What if your business could thrive by rejecting traditional capitalist values and embracing a slower, more intentional approach?

In the final episode of 2024, Deeply Rested host Maegan Megginson and business manager Nancy Guidry take you behind the scenes of their transformative year. Maegan and Nancy share the highs and lows of deconditioning from capitalist paradigms, fostering transparency, and integrating symbiosis into their business practices. 

Maegan and Nancy reflect on pivotal moments from the past year, including the decision to close profitable programs, the rewards of hosting the Deep Rest Retreat, and their commitment to prioritizing well-being alongside business needs. They also provide practical reflection questions to help you evaluate your own year and explore how these insights might shape your personal and professional growth. 

Here’s a look at what you’ll discover in this episode: 

How Maegan and Nancy integrated anti-capitalist values (00:54) 

Behind the scenes of the Deeply Rested team and their journey (03:33) 

Embracing slow growth and seasonal planning (26:11) 

Lessons learned from hosting the Deep Rest Retreat (58:08) 

Planting seeds for a purpose-driven 2025 (01:14:00) 

To watch the video version of this discussion, check us out on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yfKMY6Jlp7M

Reflection Questions to End Your Year with Intention

1. Were there any moments in this conversation that resonated deeply with you? Why did they resonate? What do you want to do with that information?
2. As you reflect on 2024, can you identify what felt good and what didn’t? How did these experiences impact you? What changes might you make based on this awareness?
3. How can you honor the season of winter in your life and work? How can you reflect the themes of rest and stillness in your business and personal practices?

Take time to journal your thoughts and explore these questions deeply. Consider asking yourself “why” multiple times to uncover the core of what these reflections mean to you.

Our Business Partners Mentioned in the Episode

Upswept Creative: Web Design and Online Marketing for Small Businesses https://www.upsweptcreative.com/ 

Ashley Dickson-Ellison: Podcast Management https://www.ashleydicksonellison.com/ 

Amanda Tjarks: VA/Marketing https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandafailla/ 

Join us for this conversation as Maegan and Nancy share their vision for a business that prioritizes rest, community, and meaningful work. Whether you’re looking to reflect on your own year or explore a more intentional way of doing business, this episode has practical wisdom and actionable ideas.

Mentioned in this episode:

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[00:00:24] It has been a transformative year for us that has really centered around learning how to embody more anti capitalist values in our business. And we've just learned so much along this journey that it feels really important to share openly and honestly with all of you about what's been happening with the world.

[00:01:16] At the end of the conversation, we share some reflection questions with you to help you enter into your own year end review process. And also to help you integrate the things that you hear us share into your own business without feeling like you have to compare yourself to us or copy or replicate the really bizarre journey that we've been on this year.

[00:02:06] So I'm so thrilled. I'm so excited. to share this with you, to pull back the curtain, to welcome you into the fold of the deeply rested community. And I just, I can't wait. I can't wait to hear what you think, what you experience after listening to this conversation. Thank you so much. We launched this podcast a few months ago in September, and it's just been such a joy, such an honor, and we can't wait to share so much more with you in 2025.

[00:03:33] Hi Nancy.

[00:03:36] Maegan: Welcome to the Deeply Rested Podcast.

[00:03:40] Maegan: You've never been here before.

[00:03:49] Maegan: I mean, you have listened to more hours of podcast footage than any other person on the face of the planet. You're our number one fan.

[00:04:07] Maegan: I'm really excited. I'm really excited for this. We're going to dive in and we're going to talk about this business and what's been happening this past year and where we're headed. And it's, it's going to be kind of wild, I guess, because like, this is a weird thing to do.

[00:04:32] Nancy: Yeah. Sounds great.

[00:04:48] So let's just orient ourselves and all of the listeners to what the purpose of this conversation is, and then after that we'll move into introductions. Nancy, to me about why we're doing this right now.

[00:05:21] Yeah.

[00:05:39] Why does this feel like an important conversation to have? Otherwise it feels a little bit egotistical, narcissistic, like, hey guys, just doesn't everyone want to listen to an hour long conversation of what's happening in my business? I know neither one of us are interested in having a performative conversation.

[00:06:27] And there's no roadmap, right? It's like totally the wild, wild west trying to figure out what does it mean to operate a profitable business outside of the traditional rules and paradigms of capitalism. And we really want to show our listeners, our audience, all business owners, like we want to show people what that process has been like, right?

