Salome Schillack (00:00):
Hello and welcome to episode number 175 of The Shine Show. Today, we are announcing that the podcast is taking a break. I'm going to tell you why we're taking a break and I'm going to share with you a little bit of how you can do it too.

(00:23):
Giving up your time and freedom to make money is so 2009. Hi, I'm your host, Salome Schillack, and I help online course creators launch, grow, and scale their businesses with Facebook and Instagram ads so that they can make more money and have an even bigger impact in the world. If you're ready to be inspired to dream bigger, launch sooner, and grow your online business faster then tune in because you are ready to shine and this is The Shine Show.

(00:57):
Hello, my friend, my student, my listener, my community. Hello and welcome. This is episode number 175 of The Shine Show. I am having a moment to lead into what I want to share with you today. Maybe the best place to start before I dive into why the podcast is taking a break is I want to tell you all about my swimming. I have been sharing here on the show for many, many, many months, the lead up to the 100 100s that I was going to swim. So for those of you who don't know what it is, it's 100 by 100 meters. I swim three days a week. Right up on the hill near my house, there's a beautiful private school that's right on the hill and it overlooks the city. And every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at quarter past 6:00, I swim there for an hour in an adult swim squad. It has definitely kept me healthy and fit post 40. I have never in my life had done this much exercise ever.

(02:31):
And every year, the swim school puts on this event called 100 100s. Last year, I did not participate because my first thought when I heard that is, “What kind of lunacy is this? I will not partake in this degree of madness.” And then my friend who swims with us, who is 75 participated last year. And she completed, I think last year she did about 60 100s. And I went, “Oh my goodness.” If my friend who is 75 can do this, then maybe my brain is the problem here. Maybe it's not that I'm not physically capable of doing this. Maybe it's that my brain goes into fight or flight when I think about it. So maybe my brain is going into literally into flight mode when I hear this sort of challenge. And so I thought, “Okay, I'm going to sign up for this and we'll just see how it goes. And I'm going to pay special attention to what my brain does in the lead up to this.” And it has been very entertaining watching my brain freak out over this challenge that I signed up for.

(03:54):
So for those of you who don't know, I was diagnosed with ADHD in the last year. Gosh, I'm really sharing a lot with you today. I'm being very vulnerable and open and sharing a lot, but this is an important episode. So if you're here for Facebook ads, sorry to disappoint you today, you're going to get a raw and real Salome. A year ago, I had a panic attack. Following the panic attack, I have been working with my GP and working with my psychologist and I am on anti-anxiety medication. I've been diagnosed with ADHD and I feel and I have been... I was going to say religiously meditating, but I think that's the wrong word. I have been good at meditating and I have been learning how to build more mindfulness into my life. I think all of this is really important for you to understand for what I'm going to share about why the podcast is taking a break today.

(05:03):
So all of this has happened in the last year, and it's been a joy this last year, the journey that I've been on. It has really been a joy slowing down and watching my brain being the true version of me and uncovering who I am when I am not my thoughts. “Okay, so, whoa, Salome, what did you just do there? There's too much going on now.” I have learned that I am not my thoughts. My thoughts are just things that move through my brain. I have learned that I am not my feelings. My feelings are just things that move through my body based on my thoughts. And I have learned that I am not my body. I am just the habitant of my body. That has been the most liberating thing ever. So now, I'm kind of like, “Oh, okay. So if I'm this being that is neither thoughts nor feeling nor body, then what am I?” That has taken me down quite a fun rabbit hole, but that is a conversation for a whole nother day.

(06:43):
But so as I am meditating, which basically is the art of watching your thoughts without judging them and allowing them to be there without associating with them and without judging them. And then mindfulness, which is the art of being in the moment. So you're not constantly just giving into your brain that tends to live either in history, which is memories, which are all made up anyway, or the future, which is fantasies because it hasn't happened yet and you don't know what it's going to be. So you're either living in memories or you're living in fantasy. So mindfulness is teaching me to really just be more in the moment and for... I don't know if this is an ADHD thing or if it's a Salome thing, but maybe you can associate with this.

(07:53):
For people like me, who constantly have the urge to be where you're not right now, mindfulness and meditation is a whole trip. Because when you are constantly feeling chased, when you always feel behind, when you always feel like you're catching up, when you always are anticipating a future that hasn't happened or fearing a future that hasn't happened, or coming up with creative ideas for a future that hasn't happened, it's hard to be present. And mindfulness and meditation is teaching me that.

(08:55):
And so as these skills are building and as I'm learning more and more of these skills, I said yes to the swimming. And I said, “Okay, I will swim.” Not 100 100s because I'm not quite insane yet, but I said, “Okay, I will give 75 75s a go.” The pool is 25 meters long. So if you're doing 75 75s fives, you're doing 75 batches of three laps, and I did it. I did it. Last Friday afternoon, I got in the pool at quarter to 5:00 in the afternoon and I did it in two hours and 40 minutes, I swam 75 75s. And I had cramps all through it. My legs were cramping like it's never cramped before and my brain said, “Maybe you should get out. Your legs are cramping like it's never cramped before, maybe you should get out.” And I was like, “No brain, I'm staying in this pool because I can do this.” And I stayed in and I just went slower, took more breaks, took it easy.

