Latest / Curiously Guided Podcast / Ep.108 | Honor the Season You're In: Designing a Business That Works With Nature, Not Against It with Samantha Williford, Owner of Lost Hill Lake

Transcript

Ep.108 | Honor the Season You're In: Designing a Business That Works With Nature, Not Against It with Samantha Williford, Owner of Lost Hill Lake · Curiously Guided Podcast

• 0:07
  Mariah: Welcome to the Curiously Guided Podcast.
• 0:10
  Shay: We're your hosts, Mariah.
• 0:12
  Shay: And hey guys, I'm Shay.
• 0:14
  Shay: We're two online business consultants passionate about rewriting the rules to success within both life and business.
• 0:21
  Shay: We believe that curiosity is our superpower.
• 0:24
  Shay: And trusting the nudge is a muscle that's meant to be strengthened.
• 0:28
  Mariah: Especially if we want to create a life that feels good from the inside out.
• 0:33
  Shay: So if you're ready to open your mind and let curiosity guide the way, let's get into the episode.
• 0:40
  Shay: Okay, you guys, welcome back.
• 0:42
  Shay: We have another awesome episode to share with you guys.
• 0:45
  Shay: My best friend, Samantha Willeford, who is the owner of Lost Hill Lake events wedding venue, glamping venue.
• 0:51
  Shay: She's been on before.
• 0:53
  Shay: She is on this episode.
• 0:55
  Shay: Um, she's actually very pregnant at the time we shot the episode, and she has since had the baby, and everything's good and healthy.
• 1:01
  Shay: Her pregnancy story is wild, but very great.
• 1:04
  Shay: We're all happy on the other end.
• 1:06
  Shay: Um, why I had her on this season was to have a conversation around a topic that her and I have been kind of simmering with for decades.
• 1:15
  Shay: And something that's currently sparking my curiosity.
• 1:18
  Shay: I've heard quite a few people in talks and on podcasts lately talk about this idea that the more and more we get into our phones and get into tech and separate ourselves from nature, the more our lives are kind of becoming abstract.
• 1:34
  Shay: There, it used to be like our we were living our real lives and the phone was kind of the fake world or the abstract world, but it's almost flipped to where we're almost killing time till we can check our phones again, right?
• 1:47
  Shay: Like for a lot of people, phone and tech and that life is real life.
• 1:51
  Shay: And we're becoming more and more separated from nature.
• 1:54
  Shay: And for me, I've been really interested in this idea of what does it look like to reconnect to nature?
• 2:00
  Shay: Because I know personally when I go out on a walk or when I go into the forest, I feel so much better.
• 2:04
  Shay: But like it sounds so woo, like reconnecting with nature and nature's rhythms.
• 2:09
  Shay: And I think this title is even a little crazy, but I have personally found that I feel better, I feel calmer, I can think clearer when I am disconnecting from my phone.
• 2:22
  Shay: And I know we say this, but it's like, what does it actually look like?
• 2:25
  Shay: And so this whole episode, Sam and I kind of reflected on some practices that we've really been building over a long time, to be honest, but how we've really set up our businesses around the seasons in particular and cycles and seasons in our lives and how things need to ebb and flow and how that's awesome.
• 2:43
  Shay: So, just the general theme of this episode is how can we reconnect more with nature and this idea of cycles and seasons and how we can kind of use that?
• 2:52
  Shay: Because none of us are robots, like none of us are really meant to be operating 24-7, high efficiency.
• 2:57
  Shay: You know, we all have winter and summer in life in many different ways.
• 3:02
  Shay: So this conversation is kind of a working title in my mind.
• 3:08
  Shay: Like I'm always thinking about this, I'm always looking for ways to kind of reconnect with cycles and kind of disconnect from my cell phone.
• 3:15
  Shay: So this is kind of um us developing our ideas, and I'm curious to hear what you all think of it, and I'm excited to share it with you.
• 3:22
  Mariah: Yeah, what I like about this conversation is like I feel like we went into a micro and a macro perspective on like the seasons on like a really micro level, the seasons on like a nature level.
• 3:37
  Mariah: And then we also talked about like your monthly cycle.
• 3:40
  Mariah: We also talked about like just natural cycles in business.
• 3:44
  Mariah: Like there's just a lot of like really practical pieces of this conversation too, like, especially with Sam's business.
• 3:53
  Mariah: I always find it so fascinating because she is a like event venue, and like that is notorious for being very busy during certain times of the year.
• 4:05
  Mariah: And just like, how do you juggle that?
• 4:08
  Mariah: How do you allow yourself to enjoy the other seasons without becoming too ungrounded?
• 4:14
  Mariah: Because that's happened to me before, where it's like, oh, I'm in a busy season and I knew that I was, and then once I got into a slower season, it was kind of like freaking out and wishing that I was back in the busy season.
• 4:25
  Mariah: But the entire busy season, I was like super excited for the slow season.
• 4:30
  Mariah: And so I think all of this just comes together in a really beautiful way.
• 4:36
  Mariah: And I think the conversation is just like three bitches hanging out.
• 4:40
  Mariah: This was like really enjoyable and really fun, and we hope that you guys enjoy it too.
• 4:45
  Mariah: So, Samantha is the owner and operating manager at Lost Hill Lakes, a weddings and events venue on her family's 200-acre farm.
• 4:53
  Mariah: She's dedicated to building an intentional business that prioritizes giving back to its team, their community, the natural environment, and turning a profit.
• 5:04
  Mariah: If you want to read the rest of her bio, you can go ahead and check out the show notes.
• 5:08
  Shay: But without further ado, let's kick it into the episode.
• 5:12
  Shay: Okay, welcome back to the Curiously Guided Podcast friends.
• 5:16
  Shay: Um, this is an episode that I have had kind of simmering in my brain for years now.
• 5:22
  Shay: Um one thing about this podcast, Roy and I keep asking ourselves, like, what are we doing with the podcast?
• 5:28
  Shay: What's the point of interviewing all of these people who are curious and chasing their obsession?
• 5:33
  Shay: And we keep coming back to this idea of lifestyle design, right?
• 5:37
  Shay: People are pursuing their obsessions, their curiosity is what interests them in an attempt to kind of create a life that they want to live.
• 5:44
  Shay: And whether that means they're working 24-7 on their obsession or they're more like me, where they just want to pay the bills so they can have free time to explore other curiosities, that's kind of the idea.
• 5:55
  Shay: And one topic that we keep almost circling around is how to avoid burnout.
• 6:01
  Shay: It's come up in a lot of different kinds, almost with every single person we've brought in, because what we know as humans is when we get obsessed with something and we're working hard at something, if you're not remembering balance and incorporating other aspects of your life, it can lead to a burnout place where even you're doing something that you love and you still fucking hate it.
• 6:22
  Shay: So, this idea of how to deal with stress and regulate your nervous system and how to do the things that we love at a sustainable level is something I find really interesting.
• 6:32
  Shay: Like, how do we sustain this level of interest and curiosity?
• 6:37
  Shay: And so this is gonna maybe sound a little woo to some people.
• 6:41
  Shay: This is a topic I don't feel like a lot of people talk about.
• 6:45
  Shay: I've not heard a lot of people talking about this.
• 6:47
  Shay: And it's funny the other day on Instagram, I saw someone say, like, let's focus on medieval peasant maxing.
• 6:55
  Shay: And that that was a funny idea, but it's kind of the idea I want to talk about today.
• 6:58
  Shay: And what they were saying is wake up with the sun, go to sleep with the sun.
• 7:02
  Shay: When it's summer, we're outside working hard.
• 7:05
  Shay: When it's winter, we're kind of down, we're resting, we're kind of like in congruence with nature and we're living our lives with nature.
• 7:13
  Shay: And that idea, I've always loved that idea.
• 7:16
  Shay: Honestly, I can think all the way back to my first job.
• 7:19
  Shay: Sam was kind of outside the box already.
• 7:21
  Shay: I was in a nine to five, and we were having these lovely spring afternoons, and I felt like I couldn't go outside and sit in the park on a spring afternoon.
• 7:29
  Shay: And you guys may not be from where Mariah and I are from, but we don't get a ton of really beautiful days.
• 7:35
  Shay: So this idea that like this job that I hated was taking away the handful of beautiful days I get every year was just so soul sucking.
