[SPEAKER_00]: So while I don't think I'll ever be back to Vermont's flow, my priorities have shifted pretty dramatically.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I've become more spiritual in a way and more aware of my intuition and how I'm feeling with the changes of the seasons and balance, I think, is the word that I keep coming back to.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I also have this other side of me that's still deeply called to just continue working
[SPEAKER_00]: My values end is somehow better for the planet.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're listening to the Good Dirt Podcast.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is a place where we dig into the nitty-gritty of sustainable living through food, fashion, and lifestyle.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're your host, Mary and Emma Kingsley, the mother and daughter founder team of Lady Farmer.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're sewing seeds of slow living through our community platform events and online marketplace.
[SPEAKER_04]: We started this podcast as a means to share the wealth of information and quality conversations that we're having in our world as we dream up and deliver ways for each of us to live into the new paradigm.
[SPEAKER_04]: One that is regenerative, balanced, and whole.
[SPEAKER_01]: We want to put the microphone in front of the voices that need to be heard the most right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: The farmers, the dreamers, the designers, and the
[SPEAKER_04]: So come call to be a better world with us.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're so glad you're here.
[SPEAKER_04]: Now let's dig in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: How you doing?
[SPEAKER_03]: This beautiful spring.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, it's a really beautiful spring day.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's actually quite hot for spring.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's going to get up to mid 80s today.
[SPEAKER_03]: But you know, I'll welcome it.
[SPEAKER_03]: The episode that we're getting into today.
[SPEAKER_03]: We recorded it a little while ago and we had this terrible, just really, really cold stretch in January and February.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I just want to mention that.
[SPEAKER_03]: We mentioned the freezing cold temperature, which is not what it is right now, as it episodes are.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, it's funny.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank goodness.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: It just, it wasn't even that long ago that it was like, really cold.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's very warm.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's actually a really good planting day by the moon.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today, the moon is in Libra and it's a really good day for flowers.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if I've been out there a couple of hours this morning, put in seeds in.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, I hope they germinate and come up.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, that season has started and
[SPEAKER_01]: for all the gardeners out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today we'll be posting our April planting by the man calendar so you can look on that and refer to it.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you wish it for your planting, I need you to come help to me in my garden.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I will.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm really thinking in terms of toddler type gardening and any of you toddler moms out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our grandma's, the have any ideas about that, we would love to hear some suggestions, trying to plant things that are fairly easy and get results and are fun and I'm thinking in terms of peas and radishes and things like that that are.
[SPEAKER_01]: kind of showy, you know, and also that you can eat, that they can eat, you can excited about.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, anyway, that's going on.
[SPEAKER_03]: So today's episode is really fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: We received this email.
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, we had decided we were ready to start up the podcast again, and we were being a little slow because we were a little, well, what do we talk about?
[SPEAKER_03]: And then we just got this amazing email in our inbox from Emily Hillman and mom, do you want to read it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, this is just a bit of it, and I think this really sets the stage for the conversation today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Emily said in her email to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have spent the past 14 years working in a peril and home fashion.
[SPEAKER_01]: Building the career I thought I wanted.
[SPEAKER_01]: After having my daughter in 2022 in purchasing an 1800-home here in New Jersey, my priorities have shifted in a profound way.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm craving a life and a career that feels slower, more balanced, and more aligned with my values.
[SPEAKER_01]: While still allowing me to contribute creatively and meaningfully through my work,
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that sums up so beautifully with so many of our listeners are struggling with and yearning for and we felt so gifted by this outreach from Emily at a time when we were like kind of asking the universe for an indication of what we needed to be talking about.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: What do people have in one another?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as so as Emily said she lives in New Jersey and she works full time and you'll hear her talk about that in the conversation.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will add here that we are our first meeting of the slow living through the season's cohort spring session last week and this topic came up again from some moms that had young families that expressed very similar thoughts to this how do we do this how do you do slow living and this capitalistic culture where we supposed to be hustling
[SPEAKER_01]: and making enough money to have things that we want and need.
[SPEAKER_01]: And not to say we have all the answers for that, but boy, is it certainly worth discussing and sharing ideas and coming together as a community to at least explore it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think listening back over to the conversation made me think about how much of it is really just thinking outside the box and setting up systems for ourselves.
[SPEAKER_03]: that serve the life that we want to live as opposed to trying to work within the system that isn't working for us, that might be a little vague.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think that becomes clear through the conversation.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think a lot of us come to this conversation or this question with the, well, it's expensive to live life and you've got to work to make money to pay for the life and but then when I work, I'm not living the life I want to live so it's a self-destructive sort of cycle.
[SPEAKER_01]: little circle and questioning the assumptions made there is a good place to start absolutely and I think creative thinking thinking outside the boxes you say trying to picture things a little bit outside the system you don't have to go off grid or anything might want to but you don't have to there are lots of ways to step outside of
[SPEAKER_01]: all this craziness that has been normalized and just doing things a little differently in your own way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's also, it's not gonna happen all at once and you're going to, I think forever feel like you're not there.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's gonna, I don't know if we'll ever arrive but it does get better.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you make little changes every time.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think all of us, including Emily in this conversation, realize that as we were talking like, wow, we've all really come really far.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, give yourself credit for how far you have come.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as always, that we say so often here, what your feelings be here guide when things feel better, you are making progress.
[SPEAKER_01]: When things are feeling a little bit squeezy, not so great, then you look at it and see where you can make an adjustment.
[SPEAKER_03]: So thank you so much again, Emily for writing in and for coming on the show to chat with us.
[SPEAKER_03]: We had a really great time talking to you and listeners, let us know.
[SPEAKER_03]: if any of this lands with you, how it lands and if anyone want to come chat with us about anything, just email us.
[SPEAKER_03]: We are really excited about this next season of the podcast and exploring a lot of these topics in more detail and going a little deeper and a little slower.
