Life Updates!! (What’s Changing, What’s Growing, and What’s Next)

Welcome to The In Between Podcast, a show for women navigating the space between where they are and where they want to be.

This is your go-to holistic business podcast where we dive into strategies, mindset, habits, and of course, making a meaningful income so you can live your dream life.

I'm Astrid, a multi-six-figure luxury wedding photographer and a former corporate marketing girly.

And I'm Alexis with 10+ years in tech as a senior brand partnerships manager and business coach. Think of us as your business besties cheering you on as you level up. Let's get into it. Hello and welcome back to The In Between Podcast. It is one half of the pod, Alexis, and the other half, Astrid.

And today we're going to be having a more lifestyle topic with you all, and we're going to catch up. We're going to catch up on what we have been growing through this year, what we have been in between right now, and also what we are going to be focusing in the next few And so there's just been a lot of ups and downs, both in personal and professional side of things. And we're going to just catch you all up on our personal goals. I'm excited because it's more like a little girly episode.

Yeah, this is more of a girly chat. We've been really heads down and heavy on the business content. We've done the psychology of pricing, social media. We've been talking about how to pivot, how to come back from failure. I feel like we've really locked in on the business content and we wanted to do more of a kind of peel back the curtain, share what's going on in our personal and professional lives, and just kind of catch up with you. We're really excited to just continue to serve while also being like, this is like some real chat, I would say. So not as structured, a little bit more free-flowing. And with that, we can kick it off with Some recent life updates before we get into InBETWEENS and all the things. So life update, I had all my best friends in Houston for my 32nd birthday. And people kept asking me, like when they were seeing all the birthday things, they were like, is this a milestone birthday? Like all your friends flew in, like what's going on? I was like, nope, just 32. Have the best women in my corner ever. And I felt So loved, so celebrated. And it was also the first time that Astra, Jess, and Kate had been together, back together, uh, since our girls' trip to Paris for my 30th birthday. So they hadn't all seen each other in 2 years, and it was so special. It was like the best weekend ever. I'm, I'm having a hard time honestly reacclimating to regular life with you guys gone and just not having you in my daily life.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, you're in my daily life virtually, but you know what I mean? It's different when you're in person.

Absolutely. Honestly, my life update is your life update. My life is your life. But truly, I had the absolute best weekend. Love the girls. I feel like we need another week-long trip like Paris. We had so much more time together, and I feel like we, we were getting to that, the top of that mountain, and then we had to just like jump off of it.

So Also, the whole weekend was like a long string of random conversations trying to get all of us to move to the same place.

Yes.

Like the amount of times we were like, where are we moving? We're all moving to Nashville. Like we're trying to get Kate to move to Houston. I was like, we all need to be closer. But we had so much fun that my theme for my birthday dinner with all of my best friends as well as my Houston besties was fancy AF. And all the girls showed out. Everyone dressed up and just brought that girly girls' night out energy. And we literally had the best time. I also, it was funny at happy hour. And this does pertain to personality stuff as well. I don't know about you, but I'm a Type A person. I like to have things quite planned out. I like to really make sure that Everything is like structured and everybody's having a good time, and I can kind of like be a vibe manager too. And at happy hour, we all went around and talked about if we were like more Type A or more Type B. And I I stated and manifested at the table. I was like tonight, I'm channeling like Type C, D, and E. Like I I have no structure, no plan. I just want to have fun. And I feel like all the girls really listened to that, and they were like. Okay, Alexis, bet. And so, I just felt so free. I'm like, maybe I need to channel this version of me a little bit more. But, we did some contrast therapy, ice bath. You cold plunged for 2.5 minutes. I was so impressed. And, everyone just had such a connective weekend and it felt so restful at the same time. So, very grateful.

Absolutely.

Ready for the year ahead.

Absolutely. Honestly, it healed me. I came back and I was like, hey, my business anxiety is gone.

My personal anxiety is gone.

Turns out I just needed girl time.

Literally, time with your friends is so grounding. And I was telling Matthew this after I picked everybody up from the airport and everybody was in the house chatting and talking to each other. And I wasn't even— I was just listening from the other room and I was like, I'm going to be okay. I think that We can get so stressed in our head, especially being ambitious and having a lot on our plates. The world does sometimes feel really heavy, like, oh, I have so much going on. But when your friends are around and they can kind of take away that stress and they feed into your energy cup, it's like, wow, okay, I actually can do anything. And the confidence that I get from being around my girlfriends is— Truly unmatched. So I also feel like I can do anything. And there is still a lot on my plate, as I know there is on yours too, but I feel like I'm walking into the week managing it differently just because I got to spend so much good quality intentional time with you all.

