Who Let Us Adult?

When Hustle Became Our Idol | Faith Over Hustle

• Ian & Jasmine Summers • Season 1 • Episode 4

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We used to think hustle was holy — that if we just worked harder, dreamed bigger, and stayed up later, we’d finally “make it.” Spoiler alert: we didn’t. We burned out. 😅

In this episode, we’re talking about the season of our life when chasing success became the center of everything — and how God used that same season to teach us what peace actually looks like. From our time in network marketing to the mindset of constant grinding, we unpack how easily good intentions can turn into idols when you start measuring your worth by your productivity.

This isn’t an “anti-work” episode — it’s an honest look at what happens when your drive starts driving you. We talk about what we learned in marriage through it, how our faith shifted, and why we’re not anti-ambition… we’re just pro-rest, pro-trust, and pro-letting-God-lead.

🎧 Whether you’re in your hustle era or learning to slow down, this one’s for you. 

And cheers to our fellow retired boss babes and hustle bros — may your rest be unbothered and your peace be passive income. 😉🙌🏿


Enjoyed this episode? 🎧 Follow/subscribe so you don't miss the next one. And if you laughed (or felt seen), share it with a friend who's still figuring life out too.

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Speaker 14:

Did you just hit the j? I did hey, welcome to episode four of Who Let Us Adult, episode

Speaker 13:

four. Yes, we in there.

Speaker 14:

Now we talked about Get in there episode one about like chaotic. And this is a true chaotic episode because we filmed this already. And, um, we don't know where it went.

Speaker 13:

Yeah.

Speaker 14:

And then on top of that, we're pretty certain that one of the kids broke One Ice. We know

Speaker 13:

which we know which one. We know which one. Middle Child Energy. We're not gonna name any names, but we know which one was messing with our mic. And

Speaker 14:

now it's broken.

Speaker 13:

So we're improvising. Yes. And shout out to you. Figure it out. Shout out to Ian because. I would've, I don't know what I would've done. I probably would've just been like, okay kids, everyone get in the car. We gotta go get, go get a new mic right this second. But Ian improvised and did all the technical Man, you should've gotten into it.

Speaker 14:

No, you

Speaker 13:

could've done, done some serious troubleshooting pro.

Speaker 14:

Possibly. You

Speaker 13:

would've been a, you would've been a mean it. Tech support. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So, shout out to you, but. Anyway,

Speaker 14:

so let's film it again. Here we go. Hey,

Speaker 13:

who let us adult? Welcome back to episode four.

Speaker 14:

What are we talking about today?

Speaker 13:

We're talking about faith over hustle. Faith

Speaker 14:

over hustle. Faith over

Speaker 13:

hustle. But I, before we jump into that, I was about to do that. I wanna hear about you. Listen,

Speaker 14:

great week. You had a

Speaker 13:

great weekend last weekend. Yes. Yes.

Speaker 14:

So, um, Chicago Collected Con Chicago, uh, a little follow up from last month, last week's episode. Mm-hmm. So. Collective Con Chicago was, uh, amazing.

Speaker 13:

Yeah.

Speaker 14:

Normally you go to the bigger shows with me, but, um, where were you at this weekend?

Speaker 13:

I had a baby shower for one of my best friends. Mm-hmm. She's having her first baby, so got to celebrate her and Baby J.

Speaker 14:

Yep. Shout out Baby J. Yeah,

Speaker 13:

baby J Um, they don't know what they're having, so Baby J is just from their last name, baby J. But yeah, the surprise I think everyone.

Speaker 14:

We did it once. I wish we would've done it twice, but I don't. But we did it once.

Speaker 13:

But I do agree. Do it one time. Yes. If you are gonna have a baby, if you're ha pregnant and you haven't found out gender yet, definitely. At least once. It's more

Speaker 14:

fun.

Speaker 13:

It's, it was pretty cool experience. Yeah. So I love that they're waiting and people who are like, well, how will we know what kind of clothes to get the baby if we don't know what gender the baby is? Get neutral. Yeah. Clothes or just go buy the clothes. Or, or, or,

Speaker 14:

or

Speaker 13:

just wait until the baby's born. Yeah. And then you can get all the clothes the baby needs. Because those first zero to four weeks, they don't, they just need a couple sleepers. Yeah. Like

Speaker 14:

you're not really leaving the house. It's right. They just

Speaker 13:

need a couple sleepers. They don't need all the cutesy stuff then anyways. Um, so yeah. Yeah, we did that. And then one of my other besties, yeah, Jeanie, it was the girls' weekend. We probably listening to this, we did have a girls' weekend. Kai went to his cousin's house. So we had a girl's weekend, girls Night sleepover and Sunday went to church. Great service. The message was about masculine men love that husband stepping up, which I was like, period. My husband's already there. Love that. But other men stepping up. And then later that night we went and saw Brandon Lake in concert.

Speaker 14:

How awesome was that?

Speaker 13:

It was amazing.

