feel like this is just life. Okay.
Erin (00:02.264)
Okay, y'all, we just recorded a whole episode that didn't even work because Erin had to bring her a game today and she got a new microphone. I don't know if you notice the up level.
Allison (00:14.778)
Okay, this is a teachable moment though, because honestly, the number of times I've gone to put up a social media post or been doing something, or even creating TikToks or other things where it'll just crap out and then just erase it, the number of times that has happened to me. And the people who succeed in business will keep on pushing forward and be like, no, we will do it again, we'll take it again. I have an endless well of knowledge in here. If I...
spat fire five minutes ago, then you're gonna get it again. Here it comes. So.
Erin (00:48.416)
Yes, girl. Yes. No, it's true. And probably what we said wasn't meant to even be recorded because there is something divine in what's meant to be. So I'm going to trust that was not meant to be. And yes, so consistency too. I think that it's so important that we just continue to show up. And that is definitely like the number one thing that we forget to do for ourselves is just.
Allison (00:54.635)
tester.
Erin (01:15.244)
Show up, do the thing. If it doesn't work the first time, show up again, do the thing again.
Allison (01:20.606)
Yeah, it's a resilient attitude. And honestly, to expect things to go awry fairly frequently. I mean, to be honest, like if you're like forging a new path and figuring out things as you go, you should just expect to be like, okay, tried that. Oh, that didn't work. Okay, moving on, right? Like the next thing without it being like a moral failure, like a whole thing of like, why did I do this? You know, it's just like, we're staying focused moving forward, right? And we're just like not gonna like.
If we trip, we're not going to fully fall. OK, we're just going to trip and keep walking and like play it off like a dance move or whatever. And it's fine.
Erin (01:54.712)
It's true. I actually went to the ballet this weekend. I went to go see the Nutcracker. And it made me really, it was very interesting for me to watch the different energies that were on stage. There were definitely people who were dancing it, and then there were just people who were doing the moves. Even at that professional level.
Allison (02:16.49)
Is it?
Erin (02:19.264)
I could tell who had spent time getting to the point where they knew this dance so well that it was just part of them. And I could see the people who were still under construction, but showing up anyways and giving their best self anyways. I appreciated both, but it was very interesting and everyone was at like a very high caliber. So that's not even too...
discredit the level of performance that I saw. It was a professional performance. It was very well done. It was probably one of the best Nutcrackers I've ever seen. But I could tell based off of people's energy, like who was really embodying their character. I would say the Sugar Plum Fairy was the best out of, and usually that's the most technically difficult one, to dance. So she's going to be at a higher level anyways.
Allison (03:03.842)
Thank you.
Erin (03:11.76)
But what I saw from her is that she was fully embodying the Sugar Plum Fairy and she was that character and she was delighting in it. She was delighting in her moment on stage and enjoying the time that she had there and not taking it for granted. And so it was just so beautiful and very inspiring to watch her work.
Allison (03:21.068)
Yeah.
Erin (03:36.044)
in the way that she was working. And I actually think there was one point where she kind of missed a step, but she was so embodied that it didn't even matter. No one noticed and it just looked like it was supposed to be part of it. And I think the only reason why I noticed this is because I was watching her so closely. I mean, my eyes were laser focused on her feet. So I was so interested in admiring the skill level.
Allison (03:44.65)
No, she's a bloke.
Allison (03:59.97)
Well, it is interesting too, in terms of like finding flow in your zone of genius, there's like two parts of it. Like part of it is like the being so practiced, right? So she guaranteed at some point she was like the other people who were like, oh my God, what's the next step? Like, you know, kind of like overthinking it. And so some of it is just like practice, like keep going, keep doing it, keep exercising it. And then eventually it becomes second nature. Like you don't have to think about it. It just happens. But I also think there's an element of getting out of your head, like the fear of messing up.
locks you up and takes you out of the character versus I'm going to just express it if I mess up, I actually literally don't care I'm playing it off, but I'm like there I'm exuding an energy and that's just as important as the technical aspect, which is interesting especially for anyone who's like an expert in a field if you're like a some kind of thought leader or teacher or something where sometimes we get like really laser focused on the tiny details we want to convey to the audience.
And like, yes, they want to get some of the information, but to keep people engaged, they want to feel a certain type of way. Like they want to feel like you're feeling it first of all, and if you're excited, like genuinely, then they're going to genuinely get excited and stay engaged and all of that. So there, I think there is something to, as we're like building our assets and our skillsets to also make sure that we're checking in with our energy.
Erin (05:06.482)
Mm-hmm.