[SPEAKER_01]: So thank you for being yes and I want to say if anyone
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyone's welcome.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's very casual.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's free.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're just having a good time in there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you do want to join, let us know, read out and I'll send you the sign of link.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, you can email Mary at lady-farmor.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: So with all of that said, let's get into our conversation with Emily Hillman.
[SPEAKER_01]: First of all, we would love to hear a little bit about you and your story and how you have come around to where you are now and the things that bring you here to the good dirt to explore.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, these ideas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I've been a listener of the good dirt for the past couple of years and it's been a place for me to come back to when I'm feeling like life is moving a little too fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: a little different from what your listeners are used to hearing in a way that I haven't really arrived wherever I'm going yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have a business or a product to offer, but I hope that my story might resonate with your listeners and that someone out there might relate in some way.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm kind of at a discovery stage, a little bit about me and my background.
[SPEAKER_00]: I grew up in a small town in Vermont where I spent a lot of my childhood outside and the woods exploring and connecting with nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really where I've always found inspiration.
[SPEAKER_00]: I also really enjoyed drawing and I was very into being creative and it just sort of led me down a path
[SPEAKER_00]: high school and spent my first year of college there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a bit of a culture shock as you can imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I did end up moving back to the east coast and I spent the last 14 years or so working in fashion in a peril in and around the New York City area.
[SPEAKER_00]: I started at a couple of high-end designers managing the work rooms and the artisans in Midtown, which was a really amazing experience seeing firsthand everything that goes into not only making one piece for a runway show, but translating that into production.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was...
[SPEAKER_00]: It was grueling.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't very glamorous, but I learned so much and I'm so grateful to have had that opportunity and those experiences and to have built the relationships with the factory workers, being there day in and day out.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so glad to have been able to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But ultimately, I needed to pay back student loans and I was paying New York City rent.
[SPEAKER_00]: those jobs weren't really paying the bills unfortunately.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I went to the dark side and I was in fast fashion for many years.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was building a career that I thought I wanted, but I think I always felt like it was a stepping stone for me in some way and something inside was
[SPEAKER_00]: telling me this isn't really where you're meant to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: I slowly started moving my way away from the city and moved to New Jersey.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was just across the Hudson River and then I ended up meeting my husband and moving further into New Jersey.
[SPEAKER_00]: After we got married, we bought an old 1800s house out here in 100 in county.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, a lot of farms out here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a little slice of Vermont
[SPEAKER_00]: At the time, I was still commuting into the city.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just kind of became too much.
[SPEAKER_00]: So one day, I decided I was done with fast fashion.
[SPEAKER_00]: I quit that job and shifted over to home fashion, which is where I am now.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's definitely a slower pace and I enjoy it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just something still pulling at me.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I had my daughter a few years ago and life kind of feels like it's coming full circle in a way where, you know, I want to be outside more exploring nature with my daughter just, you know, much like my childhood was so, while I don't think I'll ever be back to Vermont flow, my priorities have shifted pretty dramatically.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I've become more spiritual in a way and.
[SPEAKER_00]: more aware of my intuition and how I'm feeling with the changes of the seasons and balance I think is the word that I keep coming back to and so that's what I'm trying to focus on.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I also have this other side of me that's still deeply called to just continue working in a meaningful way that aligns with my values and is somehow better for the planet.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where I kind of was led to reach out to you guys and, you know, even if there's not an answer or a clear path ahead, I thought maybe be a good opportunity just to have a conversation about it and see where it goes.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, first of all, before we get too far away from it, I love how you started in fashion in New York and downtown, where it midtown, doing the runways and all of that.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then you went to fast fashion.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that that's helpful for me.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think that fast fashion, especially in this world of slow fashion, we kind of lump everything together.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I love any of the distinction between
[SPEAKER_03]: fast fashion.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a big difference.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we for sure.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, we forget that.
[SPEAKER_03]: And also, I just want to say a helpful way to enter into this conversation.
[SPEAKER_03]: We sort of talked about this recently in my mom and I, but I think it's helpful to remove morality from.
[SPEAKER_03]: The, you know, like good bad right wrong from how, you know, fast fashion, but I think even there, all we're talking about here is we're noticing that we don't love it and we want to do something different.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's okay that you were led there because of something that you do love and didn't make you feel great, which was creative and fashion and that's different from this thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that What all of that is getting at is we're all just always in search of a feeling I guess or a group of feelings or a way of being in general.
[SPEAKER_03]: We attach a scenario or a look to that and then we chase this scenario or we chase the thing instead of that.
[SPEAKER_03]: feeling itself.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm definitely trying to shift to follow more of my intuition and my feeling and yeah go towards that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to hear more about your first career and then you transition to fast fashion and then you commented there's a big difference.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd like to hear more about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, my first jobs were working for designers who used factories in Midtown Manhattan, the fashion district.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had no idea when I went there that
[SPEAKER_00]: it even existed, or you see these skyrises, but there's all these little factories in these buildings and every floor has multiple factories you could go to, these little coal in the wall, places that do all these different things.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's pleading and great, greating and people who make silk flowers, all these different things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's also cut and sew workrooms
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you walk in and they're just all these sewing machines, the whole floor is sewing machines and it's really cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had no idea that existed and to be there.
[SPEAKER_00]: every day working with those factory workers was really amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're so talented and make such beautiful things.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a slower piece and it is an art, but then the other side of it, the fast fashion is fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's more, you know, having two collections a year versus every month having a whole new collection.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a big difference.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so what was your job?
[SPEAKER_03]: It sounds like you had a few, both give us an example of what you would have been working on in New York City and midtown going into these factories.
[SPEAKER_03]: What would your job have been?
[SPEAKER_03]: versus the corporate job in fast fashion.
