Take 20% off your Create and Cultivate Festival Ticket with code TERESAS20

Time for a mid-summer check in! Teresa has some exciting updates to share, from going to Greece for three weeks in August, to the newest series: From 5,000 Podcast Downloads to 1 Million Podcast Downloads in Under Six Months, and not one but two opportunities to hang out with Teresa at the Dream Bigger Summit in Omaha in November, and the Create and Cultivate Festival in LA.

Plus, a reminder that living a life that you love comes from finding pause and appreciation for what you have now.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Be strategic about your travel — it can be overwhelming to narrow down where you want to go while only visiting for a few weeks, but you don’t need to go everywhere. Sometimes it’s nicer to be able to take your time in fewer places.
• The grass is not greener on the other side. It is greener where you water it. It’s important to do the work to appreciate your life exactly where you are at now. That’s the first step to building a life you truly love.
• Making new friends as an adult can feel tricky, and even a little uncomfortable. But it is possible to make some beautiful relationships, and sometimes life will surprise you with them when you least expect it.
• The stories we tell ourselves aren’t facts…they’re just stories, and it’s important to question them and learn which ones might be holding you back.

“Do we love to grow because we're humans? Hell yes. But it's not out of a place of lack. It's out of a place of enjoyment and love and gratitude.” — Teresa Stastny

Connect with Teresa

• Join the Becoming Obsessed Playground, the weekly email for curiosity-led women building a life they love.
• Instagram: @becomingobsessedpod and @teresaajean
• Leave a review on Apple or Spotify Podcasts. Reviews are the biggest thank-you, and reviews help ambitious women find the show.
• Website: teresaajean.com

This post contains affiliate links/codes and I may receive a kickback when you use it I only share about things I use and love!

podcast about gratitude, living a life you love, personal growth journey, mindset changes for happiness, traveling to Greece, solo travel experiences, building relationships, entrepreneurial mindset, community and connection, overcoming burnout, finding joy in daily life, creating a life you love, embracing change, cultivating gratitude, exploring new places, networking for women, navigating life transitions, becoming obsessed with your life

Mentioned in this episode:

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Foreign.

The grass is not greener on the other side.

It is greener where you water it.

So before moving in any type of way, location or who you are, what you do, see if you can love where you're at.

Currently a little bit more with a little bit more gratitude and a little bit more enjoyment.

And that is really what this podcast is about and what this journey to 1 million podcast downloads is about, is really focusing in on this mission and how we're changing not just ourselves and our relationships and our community, but also changing the narrative that it doesn't have to be always something more that we're chasing.

Welcome to Becoming Obsessed, where curiosity leads you to a life you love.

I'm Teresa Stasny and after over a decade of traveling the world, working with small business owners and creating a couple businesses of my own, I know a thing or two about playing by your own rules.

It's not always easy and it's often messy.

It can be hard, especially, especially if you're doing it alone.

I've seen way too many incredible women shoot for the stars only to burn out along the way.

Or worse, live on default and never chase their dreams.

We're done with all of that.

Together we're gonna challenge what keeps us stuck and figure out what it takes to live a life we truly love.

This episode is really just gonna be a catch up among friends, an update on how summer is going.

Some of the things I have in the pipeline, some events I will be at that I if you are going to be there would love to see you at.

So if you will keep listening and send me a dm, one of them is even in my hometown.

So if you will be here I am happy to show you around and take you to all of my favorite places and tell you where the good food is.

So we have four orders of business today.

First is maybe the one I'm most excited about.

In just a few short, short weeks I get to go back to one of my favorite countries and honestly I would say more so one of my favorite cities in the world, Athens, Greece.

That's where I ran my first and only so far marathon.

The OG route from Marathon to Athens.

I did a digital nomad retreat there with the Selena Hostels.

Rip I made such incredible friends.

One that has been on the podcast.

Joel, who is from New Zealand, lives in London and literally came through Omaha, Nebraska to visit me.

I don't have an update on that quite yet, but I might be taking a trip in the new year to go visit him as well.

But Athens specifically has such a special place in my heart, as cliche as that might be to say.

I had just gone through a huge breakup and really was using this trip as a way to get away from everything and reset and just get to explore life again, explore who I am, who do I want to be, and just let loose, almost cut all of the strings away.

That's often how I feel about solo traveling, is you show up to a place and the place and the people have zero assumptions and expectations of you.

And then when you get there, you can be and show up, however feels right for you in that moment.

And for me, that was.

Athens was this city that was so artsy, so creative.

I always say.

And if anyone from Athens is listening and you're like, teresa, please stop describing us this way, send me a DM on Instagram and let me know.

But I always describe it as Brooklyn, but without the pretentiousness of so many people moving there to become something.

