Small Business Bestie
Entrepreneurship is hard, and sometimes we could use a friend to walk a mile in our shoes. Small Business Bestie is here to provide that friendship, support, and inspiration that small business owners need from time to time.
Small Business Bestie
19: Rayna Wallen on Turning Crisis Into Opportunity in Event Planning and Interior Design
Rayna Wallen, an exceptional entrepreneur with 17 years of experience in event and interior design joined me for a chat this week. Rayna takes us on a captivating journey from launching her wedding planning business in 2008 to expanding into corporate events and interior design with Brazen Events and Teal & Taupe Design. She opens up about the hurdles she faced during the COVID-19 pandemic when large-scale events were canceled overnight, showcasing her resilience and adaptability in the face of unprecedented obstacles.
Picture orchestrating a pop-up event for 400 people during the Kentucky Derby or planning innovative corporate projects like glow box displays and drone obstacle courses. Rayna gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the exhilarating and sometimes exhausting nature of event planning. We also explore her passion for creating unique, client-focused spaces through her latest venture, Teal and Taupe Design Group, which specializes in hospitality design from tea rooms to boutique hotels. Throughout our discussion, Rayna's dedication to merging talents and passions to craft memorable experiences shines through.
As our conversation wraps up, we get into the challenges women face in the business world and the importance of breaking through self-imposed barriers. Rayna and I share insights on the value of stepping outside our comfort zones, the need for mentors or coaches, and the essential role of self-care in maintaining balance amidst a demanding work schedule. With heartfelt reflections and motivational messages, this episode is a treasure trove of inspiration and practical advice for any aspiring or seasoned entrepreneur. Don't forget to subscribe to the Small Business Bestie podcast to stay connected and continue your entrepreneurial journey with us!
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Welcome to the Small Business Bestie podcast, where we celebrate the journey of women entrepreneurs in the heart of Central Kentucky and beyond. I'm your host, michelle, and my mission is to create a podcast and community for us. Each week, join us as we sit down with a different small business bestie to dive deep into their stories, sharing the highs, the lows and everything in between. We will meet friends who are brand new in business, veterans in business and maybe even the occasional dreamer. So grab your favorite coffee or cocktail, get cozy and let's meet. This week's small business bestie, raina Wallin, is sitting down with me today to tell us all about her amazing adventures in entrepreneurship, and I am so excited to have this conversation. She is not only a great businesswoman but also just a funny lady and a good time, so hopefully you guys will get to see that part of her as well. Raina, would you take just a moment and tell everybody kind of about who you are and what you?
Speaker 2:do. Yeah, so my name is Raina and I have been in business now for 17 years, which is insane to even voice, but I do all things related to experience design. It comes to event design and interior design. All of my businesses really focus on experience design and interior design.
Speaker 1:All of my businesses really focus on experience. Awesome yeah.
Speaker 2:So do you work primarily in Lexington or do you work like all over? Where is your? So I'm based in Versailles, but a lot of our business is in Lexington. In Louisville, a lot of conventions that come here. We handle a lot of their details, their sets, their you know VIP areas and custom builds, things like that. So that's Brazen Events. And then I also own Teal Taupe Design and that is a new baby of mine. That's fairly new and I'm doing interior design for House Fatality. So I just finished a tea room in Lexington called Lexington Tea Brie and I do primarily work that in Lexington. So two separate businesses.
Speaker 1:Yes, one is geared more towards events and like large scale kind of experiential things, and then a more commercial design yeah. Interior design for hospitality Awesome. Yeah. So have you always been in this space, or?
Speaker 2:how did you get here? Yeah, it's crazy. I've always been in the event space. I started a wedding planning business back in 2008. It was a time where I really wanted to own my own business and I thought I wanted to own a boutique and it just didn't go well. The inventory and all the things just really overwhelmed me, and I had a relative that said you should look into being a wedding planner and I honestly, was like people make money doing that, yeah, and so I started doing some research and I'm from Eastern Kentucky. My experience in weddings was literally a church ceremony and cookies and punch downstairs and so the next thing you know, I'm planning these like 20, 30, $40,000 weddings and I had just went with it. It was truly the epitome of fake it till you make it my first two years. Then I knew what I was doing.
