Sydney's Story: Does Your Past Determine Your Future? How Our Choices Shape Our Journey

03/20/25 • 42 min

Do you ever stop and think about how all your past decisions led you to where you are now?

In Part Two of this episode, Sydney and Audrina continue their discussion on how their choices have shaped their present careers, future career paths, and personal relationships. Being an entrepreneur is in Sydney’s blood! She was born into a family of entrepreneurs, as both her parents are business owners who made sure all their children grew up knowing what it takes to run a business. She explores how her life experiences have formed the ideas for multiple businesses, including The Etho and The Hive.

The path of entrepreneurship is not usually a linear journey, it ebbs and flows with each decision you make. We’ve discovered that the people we meet along the way have a huge impact on the success of our businesses. Hiring the right people makes all the difference! Sydney explains that her team is the reason The Hive was able to keep running while she was going through some life-changing events with her family.

Being an entrepreneur gives us the ability to work for ourselves in a way that is true to our values, and more importantly, the ability to not work for a company making decisions we don’t agree with. From struggling to success – we’ve been through financial difficulties and broken relationships on the way to having the companies we have now. Don’t worry, we’ll go through the details of each (and how we made it out the other side!) in future episodes!

In This Conversation:

Sydney shares her backstory––from starting a business in the midst of getting a college degree to managing a business with a partner she didn’t align with, entrepreneurship, and the independence it offers, has been a consistent driving force in her life. (Listen to Part 1 to hear Audrina’s story!) [link to episode]
The ups and downs of running a business while managing the challenges of family relationships and raising children.
The difficult situations and decisions that have to be made behind the scenes of building a business––Sydney takes us through the journey her businesses took during the pandemic and childbirth, and how she relied on her team and family to keep the companies afloat.

For more unfiltered conversations about entrepreneurship, family life, and managing the daily demands of “doing it all”, click the Follow button so you don’t miss an episode!

If anything we talked about resonated with you, we’d love to hear about it! Always feel free to reach out with questions, comments, or future topics you want to hear.

Connect with us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swearingbyit/

LinkedIn:

Audrina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrinablackburn/

Sydney: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydneymsherman/

Do you ever stop and think about how all your past decisions led you to where you are now?

In This Conversation:

Sydney shares her backstory––from starting a business in the midst of getting a college degree to managing a business with a partner she didn’t align with, entrepreneurship, and the independence it offers, has been a consistent driving force in her life. (Listen to Part 1 to hear Audrina’s story!) [link to episode]
The ups and downs of running a business while managing the challenges of family relationships and raising children.
The difficult situations and decisions that have to be made behind the scenes of building a business––Sydney takes us through the journey her businesses took during the pandemic and childbirth, and how she relied on her team and family to keep the companies afloat.

For more unfiltered conversations about entrepreneurship, family life, and managing the daily demands of “doing it all”, click the Follow button so you don’t miss an episode!

If anything we talked about resonated with you, we’d love to hear about it! Always feel free to reach out with questions, comments, or future topics you want to hear.

Connect with us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swearingbyit/

LinkedIn:

Audrina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrinablackburn/

Sydney: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydneymsherman/

Previous Episode

Audrina's Story: Does Your Past Determine Your Future? How Our Choices Shape Our Journey

Do you ever stop and think about how all your past decisions led you to where you are now?

In this week’s episode, Sydney and Audrina discuss how their choices have shaped their present careers, future career paths, and personal relationships. Audrina dives into her experience being laid off from a company where she was an instrumental part of their growth and felt secure in her position. She explains how she felt blindsided by the decision, but can see now that it was the push she needed to get out of a company she didn’t align with.

This exit from the corporate world made Audrina realize she had become complacent in her career and forced her to refocus on options she hadn’t considered before––like entrepreneurship. Becoming complacent is often one of the worst things to happen in your job because it stops you from moving forward and reaching your full potential. The main tip here is to listen to your gut!

Both Sydney and Audrina discuss how manifestation and vision boards play a large part in their future planning, enabling them to achieve their work and life goals. By thinking about the future as if you already possess the skills, finances, or position you’re envisioning, your brain activates differently, allowing you to move in that direction without even realizing it!

In This Conversation:

Audrina shares her backstory—how she went from a professional ballroom dancer to the Vice President of Business Operations, overcame an unexpected and emotional layoff, and started a new career in entrepreneurship.
The stigma surrounding being let go from a position, and how we often attach our self-worth and identities to our career title.
What happens when you feel yourself becoming complacent in your current position, how to move out of an industry you don’t enjoy, and trusting your gut to guide you on your career path. (Listen to Episode 2 to hear how we learned to listen to our intuition) https://open.spotify.com/episode/1JMklG4G6hAZ6ALjTdY7pP?si=ViP6uc1cQeCQDfhv3j4ZMw

For more unfiltered conversations about entrepreneurship, family life, and managing the daily demands of “doing it all”, click the Follow button so you don’t miss an episode!

If anything we talked about resonated with you, we’d love to hear about it! Always feel free to reach out with questions, comments, or future topics you want to hear.

Connect with us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swearingbyit/

LinkedIn:

Audrina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrinablackburn/

Sydney: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydneymsherman/

Resources We Mentioned:

Saving for the future self: Neural measures of future self-continuity predict temporal discounting

You can read more about this research and Hal Hershfield here.

Next Episode

Is Entrepreneurship Worth It?

What made you start your own business, and what keeps you going? Is this whole thing even worth it?

In today’s episode, Sydney and Audrina explore the circumstances that led them toward entrepreneurship—and what keeps them there. They discuss how their past has shaped their businesses, the rough patches behind the scenes, and the lessons they’ve learned along the way.

As entrepreneurs – and women – we often have different responsibilities and priorities to manage in addition to building and maintaining our business. It can be difficult at times to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but when we look back, we can see how far we’ve come and how much we’ve grown since beginning this journey. The ways we have changed (for the better!) can sometimes go undetected, but we encourage you to stop and think about this—you’ll be surprised to see how many skills you now have!

Entrepreneurship allows us to dictate our future. It provides more flexibility, the ability to channel your passions into your work, and the opportunity to see other people interact with your creation. Your business reflects who you are and will show you just how strong you can be. You have one life to live—make the most of it and do what makes you happy!

In This Conversation:

The conversations we need to have and the hard questions we need to ask, in order to lay the foundation. How do you communicate, receive feedback, or show appreciation? Discussing key mindsets and personal preferences up front can determine if this business or partnership is the right fit and if this is the direction you want to take.
The questions we should ask ourselves to decide whether this entrepreneurial path is for us. What would need to happen for you to give up your business? What are your limits – and how do you know when you’ve reached them?
The risks we experienced throughout our business, how we navigated them, and the ones we didn’t see coming. Understanding that entrepreneurship ebbs and flows is important in order to keep going.
How do you create and foster the self-confidence, resilience, and growth you need to keep going when things get tough? We talk about our experiences using affirmations, investing in ourselves, connecting with peers, and listening to our intuition when making decisions. (Check out Episode 2 for more on intuition!)

For more unfiltered conversations about entrepreneurship, family life, and managing the daily demands of “doing it all”, click the Follow button so you don’t miss an episode!

If anything we talked about resonated with you, we’d love to hear about it! Always feel free to reach out with questions, comments, or future topics you want to hear.

Connect with us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swearingbyit/

LinkedIn:

Audrina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrinablackburn/

Sydney: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydneymsherman/

Resources We Mentioned:

The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer