Latest / Everyday Ancestral with James Barry / Shark Tank, Burnout & A 10-Week Sabbatical Saved Our Family (2025 Reflection) | Margaret Floyd Barry

Transcript

Shark Tank, Burnout & A 10-Week Sabbatical Saved Our Family (2025 Reflection) | Margaret Floyd Barry · Everyday Ancestral with James Barry

• 0:00
  Welcome back to every day ancestral. What a year it has been. We are closing
• 0:07
  2025 and
• 0:09
  per usual
• 0:11
  Well, this is really only the second time, but still this is how we're doing it
• 0:16
  per usual I have my lovely wife and guest Margaret Floodbury to help me wrap up
• 0:24
  2025 together. How are you doing my dear? I'm doing great. Thanks. How are you doing? Oh
• 0:33
  Geez, what a year, right? What a year
• 0:37
  It has been and it's interesting because you would think that the previous year where we were revealing like all those things you had gone through from the 50 mile run to the
• 0:46
  Cancer scare to your knee that that would be a revolutionary year and it was but like this year feels like there was so much internal
• 0:57
  deep
• 0:59
  sticky growth that happened that is just in my judgment just like pounding out of the body and just emanating as it leads us into 26. What does it feel like to you?
• 1:11
  It feels like there has been an internal rewiring you know I always have a mission and you know people might have heard me say I always want to be
• 1:22
  Unrecognizable a year from now like I want to look back and not even like like who even was that like but normally it has been these big external
• 1:30
  accomplishments and it's not to say that those haven't happened in 2025 but I feel like for me and I actually see this in you as
• 1:39
  well. It feels like there's actually internal rewiring happening at a very core level that means that who we are stepping into this next year is really
• 1:57
  totally different than what came before it's always a building upon and accumulation of growth and I think this time for both of us it has been an
• 2:11
  impact I would say for our whole family it's been like this internal re patterning. Yeah yeah re patterning for sure yeah it's interesting to your point like the previous
• 2:23
  year was a lot of outward stuff like a lot of very you know physical you know your knee the cancer like it was on your skin it was outside of your
• 2:33
  body right and this year really has been just deep deep internal stuff one thing though I really want to touch base about because I
• 2:45
  think it revealed so much and it's actually really applicable to my podcast the everyday ancestral like that that it's that what we
• 2:55
  experienced from what we're about to share in terms of you taking a sabbatical a 10 week sabbatical not only deepened your own personal
• 3:07
  experience and awareness of what you need and what drives you right but as a family it shifted and I think it speaks a lot to
• 3:15
  traditional roles yeah so I love to like dive into that would you just share what you did because it's you guys have to know I just have to set this up
• 3:25
  Margaret and I are both entrepreneurs we're also both kind of workaholics like we like to work and dig into it and like get stuff done and Margaret is the queen of
• 3:39
  getting stuff done like she surpasses most people I know in terms of being able to like create a list not just a short list but a long list and like get it done
• 3:49
  and it's sort of been in the 14 15 years we've known each other like it's sort of like her thing to say like I finished my
• 3:57
  list today like it's a big you know she's felt like an accomplishment from like finishing her list
• 4:04
  and then she decided to literally just burn it all down will you tell everyone what you did yeah absolutely well exactly as you say James
• 4:15
  I've been called the ultimate human doer right like just in action and busyness and frankly an overwhelm and overdrive for a really really long time and I'm really good at hiding it
• 4:27
  I would say not perhaps from you and from the family but externally I think most people wouldn't know that I was really close to burnout if not like deeply in it
• 4:35
  and you know we shared last year about some of these pretty intense things you know with the cancer scarer and then my knee
• 4:43
  and I I think I even said then I felt like oh yeah the universe was kind of taking me out at my knees but I didn't actually slow down
• 4:49
  you know I still did all the things and it didn't feel like it was possible to actually slow down and what I needed to do was just fully step out of
• 4:59
  out of business matters like my professional life that has been I've been so career focused since I was a kid this is just it never dawned on me that I wouldn't you know I
• 5:09
  I started working when I was 13 years old I put myself through college with zero student loans I you know I work every summer every weekend all the way through university
• 5:17
  I took a little bit of time off after but even that I was taking three months off with my back then boyfriend on a climbing trip
• 5:23
  which I cut short because I was like I gotta get back to work so I don't really know how to just be and I got some pretty loud and clear messages
• 5:33
  earlier in this year although not that much earlier it was maybe like just before the summer like May June of like
• 5:39
  you gotta slow down girl or the you know your body is going to do it for you and
• 5:45
  well your body to be to be fair though your body was giving you those messages all along you were just they were just finally loud enough where you were like okay no I have to do something
• 5:59
  I am on the verge here so you were just close to the cliff I think what it was is that I have been really good at just muscling through
• 6:07
  I'm actually really really good at that and I actually worked very closely with my beloved coach mentor spiritual guide Deborah joy I'm not sure I think she she was on this
• 6:17
  podcast she was on this podcast so yeah and hard for me is to not push through hard for me is to surrender
• 6:25
  and just I was experiencing all these things but I'm really good at overriding I'm really good at compensating
• 6:33
  and I would over and over push myself to collapse and I would collapse for a couple of days and then I would like pick myself up and just keep going
• 6:41
  and it got to the point where I was just too tired like it just couldn't keep doing that anymore
• 6:45
  and this is also the age at which my mom's health tanked so my mom yeah your mom will you share what your mom had just so we give that context yeah my mom right at this age was diagnosed with three very intense autoimmune diseases
• 7:02
  she had rheumatoid arthritis lupus and pulmonary fibrosis each of which in and of itself was is you know devastating the combination of the three was horrifying
• 7:13
  she also had breast cancer along the way I honestly can't even remember exactly when that came in I think a little bit deeper into her journey
• 7:19
  but that was you know it was a thing but it actually was less of a thing than the autoimmune diseases and ultimately you know she lived for 20 years or so after her diagnosis
• 7:29
  but it was a brutal existence it was there's so much pain there was so much struggle it was this constant process of surgeries and procedures
• 7:39
  and you know one step forward five steps back two steps forward three steps back and ultimately you know I always say you know one hand she was a medical miracle
• 7:49
  I mean the pulmonary fibrosis alone is a it's a death sentence unless you respond positively to prednisone which she did
• 7:57
  but prednisone is not something you're supposed to take in high doses over the long term which she had to
• 8:03
