11 Healthy Habits for Entrepreneurs

The following is a transcription of Episode 3 of The Peaceful Entrepreneur Podcast! Click here to listen on all platforms!

AMY: Welcome to the Peaceful Entrepreneur podcast, where together we are finding peace in the process of everyday business ownership by improving one step at a time, how we think and what we do. I'm your host, Amy Stout.

Let's get practica!. So the last two episodes have been more of a conversation, right? What this podcast is all about. And then we started off with a bang, talking about the common mental health struggles that we face as entrepreneurs.

So to follow that, I wanted to switch up our format a bit and talk more practically about 11 healthy habits that we can put in place to be more peaceful entrepreneurs.

So today's guest is Beth, who was on our last episode. She and I were having such a fun time talking that we just were on a roll and decided to keep going. So that's what you're gonna be hearing today.

We're so excited to share what has been helpful for us and we pray it will be helpful for you. And we're also gonna be sharing not only what's worked for us, but also what we are aspiring to this year and some healthy habits that we have in mind for ourselves for 2023, because we are always a work in progress.

So let's get started!

AMY: Beth, welcome back. We had so much fun recording our mental health conversation and Beth's pup, Louie is joining in on this podcast recording too.

BETH: He's jumping up on my chair. He's like, I haven't had attention in too long. Life is hard when you're a dog.

AMY: But Beth and I had so much fun talking about mental health that we decided to just keep on chatting and do some more, because that was more of a discussion of mental health as an entrepreneur, what we go through, and just talking about the hard stuff that is not often talked about.

So we decided to now pivot and let's talk about what are some practical healthy habits that we can put into play that are going to help us be healthy and peaceful on a daily basis.

So if you have not listened to the last episode, I would definitely recommend that because we're probably gonna reference back to that conversation. And you'll also get to hear a little bit more about Beth and who she is, so you can know who you're talking to in today's episode. But since we already talked about all that, I think we should just go ahead and jump right in.

BETH: Let's jump right in. I'm excited to hear your tips. My first tip is probably pretty straightforward, but I really recommend going to therapy.

I mentioned in the last episode how I started going to therapy when I was like 17. And I've had several different therapists just because I've moved around a little bit. And sometimes, you know, it takes a while to connect and to really find one that you connect with and that works well for you. but the woman I'm with now, she is just so good. And what I really like about her therapy practice is that she is a life coach as well, and she's also a Christian. So I can talk to her about any like spiritual struggles I'm having too and we pray together. She can give me biblical advice. And that's been honestly so, so life-changing for me. It's just having a therapist who has the same faith as me. Like I just really love that.

AMY: I love that so much. That is an awesome, amazing tip. And of course that's like a, that'll help your mental health. It just will.

My first tip is to have a morning routine that serves you well. And this is one of those things that's like, everybody's going to have something that's going to work a little bit differently for them. So don't feel like you have to do my morning routine because mine works for me.

But having, I think there's some important qualities of a morning routine that you should be striving for. Something that is going to be life-giving and not life-taking. So instead of waking up and scrolling immediately, waking up and reading a book instead, or putting on some music and going ahead and starting to get ready or do a tidy for the day. Things that are gonna set you up to have a clear mental space.

So things like that I specifically do that I've already kind of mentioned, but things that I do, try to stay off of social media before work in general. Make my bed. I mean, it's such a tiny thing, but it does something, like it clicks something mentally. And since I work at home, I see it all day. I walk by my room and also like doing a little general tidy of the rest of the house, 'cause for me, that directly affects how clearly I'm gonna be able to think. Reading a book, because I found that morning is a good time to read like a self development book because you're kind of open to kind of accepting those new ideas at that time. And it kind of gets your brain starting on a good tone for the day.

And then the morning for me is when I like to do my Bible study and time with God. Now my best friend, I was talking to her last night about this, she does her time with the Lord at 11 p.m. before she goes to bed every single night.

BETH: I prefer in the evenings too.

