In this episode Brandy shares her new game changing morning routine! She also dives into the importance of checking your motives in order to get the most out of every season.
This Week's Dope Thing
Slow Starts
Discussed in this episodes:
What's good, everybody. Welcome back to the sheer resilience podcast. I am your host, Brandy Lucas. It has been a minute. So let me throw out the. What do I want to call it? Let me throw out the disclaimer. The disclaimer is I got a whole lot of equipment and things and bells and whistles that I am reacclimating myself to. So.
I'm not going to hesitate on getting the show back, rolling and back. Um,
Yeah back rolled. I'm not going to hesitate on getting the show back rolling, but it is going to take me a little bit of time to get back familiar in my routine. So y'all grant your girls some grace as we do this thing together. So I always like to start the show off if you're new here, and this is your first time catching the show with a segment, I call dope things and I'm digging.
Dope things that I'm digging is my way of sharing something dope that I'm digging with the [00:01:00] community. It can be something I'm loving or reading or eating, but this week's dope thing that I'm digging is not something that you got to add to the cart. It is something that we all have access to. We just got to do a little bit of finessing and that thing is starting my days off slowly.
sounds super simple. But when I say that it has been an incredible game changer for dealing and managing anxiety.
For helping me to just enjoy my day as a whole. It's helping me to connect with God and just have. It's it's the bomb. Let me tell y'all what I'm doing. So. I'm going to get very deep into where I've been and all of that, because I feel like if you were a longtime listener of the podcast, I owe that to you. But this easing into my day has been beneficial because my life right now is interesting. It is full [00:02:00] of blessings. And I am waiting with bated breath for some things that I trust that God is going to do, or he's going to do something better.
But at the same time, I'm doing a lot of waiting and I am a hands on. Plan and then move type of girl. So sitting in this waiting season has been a little bit. Annoying. If I can be honest, just a little bit annoying, but I trust you. God, I trust you. I know what you're doing. I know that Jesus has a plan for me.
But sometimes sis being annoyed and this annoyance has a way of taking over a lot of my life when I don't have a direction that I'm moving in or I'm like, okay,
Monday, I'm doing this and Tuesday I'm doing this and this'll help me get this done for Friday. It feels like I'm just kind of sitting around doing nothing.
So utilizing, moving into my day slowly and intentionally has allowed me the space to make sure that I bake in time for prayer and [00:03:00] reading my word. I don't know who y'all believe in, but if you are a believer in Jesus Christ like me, That time with him in the morning, especially in this season of me not feeling like the dots are connected, but needing to trust him more than ever.
Is imperative. I get my coffee because I am a coffee girl. We are old school. Boring the coffee downstairs at home. All whole. Yes. I got a favorite coffee that I'm loving right now. So I'll share that in a. Upcoming dope thing I'm digging and I'm digging me and my husband are just, we're obsessed with this coffee. Not obsessed.
Where.
Really into this coffee, I'll say that. Um, So look for that in an upcoming dope thing and I'm digging. But I grabbed my coffee and this space that I'm recording in, if you are watching the video component of the show is my home office. , I come up here sometimes it's [00:04:00] still dark depending on what my day looks like and how early I get up.
Come in here. And the house is still very, still is quiet. And I really get the time to dive into my word. Now I have been a Bible app scripture of the day. Go through those little slides, say a prayer and move on type of girl. But something about this season has me locked in and loaded where I'm grabbing for the commentary, the Bible dictionary. I'm praying, I'm looking at sources, I'm writing notes and prayer cards. Like your girl is going.
In, so easing into my day. Not waking up an hour before I have to be at the salon or having something to do has really helped me to just kinda calm down on some of the anxiousness to have some still time to give all of my concerns and my, , dis contentment, if I'm honest, to give all my Discontentment or even, [00:05:00] um,
My joy, my gratitude, my admiration, and my expectations, my hopes to the Lord before I start my day. And then I move into my day, whatever I have going on. And it just seems to roll better. So this week's dope thing that I'm digging. If you guys can bake into one day of the week, or even if you have autonomy real time and you can give it a try for a couple of weeks and see how it works for you.
I would highly, highly suggested it's been a game changer for me. And I hope that you experienced the same thing. Let's get into today's show.
