Life update & life lessons

Welcome back to the Made For More podcast. Today im sharing some behind the scenes of what life during my pause from the pod looked like. I think sometimes in order to take steps forward in life you have to be willing to take a step back. Thanks for being here.

With love, Miranda 

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Hey guys, welcome back to the Made for More podcast. I am your host, Miranda, and it has been a minute. If you are a returning listener, welcome back and stick around for a much-needed life update and life lessons that I've learned along the way of my time off and my pause. And if you're new here, I want to say hey and welcome. My name is Miranda. I'm based out of Georgia. I started this podcast made for more over a year ago with this idea that I had stirring up with inside of me that I am somebody who is made for more than average. I'm made for more than what is in front of me. I'm made for more than fitting the mold. And I just like to live my life that way. And I also like to encourage others to step into walking a path of more. And I bring real life conversations. We talk about any and all topics. Um, this is a personal development-based style podcast. We talk about family, faith, fitness, friendships, challenges, you name it. I'm probably going to touch on the subject. And if I haven't, I'm sure I will. But basically, I just bring my heart and I bring my soul and transparency. And I'm so glad to have you here. I hope that every single time that you are diving in with your time, that you leave feeling like your time was valued, and you step away from whatever message you listened from me and you feel like you learned something, or maybe just felt understood or seen. Sometimes it's not always about learning something. Maybe you just need a place to feel like you feel understood with things that are going on in life, questions, experiences. So I'm just so glad you're here. And honestly, I'm glad I'm here. I took a pause in May, um, and I needed a big pause. Before May, I was releasing podcast episodes every Monday, sometimes twice a week, and I loved doing that. Um, but if you listen to my pause episode in May, I was going through some health struggles. And although I'm not going to dive in too much to those today, I do want to circle back to those eventually and really break down what I walked through and honestly what I'm still kind of carrying in my back pocket. And I went through struggles of panic attacks. Um, and I found out I had some low levels that needed to be situated as well, and I've just been working on myself. So I I felt this call from God to press pause on the podcast, to press pause on goals in life and to really address some things that needed to be addressed. So that's kind of the place that I'm at. Now, funny enough, as I record this, I am just here to give you a little bit of my time and a little bit a bit about what's going on behind the scenes, some things that I've learned through my pause, but I'm now on a social media pause. So it's funny how how life can be, but you know, sometimes when you pause one thing, it gives you room for opportunity and time to um dabble into something else, and so that's why I'm here. So let's talk about it. So, first things first, we're gonna start out on a super exciting positive note. And if you do follow me over on social media, then you probably already know this update. But if you don't, I want to tell you this amazing, exciting news that we are expecting a baby boy. We are so thrilled. We found out in June after trying this year. Um, if you saw my episode before the pause episode, I did a spoken word on miscarriage, and it was extremely personal to me about a path that I walked in Jane, January. And a little backstory is we have an eight-year-old daughter, and I kind of thought that we were always gonna be a one-child household. Honestly, I was pretty confident in that, and I feel like I've been kind of like um an advocate that one-child households aren't as weird as people make them seem. I've seen the pros of one child households. She gets all of us, she gets all of our time, she gets to make a lot of decisions, she doesn't, we don't have to get any other perspectives uh just yet from anyone else. So I feel like we've seen the sweetness of being an only child household, whereas most people label it weird or put the pressure on you that you have to have more than one kid. And so I've always just been pretty confident and pretty sure that that was the path for us. However, God changed my heart last year and it was unexpected. And honestly, I fought it for about six months quietly to myself, and I was just like, nope, I think we're good. You know, we've already had hard seasons in our life and in our family. I would rather not add any more difficulty or challenge. Like, we're good, we're blessed, let's just keep moving. And God just kept stirring in my heart. And so I had the conversation with my husband in December, and he's always wanted more kids, and it was more so me that was just unsure for multiple reasons. I had an extremely hard and scary um end of my pregnancy and labor and delivery. One day we'll get into that too. But needless to say, the Lord changed my heart, and so I had a conversation with my husband in December of 2025, and I was crying, and I it was just undeniable, and I was like, I want to tell you something, I have this desire, but I am petrified. And so here I sit today, um, 15 weeks pregnant with a baby boy, and I can't believe I was scared of this. I cannot believe I was so scared. And what I want to say to anyone who is maybe thinking about having maybe it's your first baby, or maybe it's adding another baby, and maybe it's a baby to an age gap that you already have and you're starting over. I want to say do it scared, especially if the seed has been planted there by God and it's undeniable. Do it scared and watch it unfold and let it uh be a faith journey for you. So I want to share a little bit. Um, his name is Legend, and we picked a very strong name. If you know our story with our daughter, her name is Lenya, L-E-N-Y-A. Um, oftentimes people forget and they say Kenya, but her name is Lenya, and Linya means strength in lion. And we got her name from uh Levi Lescoe's family story. You can look up their family story. He has a book called Through the Eyes of a Lion, and it was just very impactful, and I wanted a strong name for a girl. So, of course, when we were trying to figure out what we would name a boy if this were to be a boy, I said the name legend, and my husband was like, I love it. Um, legend is a very strong name, you know, it's a reminder to live a life worth telling a story about, it's a reminder to leave your legacy. And his middle name is Kai, K-A-I, which is a shortened uh piece of a word called Kairos. Maybe you've heard of it, um, maybe you haven't, but it means God's appointed timing. And it was a word that a counselor used to say to me years ago. I would I would sit in counseling and I would say, How do I know? How do I how do I have the answer? And she would say Kairos. And she was a Christian-based counselor, and it just means like you'll know, like God's timing is never wrong. So I loved taking the shortened version of that and um making it Kai. So legend Kai is his name, and just like his sister, he has a strong first name and just a soft, solid middle name, and we are so excited for him. His expected due date is February 13th, 2027. Funny enough, my daughter's birthday is 10 days later. So we are going to see what happens. It looks like February will forever be a busy month for our family, but we could not be more excited. So I just wanted to start this episode on a very positive note. If you're waiting on a baby, if you're waiting on a pregnancy, if you're waiting on anything, I just want you to know that the weight is always worth it. I'm sitting in a season right now where I'm looking back and I've walked a lot hard this year. Uh we've walked loss, we've walked weighting, we've walked health issues and questions and concerns. And I just want to say, like, hold fast. Know that your weight is never wasted. Know that there's so much work being done beneath the surface within your weight. There's so many things happening and so much growth happening within you and development that is happening within you that would not happen any other way if you didn't have to wait. And I can say that from a really positive place right now. So now we're gonna go into some random things that I have written down that is very on brand for me. Um, I wrote, I may have started making a list during this pause since you've last heard from me, and it was just like random life lessons of things that either I've learned, picked up on, changes that I've made. And so we're just gonna flow through these. And I hope that one of them speaks to you or brings you confidence, maybe makes you laugh, or encourages you in some way. So we're gonna start out with my first lesson, which is like one of my new mottos. Okay, are you ready for this? You're going to want to remember this. Your emergency is not my emergency. I'm gonna say it again. Your emergency is not my emergency. And what I wrote down was someone else freaking out because they forgot to book a hair appointment and now you can't get them in exactly when they need to get you in. I'm a hairstylist, by the way. That is not my emergency. I I'm sorry, but just because you need this Tuesday at nine, because you have pictures or you have a meeting, it's not my emergency. I if I don't have it, I don't have it. I also wrote down someone texting you, especially if you're a business owner, listen and hold tight to this. If you have if you have a business, if you have clients, somebody else texting you at 9 or 10 p.m. or 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning. It is not your responsibility to feel this urge that you have to respond back right then and there if it is an inconvenient time for you. It might be convenient for them to text you at 9 p.m. or when they wake up at 6 a.m. And I would hope that if they have any