AMY: Yes, I think that's so cool that your brain works like that because I told her, I was like, you will not catch me with my eyes open at 11 p.m.

BETH: Okay, not at 11 p.m. Like if I have a say about it, I'm fast asleep by 9.30 or 10. We go to bed early.

AMY: That's good, we do too. Not that early, but yes. That's, I love that so much. Yeah.

So like, that serves you, right? You know? So we don't have to have the same thing, but doing those things that are gonna calm your brain that are going to put you in a clear space and not a cluttered space. They're gonna start your tone off positive and not in some sort of spiral of stress or comparison like we talked about. Like find those things.

And for me too, oh my gosh, I was in a stage of my business for a couple of months that I would jump into work before I ate food. And then I wouldn't eat food till 12pm. Like not, yeah, not good. So I was like, this is part of my morning routine. I am making myself food. And I've also recently started to try and drink either a cup of water or green juice before coffee for some hydration. 'Cause that's also gonna set your body and your brain up well.

So pick the things, find the things. Your morning routine can also, it can shift and change over time. It could even shift and change with the seasons. Like maybe I don't wanna wake up at 6 a.m. in the winter 'cause it's pitch black, but I can do it in the summer because the sun's already up. So find the things that serve you in the right seasons, but starting your day well is huge.

BETH: That is huge. I feel like you should do an entire episode of like your morning routine and how you landed on it because I'm always interested in hearing all the details of people's morning routines.

AMY: That's a great idea. I would love to do that.

BETH: I'm full of great ideas.

AMY: You are. You really are. You're giving me so many.

BETH: I was trying to make a joke, but genuinely that is one of my strengths. Sometimes they're not great, but they're always coming.

AMY: Yeah, I mean, if something brilliant is happening in the marketing department of my business, there's a 75% chance it's Beth's idea.

BETH: I just, I love talking about things.

Okay, my second tip for mental health sanity in your business is to have streamlined systems. No matter if you have one client or 13, or if you are a product-based business, having a system as soon as you can and developing it early on is going to save you so much mental brain work and so much heartache.

I could go on about this for another whole episode. I won't because that's cray cray, But like Honeybook, Asana, Dubsado, the list goes on and on. Having an organized Google Drive, like we talked about in the last episode how organization isn't necessarily my like sweet spot, but it is something that I value in my business.

And that is something someone told me back when I first started, when I had literally one client, they were like, just get organized from the get go and streamline as much as you can. So for example, I have a form, my contact form on my website is directly linked to my HoneyBook account. And that is directly linked to my Dotcal account, which is kind of like a cute aesthetic version of calendly. So it helps you create meetings and set times with other people. And I love it. It's called Dotcal.

But automatically when someone contacts me, they're sent a link to book a call with me and to fill out a quick little questionnaire. And that just kind of fields people from, first of all, it helps with spam. People don't just, spam bots can't do that. If somebody is not willing to fill out a four to five question questionnaire about their copywriting needs, then chances are they're not serious enough to start working with me, you know?

And it just is nice because it's so streamlined where I can be like, okay, I have a meeting tomorrow with some rando, but I already know these five things about them and I can go look at their website if I want. I can go look at their Instagram if I want to kind of like mentally prepare.

And I didn’t have to do a single thing. 'Cause I had set up my processes and I set up my systems a year ago, you know? And it’s just so much easier than when it's back and forth. And that's just one example of one kind of workflow you can set up, but there's, you know, you can set contracts and invoices to be sent automatically.

AMY: I'm thinking of so many, and I'm actually gonna hold my tongue and just save it for an episode, because I think that there needs to be a systems to have in your business episode.

BETH: Absolutely, yes. So that is my number two tip on how to have peace in your business, because it just takes some of the workload off of you. Like we talked about mental workload, mental capacity in the last episode. And that is one way you can minimize that.

AMY: Definitely. Speaking of interacting with your clients, my next one is setting expectations upfront with your clients.

