4 Final Lessons of Being Boss

Welcome to Being Boss, a podcast for creatives, business owners and entrepreneurs who want to take control of their work and live life on their own terms. I'm your host, Emily Thompson. And this is the final episode of the Being Boss podcast, where it's just me sharing four final lessons of being boss. You can find all the tools, books and links that I referenced on the show notes at www.beingboss.club. And regardless of whether or not you liked this episode, if you're interested in finding out what happens next here on this feed, subscribe, and share us with a friend.

Emily Thompson 0:42

All right, this is the last episode of The Being Boss Podcast. What am I doing today? Well, I'm here by myself. I wanted to put together what I felt like was sort of an ode to Being Boss, but also a little bit of an ode to you. These last couple of episodes have been sort of my capstone, we've been putting these together and really ideating on how it was being wanted to end this show, for a couple of months, and we've gone back and forth on a couple of things. And these last five episodes are what we settled on. A couple business bestie conversations with the people who have been here for this journey, this crazy passion project turned multi million dollar company. That's crazy to think about that we just started it with no expectations. And it did all that it did. And not just, yes, it made money. But it also connected me with all of you and you with each other and you started businesses, you formed partnerships, you did so many things, because I had a harebrained idea once upon a time. So I wanted to sort of end on this episode to come together with this sort of final four lessons of being boss. These are like my final takeaways, I will admit that this has been an incredibly emotional ending for me. This is actually the second time that I've recorded this episode. That has not happened very many times in the past of Being Boss. And that's actually a funny little nugget, there's actually a couple of episodes in the world that are not in the world. Definitely deleted, removed, accidentally removed, not so accidentally, from Dropbox.

Emily Thompson 2:39

The first version of this episode is one of those very much so. I am a Cancer. I have big emotions. I have loved doing this so much that ending it even though it was my idea, and I've been planning on it and all of these things has still been incredibly hard because this journey has been incredibly meaningful to me. I keep imagining in a very Kathleen fashion, how I'm going to look back at this time when I am on my deathbed. And I imagine that my time here with all of you, hours and hours and countless hours on Zoom or Skype or in person with Kathleen, having chats with Tasha and Erica and all of my other boss friends. Having conversations with famous folks that I never would have been able to probably meet otherwise, let alone sit down for an entire hour long conversation with artists that I admire and makers and creatives, this is going to be a highlight. My tenure here at Being Boss is going to be a highlight of my life without a doubt. And I do just want to throw it in here too that yes, I have had the opportunity to have some conversations with some cool ass people. I don't think anybody is debating that. And that is not lost on me in any way, shape, or form. But one of my very favorite things has been connecting with all of you, has been connecting myself with a community of people who are doing cool shit. One of my very favorite things to do actually did this this past weekend. And I thought about it and how I needed to make sure this made it into an episode one day, one of my very favorite things is going to a bookstore, or a gift shop and sort of heading into especially in the bookstore like the it's both like the business and the woo section but also other sections. Cookbooks sections are a really big one, or into a gift store. And sometimes we'll even go say let's go find all my friends.

Emily Thompson 4:49

And I'll walk into those sections and have fun picking out all of the people we've either had on the show or members of the community or who I've been connected to because of this show in some form or another, it's amazing. Another version of this is when I'm having a conversation with anybody, podcast listener or not, usually not. And we're talking about literally anything, we're talking about planners, we're talking about recipes, we're talking about places we want to go and things we want to do. And the number of times that it comes up, oh, yeah, I know someone who does that. Or I know someone who wrote a book on that, or I know someone who has a podcast about that, or a blog, or has done that, or is making that thing or whatever. And that being all of you, has been a cherry on top of this experience. So yeah, I think this is definitely going to be a highlight of my life. And obviously, I hope to continue to fill my life highlights list with all kinds of other fun things. That's one of the reasons I am moving on. But this almost decade has certainly made a major mark on my life. And I don't want to get too much into gratitude at this moment, because I will be sort of ending in that space. But I am filled with gratitude that I have been able to be in the space doing this, doing this crazy thing. So to wrap it up, I do want to share four of the most important lessons that I've highlighted from my time here at Being Boss diving into these topics into these mindsets and boundaries and routines and the importance of community and how it is that all of those things go into doing business in a creative way or to support our creative endeavors.