Yeah. Honestly, I feel like that segues really well into our in-betweens and my in-between, where if you're new around here, every single episode we share what we find ourselves in between. And It's ironic because I was so stressed about work and all these different things before going on the trip. And after the trip, I feel, one, much lighter, but two, I've realized I've maxed out the growth stage that I was in. And something clicked in me that I'm like, all right, it's time for round 6 or whatever it is that we're on. Let's go. How are we going to double down on the pod? How are we going to double down on the business? How are we going to double down on the habits? When are we moving? All these different things. It's like go energy. And I just find that so beautiful because sometimes we try to force it and sometimes just taking a step back, taking a vacation, going and visiting a friend, stepping away from your environment. Maybe this is just a me thing, but truly leaving where I'm at and where I do daily life helps me reevaluate my entire life and do a good intake and be like, Actually, this is what I want. And I just get so much clarity. And I love this weekend for so many reasons, but that was one of my bigger takeaways is just leaving so light, leaving so inspired by every single one of the women that I met this weekend and I got to be around. And not coming back being like, I don't have enough, but coming back more like, wow, I am inspired by you.

Mm-hmm.

And I can't wait to tap into what this, what the world has for me. And so, yeah, so I'm feeling really excited about that.

Oh, that makes me emotional.

And to the Houston girlies, if you're listening, I love you. And to the Paris girlies, I love you. Oh my gosh.

I think as you're listening, this is what healthy female friendship does. It calls you up, it inspires you, it gives you the motivation to keep going or think about something differently. And I love hearing how much this weekend gave you that boost and it like recharged your batteries in the best of ways. For me, I'm currently in between coming off of a very busy, heavy, like 45 days. A lot has been going on at work and I have been able to really max out my output and continue to show up and level up and perform. I feel like I've been in performance mode since basically like late February, early March. So for about 2 months now, and I get to go on vacation next week. And I, maybe similar to you, like I am craving a difference of environment. And while I have been traveling for work and that's been incredible, My brain is still very in work mode, and I'm going to 30A next weekend, which is a cute little beach area in the panhandle of Florida with my family and Matthew. And I am really craving some downtime to just sit with my thoughts. And I'm going to do some morning yoga by the beach and do some journaling and obviously spend a ton of quality time with my family. But I think I need to do some alone time reflection on what— just where I am and kind of just do a little life audit check-in and really see how I'm feeling. There's been so many good things that are happening and I want to stop and process it and really allow myself to feel it because I don't know, things have been moving so quickly that I'm realizing I haven't really processed some of it. And okay, where am I going next? What do I want next? And how do I want to show up? And how do I want to, you know, continue to level up my skills and my, my performance and like just all the things I do for work? And then where the business fits into that too. And, you know, maybe I, maybe I launched something else this year, and maybe I start a different business and just Giving myself margin to think about those things. I have not had that. And mostly I'm spending my weekends recovering my energy from the week. And I feel like actually having 7 days to just be by the beach and like be in that environment, I think will be really good for my soul. So I'm in between some of those like self-discovery, self-reflection. thought processes right now. And I feel really excited about it. It doesn't feel heavy. It feels like I'm curious. And I just haven't given myself enough space to really like sit in it long enough to answer the questions because I'm like, on to the next. And I don't want to walk into basically the rest of the year with that kind of headspace. So. Very excited about that.

It's a very timely trip, like, with your birthday also happening just a few weeks prior and being able to step into this new year while doing a life audit and a self-discovery, be like, what do we want the rest of this year to look like? It's going to be so, so great. And I'm so proud of you for, at the same time, just recognizing that you need to focus on work, get things done. And you're such an intentional person. I think sometimes that can be hard when you don't take time or don't have time to check in with yourself. And it can feel a little bit more— I don't know what you're feeling, but I'm happy that you get that margin for 7 days. Disconnect, get in your body, get in your feels, and connect with what future Alexis is going to want her life to look like and make the steps that you need to make to make that happen. So with that perfect segue, we're going to kickstart your discovery with our lives style recap episode, which we're going to chat through, like I said in the beginning, through what we've been growing through this year, what we're currently growing through, and what we are going to be focusing on in the next few months. And so with the first portion, are you cool if I share mine first?

Oh, of course. Okay.

So, um, I have 2 categories, so it would be like personal and professional. And something that I've grown through this year that I'm really proud of is I've more intentionally grown my personal savings and specifically my emergency fund and anticipating expenses that I'm going to have. I think before I would just be really great with my budget and do a little bit of more proactive savings. But this year I doubled down on like, I want to have 6 months of expenses saved up. And on top of that, have like my house taxes in a different account and like shopping account savings and like all these different buckets and it's actually like full and, and like it makes me feel great whenever it's a girls weekend and I want to get piercings and I'm like, well, it's not in the budget this month, but I actually have a sinking fund that it's for shopping. And so I can do that guilt-free. And this was like my first experience, like really tapping into being able to be spontaneous with a shopping experience without it feeling guilty out of my budget.