level of respect for you or their need for you, that they would say, hey, I know it's late, or hey, I know it's early. This is just what I'm thinking about it. Please respond back during your business hours instead of just sending the text. But you know, I've had to have texts come through and I've had to look at it and go, hey, their emergency is not my emergency. That does not mean you do not care. But as an empath and a person who is naturally a fixer, I tend to see something and I'm like, oh my God, how am I gonna do this? And how am I gonna fix this? And I feel bad, and I begin to think that someone else's emergency is my emergency. And sometimes, politely in your head, you don't even have to say this to the person, but politely in your head, you have to say their emergency is not my emergency. So that's a good one. Remember that next time you can use it in all areas. My next point that I learned during my pause is that you do not owe anyone anything. Okay? People will say, I cannot believe you didn't tell me that, or I didn't know you went through that, or I didn't know you were pregnant, or whatever it was. And normalize the simple fact that you do not owe anyone anything. As an over-explainer at heart, I needed to digest this concept that I don't have to over-explain why I didn't tell them, why I didn't share yet. I didn't owe them anything. Maybe you're not ready to share, good news or bad news. Maybe you realize not everybody is a safe space, and you have to decipher the difference. And not everyone needs to know exactly what all has gone on with you, what all is going on with you. And guess what? It is your right and your duty, and you are allowed to protect that. I have had to realize this because when people found out that I went through a miscarriage, I felt like that was one of the responses I got. Or even when I announced I was pregnant, people would say, I can't believe you didn't tell me. Or I can't believe you didn't say anything. I didn't know you went through that. I don't think people realize that them saying that to you, whether your circumstances are sad or exciting or positive or negative. When people say, I can't believe you didn't tell me, Why didn't you tell me? I didn't know you went through that, they're now making your circumstances about them. They're taking your thing and making it about them. And I just think you have to know when and how to protect that. Not everyone gets your news. Here's my other thing: maybe you would know certain things if you checked on me. Checked in. More than just uh, hey, how are you? Like, really check in. Like, I feel like you have to be doing life with people, and and it goes both ways, right? But you have to be doing life with people to know what's going on in people's life and be okay that they didn't share. Maybe they weren't ready, maybe it was hard, or maybe it was exciting and they wanted to protect it. And just know that it is it is your right to protect your news, your life, your circumstances. Okay, I heard this next point on a church sermon. Um, I was listening to, I believe, through a podcast. And I wish I would have written down who said this so that I could give them credit. But again, this is just like some bullet point notes of things that I've taken away from this pause. And this is a good one too, guys. It's about shadows. We all know what a shadow is. And the person said how big the shadow can look compared to what the object actually is. Think about that for a second. I'm gonna just say to give you a visual, if you're a visual learner like me, envision a tree. Yes, most trees are pretty big, but like their their the cast of the shadow is going to be even bigger. And so you can take the word shadow and think about life. And sometimes, especially if you're a Christian, you might say like you're going through a dark season, you might have a heavy season, and maybe it feels like a shadow. Well, sometimes that dark season appears a lot bigger than what it actually is in your life, and it feels heavy. But let this be your reminder that in order to have a shadow, this is what the person said, in order to have a shadow, there also has to be light. And that just was just so beautiful to me when I when I heard this person say that there has to be light if there's a shadow. Um, and that just felt really biblical, that just felt really hopeful that sometimes things look bigger than what they actually are. And uh sometimes that's heavy. But I just thought that that was a cool thing that I learned. My next point that I wrote down is short and sweet, but my LLC name is Evolve Studio. I named the salon that I run, Evolve, and it was always about me evolving as a business owner, uh, the client perspective coming in, and how I feel like there's so much importance beyond hair and highlights and haircuts. Like I want them to evolve from the inside out. And so I was sitting at work one day, and I felt like I was supposed to pray over my business a couple of months ago, and I just stayed late and I was just staring around the room, like actually, I