We almost quit... here's what we did instead

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.

Welcome to The In Between Podcast.

This is one of your hosts, Astrid, and the other half of the pod, Alexis.

We're back.

It's 2025. Happy New Year. So excited for all of the things that you have planned in your life this year. I know I am excited about everything that I'm manifesting this year. I know some of Astrid's goals, like I really have such a good feeling about this year. It truly does feel like everything that I've been working for and have been working for is starting to come to fruition. And damn, that feels good.

Oh my gosh, I could not agree more. I feel like that New Year energy, there's just nothing like it. And being able to have some kind of before and after and ending to a year, wrapping that all up and then starting fresh again. And it's just such a beautiful reminder that That we can start fresh at any point in time, but it's also beautiful when the people around you are also starting fresh on a lot of goals and you get to support each other through that. And so I've been loving this new year energy.

Yeah, same. Everywhere I go, I'm asking everybody, what are your goals? Like, yes, literally we were in the process of, um, shopping for a car, more on that later, and I literally was asking the salesman, At his desk, we were going through some paperwork, figuring some stuff out, and we had some time. And I was like, so what are your goals this year? And I just find myself wanting to talk to everybody about their goals. So if you need someone to talk about your goals with, please DM me because I would love to— We're your girls. Yeah. I would love to hear what you have planned for this year. But with that said, this is our first episode back and we obviously have had some changes to the pod. You've seen the new cover art. You've heard the new intro of the show. And so we wanted to have this first episode really be an honest, transparent, like, what the heck's going on with the show? Because Astrid and I met in early December and we were kind of coming to this crossroads of asking ourselves, is this something that we want to do? Like, do we still want to run the podcast? And I brought forth like, I don't know if I want to do this anymore. And we actually almost shut down the podcast. Yeah.

I can't believe that we're saying this on the podcast, but it's also part of who we are. It's part of our community. And it's also transparency factor into this is life as an entrepreneur. This is life as a creator is you consistently need to reevaluate your ideas. And we have had the podcast now for 2 and a half years, and it's been beautiful. It's grown into its own little babe for us, and we've had a beautiful community as well. And it was time for it to grow up. And so we needed to reevaluate, where is it that we are headed with the podcast? Should we even continue it? Is it serving people the way that we wanted to? And in the way that we intend to. And quite honestly, it's also very time-consuming to run a podcast that we don't make money off of or anything like that. And so it needed to be reevaluated. But I absolutely love doing this journey with you because we're always— we put respect first and we put honesty first. And I think that's also where the best ideas come from is like, hey, this might not be working anymore. Let's pivot.

Yeah.

And I'm very excited for what we pivoted into.

Yeah, me too. I think it, you know, to what you said, the respect for each other, and, and you guys get to witness this through our friendship and how we talk to each other and how we communicate. But, you know, behind the scenes, off the mic, off camera, there's also this deep, like, connection and care for our friendship. And whenever I reached out to you, I was like, I kind of want to talk about the future of the podcast. And starting off that conversation with like, our friendship is more important to me than anything else. And so when we can enter into any kind of conversation that might be kind of hard, that might be kind of tough, like that has to be put in the forefront. And I think both of, both of us just having those honest conversations around what was working, what wasn't working. Some of the frustrations even of like, okay, this is a lot of work, but like, is it worth it? And how do we want to measure success? Because, you know, and we've talked about this as well on the podcast, success can mean a lot of different things. Is it monetary? Is it through the connections we've made? Is it through the conversations and the depth that we've gotten to go internally as well as in our relationship? And kind of getting clear on what would success for the podcast look like and also our careers. Yeah. And where we started in the summer of 2022 to where our careers are right now are very, very different. Our demands are different. Our responsibilities are different. And so even for you, when you're evaluating things in your life, just because you started something, you know, you might have evolved and your life and your seasonality might have evolved past what you've started too. And so just giving yourself that grace to say, okay, Do I need to level up? Do I need to let this go? Do I need to sunset this? And it can be kind of hard. It was—

it's emotional.

It brings up a lot of different, like, uh, you know, this is kind of hard. I don't want to quit something I really care about it. But also, how do you move forward and find a way to make it work?