[SPEAKER_03]: What did that look like?
[SPEAKER_00]: Day to day in Midtown Manhattan, when I was managing the factories, anything that they would need, all these little places, each part of the production would be at a different stage and I would be the delivery person.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would go from place to place.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was the marking and grading where they would take the pattern and grade it into different sizes and then make a marker,
[SPEAKER_00]: is the big wide piece of paper that you roll out and has all the different pattern pieces on it that get cut at one time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would carry those rolls of paper to the cutter and they would cut.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then that would make its way to the sewing work room.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would always be in there if they needed trims, buttons, zippers, flowers that we're getting sewn on, lace, or
[SPEAKER_00]: anything like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was just kind of the go between between each place.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is that like a production manager?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I was a production manager.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, going to the corporate world.
[SPEAKER_03]: What was your like job where you also production manager for corporate.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I did a technical design and design in the corporate fast fashion.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a little bit more creative.
[SPEAKER_03]: So more creative, but also you're seeing like a different side of the industry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: We could have probably used your help when we were doing this.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we did a fashion line underneath you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that was our first thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, we learned to learn all that out of the fly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: How long did you guys do that for?
[SPEAKER_03]: We just did the one run.
[SPEAKER_03]: We really, we sort of like,
[SPEAKER_03]: just figured it out as we did it.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'd asked a lot of people and went to some workshops and paid some people and then came up with these five pieces of clothing and we worked with a local woman here to help us make them into patterns and then took them to someone who was able to do the tech design and stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then we shopped around at factories, up and down these coasts.
[SPEAKER_03]: We found someone actually in DC who could make them.
[SPEAKER_03]: we did this Kickstarter campaign, and then after that whole process is when we were like, well, are we supposed to just like keep doing that?
[SPEAKER_00]: That was like so rolling.
[SPEAKER_03]: That was crazy.
[SPEAKER_03]: And we just like, you know, we weren't set up to keep doing it.
[SPEAKER_03]: We certainly learned a lot.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not that we'll never do that again.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just that
[SPEAKER_03]: We learned as we did it that that's not the business we wanted to get into.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a really fun creative project, but it was a fantastic tutorial in fashion and, you know, the difference between slow fashion and fashion and fashion and why slow fashion is such a challenge and why it is so expensive and that that leads us into like even why we're talking to you today because.
[SPEAKER_01]: It sort of guided us into the direction we wanted to go because what we were encountering.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were bending over backwards trying to keep the clothing sustainable and natural materials.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we literally used to know plastic and it was quite challenging.
[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, the cost was more of them people are used to paying for
[SPEAKER_01]: these functional pieces of clothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know you got comments like why would I pay $250 for this little summer dress or whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we
[SPEAKER_01]: begin to see that our task was, well, we'll tell you why.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll tell you why and yes and explain it and educate.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, open people's eyes to the whole thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is such an issue on the global scale now.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going back to beer, crash course and all that as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: So then going from corporate, it sounds like even on this year's long journey sounds like so Lee had been being like, I need to slow down more and do things that are more aligned.
[SPEAKER_03]: And your email specifically when you reached out, I loved how, at least one of the things that I took from it was like, the problem is this, we want to live our lives in this certain way.
[SPEAKER_03]: But the way that that's
[SPEAKER_03]: presented to us, cost money, but we're also slowing down to where we're not in the corporate rat race, making all the money for the slow thing, then how are we supposed to afford the slow thing?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, this horrible catch 22 and we could talk about this all day, but I kind of want to like center the conversation around that and maybe like just sort of like tease that out a little bit with the three of us here.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think we kind of starts with redefining like what is the,
[SPEAKER_03]: the baseline, like feeling that we're actually going for.
[SPEAKER_03]: And what are our non-negotiables things that we need in our life?
[SPEAKER_03]: Do we need to have weekends free and where I don't have to worry about work?
[SPEAKER_03]: I need X amount of time with my family.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's like chill.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I need to be able to go on two vacations a year.
[SPEAKER_03]: Or, you know, those baseline things and kind of build out from that.
[SPEAKER_03]: is one of the ways that I think about it that before we even think about what how do I afford the nice organic cotton sheets?
[SPEAKER_03]: Just kind of going back to what do I really want and what feels good to me starting from there is something that has.
[SPEAKER_03]: helped me, I do this every six months and I'm really welcome, I'm like how am I going to make this work?
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's usually where I have to go back.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like building a monthly budget, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: You're like, okay, what are our needs?
[SPEAKER_03]: And then we get from there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think in Jimmy out of it, opening the lens kind of, first of all, we need to just accept the fact and embrace it
[SPEAKER_01]: Capitalism itself is not really compatible with us as sustainable lifestyle.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just not, and we cannot individually change that, and that's something
[SPEAKER_01]: that MNI had sort of, you know, over the last 10 years of doing lady farmer and we're like urging people so much to make this choice and that choice because we want to be part of the paradigm change paradigm shift and that's true that that's so true we do want to be part of the paradigm shift but individually we're not going to be able to do that and we're just going to drive ourselves crazy and create a lot of pain in frustration for ourselves if we
[SPEAKER_01]: the whole is going to look different because of our every individual decision.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and also that's kind of going back to the morale.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's helped really helped me to take out right and wrong and good and bad and separate that from my purchasing decisions in general, the way I
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, make my daily life decisions when it comes to good, bad, right, wrong, big questions of like, how do you treat each other and how we raise our kids.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's a different category from like, what brand cleaner am I going to buy if we put all that mental energy on everything it's exhausting going back to sustainable like that's part of why it's so feels so untenable.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's because we like attach all this weight to everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can't just live in a concentrated frustration, especially about the situation of waste and household waste and the things we use every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm the first person to admit, I do my very best.
[SPEAKER_01]: I make very careful choices.
