130: From Burnout to Creativity: Ev’s Journey as a Social Media Manager

In this episode, I’m excited to introduce you to Ev, a former high school music teacher with 18 years of experience who transitioned into the world of social media management. As she faced burnout in public education, Ev realized her passion for creativity and decided to embrace entrepreneurship.

Now, she offers both done-for-you social media services and consulting sessions for small businesses seeking guidance in managing their social media presence.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Ev’s inspiring journey from teaching to becoming a successful social media manager
• The importance of creativity in your work and how to find it in your career
• Tips for small businesses on how to effectively manage their social media with or without support

Connect with Ev:
Instagram @flanagancontent  or @thesomeoneeveryonepodcast

Ready to Be Inspired?
Hit play to hear how Ev turned her passion into a thriving business and discover tips for enhancing your own social media strategy! 

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:19

Evelyn Flanagan is our special guest today. She is a former high school music teacher of 18 years, turned social media manager. If you attended the podcast summit that I hosted in January, Evelyn was one of the speakers on there. She is absolutely a joy to talk with. In this chat, you will hear about what it's like being in the yuck, being in it, being in the transition, not quite knowing what's next. And I appreciate Evelyn so much for being so vulnerable and real and raw and sharing this. I know you're gonna love this conversation. There's so many pieces to relate to and nuggets to take away. So let's get to it.

SPEAKER_03 0:54

We've already been talking and we're just really diving into the meat of it. Give me the brief rundown of just who you are. You're a former teacher like me, but now you're in the entrepreneurial world. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

I was a teacher for 17 and a half years, high school music teacher here in Ontario, Canada. And the last couple of years I was a teacher. I started to get that. I always say it was like a tug in my heart or a little nudge in my heart for something else, something different. I was really unsatisfied with the politics of teaching. I'm sure that's relatable to a lot of teachers, former or current. And then I left teaching uh in January of 2022. That would be our end of semester one. So I went on a leave, an unpaid leave, just to kind of give myself some space to figure out what I wanted to do. And then it wasn't until the end of 2022 that I put in my retirement paperwork, I guess. So I started 2023, January 2023, I started fully, you know, released from teaching. And but during that time, during my unpaid leave, I had been doing social media management with a friend of mine. And I had done some online stuff in terms of courses and learning. I did some continuing education through a college in Toronto. I didn't know what I didn't know, but I knew that what I was doing, I loved. I was like, oh, this is fun. There's so many parallels between social media management or any kind of digital online management and being a teacher or even being an entrepreneur and being a teacher. Like I was just loving the parallels between the two. But where I find myself now in the entrepreneurial world is I was thinking of it this morning, like, what's a good analogy? And I feel like I'd have to say I'm on like the gravelly shoulder of the road. I'm not in the ditch. We're not tanking, but I don't feel like I'm smooth driving on the freeway. There's a lot of micro corrections that I'm doing. I feel like it's not a comfortable drive. It feels really messy. There's stones spewing all over the place. So that's kind of where it's been, I think, because I feel a shift in that I don't know what I want to fully submerse myself in. In being an entrepreneur, I don't know exactly what I want to do when I grow up.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

Oh, I completely feel that. I mean, I wonder if this is constantly happening to entrepreneurs. I don't know that I'm far enough into entrepreneurship to know if it's a cycle that's gonna just happen every couple of years. But my friend Andrea, who's uh ahead of me in this cycle, she has noticed that every two years she launches a completely new business or takes on like a downtown building rental or something really major. And so I wonder if that's almost like the roller coaster that just keeps happening in entrepreneurship because you're so committed to growth and alignment, which I am too. Then there's always these moments of pause where you got one tire on the gravel strip. I love that analogy. It's so true. Like if we let go, we could go on the ditch, maybe we could end up back on the road. Yeah, it's gonna be okay. But those pauses for reflecting on what do I want to do, what is in alignment, what feels good to me in my body, in my gut, wherever you feel that, what doesn't, you know, sometimes that helps me get to the answer quicker of I knew that didn't feel good. We were talking for this about pricing, and I was saying how I was doing an hourly rate for most of my virtual assisting clients, and I would get done with a project and be like, that's the bill I'm gonna bill them. Like, that is who can live off of this? That's a pain. This doesn't feel good because I'm penalizing myself for being good at these skills. Now I'm in this changing all my clients over to a project-based amount to say this is what this project is going to cost, because it just wasn't feeling good in my body. But we left teaching because we wanted to create a life that we wanted, that we wanted to have more control, more alignment. So while we're on our entrepreneurship journey, we're not just checking boxes every day. I mean, there are days like that, but there are moments where we need to pause so that we can course correct, get back on the road to that. It's because what's in alignment, what feels good in your body.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