forgot about this part. I was scrolling, I was scrolling on my phone, doom scrolling, and I truly felt like you are supposed to put your phone down and pray over your business. And I was like, ooh. So I put my phone down and I'm sitting there and I'm just looking around the room and I'm like, all right, what are we supposed to pray for? And I locked eyes with my evolve sign, which is I love that sign. And I was staring at it, and I felt like what I felt like God put on my heart was this was never just an LLC, this was never just about a hair salon or a business name. Evolve is about who I am to my core, and Evolve matters, whether it's me running a business or me in my day-to-day life. Evolve goes deeper than just business. And even now, as I'm saying that out loud, things make so much sense because that was just like a little pocket of information that I gathered in that moment that makes a little bit more sense now, and I have a little bit more of clarity, but I didn't really, I just kind of like sat there and I was like, huh, okay. And it was just interesting, and um, it was a good uh source of information to gather about myself. My next point is about sobriety and about people that you know that are either choosing to get sober or living a sober life, whether they had to make that choice or they just intentionally want to live a sober life. I'm gonna tell you something very important. As someone who is married to someone who is living a sober life, my husband actually just celebrated two years sober. I'm so proud of him. I'm so proud of him. But I know that every single day, whether you see it or not, I know that that's an act of choice for him. And I know that it's not promised tomorrow. I know people can be 10 years sober and have a slip-up. But what I want to say to you is if you know somebody personally that is sober, or if you know someone who has a loved one who is sober or has tried to get sober, please do not ask somebody if they're still sober. Please do not ask that. Think about the question that you're asking. You are like at like just say, hey, how are they doing? Or hey, how's your husband? Hey, how's your cousin? How's your best friend? And then if the person answers, they're doing great. That's all you need to know. When you are asking the words, are they still sober? One, it is very nosy. Two, what if they've had a slip-up? What if they've had a struggle? What if they've had a setback? Now you're making your nosy question and putting on someone and either reminding them of something hard or something heavy or something that they're trying to go through. It's none of your business. If they say the person's doing good, that's all you need to know. Also, do not Offer somebody that you know that is sober or trying to get sober or even trying to just take a break from alcohol, do not offer them something to drink. They don't want it. And yes, to you, oh come on, it's just a shot, or you can't just have one. To them, it's not just a shot. To them, it's more, it's detrimental, it's opening the gate to something much more dangerous. And luckily, we don't have to face this a lot because we surround ourselves with people who are supportive, and honestly, we surround ourselves with a lot of people who just don't partake. But as someone who's married to someone that's sober, he'll just tell me some interesting things that come up and he'll get questions like, Oh, you really don't drink, and he's like, Yeah, I'm serious. Or people say, You can't just have like a shot, and people don't get it. And um be glad you don't get it, actually. I'm gonna say that be glad you don't get it. Um, but I'm very, very proud to say that my husband is doing well and and he has never had a slip-up, and we are gonna pray that that continues. And um, I just wanted to shine light on that. If you know someone that's sober, if you know someone that's trying to like pull back, if you know someone that's trying to make a change or they're trying to give it up for 30 days or something, like don't offer it, and maybe like consider getting a mock tail yourself when you're around them. Be very careful because your words and your actions carry weight and influence to the people around you. And I don't know about you, but I want to be an encouragement, I want to be a light, I want to be a resource, a person of value, and a safe space for people. So, next we are gonna talk about friendship. And there's many different layers of friendship that could be a whole podcast within itself. And um, yeah, I'm just gonna talk from a place of honesty. And this was one of the things that I wrote down that's just something that I've thought about. You know, we all want to be people who are included in something, we all want the invite, we all want to be thought of. We all say, like, oh, is the person saving a seat for me at the table? Or there's like the saying of like, I'm not going if you're if you stop saving a seat for me at the table. But what I also want to say is there's a flip side to that. How many times are you willing to be the host at the