Emily Thompson 6:44

To some extent, I'm well aware that I am biased, based on the time that I am in my life. And looking back from this vantage point. My glasses are obviously tinted by the phase that I am currently in. But in this moment, I've had to distill down a hundreds of conversations into four lessons of being boss. So that's what I've done. And that is being boss, as a creative as an entrepreneur, all of those things, these are them. But really, it's about the life, which we'll get into in a minute. So let's dive in what it means to be boss, I'm going to start off with something that I don't think is going to surprise literally anyone listening to this. And that is living your values. And not only living them, obviously, but working them. And you can argue that that little that little sentence could go both ways. It's not your just your business values it's living them is not just living them, it's working them. Your values are incredibly important. And I really do believe that the work that we have done with values, making it such a part of everyday conversations with so many of you is some of the most important work that we have done. If you're interested and want to learn more, you can go to beingboss.club/values that will stay there for you know, some unknown amount of time where you can go there and see the exercise. It's in the Being Boss book, there are episodes, there's worksheets, etc, etc. It is a very big part of what we have ended up doing here. And not really something that we came into this doing. Maybe to some extent, sure. It's always been a part of mindset. We set sort of business values very early on. We you know, Kathleen and I have always talked about them. But it was never like when we get to the last episode of Being Boss values will be the first most important lesson that we have learned here. That there wasn't quite that much forethought.

Emily Thompson 8:50

Though we do usually have a good bit of forethought. This one has happened organically. One of the sort of Being Boss maxims is being boss is owning who you are, knowing what you want, and actually making it happen. It's something we talk about all the time. If you've ever heard me speak live on a Being Boss topic, you've probably heard me break down that in particular. And one of the ways in which I begin breaking it down is you can't own who you are, if you don't know who you are. And your values, what it is that's important to you is who you are, and or at least a very large part of who you are. And so this piece has to happen before you can move throughout the rest of this journey. You can't define what you want if you don't know who you are, you can't work towards what you want if you don't know what you want, because you don't know who you are. It is a really foundational exercise, that once you begin practicing, it really starts sticking its fingers In every part of the pie in a way that makes life and work so much more freeing and easy, and really whatever it is that you want it to be. In our lives, this shows up in a lots of different ways. In a lots of I heard myself there in lots of different ways. It helps you connect to what's important to you. What are you here for? Why does it matter? What is important to you? It helps you navigate big decisions. It helps you create foundations for conversations, I started having conversations with values with my kid as a way to connect her to what it is as important to her so that she can set goals and make decisions and otherwise take actions that are going to feel good for who it is that she actually is. This is the kind of conversations I'm having with my friends, when we're talking about big and small life decisions.

Emily Thompson 10:56

It's not just about work it very much so should be a part of how it is that you are living. And then obviously, this wouldn't be Being Boss if we didn't talk about businesses Well, values will help you define your mission and put more of you into the work that you're doing. It will also like your life help you define what's important, what it is that you're even here for, why does any of this even matter. It'll help you navigate big decisions just like it does in your life in a way that will keep you incredibly grounded and feeling good in the decisions that you're making. As I have gone down the path of making this choice and figuring out how we want to unravel the show and the things that have supported it over the years. So many conversations have been had about values, both company values and personal values so that we know that we that we are going down our path, is there ever a right path or a wrong path? I think there are wrong paths, I think there are right paths, I don't think there's ever really a right path, a singular right path for anything. I think there are your paths. There are options that are good for you. And then you have to choose it and make it right for you. And you do that with your values. You do it by choosing paths that are in line with your values. And taking actions that are in line with your values. Showing up with integrity and authenticity and holding your responsibility. This I also believe is what has separated us over all these years, over all the business podcasts, over all the like, you know, coaches and courses and the businesses like ours that have popped up, you know, far and wide. I think that our grounding in this and like true use, true practice of this as one of the things that has separated us from so many others.

Emily Thompson 13:05

And it's something that I've heard from you all as well, I so much appreciate all of the feedback that I've gotten over the past couple of weeks, as we have been sort of putting out the episodes about the ending of this and, and how this practice of ours was not lost on you. And I think that says a lot for how it is that how important this practice is and can be for you and your business. Other people see it when you are operating in alignment and out of integrity with your values. I don't think that's I don't think that's missed, at least not by the folks who matter most. So living your values, I think that is very easily the number one lesson of this whole shebang is that if you want to feel better, if you want everything to feel a little easier, if you want if you want to feel good about sort of where you end up and your journey there - values, living and working your values

