Annual Review & Intention Setting with Kathleen Shannon

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[00:00:50] 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 in this episode my ex co-host, Kathleen Shannon, is back for a business bestie conversation about what worked and lessons learned from 2022 and a look ahead at the new year.

[00:01:10] You can find all the tools, books, and links we reference on the show notes at www.beingboss.club. And if you like this episode, be sure to subscribe to this show and share us with a friend.

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[00:02:00] Kathleen Shannon is the co-founder and former co-host of the Being Boss podcast, joining me for the first 240 ish episodes of this show with several one-off episodes since. Kathleen is a partner and creative director at Braid Creative, a branding agency she founded with her sister over 10 years ago.

[00:02:19] Kathleen has always lived by capturing, shaping, and sharing who she is, whether that's with a blog post, a podcast, or on social media. All right, you ready to do this, kathleen? Welcome back.

[00:02:30] Kathleen Shannon: Thanks for having me.

[00:02:31] Emily Thompson: Of course. I love that you are old school recording right now.

[00:02:36] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah, I have like my Apple earbuds because I had to do some crazy last minute holiday travel because of this big winter storm coming in.

[00:02:45] So I'm recording from my mother-in-law's very nineties bedroom.

[00:02:51] Emily Thompson: Mm-hmm. you went from one decade to two decades later.

[00:02:56] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah.

[00:02:56] Emily Thompson: You're usually like in a very like seventies vibe, like in your house and you just like removed yourself two decades and now you're in the most nineties bedroom. I think I have seen in a long hot minute and I'm getting like, nostalgia vibes.

[00:03:10] Kathleen Shannon: I feel like I could, I feel like I could rock it, but it's like I probably need another 10 years before I would rock this specific style, but it's very like, very like floral, like the kind of like the tan and red and sage green striped bedspread.

[00:03:27] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:03:28] Kathleen Shannon: With the flowers kind of jacquarded, jacquard. . I think that's what the print is.

[00:03:33] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:03:33] Kathleen Shannon: Into it.

[00:03:33] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:03:34] Yep. That nice like scrolly bed frame, like it is, it's, it's real, real. I'm loving, I'm loving this for you. I do think you could rock it.

[00:03:41] Kathleen Shannon: Lots of pink and maroon and sage green.

[00:03:45] Emily Thompson: Yeah, that's the color palette. That is the palette of the nineties. Well, I'm excited that you are safe. I, as all the winter weather things were happening, I was thinking of all my friends who were traveling and thinking like, this sucks for all y'all, but you made a boss move. Made a fast and early decision to get out of there early, and now you're settled in for a Christmas holiday.

[00:04:04] And that must feel good.

[00:04:06] Kathleen Shannon: Good point. That was the boss move. And I think that it takes pivoting and being flexible to be a boss.

[00:04:12] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:04:13] Kathleen Shannon: And that's what we're here to talk about today. We're going to talk a little bit about the last year and kind of maybe what's moving forward.

[00:04:21] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:04:21] Kathleen Shannon: We've had different kinds of years, I think.

[00:04:24] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:04:24] Kathleen Shannon: Not all good. Not all bad.

[00:04:27] Emily Thompson: No. Right. I'm excited about it. It has. So we're recording this. If you haven't picked up the notes, , we're recording this at the end of the year, so it is just before Christmas. Um, winter solstice was yesterday. Did you do anything for the Soltice? I guess you traveled halfway across the country.

[00:04:41] Kathleen Shannon: I was traveling.

[00:04:42] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well I had some quiet moments yesterday and did my tarot spread, um, and settled in and then we had some things at the shop yesterday, so I worked at the shop and then I was actually able to catch drinks with Autumn. Lawyer, Autumn.

[00:04:56] Kathleen Shannon: Oh fun.

[00:04:56] Emily Thompson: Um, for our annual sort of, we, for every year that I've lived here, except for 2020, uh, we've gotten together for one of the last days of work as like a little cheers and High five.

[00:05:07] And um, so we were able to catch up yesterday evening. I've had a very boss couple of days where I've been connecting with a lot of our boss friends and that has felt really nice.

[00:05:17] Kathleen Shannon: That's, but it is fun.

[00:05:18] Emily Thompson: Yes.

[00:05:18] Kathleen Shannon: I was able to get in an afternoon delight before hitting the airport.

[00:05:22] Emily Thompson: Good. Perfect.

[00:05:23] Kathleen Shannon: So, you know.

[00:05:24] Emily Thompson: So you're ready.

[00:05:24] Kathleen Shannon: That's a good way to ring in the solstice.

[00:05:26] Emily Thompson: Indeed.

[00:05:27] Kathleen Shannon: Let there be light

[00:05:32] Emily Thompson: Absolutely. Well, so we're right before the holiday season. We're excited to get together to have this chat about what's happening or what has happened this year, what we're sort of thinking about next year, and, um, just do a little recap like we have for so long. But I think you wanna take this in an interesting direction, which I'm really excited to go in as well.

[00:05:52] Um, and just sort of come together for what also feels like a nice annual tradition of just a check-in and share it with everyone and hope everyone gets some, um, can find some things relatable or reflect on what we're talking about and have a moment to think about what has happened in your year. Um, Maybe start getting at least gathering some inspiration for what 2023 will hold for you.

[00:06:18] So where were we beginning this, Kathleen?

[00:06:20] Kathleen Shannon: Well, let's start with the beginning of 2022. Mm-hmm. Did you have any intentions or aspirations or even set a word of the year for 2022?

[00:06:32] Emily Thompson: Yes, for sure. So I said a word of the year. Uh, my word of the year was magic. And it was one that came, was coming up for me a lot towards the end of the year.

[00:06:42] And, um, as I was doing my year ahead spread was like very much so at the forefront. I had, you know, some interesting, um, magical things happening at the end of, um, last year. So I wanted to really embrace magic and for me that meant like experiencing some weird shit. Like I wanted to, like, um, I wanted to experience synchronicities and just sort of be really aware of sort of that level of the energies around me and let some weird shit happen to me.

[00:07:12] Um, that was my word of the year. I'm excited. We'll dive into that in a minute, but what was yours.

[00:07:19] Kathleen Shannon: I didn't have one this year.

[00:07:21] Emily Thompson: I love that. Actually.

[00:07:22] Kathleen Shannon: Do you? I think that's the problem.

[00:07:22] Emily Thompson: I'm thinking not having one. I'm thinking about not doing one for 2023. Okay, perfect. I'll learn your lesson. Why was it awful?

[00:07:29] Kathleen Shannon: Well, I feel like I've been lacking some intention that I used to bring into everything.

[00:07:34] Like everything was infused with intention and meaning, and I don't know, it just kind of felt like a let it ride kind of year. And so that's really what ended up happening. And I have learned some lessons along the way though. And I will say that some themes came out of it. So I could sum up the year in review with a word or two.

[00:07:56] Emily Thompson: Oh, I love that.

[00:07:57] Kathleen Shannon: Um, but I didn't go into the year with a word, which is kind of interesting. And maybe that's how it's gonna be. Like maybe I used to be so future and forward thinking, and that's because I was in my twenties and then thirties building a business side hustling, doing all the things. And this year I turned 40.

[00:08:15] And I wonder if maybe part of it is just thinking that I don't need to hustle so hard. I don't need to be so intentional because I've set up a good foundation of intention that maybe I can just kind of coast, but I always struggle with whenever I'm just coasting. I'm a Taurus. You know, so I'll just kind of lay there.

[00:08:39] Emily Thompson: Yep.

[00:08:40] Kathleen Shannon: Like I won't make or do anything new, if I don't..

[00:08:40] Emily Thompson: Chomping on the flowers under the tree.

[00:08:44] Kathleen Shannon: Exactly. Exactly. Like get real chill.