table? Because we all want to be invited. Everyone wants to be thought of, everyone wants to be included. But how many times are you willing to say, hey, I'm gonna host the table? I'm gonna host the dinner, I'm gonna host the girls' night, I'm gonna say I'll drive to the concert. I'm gonna offer to go pick them up. I'm gonna offer to bring coffee. How many times are you pulling out the chair to host someone else? You know, to be a good friend or to have a good friend, you need to be a good friend. We all want good friends. That's inevitable. We all want a place at the table, inevitable. But you have to sometimes step back and go, but am I willing to be the host? Because the same person can't be the host every single time. That's not what friendship is, that's not what carries friendship. And to tie into that, I think I'm in a place in my life where I just only want good people around. Um, especially like what I'm gonna say, like my inner circle is. I think you can have a lot of friends and a variety of friends. Uh, you can have casual friends, you can have mom friends, you can have church friends, neighbor friends. But like, as far as like who's in your world and who's in your village and who's in your closeness circle, I personally am in a place where I'm like, I don't need a bunch of friends. I don't need everybody in the circle. I actually want to protect that circle. And I only want people around and in that circle and doing life with me who have good character. I want them to have solid morals and high values and godly traits. I'm in a place in my life where I'm like, I really need you to have godly traits. I can't have ungodly close friends in a close circle. I can't have you around anymore. And you know why? Because it's expensive to me. It costs me something. I need friends who say, when I'm when I'm telling them something, going through something, I need them to be like, let me pray for you, or I'm adding you to my prayer list, or they shoot me a text that says they prayed for me this morning. I need friends who hold me to a standard. If they see something within my life, out of my character, my morals, or my attitude, my demeanor, hold me to it. Be like, girl, that's not you. Or are you okay? Like, what's going on? I don't just need people who feel good and cheer for you and support every little thing. Like, I I want godly friends. And we've gotta have the same morals and values as far as like boundaries, family. I just I have to be very selective, and I think you should too. Okay. Next, I'm gonna say, if you know someone going through something, please stop saying these words. How many times have you ever been going through something? And somebody says to you, let me know if you need anything. Let me know if I can do anything to help. And you're sitting there going through it, and you're like, uh yeah, I'm probably not gonna ask you to pay for my groceries this week. I'm probably not gonna ask you to take my daughter to dance lessons, probably not gonna ask you to cut my grass while my husband's down. You're not. So, and I'm not. Like, I have fallen guilty to this saying because I think we are people who mean incredibly well when we say that, right? Like we're like, yeah, you say it and I'll I'll do it. And maybe you genuinely mean that. But when someone's going through life, whether they've just had a baby, whether their husband lost their job, whether there's sickness, a diagnosis, or whether they're just like overwhelmed. The last thing that an overwhelmed person wants to do is to reach out and be like, can you come do my dishes? Like, no, they're not gonna do that. Can you watch my kids so me and my husband can have a conversation? No, they're not gonna do that. Like, you're not gonna reach out and ask somebody for that kind of help. I mean, if you do, you're valid. But what I want to say is just instead of saying, let me know if you need anything, can you please become a person? And this is what I've been saying to myself. I can only say this to you because I'm saying it to myself, and I've actually done this recently. Move into action. You telling someone, let me know if you need anything, feels a lot like you trying to be a helper or a good person, good friend, yet it quietly removes the weight off of you, and guess what? It places it right back on the person who's probably already overwhelmed or going through it. So let me give you some ideas. Things you can do for somebody. And again, it doesn't mean that they're going through hard things. Maybe they've just had a baby, that's a good thing. But that brings life changes. Maybe they've gone through a move, job change. Maybe it is heavy, maybe it is hard, maybe they're down and out, maybe they're going through a divorce, sickness, something. The easiest, quickest thing you can do. And it's so generous, and no amount is too small, is you can Venmo or Zell or Cash App somebody that you love and somebody that you know. Instead of saying, let me know if you need anything, what if you just sent them 10 bucks and said coffee on me this week? Or what if