[SPEAKER_01]: I limit things I throw away.
[SPEAKER_01]: I limit the plastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do the best I can.
[SPEAKER_01]: Beyond that, I have to accept that we just don't live in a world where nothing I use ends up in the landfill.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, we go back to how things feel.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to feel guilty.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to feel conflict at all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I do the best I can.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel good about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And at the same time, I feel good when I wear natural fibers.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to wear plastic in my clothes.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't feel good.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's me.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you use your feelings and your judgment as a guide and try to stay out of the place where I feel like I
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if that helps you at all, you know, on the broader scale, and we're talking about the economics of the thing, like how to live in a very expensive world, a capitalistic world, in a way that's not harming the planet or not harming our health and we're living in ways that are friendly with the Earth and our nervous system, you know, all this reflects on our health and the way we feel every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is an answer to a question you brought up in your email.
[SPEAKER_01]: What are the economics of it?
[SPEAKER_01]: my answer and this is broad and can be taking a lot of different ways is to do the best we can and not demand perfection out of ourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a great deal of acceptance about the way things are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be comfortable with the things we can do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be aware of how we're feeling in every moment and make decisions that help us feel better about where we are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Does that make any sense great?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's kind of
[SPEAKER_00]: become more aware of it after having my daughter and trying to find clothes for her that are not toxic, but also that I can afford because she's growing and I constantly have to be buying more new sizes.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's been one of my biggest challenges in the past couple of years is just trying to balance that all.
[SPEAKER_00]: try to make the best choices that I can.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have a lot of thoughts about that particular.
[SPEAKER_03]: I also have an 18-month-old.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm familiar with buying babies.
[SPEAKER_03]: In this case, I came count the items that I've bought new on maybe two hands.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have not bought a lot of new items.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm mostly going to, actually, not even the thrift stores.
[SPEAKER_03]: My mom's better at the thrift stores, but I love a consignment store, like a kid's consignment store, and there's certain brands that I'm always looking for.
[SPEAKER_03]: So like Hannah Anderson, it's all cotton.
[SPEAKER_03]: Some of it's organic, but like even if it's just cotton, I've great with that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hannah Anderson pops up in a lot of thrusters too.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's the continent, the thrift.
[SPEAKER_03]: general natural fibers.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe I've got a couple of new things, but I just want to say here moms and people like us who are conscientious about what we're purchasing are just like a gold mind for advertisers and buzzwords.
[SPEAKER_03]: They know what we need and our pain points because we want to do the right thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really easy to market to us and I just think that we have to be extra
[SPEAKER_03]: We don't actually need to buy those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, that's, I totally hear you, of course, because I also prefer to put Johnny in like non-toxic things, but even the idea of clothes being toxic.
[SPEAKER_03]: Unless you're dipping your child's clothes in bleach and then I'm on them, it's just like not that hard to find in my experience.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have not had a hard time finding cute, cheap, organic cotton stuff at consignment stores in their store.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's where I would start with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you, you know, if you go to the big box stores and you're picking up all these cute clothes for your kids, the all the bright colors and stuff, many of those dies is as a dies.
[SPEAKER_01]: they aren't talks.
[SPEAKER_01]: They actually are.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but I'm just saying for my personal experience, I don't even go to those big box stores because now I reality, that's not.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, that's if you say live in a city and they're harder to get to.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just saying like in our world where we get good consignment stuff and thrift stuff and, you know, we can look at the labels and make these choices
[SPEAKER_01]: that's because we're a prize of the choices to be made and the better choices.
[SPEAKER_01]: But for people just starting out, they do need to know that the materials that are used in the production of your clothes do make a difference.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the synthetic and the plastic, those absolutely, your infants wearing plastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: And
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you going to read any number of things about what this does or doesn't do, but, you know, for me personally, I don't want to put my infant plastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are other choices.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know how to get in there easily accessible.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're affordable.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are just the choices.
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to make here you.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is going to be a moment of a mother not here.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're saying and it's you're not wrong, but I think as a new mom.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just, there's so much yelling at us from every angle of like, you're doing this wrong.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're messing up your kid.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's why don't do this by this.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like so intense.
[SPEAKER_03]: Really.
[SPEAKER_03]: That I think anyone particularly anyone listening to this podcast.
[SPEAKER_03]: No.
[SPEAKER_03]: That like.
[SPEAKER_03]: the thing that feels crunchy in the store with the really bright dyes and it kind of smells like plastic.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're not gonna buy that anyways because they don't like it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe the people that need to hear that message or the people who maybe only shop at stores where I can't even think of a big box, like fast-fashioned place, like a Walmart or something like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: If that's your only place to go for a close, then you probably have some other needs that need to be met.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just like this conversation is so layered and nuanced.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I just have a lot of faith in people that if they are asking these questions in the first place, the close that they're drawn to are fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Emily, what do you have to say?
[SPEAKER_01]: you ask the questions about the economics of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not only I think from a granular standpoint like we're talking about how to afford the quality things you want to buy, but even from a larger lifestyle thing like you know how do you even live this way and have have a full-time job.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can get to that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But first I want to hear what you have to say about about the product choice thing and the big scheme of things.
[UNKNOWN]: So
[SPEAKER_00]: buying clothing second hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've definitely had some successes with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: My biggest challenge with that has been getting rid of the fragrances in some of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just cannot get it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've soaked them and I don't know if you guys have any.
[SPEAKER_00]: tips or tricks to help, but that has been mine.
[SPEAKER_01]: You mean from the previous, I was laundry detergent or whatever, I'll interstate.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not super sensitive to fragrances, so I have not had that experience, but I do know that I'm in several Facebook groups and a lot of people do.
[SPEAKER_03]: Express that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm sure that there's a lovely way to go.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know vinegar, but then everything smells like vinegar.
