What happens when you disappear from your own podcast without explanation? In this vulnerable return episode, I'm sharing the real story behind my unannounced break and what it taught me about the transitions we don't talk about in business.

I'm Nikita Williams, your host, and after running Business with Chronic Illness for years, I found myself in a quiet transition that didn't come with announcements or pretty bows. Sometimes something inside you changes before the outside world even knows it's happening.

In this episode, we explore:

- The quiet changes happening in your business that deserve space and time

- How your body constantly gives you feedback about what your business needs

- Why persistence doesn't always look like showing up

- The difference between obligation-based consistency and aligned sustainability

- How to protect what you're building when your capacity changes

- Permission to move through transitions privately before sharing them publicly

This episode is for you if:

- You've felt something shifting in your business but can't name what it is

- You're tired of forcing consistency when your capacity has changed

- You've ever needed to step away from something without a perfect explanation

- You're navigating health changes that affect your business operations

- You want permission to honor your transitions even when they're messy

Things mentioned in this episode:

Join us for our First BWCI Insider Group Live Call

Here's the Blog Series on Transitions from: Andrea Nakayama, Functional Nutrition Specialist

Join our Built to Breathe community on Substack for more real-time conversations.

Subscribe to the Chronically Profitable email series for business strategies that work with your reality, not against it.

✨ Thank you for listening.

Here's how to connect with Nikita, your host:

→ Grab your Free Curated Podcast for Business Growth Playlist

→ Grab Your Free 5-Day Private Podcast Series to Help You Make Sales with Ease with Long-Form Content and Nervous-System-Friendly Marketing Strategies for Women with Chronic Illness & Burnt-Out Entrepreneurs.

⭐ Loved this episode? Leave a review and share it with a friend who’s ready to grow their business without burnout or sacrificing their well-being.

📱 Stay connected: Follow me on Instagram.

Are you tired of hearing business advice that completely

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ignores what real life looks like when

you're navigating chronic illness,

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autoimmune disorders, flareups, medical

appointments, and just life lifeing?

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Business with chronic illness is for

entrepreneurs who know they're capable

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of building something meaningful,

but need a way to do it that actually

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works with their body, not against it.

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This podcast brings you honest

conversations with founders, CEOs,

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and other bosses sharing their

strategies, adaptations, and lessons

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they've learned while building

businesses alongside chronic illness,

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including what worked, what didn't.

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And what they wish they

had done differently before

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burnout forced the lesson.

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I'm your host, Nikita Williams, a globally

ranked podcast host and entrepreneur

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who's built my business while navigating

chronic illness and helping others do

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the same without sacrificing themselves.

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I created this show to open up the

conversations most business spaces avoid.

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The promise of business with

chronic illness is simple.

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To show you that you can build a

thriving business with chronic illness

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and autoimmune disorders without

sacrificing your health, your peace

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or your profit, you're not behind.

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You're building differently,

and you're in the right place.

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Speaker: Welcome back to

Business with Chronic Illness.

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If you've been here before, or

you are a new listener, or if you

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are a long time OG of the show.

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Thank you for being here and

if you're new, good timing.

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'cause I'm getting back into some

stuff here on this podcast and we're

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starting with a nice reset refresh.

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But before we get into what you can

expect from the show moving forward,

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I obviously have to address to all

of my listeners from the point of

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I disappeared on February the sixth.

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I just kind of.

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It disappeared from the podcast world,

and I want to share with you a little

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bit of why and, some updates on

what you can expect from the show.

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So there was no announcement.

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No, you didn't miss it.

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There was no explanation.

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No, you didn't miss it.

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And no, there wasn't like

a goodbye episode either.

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I just stopped.

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And if you noticed.

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ICU, many of you reached out to

me and said, Hey, everything good?

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How's it going?

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That means the show.

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This podcast matters to

you as it matters to me.

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And that's exactly why I needed to

press the pause button unexpectedly.

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So here's what I know.

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I continue to keep like coming back

to I have grown out of a lot of

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different spaces that I'm currently

in or was in, and I've grown out

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of the way I used to run the show.

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Here's what I haven't grown out of.

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I still love the conversations.

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I still love sitting across

from someone on the Zoom room.

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In person on Zoom or like actually

in person, whether it's recording or

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just chatting with someone and watching

them name something or identify or

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feel something or share something that

they've been carrying alone for a while.

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That part still gets me and

I never get tired of it.

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Never get tired of it, but the

back end of running a guest

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podcast is a lot of moving parts.

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And when I lost my va, who really

helped me with this process, with our

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systems and our SLPs that we had in

place, all those things landed on me.

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And on top of that, I've been going

through some health changes and.

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There was a capacity that I had,

as you guys know, I spent a lot of

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space, within my systems and flows,

and that I thought I had enough

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and it just wasn't what I needed.

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Now, it needed to look a little

bit different, so I had a choice.

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To keep showing up out of obligation and

pushing myself and doing the hard thing.

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'cause we know how to

do hard things right?

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Follow a routine, follow the idea of

what consistency has to mean, right?

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Or stop, get quiet and figure out

if this show still had a purpose I

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believed in and still was serving a

purpose for my overall vision of my

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business as well as where I'm going.

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And for all of you.

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So I stopped, and in that space I found my

answer, and this show still matters to me.

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I just needed space to figure

out how to rebuild, how I run

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it in this time of my life.

