Inside Work

04/24/23 • 7 min

[00:00:00] Dr. Stacey Gonzales: Welcome to the Build in Public Podcast. I'm Stacy Gonzalez and I am thrilled that you have decided to join me on this founder's journey of building a business in public. And today's podcast, I'm gonna start with a little admission. I have a goal that at the end of every day, I record a podcast episode to update on the.

The bad, the ugly of this founder's journey and yesterday was Thursday and I took the day off by and large and really just had nothing much on my schedule. Had a full open day and frankly did not do much. Um, had. Happened to have like a meeting or two. But, um, I took a nap and I watched a Netflix show and I played with my puppy and it was, it was thundering and raining out.

We had a lot of lightning storms and I like sat on the couch and watched the lightning and the rain and enjoyed it and appreciated it. And so yesterday I, at the end of the. Must have really taken my mind off because I forgot to record my Build in Public podcast . And so here is today's little late, but nonetheless podcast update.

And the thing that I want to share and talk about today is the idea of hustle. And women in particular who are middle-aged, such as myself, I'm 48 years old, who are building their second careers in ways that feel honest, true, aligned, and more soulful for them. And I meet with women regularly who are leaving their career.

um, the first careers similar to what I did and are navigating the complexities of building a business with the experiences and expertise that they have and doing it in a way that is digital, um, and allows them to build from a bootstrapped space. Um, because for many of us who have sacrificed for our children, Sacrificed for, um, our first careers and raising a family and being wives and, um, all the other things that come with that.

We are desiring to do things differently, and that means giving ourselves more space to create and be creative. Um, you know, not having to have all the answers, but putting plans in place and trusting that when. show up when we, um, operate from a place that is in alignment with who we are and the desires of our heart.

Opportunities will open up and unfold. And so as we think about this startup culture, hustle culture, uh, for many, we did that our first careers, and I'm not entru. in doing that again, this time around as I build this second, second foray, second chapter. And what's interesting is I find that I have a co-founder, Renee, um, she's on the, the last episode, if you wanna go back and hear that.

But we have different ways of working. Obviously no two people work exactly the same and. When I start to feel stressed about all the things that we could be doing, should be doing, um, you know, outside of the goals that we have in place, um, and all the details around the work. And she'll say something like, I'm gonna go take the dog for a walk and I'm gonna da, da, da.

and I know that what I'm feeling in that moment might be stressed about something and I'm thinking, well, I'd like to go take my dog for a walk right now. And the reality is, I can, I could stop. I could go take the dog for a walk. And so what I'm noticing is the mindset shifts and I'm giving myself time and space to understand.

Past mindset patterns that are limiting beliefs. And as a founder, in order to build a successful, uh, business, we must be really clear and open to the things that are, are limiting us. Because if they're limiting us, they're gonna limit the pro the progress. They're gonna limit our businesses. They're gonna limit the potential for other people.

when they engage with us. And so I take that really seriously and I spend a lot of time thinking about how, and, and not only thinking, but sensing my way through, um, and processing through from also a heart led space. How do I stay more open? How can I find the lifestyle and life that serves me first? So that I can serve others more openly, willingly, and with greater impact.

And that's a journey. And really for me, that is what I am finding to be the most challenging part of this founder's journey. It requires a different type of courage. Courage that comes from a deep place within. that feels very charged when um, it's time to take a step in faith, step into trying something new and be being someone new.

And really, cuz that's what this is about. It's about being who I believe I am in the, in the best way every day, kind of stepping into that, a new every day. And it's a different way of process. In a different way of being every day. And so as I continue to get clarity on that, um, sometimes I know I need to just give myself a break.

And that was yesterday. The work is hard. The work for me is mostly inner work. Um, and, and as I'm working through that inner work at times, my, I have to remember, I need to give myself grace, kindness, and time for my mind, my body. my emot...

Previous Episode

Founder's Journey

[00:00:00] Renee Devore: A slumber party.

[00:00:01] Dr. Stacey Gonzales: Welcome to today's Filled in Public podcast, and if you're new to the podcast, first and foremost, I just wanna thank you for joining. Welcome. I'm Stacey Gonzalez and this is a Build in Public podcast. Where we talk about the company that I'm building, I'm building two, but the one I mostly talk about is this one called Soul Growth with my business partner Renee Devore, who is also here with me live today.

Hi everyone. And so we are podcasting from our pajama party , and that's true. And so maybe it's a nice moment tonight to share. The founder's journey or origin story, if you will, of how Renee and I met and how, and four months later, we are now having our first pajama party at Renee's House, . So maybe we'll tell our story.

What do you think about that? Go for it. Yeah. Okay. So Renee had reached out to me on LinkedIn. in May of 2021. May of 2021. That's right. And I ignored her. Oh no. May of 2022. Yeah. Oh, 2020. Well, she ignored me. I did ignore her. And then did you

[00:01:26] Renee Devore: reach out again? I did. I reached out again. So we had moved from Vermont to Chicago in July and I was still looking for people to connect with and I couldn't understand why Stacy Gonzalez, who had left education and was successful transition transitioning out, would not get back to me.

And so, I don't do this very often, but I thought that I would try again in October and reached out to her again. And then I Then I heard from her in

[00:01:59] Dr. Stacey Gonzales: December. Yeah, two months later. That's right. And so I got fired from a sales job and I thought I should probably go through my LinkedIn and like refresh this and update this and.