BETH: You are very good at that, yes.

AMY: Oh, thank you. I feel like you are too. I feel like I got that when I first started working with you. I like, I knew your boundaries. Like I knew, yeah, how you work.

That is definitely a healthy habit to get into and it requires some pre-work 'cause you had to figure out what your expectations are in the first place, you know, and your own boundaries. So first, you know, figure that out.

Like for me, it's things like I don't work on the weekends. So you can send me a message, but I won't respond. Things like I don't give my personal phone number out clients, we communicate on Voxer and that's a boundary that I have.

And just come up with all of those things and what I'm actually working on doing is developing a PDF as like an intro doc. So when a client first comes to me, I can just go send it right over and be like, Hey, here's what it's like to work with me. So basically then all I have to do is I have everything all written out and I can just send it over to the client immediately when we start working together and they can know everything I need to know about what my boundaries are.

And I'm not really framing it to them as boundaries, but they know upfront and then it saves me a lot of stress down the line or a lot of like fighting back and forth or setting a boundary in the moment, which is way harder. You know, just like set it upfront and it's gonna give you so much more peace on a regular basis moving forward.

BETH: And that's actually something that you can put on your website even too. Like an experience tab of like what it's like to work with me.

I think a detailed PDF is a very good idea to send that over to your client. And like, yeah, you only have to send it one time. And you can even automate an email that it automatically sends to them after they sign a contract or something. So bam.

AMY: I should do that. I haven't taken advantage of workflows as much so I need to get into that.

BETH: My number three way that I tend to my mental health as a business owner is by using this app called Groove.

If you've listened to my podcast, you've heard me talk about it or if you have seen my stories, I've talked about it. It's this virtual co-working app. is truly game changing as an entrepreneur who works alone, who is a major extrovert.

Like I thrive off of a social connection and it's nice because even though it's just a little head in a screen, but there's people that I've met just by going and I groove a few times a day, I do it to say, okay, I'm going to work on this blog post or I even do it to clean my house but it's just really nice because it helps me overcome procrastination and it helps hold me accountable. It helps me understand like the concept of time better like I can manage my time very easily and it just helps me get off my butt and get stuff done you know.

So I recommend it, it's amazing and I could go into the details of it forever but it's basically just like a 50 minute Groove session that you do with up to three other people. It just randomly assigns people to you. There's a way that you can create an orbit, which is kind of like a friends list. So once you groove with somebody, you're in their orbit. So I groove with a lot of the same people again and again and again, and you can message people and everyone has profiles.

It's not, it's really not social media. Like the way that I just described it kind of sounded like it, but it truly is like a very just like streamlined, easy way to co-work with other people, get a little bit of connection and like manage your time. It's so cool.

AMY: I have a friend Camille who's also going to be on episode and she started her own coworking group. So she actually runs a coworking group too. So I can put that information down below too.

Okay. Here's my thing with coworking groups and why I haven't done one is, I feel like it would distract me because I feel like if I'm in somebody's presence, I'm being rude to them if I'm not acknowledging them. And I know that that's kind of the premise of co-working. It's like, we're going to be here together and ignore each other together. But like, do you get? I don't know. Would it not be a good fit for me because I feel like that?

BETH: It would be an amazing fit for you because the way that the Groove is structured is for the first few minutes, everybody goes around and shares their goal for the Groove. And then you press start groove and it goes off mic, off camera completely. And you have a little chat box where people can talk if they want to.

So everyone, it prompts everyone to set their goal for the groove. So like for me, it would be like, do SEO research. and then you can have a task list. So inside my task list, I would write, “Do keyword research, write meta description, choose primary keyword, write h1, write h2.” You know, I can break down the parts of SEO that I'm doing. And I can cross off my task list and the rest of the people in the groove can see me crossing things off my list as I go.

And there's a little timer. And the timer will notify you when it's halfway done and notify you when you have five minutes left. And then at the end of the 50 minute stint, you have a couple minutes to come back on camera and share if you completed your goals with each other.

