you're listening to the Rise up and Shine podcast with Claudine and Ashley as an empty nester and a mom with young kids. We have both shared very similar and very real struggles from chaos to coaches. We now help other women live an authentic and meaningful life. So tune in weekly for girl talk and tips on how you too can rise up and let your light shine bright. This is the Rise Up and Shine podcast. Hi everybody, Welcome to episode 1 57. We're actually coming to you live today and like so there will be no edits if you're listening to this podcast, we recorded this live and we will not be doing any edit. Absolutely. And the reason why we wanted to do this live is because this is a celebration celebration of our three years of doing the podcast which is still unbelievable to me, especially going through the pandemic, that was something else.

But yeah, we wanted to celebrate our three years of doing the podcast and it's I know really been positive in our own lives and we've heard from many of you that it is been very encouraging over the years and we both love the encouragement of Yeah, I listened to that episode about LA and we love hearing that. But today we're celebrating our three years, what we wanted to do is we wanted to answer questions that we've been asked because over those three years we've also been asked some questions like for one Claudine I'll start with you, you get to answer and if anybody's there live hi melissa, if you have any questions just pop them in the chat and we'll answer those live as well. Absolutely. So that's the first one asked. I would say, well, first one I get a lot. You probably did too. What is your favorite episode that we've done? I do not have a favorite. It's 156 of them. So I honestly, I'll admit that part of it is memory.

Like I don't even remember, like, Okay, uh My favorite is episode 13. I believe it is the mean girl in my head. Um That one I think is my favorite because it has been very transformative because when I learned just, you know, doing all the personal work on myself, that that voice in my head isn't truth, but it's just the sum of all my experiences I've gone through throughout life since childhood. And so just realizing how that voice, I can change that voice, I can listen to that voice. I don't have to obey that voice. I can choose a different voice. Um that was extremely helpful for me. And so I think that's my favorite and I know it's been impactful for others as well. Um The yeah, the girl in my head because when you think about it, we are very mean to ourselves.

And one of my takeaways from that episode is when I talk to my child, the way that I talk to myself, that in itself. Yeah, that's a good one. So my friend, when I talk to my friends, the way I talk to myself. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. We have more questions. I know. I'd love to, but I can't read right now. My phone turned off my question there. So another question, Oh, this is good. I think we actually answered this one last year, but let's do it again. How do you even start a podcast? Oh, well on our phones, a closet in the closet closet. And you know, I find that from a lot of people. Right? I mean we've done our own research especially before we started, how do you start a podcast? A lot of people say on your phone, we use the app pod bean. So you can just start your own right there. And we just literally recorded like this and that's how we started.

We had a pillow fort for sound boost in the closet. We've grown since then have mix. We have had yeah. In software. The works. Yeah. So yeah, I think it's kind of funny like, gosh, just remember sitting in your pool. So maybe just writing podcast. Why not? Yeah, I think the biggest thing to you just do it, if you're interested in starting it, just do it right to Start and you learn as you grow. Everyone starts from Square one. So, Absolutely. Okay, so Claudine question, what is the hardest thing about doing a weekly podcast? Weekly. Yeah. Weekly. Um, no, what's the hardest thing? Well, yeah, I traveled a lot. That's why I was just gonna say, I was gonna say, I think the hardest part over the last three years was that I was, we weren't even in the same city, I'd say most of the last three years, like the first year, maybe the first six months we were in the same city and then I was gone off and on for a year and a half.

So we were zoom recording or I don't know, it's so much fun when we're live right now. We have so much, we enjoy it more energy and the energy and we can do crazy hand signals like, you know, not alive, but we have hands like, you know my turn, I'll volley, I'm like to you. So the hardest part is not being in the same city and the consistency of doing it weekly. So typically we batch record, that's gotten a little more difficult. So we'll batch two or three at a time. Um But I think weekly being consistent every week, that's the hardest thing about doing a weekly podcast. We figured out editing, figured out mix, we figured out software, figured out a lot of trial and error, but that consistency and being in the same city has been the hardest part for me. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Especially because we started in November of 2019 and that was right before everything happened in 2020.