Yeah. Yeah. And in the vein of full transparency, I think that something that's so beautiful about growth is the more that you continue to grow, the more you're going to have to say no to opportunities that you still love.

Yeah.

And that's also really, really hard. And I think we both came to that point where we're like, we know if we shut this down, it's not because it's not working. We've had such a beautiful community. We've had different measures of success and it's been so beautiful. And we're only human and there's so many new things in our world that we also need to put our focus to. And so as we reevaluated a lot of our personal goals and like where the podcast was at, who our listeners are, and also the questions that you all send us has really helped us realize who is listening and what serves you the best. We realized that there was a big overlap in between our goals and what our community was also asking for and how we could best serve you. And I think that's really been at the heart of the podcast is serving you all and being able to share the bits of knowledge and just share our journey as entrepreneurs, as women. And now as we've grown, now we're going to pivot into this and share primarily our journey with you as business owners. And so we will be shifting the podcast from Primarily a lifestyle podcast to primarily a business podcast.

Yeah, I'm excited because in the past the podcast was lifestyle with sprinkle of business because we've always been talking about business. I mean, this is not new, but this new era and new focus of really being more of a holistic business podcast with business at the forefront and lifestyle will still be part of that. friends. We're not going to stop talking about what we're learning in our lives, our in-betweens. Not every single thing is going to be 100% business-focused, but it is going to have that clarity around we want to help women win in their careers and in their businesses. And Astrid coming from being a full-time entrepreneur, me having a, I would say, successful career in tech. Then having a side business as a coach, there's a lot of different perspective for us to add. And we've noticed that a lot of women that listen to the podcast are working full-time jobs but have side gigs and are making income on the side and want to learn how to grow that. And also for our full-time entrepreneurs in the DMs are like, how do I grow? How do I uplevel? How do I hire? And so And also the mindset that is required for any level of ambitious woman. It's just different. You have to unlock different parts of yourself. You have to believe in yourself in a completely different way. You speak to yourself differently. You set goals differently. And so we really want to give you more value in that area.

Yes. And that's exactly why it's going to be focused more on a holistic business approach and topics that we're going to chat through because We, it would be crazy, I think, to think that all we are is business owners and that our routines don't affect us, that our mindset doesn't affect us, that the choices we make in our daily life don't impact the kind of businesswomen that we are. And so that's why we will absolutely still be including a lot of that goal setting side and mindset and lifestyle. But again, to make you or to help you become the best version of yourself in whatever business you decide to do. And so whether you're a creator, whether you're wanting to grow your social media, get yourself out there more, post your outfits, start a podcast, start whatever it is that you want to do, this is going to be the podcast for you to guide you through it, to ask questions. We want it to feel more like we are truly cheering you on, we're holding your hand, and that you can come to us for that resource. And Truly, we've gotten to that point in our careers too, where we're in our early 30s. I've been an entrepreneur for 7 years. I was in the corporate world for 10 years. And Alexis, I believe you've been in both worlds for 10+ years, right? Yeah. I'm a little bit older than you. Yes. Yeah.

I've been in both spaces, been creating content online for 10+ years, have been podcasting for 9 years now since 2016, and have worked in tech and have worked with some of the biggest people in the space and in the creator entrepreneur space. And so I think coming at this from a lens of mentorship, coming at this from a lens of service, of giving back, of really wanting to take what we've learned, the mistakes that we've made, and not doing it alone and really honing in on how do we help you as a builder, as a visionary, as a creator, someone that's dreaming really big, how do we help you get to that next level? We're really excited. I think that when we did a couple different planning sessions on this, and the moment that we landed on it, we just were like, we could not stop. We were taking notes. And it just like the alignment and that momentum that we both felt, it just felt so organic. And I think that's also an example of when something doesn't feel quite right, it doesn't mean that it's over. It just means that maybe there's another way to look at it, or maybe there's a way to pivot. Maybe you aren't necessarily looking at it from the way that maybe your audience wants, like what they want from you. And so are there ways that you can take a step back and also honestly look at it from a 30,000-foot view and say, okay, if I were to keep doing this, one, what does the audience need? What do they find value in? And two, What's fun for me to talk about all day long? What feels invigorating? And I just can't go a day without talking to somebody about their goals and what their dreams are and what business they're building or ways that they're trying to expand themselves. So it feels very natural for both you and I, I think, to head in this direction more formally.