  because if she starts taking it and that's one of so many different medications but just that one alone if she start taking it she would die
• 8:11
  and so she ultimately passed away from side effects of the whole cocktail but in but primarily that prednisone
• 8:18
  this is hanging over your head as you as you're in here with age yeah I have my own autoimmunity I've got Hashimoto's I'm basically keep it in check
• 8:26
  you know through supplementation all that kind of stuff but that lifestyle piece was not one that I was very good at and you know
• 8:34
  let's look at what I do for fun I run hundreds of miles so you know the idea of slowing down it's just completely foreign to me
• 8:42
  but I got the very clear message that I needed to do so which felt impossible but I have the most incredible teams in my two businesses
• 8:52
  who like they just immediately understood the need quite honestly because I was not performing at my best I was really showing signs to everybody that I was just I was not doing well
• 9:03
  and they were lovely about it and fully supported me in taking a full 10 weeks off and this means I mean a true 10 weeks I'm talking
• 9:12
  I didn't look at a single work email text slack message zoom meeting I didn't have check-ins with anyone in my team
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  a couple of times I got a text message like needing a code for a login to like pay a bill that's literally the extent of the engagement
• 9:26
  and definitely folks would message me saying things are going great we miss you just want you to know it's all it's all under control
• 9:32
  you know so I got a couple of little updates like that but really nothing was needed from me
• 9:37
  10 weeks like like like 10 weeks that is what two and a half months basically
• 9:45
  and what was so fascinating that 10 weeks and I would love you to kind of walk us through on a high level though of each week
• 9:56
  but it was wild like you really did like the first two weeks it was like is this actually happening
• 10:02
  like almost like you didn't you were disoriented you were confused right can you walk us through like what what did the 10 weeks look like on a high level
• 10:10
  yeah it was quite the evolution it's interesting because I didn't really do much other than in that first week
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  I had friends visiting from Europe and I actually spent a week being a tour guide in New York City
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  which sounds really not relaxing except it was perfect because they didn't have family obligations
• 10:26
  and they were because of time zone and just they have a teenager with them you know we never got started until 10 or 11 in the morning
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  and we weren't parting all night so you know we're in bed by like nine or 10 at night most nights so I actually had quite a lot of time to myself
• 10:39
  and it was a perfect because it was still busy but it wasn't business busy and it kind of influenced me into not not not I think if I just stopped and it didn't just cold turkey like absolute quiet
• 10:53
  I wouldn't have known what to do with myself so it's first few weeks was that oh wait and and you were in New York City
• 11:01
  oh my favorite city in the world I love I love it so much so it was amazing and helped me kind of felt like a vacation
• 11:10
  I for the first three weeks or so I was completely allergic to any kind of anything like I couldn't I had my amazing right hand woman is handling all of my emails for me
• 11:22
  but I had told her I would handle the personal emails because it's going to be things like from the school or doctor or whatever
• 11:28
  like you know just like very personal stuff which she normally does handle as well but I was like I don't worry about it I got it
• 11:33
  and she noticed after two weeks or so she's like things are kind of accumulating in there do you want me to go in and handle
• 11:40
  yes please because I could not physically get myself to open email for three weeks I did not look at a single email for three weeks
• 11:50
  well I still laugh because there would be some days in that ten weeks where you would be home you would be have gotten a massage or something like that
• 12:00
  you would have sometimes just been in bed you were watching things and I would walk up and I think you know on a certain level you're doing these things
• 12:08
  you're not thinking about someone else you know like responding to what you're doing and I walk in the room and you had this sheepish
• 12:15
  like kind of like I got caught kind of face yeah and what was so funny about it because here you are you're spending your day relaxing watching doing the things that most people do
• 12:27
  and yet you never do and you were like is this okay and it's like of course it is like I had no judgment and I have anything I was excited
• 12:38
  but it was like I could feel that it was so hard for you to peel back and just like let yourself have the day that is not planned the day that is
• 12:48
  just kind of flapping off you know like you're just doing whatever you really want and it could be just sitting in bed laying in bed and like watching a whole series of a show
• 12:59
  which I only did a couple of times and you only did a couple times but I did feel guilty the whole time it was actually I had this perpetual feeling of playing hooky
• 13:08
  like I can still I can remember when I was in school just like an elementary school or high school
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  and there's that there's a specific feeling when you know your home but everyone else is at school or everyone else is at work
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  it's like the world looks different when you are not working or not at school when you normally would be
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  like everything just feels a little to and you're not out because you're at an appointment or you're like there's no reason for it you're just not there
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  and it's not a holiday and I had that feeling incessantly for like the first three or four weeks it couldn't shake it
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  now I will say what I did I slept a ton I could not believe I was expecting I would sleep a bunch for the first two to three weeks
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  but I will tell you like right up until like week nine ten I was still sleeping to the point where a week before I went back
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  I was like I don't know how I'm going to do this as I now I now need a two to three hour nap every day in order to kind of make it through life
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  so how in God's name I'm going am I going to remove that from my daily schedule and be okay and I am okay
• 14:09
  although I have even been able to squeeze in some that I found that space in my calendar
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  but that's you know then I would say that the kind of middle part of it once I had sort of untangled from some of the business
• 14:20
  things and got more used to it the middle part of it I really leaned in to the family and I think that's probably
• 14:26
  what you're referring to here and you know I grew up with a mom who was hyper career focused
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  we always kind of joked at both my parents were very were professional they're both professional musicians and academics
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  so it wasn't that the roles were fully reversed but it kind of felt like the roles were reversed