[00:08:48] Emily Thompson: Um, so I do have, I have a thought about this. I think it's interesting that you associate being forward thinking and like driven with setting an intention, whereas I feel like intention setting is such a sort of neutral, it can be an incredibly neutral thing.

[00:09:10] It's not like, you know, you're not looking back, you're not pushing forward, you're just setting a tone that I think you might be missing an opportunity with thinking how it is that you set and practice intentions. Not for the purpose of like doing more or better or like whatever, but simply, you know, just putting a lens over those.

[00:09:34] You know, eighties dad's glasses that you like to wear.

[00:09:38] Kathleen Shannon: You know, I love them. I do think that's a good idea. Like to set the tone for the year and I'll think about that as I think of my word for 2023.

[00:09:48] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:09:48] Kathleen Shannon: Which I'm determined to come up with by the end of this conversation.

[00:09:53] Emily Thompson: No pressure.

[00:09:54] Kathleen Shannon: I don't know what it is yet.

[00:09:55] No pressure.

[00:09:57] Emily Thompson: At least, at least get some inspiration for it. So it's interesting that you say it though, because I, over the past, like week or two, cuz you know, tis the season for thinking about that word of the year. I have considered not setting one for 2023.

[00:10:10] Kathleen Shannon: Tell me more.

[00:10:11] Emily Thompson: And kind of similar to what you're saying is like, is I just, can I just ride the wave?

[00:10:18] Like do I have to put my will on everything. And, but as I'm talking this out, I'm also seeing I should probably, um, consider my own mindset around it. And I'm not sold on it by any means. But I love that you're saying this because what you are experiencing is not what I want.

[00:10:37] Kathleen Shannon: Right.

[00:10:38] Emily Thompson: And I do think that if I take my own advice and just adjust how it is that I go at my word of the year or my intention for the year, um, I can probably get what I want out of it.

[00:10:50] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah. Set the tone. Set the tone for 2023.

[00:10:53] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:10:53] Kathleen Shannon: I think that we are fairly burned in 2020, you know, and like setting a word of the year that year, I think that we're all a little bit in, uh, feeling a little, what's the word? Gun shy, but I don't like that word.

[00:11:06] Emily Thompson: And just, just tired of being disappointed.

[00:11:09] Kathleen Shannon: Yes. Tired of being disappointed.

[00:11:10] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:11:11] Kathleen Shannon: And so I think that that kind of put a kibosh on. Lots of thinking that we could control anything with our pure will and intention setting.

[00:11:23] Cause that's not the case.

[00:11:24] Emily Thompson: Yeah. But like, and that's not the case. And isn't that what they want?

[00:11:28] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah.

[00:11:30] Emily Thompson: I don't know who they is.

[00:11:31] Kathleen Shannon: Who's they?

[00:11:31] Emily Thompson: I don't even know, but like.

[00:11:35] Kathleen Shannon: Let's take them down.

[00:11:37] Emily Thompson: Right.

[00:11:37] But for us to stop using our will to like move ourselves forward in the ways that we want. I don't know. Um, so Okay, then I'm back on the intention train. How about that? I just needed that. Thank you.

[00:11:50] Kathleen Shannon: We are gonna set an intention by the end of this episode.

[00:11:54] Emily Thompson: Well, again, I love how ambitious you're being with that

[00:11:58] We'll see, we'll see. I will have some inspiration for sure. Um, so mine was magic. Yours was none. We see how yours panned out. Um, more or less. Mine was weird.

[00:12:10] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah, you're, you had a weird year.

[00:12:12] Emily Thompson: I had a weird year. Um, and a couple of really cool things happened along the way, and I've, I did not practice it in the way that I wanted.

[00:12:21] I really wanted to get into, you know, practicing some of my rituals a little more often. I, there was a period of the year where I was, I was pulling a lot of tarot cards, but there was long swaths of time where I wasn't touching my deck at all. So it actually in a lot of ways ended up being pretty similar to most years.

[00:12:37] However, um, some odd, like in terms of like a personal practice, however, some weird things happened. Um, I think I'll start with right at January last year, I was thinking about this the other day. It came up in conversation and I was like, oh yeah, that totally happened. Where in October I got a piece of moldavite.

[00:12:58] Everybody just Google moldavite, just go into a like google rabbit hole of moldavite. Um, wore it as a ring on my hand for a couple of months in a way that most people won't. It's very energetically, it's kind of a crazy stone. And, um, whether it's related to that or not, I maybe broke my hand, but I don't know how I did it.

[00:13:19] Kathleen Shannon: Ooh.

[00:13:20] Emily Thompson: And so in January, I couldn't use my hand for about six to eight weeks. So starting right at the beginning of the year as I had been talking to some friends of mine about how what I really wanted out of 2023 was really to spend less time at my computer, which we've talked about that for years. And I've always done a real, like, I have been weaning myself off of computer work a lot over the past couple of years, and I really wanted to take a big step doing that in January or in 2023.

[00:13:46] And then I did something to my hand. I didn't hit it. There was no accident, but it bruised up like the side of my hand bruised up and I couldn't, like my pinky, like the, the like hand part of your pinky, not your pinky, but below your pinky .

[00:14:04] Kathleen Shannon: Uh, yeah. That fleshy part.

[00:14:06] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Or like even like the bone, like something happened in there where I, um, I couldn't use my hand for about six to eight weeks and guess what I did no computer work.

[00:14:14] I started my year doing no computer work for six to eight weeks and really sort of kickstarted. I had one of my friends goes, is that the hand you've been wearing that moldavite on? And I was like, stop it. So who knows? Who knows? But I did enter the year with just sort of this weird thing where I got this sort of phantom situation, trauma to a hand, um, and really went into the year not.

[00:14:40] Not doing the computer work that I did not want to do, and um, was very excited about that. In February, we got the opportunity to open our new store. It's really crazy for me sitting here right now thinking about how this time a year ago, our new store wasn't even a glimmer in my eye. Like it, like it wasn't going to exist this year at all.

[00:15:02] And we're in the throes of our first holiday season. So in January or in February, we got the opportunity to get a, to take over a lease for a new space. We opened the store in May. That was a wild whirlwind that was so unexpected, so unplanned, and happened exactly the way that I wanted it to, exactly the way that I've always wanted it to.

[00:15:26] And I've shared this somewhere else. The space that we also got was one of only two spaces in this entire city that I've ever wanted.

[00:15:37] Kathleen Shannon: Mm.

[00:15:38] Emily Thompson: Like it was my dream space, and it fell into our laps. And so the way that happened was incredibly magical. for sure. Um, and then just,

[00:15:49] Kathleen Shannon: That's also the nice thing about dreaming, like about having big dreams, is that whenever the opportunity presents itself, you can jump on it because

[00:15:56] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:15:57] Kathleen Shannon: You've been dreaming,

[00:15:57] Emily Thompson: you know

[00:15:58] Kathleen Shannon: about it or fantasizing about it or thinking about it.

[00:16:01] Emily Thompson: Yeah, for sure. And that was a space that even before Almanac was a thing, I was like, one day I want that space and I wanna put something in it, like for over a decade, easy. So that was a really magical thing that happened for me. It felt really weird. it felt incredibly weird. And then just as the, as the year has gone through the way the store has worked out, um, and some things have happened, it's, it's felt a little magical, not quite on the nose in the way that I wanted, but there's these big swaths of sort of weird things that ha ha, that have happened that I'm totally here for.

[00:16:37] And so as I look back on it, I definitely see those interesting moments, um, where in the moment it was just sort of a weird thing, but now I recognize it as, you know, me embracing some weird things to happen and they showed up.

[00:16:49] Kathleen Shannon: So it sounds like what you were kind of expecting were these little magical moments, like where you're seeing the same number over and over again.