You know what made me feel really good that you just said was that you said, I don't know if I've been an entrepreneur long enough to know this is a cycle. And you've obviously been one longer than I have. And I mean, there are still people out there just starting, like today, listening to this episode, right? Starting their journey. How many times in my life or since I've quit teaching, do I think, why don't I have a better handle on this? I've been doing this for only two and a half years. Like, come on, Ev, right? Like it's nothing really in the, you know, in the grand scheme of your life. But it every day it kind of feels like everything. And so I put a lot of pressure on myself to make every day matter the maximum amount. But then what I'm learning that does for me, and I've seen over the last two years is that I haven't given myself enough space to maybe process what's going on, or there was a whole time of coming down from that teaching for me. And I still feel like I'm coming down from it in certain ways and at certain times of year. It's like the body memory is real, you know, if you do something for so long and there's so many subconscious things, you know, you're doing and you're not even thinking of, and then sometimes your body reminds you, hey, it's the end of June. Like we finished school at the end of June up here. So sometimes I honestly am like, it's the end of June. Like, why am I tired? Why am I tired? I shouldn't be tired, put a lot of shoulds and shouldn'ts on myself. But you saying that you haven't been doing it long enough to know if it's a cycle actually just made me feel so much better in that moment because it made me realize there is time and I don't always need to put so many expectations on myself, like such pressure on myself to figure this out. Because I feel like the harder I push to figure things out, the worse it gets.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

Yes, you know. No, I feel that too. Going back to what you said about the two and a half years in, and that's not that much time. No, it's not. And think back to being a teacher. Well, you were two years in teaching. Do you think you knew what you were doing? Oh my gosh, I bet it wasn't until like year 10 where I'm like, okay, now I could walk in blindfold and make this happen, just being that confident. And there is this unrealistic expectation coming from a nine to five that we were in for so long, knowing our expertise, maybe in that, and expecting that level in this next thing that we're doing is such a mind-boggling thing. Well, I need to go back and let myself be a rookie. I need to go back and let myself be a beginner. I need to let myself suck. I need to really just let myself try things because I don't even know what I like at this point. It's like when like elementary teachers go in and you're just gonna take any job K through six that you get to start with. But you don't know, do I like teaching kindergartners? Will I learn pretty fast? No, I don't. I have them in my own home and I don't want to be by them all day long. Give me the older kids. So we're expecting that we're coming off of being that high-level expertise of a decade plus work worth of work and education and constant learning. And we're walking in entrepreneurship being like, okay, that should correlate and be exactly the same. And that's crazy. We would never expect that of someone else, but for some reason we put that on our own selves to bear that weight of that.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Do you think a little bit of it is pride? Knowing that I was at a point in my teaching career where it was comfortable in many ways. You knew what worked for the most part, and you knew what didn't work for the most part. Although I wasn't thinking I was at the pinnacle of my career at any point, because I think as a teacher, you have major imposter syndrome and you're wondering if what you're doing is right, and you're like, I'm a total failure. But then in hindsight, I'm like, no, I really I knew a lot of things, right? So I'm putting the, and I'm doing hand quotes here, I was good at what I did. I'm putting that over what I feel like I should be doing now. And it's like, I should be better than this. I was a good teacher. Why am I not good at this? Like I said earlier, there's a lot of parallels, but the things that are different are ridiculously different.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Ridiculously different, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:47