Allison (05:21.522)
How am I feeling today? Where am I overly anxious? Let me like explore that a little bit. Why am I so hung up on this? Let me get really specific What am I afraid is about to happen or what am I feeling insecure about and like and how do I address that? Is there something I can actually do? To make things better or do I need to give myself permission to be imperfect and just it's fine I'm just gonna go ahead and tell myself it's good
it's good enough, it's fine, we're going forward. Let me get excited about this. Let me delight in meeting new people. Like let me look past my notes here and like into the eyes of the human on the other side who's listening to me that I'm connecting with. Because I think even as like we're teaching and connecting with people, sometimes we can get so focused on our role that we can almost forget about like the connection. Because even as an audience member at the ballet, there is like...
you're communing with these people, they're doing this for you and then you're clapping for them and it's like this mutual affirmation that's happening that's kind of magical for everyone to come together and witness this moment. And that's just like being at the ballet is special, right? Just being in the room is special, not to mention everything else. So I love this, our words of luxuriate and delight this year to just be like.
Erin (06:28.56)
Yes.
Allison (06:40.09)
more present to all that get out of our heads a bit. And both, you and I are both people who can be very much in our heads and very overthinking. I feel like this is the year that we're like just trusting intuition and our inner wisdom and the level of like expertise and knowledge we've gained so far and trusting that we'll keep gaining more and more in relevant areas and that like, you just start trusting ourselves and I don't know.
Erin (06:46.596)
Yes, yes, absolutely.
Allison (07:09.75)
the guiding light for this.
Erin (07:10.264)
Yeah, I mean, so you are all listening to the first episode of the Easeful Uplevel podcast. And our intention with this podcast is to provide inspiration every day for you to be your best self and to give you a behind the scenes on how we've been working on this process. Talk about something we've really had to learn to trust and do all these things that Allison just mentioned.
We've been working on this together for around six to eight months before we really felt comfortable with actually sharing what we have to say. And I don't think at that point, when we first started, I was feeling unconfident in my opinion or unconfident in my ability to speak, but it is absolutely a different vibe when you turn on a recording and start to actually perform in a way.
And we didn't want it to feel like a performance. We really wanted this podcast to feel like a natural conversation. And our intention even was starting it, was to try and capture some of these conversations that we've been having our whole lives. Really examining the things like, how to be our best self, how to be more embodied, how to be a spiritual human on this earth. What is the meaning of life?
Allison (08:36.95)
Hehehehehehe
Erin (08:37.976)
How can we be more in tune with ourselves? How can we positively affect the world? How do we know if what we are choosing to do is coming from a selfish place or a place of greater good and greater giving that gets to our life purpose? How are we making sure we're fulfilling that? I mean, these are the conversations that, Allison, we've been having since we were little girls when we met when we were four years old, but.
even though that comes so naturally to us, it's a lot different whenever we are actually taking the time to hit that button. And it was awkward at first. It was very awkward.
Allison (09:18.348)
Well, and some of it's just like figuring out the technology, figuring out the microphone, figuring out, you know, there's just, I think there's something to showing up and let's just try it out and let's just do it. Let's be adventurous. I mean, I think part of the reason we wanted to put this podcast out there is we've been networking with other women in our shoes that are either contemplating, like thinking about starting their own business or side gig, going rogue, putting something out in the world.
world that truly they have created, whether it's a product or a service. Like it takes a lot of confidence and gumption and a little risk taking and all of that to, to really do that. And, and more and more, there's like 50% of people now have a side gig or something. I mean, this is a skill set that isn't really taught to us in school. Um, and most of us, most of the people that I have talked to that have started their own businesses did not have an MBA. They had some kind of cool other skill set that had nothing.
nothing to do with business, but now that they're running their own business, there's a lot to it. There's an emotional side, a spiritual side, and then the technical side of like, how do I do this? How do I figure this out? But I think it's so helpful when you can kind of see behind the curtain and peek behind the scenes of other people who are doing it and who are radically honest about like, oh, it's messy back here, but it's joyful back here. It's messy. And I think
Erin (10:39.388)
It's real messy.
Allison (10:42.674)
a lot of people too when they're starting out, they hit, there's like an exciting portion of it, that's almost like falling in love. It's like, wow, this is amazing. This is opening my eyes up to a whole new reality and I'm so excited. And then as you're in the work, eventually a lot of people hit a bit of a wall where they're like, I don't know what I'm doing. This isn't fun anymore. Who am I to do all this? And it's so helpful to connect with other women who've been like, girl, I've been there, you've done that. It's okay, like stay in it, you know.
and tap back into other people who can kind of like egg you on and encourage you keep going stay consistent. Honestly, keep going is one of the biggest pieces of advice I feel like that I bring up a lot and it's like I mean pay attention pivot there's lots of other things that come with it but there is something to be said about just developing a very resilient hopeful flowy mindset and that takes like upkeep you need to like
listen to the good things that feed that, you know, watch, just like everything that you engage with, you have to think about how it is affecting your psyche. And so we want to have something that'll feed that part of you that's hopeful and excited and creative and passionate and is going to be very successful. And we just want to foster that in other people because we need that. We need that tribe and that sisterhood.