Same, same. Yeah, I love this direction so much. And I think too, Something that was at the core of my goal setting into turning 30 was I want to just give back more. I want to leave a legacy. If I were to step away from whatever business, I want to be able to look back and be like, okay, I helped people along the way and I'm not just going to rot away with all this knowledge too. And I'm still figuring things out as well. But I think that building a business does require a lot of growing pains. And so we've gone through a lot of those. We've figured some things out and other ones we're figuring it out as we go. And we'll get to share them with you on the podcast too. And so I'm excited because I think this is really going to help women start businesses, kind of like really bridge that gap of knowledge too. And when you look at a lot of the business podcasts, it is heavily more on the male side. dominated. And so I'm excited that now we get to step into that space and serve women and share our knowledge and our journey and support you all. So that is the big pivot that we are shifting into with our content. We are so, so excited. And we also have worked on something to add on to the podcast. And so Alexis, do you want to share with our listeners what it is?

Yes. Yes. I'm very excited. This is a part of the podcast that we wanted to deepen, and that was the community aspect. Like, how do we get more hands-on with our community? How do we serve them more? How do we spend more time with them? Like, with you. Like, how do we answer your questions? How do we go deeper? How do we help solve problems with you? How do we get into the nitty-gritty? And that was something that we had toyed around with. Like, how do we do that in a more— Consistent way. We've done some meetups and we've done AMAs and we try to answer all of your questions and answer all your DMs, but there's nothing like going deep with people over a period of time and really getting into the weeds of their business and getting into the weeds of their goals. And so we had first toyed with the idea of potentially launching a membership community and figuring out what that could look like. But when we really stepped back, we're like, I like that idea and maybe that will be something that we do one day, but we wanted to go even deeper. How do we actually be more hands-on? And so we are launching the In-Between Mastermind. This is going to be a 6-month mastermind. We're going to be working with 10 women and we're going to be going through their top 3 business goals over a 6-month period. And we're going to be crafting the content around helping them hit those goals in a 6-month time period. And you'll be coached by me, you'll be coached by Astrid, there'll be group coaching, and it also includes an in-person mastermind element. So towards the latter bit of the mastermind, like month 5 or 6, we'll actually be meeting in person. And I'm really, really excited about just everything that it's going to grow into and to get to I am so incredibly excited about this.

I feel like entrepreneurship can truly be such a lonely journey and it's hard to run a business whenever you're thinking through the service you're providing, the marketing, the finances, the marketing funnels, all the different tools that are coming in, the automation, the client experience. It is so many different elements. And unfortunately, a lot of people feel like they're doing it alone. Unfortunately, I feel like a lot of times creatives and entrepreneurs, we get stuck in our zone of genius, which is why we probably became entrepreneurs. But then there's all these other goals that we have, and it can feel really hard to sometimes step into those goals. And so I am so excited for this because accountability is a big aspect of being able to accomplish those goals and also mentorship. And so if you've been feeling like, this is my year, I want this to be the year that I really launch my marketing, that I really double down on my income, that I launch my business, that I grow my business. We are here to help you with that and we cannot wait. I also love that it's not a short-term thing. We're going to be with you half the year.

Literally. Yeah.

Imagine how much you can get done in half a year and be able to wrap up and be like, okay, I actually did what I said that I was going to do. I kept those promises to myself. I'm a different business owner. And I get it. It's hard. It's hard to step into that version of yourself that you know you can achieve, but it also triggers all those insecurities in you where you're like, oh my gosh, that is so, so hard. So we're going to walk through all of it, get in the nitty-gritty, and just be fully transparent with you on how we run our businesses. So you'll get a full behind the scenes into our processes, our strategies, and Our client experiences and be able to ask all the questions that you need.