• 7:44
  Shay: And I had Samantha who was building her own business, and she was like, hey, let's go sit in the park.
• 7:48
  Shay: And and honestly, I did at that first job.
• 7:50
  Shay: I two hour lunches, two hour lunches were normal for us.
• 7:54
  Shay: But that idea of like, I want to have control of my time.
• 7:58
  Shay: If it's a nice day, I want to be able to go take it.
• 8:01
  Shay: Um, I want to kind of honor my energy and like how I work.
• 8:05
  Shay: It kind of like planted a seed.
• 8:07
  Shay: And so I wanted to have Sam here for this conversation today because her business almost kind of forced this planning your life around the season.
• 8:17
  Shay: It's like this idea of to be honest, I think it's silly that we set New Year's resolutions in January.
• 8:24
  Shay: Like after the holidays, I am burnt out.
• 8:27
  Shay: I am exhausted.
• 8:28
  Shay: I hate everything.
• 8:29
  Shay: I just want to sleep.
• 8:30
  Shay: I'm not thinking about higher level Shay.
• 8:33
  Shay: But come springtime, now we're in these beautiful spring days, and I'm like buzzing with energy.
• 8:40
  Shay: I have a million ideas, and I'm I'm thinking I might actually start to set my new year's resolution with the true new year, with spring.
• 8:48
  Shay: When spring comes, it brings this awesome energy.
• 8:51
  Shay: I feel that in myself.
• 8:52
  Shay: I want to plant seeds just like outside.
• 8:55
  Shay: I've noticed in the summertime, I'm up early.
• 8:58
  Shay: I'm working hard all day long.
• 8:59
  Shay: I have that more sustained energy.
• 9:01
  Shay: In the fall, it's kind of like uh reaping your crops, right?
• 9:05
  Shay: Like, what have you been working on?
• 9:07
  Shay: Bringing it all in.
• 9:08
  Shay: And then in the winter, we go down.
• 9:10
  Shay: Like we can we are really down, like you know, focusing on cooking home cooked meals and not working the time.
• 9:17
  Mariah: I was literally thinking as you keep talking about winter, I just want to interject and be like soups and stews, soups and stews, some soups and stews.
• 9:25
  Shay: But like I think we are nature, right?
• 9:28
  Shay: And so taking a look, uh, how does nature do this sustainably?
• 9:31
  Shay: Right.
• 9:32
  Shay: And it's we have seasons of go, we have seasons of rest, right?
• 9:38
  Shay: And then there's kind of transition seasons.
• 9:40
  Shay: And so for me as a human, um, you guys know millennial snowbird is like my ultimate goal.
• 9:46
  Shay: Like I want to go somewhere warm every winter.
• 9:49
  Shay: And I've done that for a decade now.
• 9:50
  Shay: And sometimes it's been six weeks to two months, and sometimes it's been one week, but uh for me, winter has really become something I used, it was something I dreaded and hated, and honestly, like made me very sick and sad to now something I look forward to because I know I'm gonna have my trip, and then I know I'm not working that hard.
• 10:10
  Shay: I'm investing in myself and my sanctuary and my house and my food and my body, right?
• 10:15
  Shay: And so I have, and Samantha has for more than a decade now literally been making decisions all around what's going on in time and the seasons, and then how will I be feeling?
• 10:28
  Shay: And then can I set a job and travel and life up around that schedule?
• 10:34
  Shay: So maybe with that, Sam, I want to get you started.
• 10:38
  Shay: Do you mind just kind of talking a bit about your business and like kind of what forced the seasonality of all this and what it looks like for you?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: So my business, lost to Lake Weddings and Events, we run on my family's 200-acre farm here in Missouri.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're about an hour outside of St.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Louis.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so my business is extremely seasonal.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Missouri has atrocious winters of cold and ice and um gray skies and and things, so can't run a beautiful wedding outdoor wedding venue um with cold and snow.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really forced to do my business kind of in the main season.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say our main season is early April, running all the way until maybe mid-November.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we go hard in in that season, and then it just completely falls off uh for the customer-based side of our business in those five to six months um of the winter.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's been really interesting.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's been interesting to run staff in that kind of system.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's been interesting for my personal life and my family life and me as a parent.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but now being 13 years in, I couldn't imagine it any other way.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: How look forward to the winter now, which was not the case in the past.
• 12:23
  Mariah: Yeah, I was gonna say, like, how do you handle and I guess here's some context.
• 12:28
  Mariah: I feel like a lot of our our listeners are like online business owners, entrepreneurs, or it's like they might have a nine to five and like they're look looking to side hustle and all of that.
• 12:36
  Mariah: So a lot of them are like in control of their income, right?
• 12:39
  Mariah: But when that happens, a lot of the times you have income dips and then you have the highs and you have the lows.
• 12:46
  Mariah: Like, how and maybe maybe it's gotten better over the years, but like how do you handle that mindset of shift from like looking in QuickBooks and like you're seeing things and like you're fucking killing it and you're just like, wow, June, July, I've never been better.
• 13:01
  Mariah: Oh my God, August, I'm a queen.
• 13:02
  Mariah: Oh my God, September, this is never gonna stop.
• 13:04
  Mariah: And then all of a sudden, like you said, when the holidays hit drops and there's no pickup until April.
• 13:10
  Mariah: Like, do you have this mindset chatter of like, is it gonna pick up in April?
• 13:14
  Mariah: Are we closing down?
• 13:15
  Mariah: Like, I just know the ups and the downs and like how do you handle that?
• 13:20
  Mariah: Because seasonal businesses go through that and have to be like very smart with their money through the down seasons.
• 13:28
  Mariah: Absolutely.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, this queen sitting next to me has helped me dramatically with that.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and like you said, it has definitely shifted as we've moved, you know, through the years and everything.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: So we're heading into our 13th season right now.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and probably about I don't know, maybe four-ish years ago, uh, Shay was doing a little bit of coaching with me.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I'm just like word vomiting my problems with the business with that exact thing that you're you were just saying.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: So really high, you know, quarter two, quarter three, which is unique, where in like a product-based business, you would have like an insane quarter four and stuff, and that is not quite my scenario.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so talking with Shay, you know, just here are some pain points and everything.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she really helped me lay out like a payment schedule for my clients that really shifted everything for us.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: So in the beginning, and in the wedding industry, it's pretty standard to do um, you know, a 50% deposit to secure your wedding date or your event date, whatever that may be.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't necessarily have to be a wedding.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then your remaining balance is due, you know, 30 days before your event.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that was putting me at um again, a really great income space in Q2 and Q3 when we're running events really hard, but then a little bit of a lack in Q4 and Q1.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, talking this out with Shay and everything, and and she's like, okay, what if we split that last payment and we do 25% six months prior and 25% 30 days prior?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was huge for us.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: So all of our, you know, May and June clients, their six month um out payment is due in November and December, which is a little bit of a lull time for us where we're actually executing things on site, not saying we couldn't be booking new clients at that time and getting new deposits and everything, which we definitely do.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that was a huge shift.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then again, for our, you know, we're really busy in August, September, October for executing events.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that six-month timeframe would be more in February, March, April, um, where we're, you know, again, February and March is a little bit of a lull, and then we really pick up big in April.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so that was a massive shift for our business and a really positive shift.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we've been getting great feedback from clients too.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's a lot of final balances for all of your vendors and all the things that you're doing are due just 30 days before, maybe two weeks before.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it was nice for them to be able to break up that payment a little bit.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that was a really great shift for us.
• 16:18
  Mariah: I'm sitting here laughing because I'm literally just like such a simple solution.
• 16:24
  Mariah: And you're and you're literally like I'm sitting here and I'm like, if I was in Sam's shoes and like Shay said that to me, I would be like, I can do that.
• 16:42
  Mariah: This season of the Curiously Guided Podcast, including this episode, is sponsored by Adobe Acrobat.
• 16:48
  Mariah: And I want to share how I'm actually using Acrobat's AI-powered knowledge hub called PDF Spaces in my own business.
• 16:57
  Mariah: So y'all already know I'm an SEO educator.
• 16:59
  Mariah: I create a shit ton of content.
• 17:02
  Mariah: And for the longest time, that meant long Google Docs resource list, tab after tab after tab after tab.
• 17:09
  Mariah: I have a lot to say, okay?