you sent them $40 and said dinner on me? Whatever you wanted to do, groceries on me, or hey, I don't know the need, but here you go. Money doesn't solve everything, but you know what is really sweet when you feel thought of, when you feel seen. And yes, maybe it cost $60 to feed your family. And maybe someone sent you $30, but that paid for half of it. Maybe you weren't even gonna go get coffee this week because you're trying to budget because of your circumstances, but somebody sent you $10 and you're like, oh, I can treat myself, I can go get myself a coffee. You can door dash them their favorite thing. You can door dash it to their house, to their job. This will make somebody's entire day. If you know their coffee order, if you know their lunch order, if you know their smoothie, send them something. A lot of times when people are going through it or overwhelmed or have life changes, like the last thing they can even think about is like, what am I gonna make for lunch? Or like stopping and getting something. You can cook them a meal and say, hey, I'm bringing you food on Saturday, you and your family. I'm just gonna drop it off. I'm not gonna stay and bother you. I'm just gonna drop it off. You can leave them a gift card in their mailbox and just send them a text and just say, hey, there's something for you in the mail. And to the person receiving it, it's a sweet little surprise. And maybe it's something as simple as a gift card to their local grocery store, which would help them buy diapers, swipes, food, milk, whatever. Also, things that cost you absolutely nothing. Things like picking up the phone and sending them a text, sending sending them a voice memo and saying, Hey, I'm just thinking about you. You're on my mind today. I want you to know that I prayed for you, pray for your family. You can call them. You can also be a person who's willing to go sit with them. Hey, meet me for coffee. Hey, I'm coming over, sitting on your couch with you. I know you can't leave. I know you're you're tied down. Let me come sit with you. Go to their house. You see the dishes are piled up, say, hey, while we catch up. I really don't mind. I'm just gonna clean these. Just offer to be a helping hand, and I can promise you, everyone else is a person that says, let me know if I can do anything. But very few people are willing to actually step into the action part. And I know it can be uncomfortable. And listen, my thing is people can always tell you no or no, thank you, or that's not gonna work for me. I would rather say, Hey, I'm bringing your family a lasagna tonight, and them say, We're good, or no, thank you. But I have just tried. Don't even ask them what they want for dinner, just find a recipe that you know feeds a family and make it. It's a labor of love and it's a reflection of love, but it is a reflection of your action. So let's become people who have stronger actions than we do just empty words. That's what I want to be that. I want people to think she came through for me, she showed up for me in small ways, big ways. So if you know somebody this week, I want to challenge you. If you know someone, maybe they're in the hospital, maybe they've lost a job, maybe they just had a baby, maybe they've moved, maybe they're just a random person that popped on your mind. Like, just send someone five bucks, be like coffee on me. Like, I miss you, or I just want to encourage you and let you know that you're loved and you're thought of. Okay, I want to tell you that I am starting counseling again. How many people can relate to that again? I have done counseling on and off for years. Um, I did start in May. I'm gonna tell you my rule of thumb. My rule of thumb is give any professional counselor, therapist, life coach, whoever you want to go with, give them three to four times before you make a decision if that person is for you or not. And it's okay if they're not, right? Like you'll just try someone else. I tried someone in May, and I pretty much instantly was like, I don't know if this is my person, but I will tell you that she did teach me very tangible, beneficial things that I see now that maybe in the moment I didn't see, but it was beneficial. Um, however, I just felt like okay, I don't know if this is the person I want to move forward with, and I didn't know if I could exactly make the progress I wanted to. So I took a break and on my list of things to do while I'm on my social media pause was to pick up the phone, and it's time, it's time to find another counselor. So um I'm starting counseling again, and I actually was really excited about it when I booked. I was like, okay, this is great. And then I'll tell you that my heart kind of got a little heavy um that following night that I booked it because I started thinking to myself, I don't really know what is harder. Is it harder to pick up all of your baggage and your bags and bring them to counseling and unzip them and open them and unpack them and work through them? Is it harder to do that and address the things and process the things, or is it harder to continue