So it's a really, really fun way to like get a little bit of socializing in, but most importantly everyone is there to like focus and it's like a very not distracting community and set up. It's very, very, very simple and easy to do. And I love it. I could go on about it for a hundred years.

AMY: I love that. That was, and that was all new information to me. Like I know about co-working, but I'd never heard of Groove. So that was really cool to hear about. I love it.

Okay, I'm gonna, this is kind of ironic because my next one is take screen and social media breaks. That's my next one is just like, and we've already kind of had this conversation, but like you can get very overloaded very quickly and spiral into all sorts of mental health struggles if you're constantly on social and on screens.

And so an important healthy habit for me has been to enact breaks and that has looked different. I've tried a bunch of things, but it's like, take the periodic weekend long break or take a periodic week or month off completely. Or it's like, I give myself the boundary of, I don't get on until my lunch break. Or I only allow myself to pop on twice a day. Those haven't worked as well for me. What has worked well for me is training myself to when I pop on, I check for a couple seconds and I hop off. I am trying to train myself not to scroll or tap for too long.

So just whatever that break looks like for you, enacting some sort of intentional system for that, I think is gonna be, is huge.

And another piece is setting, this has been huge for me. Oh my goodness. Setting downtime on my phone, which means you will actually, you're actually able to set, and I don't know how this works for non iPhones, But for iPhones, I've set all of my work-related apps that send me notifications to shut off after 5 p.m. until 9 a.m. the next day, and for the whole day on weekends. So they are literally grayed out. You can't even tap to open them, and they can't even send you a push notification. It's a life changer, I'm telling you.

Because then you're not even as tempted to go tap it because it's just like completely grayed out. And that has been a game changer for me because I do enjoy having some like my work messaging app and stuff and Instagram on my phone, but I still needed to find a way to like barricade myself from getting on it at all hours. And that has been so helpful for me. And even like I have my email app on my front page and it has the little red dot. But when it grays out, the red dot goes away. So that's been really, really good. And that's a setting that you can just set and it does it itself. It's streamlined.

BETH: My next one is pretty simple, but just finding community. I think every entrepreneur needs two different kinds of community. You need people who just get it. You need other entrepreneurs who are surrounding you, who when you complain about the new Instagram feature—

Okay, quick sidebar, Instagram has a feature where you can schedule and it'll post things for you. So I started that was coming out systems and I just use it. The post that I posted this morning, I forgot that I scheduled it yesterday.

There's, there's that note, but nice community. Like you can, someone who gets it when you complain about Instagram updates and when you talk about, Hey, what do you use for your contracts? You know, like there's people who you just need that. like those people who are there to support you and walk through it with you and who just get it.

And then you need a community who has literally nothing to do with work, who helps you tap out because I see so often, and I've done this in my own life, people who are friends with their coworkers or friends with other entrepreneurs and they get together for drinks or dinner or whatever, and all they talk about is work. And I get it, work is easy to talk about, It's fun to talk about, but like girl, you have a life outside of it and that life matters.

And you will help yourself avoid burnout by having interests and conversations and community outside of work. Even if you love your job more than anything, even if you're like, my business is my baby, I love it. Eventually you're gonna wish that you had something else. Promise. Because it's been that's how it's been for me. I've been there.

AMY: I am not surprised that this is the one that we both put down the same thing for. I put it down as healthy input because in our businesses, we are putting out so much. We're putting out products, we're putting out communication, we're putting out services, content and you can't pour from an empty cup.

So you need to be poured into and I literally put business and non-business because you need to have the people who are not related to your business at all who you can just let loose, have fun, grow personally together. But it is also so helpful to have a business community and even to add on top of that, that have business resources that you are taking in, that's gonna grow you as a business owner.

And so I've recently been following a couple of new business podcasts and trying to make the intentional time to during the day, whether I'm cleaning or I go take a walk, to listen to a business podcast multiple times per week. And I've found even just since starting like maybe a week and a half ago, I have so many more ideas for my business and just for things to do within it.