• 17:11
  Mariah: And my audience technically had everything they needed from that document, but actually finding the information and taking action and using it, that was a whole different thing.
• 17:22
  Mariah: So this is where PDF Spaces comes in and it's changing the game for me.
• 17:26
  Mariah: So instead of handing someone a super overwhelming doc and wishing them luck, I can build one intentional hub where everything, like those documents, links, notes, and resources, lives all together and my audience can actually interact with it, meaning they can ask questions, get summaries, and find exactly what they need.
• 17:48
  Mariah: The best part though is that Shay and I built a PDF space specifically for this season of the podcast.
• 17:55
  Mariah: All the episodes that have been previously released by the time that you're listening to this, including show notes, transcripts, guest bios, and links in one place ready for you to interact with it.
• 18:09
  Mariah: Click the link in the show notes and go play around with it.
• 18:12
  Mariah: I genuinely think that you're gonna be like, okay, wow, this is legit.
• 18:16
  Mariah: Pretty cool.
• 18:27
  Mariah: Of course you can fucking do you can literally look at the problems that you have and say, what are ways that we could solve?
• 18:34
  Mariah: It's the simplest thing in the world.
• 18:36
  Mariah: And as business owners, we can do whatever we want.
• 18:41
  Mariah: We just forget that.
• 18:42
  Shay: Yeah, I think that's kind of the idea of this is I hope I just want to inspire people that like you can literally skin this cat any way you want.
• 18:51
  Shay: Like you can, if you are like me and just pay winner and want to make it more bearable, you can literally set everything up to do that.
• 18:58
  Shay: Another thing we did with Sam was they have glamping.
• 19:01
  Shay: And so we kind of um we found like a low point in their year, and that's now where we, is that right?
• 19:08
  Shay: We release glamping.
• 19:10
  Shay: Like the next year, we open the calendar for the next year of glamping.
• 19:13
  Shay: So that is again a cash infusion at a point strategically where cash was low, right?
• 19:18
  Shay: And we have a payroll to make.
• 19:20
  Shay: So we just kind of looked at her whole year and thought about how we could bring in cash when we're in these low moments, because she could predict almost just like the seasons, one would be high and one would be low, and then um, you know, set everything else up accordingly.
• 19:36
  Shay: And then it's like you said, it's like the simplest solution.
• 19:38
  Shay: But now, and there's this also idea of like there's some story about squirrels, right?
• 19:43
  Shay: One is hoarding nuts all year long, and then in the winter he's chilling and eating his nuts, and then the other one was like goofing off all year and doesn't have any nuts in the winter.
• 19:51
  Shay: So it's kind of like just requires like this it takes planning and I think a bit more of a zoomed out perspective, and kind of with her, it took the decade or more to kind of like figure out our flows, but now it it's cruising, it's smooth, it's awesome.
• 20:08
  Shay: So, like that I think is really cool.
• 20:11
  Shay: And then I want you to share more about like um you brought up mushrooms and like how that's affected your thought about the seasons.
• 20:18
  Shay: So let's lie about that.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, we um for anybody that doesn't know this, Shay has been one of my best friends for 25 years or so.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really lucky in the sense that she's watched this business build, you know, as we've started and just me work vomiting to her and crapping to her about all the things.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so that has been amazing to see for her to be able to offer a what she said a zoomed out perspective where I'm so zoomed in and everything.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: So um in the past, I don't know, two years, maybe about actually about 10 years ago, we did our first mushroom trip um in the spring, like she says.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: So on our property with just spring is just magical in Missouri.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: I just love it so much.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably one of my favorite seasons now.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: When I was younger, I I wouldn't have said that.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: But now, like she said, the true starting of the new year feels like spring when you are just watching nature come to life and just feeling energized and um and you can actually see it, you can tangibly see it.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you can and I've been living on what we called the farm for um 13 years now, and you know, moved from St.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Louis County or St.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Louis City to our um to the farm.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been watching, you know, weather is like a huge thing to potential wedding clients and stuff, and they want to know what's this gonna be like?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: What's this gonna be?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you never can fully predict the weather, but there are trends and there are um definitely seven.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: things that happen every season for the most part.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: So uh about 10 years ago we did our first trip in the spring and during the day a little bit intentional I would say um not anything like we've done this past year.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but yeah so that was really cool and that was a really great experience for me and one of my only experiences that I had with mushrooms.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm definitely not like a concert mushroom like out in public and a lot of other people type of person.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's just not me.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: So this was a really cool way to experience it and have a really positive experience and definitely be infused with nature and connected to nature um more than I had been in the past.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: So this past year we did a trip in we were trying to do one spring, summer and fall, but just life you know how life goes um and we ended up doing one last March, March of 2025.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that was absolutely transformative for me.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: We, you know, her and I have both been getting into breath work.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Shea's been into it for a long time and I'm I'm definitely newer into it and really enjoy that.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so journaling um so we we really set our day up really intentionally and we're so blessed to have 200 acres and no one on it and total primacy and safety and everything.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: So um we you know got together uh did a little slumber party um and and stuff and woke up and um yeah we I think did like breathwork meditation we did some journaling really intentionally asking ourselves some questions about what we wanted to receive from this um you know medicine during this this time and we went out into a massive like 30 acre hayfield that we have right on the Merrimack River and we like set up our spots we had some spots with blankets and pillows and um uh hammock spot and everything and we had done our kind of pre um I don't know pre-routine um yeah and um with the the breathwork meditation and the journaling and kind of asking ourselves some intentional questions and then we took the medicine and already had all of our stuff set up and kind of went out um into nature and had our experience and again with nature like literally coming to life and we're just you know mushrooms if anybody listening has ever experienced it is definitely something that puts away the ego and puts away the very like chattery mind that is constantly going I remember I had I was laying on a blanket and we always start together um and then we end up separating at some point um and I had a little fidgeter in my hand and I you know was playing with it and fidgeting it and I was like is this gonna is anything gonna happen am I gonna feel anything and stuff and then it was a very noticeable moment of oh we're putting that down now that's not needed anymore and then just watching like just being so in tune with nature and just like really feeling like you could see the leaves like legitimately budding and like the the wind coming through the trees and all the little bugs you know starting to come out and everything.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um it was it was really cool.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then we ended up separating and Shay is just incredible.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: She can walk around and do things I'm like how are you moving your body because I can't um so I ended up in a hammock for like four hours um just totally in the trees and I can't it like felt like a little cocoon and I mean all every emotion possible tears, laughter just ridiculous faces um some drooling some all sorts of things happened and then um I don't know Shay was off on her own little journey walking around getting down to the river um which then after she told me all of that and I couldn't see her I was like the mom in me I'm like where is she?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: She's by the water oh gosh uh but it was really great and so what do you think like that for you was really transformational.
• 26:26
  Shay: What do you think were like your big takeaways?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well I had journaled um you know a bit before then and one of the questions was what bothers you with other people that you really can see in yourself or something like that.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so the moment the medicine really kicked in and I was in my safe space and everything like the word like judgment just really came up for me.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so I am just constantly out here being a human judging other people of their things and just your mind's always labeling things just the moment you see things.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's fairly normal, but I don't like to be judged myself and and have a fear of judgment and and different things.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that was something that came up very quickly for me.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Something else that came up was just like using technology as you know the tool that it is and then setting it down when we do not need the tool.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: So something that I'm a really visual person and um something I watch a lot of kids shows movies and different things.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: So something that really came up for me was I had left my phone in my car and I I had this kind of vision and thought of I'm in my house and there's this little like creature running around my house and I felt like it was like my mind um because my mind was really shut down at this point.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was just like really just feeling lots of things and observing um and I see this little creature like running around my house and everything.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then I see it very intentionally being put away into kind of my um linen or like cleaning closet.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so I really took away from that of and also in this vision I had seen like a broom and a mop kind of laying out on the kitchen floor and I would never allow a tool to be out like taking up space and being cluttery in my house when you're not using it.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: It would be put away um in that closet and everything.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it was neat to really feel like wow the the mind and the ego is is all an absolute tool that we need to be using at certain points.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then when we're not using it can we put it away and come back to presence and you know what's actually happening right now.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a really cool takeaway for me.
• 28:59
  Mariah: Can I uh so I know you guys are big mushroom people.
• 29:04
  Mariah: Me, I have had one experience I was at a festival I don't know if I will ever do them again.
