One Year of E-Commerce Podcasting: The Power of Accountability in the Online Business Journey

May 2nd marks the one-year anniversary of the eCommerce Made Easy Podcast! Over the past year, we've explored various aspects of eCommerce. Yet, none of this would've been possible without my accountability partner, Melissa Anne Kitchen. Today, I'm thrilled to have her join us as we reflect on our journey.

We'll talk about our beginnings, the hurdles we encountered, and the unwavering support we've provided each other throughout our podcast journeys. Tune in to see how powerful an accountability partner can be for your online business journey!


Mentioned Resources:

Connect with Melissa Anne Kitchen
Website: https://www.melissaannkitchen.com/
Podcast: https://www.thepreserveyourpastpodcast.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@preserveyourpast
Instagram: @PerserveYourPast

Finding an Accountability Partner
https://krystalproffitt.com/how-to-find-podcast-launch-accountability/

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Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 1:03

Welcome to our first year anniversary episode of the e-commerce made easy podcast. May 2nd, 2024, marked our first anniversary of the e-commerce made easy podcast. Over the past 12 months, we've explored the ins and outs of the e-commerce world, but none of this would have been possible without the support of someone very special my accountability partner and fellow podcaster, melissa Ann Kitchen, who I now call my friend as well as my business bestie. Today, I'm thrilled to have her join us as we talk about our journey together. We'll talk about how we started podcasting, the challenges we faced and how we've had each other's backs along each step of the way, and this is greatly important to business because without somebody walking alongside you, feeling all the feelings you feel, it's much harder to be a business owner and an entrepreneur. So I hope you join us as you explore what it might be like to have an accountability partner for you as well. Welcome to the e-commerce made easy podcast. I'm your host, k Saunders. When we started this business, all I had was a couch, a laptop and a nine-month-old my main goal To help others. Now, with over 20 years in the e-commerce building industry and even more than that in web development, I have seen a lot. I love breaking down the hard tech into easily understandable bits to help others be successful in their online business. Whether you're a seasoned e-commerce veteran or just starting out, you've come to the right place, so sit back, relax and let's dive into the world of e-commerce together.

Carrie Saunders: 2:36

Welcome back to this week's special episode of the e-commerce made easy podcast. One year and 53 episodes later, this is number 53. Right here we are celebrating with a very special person, whom I now call my friend, Melissa Ann Kitchen. In this celebration episode, we'll be discussing all the behind the scenes details on when and why we both wanted to start a podcast, the benefits of having each other as accountability partners and how that can help your business too. A time we helped each other out through a rough spot and when we realized we were becoming true friends and supporting each other in life as well as in business, as well as how we bring our podcasts and relationships into the future. Now, if you are noticing that I'm in a bit of a different place and I may not be quite sounding like myself, shortly after we recorded this interview of each other, I completely busted my toe really badly, so I am trying to do my best to do this intro and outro for you to add to this episode, because I really want this to air on the right date, which is this week, may 7th, which will be close to our actual anniversary episode, since you know, obviously, the day shift and the year. So before we get started, though, I want to tell you a little bit about Melissa, and I'm going to read her bio next. So Melissa Ann Kitchen. Here's all about her.

Carrie Saunders: 4:01

After losing her parents at a young age, preserving her family history and ties to the past became even more important to Melissa. She struggled to find many details of their past and longed for stories told in her parents' own words. She believes the Russian proverb that says you live as long as you are remembered. So, as a mom, melissa decided to do a better job, building the bridge between generations for her children by documenting family stories to pass along to her future generations. She uses her talents as a teacher, counselor, writer and coach to help others do the same. Her superpower she sees stories everywhere. Her mission is to inspire and support others as they preserve their past through the power of their personal stories. So isn't that awesome. Melissa and I met in a chance at a Facebook group. We will talk about that more in our interview and we have just really hit it off as friends and I will say, a year later, it feels like we've been friends forever. So, without further ado, here's our interview and all about our story and how it might benefit you and your business.

Melissa Kitchen: 5:12

Yay, we're here. Thank you everybody for joining us today on this celebration episode. We have so much to celebrate and we are so grateful that you are here with us today to help us look at reflecting back on the past and celebrating how far we've come. We are here today celebrating one-year anniversaries of both of these podcasts, so thank you for joining us.

Carrie Saunders: 5:41

Yes, I'm very excited for everybody. We did it, .

Melissa Kitchen: 5:45

For fun, for everybody. We did it, carrie. Yes, for fun. So in this episode we did want to. Carrie and I have been reflecting back on the year and how much podcasting we've gone through, how much life has been lived in that, and in order to celebrate this, we did brainstorm some topics and some discussion points we wanted to go through together. We have not rehearsed this, so it will be fun to see how we reflect on each of the questions and support through that, how we've connected through this. So anything else, carrie, for laying the groundwork of this episode, you want to add to that.