The pandemic. And then you went down to L. A. For a while and yeah, I think it's pretty amazing though what God has done with the podcast and through our own lives because there's so many times and we can't do this, there's no way we can keep going with this. Like we're in different cities, we didn't quite have the equipment, we were still newbies at the time and you know, I mean trying, literally trying to have the setup. So the sound was okay, all that, it was made up challenging, but I think God really bless his persistence and net net. Um But yeah, so we have a lot of fun with it. Yeah, good. So another question for you, Ashley is um do you have a life coach? I sure do. So we're both life coaches right? We get that question a lot is, you know, I mean, what about us, do we need life coaches to if they are a life coach and absolutely because we still have our moments and we still, you know, let I don't want to say let, but life kinda we get stuck ourselves.

So, but having that life coach I think is I mean what we've really learned is how valuable it is, right? How valuable I mean we if we're going to preach having a life coach then we also need to have a life coach. So I am super grateful for my life coach because I mean my marriage would be totally different. My, you know, just my role as a mom would be totally different. Um, it's just helped me be just keep pushing. You know, just keep pushing, keep striving to do my best, be my best big thing that I'm on. Right. It's like self care. That's my kick the self care especially for moms, that's a huge one. And so, but there's times again I forget I forget to self care. And so my life coach will help encourage me like, don't forget you need to fill your cup before you, you know, Yeah, others show up for others. So and you Yes, yes. I've had a lot of years. Well, I also have a business, had a health coach at one time.

Did you already forget? You know, I hear water your girl. Oh, I had a trainer. Yes, I had my fitness coach. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. That was a year ago. Yeah. I was thinking hell I was thinking more medical. Yeah, Yeah. Actually I did for six weeks. It was amazing. I probably shouldn't have kept that up. And I did also, or I do have a health coach as well because I've been trying to lose the covid wait. And if you, I mean, cloudy and I could both say it's the accountability and the encourage 100%. It's like the reason why you seek a coach is because I just need a little extra help and encouragement. You know, I mean, you can only encourage yourself so much, but having somebody to help you out, I would not have lost the weight last year, written a book. There's so many things that would not have happened if I had a coach. It's true. I need the accountability and interestingly, that's my business coach a few weeks ago. Um actually doing some mindset coaching with me about something with my business and it was so obvious that something that clearly I would know, I could see in someone else sometimes in your own self, you don't see that blind spot.

Like she said, I was like, oh my gosh, you're so right, that's so obvious, but she can see it clearly, but I just couldn't see it. You can't see the forest for the trees, right? So I can't say that, I don't know, but I'm trying to process with that. Like if you're in the trees, you can't see the forest, you can only see the trees. Right? I think that's the thing, I don't know if that makes sense. Absolutely, wow, I'm gonna ponder on that. Another another bumper sticker. Okay, moving on to our next question, talking about mindset, we here's your question. You both talk a lot about your thoughts and creating, you know how your thoughts create your emotions. So explain that. Oh gosh, explain that Our thoughts, our emotions episodes 12 and three, I think really helped define that, but I do think for me when I figured that out, I don't know, however long ago, years ago, I always thought that my circumstance, my situation created my emotions.

I never knew before that that it was my thoughts about that circumstance or the situation that created the emotion. So therefore I went through the book of my adulthood in almost a victimhood, right? Like, well if my circumstance, if my situation changes then I'll be happy then I'll feel peace, then I'll be satisfied not understanding that. Um it was my thoughts about whatever the situation or circumstance was, so that was really powerful to me, it was really huge. So, that's what we mean when we talk about, we do talk about it a lot, I'd say every other podcast episode. If not, you know, I mean, that's the bulk of my coaching practice is helping women with their thoughts, but really understanding that it's our thoughts that created, not the circumstances, which it really gives us our power back. That's why it's so exciting. And that's how we talk about so much because it gives us our power back. If we know that we're in control of our emotions by the thoughts that we choose, then we can actually choose how we want to feel.