[00:07:22] Right? So if we just zoom out for a second, capitalism is basically the economic system that functions on privatization and competition. Right, so everything is privately owned. It's the belief that like all individuals are separate from each other and we're all competing against each other to get what we want.

[00:08:03] You know, we don't want people copying what we're doing. We don't want people seeing our weaknesses because if people see our weaknesses then they're going to know where to attack. So, and it's like, we're all doing this. Even if you don't think you're doing this, this is deeply internalized.

[00:08:44] So we exist in this business, this small business world now where we have to pay each other for information. And, and the thing, the information that we're paying for, it's only like the information that's been packaged and tied up with a bow, right? Okay, I found this one thing that works in my business.

[00:09:16] Nancy: They're not going to see the nitty gritty that went into it, the flaws, the questioning, the mistakes, the circling back. Yeah.

[00:09:44] I mean, it's kind of, it's just a mess. feels chaotic. It feels superficial, that we're all only showing each other, like, what's happening. That feels, like, presentable, what's happening above the surface. So Nancy and I believe that one of the ways that we can decondition from these capitalistic paradigms is to, to get more honest with each other about the full context.

[00:10:30] We want this conversation to be really helpful for everyone who listens to it. We want this conversation to have a trickle down positive effect for the clients of the business owners who are listening to this conversation.So in a large nutshell, that's why we're doing this. We want to increase transparency.

[00:11:06] Nancy: Yeah,

[00:11:10] Anything you want to add?

[00:11:35] So yeah, it's all, it all comes right back around.

[00:11:53] We're being like, oh, let's write that down. That's good. Yeah. Okay, before we get into reviewing this year, I would love to give folks a breakdown of everyone who participates in the Deeply Rested vision behind the scenes. Obviously people are familiar with me, since I'm the forward facing person, but there is a whole team of people who aren't forward facing, who are so crucial. One of the things that we're really trying to do in re envisioning this business through an anti-capitalist lens is explore the ways in which we can remove hierarchy.

[00:13:02] To that end, no one really has a title right now. There's like some loose titles, but like we're, we're kind of trying to move away from titles. And we're also actively exploring how we can integrate human design into the way we organize this company. So we'll talk a little bit about that. That's the context for where we're at in this moment.

[00:13:26] Nancy: So my name is Nancy Guidry. I use she/her pronouns, In human design... so if you listened to our last episode that came out with Jessica Rose, you might have heard a little bit about human design and the different types of human design that there are. So I am a generator. Meaning that I am... One of my gifts is responding to what the universe brings to my door.

[00:14:24] I help Maegan, who was our visionary, take the big ideas that are kind of floating around and say, like, Okay, how can we make this come to life in terms of an offering? Or what's the structure behind it that allows this to run? And in creating simple systems that allow the business to function more smoothly without overcomplicating things.

[00:15:11] It was pretty bad. And so I resigned from that and started working here with Maegan in 2020. And, we've been here ever since. And I think the... one of the things that I really appreciated kind of coming into this work was having experienced such a huge depth. The depth of the burnout that I felt as a teacher, and coming into this work that was about building in rest and honoring ourselves as a human.

[00:15:59] Maegan: Amazing introduction. I loved it. We just got, like, your whole life story, and the way you just told that story. was such a beautiful example of, like, connecting the dots, right? When we start, like, connecting the dots through our whole history, and being really curious about, like, how have all of these points on my journey led me to this spot?

[00:16:51] Because it's really easy to compartmentalize, like, who you are as a person versus, like, who you are at work. And to, to keep those two parts of your life totally separate. And we've discovered over the last four years of working with clients in this way, that the more people compartmentalize the professional from the personal, the more likely they are to end up in burnout.

[00:17:48] really been doing this year is asking ourselves questions of like, how can everybody in this company do that? Not just me, Maegan. That doesn't feel right. That feels hierarchical, right? If it's like, Oh, okay. Maegan gets to live her best life and like she gets to figure out how to take time off and like weave the personal into the professional, but then everyone else underneath her just has to do a nine to five job.

[00:18:34] introducing yourself, and we would not be where we are right now without all of your contributions and gifts. So thank you so, so much. Thank you.

[00:18:47] Maegan: Cool, cool cool shit is happening. Cool. We'll have to save it for another time, the synchronistic way in which we found each other.

[00:19:00] Maegan: Yeah, we'll, we'll put a pin in that.