Carrie Saunders: 6:27

I don't think so, other than I think it's going to help all the business owners out there and the people in your audience to just really see how working together can really prepare yourself forward, whether it's in life or in business, and can really just help support you in everything you're doing.

Melissa Kitchen: 6:44

Great point, yes, so Carrie's going to.

Melissa Kitchen: 6:51

We probably could talk a bit about each of our podcasts to get started with, so that if you are listening to my podcast, I will let Carrie introduce her podcast also.

Melissa Kitchen: 6:58

My podcast is the Preserve your Past podcast for those of you who are listening from Carrie's podcast and we work through different ways to preserve your past through preserving stories in our life to pass along to the next generations. So my listeners may not be obviously thinking about search engine optimization or business and e-commerce although many may but we invite you, I would invite my listeners to think of this also, from the idea of how you can collaborate with others, create relationships You're going to have really good. We're going to be sharing some great lessons on connection, on accountability, on supporting each other through this, and I see this project of doing the podcast, creating this content, the same as I do when I'm creating my stories and writing them down, and that can be overwhelming for both whenever you're doing a big project. So having someone that you can work through that with has been really super valuable to me and I treasure our relationship. Carrie, thank you, because I could not have done this without you.

Carrie Saunders: 8:11

Thank you. I don't think I could have either, not quite so gracefully at least. And then, for those that are listening on Melissa's podcast who don't know me, I do the e-commerce made easy podcast, where we talk a lot about online business, not necessarily just e-commerce, but also mindset, and how can you really like propel yourself forward. And you know, having Melissa with me and helping me do the podcast was really the catalyst I needed to getting this done. So having a good business bestie or partner or something like that you know accountability partner that can really help you break through those tougher goals, that are something completely brand new. And you know, and we can go back and look in the past which relates to her show too because we can look and see where we were a year ago and how excited we were, but scared at the same time, and you know. So I just feel like it all encompasses each other. You know everything.

Melissa Kitchen: 9:10

Yeah, so we'll put a little alert out there. If you are listening live, you will be seeing lots of anniversary memories probably coming up on social media, because I've already started seeing like pictures of my microphone and can't wait. It's coming soon. Yes, so to guide us to the next step, the first question that we brainstorm so, like I said, we have met only to come up with topics that we thought would be helpful to share and fun for us also, because that's what podcasting is also about, and having a friend to do it with makes that even more fun. Our first topic question is a little bit of a couple of items about looking at how we knew when we wanted that we wanted to do a podcast. Was there like a time, you know, was there a moment? And then how we knew how it came about? I guess would be that overall arching question. Do you want to start with that, carrie?

Carrie Saunders: 10:09

Sure For me, wanting to do a podcast was like itching at me for like probably over a year. I just I love helping others. I love helping break down the tech for business owners. I love supporting them. I just love, I just love being helpful.

Carrie Saunders: 10:27

I always have as a little kid and on and so I just knew I wanted to do this to help more people, because I can only help so many people one-on-one in our business and I wanted to be able to spread the love of my 20 some years knowledge in online tech even farther and really help other people. So I just knew that I wanted to do it. And then the date I picked was actually an anniversary date for our business. It was the first time I made an online sale to a stranger was the date I picked, which was May 2nd 2023. It was 2003 when I first made that stranger sale, so it was a 20 year later that I launched a podcast. So I wanted to make it an anniversary memorable and I want to set it in stone so that I didn't put it off anymore.

Melissa Kitchen: 11:18

Beautiful.

Carrie Saunders: 11:18

What about you, Melissa?

Melissa Kitchen: 11:32

have had the itch to be a talk show host since I was a little. I used to when you do projects for school now this was also pre-internet, because I'm older than the internet when you'd have projects at school and you'd be able to come up with creative ways to present the material. I remember in a Spanish class doing an interview and that was even pre. It might've been when Oprah was coming on light, but it might've even been pre-Oprah. But I just loved that format. I love helping people. I love learning people's stories, asking the questions. I'm like all about aha moments. So watching any kind of talk show to me and having those deep conversations or, you know, not so deep conversations some of them was always something that intrigued me. I never knew what my topic was going to be and as I went through sharing my own stories and kind of doing the work that I was doing to preserve my stories and wrote my book, it became apparent that it was more than just a book. It was going to be about how cool it would be to talk to other people about how they preserved their past or all the things that have to do with nostalgia and family, ancestry, genealogy or storytelling, any of that. So it's really evolved and I was in the planning stages a couple of years ago on a bit of a different topic, took some classes. We have the same mentor teacher. We're going to do a shout out to Crystal Prophet today too, because she really could be part of this with us as the other third person that helped us do it, because that's actually how we met. We'll talk about that in a moment.