I have been. All over the place. For the last couple of months, like, I couldn't even tell you guys. When the last episode was, but I know it has been a while. I appreciate all of you guys who had [00:06:00] been reaching out. This is an interesting season of my life. One. That. Um, ,
Very aware that I don't have very much control over. I am a, , that type of girl. Like, I like to know what I'm doing, have some say in what I'm doing, have a hand in carrying it out. And this is a season in my life where I, I ain't got it. I ain't got it. I am. I always want to say this because I never want to come off. Like I'm complaining. This is just a season of take your hands off of it because.
If you don't take your hands off of it, what's to come, you will feel like you had some. , insight like you did some work or you contributed to it. And I know that to a certain extent, I am contributing in my obedience, [00:07:00] but God got this thing. If you go back to previous episodes. You will hear that over the last couple of years, I've done some changing in my businesses. , if you're new around here, I am a hairstylist.
In a salon owner and about two years into a new business venture. , creating a short hair focused product and tool line called pixie beauty, which is an incredible product. I'm just having so much fun. Developing the product, serving this community. That I've been a part of. I almost feel like my entire life. I ain't really never had no hair. Right.
But now I get to, uh, help women. And those of us who are rocking short hair. Uh, intentionally. Keep our hair healthy with products and tools that are tailored and created by a stylist specifically for us, I'm loving [00:08:00] it. There came a point in my business where I had to make some shifts. I had to make some big decisions. It started as a pandemic business.
That I was starting to help my clients who were when we were all at home during that time, help them figure out some ways to. , pull themselves together at home. We were not going to the salons. And it started with one product and they just have kept rolling. It has grown and grown and grown, but my initial start of the business.
My mindset was, I'm going to do this for this time period, because there's a need and my client specifically needed the internet be internetting. So once the products hit online and they blew up the way that they did, I have been trying to catch up the entire time. And pixie has, has continued to grow.
I continue to try to meet the needs [00:09:00] of my customers and my online community. By adding new products and products that as a stylist, I know. Are essential to the health and maintenance of our hair. But there were parts of my business as it's grown, that I had to make a decision that I was going to slow myself down and get the ducks in a row and make sure that everything was moving in a way that it needed to move. Or I was going to fall off.
Hard decision. Very very hard decision because I'm in the season. And I just feel like right now I am. Moving very slowly and almost to a halt in some areas of my business. And it's pulling me back from the success that I was having. And when I say success, it's a business. So the, the goal of the business is to provide the customer base with products that meet their needs. It's an exchange.
So success to me, look like the products [00:10:00] had a demand. There was a demand for the products. The products were being produced. They were being sold at this point. Things are moving much, much slower than they initially was because I have had to take a step back to get things properly done, formulated and set up my business in a way that as it grows.
Um, I'm running it like a business and not a hustle.
Let's be real. I have had to step back. And get my things in order so that my business can grow and I won't be out here looking bad when it does. I see myself like a Slingshot I'm being pulled back. And I know that God is going to catapult me forward in what I see as the next step for the business or on something better. Because the God that I serve is an amazing guy and his word tells us that we can't even think or imagine.
All of the things that he has for us. So I [00:11:00] believe that to be true. It's just uncomfortable because I want to put my hands in it. There is a easy solution. For the problem that I'm having, not having everything I need to serve my customers to stock my store. It's an easy solution, but that solution keeps me on the hamster wheel that I've been on since I started the business and that hamster wheel is nothing but a circle. And if I am going to be able to climb a ladder, my goal I'll be open and transparent with y'all because those of y'all who are praying.
People I could use your prayers. I want to see Pixies products on the stores at retailers at target and at some of the other. Uh, places that we go and shop. And in order for me to do that, my thing's got to be together. Yeah. You heard me so. That's where I be in. That's what I've been dealing with.
Another part of it. Oh, goodness. [00:12:00]
Another part of it. Um,
I believe also that God is revealing to me that. In regards to me showing up and sharing my journey. Um, Even sharing a hair stuff on my business, I have taken kind of a slower approach to growing my Instagram and creating content for my YouTube, because for me, when I create content, it generally sends people to my website. And if I can't properly serve them on the website, it's just like, why are you doing it all
um, so I've been just moving slow. I love to create. I love to serve the women that I serve. Um, but I've been so excited about creating the products and, uh, creating content online that I know is helping women all over the world to maintain their hair, to show up confidently in life, to go in rooms and know that [00:13:00] they are that girl.