[00:19:24] So, my natural gifts are to guide. To guide, to lead, to see the situation at hand and to know how to choreograph the energy of the team, of the group of clients, of an individual client. I feel like I am really rooted in my gifts when I am doing my personal work and when I'm thinking and talking about these ideas and when I'm guiding other people in moving through this process for themself.

[00:20:24] I think of him as like my back pocket manifester. Cause like I walk around our house and I'm just like a flurry of ideas and thoughts and desires and opinions. I have so many opinions if, I mean, if you're listening to this, you know that at this point. So I'm just like, yeah, right? What? So I'm just like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:21:10] of what is happening, and he can just sort of distill, like point his finger at like, focus on that. Like, say that. Do that. And it's such a gift. It's such a gift. He also manages all the money for our company. Jonathan used to be an engineer, so he's very spreadsheet savvy. So he manages all of the finances as his task-y part of the work that we do together.

[00:21:50] Nancy: Hi, Ashley.

[00:22:04] We wouldn't be doing this right now if it weren't for the support that we're getting from Ashley. So Ashley, thank you so much. I connected with Ashley through my dear friend, Linzy Bonham, who many listeners will know. Ashley is also Linzy's podcast producer. So we're going to link to Ashley's website in the show notes, if you're curious to check her out.

[00:22:35] Nancy: Long before I was around.

[00:22:46] We just send Amanda an email to say, can you fix this for us? And she's like, yep. Got it. On it. She's incredible. I'm so grateful because I know neither Nancy or I are super tech savvy. So that's super helpful. We'll link to Amanda if you're looking for a VA like check her out. She's phenomenal. And then we have a website team, Upswept Creative, and they do our website maintenance And they're helping us create new website pages and whatnot.

[00:23:33] It's not my natural gift. It's not Nancy's natural gift. Jonathan could live the rest of his life without talking to another human being, and he would be the happiest man on the planet. Definitely not his gift. We need someone who has that gift. We need someone who like, eats, sleeps, and breathes online marketing.

[00:24:16] We're feeling ready to take everything we've created and just level up, which we're going to talk about today. So that's who is behind the scenes of this company. Anything you want to add to that before we get into our review?

[00:24:42] Maegan: Definitely. And we're not even mentioning in this conversation all of the people who support us strategically, right? Like business besties and coaches that we'll do calls with when we're struggling with particular problems like this. You just, you can't do this work alone and yeah, I'm really happy with the team that we've cultivated.

[00:25:07] Maegan: I do think so. Yeah, so this conversation is a 2024 review, but upon reflection, Nancy and I decided that it would actually be helpful if we went back a little bit further and talked about some of the big things that happened in this company in 2023. Because 2023 was really the year when we decided to pivot, and then this has been the year Of like the pivot taking shape.

[00:26:11] So something that we keep learning over and over again when we're stepping into more of an anti capitalist lens is that things happen slowly. Things happen at the speed of the earth, of

[00:26:24] Maegan: and seasonal cycles, and that, that doesn't happen quickly. And that's a really beautiful thing once you settle in and let the slowness not be a problem.

[00:26:41] Nancy: Definitely. I think that the deconditioning from toxic capitalism is a hard thing to do and it takes a long time. And I think that you just have to give it time. That can't happen

[00:27:01] And it's just. It's not going to work, you know, it's like, for me anyway, I feel like there are lots of things that I have to continually circle back to. It's like, Oh, I, I'm over that part, you know, but it's like, Nope, it shows up again. So it's just a process that takes a long time. And I think you just have to honor that, you know?

[00:27:40] Because we're in competition with everyone else. So when you're in competition, like, you've got to move fast or someone else is going to beat you to it, you know, someone else is going to get the prize before you do. So we just, we start moving at, like, such a rapid pace. And I think the biggest lesson for us in trying to decondition from capitalism has been letting our bodies adjust to a new speed.

[00:28:25] Nancy: Yeah. Yeah. I feel that.

[00:28:58] with my core values or with what I was sensing my deeper purpose really was. Kind of like you said with teaching earlier, right? when we can feel it, we can feel it in our bodies when something just isn't quite clicked into place. And I realized that the offerings that we were sharing and the work that we were doing, it was great.

[00:29:45] They were Next Level Therapist, was kind of the first level program. And, the second tier program was Spotlight, which was a mastermind business strategy small group program. All of the work we were doing was around personal branding. So helping healers and small business owners who wanted to be thought leaders and kind of create a business that allowed them to erase that line between the personal and professional so they could be fully themselves and the work that they were doing, which I still feel really passionate about that.