Melissa Kitchen: 13:15

I'm kind of leaning into that, but I don't know if I would have done it so soon if we hadn't met in that group and you hadn't had posted when you knew you wanted to do this anniversary date. This is when I'm doing it, this is why I'm doing it, and so how we met basically is in that chat right Me saying me too Like I want to join you. So it kind of leads to I knew I wanted to do a podcast. I had taken the classes, I had gotten the material, I had all of the equipment, learned how to do a podcast, I had taken the classes, I had gotten the material, I had all of the equipment, learned how to do it, actually did an intro and everything for a whole different topic, kind of put it to the side for a couple of years and was having that itch again.

Melissa Kitchen: 13:59

And when you had posted that, that really spoke to me as I was on that timeline. It was doable. That really spoke to me as I was on that timeline. It was doable. And one of my big goals for that year of January of 2023, when we started this was finding my besties, my business besties you use that term but finding my support team. So I think when we met, that was something that I knew if I had the right person to do this with that.

Melissa Kitchen: 14:29

I do well with external structures and people right any things that you remember from that time too, of going into that how we met.

Carrie Saunders: 14:43

And I think it was just like an, an instinct thing where you said me too, and I was like, well, let's do this together, and then that's how we like really just kind of connected, and messenger on on Facebook is like my gut told me I'm doing it with this person even though I didn't know you at all, and we've since, I feel like, become best friends. It's almost like we've been childhood friends, right, so it's been wonderful. So I think that's one of the things people listening can take with them too is like really going with your gut is is super important, whether it tells you to do something or not to do something. I tell talk about this a lot, your guts most of the time, right, I'd say at least 90%, if not more.

Melissa Kitchen: 15:24

Yep, so that's applicable no matter where you are Perfect.

Carrie Saunders: 15:28

Like.

Melissa Kitchen: 15:28

I knew in my gut. Seeking support is another thing, no matter which topic we're talking about, was super helpful. Getting to know the person, like that was another. You know we it was funny because, yes, the gut and the instinct of connecting at that moment, the timing seemed right and then the person was right.

Melissa Kitchen: 15:48

And for those of you who don't know, like Carrie and I have have connected on so many similarities.

Melissa Kitchen: 15:54

It is insane, but we are both band moms of boys, yes, and we have a lot that we can't even go into in the whole thing, but we have connected and I think through the podcast structure, we have supported each other, probably even more so through life, through everything, right Through family items, through illnesses, through struggles, just being a human being in a human world, and the overwhelming feel when you do have a goal that you're passionate about but life starts getting in the way, and so I think that anyone could take that into account of those times when you knew you had a goal that you wanted to accomplish but there was things in life that kept making it feel like it was impossible or you were just going to. It would be easier to give up, but I thank you for the times that you helped me give myself some permission to have the space, but also also not. Sometimes I'm like that's it. It's harder for me to see sometimes that there can be an, and you know.

Carrie Saunders: 17:14

Yes, and it's nice to have the other person's perspective because you've got somebody looking outside in towards the other person and you can give them a little bit more different perspective. And I feel like we've both done that for each other whenever we either had health issues getting in the way or just mindset issues getting in the way of getting things accomplished. You know we've really been like I understand and give you grace, but how about this angle? Maybe we should look at it this way or maybe we need to pull back some and work on this problem a different way. I just feel like we've both done a really good job of helping each other there.

Melissa Kitchen: 17:51

For sure, and when you for anyone listening to have friends that have other talents or even overlap in talents because I think the things that Carrie works through are things I'm interested in and have some knowledge about, but don't have the expertise, we're able to also see things from that other person's perspective, but also help hold space and I know that's like a very vague term.

Melissa Kitchen: 18:17

Sometimes you hear that a lot and you're like what does that even mean? But we have a history now. So if we've said something in the past that's important to us, we will hold that for the person when they're going through that tough time and they forget that's an important thing to them because you've done that. You've helped me with that too. Again, where I've gone through something and I get too busy in the minutia to remember the bigger why that happened in the past or something I said that was a value that you can then see and remind me of or even look at from the outside. There were times, like when you talk about yourself or write about yourself or do those things, that it just you can't even see what it all means until someone has a second set of eyes.

Melissa Kitchen: 19:06

So I mean that happens in life too, Right.

Carrie Saunders: 19:09

Right.

Melissa Kitchen: 19:11

For sure. So that's great, excellent the benefits. So I think that kind of led into our next topic, which was benefits of having an accountability partner.

Carrie Saunders: 19:29

I can't think of if there are more or any kind of specific ones we haven't mentioned.