Yeah. And a big part of this was we wanted to create an experience and a mastermind of what we wish we had whenever we first got started, because everything Astrid said, and it's also we could get really in our head. And this mastermind is really for women who want to take action, who are taking their dreams very seriously, and who maybe need that extra push and they need to be in a container in which you are being held accountable and you're with other women who are taking action quickly. Because being in that environment of action, and it really creates that momentum and motivation that maybe you need to get started. And then once you're off, like, you can go. But I think that we can get stuck, we can get in these ruts. And also an aspect of being in a mastermind— I have several different experiences with masterminds. In the past is it really gives you a space to process where you want to go, and it helps when people are asking you questions. They're refining. Okay, you're refining your strategy. You're refining your next steps, and it helps you validate as well. Like because we can overthink and because a lot of our ideas do get stuck in our head, having a group of people that are for you, that are in your corner. that are validating where you're headed. They're asking you those questions, they're supporting you, and maybe even challenging you in some healthy ways as well. I think that's a really important part of the journey of going up a level in our businesses.

Yeah, absolutely. I think the community aspect to this is going to be unmatched and so unique. And on top of that, we will have one-on-one calls every month. Where we will deep dive into different topics for your business. So we're really going in on those goals and helping you break it down. And on those calls, we'll also have like hot seats where you can ask different questions, but we'll chat through some of your finances. We'll chat through your marketing, we'll chat through your client experience. And I love that aspect because whenever I've been able to do that before, I think that you're able to one, Sharing what it is that you're looking for in a group is so empowering and being able to just acknowledge like, okay, this is the thing that I just kind of tuck away in my business and I don't really show everybody, anyone else, but I know needs attention. And so it really helps to bring it to a circle and be like, hi, I need support. I need help. How can I solve this? And we're able to really step into that. So we're going to be there to support you through that as well as share our knowledge. So every month we'll have a deep dive topic on that.

Mm-hmm.

And then we're also going to have— you get to have a one-on-one session with me, one-on-one session with Alexis, and we will have, like Alexis mentioned, the trip. I am so excited for that trip because if you've been following the podcast, you know that we love to travel.

Love to travel.

We love experiences. Now we're bringing you along. The podcast is going on a trip as if you're in the mastermind only. I know.

I'm really excited for that part. And to clarify too, the monthly sessions are group sessions. So there'll be group sessions and then you'll also meet one-on-one with Astrid and I. And then an aspect of being in masterminds for me that have been so powerful is those friendships that you make. They really are so sacred. They're so beautiful because you're going through this big transformation with other Mm-hmm. And, um, we're going to be doing some member matching as well. So once you apply to be in the mastermind, we'll also go through your application. And, um, for those of you that want to join, once you've joined, we'll actually look at your goals and we'll look at your business type and we'll actually match you with someone similar or complementary who we think you would really like gel well with. And that's going to be like your texting bestie through the experience. I mean, obviously you'll have access to us too, but we really wanted to take it a step further and give you that accountability person or pod throughout the mastermind. And then the trip, oh my gosh. So Ashton and I are in between 2 locations, to be very, very transparent. We're in between a Nashville mastermind location or a 30A in Florida. as a location. Her and I are both leaning towards 30A. Let us know. But yeah, we're really excited. And the aspect of that trip will be, so we'll do in real life sessions. So we'll map out your business funnel, we'll map out your next 6 months of goals. We'll go really deep into the nitty gritty strategies for your business and then help you build out frameworks as well as action steps of how to actually implement what we come up with in that live session. And then Astrid, who is our amazing photographer, will be doing some brand photography as well. Do you want to talk about that? Yes.

I am so excited to do this. I feel like obviously photography is powerful and of course I'm going to say that, but I do think that sometimes it's just hard to get the photography that you need to market your business. So once we work on the behind the scenes of everything, it's time to execute. You'll be executing throughout this whole process, but Specifically in this mastermind trip, we're going to launch you onto your next round of goals. So we're going to do branding sessions. I'm so excited for it. Whatever location it is that we end up with, we can definitely coordinate vibes of different brands and make your session unique. But I am so excited. It's my little love language to just take pictures of people and help make them feel extra beautiful in front of the camera. And just help you feel confident in the copy that you're putting out there and the photography that you're putting out there for your business. So I am so stoked to have that on there. And also I love that you said we're in between 2 locations because how on brand is that?

