Creativity Build in Public Daily 23

04/18/23 • 5 min

Welcome to today's Build and Public podcast. I'm Stacy Gonzalez, founder of Soul Growth, A community for heart led soulful women in business who want to do business differently by bringing all of them to work with themselves every day. And so as I'm building this company, my co-founder and I today on Mondays, we work.

Uh, we live close enough and so she comes over to my, uh, house and we were working in the office today and I'm building out some technical, uh, requirements for the, uh, website and some Zoom live workshops that we're gonna be hosting to really bring women together. Um, we're calling it soul Growth. And as I'm trying to get this technology to work, I wanted to create a way for women to register and to have a model where they could pay what they wanted for the, um, opportunity to connect.

But I did want to offer some skin in the game for a couple reasons. Number one, the tech stack that we're paying. if minimally, um, we just get enough donations to help us pay for that, that would be great. As broke bootstrapping founders and Renee was working on some email copy for, um, some email campaigns that we're working on while she was writing.

I was working on these technical aspects and it was really getting quite frustrating at some points. , I could not create this series. The payment portal wasn't working. The donations weren't allowing, um, the donations to come up on the site. And all in all, um, it just was not functioning the way I had hoped it would, would function.

And so after like the second or third time, Renee looked at me and she said, why don't you just go for a walk? And I thought That's a great. . So I took the dog out for a little walk and just re-centered myself. And that is the thing about this soul growth journey. And what is, is the great thing about having a, a partner and also the difficult thing.

You, you see yourself, right? You see the frustration that you're facing and the other person, the other person hears it and, you know, working closely together on something. Has nothing yet, um, per se. And, and really trying to build something up digitally is quite the challenge. Uh, but what was interesting is that, uh, we got through that, um, she left probably about, you know, two o'clock today and then all of a sudden inspiration came and I was able to pull some things together, um, relative to a website that we've been working on really quickly and easily, and.

things ki the, the creative pieces, the Canva pieces, which usually I get a little, uh, str. I struggle with that. At times, the design aspects kind of just started to flow, and so today was a really productive day. Um, I've been, I've been really kind of playing around with my morning time, giving myself permission to.

really wake up and, and have kind of the practices I want without pressure in my day. And so that's been, um, amazing as well. This morning I just felt like I woke up at four before my alarm even went off, which is always my goal. The hope is that I, that I wake up by four. Um, I had a, I had a phone conversation with a woman that was gonna help do some volun volunteer.

Bros. We just had a great soulful conversation about personal and professional and, and mixing the two of those and what that means and looks like for us. And so, all in all, great day. I'm really tired and, um, gonna be going to bed early tonight, but really glad that, uh, things are starting to come together and excited about the Soul Girl Sundays as we launch.

If you're new to this podcast, I just wanna thank you for. and listening to my journey, I'm still working through what this podcast actually is, is looking and feeling like. Um, it's really still my experimental sandbox, my reflection place at the end of every day. And, uh, allowing me to have the space to learn, grow, reflect, and um, really be proud of the progress.

Um, and, and. Uh, that I'm on. Thanks.

Um, and, and. Uh, that I'm on. Thanks.

Previous Episode

The Growth Path Build in Public Daily 22

[00:00:00] Dr. Stacey Gonzales: So tonight was a tough night, and so many pieces about being a entrepreneur and a founder are so uncertain and most of the.

You're going through the motions without being the motions. Without being in the motions. And today on our growth path work, which is the work with educators, it was really a challenging day for me because I feel like. Both the sole growth work I'm doing and the growth path work I'm doing, while very different in scope and how I'm approaching the work as a entrepreneur and a founder are also so similar and so aligned, and I feel like I don't really share much about the growth path work because.

that work seems more personal to me. That work is about the public education system in the United States. That work is politically charged with things so outside of my control that to ignore them seems, um, ignorant and to acknowledge them seems like I'm perpetuating to a narrative that. Really do not want to keep putting into the system.

I believe in the education system education, Nelson Mandela, quote from Nelson Mandela. Our education system and being catered is the most powerful weapon that you can have. It's the most powerful weapon in the world. Having access, access to knowledge and opportunity, and I keep the work I do with educators and education on a very tight narrative.

It's very stealth. It's very under. And I think the reason I do that and really focus on soul growth in this building public podcast is because the work in education, nobody understands on a soul level the difficulties and challenges that educators are facing, especially those in the highest position.