Erin (12:05.596)
We do, the community aspect is so important. I would not have been able to even start this business without so much work that was put in where I brought literally my community of women that I knew in order to help me to even get to the point where I felt confident enough to start the business. I remember in, I think it was 2020,
or maybe even 2021, I come to you, Allison, and I was like, I feel terrible in my job. How do I get to a point where I don't feel like I'm overworked or bitter or stressed or just unhealthy overall? You know that feeling whenever you're like, I just feel awful every day, and I know I'm meant to work in a different way or be in a different place. And how can I start to just begin?
the journey of getting to the place where I know what I want. I mean, I think that was like the number one question I had to figure out how to ask myself is like, why don't I feel comfortable? What situations are making me feel uncomfortable? So keeping like a log of that. And then also, how do I wanna start responding in these situations that could get me a different outcome? Where do I need to set up boundaries? That's definitely one of the pieces is like, you have to start to figure out how to set.
kind boundaries, but thoughtfully. And then who all, I mean, who all is in my circle that I can lean on for support? And Alison, you were absolutely one of those. And I'm lucky that my best friend from childhood just happened to be a life design coach. But I think for anyone else who's not your best friend, absolutely.
Allison (13:52.42)
Okay.
Erin (13:59.748)
find someone like Allison or reach out to Allison because having someone on your side who can help you to identify and react differently makes so much of a difference to even know what you want in the first place. And then I think the other thing I brought in was one of my girlfriends was starting a human design business. And I had seen that she was posting on Instagram these really fun
human design clips about celebrities and their human design and why they are who they are and what we can learn about them using their birthday and birth time and things like that. And that was very helpful to me as well because as a projector, my style of working is much different than what the standard nine to five corporate
environment provides. And so even to just continue to exist in that environment until this year when I started my business, I needed to think of different ways that I could engage with my coworkers. I needed to set different boundaries. And I needed to be okay with the fact that I might see opportunities differently or I might.
need a different way of working that might not be as fast-paced as others, but that my way of working was just as valuable as someone like yourself, Allison, who is a manifesting generator. And you have just like boundless energy. You are always thinking of new ideas and you're like nonstop. And I could never keep up with that level of work style.
Allison (15:49.442)
Yeah.
Erin (15:53.7)
but still what I bring is a different style and that's just as valuable. And I feel like together it works really nicely, but also you have to get to a point where you're okay with yourself. I'm sure at some points you felt insecure about your way of working and were wondering why you couldn't be like someone else.
Allison (16:02.379)
Yeah.
Allison (16:11.496)
Absolutely.
Allison (16:16.138)
Yeah, well, it's so interesting too, in terms of like, when you come to realize that you need to work differently than what your current job allows you to based on your nature and like what feels natural to you. I mean, as a manifesting generator working at the time for a hospital that had a lot of red tape and a lot of rules where I'm all about innovation ideas and let's make it happen quick. Like let's do it now. What are we waiting for? What do you mean put a proposal and wait four years for it to then probably not happen?
What? Well, people are suffering and there's a solution right here. I mean, that kind of stuff made me bonkers. Every day I was like furious about things and hitting these walls of resistance. And it's funny in my business, it pays off to be able to pivot on a dime and be able to like find new ideas and implement them quickly and then work with like projectors who can help.
fill in the gaps where they think differently than I do and we can kind of all come together. I mean, I think there's something beautiful about finding people who compliment your working style. But at the end of the day, I'm not trying to be like you and you're not trying to be like me because I think that's the thing in a lot of corporate structures or even certain job roles is they want you to fit a mold. And then when you inevitably cannot fully fit it because we're all so unique.
Erin (17:30.084)
Yes.
Allison (17:35.362)
then we feel like I guess I'm personally failing somehow at something and it must be me and I'm somehow wrong versus like this is just is not a right fit. I'm trying to contort myself to fit into a mold that's not meant for me. Whereas when you can start your own business, you can be really mindful of like, who am I? What are my needs? What is my unique way of working? And how can I actually structure my business around it and take whatever liberties and give myself permission to set my hours? I can have weird hours if I want.
And other people will be fine with it, in my experience, right? Having little kids and stuff, I've had like some of the strangest hours and all my clients have just been like, oh, that's great for me. No problem, I can make that work. You know, so I think it's just, there's a whole world of opportunity, I think that's so fun in the entrepreneurship world, that we love to, I don't know, shamelessly evangelize. I'm like, girl, you know you can do it. 100 years ago, everybody ran their own business. I don't know why it's so weird now.
It's like people didn't even think they could possibly do it when it used to be literally the way that most economies worked right back in the day. So it's just wild.
Erin (18:34.715)
Yes.