Speaker 14:

Side note, Thursday of this week, I went to the Blue Jackets game and Brandon Lake was at the shot and Scene Center film, correct? Right. Yeah. So one of my buddies over at p and c. Yeah, he, um, I asked him, I was like, yeah, so outta curiosity, did you have tickets to the Brandon Lake concert? And he goes, yep. We, we had our suite. It was open. No one, no one. No one asked for it. So I have to remember when you want to do these events now. Oh, salty to ask all my partners, because that would've been a free sweet, that would've been a free booze. Everything free. I mean, I

Speaker 13:

definitely booze at a cri. They, they had it, they were selling alcohol there and I was like, what? Like me and Olivia with the lower.

Speaker 14:

Oh, mom and dad. Hope we're not watching that. Get Lady with the Lord.

Speaker 13:

Okay. Anyway, so Brandon

Speaker 14:

Lake was dope.

Speaker 13:

He, it was awesome. Mm-hmm. It was very cool. Christian concert, Christian country rock vibe. Just a great show and able to worship, you know? Yeah. We were able to worship and there some of his songs are specifically worship music. Yep. And then there's other songs. That are Christian music. So it's talking about God, it's talking. It has more of a story about maybe what he's overcome and a, I think a lot of people can relate to that. Yeah. And I think both of those are okay. You know, that's like having that a Christian song that's just a good song, talking about your journey with the Lord. Right. And then there's a worship song where you are just. Hands up, praising God, like worshiping just how good and amazing he is.

Speaker 14:

Right.

Speaker 13:

So it was great.

Speaker 14:

Yeah. So, uh, chicago was great. We, um, we sold like 90% of the what I brought.

Speaker 13:

That's amazing. Which is I love that you had such a good time. I, um. Was Waka there?

Speaker 14:

No, no Waka.

Speaker 13:

Okay.

Speaker 14:

Um, which is weird. Yeah.'cause I'm used to Waka being there, but no Waka, um, this, this go around. Um, they had a DJ there that was playing. Mm-hmm. Most of the, you know, the bangers, you know, shout out Golden.

Speaker 13:

And you said you had the one guy. Oh, you said shout out Golden. Yeah. Right. Um.

Speaker 14:

Right

Speaker 13:

now. Um, yeah.

Speaker 14:

The guy who, uh, created the Pokemon theme song, uh, I, we call it the Greatest one, hit Wonder of All Time. Uh,

Speaker 13:

because it's still going. He's still going, man, and it's still a banger. And he's right. He, it

Speaker 14:

just goes every collect con and he sings it

Speaker 13:

very best.

Speaker 14:

Yes.

Speaker 13:

I liked the Atlanta Collectic Con Waco was there, but he didn't perform. Brought, brought Ynk, brought twin me, brought out the yin yank twins route. That was, I wish we had. That was so, we had good

Speaker 14:

views at at Oh. I

Speaker 13:

was like, you gotta run the table yourself because I am going over to listen to the y Yank twin. You

Speaker 14:

abandoned me. Oh, I forgot. You did abandon me.

Speaker 13:

Banger. Banger. Banger. Oh my gosh. And they were not

Speaker 14:

editing and that was the only, okay. That was, that was my only thing is like, yo Waka was like editing his stuff when he did Cleveland. Oh

Speaker 13:

yeah. Yin yang twins did not, they did

Speaker 14:

not, we didn't land. We, we, no,

Speaker 13:

no, no, no. I actually take that back. Yin yang. Twins did edit mildly. The audience did edit. Did not edit. You were definitely missed.

Speaker 14:

I enjoyed my ti, my time in Chicago. So we, we hinted a little bit about the start of this episode and, um, faith Over Hustle. So what does that mean, honey?

Speaker 13:

Yeah. We were newly married and financially doing okay, but feeling like we could be doing better and really just wanting to get to a place where. We could breathe a little bit more. So it was, I feel like the hustle side and having success, how we viewed success back then, we viewed it through the lens of having a certain amount of money, right. Having a certain lifestyle. A status, A certain status. Yep. And. We, we call ourselves ambitiously lazy.

Speaker 14:

Very true.

Speaker 13:

Because we wanted, we have the ambition to work hard to do what it takes to get there, but it's with the goal of, you know, being on the beach, sitting on the lido deck of a cruise. Virgin voyages.

Speaker 14:

Shout out Virgin.

Speaker 13:

Yes. Um, we wanna be cruisers like that. And we were in a season of our life where we were trying to figure out how do we get there? Yeah. You know, so faith has always been a huge component of our life, but hustle and the hustle culture, we just really. Fell into that deep Yeah. Where we were like, hustle, harder, grind. You know, you gotta grind your way to success and you know, no sleep, no rest. Like it was no

Speaker 14:

sleep, no glory.

Speaker 13:

Yeah. You can sleep when you're dead. Like that type of mentality of like, if you're running on a few hours of sleep and you know, and you're eating, you know, on the go all the time and you're not sitting down with your family, but you're just like taking, taking your family along with you and grind it out and do this. We bought into all of that and we got to a place where we needed a shift. So that was a long-winded way Yeah. Of talking about what this episode is about. Yeah. Um,

Speaker 14:

so let's talk a little bit about that, about that. So hustling, um, like you had mentioned before, we were newly married. Mm-hmm. I think Kyrie was maybe, maybe a year.

Speaker 13:

Yeah.

Speaker 14:

When, um, we got introduced to a. A business team.

Speaker 13:

Yeah. And bef and prior to that we had been looking at everything. Yeah,

Speaker 14:

you were. I mean we were, I remember you vivid conversations of you trying to convince me to rent out our front room Yes. On Airbnb. Yeah. And it was a hard no for me. Oh yeah.