Mm-hmm.

And so I'm very, very proud of that one. Um, my second one, This is more on my healing journey, but I have really healed a lot in my hypervigilance, and I'm just so proud of that. I started with my coach back in September, I want to say, and we worked through a lot of things together. And if you've ever experienced hypervigilance, that usually comes from having a traumatic experience where then later on you're just consistently looking for ways to protect yourself and you're constantly in your masculine and like, am I getting the best and am I doing the best? And am I just like— and in a way I was really exhausting myself and it was really hurting me in more ways than I realized. And so it's almost like the volume was at 100 and every session, every month, someone's been turning down the dial from this super crazy music to this very soft, gentle music. And I feel like I can actually listen to what I want in my life and not just out of fear run away from certain situations or run away from certain people and just be more grounded in my decisions. And that has felt really great because my fear the past 2 years has been insane. Some of my decisions, even it affecting the relationship that I'm in, it was getting me out of balance every time where I'm like, am I in the right relationship?

Am I not?

And now I'm able to tune it down to where I can be like, okay, objectively, these are the things I want and here's where I want to go. And that is working great. And so that has really transformed my life. I feel a lot more peaceful. And the last one on the professional side is that I have made a lot more time for family and friends this year. And so some of that clicks in with work where now I'm shooting less weddings on the weekends because I have the team as well. And so I'm able to spend a lot more time with them. And it's just been great because that's been literally on my goals list almost every single year of like spend more time with family and make more time for making new friends. So yeah, those are my personal ones? What are on your personal ones, things that you've grown through and that you're proud of?

Okay. Love, love all of those. And yeah, I think you're right. This is kind of starting my reflection. Um, things I have really enjoyed and have grown in this year is Matthew and I have a really aggressive savings goal and we have been saving almost to where we need to be every single month for the last 4 months. And that's been a really good muscle for us to flex and practice, particularly because we know that at some point we would like to move. When that is, we have no idea. And we also know that we'd like to purchase another real estate investment property. And we have these dreams and these goals, but when it comes to the amount of capital you need to make those things happen, It's like for me, a lot of my capital is tied up in options and tech companies, and I don't have that cash yet, right? So, and there's been real estate opportunities that have come our way that we have to say no to because we don't have $50,000 in cash right then to be able to invest. So a big focus of ours, and we were kind of feeling that tension last year of like opportunities were coming our way, but we couldn't act on them because we didn't have the savings to be able to do that. Um, so then we, you know, aligned and figured out, okay, how we fix this obviously is we need to spend less, save more, and cut some of our living expenses. And so we, I've been really proud of us. You know, we did just pay taxes. So that was, you know, super fun. Um, so it did take out a little bit of the, Like the, the, um, what am I trying to say? I'm so sorry. It did—

Momentum?

Cut into our savings. Um, but that's okay because we have the rest of the year to make it up. But it's been fun, you know, like kind of gamifying it, see, seeing that percentage go up month over month. So I've been proud of both of us building that muscle. Um, another one that I've been proud of on the personal side is my movement journey and just Loving moving my body. Like, I love Pilates so much. I feel like I should be a ClassPass ambassador. I get to try different ways to move. I— different types of Pilates classes, Lagree, reformer. Like, I am loving this era of my movement journey and walking more, getting the walking pad thanks to you, Astrid. Like, I just feel really good in my body and Not looking so much to the scale or like trying to measure, okay, where am I? And like just not fixating on that and more fixating on how I feel in my body and like what I what I get to do and how strong I am and even like doing housework and just feeling like I'm I am fit and and like just being able to pick up my niece and nephew and like yeah I can hold you like little things like that and. Being proud of the strength I'm building in those areas and less on how I look or fixating on different parts of my body that is just not productive at all. So I've done a lot of work there and proud of that. And then I would say the third one on the personal side would be pouring into my relationship with Matthew. I feel like we are in such a strong— season of our relationship. And we're coming up here in a couple of weeks on 11 years together. And I just feel like we've— we're in like this honeymoon stage again. And it just feels so light and honest and raw and like the trust and just like, I don't know, I just feel like we're upleveling in our relationship and the conversations we're having and And how we show up in our marriage, and I'm just really grateful for the work that we've put in. We started going to couples therapy last fall, and that has put that has given us the tools and the language, and even just a physical space to have some of those harder, more uncomfortable conversations. And you know discussing our future, our careers, becoming parents like. There's a lot that we're discussing and I feel like I have a partner in it. And not that I haven't had it before, but I've realized how much my desire for independence and being honestly like self-protective was standing in the way of emotional intimacy in my relationship. And I've just loved like this journey that we're on and kind of opening myself up. More, and yeah, I know that's a very personal thing to share. But yeah, just feeling really grateful for where we are in our relationship right now.