• 29:10
  Mariah: It was fine.
• 29:11
  Mariah: I've experienced it fantastic love it um didn't what love it interesting it was interesting to me um and I could go off about that experience all on its own.
• 29:27
  Mariah: I don't think that it was the right scenario for that type of thing but also I remember as a teenager like smoking weed or whatever and I remember that I would almost like trip out just from that and so I feel like I am too sensitive to go too hard in the paint like some people I just I can't I really really like my sober mind.
• 29:52
  Mariah: So my question is like why did you do it?
• 29:56
  Mariah: Why sprit like what feels like that is something that you want to carve out on your schedule and like how I guess does that help you is it like insight do you know what I mean like how like how and why I guess yeah that's such a good question.
• 30:22
  Shay: And everybody that Sam and I have told about we have this little ritual like we kind of jumped it right into this but until Samantha's pregnant right now which is something we'll get to in a minute but until she got pregnant we were trying to every season take one of these more intentional mushroom trips I have never taken mushrooms in a party setting so I can't relate to that I don't know what that's like it would be horrible two two out of ten recommend two out of ten.
• 30:49
  Mariah: So like if you if you're trying to if you're trying to like have a time I don't know if it'll be good or bad but like if you're trying to have like a time yes but like if you want to be by yourself no see the goal here is like connecting with God for me.
• 31:06
  Shay: So like I've never used it in that way and I so I don't know I don't think I would like it.
• 31:12
  Shay: And I totally understand Mariah and so the reason why we did this is this idea of seasonality and and Sam brought up tech.
• 31:20
  Shay: And so what I was noticing you know when we're in school like teachers are constantly having us like write reflections and journal and what'd you learn this month and there's all these opportunities to like zoom out and reflect on your life and kind of take a look at the forest through the trees which is important as we just talked about with our business.
• 31:38
  Shay: And so the mushroom trip every season was almost like this pause like literally we cleared our schedules we came in with really intentional questions we journaled on then we took the medicine there was some physical activity involved like we were really intentional about it.
• 31:55
  Shay: And it was almost like that like we had in school building in these moments of pause, reconnect get off your fucking phone, reconnect with what's bigger zoom out in mushrooms if you are using them the way we use them is very powerful at kind of what Sam said shutting down monkey mind.
• 32:15
  Shay: And so every single trip if you will that her and I have ever done has been incredibly profound.
• 32:22
  Shay: Like I'm able to kind of like see a thought pattern that I am like I I kind of have looping thoughts and I'm able to like see that.
• 32:29
  Shay: And there's something about being out in nature like nature will like answer questions for you and like there's something really cool.
• 32:36
  Shay: And then when you bring the season in as well there's like a lesson there of like right now in my life what is the season what's going on what kind of thought patterns are dominating how am I sabotaging myself like it's just a really cool reset moment if done well in the in I do think you have to be intentional about it.
• 32:56
  Shay: You know you hear all about bad trips but we're talking about seasons and I don't want to derail from that too much but this was kind of one of the activities that her and I have done of like I just think all of us are feeling so disconnected.
• 33:08
  Shay: We're feeling so addicted to our phones.
• 33:11
  Shay: We're feeling so just kind of for me life is starting to fly by like really fast.
• 33:18
  Shay: And I I don't I think when I take those moments to kind of reflect what's going well what's not going well what do I like what do I don't like it almost like slows time down and helps me get that nice sense of space back I had when I was a kid right so the mushrooms like do the mushroom trip with the seasons was almost like this way to honor the season this season of our life and kind of like take a pause and a breath and check in kind of reevaluate.
• 33:43
  Mariah: I see yeah it's kind of just like a tool that you're using in order to like reconnect with your body and reconnect with nature.
• 33:50
  Shay: That makes sense yeah and so the that is one tool that we for sure use um I recently have gotten into like um moon cycle planning and through my actually Samantha and I have both always been really into cycle planning.
• 34:07
  Shay: So we as women right we all we are nature especially right we literally have a month cycle where we have an up and a down and so kind of I started to think about that of like maybe I plan my work schedule of like I'm high at this point of the month and I'm low at this point of the month.
• 34:24
  Shay: So when I'm low I'm not face front talking to people and when I'm high maybe that's when I'm hosting the workshop right but so then through that cycle I got aware of the and really simply you guys can go as deep as you want in this but if you just want like a monthly tool when the moon is new what new are you bringing into your life?
• 34:43
  Shay: What's your goals that how how what's the last time you checked in with your goals right it's just like a nice opportunity new moon what am I working on this month?
• 34:50
  Shay: If the moon is full we're thinking about releasing what's holding me back from getting to those goals so that's just like two moments in a month where you could sit down and kind of like intentionally reflect based on what's going on in the bigger picture.
• 35:04
  Shay: So there's just like I think I don't this stuff sounds so basic but I don't feel like anyone's ever told me about like my cycles and how it coordinates with the moon cycles and how I am up and down and how I could be setting my life up around those cycles so I am not exhausted burnt out hating every second of every day right um so I I've been kind of dominating the conversation for you too Mariah I Mariah's up in Buffalo so like the way I've seen her winter I you do some seasonal things as well.
• 35:38
  Shay: Like tell us any of this stuff like do you you're really attentional about how you set up your life how like morning routines rituals like tell me a bit about like how seasonality affects you or how you've set your business up around it.
• 35:53
  Mariah: Yeah it's funny because like you know born raised in Buffalo we were dicking around in other fucking states for a little bit and here's the thing Andrew wants to move down to the south somewhere somewhere where it is not freezing for eight to nine months out of the year because we do have a very prolonged winter.
• 36:13
  Mariah: We just do.
• 36:14
  Mariah: And so like it's probably not going to get consistently beautiful until like end of May and so we do have pockets like today it is beautiful outside and by beautiful I mean 55 degrees what a gift what a gift 50 like when you were used to like one degree 55 what a gift I'm like walking outside in shorts I'm taking the puppy for a little walkie like we are we are living.
• 36:38
  Mariah: So it's funny because we did what was it two years ago now we did live in Florida for the winter when we were moving back from North Carolina living on the mountain we made that decision maybe like October November we're gonna move back to Buffalo and I was like the fuck if I'm moving back to Buffalo at the peak of winter.
• 36:56
  Mariah: So I talked Andrew into can we go spend a couple months in Florida before we move back okay great.
• 37:01
  Mariah: I get to Florida and I'm thinking I'm gonna live my best life you know what happened in my head I go where's my reset where's my excuse to stay in the house where is my like ooh we're so cold and cozy and I pull out my my thick socks and like I go to sleep at fucking 4 p.m where is that especially like my entire life like as a being I would that's what I was doing.
• 37:29
  Mariah: And so now we're talking about like do we want to move down south and to be honest I'm a little nervous because I go where's my winter reset when it matches the season and so I know when you especially when you move down in Florida that's kind of how their summer is like it's too hot you stay inside that's a mind fucked like that is not how my DNA has been created and so I'm nervous to go ahead and to deal with that because in the winter I feel like especially the deeper I've gotten into like human biology and just like learning about our ancestors and kind of what they did, I heard this phrase in the winter if you can't get sun, get cold.
• 38:11
  Mariah: And so what happens when you get cold in the winter your cells create their own light like there's been studies in this and so you're creating light from the inside because you don't have the light from the sun especially if your ancestors are coming from more of like that northern hemisphere like you have that natural instinct where it's like you actually don't need as much sun to create vitamin D or to like have your processes like other people.
• 38:38
  Mariah: And so that was really interesting to me.
• 38:40
  Mariah: So all this winter I was like if I can't get sun I'm getting cold and like I would try to prolong how long could I go without like wearing my coat outside because what happens is the colder you get the earlier in the season you develop what's called brown fat, which actually keeps you warmer during the winter.
• 38:57
  Mariah: And it's funny because I was like like for real like what do you mean I create brown fat?
• 39:03
  Mariah: Like what what do you mean?
• 39:04
  Mariah: That makes no sense.
• 39:05
  Mariah: So then I'm like looking at my nieces and it's like December and we're going to a coffee shop and it's fucking freezing outside I am bundled I have my winter coat I have gloves on I have a cutie little thing around my ears looking like a little snack a little winter bunny they come out with no coats.
• 39:22
  Mariah: I go girls where the fuck are your coat there was like it's not even that cold.