Speaker 1:That's incredible, yeah, so how long did you stay in wedding?
Speaker 2:planning. I did weddings for probably about eight years at full time and I was doing pretty successful. I also started several other businesses in Lexington and sold those. I own Simply Love Studio. I started that, a few other things and along the way, because I just can't sit still. And then I kind of got to a point where I really wanted to grow and expand and so I wanted to do rebrand the business and I took it a little further and we started doing corporate events.
Speaker 2:And then we moved to Cincinnati right before the pandemic to expand even further. We really wanted to focus on Lexington, louisville and Cincinnati and basically handle all three markets from one central location. So we got a bigger warehouse and we had this full production team and things were going great. We were doing a lot of corporate events. We had one really huge corporate event and then it canceled during COVID, like right when it all happened. So everything just completely shut down. So at that time I was doing primarily corporate events. Weddings were kind of still there, but on the back burner, more done for, you know, repeat clients or what have you. Yeah, yeah, wow, it was crazy.
Speaker 1:So you had grown, grown, grown, expanded. You've got this huge warehouse. I'm assuming you've got a very large team at this point. It was yeah, we had 12 people at that time, yeah, and then COVID happened, grinding halt.
Speaker 2:What kind of happened after that it was crazy. The whole world was obviously trying to deal with what was going on, and at that time I had coaching clients as well, and so we all were like in this weird phase and everyone was saying, oh, this will be done in two to three months, and I was like, no, we're at least a two year thing. Like I knew it. I knew that this was changing everything for us and for the world, and obviously it did, but at that time it became more. I was involved in dealing with attorneys, because they had this huge corporate client that had an event that they canceled three days before loadout. So at that point their money's spent and now they want it back. And so you know we're dealing with a lot of different legal parameters that we had never expected.
Speaker 1:You didn't have a global pandemic clause in your contract. No, oh no. Lesson learned.
Speaker 2:Lesson learned. But even then, lesson learned is, yes, you can have a contract and have a contract Absolutely. But if they have so much money that they can throw attorneys at you, it doesn't matter what's in your contract at that point Absolutely. But if they have so much money that they can throw attorneys at you, it doesn't matter what's in your contract Absolutely. And so that was a huge lesson for me is that here I'm this very small little company. You know we were just growing and so every dollar we made was going back into the company to grow it and keep us going and to provide the benefits to our team. And so, thankfully, we had a really great attorney that I had worked with previously on just some like contracting things, and he came to our beck and call and helped us with that and help us to kind of get through that. But it was a challenge. I was dealing with the pandemic, my husband also had COVID during that time and I was dealing with the loss of my business and this huge lawsuit.
Speaker 1:So I'm so sorry that you experienced that. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:Before it turned into a lawsuit. Thankfully, we were able to file bankruptcy on the business, which was crazy. So, and it's still it chokes me today, but it's fine, I've got tissues.
Speaker 1:I know, I see that I'm like you know, I'm going to commiserate with you because you know we were in a very similar situation. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it got litigious very quickly and we were, you know, we were like you, we were a very small business, we were growing and we were, you know, reinvesting everything, trying to support our team the best we could, and all of that. And we also had to file bankruptcy to be able to salvage our family. So I understand it's hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hard that business. You know it had grown, it had been my baby, it got me through relationships and all the different things, and so there was just this emotional thing that it took me years to even process. Because you're so consumed by it, you understand that you don't have the opportunity to actually sit back and be like, whoa, what's going on. It's more, you're going through the actions that you need to to survive and to get on the other side of that, and so I didn't process that there was actually a pandemic. I was still going to the office every single day, my assistant was coming with me, we were just like we had, you know, to deal with all of this, and so that took a year to get through.