Emily Thompson 14:15

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Emily Thompson 15:15

The second one is one that maybe surprised myself a little bit. But again, as I was thinking about, like, what are the most important things that I think have come out of all of these conversations, one of the things that bubbled to the top for me, was investing in yourself. And the importance of that on these journeys, that we are choosing as creatives, as entrepreneurs, as people who are bucking the norm, and sort of coloring outside the lines of life and work. It's the importance of investing in yourself. One of the things that keeps coming up for me, and this is definitely like a phase of life situation is that no one is going to take care of you, but you. Plain and simple. And that's like if you are putting yourself at the top of an organization. So in the CEO, seat, like even if you are just working by yourself, right, even if you are a solopreneur, no one's going to take care of you, but you. So take care of yourself, invest in yourself. And I feel like those are two different levels, right, take care of taking care of yourself is like the bar, investing in yourself as just above that bar. This is your responsibility. And something that I believe has sort of has definitely come out of many conversations, maybe we haven't put our finger on it in quite the same way as we have your values or boundaries or whatever it may be. But it is an overarching theme and years of content here is how important it is to invest in yourself. And I'm not just talking about you know, putting your money where your mouth is, though that's important to or putting your money into investing yourself. I think it's it starts smaller than that. It starts with committing to constant evolution to knowing that who you are now is not who you're going to be in a year or five years or 10 years.

Emily Thompson 17:20

And committing to that constant evolution of yourself that is energy that you are investing in yourself and an understanding that you are going to grow and change and get better and learn things along the way. It very much so requires you putting yourself first making sure your own needs are met. That's not something that most creatives and especially because our audience is very female leaning. Most of us I think are parents, most of us are putting ourselves at the head of a company and taking responsibility for you know a lot of people whether that's just your clients or maybe includes a team. I even think of it often as like Profit First right? When we talk about Mike Michalowicz's book and sort of process for financial management that is profit first. There's an episode in the Being Boss podcast where we interview mike on this book. We don't ask any questions, right, this idea of taking your profit first and sort of putting it aside and you know, managing the rest of our finances sort of in turn, we don't question it. It's a great idea. So why is it the idea of putting yourself first. So think about like, energetic Profit First for yourself? Why does that feel like such a bad idea? Or why is it so difficult for people to connect that in the same way? Because I would definitely argue that engaging in the entrepreneurial path requires more of this than a lot of professions do. You need to be developing creative skills. You need to be learning like super mundane, boring skills. You need to be taking care of yourself, you need to be resting and recuperating. You need to be having the hard conversations that move you out of stuck positions. That is also a version of investing in yourself. It is doing things for the betterment of you, not your family, not your team, not your clients.

Emily Thompson 19:30

And not just in business but also very much so in life. Learn something, take the trip, buy the thing, take the moment, rest, whatever it is that you need, invest in yourself. Because if you are choosing this path, you are choosing to be a vessel, a vessel for something, maybe it's creativity, maybe it is you know a service that you're providing. Maybe you're here trying to be some divine vessel, right? In order to make manifest these dreams for yourself, whatever it may be, invest in yourself, plain and simple. Also understand that this in itself is a journey, you don't invest in yourself once. It is constant investing. Remember I mentioned committing to constant evolution, it's also committing to a constant investment in yourself to continue you forward. So that you can really make the impact that you want to make and create the life that you most want to live. So number two, was a little bit of a surprise to me and not something. Unfortunately, I feel like we've really talked about at length here on the show, except I think you can probably find flavors of this in literally every single conversation that we have had for years, invest in yourself. Number three, I think it's gonna sound a little more familiar. But also, I think one of the most important lessons of everything that we have done here, and that is to enjoy the process. Another one of those Being Boss maxim's is being boss, as a daily practice, right? Sometimes, I read these things to you. And I'm like, Who the eff said that shit. And then like, oh, wait, it was me. It was me. A lot of them were also Kathleen, she's really good at those little, you know, quick sayings, which I very much so appreciate. But being boss is a daily practice, it's not something that you do once and you're done.

Emily Thompson 21:34

It's not something that you are going to do one day and your reward is set in front of you. It's something that you do every single day, you show up, and you do the work. And I would even argue that as an entrepreneur, you're just as much here for the process as you are for the final destination in a way that I don't think a lot of people are or are as connected to. Because if you were here more for the final destination than for this day to day process, you'd have a j o b with a great retirement package. But you're not you're choosing to shape your every day based on what you find most important, and fulfilling, or whatever. And so for us, in particular, very sort of practically, mindfully enjoying the process is how we should be differentiating ourselves from everybody else. And really something that we should be very mindfully practicing. It's important to not get so lost in the weeds that you forget to stop and smell the roses. And even though it's something that, you know, I think we are all here to enjoy the process more so than a lot of people are, we are probably most likely to forget to enjoy the process than everyone else is because we get in we get our head down and we lose sight of sometimes we lose sight of the big picture as well as those little moments that make them up right. So it's important to breathe deep and take in the wins around you. celebrate your wins in the Being Boss book we talked about one of my and Kathleen's favorite things has always been buying jewelry, to celebrate milestones in our business. Whenever I put on certain rings, I remember the vacations that we had or publishing the book or you know, whatever it may be, they're really meaningful things so that I'm not only enjoying them in that moment, but I'm able to enjoy them for ever.