• 39:26
  Mariah: Ah brown fat girls we you are brown fat girls and now I see it because I remember as a teenager I could walk wherever because I didn't want to wear a coat because it would hold me back because it would be annoying.
• 39:38
  Mariah: I used to go out downtown we ain't wearing no coat I'm wearing a mini skirt and sandals like I'm I don't care if there's three feet of snow mom come pick me up like so it's just really interesting to see this in the wild if you slow down and pay attention to it.
• 39:56
  Mariah: And so like even with my business I try to pretty ambitious I'm always having ideas I want to do things but I've tried to be really intentional especially the past couple years to not put too much on my plate in the winter it gets dark by 5 p.m you're not supposed to be gallivancing around with all the lights on in your house.
• 40:14
  Mariah: And so we've really tried like after the sun goes down to use candles or to use like a really soft light and I sleep way better.
• 40:22
  Mariah: So it's like those are just some things that like we've kind of tried to be intentional and just like find the cozy in the season because not everybody gets to experience winter.
• 40:34
  Shay: And so like what a gift yeah that's a really good point.
• 40:39
  Shay: And I noticed that we lived in Southeast Asia for a while I didn't the seasons are a really nice way to kind of like bookmark your life and when you lose them everything just kind of starts to feel the same and I also was craving that downtime and I don't think I I I don't think we hear a lot about the value of downtime.
• 40:59
  Shay: It's a lot of hustle hustle by the island earn all the money blah blah blah but I think the downtime is really really important um for example with my schedule now that we're more in e-commerce uh so like Sam said quarter four is like gangbusters for us we are like hauling ass but then it kind of tapers off in January and I've noticed that like the last week of January February we can go on a vacation it's slow right that's a natural time and and then at home I'm copying what I've watched her do you know like I'm doing all the meal planning and all the things that like I want to do throughout the rest of the year but you like lose time for we're like painting inside our house but there's something about having that that I think replenishes me and allows me to do the rest of the year.
• 41:48
  Shay: And I that was one thing that really bothered me in like a nine to five typical work structure was like there was it was just the same thing every day from now until I'm 65 years old.
• 42:00
  Shay: Like my my body I'm biology I'm nature like I don't work like that.
• 42:06
  Shay: And that was really daunting for me mentally to deal with so that is kind of really this idea of like just wanting to do this more is why we have built these businesses.
• 42:17
  Shay: It's like trying to honor my body and who I am as a human and how I work.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well and I think that there's with having this awareness of the seasons whether it's a yearly cycle or a monthly cycle that you spoke about you know life does life things all the time and so I think having the awareness about it and then allowing yourself to have the grace where um like for example with the month cycle that you talked about so you know something maybe just lines up and it's like period week and you're just like fuck this is like a big thing and this is like day one and I cannot shift it for whatever reason.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: But just having the awareness and having you know truly the grace for yourself of like okay we're gonna do this and I know what I'm capable of and I know that I'm not at my high right now and everything.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then with going with the yearly cycle of you know maybe you went out you know for you you have Q4 that's just bam bam bam bam bam but then and you know that that is a little bit of a softer like it's a hard time with work but knowing that in our bodies and in the weather and everything it should be a softer time but that just isn't necessarily allowed right now.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then when we move into January we know that time is coming.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think that's really important.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so something you spoke on Mariah of the the poor Florida people not having these you know four seasons and stuff and here in Missouri we're not as hard as you are where you're at we have a really true like three to four months with You know, every season and stuff.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so me, I am coming into a season right now where I am constantly having to remind myself of this is just a chapter, this is just a very short time frame where um seasonally it is go, go, go, go, go.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: Weather is getting nice, business is booming, um, you know, projects are continuing.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there is no doubt about that.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: I can't change anything with that.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: Me personally, in my personal life, I am eight months pregnant right now and um, you know, gonna be having a baby uh at the end of May, um, and knowing that June is going to be a very, very, very slow healing season for me, which would not be typical in my normal yearly cycle with keeping in theme with, you know, we're moving into summer, business is crazy.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so that is a big kind of mind fuck for me and a big thing that I am mentally preparing for and mentally just, you know, constantly reminding myself and asking people very close to me to remind me of like, hey, this is just it's only gonna be like this for just a little bit and stuff.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, even if we're not able to constantly be in tune with everything as much as we would like to be, knowing that yeah, that just isn't isn't the case sometimes.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's okay.
• 45:33
  Mariah: Yeah, and I feel like exactly what you said, where it's like you remind yourself, okay, great.
• 45:39
  Mariah: We would love to be able to remind ourselves about everything all the time.
• 45:43
  Mariah: But I think what the really important thing is, is do you have people around you that can remind you?
• 45:49
  Mariah: When you forget to remind yourself, because I was just talking to a friend yesterday, we're all walking around in our heads, in our own little universes where it's like we are the center of that universe.
• 46:00
  Mariah: Like that's just how it's created.
• 46:02
  Mariah: And so a lot of the times we can't see the forest through the trees.
• 46:06
  Mariah: And so it's kind of just like, hey, can we have people around us that can mirror back and remind me what season I'm in?
• 46:13
  Mariah: Or it's like, hey, you're doing a lot right now.
• 46:16
  Mariah: You said that you didn't want to do a lot right now.
• 46:19
  Mariah: Where is the disconnect?
• 46:21
  Mariah: And like with my job and my business, things have been like I don't really have an up and a down.
• 46:28
  Mariah: It's kind of just been going up and staying up.
• 46:30
  Mariah: And like, don't get me wrong, it's fantastic, like financially, like I'm stable and all of that.
• 46:35
  Mariah: But now I'm looking at my schedule and I'm like, I have to be extremely intentional about what I say yes to.
• 46:40
  Mariah: And that's hard.
• 46:41
  Mariah: That is hard.
• 46:42
  Mariah: And so it's like trying to balance that like what is worth it and what is not, and then reminding myself that this is a season, but this season will continue if I do not get intentional with my own schedule.
• 46:55
  Mariah: And I don't want to be the busy girl all the time.
• 46:57
  Mariah: My husband's like, Right, you're just you got so many ideas.
• 46:59
  Mariah: You're doing this, you're saying yes to that.
• 47:01
  Mariah: Like, when are you taking time for you?
• 47:04
  Mariah: And I was like, What do you mean?
• 47:06
  Mariah: I'm doing all these, it's so fun.
• 47:07
  Mariah: This is for me.
• 47:08
  Mariah: And he was like, girl, take a breath.
• 47:11
  Mariah: Like, what are you doing?
• 47:13
  Mariah: And it's so important to have that reflection because it's like when I'm in those busy seasons, I'm bitching about it.
• 47:20
  Mariah: Well, fuck, I don't have time to do that.
• 47:21
  Mariah: I can't do this, I can't do that.
• 47:23
  Mariah: And so it's like, it's just really nice when you're so in it and you're so focused on like in the moment, what you're doing, building, creating, especially like we're all business owners creating and doing this thing and and building a legacy or like building something that you feel really proud of and I think really excited about, and you have that passion, it can almost push you too far to the other side where it's nice to have reminders of like, what do you want right now and make a decision accordingly?
• 47:50
  Shay: None of us here are trying to be busy girls, right?
• 47:53
  Shay: Like that, that's very important to all of us.
• 47:56
  Shay: Um we, it's clear all three of us are smart and capable, and we could like work, work, work and buy the island in the Lamborghini.
• 48:03
  Shay: Like, I think that became obvious to all of us very early.
• 48:07
  Shay: But for me, that leads to burnout, that leads to back pain, that leads to health problems, right?
• 48:12
  Shay: That was never the priority for me.
• 48:14
  Shay: Um, and I like what you guys are saying.
• 48:16
  Shay: You're kind of helping me pull the threads here of like, I think the reason the seasons is just kind of a metaphor for like life happens in chapters and it's always changing, it's always in flux.
• 48:29
  Shay: And when you're paying attention to, like as Sam is saying, like she's almost got different seasons conflicting with each other.
• 48:35
  Shay: It allows you to have a little bit of grace and forgiveness for yourself.
• 48:39
  Shay: Um, you know, if I'm on the first day of my period and I know I have to go speak that day, how can I set myself up?
• 48:45
  Shay: Maybe I'm taking baths, maybe I'm, you know, like how can I really pamper myself afterwards, knowing that I'm at a low point, right?