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  you know my father was very artistic and very lots of emotions and all these things
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  and my mom was like very straight laced and disciplined and you know she sort of was the one who
• 14:52
  like put her foot down with things and she was very much like the consistent career person
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  and and so I had no idea what it looked like to be you know the idea of a stay-at-home mom
• 15:06
  and I know that when Sia was born that's our eldest I didn't really I took I mostly took time off
• 15:12
  but I actually still had a lot of business obligations even with taking time off
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  and an infant is a totally different stage it's just so hard and I remember thinking oh my god
• 15:21
  how do women do this this is the hardest thing in the world let me get back to work
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  like I couldn't wait to get back to work but now that our kids are older
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  and they're really at that fun age right with nine-year-old and a 13-year-old
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  and they really want to spend time with us
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  and I was able to do that I was able to spend all this time with them
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  and I learned things like if they come home from school when they come home from school
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  they want to connect their ravenous
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  and so I started having dinner ready at 3.30 in the afternoon which sounds absurd
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  but we'd have dinner together at 3.30 in the afternoon and connect
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  and debrief their day and then they weren't feeling abandoned
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  I wasn't feeling frustrated because what will otherwise happen if I'm still working
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  when they come home as they come in they're like wanting my attention
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  I'm like I still have two more hours of work at least you know and then they're hungry
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  so they start trolling through the cupboards of the kitchen and even though we have
• 16:22
  really clean food in the house they're not eating dinner they're eating snackier foods
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  and then I by the time dinner comes on they're just like I'm okay
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  and then it turns into a fight and then I'm tired and you know like all this
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  you know just this major domino effect of me being fried
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  that would then spill onto them being fried
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  I was able to be home when they got home I was able to connect with them
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  nourish them I was nourished so I was showing up really present and engaged with them
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  something I did about halfway through as I noticed that because I had so much space
• 16:54
  it was really easy to pick up my phone and start scrolling Instagram
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  I really have no addiction to any other social media
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  but I just deleted Instagram off my phone completely that changed everything
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  so I don't have that kind of I didn't tune out
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  I just had a lot of meditation a lot of journaling a lot of reading a lot of time
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  with the girls I felt like I could just really tune into them in a powerful way
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  and it actually made me realize just the power you know and they look
• 17:25
  James you're an incredible father like you are in like top
• 17:29
  top 00.1 percent or 0.001 percent of fathers out there like engaged
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  loving supportive involved and kids need their moms you know
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  and they need they need moms who are present
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  they need moms who are whose nervous systems are regulated and I had never given them
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  that I had given them exhausted dredges of myself
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  and it's no wonder that we used to just like all be in this kind of like tense
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  who's gonna freak out first mode that just went away
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  yeah this is a this is a
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  this is the gray area of traditional values right because when we say
• 18:09
  traditional values a lot of people just jump to like oh the woman's got to be at home
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  and the man's got to be working and while I do think that we are
• 18:17
  wired that way and I don't know if that's fully you know
• 18:21
  like Mary Ruddock would say that that's actually how male and female are wired
• 18:25
  but I'm not I don't know about that I haven't done that research so I don't know if it's because we're
• 18:29
  wired that that that way or if it's because we're socialized that way
• 18:33
  I don't know but either way that is what we've known historically
• 18:37
  I tend to think that it's more of like
• 18:41
  we just need the traditional part is we need someone who's managing the home
• 18:47
  the kids the things everything that that surrounds
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  and is within the home and then we need someone managing
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  the income of money outside of the home
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  whether that's the husband the wife the male the female I don't personally have an attachment over that but this was the first time I experienced it
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  where we had someone who was managing the home
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  and then I was focusing on being the
• 19:15
  the person who is working I guess outside of the home even though I'm working from home
• 19:19
  but I will still say though that even though you were the homemaker you're still the bread winner
• 19:25
  and that that your your businesses
• 19:29
  are this time are bringing in the majority of our
• 19:33
  our finance our our our needs financially
• 19:37
  so yes you were taking ten weeks off yes you were
• 19:41
  stayed home mom but your businesses were still keeping us afloat to degree
• 19:45
  well not to a degree
• 19:47
  literally
• 19:49
  and I felt like you being at home
• 19:55
  and in that role enabled me to be more in my masculine
• 19:59
  and I felt it I felt finally like like the chains were off and I could like really just dig into being like
• 20:07
  I am I am going to take care of this family financially
• 20:11
  you know and it was so interesting because they were invisible chains
• 20:15
  you know they were there but I felt it did you feel that?