So different.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

Yeah. The other piece is, you know, in entrepreneurship, a lot of times, you know, we can be coaches, we can offer a service, we can offer skill, we can offer digital products, whatever it might be. And we think that we need to, or at least I have had these thoughts of when you're a teacher, you have a degree that goes with. In fact, I had a bachelor's degree, a master's degree. I had 30 credits on top of that. I had everything you could have, right? And in entrepreneurship, there's not really, I mean, I guess you could go find classes to something, but you don't need that. It's your experiences that, like you said, there's a lot of parallels, but that's extremely different. You do not need those degrees. What you need is to walk the walk and experience all these things, and that's how you can share because we're not helping everyone. We are not our market, it is not every single person. When you're talking to everyone, you're talking to no one. The old saying goes, Really, who we're looking to help is the person that is one step behind us. So you don't need to be this expert that we want to put on ourselves. I think back to my network marketing days when I was doing the whole wellness beach body coaching stuff. And so many people then were like, Well, I haven't lost enough weight, or I haven't done X, Y, and Z yet to be a coach. When it's like, No, the person that's right behind you, all they actually want to know is how to get to where you are right now. Because in their mind, they can't fathom how to even get to that point. You've already done that, you're the expert in that. That's who you're helping. And I think we can lose sight of that, or we can have just this broad picture of I don't know enough, or I haven't accomplished enough, or I haven't done enough yet to be able to coach or start this business. But in fact, you do because you're not here to serve everyone, you're here to serve the person that's a step or two behind you, and you are the exact person that they need.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

That is so good, Candace.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

Person 10 steps ahead, they don't even remember what it's like to be that in that spot. So they're not the ones that are gonna get you there. That's true. There's room for all of us, there is a space for all of us. That's why I don't feel like I'm in competition with other coaches or other service providers, whatever, because I'm helping different people, I'm helping people that are on this a similar path to me. I'm not helping who you're helping.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

That's true. And it comes down to personality fit much more than skill fit. I mean, definitely skill. That's something you have to have if you're gonna kind of walk with someone through the next steps of their journey, but personality fit. Some of our clients that I have right now are therapists, and they talk often about how the therapeutic relationship is the thing. That's like the thing that makes the difference. And I always tie that to how that was the same thing in the classroom. I always believed that you could be the best, the absolute expert in your subject field in the whole world. But if you're a total donkey of a person, then no student is going to feel like they want to learn from you. So I think a really beautiful thing happens when it's a good personality match between like the kids in your class and you as a teacher, and you know, you create that vibe. But I've learned in the entrepreneurial world that it's a very similar thing. You really gel with people, it's a two-way street, right? You get to pick if you're a good fit for that client as well. Like if that client's a good fit for you, it can go both ways. I think it comes down to that a lot is just do you want to work together?

SPEAKER_03 11:56

I know you're in a bit of a transition, figuring out where am I going next? What do I want to keep? What's gonna stay? What's gonna go? That's so common. Talk us through that. How do you know what direction you're gonna go next as you keep inching closer towards the next thing? What are the steps? I feel like people want a tangible thing. But oh my gosh. And it might not be tangible, but give me the picture of how you're inching yourself closer to what's next for you.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

That's a great question. I think if I'm to be completely honest, I understand the need for wanting something tangible. I have said to my therapist, she is Chef's Kiss so good. Like I wish I could see her every day, but that's I mean, we're gonna remortgage the house to make that happen. But we've often talked about, you know, not needing to make every day blown out of the water in terms of, you know, I'll say things like, what does a day of rest look like? Or like if we're talking about this, and I'll literally say to her, that is great, you know, when we talk about things. And I'll say, but what does 113 on a Thursday afternoon look like? I want to know exactly what 10 a.m. look like, right? And this goes back to living by the bell, I'm sure. But there are things I can talk about stuff, but to put it into practice, I'm finding it's very uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_03 13:10

Time on I've had the same conversation with my therapist. Really? Like, oh, you should have like a day to yourself or you're right. What does that look like? Yes. Am I gonna sit here on my butt and turn on network? Like, what am I doing? Right staring into the abyss? Am I staring at the window?