Speaker 13:

Oh yeah. I definitely could not sell you on that at all. Mm-hmm. But I was like, we could definitely do it. We could definitely rent that front room out for sure. Especially'cause we were not far from downtown Columbus. We could have done it, but we also looked at. DoorDash and Uber Eats and shipped. Mm-hmm. And a, you know, a bunch of different things. I remember I was talking to a bunch of different people. My sister had just started in her real estate endeavor and I was just. Gleaning a bunch of information from people to try to figure out what, what we wanted to do. And you were kind of, you were of the mindset. You probably are like, well, where was Ian during all of this? You tend to be like this, and it's one of the things that I love about you. Whenever I have an idea about something, it's like you want, before you like accept something or take something on. You're like, okay, show me everything and then we'll look over it together. Because it was an idea that I initially had. Yeah. So you're like, don't give me this monkey. Until, like, we can sit down together. You gotta come with that. Exactly. Until we can sit down together and, and evaluate it. Yeah. But don't like give this to me when I'm not the one who had the Yeah. Initial idea, which I, I respect that about you.

Speaker 14:

So I know, and this is, you know, as I sat and thought about this episode, um, and where we were at that time, and I kind of remembered where I was, you know, and what my initial plan was. My thought was my dad was gonna retire at some point.

Speaker 13:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 14:

And, and I would take over his business. That's what I thought. Is that how that was my ticket? If that's how I think we, we get to that, that kind of the lifestyle that I, or we thought that we wanted, um, and. Uh, what happened was, was when we were introduced to this to, you know, uh, this business team and the people who eventually ended up becoming friends, but also our mentors mm-hmm. Um, one of the things that stuck out to me was the idea of doing something together versus. You know Oh, absolutely. Running in, in two different directions. Yeah. Um, and that really made me, you know, kind of, okay, well I'll push that idea of, of, of taking over, you know, my dad's business to Yeah. Away and, and, and, and maybe look at this as a viable option.

Speaker 13:

Mm-hmm. So

Speaker 14:

we started a business, yeah. A multi-level marketing business. Yep.

Speaker 13:

If you're familiar with multi-level marketing mm-hmm. Or network marketing, that was the avenue that we ended up pursuing. Yeah. And it was, you know, like you had said. Where it was something that we could do together. Right. And we ended up really just falling in love with the community of people. Mm-hmm. And the promises of mentorship, which we received. And it was, it was great. Um, and we went on this journey throughout that time of really discovering ourselves and how to. Be better in sales for myself. You're, you're a sales guru. Yeah. Like you've been in sales your entire life and career and, uh, adult life. It's not like you were like. Pimped out. Nah, I came out the world,

Speaker 14:

I came out the wound selling stuff, which actually might be true.

Speaker 13:

Right, right, right.

Speaker 14:

According to my parents. Yeah. I

Speaker 13:

mean there was, there was, I am sure we all like sold the candy bars and Yeah, we f we were trying to figure that out. I was

Speaker 14:

sling a Pokemon Crunch from Pokemon cards Ling It was a thing. Exactly.

Speaker 13:

Um, so we were figuring out sales, we had this business ownership mindset, but we weren't really sure, do we wanna have a brick and mortar? Yeah. Do we want to franchise? Like what do we wanna do? So, um, being involved with a business mentorship community, we were able to learn really like what we wanted. Yeah. What we wanted in life, what we wanted from a business. Um. We were able to just jump in and our ambition just like took off. Like we were like in, we were sold out, we were bought in, we were like, we're gonna reach the top, we're going to, we're um, we're gonna retire each other, you know, from our jobs. And especially at that time having, you know, our oldest. Yeah. Our, the j the crappy jobs back then. But having our oldest and being like, you know, my dream was to stay home. Yeah. Be a stay at home mom and raise him the

Speaker 14:

dream. We never knew you had until,

Speaker 13:

until I started working a job. Yeah. I'm like, sorry mom and dad, I, you paid for all this college. And then I realized I don't wanna do anything with my degree. I just wanna stay home. I just wanna, you know, look at recipes and make new recipes and take care of my home and my kids and Yeah. You know, take care of you. Yeah. Like I brought you lunch. The other day and I was like, I wanna serve my husband. Like I was so happy to like, bring lunch down to you. I just love, just love doing that stuff. But yeah, we were just, we were all in, we were like, let's do this. Right. That, and it was, it was great.

Speaker 14:

And we were a part of that team for a little bit over, right, about six and a half, seven years. Um, and I can say that, that some of the most fun times that we had mm-hmm. Were in that mm-hmm. Those periods and growing together. Yeah. Just learning how. To work together as a unit to, you know, towards, uh, one singular focus in a dream was. Mm-hmm. Awesome. I mean, honestly, it really taught us how to dream again.

Speaker 13:

Yeah.

Speaker 14:

Um,

Speaker 13:

it really did. Yeah. And really

Speaker 14:

ignited that competitiveness that we had. I mean, with both lesbian, former collegiate sports, uh, you know, collegiate track athletes, um, we, um, we both really, you know, kind of had lost a little bit of that fire.

