Bonus Episode: Happy Thanksgiving + Gratitude Practice

9:57AM Nov 24, 2021

Speakers:

Tracy Matthews

Keywords:

grateful

business

book

world

people

friends

podcast

learned

thrive

years

odi

life

tracy matthews

journey

national holiday

family

happening

person

dig

publicly

I want to remind all of you, as you're listening to this, that no matter how hard things get, no matter what your situation is right now, no matter what's going on in your life, no matter what side you are on politically, no matter what your belief system or your worldview is about what's going on in the world, you always have something to be grateful for.

Welcome to Thrive by design, the podcast for ambitious independent jewelry brands, looking to profit from their products, get ready to make more and sell more doing what you love, without spending every single waking minute doing it. Hey, and if you're a creative fashion or product based business, I want to welcome you to the show. I'll be dropping big tips on launching, growing and scaling your business. So you can spend more of your precious time using your creativity to make money. You ready? Alright, let's do this.

Welcome to this bonus episode of The thrive by design podcast. Hey there, it's Tracy Matthews, chief visionary officer of flourish and thrive Academy and I am recording this podcast on thick for Thanksgiving, just for you to tell you how grateful I am for you the listener of the thrive by Design Show, and for all of you who went out and bought my book, the desired brand effect. So I wanted to just come here and do a short and sweet episode because there's so much to be grateful for this year. And I am just beyond grateful for you. So I thought this could be a fun way to just celebrate each other and really dig deep into some of the things that you're grateful for, I wanted to share some of the things that I'm grateful for. And just have some fun today, it's gonna be a short episode, I want you to remember to maybe take out a journal and a notebook and write a few things that you have achieved this year, whether they're big or small, and just celebrate yourself today. And then give the people in your community or your family a big hug, and eke out all the ways that you feel gratitude for them. So here's the thing, I'm really honest with you, these last two years have been really hard for me, it has not been smooth sailing, no matter what it looks like on the outside, I relocated, I moved to a new city, I'm still mourning my New York City not living there for a lot of reasons. And I saw a lot of changes in my life, that were not easy. In fact, we've spent the last two years really digging deep into the hard stuff of my businesses. And it has not been fun. It's not the part of my business that I actually enjoy doing. But I am so grateful for it. Because as we're coming out the other side, as I'm bringing on new team members, as I'm developing stronger protocols from an operational standpoint, as I'm learning as I go, and as I'm making mistakes, and all the things, I feel grateful for this journey that I'm on, because on the other side, it's so much there's so much brilliance that's happening, which is exciting. And so I'm going to share with you some of the fun things in my life and what they learn, and some of them are going to come from hard lessons, which is cool. So the first thing that I'm really grateful for is the support that I got from all of you listening who bought the Desire Brand Effect book, if you haven't purchased it yet, I would really encourage you to head on over to amazon.com. And I'm gonna say this, like sure you're buying a book, I make a little bit of money off the book. And this is not really the reason why I wanted to get this book to market it is really to make an impact in the world and in and in this industry. So this is really for you. I wanted to get something that was affordable that anyone could pick up and get value from whether you're in the startup phase, or you're scaling your business. But I'm really grateful for all the support I had around it. This book took about two years to write it was not an easy road, there were a lot of changes, I was driving my team crazy bonkers. The people who were involved with me in the editing process and the organizational process probably wanted to quit several times because I kept making changes. But I'm grateful for that because it taught me a lot about what I need to do the next time to bring a book to market a lot more quickly and seamlessly. And to think it through a little bit more before I get the writing process started. So I'm really grateful for that. I am grateful for my students who supported me throughout this journey this last last couple of years for the book. They've been waiting for it for a couple years. And many of them joined my launch team or just shared it organically and kind of like expressed their key takeaways and stuff like that which was mind blowing like to me to see like what people think about this book has been awesome. I am really grateful for Jason, my partner. He is such a rock and a force of nature for me. And while it's this this last two years has been an incredible journey into falling in love with him and just excited Florida what life is like being in partnership, because I've been single for such a long time. I'm so grateful for that. But it's also been a huge process of personal growth and development, it has not always been easy. We don't always get along. In fact, we trigger the fuck out of each other, sometimes excuse my language. But it's been good because it's been really healing. I know for both of us, and I just adore him so much. I'm madly in love with the guy. And he's just an incredible force in my life. And I'm so grateful, because he's been so supportive to me, even in my business, he had to step in to a role that he did not want to, to help me with operational stuff that he didn't want really want to do. But he knew that if he didn't, then I would not be a happy camper. And there might be a chance that the business wouldn't have made it through some of these tough times. I'd like to think that it would, but I was having a really hard time because I couldn't see the things that I didn't see. And the reason why I think this is important is a lot of times when we're struggling in business, we keep trying to fix problems with this in the same way that we know how the problem with this. And I know we logically know this is that when you keep doing the same thing to try and fix a problem, you're not going to get a different result, just the same things gonna happen, it's just going to be worse. And so he really stepped in at a time, when I couldn't see a bunch of stuff that was going wrong. And he immediately saw like, problems with my team, we had to let some people go, he was able to dig deep and some of the technical stuff that I don't understand. And it was really hard, because it was heartbreaking. I had to fire a lot of people, it sucked. And it actually put the burden of work on me. So I was working harder than ever. And I just like I was really losing self confidence. So I'm really, really grateful for that. Because that journey has taught me how to be a better leader.

