Being Boss NOLA 2017 Recap

Kathleen Shannon 0:02
Hey boss, did you know that we're always hosting live hangouts boss webinars in person meetups and vacations. We're also creating a lot of content over here at being boss and we don't want you to miss out on the thing. The best way to stay updated is by joining our newsletter list. Just go to www.beingboss.club, where you can learn more about our in person and online events, sign up for our newsletter and never miss out on a thing.

Emily Thompson 0:29
Have you ever searched for a stock photo of a person and felt like the results were condescending, and perhaps disconnected from reality? Twenty20 has crowd sourced millions of diverse stock photos from a community of over 350,000 photographers from around the world. So you don't have to feel frustrated and use imagery that feels untrue to you and your brand. And they're offering listeners of being boss a five photo free trial to start yours right now go to twenty20.com/beingboss. That's the word 20. Then to zero.com slash being boss to get five free photos.

Kathleen Shannon 1:13
Caitlin, what do you want to talk about today on today's minisode?

Caitlin Brehm 1:18
Well, we just got back from our being boss New Orleans vacation and the Live podcast went live to all of you guys this week. So let's do a little recap and talk about our actual time there since we didn't really talk about it in the live recording. So do we want to talk about our favorite part? biggest takeaway or lesson learned and then any fun tarot readings or other readings? I think almost everybody there got a reading this time.

Emily Thompson 1:48
I love that so much. I want to start with I want to start with favorite things. And I want to go first, because I think my favorite moment of the entire trip was was hanging out in Jackson Square with all the bosses for brunch. That was probably my favorite and just one of those like surreal moments of like looking around. We're in Jackson Square was a beautiful sunny day, we were all hanging out on our like dresses and tank tops and all gathered around just sort of talking in little groups. And it was just one of those moments where I stopped and like stopped conversation and looked around and had one of those release real moments of absolutely fucking Yes, we did it and everyone was there having a great time. And that was like that was just like, the moment of of like my the single most moment of mindfulness that I had during the crazy trip. And it was exciting to be there. I think that was my favorite moment or like the moment that I will remember as the pinnacle almost except for the parade. Maybe that yours Kathleen

Kathleen Shannon 2:54
the parade was amazing. I feel like it's just so hard to describe. And even leading up to it we were like you guys fresh books is buying us a prayed and nobody knew what to expect. They thought it was going to be like a bachelorette party through the street of just like walking through the street and making noise. No, no, we were all dressed up in blue and gold and green glitter. Like all of us. We were just covered in glitter. We had a 12 piece band. That was incredible. So just imagine a brass band going there was a drum major guy with like this little feather that he was dancing with. It was so incredible. There were ladies on stilts with LED wings, I mean, and then 75 bosses marching through the street celebrating themselves and each other. It was this moment of collective joy unlike anything I've ever experienced. But that wasn't necessarily my favorite, favorite moment. I mean, well,

Emily Thompson 3:52
I want to keep talking about his braid really quick, though, because this was obviously I think going to be a lot of people's favorite experience. And the thing that I want to point out is, we did have no idea what to expect. But we did put together a little mood board and send it to everyone who is coming on their vacation of like blue lipstick and green wigs and lots of sequins. And you send a bunch of creatives a mood board, and they show the fuck up. For sure. Over half the women there had on wigs which I thought was amazing. I was blown away by how beautiful it was armor several times during the party before and after. And even during the parade, looking around and thinking this is like the most beautiful group of people I've ever been amongst. And everyone had just showed up, decked out or ready to party in a way that that I didn't anticipate though I think from now on I definitely will.

Caitlin Brehm 4:47
Well and one of the coolest parts of that for me was that a couple bosses several bosses actually came up to me afterward and said like that they had started crying in the middle of it because they said this is the first time as a boss Is that I have truly celebrated myself. And I was like, Oh, you're gonna make me cry now.

Emily Thompson 5:06
I had one come up to me and say that she had a moment during the middle of the braid of realizing this is the first time that she had been able to travel in her business and have it all paid for by herself. Like this is the trip that she had taken, that she had paid for all on her own in its entirety. I had people coming up telling me it was their best day ever. And all the things of course, we were going over to the freshbooks guys, because freshbooks got our parade for us and telling them like guys, you have crossed off so many people's like bucket list items of like being in a parade or being in New Orleans in a parade or whatever it may be. It was it was probably the most high vibing I'd ever felt. And guys, I just drink water all day, all day, only water like no inebriation needed just a way too much fun.

