Description: That’s a wrap! As we stop and celebrate Season 1, we wanted to take a moment to look back at some of our favorite moments from the pod. Plus, we share our spring fresh picks and what you can look forward to in season 2!

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TRANSCRIPT

INTRO

Kerri: Hi everyone, and welcome to the Flourish and Friends podcast. I’m your host, Kerri, and I’m here with my friend and collaborator. Hi Esther.

Esther: Hi Kerri. Hey friends.

Kerri: Our goal for this podcast is to create an avenue for our Flourish community to gather around important conversations that lead to more growth and more flourishing.

Esther: Yeah. Nothing is really off the table because how we lead our lives spills into how we lead at work, and overall, our brand reflects that, especially as creatives.

Kerri: Today we are wrapping up season one and we’re recapping some of our favorite moments. We’ll also share a reason we’re celebrating this spring and what to expect for the next season of Flourish and Friends. 

FRESH PICKS

Kerri:  Alright, Esther, for our last fresh pick of the season, what you got?

Esther: So I wanted to highlight my bicycle. I have been enjoying riding my bike starting in the spring through summer. And in Australia It’s starting to cool down and we’re entering autumn. but yeah, there’s so many trails around Melbourne, so we’ve kind of been exploring that. Haven’t recently, but I’m hoping that this season will get back on our bikes and keep going around.

I love taking like half a Saturday and just slowly going through a really long trail. A lot of them are pretty easy and they’re all paved, paved, paved? But our, so what I love about our bikes is that they have this thing that’s an internal gear hub. I think that’s the right name.

But essentially, you know how most bikes have the chain and you have to like do different gears on both sides or whatever. I don’t really understand bicycles that much.. but this gear hub actually makes it so simple to switch gears. And when you’re climbing hills you can drop your gear all the way down really quickly.

And according to Cody, it’s a lot less maintenance. And we have this instead of a chain, we have this belt. So that’s even less maintenance on him. And so yeah, if you have the opportunity to get into cycling, I highly recommend it. It’s so fun, even in Kansas City or wherever you are listening, I’m sure there’s some places that you can go ride your bike.

But yeah, I love, I love having the excuse to get out and see things, see nature and stuff.

Kerri: Did you get your bike, your cool bike? Is it in Australia? Did you get it there because you sold your bikes before you left? Yep.

Esther: yeah, yeah, yeah. So when we had bikes in Kansas City, we both had like antiques, basically they’re from the eighties and we never really took them out much because they were hard to shift and I kind of got confused a lot of the time and sometimes we would go out but we also lived on the tallest hill in Kansas City, so anytime you would go back home, you’d have to go up the hill. So that made it less enjoyable. 

We also still live on a hill here. But it’s, you know, it’s doable, especially with the, this bike that we have. But they make this, this gear box thing all over. So it’s not specific to Melbourne, but the bike we bought. Made in Melbourne, so it’s like a Melbourne based brand, so I can link it, but only a few people would be able to see it.

Kerri: To get it.

Esther: Yeah, yeah,

Kerri: Well we can get the like frame of reference or like the gist.

Esther: yeah, yeah. That’s true. What about you, Kerri? What’s your fresh pick this week?

Kerri: Well, I guess in the spirit of spring, I will shout out the concept of de-owning, which is kind of similar to spring cleaning. Or some people will say like spring purging or whatever, but Have you heard of the concept of de-owning?

Esther: not specifically?

Kerri: So it comes from, I forget who said it, someone, someone wrote this book on minimalism and the concept was basically minimalism isn’t owning fewer things. It’s that your things don’t own you. 

And so de-owning is like the conscious practice of. Saying goodbye to things because we have such a conscious practice of acquiring things, shopping, getting what we need, getting what we want. But as a culture, we don’t do a good job of like having a conscious time of getting rid of things unless you’re moving or you know, a big life event is happening. 

So. That’s always inspired me and springtime for whatever reason. Maybe it’s the cleaning, maybe it’s because there’s more sunshine out and I have more energy, but I am just in the mood for some de-owning. So I’m very excited. And one of the, it’s easy to get overwhelmed right away cuz it’s like oh where do I start? 

So I think for me at least, it’s helpful just to like pick a category that you feel like, oh, it would feel good to like, Get rid of some things in this area or I have too much, too many things or it feels cluttery. So for us, we’re just going through a lot of our office and like paperwork and that’s, that’s honestly probably one of the harder things to do.