Emily Thompson 23:46

Also taking moments to have you know, cocktails or you know, coffee with a friend to just like high five I launched the thing I did the thing I like, like just Let's have a moment and clink glass. That's a very like celebratory sound to me, is incredibly important. And also just taking the time to to appreciate like the little things in your life, beautiful views that I'm a sucker y'all for a beautiful view. I will spend half my day looking for the best view. You take me to a restaurant I'm going to choose the seat with the best view every single time for my friends who like know that's a thing. Sometimes we'll fight over the best view seat. It's like it's a whole thing. Similarly good food. That's one for me may not be for everyone but that's like a that's a stop and smell the roses situation of I'm going to sit here and completely and embarrassingly delight in whatever this tasty morsel is in front of me. And otherwise, finding the ability to appreciate the little moments of peace in your life. We have chosen crazy paths. Really, really just like crazy ones, what are we even doing? I know what we're doing. I know why we're here you do too to some extent, even if you're questioning it in this moment, and in order to sort of reground from the bigness of what we decide to do with our lives, it is finding those little moments of peace and appreciation and joy in the process. One of the ways that I do this, and I've been doing this most often over the past several months, because of sort of where the shop is, and where my office is, and those sorts of things, is I like to take really great walks, have some of the best views in Chattanooga. Sometimes multiple times a day, because I can one I also these hips in this seat isn't chillin, like they once did, but also very much so as a way to enjoy the process, why come up here and do all the work that I'm doing if I can't enjoy being here in this space.

Emily Thompson 26:01

And I think that everyone has access to some version of that. A lot of times too mine is just like doing some of my work on my front porch, which is one of my favorite places in the world or on my back patio. Those sorts of ways for us to enjoy the process, they don't have to be big monumental sort of financial investments and crazy things. Usually, it's the little things that really add up to allow you to super enjoy the process. I will say too that when you know yourself and when you're investing in yourself, enjoying the process is way more possible and considerably easier to cultivate. When you're ignoring those other things, or you haven't done the other work, this is really hard. If you don't know what's going to make you happy. What's going to spark a little moment of joy in an otherwise mundane day of writing emails or scheduling social media or whatever it may be. If you don't even know what those things are. It's really hard to cultivate an enjoying of the process. So know yourself, define those values, what is important to you. Invest in yourself so that those experiences are easier to access. Whether that's through time or money, or even just forethought, I often sort of, you know, we'll order a thing or you know, I'm grocery shopping, and I order I buy that like extra bar of chocolate. So that the next time I come to the office, I bring it and then I have extra chocolate to munch on while I'm having these really glorious, beautiful sunset walks. And that's a silly way to think about it but also not. I want to illustrate that this doesn't have to be big, or hard or inaccessible in any way. We all have small ways in which we can enjoy the process. Take some time to figure yours out. This really harkens back to one of the like one of those like billboards sayings of Being Boss. I don't remember. It's one of those sort of become nebulous.

Emily Thompson 26:02

I don't even remember who said it first, or in what context. I know this is something that Kathleen in particular, really sort of took to heart and has said many times over the past couple of years. And that is that how you do anything, is how you do everything. And I think that boils down or like can be instilled in this enjoying the process bit of if you are very sort of mundanely, begrudgingly going through every day. That's your life y'all. Right? That is that is the life that you have created. If you can find the bits of joy and every single moment and not every single moment, not every single moment is going to be joyful, okay? We have hormones. There are cycles, the world is crazy shit. People are ridiculous. Like I know that. I know all those things. But when you can find the little moments of joy when and where you can access them. They add up to create for you a more joyous life.

Emily Thompson 29:20

Settling yourself into the flow of your business from navigating a whole year of ebbs and flows to embracing the energy of each and every day, you're bound to have some ups and downs along the way. For me, this journey of entrepreneurship is made better when my space keeps me focused and inspired. As an example, my favorite way to mark the beginning and ending of the work day is to light a candle when I sit down at my desk and then blow it out when I'm done for the day. It's a little ritual that creates boundaries and a vibe that keeps me focused and feeling cozy. And the ritual candle that we make it Almanac Cupply Co is my favorite for this. In fact my whole shop is filled with items that I've curated to create the vibe for feeling connected and flow and inspired with candles, crystals and other goodies to help them create a dreamy workspace, bedside table or bookshelf. Come gather inspiration and check out my favorite in stock items at almanacsupplyco.com/beingboss and get 15% off with code beingboss at checkout, that's almanacsupplyco.com/beingboss.