[00:16:57] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:16:57] Kathleen Shannon: Or coincidences or finding a bunch of four-leaf clovers, like the, the kinds of little magical moments that you've had along the way saying you're on the right track. Kind of like a little nod

[00:17:08] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:17:08] Kathleen Shannon: From the universe. And it sounds like you just got some big old. Messages in

[00:17:14] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:17:14] Kathleen Shannon: That you broke your hand because you don't wanna do as much computer work.

[00:17:18] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:17:19] Kathleen Shannon: And then you got this huge opportunity that you've been dreaming about for so long.

[00:17:23] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Yeah. And so it, it's, and it's funny, like those little magical moments are like, that's my random match. Like that's who I am.

[00:17:31] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah.

[00:17:31] Emily Thompson: You talk numbers are my thing. four leaf clovers are absolutely my thing. Like, those, those things are just, that's how I generally exist.

[00:17:39] So I love that. I was expecting more of that. And what I got was like the real, the real big stuff, which was a lot of fun. So that's how my year sort of panned out. I am very pleased with it. I definitely will be taking some things with me as I go. Um, but I'm also ready to step into what's next for sure.

[00:17:59] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah. Do you feel like you have the capacity to step into what's next?

[00:18:03] Emily Thompson: If I can also relieve some stuff back there? Absolutely.

[00:18:07] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah. You gotta make space.

[00:18:10] Emily Thompson: Yeah. And you know, whatever. I think about uh, I love that you say that cuz there is this mindset that, that moving into what's next is, you know, more and bigger and better.

[00:18:20] Kathleen Shannon: Mm.

[00:18:21] Emily Thompson: Whenever I think about that, especially if I think about it for work and Almanac in particular, cuz that's where my brain is at given the season that we're in is stepping into what's next is actually doing a little bit less.

[00:18:32] Kathleen Shannon: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:33] Emily Thompson: there. Like, I've been starting a brick and mortar over the past, you know, eight, nine months.

[00:18:39] But now we did it. We know, like I know the full capacity of that store. Mm, no, maybe not. I know the baseline capacity of that store. I know what I can expect, how it needs to run all of the things. And now I don't have to. I'm not sitting there, you know, with my eyes open learning or you know, just trying to make it work or figure it out.

[00:18:59] Kathleen Shannon: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:59] Emily Thompson: actually know the things and so now I can. Now I can like downshift a little bit and make all the little tweaks that just sort of refine the processes and things along the way, and I am very excited for that downshift. In which case, yes. Let me take a step forward into what's next.

[00:19:15] Kathleen Shannon: Ooh, that very much what you just described.

[00:19:17] The process of not learning anything new, but refining and tweaking and just being kind of in it really describes where I've been. I would even say for the past three years with Braid. Yeah. Probably since I left being boss, and if I had to sum up this year in a word, it would be focus. And if I could impart any sort of wisdom on anyone listening or if I had someone that was younger in their entrepreneurial journey asking me.

[00:19:48] For my advice, it would be to focus. And I do think that we're having a, before I go into focus, I do think that we are having a rebirth of the Jack of all trades and that there is a lot of value in that. And I have seen that, especially as the, it is kind of a pendulum, right? Where people were really going hard into expertise and nicheing 5, 6, 7 years ago.

[00:20:13] And I think that that served a lot of people really well. I think that that's how you can make really good money and really feel confident and creatively competent in what you're doing is to find expertise in it. But there is something to knowing a lot of different things because technology is moving so fast and having the ability to learn new things is incredibly important.

[00:20:36] But I have certainly gone from a place where I was always trying to figure it out and hustling for what's next, and I kind of just settled into where I am and the expertise that I already have, which has kind of unlocked the ability to learn new things and to narrow in my focus on what I'm creating, but through the lens of still trying new things.

[00:21:01] So what does that mean? That means I started a YouTube channel in the way that, in my old model of like capturing and shaping and sharing and just kind of wanting to be visible and be out there and make something and kind of feeling like I should, and then what I really learned from that process is how I can use these newfound skills of storytelling and video editing to focus on what it is that I actually wanna be making, which I don't know is like a, here's what I eat in a day kind of video, or here's how I make my hair curly.

[00:21:34] I think I've learned that. I'm kind of done with that lifestyley sharing stuff. I'm just living my life now. I'm not reading self-help books, I am helping myself in other ways, which, oh, I do wanna get into that, but like, I'm not reading business books. I'm just in my business. So, and I've learned that though.

[00:21:53] There's never an endpoint, like there's seasonality to it. So probably in a couple years I might be reading all the business books and doing masterminds again and doing the things, but I'm in a season now of just kind of being in it and refining what I've learned along the way. So anyway, I would say that like this past year has really been about focus.

[00:22:12] And through that I have, you know, harvested some really wonderful things that, some seeds that I've been planting for a really, really long time, I would say for a decade or more with being in Braid. And so this year was really abundant and really I felt really creatively competent. I loved the design that I was doing this year.

[00:22:36] I loved my clients and we got some really. Big wins, and that felt really, really good. But one of the things I had to let go of, and I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but I had to let go of feeling bad for having it good, that was my biggest lesson of the year.

[00:22:53] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Ooh, that's a, that's a big one.

[00:22:57] Kathleen Shannon: It is a big one. And I think especially with, you know, everything that happened in 2020 from social injustices to the pandemic in general, I really got swept up. And just even the general tone of the internet, of everyone getting real riled up and real upset and, you know, even playing devil's advocate or the, have you thought about it from this perspective?

[00:23:18] Like, I've just had to kinda let all of that go.

[00:23:22] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:23:23] Kathleen Shannon: And be okay with having it good and still doing good where I can, and using my privilege for good. The fact that I can have it good, you know, using that for good. How many times can I say good in a row?

[00:23:35] Emily Thompson: You could probably say it a, a good few more times.

[00:23:41] Kathleen Shannon: So, yeah. Or you know, like I know that you've kind of had not the greatest year.

[00:23:46] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:23:46] Kathleen Shannon: And so there's been a time in my life where I would be like, Ooh, I can't share, I can't share that I've had a good year.

[00:23:53] Emily Thompson: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:53] Kathleen Shannon: And I just don't think that that's true anymore. Because as you and I know, whenever you're a boss and you surround yourself with people who are boss, their good years can kind of like bring you into your good year.

[00:24:05] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Well it's funny that you say all of that because, so everyone knows Kathleen and I did not pre-work this conversation. So you didn't know this, but if I can bring magic back into it, do you know one of the words I'm thinking about for 2023?

[00:24:19] Kathleen Shannon: What?

[00:24:19] Emily Thompson: Focus that is? Like literally one of my two words.

[00:24:24] Kathleen Shannon: Of course it is.

[00:24:27] Emily Thompson: That I'm considering.

[00:24:28] So I love that you say that because as you know, as this conversation has, um, has developed, um, where you are with like the tweaking is where I'm talking about going into. You're saying you need focus and I'm like well good cuz I recognize that as something that I need as well.

[00:24:44] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah.

[00:24:45] Emily Thompson: So that may end up being a thing.

[00:24:47] Um, and part of that too, it's funny you bring up this like internet thing because whatever I think about what, or like the tone of the internet. Whenever I think about one of the things that I did this year that I'm so proud of myself for doing and I've like zero regrets, is I'm basically off the internet.

[00:25:03] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah.

[00:25:04] Emily Thompson: Right. I took Instagram off my phone, like for real, all the way. Um, At some point in the past year, I couldn't even give you a timeline. I don't know, it's just gone. It has been for a long while. I am like, I took Twitter off the moment Elon moved in, and I was like, absolutely not so deleted that I have not, like, I've not been on Twitter and you know, at this point about two months and I don't miss any of it.

[00:25:28] And what I really don't miss, and it took me probably about a month or two of being off of it, to really, to really gauge this is I don't miss how the internet made me feel. Right. Of like, constantly getting in or like needing sometimes that hit of dopamine, of like, gimme a funny quote or like, whatever it may be.