I'm so proud of you, babe. Those are some huge breakthroughs.

Thanks.

Every single one of them is huge. And just hearing I like I know these things are happening in your life, but hearing you recap it like that, I'm like wow, all of that in four months.

She's saving more money, healing her relationship with her body, and her marriage is great.

Like let's just wrap the podcast up there.

Done. No, there's— I mean, I do want to call out one area on the personal side that I've been working through that has really caused me to struggle is my relationship with anxiety. And I don't want to like say everything's great. There has been a real constant presence of anxiety. Not doing enough, not being on top of things enough, not texting people back enough. Like I I feel this constant anxiety of being behind, and I'm working on that mindset a lot, and I'm working on healing that with systems as well as my mindset. But yeah, that has been something that has stolen joy from really big moments that have happened with back to me in the last couple months. Like I'll be in the middle of something massive, like something so big for me and a big career accomplishment or even a life accomplishment. And I'm thinking about all the things I'm not doing or getting done on time. And I'm realizing how like detrimental that is. And I've really been trying to work on how to manage that better and how to compartmentalize it and how to use the anxiety as a tool. To focus, like, okay, these are things that are obviously bothering me. I need to focus and fix them in a way. But I like overthink and ruminate on it so much and I make it mean things that it doesn't. So it's like, oh, I didn't text her back. I'm a terrible person. I'm a terrible friend. Like, oh, I didn't get back to that email on time. Like, I'm terrible at my job. It's like, no, we don't make things— mean that. Like, that's not helpful to the situation. I just didn't get back to them in 24 hours. That's okay. Like, just giving myself a lot more grace and compassion, but I'm working on it.

Thank you for sharing that transparency and giving context of like, these 2 things can be happening at the same time. And I'm grateful that you share that too, because I think whenever somebody else doesn't respond to my email or my text, I don't think twice about it. No, but I do feel the same way, whereas if I don't text someone back or certain email, I'm like, oh, they probably hate me. They think I'm the worst. I think they're paying all this money and I'm not being a professional. And as much as it's so heavy, it is comforting to hear other people go through it and walk through it. And yeah, let me know when you find the solution because I would love to implement it.

I will let you know.

Moving on to what we've grown through on the professional side, I have 3. So one of them is I added on film photography and that has been so fun. My clients have been loving it and I've also been getting a lot more higher-end weddings that the couples like prioritize the film photography and these have come through planners. And so it was just perfect timing of me adding that. And then as soon as they reach out, that would've disqualified me 3 months prior to that. But now it got me into a certain space that I really, really want to be in. So very happy about that. I also added on hiring a social media content creator or manager, and she's been doing such an incredible job with the content. I'm so happy with it, and I feel like it's freed up a lot of my mental space. And that was a big breakthrough for me because actually you were the one that you were like, have you thought about just like— because I was telling you how behind I was on social media last fall. You're like, have you thought about just outsourcing it? And in my gut I was like, no, giving that to somebody else?

Why?

Like, that's so, so much. And I would recommend that for anyone else, but for me I'm like, I don't know, like I'm too picky. I don't know about that. And I've just been sitting with that for since quite a few months. And then this just popped up and it was like the right person, right time. I'm grateful that I waited because it was truly the right person, but I can't express how finding the right person for it has freed up so much of my brain to think even bigger on social media. Like some of the things that I wanted solved are now taken care of. And now I'm like, okay, well now I can show up in a way better aspect of social media going forward. And then the other one would be growing through the fear of investing quite a bit in my business. It was just a lot of workflows, automation, film cameras, social media manager. There's been a lot of output on the financial front in the business, but it's all truly come back around. And I've been seeing that in higher-end bookings. And the last one is adding AI into my business. Um, just a few ways that I've done that is, so I use Notion to kind of be like the hub of all my brainstorming ideas and all of that. And so I've been using Notion AI for a lot of my planning for the business. Whenever I added the film photography, I was researching like, tell me the best film rolls, like what's the high end? Film rolls I should be buying, create a pricing structure for me based off of you know X, Y, and Z, the camera that I'm using and all of that. And so it just took out a lot of the guesswork. And even this morning, I worked through some ideation of here's where my business income is at. Here's what I revenue sources I have. Help me to X my business and give me a specific strategy per quarter of how to two X my business by the end of the year. And it broke it all down. It was very motivating because like half of those things I've implemented and the other half it was like, okay, yes, I need to implement. Like, how do I get to a higher pricing bracket? How do I get my team more weddings, et cetera? And so I'm really excited about that. I feel like I've dabbled with the idea of hiring a high-end business coach before, and I still will at some point. But I think some of the questions that I have in my brain right now, AI is helping me get there. That when I think I'm ready to invest in that coach, it's going to take me to a whole different level with those questions already answered. So those are my main wins on the professional side. What about you?