Kathleen Shannon 5:55
Well, we'll get back to why you were just drinking water in a second. But I want I really want to take a moment and acknowledge for us that we started a podcast. You know, a few years ago, with episode one with our apple earbuds plugged into our computers, it was nothing fancy. And out of that it has turned into an entire community and an entire boss revolution of people who are defining their work and their lives on their terms. And we made that happen. And we made it happened together with our community. But had we not started this podcast like none of this would be in reality. So I kept having these moments of like, we made this out of nothing. And we made it together. And that was a really kind of like one of my most boss moments of feeling really proud. And actually, you maybe for the first time really, truly celebrating or being able to get that 30,000 foot view of what we've created together. So not to be too self congratulatory. But I think that as bosses, we need to take moments to pat ourselves on the backs to

Emily Thompson 7:08
amen to that. And I love it.

Kathleen Shannon 7:10
You might as well have a parade.

Emily Thompson 7:12
Right. So that was that your favorite moment is that well,

Kathleen Shannon 7:14
okay, so let's talk about why you were drinking water that night. And I was because we were hung over from the night before. So we ended up going on a little ghost tour of maybe like a handful of us. I would say

Emily Thompson 7:27
that was probably my second favorite. Or maybe I guess that makes it my third favorite was this ghost tour. It was amazing. So

Kathleen Shannon 7:33
we show up and the guys checking me in and he's like, What's your name? And I say Kathleen Shannon and he goes, Oh, yeah, I remember you. And everyone in New Orleans is just trying to get in everybody else's pants. So I thought it was just one of those variations. And he was like, No, no, you're from you have the podcast I listened to I remember you guys from the first time around. So we had gotten a ghost tour in New Orleans on our first being boss vacation. And I think that he was interning at the time anyway, he remembered us listens to the show, and gave us the most badass feminist ghost tour ever. It was incredible. But then afterward, we had a little fun on Bourbon Street and my favorite thing about this is my sister Tara street who has been on the podcast a couple of times and I own braid creative with her and she's my older sister. She's a little bit more introverted and a little bit more like being in bed by 9pm she gets taken over by the spirit of Bourbon Street like she is ready to eat that cheap pizza drink five drinks and dance and that's what we did and it was incredible.

Emily Thompson 8:41
Yeah, I was ready to go home that night like I was leading us all back to the hotel ready to go and as soon as Tara Street looks at me and says she's ready to party I'm down and my let's put a drink in all of her hands and let's do this because I'm entertaining Tara Street for as long as I possibly can. And then we ended up saying are you guys went home and I ended up staying out pretty late. So the next day, water all day, but I agree dancing to Sweet Child of mind with the braid sisters and everyone involved was a pretty epic as well.

Caitlin Brehm 9:13
Alright, so key takeaways, is that what we want to talk about next? Yes, key takeaways or biggest lesson learned?

Kathleen Shannon 9:20
Okay, so just the overarching one is always that face to face connection is huge. It is there is nothing like it. So bosses, if you have an opportunity to connect with like minded people in person, even if it's just a local meetup or whatever it is, prioritize making that happen. It is so incredible for collaboration and just to get with your creative peers and talk it out. And my key takeaway from getting face to face with these other bosses. Is that everyone I was talking to wanted to talk about being a mom. And I don't know if it's because my kiddo is three and a half and like we're kind Have in these weird stages of identity shifts and growing families and growing businesses at the same time. But that was a conversation that kept coming up. And I think it's something that I want to continue to explore whether that's on the podcast, or maybe a book, or something that I'm just blogging or instagramming about, or Facebook lying about. Anyway, it's a topic that I want to explore a little bit more of, I've been kind of shying away from it. But New Orleans taught me that I need to be talking about it a little bit more.