Speaker 2:And so at that point I was so burnt out and I'm sure you can understand this as well you just get to where you're overwhelmed and then it just you crumble and I looked around and I looked at my husband, who is a saint and kind of encourages me to do the crazy things I want to do, and told him we needed to travel, I need to get out from under all this, and so that was the shining on this, which was amazing. We had the opportunity to sell everything, put our things in storage and travel the world. So that's what we did. Yes, yeah, and that was the most therapeutic thing. It was amazing, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I am like I'm such a cheerleader for this because, I mean, our family didn't have the opportunity to travel abroad and you know all of that. But that was exactly what we went to as well, to heal that brokenness from losing the you know the child. That was our business. We said, well, let's go get some fresh air, you know, let's travel for a while and see if that helps. And it did. It really helped us to, like, put it in perspective of what's important and what do we want from our lives. So I hope that you had the same experience but you traveled abroad, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did so. My husband's family is actually in Mexico, and so we went to Mexico. We started there first and really spent some time in Mexico City and with family there that we needed to be with and and help them through some different, different things that were happening, you know, just different stages of life. And then we decided to travel to Europe, and so we did Italy and France, we did Germany, vienna, we did Morocco for three weeks to Portugal. It was, it was incredible, just the experience of being in Europe, for you know, three months at a time, four months at a time. So it was incredible.
Speaker 1:Wow. So you got back from that. You're maybe feeling a little bit of renewal or peace at least. Yeah for sure. So what kind of transpired, what happened that made you go? Okay, this is what I'm going to do. It again I'm going to go, you know, get back in the saddle.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I feel like I've always said this it's kind of crazy, but if you're in the event industry you understand you have to be a little crazy because it's so stressful, so time consuming, so insanely busy and a lot of different moving parts, but you become obsessed with the end product. You love seeing everything come to fruition and just smiling on the guest's face and so on, and as we were traveling we just kept talking about the different things we wanted to do, and we have much bigger goals. But to reach those goals we needed to kind of start with different levels, and we love events. My husband and I both have an event background and so we both love events and we see if we're going to do this again. Let's do it the way we want to do it and focus truly on experiences.
Speaker 2:We'd gone through a time the whole world had gone through a time where everything event related was Zoom, you know, like all these virtual events. I think we were in a world where we're craving interpersonal connection, and so that's what we wanted to do was create a business that was fun. It really was a brand that spoke to who we are. So we chose Brazen Events because we just felt like we do kind of go out there and it's brazen to start over in the same industry and just go for it. So that's what we do. Brazen Events is all about experience-based events and experiences and, you know, creating these amazing moments for people that they can't stop thinking about.
Speaker 1:That's so cool. So can you give us like some descriptions of some of the things that Brazen has done? That was like your favorite types of experiences that you guys have helped to create.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so this was actually right before we started Brazen. We actually did a horse farm in the area and they had a horse running in the derby and their horse actually won the derby and so during that time we were able to literally create the most amazing experiences. We did a pop-up event for 400 people after that horse won the derby, just welcoming everyone back to the farm and like it was just insane to see the people. We had a clear dance floor over the pool and just really, yeah it was. It was just wild to see all the different people coming in and just the excitement and to be a part of the excitement around that derby horse, which was really fun. Yeah, so, yeah, so we do those kind of things. I'm sorry when you say pop up for 400 people.
Speaker 1:like my brain almost exploded. So like you're seeing, like short notice, let's pull this thing together, let's make it happen Go.
Speaker 2:We had an idea like there was a 50-50 chance this horse may win the race, and it was. It was a favorite horse and so we were like you know maybe, and so it was a moment where you're watching the Kentucky Derby, you're exhausted because you've already done all these other events around this, yeah, and you're watching it and you should be really excited and you're going for it.
Speaker 2:You're like, oh, the horse won okay, let's do it because you're exhausted, but you know that at that point you now you have to really get to work even more, and so it's just rallying the troops and pulling it all together.
Speaker 1:But yeah, that was amazing that Also the weird irony that I asked you like what made you get back in the saddle? And then it loops into a horror story, like only in Kentucky, you know, only in Kentucky. Okay, so that's brazen events You're doing like big experiential parties and gatherings Do you do anything for like corporate, like trade?
Speaker 2:shows those types of things. Yeah, we're actually working with a proposal right now to do like large glow box, like light up boxes, so light boxes when you walk into a space, these really cool displays that are backlit and you know, just a lot of graphics, and bringing in different elements that way. Okay, working in a drone course, which is really cool, yeah, so there's some really interesting things that we get to do in the back end for clients get to create different things, you know. So we're going into the convention center in Louisville and we're going to create a huge drone course that you can take a drone through obstacle courses. Oh, which is really fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Would that be for like competition or just for like skills?
