Hey everyone, we're Brienne Haley two friends building
a safe space
that feels like grabbing drinks with a friend.
Come join us. And let's grab drinks. Hi, friends. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Haley.
And I'm Bree.
And we are chatting today all about the new year and setting intentions and what our plans are along with a recap from last year. And all the things that happened, including launching this podcast and the ups and downs that came with that, I guess. Um, so Bri, tell me a little bit about your last year.
I mean, well, I started the year out very pregnant. And so like significant moments for me is having a baby and having a three month maternity leave. Yeah.
Which three months is huge for for a self employed professional is
is huge for anyone in the United States. That's true. Let's be real here. What about you is significant? I mean, that for me, that's like, that's our company.
That's a big one. As I grew my agency into more of an agency, personally, we moved, which was really fun, and stressful. And we traveled a lot. Which I feel like it's every year we do travel a lot. That
was something weird for me in 2023. I did not get on a plane.
You didn't.
I did not. And I just really could not tell you when the last time that happened in my life. It's bizarre. It was wow, it still feels really weird.
I'm like, Yeah, I guess the last time you travelled was spark. In
November I went to No, no, I did two more trips after that. No. Oh, yes. Yes. I did two more trips after that. I went to San Diego a couple weeks later. Oh, that's right. Brandon, who went there for anniversary trip. And then we traveled at Christmas time. We went out to Houston to see family and we traveled back home on Christmas Day. Oh, I've never never traveled on Christmas day before. Do
you recommend it? No.
I mean, it's well, I will say it was very quiet at the airport. There was like nobody, it was very slow. So it was very easy travel day. But yeah. So in that aspect. Yes. Like, if you don't really care that you're not home Exactly. Like it wasn't. It just felt like strange the whole day. Yeah.
That's how this past Christmas like last week, two weeks ago. That's how it was for us. Like we didn't have anything on Christmas Day. It was like we woke up. I was exhausted because we hosted two nights in a row the two nights prior. And we've laid on the couch all day watch Christmas movies. Thing? Didn't I was nice, Amy, but it was. Yeah. But it was I mean, it's not. It didn't feel like Christmas, like the two days prior were my Christmas. I feel like,
Yeah, but yeah.
Let's talk about our personal growth in 2023. And what we learned throughout that process
of 2023, man, I mean, for me, I think the overarching thing that, like so when I saw this, you want to talk about this, the overarching thing that came for me was that I learned to trust myself. Yeah. And that is that applied to so much that applied to being a new mom and trusting my instincts, trusting my body to like, take care of myself and like self care, and like taking care of my mental health and all of that and like listening when I wasn't okay and wasn't feeling okay, and what I needed to do to change that. And then Brandon was traveling a lot for work. So there was a lot of trust with myself there that I could handle taking care of a newborn by myself. And then also trusting that all of the systems and processes that I had set up with work to be able to take a three month maternity leave, and that everything would be okay, when I got back. There was a lot there was a lot of trust that had to go into 23
Yeah, that's I mean, I had never even thought about all that. That you were having to like figure out especially the i i feel like the business piece is a huge thing where I'm like, yeah, no, I totally see that because if I were to have a child and go on maternity leave, like right now my business is not set up for it like You know, I do half the work in the business myself, like for clients, and I just couldn't do it, I couldn't hand it off. I didn't know, there
was a lot that I had to figure out with just how to get ahead on certain things, how to be okay with handing things off and trusting other people to take care of my that it was this business is like my firstborn child, you know, like, my baby, like making sure that my livelihood was still going to be there when I came back, and that everything was going to be okay. And it was it. It all flowed so seamlessly. People hardly noticed I was gone. Like it was just, I'm very proud of myself for how well that went down.
Yeah, that's amazing. I'm, I'm like, hopeful that that's where I'll be when we decided to have it. Well, I'll be like, Bry come into my business 100% at all, like me trust everything. There's
nothing to fix. It's just, yeah, it's a lot of trust in other people. And also trust in yourself that like, okay, like, if I'm wanting to do this, then I can figure it out. Yeah,
I, for me, last year was a lot about about halfway through the year, I felt like I needed to learn how to slow down in business, so that I could enjoy personal life, but also enjoy my business, too. I feel like I scaled I mentioned that I scaled the business into more of an agency, where I was paying out a lot. Which was very nerve racking as a business owner to be like, Yeah, I tripled my expenses, like the things that are going out of my business. I tripled it from 2022 to 2023. And that was scary. Like, yeah, yeah. Anytime you're, you're paying someone almost a salary like, Yeah,
I mean, I've you and I are very similar in that way to where we don't like to spend money.