[00:30:37] Nancy: of, I don't remember details from that conversation, but I do remember my initial reaction when you were like, I think we need to close down these two programs. And my first reaction was like, Oh fuck, like what, like what, what are, what are we going to do? How are we going to make money?

[00:31:04] Nancy: At the same time, I just, with that generator energy, it's like, okay, this is what the universe is bringing me. And like, we'll make it work. So, yeah, it was a… I was very surprised when you told me that.

[00:31:36] Maegan: Coming back to the human design lens, it's, it's one of the challenging things about being a projector is that often, like, I can sense things that are true before other people can sense them, and it can be really isolating. And crazy making, right? Cause it's like, I'm like, I think we need to close down these programs.

[00:32:18] But can we also talk about the trepidation and the fear and the concerns? Because we had just spent years building out these programs. Building the curriculum, recording the videos, creating the sales pages, selling them, filling them. Like we had just spent years investing and building and they had, they were finally, finally found their sweet spot, right?

[00:33:02] that's like a smaller, more expensive mastermind. And like I did the whole thing. We did the whole thing. And it was working. It works, right? So

[00:33:14] Maegan: The programs were great. Our clients were great. On the surface, it was all great and it was working the way it was supposed to work.

[00:33:50] And the other thing that didn't feel right to me was doing work that focused on helping people make more money.

[00:33:57] Maegan: There's nothing wrong with making money. I want to be really super clear about that. And I'm really proud of the way that we helped people increase their income.

[00:34:09] That was what I was sensing and that was the rub, right? It's that I felt like we had landed on a way of teaching people the strategy of profitable businesses that was aligned with a lot of integrity and humanity. I was really proud of the way we were teaching it, but I knew intuitively but this isn't what I'm meant to be teaching.

[00:34:48] And we can figure that out. September of 2023, we closed the programs.we basically stopped making money. And we entered into 2024, which has been a liminal year. Right? It has been being in the void, being in this process of re envisioning what is it we want to do, what values do we want to stand for, what do we want our mission to actually be.

[00:35:34] Nancy: Yeah.

[00:35:42] Nancy: One thing that was kind of eye opening for me, I think, was at the end of 2023,you came to me with the decision. You were like, Hey, I've decided we're all taking a sabbatical. And it was like, okay, we're not planning anything for when we come back from sabbatical. When we leave for sabbatical, we're kind of like tying some things up and leaving them.

[00:36:39] Nancy: I think that's just kind of where, like, some, some alchemy started to happen, and just taking that pause, at least for me, was really like, okay, it was like the breath of air, like, I'm just going to, like, not focus on anything during this time off and see kind of what emerges naturally. And, I think that was a really interesting and illuminating way to kind of start off this year of being in that liminal space. So yeah, that was just something that was really like, I don't know, perspective changing for me, I think.

[00:37:31] Maegan: since 2018, and in the past, like, I would take a sabbatical and then, like, Nancy would still be logged on

[00:38:07] Maegan: We never finished, so we should probably circle back that. So it was great. And then we got sidetracked. We were reading the book Saving Time by

[00:38:24] Between you, me, and Jonathan, about how at the start of the Industrial Revolution, there was a shift in the workforce, and instead of like pre Industrial Revolution, like we're all working together to hunt the meat and farm the vegetables and, you know, make the clothes and raise the children and there's a real egalitarian aspect of the way that we're working.

[00:39:05] Nancy: It was, The Timer and the Timed. Yeah.

[00:39:28] And he has the stopwatch, if you will, and he's timing all of the factory workers to, you know, make as much as they could make as fast as they could possibly make it. She goes into way more detail than this, obviously. But Nancy, so courageously, I'll never forget it. We were sitting in our little office.

[00:40:08] And it was like, Oh shit, I don't want to be like, everything in my body was like, I don't want to be the timer, that's like, no, I don't want to, I don't want that. I don't want to be a part of that system. So fast forward to the end of 2023. And it was my annual winter sabbatical.

[00:40:52] So we'll talk more about the one we're about to step into. But yeah, that's right. So we took a winter sabbatical, 2023, and then we came back in February…

[00:41:11] And so began our year of re envisioning this business, right? Re envisioning our mission, the services that we're going to offer. And we started by thinking about the system of capitalism and the ways in which the system of capitalism have conditioned us to just automatically assume that the sole purpose of our business is to make a profit.