Emily Thompson 30:24

Which brings us to number four. The last one. And I think this one is also not going to be at all surprising to literally anyone. And so my final one is the importance of cultivating community, of building a community around yourself that helps you enjoy the process, right? That helps you navigate your journey, that challenges you with your values, that does all of the things that supports you in all of the ways in which you want to be boss. This also made easier when you know your values. It is absolutely a version of investing yours in yourself. And it will absolutely assist you and enjoying the process. Because plain and simple, this is hard, lonely work that we're choosing for ourselves to start these little creative companies. And I don't mean that in a demeaning way, I think you understand what I mean to start these start these companies for ourselves to make the impact we want to make, to do what is important to us to create the things that we want to create. We stick ourselves in a silo. By cultivating community, we're able to broaden our perspectives, get the support, we need offer support sort of have these really beautiful, what's the word I'm looking for, like relationships that work back and forth, there's a word there, I'm not going to try to find them this moment. It's important for the process. A funny example of this was I was hanging out with some bosses. Last week, actually, after I recorded my very emotional first version of this episode, I'm doing way better this time, by the way, I needed to remove myself for like a week. Before I could come back and do this again. When I was hanging out with some bosses, and one boss was talking was saying, you know, like my energy feels really off. I was being really apologetic, like understandably but also unnecessarily really apologetic for her mood.

Emily Thompson 30:36

In saying that she had had, you know, had had a meltdown earlier that morning. And I appreciated the vulnerability 100% because in that moment, I asked the question to, you know, the five or six of us who were there and I was like, Okay, quick question, Who here has had a meltdown in the last 24 hours, every single one of us raised our hand. Obviously, all for different reasons, all different levels of meltdowns too like, you know, it wasn't all just like a crying meltdown, or like, you know, Super Eight like, we're, it's a very, it's a very hard time to be humans right now. And I would imagine that all humans in all time would probably say that this, this journey as a soul in a human body is not to be easy, in any way, shape, or form. But in that moment, where we all raised our hand, me included, I had just recorded my first version of this episode. So I raised my hand the quickest. And we all laughed, we all laughed and thought it was so and everyone felt so much better, including the person who was talking who was feeling bad about feeling bad. And because of that moment of very vulnerable community where we all just very openly said, Yep, meltdown in the past 24 hours, and the fact that it was an experience that we had all shared in some capacity or another. We all left that call all feeling better. Like we laughed about it, there was a hardcore giggle, there was a couple of high fives and just like an understanding of sort of this, this process of being human and to take on the kinds of responsibilities that we do.

Emily Thompson 33:24

So it's important to have community just share this experience with. That, for me, it was a very magical moment of like, yeah, we're all in this together. We are not alone on these journeys. Do our days look the exact same? Absolutely not. No, they're all very different. But we're all experiencing a lot of the same things. And it's also been very helpful to me and very great for the team as well for so many of you who have reached out to us over the past couple of weeks, as we have shared the episodes, sort of following the shutdown of the show. And so many of you coming and sharing that, that you have had shared experiences, that you're feeling the same way about online business, that you're having a hard time making the thing that once worked, work that you are considering your own sort of quivots, or pivots or quitting, and pivots, or whatever it may be, so that you can better align with where markets are, where the industries are, where your own passions and desires and focus needs to be. And so as I have very vulnerably, shown up and shared all of these things with you, so many of you have repaid is that repaid have have come to me, have come to me with your experiences, making me feel better about this process as well. Having community is incredibly important for the kinds of work that we do. And it's not just cultivating community and I also I want to talk just a hair, about really what I feel that means because I've said this several times in you know, calls in the being boss community where we're talking about what's happening next, and those sorts of things. And I keep getting these responses of like, you know, I don't have a community, or I feel very isolated where I am.