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, I know that's a real.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's a struggle for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know someone I can ask about that actually, but yeah, everything you said is valid and helpful outside of clothing is food the simplest foods are so much more expensive and I feel like we've been spending so much more money on food is past couple of years and it's wild.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so hard to navigate it, but we still feel good about the choices we're making and we're trying to buy more locally.
[SPEAKER_00]: We haven't lived in this area very long, so we're still trying to find the right sources and go to the right places, but I think we're getting there and we feel good about it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the thing that I will say about the food is it's just a universal truth right now, everyone is.
[SPEAKER_03]: paying more money for food and food is so expensive.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then, of course, the organic and regenerative, all that stuff is just going to be more expensive, especially if you're going to the fancy or stores.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you're buying anything like that's in a box of the label on it is immediately going to be more expensive because of all the, I mean, not to say, like, I'm sure they're great products and they're probably paying their people well and everything, that's why they're expensive.
[SPEAKER_03]: but in my experience, the more that I stick to bulk as much as possible, like finding a good bulk source and finding your good local sources, which again takes time.
[SPEAKER_03]: So just being patient with yourself and eventually you'll find your good meat and then maybe
[SPEAKER_03]: If you can find hook up with a farm somewhere or meet people that are looking for similar foods, I think you can buy a cow like a whole cow and split, you know, and it's like very economic to do that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, hello, that's a lot of work and footwork and you have to put in the feelers and the work and feel it up.
[SPEAKER_03]: You, it sounds like you are doing work.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you'll get there with finding that stuff buying in bulk buying is close to the source as you can and not getting discouraged by like The fun snacks and things that you want to find the grocery store that like have the labels on them.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what's so good.
[SPEAKER_03]: I did the same thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm like
[SPEAKER_03]: I want this cereal with all of these things that are good about it.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's a $10.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's so silly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you familiar with the CSA concept?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is a website, maybe already know it, where you can find CSAs in your area.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you familiar with that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or is a CSA something that you think might be helpful for your...
[SPEAKER_00]: There are a few farms in the area that have a CSA.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have definitely considered it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're just worried that we're not going to be able to use it all and then we'll be wasting it.
[SPEAKER_03]: It also is a big learning curve.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like you're probably going to get it and then you're going to be like, well, I can't use it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then you are going to feel like you're wasting it, but over time.
[SPEAKER_03]: You will get sick of wasting it and you'll be like, okay, we're going to figure this out.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then all of a sudden six months later.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know that's been my experience like what I do with this.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is stressful actually, but it's reminding me of something you're talking about earlier, which is it's easy to feel very overwhelmed in this space because we look at the store and we look online and we look at traditional places where we're meant to procure our goods and everything feels expensive and inaccessible.
[SPEAKER_03]: When you do something like participate in a CSA or buy your clothing at consignment stores, but it can't be smelling clothing, or try to find neighbors to go in on a big animal with.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're creating boundaries for yourself or constraints, and it might be a little harder at first to be like, well, I'm gonna try this quarter to not buy any new kid's clothes or whatever it is.
[SPEAKER_03]: But within those constraints,
[SPEAKER_03]: You have to get creative because you kind of cut yourself off from like an easy one would be if you're going to cut out Amazon or something just for the practice of it or You know you want to get comfortable with and can be it so you do something like cut out Amazon then
[SPEAKER_03]: The first thing you experience is you have to be a little creative.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's how I deal with the CSA thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a constraint for yourself.
[SPEAKER_03]: You spend all this money on all this fresh food.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you're not going to go to the store because you already spent money on food that you already have, but you don't really know what to do with a root of bacon.
[SPEAKER_03]: But you're kind of forced to figure out what to do with the root of bacon.
[SPEAKER_03]: And all of a sudden, it's really fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's kind of been, that's a good way of looking at it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they set up all challenges for yourself instead of taking the path of least resistance and you need to go out and spend your Saturday, buy them a bunch of stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: You create a different framework for your own daily needs and it's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: You find a way and get used to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you get used to these things feeling better like it sort of cuts down on the general
[SPEAKER_01]: that I know I have experienced in the past and that maybe you're expressing to us in your email, that you know, how can I do this?
[SPEAKER_01]: How can I work it out?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think the answer is, and there's not any one answer, but there's a way of approaching it, creativity, a lot of,
[SPEAKER_01]: grace, a lot of giving yourself permission to do whatever it takes.
[SPEAKER_01]: But at the same time, looking for other solutions that they're not what every American is used to doing out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And especially, I think in today's climate, we're talking about food, who knows what we're going to see with food in the next couple of years because the farming situation is there's a lot of that stuff going on right now that
[SPEAKER_01]: We didn't know what the results are going to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we have always said, and I still think this is the best advice, get as local as possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that could mean, you know, tomato plants and whatever, if you're able to do that, a few cucumber things that are really easy to grow that can always eat herbs.
[SPEAKER_01]: That kind of things, people have different capabilities in terms of growing things.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we like to encourage people that it's not as hard as you think to grow a couple of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: as local is possible from your very own patio to your backyard, to the local CSA, to the farm in the next state, or however your concentric circles widened to start as close to home as possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's the best bet going forward in this uncertain future.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have about our food supply.
[SPEAKER_03]: One more thing on this subject, back to the waste, especially around like a CSA,
[SPEAKER_03]: If you haven't already, set up a home compost.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was one of my questions for you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: We live in kind of a wooded area.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the deer are, there's so many deer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, everything, there's bears.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know, I need to research it more, but how to create a composting system that's not gonna attract animals.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's also not like a plastic bin.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think it might have to be up last time, but that's probably okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: Or some, I mean, maybe you can buy a metal one.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was going to say it's probably going to be a little bit of an investment.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like it's going to be one of those things that's like, oh, this kind of hurts, but it's going to ultimately even out because you will feel more empowered to grow more food or buy more locally.