• 48:52
  Shay: It's just like the awareness empowers you and it gives you grace.
• 48:57
  Shay: You know, like for Sam, her and I were equally getting into heavy weightlifting, and then she got pregnant.
• 49:04
  Shay: And so I've heard her this whole time say, like, hey, I can't do this right now, but I know as soon as this baby's out, I'm right back with you.
• 49:10
  Shay: Like, I know this is temporary.
• 49:12
  Shay: And I think for me, like when I'm really low, like the day before my period, A, just knowing where I am is helpful.
• 49:18
  Shay: But B, the temp knowing that it's temporary and changing.
• 49:21
  Shay: Because you can get like I'll get in really dark mindsets where it's like it feels like permanent.
• 49:26
  Shay: It feels like you feel like it's always permanent.
• 49:29
  Shay: Literally, you're like it's never gonna go anymore.
• 49:32
  Mariah: And you're just like, I'm sick, I'm gonna be sick for literally the rest of my life.
• 49:35
  Mariah: Why did I waste all of my energy when I wasn't sick?
• 49:38
  Mariah: I man, I just wish I would have done this when I wasn't sick, and like I remember when I feel so good.
• 49:42
  Mariah: Am I ever gonna feel good again?
• 49:43
  Mariah: And then you're just like in this fucking spiral.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: And to bring it back to the mushrooms, I think, you know, I've heard somebody say that um, you know, you you make like a snow track in your mind, and it just gets deeper and deeper and deeper with repetition and with the thoughts and just your schedule and just everything.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the the mushrooms done in a very intentional way, um, is like almost we get fresh snow on the track or something.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like the the track kind of gets to being re filled in or something, and we get to to come back to like, oh, I don't have to be stuck in that loop necessarily if I don't want to be.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so something that I am constantly saying to myself is, you know, Shay and I talk about chapters a lot and talk about, you know, this metaphor of like the pendulum always is swinging, you know, back and forth and everything.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: So um my oldest son, my nine-year-old and I just went through influenza B last month.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: Vicious, like so tough.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we were down for seven to nine days or something.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just brutal.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_00: And my nine-year-old says, like, will it ever be better again?
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, buddy, I know that it will.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's so hard to imagine that right now, but like I do deeply know that.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it will get better.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: We will be back to being healthy soon, I promise.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then another really adorable thing, he's like, is this harder than having a baby?
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you know, I mean, having a baby is like one day of labor and pain, and this has been nine days, and we don't get a baby after this.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, this is very challenging.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: Very, very challenging.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: So just knowing that and like deeply knowing yourself and knowing that you know, hard times will not last forever.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then on the flip side, you know, when things are really high and going really fantastic, that's all wonderful, and being really appreciative and and grateful for that.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: And also some of your aqueous, some of the hard you know that that's just life.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, joy and suffering, you know, kind of go hand in hand, and and we have both in this life and everything.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, just having the awareness that that both can exist.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: That might have that might be actually my biggest takeaway from my 30s is that two very different things can exist at the same time.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that is not something I feel like we're really taught.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_00: You have to kind of just experience that for yourself.
• 52:28
  Mariah: Yeah, it's kind of just like, oh, how are you feeling today?
• 52:31
  Mariah: And then people expect like one answer.
• 52:33
  Mariah: Yeah.
• 52:34
  Mariah: Like Andrew asked me the other day, how are you feeling?
• 52:36
  Mariah: And I was like, mad, sad, but like neutral, but like okay, like fine, but not in like a I'm mad at you for asking, I'm fine, but like an actual like fine, but also not, but like looking forward to sleep, like grateful that I have a bed.
• 52:54
  Mariah: Like I it's just sometimes it just feels like all of it all together.
• 52:59
  Mariah: And it's really helpful, I think, to also be able to have a conversation with people that aren't black and white about it.
• 53:05
  Mariah: You know what I mean?
• 53:06
  Mariah: Because it is hard when it's like, let's say I'm talking to my family or something like that, and they're like, How are you feeling?
• 53:10
  Mariah: And I'm like, I'm and then they expect one word and then they'll go off and be like, Oh, great, I'm so glad that you were feeling that.
• 53:15
  Mariah: And I was like, I didn't get there yet, dog.
• 53:17
  Mariah: Like that was a comma, not a period.
• 53:19
  Mariah: Like, I have more to say.
• 53:21
  Mariah: And so to be able to have friends that can kind of hold that, all of it, while being like just witnessing the multidimensionality of life, of business, of being a human, of the seasons, of the chapters, like all of it, right?
• 53:39
  Mariah: Because like you can't take this season right now and put it in one bucket.
• 53:43
  Mariah: It's like you almost have to take each moment and put it in a bucket.
• 53:46
  Mariah: And like the chapters in the seasons are filled with lots and lots of moments.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, thinking of nature, just thinking of spring, you know, can't I can only speak for our area and stuff, but you know, it is wild.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_00: March, April, and May here in Missouri.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we could have snow or we could have 80 degree days.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_00: We can have hail, we can have wind, we can have tornadoes within eight hours.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's wild.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just um, you know, exactly what you're saying of youth, we feel all of these things, you know, it's so complex.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then we watch nature and it can be the exact same thing.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, all in a day.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_00: 80 degrees in the morning, by the evening, it's insane winds and dropped 40 degrees or something crazy.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I think um, yeah, just just looking at that um and having that be a teacher for us is I never I never looked at it like that.
• 54:41
  Mariah: Like I never realized like the dichotomy that literally surrounds us all the time.
• 54:46
  Mariah: And I was I was taking Freddie the puppy out to use the bathroom yesterday.
• 54:50
  Mariah: And I like was looking down at the ground and I see, you know, like the branches from a tree in my backyard.
• 54:54
  Mariah: They're like down near his level, and I see him.
• 54:56
  Mariah: He's like sniffing these little flowers that are budding.
• 54:59
  Mariah: And I was like, is he gonna eat one?
• 55:00
  Mariah: You know, I'm so focused on like down here because I'm like looking down here.
• 55:03
  Mariah: And then I look up and I go, Oh my god, like the tree is literally blooming.
• 55:08
  Mariah: But I was so focused down here that I literally was like shocked when I looked, I was like, I almost missed that.
• 55:16
  Mariah: The tree only blooms for like fucking three days.
• 55:19
  Mariah: I almost missed it because I was literally so focused on like one little thing.
• 55:24
  Mariah: And then I looked up and I go, Oh my god, that looks so nice.
• 55:28
  Mariah: What a gift.
• 55:30
  Mariah: But like we we never notice it.
• 55:32
  Mariah: It's the same thing with the weather, right?
• 55:33
  Mariah: It's like we want consistency, I want it to be nice until I don't want it to be nice anymore.
• 55:38
  Mariah: And if it doesn't match, when I want a terrain and I want it to be nice, I'm going to bitch about it.
• 55:42
  Mariah: It's literally just like the biggest small talk thing because we all experience it, but you never really hear people praising it.
• 55:53
  Mariah: Everybody's just bitching about it.
• 55:55
  Shay: Yeah.
• 55:56
  Shay: Yeah, I wrote like appreciating impermanence.
• 55:58
  Shay: You're right.
• 55:59
  Shay: Like we have cherry blossoms for a couple days.
• 56:02
  Shay: It's like, what a fucking miracle.
• 56:05
  Shay: And we only have this much time, and and how many of us are taking a moment to like take it in and really feel grateful for it and and know that it's changing.
• 56:14
  Shay: And I don't know, I just noticed like myself, and I think I hear this like in bigger discourse, but it seems like these days a lot of people are feeling just like disconnected from their feelings, disconnected from what they really want, not even sure like what they want out of life or what they're working towards, or like what's going on with them right now.
• 56:35
  Shay: And in this sounds so basic, but these are how our ancestors lived.
• 56:40
  Shay: This is our biology was created around this kind of cyclical living.
• 56:45
  Shay: And it's only very recently that we have detached ourselves from that kind of looking around.
• 56:51
  Shay: What is nature doing right now?
• 56:53
  Shay: What's going on in my life?
• 56:54
  Shay: You know, like feeling gratitude, appreciating change, and permanence.
• 56:58
  Shay: There's all these awesome lessons, and we're on our screens.
• 57:02
  Shay: You know, used to be you were bored and you would just fucking stare at the trees.
