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Welcome to the Freak Show podcast, hosted by Sam Thurmond and Jacqueline Steele Thurmond. Sam is an Air Force Academy graduate and veteran who, after his service and two deployments, escaped the nine-to-five grind by building a real estate investing business that has, to date, accounted for over$50 million in real estate transactions. Jacqueline is an award-winning musician, former owner of boutique branding agency Steele International, and We are

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so excited to welcome you to the Freak Show podcast, where we center our content around the frequency of belief.

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Why? Because when we overcome fear and self-doubt, basically by getting out of our own way, we can make the impossible possible.

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And in this podcast, we are going to share our favorite mindset tools and life lessons that have completely transformed our lives and businesses. So without further ado,

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let's get freaky.

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Hello, and welcome back to The Freak Show. I am Jaclyn Steele Thurman, joined by my husband.

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Sam Thurman.

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And we are here today in episode 20. I can't believe we're already 20 episodes in to talk about the link between your environment and your self-worth, or the title that you chose is...

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Products of Your Environment.

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Products of Your Environment. We've gone back and forth, like, whose titles are better?

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Mine's catchier.

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Yes. But we want to talk today about-

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Brings the audience in.

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And I just like to be very clear. But on this episode, we want to discuss the importance of your environment and how it impacts much more than you might think. And we are not talking about the state of the environment as in global warming, the world outside nature. Though those things are important, we are talking about your direct environment, the place you spend time, The majority of your time.

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Your house, your bedroom, your office, your car, those sorts of things.

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Yes. Speaking of our car, we've got some change to do in

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there. Yeah, we've got some work to do.

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I'm not going to say whose fault it is,

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but it's not mine. Well, here's the thing. I am the main cleaner of the house. I tend to be... I'm

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the main organizer. You're the main tidier.

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Yeah, you're the main designer and organizer, but I'm much more the main...

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Get out the vacuum

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cleaner. Get the vacuum out. Yes. Make sure...

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Just because you beat me to it.

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Well, I give you plenty of time.

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I give

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you plenty of time. But the thing is, it's like...

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I'm the main chef, though.

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You are. Look, it's an equal balance. I feel like we split our duties. There is a fair equal balance across the board. So I'm not trying to make that sort of statement whatsoever. I brought it

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up for saying that you keep the car dirty.

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Yeah, but I always just find it really funny because you hammer me.

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I love

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a clean car. You hammer me about keeping the car clean.

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Because when we had two cars, my car was always clean.

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I rarely ever say anything to you about, because you're like the queen of piles. Like you just, you pile stuff up here and you pile stuff up there. Not really

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anymore. I

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used to be. You definitely used to be.

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Yeah, I definitely used to be, but I don't feel like I do that anymore.

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Well, for a long time until... recently until we moved into our

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new house

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you still kind of do it you still

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really yeah you kind

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of do it you kind of do a little bit but anyway she um you would hammer me about you know leaving coffee cups or whatever in the in the car and the floorboard well you

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guys want to know where covid originated sam's 2004 Nissan Titan.

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That thing was

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disgusting.

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The thing that just always got me was like she would hammer me about the car and I would hardly ever give her any crap about keeping the house clean or whatever. And I'm like, I cleaned the entire house and you're giving me crap about having a couple cups or cans in the floorboard?

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Honey, honey. I love you so much, but it was not a couple cups. It was like 45

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cups. No, no, it was not

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that. We can do a whole episode going back and forth on the state of your car.

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Anyway, so that was it. That was it. You focus on the car environment. I focus on the house

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environment a little more. But all that to say, our environment really does... impact us. It makes a really big difference. And I remember when we first met and I went to your apartment for the first time and everything was beige. And I was like, this is the most restful guy's apartment I've ever been to. The walls were beige. The furniture was beige. The carpet and the flooring was beige. It wasn't bad

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for a guy's apartment.

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It was great. I loved it.