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Okay, I'm high-fiving you in Minnesota right now. That makes me feel because I think that's what people want. Like the thought of a rest day or the thought of a season of rest sounds great. To anyone who's listening to this right now who is desperate for a season of rest, they're probably like, just shut her down. What do you mean you don't know how to do it? But then you get into it. The first thought, as soon as I put my feet up, get a cup of tea, the first thought that comes in my head is, Well, you don't have a purpose and you are absolutely wasting your life right now. So great. No one's resting with that voice in their heads. So where I am right now, I do a bit of business with my business partner and friend and former teacher partner. So we have a client together, we do some consulting. It's all social media management based, which is a lot of fun. We have a good time, but now there's room in my life for things that I could do on my own. I'm realizing that that's one little part of my life, but what could the rest of it look like? Business wise, I'm in the midst of getting a website done, which is great. The offers I have will be social media management, consulting, podcast management. I've started my own podcast and I've really loved all the ins and outs of that, like the editing and the managing and the promoting. That's just been really a lot of fun. So that's really great. And then part of me feels like, well, you're not doing it right now. So why are you making a website? Like there's all this little chatter in my head, right? I do feel in my gut that that's the right thing to do because I'm not gonna wait until I'm overflowing with business to then make a website. I feel like I'm setting the foundations of stuff. So I'm getting that done kind of on one end. I'm feeling incredibly guilty about my social media over at Flanagan content because I have no desire to post on this right now. And I want to talk about things I've learned, you know, since quitting teaching, things I've learned about being an entrepreneur, and I feel really stuck. Like as a social media manager, to feel stuck about my own social media. I can't make a strategy for myself. The guilt is just so real, it's piling on top of everything. So I'm kind of just pretending that doesn't exist right now. Like I'm just like, nope focus, just focus on one thing. So anyway, the conversation I had with a friend of mine, this all kind of ties together because I feel like I'm really floating around with stuff right now. Like, okay, the website's happening, but I'm feeling like I'm dragging my bum on that. You know, you're trying to come up with your about me and why you want to work with me and what sets me apart. And I think because my self-talk is pretty crummy right now. And so I had a conversation with a friend of mine and she's still a teacher. And I said, if I'm being honest, I feel kind of lost right now. I feel kind of lost in where I am because when I quit teaching, my work partner and I were going hot and heavy with social media stuff. Like it was busy, it was intense, I was doing courses, I was working at another little place part-time, just something totally different, but just to bring in some income and have some routine in my life, really. But now the dust is kind of settled. I feel like it's a real season of quiet. So I said to her, when I was teaching, I had these dreams of waking up like super early in the morning, waking up, getting my laptop, getting my earbuds, going to a Starbucks and just sitting by the window and watching the world kind of wake up and have my little coffee and all this cute little that sounds so good. And she said, Why don't you do it? And I said, I can't. It feels like so much work, right? This feels like so much work. I said, I just can't do it. It feels too hard. And Candace, she looked me in the eye and without missing, without skipping a beat, she goes, No, that's not it. And I said, What? What do you mean? She goes, No, for the last 20 years, I have seen you do hard work and do hard things and really just go all out. She said, You can do hard things. That's not the reason you can't do this. It's something else. And I was like, Oh my gosh, what? It never occurred to me that it wasn't because I'm lazy. Like it wasn't because I just can't do it. I can't get out of bed in the morning. She just saw right through that and was like, No, you can do hard things. You do hard things all the time. That's not it. She said, It's something else, just doesn't feel right for you right now. That's not a right thing for you. And that's a little thing going having, you know, doing some work at Starbucks, but that's representative of bigger things to me. You know, she's like, No, that's that's just not what it is. And then she says, I think you're pushing too hard to find what the next thing is for you. I just think you're pushing so hard and it's not helping. I love that coffee. There was so much clarity there because I'm pushing really hard because there is part of me, and I'm sure other people feel this way, when you're not flat out with work because the entrepreneur journey tides and varying levels of work, right? One month you're crazy busy, and then anything can change, and then that can shift in a couple days. I feel there's that sense of, well, if I'm not busy with work right now, what am I busy with? I need to look like I'm busy. And then sometimes when there's nothing, maybe I need to pay attention to the fact that there's nothing. There's pockets for rest or just downshifting and going, what is next? Time to think about what's next.