Carrie Saunders: 19:39

Well, one thing I would say that really worked for us is we weren't super formal and strict about it, and I feel like that holds people back sometimes and feels like, oh, I have to meet with this person on this certain time and I have to like be prepared and all these things. You know. For Melissa and I we decided for the most part to really just connect and messenger, so then we would message each other when we could, and if the other person didn't respond for six hours, 12 hours, a whole day or so, we didn't get like worried or offended. Now we might, you know, check back in in a couple of days and be like, hey, want to make sure you got the message. But you know, we just kept ourselves really open to the fact that we each had our own different and busy schedules, and I think it was months before we even like talk to each other on Zoom, I think right, I think it was at least a month and a half.

Melissa Kitchen: 20:27

It was way, because we were really nose to the grindstone in the beginning. So even finding the time I think was after, those messenger conversations were amazing. Sometimes it would even be driving to work, having a epiphany and doing a voice message of I'm driving. I can't talk right now, but I just had this epiphany and I wanted to share it with you as a placeholder for our discussion. I think that's important. I have tried and I have been part of other accountability groups that met, like at Tuesday at seven in the morning, you know whatever at different times. Um, working full time. For me that was always been a challenge, um, and that that idea that you're you're on that schedule, committed to that schedule, can feel overwhelming. Where I feel like, um, having you more as a partner instead of a bigger group also plays into some allowance of flexibility. And then the way we did it worked really well for me. We were always able to put in our thoughts when we were having them too, which I think is different than waiting till your one meeting to then discuss them.

Carrie Saunders: 21:39

Yeah, I agree, waiting till your one meeting to then discuss them.

Melissa Kitchen: 21:42

Yeah, I agree, but the calls definitely where there was certain times that I felt like, carrie, can we please get on a Zoom? I really need, I need a person's face and I need to let this out. And sometimes, when you're going through whether it's a creative thing or a personal thing there are sometimes like, face-to-face conversation helps and I love that we've been able to do that too.

Carrie Saunders: 22:05

Yeah, yeah. So I think people listening, like, if you're thinking of an accountability partner, think outside the box because, like we're saying, it doesn't have to be super structured, it's worked. So I mean, you even said it's just wonderful to get something off your chest when it's on your mind and you can just message a person and you know that they're not expected to respond and they know they're not expected to respond right away and they'll get back to you when they're ready to be thoughtful about their response and it's just been wonderful to have somebody I'm really comfortable with doing that really comfortable with doing that and as we've grown with each other, it's definitely developed into even that trust you mentioned.

Melissa Kitchen: 22:46

Having that trust means that you can then even entrust other things that might, and when we're talking about mindset, especially for you and business, there will be personal things that will creep into that mindset. And so having an accountability partner whether how talented or not they are in the topic you know, in the in business, or whether it's, you know, for the people working on their stories and projects that's great If people are great, well-versed in the subject matter. But it's also that trust that you can work through the mindset and that the person has a mindset you aspire to. I know they talk a lot in personal growth about the people you surround yourself with.

Melissa Kitchen: 23:32

I think it's like the five people or the seven people that you surround yourself with or who you're going to be, and it's so true that if you are around people all the time that are focusing on the negative or the things that are in front of you that are blocking you, that you could start believing in that. And both of us have taken turns at being the stronger reminding because we both have been through challenges that other people would be like, wow, that's kind of crazy and we won't get into that today. But we both have an exercise in being able to work through our feelings, honor our feelings, face our feelings but then get through to what's the important thing we are trying to get to on the other side and help each other kind of work through that. That's an important piece to an accountability partner would be someone that has that, not toxic positivity, yes, the reality of being comfortable with the feelings and helping reframe and give, you know, guidance on getting through those hard parts.

Melissa Kitchen: 24:46

Yeah, definitely for realistic positivity, I would say probably is a good way to think of it. Yeah, Excellent, and I'm trying to think of like as my people are working through accountability partners, as my people are working through accountability partners places you could find them If you're interested in writing stories or you're working on preserving it. There's so many associations, there's genealogy associations that are local. I've met amazing people through that. If you're looking for people that are like-minded, even checking in in my Facebook group or on my Facebook page, you could even message me. I have people doing probably similar things to what you're doing, but could totally introduce people if you are listening and this is something I know we haven't even gotten to the end of this, but it just popped in my head as we talk about the benefits of having an accountability partner. But where you would even find that for my audience, I don't know if you have thoughts for your audience too.

Carrie Saunders: 25:43

I would say probably similar, just business groups around. And then in my free Facebook group we've got businesses of all types in there that vary greatly and you can reach out to me. I kind of have a general idea of what everybody does. If you want to help me, help you find a partner, you can also post in my group, you know, looking for an accountability partner to help me with X, and I'm sure people will jump in and be ready to help.

Melissa Kitchen: 26:10

And all the links of everything we're mentioning too, we will have in show notes for both places where this podcast will be hosted. Okay, now we're going to get into specifics. This one I should have thought about this better ahead of time, but one of the things we wanted to share as a behind the scenes was a specific time where the other person helped you, so like when, a specific time that you assisted me and a specific time that I helped you and I kind of talked about a couple of different like big things, but I'm trying to think of more specifics, yeah.