People don't understand. I would take a school superintendent and put him or her up against a corporate c e o any day of the week and talk about the challenges. You are talking about people literally bringing guns into schools. Uh, that, that pressure, that's, that is where politics aren't even coming into.

That is where you are on high alert all the time, but you don't have, see what our politicians have when you sit in those seats is you have, you have protections, you have some protections around you, and our local superintendents sitting in those seats do not have that. It is, it is hard. It is difficult.

And so part of the work that I am so impassioned about doing is support. Are leaders in those most highest seats in our local public schools, and I believe that that is going to need to look differently. Battle lines have been drawn in this country, , that is just facts. And in order to lead schools, which lead our children, which lead to a free and.

Thinking society, which of course has problems. Yes, it has problems. Of course it does. It is a government regulated institution. Yes, it has problems, but if we are to change things, the change has to come from multiple places without it being so over. And so that's part of the work that we are building on the growth path.

And I cannot do that work if I do not have a platform and a ability to showcase how work can be done differently with superintendents. And I've been building behind the scenes and I'm. To say it's time to do things differently. It's time to stand up. Some work for educators, for superintendents, those leading the work on the local levels, those in the trenches that others do not understand, and it's time to give 'em a platform.

And so this week my focus has been on building. Both my own soul growth journey, but also allowing others to build the growth path education journey in order to move things in the public K-12 education space. Because no matter how far away I get from being an entrepreneur and doing things differently, I will always have the heart of a teacher, the heart of education in this country, and what it is, what isn't, what it has meant for me and so many at the heart of who I am and what I do.

And that is today's soul growth building public journey.

Next Episode

Confidence

[00:00:00] Dr. Stacey Gonzales: Welcome to tonight's Build and Public podcast. I'm Stacy Gonzalez, and if you're new, this is the space where every day at the end of a long entrepreneurial day, I document my learning and my journey, and there's so many things that happen throughout the course of my day that to distill it down. Into one 10 minute recording oftentimes feels almost impossible, but today I know the thing that is the highlight and the low light for me and the theme that continues to permeate for me throughout my day.

and that thing is confidence and trust. And that confidence and that trust is not in the multiple meetings with people. I had today, I talked to so many people. I had probably about six. No, that's not. That's not true. Uh, maybe six, one-on-one conversations at least, maybe seven or eight. And I had two children who were leaving home to go live away together in Texas,

and it's my husband and i's. , um, not first my husband and i's 25th wedding anniversary from our first marriage because we got divorced and married again. Um, so April 18th, 1998 was our first marriage, and so today was our 25th anniversary. And on top of all of that, I. struggle with confidence, and ultimately for me, that comes down to trust in myself

and the most times when throughout my day. , I can think about where my confidence is uncertain and I feel like I am walking on my own eggshells in my own body, that I choose an that moment to study myself and to calm myself and to find the inner. and it's not something I share very much with people because you sound anxious talking about your anxiety, and so it's something that I work really hard to regulate.

and to steady myself against and to stay grounded and focused, and

it's that confidence and trust that in the moment when I start to sense that unsettling in the moments when I'm in a convers. And I feel my voice starting to quiver and shake, and I feel my heart pounding and I start wondering if what I'm saying even makes any damn sense at times where most of my challenges today came from.

And there was one particular conversation today that. shook me, shook my confidence, had me questioning myself, had me wondering if I was crazy, and obsessing a little bit about it and overanalyzing it and talking to my husband about it and thinking about what am I going to , what, as I'm obsessing about.

I'm then remembering, oh, and I have to do my podcast tonight, and I don't have to do it. I want to do it right. I wanna do my podcast. What am I gonna talk about? Um, how about the fact that you've been obsessing for the last three hours about your confidence and conversations and trusting yourself, and how about you just talk about that and how I believe an entrepreneurial.

is truly a life that you build, the life that you wanna live as an entrepreneur. And in order to do that, it requires inner understanding of the parts of your life that you have to deal with for yourself that nobody can deal with, for you, that nobody can work through for you. And in those moments, in business that you are experiencing that I think that's when I, I'm able to realize this is my growth.

This is the part of the work that when your back's against the wall and you hold steady and you decide. , you're just gonna stay in the fight. And I feel like that's how, even when your confidence is shaken, and even when you're not sure you can trust your own self like that, that's where the growth happens.

And that's where you know that, that you are breaking through. And that's how I. That's where I'm at in this journey, and so thank you. Thank you for being on this journey with me as I continue to grow. Hopefully , the growth will become even more and more obvious from the day-to-day. Thanks for listening.