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My roommate and I went to Rooms to go, I think. Yeah. Got the living room set, got everything all hooked up. Yeah. Had like 20 Yankee candles burning. Oh, man. Yeah, it was all the same color, monotone, which now is very...

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It's very in. And I thought it was, seriously, I thought it was the most mature, grown-up guy's apartment I'd ever been into.

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Yeah, not bad.

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So I give you major kudos for that. But let's go back to how our environment is directly related to our self-worth. I feel like it is a reflection of who we are. Yeah. And when we...

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Or more than a... I would say a reflection of your state of mind.

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You

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know, like maybe not who you are necessarily. Sure. Yeah, I like that. But I would say that our house, the organization of the house and state of the art and those things tend to correlate to how we're feeling, right?

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Very much. And I think we can start to shift how we're feeling too by shifting our environment. You know, this past weekend, you were in Georgia with Roman and I reorganized our library and I immediately felt a shift of energy in there. And it just felt so good to get it a little more organized, to get it a little bit more styled. And it shifted the way that I was feeling.

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Yeah. Yeah, it definitely has a huge impact on, it's usually the results of how you're feeling, but it can also change the way you're feeling. If we're talking about going from maybe a little scattered or negative or hectic or whatever, trying to, because it's one of those things you can control, right?

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Yeah.

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There's a lot of stuff in your life or in our lives that is outside of our control, but our environment is one that for the most part we can control. And I think when you hit that point at which you need to change or things are just super hectic and your environment is one of those things that can bring peace or it can bring more chaos if it's chaotic. it's just going to, you're going to feel chaotic. Well, I

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think about the end of the last year before our house was done and we were still living in our rental and half the house was packed and half the house wasn't for like two months because we had to keep pushing out our move-in date because the house, there were just delays everywhere. so many delays and it felt like we were living in chaos and it felt like our minds were chaotic and there just was so little peace during that time. Yeah. Yeah.

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Yeah. It just, you know, it just, when you're, when your environment is put together, it feels like you got your shit together. That's really all it comes down to. And, uh, I think a lot of times, uh, You can create space for creativity or whatever it is. So it's malleable, but it's really important. And I think guys, I don't know. I don't know if it's a guy thing or what, but tend to put, especially when you're younger, put a lot less emphasis on your environment or pay attention attention to that. But I guess the older I get, the more important that is for me. Yeah, you love to tidy up at

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night so that we can wake up and have a beautiful home to wake up to. And I'm the same way. I love wiping down the counters,

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making sure the sink is empty. I can't imagine going to bed having like a sink full of dirty dishes. We

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used to do that

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all the time. We used to do it all the time, but I cannot imagine the anxiety that that would

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create at this

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point. I mean, yeah, years ago... I don't even, yeah, it's hard to even imagine, but now I can't imagine going to bed without cleaning the kitchen.

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Well, and I think going a layer deeper too, our homes are supposed to be our sanctuaries. Our homes are supposed to be where we get to go and rest and reset, right? I also think that our homes have the opportunity to be healing centers for us. It doesn't have to just be red light therapy or PEMF mats or EMF protection, though I'm a huge fan of all of those things. I think the energy that we feel in our home environment deeply affects us on a cellular level. And I think that you can inject joy and inject peace into your environment, no matter your budget and no matter your circumstance. And I think we can go over a few of those ideas of how to inject joy and peace. One thing for me is candles. I love having a candle lit. There's something about having a candle lit that immediately... allows me to take a deep breath. I love watching the flicker. I love for there to be just a soft scent going, and it creates an ambiance whether I'm cooking dinner or working on my laptop or writing or recording. It allows me to feel like I'm doing something to nurture myself because I enjoy the experience so much.

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Yeah, and I admittedly am a candle guy. You are very much a candle guy. I love sniffing candles.