Yeah, no, I hate spending money in my business. I hate
it. And it's like, you want to just like, be so sure. And sometimes even that, you know, like that saying of like, oh, you need to spend money to make money is so hard for us. Yeah, it's like, yes, we get it. But you're gonna be pulling me to the nail to do it. I
will say that I have become far more comfortable with it, when it comes to like paying contractors, employees and outsourcing things. Because it's, I have, I have a team member who's like, ideal ideal team. She's amazing.
She is I stole her from me.
And she constantly I was just telling Steven, my husband, this yesterday of she is so good at vocalizing how she feels and something I'm not very good at. But like she's constantly reassuring me of that she loves her job. And making me feel like a good. Yeah. And I'm like, I should be doing that to you. It shouldn't be this way. But one thing that she has kind of helped me, rethink is like, when I'm just like spending money to hire someone to do work. I'm contributing to their life. And I'm giving them an opportunity to make a living with flexibility, because of how I've run the business. But it also like, frees me up from so much like if I didn't have her, I would not be making what I make in my business. Right? I wouldn't be serving my clients as well as I could. I just, I don't know, it shifted a lot. But with that growth came a lot of hustle that I hadn't done in years. I feel like, like I felt like I was working all the time last year, and constantly adding to my to do list. And so towards the end of the year, I started like, every week doing this intentional thing where I would say, does this actually have to happen? Like, why am I doing this, and that ended up cutting my work hours way back. Like, I don't think I've worked an actual 40 Hour Workweek since maybe June of last year, which was I mean, that was the norm for me for a while. But like that means I can sleep in if I want to sleep in I can't when I don't sleep in late. I'm like at my desk by 830 Usually, and I can go somewhere in the middle of the day. I can hang out with a friend Stephens off work, we can go do something or we can take a day trip. So I have been very intentional about slowing down and I think that is what I'm taking into the new year of keep slowing down and not try Trying to Hustle so hard and creating new services and all of that I want to be intentional in my personal life as well, like not just business. Hopefully that's making sense. It's absolutely. feeling in my head.
I mean, I feel like that is overcompensating with a lot of things, right? Like, we can put so much on our plates, that it's just, you know, and that's like, you know, going into Okay, 2024. And talking about that. One of the things that I'm always curious about is if you chose a word for the year, I've done that for a while now, and I'm still figuring out, but one of the words that I'm leaning towards is intentional. And so I feel like you know, what you're saying goes across everything that we're choosing to do in our lives and choosing where we are spending time and choosing to add more to our plate. And I think what we can easily do is kind of just get in this default, like gogogo mode. It's like, oh, well, I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to do this. And it's like, we don't always slow down to be like, what happens if I don't do that? Right? You know, like, what happens if I choose not to spend time in this place? Or what happens if I don't go and have to pick up a target order? Like it could be something so little, you know, like, I think, obviously, the the bare necessities of life and living and all of that? Yes, but I think we can easily get into that mode of adding things to our plate, and then just being completely fried at the end of the day. Yes,
absolutely. I mean, I do that a lot. I always catch myself. And I'm like, going back to that, does this have to happen? Right, this is and I did that. Even with posting Christmas, I got to the point where I was like, trying to get my house clean enough to where I could show it off. Because it's the first time all of my family's coming to see it. And we have a what we call a transition room right now. That will be the cool room that everyone wants to hang out in when we get finished. But right now it's a storage room. Yeah. And we had talked about okay, we need to get this room all set up. And nope. It does not matter. People understand we moved, don't have to do it. Knock that that was like days of work off our list that we did not end up doing because I did that
on a very small like scale for Thanksgiving. Like I Brandon had been traveling up until like two days before Thanksgiving. We had our anniversary in between when he got home and Thanksgiving. And we had family coming into town for Thanksgiving. And there was just it was too much. My nerves were just already on edge from all from insane overload. I needed to make a head on my list to make a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. I'm like it didn't happen. Sorry. And everybody was completely fine. Yeah. So it's, I think it's like, like big things. Yes. Like a big project, right? Like, you're like entertainment room or whatever you're calling it right? Like, yeah, or a pumpkin pie like and that's something that I find myself, you've done that, to me a lot is like maybe what actually has to happen when I'm feeling overloaded. Like, you've been so good at helping me through that. And now I've started to doing it to other friends. Like my friend Ashley. I'm like, okay, like, what actually has to happen, though, and if you don't make these cookies, it's going to be okay.
Can you buy them? Can you Instacart them?