Carrie Saunders: 26:55

Well, one thing I can think of is like, right in the beginning we were, we were checking, we were telling each other, the other person, the goal for that week and then we would check in at the end of the week.

Carrie Saunders: 27:08

So I just felt like that rhythm was really great in in helping us keep moving forward, and I also didn't feel judged if I was behind, because running a full-time business and trying to start up a podcast for the business was a lot of extra time. So I didn't feel like judged or you know, like we said before, we gave each other grace when needed, but we encourage each other, you know. Oh okay, well, that's you, you got this far, let's finish, finish getting there. So I feel like, really, in the beginning was where it really helped in helping me write the description, because I knew all the stuff in my brain and the technical terms in my head, but I want to make sure it's in layman terms, because my goal is to help others who aren't as techie as I am, and so Melissa provided some really good perspective and feedback from a non-super techie person. I would call you, you know you are some techie.

Carrie Saunders: 28:03

you know you got techie there, but not like super duper techie, so like it was wonderful to see a nice another perspective on that. So I feel like that's probably that's the first thing that came to my mind as far as where you really helped me a lot.

Melissa Kitchen: 28:15

So when you say that, I think about the techie things you did help me with, because I have been doing online businesses of some sort coaching and whatnot since like 2009. So I've seen a range and evolution in technology and I've always tried to do it myself in the age where you could, right 2009,. I had someone create the website. It was all the HTML. It was much more backend. They did the setup and I figured out how to get in and do my own changes and then test them and change. But I definitely remember needing well, first of all, your knowledge and assistance. Going through some of the software and resources was super helpful and, as you would go through and find really cool things that helped with that, that weren't necessarily things that we learned through Crystal or through that environment, but maybe you tested them first or were able to use them first. You always shared them. The other time that I remember you helping me so much, and even your husband, was when I lost my episode. I had done a recording I had. It didn't save correctly.

Melissa Kitchen: 29:30

I went to try editing it and it was like you guys were both online with me on an emergency tech call and we did lose that recording, which actually turned out to be fine, because when I re-recorded this is something else for people to remember that are creatives Sometimes the second version of something turns out to be better than the first, and I did seriously had been stressed when I recorded that first version.

Melissa Kitchen: 29:59

It was a personal topic that was really hitting my heart and I feel like the first version of it was my not whiny, but more like from a victim, like, well, like, oh, this is the topic and this is it. And then the next time I had done it, that I did it, I had a whole different perspective in what my purpose was for my audience not to hear me complain about or whine about whatever, and I really can't remember the exact topic, but I do remember thinking, wow, what a better way to say it that second time around it didn't feel that way on a Sunday night at nine o'clock when I was bothering you guys night at nine o'clock when I was bothering you guys. But it was nice to have you there, just even if you hadn't had the knowledge you have, but to witness me kind of going through my. There's nothing worse than when you've created something and it's gone.

Carrie Saunders: 30:53

And I think I even said, you know, maybe the second one will be better.

Melissa Kitchen: 30:57

You did and I went with the flow and then by the time I just gave, I went to bed that night and did it late. That's another thing like that. You talked about giving grace and knowing, like when in the beginning, when we weren't able to do things, when we said we were going to do them, we were both recovering perfectionists. I think we're both recovering perfectionists, I think. But when you're doing a podcast or some kind of creative project that others will be seeing or that others are relying on you for, or even as a mother, creating anything you have where there's expectations, or at work, when people are waiting for something on a certain time, it's really easy to dig into that perfectionism and think that if you don't for something on a certain time, it's really easy to dig in to that perfectionism and think that if you don't have it on a time, every single time, and it doesn't look exactly the quality that you wanted, that it's a failure. And so having an accountability partner kind of bring you back to reality of what's the long-term goal. Who's gonna really notice that, even in real life? Right, we do that to ourselves in real life, and I do anyways. That's the recovering part when you can start hearing those voices and say it to yourself. Then you know you're getting better. But when you're tired it's late. Sometimes you lose the strength to do that for yourself For sure. So that was great.

Melissa Kitchen: 32:23

Okay, and we've talked about one of the questions when we realized we were becoming friends and supporting each other in life and I for me, it's when we started seeing the bits and pieces of the family piece overlapping, family piece overlapping, that we were becoming passionate in each other's topics, that we were meeting more authentically on our Zooms too. Yeah, yeah, the connections, sharing more personal things and knowing, starting to feel those similarities was really amazing. And then knowing that you know, like look into the future and that this wasn't just about the podcast, but it's like when are we going to meet? What are we going to do? How are we going to you know, yeah.