[SPEAKER_03]: I haven't felt the pain of food waste in a really long
[SPEAKER_03]: make a delicious thing and too many leftovers you don't get to them all.
[SPEAKER_03]: Our city compost tastes meat.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we just, I compost everything.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that completely alleviates all of that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't have my own home composty thing and my parents just have a big pile in their backyard.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's one thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I would ask people in your area who could post and be like, what do you do?
[SPEAKER_03]: And maybe you'll have to buy a big plastic thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: But that's one of the things where it's like, sometimes a big plastic thing can be held.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are lots of ways to do it and more and more resources on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just encourage you to take a deep dive into that because this is my opinion, but I think in terms of what each of us can do individually, in terms of sustainable living, partnering with the planet in a positive way, and doing something every day in our own lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: to help.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think composting is huge, absolutely huge, because food waste is so huge.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's one of the biggest things that's contributing to the methane gases that escape from the landfills up into the atmosphere and contribute to climate change.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's a very enormous problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm sure
[SPEAKER_01]: people would argue with me on that, but I feel like it's something that everybody can do to some extent, even in a small way.
[SPEAKER_01]: You might not be able to compost every single thing, but if everybody understood how important it was and want a big impact, the food waste is having, people would
[SPEAKER_01]: be inspired to do a little more.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I encourage you and apply.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that there's a perfect season for work.
[SPEAKER_03]: You feel good.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you don't want to be a positive thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't have to be even the positive thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll find the thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we live out and we have acreage and we have a
[SPEAKER_01]: compost pile that's a bit away from the house, over on the other side of the garden gate, but we mix it up with our pony manure.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's okay, because you need to put dry stuff in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and it's not boxed in.
[SPEAKER_00]: My parents probably had one and they just had this little rickety
[SPEAKER_00]: fence around it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and people get those palettes that you get in different places.
[SPEAKER_01]: The feed store and everything people set up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Little makes shift cube calls out.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's so many resources on it.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's so much easier than it seems it seems really intimidating, but it's a lot easier.
[SPEAKER_01]: And people think it's magic and it's stinky and it doesn't sting.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really not, you know, and
[SPEAKER_01]: Emma's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: It alleviates so much pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, for those of this that are tuned into this kind of thing at all, it hurts to throw away food.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it just really hurts.
[SPEAKER_01]: It hurts my feelings.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's definitely I would start there in your journey.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I want to get to the bigger thing, which I think you're alluding to when you reached out to us is like, how can you do this?
[SPEAKER_01]: work full time and be a mom and how does this work and how do I live not in the rat race.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I kind of made all these little changes along the way in the past few years and I'm kind of at a point where whatever path I end up on, I want it to be meaningful and like
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm using the skills that I've learned over the past 14 years or so, I want to hear you talk Emily, what you feel like your daily life looks like in this world where you're at least moving more towards this balance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think I just want to be more
[SPEAKER_00]: present.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just don't know what that is yet.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, especially based on what we were talking about earlier.
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to say that, first of all, it's a great exercise, my mom just asked, and maybe that's worth spending some time with.
[SPEAKER_03]: in your wildest dreams, you know, writing, pretending like it's the best day ever writing down, what did you do that day, or what are you so excited to do about tomorrow?
[SPEAKER_03]: That's your favorite thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's okay if it's not working.
[SPEAKER_03]: It sounds like a lot of things you've said I've really resonated with me and that makes me feel like we have similar values and enjoy things and it does sound like you actually like working in like
[SPEAKER_03]: me too.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love working and I especially being a mom and working.
[SPEAKER_03]: I find that I'm actually the best mom when I'm also working.
[SPEAKER_03]: So something that I want to say is it sounds like you really do know and you really are tuned in to what you want and what you need.
[SPEAKER_03]: I would start with trusting that a lot more than it sounds like you want to.
[SPEAKER_03]: You have all the answers within your family.
[SPEAKER_03]: You could do this.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think
[SPEAKER_03]: Think about the ideal.
[SPEAKER_03]: scenario for you and then sort of reverse engineering that and I think you can remove the meat like well, but I have to like afford all of this stuff going back to what we said earlier is actually within constraints we've become more creative and more resourceful and it's actually a lot more fun and exciting than it is scary.
[SPEAKER_03]: It seems scary at first but then once we put ourselves
[SPEAKER_03]: we gain confidence that I think is also something that a lot of us lack because we have given away our power to
[SPEAKER_03]: consumerism I guess because we feel like it's so easy and like fun to just like buy everything and buy all of our needs.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think that also diminishes our confidence.
[SPEAKER_03]: First of all, you're very creative.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're very artistic and you're probably a lot more resourceful and know a lot more than you think you do and you could probably get away with buying a lot less than you think you need to buy in general.
[SPEAKER_03]: But also, I don't know, I could wax for hours about what I think you could do.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let yourself have a blue sky possibility and think outside of the constraints of the budget line of the month, because when we open ourselves up in one way, we think we're closing off something else, but really we're also opening up of their possibilities.
[SPEAKER_03]: So just sort of.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's like something that's really helped me and actually I'm married to someone who is a little like less that way and so it's been interesting for us he's like, well, that's crazy.
[SPEAKER_03]: We could never do that and I'm like, well, could we have a similar situation?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so yeah, I want to say we have an interview with Shannon Hayes have you listened to that one.
[SPEAKER_03]: which I had just had an audio book.
[SPEAKER_03]: That book has changed my life.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I just read it like, I don't know, a year ago.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think about her and what she writes her about in that book every single day because it's what it sounds like, redefining rich.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's kind of like reevaluating all of your needs and everything, but also very empowering.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's just a lot in there that I think you will already.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, yeah, I'll definitely switch on that out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is a perfect referral.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had not occurred to me to tell her about that, but yeah, run.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't walk to a smooth that episode and read that book.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're really good, but yeah, and I'll say this, you know, I've been around several decades now, more than you girls.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will say that when you put energy into
[SPEAKER_01]: thinking about what you want, not in a whiny or a lack way, but just imagining the way you want things to look and be in feel.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been my experience over time.