[00:42:02] So I'll pass the mic to you, Nancy. Walk us through the kind of different areas of purpose that we're claiming now.

[00:42:39] And we pay ourselves not just with a paycheck, but in rest. And also in, I feel like we're cultivating this environment, like a work environment that allows us to be fully human. And I'm not, as the timed person, I am not feeling like my value is just what I produce. You know? I can really, like, bring more of myself

[00:43:31] Maegan: Yeah. And I think next year is going to be the year when we deepen that exploration to say, okay, we're not just measuring this business based on cash in the bank, right? We're also looking at things like how are we being of service? Like this

[00:43:49] Right? And yes, it's also a marketing vehicle for our business. Symbiosis: it gets to serve multiple purposes, but at the core, like we, we want these conversations to change people's lives.

[00:44:09] And equally, we need the business to be of service to every person who works inside of the business. That is so crucial. Go back to episode one of this podcast, Rest is Revenue, and that's, that's where we started with this podcast. How can we change our businesses so that they are really operating in service to the business owner?

[00:44:44] We're also looking at how did we create community?

[00:45:01] philosophical overview, if you will, of thinking about capitalism, thinking about purpose. But let's talk about what we actually did this year. How were we of service this year to ourselves, to our clients? And we're just going to run through this, this list, just to give you context about everything that happened this year. Predominantly when we stepped into this year, we knew that we needed space. We needed white space on the calendar to read, to think, to have conversations, to explore. And if that could have been all we did this year, that honestly that would have been... that would have been awesome. but we did need to bring in some revenue this year.

[00:45:52] Maegan: We did this year from a business planning perspective was that we abandoned traditional annual planning.

[00:46:25] You know, what happens if we align with the natural cycles, 70 percent and only align with capitalism, the necessary 30 percent, so that we can in fact make the money that we need to live in this society. So that has been a huge part of what we've been exploring and experimenting with this year.

[00:47:03] the purpose that felt like the strongest, the most right, if you will. So we returned to one on one work with clients, which was huge. It had been quite a while since we did one-on-one work because I really got indoctrinated in the online business world. That's like, don't you go, you gotta stop doing one-on-one work.

[00:47:30] That was our primary revenue generator this year, was working one on one with clients. We started a community, the Deeply Rested Community. We started that with alumni. So clients who had been through Next Level Therapist and Spotlight in the past and wanted to continue working with us.

[00:48:09] Share your observations about that.

[00:48:29] now. That's part of our work week. And I think that that is really beautiful. and then in terms of responsive time off, there was, I don't know, there was one specific time over the summer where things were just not going very well. There was like, I don't know, a lot of stress, felt like a lot of things were kind of in turmoil.

[00:49:07] tense right now or whatever it was. And you were like, well, let's look at the calendar.

[00:49:13] weeks off? Is there anything on the calendar that can be rescheduled or that, you know, we need to do over the next couple of weeks. And once we took a look at things, we were like, actually, like, you know, we didn't have client meetings and stuff like that.

[00:49:49] and everything was fine, you know, like it was fine. We came back after a couple of weeks feeling better and like the business was still here and our clients were still here. And

[00:50:02] Maegan: And I thinkIt was really convenient that there weren't that many things that had to be rescheduled. Like, there were a lot of plans that had to change, right? Like, the plans that we had for the summer season. Many of the plans or the goals that we had for the summer had to be kicked into the fall.

[00:50:41] Maegan: to reschedule.

[00:51:06] Like, this is what it looks like and this, this would have been the right thing to do, even if we would've had a ton of clients appointments on the calendar because that's what we needed. Like my personal life was totally in shambles. your personal life was, you know, you were having your own shambles.

[00:51:49] And I was like, what time are we talking about? Like, I'd already forgotten about it. And then you started talking about it and I was like, oh, shit. That was so important. And isn't it wild that I've already released it from my mind. Like, no, we need, this is why annual reviews are so important. We needed to come back and talk about that again with distance, with perspective.

[00:52:11] Maegan: powerful for us to be saying to each other, okay, and when that happens next year and there are two dozen client appointments on the books, we still cancel them.Period. Because that was the thing that needed to happen, and not doing that is denying, like, a core part of our human experience.