Carrie Saunders: 33:12

Yeah, we've even talked about meeting in person sometime soon, hopefully this summer. Maybe we can figure it out.

Carrie Saunders: 33:18

Yes in person sometime soon, hopefully this summer, maybe we can figure it out. Um, yeah, I just I just remember. You know, the more we helped each other with business, the more personal crept in, just naturally, because we would be like, oh, I got busy with this and this is why I'm behind. It wasn't really like an excuse, but it was just kind of a here, here's my story type of thing, right, and so I think that helped us to each other as a person more. And then the more we did that, we realized we have a lot of some some very similar family dynamics sometimes back in there and, um, it can really help us from a business perspective too.

Carrie Saunders: 33:55

Um, if we're talking talking about business as far as helping each other with the podcast, it can help us understand a bit more perspective and how to help the other person when you know a bit about the personal story Not saying that you need to be super personal with all your accountability people, but you're going to know when it's the right one that you can feel completely comfortable and trust. And I feel like that's where Melissa and I ended up and we both have felt really comfortable opening up to all the personal things and realizing that it's almost like we're sisters from another life or something. I don't know. It's so weird it is weird.

Melissa Kitchen: 34:36

It's funny, too when you start seeing it open up. I think it was good to note, though not every accountability partner needs to be your best friend, nor will they be, and that doesn't mean they're not a good accountability partner. We really did. This is, I think, like you nailed it. It's kind of like one of those once in a lifetime kismet situations, which I do have other people that I've been blessed with put in my path to assist with my business, but definitely it depends on, like, your shared values, your shared life and, yeah, shared values, your shared life and, yeah, the two-way street of the relationship knowing what when it's the right time to share those things, and having that person kind of switch over from just a purpose of that accountability to then becoming a friend. And I think the fact that we both were open to that, had time for that and had the space and it just yeah, the similarities, the connection that we were able to have, was pretty important. I yeah, the more we got into sharing some of those things that I don't normally share with a lot of people, that's when I knew this is changing.

Melissa Kitchen: 35:56

The other part was just going through a really tough winter with illnesses and you kind of going through it Very similar time.

Melissa Kitchen: 36:06

But, yeah, being there, taking space to recover and then coming back to I appreciate also any time that you found something. I appreciate also anytime that you found something. This is kind of goes to the real friendship part and the trust part is that we were never competitive. We didn't hold our secrets not secrets, but our findings, our tools, our anything we discovered was shared right away, like we both people and groups and having someone you can trust that can share resources or tips or tools and you know them and they know you. You know it's coming from a good place. So I really appreciate that. You know some of the groups that I've that we've been in together were because they were on your podcast or you know something that you have used yourself. And I think when you have a interdisciplinary kind of relationship too, we're not in the same space. So we do have a bit of a different thing that we're looking for, but we're building similarly because of the podcast and the way we want to reach people.

Carrie Saunders: 37:24

Yeah, I think you summed that up pretty good there.

Melissa Kitchen: 37:27

Thank you. So I kind of even think that talked about outside benefits outside of the podcast, that our friendship, our relationship for me has helped with balancing Well I would say for me the beginning of the year, even though it did not turn out the way I would have wanted it to that Carrie and I have been working on a 12-week year plans together which does not just take into account the podcast. We both are working on health goals, business goals and personal goals. It turned out that due to different health things we are similarly looking at. You know you shared with me different chips and things that are grain-free that I could use because we're both looking at inflammation. But some of those fun personal things that we've shared along the way is definitely another benefit of, outside of the podcast, being able to work on those goals, check in each week and have the safety of not necessarily meeting each of those weekly things and shifting when we knew we were growing.

Carrie Saunders: 38:42

Right, and you know the oh, I haven't heard from Melissa in a couple weeks, I better check in with her, you know. Just, you know it's just wonderful to have like somebody like that that you're just in tune with, and then you can be like, ooh, I should check on her because she hasn't. You know, I want to make sure she's okay and you know Melissa's done the same thing for me. So it's just kind of nice to have like a business friend out there that's like gotcha, got your back on personal and in business. You know, just making sure you're doing okay. You know, sometimes you just need somebody to say how are you doing today? Are you doing all right this week? You know, because sometimes it's hard for us to open up and say what's not going well you know, and it just helps.

Melissa Kitchen: 39:25

Especially me.

Melissa Kitchen: 39:26

Sometimes when I go through that, I'll think of it as, like nobody wants to hear the tough part, everybody's moving along. Nobody needs to hear that, and sometimes it just takes that person of showing like I know through some of those times to look at it in a way that, well, how about just doing this little piece, or how? Or yes, it is really yes, this is a big deal, and give yourself a time to rest, or I could totally see it being just this one simple thing. So, in talking about the podcast, you know, looking at creating content weekly has been really overwhelming. We both have full-time jobs that we're doing and so, as we've supported each other through, what does that look like for each of us to then do the sharing of it, which is also a lot, but it's been.