[00:25:47] But really just all the, the other stuff on it that just was not a part of my life. Right. Not even a part of my like semi direct environment. Disconnecting myself from what I've always thought of as like the collective consciousness, right?

[00:26:08] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah.

[00:26:09] Emily Thompson: To some extent.

[00:26:10] Kathleen Shannon: Sure.

[00:26:10] Emily Thompson: Unplugging myself from that, especially on a daily or even weekly basis, has been amazing.

[00:26:16] And I have zero regrets and I don't anticipate going back into it at all maybe ever again. Um, so that was one thing that I did this year that really helped me because I did not have the best year, like personal stuff was not my favorite this year. Um, I have a teenage daughter. Not the most fun thing I've ever done by any means.

[00:26:40] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah.

[00:26:41] Emily Thompson: Um, we, I, so I hurt my hand at the beginning of the year. I twisted my ankle at the end of the year, so I, I only in the past like two or three weeks have been able to walk well, pretty much. And that's was spanned the entirety of the fourth quarter. Um, and so like it has been physically the hardest year I have had.

[00:27:02] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah.

[00:27:02] Emily Thompson: Maybe ever, but getting off the internet. Helped me a ton. And like this is, as a business owner who's running two businesses that have very large online presences, um, I have figured out a way that I don't need to be plugged into that side of it literally at all. And I love that for me.

[00:27:21] Kathleen Shannon: Yes. Amazing. And I feel like you never bought into the lie that, well, I have to have, I have to be on social to make it work.

[00:27:29] I have to be on social to make, because guess what, social now is pay to play.

[00:27:33] Emily Thompson: Absolutely.

[00:27:34] Kathleen Shannon: Like you're not moving the needle being on social. If anything, I still want people to think of social as an opportunity to reassure their potential dream customer or client and just to show them that you're there.

[00:27:45] But you have to think of it as another gateway or another, um, front door to your online digital presence. But it doesn't have to be a place where you are engaging, if you're trying to think of a social strategy to gain more followers or to sell more stuff. I'm sorry to break it. It's just not gonna happen.

[00:28:03] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:28:03] Kathleen Shannon: Unless you are putting. Hundreds of thousands of dollars into it at this point.

[00:28:07] Emily Thompson: Yes.

[00:28:08] Kathleen Shannon: So yeah, I know that that sounds discouraging and disappointing. What it should be is a relief. It should be a relief that you can put your efforts elsewhere. If you have not listened to our episode about word of mouth marketing, go listen to that episode because that is where it is at.

[00:28:23] It's about building a reputation. It's about building a brand. It's about having a good, valuable product or service or offering, and then just getting one person to buy it and then getting the next person to buy it. And that's not necessarily through social media, so just don't buy into the lie.

[00:28:43] Emily Thompson: I also, as you're saying this, I'll never forget the time we got a feedback on an episode that we were talking about.

[00:28:47] I think it might have been that word of mouth marketing episode where someone was like, um, someone, someone brought up the privilege of having a business that doesn't need social media. Like to us of we're just saying this from a place of like business privilege. And if you are in a place where you're like, yeah, you two are doing well enough that your businesses are big enough that you don't need social media, don't forget that social media is the privilege and that building a business.

[00:29:13] requires you to make human connections.

[00:29:17] Kathleen Shannon: Mm-hmm.

[00:29:18] Emily Thompson: And what social media enables you to do is skip that.

[00:29:22] Kathleen Shannon: Mm-hmm.

[00:29:22] Emily Thompson: um, or what it has allowed you to do in the past. What we're finding is that it's not allowing you to do that in the same way anymore. So release the faux privilege of social media and get back to doing business.

[00:29:35] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah. If you're here with you back, guess what? Social media you are, the product and your business is becoming a product of capitalism that is serving someone else, not necessarily your business.

[00:29:45] Emily Thompson: Yeah, for sure.

[00:29:47] Kathleen Shannon: Okay. Wow. That took a turn that I was not expecting,

[00:29:51] Emily Thompson: but I love it and I think it's something that a lot of people need to hear.

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[00:31:36] Kathleen Shannon: I wanna mention, without getting into personal details, that your life was hard beyond hurting your hand and twisting your ankle. There was some really rough stuff and we're not gonna get into it, but because you know, it's private, it's personal. And I just wanna mention this because sometimes I hear people talk about things being hard and I wanna know, well, like what?

[00:31:58] What was hard? And you mentioned a few specific things. I just wanna clarify that that's not necessarily all there is to this story and it can be hard to balance life and business and whenever the two are blended. So for myself personally, one thing that happened this year that I will share, a couple of really hard things that I will share specifics on is one, I to let go of one of my designers, and that was really stinking hard and I was really trying to make a case for her for years because I really liked her. So kind of really feeling boss in that moment that I had to fire someone. And that's where all of the tools that we've learned along the way about being boss come into play of having boundaries and knowing where that line is.

[00:32:44] And she finally crossed that line and we had to let her go. And then having to hire someone and really thinking about, okay, what am I going to do different with this new hire? Am I gonna hire someone more senior level I ended up hiring an entry level designer. Who is my niece, which was not working for her.

[00:33:02] It's not, uh, you know, kind of thing that I really wanna do because then if I eventually have to let her go, that's my family, you know? So there are big implications involved in that. It's not, we are too small of a business to have like nepotism hires, you know, you have to be able to carry your weight

[00:33:20] But really going with my gut there and really seeing the potential and value in her and being able to nurture that and help her grow and doing it from a distance, because I am remote from the rest of my team, has been a really, really cool. But then another really hard thing that happened this year is my sister and I, who is my business partner, got in a huge fight.

[00:33:44] And it may, we may have even gotten in a couple of fights, but there was definitely one huge. Kind of foundation shattering fight where I was like, oh, what does this mean? Like, what does it mean for us personally? What does it mean for us professionally? Like that kind of fight. And I came out of it really just feeling like I need to work on myself.

[00:34:03] I go into, I mean, there were definitely issues where both of us were right and both of us were wrong, or neither of us were right, or neither of us were wrong. Just kind of the things that happened there. Right. Um, and I came out of it realizing that I've been defensive, like I've been the kind of perpetual defensive little sister.

[00:34:25] Who always feels like none of my ideas are good ideas and bringing that energy into my personal relationships, my working relationships that is not serving anybody. So I think that this goes hand in hand with letting go of feeling bad for having it good, or letting go of this need to feel like I have it bad for some reason.

[00:34:44] Um, and just letting go of some defensiveness. So you all, I finally hired a therapist, like I did the work, which is, it's so much harder to find a therapist than you would think. It's real expensive because my insurance is, I've got a high deductible anyway, and a lot of therapists don't even take insurance.

[00:35:04] So just also acknowledging the privilege of being able to seek out mental health help has been huge. And through that, realizing how much anxiety has been on the burner from, you know, either it's on the back burner or it's that full blast for my whole life. And realizing what that has done to, um, it, I mean, it's served me well.

[00:35:29] Again, in a lot of ways, it's helped me become the kind of boss and business owner that I am. That anxiety pushing me to what's next. And anyway, all of that said, I finally got on some anti-anxiety medicine and I've only been on it for a couple weeks, so I can't really speak too much to it. But even through like the holiday hub bub, travel through some challenging

[00:35:54] personal relationship stuff. Um, I'm feeling really, really good and really capable and really excited for what this could mean for me as far as just letting some of that go. I mean, if you've been listening to the show for a while, you know, I'm constantly freaking out about dying. I'm freaking out about someone like breaking into my house, mid recording.