I am beyond grateful for my new Chief of Staff Odi. He's been amazing. And I have to say Odi and also Misty, Misty Williams, you know who you are. Misty has been a huge force in my life. Over the past six months. I met her interestingly enough on Facebook through a business group that we were in. And we started chatting about some things that we were aligned in that we don't really want to speak about publicly, necessarily, but we're like, huh, some things are kind of nuts around here. So we were introduced, and we were chatting offline, and then I got reintroduced to her through my friend, Grace Stinnett, and she's like, you have to meet this woman. She's helping me hire like the most amazing people. And Misty like you don't know it. And we sometimes don't see eye to eye always because, you know, we both have tough personalities. But what you've helped me do this year, as a consultant for my business has been completely game changing. And I just want to thank you publicly, you brought Odi to me who's been an amazing force for my team. He is then off an awesome leader. And it's also taken off the stress for me to have to be the person managing people because it's not my strength. And I know that so I wanted to thank Misty as well. And then finally, I really want to thank everyone in my family for a variety of reasons. Now, I have two amazing stepdaughters right now and they have taught me what it is like to love. And to be a step mom, it is not easy. And I'm really glad that they liked me. Because even when we don't see eye to eye and we have our differences, we do have a lot of fun. And being the in the process and part of raising to tweet first tween and now their teenage girls has been interesting, man, it's it's a lot. And it's how Yes, turning 13 or 14 Soon, and Tatiana will be 13 in the summer. And they're so smart and so gorgeous. And just that hilarious Ness that comes out of their mouth like on a daily basis. I'm just really, really proud of who they are and who they're becoming because they are the next generation that is going to change the world. And it's just to me as being part of this family with them has been an incredible journey. And I also want to thank my extended family, you know, the family that I was born into, because even though we don't always see eye to eye, and we have our challenges, I learned so much from being in a family with seven siblings and 22 nieces and nephews and 55 cousins and I have I think 12 aunts and uncles I think 12 No 11 aunts and uncles because my mom will be one of those and she's not around. And the lessons that I've learned, you know, whether I agree with everything, their beliefs and all those things or not, I just have learned so much being in this family and I wouldn't give it up for the world and you know that you say you can choose you have a chosen family that you choose which of your friends which is amazing and you can't choose Your family. But if I had to come back into it, I honestly think I would choose my family. Like, it's not always easy being in my family, but it's an awesome family to be in, I learned so much. And I know that even though like I'm not like super close to all of my siblings and stuff like that the lessons I've learned about being becoming a better person and taking ownership for my own life, have been invaluable. And that's important. And then I would like to thank all of my friends, there are too many of you to think but so many of you have supported me on this journey. In fact, when I finished the desire brand effect book, I was in Costa Rica and my friend Gretchen's 50th birthday party, and I hadn't seen Gretchen in like seven years. And she reached out to me and she's like, Tracy, you know, I love you so much. We lost touch, you know, because just because life happened, right? But she's like, I mean, the world for me, for you to come to my 50th birthday party. And I was just like, you know, I'm in like, I would love this, like, I don't know, our friends that well. But we used to hang out in San Francisco when I lived there. And I haven't lived in San Francisco in like 17 years or something like that. And I had a blast. And I finished the book there. And I learned a bunch of stuff. And we were on a journey. And it was just great to be around some really badass women and, and growth. And all of my besties you know who you are, who have supported me through so many things who are buying my book and posting it on social media, doing all the things and having fun and asking if I can sign the sign a copy of the book, all that stuff is just hilarious to me. Because you're my biggest fans and my biggest supporters, and I just love you so much. And I want to remind all of you, as you're listening to this, that no matter how hard things get, no matter what your situation is right now, no matter what's going on in your life, no matter what side you are on politically, no matter what your belief system or your worldview is about what's going on in the world, you always have something to be grateful for. Because I will tell you that if you spend time focusing on what's not going well, and it's easy to do, I mean, last year was like literally one of the most triggering times for me, I have never been a political person, I turned into a political person because of what was going on in the world. My worldview completely flipped up on its head. My the my belief system is completely different now because I see through a lens that is similar, so much more clear now. Because I've been able to really be able to be discerning, decipher through the stuff that is actually BS that's happening in the world. But it was all consuming because I never used to watch the news before I never used to pay attention what was going on in the world. And I do think it's really important. And when I was really immersed in that it was hard to stay positive. It was so hard. And I literally felt like the world was going to end every single day. And I'm telling you this not because I want thanksgiving to turn into anything political. But the the way that I kind of got out of this really like energetically negative cycle that I like almost like jumped into willingly was to dig deep on the days that I couldn't. Like I couldn't find anything to be grateful about and find some peace of gratitude. So no matter what's going on in your world, no matter what challenges you have, I would love to encourage you to just take a notebook right now or whenever it feels right. Just make a note to yourself, type it in your phone, and select just a few things that you're grateful for it you can celebrate whether it's the people in your life, I know this is a lot. This is focused on people for me because I am a people person. And that's what's important. Or your ability to be a jeweler or a designer or a maker your creativity or whatever it is dig deep, and find some gratitude for that because it's really important. And I want to just celebrate and honor one more person on this Thanksgiving, who I'm so grateful for and I missed so much, which is my mother. She passed away when I was 22 years old. I'm 50 years old now. And I dedicated my book to her. She taught me so much about how to live life. She's far from perfect. My mother was a very flawed human being. In fact, you know, I don't really want to say this publicly. But I'm going to say she was one of those people who actually blamed other a lot of people for her problems, including my dad. For much of her life. I do in my heart believe that she resolved that. But the thing that I learned from her besides looking like her I'm like the dark haired version of my mother, I look a lot like her.