Speaker 2:building. Well, I think it's more like team building. Okay For them. You know, we're not going to be able to keep, we're not keeping score necessarily, but it's definitely going to be kind of like you know who's on the leaderboard situation. It's a kickoff party. Oh, how fun. So it's just to kind of set the tone that you know there's a lot of excitement, energy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. Is there anything else that you want to tell us about brazen events before we talk about your other?
Speaker 2:newer baby. Yeah, so I mean, you know, brazen events is just like we don't have a set limit on who can work with us. We work with anyone and everyone. We love to create different things, whether it be hanging greenery from a ceiling or, you know, creating a whole new set design, and we love to fabricate and anything that's unique and a challenge, so we thrive on last minute. That's awesome. Yeah, it's a lot of fun Sounds great.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I'm excited because I've been seeing on Instagram in the tea room and it looks so beautiful. So is that your first?
Speaker 2:project. It is my first project. Yeah, wow, congratulations, wow, congratulations, thank you. I've always done my own personal projects and that's how I kind of got into. It was during the pandemic. We rented a house that was about 150 years old and we did some really fun things to it and got some interest, started some interest when I just posted a few pictures and I was like maybe I should get into this and yeah. So we kind of started the business back then and it never really did anything because it was traveling the world. You know, I was doing that, and so just a little busy, just a little bit. So this tea room opportunity kind of happened and it just really was amazing.
Speaker 2:It was amazing to work with Elizabeth, who owns the tea room, and it's just been lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you have any other projects on the back burner, like getting ready to slide in?
Speaker 2:yet I thought I did. And on the way here I actually got an email that we're pushing that one to a few more months from now. So I'm kind of on the prowl, looking for the next big project when it comes to that business. Yeah, tell me the name of the business again. Teal and taupe design group. Tealope Design.
Speaker 1:Group. Okay, and what is like your target market, like who's your most ideal kind of client for that service?
Speaker 2:For me, it's someone that is looking to start a hospitality-based business, so a client-focused business. You know you bring clients to your space and so you want to create an experience around that, whether it is you're a spa or I just spoke to a fitness facility that is, you know, trying to change how they approach their clients and they're doing all spiritual wellness things like that Obviously, restaurants, tea rooms I really want to do a hotel, a boutique hotel. I think that'd be amazing and that's something that both my husband and I are both drawn to quite a bit. So that's next on the radar. Is, you know, finding someone that is willing to trust us to do it, which I feel pretty confident about?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure you're going to find somebody that can see in you what everyone else can see. Thank you, yeah, thank you. That's incredible. That's like long term dream for me, as well, as either boutique hotel or like a traditional bed and breakfast, yeah, where I get to like do the food and, you know, have a garden and teach some classes and like just tap into all the weird things that I love. Yeah, so, yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 2:I love that. Yeah, for sure. That's something that's really passionate for me too. This is something I really want to do.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, we'll do it together, exactly, I would say collaboration is always better. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, you can take care of the lodging side of it, because that's not really my passion, my passion, and I'll do the spa side Perfect. I love to be a guest at your spa, okay, and I love this. You guys heard it here. Hold us to it Ten years, ten years. Okay, that's not bad.
Speaker 2:We can do that For sure.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I'm going to switch gears just a little bit, because you kind of slipped in there like really casually, that during the pandemic you had all of this other stuff going on and you also had some coaching clients and everybody was losing their mind. So tell me about that. Is that something that you still do, or have you?
Speaker 2:stepped away. I've kind of stepped away from coaching. I enjoy it, I really enjoy it. I think my struggle is selling myself, you know. I mean, isn't that everyone's struggle is like selling yourself? But I am very passionate about business and I always love to speak, business and help women, and I'd love to see women just grow and develop and change, and I love to push people. I feel like we are our own barrier, you know and actually just this morning I was speaking to my husband about this how I need to get out of my own way. There's so many things that I want to do that I'm I'm like on the fence to do and to put myself out there, you know, and so I love encouraging women to do that, and so it's time to practice what I preach a little bit too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so hard, though, to coach yourself.
