I recently received an email from our accountant in IL telling me I had to do some paperwork by the end of the year to maintain my LLC there. Since we just moved to Santa Barbara full time, it really doesn't make sense for me to have my business registered in IL anymore. So it really got me thinking about what I want to do moving forward. I realize I don't have clarity around that at the moment and that is okay. This is where trust comes in.
Sometimes life happens and our purpose evolves and changes over time. When I first graduated from my Occupational Therapy Doctorate Program back in 2019, I thought I was starting an elder care consulting business to inspire people to age in place by being proactive and preventative in their approach to getting older. Just as I got started with that, Covid showed up and put an end to that idea real quick.
But it didn't take me long to pivot when our pool contractor Myles told me about The Life Coach School Podcast with Brooke Castillo. I started listening to that and it blew my mind because I realized that most of my suffering was not because of other people, but because of the way I was thinking. I heard about Brooke on a Wednesday, and I believe I was signed up to get certified as a life coach at her school by the end of that week.
So while most people experienced the most challenging times of their lives during Covid, I was immersed in learning how my mind works and what that was creating for me in my life. To be honest, I learned a lot of things about myself that I wasn't too thrilled about. I had so many blind spots about my own behavior when I started this process and always thought everything was everybody else's fault. Despite that, it was truly one of the best years of my life because I found purpose again and began the process of learning to love myself for the first time in my life.
After getting certified as a life coach, I was inspired to start my own coaching business. One of the downsides to the Life Coach School is that they kind of brainwashed us into thinking it was a lot easier to make a boat load of money than it actually is. They didn't prepare us for how long it would take to learn this process and that no amount of actions would make a difference if you did not have a solid belief in yourself as a business person (most of us new to business did not have this-myself included).
The result of that, was that we all hired coaches to help us become better coaches and spend a ridiculous amount of money without getting any results. I became disenchanted with the whole industry and turned to Human Design and the Gene Keys to discover who I really am. I spend two years studying my design and experimenting to see what worked for me and what didn't. At this point, I no longer wanted to work with people 1:1 as a coach. I wanted to build a community where people could come to get the emotional and mental health support they needed and create opportunities to collaborate with one another.
When I first started to build community, I did it online on Facebook. I started one community for struggling coaches and another one for people who were not in the industry. I created courses for both communities so that they could really get to know themselves in depth, the way I did. I enjoyed the communities for a while there but started to get frustrated because nobody was doing the course which I thought was the whole point! Long story short, I eventually hid the course on my website and slowly began to dismantle the communities.
That brings us to 2023 and my cross-country trip out to CA with my dogs to stay for the whole winter. Up until this point, we had a home here for 12 years but never stayed for a whole winter. I used to leave the dogs on a regular basis to come to our SB home 3-4 weeks at a time and it was getting pretty old. I told Bob that I was turning 60 this year and was coming to CA for the winter with our without him. LOL
Well after we arrived for the "winter" we found the dream home I had been manifesting for years! Total gut job with the most amazing backyard ever! We had to act quickly to get that home and then had to put our IL home on the market to pay for the renovation. The process was so unbelievably easy that I knew we were doing the right thing. So here we are on September 12th, 2024 and we are full time Santa Barbara residents.
Throughout this whole time period since I got certified as a coach, I have been delivering a weekly podcast to my audience. It started out as The Brain BS Podcast and morphed into The Power of Community and Collaboration in Santa Barbara Podcast when we moved here full time. I am about to publish the 208th episode and it is still going strong. While I might have questions about whether or not to have an LLC, there is no doubt the podcast will continue.
There are several reasons why I love doing my podcast but the biggest one is I get to meet so many amazing people! Having a podcast permits me to initiate relationships with people, get to know them better, and gives me the opportunity to support other people and their businesses. Another reason I love having a podcast is that I have published so many meaningful episodes that have helped so many people and I am truly grateful that I was in a position to do that. The third reason, and the last one I will mention in this blog, is that the podcast supports my emotional and mental health. Having a platform to share what is in my heart and soul and "talk it out" has been so great for my peace of mind and helps to keep me calm, centered and grounded the majority of the time.
Those reasons might come as a surprise to you, but I'm here to tell you the number of downloads, money made, and number of subscribers are just a few ways to measure success with a podcast. The former reasons I shared with you above far outweigh the latter ones in my opinion, and that is what has sustained me for over three years now!
So here we are today and I have to decide what I want to do moving forward. My intuition told me today that writing was going to be a part of that at times, so I am getting my blog up and running again. I also know that I want to get involved in organizations that are already established in the community and collaborate with them to have a major impact on the community. The first meeting I have scheduled is with the FARO Center next week and I am excited to learn more about what they are doing and how I can support them.
In addition to that, I am also interested in speaking engagements and doing workshops in the community. In fact, I am speaking at the Women SCORE Higher Annual Event this year about the power of community and collaboration and hosting in-person events in SB to prepare people emotionally and mentally for the upcoming election. I've got a lot going on but really enjoying being a full time resident of SB and excited to see what kind of impact my contributions may have on the community.
I plan to share concepts, stories, methods, books, and ideas that can help you to spend more time in a thoughtful and responsive place and less time feeling triggered and reactive. Learning to understand how your brain is working and becoming more aware of the mind/body connection will improve your life dramatically if you commit to doing the work. So if you are ready to learn how to love yourself and trust yourself to make ALL the decisions around every aspect of your life, keep reading the blog and start listening to The Power of Community & Collaboration in Santa Barbara Podcast. I have done this work and it is so, so, so worth it.
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