That is so exciting. I'm so glad that you've up-leveled so much in 4 months and implemented so much on the system side. Proud of you. And that reel that you posted this morning.

Thank you. My creator did that.

Amazing.

No, that was—

I was like, okay, holy crap. That was so good. So it's not only just having someone help with strategy, it's also having like a real creator think through what content's going to like really resonate for your brand and for your clients. So Loving what she's putting together. I know that's been a partnership, you know, you're obviously collaborating on the content, but it just goes to show that when you hire the right social media manager who really understands your brand and understands your content, like, it could—

you—

they can kill it.

So yeah, thank you so much. I'll let her know.

Yeah, tell her, send her this audio clip of the podcast. Um, okay, so for me on the professional side, it's A little bit split into, you know, I'm, I am a full-time corporate girly working in tech. So a lot of mine are more on the W-2 side of things. But at a high level, I have been really proud of the way that I have compartmentalized life and work and really focused on when I am working, I'm working. But when I'm with my friends or I'm with my husband, Or I'm on the phone, like I really try to be more present. And I have, because work has been so busy and has taken up a lot of my mental capacity, I have noticed that that would take away from my personal relationships and my personal life. And I feel like I have worked really hard to compartmentalize those things. And I just want to call that out that like that was a professional goal of mine. To not allow work and how I felt about work to negatively impact my relationships. And I feel like I did okay on that. I would give myself like a B minus or like a B. Another thing that was a good accomplishment was I produced my very first film for Circle. So the team asked me to produce and plan customer stories. So flying to some of our top customers that run their communities on Circle and interview them on their business, their business model, and the success that they've had using our platform. And so, I got to fly out to San Diego and film in an amazing studio and interview Pat Flynn in real life, which was such a cool experience. And then, I was also featured in a film for Circle that's coming out here in a couple months for a major news outlet and a really cool project that we're working on. And, I have said yes and I have really pushed myself because I feel like my whole career I have worked at, am I meeting my potential? Am I meeting my potential? Am I living up to my potential? And there's this kind of invisible line in my brain that knows, is this what I'm working towards? And I feel like the last couple of months I have stepped into my potential in a way that I personally have not experienced yet. And it just feels so aligned and crazy. And like, I'm in flow state. Like, I thought that reaching my potential would feel harder in a way. Like, there is some stress, don't get me wrong. As I mentioned, anxiety. But when I'm really in it, like I am on, like this switch is flipped and it is just the coolest experience. Maybe this is how you feel when you shoot a wedding and you're in it. Like I feel like I'm really tapping into that in this season of my life at work. And it has been amazing. We hosted our biggest summit ever, like 13,000+ registrants, really leaned on my team. And also I set that goal and I was like, we've never ever hosted a summit that has gone past 10,000. And with everything else going on, I was like, we're going to do it. I know it's a crazy goal. And I even said that it's an audacious goal. It's crazy. I don't know if we can do it, but I just, I want to, I want to make a plan and I want to build the structure for us to be able to do this. And not only did we do it, but we did 13,000 plus. And it's like just upleveling what I think is possible and giving that optimistic energy into my work has allowed me to have more fun. Like, I'm saying yes to things. I'm getting offers and opportunities that I think a small-minded me, even like a year and a half ago, would have been like, I can't do that, or I don't know about that, or how am I going to do that? How am I going to make that happen? And now I'm like, how am I going to make that happen? How am I going to do that? The same questions, but the tone and the way I'm approaching it is so different. And so that's just been a big mindset shift for me on the personal— or sorry, on the professional side. And then we also launched our mastermind. I have not been coaching as much because work has taken my attention and I've wanted it to. And at the same time, I feel like with launching The In-Between Mastermind, with you, Astrid, and serving our 6 amazing women and pouring into them and coaching them and hosting our mastermind calls. That has been very life-giving to me in a season where honestly I've had some imposter syndrome hosting a business podcast where I have not been growing my business intentionally. And it's like the mastermind has really given me that purpose and has kind of in a way filled that gap that I've wanted to but haven't necessarily had the time or capacity to. And now I get to serve more women at scale in a way versus only working with one-on-one clients. So that has been a nice mindset shift for me as well, is just because my coaching business doesn't look like it did a year ago doesn't mean that I'm still not growing and continuing to show up on social media And you know, still signing clients, but not in this like we've got to grow the business to fifteen k a month. Like I just don't have that mentality right now. And for any of you nine to fivers who have a side hustle and enjoy your full-time job, the guilt that you can sometimes feel of like am I trying enough on the business side? I like my job. Like what am I supposed to be doing? I just feel like I've started to heal that and I just don't feel that pressure as much as I used to. And don't let the imposter syndrome win, essentially. So those are some things I've been working on in that area.