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Yeah. I remember when we first started dating and you came to visit me at Baylor. I love this story. And we went to the grocery store and I knew one of the football players on the Baylor football team. And I ran into him at the grocery store and he was like, hey, how are you doing? What are you up to? Who are you with? And I was like, oh, well, I'm with my new boyfriend. And he was like, what? Well, where is he? And I've pointed to you and you had your nose in like bright pink or like bright green candle just sniffing away. Yeah,

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I like the fruity candles. You love the fruity candles.

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And this big football player was like, okay.

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No shame in my game.

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No shame in your game. And I'm glad that you don't have any shame in your game. So something else I think about a lot is colors. I like neutral earth tones. I'm a Virgo. I'm very much like an earthy person. And so you will not see any bright colors in my house besides my son's Play-Doh. Even his toys, I have like curated to be soft colors. I remember having a conversation with your mom when she was getting him a birthday present, which was so sweet. And she wanted to get him this like slide toy. to go outside. And the first one she sent me was all of these bright colors. And I was like, I can't look out my window and see that every day and not be visually offended. And so I found one at the same price point that was all neutral colors. And I am anal about this, but it really affects me. When I see super bright colors, it makes me feel a little bit anxious.

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That's funny.

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And so that's why if you come over to our house, everything is like cream or different shades of the earth.

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Yeah, and not so much anymore, but I like the brighter the better. I went through like my neon phase. Oh, that's painful. I think a lot of people went through a neon phase. Well, neon

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comes in and out of Vogue. I think it's actually coming back into Vogue right now, but I'm just not really a neon kind of person. I'm just not. It's too activating for me. I like something a little calmer.

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Gotcha.

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Yeah. So color plays a big part in our environment. But if you do love color, it's important to add color. That's a beautiful thing if it's something that you enjoy. I think let's go over some easy ways to shift up your environment. Let's do it. So I would say paint color is a very easy and cheap way to... inject some life and energy into a space. I tend, again, to like neutrals. But when you paint something, it immediately changes the energy of it, right? Another way that we can quickly change our environments is with texture. Bring in some different throw pillows. Get a new bedspread. Get some different blankets, right? or artwork, and that texture changes the energy of an environment pretty quickly, right? We talked about scent and aromatherapy, whether that's candles or we have diffusers that I diffuse essential oils with. Also, sound makes a big difference in an environment. I like to think about hitting on your five senses. Like if somebody's coming over for dinner, I want it to smell good. I want it to sound peaceful. I want everything to taste good. And I want them to feel the vibe of our home, which for me, the vibe that I hope that we exude is a very welcoming, warm, peaceful vibe. And so I want that to show in the decor too. And it doesn't have to be expensive. Our leather sofa I got for free.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So, Don't feel like you have to go out and spend a ton of money. You can get creative here, but creating an environment where you feel at home, where you feel like it reflects who you are and what you love, it makes a really big difference for how you show up for yourself and how you show up for others. I think about a problem. It's not even a problem, but it's a comment, a piece of feedback that we have gotten back on one of our projects recently. We talked about it in the last episode, but our project Via Secreta. And one of the comments has been the master closet is so beautiful, but it's just not big enough. And to me, the closet is pretty large. But one woman was like, I need to be able to do two cartwheels in my closet, which I love that it's so funny. And that's fine. But obviously, this is not the home for her if she needs to do two cartwheels in the closet. But what I like to think about is curating my wardrobe today. and curating my belongings to only be things that really truly bring me joy, to be things that I actually wanna take care of. Otherwise in our society, in our world of materialism, it's so easy to be swallowed by our things, which I think is why in the past, I have been like the queen of piles because we just had too much stuff. And I think we still have too much stuff, but we have pared down over the years and we have curated our possessions to be more of the things we truly care about and pretty much everything else. We're taking it to Goodwill or selling it on Facebook marketplace. And we do that Regularly. So I think when it comes to like closet size or room size or house size, I want to be surrounded by things that bring me joy, by things that really matter to me, by things that I have curated. Because again, that changes the vibration and that changes the energy and the environment. Yeah. Do you have anything that you want to add there for how... I feel like a good question for you is how do you feel different now versus 10 years ago in our homes where 10 years ago, you know, we didn't have much of a budget and things were maybe a little bit more haphazard versus now where our house is much more curated, much more reflective of who we are as a couple and, um, what we really love style and environment-wise?