And then those podcasts are gonna point you to other resources. So I like found this free like one hour podcast webinar, like how to start a podcast. And I listened to that and like, I picked a couple of things out of there that are really, really helpful when thinking about producing this podcast.

So, and then I also have a list of like books that I've been recommended to read as an entrepreneur. So just making sure that you have healthy input from people and then from resources is going to help your mental health, because you're gonna have that healthy input and that's gonna make your output even better.

BETH: That's so good, I love that. My next one is probably also kind of simple, but taking care of your physical wellness. Did you put that too?

AMY: Yes, my next one too.

BETH: Yeah, for me, this has been huge. Like drinking water.

AMY: Yes, the simplest things.

BETH: It's so simple. I also, my whole life, I don't know what it is. Maybe it's 'cause I'm a headache girly, but like I've always loved to drink water. I've never been the person who has an issue drinking like just so much water. I always have a water bottle. But drinking water, I feel like just really helps.

Moving your body, setting a timer. This is what I like to use Groove for is I will use it to go work out sometimes. Because I will not get off my couch. 'Cause sometimes I'll start work in my office and then I end the day usually on my couch 'cause it's like squishy and comfy. And it helps me mentally to like move around. But I need to like get myself up and moving. And I feel so much better. I feel so much more peaceful. My mind is more quiet when I've gotten some physical energy out and gotten some movement in. So that is my little two cents about wellness.

AMY: Definitely. I am right there with you. I was gonna say the same thing about how much just doing 20 minutes of yoga or going on a walk can clear your head. And you can do more intense workouts too if you want, but this is what I'm preaching to myself is like any movement is good. And because I tend to struggle with, if it's not a full on hit or weightlifting, super intense workout, then it's not even worth doing. And that's not true.

I'm trying to like rewrite that narrative in my head. And speaking to the accountability, like I just started going to the gym with a friend. And for both of us, it's so helpful 'cause it's not just you anymore. like they're expecting you to come too. And then you're working together on improving your physical and mental health. And that's just like an extra cool aspect to have.

BETH: Yeah, that's so good. Not to like beat this even more to the ground, but that's another reason why I love Groove because it feels like everyone's kind of like a team, like you're all working towards something, you know? And I think like teamwork that ties into our last point, which was community. I think teamwork is a really good motivator. Like that's one of the reasons why I love working with Abide because I feel like part of a team.

AMY: Oh, I love that. Yeah, we're all pieces of, we all have our unique things that we do and we come together and do something great.

I feel like another piece of the health and wellness is just eating. I talked about earlier about how I didn't eat. So just like making intention to eat, But I more want to talk here about like what I'm eating. I think it's important to set yourself up well to have the things in your house that are going to fuel your body well. Grocery shop with intention, like buy the things that are going so that you can always have something on hand for a smoothie. Buy something so you always have a fruit to munch on, always have a veggie to munch on.

And if meal prepping helps, do that, you know, so you have less work to do on the day of if that's not your thing. No problem. But just buying food intentionally planning ahead for yourself so that you don't always make the excuse of going to just grab something out because you didn't have anything planned and you open the fridge and nothing's there. You know, all of those things are going to contribute to your greater mental health and for the success of your business.

BETH: And I mean, I'm not a psychologist and I'm not a nutritionist by any means, but like eating really good high quality food and getting all your nutrients in is just a game changer for your mental health. Like do the research on your own, but like the way that your gut health is tied to your mental health is insane. So like I take probiotics every day and I like I eat yogurt and bananas and spinach and other things that have like pre and probiotics in them. And I notice like a difference in my, in the way that I can focus and in my mood when my gut health is a little bit more in check.

AMY: That's really good. So it's really interesting too, to just know about the way that your body works, like how that's tied to your mental health.