(10:22):
Because this is the other thing that I watched my brain do is I watched my brain freak out about being really good at this. So initially, I had this thought that, “Oh, well, if I've signed up for this, then now I have to start training like a mad person and I have to go swimming on Saturday mornings at 5:00 o'clock for two hours and I have to go faster and push myself.” And then I was like, “No. Nope, nope, nope. None of that required, no hustle required here. No crazy fight energy required.” So you see how a year ago my brain went into flight and then when I signed up for it went into fight. It's like, okay, well we can't just be stable in the middle here. We either have to be super obsessed with something or not do it at all.

(11:17):
And that's the exercise for me, is it's trying to take this brain that I'm watching now do things and seeing when my brain goes into fight or flight and seeing what the triggers are for that and just watching it and making decisions not necessarily from that place, but being able to recognize that my brain is just thinking thoughts that it has been programmed to think, but I can override it. There's a lot of power in that, and I am only starting to scratch the surface on this discovery. And the benefits that I've experienced in my life is, it's thousand... There's so many benefits that I have experienced on so many levels and I'm just loving it. I'm loving the journey and I feel very at peace, I feel very at peace.

(12:30):
I feel like as I'm going on this journey and my nervous system is literally calming down, I can in hindsight, see how absolutely incredibly jacked my nervous system was a year ago at the end of two years of COVID. I'll be honest and share the U.S. election and January 6th stuff and the Black Lives Matter stuff, I feel, even as an Australian, that stuff was hard for me. I know there's many of you for whom it would've been far, far harder, but that stuff added to my anxiety to the point where I had a panic attack. I mean, we all had a COVID journey. And I think when I talk to other people, I realize how much people are coming out now with their mental health issues.

(13:53):
I feel like we've all been bunkered down for almost three years. We've all been kind of just making it through. And now, that we are kind of through it, it's kind of this, “Okay, now what? We survived this, we came through this, now what?” And then our defenses fall down, our walls break and we go, “Oh actually, actually, I just need a break. Actually, I'm exhausted. Actually, it's time to make some big life changes.” So if that's where you're at, I just wanted to share that because I want you to know that you're not alone.

(14:36):
A few weeks ago, I recorded a podcast episode called What To Do When You Don't Like Your Business Anymore. This is episode number 175. And out of 175 episodes, I have never, never had the reaction I got from the episode called What To Do When You Don't Like Your Business Anymore, and it made me cry. I felt so sad for so many women who reached out to me and said, “I started this business because I wanted freedom. I wanted time freedom and I wanted financial freedom and what I have instead is a job with a shackle around my feet that is not bringing in the money I hope, that is exhausting me, that's making me feel tired and I resent it and I don't want to be in it.”

(15:54):
There's a lot that this moment in time, this September, October 2022 is asking of us. And I think it is really important that we listen to our hearts, that we listen to our desire for rest, that we learn to simplify things, and that we learn to do it with less hustle. And maybe there will come a time again when we are ready for hustle, when we are ready for work, when we are ready for push. Because don't get me wrong, I am very much for, there's a time and a place for both things. But for me, right now, the time and the place is for massive, massive, slow down, massive taking on fewer things, massive relaxing, massive just sitting and doing nothing because I am seeing that there is a time for healing needed.

(17:27):
I want to sit on my patio and read more. I want to sit on my patio and write more. I want to learn new things. I love learning. And I feel like I've been teaching so much the last few years that I have forgotten that I want to learn. I love learning. I want the content that goes out on this podcast and the content that goes out in the emails that I write to you and the content that goes out on my ads and the content that goes out on my social media, I want to look at it and feel good about it and feel like I did my best. I don't want to feel, and I'll admit to you that sometimes it does feel that way. I don't want to create anything that feels like I'm just pumping out content to feed a content machine.

(18:28):
I want to spend more time with my team. I want to create less chaos for my team. I want my team to build better structures in the business. I want our customer service to be better. I want to serve our students better. I want to spend more time with the students so I can understand their needs. So I can really understand what the best ways to teach marketing, to teach them how to make money, to teach them how to really sell their knowledge and build businesses that really does give you freedom. I want to do more of that and I just pretty much want to do less and I want to have more fun. It's never fun for me when I feel like I'm always behind, and it is a complete and total construct in my head I know, but I also created it because I just take on more and more and more.

(19:50):
So the podcast is taking a break. The podcast will be on a break until the end of the year. When I decided to do this, the first decision is, “Oh, you're quitting.” I'm not quitting. This is not me quitting. This is me nurturing. This is me taking care. This is me healing. This is me giving you the respect you deserve to come back and hear me at my best. Initially, I thought, “Well, what if you lose listeners?” Yeah, what if I lose listeners? What if I lose listeners? It's probably going to happen. That's okay. That is okay. I know that there is no scarcity. There is no shortage of people I can connect with. And if I'm going to take a break, I'm going to take a proper break.