[00:52:32] Maegan: not doing that is really, it's treating your body like a machine. we don't want to do that. So, sacrifices have to be made. It feels like such a crucial lesson.

[00:52:44] Maegan: you. Thank you for reflecting on that.

[00:52:47] Maegan: So, zooming out. That's everything that happened this year. It was a lot. it was a lot. We were really loosening our grip on needing to have a plan, on needing to know what was going to happen when. We were really intentionally trying not to schedule or plan in advance

[00:53:11] And we just wanted to see what happens, what happens when we loosen our grip on control and allow ourselves to, to be more synced with natural cycles and to really, to, to be operating from a deeper place within ourselves.

[00:53:37] Nancy: Yeah.

[00:53:47] Nancy: I mean, it's felt very disorienting. and you know, it definitely hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows. But at the same time, like you were saying, like there are times where it has felt so liberating. And I think that, we've kind of been riding these waves, at least for me anyway, of like riding these waves of like feeling really disoriented.

[00:54:32] And then we'll kind of go back into that wave of like, Oh gosh, where are we going? What's happening? What's going on? And then it's like, Oh, well this thing clicked into place. And I think it's felt kind of like a series of small things clicking into place all year, you know, and it's like one thing after another. And in between those things clicking into place,

[00:55:27] Not that we've arrived anywhere because we're still like on this journey

[00:55:34] but it all feels really good in the way of like, it was scary and we did it anyway.

[00:56:05] Maegan: I really appreciate you saying all of that. I feel it. I second everything you're saying, so I'm not going to repeat it. I'll just say that everything you're describing, like, is the process of deconditioning from an oppressive system.

[00:56:31] And the reason so many people stay in the systems is because there is comfort there, right? There's familiarity. There's a predictability. We know what life looks like inside of those systems, even, even if we think the systems are wrong, right? It's why so many like white people, for example, really don't want to explore anti racism.

[00:57:15] I guess, like, what we're learning is that it is possible. It's possible. And it's uncomfortable, but it's workably uncomfortable,

[00:57:34] Maybe you're in a new place. You're in a hotel. Okay, let's play with this, this image. You're in a hotel, lights are off, you gotta go to the bathroom, but like, you don't have the muscle memory of exactly where the bathroom is. So got to put your hands on the wall, and like, very slowly make your way to the bathroom.

[00:58:01] Nancy: Yes.

[00:58:05] Nancy: Yes.

[00:58:36] And we could see with clarity where it is we're headed.

[00:58:45] Nancy: Man, the retreat was so good,I think, well, it felt like almost like a proving ground for us because it was like we have these ideas and we know what we want the outcomes to be, but I don't think we had a super clear picture of like what the path to get there

[00:59:09] And, you know, we had a fantastic group of folks that came on this retreat, and it was just really powerful to see. I feel like the biggest difference for me, was seeing people come on this retreat and it's like, yes, it's a retreat for your business, but there was like, nary a laptop to be found, you know, nobody looked at email.

[00:59:58] And it was just really incredible to see people come into that experience with some intentions and then just see how things unfolded over the weekend, how their intention shifted, how things were opening up for people. And it was just so beautiful to be able to do that, or to witness that, and be in community at the same time.

[01:00:44] It was like, no, like we are each bringing something so valuable to this experience. and it was just really beautiful to kind of witness that and like, feel like the alchemy in the air. And,

[01:01:06] any of that, and it was really, really great.

[01:01:31] And it's been so hard for me to release that because I have so many years and, and tens of thousands of dollars of coaching that I've paid for where the message has all been, People will only pay you if you can help them make more money. You have to help people see how to do it, how to build the business.

[01:02:28] That we all have all of the answers inside of ourselves. And the work is learning, remembering, if you will, remembering how to come back to the part of us that knows what the right decision is for me every step of the way.So that felt really solidified on retreat. We're not doing skills and strategy coaching.

[01:03:16] into the work that we do, more ceremony into the work that we do, more community, more community building. That's so huge, the community aspect. And just rewinding for a second to what you were saying about the disorientation, like one of my observations from this year is that, I could never have done what we did this year alone.

[01:04:20] Nancy: Yeah.

[01:04:29] Maegan: Trust the speed of things, trust the pacing of things,

[01:04:50] I want to talk, just for the sake of full transparency, about a couple of the things we wish we would have done differently.