Speaker 2:It is so yeah. So during the pandemic I like right when it all happened, I was doing business coaching and it was so fun because I did have them, we had like sessions and in person and a lot of cool stuff and that came to a screeching halt. I did continue coaching for a couple of months into the pandemic. Point, their businesses were changing so much my business. I was so consumed by that I wasn't being fully there for them and decided to kind of put those on pause and I really haven't gotten back into it.
Speaker 2:I do love business coaching though. I love coaching, consulting and lifting up other businesswomen. I think that we can all achieve our goals and do so much, especially through just lifting each other and encouraging each other and not having that competitive, mean girl spirit. You know, like I've never been that way, I've always been. You know, hey, how can I help you? And so on. So I love business coaching, coaching other women. I'm a firm believer in it. I had a business coach that I adore. Actually, I have a call with her on Wednesday and I'm so excited just to catch up, but she's incredible and I just think that you have to always level up. You do need someone to lift you and push you out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 1:I absolutely agree. I think like having somebody who can kind of call you on your own BS, right, yeah, to help you level up, because it's so easy for us to say like, oh well, I think you know I've reached this goal and I think I'll just stay here for a while because this is what I really want, and to have somebody say, but is that what you really want and is that what the world deserves from you?
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, so true, because for me, I can find complacency very, you know, like comforting right, yes, that is my form of procrastination is like literally just being comfortable and not feeling as if I have to hustle as hard, because I have hustled so hard for so many years that you know when you do relaunch your business, you don't have the same fire you have when you're 23. Right, it feels, even though you do. It's just a different way to go at it. But I do think that I'm the type of person I need someone to tell me what to do. I tell so many people what to do in my life.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm over the events, I'm over the projects, I'm, you know, my team and just so many different avenues. Just as a woman in general, we're in charge of so many things, right. Then you add on a business and multiple businesses and so on, and so when I do have someone that tells me what to do, I do it and I want to make them proud and I get so excited for it. So I need someone to coach me, to encourage me, to push me, and I'm really good at telling other people what to do, yeah, so I have a good coach. I'm a really good, good coach, I feel like.
Speaker 1:I'm going to put you on the spot as a business coach.
Speaker 2:Are there any particular books or authors or other coaches out there that, like absolutely are a few that I really kind of gravitate towards? I'm really more than business. There's a guy that I love and his name is Kay Hendricks. He's not necessarily a business coach, but he is a life coach that I adore. You have to follow him.
Speaker 2:He's this sweet man on Instagram and he's got this huge following, but he has a book called the Genius Zone and he talks about how we all live in this zone of comfort. Basically, it's a zone that he considers like we all have this upper limit problems, where we reach a point and then we self-sabotage in some way, and I'm a firm believer that I do this. I know that we all do this. I believe we have blocks and many blocks and so forth, and that really, you know I'm focused on getting past all of that and growing. But this book is really incredible and it's an easy read. It helps you to understand how you kind of limit yourself and how to move past that and find what your xenogenius is, and so I love it. But he also has a new book out that follows that and it's called your Big Leap Year and it's really incredible and it has.
Speaker 2:Every single day is a different, like nugget, a little tiny nugget that you read to kind of get you going for the day, and it's wonderful. I've been reading this book. I was the first one to sign up for it, so I just got it like a few months ago, and it really has been incredible. It just helps you to be positive every day and to live your life in just more of a happy, positive, safe space and always encouraging growth in your life and how you do. You can be that. You can have a great day and have a great life and feel good all of the time. Yeah, and so it's really incredible. So I love him. Gay Hendricks is wonderful. So when it comes to business, I feel like there's so many things out there to find and read, but that's one that I tend to go towards is like finding who you are and where you want to be and moving past in that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all the rest is just like.
Speaker 2:I mean putting the pieces, yeah, but if you don't know what the puzzle is supposed to look like, then all those pieces don't matter, it really, it's so true, and you have to just nurture yourself and take care of yourself and put yourself first, and then your business will just thrive.
Speaker 1:That sounds great. I'm definitely going to get that book. That sounds really good. Yeah, yeah it is. It's really good. I just started listening to. So I'm not a paper book reader anymore because I don't find that I have a lot of time to sit and read. You know, with a book it's so hard.
Speaker 1:So my reading is always done while I'm driving or while I'm cooking or while I'm cleaning or you know other things. But so I just started listening to a book called the Happiness Equation I'm pretty sure is the title by Mo Goddard.