• 20:19
  100% and I really I love that you brought this up because I think it's an important piece you know I am
• 20:25
  I'm so we have two daughters I want them to grow up believing they can do absolutely anything that they said
• 20:31
  they're hard to if they work hard enough and really like go for it
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  I don't ever want them to feel that they are limited in their choices and options because of their sex
• 20:39
  like that's just stupid
• 20:41
  and I think as women
• 20:45
  especially women who assume historically
• 20:51
  masculine roles like being the breadwinner and the provider financially for the house
• 20:57
  we can unintentionally be very
• 21:02
  demasculating towards our male partners
• 21:06
  and I know that that was the case with us
• 21:10
  and I don't I don't have enough distance from it yet to really psychoanalyze myself
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  in terms of the wise the what's in the house because truly all I have ever longed for in my life
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  was a male to like take care of me I did a women's relationship weekend
• 21:22
  way way way way back in the day some people would you know say
• 21:26
  oh my gosh it's just so
• 21:28
  it's all about the patriarchy this and that and the other but like I do think you know and I don't know
• 21:32
  is it societal is it is it wired I don't know who knows
• 21:36
  I don't know that it matters all I can tell you is that I have just longed for somebody to like
• 21:42
  take care of me you know and I remember learning like for women
• 21:46
  love is being taken care of and I was like you know that that lands
• 21:50
  you know whereas for men
• 21:52
  at least for this this person's teachings is you know men
• 21:56
  want unconditional love and I think it's really interesting that so often we do the opposite right
• 22:02
  I know you James love me unconditionally
• 22:06
  in this way that is just like at a cellular level
• 22:08
  at a way that I sometimes can't even take in like it's annoying sometimes
• 22:12
  because I'm extremely self-critical and then you look at me with these eyes of love
• 22:16
  and acceptance and I want to smack you because I don't look at myself that way
• 22:20
  and it's like it's grading when you can't experience yourself that way
• 22:24
  and somebody sees this greatness in you and it's just
• 22:28
  I get teary even thinking about it it is beautiful
• 22:32
  and it's hard and so I feel like you know
• 22:36
  in a lot of these modern relationships you have the male giving the female unconditional love
• 22:40
  and the female
• 22:42
  but not receiving it from the female partner
• 22:46
  and I'm tired when I am completely exhausted when I feel
• 22:50
  I was both very proud to be the financial provider and like do this thing
• 22:54
  for our family and also totally
• 22:58
  sometimes resentful and sometimes just like oh my gosh
• 23:02
  I'm just so tired and you just take the reins for a minute but not wanting to admit that
• 23:06
  there's very very complicated feelings within that because that sort of felt like if I admitted that
• 23:10
  you know that I'm failing as a modern woman
• 23:14
  kids and I want to like make dinner and I want to
• 23:16
  fold help them learn how to fold their laundry properly and I want to like
• 23:20
  walk with them to school slowly walk in the dog and like hang out and just take the dog
• 23:24
  for a walk in the afternoon because that's what I can do
• 23:26
  you know like I just that felt
• 23:28
  embarrassing to acknowledge that I actually long for that
• 23:32
  but this break forced me into that role and I freaking loved it
• 23:38
  and so all that unintentional critique of you
• 23:42
  um I think dropped away and I noticed in our relationship all of a sudden it became spicy
• 23:48
  like I relaxed into my divine feminine
• 23:50
  and you were able to express your divine masculine
• 23:52
  and this really beautiful polarity that we hadn't really had never experienced in our relationship before
• 23:58
  yeah and and I mean our family just
• 24:02
  dug into this beautiful place like you could feel the kids were feeling like
• 24:08
  nurtured you know and and seen in a way that I think we had kind of
• 24:14
  I mean I think failed is a harsh word but I don't that's just the word that's coming I mean it's like
• 24:18
  I think we had failed at with the kids to a degree because we're
• 24:22
  entrepreneurs we're stay at home entrepreneurs so they've seen us all the time but we're not actually
• 24:26
  available and I think that it's not about always being
• 24:30
  available to your kids I don't think that's at all what I'm trying to say but I do think
• 24:34
  it's about the the quality of the time you do have with them and I think that we were
• 24:40
  sometimes half there half not because I know at least for myself
• 24:44
  I was thinking about all the to-do's I had to do to you know
• 24:48
  move the move the needle on the on the business things like that and so it's
• 24:52
  it's challenging you know and I think it's taught us to have boundaries around our work
• 24:56
  boundaries around you know make you sure that we have family time on the weekends
• 25:00
  but this was other level like this was to me the missing ingredient from from our lives
• 25:08
  and I believe that we're now seeing it from this 10 weeks we're seeing how
• 25:14
  regulate like how everyone's just everyone's system seems more regulated you know
• 25:20
  everyone seems more in parasympathetic mode there's not as many fights
• 25:24
  there's not like there's no not as much aggression on anyone's side that there's just like this love
• 25:30
  and we saw it play out to to where we're in our kids right before Thanksgiving they were like we
• 25:36
  were supposed to go to a friend's house they were like hey can we just have Thanksgiving the four of
• 25:40
  us and we're like huh you like you want to hang out with us and they're like yeah we just feel like
• 25:46
  it would be so nice just to be the four of us and we're like okay
• 25:50
  right yeah it has been and continues to be really really beautiful and important for our family
• 26:01
  and I want I have a lot of questions for you so I wanted to shift but I just want to just say
• 26:06
  that now that I've been back I'm almost at the end of my second week so we're still in
• 26:10
  early days I will acknowledge that but I feel like you know when we do our the real food reboot
• 26:18
  or what we used to call the sugar control detox we would describe that as a chiropractic
• 26:23
  adjustment for your blood sugar handling right you'd have to take absolutely every hint of sweet
• 26:28
  and over sugar and hidden sugars and all the things out of your diet even sweet fruit for three
• 26:34
  weeks in order to like really like break the habit so that when you step back into things it's a
• 26:38
  whole new world and I feel like this ten week break for me was that chiropractic adjustment for me
• 26:46
  in terms of my relationship to my work now my my team gets all me when I'm there because I am
• 26:54
  present I'm not exhausted and depleted and so I'm able to be very specific in what I do I think we've
• 27:01