Speaker 15:

so some of the,

Speaker 16:

you can't just speed past that, especially if people are watching this. I'm gonna speed past that. Like all of a sudden it's like, it's gonna cut and baby edit and now there's a baby here

Speaker 15:

and now I woke up. This

Speaker 16:

is our life. This is our life recording with three children.

Speaker 15:

Like I mentioned before, it that those were some of the, you know, the most fun times that we had were during that, those six years, um, growing together and whatnot. Um. Really learning how to work together. Yeah. I think that's one of the reasons why our marriage is as strong as it is because we learned how to be business owners together and learn how to feed off each other as well as play in each other's strengths. Um,

Speaker 17:

oh yeah, absolutely. That's a huge one

Speaker 15:

is, is there are certain things like it's funny now because. You know, over the years this was way different. But if we go into a store, I love when you do this. If we're gonna a store, we have to buy something, you automatically deflect to me.

Speaker 17:

Oh yeah. And

Speaker 15:

like you, I, you mail it back and I'm like, full on. Like mm-hmm. Okay. This is how we're gonna do things. Mm-hmm. When we bought our cars, it's, we buy everything. It's like that now, it feels like. Yeah. It's every big purchase. It's like that

Speaker 16:

for sure. Um, especially'cause I, I just recognize my weakness. My weakness is saying no. To salespeople and they can see me spot me from a mile away. Yeah. So like when people knock on our door, they're like trying to sell, you know, you're, something's going on with your roof. I'm like, oh really? Like,

Speaker 17:

what's

Speaker 16:

going on with my roof? I'm like, they're like, you need to purchase this$20,000. Oh, okay. Like, you know, where do I sign? Yeah, exactly. Um, you, are you struggling with mosquitoes? No. But yeah. You know.

Speaker 15:

No, but I don't want to

Speaker 16:

Exactly. It's like preemptively. Yeah. You know, I don't wanna struggle with mosquitoes, so

Speaker 15:

what are you gonna tell me?

Speaker 16:

Yeah. Let's, to me not struggle with mosquitoes. Let's take care of, yeah. Um, so now I default to you. I'm like, uh, this is a question for my husband. Yeah,

Speaker 15:

which is sometimes is, it's awesome, but also I'll be working in a

Speaker 16:

ding dog.

Speaker 15:

Dang it. Ding.

Speaker 16:

But here we are. We need to

Speaker 15:

get a ring doorbell.

Speaker 16:

Ding. So this is why it was good that you came along with me. Yes. When we were introduced to. To our friends, our mentors. You were along. Yeah. Because if I would've been along, like I would've signed up that day. Yeah. I would've signed up day one. I would've been like, all right, let's do this. But you came along and we took our time and we evaluated everything and yeah, it was just you. I remember the first meeting that we had, and you came and you had your. Hoodie on over your, you had the hood up over your head. Sweat, sweat, sweat. Kyle was with us. He, you had your arms crossed. Mm-hmm. You were like, mm-hmm. And I was like, this is why I married you. Because, because if your posture changes and you start leaning in, I'm like, okay, there's something here. Right. But I would've trusted you if you were like, no, absolutely not. Hard pass and looking back like it really. It was such a great experience and we had so much fun. And the people that we met, we still have friends now to this day Yeah. That are some of our best friends that we met from that experience. Yeah. So, and we're still friends with our mentors. Yeah. You know, they were incredible. Um, but there was like a shift. There was a shift that happened where we spent so many years of our life doing that. Yeah. Chasing that. And we asked the question, are we chasing this to glorify God in everything that we do? Mm-hmm. Or are we chasing this to get a pat on our back?

Speaker 15:

Yeah.

Speaker 16:

And to glorify ourselves.

Speaker 15:

I can remember almost exactly the moment for me that, um, it, it kind of shifted for me.

Speaker 17:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 15:

Um, I, I think I had just gotten home from going out and building the business and. Um, I had looked at our very expensive kitchen table that we paid for when we bought this house. Mm-hmm. And I went, man, I cannot remember the last time an. Me you. And at that time we had, it was me, you and Zaria had just been born. Mm-hmm. You know, maybe a few years. Yeah. Yeah. Zia's a couple years old. Um, but I don't remember the last time that we had all sat down and just had a meal. A

Speaker 16:

family dinner. Yeah.

Speaker 15:

Around like together. Yeah. Around the table.

Speaker 17:

Absolutely.

Speaker 15:

And I think at that point I was like, yeah, I don't think the Lord would be happy with me knowing that. We as a family, were together. Separate.

Speaker 16:

Yeah. That's a very good way of putting it. That we were together, separate be, and we had singular focus. Mm-hmm. And it wasn't, it wasn't always like, it wasn't it including and incorporating our obedience to God and our, our ambition was self-serving.

Speaker 18:

Yeah.

Speaker 16:

And it was, again, was the glory for him or was it for. You know, people to cheer for us because we hit that level and there's a room of people that are standing and clapping for us.

Speaker 17:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 16:

And man, like I could go on a side tangent here, but if anybody's familiar with Forrest Frank, the stuff that he's doing currently and the things that he's saying currently is very similar. To that con that, that conviction that we had

Speaker 17:

mm-hmm.

Speaker 16:

Where he decided that he was bowing out of the Dove Award shows, which is a Christian award show.