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So.

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I wanna talk to you about

something that doesn't get talked

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about enough and is transitions.

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I wanna Shoutout a good friend,

Andrea Nakayama, where we

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actually talk about this.

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She has a whole series.

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I'll have that connected for

you in the show notes, but in

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that series we talked about how.

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There's so many transitions that happens

like every day or even throughout a

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certain periods of our times of life

that don't get a big celebration, right?

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There's no big announcement.

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There's no save the date

preparing you for these things.

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There's no pivots with all

of these sequences around

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how this is gonna roll out.

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What I'm talking about are the

transitions that happen so quietly.

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Right.

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The ones where something inside of

you has already changed, but the

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outside world doesn't even know it's

happened, and you probably haven't even

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so consciously caught up to it yet.

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Those ones are the ones

nobody is clapping for.

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There's nobody over there saying,

this is what you need to know what's

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happening, and let me sit in with you,

sit in it with you unless you ask for it.

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And those transitions really matter,

even when nobody else knows that they're

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happening and they deserve space and

they deserve time, and they don't

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always come with a pretty bow on them.

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So I think a lot of us know exactly

what I'm describing because when you're

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running a business in your body, it's

constantly letting you know what it

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needs so that it provides you the, the

feedback that you need to make good

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decisions for your nervous system and

your actual life that's happening.

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You are like in this transitional space.

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Versus an optional space, like you're

kind of in survival mode with this aspect

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of trying to find the counterbalance

of the two, and you don't always get

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to announce when that's gonna happen.

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You don't always get an opportunity

to explain or even understand what it

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is or have the words to explain it.

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This is why I want you all to listen

to the series on transitions that

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my friend has all on her website.

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Sometimes you just have to honor them

even when it doesn't look pretty.

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It may mean you are a villain,

as my friend says it, a villain

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in someone else's story, and it

may mean that you need to stop.

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From the outside, even though

you're still working on the inside.

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And I wanna give all of you the

same permission in your life.

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So many of us are trying to build in real

time with everyone seeing and knowing

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and kind of like moving through it.

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And I think there is a beauty in

allowing space for some of that to

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be done in your own space, in your

private space if you so choose.

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So persistence doesn't

always look like showing up.

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Sometimes it looks like protecting

what you're building long enough

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to come back to it and make it

something that feels really good and

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aligned with where you are right now.

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Okay, so here's where we are.

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Business with chronic illness is back.

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We are going to be releasing

episodes biweekly on Wednesdays.

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There will be guest focused

and I will leave, like this

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episode came out on Friday.

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I will leave Fridays for my random

pop-ins to share and connect with you.

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You are gonna get two episodes a

month with more intention, more

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space for you to really dive in and

communicate and chat with me, um, via

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Instagram or email list and other

spaces that we're creating community.

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So, if you wanna hear from me solo though,

about my process, my real time, figuring

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out my, you know, ways that I'm helping

clients create results in their business.

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I have a new podcast for that, and

it's called Built to Breathe more

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information on that is in the show notes.

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So you wanna get on my email list to

find more out, to learn more about

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it, because I'll be sharing more

about that in my email community.

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So if you wanna join us in the

show notes, go ahead and do that.

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And there's something else I want to test.

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I've been wanting to move into

this and test this specifically

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with the community here on,

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this podcast business with

chronic illness, and here's what

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I wanna do On May 7th, 2026,

I'm hosting the first ever BWCI.

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The business with chronic

illness insider call, it's gonna

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be a free zoom small group.

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I'm gonna limit the

number to 25 attendees.

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It's gonna be intimate and there's gonna

be one specific agenda I want to hear.

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What's actually getting

in the way for you?

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Not just the strategy

questions, not just the numbers.

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I wanna know about the fears, the

challenges, the pivots, the things

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that are going on with your personal

physical life as far as how it reflects

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in your business, and you have goals and

plans and vision for what's coming up

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in your business or even in your life.

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Whatever they are, I want you

to bring them into that space

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and I want to support them.

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I feel like sometimes we don't have

spaces, that are there just to hear

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ourselves say some things out loud, and we

find that clarity, like that we find the

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clarity like a click up a finger, right?

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And I wanna create that space.

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And I also wanna bring from our

content that we're creating and

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all these conversations and move

this into a real live breathing.

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Community where we support each

other and cheer each other

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on with resources and support.

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And at some point, I'm imagining

this to be like an in-person type

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of event for business entrepreneurs

and owners and founders.

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So that's where we're headed.

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This is the first one.

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I'm building it, testing it out.

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I don't know exactly how it's gonna work

or if it's gonna work, but I sure hope

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it does and I just know that I wanna

start a place to have more conversations

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in real time with all of you.

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So the link to register for

this, it's in the show notes.

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It's free, I'm keeping it intimate

on purpose, and I'd love for you

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that you're listening to be there.

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So thank you for still being here

and listening and downloading,

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and sharing, and reviewing.

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It has meant so much for

me for over the years.

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I appreciate you.

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Thank you for giving this show and

me a space to come back to that

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feels really real and connected.

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So.

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The next episode you're gonna hear

from me or in this space is a guest

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episode, and it's going to be talking

about burnout and disconnection and

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how that shows up and how you might

be approaching your business today.

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So we'll see you on Wednesday.

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Remember, you are crafted to thrive.