  all learned that there's things that I was doing I didn't need to be doing so now I'm only doing
• 27:06
  the things that truly only I can and do and should do and it means too that I'm extremely I'm
• 27:13
  able to be really present with the girls when they get home you know I'm still able to sit down
• 27:19
  and eat a meal with them for the most part not every day but for the most parts sit down and eat
• 27:24
  a meal with them when they first come home from school and check in and then if I need to go back
• 27:28
  and do an hour or two of work they're they've been satiated they's connected and now they're off
• 27:32
  doing their thing I'm doing my thing but they don't you know if I feel like we have established
• 27:37
  a new system for and kind of a new pattern for the family overall and that feels really good
• 27:45
  well and you mentioned one of them and I want to highlight it to people is that you know
• 27:49
  through that time off Margaret as she mentioned notice that you know the kids are really hungry when
• 27:54
  they get home instead of like forcing the kids to wait with that hunger and play out the normal
• 28:02
  pattern of snacking and then not being hungry for dinner why don't we shift as a family like let's
• 28:07
  shift and have dinner earlier and that switch really does work like adjusting the environment
• 28:15
  sometimes to fit the people in it works very well and it not only have I seen them eat better because
• 28:26
  of it but I also notice it's affecting the choices we're making with food like it just it's forcing
• 28:34
  like we're no longer having we don't have as many snacky foods in our house because we don't eat
• 28:38
  them it's pretty incredible and so I really love that I was using the analogy the other day on
• 28:43
  some other podcast if like you know when you um baby proof an environment well one of the reasons
• 28:48
  you do that is obviously you want your child to be safe but you're more so doing it because you
• 28:53
  don't want to always be in the position of saying no to everything like no don't touch that
• 28:57
  get out of that right so if you baby proof it and remove the things that you're going to have to say
• 29:00
  no to then all it's about just let them explore you know let them be curious right and in many ways
• 29:06
  that's what you did by adjusting dinner time and adjusting um certain of our lifestyle practices
• 29:15
  to fit everyone's needs it's like we made it so that no longer do we have to be out of congruence
• 29:21
  with each other or angry or are angry or whatever you want to call it okay you said you had some
• 29:26
  questions I do well this has been you know no small year for you mr. James Barry um and the big one
• 29:36
  that I'm sure all your audience is aware of and is wondering about from the inside and I recognize
• 29:42
  there's things you cannot talk about due to signing NDAs but Shark Tank this was a big year for you
• 29:49
  and people have witnessed the external manifestation of that I'll want to know if you're comfortable
• 29:59
  sharing the internal journey that you went through because from my position here as your wife
• 30:07
  watching you go through this um as I said to you the night before the the episode aired for the
• 30:14
  first time and by the way amazing that they've already aired it twice now um by the you know that
• 30:20
  night as I said to you you know no matter what ends up coming of this who you are as a businessman
• 30:28
  and as an entrepreneur has just evolved massively right like I think about with marathon running
• 30:34
  which I do and you have done you know the race is it's whatever the race is great but the outcome
• 30:40
  of the race is so little and of the overall experience it's who you become as a human through the
• 30:47
  discipline of the training and everything it takes to get to that starting line it just evolves
• 30:52
  you so profoundly as a person and that is what I witnessed in you so I would love it if you could
• 30:57
  share with your audience what that internal journey was for you yeah well it really yeah it was
• 31:07
  very revolutionary and it's hard for me sometimes to to step outside myself and see what you see but
• 31:13
  I feel it I do feel the change um you know something a lot of people don't know about
• 31:22
  is the process of how it happens so I'll take a second to share that because I think it's really
• 31:27
  telling of what has occurred since so since I started a plug over five years ago every single year
• 31:36
  throughout the year multiple times people will come up to me and they'll say you got to get on
• 31:41
  Shark Tank this it would be amazing they would eat it up and I've never felt aligned to it ever I've
• 31:48
  just been like I'm not really a glory hound I don't need to be on TV I have some you know I have a great
• 31:56
  investor who who helped to get it launched like I I don't want to do something that that is not
• 32:05
  needed you know I want to focus on the business you know and I and it just for so long I poo poo did I
• 32:10
  just like no this is this doesn't feel right and then earlier this year through some well the last
• 32:16
  few years there's been a lot of like internal work going on um some work we did with some friends
• 32:22
  of ours like just really like processing some deep stuff and releasing things and I think it
• 32:29
  culminated from that process but I started this year out at one point right like a mayor something
• 32:37
  like that and I came to you and I said Margaret I think I'm ready to be on Shark Tank and what
• 32:41
  happened for me was I had this revelation of like oh my gosh being on Shark Tank is not about me
• 32:48
  it's not about my ego it's not even about the company that it became really crystal clear to me
• 32:54
  that it was about the message it was about the mission that I'm on in terms of trying to help people
• 32:59
  and support them in getting these nutrient dense foods these animal based nutrient dense foods
• 33:03
  like it's about amplifying that mission and message and so suddenly when it was about more than
• 33:10
  just me I was like yeah I'm ready and I told that to and then like three days later I got an email
• 33:21
  out of the blue from one of the producers on Shark Tank saying hey we think you'd be a great
• 33:26
  business to be in Shark Tank I thought it was a joke like I messaged them back saying like really
• 33:31
  are you know is this for real and they're like no no no it's a for real email like we'd like to
• 33:36
  have a meeting to see if this would be something you want to take advantage of and then suddenly it
• 33:41
  was like I was catapulted into this process of just just being like just saying yes like
• 33:48
  do you want to do this yes okay what do you have to do okay do xyz okay I did xyz and I was not
• 33:55
  easy because I'm still doing the hundreds of other things I got to do but now I'm adding more work
• 34:00
  and so suddenly it was like I was like doing the things and I just kept passing go I kept passing
• 34:09
  getting to the next stage every time and it felt so divine in many ways like yes there was effort but
• 34:15
  it was nowhere near the effort the most businesses go through to get on the show nowhere near
• 34:21
  and through that process I was definitely having to like really get granular with my the numbers