Speaker 17:

Yeah.

Speaker 16:

And he didn't wanna receive that award, uh, because he is like, the glory is for Jesus. It's not for me. And that, that makes, you know, brought up a lot of questions and it brings up good questions. Yeah. Of like, w. It's not that the award itself is bad, it's not that somebody's standing up and saying, good job. I'm proud of you. Like that's awesome for the hard work that you've done is bad, but it's your personal motivation behind it. You know? And I think that our personal motivation, and I don't wanna speak for you on this, but I think the conversations that we've had over the years, we realized like, who are we doing this for? Mm-hmm.

Speaker 17:

Why

Speaker 16:

are we, why are we still chasing this? Why are we, taking this time away from our family in the most important years of their life? And are we really being obedient, to what the Lord has called us to do in this moment? Or have we gotten what we needed in this season, what he need, what he wanted us to get, how he wanted to mold us and fortify us and how like it was just a season. Yeah. And that was okay, but it was hard.

Speaker 17:

Yeah.

Speaker 16:

Resting was hard. We didn't go on a

Speaker 15:

vacation for five years. Think of, yeah. For five years we didn't leave. And these

Speaker 16:

were decisions that we made. Yeah.

Speaker 15:

I mean we, we stayed super fo, super focused on, on growing our business. We turned down a lot of stuff. Yeah. I mean, there are weddings we didn't go to.

Speaker 16:

Right.

Speaker 15:

Unfortunately.

Speaker 16:

Yeah.

Speaker 15:

Um,'cause we didn't want to be distracted.

Speaker 16:

Yeah.

Speaker 15:

Come to think of the, to an extent towards the end that probably say our business was a distraction.

Speaker 16:

Yeah., I think that there's people that can, have success. You can have success in anything that you're doing, but Yeah. What is the motivation in which you're pursuing it?

Speaker 17:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 16:

And we just. It had to be okay with, um, closing that chapter. Graduating. I talked to a friend. Yes. And we were like, we graduated.'cause it was like a master's degree.

Speaker 15:

That was gonna be my next thing is Yeah, we, things that we learned, we got a chance to grow up as, as you say. Yeah. We grew up, we, we took some of the skills that we learned in, you know, the meetings and, and, um, reading all the books that we, that we read. Um, and listening to all the motivational talks that we were able to get promotions in places, you know, getting behind some doors that we probably wouldn't have, um, you know, get behind, uh, gotten behind me especially. Um, and we're very grateful. So. We moved on.

Speaker 17:

Yeah.

Speaker 15:

So let's, so we moved on, it's been on almost two years now since we've been gone. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Almost two years since we've been gone.

Speaker 17:

Yeah.

Speaker 15:

So I would like to ask you a couple of questions. Okay. Um, the first question is that we get is, do we hate the. Network marketing or multilevel marketing model mm-hmm. Or industry, do you hate

Speaker 16:

it? Mm-hmm. It's, that's such a funny question because if you would've asked me two years ago when we first decided, you know, we were gonna step away mm-hmm. I definitely went through this, these stages of grief. Right. I had to grieve that because it was a. So many years of our life. Yeah. Friendships built like it was a hard decision to walk away and also feeling like we failed. Yeah. That was hard. Even though we know that we learned it wasn't failing. Right. We learned. So do we hate the network marketing industry? No.

Speaker 15:

No, correct.

Speaker 16:

No, absolutely not. Because I learned so much personally together as a couple, we learned, we grew stronger.

Speaker 15:

Our marriage got.

Speaker 16:

Even stronger.

Speaker 15:

Yeah.

Speaker 16:

It was strong before. It got even stronger throughout because we had great people. That's not everyone's experience.

Speaker 17:

Yes.

Speaker 16:

But that our experience was we had amazing people around us. Yeah. And this episode is not specifically about network marketing. This episode is about faith, having faith over the hustle culture. So this could be a whole other episode where we specifically, we could talk for hours Yeah. About it.

Speaker 15:

My second question was gonna be your. Around, centered around what kind of impacts it made on our marriage, on and on us individually. I can really quickly go first and tell you that like our communication at so times better. We didn't really fight and argue before we got into business, but now we really don't. Mm-hmm. One of the biggest phrases that I love that we learned in this in um, when we were growing our business was if it doesn't matter in five years, it doesn't matter. It doesn't. Yeah. And I, I look at like petty arguments and disagreements that we get into. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, I said to myself, will this matter in five years? Mm-hmm. No. That, I don't know why we're arguing about this.

Speaker 16:

Right, exactly.

Speaker 15:

Um, and I know sometimes that's does, you don't wanna hear that, but it's also very true.

Speaker 16:

Yeah.

Speaker 15:

That, that's great. The friendships, I mean, shout out Ronnie and t you know, shout out, you know, grace

Speaker 16:

and Brian. Yeah.

Speaker 15:

Like those are some of our best friends now. Yeah. Those are people that we never would've have. Uh, probably met if we weren't in the business for as long as we were.

Speaker 17:

Yeah.

Speaker 15:

Okay, so I gave you my thoughts on kind of where I was at. You know, um, what about you? What kind of impacts would you, would you give that, um,

Speaker 16:

what, how, how that experience impacted our relationship and me. Yep. I agree a hundred percent with you. How it impacted our relationship. We're better at communicating. We're stronger there. Personally, I had women that held me accountable.