Speaker 2:Okay, I've seen that. Oh my gosh. Yes, same concept.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it is blowing my mind. Just every time I listen I'm like, oh my gosh, and I actually told my husband I need to take like four or five days and just run to cabin out in the woods by myself and take that book and listen to it, because he has like these little exercises that he throws in occasionally like take a minute and think about this or, you know, write down blah, blah, blah. And I really need to go like listen to this book where I'm in a space to really contemplate it and like absorb it, because it is, I like it could be life-changing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, if I could, really understand it and get down to the core of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but it sounds very similar like you have to figure out where, like your peace and your happiness lie before you can move forward with the rest of your life, and you also have to believe that that is possible.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm a firm believer in positive thinking, positive mindset and mindfulness.
Speaker 1:Yeah sure, Like our world, especially when you're in business and families and you're doing all that like our world just tells us like you're going to be busy, it's going to be stressful, you're going to have, you know, like a lot of unhappy times, yeah, but it's going to be worth it in the end. And, yeah, this mindset is more like it doesn't have to be that way. You know, you get to choose, yeah for sure, and we forget that we have a choice in the matter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we do. We get so consumed by it and all the stress I mean owning your own business is very stressful. You have to be okay dealing with a different level of stress that most people just can't even understand. Yeah, and so I do think that you have to have yourself in the right space. And it's hard sometimes, right, like when you are overwhelmed and you feel like the world is caving in around you and what have you like? I have caught myself. You know being like, ah, you know anger, anger, no, no, no, I'm happy, I'm healthy, my family's okay, we're in a good, safe space. You know this is going to be okay, we're going to be. You know we're going to be better because of whatever it is we're dealing with.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We're going to learn and grow from this, and that's the value in it. I love that. Yeah, well, thanks for sharing that book. Yeah, there's another book that actually come to mind that is a little more business focused, that I just started. It's called Super Fans and it's by. Have you seen that? Yeah, yes, I'm really getting into that. I just started it, so I mean the very first thing. But it's also like the other book you mentioned. It has a lot of workshops and, like you know, little workbooks and things to go through with it, but it's really interesting so far.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you remember who the author is? Pat Finley.
Speaker 2:Pat Finley. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's Pat Finley. He's incredible. He has so many things and he produces so much content that it's insane.
Speaker 1:Yeah, much content, that it's insane. Yeah, it's really good. Oh man, I just wish like no, I don't wish. I'm really looking forward to a time where I create my schedule, where it's like in the morning I study, yeah, or I read where I grow, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's so important. Like to schedule out and block, block time. Yeah, yeah, I love that okay so many good ideas of things I want to do okay tell me the first one that comes to mind.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what? Honestly, meal prep I? Just I and my husband, we both we stay so busy that when it comes time to eat, we get mad. Yeah, oh, we have to eat again. Uh-huh, you know that I think that's just. It sounds crazy, but like just getting your life organized and being productive in life, I think is one of the biggest things that help you in your business. Yeah, for sure. And so I'm on a mission to, to just prep everything, prep everything, everything For your own self or as a business?
Speaker 2:No, for my own self, I don't have time for another business, okay.
Speaker 1:Sounds like a lot? Yeah, that's great. So meal prep time, blocking any other like get your life together, tips or hacks that you've used or that?
Speaker 2:you want to use To me and I think I told you this before I'm an introverted extrovert, if that makes sense. I love people, I love meeting people, I'm great at conversation, but it drains me, and so I do need to have that downtime that I can rest and recover, and, I think, recognizing it and finding it and making time to do that, so scheduling in time for myself. Where I'm not, you know, no one's texting me, no one's calling me, I'm not on the computer, I don't have my email in front of me, I have my phone near me Just a moment, either in nature or whatever it is. For me it's the beach. So if I can get to the beach once every few months, then I'm just like a golden child. I'm so productive throughout the other times, but I think we all need to find that moment, whatever it is, that serves us. That's something that I'm really struggling with right now, so I need to find the time to just be still and quiet.
