In this initial episode of the More Than Mom podcast, host Samantha Cook created this podcast to help women navigate life with confidence. She's a mom of two, but she's also an entrepreneur, friend, daughter, and granddaughter. She wants to help her listeners navigate their lives and become the best version of themselves. She encourages listeners to reach out to her if they have questions and reminds them of her Instagram page where she will provide more information. Cook emphasizes that while motherhood is important, it's not the only thing that matters. She wants to help her listeners in all facets of their lives, including being a wife, an entrepreneur, and a friend. Ultimately, the goal is to help everyone grow and become the best version of themselves.

Winning with Your Website FREE Masterclass Click Here

Follow Sam on instagram @buildyourbrandwithsam

0:00:00 "More Than Mom" - Exploring the Many Facets of Womanhood

0:01:59 Honoring Roles in Marriage: How to Be a Loving and Supportive Wife

0:03:37 Heading: Honoring Marriage Through Servant Leadership and Excellence

0:05:00 Navigating Change in Marriage and Family Life

0:10:21 Reflection on Waiting Season: How God Opened Doors to New Friendships

0:12:04 Navigating Different Roles in Life and Finding Gratitude

0:14:09 "The Power of Consistency: How to Become the Person You Want to Be"

Follow on Instagram: @morethan.mompodcast @samantha.cook14

A

Hey, everyone, and welcome to the More Than Mom podcast. This is the initial episode, and I'm just super excited to share with you not only the things that come with motherhood, but navigating that role as a woman and all the facets that come into our life. I am your host, Samantha Cook. I'm a mom of two, but I also am an entrepreneur, as well as a friend, a daughter, granddaughter, and all the amazing roles that come in with womanhood. And so the goal for this podcast is to just help you navigate those areas of your life better, and so that way we can be more efficient in who we are, reaching our goals, dreams, and aspirations, as well as working to become a better person in all areas. As we go through this podcast, if you have questions, concerns, you can always reach out to me on Instagram.

A

It's more than period. Mom, podcast on Instagram. I'll tag it all in the show notes, but just so that way you guys can connect with me, I can help reach out on the questions that you have as not only moms, but wives and women and all those roles that fit within your home. Because the goal here is just for us to grow in who we are. When you become aware, you step out of that resistance, the denial of that growth and change that you want to go through, but we grow into who we want to become because that is ultimately the goal of what we're trying to do as a person.

A

So in the first episode, I wanted to talk a little bit more about why More Than Mom? The biggest thing for me is that I am more than a mom. I am a wife. I am an entrepreneur. I'm a friend. I coach other women and how to grow their businesses, grow who they are as a person. And so for me, it was just like, it's great to help one person, but I'd love to help lots of women and reach more people within their homes, to make better decisions on how they handle things as a family, as a mom, as a wife.

A

Because the whole goal for me here is to see women step into who they truly are and be content in the lives that they're leading and be honoring to the roles that they have for themselves. So let's talk about that for a minute. What does it mean to honor the roles that we have? One thing we talk about in church all the time is that we honor up, we honor down, and we honor all around. So that way we treat each person that we come in contact with excellence and that we are just a loving person, even to those quite unlovable people.

A

And so when I look at honoring the roles that I have, honoring my role as a wife, that's being exactly who I need to be to my husband, honoring the vows that I made to him as well as the values that we have for our home. We talk about our house values, literally. The acronym I'm going to tell you is honor, Ownership, Unity, Servant Leadership and Excellence. So in everything that we do in our home, a filter back of how to be a wife to him is through honoring him, through owning the things that I do, whether they're mistakes or good things or did I get done when I told him I was going to get done.

A

Unity in our marriage is not only just like agreeing on everything, but uniting in that compromise. So that way we have a peaceful home. And also like servant Leadership is like serving your husband even when you feel like he doesn't deserve it. So that is a huge one that I really love because I think Servant Leadership especially is very honoring to our husband, even when he may be having a bad day or doesn't quote unquote, deserve it in your eyes.