Erin (18:42.392)
Yes. I mean, there's so much I wanna talk about there, which I think we have about 10 episode ideas just surrounding this topic. I would love to bring a human design expert on to talk to us about what is human design and how can we find our charts and what about our charts do we need to key into in order to kind of develop the best work in style for us. I actually have someone in mind and she said that she would do our combined human design.
Allison (18:49.241)
Thank you.
Erin (19:12.204)
So there's actually a way that you can overlay charts in order to understand partnerships and how we can best work together and what we're meant to do in terms of our combined purpose. So I'd love to do that and we can let the listeners listen in and y'all can be a fly on the wall for that. And then I also think just continuing to hold ourselves accountable in terms of this idea of easeful.
Allison (19:12.651)
Ooh.
Erin (19:41.556)
living and easeful upleveling. I love that we have chosen specific words to kind of go into next year, but we also know that our...
Allison (19:46.079)
Yeah.
Erin (19:59.268)
our words might be forgotten about if we are not doing certain levels of upkeep on them. So for everyone listening, my intention next year is to luxuriate. And there's a lot that has been coming up in my business that has made me feel panicked and probably anxious if I were to be my old self. But having worked on
Allison (20:04.224)
Mm-hmm.
Erin (20:28.192)
so much in terms of mindset over the past several years. What I have actually found myself doing is really flipping these things that might feel anxious to the old Aaron. I've really been flipping them over and just sitting and luxuriating in them and letting my business take care of me and lead me and understanding that it has a purpose and unique personality of its own.
This is an entity that is outside of me, even though I'm so intertwined with it as a business owner. It's still its own separate thing. And it has been telling me in many different ways what it wants me to do in order to be an effective steward of it. And so I have been learning to luxuriate in its own personality and its own unique direction and trust what it tells me it wants.
Allison (20:58.934)
Good.
Erin (21:26.356)
and enjoy the fact that it has such strong opinions.
Allison (21:30.93)
Yeah, well this is amazing in terms of, I love what you're pinpointing in terms of like anxiety, I think is a lot of people's default for all sorts of things and especially if you're trying to create something new, like I think anxiety is a big default because whenever I hear the word anxiety, I think of like, I visualize a bunch of question marks. Like what about this and what if this and I don't know and what about that energy of like you're trying to control something and you don't even know which way it's all coming.
Erin (21:51.18)
That's exactly what it is.
Allison (21:57.91)
Versus, I'm like, what is the opposite of that? Like, you know, what is the opposite of anxious? You might say calm or peaceful, but I also think there's something about like a self-assured, a focused, a decisive, you know what? I've decided I do have the answer. I'm not gonna vacillate back and forth. And what about this? I'm just gonna focus on this. I'm just gonna do this. I intuitively know that's where I'm going. And I already decided I'm gonna trust it. I'm gonna keep following it, right? I think there's something really beautiful about really choosing. And you're like, it's not that you're saying I'm not gonna be anxious.
you're just like, I'm putting my attention here. I'm choosing where I'm like funneling all this energy and it's going into seeing what's already present that's amazing and seeing the way that my business is already serving me and seeing all the ways that it actually is working out, even when there's always that little voice in our ears that's like, wanting to protect us, but sometimes doing the opposite and actually just like wreaking havoc on our nervous system. So it's just like, yeah. You know,
I am so inspired, I think, Erin, by your story. It's so funny, like when you reached out to me, you're at a very high level at a marketing firm and like the highest level of leadership that you've ever been in and having a little bit of an existential crisis maybe because, yeah.
Erin (23:14.5)
Yes, I found myself managing a team at a startup. And it was a team also who was pretty fresh out of college. And so I had this group of individuals who was looking to me for answers. And I realized that maybe I might not have all these answers in myself. And yes, having that existential crisis,
Allison (23:39.75)
Existential item.
Erin (23:44.504)
Talk about it, because I get all clinched up again. Ha ha.
Allison (23:48.21)
Well, I mean, I think the question of like, how do I be an effective human? How do I be an effective leader? Like just real quick, I mean, not to get too into the weeds of it all, but I remember there was a moment when you came to me where you're like, I'm really questioning myself because I'm new to all this and very intuitively, I'm, you know, like you're figuring out what the business needs, what the kind of metrics are, what the role is, all that kind of stuff. And then knowing like, you knew that you needed to nurture people.
Erin (24:17.465)
Yes.
Allison (24:17.994)
like come alongside of them and encourage them and coach them. Like you knew there was a big emotional component to managing these people and getting them to like churn out effective results, which was very different and countercultural to everything that you'd been involved in the past and even the other leadership and maybe male leadership might have been like, what are you doing? Like at one point someone called you a work mom and you're like, is that an insult or a compliment? I don't know what to make of that. And I was like, compliment.
