What’s Next?!
I went on one of my self-care sabbaticals last week and in this episode I’m sharing with what I came away from it with. I was asking myself, and God, what’s next? And he gave me an answer that you may need to hear too.
With so much going on, it’s so important to take a moment to ask yourself, what’s all this for? What’s this leading up to? I still have moments where I ask, what’s my purpose here?! And in this episode, I’m sharing what a little time off taught me.
Thanks for being here friend. I so appreciate you! Send me a message, I love hearing from you! Email, Instagram, Twitter, I’m @NicoleWalters everywhere! Thanks again friend, talk soon!
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Hey friend, you’re listening to The Nicole Walters Podcast. I’m a former six-figure corporate executive who woke up every morning feeling stuck in the life that I built for myself but using my corporate skills I took to the Internet and built a multi-seven-figure business, showing others how they can build a life they love. Now on this podcast, I share stories of being an entrepreneur, a mom to my three amazing girls and a wife to my crazy, cooky dancing Hubbin. I’ve had a couple of viral videos too. So you know there’s going to be a lot of laughs here. So whether you’ve seen me on my viral vids or on the Today Show or read about me in Forbes, this is the place where we can meet, share stories, share laughs, and share fun. I’m your best friend in your head. So sit back, listen close, and let’s get started.
(00:50):
Hey friend. So I am super excited to chat with you today. Now I had to take a break last week from everything. If you followed me on social, you know that I was on one of my self-care sabbaticals. With all the things that have been happening in the world, with all the time we’re spending with our family and just really focusing on being available to others. It’s really important that we remember to take care of ourselves and you hear that everywhere. Self-care, self-care, self-care, but it always sounds like I need to plan a spa day or I’ve got to get away to some fancy resort or take time with the girls, whatever. Listen, I don’t know about you, but I don’t always have the time for that. And I remember the days when I definitely didn’t have the money for that. And it was then that I discovered that maybe I don’t necessarily need a big fancy trip because frankly it was pretty easy to put those off.
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And instead, what I needed was something that I talked about just a few chats ago, micro moments. Well, a self-care sabbatical for me looks like a couple of micro-moments mashed together. I just book a hotel somewhere close and I have a mommy staycation. It can look like the DoubleTree down the street with those delicious chocolate chip cookies and hanging out in a bedroom by yourself for 24 hours, being nobody’s anything. Sleeping in the bed spread Eagle and keeping all the covers for yourself. One of the ways I treat myself as I turn up the temperature is warm as I want it because Lord knows in a house you don’t get to do that. That type of being about yourself and remembering what you like and watching the shows you want and showering for as long as you want to. And I mean, I know on my self care sabbatical last week, I shaved my whole leg. The whole thing, not just the bottom, I spoiled myself. Haha! I mean, for real, it’s just amazing when you take a couple of days to yourself to just be by yourself. Now, of course, with all the things happening in the world, be safe, make good choices. But if you feel like you might benefit, go ahead and book that date. It’s worth the splurge and you’re better for it.
(02:59):
Now I am back and there’s so much going on and I’m really glad for us to connect because as you’ve seen the TV shows on and I’m really loving everything, you’ve been saying about it, posting on social and showing all the support and in my DMs. And it’s just filled my heart to know that 1. We’re prayerfully covered by the Internet Aunties, right? All over it. That’s, it’s been amazing, but also that you’re laughing with us and that you are seeing exactly who we are, the same people that we are on social media you’re also seeing on TV and even better. It’s been a nice little break. I think the general feedback I’ve been hearing from the world is it’s really nice to see something positive and fun on TV. So, um, if you haven’t had a chance to catch it, every Thursday USA network at 10:30 PM, She’s the Boss is there. And you’ll get to see me and the family balancing business, balancing family, and lots of laughs. So definitely check it out.
(03:56):
Now, outside of that, I wanted to talk to you about the real real. I don’t know about you friend, but just, this is our time I’m going to keep it real, right? This is our time to connect. And I just want to let you know a little bit about what’s going on. So I’ve really been struggling with perspective if you will. we’re gonna dive deep in that because I, I do get this a lot, like in my, in the DMs and I’m sure we’ve chatted about it before, but people will reach out to me and say, and I get, this is probably one of the biggest emails I receive, which is Nicole, how do I know what business I should start? How do I know where I should start?