• 34:27
  the business really understanding like why what is this about like really dialing into the mission
• 34:34
  everything and I had to lock down a pitch all these kind of things and suddenly I was on that list
• 34:43
  to shoot it and then suddenly I'm now in the shark tank and I'm and I'm doing it and it was so intense
• 34:52
  there was so much adrenaline to it it did not go how I thought it would and you had to even remind me
• 35:00
  like you never actually wanted an investor like you had to remind me when I first did that it was
• 35:06
  about the amplifying the mission because I during the process of doing all the work they told me to
• 35:11
  do and being around all these people that kept saying oh my gosh you're gonna get a deal I started
• 35:15
  to actually believe it and I started to actually shift and think oh this is why you're in it instead of
• 35:21
  being reminded and remembering that no it was about amplifying the mission I think that's I just
• 35:27
  want to pause there for a second because I think that's a really really important piece you know nobody
• 35:31
  ever intended on doing anything but complete support of you right and you are you know people see
• 35:38
  what an incredible thing that you're building and they it's hard for those who are familiar with
• 35:46
  you who know you well or who just even know you through pluck to see anything like how could somebody
• 35:53
  look at this and not see the incredible opportunity in front of them and so there was so much of this
• 36:00
  energy of like well of course you're gonna get a deal I mean we had friends who are making bets on
• 36:04
  which shark was gonna make the deal not is there gonna be a deal just like well which shark was it
• 36:09
  ended at you know and and that's that's it's so loving and it did you know it it's hard not to start
• 36:18
  to sort of you know believe your own press so to speak right and start to kind of take it in and
• 36:23
  have that as the new expectation so I think it's completely natural that that ended up happening
• 36:30
  because that really was from every angle that's what you were hearing yeah and it was in it
• 36:35
  and I don't want to go into details about what it's like in the 10 because that is kind of the NDA
• 36:40
  stuff I had to sign but I let's just say that it was it really was overwhelming and it's not what
• 36:48
  it seems like on TV it's it's it's it's it's pretty intense there there was a lot of things that
• 36:55
  happened that I didn't expect that it wasn't ready for because I it's it's different when you're
• 37:01
  in there you know they film like 45 minutes then you only see seven minutes of it so what what
• 37:08
  we know what they what I experienced first is what people saw very different and um so let's just
• 37:15
  like I'll just leave it at that without you know crossing any lines but but basically
• 37:22
  when I ended I was like I was flattened I was like I don't I don't even know what to do like
• 37:32
  at this point because my the energy output was so intense and then and then and then feeling a
• 37:37
  bit like a failure to a degree even though like you had reminded me like this was not you didn't
• 37:42
  do it for like I had to be reminded I have to stress that because the the emotions were really
• 37:47
  heavy for me and and then you were the only person that knew and I and we couldn't talk about it
• 37:52
  and and that that so I filmed it in June and it didn't air till September so that's like nearly
• 37:58
  October oh October that's right so you know five months of just sitting with that silence and
• 38:04
  those feelings and I couldn't sleep for the first month I really struggled because I kept playing
• 38:12
  out the whole process and in many ways I would say it was kind of traumatic for me like there was
• 38:18
  an element of trauma and I got through it though in that month and I really did kind of turn it
• 38:26
  around energetically and be like no no I I get it now there's a bigger picture and I was really like
• 38:31
  just at peace and I still didn't know if it was gonna air and then we got word that was gonna air
• 38:37
  and then I did something that I think you even struggled with and I'm curious for you to share
• 38:42
  your process with this but you were you were like planning a whole viewing party and I said I'm not
• 38:49
  gonna come and you were like what now it was later like I was really I do put you know my health and
• 38:55
  and I wake up you know at the same time every morning like I didn't want to diverge off of my
• 39:01
  lifestyle you know plan so that was an element but to degree like when there's you know supernatural
• 39:08
  things that are about to happen you step out of that just to be in them right it would be like
• 39:13
  getting nominated for an Oscar and then not showing up to you know for the event just because it's too
• 39:20
  late you know I mean so there was an element of absurdity about me saying I wasn't gonna show up but
• 39:26
  I felt really clear of like you know what I have made my peace with this process and I did to
• 39:31
  have fears of like watching it seeing how they edited it like just it would open up something
• 39:39
  that I didn't need to revisit that I got from the experience what I needed and I continue to get
• 39:43
  from the experience what I need because there's it continues to flower out and blossom and like
• 39:49
  and reveal new beautiful things um but yeah will you share your process of me not not showing up
• 39:57
  in that conversation where you kind of had around it yeah well it's actually really interesting
• 40:01
  because I you know I had my own my own feelings because I I knew the outcome but neither of us
• 40:06
  of course had any idea what was actually gonna be shared and you know because it is always a
• 40:11
  longer thing and they added it down so we have no idea how it's gonna how it's gonna be finally
• 40:16
  you know that final cut so to speak um and I was definitely disappointed that you didn't want to
• 40:21
  come and in my mind I said well isn't it like if you you know so you're an actor and it's the
• 40:26
  premiere of your movie and then you don't go to the movie and you were like Margaret most of those
• 40:30
  actors go to the red carpet and then go home they don't need to see the movie they were in it
• 40:34
  like they were there they're not gonna sit there with everybody and watch it and I'm sure that
• 40:37
  there's some who do watch and some who don't but that actually made a lot of sense to me and it
• 40:42
  was actually it ended up being great because you know as a group watching it we were able to you
• 40:47
  know we were able to everyone was able to comment freely because you weren't in the room um and
• 40:52
  we were then able you know as soon as your your segment was done you know there was you know TV was
• 40:56
  turned off and there's a very very lively discussion about everything which again probably would have
• 41:01
  happened as freely had you been in the room um and uh no I think it was it ended up being really
• 41:08
  the right the right decision well I felt like a real moment for me as well because I really
• 41:15
  I stood up for what I needed you know I mean and I released I stood up for it and I and I
• 41:21