Exactly. Like it doesn't have to happen? Why did we do that to ourselves? I was thinking like, on this perfect scenario, all of this would happen. Yeah. But also in that perfect scenario. We are dead on the ground, because we just ran ourselves over.
Yes. I don't do a word of the year. No, never have. I actually don't even set new year's resolutions. Yeah, I do set like goals like I have a business goal. I don't sure we'll get into that. I don't have them this year. But I usually set a goal of what I want to do if I want to launch something but like, personally, I don't have like, oh, I want you know people do the whole weight loss goals are the I'm going to work out every day. I am doing a like habit setting where I want to start creating better habits. So this year, I don't have a goal of reading 100 books, like most people do. Don't know how I'll do it but my 30 So I do have a habit plan to read 15 minutes a day. Okay, because that's better than I did last year. And so far, I've done it four days in a row. Nice, because I started, like actually reading again towards the end of 2023. And I hadn't done that in a long time. Like, I could pick a book up. And I'll read it for a year and a half. Like I have two books that I started two years ago that I have not yet
finished. The only reason I really set a number for the books is because it's on Goodreads. And Goodreads is like everybody, like everybody does it on Goodreads. And so it's kind of fun. And it also make sure that I go in and I track the books that I've read, which I like, because it's fun to look back and see which books I've read also, because I am that person that's been like, oh, this book sounds cute. And I'll get like, halfway through the first chapter and be like, I've read this before. And so like, it helps me keep track of that. And then it also will recommend like, oh, you liked this one, you gave this one so many stars, like here's some other recommendations. So that's mainly why I do it. But also it is kind of a good reminder when I go in there, and they're like, oh, yeah, you're on track, or Oh, you're kind of behind. I'm like, Ooh, maybe I have been scrolling social media too much. Maybe I should be picking up my book instead of doing XYZ.
Okay, speaking of that, I just downloaded this app yesterday, called headway? I don't have any I haven't opened it. I had
downloaded it last year, and I didn't do it. So I'm so curious.
Okay, I have not even opened it to create an account. I just got an ad for it, like 18 times. And I was like, Oh, it's this whole thing, where instead of scrolling social media, it gives you like a book in 15 minutes, like it summarizes the book. And I was like, that's what I would rather do that. And then if I really love the book, I'll go read the book, right now. So yeah, you said that and I was like, oh, I need to I need to look at that. Let
me know if how you like that. Because I that was one that I had downloaded. And I deleted it because I'm like, I'm not using this should but I'm not and it's just making me feel guilty. Yeah.
Okay, so, your Word of the Year you are deciding between or intentionally you are leaning towards right? Yeah,
the other one I may do. I've never done this before. I've never done like two words. But I may do a word for my business, as well. Because like the one the other word that I'm leaning towards is visibility. And that does not have anything to do with my personal life at all.
Okay, so I don't do a word of the year. But when I saw this note, I was like, Oh, this a bit like, cuz I have a big plan for visibility for my business this coming year. And I was like, maybe I could do a word for my business
or your business. Yeah, I've done that before. But that's kind of what I'm leaning to, is choosing to do that. And then having one that's like, overarching, just my entire life of intentionality. And last year, my word was mindful. Oh, I like it. And I really liked that. So yeah, those are the words I'm leaning towards. Yeah.
Now, as far as resolutions go,
I don't. My husband is the biggest fan on New Year's Eve, man, he is so pumped. So excited to set new year's resolutions and all of this. And so it's always hilarious to me. And I just am like, okay, whatever. This Yeah, we did write some things down because I'm like, okay, they're, they're good things. And they really are kind of what you were referring to like habits. Yeah, that we want to kind of change. And so I was like, Okay, let's write them down. This year. I put them in like a note and a shared note between us. And I'm like, and then why don't we check in with each other once a month? And be like, Hey, how's this going? And then what can I do to help you like to support you? Because it's things that we do, it's kind of like lifestyle changes, things that we want to do? Things that we used to do and got away from or whatever. And so, we're like, well, let's, you know, let's see if we can be more intentional about it and like helping each other and I think kind of like checking in with each other and having somebody that you can do that with that can help you like how can I help support you in this is I think that goes a long way then it just being like one more thing that's like, on your to do list? Yeah,
no, I agree. Especially I feel like I in December. I had said like, I'm gonna try to stay away from sweets and alcohol for a little while. And I told you on Marco Polo completely forgot that I told you completely forgot that. That was the plan and you're like, so how's that going? Like a week later? And I was like, yeah, forgot.
Well, I'm eating candy canes right now. Sorry.