The thing that I really learned from her was how to have fun, and how to laugh and how to not take the world so seriously, when you can you know, because there's always a way to bring levity to a situation and to lighten up and just enjoy the journey a little bit more. So, with that being said We are rolling into the holiday season. And I hope that you are getting excited for your Black Friday event if you're having one this weekend, and I want to wish you the best of luck. If you haven't yet, make sure that you're following us over on social media. We're doing some fun stuff over the weekend and providing some interesting value and funny reels and stuff just to entertain you if you'd like. So we're over at flourish underscore thrive. You could also find me at Tracy Matthews and Y and shoot us a DM and say hi, I would love to hear from you. I'd love to know what you're enjoying about listening to the podcast, and all the things. And also I just want to end this on one more note, we are about to start intake for our momentum program for 2022. We're starting a new cohort, the first week in January, I say January 1, but it's not really January 1, because that's a national holiday. So if you'd like to be considered as one of the people that we mentor throughout the year, I would love to invite you to take that next step. The best way to do that is to head on over to flourishthriveacademy.com/momentum. And you are going to just fill out a quick application. And tell us a little bit about your business why you think you'd be add value to the program. And you will get to the final step which is to book a call with Natasha if you are accepted into one of the variations of the program. And from there, you just jump on the phone with her and chat a little bit more about your business. So I want to thank you so much for listening today. I am so grateful for you. Happy Thanksgiving wherever you are in the world. It's our national holiday here in the United States. Ciao for now. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. It's my mission to help 1000s of creative businesses inside and outside the jewelry space use their creativity to make money. Make sure that you're subscribed to thrive by design on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever podcasts are played. And we'd love to hear what you think. Please rate and review the show and if you're inspired please share this with your friends. Cheers to seeing you flourish and thrive