And then I found this one. I'm like, oh my gosh, look at all these connection requests that have been sitting here for months. And I had hundreds of them. And so I found Renee's and I responded like, Hey, sorry for the delay. I mean, I did apologize. Oh, you did? I did. And we jumped on a call that next. Week.

And as we were chatting, I'm like, oh, okay. I feel like she's kind of cool. Like she's passed the telephone test , and I mean, it's true. Yeah, it's true. And so we decided to meet at a little local, um, tequila bar by our house for a drink and just get to know each other. And so it was, it was a nice enough conversation.

There was a little bit of business talk, but nothing, nothing. You know, like we weren't. Necessarily thinking we were gonna be in business together, were you thinking that? No, no. Well, you never thought you'd be, have a business partner. That's

[00:03:09] Renee Devore: later on

[00:03:10] Dr. Stacey Gonzales: in this story. She never thought she was gonna have a business.

And I had told her in that conversation. I'm like, yeah, I tried to have a couple business partnerships. They didn't work out. And so now I'm looking for my next thing. I wanna be a number one hire. A first hire with a a. You know, startups who have gotten. Their first round of funding. And so when I came back from the holidays and vacation, cuz it was like Christmas time, Renee had texted me and again, again, because she's, she wanted me this whole time and we ended up, I texted her back and I said, Hey, my husband's on the couch with a man cold.

And if we were friends like that, I would invite myself over to your house because she literally lives three miles from my. And the place in the community where I grew up for 35 years, the last 35 years, and she's like a nomad who's been all over the country, lived on the west coast, lived on the east coast, lived in Mexico, and like, you know, the universe just like dropped her into my backyard.

And so I'm like, Hey, can I come hang out at your place? She's like, sure, come over. I've got wine. And I walked into her. And I was like, who even lives? Like this is like Joanna Gaines here. Like how are things so cute and perfect and like decorated with unmatching matching things. like things that you would not put together naturally, but like when you put 'em together, they look super cute.

And so I just felt like really at home, obviously I like your home . Yeah, I'm here now in my pajamas. Yeah. Yeah. And. Then what were we doing? Oh, we were drinking wine because wine is definitely most necessary. And I saw this little soul growth card that she had that said, so, oh, you handed it to me. You said, I'm handing, I'm passing this out with this s e t-shirt shop called Soul Growth.

And I'm tell showing, giving this to women for like what they, what they, I wanna give them what I would. And I'm like, I love this soul growth. This is the business. We can make this into

[00:05:23] Renee Devore: business. Yeah. That's what happened. That's totally what happened.

[00:05:28] Dr. Stacey Gonzales: And then the next day we, oh no, that night w...

Next Episode

Learning today is a gift

[00:00:00] Dr. Stacey Gonzales: Welcome to today's Build and Public podcast. If you are joining for the first time, I just wanna welcome you. I'm Stacy Gonzalez and I'm building two companies, one for women and another for educators. . And really at the end of the day, they're both focused on the same thing, which is learning and growing.

And that's the reason why I do this daily Build and public podcast is because every day we have an opportunity to learn something new. And every day we have an opportunity to take what we learn and integrate it into our lives in tangible ways, in practical ways. And so that's really what this podcast.

Is becoming, it is my learning journey, my documentation of being a founder and what it feels like to choose yourself, to choose business that serves you. First versus you trying to fit your life into your business. And so I'm really figuring out how to have my business fit my life, and it's been a really amazing and beautiful thing.

And so today, uh, I had the opportunity to, uh, have a meeting and I turned off. My email off my phone and I really stayed offline, um, over the weekend. And what happened is some of my team members actually sent some emails for today's meeting and I didn't look at my email. I, I wanted to do some meditation and I wanted to take my time this morning.

To be fully present in the moment, in the best way I know how, and so for me, that requires time and energy. I did a meditation. I went for a walk. I cleaned my house. I did some breath work. I took a cold shower, and so I put all my practices in place and I just gave myself space to prepare for this important business meeting that I had today.

And even despite all that preparation and even despite having the agenda ready and having multiple emails going, I was nervous and I was scared and I didn't know if I would successfully be able to navigate the meeting cuz it's new. And my team members and I were learning together. We're learning each other, we're learning about each other, we're learning to trust each other and all that to say it was an amazing meaning.

And it's so rewarding and and such a privilege to be able to see myself take these steps of courage and nobody knows. I feel it on the inside. Nobody knows what it's really like. I know what it's like. Take these steps of courage and trusting myself that I can. Be this person that I believe I am this business owner who is building amazing solutions that help people's lives change.

Providing space for people to be for love and following our hearts to grow and flourish. Cause that's, that's really what I'm doing. It's no different from when I was a teacher. Frankly, bringing people together around a shared vision. It's Cotter's work, right? If you know of John Cotter's work, the Eight Steps to Transformative Change as you get people invested in the Y and you build a guiding coalition.

Those are steps one and two, and we've got a strong why and we're building a guiding coalition, and people continually step up, come to the table. And make themselves available to support the vision, and it's so incredible and so humbling at the same time. So if you are on any sort of trust journey to yourself, if you are looking to breakthrough, tap into that little place.

Of courage within you overcome that little space of fear. If I can do it , if I can do it after 20 years in a completely different industry, not having any clue what I'm doing, you can do it too. Certainly. Certainly. I'm Stacy Gonzalez. Thank you for joining me on my building public learning journey.