walking around life carrying these bags and suitcases and like having these things attached to you and going with you through life? Like, I don't know what is harder. They both sound hard, but I'm in a place where I do want to work through some things, and also I have like life transitions coming up. We're welcoming a baby. I have some things going on with work, and I want to make sure that I'm getting myself plugged in before I might have like a crisis or maybe more panic attacks because of changes. I want to make sure I'm in a good place and established with somebody that way when life throws its changes and new things in my world that this person knows me and established is established with me, and we can continue making progress in my life, and then I have a valuable resource. So I'm looking forward to it. Um, the last thing I'll end with is that there has been a recurring theme of my life. You've probably picked up on it, but I just feel like God is really stripping me back. It's been the theme of this year as someone who's you know branched out two and a half years ago, built my business on my own, built a brand, worked very hard to protect those things. I've chased goals, I've chased success, I've built something of value, and it all is kind of centered around business and you know, personal growth. I've had a major goal shift within my life. Like this whole theme of this year, like God is just stripping it all back. And it's interesting because where I've built my identity has been centered around the brand and the vision with the hair salon and growth and where I can go. And I've realized my my goals they've shifted and my success is at home. I keep saying, my wealth is at home, my my wealth is my time, my wealth is my overall health, my internal and physical health. My wealth is my household, my people, my family. And it's just been interesting because those things don't pay the bills, right? Those things don't run a business. But somehow God is just like stripping back everything, and I can now see how so many things have been pieced together, and I think God knows I'm not good with change, so he plants little things throughout the year so that when things happen, like now finding out I'm pregnant, and I'm like, wow, interesting. God had me change my hours a couple months ago, and I stopped working as late, and I gave up Saturdays. And he also told me I had to get rid of certain clients. I'll be very honest: people that drain you, people that don't have the same morals and values as you. I had to get rid of people, I had to protect my business, I had to protect my peace, but I don't know, I just see how God's been working, and now I'm also um I'm in this place where my lease was coming up, and I did not want to sign another year for many of different reasons. Um, but you know, I wasn't looking for anything else. I just knew I didn't want to sign for another year, and lo and behold, God brought something on my radar that really kind of fits the season that I'm in. It's gonna be temporary, but I'm closing my loft and I'm moving and I'm going to a much smaller setup. I will still be in something that's kind of a similar concept, just not as big and not as broad, but I'll still be doing my own thing in my own way, um, but at a much slower pace. And I can see how God is just preparing me to, He's been preparing me to slow down and let go and release, and even just how I paused the podcast a couple months ago, like He had me test the waters with other things in my life so that when it came time to do this with business, I was already bold enough and brave enough and had like a strong sense of my faith enough to be able to do what I'm about to do because it feels scary. And you know, a lot of people keep asking me, like, how long are you taking for maternity leave? Who's watching the baby? And my honest, blunt answer is, I am watching the baby. What do you mean? I'm I'm watching the baby. I took three weeks off when I had my daughter, and that was with an emergency C-section, and I went back on blood pressure medication, and I was miserable. I had to do it. I'm not saying, you know, sometimes when you say, like, oh, I'm gonna watch the baby, people are like, Oh, that's so good. You're you guys are in a position to do that. That's what I'm saying when I say I'm watching the baby, we're going to be leaning in on bold faith. But here's my thing: I've had seasons of my life where I'm like, you know, maybe you learn to stop getting your nails done, and you don't go to Starbucks, and you cancel Netflix and Hulu, and maybe you cut back on groceries, and maybe you bump the air up a little bit and turn the lights off a little quicker. Like, you find ways to cut cost so that you can do other things. And that's just where I'm at. I'm like, we'll figure it out. And you know, maybe you don't vacation as often, maybe you don't go out to eat, maybe there's other things that take a sacrifice for a temporary season so that you can do something else, and that's where I'm at. Um, I really have no idea what maternity leave looks