Just being literally in between 2. We're pricing out both of them to figure out what makes the most sense. Also flights and what's easiest to get to. But we are really excited to have the virtual, obviously, 6-month experience of the mastermind, but then being able to have this beautiful capstone celebration of being in person together and just having that one-on-one time. We've formed a bond. We have bonded over the last 5, 6 months. And then to be able to hang out in person for the weekend will just be so special. And then obviously we'll do it in our own way. We'll have some fun dinners. We'll dress up. It'll be super girly. We'll have some movement, maybe some Pilates, some yoga. So like, it'll be a holistic weekend as well. We won't just be like business, business, business, um, because I like to have fun. So it'll be— and business is fun, but it'll be a lovely mix of both.

Yes, I am so, so excited. So if you are interested in joining the mastermind and you say this is absolutely for me, I am serious about my goals this year, um, you can go ahead and sign up for the waitlist and apply to join the mastermind. I believe the link will be in our show notes. So all the information that you need will be on there. And if you have a business bestie that you're like, I know that she would absolutely benefit from this too, definitely share that along. And like we said, we're only accepting 10 people just because we really want to make sure this experience is a high-quality experience, a high-touch experience, and that we're able to work really, really well one-on-one with each of you as well. So yeah, we're So excited. We are going to be starting in February our first call and then run that for 6 months. So, um, definitely DM us if you have any questions. We'll be, um, answering as many as we can.

Yeah, we'll, we'll be, um, collecting people on the waitlist applications over the next few weeks, and then we will open the cart, if you will, the virtual cart February 10th. So if you, you know, want to ask us questions, anything like that, we are obviously an open book and just really excited about the transformation that we'll all get to experience together in this mastermind. I'm also really excited to do this with you. Like, this is Astrid and I's first time putting together an offer like this, like in a way of like offering a lot of value and working together as business Experts, coaches with all of our expertise. And so this will be a really fun thing for her and I to do together. But, um, you know, at the, at the forefront and center of it is just adding a lot of value to you and your business in 2025.

Yes. I am so excited to do this with you. And for anyone listening, if you're wondering like, okay, who is this for? If I haven't launched my business yet, can I join? Absolutely. If you're a creator, you can absolutely join because you may monetize your posts as well.

Content.

And if you're a seasoned entrepreneur, absolutely join because we, like we said, we've been in our careers for more than 10 years. We have a diverse background as well. So we'll try to help you as much as we can, but share a lot of the more nitty-gritty nerdy stuff that we love when it comes to running a successful business as well. So anywhere from you're thinking of launching a business, you're thinking of launching a side hustle, or you already have those as well. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a good distinction.

Thank you for bringing that up.

Who is this for? Yeah. Oh, an array, honestly. Like, and I think that'll also get down into the accountability pieces. So if you are a more experienced business owner, we will match you with someone who is at a similar level in their business or in their journey as you. Or if you're starting out, we'll also match you with someone who's at a similar stage. That way you can both find value in being in a similar journey of your entrepreneurial journey. I said journey a lot, but you get what I'm saying.

It is a journey. It's a long journey. Together. We love you all and we've worked so, so hard on this mastermind, so hard on this rebrand as well. So We primarily love you. So we would love to hear from you on what do you think about the podcast cover? What do you think about the new photos? What do you think about the mastermind? What do you think about the new direction of the podcast? We just, at the core of it all, just want to serve you, just want to love on you, just want to help you truly live your dream life. And we're just honored that you tune in every week and that you allow us to share this space with you.

Yeah. Couldn't agree more. Thank you so much for listening, for being a part of this community. We actually have our next 12 weeks of podcast episode title topics picked out. We are so excited about this direction. So next week we're going to be talking about stepping into your CEO mindset and how to stop playing small and ways that we self-sabotage as a CEO, whether it's the CEO of your life, the CEO of your side business, or you're a full-time creator entrepreneur. This is really going to be that mindset piece of how do we level up? Like, how do we really step into that mindset in 2025? And we're excited about all the fun things to come. Again, thank you so much for being here. And in the meantime, as Astrid mentioned, let us know what you think. You can connect with us at inbetween.pod, and that waitlist link will be in the show notes. And then if you have any questions for me, you can reach out to me Uh, on Instagram @alexistechmiller.

And you can reach out to me @astrojohannaphoto. We love you all so much. It's good to be back and we'll catch you next time.