Small Progress, Big Dreams: Celebrating Your Learning Journey | ep 105

TD Flenaugh celebrates the premiere of Season 3 of Falling for Learning Podcast, reflecting on her journey as a solo podcaster and the importance of consistency over perfectionism. Despite a busy schedule, she emphasizes the need for rest and self-care. TD announces the addition of a third guest and a seasoned educator, Lauren Moseley, to enrich discussions. She also shares personal updates, including her daughter moving out, which allowed her to create a dedicated studio space. TD encourages listeners to celebrate incremental progress and to prioritize their well-being, promising exciting new resources and guest appearances in Season 3.

Highlights of this episode:

1. [0:00:43] - TD discusses being a solo podcaster and her commitment to consistency, highlighting her journey of producing the podcast every Saturday.

2. [0:07:59] - She emphasizes the importance of incremental progress, stating "little bit by little bit is very important" and encouraging listeners not to belittle small steps towards their goals.

3. [0:15:00] - TD shares her personal update about her daughter moving out, which allowed her to create a dedicated podcast studio space, symbolizing her growth and commitment to her work.

4. [0:00:21] - She introduces the podcast's mission to help parents and caregivers with resources, strategies, and tools to ensure children are on track for learning and success.

Transcript

TD Flenaugh: 0:03

Season Three. Loading, okay, this is episode one of season three. Season three opener is here, so I'm gonna give myself a little shout out for that. Stay tuned. You don't want to miss this episode. Thanks for joining us again. Hi. Thank you so much for joining the following for learning podcast. We have this podcast to help parents and caregivers with having the resources, strategies and tools needed to make sure that their children are on track for learning and to stay on track for success. Episode number 105, for the Falling for Learning Podcast, I'm so excited today because it is season three, and let me just be honest, I've been solo podcasting. I saw someone had a thing that was like solopodneur. Anyway, someone who does everything for the podcast, and that is definitely me. Okay. It is season three. Episode One. I am on my vacation right now. And literally, when this comes out, I'll be joint, you know, getting, you know, really in vacation mode, really, like tripping mode. And so this episode is really just going to be a reflection of some of the things that have been going down in the background. Background and all of that. So, yeah, so, you know, something I would learn about my journey, again, I've said this before, is, you know, one of the things, like a lifelong, I've been a lifelong sufferer of perfectionism, and instead of perfectionism, I really embraced consistency when I have been on my podcast, and that is why we're on episode 105 episode 106 actually, I'm not sure which episode it is, but it will be in the show notes, because I have a couple of episodes in the vault, right, just ready and loaded. But as a solo podcaster, I really, actually have been just flying by the seat of my pants, really just making sure the podcast was recorded that day and edited that day and all of that. Sometimes in the same day, there have been a couple of late episodes or whatever. But I made the commitment to do it every, every Saturday, 5pm and so it's been basically that, except, you know, some days it's every once in a while it's late, I have been adding someone to my podcast, different people and different guests, and then have, like, a regular kind of, like a co host, and Lauren Moseley. And so I'm just excited, you know, that we're, you know, turning the page on a new season and moving forward with that. With that being said, I really want to thank you all for watching and being on my show and all of the things that you've done to support this podcast, either just by watching silently and please send in emails and questions and all of that about any challenges that you may be having, anything that you want us to discuss. If you want to be a guest on the podcast and you have something to offer, parents and educators alike, please jump on, you know, the email at TD@writer tie.com right, and we will be glad to reach out to you. I'm getting my calendar together for season three. I really came, you know, just coming off of a very, very busy season, and I'm a lot more tired than I really thought that I was right. Really had lots of, lots of of, you know, plants like, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do three of these a day, five of these a day, an hour of this, hour of that, and my body was like, whoa, slow down. You're not gonna do all those things, but maybe you could do an hour of this instead of five hours of this, or a half an hour of this, or 15 minutes of this. So my body has really been, you know, dict. That I rest, and I think it's really good, you know, I really need, you know, something I think a lot of us do, and some of us, to our detriment, have ignored our body, have not looked at what is different, what's changing, what our body's saying. And we'll, you know, get caffeine and all the things and push ourselves through, and then, you know, we'll have some major health issues. So this episode is an episode of reflection, and wherever you are in your learning journey, whatever it is that you have focused on learning and doing, whatever you want your child to focus on learning and doing, give them some time to reflect, right? Tell them, you know, remind them of where they started. I don't know why. When I started my podcast, I had like the camera to like the side. I don't know why. I don't know Anyway, I use my computer. I think I was using my phone at some point, and the phone is good at some point that I've been using ECAM live, and it's pretty good. I'm not using it to its full ability, but I'm using it in a way that works for me. And every every season, I want to level up the podcast. And