I can't stay away from all the sweetness. It's Christmas. No, that that accountability is really great. When you Yes, that these things that you want to do, I don't really have, like I said, I don't really set a lot of resolutions. But I do want to use that like slowing down this year to be intentional about what I'm doing in life and business, including my goal setting. So I had mentioned that I have not set my goals for this year for my business. Yep. Yeah. And I'm using January to kind of feel out what I want for this year, because it's what I'm doing, too. Yeah, I liked the idea of a reset, like just hitting reset on everything on life business, a new year allows for that, like you just have a hard stop have in 2024 was my year of XYZ. And that's what I that's what I'm doing right now. And I was
really frustrated about it for a while there at the end of December, because I was like, I wanted to be able to have this time to get everything set up and be ready to go and be perfect on January 1. And it didn't happen. And I think that's something was just like, slowing down. And going back to like, what I learned last year of like, trusting myself of like, it's okay, if I'm calling January, like my foundation month, like, in January, I am setting the foundation for the year. Yeah,
I like that. Yeah, I
still I mean, I have like some, you know, goals and different things in my mind. But again, I, I think I'm going to just like take the month and see, you know, like give myself time and give myself space to not rush it and to then not feel because then I think when we rush it and we're like, oh, we have to do X, Y and Z. They don't stick or like two months in or a week end to not having sugar or like, oh, yeah, that was something I needed to do. Well,
I liked what you said about not rushing it because I feel like oftentimes both in like my business and life, I get an idea in my head of like, oh, I want to launch this thing. I want to create this habit. I want it whatever. And then I go all in for like three days. And then I'm like, that was too much work too much time. I can't do it. I'm like, Yeah, so like, I don't launch products that I talked about. I don't you know, I just yeah, get overwhelmed. And then it's not
I gotta drink this much water and I gotta walk every single day. And I gotta, it's like that. What was that crazy challenge. Everybody was doing, like, 90 hard
or Oh, yeah. 75 hard. 75 hard. Like,
it's like that, like, it's so extreme, like these things that we're like, I'm gonna do this, this, this, this. And then it's like, you do two days and you're freaking exhausted.
I literally told you on I think it was January 1, we were messaging or something. And I was like, Yeah, I think I'm gonna start reading 15 minutes a day, just so I like get into the habit. And I'm going to walk every day. And we're four days in and I have not walked one time. And I'm like, nope, one at a time. I'll start my reading habit this week. Next week. I'll start my walking up.
I did it is too cold. I'm like, very slow. I'm just being very slow and very intentional. So I think intentional is going to be my word. Yeah. Is I want to get back on the peloton. Yeah, I did it one day this week. And so my goal like peloton is like, kind of change how their app works. And so you can actually set goals in there as well. And so it was like, how many days this week? Would you like to do something? And I think that's pretty cool, too. Because you can set it for week by week. It's not like this is permanent. Yeah, you know, and it's like, okay, this week, I think I could do something twice. Yeah, you know, and that may change later. And I may have a crazy week where it's like, yeah, I could probably do it one time or like, I'm feeling so strong. Like I could do it four times this week, you know, right. So always like being gentle with ourselves and intentional.
Yeah, like it.
I'm excited. I really am excited for this year. I have a lot of things that are kind of brewing in my head both with like, a lot of business things that are kind of like there that I need to decide if I'm going to do but then also like, my kid is turning one in a couple of months, which is the strangest thing to say out loud. I'm going to have a one year old I don't understand. I don't get it and so like we have so many fun things that we're going to get to do with her like she's going to be walking when it's warm outside like this summer so like,
it doesn't make like weird. Is it weird to you that when we started talking about launching this podcast, there was no Parker like, she wasn't even in your belly yet?
Yeah, that's what I was trying to think you're like, we started this podcast and I was like, Wait, when did we launch the podcast? It
was February of last year, but we had talked about it since like, May or June. Okay. Have the year before?
Yeah. And then I found out I was pregnant in July. Yeah. weird. So weird. Yeah. So I'm very excited for the year. Yes. It's gonna be, it's gonna be good. It's gonna be full of fond memories. Oh,
yes. If you have intentions for the new year, we'd love for you to share them in the Facebook group. We'll create a little thread over there and encourage you to share what you're looking forward to. And all the things for this year of 2024.
Yeah, and if you set a word for the year, I'd love to know what that is. And like why you chose it.
Yeah. Well, here's to cheers into the new year. Cheers. Bye, friends. We'll see you in two weeks. Bye. Thanks for grabbing drinks with us today. Let's grab drinks is brought to you by bossy lifeco You can find show notes at let's grab drinks. pod.com. And if you enjoyed this
episode, we'd love it if you'd subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast app. Cheers friends.