Melissa Kitchen: 40:24

Yeah, I couldn't have done it without you. I do think I would have not still be here today. Celebrating a year, even just within the last month or two, has really been another challenge, but I love what I'm doing. So, not the challenge of the podcast, but just how it fits into life, cause I still love and I'm passionate about the topic.

Carrie Saunders: 40:46

Yeah, and sometimes we just need to be told you know it's okay to take a week off and take a break. You need it right now. Or or you know, yeah, you need some time off, but I think you could do this one little thing. So sometimes it's like a little encouraging push up and sometimes it's just like you know, yes, you do need to take a break, and I feel like us, as business owners, many times don't take the breaks we need and I'm talking to myself here too. But we just need to be reminded that.

Carrie Saunders: 41:13

And having a partner like this can really help you be reminded when you need to take a break, because they can see some of the outside things you don't see when you're experiencing them, and they can see how stressed you are and be like, okay, your body's telling you you need to take a break right now. Or it can also see the perfectionist or the procrastinist in you and be like, yeah, you're, you're doing fine, but you need to do this one little thing. Just keep moving a little bit and you'll be good. So it's just great to have somebody like that.

Melissa Kitchen: 41:42

For sure, and even thinking about my listeners who might be working on writing their stories or gathering the stories, doing the interviews or whatever the piece is that you're working on Projects can start out with real enthusiasm and then the consistent follow through sometimes can get overwhelming. And similarly to me writing the content for the podcast, the passion is there but maybe you're thinking it has to be done a certain way or by a certain time. But having a group which is why I love for writers anyhow and I've done it myself, been a part of a writer's group, even if it's not we're not working on anything related but it's just a container to hold space and accountability and have a schedule for doing that. So I think that's one of the pieces for the both of us that has kept us going is having that be there regardless as we work through. Whichever part of our project we're working on, I think anyone can use that. It brings to mind to me too, as we talk about this.

Melissa Kitchen: 42:53

First we were talking about our accountability partners and then we've really showed how it's turned into a friendship and I think that a lot of people will admit that finding adult friendships, especially if you're working on projects and you're a creative person or an entrepreneur, like both of our people over probably overlap.

Melissa Kitchen: 43:22

I'm really. I know some of my people that do, because they're working on projects and they want to publish, and some of them are using online formats to share their stories. So I know that we're going to have a lot of people listening to both. But when we get so into our projects and our things and our family life and everything, sometimes it is hard to find adult friendships that feel real or we grow out of other ones that don't know. I think that's the biggest part that I could say is, we got each other for this, whereas I have wonderful friends outside of this, but for me to go to them and talk about, oh, I'm getting no views or nobody's. You know, I'm not moving up the list, nobody's gotten to the podcast or whatever it is. Um, having you know, creating those friendships as an adult that's, I guess what I started with is um, to have that is a is a nice bonus.

Carrie Saunders: 44:21

It sure is.

Melissa Kitchen: 44:23

So I appreciate you for that. Okay, so then the final part we we kind of had mentioned was future support and friendship through future growth and changes, and so I think, when we were talking about that, it was the idea that we've come this far, we'll both be celebrating if you're listening to this live the first week in April. We will both be celebrating our year anniversary. Well, actually, I think May. I mean May, what did I say? You said April. Oh, yes, sorry.

Carrie Saunders: 45:02

It's April now it's already.

Melissa Kitchen: 45:03

April. It's only one day of April, yeah we're recording in April.

Melissa Kitchen: 45:07

You will be listening to this, but that first week in May of 2024 will be our year anniversary, and so I don't see this ending. I know I have goals for my podcast. It will look a little bit different. Thanks to you. I was able to embrace some changes and be good with some changes. So those of you who listen to the Preserve your Past podcast, you might see some evolution in it for some of those changes, and I know that through my relationship with Carrie too. No-transcript and, yeah, any comments about the future.

Carrie Saunders: 45:55

Well, you may have just heard the cat meow. I don't know if you could hear that. The cat came into my office. Yes, I feel like for the future. I just feel that I know that I can bounce ideas off of you, especially as somebody doing like the tech stuff.

Carrie Saunders: 46:13

Sometimes I wonder if, like, am I repeating myself too much? Am I being too basic? Am I being too advanced, like, and so having somebody like Melissa that can help, you know, have a different perspective, that understands what I'm going through as far as creating content goes, but is, you know, not me, and so she can help me? You know, see where I'm going and say, oh yeah, that's a great direction, or or what about this? I'm curious about this. Why don't you talk about this? I just feel like we're going to just help each other with that.