one way that I'm doing that again is adding a third person guest, and then also having like a regular person that could talk to an educator who is very seasoned, award winning educator that I think is going to help you know, enrich our discussions and also bring so many fresh ideas and perspectives to the things that we discuss and the strategies and resources that we offer. So stay tuned and continue to share the podcast and continue to focus on you know what you can do to give your child the competitive advantage. We are so glad that you have joined us, and we're going to talk about what more is in store for season three after these messages, the rewrite method and the rewrite method workbook are your go to resource for helping kids to learn to fall in love with writing. It has the tips, tools, resources, strategies and skill building activities to help kids fall out of writing food and into loving to write, get your book set today. Okay, season three more that was coming up, of course, making sure that we have more resources to offer you, links to things that you could buy that are directly related to implementation of whatever resources and strategies that we are discussing with you. I am having a another edition of the rewrite method and the rewrite method workbook, we have a student facing one that's coming out very soon. I also have a fiction book that is coming out, um, it's semi autobiographical, right? Um, that's coming out on very soon. And again, these are part of things that I told myself I was going to do, five hours of this, eight hours of this, when I'm on my vacation time, and my body's saying, you know, a little bit at a time, and I'm listening, and I'm getting that rest, and I'm resetting, but I am moving forward every day, doing a little bit more towards my goal, even though it's not the full speed ahead that I wanted it to be. But obviously, if I don't take care of myself, if my health isn't what it needs to be, then ain't nothing getting done, right? If I you know, you know, could we could break ourselves, which a lot of us, we know of loved ones who broke themselves. They worked, worked, worked and didn't reset and didn't rest. And if that's one thing that you can take away from the podcast today, is to listen to your body and listen to yourself, because we are not machined, and even though we have these great, grand plans about all the things we need to do and how fast it needs to be done, and sometimes put ourselves down for low, slow progress, right? But progress is progress. We know that there are times when we are standing still, when we're not doing anything towards our goals, where our goals are things that we want to do, that we shoulda, coulda, woulda did. But we are not doing anything, and so that is something that we need to celebrate amongst ourselves, is when we are making progress. Even if it's incremental progress, we are moving forward. It is better than standing in one place, looking at it collect dust, and not touching it for a year, or five months, or eight years, or whatever it is. So little bit by little bit is very important. When we really neglect, when we really neglect our progress, when we really belittle our progress, even if it's small, then we're discouraging ourselves. And then we make ourselves, we cheat ourselves out of the journey, and instead we'll say, well, what's the point? I can't move five hours at a time, eight hours at a time. You know, full speed ahead, so I'm going to stop what I'm doing. And instead we're we have convinced ourselves it's better to stand still than move full speed ahead, and that is a lie that we tell ourselves. It's not true, standing still and not making progress and not moving forward, even if it's one sentence at a time, one period at a time. You know, one you know, hour at a time, 15 minutes at a time. That is not something that we need to laugh at or we need to belittle, but it's something that we have to celebrate. That is something that one of you know, the mentors that I'm working with has reminded me of, and I'm reminding myself of that I was looking at, you know, I've also gone to the podcast summit to help me to enrich my learning as a professional podcaster. And you know, one of the coaches, the podcast coaches, DJ, was saying, you know, we need to, you know, fall in love with that little thing, that small thing. 10 people watch my podcast, 20 people watch my podcast, and enjoy that journey and learn and grow and celebrate wherever we are right now and keep moving forward. Instead of saying, oh, only people, only 20 people watched it, so I'm gonna stop. There's no, you know that that's nothing, right? Some people are getting 20 million views, 2 million views, 200,000 views, and I got 20, and it's like, no, that's good enough for now. And this is where you are now and then. A year from now, if you keep moving, you could have 200 people per episode watching and and you're you're in, you're finding your your voice. You're finding your knit, your niche. You are perfecting your craft and and enjoying that time when you're small and celebrating that time when you're small will pay dividends in the future. But again, to get into the habit of stinking thinking, but we're telling ourselves that these small, incremental areas of progress is not good enough, is not worthy, is not something we should brag about, even to ourselves, right? Maybe, you know is so it is such. It's cheating ourselves, right? We don't want to cheat ourselves. And again, we gotta listen to our body. Sometimes we do have to do a little bit less and, and I'm not saying don't be consistent, but I'm saying we could be consistent, but it's, it's not perfect. And so today, you know, I'm again, feeling very tired, but really making sure that I'm being consistent with putting out my podcast. Um, then slick down my edges. Okay? It's a little fuzzy today. It is what it is, right? Did I have the energy to get the podcast to go? You know, put everything together, set up, you know? Yes, the energy to slip down the edges. I don't even believe