SPEAKER_03 18:23

First, I appreciate you sharing all of that and being just so honest and open because it can be so hard to talk about that. I relate to what you're saying so much. I actually just yesterday had a day. One shift I've made is that I don't book calls on Mondays. I have little kids, so our weekends are nuts. And so to honor my own self, I have not booked calls on Mondays. Well, then I get to Mondays and like yesterday, had a little freak out because I'm like, I'm not doing anything today. The clients I've been doing work for, we were at a point where like there's nothing more for me to do until I hear back from them. And so I'm like, what am I supposed to do? And kind of freaked out, like you're mentioning. I feel relatable because, like, well, if I'm not productive today, if I can't say that I did X, Y, and Z, then like, do I have a job? Maybe you decide, maybe I don't. It's fake because it's so easy when you have the nine to five, is you go to a building or you punch in, that's what you do. I also think that we're of the era that grew up knowing that you work hard and that's how you're get your success, that's how you make money, is because it's hard work and you do all the hard things. So I know for me, when I have that downtime, it's not comfortable. But I also have learned now through therapy and things like that, that when it's not comfortable, that's when I need to sit in it the most. And so I did things yesterday like meditating and journaling. And while it wasn't fun and it didn't feel good, and I went for a walk for my stupid mental health, you know, that you are gonna have those days. And what we say now over in ABC, my aligned business collective that I co-host, is that we need to leave room for magic. So that's how we've rephrased it and repositioned it in our minds is that the space that you're having of this downtime is holding space for the next thing to come in. Because I'm a firm believer now that when our days are packed full, the next thing for us is never coming because there's no room for it. It's not coming. I remember when I was leaving teaching, I kept wishing for like two years before I left, I would leave, but I don't know what I'm gonna do. What's next? Then finally I came to terms with I don't think I'm gonna get to know until I do leave, and then I'll figure it out. I guess that space now, those pauses, I've learned to rephrase them in my head of pausing is productive, and you're leaving room for magic. You're holding that space open to the world, universe, God, your higher power to be like, I'm ready for the next thing. But completely agreed, pushing it, working harder really is not a thing in entrepreneurship. Yeah, we need to have that ambition to like get the project done or launch the thing that we think of. But in order for the new idea, the next steps, I do uh believe fully that there has to be those seasons of pause and those seasons of I don't know what I should be doing. And the more we force it, the worse it gets, unfortunately. Surrendering, having a lot of trust that when you give yourself that space, the next idea will come because it always has before. Look back at your life, the next always come for you. I guarantee it. You're just trusting, you're just in this space, and I think a lot of us need that message. The next thing is coming, but also it's not gonna come if our schedules are jam-packed and we're constantly filling it and we're doing and doing productivity and da-da-da-da. It's not gonna come when the days look like that. Where would it fit in? If you got that idea, it would be fleeting because you would already know, well, I don't have time in the day for that. Yes. But when you're in these seasons of embracing that time and the pause, that's when that idea comes and that's when you give it actual thought. Is this the next thing for me? Is this a possibility? And that's how it then can be turned into action.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

