Episode #16: Business Advice For Our Younger Selves

Hi everyone! We’re nothing if not emo and reflective for our past. In this episode, we are giving advice that we wish we had heard earlier in our career. We hope you enjoy it! If you have any questions, we’d love to hear them!

You can stream the episode here on the blog or on iTunesSpotifyGoogle PlayTuneInPocket Casts, and Stitcher. You can find the podcast posts archive here.

Elsie 1: Learn to tune out what other people are doing.

The Imagineering StoryA miniseries on Disney+. It shows the Disney parks being built and is very inspiring! Perhaps a good palette cleanser for those of you who watch a lot of news like we do in our home.

Emma 1: Don’t be too narrow in your focus. Don’t be afraid to change your mind.

On Changing Dreams – a post where Emma talks about wanting to be an actor and failing

-Do you want to hear an episode about our conservative upbringing? We’ve been considering it. Emma really wants to do an episode on it, and I understand that it IS an interesting subject. That said, I’m not sure because anytime I bring it up online people try to evangelize me and I’ve always been very private about my faith and religious “journey,” so the thought of opening up the subject kind of scares the &%#@ out of me. Would love to hear your opinion on that!

-Should we start a TikTok? It looks like fun but I am afraid I’ll spend SO MUCH time on it.

Elsie 2: Follow the money.

Maybe this tip will sound money hungry to some, but the truth is, it is very expensive to run a business. If you want to make X income you probably actually need to make double that to cover taxes, costs of running a business, retirement, etc. Money is NOT my favorite subject, but choosing a career with a higher earning potential is one way to ensure more room to grow.

Emma 2: Pay attention to what you are good at and what others value in you, not what you wish you were good at or what you value in others.

Elsie 3: Keep at least one hobby that is JUST for fun.

A creative outlet is a gift—not everything you love or are good at needs to be monetized.

-LOL who wants Emma to make a mini-golf course? I DO! And here’s Meow Wolf if you’ve never heard of it

Emma 3: Success is a process, not a destination. Failure is inevitable, it’s just how we learn.

Happy Monday, everyone!!

  • I would love to hear an episode about your faith! I find hearing other peoples’ journeys so fascinating. We all come into our faith our own way! 🙂

  • ah the conservative upbringing, boy can i relate. i grew up in iowa, moved to michigan, then to toronto canada, then to south florida where i’ve lived for the past 14 years. needless to say i’ve experienced several very different lifestyles and thoughts then my family who are all still in the midwest. tho it would be super interesting to hear about your upbringing, unless you can take advice number one that you would’ve given to youyounger elsie, i say make that a one on one conversation. religion and faith brings out the wacky in people. and the intensity! but i’m saying this as a 43 year old mom who kind of feel protective of you two. 😉

  • As a former evangelical who is in the midst of deconstruction, I love hearing those types of stories! Hearing people talk about their thoughts make others feel like they aren’t alone.

    As for ‘evangelizing’, I try to ignore it. Rather than feeling attacked or condescended to, I typically feel a little bit of sadness (people are in real fear for themselves and others, and that must be a terrible place to exist). I channel that into spreading more love through my words and actions.

    Have you heard of the Liturgists podcast? They are currently doing a series called ‘Black History is American History’ and I’m excited to decolonize a lot of the history I was taught (I’m Canadian but this definitely applies here as well).

    I have been following the blog EVERYDAY since 2009 and love the podcast. Your team is super inspiring and whenever I need a pick-me-up I know where to go 🙂

  • When someone shares his/her story with me – ANY part of it – I feel like I just know them better and I appreciate them more. Like… it’s such an honor that someone would open up about the unseen parts of his/her life. Conversely, when someone has been willing to listen to my story, I always feel more known by them, more seen, more understood. I would love to hear about your upbringing! I also feel like there’s potential for the two of you to discover some little, “Whoa! I didn’t see it that way at all!” moments that could surprise you. How fun!

    This 42yro had to google what TikTok is. Obviously I realize that intersecting with your TikTok would be optional, but… FWIW: that seems like a little slice of Hell to me. :::old:::

  • Elsie!! Imagineering is SO good…I think 4 or 5 of the episodes made me cry ???? the whole thing is so fascinating to me…we are going to Disney next month and it made me look at it in a whole different light

  • I would love to hear about your upbringing! Elsie also once made a comment about being fascinated by Mormons, and as an LDS person myself I am all kinds of curious about what she finds so interesting hahah!