in baby hairs at this age. I don't know if I'm the only one, but I don't believe in baby hairs at this age, sometimes someone does my hair, and they'll do baby hairs, and I'm like, but I'm not a baby anymore. And of course, if you look on my Instagram, you will find my daughter put, you know, found one of my high school pictures where I was very much, you know, into the baby hairs, but you know, that was a bygone era for me, and I'm not bringing those back. But you know, I know people brought them back, and that's their business, but it's not what I want to do at this point. Okay? I. I just don't, I mean, in the comments, let me know, are you? Are you? You know, in your 40s, bringing the baby hairs back, if you are, I love that for you. It's not for me, though. It's not for me, okay, it's not okay. But there's ways I could have slicked it down. I didn't. So just be aware, I did not slick it down. I mean, not that I had to tell you, if you're watching the video version of the podcast, then you see, no, they're not slicked down, and they're not going to be slicked down. But moving on to slick or not to slick, that is the question, and I've moved on from there. So, oh, let me tell you some other things that happened. So my daughter moved out of the home, and, you know, she's, you know, 27 She's old, but me being a teen mom, and then I also, you know, have you know, this is generational teen mom that I'm dealing with. As you know, if you've been watching the show, some teen moms and dads want their kids to get out at 18 and get the heck on right. And I just don't believe in that. And I also look at people who have more generational wealth, and a lot of times, they will set their kids up to stay with them and help take care of them and help support them into their adulthood. And of course, in certain cultures, especially women, are not moving out until they get married, or something like that. She didn't get married, but she decided to move across the country because she was always wanting to do that. And she transferred one of her jobs. She worked several jobs, and decided to do that and see what that is like. Therefore, I took her room, and so now I have an office. I have been in my dining room. Okay? I'm gonna proudly say it been in my dining room, in the corner of my dining room, really not wanting people to come over, but, you know, family comes over. There's always things going on and events, so family is there, but being, you know, low key embarrassed like this is a mess, right? I like my house to be clean and neat and organized, and it was only partially clean and neat and organized, especially with that desk everything set up in the dining room. So we have now relocated the writer tie LLC studios, a falling for learning podcast, into a room with a door that closes. So we are moving on up, as they say, Okay, we are in new locations. We have a dedicated studio space, and I don't really even have to announce that I am recording and give people dirty looks when they're walking around in the house, because I have a closed door and a dedicated space. And I am so excited about that. I was looking at, you know, joining different locations, or like podcast studios and all of these things to find a location, but she just happened to move out, and now I have a new studio spot, a place where I sit and work quietly and write my book. And it's a month, it's a lot. I'm very excited about it. It's a dedicated space. Super excited about it. There is still a bed in here, because it is also a guest room, but most of the time, no one's using that bed. It's just my dedicated spot. This weekend's about to pop off, and there's lots of family that will be in and out. I just have to make sure I let them know don't put anything on my desk, because last time somebody came, they put something on my desk, and, um, I was very upset, you know what? I dealt with it internally. But this time, I'll be like, if you put something on my desk, I mean, you're gonna have a problem. Okay, that's dedicated space, boo. Okay. Anyway, I'll be very nice. I just will set those ground rules. You gotta have boundaries. Okay? Gotta have boundaries anyway. That's where we are with the following for learning podcast, to make sure that you give yourself a competitive advantage, and therefore your child the competitive advantage, make sure that you are allowing yourself to rest, listening to your body. You're reflecting, right? You're looking about out where you came from and where you are now, and you are respecting the small by whatever you're doing, that incremental progress, that consistency, that every week you're putting out a podcast, every week you are reading with your kid, every. Day you're reading with your kid. You are checking in with your child to see how they're doing. You are nurturing that relationship every day, twice a week, whatever it is, making sure you have those check ins, putting systems in place. You're building your legacy, and I'm here to help you do it. Please reach out to me if you have any questions, concerns, whatever you have, let me know. I'm here. We're here in season three of the following for learning podcast, we not going nowhere. We're here. We're here. Okay, and this one was just me, because it's number one episode season three. But so many fun things to happen this season coming up. You're gonna be so impressed and so excited and so enriched by the lessons that we discuss, the resources we provide, and the guest is gonna be up in here. Okay, I'm just letting you know ahead of time. Buckle up. You. TD, thanks again, more to come on season three. Thanks again for supporting the falling for learning podcast. New Episodes go live every Saturday at 5pm you can watch us on youtube.com, at falling for learning, or listen on all major podcast platforms such as Apple, Google, Audible, Spotify and much more for more resources, visit falling in love with learning.com. We really appreciate you. Have a wonderful week. So I'm season number three. Wasn't even like looking ahead to realize like, guess what? I.