So it's a very.

I almost hate to say artsy in a way, because it's not, like, artsy the way that some other cities are.

Or maybe like, Austin is like, artsy and weird.

But I say it.

There's, like, craftsmanship.

There's so many local clothing designers, local brands.

There's such a culture of artisanal coffee and artisanal drinks and cocktails, and it's just really lived in.

But it doesn't feel like people are moving there or transitioning in life to, like, try and make it.

It really feels like people are just living their life.

And obviously it's a huge city, and there's way more sides to it than just the sides that I saw.

But I did make friends with people who either moved to Athens or were from Athens, and that was honestly my experience.

So I'm so excited to go back.

I get to go back to Greece for three weeks with my man.

We last year did one month in Italy.

This year we're going to do three weeks in Greece.

We're trying to find that person.

Perfect little time frame where we get to do all of the travel and adventure we want.

But we also can work.

And my hot take is four weeks was the absolute worst amount of time to try to work and explore, especially in a place like Italy.

Here's my hot take.

If you are going to say France, the average person, the average American, can probably tell me five to 10, maybe 20 different places in France that you'd like to visit.

Okay.

Cool.

So planning a month there?

Yeah, there's a lot of places to go.

You could go one week in each region that you know of.

In Italy, I swear There is like 250 places that we know of.

Even the small little cities or the small little regions and areas are places that we've heard of.

The entire country feels like if you don't go, you're missing out.

And.

And while other countries I'm sure are like that, it's very much like the U.S. how do you go to the U.S. visit LA, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, head to Montana, go to Glacier national park, go to the Grand Canyon, go to Las Vegas.

And that's just the top places that people think to go to or could name, whatever.

How do you go to all those places in a month?

Realistically, I would advise you don't.

And that's what Italy felt like.

And it was just this thing where after that trip we were like, you know, maybe we should have just done two weeks and not worked at all.

Or I love to do like three months in a place so that I'm not actually traveling and moving too much.

And I am just sitting and living preferably near a beach so that I can either watch the sunrise or the sunset.

I can have a coffee, I can have food, I can sit and talk to people and then do a little work.

That is my ideal travel situation.

But unless you're in a country for months, it's hard to stay in one place for too long.

So we're taking all of that knowledge and experience and my previous time in Greece and doing a three week trip, which to be fair, I think we kind of were thinking we'll do two weeks and not work.

But it's just, if you can do it, why not do it?

We booked three weeks.

So our itinerary.

Where are we going?

We're flying into Athens.

We'll have a couple nights in Athens.

We're staying in.

And I will butcher the pronunciation of all of this.

We're staying in a Monastracki Passeri neighborhood.

That's where I had stayed before.

And I told Nick, I was like, this first part of the trip, we're just gonna repeat all my favorite things.

We're gonna hike in the middle of the city to see the sunset.

We're gonna eat at my favorite souv blocki place.

He marked some skate shops for us to go to.

And I was like, bet I've been to those.

Let and we're just going to go down nostalgia row and give me my chance to Relive and reacquaint and see what's changed and see what stayed the same.

I have to admit I did already learn that my favorite coffee shop is no longer open.

It is closed.

Very sad.

But there are so many incredible things and new things to find that I'm not too worried about it.

Then from Athens we're going to rent a car and drive to the only island, the only Greek island that you can apparently drive to over a bridge, which is Lefkada.

We have four or five full days there.

We're planning on renting a boat while we're there to cruise around ourselves.

Before that though, we're planning on doing a boat tour day.

And then there are such incredible sunset spots in the mountains as well as beaches.

So I'll be happy regardless of where we end up on the island.

I will be happy.

We have that part booked.

It is all set.

Then from Lefkada we are going to drive to Meta Aura, go up to the monasteries that are in the clouds on these incredible out of this earth looking rock formations.

I've been there before.

I actually went there when I was probably at one of my lowest places when I was in Greece four years ago I was in Athens and I think it was before the marathon.

All of a sudden it hit me I needed to get out of the and so I just took a train by myself to Metaora, spent probably two nights there and went on a little vegan foraging tour and then took the tour of the monasteries with all the grandmas in the tour bus instead of hiking.

So this year we're gonna have a car, drive ourselves and then do some hiking.

Very excited.

It is so gorgeous.

I did say we are gonna be there in August, so it is gonna be pretty toasty trying to plan ahead for that.

But we've actually found some watering holes we might be able to dip into, which again put me in water.

And I am a happy girl.

That is literally my number one ask on any vacation.

Where is the clear clean water that I can swim in?

A pool will suffice, but a river or an ocean are preferred.

From Meta Aura we haven't decided exactly what we're doing, but we think we're going to drive up by Mount Olympus and make our way to Thessaloniki for honestly only probably like two days.