[01:05:12] And the first is audience growth. I really didn't put any focus this year into growing the email, the newsletter list. We have this podcast. It's still really fresh, obviously, but like we haven't done anything specifically besides share it with our newsletter community to like grow the podcast list. And like having that audience is so crucial to the financial success of a business, and we want to

[01:05:57] It will be a major focus in 2025. And I'm trusting that it will all be fine, so we don't need to worry.

[01:06:14] And the other thing is about money. This was a very light financial year. On paper, the business is losing money this year. Luckily my husband and I have another business that we were able to move funds from that business into this business to keep us afloat.

[01:06:53] I think we could have put a little more focused intention into, you know, kind of selling our one on ones to a few more people, right? Or we could have had a longer runway to launch the retreat. So there are some things we could have done to increase our sales this year. I just think moving into next year, we'll, we'll need to be more focused on what we're selling and making sure that, you know, we're bumping revenue up again.

[01:07:21] Maegan: Those are my thoughts, my reflections on what could have been a little bit different. Do you have any followups?

[01:07:41] This sort of shift doesn't have to be a burn it all down and start from scratch kind of shift. There are so many small things that we've done over this year that could be implemented into an existing, you know, way that you're working to just start taking those baby steps in kind of like just really letting go of some of the, you know, you know, more toxic practices that kind of come up.

[01:08:19] Maegan: Yeah. Thank you so much for saying that. And we're going to be talking a lot more about this in 2025, like financial realities. Because we want this podcast and the work that we do to be more rooted in the spiritual, in the introspective, than in the strategic and the pragmatic. But we don't want to become just, you know, another pair of white ladies who are, like, telling people just to, like, manifest your destiny, you know?

[01:09:04] He went on this whole tangent and he was like, I think we should do a whole series of conversations talking to people who have made big changes and how they did that financially. And I was like, manifestor moment noted, but let's come back to focusing on the outline for this conversation. so I really hope we can talk a lot more about that. And everything that we do, all of the offerings that we do in this business this year and moving forward will be rooted in the small changes.

[01:10:00] But not so drastically that it shakes the foundation of your financial security. You should never make a change in your business that jeopardizes your financial security. All it's going to do is send you into fight or flight, and you can't do work. You can't be of service if you're in fight or flight.

[01:10:27] Nancy: No, I think that

[01:10:29] Maegan: And I think the Deep Breast Retreat was such a great... It was our favorite thing that we did all year, hands down.

[01:10:44] Maegan: which is revolutionary in itself to say, I'm paying for this. I'm making the time for this. I'm traveling to go to this space, to this land, to do this deconditioning work, this coming back to myself as a business owner.

[01:11:09] Maegan: Right.

[01:11:12] Maegan: It's a tangent.I'm just the kind of person who likes to turn things upside down, so. This was a me choice, this was a Maegan choice, not a everybody needs to do this choice.

[01:11:44] We have some ideas about where we're headed, which we're going to speak to in a minute, but we have a long way to go. And we're celebrating that. We're celebrating that this is just the beginning of a really long journey. As we reflect on where we are here at the end of 2024, Nancy, I would love it if you could read the mission statement.

[01:12:29] And we've landed on a mission statement that, for now at least, feels really good. So, further ado, Nancy, can you please read it to the people?

[01:13:03] that prioritize people over profits. Together, we're cultivating an anti capitalist vision of success, one that values collaboration, interdependence, and prosperity for all.

[01:13:22] Nancy: It's good.

[01:13:26] Nancy: Yeah, just for the record, this document originated December 2023.

[01:13:33] Maegan: Right. We've been working in this document specifically

[01:13:38] Maegan: for a year. So that's what we're doing. That's where we're headed. We, it's December 4th when we're recording this episode. We are leaving for our winter sabbatical on December 20th. We'll be on sabbatical December 20th through January.

[01:14:20] And we're thinking about doing that through creating a community that is centered around seasonal business planning. So, It's going to do a lot of things, I'm sure, but the core of it is like, how do we really bring together the philosophical with the pragmatic, because the pragmatic is so important. We need structure in order to move our businesses forward, and we want that structure to align with the natural seasons of the earth, and not with the arbitrary seasons of capitalism.

[01:15:12] We want to help create a container where people can really do this work, with ease and joy and love and friendship and community with others. That's the idea. Like that's it. That's where we are with it. And we want to use Winter Sabbatical to let this idea work its magic in our subconscious.

[01:15:43] Nancy: Yeah. when we originally were talking about this and we were talking about like we have these ideas and then we're taking this sabbatical and what immediately came to mind were ranunculus flowers.