I love that. On the trust piece, like you said, trust, and it made me think of something that I used to tell myself years ago and I had kind of forgotten about because I went years ago, went on leave for part of a semester. I was having panic attacks at school. This was like back in, I don't know, like 2011, maybe. And so I went on leave from middle of March till the end of June. And at the time, I thought that was career's sober. Like, oh, it's over. I have to go on leave, you know, this is it. But my body and my brain were telling me that like major time out here. Is what we need. So I went on leave. So I was at home. And I remember thinking my greatest fear was that this is the rest of my life. The rest of my life is me at home, anxiety ridden to the point where I can't even leave the house. All of your worst nightmares. That's the rest of my life. Over that time, I, you know, I made myself go out for a little walk every day. And sometimes it was to the end of the driveway. And our driveway, like I live in a city, so our driveway is probably seven feet long, right? But it's short. And I had to learn really what the smallest step possible looked like. I was to the point where I couldn't drive. I was so anxious I was going to crash the car. So I practiced sitting in the car, not even running. I just practiced going out and sitting in the car. I had never known small steps like this up to this point. But where I was going with this is that I eventually got to the point where I could say to myself, okay, you're sitting on the couch today. Today's a really bad day in the brain. Maybe you're not walking to the driveway. You're not sitting in the car today. But do you trust yourself enough that sometime you will come back to life? That this is not the rest of your life. And I could answer that. Yes, I trust myself to know that this is not how it's always going to be. So I've had to kind of remind myself during this time, and you just reminded me of that again, where yesterday was a great example. I was exhausted, tired from the weekend, but I sat out on the deck just wanting to get some sun wrapped in a blanket. And there was a lot of that in yesterday. And there were times where I thought, I feel really guilty for doing this. There are friends of mine out there that are pounding the pavement, dealing with crazy things, not just at schools, but in their office jobs or whatever. And here I am doing this. Is this the rest of my life? I can immediately say no, because I trust myself that I have more burning in my heart to do. There's something coming, but I have to trust myself that doing this today is okay because that will come.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

Yes, doing this is okay. And the guilt piece, it helps me to be like, okay, well, is this guilt serving anyone? Obviously, it's not serving you. It's not certain, you know, it's not serving me. I think we all have those thoughts of like, well, who am I to get to be going out on a walk on a Monday morning at 11 o'clock? I mean, I even went through the car wash at 8 a.m. yesterday, and I thought there's no line at a car wash on 8 a.m. because everybody else is at work. Who am I to be sitting here? But it also I get to sit here because I had the guts to try something different. Yeah, I get to do this because I have the guts and the trust in my own self and in the world to know that I'm gonna make this work, and that's why I get to do this. And it also the people that we're thinking of that we're feeling guilty about, it's not helping them for us to have guilt about that. Of course it doesn't do anything for them. And I also just think that the more you rise, the more I rise, the more the people around us will rise. That's just how it works, and that's why we have these communities. That's why I love my podcast to get to talk to people like you, and that's why I have the ABC membership going on for other solo entrepreneurs and things like that. Because when someone rises, we all rise. And when we have that guilt pop in, because it's such a natural thing to pop in.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 25:15

If you can try to reframe it as to first of all, is this serving anyone, me, them, you know, that kind of a piece. Yeah, which I'm not saying that every time that I have a crummy mindset day, I'm like, oh, I know these tools, and I'm just gonna ask if this serve anything. Absolutely not. We're all sitting in yuck from time to time, but hopefully, the more you keep rewiring and working on all that, like you said, those small pieces, those small steps. That's what entrepreneurship is all about. Whenever we're looking at the huge end goal, big picture of launching a business or launching a new offer, getting a website built. There are so many pieces to that that nobody would start those things if all we could think about was the end of it and all that goes into that. We have to go back like 50 steps and think about what is the very next thing. Yeah, what is the very tiniest next action and all those pieces because those are the things our brains are like, oh, I can do that, I can do that tiny piece. I can walk to the driveway, I can set up a new email account for myself and my new business. It's the pieces though, when we just get stuck in that future huge massiveness. I find myself in certain days, like, can I build a business doing virtual work for people? How could I make enough money that aligns with my financial goals by the end of a year if I'm doing that? And I think we also have to allow ourselves in those moments to be like, it's okay to not know the answer right now. Yes. And we're on this path learning something for a reason. Yeah. And to me, entrepreneurship just has a lot to do with trusting the process and trusting that I'm meant to be doing this thing right now. Yeah. But also I get to pivot whenever I want to. Yes. It's not a bad thing, it's a great thing. And I can't remember where I read it, but it was like the people that in business that pivot the fastest are the most successful. And I think it was a man that wrote this book because for some reason men don't sit with that guilt. They don't care if they're reading a book on a Monday. They're reading a book on a Monday in the sun. They're not thinking about everybody else. I think that's a very female thing. Oh, for sure. Because we are always taking care of everybody. Yes. Whether you have kids or not, your caretaking depends upon us. And so our brains are like wired to be thinking about everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