  stayed true to it and and I didn't I didn't let my worries or concerns for you or other people
• 41:28
  like sway me from what I needed in that moment since technically it was you know an experience
• 41:34
  that was about me right so it's like I wanted to really make sure I took care of myself and um
• 41:42
  and I and I feel like that was a moment for me because I think and I think even how I'm now
• 41:47
  looking at the business and how I'm running yes there's all this there's all this kind of like
• 41:54
  growth in terms of numbers and and understanding the ins and outs of the business
• 41:59
  but I think ultimately what's really landed for me is the confidence that what I feel and what
• 42:08
  I have an instinct around is okay like a full acceptance of like you know what I'm going to
• 42:15
  stay true to this instinct and I'm okay with that and I'm going to make sure that I take care
• 42:21
  myself in that and I'm also not going to apologize for the instincts I have I'm just going to
• 42:26
  clearly communicate them and I feel like I'm doing that more and more and just showing up with
• 42:31
  that confidence but also that that curiosity because you have to I believe you have to be curious
• 42:38
  to follow your instincts you can't you know it's not it's not overconfidence it's like no I have
• 42:43
  an instinct and you got to be like well what is that and you got to explore it enough to then
• 42:47
  confidently say like okay I'm going to listen to that and I feel like I am an absolute acceptance
• 42:52
  of what I know what I don't know and my curiosity to gain even more knowledge around whatever it is
• 42:59
  I don't know and I also feel like I'm I'm showing up in relationships and I'm really like listening
• 43:05
  more to people and I'm looking at others with softer eyes and I'm and I'm trying to help as
• 43:13
  much as I can when I can but I'm also not trying to do other people's work like I feel like I'm
• 43:18
  finding this really beautiful balance between entrepreneurship and humanity if that makes sense
• 43:28
  I would agree completely and I would add two things to that one is that you know I think you got
• 43:35
  even clearer that all of this is about your mission but I know of some decisions you've made
• 43:42
  in the business that you're going to be revealing in 2026 that are just so aligned with you
• 43:49
  and they're just in such integrity with the vision for the business you got so clear on that
• 43:56
  in a way and and you got clear on it I think about the clarity going in was one piece and I mean
• 44:04
  the clarity even before the producers reached out to that was like step one of it then there was
• 44:07
  the clarity through that process which yet got a little muddy at the end but then coming home from
• 44:12
  the experience it's very tempting you know any of us who do anything in the public you know any time
• 44:17
  I have never given a single speech I'm sure you're the same where you don't then analyze every
• 44:21
  little bit of it oh I could have done this I could have done that you know and that times a thousand
• 44:25
  you know the experience of you know oh could I have done this in this moment could I have said this
• 44:30
  with the outcome have been different you were forced to just let go of all of that you didn't even
• 44:35
  know if it was going to be air right like you we know there's a lot of unknowns throughout the
• 44:39
  entire stage in the process so you know there's you had to let go of all that and just just say you
• 44:44
  know what it happened I have no idea the outcome of it I have no idea if it errors what this is
• 44:49
  going to do for the business I am just going to move forward with utter clarity on my vision and my
• 44:53
  mission and what I am here on planet earth to do and you just did it you know and then it and then
• 45:00
  it came out and then everyone's talking about it right oh what about this and what about that
• 45:05
  and everyone's kind of trying to break down you know and you actually did such an amazing job
• 45:11
  of listening and you discuss it a little bit but you actually didn't get caught up in the well
• 45:18
  I could have done this and what if I'd gone that way and if it did you didn't do any of that you
• 45:21
  were just like yeah mission back to mission back to mission and I think I think that is just
• 45:31
  profound growth because there's always going to be things in business and in life that come at us
• 45:37
  externally over which we have zero control and then we have control over basically nothing other
• 45:42
  than ourselves and our internal reaction and most of our life allows us to operate under the
• 45:48
  illusion that we actually do have some kind of control over all these external factors but really
• 45:53
  we don't and you were put into a situation where you had zero control over something that was going
• 46:00
  to be extraordinarily public viewed by millions of people quite literally talk about bringing you to
• 46:07
  the fire and forcing you to just say like I got to just be me that would break a lot of people
• 46:14
  but it didn't break you it just like it got you so clear on what you're here to do and why you're
• 46:21
  doing it and I I know you can't talk about what's to come in 2026 but I'm so freaking excited to
• 46:27
  have this conversation with you in a year from now because I think the purity you've always I mean
• 46:35
  you go through life with the cleanest heart you're so of anybody I know you do things for
• 46:41
  annoyingly the right reasons right like you will put yourself last on the list of people to
• 46:48
  receive benefit from your business for example right like you you really are doing this for the
• 46:53
  mission of it sometimes to a fault but you you're just so right now you're just so clean and you're
• 47:00
  you're you've got now the success in the business that allows you to make some decisions that are
• 47:05
  really I mean it's just it's really beautiful sometimes I think success can really corrupt people
• 47:10
  and help them sort of tempt them off course and draw them away from the original intent and
• 47:18
  the original integrity of their vision especially in a mission-based business you did not
• 47:22
  build the side to launch this business because you thought you were going to make
• 47:25
  bazillions of dollars on it you were like people need to learn that organ mates are not scary
• 47:31
  and that they're the most nutrient-dense parts of the animals and they need to incorporate
• 47:35
  them in the diet and I have solved the problem of how to do that without having to deal with all
• 47:39
  the hurdles that people have when they think about organ mates sometimes it can be tempting for
• 47:45
  people when they achieve a certain amount of success to forget the origin story to forget
• 47:51
  why they're actually there but what this experience has done for you is just fricking nail that
• 47:58
  into every fiber of your being so that you can move forward with even more integrity and that
• 48:05
  my friend is why I freaking married you thank you baby I get's hard not to cry hearing
• 48:15
  this of course but I I think I think from what I heard the the last line of what I said in
• 48:23
  Shark Tank is really I'm really glad that they left that in and it's that I'm not going to apologize