Speaker 1:That's really hard. Yeah, I was talking with Gina Parsley on I think it was the episode that just dropped last Friday, and I'd listened back to that episode and she was talking about something very similar about how hard it is to like stay centered and you know how important it is. And she she said sometimes I just go outside and I walk the loop in my neighborhood. It takes me five minutes and I love that, but it's just enough to like help me clear my head and race center and get a little sunlight. I'm like what a simple thing. Yeah, you know, whether you work from home or you work from an office, like we can walk, walk outside for five minutes, but none, I'm not going to say none, very few of us choose not to do that or don't think to do that. But it's such a simple fix. You know, you get a little vitamin, you get some fresh air, you get some movement, absolutely.
Speaker 2:You know it's so important, especially like you know, if you're in a creative field or if you're in a field where you do need to be social and whatever it is that drains you, it's so important and whether it be take a moment outside or just take a breather to go sit on the front porch for a hot minute, whatever it is. So, yeah, I think we all need to be a little more patient and nice to ourselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, coming back from the time that I took off for my father's passing, from the time that I took off for my father's passing, when I came back it was like I felt really like pressured and no one was putting the pressure on me except myself, right, but I felt very pressured to just jump right back in and fill my schedule up and do all the things that I used to do and you know, like go, go, go, go go, and I tried that and I crashed and bombed so immediately, yeah, Because, well, not only the emotional stuff you know from losing a loved one, but I think honestly, I think more than it was like for three months I didn't really have a pressured schedule.
Speaker 1:You know, I woke up when the sun came up and I went to bed when I felt tired and I, you know, ate when I was hungry and there was nothing really pressuring me, and then immediately I tried to go back into full force, like work mode. You know, ate when I was hungry and there was nothing really pressuring me. And then immediately I tried to go back into full force, like work mode, you know, and my body quickly was like this is not how we operate anymore. You know, I think that that's a perfect example that, like, when I stopped having meetings all day long and go, go, go, go go and not eating lunch because I'm so busy, and all of that, you know my body didn't protest. It's like, oh, this isn't what we do, we don't rest. You know my body was like, oh, thank God, yeah, it needed it. So I just like it's such a rude awakening, you know of like how against myself I have allowed my lifestyle to become, with the constant going and pressure of being, you know, on all the time.
Speaker 2:So I agree and I think that when we that's one thing, I think, when it comes to like recognizing who we are and how we, how we function the best, obviously we should wake up as we see fit and what have you and and not have the alarm clock and the ideal world right that we can do that all the time. I think finding ways that you can do that more is really important. Going to bed early, if that, if you feel tired and not feeling bad for you know, I get FOMO sometimes where I'm just like I just need time to myself, but I also just want to sleep and that is time to myself. Yeah, you know that's just recovery. Yeah, yeah, I love that. Just recovery. Yeah, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:Well, miss Raina, yes, is there any nugget of wisdom, advice or just a funny anecdote that you would like to leave the listeners?
Speaker 2:with. I think you should punch your own fear in the face. You know I do. We all have it, we are, I mean we stand in our way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm your cheerleader. I want you to succeed and be the best. But do we do that? No, we don't do it, not for ourselves. So be our own cheerleader. Be your own cheerleader and punch me in the face.
Speaker 1:I love that so much. Can't we get T-shirts that say that? Yes, let's punch the fear in the face? I love it. That's amazing. Well, I adore you.
Speaker 1:I wish nothing but the best things for all of your future endeavors and your current endeavors. Thank you, and you are off right now to a ribbon cutting ceremony. Yes, I'm very excited. So congratulations on that. I look forward to many years of friendship and watching your businesses bloom Same. Same to you, thank you so much. And watching your businesses bloom Same Same to you. Thank you so much. Yeah, this is lovely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:All right, we will talk to you guys later. Well, that's it, friends. Before we go, just a little reminder that I'm your host, michelle, and I'm the proud co-owner of Cultivate Accounting, where we help small businesses with accounting, and I help besties like you go from idea to launch and beyond with personalized small business coaching. No matter what phase of the journey you're in, I'm here to cheer you on every step of the way, connect with me on Facebook at michellesmock.520. New episodes of the Small Business Bestie podcast drop each week, so hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Do you want to be a bestie on the show? We'd love to hear from you. Just head over to smallbusinessbestiepodcom to submit your guest request. Until next time, keep dreaming, keep going and remember. Do it even when you're scared. Thanks for hanging out with us.