BETH: Another one of my tips is to set hours, which is kind of what you talked about earlier, Amy, but just kind of knowing, okay, I'm going to be working nine to five, or I'm going to work three to five, or whatever it is, just like being strict with yourself and having those boundaries with yourself, not just your clients.

AMY: That is a really good point.

BETH: And another boundary that I have with myself is actually to have, and this isn't possible for everybody, but to have an office, like a designated room in my house, that is my working space. And that has been, this is the first time in this house that we're in right now. It's the first time ever that I have my very own office where it is just my room. My desk is in here. I have my books and my cute things on my wall, and I have my window and my plants and my candles.

And it is just a really, really good space where I can get into the mindset of I am working now. And it is so easy to get in here and to be motivated and to sit down and do work. And then when I close the door, I'm leaving work behind. And that's been huge for me in my mental health. And I did not expect it to have that much of an impact on me.

AMY: That is huge. I have tried to avoid sitting on the couch to work, not to bash your sitting on the couch to work because again, everyone's different, but I try to avoid it because I feel such a difference in my productivity when I am not working from the couch all day.

BETH: Yeah, 'cause like there's certain tasks that I do at the beginning of my workday that I just focus better if I'm in my office with no distractions. And then there's certain other tasks that I can easily do with a podcast on in the background, lounging on the couch. Like, and I'm just more comfortable if I can do that. And it's just you have to find what works for you. But I just, I love having my own office. It's truly been so helpful in helping my brain get into work mode.

Okay, I have one last little tidbit And we kind of touched on this like a little bit in the last episode about how success will look a certain way to some people. And we can look at someone and think like, oh, they're very successful and they've done all of these things. But at the end of the day, what really, really matters for your mental health is to define what success looks like to yourself because six figures could be somebody else's version of success, but 50,000 a year could be someone else's version of success. And then someone else's version of success could not even be financially related. Like their goal could just simply to be, I want to set my own hours. I want to work from home. I want to do what I love. Like it looks different for everybody and it does not have to be financial and it doesn't have to be lofty goals. And you could be in business for five years and be making 30,000 a year or 20,000 a year or 100,000 a year and you could all have the same like mental health capacity. You know like you could be you could be so happy with 20,000 a year but you could be like absolutely miserable at 100,000 you know like it's just I think when we detach success from money or even if we don't detach it but we just include in other variables that helps our mental health so much because we can keep our well-being and the happiness of our clients and the general quality of life in the equation, not just how much am I making, you know?

AMY: That's such a good point. I love that. Yeah, that's huge to me. Knowing that my values are what I'm going to use as my standard of success, that has been a game changer. The last year in my business has really been, and it helps with the comparison stuff that we talked about last episode. Because you could look at someone and you could assume that they're making a certain amount, and maybe they're not, but you see them as successful because they're genuinely just so happy with how their life is, and they've reached all of their goals, whatever those goals are, you know?

And that was my theme for 2022, was being rooted and grounded. And like you said, it helps you. I was just, I was praying so much, like let me be rooted and grounded so I don't get swayed because I know there's gonna be a lot of things that are gonna come at me. A lot of stuff came at me last year. But so I knew that was gonna happen and I was just praying that the Lord would root me. And I think that just goes right along with what you're saying.

BETH: Yeah, and I think, I mean, for us, like defining success, involves like a conversation with the Lord and a conversation with him about what are, what are your plans for my business, God? Like my business is yours and everything that I am is because of you. And I want my milestones and the way I'm defining success to be honoring to you and your plans for my life and how you created me. His design will dictate and speak into how we define our goals.

AMY: I think a fun way to wrap this up will be to look forward because we're always works in progress. That sounds funny. We're always a work in progress and we can always be better. We should strive to be content and peaceful in our present moment, but that doesn't mean we can't also be striving to be better as long as that doesn't become an idol, right? So what is a healthy habit that you aspire to have that you are working towards or you would like to work towards this year?