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Yeah, well, I think my style has basically, from a design standpoint, I think my, I won't even say my style merged with yours because I don't know that I really had much of a style. It was always just function over, or functionality over style. So I think that I have taken on more or less your style or aesthetic when it comes to home design and that sort of thing. So I would say I guess the biggest way that things have changed is that I feel like I have a style now and I appreciate it. Whereas it used to be get a cabinet, put a TV on top of it, Get a lazy boy and a couch and you're good. Don't put anything on the walls. Don't hang any curtains or anything like that because that's just more work you're going to have to do in the future to take it down or whatever it is. But I appreciate it now because there is just something that makes it feel finished and makes it feel put together as opposed to just transient or... haphazard and scattered sort of thing. So I think in general, I've just grown an appreciation for it.

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Well, do you feel more peaceful in our environment now?

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Yes. I mean, there's no place else I'd rather be, if that's what you mean. I'd rather be home pretty much than anywhere. But... I think when, and it's kind of hard with a two-year-old because it's constantly, you know, you clean it up and it's just the tornado. But when it's all put together, yes, you can't beat it.

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Yeah.

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You can't beat it.

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Yeah.

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And not that I'm like so anal that once it's, when it's a little messy, I can't enjoy it. But I think that just appreciating really kind of what you create from a design standpoint. Um, and I'll give as much input as I have or can, but, um, yeah, it's kind of a creation, your, your own creation.

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Yeah. And I,

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I see the value in that now where, as I probably did it in the past as much.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah.

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Yeah.

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I was debating on whether to share a story or not, but I don't think I'm going to. But I want to encourage you, no matter where you are in life, whether you're in an apartment and a rental or you're in your forever home, taking the time to curate a space that reflects who you are and where you are it really makes a difference in your own energy and in the way that you show up for others. And you could go to Goodwill and find a really cool piece of artwork or a cool vase and it's inexpensive. Or maybe you have a bigger budget and you go somewhere else and you find the perfect$20,000 couch. It doesn't really matter. What matters is that you feel like your space is symbiotic with the way that you want to live.

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And

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that energy that it creates, that frequency that it creates is a bedrock. And I feel like now that we live in a home that is so quintessentially us, it feels like a launching pad rather than an obstruction to what we want to do next, where it's like, oh, I got to do this. We got to do this. We got to do this. And of course we have projects we want to do, but the majority of it is done having that be our home base feels like the biggest blessing every single day. And no matter what we're going through, to be able to end our day in our beautiful primary bedroom with a candle and some prayer and gratitude, it just feels like such a gift. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Anything else you want to add to this? No. Okay, well, then what question should we leave everyone with?

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Well, let me scroll on down here.

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No, there isn't a premeditated question I'm asking you. Oh,

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gosh.

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What would you ask yourself 10 years ago? Oh,

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I don't know, Jackie. I think this is...

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Too hard? Okay, this is what I would ask myself. Does this feel reflective of where I want to go? And can you create a space for the person you're becoming rather than the person you already are? Does that make sense? All right. Well, everyone, thank you so much for listening. And we will be back next week, the month of August. We have some super exciting announcements and launches that we're going to do. So stick around. If you haven't left a review, please do. And thank you so much for listening. Have an awesome day. Thank you so much for listening to The Freak Show with Sam Thurmond and me, Jacqueline Steele Thurmond. We would love to connect with you via our website, beckonliving.com, and on social media.

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You can find us on Instagram and TikTok, at Beckon Living, and you can join our email list to receive uplifting messages, podcast and business updates, and discounts on high-frequency products just for our freaky community.

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Cheers to high-frequency living.