And that was that was like, life changing for me to transform my life. Yeah, we've all heard that quote, right? I mean, control, take control of your emotions don't let them control you, But it's how how are we supposed to do that? That's a great idea. I don't know. But it is just going to our mind our thoughts whatever we're thinking whatever we're focused on that's going to dictate how we feel. And that's why different people experience different emotions even if they go through the same experience. Right? Like some people I mean this is kind of a minor example but some p people are freaked out about lightning and they want to hide out in their house or turn the music on really loud because they don't like the flashing and the thunder and you know but then there's also people who want to go out in the rain and want to sit on their brush and watch the lightning. And so it's totally different. It creates a whole different feeling for person A.

And person B. But because how do we interpret it? Right. What is the meaning that we're giving to this situation? And that's really what our thoughts are the meaning we give to our situation. Yeah. So the store we build around it. So true story. We can talk all about stories. We have an episode. Yeah. Yeah. My stories. Yeah. So another question. Yes I have one. Another one. Okay for you. So um obviously we're both life coaches. So the question comes up a lot. What is a life coach and what's the difference between a life coach let's say and a therapist. But what is a life coach? Well, first I'll talk about the difference between life coach and therapist because I've also gone through therapy for myself, which was phenomenal and I've also become a certified life coach and had life coaching. So a therapist really digs deep to trying to help heal from your past and talks a lot about that and processing and moving on from it could be trauma and just even helping through daily life where a coach is, gives you the tools, gives you the tools to and the encouragement and accountability.

Um, just to make the choices towards the goals that you have in your life. Right? So I know for myself personally a goal was I didn't want to be this burned out, stressed out, insecure, defeated, depressed, anxious mom and wife what a great motivation. So seek, you know, life coaching. It's somebody to walk with me, ask me, you know what I envision what I want to do, who I want to be, how I want to feel and help. Give me the tools to um, to do that right to set forth and really work on the thoughts and it really is not work. It is. So when we talk all about the thoughts, the stories, especially, all creating our feelings and our emotions, that is um, that mindset, you know, I mean I have a coffee mug mindset is everything and it really is because it takes um, our life so well that yeah, you hit it on the nail, I forgot my thought, but yeah, I mean that's why I thought work, that work, that work, that work, that's why we need coaches, because like, it's not just a thought we have in our head, but it's the deeper beliefs that sometimes we're not conscious of and that's what has helped me so much is come to grips with, what am I really believing underneath that thought, that's impacting my life and I want to get in touch with those and having someone looking from the outside in, it was like they can pick up on that so much easier and that's where like when I work with clients, I can ask questions and help them see things that maybe they haven't seen before or get in touch with an awareness with beliefs that they have that are holding them back and I mean we all need it because there's times I just still see it.

So yeah, you said the blind spot, that's so true. I mean specifically I remember this with one of my coaching clients when we would talk over extended period of time, right? We talked weekly and I would pick up on things and I would ask the questions and then they would be able to connect the dots and and I'll ask just thought provoking questions, right? Just something to think about, well what if this or what if you tried this or what if where do you think this might be coming from this believed or thought or or what not, but yeah, yeah, just helping. I mean I just, I don't know, I don't know where I would be without. Yeah, part of the podcast also is for us. It's really like encouraging and we even go back and we'll listen to it and just help professional memory. Oh yeah, I need to do that. Oh yeah, I need more self care about. Oh yeah, I need that work. I need to talk about something that we need. It's funny because I never used to listen to our podcast.

I would read the transcriptions true actually get on me and now I ended up and I have to hear him and I was like, I used to not like my voice now, I'm used to it, so I'm like my voice is fine. I actually have another question. Okay, what is your favorite thing about the holidays? Oh, um you know, my son asked me this last night how interesting my favorite thing is the nostalgia that it brings up. You know, just positive memories of childhood and just the feeling of like the warm, cozy feeling of, you know, like the Lights, the ambiance. I mean I would not say that as a 10 year old, the ambiance. Yeah the Christmas lights the we didn't really have too many traditions other than getting a Christmas tree at my cousin's house, we would all travel 10 hours away to visit extended family and we cut down our tree in the forest and then bring it back home and then decorate it. That was one of my favorite things. So I think just the nostalgia of it and being able to create it with my own family now as an adult and so being able to create kind of the ambience in the house and just the feeling, I think it's just the warm, fuzzy feeling of the holidays.