I love that. As you were speaking, I was reminded of an In Between that you had shared where you were specifically sharing of this tension that you felt of having and loving your job. And then at the same time, how to continue growing your business. And one of the things that I love about you is that you're consistently learning, you're consistently implementing. And for our mastermind, like you are bringing so much knowledge, not just from your business side, but you are working with entrepreneurs day in, day out and literally the best entrepreneurs in the world. And so our girls are getting to learn from you that you have all these one-on-ones with them and the way and the skill that you bring to these masterminds with with it alone is incredible. So all of that to say, I'm glad that is where you find yourself, where you haven't let that get to you, and that it is such a great reminder to everyone that it's not about what you're currently doing as much as it is like, do you possess the skills and have you practiced what you preached in the past? And also, we're all growing through it. So I love those honest reflections. So our next section is what we're currently like working through, what we're currently in the mix in our, in our life habits or even within the business side. So mine, I overall have just 4, um, that I'm rolling into like personal and professional. So my first one is a little bit similar to what you were just sharing. I realized this past weekend going to Houston. Mm-hmm. That I reached the end of this growth stage that I'm in. And while I have been doing things in my business to grow, it also hasn't been pushing me to the absolute edge. It's just been regular work stress. And there is a difference from that stress from growth and stress from just day-to-day life business things. And so I just realized that, yeah, it's time for that next layer. What is it that— what's next for the business? What's next for me? And one thing that I've been learning and realizing is whenever I had one of my biggest breakthroughs was whenever I took my friend Nicole's coaching program. She is a geek with all things Brain, habits, all that good stuff. And we did this thing where we wrote out our goals for the next 5 years, and we wrote them out as if they already happened. And then we also wrote out like, okay, in 5 years, Astrid Reyes wakes up. What does that whole day look like? And not only did we do the writing exercise, but then we did a challenge that for 30 days, Every morning when we woke up, we would read that to ourselves. And that was the biggest game changer for me. It wasn't doing the exercise as much as it was every single day reminding myself of who I truly am. I feel like it squashed down all my fears and it gave me focus for the day of where I'm going, as well as made it possible in my brain that all these goals that I want can actually happen. And it's just like this weird thing where like your brain doesn't know from reality whenever you're like saying it out loud. And so I'm ready to tap into that. I'm ready to tap into rewriting that next story. I feel like even looking back at what I wrote in that program, it all came true, but I haven't given myself that redirection anymore. And so I've been growing in things and having small, not smaller goals, but having goals. But I'm excited to create a bigger vision again and to create a routine around it, like a challenge around it. And that was actually something that I sent you on a voice message today that I was like, listen to this later. I don't know if you'll get to it, but that I potentially want to see if we do within the mastermind group as well. But I just think it's such a powerful exercise. So that's currently what I'm working through, growing through, and just, I would say, marinating on it of like, What do I want to put in that life vision? What do I want those next five years, these next five years to look like? Does it look like yeah, like industry changes, changes, adding a business, going into a whole new different thing? Like I I don't know. I need to dream big again, and that's kind of where I'm at. So the other one is I'm learning how to stay organized in my house while work gets. So chaotic. I was killing my goal of being like super organized this year. Um, because I wasn't traveling as much. So it was so easy because I had my Sunday resets. I got to do my laundry days, my cleanup days. But as soon as I started shooting a ton and traveling a ton, it was like a whirlwind. Like I was doing laundry, grabbing clothes out of the dryer, not folding it, things piling up, chaotic. And so I finally got my life together yesterday and I'm back to zero.

Girl, you had such a productive day yesterday.

Yeah, it was life-altering. I'm also a 0 to 100 kind of girl.

So we're all in or we're all out, baby.

So I'm working on that. The third thing is I'm learning to accept my body as it is and just take care of it. I think that's just a layer of one, getting older, things changing in my body, and at the same time, just accepting how it changes so much throughout the month. I feel like I've Had— I focused so much in my wellness journey this year that a detriment to that sometimes can be the hyperfixation of like, I want to look like the effort that I'm putting in. Um, so I'm learning to like let that go specifically on period week. I seem to not care the rest of the month. I'm like, whatever, I'm just being healthy and I really don't care. But period week, I overthink my entire life and that is my hyperfixation. So I'm working on that. And actually it was just 3. So what about you?