BETH: So something that I'm working toward this year is actually related to my physical wellness. For a long time, I have had a gym membership. And because I used to work in gyms, actually, like that was kind of what I did before. I worked at the YMCA and I worked at my university rec center and it was, that was my life, was the gym.

When we moved up here to Canada, the first thing I did was go tour every single gym in the area. And if the thing about this town guys is that there are not a lot of people our age. There's not a lot of twenties or thirties. And I mean, they're here, but they're few and far between.

So going to the gym therefore means I'm with a lot of people who are not in my season of life. And that always makes me feel a little bit uncomfy. Basically there's a lot of older men at the gyms that are here in Moose Jaw. Not ideal when you're a woman in your 20s who just wants to work out in peace and quiet, but they won't stop talking to you.

So I had a gym membership at a place here in Moose Jaw for a while, but it's quite literally so much more expensive than it is in the States. And I just, it became kind of like a not peaceful escape where for me, my whole life, exercise and movement has always been a thing of peace. And it's been something that kind of keeps me sane and keeps me healthy.

But last year, it wasn't that. Last year, it was stressful. It was a “should” kind of a thing. And that has had a really interesting impact on my mental health.

So one of my goals this year to find more peace is to actually start working out from home. And I got like a cute yoga mat. I got a couple of like weights. I got some ankle weights. I have stairs in my house so I'm like I'll just go up and down my stairs what the heck and I'm just gonna try to like really romanticize working out at home and trying to make it a fun little thing where I can have time alone, have a peaceful moment of movement where I don't have to go be around people that I'm nervous they're gonna talk to me. Until I'm able to get back to a place where there's more people my age maybe like a woman owned gym or a female only gym or something like that where I'm more comfortable.

I'm just gonna make the most of it doing it at home. And then maybe, who knows, maybe I'll love it and that will be my new normal. But that's kind of like one of my goals for this year to find more peace in my everyday life is to get into a routine of working out at home.

AMY: I love that, that's great. When you were sharing about your home office, that's what I am striving towards because we live in a 730 square foot, two bedroom apartment. So our second bedroom is our guest room, our music room, our office, our gaming room, our storage room, and our Lego display room. (laughing)

BETH: Shout out to, I'm assuming Luke.

AMY: This man, I am glad for him to display his Legos, but we definitely need some more space for the Legos. (laughing)

And so I mean, this is just a stage of life that we're in. The space is limited, but we're also praying to be able to be in a house at some point this year. And I am so excited to build out a home office in that house. Even if it's a shared home office, it's something, a space that I can make my own and make something that is peaceful to me.

Like I want one of those walking pads and standing desks so bad. And I want like the cute, just white, clean, organized, a little stand for my iPad and a stand for my phone. And a little cute cup with multicolored pens. And you know, like I just wanna build it out to be this peaceful space that's like the ideal place for me to get my work done. 'Cause I just don't have that here. And it's okay, I've built the business so far in this space and I'm so grateful for it, but I just, I have dreams. And so I'm excited to do that when the opportunity comes to me.

BETH: Oh my gosh, I'm so excited for that. I know you and I are both trying to buy houses this year. And it's just, it's like, I don't feel like I'm adult enough to be buying a house, but then I'm like, oh, look at this one on Zillow. It has a nice fenced in backyard. And look at this three car garage. Like I feel so weird sometimes. Like I'm not old enough to be doing all of this, but all of the adulting things. But I've just personally like hit my wits end with apartment life.

AMY: Yeah, we're renting this house right now and we're at our wits end with renting life. You will be shook at this. I have not had a washing machine and dryer in my house, in my home since I left home for college.

BETH: Oh, like you have a shared laundry room?

AMY: Yes, since 2015, I have had a shared laundry room.

BETH: I'm like, I look at my phone calendar, like that will tell me. Like the time will tell me how long that is.

AMY: No, I mean, May of this year will mark eight years of not having a washer in my house. So if that tells you anything about how ready I am.

BETH: Yeah, you are ready with a capital R.