Like we should be nurturing people and you're like having good boundaries, but I think there was something that was really cool when you finally owned of like, maybe I am the work mom. And honestly, maybe that's why things are going great. And honestly, the more that I'm tapped into like the vibe in here and I can tell that people are all out of whack. I know that they're not gonna like meet their metrics or whatever. I'm gonna be like, how are you doing? What's going on? What do you need? How can we support you? And then of course the results follow, right? So I think that's just really cool even in terms of like.
redefining the best practice because even some of the best practices out in the world are actually not the best practices anymore. They're obsolete at this point. The world has changed quickly. Yeah.
Erin (25:20.884)
Yeah, especially, especially on the internet. Everything moved so quickly that what was great last week is going to be different this week and we have to be adaptable and a lot of times to follow our intuition. So, especially as I was working on McDonald's with that job, which everyone in the industry hopes that at some point they can work on McDonald's. So I was also having a little bit of a starstruck moment. Like, wow, I am, I'm here.
I am here, I've made it to this place.
but also what my intuition is telling me to do has not been done before, which was create these campaigns that were new, even to McDonald's, and execute in a way that hadn't been done before. And so it was quite scary. So that was quite a cocktail of not only having a team to lead and nurture and wanting to do right by them, but also feeling like together we were entering this space.
of newness because what we were executing was so cutting edge that while the client was asking for this, it's also, you wanna be a good steward of their investment and you want to get real tangible business results, which we were able to do. But oftentimes we were in meetings being like, we don't know how to do this, but we're gonna do the best that we possibly can and we're gonna be as responsible as we possibly can. So it was a very interesting,
place to be, especially in media where there's money on the line and you're wanting to make sure that the client gets a meaningful return while they're doing this new thing.
Allison (27:07.978)
Yeah, you're, well, you were on the cutting edge of like, you know, putting your finger on the pulse out there in terms of like, what's going to reach younger people or the right demographics. Like it is, it's exploratory. And I think that's so true even in terms of keeping businesses afloat and alive. You do have to like, constantly be open to pivoting, you know, in terms of like.
Erin (27:28.645)
Yeah.
Allison (27:29.35)
as the markets are changing. And for some people that's scary, but I think you are even coaching your team. Like you would come to sessions with me and you'd be like, oh, I love this. My team's gonna love this. And then you were like, mindset coaching your team.
Erin (27:40.8)
like, okay, my team needs to learn the hierarchy of needs. Because we have to be creative, right? So if we're sitting there feeling lack and doubt and stress, then we need to figure out how we get ourselves up to this point of like creativity. And so learning how to coach a green team to like help them to get up to this level of confidence and creativity and shining very quickly was, was so invaluable.
Allison (27:43.158)
Yeah, I'm too late. I don't know. Yeah.
Allison (28:06.494)
Yeah. And have like, I think a big part of it too, honestly, is that I think is part of what I kind of help people with their business is getting comfortable with a certain level of uncertainty, which for most people makes them very anxious, especially I work with a lot of type A straight A students. Like they got, I mean they're successful, they're organized, they got things going, but there is this like level of being okay with some.
Erin (28:10.342)
Ha ha!
Allison (28:35.75)
uncertainty or even I even think of this concept of failure tolerance which a lot of like my quote unquote straight-a you know high achievers they're like what do you mean I need to be open to putting something out there that's going to flop and of course it depends on your I don't know your very specific kind of um business so I'm not saying like go open a brick and mortar for it to flop on the like that's not what we're talking about it's more of like I don't know let me like
tease out this one little product and see what people think. Let me beta test this. Let me, you know, like you just put feelers out there and it is a little vulnerable. And to be okay with people being like, nah, and you'll be like, that's good feedback. Now I can do something with that. And I might get like a hundred no's and the whole time, it's not that the business is failing. You're like, I am collecting more and more information that's getting me to the pinnacle idea that's gonna like take off like wildfire. I'll finally figure out what it is that people want. You know, so I think there's something to this of like,
Erin (29:08.942)
Mm-hmm.
Allison (29:34.122)
That's really scary though and really intimidating for a lot of people, me included. And so to get to a point, it is again, kind of the opposite of anxiety. We're gonna like freaked out and trying to pin down all these question marks. It is kind of this like, I'm at peace in the question marks and I'm just kind of flowing through and I'm trusting my intuition and I'm taking notes and I'm like, there's just such a different energy that you have to cultivate and then remind yourself about again and again. So I think it's great to have communities where we kind of plug back into that energy.
Erin (30:02.566)
Yes.
Allison (30:03.702)
Possibility and creativity.