[00:36:14] I'm just in general, kind of the little ball of. I'm in a tizzy a lot anyway. It's gonna like, I didn't realize that so much of that is biological and some of it's genetic and some of it's just kind of in my body and that that can be alleviated. So I know that like, um, you know, medicine's not for everyone.

[00:36:36] And if you have differing opinions, I totally get it. I respect it. But for me, in this moment right now, I'm so tremendously thankful and excited and hopeful for what this means and really thinking about what it means personally and professionally. And that's just been huge. It's been huge for me.

[00:36:56] Emily Thompson: Yeah, I love that.

[00:36:57] I love that you took some steps. I hate that it's so difficult to take those steps or that even I, David and I always talk about how stupid it is that health insurance doesn't actually take care of the parts of you that need ongoing taken care of.

[00:37:14] Kathleen Shannon: Mm-hmm.

[00:37:15] Emily Thompson: like your, your mental health, you know, chiropractic, so like literally your spine, the column of your body,

[00:37:21] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah.

[00:37:21] Emily Thompson: Like all those fun things. But I love that you have it taken the steps that you needed to, um, to get what help you needed. And I can't imagine you not being in a tizzy.

[00:37:32] Kathleen Shannon: I know, right?

[00:37:33] Emily Thompson: What's that, kathleen like?

[00:37:35] Kathleen Shannon: What's that like? We'll see.

[00:37:39] Emily Thompson: I'll experience it one day. That's also been a really hard part of this year is Kathleen and I were supposed to get together two times

[00:37:45] Kathleen Shannon: mm-hmm.

[00:37:45] Emily Thompson: this year. Um, and my child got sick both times and we couldn't make it happen.

[00:37:50] Kathleen Shannon: That teenager ruining everything.

[00:37:53] Emily Thompson: Oh, always cooties. Always with the cooties. Um, which I, I will say I, there is like a week left, but I still have not gotten sick at all.

[00:38:03] Kathleen Shannon: I think that you're one of those people that's just not gonna get, get it.

[00:38:07] Emily Thompson: Or anything?

[00:38:08] Kathleen Shannon: Or anything.

[00:38:09] Emily Thompson: Or anything ever. Again, it has been over, it's been three years since I've had a cold. Yeah. Of any kind. So, um, that's also a fun thing on this side of things, which I just keep waiting for the shoe to drop, which a tarot reader once told me I need to stop waiting for the shoe to drop all the time.

[00:38:26] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah. I'm talking to my therapist about that too. Yeah. I'm still into tarot readers telling me what's what. In fact, my therapist is going to New Orleans and I recommended that she go see JT our tarot reader.

[00:38:37] Emily Thompson: Perfect. Yep. It was JT who told me that stop waiting for the shoe to drop. What does that feel like? I don't even know.

[00:38:43] Um, well good. I feel like we both did a lot of things this year. Again, a lot of that like small tweaking. I did open a whole store. Um, but other than that, in all other things it has, I feel like this has been a year of refinement and so not exciting. Like not necessarily exciting. Definitely difficult.

[00:39:02] When you're doing the work of refining, you are doing some work and that is really difficult, um, and hard.

[00:39:10] Kathleen Shannon: Can you share a story about refining something?

[00:39:12] Emily Thompson: Absolutely.

[00:39:13] Kathleen Shannon: I've decided to bring back the Braid Method e-course. Yeah, so we have been growing and like I mentioned, we've gotten a few big, big projects that are taking up even more of our time, making it so that we have had to raise our prices.

[00:39:27] Again, we're not working with quite as many creative entrepreneurs, so we are still doing one-on-one branding for solopreneurs creative entrepreneurs. So if you've been wanting to reach out, don't let that stop you. But I did come back to a place where I thought, I do wanna help people beyond just the one-on-one stuff again, and we had this Braid Method e-course for a really long time.

[00:39:47] I shut it down because the work of just maintaining customer service and e-commerce and open cart, closed cart marketing, it was all just too much. So probably around the time that I sold being Boss to you, or you took over being Boss Full-time, I decided to just shut it all down. Right, and really just narrow in and focus on braid and the one-on-one client work.

[00:40:10] Well, this year I decided to bring back the Braid method E-course, to better serve a wider audience of people. It's been a while, and I think it could be useful. So I opened it up and I started working on refining it. There was a lot of problematic things in there that I had written seven years ago that we just don't say anymore, or you know, really gendered language and just really cleaning it up through the lens of everything that I've learned over the past, you know, 5, 6, 7 years, even over the past year.

[00:40:41] We're always learning.

[00:40:42] Emily Thompson: Honestly, I feel like you've, what is the timeline on that? I feel like it's closer to 10 .

[00:40:46] Kathleen Shannon: Well, it has gone through iterations though, so maybe the most recent iteration was probably six or seven years ago. Anyway, so I opened it up. I looked at it and I was starting to edit it. I got probably two-thirds of the way through editing this 300 page document and realized that I just wanted.

[00:41:04] I wanna toss it all out. So I tossed out the whole textbook part of our e-course and decided to narrow it into just the branding exercises because I think that that's the strongest part. And it felt so hard to edit out all of the stuff that I had worked so hard to make and create and write a long time ago.

[00:41:25] But I always tell students whenever I'm reviewing their portfolio, Don't pad out your portfolio so that you have more stuff. I would rather see two or three really great projects than have it watered down with like five or six mediocre projects. And the work, it was great at the time, but for what I've learned now and viewing it through the lens of who I am now, it wasn't as good as it could be.

[00:41:46] And I didn't have the energy to like rewrite all of it. So, and I've also shared most of the stuff that we've done there in that book on this podcast, or in my blog post. But anyway, the branding exercises though, were still where it's at and it's still the branding exercises that I use with my one-on-one clients.

[00:42:05] So I took some of the content and I flushed it out into the branding exercises from you know, who your dream customer is to your own goals and aspirations, to your services and offerings, to how you're literally talking about yourself, what your elevator pitch is, what your positioning statement is, what your brand story is, whether you sell a product or an offering or a service.

[00:42:29] And brought it into like a 75 page book with over 20 exercises. And it is so good now, like I'm really proud of it. And then I even filmed a little teaser video for it that is on the website and used my new YouTube skills to edit and put that all together. So that was really fun. And it was an iteration that was really hard to do and it took almost the whole year.

[00:42:55] So if I learned anything else through this year, it's that some stuff just takes a lot of time whenever your focus is elsewhere. Right. And my focus was really elsewhere on a lot of one-on-one client work, but. I just chipped away at it and got it done and it is launched, so if you all wanna check it out, it's at braidcreative.com/workbook.

[00:43:14] I worked really hard with, um, Corey and my team and Tara on that. That's also whenever Tara and I got in our huge fight, it was because I had finished this video and she was like, okay, do you want a little bit of feedback? And I was like, no, I'm done. And she's like, okay, well I would just add in like these couple more clips and yes, it would've made it so much better, but I was done.

[00:43:36] And then, you know, it turned into like a bratty sister argument from both sides. Like a full blown. Isn't that how most fights work though, like they end up being fullblown.

[00:43:47] Emily Thompson: Yes.

[00:43:47] Kathleen Shannon: Anyway, not to say that that energy went into the book because it didn't , but just saying like, creative collaborations can be really hard and whenever you're working with someone it's not always easy.

[00:43:58] And sometimes there are like fights about things.

[00:44:01] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:44:02] Kathleen Shannon: Like, it's just not, I just wanna clear, I just feel like it's so important to let people know that what you see on social or on someone's website, it usually was blood, sweat, and tears behind that.

[00:44:15] Emily Thompson: Yeah. I was gonna say there are at least two tears behind it.

[00:44:17] At least. Least, yes. At least two tears. Um, I also just love that you have reiterated again, this, this piece of braid that has been living for so long and serves a customer that you, I love that you're continuously going back to them and being like, you too, you're something for you too. Um, and it is this same great piece of work that just keeps evolving and refining into its next iteration.