• 57:05
  Shay: Now we're on our screens, right?
• 57:07
  Shay: So I think there's this sounds so basic, but there's some magic and like really valuable life lessons that can solve a lot of our problems, and they're so simple.
• 57:16
  Shay: Just like Sam's solution in her business, it's so simple, but it requires going outside, being quiet, you know, looking around, observing things, right?
• 57:26
  Shay: It's just it feels really basic, but I will say, like, it's been really profound for me, especially in terms of like I just midlife and like trying to figure out what am I doing right now?
• 57:39
  Shay: Am I working enough?
• 57:40
  Shay: Am I working not hard enough?
• 57:41
  Shay: Like, nature is here to just be this awesome mirror and reflect back to us, like, hey, you're okay, you're doing what we're doing, you know, like we're all the same, right?
• 57:50
  Shay: And so there's just some power in that, and I think that it gets forgotten about.
• 57:57
  Shay: So I wanted to thank you guys for having this conversation with me.
• 58:00
  Shay: I think that it's cool that all of us are like, yeah, we could hustle for forever, but like that ain't me, and that's not gonna work and why, right?
• 58:10
  Shay: And so I think it's a little bit of also just like remembering what's the priority and the values in your life and um kind of knowing that you have full permission.
• 58:19
  Shay: Set up your business as weird as you fucking want.
• 58:21
  Shay: Make it be be a weirdo, you know, like it can be any, really anything.
• 58:27
  Shay: For me, something so simple as I want to go outside on a nice afternoon has literally changed the trajectory of my whole life.
• 58:34
  Shay: And and I and I didn't think I had permission to ask something so audacious back then.
• 58:40
  Shay: I cannot be in my cubicle in a nice afternoon.
• 58:43
  Shay: That's not okay.
• 58:44
  Shay: Of course it is, right?
• 58:46
  Shay: That's crazy.
• 58:47
  Shay: But that is like we're all in this really rigid mindset, and so that's what I wanted to say about the seasons.
• 58:52
  Shay: Thank you guys.
• 58:53
  Mariah: And well, I mean, it's also like it's hard.
• 58:57
  Mariah: We get so much dopamine from these screens.
• 59:00
  Mariah: I get so much dopamine from posting on YouTube and people like, oh my god, that was so helpful.
• 59:04
  Mariah: I'm like, I'm the most helpful person I've ever met in my entire life, and that's it's an ego trip, dude.
• 59:10
  Mariah: I'm over and then it's like if I get one nasty comment, I'm sitting here fucking spiraling.
• 59:14
  Mariah: Somebody was like, You talk too much.
• 59:16
  Mariah: And I was just like, bruh, how how about you don't talk enough?
• 59:18
  Mariah: Like, I don't know what to tell you.
• 59:20
  Mariah: But it's like all of that is happening in a tiny little box.
• 59:24
  Mariah: None of that is real.
• 59:26
  Mariah: Of course it's real, but it's not real right here, right now.
• 59:30
  Mariah: If the internet went away, that would never be a thing.
• 59:34
  Mariah: But like right here, the trees blossoming in front of me is a thing.
• 59:40
  Mariah: And yeah, I think it's extremely hard.
• 59:43
  Mariah: I find myself, especially when it's like I'm packed, like I have a busy week or something like that.
• 59:50
  Mariah: It's even harder to pull away because then I'm so stuck in this dopamine loop that I'm literally, or just like this achieving loop where I'm checking things off my list, I'm doing this, and now I'm just doing it to get it done instead of like enjoying the process.
• 1:00:04
  Mariah: And like I have a friend that was basically like, I'm gonna start approaching things where it's like, how slow can I do this?
• 1:00:11
  Mariah: And I was like, Yeah, that's a really good question.
• 1:00:15
  Mariah: Because when I'm caught up in it, it's like, okay, well, I have to respond to this friend's voice message.
• 1:00:20
  Mariah: I have to put a stamp on this and go and walk it to the post office or like walk it to the mailbox, like whatever.
• 1:00:25
  Mariah: And it's like, I'm literally just doing it to check it off a list instead of like, can I go for a walk when I voice message my friend?
• 1:00:32
  Mariah: Like, can this be an excuse for me to tune into me?
• 1:00:37
  Mariah: But it's hard, it's extremely hard.
• 1:00:39
  Mariah: And like, we don't have children yet.
• 1:00:40
  Mariah: And like, I can imagine that your brain, your body, your entire soul is being pulled into 400 million places, not only with your own mind, but now with your children's, now with your partners.
• 1:00:51
  Mariah: Now you just keep adding these layers, and it's like, of course, now we just want to sit there on our phone because it's the easiest thing to be able to disassociate when really we don't want the easiest thing.
• 1:01:03
  Mariah: We want the simplest thing.
• 1:01:04
  Mariah: The simplest thing is to go outside.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the disconnect that we have with nature in 2026 for the average Joe is detrimental, I think, to our mental health and to society and everything.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I've heard um do you have you ever heard of uh Andrew Huberman?
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_00: He has a podcast, um, but he talks about a lot of like cheap dopamine.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm, you know, the screen and the scrolling and the you know, the YouTube hits and and all the things and stuff versus like the dopamine you have to work for.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you go out and work on your yard for a whole day and you raked and you've sweated and you got your hands in the dirt and all the things, and like getting to see that finished project or like maybe just even some progress is just like a dopamine that is just it it just hits different.
• 1:01:57
  Shay: Um so yeah, Mariah, I really liked what you said too about nature isn't achieving, it's not this just waving line that goes straight up and it's not growing in a straight direction, and it's not always symmetrical, and it's it's kind of wild and doing its own thing.
• 1:02:16
  Shay: And so it's weird to me as humans that we just get out of school and get put on this treadmill of achieving, achieve, achieve, achieve, achieve, achieve when that's not what the point is.
• 1:02:26
  Mariah: No, sometimes like the branches of a tree get infected and they need to be cut off.
• 1:02:30
  Mariah: I'm not saying that I want my arm and my limbs to be cut off, but like sometimes shit goes wrong by no fault of anything.
• 1:02:36
  Mariah: Life for sure will go wrong.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_00: We absolutely know that.
• 1:02:40
  Mariah: That's just life.
• 1:02:41
  Shay: Yeah, you know.
• 1:02:43
  Shay: So I think we're all kind of just like setting ourselves up for failure of like go, go, go, go, go forever.
• 1:02:48
  Shay: It's just not, at least women for sure.
• 1:02:51
  Shay: It's not how we work.
• 1:02:52
  Shay: No, and so full permission, you everything we've ever been told is kind of around this more male.
• 1:02:58
  Shay: They go through all their feelings and everything, hormones in one 24-hour cycle.
• 1:03:03
  Shay: So I think that we and it's steady.
• 1:03:05
  Mariah: I wonder what that's like.
• 1:03:06
  Mariah: I was looking at Andrew.
• 1:03:08
  Mariah: I go, I don't think you realize how fucking good you got him.
• 1:03:11
  Mariah: I do.
• 1:03:13
  Mariah: I was like, you are, and I mean this with utmost respect.
• 1:03:19
  Mariah: Simple.
• 1:03:21
  Mariah: Fucking simple, dude.
• 1:03:24
  Mariah: I was trying to explain it.
• 1:03:25
  Mariah: I was having a mood swing the other day, and I was trying to explain.
• 1:03:28
  Mariah: He was like, How do you feel?
• 1:03:28
  Mariah: And that's when I was like, Oh, I feel like mad and sad and like frustrated, but also like it's it's not like I'm like creating this, like it's not like I'm like mad about something in particular.
• 1:03:39
  Mariah: I was like, the only thing that how I can explain it, but it sounds really intense, is like I feel out of my mind, but not in like an extreme case.
• 1:03:49
  Mariah: I was like, but then it feels like chemical.
• 1:03:53
  Mariah: It feels like a like a chemical thing.
• 1:03:55
  Mariah: It doesn't feel like a you said this to me and now I'm looping.
• 1:04:00
  Mariah: No, it feels like a this came from the inside, this was not triggered from the outside type situation.
• 1:04:07
  Mariah: And I was like, and I wish that I could bottle this up and make you drink it for just an hour, just an hour, not even a long time, just an hour so that you understand what I'm talking about.