AMY: If only the podcast listeners could see my face right now.

BETH: Yeah, that was so funny. And that will 100% help with your peace, honestly.

AMY: Yeah, oh my gosh. I mean, I'm just grateful 'cause our first home when we got married didn't have a dishwasher. So I'm just praising the Lord for the dishwasher. In this place, even if it's old and clunky, it's got a dishwasher.

Anyways, before we go, I have a question that I like to ask all my guests and I didn't ask it to you in the last episode so I'm glad that we did a second one so I can ask you now.

What is bringing you peace right now, today?

BETH: I think right now what has been bringing me the most peace is the Bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11.” For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope in the future.”

And that verse has just been on my heart the last couple of weeks, because 2023, right now, we're beginning the year as we record this. And this year, I know, is going to be very transitional milestone type of year for me and my husband. And I think there's a lot of uncertainty in the coming months and that looks like trying to start a family that looks like trying to buy a house moving back to the states from Canada, leaving behind our community that we've made here, going back to our community slash creating another community in Kansas City, like there's just a lot of different moving parts and I don't know the timeline of a lot of it or really any of it to be honest and how does my business fit into all of these things that are happening you know?

And ultimately at the end of the day, I know that God's plan is greater than mine and that has brought me so much peace. My whole life that verse has been really important to me, but especially the past few months when I'm like, "God, what are you doing? God, I'm waiting. God, what's next? What does this look like? Why are you putting this desire in my heart? Why are you leading us over here? What are you doing, bro?" God's like, "I've got you."

And I know, I think of when, for example, last episode we talked about how I tried so hard to to find a full-time job. And throughout all of that, God knew that starting my own business was going to be the answer to all of the prayers. And it'd be the answer to so many unspoken prayers when Justin got the job opportunity for us to move up here. And that's not something we ever saw happening, but since I owned my own business, it was a very, very easy yes.

And I know that there are things like that in the future that God has already planned out very intentionally. And I know that He knows what's going to happen and that everything will make sense eventually. And so just remembering that verse has brought me so much peace the last few weeks because I know His plans are greater than mine. And if I want this and I don't get it, he's gonna give me something else. And then I'm gonna be like, “Thank the Lord, I didn't get what I wanted because he knew what was best for me and my story.”

AMY: There's been so many times that I'm like, “Whoa, I'm so glad I didn't get what I wanted in that situation.”

BETH: Oh my gosh, like every breakup ever, for example.

AMY: Right, yeah, pretty much. And he gives us such a gift in the Bible that we get to see stories over and over again of people not getting what they wanted, but the result actually being better. And we get to see how over and over God always has the better plan and the better plan always has our best interest in mind 'cause he loves us and he wants that for us.

So I've been studying that in the Old Testament, just seeing it over and over. So I love what you're saying. And I think that can be so encouraging for people who are listening, who are in the middle of a season where they're like, "God, what is going on?" 'Cause we all go through those seasons.

BETH: Yeah. So that's my thing. That's what's keeping me going.

AMY: Keeping you going, giving you peace.

Thank you so much for being on today. This will definitely not be the last podcast episode that you hear Beth on because I've had entirely too much fun to not do this again. So you will definitely be hearing from her again, but thank you, Beth, for being here, sharing your wisdom and just being a wonderful friend and coworker to me.

BETH: Yes, it's so fun having you in my life. And thanks for having me on here. I'm excited to listen to this and to connect with your listeners and make some new friends.

AMY: Absolutely, all of Beth's contact info will be in the description so you can go find her and connect with her further if you have any thoughts or questions that you wanna share after listening.

BETH: Awesome, thank you guys!

AMY: That's it for today, see you next time!

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. We look forward to connecting with you more, whether that's on Instagram, TikTok, or our email list. We'd love to hear what you thought of today's episode, and if you have any additional tips to add, we will see you next week with more tips and tools to becoming a peaceful entrepreneur. Bye for now!