[00:44:46] I've seen that a lot this year. With people, with bosses that I know who have been in business, you know, for 5, 10, 15 years, who are like the things that you create, the good things that you create always have a place in the business that you're running if you choose to keep them there. And they, they reiterate over and over again.

[00:45:09] I've seen people, you know, start as a, you know, book, turned it into a course, turned it into a community, taking it back to a course. Like there is this evolution that happens, um, based on what people are buying on the Internets, but it is. It's something that when you create, when you take the time to create something great like that, it really does have legs that will take you a decade or more into the future.

[00:45:32] Kathleen Shannon: And like really just thinking about what doesn't change. You know, I have a lot of people who ask me, well, can I do this? And can I do that like both at the same time? Can I have an e-course and this other thing? And I really do believe that it's best to focus on one thing at a time. And whenever I was really focusing on one-on-one client work, that's where my focus was.

[00:45:52] Whenever I was focusing on the e-course the first time around, I think I spent six weeks just doing that. And that was it. And so these things come in cycles and in seasons, and more often than not, I mean, it goes both ways. Sometimes you can be scattered and diffused with all the things that you're doing, but sometimes you can look and find a common denominator between all the things that you're doing.

[00:46:13] And really, and that's why we're called braid. We're looking for that golden thread that we can weave through all of the strands of your offering and your story and who you help and what you do and your personality and the content that you share, right? We're looking for that golden thread of like what doesn't change.

[00:46:29] And so as you look at your past year and even your past years in doing what you're doing, what hasn't changed along the way, and really you can find focus by looking at that thing. Oh, and I do, I have a discount. Sorry, I didn't mean to turn this into a pitch, but I actually made it whenever I made the e-course cuz I was like, some bosses need this.

[00:46:52] So there's a discount on the Braid method workbook, so braid creative.com/workbook. The code is Boss 10 for $10 off making the price of it $69.

[00:47:04] Emily Thompson: Ooh, you did that on purpose.

[00:47:06] Kathleen Shannon: I did

[00:47:09] You're welcome.

[00:47:13] Emily Thompson: I love it. Good job.

[00:47:14] Kathleen Shannon: All right, let's talk about 2023.

[00:47:16] Emily Thompson: Let's talk about it.

[00:47:18] Kathleen Shannon: Do you have any plans? Do you have anything that you're looking forward to? Any concrete, logistical or dreamings or what's going on in 2023?

[00:47:28] Emily Thompson: The only concrete thing that I have at the moment, and I have not sat down and done my planning yet.

[00:47:33] I know at this point in the year a lot of people have already like pulled some numbers and are starting to like, you know, gauge some things. I haven't, like, I'm working the shop immediately after recording this and I'm working it again in two days, and then I can, so I'm still like, very much so in, um, in work mode and I haven't had time to sit down at my computer, which is great, which is really great.

[00:47:55] Um, so I haven't done a whole lot of planning yet. The only thing that I have really solidified for next year is at the end of February, early March, I'm doing a retreat with the C-Suite, um, to New Orleans, of course. And that I'm so looking forward to that. One of the things that I've, I definitely learned in 2020 and continue sort of learning, especially this year, is I've had a couple of trips canceled, is that one of the things that just brings me general ongoing joy is knowing that I have an adventure on the horizon.

[00:48:28] and because I've had a couple of those, like rugs pulled out from under my feet this year. Um, I'm pissed about it and I'm excited to just do something. So having a trip on the horizon and it being a boss trip, cuz we're still doing masterminds, um, together, we're still, we're doing one retreat a year. It's more or less the same group.

[00:48:48] There's a couple of folks in that group who have been there, um, in that group for now two and a half years. So we're a very tight knit, um, I joke often them with, with them, but it's not a joke that I talk to them more than I talk to my mother, to my own family. Um, so we're doing a retreat together. Other than that, Nothing is really hard on the calendar, except I'm very excited to move forward in this like next piece of Almanac, of really refining the store again.

[00:49:18] This year has been about just getting it started and getting it going and throwing lots of spaghetti at the walls and, you know, figuring out all kinds of product things and you know what's gonna sell and what's not going to sell and whatever it may be. It's just been trying a lot of things out with this schedule, with employees, with, you know, all the things so I can see what's gonna work and what's not going to work.

[00:49:37] It has been a very experimental year on purpose. I've gone on it very intentionally. Now I know. Now I know all the, or now I have the data and I need to spend some time like looking at the data and gathering, um, gathering some insights from that data. But now I have all the things that I need to know, what I need to do next year.

[00:49:57] And so we're already looking at some big website audit stuff happening at the beginning of the year. We're still looking at, uh, or I'm looking at doing some product development in the first quarter of the year, um, based on what has done well this year and really refining some team things so that next year during the holidays in particular, I don't need to be in the shop quite as much because I did learn that I'm slightly understaffed.

[00:50:21] So it's really just about getting in there. And I don't wanna say, I don't wanna say building the business in the context of like, this is not new Almanac has been around five, six years now. We've been running it, but I feel like I'm going in this year to build the business.

[00:50:41] Kathleen Shannon: Mm.

[00:50:41] Emily Thompson: Of like. Now I know what it needs to be.

[00:50:44] Let's build it and do the thing. And then hopefully there's this idea that it will be replicable in some context.

[00:50:51] Kathleen Shannon: Mm-hmm.

[00:50:51] Emily Thompson: So maybe another store somewhere else or something. Um, or what we're also really doing is continuing something that we did this year. And whenever I think about in business, what really worked this year, the store.

[00:51:07] Yes. Um, but at both being Boss and at Almanac, we put a lot of resources behind search engine optimization.

[00:51:14] Kathleen Shannon: Mm.

[00:51:15] Emily Thompson: Which is lame. Like, uh, there is a context that that is lame. Like, ew, like that is not flashy or fun. No one sees it. Um, it's not something you're gonna get an immediate return on investment on, like you would a viral TikTok or whatever.

[00:51:32] It may be like it's none of that. But let me tell y'all right now, it's working. It is absolutely working. And so we started really putting into it about three quarters ago. So right in the second quarter of the year, and even going through the holiday season, I see returns on it and knowing that now we're just compounding that and moving into the new year knowing what worked and what didn't work, really refining that process.

[00:51:57] I'm ready to win the internet.

[00:52:00] Kathleen Shannon: Amazing. You quit the internet and now you're gonna win the internet.

[00:52:03] Emily Thompson: Because I stopped being distracted by the distracting parts of the internet, right? Mm-hmm. I got over the vanity metrics and those quick little hits of dopamine and I got in there with what does it mean to actually win the internet?

[00:52:17] And it's not a viral TikTok that's around for 45 days, right? Or, or an Instagram that's around for about 15 minutes. Right? It's about creating great content, great pages, and it is a lot of work.

[00:52:31] Kathleen Shannon: Mm-hmm.

[00:52:31] Emily Thompson: it is a ton of work and strategy to make it happen, but, um, I mean, We have a post that is winter solstice themed that went, that was yesterday.

[00:52:42] Would've been, it was It's big day and it was a big day. And I can literally go through and see the sales that we made from search engine optimization that we put into play lightly a couple of years ago and really doubled down on this year. And screw Instagram, y'all. I'm playing in SEO.

[00:53:00] Kathleen Shannon: Amazing.

[00:53:02] Emily Thompson: Yeah. So that's me. That's what we're doing and I'm excited about it. I feel this year has been a year where I've talked about this several times on the Making a Business podcast, which is a private show that is available only to the Being Boss Clubhouse. I do it every month, and it is an inside look at what's happening at Almanac.

[00:53:20] So I feel like I've said all this stuff before, but most of y'all haven't heard it. Almanac at Almanac this year. It was just about learning. It was about, and in a way that I haven't learned in a long time. Like I haven't put myself through a scenario where like nine months of just learning and messing up and trying my best and, because in most of what I do, I know what I'm doing.