Um, relate to all of those. I'll pick up on the vision one. Um, I think because of the mindset I explained that I've been in with work and kind of leveling up there, I do think that I— and similar to what I said, like my in-between and spending some time on vacation, kind of like Reflecting on what I want, I want to do the same thing. Like I do feel like I am ready for something. Like I'm I don't know what it is, and I I put here like launch something, build something. Like I don't know what that looks like yet, but I do feel like I'm at the stage where I want to be a founder or I want to like. I don't know. I'm still figuring that out. And to your point, like taking the time to dream bigger because so much of where I am in life, I did manifest and write out and those things have happened. And so now I'm like, okay, what's next? Like what else can we unlock? When do we want to move? When do we want to have kids? Like some of these bigger questions to just really look at that more head-on. And I do think that I can sometimes have a tendency, and it's something I, I don't know, I think it's helped me in ways and in other ways it's hurt me. Like, I have these really big dreams, but I can at times push them off and other good things happen. But it's like, I want to write a book, I want to move away from Texas, I want to like launch a company with my husband. I want to launch an e-commerce business. And like, there are people in my life that just go do those things. And I feel like I tend to come up with excuses sometimes for why I can't do them. And then there are people that I know that just like, I'm in awe of them because they just have an idea, execute. They have an idea, execute. And I can be like that when I tap into that like certain version of myself. So I want to, I want to figure out like, what is it about me that is able to trigger like we're in execution mode and like, why do I get stuck and where do I get stuck? And like really start to do a bit more processing there because once I get a goal, like you heard earlier, I'm like 10,000, 13,000. Like, so I don't know. I need to kind of like kind of reverse engineer what about some of the goals I have set that I have not gone after. Why? Like, what is it about them that makes them feel like I can't or I don't pursue them? Another thing that I want to focus on is being more efficient with my time. I have been working a lot of hours and I've been working on the weekends more than I ever have before in my career. Um, I've been working on Sundays, Saturday mornings, and, and I need to figure out how to be more Organize with my time, time blocking. Maybe I need to set better boundaries. I just I need to figure out how to not allow so much work to seep into my weekends. It's okay for a season of time, but it is something that I I don't want it to become my normal, especially if there's things I want to build on the side. You know, working full time during the week and then bringing bringing that into the weekend as well. Doesn't really give me a lot of margin. And so I need to reorganize the way that I'm spending my time a bit there. And then the last one is just continuing to learn and manage my anxiety a bit more. And just, I don't know if it's compartmentalize or, you know, being more compassionate. Maybe I need to just continue working on it in therapy. But I do think that there are aspects to my anxiety that really affect my health. They affect my sleep, and they do cause certain behaviors in myself that I don't like. And I can I can feel them come out when I've been really anxious, and like it almost triggers old coping mechanisms. And I I want to feel more in control of those, and and that's okay. I think I'm just like learning that and recognizing like. Oh, okay. This is because of that.

Cool.

Got it. Well, what are we going to do about that? So without exposing myself too much, that is what I'm working on moving forward.

I love those. I honestly, same. I have a really bad coping mechanism of scrolling TikTok on no end at nighttime. It is my lullaby. It is terrible.

Oh my God.

I cannot fall asleep if I do not scroll TikTok, which is not okay. And so moving on to like our last section and just like rapid firing through some of that is what I want to focus on in the next few months. One of them is updating that about my nighttime routine. Everything else about my nighttime routine I like. I go to bed at a decent time, but I just get so much screen time right beforehand. So I want to swap that out for a book. And I think honestly what I'm going to do to hack it is instead of just no phone at all towards bedtime, I'm going to give myself 15 minutes before I go do my skincare routine of just scrolling away for however long I want to get that scratch. And then I can start my skincare routine and then roll to bed and not just have this not permissible attitude about it. Um, the other thing I'm gonna be focusing on in the next few months is investing in my retirement again. So I went pretty hard on it in my 20s just because I, when I graduated at 22, I had a full-time job and I doubled down on my 401. But ever since I quit my full-time job, I have not reinvested back into my 401. And so It feels hard to do as an entrepreneur, but it's such a priority. And I think I'm just starting to take a step back from day-to-day profit of the business and what I'm making and more overall retirement and not having to rely on my job. So one of them is retirement, but the other one is, it's called Coast FIRE retirement, or Barista FIRE. And so essentially is like, I want to be able to double down on the money I'm putting in so that I don't have to rely on a full-time job to cover the lifestyle that I want to have. And when I broke down a whole, with ChatGPT's help, a whole like program to be able to do that by the time I'm 40, the number didn't seem so unrealistic of like how much I need to put in every month. And so I think I'm actually going to start taking on more weddings alongside my team. With the focus of becoming basically retired by the time that I'm 40. And I just feel like that would give me even more freedom to just work because I want to, just create things because I want to, and know my retirement is taken care of and know that I'm drawing from all of those earnings. So I'm still figuring all of that out, but I want to put Some steps behind that. The— I already mentioned like doing the daily declarations to expand my mindset. And then, um, I have 2 more. One is decide where we want to move to next year. That's a huge, huge priority. I told my boyfriend since January, I was like, it is happening next year for sure. Um, but like deciding where has always just been a big question mark. And then the last one is getting more creative with my outfits. I am just I was so excited for summer and all the outfits, going to Europe, bought a few things. And I've just been living off of a lot of the outfits that I've bought in the past trips that we've taken, like literally Miami trip and all that stuff. And I feel like this is my round 2 of like, okay, we need to update some of our summer things.