Emily Thompson 10:33
I love that. Mine is definitely also around face to face connections and the idea of traveling to do that, like I've done local things, and those are definitely amazing. And I love doing them. I'd actually done a local thing, the Monday before we left on Tuesday. But there's even more magic that goes into, into traveling to a place where you're all going there with this intention of leaving the comforts of home and going to a place to meet up together and hang out. We're no one's a logo and everyone's trying to figure it out and discovering new places and all of those things together. I think I think that that lends a little more, more more more extra awesomeness. Yeah.

Kathleen Shannon 11:18
It like takes you out of yourself. It takes you out of your daily grind and removes you from the obligations of home. I love that Emily like the idea of traveling. And maybe that's all I've ever done. Like I don't go to a lot of local meetups,

Emily Thompson 11:32
right, there's, they're not the same for sure. Or at least in my experience, they are not. So I think traveling is is huge, but also for everyone who came in for me in particular now, I came home three, four days ago, I still feel hung over guys, like I am still so emotionally drained. And still like I'm looking forward to this weekend because I'm going to have a mandatory lazy day, I'm not going to talk to anyone or look at anyone or do anything for a whole 24 hours. Because I think because I'm an introvert and giving myself so much for so long. And guys sequence just I think that sequence suck a little extra out of you when they show up. I think it's really important to for anyone who's going to plan on doing things like that, don't not go because you're an introvert, that's bullshit and will make me angry. But do plan yourself a good buffer afterwards to take care of yourself. So you can go have the fun, do the things and then come home and get ready to dive back in. I'm not one of those people that can just jump back into work and all these things I have had to this time a little more than I want to and I'm paying for it. So for me that's a key takeaway is do these things live in the moment and love it as much as you can. But give yourself the buffer you need afterwards to to get back in the right space to move forward.

Caitlin Brehm 12:53
Any fun tarot reading?

Emily Thompson 12:55
Oh, Kathleen, you go first.

Kathleen Shannon 12:58
Yeah, so we have our unofficial being boss, tarot reader, which is this lady. She goes by JT who has dark right now they're like a dark blue dreadlocks. And she reads out of Jackson Square. And so I feel like a lot of the new bosses, whether they're new to Tarot or new to New Orleans, they wanted to go to a place to have their tarot reading, but I was like, trust me, this woman has a card table in Jackson Square, and she's the bomb. She knows her stuff. And so I've probably had four or five readings from her now at this point over the past few years. And Emily and I go to her every time we're in New Orleans together. We call her our business advisor. Anyway, and I had a really great solid reading with her where she was just like Keep going, keep doing what you're doing. And then I asked her a more specific question about a specific project that has a few hiccups here and there that I was really needing some guidance around. And it was so cool how she was intuitively just like pull a few cards and stop whenever you're ready. So I maybe pulled five cards. And I remember the two that really popped out to me were one Oh, there's three. One was that there's going to be a spring harvest. So being bossed the book, April 2018. And then one was around strength and that's the car that really popped out to me. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with Tarot or new to Tarot, it's a card it's a major arcana where a woman is like looking in the mouth of a lion. But on this particular deck, she was kind of like petting the lion and I really thought about it just as kind of teaming my own. My own like wild side or not wild side because I want to stay wild. It's more of this like maturity around I always want to do what I want. But I feel like I'm reaching this level of maturity and work and life where like I'm the mom now you know, and I'm I'm not that little kid that's just doing what I want all the time. I have have obligations and responsibilities. So I'm kind of like trying to take my line a little bit. And then I also pulled the wheel of fortune. And my friend Amy kreski gave me a really great visual on the wheel of fortune. It's kind of about the ups and downs of life. And there's this wheel and she was like, focus on being the hub. Because no matter the no matter, if you're going up or down on the wheel, if you're at the top of the wheel or bottom of the wheel, if you're the hub, you're just always moving forward. And so that was a reminder to me to not let my emotions get the best of me. I'm definitely one of those people who my emotions guide me like, and I'm along for a wild ride. But now I'm going to guide my emotions.