• 48:31
  for wanting to help people and it's like that to me is like should be put on a t-shirt for me
• 48:39
  because it's like I really I've always gone down this path of wanting to be a chef of to be
• 48:46
  specifically in the health field around cooking because I want to help people because I've recognized
• 48:52
  that food is so it can be so complicated and so tied to our emotions and we can make poor choices
• 49:00
  because there's so many manufacturers and agencies out there and marketing that are that are
• 49:09
  really not in it for our health and so it gets so confusing and I want to I just want to cut
• 49:14
  through it all and give people clean but delicious food and and that's how we met right I mean
• 49:21
  that's that's literally it was you know your functional nutritious I'm a chef and then us
• 49:28
  realizing that our alignment and the philosophy of health was was the same I think I always have
• 49:35
  said over the years I've said there's an illusion of health with most products but when you meet
• 49:40
  someone that's in alignment with your health I mean that was the coolest thing is when we had that
• 49:45
  trip you know to that wine the wine country we just you know what's what I'm going to tell exactly
• 49:52
  it started dating or dating like dating fight 10 minutes yeah and we just got into a discussion
• 50:00
  about like oh if we had kids how would you want to raise them and how would you want to feed them
• 50:04
  and of course food was I think the first thing we talked about regarding lifestyle and it was like
• 50:09
  we were right on the same page like right from the get go and and I'm just so excited to enter
• 50:17
  26 with you it feels like 25 was such a deepening and so much growth happened and I feel like
• 50:27
  it's all red it's percolated and it's just all ready to pour out into 26 and I can't wait
• 50:33
  to share the bounty with everyone and to continue to expand and grow with you and our family
• 50:43
  and our little ones like it's it's truly a journey and it's a beautiful one and I'm just so grateful
• 50:49
  to be on it with you YouTube baby so much anything you want to say as we end 20 25 wrap up
• 51:04
  it's it's going to be you know I hope my hope is that you know
• 51:08
  you know everyone out there is feeling a sense of coexistence you know of like collaboration
• 51:17
  in their lives and and and feeling an agency and an empowerment to not go into 26 feeling like
• 51:25
  oh like defeated or not feeling like less than but where you feel like that you can be
• 51:34
  fully yourself and and really emanate that beauty and that strength to those around you as you
• 51:41
  enter 26 I really hope and want everyone to feel empowered to not only support those around you
• 51:49
  but also to support yourself we gotta we gotta like self care and I think you beautifully did that
• 51:55
  by taking 10 weeks off I think I beautifully did that through my process with Shark Tank
• 52:02
  and and I wish that upon everyone that's listening or watching this podcast
• 52:10
  do you have anything you'd like to kind of a gift you'd like to give everyone as we wrap this up
• 52:16
  well I want to reiterate what you said and also put it in the context of I recognize that in
• 52:22
  the world at large it's a little crazy out there and and I think your example of like there's
• 52:30
  just so much out there happening that you can't control that can feel really overwhelming you had
• 52:35
  a very intense and personal example of that experience you know with you and your business
• 52:41
  but I think a lot of people are experiencing that in like the the the big picture of the world
• 52:47
  and I think that um I just want to encourage people to exactly like you say really take care
• 52:55
  yourself that's not a selfish thing and gosh haha I mean I can even feel as we're talking here
• 53:02
  about it I'm like oh my god I can't believe I'm acknowledging that I took 10 full weeks off
• 53:07
  this is so like self indulgence and like I can I can feel their story so I'm not going to pretend
• 53:12
  that I've like resolved this but I want to encourage all of us to freaking get over ourselves
• 53:16
  because here's the deal you cannot contribute to a better world when you are just but tired
• 53:23
  and your nerves are on edge and the slightest sideways look makes you want to just like snap
• 53:30
  like you got to take care of you so please do that as number one and then please number two remember
• 53:37
  that all you can control is yourself and your reactions and how you show up and as soon as you
• 53:43
  start to control somebody else whether it's your partner whether it's politics whether it's like
• 53:48
  anything out there of the myriad of things that are annoying and not going the way that one might
• 53:53
  want them to go whatever spectrum whatever whatever your perspective on anything um I think that
• 54:01
  if we can all just take better care of ourselves and care of our close communities our families
• 54:09
  our close loved ones are our friends um I think that we would live in a really really really
• 54:16
  different world and I really wish that for everybody thank you thank you for joining me
• 54:23
  I look forward to many more wrap-ups in the years to come and most of all I want to thank you all
• 54:32
  you know I started this not really knowing what it would become but I definitely started it
• 54:38
  knowing what I wanted it to be which was I just wanted to have curious conversations with
• 54:43
  interesting people and I wanted to be of service to you like I wanted to you probably noticed
• 54:50
  almost every episode I think he actually every episode has like actionable items like things that
• 54:57
  will directly help you immediately and that's really important to me that I that I want you to
• 55:03
  feel empowered to self-care to self-love and to help those around you because I believe it's this
• 55:10
  community that we have and that we're building um that is that is keeping us tied to our
• 55:17
  humanity it's community it's who whose whole hand we're holding who we're in relations with
• 55:23
  that's what matters so I just want to thank you all for joining me on this journey
• 55:30
  um I truly truly send you blessings and deep deep love but most of all I hope that you can
• 55:38
  direct that to yourself I believe we were as Margaret said and I as I've said we are all too hard
• 55:43
  on ourselves that we can hold ourselves to the fire but we can also be kinder you know we really
• 55:50
  can we can we can we can we can do hard things we say that to our kids a lot and we can also look
• 55:56
  at ourselves with softer eyes I think both can coexist so thank you all this is a close to 2025
• 56:04
  May 2026 be just a beautiful time of expansion for you and I look forward to many more episodes with you
• 56:12
  and here to come thank you so much for joining me on every day ancestral if you enjoyed this
• 56:19
  episode hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one you could find the show notes links and
• 56:25
  resources mentioned at eatpluck.com that's e-a-t-p-l-u-c-k dot com and hey if you know someone who'd
• 56:36
  get something out of this share it with them too stay curious live well and keep it ancestral