like. I keep kind of getting overwhelmed by the thought, and I just tell people like, I don't know. I because I really don't. I could have the baby and want to go back in two months. I could go back in six months, I could take a year off. I could never ever go back. My thing is I don't know. And I get that it's a valid question. I get people get that people are asking so they can prepare and plan, and I don't want to leave people hanging and I don't want to mislead people, but I also don't have an answer to the question because I don't know. I also keep saying, like in a joking way, of like, can I just meet my baby first? I have I have no idea. Can I just see how birth goes and how life what life looks like? I have no idea. So yeah, there's there's definitely a lot unfolding, and I'm asking, like, is God preparing me to step away and to pause that season? Is it a temporary pause? Is it a long pause? Is it a forever pause? I have no idea. Um, and that also brings me to a little bit of an identity concern. I've been a hairstylist for 14 years, and I see people, I do life with people, and I've already seen this already. When I've when I've nicely told people either I'm moving to a different location and cutting my hours and cutting the days that I work, or I'm telling them my plan is to work till December and then go ahead and go on maternity leave, and I don't know what it looks like. I've actually had people say, Well, since I'm gonna go ahead and have to find someone new, like just go ahead and cancel my appointment. If I if I have to find someone, I'll just find them now. And these are people that have been with me for a long time, or people that see me every six weeks, like I'm still working five more months. You could see me multiple times, or like when you want to see me one last time, or maybe ask for your color formula or ask for recommendation on who I'd recommend. Like, I'm willing to help people like get situated, so it's been hard. Um, I've had to just have open hands and know that I can't hang on to people. I've I've learned that, I've known that in this industry. You're someone's hairstylist until they don't need you anymore. And that's really, really hard. But it's also okay. But as that's been happening with people, you know, I'm just trying to be transparent, you know, and sometimes transparency kind of bites you in the butt when it comes to business. But I'm like, all right, you know, maybe that's God's way of helping me slow down because I would have continued to say yes to a lot of people. I would have tried to take everyone with me. And yeah, so I've had just like a little bit of like a an identity concern of like, will people remember me beyond their hair appointment? Like, will like I have all these connections with like so many people and I have all these relationships and dynamics, and it's like, will they remember me if they don't have a hair appointment and they're not coming to see me? Like, I don't know, it made me cry. Um and yeah, we all want to feel needed, we all want to feel seen or thought about, and so I don't know, I just being transparent. I just um I hope that some of my relationships with my clients will still carry on um beyond the chair. And I think with some people, it's like it doesn't matter if I'm doing their hair or not. But for some people, it's like you're just their hairstylist, and that is a really hard concept to grasp when you have poured in so much to people and you've cared so much, so much more beyond their hair appointment. Um, but that's just kind of the truth that I'm walking in. So these are the things that I have gathered through my paws, and these are the things I've learned, these are the things I'm walking through. I don't know when I'll record again, um, but I know that I'm finding my way back and I want to do it in a way that feels authentic and less pressure. It doesn't have to be every single Monday. And if you're new, I want to encourage you. One, thanks for sticking around. Thanks for getting to know me. But go back and listen to previous episodes or maybe do some refreshers. I feel like there's some really solid things that we've talked about in the past that are good. Um, yeah, and I just I thank you guys so much for your time and your patience with me. Um, I'm going to be continuing to bring some content and some thoughts and perspectives, and I want to be on this journey. I love this journey. I love this outlet. I love this space more than any other space, more than social media. It just feels like a like truly, if you're here, you're here for intentional reasons, and I'm here for intentional reasons. So thank you for being here. And I want to just encourage you to go out into the world. Don't be scared to be different. Don't be scared to break the mold and shake things up again. Don't be scared to not settle for average within life, within business, within relationships, within family, within your day to day. And just remember that my motto is always that you're made for more. You always have been. I will see you guys next time. Thank you.