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How do I even know what my purpose is and what my gifts are and how I should have it all figured out? And I always send them to MyFierceClarity.com, right? Because Fierce Clarity is this great tool, it’s like, we sit down and we kind of go through all that type of purpose stuff, you know, like, what does a successful business look like? and what would those obligations be? and all that jazz. And so it’s great that I have this opportunity for us to connect in a dedicated way about that. But what I wanted to talk to you about, and for us to chat about here is I just want to be really honest, sometimes I don’t know what my purpose is completely honest. I mean, I understand business.
(05:16):
I know that it is my job to honor these sweet babies by being the best mom I can be. And I’m committed to my marriage and you know, working hard to make sure I do everything I can to be a great wife, but I got to tell you sometimes I’m like, what am I doing? And I know you’re probably like having a semi chuckle slash like, yeah, me too, girl. You know, like, what am I even doing? And why am I doing it? And it feels crazy. But the reason I wanted to like, say it openly to you is that I know that you feel this way sometimes too, where you’re like, what’s the point, kind of, where am I aiming? Like I’m so caught up in the routine of the day to day that I’m like, what is, what exactly is the end goal?
(05:53):
And not in like a bad,I don’t feel good about life, type of way. Just kind of like, what does it all adding up to? You know? And I one, I just want you to know, I feel that way too sometimes. And it’s so hard because I feel like social media and the internet space has made almost a business of people being all, my purpose is figured out and I use this journal to know my purpose and look at my amazing system for getting everything perfect. And I’m working every day with intention and, you know, and I just never want to contribute to the noise of a narrative, But doesn’t actually serve because it’s not put into context with the honesty of real life confusion, sometimes the highs and the lows. And that’s what I wanted to let you know, is that I have those too.
(06:36):
So right now, part of why I scheduled this sort of self-care, I was because I’ve been building up to this show thing for a while, right? Like we can all relate to this. I know it’s like, Oh Nicole, yeah TV show, sure. But no, like you’ve had weddings, you know, where you’re building up to that or planning up until the baby’s born and then being like, okay, now what, you know, like they’re just, life can sometimes feel like a series of planning up to something and then kind of afterwards being like, okay, so what’s the recalibration. Or if you’ve planned up to something, then afterwards being like nothing happened the way I thought so now what?
(07:11):
And if you’re in that space right now, part of my honesty around it is I do want to let you know, it’s nothing that if you had more money or lived in a different place or less children or more freedom, that it would be different. You would be just as confused or figureout-y about something else. So, you know, I know that we have a ton in common, but the stuff we don’t have in common, I’m letting you know, isn’t the factor that’s making it so that I have it figured out you don’t, it’s not that. I will let you know that where I’m really confused right now is that I had this that’s so fun and I’m so excited too, with the kids and I’ve been having a blast with it. And I have this amazing, incredible business and inherit learning company where I get to serve people every single day,
(07:57):
I mean, it’s just beyond, the change I’ve seen in people’s lives, businesses and bank accounts, by being able to support them. I mean, it’s just really amazing work. So I’m really stupid, happy right now about like how things have been structured. I’m hitting my goals, I’ve done the things, but now I’m asking myself what’s next? And I’m working on a book, you know, and you haven’t heard me talk about it much anywhere, but it’s like us talking right now. So like I’m working on this book thing and it’s like four hours a day of writing and I’m reading it. Like I got my first notes back from the editor last week, which also may be part of this. You know how, whenever you’re already in your head, I had that, like if little things pop up, you’re like, Oh God, I’m really not good at this. Haha!
(08:41):
I think that, like, when that came in, I was like, Oh, like my notes my editor came in and I was like, this book is not, it’s not ready. You know? And my editor is like, it’s a rough, rough, rough, rough, rough, rough draft. But I’m like, it’s not ready. And they’re like, it won’t ready till December, you know where you’re going to pour in more, you know, where you’re going to dive deep. And like we’re touching in the book, we’re touching on some stuff that like, I’ve never talked about before. I don’t even know if I have the guts to say some of the stuff I’m writing down, out loud. It’s like, I need you to hold it and reread it and like, see it with your eyes to like, believe so working on the book. But I’m like, man, I’m really doing all the things that I said I would do. You know? And I really feel like I’m showing up in the world for my friends, you know, for you, like I’m showing up the way that I want to for my family.
(09:30):
What next? Like, what is it all leading up to? Am I using it as a verb to Oprah? Right? Is that it? I don’t know. I don’t know about that. You know what I mean? Is it that I want to make movies? Nope, definitely don’t think that’s what I want to do. You know? Like what is it? And so here’s, here’s what I want to get to. Right. It’s that sometimes it feels like things are pretty quiet or not even quiet but they’re like the normal chaos and you’ve adjusted. Right. Maybe you got comfortable in the chaos that sometimes the answer is to go back to basics and you may have heard me say this before about business, but during my sabbatical, it really came back to me, you know? I spent a lot of that time in prayer. I spent a lot of that time, just sort of listening to God versus doing all the talking I do. And the thing I realized is like, it’s back to basics. It’s minding the business that pays me.