[SPEAKER_01]: These things don't happen overnight, but over time, you'll see these things sort of evolving, where you least expect them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we're sort of powerful and, I don't mean to get woo-waves and all that.
[SPEAKER_01]: to whatever extent you think that's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I do think we have a way of looming in 10 things and think about them, we have a way of doing things to get ourselves there without even realizing we're doing in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And over time, it's been my experience that I see these things.
[SPEAKER_01]: sort of unfurl like a flower and, you know, I raised my kids in the suburbs.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was very busy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It felt very rat-racy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It felt very so much to do so much stuff, expensive it and all that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I treasure those years, those growing years with the kids and all the opportunities we had.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had a lot of fun and we're very busy.
[SPEAKER_01]: But at the same time, I was imagining like just a different
[SPEAKER_01]: So much of that has come to be I just think we have a way of creating things for ourselves that we don't even know how we've done it I think writing my notes for our conversation I
[SPEAKER_00]: I realize that I actually have come farther than I thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: I heard that too in your story.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sometimes you don't notice that, or it's just one thing, you're kind of doing over and over, like, the compost is a good example.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, I don't think I realized even until we were talking today how freeing that has been for me.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just something I don't think about.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have another some more good friends that like love cooking and love farmers market and they're like always stressed about food waste I'm like that's like just like a stress.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just don't have it in my life They probably tell themselves they can't compost because it's just to yeah because they're also same friends I love them, but like they're so scared to get a whole chicken Because they're like will never cook the carcass down and do the stock like that's too much so we don't do that and it's like No, you guys can do it.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really simple stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's another good example of like
[SPEAKER_03]: It can feel really intimidating and it's obviously a lot easier to buy the plastic thing with the fourth eyes and make the meal that way.
[SPEAKER_03]: But when you make yourself get the whole chicken and do the whole thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: The first couple times you're doing it, oh, that's as I was knowing.
[SPEAKER_03]: But then all of a sudden you have like, a really good chicken dinner.
[SPEAKER_03]: You have pulled chicken for chicken salad.
[SPEAKER_03]: Then you have the carcass for the stock.
[SPEAKER_03]: Then you make the stock.
[SPEAKER_03]: Then you have this stock that can last several soups.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then you can compost the chicken carcass.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just thought about composing meat.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, again, that's another thing you need to make sure you're doing, you know, like, careful of the bears and stuff, but like, yeah, it's been big.
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, I'm so spoiled, like, are the city picks up that they take the meat in the compost.
[SPEAKER_03]: Bye.
[SPEAKER_03]: Check your local jurisdiction and there might be a service, honestly, Emily, it might be easier than you think.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like someone might come to your driveway and pick it up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: What am I talking about?
[SPEAKER_01]: Those little victories, those little satisfaction.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the kind of thing that you made you want to time those are the kinds of things that add up.
[SPEAKER_01]: So down the road.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you said you had that experience of making this list you go, hey, I really have some stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're down the road and you might be still working full time and maybe the big framework hasn't changed, but you'll go, hey, I feel better about everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just feel better like I'm more in touch with this lifestyle than I was a year ago or two years ago just because I've let myself have these little.
[SPEAKER_01]: experiences that feel good.
[SPEAKER_01]: It adds up.
[SPEAKER_03]: It really does.
[SPEAKER_03]: You might not be able to do a garden and all, but I'm sure you could grow microgreens on your wings.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have so easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: The last year we built a little raised bed, so we grew some tomatoes and our basil was crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I grew so bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had no idea.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, isn't that the best?
[SPEAKER_03]: So you're literally already doing it.
[SPEAKER_01]: to go out and pick a bunch of basil and come in and make it pesto sauce so easy and cook some pasta and we got dinner.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is right, feeling.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the feeling that's going to move you forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: The feeling of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Emily, what else do you feel like you want to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I guess.
[SPEAKER_00]: part of where I'm at is a realization that's similar to what you guys had after you did your clothing line, where you realized that wasn't your mission, like that wasn't what you needed to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: You didn't want to be the ones to make the product.
[SPEAKER_00]: You wanted to teach about it for the reason behind it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know about Fibershan?
[SPEAKER_00]: I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I learned about that through your podcast, so I started
[SPEAKER_03]: Cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you're asking for specific resources for us, like what have we done, I have done the artist's way more times than I can count.
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you know about that book?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: So even if you don't consider yourself an artist, which I think you should it's a great exercise.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's hard because she makes you journal every day.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you might feel like you don't have time for it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think you have to make time for it because it's kind of the only way that you really like let.
[SPEAKER_03]: get in touch with what you're actually thinking.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's called the artist's way.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a 12 week artist recovery program.
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you've buried your dreams and what you want to do, it helps you unearth all of that and come up against your own blocks and limiting beliefs.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sounds like to me like you just need a good dose of that like spend some time with what you really want to do and what makes
[SPEAKER_03]: All of that being, you don't have to change anything yet, but it'll give you kind of the juice and the power that you need to confidently make steps in the direction of where you wanna go.
[SPEAKER_03]: You have to know that you wanna change.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think you owe it to yourself to find more conviction and a direction and then it'll be easier.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanna say, very simple direction.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let yourself imagine it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: what that looks like, what it feels like, and what it's like to live in.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just let yourself do that and try to resist of that can never happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's impossible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can't afford that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not in all that stuff we put in the way of those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let yourself imagine it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I would like to say.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: So definitely redefining rich.