[00:53:47] I'm just here doing it.

[00:53:48] Kathleen Shannon: Mm-hmm.

[00:53:49] Emily Thompson: So being in that phase was hard for me. But fun, like I definitely, I had a lot of fun doing it and I feel like I had a really great mindset around it so that when things messed up, it was fine. We'll figure it out. Like we'll do better next time. Now going into the next year, I feel like I'm actually able to walk into it in this like power that I've gathered around myself from like doing the learning and the hard work.

[00:54:13] Um, I feel more confident going into this year than I felt probably in five years, which feels really great, um, to go into Almanac in particular and feel like I just know what I'm going to do, but also no expectations. Tired of being disappointed. We'll see how it goes, for sure. But in terms of like putting the things together, I'm ready to do it.

[00:54:36] Kathleen Shannon: Hmm mm-hmm.

[00:54:38] Emily Thompson: What about you?

[00:54:40] Kathleen Shannon: Um, well, I think I'm gonna come to New Orleans to your mastermind retreat.

[00:54:44] Emily Thompson: Yes.

[00:54:45] Kathleen Shannon: I just kinda invited myself along on that, so.

[00:54:48] Emily Thompson: Well, I just always assumed I, there's always a bed for you, Kathleen.

[00:54:51] Kathleen Shannon: Aww.

[00:54:53] Emily Thompson: Right next to me.

[00:54:54] Kathleen Shannon: Can't wait to be in Nola next to you again. Um, and then my family, me and Jeremy and Fox we're going to Japan this year.

[00:55:05] Yeah. Which we're really excited about. So it'll be, uh, Fox's first really big international trip. We're looking forward to that. So some personally, you know, that's, that's really exciting. And then professionally, I'm really looking forward to really sharing the Braid Method workbook and

[00:55:24] Emily Thompson: mm-hmm.

[00:55:24] Kathleen Shannon: kind of creating a marketing plan around that.

[00:55:26] Earlier I was saying that that was exhausting to me before, but now I have some renewed energy around it and I'm looking forward to seeing where that goes. And it's funny because it's not priced to. Like, I'm not expecting to make a ton of money off of it. I would be excited if we did, but it's priced more just to have a thing that I can put out there again, you know, almost like a book or something like that.

[00:55:50] Right. So I'm excited to get kind of out in the world again with that. Maybe I'll even try and get on a few podcasts and be able to share that and talk more about branding. Um, but you know, with Braid as a business, we're just continuing to work what we've got going on and we might be making a couple more hires, bringing our agency up to maybe about 10 people.

[00:56:13] So I'm really looking forward to what that's gonna bring in this year. And I'm really just looking forward to hoping to do a little bit more work, travel this year as we're post pandemic. I say as like everyone I know seems to have covid or some sort of bug right now. ,

[00:56:29] Emily Thompson: right? As awful as it is, I have decided that. I'm over it.

[00:56:33] Mm-hmm. .

[00:56:33] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah. Right. Like, yeah. Same.

[00:56:35] Emily Thompson: If there's nothing I can do anymore, I'm going to live my life. Sorry, not sorry. Yes.

[00:56:40] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah. I'm also over being paralyzed by the, um, potential of being disappointed. You know, that was really holding me back for a while. Just I wasn't making any plans because I would rather make no plans than be disappointed.

[00:56:53] So, yeah. That's been kind of a lesson over the past three years is that you gotta make plans. Yeah. Even if you're gonna get disappointed because you gotta, you know, shoot for the stars. Right. So, um, Yeah. Really, really looking forward to this next year. I'm, I have been thinking about my intention though, and I would love some more synchronicities and little magic moments.

[00:57:17] I don't need any big magic moments. I just need some

[00:57:20] Emily Thompson: careful what you wish for .

[00:57:22] Kathleen Shannon: I just need some little magic moments. I love those little hits along the way.

[00:57:27] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[00:57:28] Kathleen Shannon: Uh, but I do think that whenever I think about my word of the year, and I was mentioning this on Instagram stories yesterday. Do you miss watching my stories, Emily?

[00:57:38] Emily Thompson: Absolutely.

[00:57:44] I'm sorry. I haven't even thought about them one time.

[00:57:50] I just miss you, Kathleen, I don't miss your stories. I miss you.

[00:57:54] Kathleen Shannon: Thank you. Okay. So anyway, um, I was on my Instagram stories, talking a little bit about us recording this today and thinking about what my word of the year is. A few people I did kind of an ask me anything, and a few people asked me what my word of the year is going to be for next year.

[00:58:10] And again, after having, not having had one this year, I don't know, um, if I wanted to do it, but you convinced me that I need to do it.

[00:58:19] Emily Thompson: Mm-hmm.

[00:58:19] Kathleen Shannon: So I think that the tone that I'm gonna set for this year is kind of a tone of yes. Like yes, I'm, I'm, I'm in a Yes year. There have been No years and that's been really good, but I think I'm in a yes year.

[00:58:32] So the word is yes.

[00:58:33] Emily Thompson: I love that.

[00:58:34] Okay. That's beautiful. I recently did an episode with a guy named JJ Peterson from StoryBrand.

[00:58:41] Oh wow.

[00:58:42] Who I've spent some time with. He's fab and he has a really great, um, A really great perspective around saying yes, that I think you might, if you, if you are looking for something to listen to at any point.

[00:58:55] I don't know when it's coming out, who knows in the context of this one. But, um, he is a yes sir and has served him incredibly well and it's a really fun story to hear. Um, so a year of yes, that is, That feels beautiful to me. Kathleen, I feel like I haven't seen you open to yeses in a hot minute.

[00:59:15] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah.

[00:59:16] Emily Thompson: Let's see what happens.

[00:59:18] Kathleen Shannon: Let's see.

[00:59:19] Emily Thompson: I'm gonna go the exact opposite direction. Mm. And I think, I mean, this is like a little wink from the universe. Going focus might be where I actually need to be and I. I also, I need to let go this traumatization of words of the year.

[00:59:38] Kathleen Shannon: Mm.

[00:59:39] Emily Thompson: And how they tend to come back and bite you in the ass just a little bit.

[00:59:42] Right, right. One way or the other where like, yeah, I wanted magic, but not to be like physically debilitated.

[00:59:48] Kathleen Shannon: Right?

[00:59:49] Emily Thompson: Right. To help me do what it is that I wanted to do. Um, but so who knows? But I think that focus is, is going to be, I'm gonna roll that one around in my brain for a couple of days and see, but that felt like a nice little universe, wink, I think.

[01:00:06] And I think it would serve me well with what it is that I'm moving into.

[01:00:10] Kathleen Shannon: I love it.

[01:00:10] Emily Thompson: Look at us doing it. Look at us doing it.

[01:00:13] Kathleen Shannon: We're gonna do all. Okay, perfect. We're gonna have some words. We're going to be boss, we're gonna do it.

[01:00:18] Emily Thompson: Such a checklist for the, for the year. Just those two things. And snacks.

[01:00:22] Kathleen Shannon: We're gonna, we're gonna eat some snacks.

[01:00:24] We might meditate, we might do some yoga. Yeah.

[01:00:27] Emily Thompson: Yes, for sure. All of the lots of walking. Always.

[01:00:30] Kathleen Shannon: Lots of walking.

[01:00:32] Emily Thompson: Plenty of hydrating.

[01:00:33] Kathleen Shannon: We're gonna stay on top of our maintenance of our bodies.

[01:00:37] Emily Thompson: Absolutely. Because we're old enough now that we require that ongoing. Get some very purposeful maintenance, get some blood work, check our hormones, take all the meds, everything that needs to happen.

[01:00:52] We are here. Vitamins. Are you taking fish, oil?