(10:23):
So the first thing I said to myself was, you know what, maybe it’s not that you need something new, maybe you need to double down on what’s already here. You’ve got an incredible company that serves people real solutions. Have you shown it to enough people? Have you helped all the people that you’ve been assigned to help? You know, is there more you can do there because if you’re wondering what’s next, what’s next is to double down. Go wide, go deep, serve these people, you know? And I realized that felt really good.
(10:53):
Once I let go of saying, is there some place else I need to be? I realized that no, that’s not it at all. Is that I need to go deeper exactly where I am. And that’s what I’m hoping that if you’re feeling itchy feet, you know, if you’re feeling a moment where you’re like, what’s next, if you’re saying to yourself, I don’t feel as accomplished in certain areas so I’m inclined or tempted to look in a different direction, that maybe it’ll connect for you, maybe you’ll be tempted to really just double down on where you are right now. And to say to yourself, well, maybe there’s something more I can extract from the relationships that I have. Maybe this is a season to just really focus and spend time cuddling with the kids, or finally work on helping them learn how to do a somersault or maybe nailing that phenomenal banana bread recipe or diving deep in your business and creating more content than ever before.
(11:45):
Or developing that new product or wreath or crafting that thing that you’ve really wanted to get out there instead of creating 10 more versions of the same wreath. It’s taking your top seller, refining it and make it even better and selling more of them than ever before. Sometimes it’s going back to the basics and pouring gas on what works. And honestly, that feels right. It feels like a truth I don’t want to run away from. It feels like something that matches internally with my capability and what I’m qualified for externally. So even with all the things that are happening in life right now, between business and the kids growing up and this weird TV show thing, that’s so, so weird. I mean, it really is weird, right? Haha! Like we’re regular, you know, our thing that we have, but this whole like TV world, if you were like, I don’t know her, all of a sudden it’s weird, right?
(12:39):
Even with all those amazing things that are happening, I’m ambitious. I like to do stuff. I like to grow and do more. And once in a while, God reminds me to sit my butt down, be grateful for what I have and double down on being excellent exactly where I am. And I wanted to extend that to you, to let you know that you’re doing great. Maybe it’s not a new workout routine. Maybe it’s just 10 minutes more at a higher weight of the one that you’re doing right now. Either way you’ll get exactly where you’re supposed to be. Because no matter what, as long as you’re doing your best and showing up, that is always enough. Thanks for just hearing me out and of course, watching the show, just being a really good friend. I appreciate you. We’ll chat again next week. Oh and send me a message! Tell me what you think. I love hearing from you. Bye friend!
(13:33):
Thanks so much for listening, friend. If you enjoyed this podcast, head over to Nicole walters.com. I’d love for us to stay in touch. So make sure you drop your email address so I can send you inspiration business details and the occasional funny story. And because I’m so generous, there might even be a selfie in the mix. Thanks again, and make sure you subscribe and come back soon.
In this episode, I cover:
- Why I wasn’t sure what was next for me,
- What I learned after taking a self-sabbatical,
- How you can gain clarity when you aren’t sure what’s next for you or why you’re in you current situation, and
- What’s next for me!
Resources and links mentioned in this episode:
- Get the clarity you need, and the direction you deserve to walk confidently in your purpose through My Fierce Clarity! Check it out HERE
- Don’t miss She’s The Boss every Thursday at 10:30pm on USA network! You can watch on cable, SlingTV, YouTube TV, and more!
- Did you miss the last episode on how you’re never alone in this? Listen to it here!
- If you love our chats like I do, I’d so appreciate a review for the show! You can share your thoughts on Apple here!
More about The Nicole Walters Podcast:
The Nicole Walters Podcast is for the everyday entrepreneur that wants to increase their income but doesn’t know where to start. If that’s you, you’re in the right place!
Nicole Walters is a wife, mom, income strategist, entrepreneur, and the founder of The Monetized Life™. Join Nicole each week for a new episode packed with what you need to know to gain clarity, grow your network and monetize your life using the proven corporate strategies she mastered in 10 years as a Fortune 500 executive.
Whether you’re just starting out and don’t know your next step, or you’re multi-passionate and don’t know the right next step, Nicole is here to break it down for you! Richfriend, let’s add some commas to your bank account!
Listen each week. Do. The. Work, and success WILL come!