Emily Thompson 36:33

And I just want to sort of paint a picture of whenever Kathleen and I began having our sort of business bestie conversations almost 15 years ago, which is really crazy to think about. I was living in a small town of 2000 people seasonally, in like remote area of Appalachian Mountains, with no friends. David was in a master's program, like in the next town he was, he was commuting about 30-45 minutes every single day, I was home with my child, alone most of the time, starting really starting and running the business that was Indie Shopography. And so I get it, I get it. And if I can have made connections 15 years ago on the internet and an era where you didn't meet people online, that was the time when I couldn't tell people that I had a friend on the internet, because it was still very frowned upon to do those kinds of things at that point in time. If I can find, if I can begin building a community in that kind of situation, thanks to the internet, which if you are listening to this, you have access to that thing, then you can do it too. You can find one person via Instagram or Reddit or Tik Tok or whatever to start having business bestie conversations with. And then you can grow that network if you want or you also don't really have to, though I do recommend that you do. In my house Hello Kitty is quite popular. And she has a little slogan that is you can never have too many friends. And it's become sort of a funny thing that we stay at our house quite often and usually at really awkward inopportune times, which makes it even funnier. But for the purpose of this episode, I'm going to adopt it here. Of you can never have too many friends, you can never have too many business besties. But if you feel isolated, take the steps, you have the tools, you have the internet in your pocket that you can use to access everybody in the world, more or less to some extent.

Emily Thompson 39:02

And so do the thing. Make that first connection, find your people and then maintain relationships. One of my very favorite sort of personal qualities is that I very gratefully have several very long term relationships. Are they easy to maintain? Yes and no. Yes IN that we're friends, right? We're friends and even if we don't speak for six months, we're gonna get together and we're going to you know, not miss a beat. No IN that it takes effort. We have to get together I have to check in. I have to respond to them when they check in. That's something that I'm least great at. And I recognize that but I will follow up at some point. My phone in general is just a black hole and just and it's fine. That's just a personal quality that I also like about myself that I don't really care about the red things on my phone. maintaining relationships is incredibly important, as well as investing and building new ones. If you have the opportunity to join a community for something on the internet that you enjoy, do it and meet some people, actually engage in those communities. If you have the option, I think this is even better, to travel with people do it. Whether that is like a yoga retreat or a writer's retreat, or I don't even know, or just like a business bestie girls weekend or a mastermind group and retreat, if you can go meet people IRL, conferences, I'm so glad that conferences are back, let me just say, and I know it's all different. I could do 14 episodes on that, but I'm not going to.

Emily Thompson 40:48

I'm glad they're back. But those are the kinds of places where you go invest in building new ones, invite your business besties that you've just been hanging out on the internet to meet IRL and do the thing. Be safe, don't get catfished. The world is crazy out there. But cultivate community. It is community that created the show. It is Kathleen and I deciding that these things were important that even made this show happen. It's what brought you all together. It's what's given you all of this content. It's what's connected you to so many people, it's what's had so many of my other business besties showing up over the past two or three years to share, to give you deeper insights into their experiences and expertise. Cultivating community, having community is how and why this show has existed. Actually, the show became a business because we wanted to get you all together in New Orleans. We did that multiple times. It is such a huge part of this. And honestly, I don't think that I would do any of these businesses if I did not have community and not only because I wouldn't, like part of that is that I couldn't like how am I going to make all these decisions by myself? Like can somebody asked me some questions to dig some hard truths out of me? Or can someone bounce ideas off? Or can we just like, chill out and talk about whatever, right and understand why we need to chill out. But on the other side of it, like where's the fun. Where's the fun of I don't get to break up the monotony with, again, cocktails with a friend with whom I can talk business stuff, and not even business stuff. Also just friends in general. But it's all part. It's all part of this, and is one of the most important lessons of this entire show. Cultivate community for yourself.

Emily Thompson 42:51

So a quick recap. It took me 360 episodes 59 This is number 59, which actually everyone should know is wrecking the team. And myself, like how are we ending on 359. But whatever, it's fine. It took us 359 plus those ones you'll never hear to get to this place, four important most important lessons for final lessons four things you need to know to be boss. One, live your values. Two, invest in yourself. Three, enjoy the process. And four, cultivate community. Now I need to get to the gratitude part. I feel so much better about that too. I just want everyone to know it is way better than version one of this episode. I was such a mess. I had recorded the last two episodes with Kathleen not with Kathleen with Tasha and Erica. And then I like went immediately into this one and I should not have done. I should have known better but I was like you know what, we're just going to do it but no came back doing it again feel way better. Thanks for hanging with me, here and also, for always, thank you for listening to this crazy show that is Being Boss that was not even supposed to do all of this, and yet gloriously has. To all of the diehards, you know who you are, you will always hold a special place in my heart. Those of you who have been here listening every week for years, holy cow, why would you do that to yourself? That's my fraudy feelings. Whenever I hear that, like, I have listened to you every week. I'm like, I have been in your ear holes every week for how many years? Like that's, that's crazy, and I'm honored. You really are the superheroes of this show. And to me in general, thank you. And what breaks my heart the most is that I can no longer give you something to listen to every week, you're welcome to go back, find another hobby, find another show to listen to. But if I could just continue this for you, for those of you who have been here for so long, I absolutely would.

