I've been so touched by the replies in my inbox as I start bringing back Monday Mixtapes. Honestly, itās giving me life to reconnect with you all and get back to writing about business, marketing, careers, identity crises in the Target parking lotā¦ you know, all the things. š
So many of you have said some version of:
āI still want to build somethingā¦ I just want it to look different this time.ā
And WOW do I relate to that.
One message in particular rang true for me. She said:
āNow that I have two little kids, Iām wanting to slow down and enjoy them, so Iāve been trying to figure out what is āgood enoughā in the season Iām currently in. But when I pump the brakes TOO much, suddenly Iām lost in laundry and grilled cheeses, and Iām desperate to work on my business. šā
Relatable!!
I think so many of us are trying to figure out this weird middle space:
- How do we slow down without completely losing ourselves?
- How do we enjoy the season of life we're in without abandoning the creative, ambitious parts of us, too?
And this is exactly what led me down a rabbit hole a few months ago... (Rabbit holes are kinda my thing š)
One night after the kids went to bed, I started thinking about how much I was longing for something more... aside from scrolling TikTok every night.
Trust me, I LOVE being a hockey mom, love this age the kids are in right now. We can read Harry Potter, play board games, and they can go in the backyard and actually entertain themselves! (At least until I have to break up an argument about who gets the swing first...)
But somewhere between motherhood, business ownership, schedules, emails, sports practices, dinner, laundry, and trying to keep approximately 74 tabs open in my brain at all timesā¦ I realized I genuinely couldnāt answer a simple question anymore:
Who am I outside of all of this?
So, I asked ChatGPT to help me define my values.
Which sounds either incredibly self-aware or like the opening scene of a Black Mirror episode. š
I didn't want to know what I'm good at or what I can monetize.
Justā¦ what makes me feel like myself again?
For me, a lot of it came back to creativity and curation.
I LOVE to thrift. (It's an obsession if I'm being honest.) Lately, Iāve been carving out time each week to grab a coffee and stroll the aisles of my favorite thrift shops.
Of course, you know me... it's also turned into casually reselling some of my finds. But it's a hobby only, and itās been so fun! I definitely don't want to build some giant resale empire, but I love doing it because it reminds me of an older version of myself that I really liked.
Back in my Downtown Charm days, I used to hunt for flea market finds and vintage pieces every weekend. (That is the same little shop where I learned marketing before I even realized thatās what I was learning!)
(This is the little shop in our downtown area that my sister and I used to have to sell our flea-market finds & flips!)
That instinct to curate things I love has always been there. I just buried it for a while underneath āserious adult responsibilities.ā
The other thing Iāve been finding my way back to is writing.
Monday Mixtape has already become my favorite part of the week. I got a message from one THU member that said, "As soon as I read the first newsletter, I wanted to throw my money at you for more!"
This totally made me LOL. š
I haven't even thought about monetization. This doesnāt even feel like business or marketing. It feels like sitting on the couch, sending voice notes to friends while we all collectively try to keep our heads above water.
And very slowly, Iāve started writing fiction again, too. (Haven't done that since I was in my college Creative Writing class, but I used to love it as a kid and even as a teenager.)
Iām working on a novel about El, a girl in her 20s who spends the summer in Cape Cod taking over her auntās little seaside shop. What starts as a favor for her aunt turns into uncovering decades of stories about the women who came before her, especially Edie, the mysterious next-door neighbor who slowly reveals what life was really like for women on the Cape in the 70s as their friendship blossoms.
(Not a real cover, but jeez, this is really stinkin' good! I even got a stellar review from Luanne Rice?! Thanks, ChatGPT! What should my pen name be?!)
Thereās friendship, family secrets, feminism, beach town nostalgia, old journals, complicated love storiesā¦ basically all of my favorite things. š
Iāve become completely obsessed with researching the time period, womenās rights, and the hidden stories women carried during that era.
But the point has never really been to publish it.
Right now, Iām writing it because it gives my brain somewhere else to go besides email marketing and strategy and āwhatās for dinner tonight?ā
It reminds me that creating something without a finish line can still count.
And itās been really nice creating something that doesnāt need to immediately become content or income or a launch.
Some things are supposed to make us feel more like ourselves again.
So what does this mean for our businesses?
I still love business.
I still love marketing.
I still love ideas, creativity, and helping people build meaningful work.
But for a long time, online business culture convinced us that every single idea needed to become bigger, faster, more optimized, and more scalable.
And lately Iāve been wondering:
What if business could feel more human than that?
What if we built businesses that actually fit our lives instead of consuming them?
What if success in this season looked less like hustle and more like:
- meaningful work
- creative freedom
- simple offers
- flexibility
- community
- tiny creative projects
If you want a little homework assignment this week, ask yourself (or ask ChatGPT to ask you):
What makes me feel most like myself lately?
You might be surprised by the answer.
Want to try the ChatGPT exercise? Here's exactly how I did it:
Go to ChatGPT (or your AI chat of choice), and enter this prompt:
āAsk me questions that will help reveal my core values and what I actually want out of this season of life.ā
Some of the questions should be along the lines of:
- What moments in your life lately have made you feel the most like yourself?
- What parts of your day give you energy instead of draining it?
- What do you secretly crave more of right now?
- What kind of success sounds exhausting to you now?
- What do you miss about yourself from earlier seasons of life?
- What would your ideal ordinary Tuesday look like?
- If money and outside expectations didnāt matter, how would you spend more of your time?
- What kind of people and environments make you feel calm and expanded?
Once the questions are answered, ask this:
"Using my answers, give me the 4 core values I can lean into during this season to feel more fulfilled. Give me ideas about how to live into these values each day."
These were the values my robot and I uncovered:
Peace + Presence
Wanting less chaos, more breathing room, more calm, more time actually inside my life instead of constantly managing it.
Creativity + Expression
Writing, storytelling, curating, creating, decorating, building things because they feel meaningful.
Sense of Accomplishment
Simple start and finish tasks. Small wins, tangible progress, finishing something.
Curation + Storytelling
This was the really interesting one because it connected SO many dots:
- Downtown Charm
- thrifting
- resale
- marketing
- branding
- the novel
- newsletters
- the way I design experiences/products
Have a minute? Comment and let us know what Chat revealed about you!
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