Mm-hmm.

But I want to just be more creative with my outfits and accessories and makeup and hair. Um, I feel like I've gotten kind of comfortable in that and I genuinely do enjoy it. So just want to do all the girly things. Um, so that's on my personal side.

I feel like I shared in the last one. If I shared both of them, I'm sorry, I did not section them out. Um, but yeah, I, I don't have anything else to add aside from one similar thing that you mentioned is the, um, The outfits. I noticed how I do have color in my wardrobe, but a lot of my summer wardrobe is neutrals. And I am craving a little bit more pattern, a little bit more color. And I do feel like my wardrobe's at a place where I'm really happy with it. I don't feel like I need to invest too much more in where everything is. Like I feel like I can truly go on a trip and not have to buy anything. However, now like planning for oh my gosh, planning for like 30 a and then I'm going to Mexico for my friend's 30th and then Mallorca for your birthday and then we I don't know if we've told them or not yet but like after Mallorca Astrid and I are going back to Nice because we are unhinged and we cannot be stopped. We—

it's, it's our Florida.

We—

that's our new yearly vacation spot.

Yeah, which is the most ridiculous thing ever. We understand that, right? But as soon as I was like, oh, we're going to Mallorca, like, that's a 2-hour flight to Nice. Like, should we go to Nice and just co-work from Nice the following week? So all that to say, I have like all these vacation, like, um, beach vacations coming up, and I'm like, oh, I don't have very much color. Like, I need to get some more color back in my wardrobe. So So I'll probably be working on that slowly. Um, cause I don't, I really don't want to, um, over-index, but I'll be borrowing your clothes and you can borrow my clothes. How about that?

Done.

Great.

Honestly, we would save so much money if we lived in the same city. I know we could swap things around. So add that to our list of why we should live in the same city next year. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, well, the last 2 things that I had more on like the work front for my focus in the next few months is One, just to focusing on that 2x plan for my business that the beautiful Notion AI gave me, and I absolutely love it. And the last one is focusing on our mastermind retreat and just like wrapping up so strong with all the results that the girls are going to get. And I feel like we've covered so much ground already, but then like how we're going to finish strong, even stronger in the last, in the next few months will be phenomenal. And I'm just excited. This is happening. We're hosting a retreat for our mastermind. So I'm so excited for that. And yeah, those are all the ones that I have for our recap. Beautiful.

Beautiful. I have loved this conversation. I feel like I got to learn so much too around what you've been learning and focusing on. I did learn some new things. I was like, ooh, okay, I love it. Thank you so much for the idea. Astrid prompted this. as a, as an episode topic. And I was like, yes, I'm craving this type of conversation. So, um, as you kind of wrap up spring and you step into summer, hopefully this can give you some time to think through where you're growing personally and professionally, and, and even just kind of a nice stop, stopping point, and just reflect on where you are, where you want to go. Are you happy? Are you Are you feeling fulfilled? Do you have the people in your life right now that you need to support you? And how are you showing up too for the people in your life, like vice versa? So, I think those are always helpful questions and prompts to give us the space to really reflect because we do get so busy and we can get really heads down and we can tend to sometimes end up going through the motions because we don't have time to like stop and think how we're really doing.

Yeah.

So, um, I hope this gave you an opportunity to listen to, to what we're going through and growing through. Um, and you can do that for yourself as well. You can always connect with us personally @inbetween.pod on Instagram. I do think that we have another Ask ANA episode coming up soon here in the pipeline. So we do have in our show notes, you can leave us a voice note if you have a question for us, or you can also— we have a, um, a Google Form that you can fill out and write your question, or you can DM us on Instagram as well. We love answering your questions, and we love the Ask ANA episodes because we get to hear from you. And then you can always connect with me personally @AlexisTeichmiller.

Yes, and you can connect with me @AstraJohannaPhoto. We love you guys, and we will talk to you next time.