It warms my heart, that I get the opportunity to do that. And I have been pulling back. Um, yeah, and the Lord is just showing me. It's important for me. To check. My motives.
. If my motivation, to showing up for things, to creating content, to helping women, all of the things is based on me being able to run them through the pipeline or to get some immediate gratification from it and not just money. Um, Social media money is his money, but it ain't money like that, you know? But even the notoriety, the repost, the comments, all of the things. If I.
I am only showing up for those things then. I know that my motivation. Is in the wrong place. So he's been checking me on that. Uh, even with the podcast, I am married to an incredible, [00:14:00] incredible, incredible content creator. And my husband's also a barber. So we share both of those. We have a love for creating is crazy.
I'm so blessed to be with somebody who I get saved, because the way that we go in regards to having our phone out all the time and recording and just back buying equipment, like if we weren't married to each other, it would be difficult. Like if I was married to a banker, he would probably be like, girl,
If another Amazon box with a microphone or a daily daily for your phone comes to this house, me, you are going to have a problem, but I don't have that because he gets it. I get him. My husband. Has recently been, uh, started a new podcast for barbers. He is a veteran barber, so he's sharing gyms for barbers that are like impacting their businesses and their growth. And it's amazing.
He also is a, an awesome photographer. He likes videography. So when I began [00:15:00] to wrap my head around, coming back to the podcast, he was very like, , encouraging that I should do a video component of it. And I'm just like, oh, I don't want to do a video, a component of it. Now mind you for months, I have notes and voice notes and all of these things that were content and just things on my heart that I wanted to share with y'all.
So I was ready to come back to the podcast, but because. I felt like I needed to do it with video. I allowed that to deter me. So again, something that I love, something that I know. Impacts the lives of women, something that I know I enjoy. And we all benefit from.
I didn't. Until now. Push myself forward or not. I went on my memory card to do this episode and realized that I recorded an episode at the top of the year. I'm all like happy new year. And here we [00:16:00] are in March and I'm just putting this episode out. So I've been dragging my feet for a minute, but I just.
Got very comfortable with the fact that. In beauty. Um, on Instagram, in the salon, making YouTube videos, content creation is about having a polished, demeanor, especially when I'm selling products. I can't really too often than be outside or be online and be in front of the camera and not have a look together.
So one thing that I've really enjoyed about podcasts and news, I could just be regular. I can grab this mic. Nobody know what I'm looking like. And I don't got to conceal the under, I don't gotta do none of the things. Um, So, I don't know, just we got the week I kept saying, okay, I'm going to get back to it. I'm gonna get back to it and never got back to it. And here we are at March.
So I'm checking my motives on that too. Um, Yeah, it's not going to always be together. I might even be recording this podcast sometimes with a baseball cap on. [00:17:00] Um, but one thing I know is when I am moving based on pure motives, Knowing what my, why is and doing it to serve my audiences, my communities, then.
All that other stuff shouldn't matter. Although it does matter. Sometimes that's some of the work that I'm working on right now is too. Make myself aware of it and push through. Someone to share what you guys, three things in this season. ,
That we need to be aware of like waiting on motivation to do things and what happens when we wait on motivation. The first thing is that it leads to inconsistency. One of my pet peeves about myself is that I be fired up. I'm talking fire up about some ideas. , I've been given something, I've jotted it down in my journal. Somebody asked me about it. I know I got the answer to whatever, you know, hurdle [00:18:00] they're facing and I can share it. And I know that I got it and I should share it because I'm a firm believer in. We don't get through our trials. We don't.
Figure out how to do something only for ourselves. These hurdles that we jump over and these skills that we acquire are supposed to be a blessing to somebody else. So I am a firm believer of that, and I feel like the more I open myself up and share what I know what I've been through, what I have, the more space I'm making for things to come to me. And it's just a cycle.