Much to our own detriment at times. I think it's a beautiful quality, you know. Being someone who's not a mother, I'm just so amazed at the moms in my life who can do that. What has to be done, but it's done in love. And it's just this amazing thing that I see moms doing. But also as a teacher, you have that sense of being in charge, having people under your care, having a lot of people under your care and making sure everyone's well-being. And then, you know, well-being is set and everyone's safe, everyone's happy, no one's crying. And then the moment you sit down and kind of exhale, it's not a, oh, good, now I can take care of myself. It's a, oh, okay, what do I need to do next to make sure this environment can happen an hour down the road? Like there's always that sense of trying to choreograph what's next or set the stage, set the environment, set the terms, set the conditions for how to make sure everyone's cared for in the next chunk of time.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

And with anything, we can think of the negative side, and we can also think of the positive side while being a woman and thinking about realse and having those guilty moments or things like that, that is obviously a negative or it's something that's not serving us, but on a positive flip side, it's also what makes us great at being mentors and being coaches and offering services and helping people with their virtual needs, whether it's social media or online, because we are detailed oriented and we are able to tap into the feeling of what the message your business wants to portray. And I think that is an amazing gift that goes along with our feminine sides. Okay, is there a message that you would like the listeners to take away today if they don't remember anything else?

SPEAKER_00 29:03

I would love for more people to share when they are on the gravel on the side of the highway. I think it's important not just to acknowledge when you're there, not when you're in the rough patches, but I think to share it because every time I have, I find that that encourages others, encourages them to also say, Oh my gosh, that's where I am too, or hey, I was there last year and it was rough. We just need to share more of those times when you're in the weeds. Guaranteed there's more people in the weeds around you. Oh, yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_03 29:35

It's not a you thing, it's a we thing.

SPEAKER_00 29:38

Exactly. I would love for people to just do that more because it's so encouraging because the entrepreneurial world can be lonely, but there's so many of us out there that it shouldn't be lonely.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

Happen to a community. I mean, I think the way that I met you and Michelle, your business partner, was I came across your Instagram and I think I followed you for like a week and I was like, these girls seem cool. I'm gonna just invite them to be a guest on the podcast. I mean, just literally sending random messages out to people. I don't know, pulled DMs from network marketers back in the day of spamming. I mean, if that's given you a bad taste, just put that aside. That's not what you're doing. Yeah, don't be afraid to reach out to those people. You guys were so open to my message, and I've had people message me and I'm open to it, and the right people will be open to it and will be excited to talk to you and have these conversations. That's how you can create a community if you don't feel like you have one yet. Finally, then one, thanks for being so open and honest about this. I think it's hard to talk about the yuck, especially when you're in it. It's much easier to talk about it after the fact. So I really appreciate you sharing that because it is the real story and it is what happens. And I think that might be why people don't share, is because they think that it's just them that it's happening to, but it's really not. So I I love that you're bringing that to light today. Where can people connect with you? I know you have a website being built, but in the meantime, where can we find you?

SPEAKER_00 30:54

I'm mainly on Instagram. LanniganContent is where you can find me. But I also started a podcast in January because you know the world just needs more podcasts, but I really felt a big nudge to start one. And I started one in January, and it's called the Someone Everyone Podcast. And if there's one thing in my life right now that is bringing me the most inexplicable joy, I will say that is it. So that's on Instagram as well. And it's recording conversations and seeing wherever they go. You've been on it. It was such a great episode. We did talk a little bit about teaching, and then you talked about aligned business collective, and they're just natural conversations. I'm just chatting with people who I think is someone that everyone should know. So on Instagram, that's the Someone Everyone Podcast, and it's on Apple Podcasts as well.

SPEAKER_03 31:38

I'll link that in the show notes and highly recommend the podcast. Go check that out. And they're quick episodes. Thanks again for being on.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

Thank you so much, Candace. I hope we see each other again. We'll just keep being on each other's podcast. Yes, do it. Deal.