Erin (30:06.104)
I get so much out of our group meetings and even like the text messages on the side with other business owners, just keeping each other accountable too, to be showing up to our daily practices and also believing in the magic that is possible. I think also, you know, what we're talking about here is calculated risk, which is a big part of business. And within that calculated risk, taking feedback well.
in making it actionable and not taking it personally. Because that's something else that we can sometimes get caught up with when we're developing something that we love and that's so heart led. Sometimes we can get a little sad when it doesn't pan out exactly the way that we want it to pan out. Allison, I would love to ask you your word for 2024.
Allison (31:01.486)
Ugh.
Erin (31:01.784)
and take us through your thought process for getting to that place.
Allison (31:05.734)
Yes, so my word for 2024 is delight. Because it's, you know, in the past, I've had certain years where joy was a word. I have this course that I created called Cultivating Joy that literally teaches people step by step how to be happy, which is so funny, but I've had so many grown people be like, I was never actually taught. I was taught how to survive or how to succeed. I was not taught how to...
actually be genuinely and consistently joyful, which I consider to be like a deeper, more steady emotion than happiness. It's like a contented, I don't know, very like purposeful feeling. So I've always been drawn to that word and that concept of this like joy. And that's something I've always tried to ground into, but I really like the word delight this year because there is something that's a bit to me, childlike.
I kind of think of like this little girl in a tutu like skipping through puddles and just like, ha ha, you know, just like enjoying the little things, you know? And I think there's something about this concept of delight too that delight I feel like doesn't really happen on accident, right? Let's, some things like, you know, sometimes waves of joy or joyful things could come and hit you, but delight to me is like an intentional,
Erin (32:21.776)
That's true, that's a good point.
Allison (32:30.946)
where you're putting your focus, right? Because you could have two people in the same scenario of like, let's just say, Erin, you and I go to like some like Michelin star, like amazing restaurant. There could be some like walk-a-dee-walk person behind us that's like, who chose these tablecloth colors? Like what is, you know, we all know that person. And you're just like, oh my gosh. Whereas like you and I could be like, oh my gosh. Like.
Do you see this detail, like in a positive way? Like we can attune to what we see and then take a moment and be really present to it and be like, that's delightful. There's something very sensory about it too. Like this is a delightful cup of tea. Like this aroma, there's just like, it's very grounded and present. And it's just like the choice to pause and be like, this is great. Especially with all the tiny things. And the thing is too, once you go looking for these things, they're everywhere.
Erin (33:20.816)
Yes.
Allison (33:26.218)
Like I can literally just like scan my environment and find a handful of details to delight in. And so I think that's in terms of like creating our own joy and like keeping energy up. Cause I will also say now that I've been in business for like a little over three years, three to four years at this point, I have noticed as I've tracked my metrics and my income that it's always the seasons that I am having the most fun.
And I always consider it when I'm cutting loose in my business, I'm like, I'm not gonna take this too seriously, I'm just gonna talk to people, I'm gonna do this kind of stuff, I'm gonna go have fun, I'm gonna find a way to make certain fun things and essential business tasks that I can expense and do it properly. And whenever I do that, it's like the business takes off and it booms and it grows and the money comes, it's like all of these things and then it's always when I'm like, how am I gonna make this?
But when I get too serious about things is when like we lose some of the magic. So I believe deeply in the energetics of this all. And I really feel like the magic is just us. It's just like what we're doing with our energy and where we're pointing it. And I think if I'm delighting, then hopefully some people can come and delight with me and we can just all have delightful time.
Erin (34:42.36)
Yeah. I love how you were like, isn't this great? Like you basically were like, let me whisper to this person sitting next to me, isn't this great? Isn't this magical? Isn't this wonderful? I love that as kind of a gut check. And I love seeing your inner child too, just kind of pop out of you when you said that. You were just like, yes, I'm skipping down the street in my tutu and I'm loving my life because this is how I feel. I want to.
Allison (34:47.17)
Hehehe
Erin (35:11.644)
to express myself today. And I love the ability to really like nurture that inner child as well, with that practice every single day. And I'm sure that also gives you so much more joy and contentment just from listening to her as well.
Allison (35:31.754)
Yeah, well, and energy too. It's so funny too, in terms of, when I talk to a lot of adults or a lot of people that are struggling with burnout, there is the sense of like heaviness or lack of energy or lack of motivation. And sometimes it is like a very physical, real health concern. But a lot of it is this like mental, emotional, spiritual death a little bit, you know? Or like, it's like your spirit has been, I don't know where it went, right? But...
And I think there is something about finding these things to delight in. You could see even as I'm talking about these things, I'm feeling my energy rise. And all of it is just where I'm directing my attention. And all of a sudden I'm like, wait, I literally feel like I actually kind of want to go skip down the street right now. I'll run around a little bit. It genuinely feels like it. Yeah, you and I could just come frolic together, but there's a part of me, even though it's a Monday morning and definitely like any other mom in her 30s woke up like, whoa.
Erin (36:08.622)
Yes.