[01:00:55] Kathleen Shannon: Oh, for sure. Always.

[01:00:56] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Okay. Love that. Um, well, perfect. Well, Kathleen, one Merry Christmas. Happy winter solstice. All

[01:01:04] things

[01:01:05] Kathleen Shannon: Happy winter solstice and Happy

[01:01:08] New Year.

[01:01:08] Emily Thompson: Happy New Year. Yeah, let's do it. I look forward to hanging out with you many times in person.

[01:01:15] Kathleen Shannon: Yes.

[01:01:15] Emily Thompson: And around here over the new year.

[01:01:17] Kathleen Shannon: I cannot wait

[01:01:18] Emily Thompson: until then. Go shake that nineties bedroom. Mm, love it. Um, okay. Last question actually. Oh, really? Really? Because we got to, yeah. What's making you feel most boss?

[01:01:29] Kathleen Shannon: What's making me feel most boss right now is, you know, making that quick decision to change my flight.

[01:01:37] Yeah. Making quick decisions. Mm-hmm. and just owning it and going with it really does make me feel boss. But then also being a literal boss and this kind of ongoing maintenance that I've put into my new hire, Gabby is also really making me feel boss. And one of the things that I'm doing with her just to, I always like to share literal, like the literal, actual thing I'm doing is I set up a standing meeting every single day for 15 to 30 minutes with her.

[01:02:06] And we talk about personal stuff, we talk about professional stuff. I'm reviewing her work and micromanaging it a little bit to kind of train her into being a good designer. And it's going really, really well. And it makes me feel like a literal boss.

[01:02:22] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[01:02:23] Kathleen Shannon: How about you? What's making you feel boss lately?

[01:02:25] Emily Thompson: I think there is that literal boss piece for sure. I mean, I think I've shared around here Almanac is now a 13, 14 person crew, whereas literally this time last year it was me, David, and one sales associate in the shop. That's all. So just the team growth that we've done there has been amazing. And I I, some of my big projects as I move into the new year is, you know, building out processes for new employee reviews and like, and, and thinking about how it is that I can nurture both relationships but also, you know, professional future into the folks who are in the store and stuff.

[01:02:59] Like, my brain is in that a lot in a way that it never has had to be before. And so being a literal boss does feel boss, cuz I love that I'm like sending people into the world to like, yes. You know, with. My fingerprint on them. Not physically. That's abuse.

[01:03:17] Kathleen Shannon: That would be weird.

[01:03:18] Emily Thompson: Um, but, but, you know, um, so that, but then also one of the things that I've been working on, um, a lot over the past couple of months and has become, the doctor recently asked me, um, what, what, what did he say?

[01:03:36] What brings you joy? And I was able to just like quickly spit off about five things. And he was like, you would be surprised at how many people come in here. And literally, can I answer that question? Oh yeah.

[01:03:46] Kathleen Shannon: Oh wow.

[01:03:46] Emily Thompson: And it was like, it doesn't really surprise me, actually , but like, I know, I know what brings me joy and I know that there are things that I can do what I need to do them.

[01:03:56] And so whether it's reading books or, you know, gardening or, you know, a nice dinner or good view or whatever it may be.

[01:04:03] Kathleen Shannon: Mm-hmm.

[01:04:04] Emily Thompson: Um, I know those things for myself and that makes me feel boss too.

[01:04:08] Kathleen Shannon: Mm. That's my favorite answer.

[01:04:11] Emily Thompson: I know what makes me happy.

[01:04:13] Kathleen Shannon: You know what makes you happy? Do more of that.

[01:04:17] Emily Thompson: So I'm not on the computer because I'm reading books on the couch.

[01:04:20] Kathleen Shannon: Yes.

[01:04:23] Emily Thompson: That's not true. I wish that were true. I do those things separately.

[01:04:31] Kathleen Shannon: I was just thinking about how you, do you do read books on your phone, which I feel like is the next.

[01:04:36] No, I got a Kindle.

[01:04:37] Emily Thompson: Oh, good. Okay. Okay. A couple years ago. Yeah. I can't do that anymore. That blue light. Also, I think blue light is really getting to me these days. I feel old. My brain feels old.

[01:04:47] Kathleen Shannon: I am so sensitive.

[01:04:49] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[01:04:50] Kathleen Shannon: To light. And especially late at night. Lately I'm really sensitive. So even I got into my mother-in-law's last night and she has those really bright white lights, and I complained about them before she was even like, I tried changing out the light bulbs and I just couldn't do it. You know, whatever.

[01:05:03] Emily Thompson: Oh yeah.

[01:05:04] Kathleen Shannon: And I was like, it's okay. I'm the one with the issue, not you. But I got in late last night and I had to unscrew all these light bulbs because it's not just one blue light, it's four of them at like,

[01:05:17] Emily Thompson: oh my God.

[01:05:17] Kathleen Shannon: 300 watts. I mean, very bright. Yeah. My eyeballs. They're sensitive.

[01:05:24] Emily Thompson: That's so funny. Uh, Kathleen used to dog me for how I would walk around my house in the dark.

[01:05:29] Kathleen Shannon: Yeah.

[01:05:30] Emily Thompson: Or just like a hotel room or whatever. Like I never turn on lights. So this is very entertained to me. But I also know those blue ones are really harsh. I also look forward to a future Kathleen that travels with her own light bulbs.

[01:05:40] Kathleen Shannon: Okay. I did almost bring this tiny little, I have this amber reading lamp and I almost threw it in my bag and I was like, no, I was trying to pack light whatever.

[01:05:49] Emily Thompson: Yeah.

[01:05:49] Kathleen Shannon: This thing is tiny. And then I was like, oh, I should have brought that tiny light bulb. I'm so sensitive to it, but I do like really warm, so I have the hue lights that you can change the temperature. And I like them really warm and low, but lots of them, like lots of lamps around my living room. I'll tell you what, it feels magical, especially around dark winter solstice time to just have these warm pops of light.

[01:06:17] It will change your life.

[01:06:19] Emily Thompson: Well, are are your, are they all on timers?

[01:06:22] Mm-hmm.

[01:06:23] Okay, good. Because that's also like if, if, if everyone doesn't have timers on your low warm lamps. Mm, yeah, you must.

[01:06:31] Kathleen Shannon: And they're all on one switch too, so I can even like turn them all off and on at the same time with one switch.

[01:06:36] Emily Thompson: Perfect. Yep. Same. Same, same. So I'm not always dark in my house at night. Yeah. But same with the low warm lamps. Everything.

[01:06:45] Kathleen Shannon: Low warm lamps makes me feel boss. And

[01:06:48] Emily Thompson: Indeed it makes me happy.

[01:06:50] Kathleen Shannon: Makes me so happy.

[01:06:52] Emily Thompson: Makes me happy.

[01:06:52] Kathleen Shannon: Well, I, but more than that, I think the blue lights make me angry.

[01:06:56] Emily Thompson: Yeah. They literally hurt my brain.

[01:06:58] Kathleen Shannon: Ugh.

[01:07:00] Emily Thompson: So I'm just making an excuse. I'm like, oh, is the lights ? ? It probably is. Probably is. Let's wrap this one. Kathleen. This has been a treat. , we digressed real far, real fast.

[01:07:14] Kathleen Shannon: Sure did.

[01:07:15] Emily Thompson: Um, this has been a treat. Happy New Year.

[01:07:17] Kathleen Shannon: Happy New Year.

[01:07:21] Emily Thompson: Alright, boss, because you're here, I know you want to be a better creative business owner, which means I've got something for you each week.

[01:07:28] The team at Being Boss is scouring the news, the best entrepreneurial publications and updates and releases of the apps and tools that run our businesses, and is curating it all into a weekly email that delivers the must know tips and tactics in the realms of mindset, money, and productivity. This email is called Brewed.

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