It just continues to go on. So. Inconsistency is one of them, things that I am just tired of. If I could be honest, I'm tired. The season of slowing down a little bit has helped me to reevaluate. What's important. , it has helped me to understand that no is a complete sentence. And it's helped me to realize that. [00:19:00]
If I start with.
Understanding why I'm motivated to do something. It helps me to make a more finite decision that I can really stand on and hold myself accountable to. So that's thing, number one, we want to be very careful not to be waiting on being motivated and all of that, because it's going to have you out here in consistent.
I'm telling you. I know. Another thing. That is just like, Ooh, what I tell y'all this, this, this, this little podcast gotta be in the choke hold. I felt like I'm just feeling so much. Um, I'm talking to myself as I'm talking to. Y'all another thing that we have to be careful not to be waiting, to be motivated before we move and do the things that we're supposed to do is that there is often [00:20:00] a message.
In the unmotivated season. Like I'm like zipped open and I got my guts out. Sharing with you guys where I am right now. But I firmly truly believe that somebody is going to feel me, I believe. And I would love to hear from y'all y'all hit me up at Brandy Lucas, beauty on all of the social medias. I believe that me sharing this.
Especially because it's so contrary to what. The culture says.
The culture got everybody thinking that you the only one who don' have it all the way together. And.
That's a lie. We are all out here. Actively figuring it out. We are all out here searching for some clarity and some direction. Some of us are searching in right directions. Some of us are searching in wrong [00:21:00] directions and I am not the. Person to say. Who is who. But we don't nobody out got it together.
Don't nobody at it all the way together. We are all figuring it out. And when we are transparent and open, and this is something I have to stay on myself about, because I know that. I am. Okay. Sharing showing up, going live. Doing the event speaking, uh, working on the project. Uh, sitting on the panel, whatever I am. Okay. And down for it, when I feel like my life is in order, when I feel like I got my hands and the things, and they move in and there's fruit of it and all of that. But when your girl is in a season like this one where I don't know.
What's going to happen next week. Uh, I don't know if the things that I'm planning are going to come together in the time that I would like them to come together. I have to like, I'm riding a bike with, [00:22:00] um, No hands. But I'm going to continue to ride. And I understand that the fact that I'm still riding is reason enough for me to show up because it shows that there is still motion and imperfection.
And it lets those of us out here who feel like everything in the culture speaks to everybody having it together and everybody got it and they got everything they need and want. It dispels that myth. We are all out here, figuring it out. So number two is there is a message in these unmotivated moments. Finally. It's so important. Again, to remember the why, remember why you're doing it. I don't know what I'm doing right now in so many areas of my life. But I do know who I'm called to serve. So as long as I am motivated by my why, as long [00:23:00] as I run, when I'm doing what I'm saying, what I participate in, what I put out there.
The rule, the filter of is this helping the lives of girls and women to be empowered and encouraged. If it is, then it's a go. And all of the other pieces and other rewards and other bells and whistles may or may not be attached. But if I'm only moving, when I'm motivated by the fact that I got all of the pieces figured out, and I know how this is going to land, then. My motivation is off.
For real. And if I just hone in understanding who I am, who I'm called to serve and making sure that what I'm doing. Is hitting that mark, then I think I'd be all good. [00:24:00] I'm happy to have finally gotten this. Here's where I been y'all on back episode out of the way, and to keep this thing moving, listen. Your girl needs. To hear from y'all. I need your encouragement. I need some things that you guys might want to speak about or have me speak about. And I am. So excited to have some women who are overcoming and figuring this thing called womanhood out on the show with me. So if you are interested in joining me on the show, yall check the show notes. If you are watching this on YouTube, there are show notes.
Down below. And if you are listening to the audio version of this, scroll on down, check the show notes, you can also find my email down there. Hit me up. Let me know that you listen, that you're happy I'm back. Or if you felt this. But it, whatever, however, y'all feeling about this thing, let [00:25:00] your girl know, because I need to know that y'all are out here listening then I ain't the only one out here. Going through things.
This has been. Lightweight therapeutic. I'm happy to be back. I look forward to chatting with you guys next week, but until then, keep learning, keep living and more importantly than anything, man, please keep loving because it's wild out here and this world needs some love. Talk to y'all later.