Emily Thompson 43:12

This is the hardest thing about ending this is those of you who have really just been here on that level. To those of you who have been along on the journey, participating, showing up, listening to episodes here and there being a part of the community, coming on vacations, buying the book, whatever it may be, you are my people. You're my people. And I have continued this for you. Absolutely. And to all of the people who have, in any capacity shown up to do the work, a very special, thank you. Thank you for taking the leap, for showing up and doing the work for investing in yourself and your own crazy ideas for learning new skills and doing hard things. Thank you for doing what you're here to do to make an impact in this world, to make your art to write. To do business differently. Simply put you're being boss each and every one of you for doing this work. And thank you for letting me be a part of your journey. I mentioned in the episode with Tasha and Erica, I think the last episode, the previous one, I mentioned being honored very sort of quick on the fly one word, right one word to sort of describe how you feel in this moment. And what came screaming into my head was honored. I feel honored to have been able to create this show and to share this content to contribute to creative entrepreneurship, to contribute to you, to you and your journey, to hold your attention, and to have your ear for as long as I have whether that's one episode or 359 of them, to have met so many of you to have sort of crossed that boundary. And from it just being me talking to you. But hearing your stories, hearing your passions, your hearing your goals for your businesses and for your life.

Emily Thompson 47:21

I'm so honored to have had the opportunity to bring you together. So you can create your own relationships that you can connect with each other, so that you can see that you are not alone in these journeys that we have chosen for ourself. And I'm honored to have been a part of the encouragement for you to find that this idea that you have is even possible. And for you to take the leap into doing it, you have absolutely allowed me to be here to build and share this platform to travel and to meet you, to cultivate my own meaningful relationships. Because most of my friends are bosses that I have also met because of the show. I've learned my own new skills, right I have developed my own point of view, I've been able to play in conversations and with topics in a depth that I never would have and just sort of general conversation in my life. This show and you have meant so much to me for almost a decade, and will absolutely continue to for the rest of my life. So thank you very much so for the opportunity to be here doing this thing. Also a very special thank you to my team, to the many of you who have helped make this show possible over the years and especially those of you who have helped me navigate through the past year. I could not have done this without you, your hard work and support and your love for this thing that we've been doing together. And I also just want to reiterate one last time, how much the show has meant to me. I have been blessed with the ability to hear so many of your stories, how this interview resonated with you how this conversation came out at just the right time. And know that or I know that these interviews and explorations have had a huge impact on you because that because you have told me but I also want everyone to understand that they have also had a huge impact on me to actually be the one sitting here having these conversations. navigating these topics has been just as impactful for me and I am so appreciative of the opportunity to do it.

Emily Thompson 49:41

I may have come up in here saying that I am being boss, and I was back in the day when we started this. But this experience has absolutely made me more boss. It's made me more of who I am and more of who it is that I want to be in a very similar way that it has so many of you, and I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to do all of this. So, thanks. Thanks to me. Thanks to Kathleen. Thanks for all of you for listening. Thanks for those of you that I've been able to connect with a little more closely. And always, always, thank you to my business besties, who have made this possible in ways that I will only uncover more and more I'm sure, over the years, it has been an absolute treat. All right, and as we end this episode, I do want to share a little bit more about what's coming next in case you missed it in the last episode, or actually, we have a little bit of like updates, even in the last week of some things that we have been working on as we have sort of started, you know, pulling apart the pieces that are Being Boss. So here's a little look at what is happening next. For this feed for this like Being Boss podcast feed where you are currently listening to this episode, in the next couple of months, there will be a content transition, I'll be back, I'll be back recording episodes doing some things. I've shared some things in the last episode that I'm thinking about doing interviews with makers and artists that we carry in the Almanac Supply Co store. Definitely some Emily and Kathleen episodes about goodness knows why we are both very excited about doing it.