[01:15:55] Maegan: That's my favorite flower!

[01:15:58] Maegan: You didn't even know that!

[01:16:13] It has to...Technically, maybe it has to freeze, but so many plants need that overwintering in order to gather energy. You know, that's when it's like gathering all the energy from the soil and putting it into the bulbs that are in the ground so that the plant can spring forth in the springtime.

[01:16:53] Maegan: Nature's process. So we're going to do a lot of visioning over the next few weeks. We're going to make some vision boards, and we're going to plant seeds for this offering. We know we want it to be community based. We know we want it to be very affordable, so that we can get as many business owners into this work, into this community as possible.

[01:17:34] And, yeah, we have so much more to say about sabbatical, but not today, because this conversation has gotten quite long. But that's where, that's what's happening. That's where we're, that's where we're wrapping things up. And our plan when we come back from sabbatical is to record a follow up conversation to share more about sabbatical as a concept, as a project, and to share what happened for us on sabbatical and where we are with this idea that we just kind of laid out for you all right now.

[01:18:31] And then we can't do it because they already did it. And I was just like, oh. There it is. You know, like, there's the conditioning, there's that fearful part, there's that competitive part. you know, that way of thinking is still really ingrained in my nervous system, and it felt really good to notice that that happened and then to very intentionally make the choice to say, no, I do want to say this out loud.

[01:19:17] So we want to let you see really truly what happens when we step away into this winter cocoon of deep rest, what happens with all of those seeds that we plant in the earth. Literally and metaphorically while we're resting. Anything else, Nancy, that you want to say about where we are as a company here at the end of the year?

[01:20:03] otherwise, and I'm very excited about it. So I'm really glad that we're doing what we're doing and thanks for just being a great partner in this work. And yeah, feels good.

[01:20:22] Nancy: Yes.

[01:20:37] What?! Okay, that's a different conversation. But the French president was being interviewed by someone and the interviewer said, when you made the claim that the Notre Dame Cathedral would be rebuilt in five years, like, did you ever doubt that that would be possible?

[01:21:28] And just that line, you know, once you doubt it's already over. It's like, okay, I'm holding on to that. Anyways, We want to wrap up, dear listener. Thank you for sticking with us. We really hope that this review has planted some seeds in your mind and in your heart. That something that we said in this episode really resonated or catalyzed an idea, or a question, that you want to explore within your own process.

[01:22:25] We don't want you to compare our journey to your journey. We don't want you to listen to what happened inside of our business this year and then try to replicate that in your business. My process is not your process. We are all so uniquely different. And the rub, the struggle, the challenge, the burnout comes when we try to follow somebody else's roadmap.

[01:23:13] That's our intention. That's our wish for you. So some reflection questions to help you do that as we wrap up this conversation today. Are there any specific nuggets from this conversation that really resonated with you? Was there anything that either Nancy or I said that sent a little jolt of electricity through your body, right?

[01:24:02] And let this be a really deep, reflective process. What resonated? Why did it resonate? Go deep with that question. Ask yourself why five times, right? Why did it resonate? Because it sounded interesting. Why did it sound interesting? Because I've never thought of it that way before. Why have you never thought of it that way before?

[01:24:44] Just look through everything that happened and check in with your body. Did it feel good or did it not feel good? And what do you want to do with that information? What does that information communicate to you? Final reflection question, what can you do to honor the season of winter? We're going to invite people next year to step into a sabbatical planning process with us so that hopefully many people can join our winter sabbatical next year, but chances are you can't take a sabbatical right now, but that doesn't mean you can't honor winter.

[01:25:42] And if you listened all the way through, Nancy and I would love to hear from you. So send us an email. You can email me at Maegan@Maeganmaginson.com. You can email Nancy at Nancy@Maeganmaginson.com. And, just let us know. I mean, we would love to know what this conversation meant to you, what stood out to you, what questions you have for us, things you would like for us to speak to in our followup episode, whatever you want to share, we want to hear it.

[01:26:11] Nancy: Yes. So, when this episode airs, this will be the last episode that comes out for 2024. and we will have two weeks off with the podcast and we'll be back with our next episode on January 8th.

[01:26:51] We hope to see you in one of our circles and one of our communities in 2025. and for now, have a happy end of the year. Happy solstice. Enjoy the holiday season. We'll talk to you in February.