Speaker 17:

Yeah.

Speaker 16:

And if I'm being honest, I don't think women. In this era want that? Mm. Like they, it's all about being like a girl's girl, you know? And if you have never heard of that term before, it's just essentially like we support women, women supporting women type of mentality, but it's, it's kind of hidden behind, just affirming.

Speaker 17:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 16:

You're saying everything you do is right. Typically men are in the wrong and you're in the right. You're always in the right. Yes. Whoever, that other person that said that to you, they're wrong. You're right. And that's so that's not good toxic. Yeah, that's very toxic.

Speaker 15:

Toxic femininity.

Speaker 16:

Toxic there. Yes, it is. Toxic femininity, 100%. And the women that I got around over the years, they helped me to not fall into that trap. I remember going to Chelsea, um, who was my mentor and still a good friend. I went to her. And I was like, I, I hate how, you know, people at work, they always walk all over me and they disrespect me and this, that and the other. And I was like, venting to her. And a lot of friends, especially back then would've been like, yeah, like, that sucks. Like they're awful. Mm-hmm. Just agreeing with me, telling me everything that I want to hear and kind of puffing me up. And she, I remember she responded back and she was like, they're only doing that because you let them.

Speaker 15:

Hmm. Shots fired?

Speaker 16:

It was just straight.

Speaker 17:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 16:

To the point, it was absolutely correct that I feel disrespected by people because I'm letting them disrespect me. It's like you can feel offended by people because you're letting them offend you. And they that she taught me so much and the other ladies that I got around, like they had that same mentality of like teaching me to not be the victim. You are who you surround yourself with.

Speaker 17:

Yeah.

Speaker 16:

I wasn't around people in our young adult, young married life. That challenged me in certain areas

Speaker 15:

or accountability,

Speaker 16:

held me accountable. And then also from a, from a friendship and a coworker standpoint, but also as a wife too, because I had real conversations with her that helped me to be a better wife to you, where I wasn't just blaming you for everything. You know, I, I'm not 100% innocent. In our disagreements. I am not always right. That's very hard to say.

Speaker 15:

I win arguments

Speaker 16:

sometimes Ian is right. Notice how I said sometimes

Speaker 17:

most

Speaker 16:

no I was able to take a step back and see things from your perspective. So I'm like, oh, wait a minute. It's not Happy Wife, happy life. It's Happy spouse, happy house.

Speaker 15:

So yes, we, we both agree that positive impact, um, we don't really have any hard feelings towards, you know, the business model. I, I even would even tell people, Hey, listen, like if my kid came up to me and said, Hey, I want to, I wanna do this, I'd be like, absolutely. Go learn, go get your master's degree in business ownership.

Speaker 17:

Mm-hmm. Because

Speaker 15:

we learned so much in there that has, um. Furthered our marriage and our lives. Mm-hmm. So 1000%,

Speaker 16:

how do you think that faith impacted us as we were, um, like recalibrating our priorities?

Speaker 15:

Yeah, so one of the biggest things, and I I kind of look back to Genesis when, um, it talks about creation. Mm. Um, uh. We believed before when we were in the business that every day was go, go, go, go, go. If you're not doing something, you are, you're, you know, you're going backwards. You're not moving forward. Um, so we never took a vacation. We never mm-hmm. You know, really took a day off.

Speaker 17:

It was hard. Heck,

Speaker 15:

for a few years we didn't watch any tv. We missed out on the whole Game of Thrones.

Speaker 16:

Okay. Beyond Game of Thrones, this man is a die hard,

Speaker 15:

a Ohio State

Speaker 16:

fan, Steeler fan and Ohio State fan. I didn't watch any of the

Speaker 15:

games.

Speaker 16:

He for what? Except for the Super Bowl. For what, two, almost three years. Three years of the time. Three years

Speaker 15:

with no OSU football. And he is wild, by the

Speaker 16:

way, because we have, we're like coming up. I know that you're looking at your. Clock. You're like, okay, is it almost three 30? Like it's time for the game. Like you, we carve out time. Yeah. Like you make sure like we are available to watch. There was some event that we had, I can't remember what it, oh, we had a wedding to go to. This is a side tangent. We had a wedding to go to and. Abby was in town and she was like, you wanna meet up early in the afternoon? Bring Ian the kids, da da da. And I'm like, yeah, I think we can make that happen. You're like, but what about the game? The game's on? They were like, the game's on. I remember I text her back and I was like, um, Ohio State's playing. And literally she was like. I knew Ian was gonna say that

Speaker 15:

she knows better.

Speaker 16:

Yeah. So

Speaker 15:

it's funny, another side one because I just came back from Chicago, so ironically when we were, when I was in Chicago, Ohio State played Illinois.

Speaker 17:

Yeah.

Speaker 15:

So I had the game on behind me. Right. With an AirPod in my ear as I'm like selling. Sure. You were just like,

Speaker 16:

people were like, what do you do when you're watching the game? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so back to Genesis.

Speaker 15:

Yes. So. You know, it talks about that the Lord created the earth in six days. And then what did he do on day seven? He rested. Um, and

Speaker 17:

amen.

Speaker 15:

That was just something that we didn't do. Like

Speaker 16:

Yeah.