Erin (36:16.956)
I wish I was there.
Allison (36:29.374)
I'm tired, right? But, and yet, if there is something to, when we nurture our spirit, it does then manifest into physical energy that manifests into, you know what? I am gonna go work out and I am gonna eat healthy. And I am gonna prep this thing for tomorrow. So that future me says, thank you for organizing this for me. Like, my life is just gonna flow a little bit easier and easier because I'm like cultivating these really juicy, happy, hopeful.
thoughts. I mean, I am such a fan of positive psychology. I know people are always like talking about toxic positivity and spiritual bypassing and all that kind of stuff. And yes, there are ways that happens that is definitely not helpful. But I actually do think maintaining hope and excitement and creativity and like keeping those expansive thoughts, I don't think it's frivolous or shallow. I think it's actually something that's really runs deep.
benefits can only do good to be like, tomorrow's gonna be a great day, I just decided it's going to be. And that doesn't actually matter.
Erin (37:33.304)
Well, that is something that I learned from you in the Cultivating Joy class. It's some, everything I learned in that class I am actually still doing and I can report back. It does cultivate joy. But the morning routine, the primary takeaway that I got from that will always stick with me is you said that you get to decide how you wanna feel and literally right on top of your.
paper in the morning when you're doing your 10 minute morning routine, how do you want to feel today? And that is again, I think also why I know that if we continue to stay on top of our words for the year, that will help us so much because it gives you kind of that like North Star when you're making decisions throughout your day. Does this make me feel peaceful? Does this make me feel luxurious? Does it make me feel? Am I delighting in this?
And when things start to feel chaotic, when your brain starts to get tired, I love that little hack to kind of like look back on. So, Allison, shameful plug, Allison will be teaching Cultivating Joy this year. So look out for that enrollment later in the year. But final kind of question for you, Allison, as a mindset coach, what would be
Allison (38:40.742)
It's coming back!
Erin (38:56.5)
your advice for someone who is going to sit down and kind of make their New Year's resolutions, we'll call them, or their New Year's intentions. What is your advice for a process that someone can go through in order to do that?
Allison (39:18.318)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, so it's really interesting. This actually ties into what we were just talking about in terms of sustainable new year's resolutions because people have actually looked into it, studied it, it's like 1% of people who set a resolution actually is still actively working on it or doing it by December of that year. So most of us set it and then kind of forget about it, but I think there's this tendency to get overly
attached to outcome-based goals, which it's good at times to define what outcomes you want. But for someone who says maybe, I want to lose 20 pounds, like there's weight loss is such a common New Year's resolution. And I think there's something about some of these things, or I want to make this dollar amount, or I want to do this, that can I think kind of like frustrate us, or we're so focused on the end we forget about the process, and the process is everything.
So whereas if the goal is like, I want to feel motivated to get up and move my body every single day and I wanna enjoy it. I want to enjoy doing these things. Like I do think there is something to be said for figuring out what feeling you wanna cultivate for the year. And again, that's why I love like picking a word for the year to basically, and this is my process, we're gonna put the outcomes there in there a second. But in terms of like, what do I really want out of life? And again, people might be like,
Well, these specific, I want this car and this purse and this whatever, but that's not really what you want. What's behind the purse? Am I just being like, I want self-expression. I want abundance. I want to feel safe. I wanna feel accepted in a community. Like there's always something behind those tangible things. So I think if you can figure out what those things are, same with financial goals, a lot of times you're really chasing a feeling. I wanna feel secure.
I want to feel, you know, so I think if you can figure out what those feelings are that you were chasing and then kind of work backwards of not only what are the big goals that are tied to that. So if I want to feel like secure and finances are a part of it and this is the number, dollar number that I'm going for, which you can absolutely set. I think all of that is helpful. And then you can kind of work backwards of like, what would I need to do to either ensure that outcome or.
Allison (41:40.894)
or make it highly likely that I'll get close or be moving in that direction? And write it out, and how am I gonna do this consistently? What accountability am I gonna work in? What communities can I stick with to keep me on track and reminded of what the goal is? I think all of those are very helpful kind of processes to do, but again, I also like when you have long-term goals to also find things that can be achieved very quickly. And again, I love the question of like,
What feeling do I really want this year? I want peace, I want peace in my life. Okay, I want you to go to a yoga studio every week so that you get it now. I want you to listen to that YouTube meditation for free. Right now, I want you to.
Erin (42:24.36)
Yep, I love my YouTube meditations.