• 1:04:19
  Mariah: Because I feel like a lot of the time guys get to go around and something outside makes them mad, and then they feel anger and then they move through it and whatever.
• 1:04:28
  Mariah: And I was like, what happens if it's if it's in here?
• 1:04:33
  Mariah: And then you don't know you feel like a crazy person sometimes, but then you're just like, but like I'm not mad, and so it's like I try to explain it between there's like two parts of women, you know what I mean?
• 1:04:49
  Mariah: It's like this logical part, and then I don't want to say this emotional part because I don't think that that's always true.
• 1:04:54
  Mariah: I feel like it's kind of like a like an inner part that gets triggered by the chemistry and the emotions, but then the outer part gets triggered by all of it too.
• 1:05:01
  Mariah: I was like, we're just complex hosts, like I don't know what to say.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_00: Would like nature dynamics, a complex hoe on, you know.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard the feminine be described as chaos um and the masculine more described as order and stuff, but you have to have chaos to bring new structure to order and different things.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so you think about nature, and we could have like a you know, uh a storm rolls in and it's chaotic and it drops the temperature, you know, 30 degrees or something like that.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then now instead of 90 degree summer days, we're having 70 or 65, and like how lovely for a couple days and everything.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like it's nice that that chaos comes in and brings some restructure.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 1:05:50
  Shay: Oh, this was so fun and cool.
• 1:05:53
  Shay: I feel like I could talk to you guys about this forever, but um, we're running up on time here.
• 1:05:57
  Shay: So, Samantha, you've been on the podcast before and You might remember this, but maybe not.
• 1:06:02
  Shay: We always like to close every episode down by asking what has been sparking your curiosity lately, or what kind of rabbit holes have you been going down?
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_00: I have been going down.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_00: I just finished um a really fantastic book called The Power of Now by Eckhartole for probably the tenth time in the past decade or so.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I read that with my work team, and we did a little book club, and then it coinciding with um my pregnancy and moving into a really busy, technically a very busy season for my life and my work, but I don't need a busy season in my own body and in my own mind right now.
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, the last chapter was all about surrender and acceptance.
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so I guess I've been getting really curious about um, you know, as I'm preparing for birth and I plan to do a natural birth at home, God willing, and everything.
• 1:07:02
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I've just been really curious about trust in in the uh the bigger picture and and trust in my own body and in my own mind and trust in my baby and trust in the process of everything.
• 1:07:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I've been getting very, very into going down rabbit holes with time with it sounds so simple and it's literally the hardest, right?
• 1:07:25
  Mariah: It is truly you know, I was reading about surrender, I go, yeah, how's that going?
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and and gosh, I I don't need to be such a nerd and bring it back to the mushrooms, but it really is.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, in a mushroom trip, you you surrender so deeply to this bigger space where the mind and the ego really get put away into the box and you are more connected with self and this uh it's hard to say, higher power of just higher energy and different things.
• 1:08:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like a veil has been lifted.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_00: This like ego, yeah, I don't know.
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and you get to see things a little bit more clearly.
• 1:08:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so birth, uh natural birth space is absolutely similar to that.
• 1:08:15
  SPEAKER_00: You you certainly go to this different space and you are connected with this energy of where where it all comes from, this source energy and and stuff, and it's powerful, it's fucking powerful.
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna use the word intense um over like scary or painful or different things, and and absolutely intense.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the the surrender and the acceptance piece for me is I know that I can get through hard things.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_00: I know that deeply.
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_00: I have a ton of data for that.
• 1:08:51
  SPEAKER_00: I've been through hard things in the past, and I'm sure life will continue to throw hard things at me.
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I know I can can move through them um with with grace and resilience.
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I'm gonna come out the other side.
• 1:09:04
  Mariah: So and then you look around and you go, every single human on this planet in the millions has been birthed.
• 1:09:11
  Mariah: Yes, absolutely.
• 1:09:12
  Mariah: Which is fucking mind blowing, dude.
• 1:09:17
  Mariah: Like birth blows my fucking mind.
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_00: That should be a whole podcast in the of birth.
• 1:09:25
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, that's what I've been getting curious about is a lot of trust and a lot of surrender and a lot of acceptance of of where we are at right now.
• 1:09:33
  Shay: I really like that.
• 1:09:34
  Shay: And you brought up one other thought I wanted to say about the seasons.
• 1:09:38
  Shay: If you're listening to this episode right now and you're kind of like, I can't even go there.
• 1:09:43
  Shay: Like, there is so much right now in front of me in my life.
• 1:09:47
  Shay: I can't even think bigger picture.
• 1:09:49
  Shay: I can't even, what are you guys talking about goals?
• 1:09:52
  Shay: Like, know that right now we're in spring and we're all like buzzing on this energy, but there's something about honoring the season that you're in.
• 1:10:00
  Shay: For example, when my husband was very sick and our future was very unclear.
• 1:10:05
  Shay: I couldn't even like mentally conceptualize this stuff.
• 1:10:10
  Shay: And I talked with her a lot about like, I used to be this really goal-giving person and now I don't have any goals.
• 1:10:15
  Shay: I can't even imagine working towards a goal.
• 1:10:17
  Shay: It's literally just getting through today.
• 1:10:20
  Shay: That's fine.
• 1:10:21
  Shay: That's the season you're in.
• 1:10:23
  Shay: And the very worst thing you can do is beat yourself up, that you're not this old version of yourself.
• 1:10:28
  Shay: Of course you're not.
• 1:10:29
  Shay: Honor the season that you're in.
• 1:10:31
  Shay: So if you are in a very intense season, like Sam will be in June, where it's like literally keep the baby alive, keep myself alive, that's it.
• 1:10:40
  Shay: Honor that.
• 1:10:41
  Shay: And don't beat yourself up because Mariah's in a season of she's killing it with her membership and she's got everything going on.
• 1:10:47
  Shay: Like that's her season.
• 1:10:49
  Shay: I think that was really difficult for me when I was going through really hard seasons, is seeing people who are in different seasons and beating myself up.
• 1:10:56
  Shay: So I think there's a bit of like, it's all really relative.
• 1:11:00
  Shay: And like, are you taking a moment to check in with you and making sure you're good and then being unapologetic about setting your life up in a way that makes you good?
• 1:11:09
  Shay: There's nothing selfish about that, right?
• 1:11:12
  Shay: So if you need for me, I need anchors in my life.
• 1:11:14
  Shay: And I want y'all to use seasons as an anchor.
• 1:11:17
  Shay: You can use nature as an anchor, you can use your friends as an anchor, but anything to kind of like bring you back to what's real and true and and and remember that it's always changing, it's always impermanent.
• 1:11:29
  Shay: Like what a blessing, right?
• 1:11:31
  Shay: Where everything is temporary.
• 1:11:32
  Shay: And so just kind of really anchoring into the temporariness, the arbitrariness, where just little specks of dust floating around this universe gives me a lot of mental peace and a lot of sustainability in my career and in my life.
• 1:11:44
  Shay: And so if y'all start experimenting with this kind of stuff, please reach out to us.
• 1:11:49
  Shay: I am curious.
• 1:11:50
  Shay: I've tried to share some examples of how we do this, but this could look like a million different things.
• 1:11:54
  Shay: So I would love to hear like what seasons look like for you and what kind of tools and tricks that you use to kind of are the seasons of life.
• 1:12:03
  Mariah: Well, that's a mic drop there.
• 1:12:04
  Mariah: And so we will leave it with that.
• 1:12:07
  Mariah: Uh Sam, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
• 1:12:10
  Mariah: We're gonna oh, wait, can you tell our listeners where they can find and connect with you?
• 1:12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, thank you so much for having me.
• 1:12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you too.
• 1:12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we you can check out our business at losthillakevents.com or on Instagram with Lost Hill Lake Events or Lost Hill Lake Weddings, and then meet personally um on Instagram as life right now is good.
• 1:12:34
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like that fits.
• 1:12:35
  Mariah: Okay, perfect.
• 1:12:36
  Mariah: We're gonna put all of the links to that in the show notes below.
• 1:12:39
  Mariah: But I think that we're ready to close this episode down.
• 1:12:42
  Mariah: So remember, friends, that you have the power to create whatever the fuck you want.
• 1:12:47
  Mariah: Follow the nudge, ask questions, and let curiosity guide the way.
• 1:12:51
  Mariah: We'll see you in the next episode.