Carrie Saunders: 46:47

And, um, you know, I'm wanting to release a course finally this year for our business about, you know, helping your website convert better, and I feel like it's going to be really nice to bounce ideas off of Melissa, because she's just a great idea person and I think she has a really good way to put words around things that I sometimes get stuck on when I'm in the flow. I can definitely do the words, but sometimes my technical brain, like my gears, crunch when I try to do too much creative stuff. So it's just wonderful to have somebody like Melissa that I can bounce things off of and just really kind of unlock my brain a bit more and stop being stuck.

Melissa Kitchen: 47:27

I would also flip it to and go back to something you said at the beginning, when you said why you started the podcast was to help people, because the other piece to this is I have so much fun being that person for you because I am excited about your content and I love seeing what you're going to be sharing and it's something that I know myself and I know others who will be passionate about, so I can see and I know you and what your goal is. So it's like this nice sweet spot of this is your intention and if we tweaked this as, like a wordsmith or if you know, I just questioned back I think what you're meaning is this that's so much fun to me to do, so you helping me that was the other piece was like here I am doing something very different, but it was a topic that was close to your heart, that you were excited about also, so that when I'm trying to stay focused or to expand or to brainstorm ideas, that's, you've always been there for me also and not looked at the topic, as you know, not being a business topic, some people in your you know, in the business world might be looking at it. I don't know anyone who would. But I mean you get, you get the flexibility of it being a softer topic. That's not necessarily for entrepreneurs.

Melissa Kitchen: 48:57

A lot of the groups that we're in people are, have businesses that are focused towards other entrepreneurs, and so I appreciate you seeing the difference there and helping me, helping me bridge the difference, because a lot of my examples have always been businesses that are for other solopreneurs or business people, and so doing this to an audience that's outside of that but is us right has been helpful to have you also be able to reflect that yeah, and I absolutely I love helping you with your topics because, you know, with some of my family background stuff, there's a lot of things I do remember from childhood and a lot of things I don't.

Carrie Saunders: 49:38

And it's just, you know, trying to think about, well, how would I want to preserve this information so that I can remember it later and so my kids can have it, and things like that. So it's just, I love thinking outside the box and helping you with your stuff too. It's just, it's been very fun and enjoyable for me. Thank you, thank you.

Melissa Kitchen: 49:58

Well, I think that we've then kind of come full circle on the discussion. Anything that you would like to add, Carrie?

Carrie Saunders: 50:08

That's all I can think of.

Melissa Kitchen: 50:09

Yeah, we have gone through how we met Well. First we went through why a podcast and how we started how we met. We've looked at benefits of accountability, how we've each been there for each other and helped each other. I think we even were able to delineate that between personal and professional. I think we definitely showed how, regardless of whether you are a small business owner, an entrepreneur or a person who is preserving their past, writing stories or collecting those details for family that we've shown pretty clearly how this a relationship with an important person that can be your accountability partner and a friend, can help so much.

Melissa Kitchen: 51:00

Oh, very much, so very much and I really appreciate you and I love you. My dear friend, I appreciate you too, and one goal we do have is an in-person meetup.

Carrie Saunders: 51:10

Yes, for sure. So stay tuned, everybody, and we will let you know.

Melissa Kitchen: 51:15

You will be able to, and actually that will be something fun to do too. We'll have to share some more. If you want to see more of this relationship, maybe that can be. One of our goals is to put more of that into things that people can watch on our channels for our podcasts, yes.

Carrie Saunders: 51:32

More of the Carrie Melissa, we could even reflect more often.

Melissa Kitchen: 51:36

But anyways, thank you, carrie, for doing this and for being my friend. Thank you to everyone out there from podcast land.

Carrie Saunders: 51:47

Yes, thank you, melissa, and thank you to everybody listening to us. We appreciate you All right, so wasn't that a ton of fun? I just absolutely love talking to Melissa, whether it's just chatting on Facebook Messenger or actually kind of in person via Zoom, if we want to call that in person. So, as we wrap up the special anniversary episode, I want to say thanks to each and every one of our listeners. Without your support over the past year, it wouldn't be where it is today, and it has meant the world to me, and I couldn't have reached this milestone without you.

Carrie Saunders: 52:21

Before I sign up, I want to leave you with a thought. If there's one thing in my journey has taught me, it's the power of accountability. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a student or anyone striving towards a goal, having someone by your side can make all the difference. So, as you continue to grow on your own path, consider seeking an accountability partner. You never know just how far you can go when you have someone cheering you on. So, as usual, be sure to visit our show notes and other show notes episodes on our e-commerce made easy podcastcom website. And if you're watching this on the YouTube channel, make sure you hit that subscribe button and if you're listening on the podcast, hit that follow button wherever you're listening. If you're loving my e-commerce made easy podcast, I'd be thrilled if you could rate and review the show on Apple podcasts. Your ratings and reviews help me reach more listeners and empower more people like you to thrive in the online business world. Thank you again for listening and we will see you next week.