Allison (42:26.614)
Right? Seriously, so much in terms of like, if there's some kind of huge goal, there is something too when you get the energetics right, then you do tend to naturally flow into like aligned behavior without really trying. You're not like, oh, I gotta motivate myself towards this goal, ugh, what a chore, what a trudge, versus if you're just like, I just went to this creative, I went to this like crafting workshop and for whatever reason it like,
It alighted my crafty side and now I'm applying that into my business. It gave me the most brilliant idea, right? So there's some, sometimes these things, um, I think when we really pay attention to what we need to nourish our spirit for the year, cause that's really what we want is like some kind of deeper something. And then to ensure that every little thing that we're doing this week, every week is in service of that goal or aligned to that goal. Again, if it helps to choose one word to stay focused, I think that's helpful.
But I think that's going to be the thing that motivates people more than the like the very again, like the Yes, I mean, oh gosh that Over I don't like it anymore. I'm gonna eat more vegetables. I don't feel really good. I'm gonna go dance. I like Consistently
Erin (43:31.332)
then I'm going to lose 10 pounds, right? So the typical weight loss goal.
Erin (43:43.884)
Yes, I'm after going to the Nutcracker, I'm very excited to get back into my dancing, which I know will probably result in a better body tone, but I'm not gonna be using that as my barometer, even though it will be a nice byproduct, I will be thinking about it from a place of joy. So I'm doing this to fill up my soul.
Allison (44:04.35)
Yeah, well, and the dancing is the reward, right? It has all of these amazing things that come with it, but it's so, I think that's the thing to align yourself to, again, I always think of self-care. There are things that we all should be doing to kind of support our health, even something like brushing your teeth. You might not delight in brushing your teeth. You're just like, I know I need to do it. But I do think there is something to really finding
Erin (44:07.216)
Yes.
Allison (44:33.142)
these self-care things that are like triple wins is what I consider them of like, like for me drinking a kale green juice or something is like doesn't feel fun for me, right? But I enjoy cooking and I enjoy like making vegetables and arranging them in a certain way and like cooking with my partner. And there's like certain things that the whole experience, all of it.
was rewarding to me. And so I think that's where you find whatever those things are for you. Same within work, of like, especially when you run your own business, you do get to choose like where you focus your attention. And it might be like, my zone of genius is this. I could do this all day. I love this so much. And when I do this, magical things happen. And then when I overly focus on this thing over here, it kills all my energy. I'm either gonna hire someone, a contractor to help me with this, like marketing, that's why I hired Aaron, cause I was like, this is what I'm doing.
Right? I'm going to hire someone. I'm going to, I don't know, or minimize areas that maybe I don't need as much of that. But I do think, again, there's something of like whatever is making your soul feel expansive is going to be the thing that is going to just snowball in all areas of life. So I know I'm like giving a kind of like very broad answer, but I there's a reason our resolutions fail. And I do think it's like the energy behind it sucks.
Erin (45:50.106)
Yeah.
Allison (45:50.454)
Like we shame ourselves into something or it's like comes from a not enough misplaced versus like, if you're just like, how, how can this week start out amazing and then sustain this beautiful feeling throughout the year?
Erin (46:02.292)
Yes, and I think part of that I've learned is also rest. So sometimes I think we can be so focused on our goals that we forget to have those like pit stop moments where while we're working towards it we're also revitalizing ourselves and we're either we're doing what makes us have energy to keep going towards those goals. So I would also recommend building in moments of
Allison (46:07.045)
Mm-hmm.
Erin (46:30.836)
self-reflection and then planning out some restorative activities, whatever that means to you. That might be going out and doing something like you go to a party with friends or maybe it's like quiet time or maybe it literally is that yoga class. So I would to be very tangible about it as an exercise, I would take some time next two weeks, sit.
spend an hour with yourself. I don't think you need more than an hour. But make the first 10 minutes really an intentional moment to connect with your heart. So for me, I love to just put my hands over my heart and close my eyes and listen to some either YouTube meditation or just some music. And then that helps me to connect with what do I want, because I can always be very much like, what do other people want? What does the world expect? So I have to do that piece first. And then I'll start writing.
in my journal answering the very tangible questions, like what are my goals for next year, and then working backwards to that plan that Allison was talking about. So we wish you luck in that, and I hope everyone looks forward to hearing our progress. So we're gonna be keeping each other accountable by asking these questions, what are you luxuriating in, and what are you delighting in? And we would love to also hear your words of the year, so.
go ahead and shout those out to us so that we can support you in achieving those. And we just look forward to a great 2024 with all of you. And thank you so much for your excitement around this podcast, for your support this year. Many of you have supported us to get to this point and I've loved hearing so much.
like enthusiasm that's really made me feel so good and so loved. And we can't wait to give back the enthusiasm and the love and the energy to you and your goals for the year.
Allison (48:38.474)
Yeah, we're so excited just to have you all along for the ride. And as always, shout out anything you want or need from us, any topics that are pressing as we go on through the year, any burning questions you might have. We would love to just keep it interactive and supportive.
Erin (48:55.404)
Absolutely. All right. Have a good week, everyone. And cheers to 2024.