(21:10):
So initially I thought, “Well, if I'm going to lose listeners, maybe I should just take all the best episodes from the past and put them on a rerun.” But that just creates work for my team again, and I want the team to have a break too. I want us to take a break and then put everything about the podcast back on the table and go, “Which parts do we want to keep and which parts do we want to get rid of? And how do we want this to look so that it looks amazing for you when you come back?” So there will not be any episodes. And at the moment, my plan is to have it back in January ‘23. And if that plan changes, then that plan changes. But for now, let's say January 2023.

(21:58):
So when I do come back, there will be less content about Facebook ads. There will be more content about integrating all of the parts of you into your marketing and into your business. Exactly what I'm doing here. I'm integrating the parts of me that does not align with what traditional marketing and business principles tell me that I should not take a break from creating a show. Traditional marketing and business says, “Pump out a show every week. No matter how you feel, no matter what's going on, you never stop. You got to be consistent.” And I'm saying, “Uh-uh, uh-uh.” An integrated human and a human who is healthy in their ability to hustle and healthy in their ability to rest does not need a guideline like that. That person shows up healthily in every situation and creates the best damn content on the planet.

(23:22):
My personal mission for a while now has been to change the way that women work and earn wealth in the world, and there is so much I want to share around living a healthy, balanced life while making money and being available for your family. That's what we'll be talking about. That's when we come back, when I am ready to talk about that. You can expect a lot more in depth conversations about our relationships with work and money and how we can restore that relationship and heal it so that we are truly free to earn as much money as we want and live lives that fulfill us and where we are challenged to evolve and grow, not challenged to burn out.

(24:29):
This boundary that I'm putting in place, this comes from love and it serves us all and it will serve me, it'll serve my team, it'll serve my students, it'll serve my listeners, it'll serve my community. And my hope is that it can serve as an example for you of what is possible when you step back and take care of yourself and create a nurtured environment for your team and your students first, and then for your audience.

(25:07):
When I was 13 years old, I read The Power of Positive Thinking, and I always believed that I can do anything and I can power my way out of anything. And today, at 42 with ADHD, I realize that's bullshit. I don't want to power my way through anything. I don't want to do anything because I have to do it when I don't want to do it. Now, hear me, I'm all for discipline. This is not lack of discipline. This is conscious resting and I'm watching my brain. My brain's going, “You're going to lose money.” Maybe. That's okay, I have skill. I know how to make money. Actually, I think I'm going to make more money because I'm going to show up better. I think you and I both can make more money when we feel better.

(26:13):
So what I wanted to leave you with is if you are also in this post COVID come down, post COVID mental health, wake up moment where you are just now realizing that actually not everything in your business serves you, actually not everything you've done works for you anymore. I want to invite you to take your journal and sit down and just start free writing, just start writing. What are the things that you need to take a break from? What are the things that you've kind of been doing on autopilot because some coach somewhere or some guru told you that, that's what you have to do to succeed?

(27:17):
I hope I can be an example for you. I hope that when we come back and put our absolute best content out on the podcast, that we will become a story that you can refer to and tell and say, “See, sometimes you got to take a step back in order to take two steps forward.” I hope that if you are not liking your business right now, or if you are feeling burnt out, or if you are seeing how your brain is doing fight or flight, that I will be an example for you and that you will take a break too.

(28:13):
Now, there's one thing I'm not taking a break from. There's one thing I'm going to be doing more of, a lot more of, and I'm so excited about it and it makes me feel so good to even think like I can't wait to do this, and that is to write more. And I never thought I'd say this, but at this moment in time, I am just loving writing. It's like, I'm getting back into it. I hired a copywriter a year ago and it's just been wonderful, but I miss writing and I never thought I'd say this because I used to hate copywriting and now I love it. So if you're a listener, but you're not on my email list, dude, you got to get on my email list. Okay?

(29:09):
So I have created something brand new for you. It is a free guide to starting an online courses business and I am going to show you exactly how women are turning their knowledge into wealth using online courses. If you are not on my list and you want to get on my list so you can get my emails that I'll be sitting on my patio writing to you, then go to shineandsucceed.com/money and get the guide on how you can make money building an online courses business in a completely free and peaceful and integrated way, the way we should.

(29:59):
I love you. I am cheering for you. I'm rooting for you. If you're one of my students in either A-Lister or the Launch Lounge, I cannot wait to spend more quality time with you. If you're not, why not? Get on my email list and make sure you are opening my emails so you can see when we're opening enrollment for both A-Lister or the Launch Lounge, and let's hang out, let's become friends in more of an intimate setting. And then when I have got some healing done, some restoration done, and I've built some structures in my team and we've got some good material that have thoughtfully been created with love and care, then we will be back. I want to thank you for being here. Have a good day. Bye.

(30:55):
Thank you so much for listening. If you had fun, please come back next week and remember to hit that subscribe button so you never miss a thing.