So special and so sweet. Thank you. Uh budgeting, organization, food. Oh the food. I don't know when I think of food, I think of thanksgiving. Well that's, I didn't say christmas. I said the holidays. Oh any holiday? Well the hollow like the holiday. Okay, that's why it'll take us an hour and a half recorded 20 minute podcast episode. You guys don't get to hear all this on the regular, so that's what it's really like. Yes, my holiday Now let me ask you this. The holiday season begins when for you. Um The Sunday before Thanksgiving till till January two for me. It starts before Halloween preparing for Halloween. The holidays. Even when you're, I mean I learned so much about you, it was fall, I put a few ball things out.

But yeah. Alright. Any more questions um yeah let's end off with this one. How did we come up with the name. Oh how did we come up with the name? Well we've shared this before. Many really? I don't even remember that. We've shared this before, but Ashley and I have both battled with depression and anxiety myself with depression and Ashley's anxiety, although I found out after meeting Ashley that I had struggled with anxiety too, I just never knew it was anxiety restlessness. So we both had struggled with that and then both had coaching and help and came to a place where we were both doing better and we're so excited to share all these tools and this information with others. So we thought, you know, we were able to rise up because when you're depressed, I mean for me it's right hiding in the closet crime, I can't get out of bed.

So that's how we came up with the rise up and Shine, because I think that must have been part of you too, right? There was also a scripture that you like Jose uh this matter is in your hands, take courage, we will support you. I love that scripture and I thought the community of women helping other women to rise up and shine and live their best life and bring glory to God obviously, because first and foremost christians, So I think that is how we came up with the name, it was three years ago and we've already determined that my memory is not the best, that's why you have to get that out for and Notes, because I can't remember anything in serie my reminder. So yeah, any other questions before we head off. Let's see. No, I think we went through all the questions that we have right now we've received.

So, but if any of you, when you're watching this, if you have questions, if there's anything you're curious about, even if there's anything, any topic you want to hear, we would love to hear from you because we're sharing from our own experiences, things that we've learned that we feel are super valuable to share with others. Um, as well as we do our own research, What do women want to learn more about? What do wise, what do moms, what do empty nesters want to learn more about? We've done everything from goals at the beginning of the new year. We've done topics about holidays and getting together with Yeah, 157 self care budgeting organizing. We've done, we've done the whole scope over the last three years and so, but we love to hear from you because you are also living this life. And if there's something, hey, you know, I wish I can get a little better at this or I want to know more about this And we want you to let us know because we would love to do a whole topic on it.

And we do the research. We've, you know, already done our own certification. So we've had, we have some experience and we also like to share it personally because I think with the podcast. One thing that another encouragement I've heard from other people and you might have as well, Claudine that other women like to hear other women who have experienced what they've gone through because a lot of times, especially when you're going through a hard time, you think no one understands I'm all alone. And then what we end up doing, one of those beliefs we buy into is that nobody understands. I'm all alone and we kind of step back and we don't, you know, we kind of disconnect from our community and we need community most of all in order to rise up and shouting. I think we just did that one the power of community. So send us your suggestions because we need them and we'd love to hear what you want to hear about. But as always you can find Ashley at mind over chaos dot com.

You can find me at Claudine Sweeney dot com. You can post this group, This facebook group where we're going live and what else? I guess that's it. Huh. three years. Last time we had champagne. Last time today I'm sipping tea and water. I got water. Where's the champagne? We forgot the champagne? Three years. Well here's to another three years. Thank you so much for listening and tuning in and all your comments and encouragement and support. Support. We feel it. We really appreciate it till next time. Take care. Alright, everyone, thank you for joining in on our conversation today here on the Rice up and Shine podcast. If you haven't already, please take a second to hit that subscribe button, so you never miss an episode and while you're at it, share this episode with a friend who you know it can bless today if you want to visit us as well on our websites, you can catch Claudine over at Claudine Sweeney dot com and Ashley at Mind over chaos dot com.

Our links are in the description. We also have some free resources there for you as well. So remember ladies, no matter what you are facing in life, it is never too late to rise up and shine and live your best life.