Hello and welcome!

Happy New Years! On this episode, I’m explaining where I’ve been the last 5 months and the reason behind pausing the podcast. I also give a little insight as to where we’re going! Make sure to listen to this episode before moving onto future episodes. I want you to have alllll the context!

Also, I’d love it if you’d connect with me over on Instagram! It’s where I’m most active and I love to share behind the scenes of mompreneur life on that platform.

Main Topics included in this Episode

  • Catching up
  • Where I'm at
  • Plans for the future of the podcast

Connect with Alysha

Music Licensing Info

Music by Eli Lev - Dancin' on the Lawn

Link

Episode Transcription

Hello and welcome back to the Messy Mompreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Alysha Sanford, and I'm so happy to have you here. Happy New Year's, you guys. It has been a bit since I've chatted with you since I've shown up since I've written any kind of an episode outline. I don't know it's been, it has been a lot and I'll get into that in a minute because it's kind of been a roller coaster last year, but I hope that you had a wonderful holiday season. And are easing into the new year. If you need rest. If you need a slowness, or if you are out there chasing and crushing goals, that's awesome too. Yeah, whatever. You really. Need so if you follow along on my Instagram account you know that I announced that we were going to. Be taking a break. This was last August. And I didn't totally go into detail, then I still won't go into full detail now, but I do want to kind of explain a little bit more than I did then. And if you don't follow along on our Instagram account, then I owe you an apology because I basically ghosted you after the last episode. I think it was episode 16. I had full intentions of recording a few more, and one of them was. Interestingly enough, it was going to be based around the National Grief Awareness Day, and when I had that planned out in my episode notes, I was wanting to chat with maybe. Maybe more of an expert on navigating grief while also navigating running a business, being a parent, all of that, even combined. And what I didn't know when I was mapping out my episodes is that I would come into a season of. Navigating grief myself and I tried to record an episode. When we got closer to kind of chat about that and share a little bit and I just couldn't do it and I. I don't know. Grief is. Well, it's heavy and it's complicated. So I'll go back to when we started the podcast back last May. I was so excited, had a vision, and I still see the vision now, but we were just kind of moving full speed with it and things were cruising. My husband at the time he worked from home and he found pockets of time that he was actually able to go in, do all the editing for the podcast episodes, all the production and managing. Work and he also does all of the podcast, RSS feed and website hosting on his own from scratch. He is an IT guru and so I'm really blessed to have him doing all of that because. We basically do our podcasting with very, very, very minimal if any cost because he is so talented. But he was working from home, we had our daughter home with us full time. We were just kind of cruising and July 1st hit. My dad called my siblings and I to come out and chat with him and he shared some news with us that none of us expected. It was completely blindsiding, devastating. And I'm trying not to cry right now thinking about it, but. I'm not going to share his story because it's not my place and I want to respect his privacy. But he received a diagnosis that is just. Oh, I thought I could do this. Sorry guys. Ohh, he received a diagnosis that just completely. Changes everything for him, for us, for his life, everything. So July 1st that hit and navigating that following month it was. It just, I don't know the grief cloud like you're going through the five stages of grief and you might be aware of some of the stages, but just it just feels like it's somebody else's story, someone else's life and. Oh, it's. It's a lot. So anyway, August came and I was just trying to wrap my head around. That reality and kind of being involved with assisting with doctor appointment transports for him and all of that, while also looking ahead to my busy season starting in September with the holiday photo rush. My husband was actually going to be starting a new job out of the home, so our whole schedule was about to change and I was also ready to enroll our daughter. Into a very, very part time, little play school, which, by the way, she absolutely loves and it's the best thing we could have ever done for her. But all of that paired with a potential move in our future. I just. It was just. It was a lot, so. Anyway, the podcast kind of took a back seat. We announced the break and. Also announced just being kind of unsure with how we wanted to move forward with it, if we were going to move forward with it at any point, I absolutely love. Chatting with others and having them share their stories and sharing. All the nitty gritty about, you know, the Mompreneur journey, but it just didn't feel like it was the right season or right time to continue that at that time. So yeah, I was in fight or flight mode and I was kind of fleeing even with my photo business. I slowed down in my booking calendar earlier than I normally do for the year. I closed it through December and to be honest, at that time I was looking at January through. I don't know the rest of 2024 even and I just wasn't sure what I was wanting to do because when you're faced with grief and unknowns. It just for me. I just wanted to shut down and cry and crumble. And just I was so afraid to box myself into any commitments or schedules that would. Potentially be something that I couldn't fulfill or that maybe I didn't want to fulfill, if anything. Scary happened and abrupt happened, and I needed to step away. I just didn't know how I would handle it, how I could handle it. There's a lot there that I'll you know, I'll touch on in the future episodes here. Yeah, it was tough. So Zach, he my husband, he started his new job. We were in a new schedule, navigating all of that made it through the busy season. I loved all of our sessions, Christmas minis, all the busy things, made it through the deadlines, made it through the holidays. We are still, of course in the unknowns with my dad's circumstances, but we are definitely trying to seize the day. And have very, very, very quickly learned that we have always heard time is our only currency that you cannot, you can't replenish it, so I am trying to use my time so much more wisely now, which again I will address in future episodes. But. Yeah, life just felt super overwhelming and scary, and it's still scary. But I'm coming out of it with many learned lessons and a lot of clarity on my goals for 2024 given our circumstances now. I am really excited to be back to this podcast. It'll be in a bit smarter of a way. As far as my time management, I plan to batch record episodes on the very rare days that my daughter is out at my parents' house, spending the afternoon so that I have a quiet house and so that my husband. And maybe do all the editing in one day instead of in pockets of time all week long for that next week. We're just trying to work smarter so that we can actually accomplish what we're wanting to do this year. So yeah, I am starting to ramble, so I'm going to go ahead and probably wrap it up for you guys, and that's where we've been. So catch the next episode to see where we're going.