Speaker 15:

Exhausted all the time. Up late. Lived off of energy drinks and

Speaker 16:

we, yeah, it was like thrived on that.

Speaker 15:

Thrived on on energy drinks and other things just to grow our business and that just wasn't. It's sustainable.

Speaker 16:

Right. You know? Yeah. So

Speaker 15:

we, um, that's one of the things that I realized that it's okay to take a break. Yeah. Sometimes it's, it's good to take a week off and go to Florida and enjoy the sun. Yeah. You know, and the beach.

Speaker 16:

And sometimes I have to remind you, because in what you're doing now with vending and. With your job, with working like you're such a hard worker. That's one of the things like when we first started dating, you worked like I would be like, can you, can you miss today so we can go to the movies or something? And you were like, no, I have to work like you. Like getting you to like miss a day of work is far and few between. Like you miss when you Absolutely. Like have to miss work. Yeah. Like you'll put PTO in. So there are day, there are weeks where you'll work seven days a week. Mm. And it's even though the weekend, what you're doing on the weekend is something that you love and that you're passionate about, that's still working seven days a week. So I have, sometimes I have to remind you like, Hey. It's okay to like take this weekend off or take a break or, okay. Put a, put a PTO day in, you know, and just like take a as this is my off weekend too. Yeah. Take a take a minute for yourself and just like reset. So yeah. The faith component of like resetting, resting. Yeah. Even though it felt hard, it helped us to, to recalibrate. Mm-hmm. And it helped us to, um, just get back to godly ambition?

Speaker 17:

Yeah.

Speaker 16:

Because now we're in this season right now of our life of having that godly ambition. It's not wrong to be ambitious, right? It's not wrong to go after your goals. So that was kind of the faith reset. This is also how you

Speaker 15:

avoid burnout. I mean, the next thing that we're gonna talk about is, well, how do you. Stay on task and not, you know, backslide back into that hustle and. For me, it's, it's, it's honestly, it's having you there to like, Hey, slow down. Yeah. Because, I mean, I just got back from Chicago. I'm

Speaker 16:

your, I'm your helpmate.

Speaker 15:

Yes. I just got back from Chicago. My first initial thought was, all right, go, go, go, go, go. And you're like, yo, slow down. Like Right. You understand that things are coming up, but you need a rest. Yeah. And you've been going, going, going for the last couple weeks, preparing for this show. Right now. It's, it's relaxing. So it's, it's, for me it's is, it's you telling me. Mm-hmm. And ironically be, we haven't really talked about. You're the stuff that you're doing on the dance side. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm over here telling you like, Hey, I'm, I'm hitting you with a gun every night. Like, I need you to, to, to rest. Yeah.

Speaker 16:

We, we both need each other. Yeah. Uh, to remind ourselves to like slow down in different ways. Like yours is like not booking yourselves, so, you know, busy all the time. Yeah. And then mine is like, physically. You know, I can't, I, I need to be able to adjust like my dance classes and stuff like that, right? So that I can physically meet that demand for the long haul. But there was a quote, there was a quote that I thought of that, um, I think is so fitting to that shift that happened for us, and it's, we learned God isn't impressed by our grind. He's moved by our trust.

Speaker 15:

Yeah.

Speaker 16:

So putting that trust that. As we were closing one door and entering into a new season, as you know, something that we had didn't mention was right after we decided to, you know, switch gears, switch lanes. Then I was laid off from my job.

Speaker 17:

Yeah.

Speaker 16:

I got into a car accident, hit a deer, like all of these things started happening, and then it's like, did we make the right decision? You know, because the enemy, I feel like the enemy is like coming at us, like pouring it on. So maybe we made the wrong decision. Maybe this is like us not being obedient, but at the same time, that allowed me to step away from my job, even though it wasn't my choice. I was pregnant at the time, and then I was able to fulfill. My dream. Yeah. Which was to be a stay at home mom. And then you stepped up from a work perspective and you were like, if that's what you really wanna do, like we will make this work.

Speaker 17:

Right.

Speaker 16:

And then we just, everything else just figured out. So it was like he, God was not impressed by our grind. We spent all those years like grinding, grinding, grinding. And then all these things happened, like when we decided to shift where we felt like everything was being thrown at us all at once. And we just put our, we, we literally, I remember just being like, it's surrendering.

Speaker 18:

Yeah.

Speaker 16:

And be like, we'll figure out the car. We'll figure out the money. We'll figure it all out because we're just gonna trust God. It doesn't mean that we're gonna stop and we're not gonna take action and we're not going to work and come up with ideas. We're, but we're gonna allow him to like, give us that the creativity. You know,

Speaker 15:

another thing that this came from our time in the business was. Once again, we learned how to work together.

Speaker 17:

Oh, yeah.