A

And just serving them through the things that you do is keeping your home, taking care of the roles and responsibilities you've agreed upon within you and your spouse for different people that may be different things. And so whatever that looks like for you is just serving him with excellence in that capacity. And then everything we do in our home, we try to do with excellence. I'm not saying you have to be perfect in who you are, but just giving your best effort to everything that you do ultimately brings about an honoring marriage to one another.

A

Now, we've been married it'll be six years coming up here, so don't come at me. I know we haven't been married potentially as long as some of you guys out there, but maybe that's more than others. We've had friends that have been married less time than us end up in divorce. And for us, we just look at that as we want to be honoring to one another. And so we do that through our actions, through our words, through our arguments, disagreements, whatever you want to call them.

A

But we are just exactly who we are to one another. For me, with him is like my role as a wife comes first because I am more than a mom, I am a wife to him first. That was something I chose to put in place so that way I could continue to have a really great marriage even after my kids are gone, which is a long time from now because they're four and almost two. And so I have to look at the long game picture here.

A

It's like, what's going to happen when those kids leave the house? It's going to be me and him. And I want to have a really great, not only loving marriage with him, but a really great friendship and grow and change with him. And so the biggest thing is a lot of people don't like that word change. And so for me as a wife, I'm honoring to him and who he's growing, changing new hobbies things that he is loving, finding more time for within the capacity of our family.

A

And so when there's changes in our house, I'll be the first to admit I'm not real great with change. And so first I have to step back and say, what is this change doing for our family? Oh, it's going to be something he enjoys, it fits all of our values, all that kind of stuff. Or maybe it's a change I'm making something new, like a work schedule or anything like that, is how do we take those changes and keep them within our core values as a family.

A

And so through those core values, let's just use the example of like a work schedule change is we find all the things that are still important to us that's going to be affected by that work schedule change. And we sit down and we're like, hey now, where can we do those exact same things during the weeks? That way we can optimize our time, still get the things done that we honor, value. That is a huge part of who we are.

A

And so we figure out, we sit down, how to make it work, if there's finances involved, how we're going to make those things work. Because that's ultimately the thing you hear is when something changes, it not only affects your role as a mom, it affects your role as a wife, it affects your role as a friend, as an employee, an entrepreneur. Whatever role that you're in right now, you have to figure out how that change is going to affect every facet of your life and how to keep honoring the things that you deem are important through all of those different roles that you play.

A

And so for us, especially like when we moved out here, that put a big change for not only us because we lived somewhere we had never even really been, but it also was a big strain on our family because we'd always been really close to our family and stuff like that. And so especially the first year we were out here, we figured out how minimally we could live in order to continue to go home when we wanted to and not be stuck financially with not getting to go home and see our families.

A

And so through that, that was actually a huge priority for us is like the things we wouldn't do. So that way we could make sure and go home at 4 July and at Christmas and have that time with our families. So just know is when you're making decisions for whether it be a new hobby. Like for me, as I'm picking up podcasting, I have two small children, so I have to be very mindful of my time of when I do this. So that way I'm not taking one time away from my kids, but two, still honoring what's been put on my heart from the Lord and just what he has called me to walk out, but also so that way I don't take it away time for my family.

A

Obviously, if I was recording a podcast with a four and two year old, they would have a lot more commentary on here. But that's just the things that I really wanted this podcast to be about was to learn how to navigate all those changes, those roles, and who we are to make them work together. Beautifully placed, like a puzzle that God has for us. Because he didn't call for our lives to be stressful. He called for our lives to be honoring to Him.

A

And in a lot of that honor comes patience. And when we first moved out here, I was 28 weeks pregnant with my oldest child. And for me, there was a lot of things I wanted to do and I didn't want to let go of. I was a web designer by trade, and that was just something I realized I wasn't going to get to continue in my lifetime, or at least at that point. Maybe something I was going to pick up later down the road. And so I just had to be patient with where God had me in that season of Navigating. Having a new baby, living far away from home, not really having a village, but just being a faithful daughter to him and just saying, okay, God, I get this is what you have for me, but I have all these desires in my heart.