Just to see Thessaloniki drop the rental car off and then fly over to Crete.

We're going to stay in Chania for I think four nights before making it back to Athens for the final two or three days.

And we're undecided if we're going to stay in Athens city or if we're going to stay on the coast or maybe go there is this lake that I saw people swimming in when I was there last and it's only probably 30 or 40 minutes from Athens, like city center.

It's just like a lake in a rock formation and people were swimming in it and it looked so ideal.

So we might stay over in that area a little bit.

I forget what it's called and then fly home.

And that will be the Greece trip and I cannot wait.

I am so excited.

No promises that I'll post content while I'm there, but I will take content and take all the photos and post them.

If not while I'm there, then when I'm back.

If in any of those places you have been and do you have top recommendations that Google and all of the Instagram reels are not telling, please pray tell, send me a DM on Instagram Becoming Obsessed pod.

Let me know what I'm missing, where we should go, or any hot tips for driving and getting around mainland or when we get to Crete.

Which brings us to update number two.

Yes, we are recording about five months out for guest episodes and while that was an accident, I did not plan on doing that.

It is such a blessing because now it's really freeing up more of my time that I spend on the podcast to work on marketing and promoting.

And I started a batshit crazy ambitious dream about a week ago on Instagram, a series that I'm calling from 5,000 podcast downloads to 1 million podcast downloads in under six months.

And at the time of recording this episode we are almost at the threshold of 5,000.

I actually started this series when I was probably only at about 4 500.

So you are listening right now.

Thank you so much.

You are seriously a part of making my dreams come true.

But more importantly than that, you're a part of helping become becoming obsessed.

Get in front of more people so that we as a collective can question our lives and choose differently or remind ourselves that we are so happy and proud and grateful for the choices we've made and the life we live and learn first and foremost to love the life we already have without making changes, accept mindset changes so that we are grateful for what we have, grateful for the life we've lived, grateful for who we are and what our body can do and then only make changes from that place of already loving what we have because you know what they Say the grass is not greener on the other side.

It is greener where you water it.

So before moving in any type of way, location or who you are, what you do, see if you can love where you're at.

Currently a little bit more with a little bit more gratitude and a little bit more enjoyment.

And that is really what this podcast is about and what this journey to 1 million podcast downloads is about, is really focusing in on this mission and how we're changing not just ourselves and our relationships and our community, but also changing the narrative that it doesn't have to be always something more that we're chasing.

Do we love to grow because we're humans?

Hell, yes.

But it's not out of a place of lack.

It's out of a place of enjoyment and love and gratitude.

That being said, every single time you listen, you download, you share an episode with a friend, you share it on your email list or your Instagram or you rate and review and tell me what you think of the podcast, tell me what sticks with you, tell me what you want to hear more of, tell me what feels out of place for you, what you're like, I don't know, Teresa, I don't agree with that.

Actually, I'm coming for you on that one.

Every time you join the conversation, you're helping us reach more people and build the conversation and community around loving the life we live.

So thank you.

From the very, very bottom of my heart, thank you.

I think that might even be more of a favorite for me than Athens.

And of course, if you want to see the numbers, follow along on Instagram.

Ecoming Obsessed Pod.

I'm posting them.

Well, I'm doing one day for each day of data.

I'm posting them about every day.

Update number three.

This one I'm very, very, very excited for.

I'm excited to announce the next two episodes of Becoming Obsessed are with some of my absolute favorite humans to exist, two of my best friends.

We have a marketing collaborative together.

We call it the Eat Collective.

For the first initial of our names that might change eventually.

We have a client that we all work on together, and we're often sending each other clients and work and all of that, which is so beautiful and empowering.

But more than anything, what I love about these two women is our group chat.

Our group chat is a daily, daily occurrence.

Anytime we have a question about our business, we're like, hey, I'm thinking of doing this.

I'm feeling uncertain about it.

We jump in there.

But it's not just strategy.

It is also the deep inner work.

Sometimes you're like, hey, I am gonna hit this huge goal, and I don't feel like I'm worthy of it or something is sticky for me.

And we're able to just be those outside voices for each other that remind us of who we are, of how other people see us, and help change the narrative in our own head.

So the next two weeks, you're gonna get to hear from two of my favorite people, Ashley Cruz and Emily Dean.

We do work together.

We do life together.

I'm obsessed with them.

But here's the part I don't want to miss.

I only made these two friends a year and a half ago.

These are adult best friends, y'.

All.

It is possible to make new friends as an adult, and none of us set out to do it.

None of us were trying to make new best friends.

It just happened because we were in the same room, which I'll talk about in a minute.

And I'm pretty sure it was Ashley that was the one that was like, okay, let's all get together.