Emily Thompson 50:15

The idea is to be bring in some woo and seasonal stuff for folks like you. One of the things that we've talked about is how so many bosses are Almanac customers. In a lot of ways you will find this interesting there are some of you who are going to hate it, I get it. Bye. Sorry, not sorry, it has been fun to be with you in this capacity for this amount of time. But I'm also very excited to make a transition in content and talk about all the other things that I find interesting and topics that I want to explore further. So this feed will make a transition will probably have a new avatar. So like any little graphic, we're gonna give it a rename, there may be a little bit of a transition phase. So it's not like, instead of it being like a hard shift from one to the other, it may be like a gradual shift. For those of you who are paying attention, maybe you'll see it, maybe we'll put that aside and just do a hard shift we'll see. But really excited about the content that will come in a couple of months think by the end of the year, maybe October. At the moment, we've sort of penciled in October for the launch of some new episodes. Being boss episodes are going to find their way on to different feeds. So actually, wherever you listen to podcasts, you can search for Being Bosss archives. And there's already a feed there for some of the earliest episodes of Being Boss. Because of the way RSS feeds work. Only 300 episodes are viewable on a feed at a time because we're at 359, 59 episodes of The Being Boss podcast would otherwise already be gone from our feed if we had not begin a switch over over a year ago. So you can find those old episodes at Being Boss archives. And soon we'll be taking all episodes into that archive as well as splitting it into a second archive, we're going to be splitting it between the Kathleen and Emily era, and then the Emily solo era, so that all of the episodes are still going to be there.

Emily Thompson 53:24

And we're going to keep all of the show notes on the website so you can get all of the resources that you need along the way, you will maintain access to this content, at least for a couple more years to come. It is still serving a vast community of folks who are listening through the archives are just discovering us. And so you will have access to all of this stuff there. The Being Boss Community will dismantle as it currently is in the relatively near future within the next couple of months, definitely by the end of 2023. But in some essences it will live on forever, you can talk to each other other places, you can connect with each other, share your favorite Being Boss quotes on Instagram, and I'm sure you're gonna find people who also listen to the show who are your people, or whatever it is that you want to do. But the Being Boss community, as it currently is, will be dismantled in the next couple of months, where we are going to maintain some level of connectivity with both you and allowing you to connect with each other because this has been actually one of our core values at Being Boss is community. So very top of mind for us all along the way is how do we how do we not leave our community high and dry basically, and what we've settled on is that CEO Day Kit is actually going to become the place where light community is maintained. It's one of the favorite things we've ever created that I have ever created CEO Day Kit. it's a toolkit for you to use to conduct your own CEO days once a year planning for your business. You can also use it multiple times a year but it's really built for. It's really built for that 12 months of planning in your business in one day, love it, have served a massive community of CEO Day Kit, or of bosses with CEO Day Kit.

Emily Thompson 55:13

And really, I think this is the heart of what will continue. We're working on creating a way for users to stay connected. And I did make a promise in the Being Boss Community recently that I will happily am honored to host a CEO day live in January 2024. So if you are already a user of CEO day kit, or if you have been thinking about purchasing it, you should you totally still should do the thing and put go ahead and pencil on in your calendar that in the first week of 2024, I'll host a CEO Day Live and it'll be a treat. And then we also have been thinking about some other things for CEO Day live. Just just ideas. Okay. Next up is I will absolutely continue masterminding with bosses, my C suite group is continuing, I'm not going to be doing big sort of online launches of it, it's going to be very word of mouth, it has been already for years, I will probably continue doing that work for years and years to come. I love doing it. I love helping, I love holding space for bosses to help each other and for me to lend my insights, when and where appropriate and helpful. If you are interested in that, at any point listening to this, you can go submit an application via link in the show notes. Even if this is like three, four years later, it doesn't hurt, go check it out. If I'm still open to my mastermind group and you are interested in joining in. Come on, we have groups and there are folks in there who have been there for three plus years. Everyone currently in the group, I have worked with some in some capacity in the past. It's a it's a great group, a great group of bosses that I continue or am excited to continue holding space for moving forward. And then for me, I'm gonna go run Almanac full time, full focus, which is exciting, because holy cow, what am I going to accomplish if that company gets my total focus, I'm excited to deeply explore that business and be at the forefront of what we're doing.

Emily Thompson 57:22

They're not leaving online business behind I'm just not going to depend on it in the same ways that I have been. I look forward to really having the capacity to do some of the projects that I've been wanting to do to keep me at the forefront of bridging the gap between online and offline business. I'm excited to do that work in a way that I have not been able to really put my brain to it and, or yet, how about that. I'm not disappearing into the shadows, I'm not leaving the internet by any means. I'm putting my focused effort into the thing that you have all watched me built. And to do that, that means leaving the show behind so that I can put my my business focus into my business. And I'm very, very excited about it and incredibly grateful for the opportunity to do so. So I'm excited. I appreciate you all thank you again. And for one last time. Do the work. Be boss.

Emily Thompson 58:30

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