  • As a person who also experienced a conservative upbringing I am keenly interested in this topic! Particularly from those who are from different parts of the country or world than I am and especially as it relates to forming their views on spending money, making money, and if money even matters to them or if they consider themselves “beyond” that material concern, spiritually beyond it I guess. Whether they are still involved in the community/lifestyle or have extracted themselves is not my concern – unless they invite me to have an opinion on their life I won’t waste time forming one.. and even then it’s generally a pass 🙂

  • half the podcasts i listen to already have a religious bent, so i say go for it! everyone’s got a different story but it’s also so uplifting to hear someone else’s experience when it mimics your own. suddenly you’re not as alone anymore 🙂

  • As a bleeding heart liberal heathen, who has loved your blog since the very beginning, I would LOVE an episode about your conservative upbringing and/or religious/spiritual journeys! For one thing, I love hearing about the two of you as sisters and your shared stories. For another, at a time when things are so fractured in our country, I think it would be really refreshing to hear a more conservative tale from two badass ladies. Could provide a really interesting and unique perspective!

  • Yes, please! I would love a podcast about your upbringing. I’m so interested in the ways we all choose what to keep and what to let go from our childhood.

  • As an academic in Religious Studies, I’d love to hear more about your religious lives!

  • Meow Wolf ABSOLUTELY needs to be on both of your travel bucket lists! Another fantastic episode! ????

  • My favorite part of this podcast is the way Elsie responds to the things Emma says. All the “oh Emma’s” and “oohs” and “ahhs” are so poignant. The mutual respect you two have for one another shines. Keep it up!

  • Another vote for the conservative upbringing story!
    Although, I do relate with your hesitation to share. I grew up as a pastor’s kid in an ULTRA-conservative fundamentalist culture and lost my entire community when I decided it wasn’t for me anymore. I definitely don’t regret my decision to leave, but I did grieve the loss for several years.

  • Thanks for the chuckle, Emma! I needed that today:) I am a local so I could totally picture what happened on stage…lol

  • I’ve loved hearing about your experiences with the brick and mortar store. Elsie’s comments about her onetime desire to own a bar had me wondering – does Emma still own (or partially own) a cocktail bar? I’d love to hear about that experience.

  • So cool to hear y’all talk about Meow Wolf! My sister lives in Las Vegas, NM and she is a HUGE Meow Wolf fan, she talks about it all the time and sends me pictures. Super cool to see it get some airtime!

  • I get not wanting to talk about your religious upbringing. It’s hard and if I were on a public platform and got ‘witnessed’ to every time I tried to talk about my experiences, I would be scared as shit too. I’m sorry you go through that, Elsie. Solidarity from one survivor of conservative christianity to another, lol .

    For anyone who WANTS a podcast about religion, I recommend Good Christian Fun! It’s a comedy podcast about Christian pop culture from the 90s/early 2000s. They have a different guest on every week and spend half the episode talking to them about their experiences growing up religious (I always like this part because it’s really smart and they ask great and thoughtful questions!). Then the second half is devoted to talking about whichever pop culture topic they’ve chosen for the week (movies, music, books, etc). I can’t recommend it enough! It’s incredibly smart and funny (I find myself laughing out loud listening to it on the bus lol), and it’s NOT preachy or actually religious at all (their big thing is ‘we aren’t bashing religion, but we aren’t here to get you to go to church’ — they handle that balance incredibly well, IMO).. Also — how fun would it be to have Emma (and maybe Elsie too, if she feels comfortable) as a guest on that show?

  • Hi Elsie and Emma!

    Will echo everyone above me, would love to hear more about your upbringing…but Elsie I saw your explanation on why you’re hesitant to share on your stories. I think that’s very valid, and even if you see a demand for this -you should do what feels best and safe to you!

    Like Erin I’d love to hear more about the bar and what’s going on with it 🙂

    Lovely episode as always! Keep up the good work xx

  • This podcast episode really spoke to me on another level. I’m 27 and in the midst of a career slump and trying to think about exploring other ideas. I’ve changed my mind so many times and then finally settled into one for the last 5 years but now I’m not so sure it’s for me. For many reasons (political, personal, financial etc), the career I wanted to have isn’t going to work out, and now I’m stuck in a related field but it isn’t the one I initially set out to do… (I can definitely relate with Emma about having too narrow of a focus) and now I’m realizing that I need to be in a more creative field.
    So this really helped me kind of grasp my head on a few things I need to figure out!

    Also, I would love to hear about your upbringing. I grew up in a conservative household, only to realize when I grew older that my parents aren’t as conservative as they claim to be, just maybe too stubborn to realize it? So it would be interesting to hear your take on this!

    Thank you for sharing your life with us!

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