And, like, made sure we had a group chat before we left that room.

And then it grew slowly from there.

We had the group chat.

We decided to co work once a month.

And then as we started to get together more, we ended up just being in the group chat itself.

And now I see them a few times a month, but I talk to them every day.

And as you'll hear in these next two episodes, I have been begging them to start a podcast with me.

I just want the three of us to basically do Giggly Squad for business owners and just bring the group chat and the way we are thinking through and encouraging and challenging each other, I basically just want to make a podcast about it.

And I'm tempted to even just take our voice notes and turn them into a podcast for you all to listen to, because this group of women, these two women, and what we've built together has changed my life.

So I can't wait for you to hear from them.

I'm sure you will be as obsessed with them as I am.

That is all to come in the next two episodes.

Okay, now, I mentioned that I did meet them in a very specific room.

Tickets are live.

I'll put the link in the show notes.

I will be in the VIP room.

Emily and Ashley will be too.

So if you want to see the magic of the room that started our friendship and our marketing collaborative, my bestie business boardroom, we're playing with podcast names, then you should get a ticket and be here too.

One because this is a room of women who really are not just talking and trying to be a thought expert in the world, but who are in community, are so willing to share knowledge, to show up to be vulnerable.

I'm so excited for it.

And of course it is in my hometown in Omaha, Nebraska.

So if you are not a local girly to me, this is a great chance to come see a part of the country that you probably would never come to and I will happily show you around.

Emily, Ashley and I are talking about hosting some type of dinner or event outside of the conference itself, just as an extra welcome to the people who are coming into Omaha.

So if that is you, let me know.

Send me a note so I can make sure you're on the list of people we invite to our extra little party.

And finally, there is one more event that I'm going to this year that I have on the books.

I have my ticket I'm so excited for.

As soon as I knew this was happening, I was on the list, waiting and watching and waiting and watching until I could buy my ticket.

I got it as soon as I could.

Year two of the Create and Cultivate Festival in la, y', all, if you are a woman in business.

I know I talk about entrepreneurship and business ownership here, but also this conference is for you.

If you are a career woman.

I have been calling it a mini south by Southwest for women, but I saw somebody else, Ellen Yin of Cubicle De CEO, who will be hosting a panel again.

She said that they call it the Coachella of festivals for women in business.

And the organizers are very particular about saying this is not a conference, it is a festival.

There is only one musical act, Cardi B Herself.

If that doesn't get you to go, then it's the four stages, the different tracks.

And it's conversations not only from business owners, from entrepreneurs, from angel investors, from women who are helping other women build wealth, but also women who are in corporate, who have built corporate careers, women like Alex Earle who are in media, content creators who have really grown their own personal brand and made a living and building wealth that way.

So I'm obsessed with create and cultivate.

I am so obsessed with their founders.

I've been binging them anywhere I can on their podcast.

They were also on Ellen yin cubicle to CEO's private podcast, talking about how they sold out the first year, which was 2,000 people, and now this year there's gonna be 4,000 people at this festival.

I don't know.

It's just everything that I love, and so many people that I love are gonna be there, and I'm so excited.

I do have an affiliate link for the Create and Cultivate festival, so that'll be at the top of the show notes.

Go.

Click that link and you can get a discount on your ticket.

And then please let me know if you're going to be in any of these places.

At Dream Bigger at Create and Cultivate, I would love to see you in person and get to hear about your life, what you're doing that you're obsessed with, how you're learning to love your life even more, as well as the changes you're making to create a life that you love.

This season for me, has been one of such immense growth.

So many changes, but also one of the most beautiful moments of just waking up to myself again.

I have so much more to say, but I will leave you with this.

Life is the stories you tell yourself.

What stories are you telling yourself?

Are they helping you?

Are they pushing you forward?

Or are they holding you back?

And the reason I question the stories is because so often we don't realize that they're just stories.

We think they are facts.

We think it is just the way the world works.

I can't have that because I'm not this.

And that is what becoming obsessed is about.

Questioning all of these little thoughts and learning which ones help and which ones hold us back.

And then not judging any of it, but just exploring all that life has to give.

All right, y'.

All.

I love you.

Have a great summer.

If you're listening to this in six months, I hope you're enjoying the winter.

I'll probably be snowbirding somewhere.

Let's go get obsessed.

You're still listening, which means this episode connected with you.

And I want to know how.

Send me a DM on Instagram at Becoming Obsessed Pod.

Then send this episode to a friend.

If you know someone, someone who is building a life that they love or they're feeling a little stuck and might just need a nudge, send this to them.

Then rate and review, because it also helps us get the word out.

And as you know, we're on a mission for more people to live a life they truly love.

All right, let's go get obsessed.