Emily Thompson 15:41
I love that. I'm going to give a little Journal of Kathleen's emotional journey. When thinking about

Kathleen Shannon 15:49
my emotional secretary,

Emily Thompson 15:51
right, I'm going to give you a writing every day on a scale of one to 10 how your assigned little emojis, they'll just do an emoji every day. You know, I love that. I feel like I feel like you did get a really good one. And I remember whenever you were telling me about it thinking yeah, like I feel like this was all things that Kathleen needs to hear. Hear these days. And I do love that almost every boss like everyone that I talked to went and got a reading while we were there. It's a tradition, we accidentally began with our first vacation where Kathleen and I were going to get tarot cards or tarot readings, but not really telling anyone because that's kind of weird. And who tells people that are at least, like still shy about it three years ago? Sure. And we're now proud. Now we you know, we did a Xen for the, for this vacation. And I feel like it was really a tyrosines because everyone always has so many questions about where to go by decks, who should they get a reading from, we also created a spread. So that was super exciting as well to send people off to get their ducks and come back and have a spread for them to do to take action. If you would, then we've got that spread on the being boss. Yes, blog this week. So check out the show notes, and you can get it there. It was really fun putting all that stuff together. So I also got a reading, I accidentally got a reading I'd planned on getting one and but I had not planned on getting it whenever I got it. The first morning we were there, David and I were walking up through the quarter. This is before everyone sort of got there. And the blue haired Tarot lady was setting up out front. And we were like it's meant to be. So we went ahead and went and got a reading David got his first reading and I will not share what he got. Because that's his story, not mine. But I will share a little bit about about my reading. And mine was mainly focusing on a, a trying time that I'm going through with a particular project and the idea of drawing my line in the sand and being super assertive about what I want and what I expect. Because it's not me who's falling behind. It is others apparently, I'm also around and she mentioned my hugely masculine energy, which if you guys know me, that may not be surprising at all. But she didn't say anything bad about it, just that it is there. I need to like ride that wave, which I'm totally down for doing. Also around a new project that's been rolling around in my mind that she says I need to take action on soon. Because if I don't someone else will. And I agree. So there will probably be some new and exciting things coming out out for me as I navigate actually doing something that I've been wanting to do for quite some time. And it ended up ended up being a good one. Just overall good reading where I as you Kathleen and where I need to be I just need to keep trucking along. keeping everybody in check as I go, apparently,

Kathleen Shannon 18:52
yeah, it's cool that we both got that message like just keep trucking. She did ask me if I was taking my birth control because apparently I'm supposed to have three sons.

Emily Thompson 19:01
Right? I can't think about that right now. And if that she did tell me so one of the things that you and I have been asked many times by JT is or not asked but commented on is, you often look older, I looked older last time we were there, but this time I look younger, which is a good thing, supposedly so. So it's fun having a tarot reader that we can go back to at different points in our life to get these perspectives and someone who can, who can remember where we were, and where we're going and also be deep enough in our brand to see what it is that we're putting out into the world because she can put a really great spin on it. And then to have all of our bosses I heard there was literally a line away from her table a couple of times this weekend. Having all of our bosses go to her as well. It's fun. It's fun pulling someone like that into our tribe, and not not so much that we're not doing it on purpose, but this sort of like byproduct of being who we are and creating this community and going to this place and pulling the people who are part of that local community and our like international community because we have people from Australia, in Australia, in New Zealand, at the vacation as well. So yes, oh yeah, in the Netherlands. So having these are pulling people into our community and literally seeing it physically happen. It's something I disconnect myself from very often as an online business owner, and it was cool to see it in person.

Kathleen Shannon 20:31
Alright, and if you guys want to come to New Orleans with us, or wherever we're going to be going, be sure to sign up for our newsletter list because we are letting our newsletter know first

Emily Thompson 20:41
and we're doing it again, no question about it. Being boss vacation 2018 and it's going to be in the works pretty soon.

Kathleen Shannon 20:51
And huge shout out. And thanks to our team that helped me get to happen. We could not do it without all of you guys a special shout out to Chris jasola who helped us plan the whole damn thing. This minisode was brought to you by Twenty20. Check them out at twenty20.com/beingboss. That's t w e n t y 20 as in the number.com slash being boss.

Emily Thompson 21:19
Did you like this minisode Be sure to check us out on our website at beingboss.club. There you can find more from being boss including our full episodes minisodes and blog posts. And while you're there, be sure to sign up for our mailing list so that you can get access to behind the scenes and exclusive content from Kathleen and myself to help you be more boss in your work and life. Do the work be boss