A

And he was like, you just have to be patient. He's like, I'm going to give you the things you want to do outside of being a mom. Not that I don't want to be a mom because I love my children, but I also had desires on my heart to grow and change and generate growth and change in other women, too. And so through that, which I thought was going to be totally blindsided by COVID, because I was like, great, I'm never going back to the office.

A

I'm going to just be at home, blah, blah, blah. Well, he actually gave me a really small business that I had for the summer, which provided for us in ways financially that I now look back and I'm like, wow, that was his hand in all of that. And so I had a creative outlet again, which is something I really missed having. And so I had a creative outlet for a while. And then when I went back to the office, obviously it kind of died down, and that was okay.

A

I was totally fine with letting that go at that point. And he's like, I've got something for you. Hold on, I have something for you. The more I sat there and I prayed and prayed, and I'm like, God, I just want friends, I want this, I want that. And they were all like, little things that sound so crazy, like, I just wanted friends. And for so long he was like, I'm trying to provide friends. Nobody was really doing anything because of COVID And I got very angry.

A

And I'm not going to lie, I was angry with him. And I just was like, God, what is going on? And little did I know, he was stripping away all the things that I needed stripped away so I could move forward to bigger and better things. And so it just felt like I was in a waiting season. And through that waiting season, I learned a lot about who I was and what I wanted to be. And so through that, he opened a lot of doors.

A

I joined a mastermind of other business women that wildly has changed my life. These ladies have poured into me in ways that I never thought possible. And it was the friendships I was looking for. For like four years, I'd been waiting for these incredible, incredible friendships. And let me just tell you, if I had had these friendships four years ago, they would not be as fruitful as they are now because there was so much work that I needed to do on myself as a person to be friends with these women and to be in that room with them and feel like I was a part of this group.

A

And so God has a way of giving us exactly the role we need at the right time. I was like, I wanted friends, but I wanted the right friends. And I think a lot of moms struggle with not having a village or feeling like they have anybody to reach out to or help or whatever. But there's a lot that we have to learn about ourselves and being grateful in that role. Not like just being like, oh, I want somebody to come help me sit around and complain.

A

No, god wants you to be content in the season that you're in, whether that is motherhood, wifehood, you're, single, dating, whatever that season that you're in. He just really wants you to get who you are. So that way, when you get around the right people, you're going to connect with them on a level that's completely different because you're actually ready for it. And so as we start navigating all these different roles of how to whether it is being a sister and how to connect with your siblings, even when you're in different places or being a daughter to your parents and now that you're an adult. What that actually looks like it's just like I just can't wait to continue to walk through these amazing roles, amazing seasons, struggles, triumphs, all the goodness that is our lives in being more than a mom that sometimes can feel stressful.

A

But in the end, it ends up being our greatest gratitude. The things I have learned about myself in the last four years gave me a completely different outlook on how I view my children. It gave me a better relationships with my children. It gave me more peace, more love, more gentleness and kindness within my home, for my spouse, for the people around me. So that way I could actually go out and be the person that I kept saying I was. But I wasn't living out and my actions didn't follow exactly what I was looking for.

A

And so a lot of times, and myself included here, is that I thought, oh my gosh, I am this amazing person. Anybody would be thrilled to be friends with me, all that jazz. And when it came down to it, I wasn't a lot of those things. I would do them occasionally, but I wasn't doing them consistently. And when I started to learn to do them consistently, I got much better results and outcomes and people around me than I did when I was doing it every once in a while.

A

0:15:23

A

And so what I just want for all you and amazing women out there listening to this is that you can be that way too. And I hope that you gain something from this podcast that you can implement in your day to day life and start making better habits, better decisions, being more consistent in that excellency of who you are.