[SPEAKER_03]: I recommend the artist's way, that's a little bit of a commitment, but I would do it.
[SPEAKER_03]: a fun self-help book that I think it would be fun is if you haven't read the you are a bad ass book.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's Jensen, Chero.
[SPEAKER_03]: She's very funny.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's like less cheesy than I don't know, the self-help thing is like a slippery slope of like cheese.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I think she's fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: But the gents and chair of books are good.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's you are a bad ass, which is just like, she's just like pumping up.
[SPEAKER_03]: Also great on audio.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then you are a bad ass at making money.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll make you feel like you can do whatever the hell because you're just like, make some money.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I also think too, I've done a lot of work.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not naturally good with money or making money.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's been a combination of listening to self health books like you're a bad ass at making money.
[SPEAKER_03]: Artist way stuff, just confidence in myself and asking for more money.
[SPEAKER_03]: As far as feeling more confident with money, I had to do a lot of listening to personal finance people and like reading books, just a lot of the boring stuff that we don't like to think about, but it's so important to think about it because
[SPEAKER_03]: If we allow ourselves to be defined by the security of a corporate job and the 401k and that kind of thing that just feels like, oh, I don't have to think about it.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's being taken care of.
[SPEAKER_03]: That also we're like giving that power away, right, but when we really understand it and we really understand not only our own earning capacity, but what to do with that money and how to manage it when it comes in.
[SPEAKER_03]: We feel so much more confident and empowered.
[SPEAKER_01]: This has been so much fun to Emily.
[SPEAKER_01]: Any more questions or thoughts?
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to let you bring in home here.
[SPEAKER_00]: One last question I have for you Emma.
[SPEAKER_00]: I went back and listened to one of your podcasts when you talked about when you worked with Joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was curious if you ever thought about
[SPEAKER_00]: passing on what she taught to you and teaching others.
[SPEAKER_00]: You talk about how you work kind of like a nanny for her.
[SPEAKER_03]: I learned so much from joy about a lot of the things we've discussed here like being a freelance person when I lived with her.
[SPEAKER_03]: I never or what their family.
[SPEAKER_03]: I never had considered
[SPEAKER_03]: like working for myself.
[SPEAKER_03]: So which is funny because that's more or less what I've ended up doing working for myself.
[SPEAKER_03]: And also the digital marketing stuff she was selling these online courses right when that was starting to happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: Her main thing was design, like
[SPEAKER_03]: experiential design, she would like to design these fancy weddings and experiences and she taught me all of her one-on-one stuff about like, here's what makes a beautiful photo and here's what makes a beautiful experience and here's what I find beautiful.
[SPEAKER_03]: I learned a lot from her that way.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just kind of got her perspective from it, but I think
[SPEAKER_03]: more so I learned what it looks like to be a creative person and try to make it in this capitalistic world.
[SPEAKER_03]: But the closer you get to the essence of who you are, the more authentic and experience or a design is going to feel.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's one of the biggest things I learned from her and I use that all the time.
[SPEAKER_03]: I apply that to almost everything.
[SPEAKER_03]: Everything is about getting back to your authentic, that's like so overused.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it really is like authenticity and like your
[SPEAKER_03]: I do think that requires a lot of work with stuff like the artist way and spirituality and getting quiet and being in communion with yourself and your own values to answer your question.
[SPEAKER_03]: I would gladly tell anyone all of those things, but also just the general lessons of like what does it mean to be a creative professional?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was thinking how to translate my skills into something that's more like digital product creation.
[SPEAKER_03]: Dude, if you wanna make a lot of money, I feel like that's like such a product management product development in the digital space is like a big.
[SPEAKER_03]: is a big thing, but you might do all this work on figuring out what you really want, and you might not actually need to make a lot of money as or as much as you think.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just kind of like, the world is your oyster, and you can figure it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is.
[SPEAKER_01]: The world is your oyster.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the first thing you can literally do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let yourself imagine it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to throw something else in there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you're kind of yearning to connect with the seasons and nature, and I think that in itself is what will
[SPEAKER_01]: just that like answering that call in whatever way you can looking at your window in the morning and just noticing the birds or noticing a flower or doing a plant or whatever, I sincerely think that it is a guide for us in finding our authentic calling is reconnecting with the natural world.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we are the natural world and we cut off from it like we are in
[SPEAKER_01]: we lose a sense of what we want and what makes this feel whole.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's my little speech.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and I'll just keep adding.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, get out.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you are one to be closer nature, you want to be outside.
[SPEAKER_03]: You want to spend more time in nature.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is this is feeling very like lady farmer of 101.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's freaking negative 45 degrees right now But as soon as it's not set your alarm 30 minutes early and take your morning pages, which is something you'll do an artist way and like go do them outside And that'll be really knowing and hard for the first few times you do it, but it might really change something.
[SPEAKER_03]: Also, if 30 minutes sounds crazy do it for five minutes
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for reaching out to us and for agreeing to come on for a little conversation.
[SPEAKER_01]: When, you know, we really don't know exactly where it's gonna go, but it's really great fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, we really enjoyed talking to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, I know, thank you guys for everything that you know, offered and it's been great.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been great to talk to you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, stay in touch with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I will.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for your time.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you for tuning in, calling in, and spreading the good dirt.
[SPEAKER_04]: You can reach our listener voicemail at 4443-459-1950.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's 4443-459-1950.
[SPEAKER_04]: You can find this number in our show notes in our Instagram profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: This show is produced by Lady Farmer, a slow living lifestyle community.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the original music is composed in perform by John Kingsley.
[SPEAKER_02]: For more from Lady Firmer, follow us on Instagram at We Are Lady Firmer, that's We Are Lady Firmer, or join us online at www.ladyfirmer.com.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll see you next time on the Good Dirt.
[SPEAKER_02]: Goodbye!