Speaker 15:

That, that saying all the stuff that happened after the, uh, we left the business could have wrecked a lot of marriages. Oh yeah. And, you know, we had conversations on, okay, should we sell the house and downsides? Should we, you know, should you get a part-time job? Should you get mm-hmm. Go back into full-time work. Like, should I get a second job? You know, it, it, it all, you know. Came fruition. But we did just, I mean, we, we figured it out. We figured

Speaker 16:

it out. Yeah. Figured

Speaker 15:

it out together. Really? Yeah. We, we, we talked about it and

Speaker 16:

these and the good, I think the real, like if we're gonna kind of embody this podcast of like, who let us adult? We don't have it all figured out, these conversations. They were not like. Hey Hu. You know? And I like, we don't have to hash it all out. You know what those conversations were like. But I think just being real. Yeah. Letting people know. Like these were tough conversations that we were having

Speaker 15:

and ones that didn't happen all in one sitting. We came back. Exactly. We came back and this was, this was

Speaker 16:

time that we were, we were spending coming back and revisiting this and having these conversations. Yeah. Like when we were in those moments, when we were filled with like, oh, I feel like this is getting a little, little sight, little heated, we stepped away and we prayed and we prayed for each other.

Speaker 17:

Yeah,

Speaker 16:

That is just such a huge, centerpiece foundation and for our relationship.

Speaker 15:

And of course as a whole, our marriage continued to get stronger. Um, so one of the things that I wanna do is, is encouragement for our listeners out there that, I mean, you can still dream big, uh, and, and work hard. Just don't lose the plot. Don't lose your peace. You know what I mean? Uh, don't lose your proof, you know, you're, you don't lose your worth in the meantime. Yeah. And always keep everything Don't God-centered. Yeah. Trying

Speaker 16:

to, don't lose the plot. Trying to prove it. Yeah. Trying to prove your worth because you're already worthy. Mm-hmm. You're already worthy in God's eyes. So, no, that was, that was awesome. Yes. I, I think that, that's perfect. Having, um, the ability to work hard. You know, we are, we're healthy, we're young in our marriage. We, we have a young family. Like we have the ability to work hard and so we're not gonna waste that. Yeah. We're not gonna sit here and be like, well, we need to rest, so we're just not gonna do anything. Like, no, we're still gonna work hard and trust God, but we're gonna make sure that we're not burning ourselves out.

Speaker 17:

Right?

Speaker 16:

By just grind, grind, grind, and falling into this hustle culture. Make more money, and then letting money and letting things be. The idol.

Speaker 17:

Right?

Speaker 16:

It's putting that on the pedestal. That is not our golden calf. Mm-hmm. Our golden calf. We don't have a golden calf. Yeah. It was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait minute tell you something. Lemme tell you something. We don't have a golden gas. Okay? No kidding. Oh, we're worshiping God in everything that we do. So when I'm doing the dishes, when I am folding laundry, when I'm taking care of the kids, like. That's a whole other conversation for another day. From like a motherhood perspective. Yeah. Of being able to worship God. But with this podcast like that, us starting this, it was like, God, just, just use us. Yes. Just use us. So

Speaker 15:

to wrap up, um, I'm gonna end with this quote that I absolutely love. Um, so if you guys are listening to this and feel burnt out or behind, here's what we want you to know. What if God's delay. Isn't a denial, it's just a detox.

Speaker 17:

Mm.

Speaker 15:

And that really hit us. And that's kind of how we were like, we didn't want to feel like we were, like we were by delaying, we were denying ourselves something. God was telling us, Hey listen, like you need to cleanse.

Speaker 16:

Yeah. And

Speaker 15:

let me cleanse. And

Speaker 16:

that is where we are at. Yeah. And that's

Speaker 15:

where we're like, whew. That's what's made the journey that I'm on. Yeah. That, you know, I guess that we're wrong.'cause you, we work together on this. Yeah. Um, so fun. And that's what makes the journey that she's gonna embark on when she does more stuff with her dancing. Mm-hmm. Um, it's gonna make it more fun because the Lord has cleansed us Yeah. And allowed us to, to, to kind of see the, the correct path. Yeah. So, honey, do you have any closing thoughts?

Speaker 16:

We thought we were chasing success. Turns out God was chasing us. Banger. Yeah.

Speaker 15:

Let him know who our fake sponsor of the fake

Speaker 16:

sponsor of the week,

Speaker 15:

fake sponsor of the week.

Speaker 16:

This is a surprise. Okay, I just thought of this actually.

Speaker 15:

Okay. Let it rip.

Speaker 16:

Our fake sponsor of the week is, road

Speaker 15:

rip. Mic

Speaker 16:

rip. RIP or what is this? D-G-I-D-G-I. Our fake sponsor of the week. We are not sponsored by DGI, but DGI came in clutch. Clutch. So hope the sound quality's good. Yeah. Uh, I mean, I love the little fluffy mic. I feel like an influencer. Ew.

Speaker 15:

Gross.

Speaker 16:

Yeah, so that's it. That's all we have. Listen,

Speaker 15:

you guys can find us wherever you listen to your podcast. Apple, Spotify, YouTube. Yeah. Anything I'm forgetting? Yeah,

Speaker 16:

you gotta catch us every Sunday at noon for new episodes. This week is Faith. Faith Over Hustle. And next week you're guys are gonna have to come back and find out what we're gonna do next week.

Speaker 15:

Yeah. I have no idea what it's, oh yeah. Neither

Speaker 16:

do I. Crazy. We'll figure it out. We'll just figure it out. All right. All right. Bye. See you guys. That was good.

Speaker 17:

Hey, look at

Speaker 15:

that little fade out.

Speaker 17:

Hey, six,

Speaker 16:

seven.