But I think we are in a spot where we know what we don’t need and what we can clear out. And it’s kind of an impetus to like rearrange things. Get things refreshed. So I’m excited to be doing that and always a work in progress too. But yeah, de-owning.

Esther: It’s so true. Is that the same guys that were the minimalists on the documentary? Cuz I know they wrote a book. It might be,

Kerri: It might be.

Esther: I guess, yeah, we’ll look into that.

Kerri: I haven’t watched the documentary. I probably should.

Esther: Okay.

Kerri: Get some inspiration from that.

Esther: Yeah, it sounds like some of their philosophies, so I was just wondering.

Kerri: Did you ever see the movie The Wedding Planner? Growing up with Jennifer Lopez?

Esther: Yeah.

Kerri: and you know how she was like whenever I watched that movie, cuz there’s like a montage where she’s super neat and very like, she cleans her house and like she folds her clothes. And after, I always, like when I was younger, when I watched that movie, I was always inspired to like fold my clothes nicer and like clean my room.

Esther: That’s amazing.

Kerri: So all of that to say maybe I should consume some minimalism content and it’ll rub off on me.

Esther: Yeah, I mean, absolutely.

MAIN CONVERSATION

Kerri: Now we’ll dive into our season one wrap up. So what we wanted to do was just talk about some moments that stood out to us. I know it’s only been, not only, but it’s been 20 episodes and we’ve had a lot of really great conversations and we thought it’d be fun to just do some recaps of the highlights. At the end we’ll kind of tee up for what to expect for next season. But, we just wanted to say thank you. Thanks for listening.

I know that we’ve covered a variety of topics here. Everything from leadership to brand trends and hands-on skills, skillset, but also resilience. And we hope you’ve enjoyed it. We’ve heard from some of you and we really appreciate the feedback that we’ve heard. and it’s been so much fun this first season just kicking it off and getting the conversation started. 

So yeah. Esther, what were some of your highlights from this first batch of episodes?

Esther: Well, I think the first and overarching highlight is that I’ve learned so much just listening to your expertise and the, the questions that you asked guests I felt like were just so impactful and really helped us go a bit deeper and. And getting to ask you questions in some of those episodes. And yeah, I think that for me was the biggest highlight and biggest takeaway, just being a part of that. 

And then secondly, I really loved our conversation, thriving in winter, which was episode 11. That’s something I love talking about, and so really enjoyed that. But close second was our conversation around starting something new that as our very first episode, we just, I felt like it was just a great way to tee up the podcast of talking about both professional and personal things.

And I also really thought, my favorite moment of editing was, when our fresh pick, we talked about face masks and..

Kerri: Yes,

Esther: We just went on an Office tangent every time I watched that clip. I am rolling and . Every time I think about it, I’m smiling. It’s great. I love that one. That moment was a huge highlight.

Kerri: Oh my gosh. I, I kind of forgot about that. That’s such a good one. And yes, that office clip doesn’t matter. Where, when, what context? Like, it’s just hilarious. Oh my gosh. It’s so good.

Esther: What about you, Kerri? What’s your, your highlights?

Kerri: Well, I obviously love chatting with you this whole season. It’s been so fun.

It’s been fun to just connect, especially since you’re halfway across the world, and just to have that regular touchpoint has been such a joy. And I too, likewise feel like I’ve learned so much from you and from just conversations and diving deeper into these different topics, that, Yeah, that I care about, and it’s been, it’s been so good. It’s been such a joy. 

I, of course, also love chatting with our season one guest, Maki, Michaela, and Luke. I learned so much from each of them. I went ahead and kind of pulled out one of, one of my favorite from each of them in their episodes. And definitely encourage you to go back and listen to those episodes if you haven’t had a chance. 

So we talked to Dr. Luke Capizo in episode 15 he talked about the concept of brand standing. basically how, how, when, why can brands take a stance in today’s social climate and what are the kind of implications of that? And one of the things that I love that he brought to the table that he said was, it’s important to remember that organizational values exist in the context of societal values. And the organizations that survive for decades or centuries do so because they shift along with those societal values or community values. 

So I just loved that nugget. I felt it was so good. And we talk about values, we’ve had whole episodes on values here, but I thought it was just a great way to, to think about it and just a good kind of zoom out, remembering if we’re wanting to serve our communities for wanting to grow our missions, adaption is a part of that. And so I really love that. 

Michaela we talked to in episode 12 in Beyond Black History Month. And one of the quotes I love from her was just about the fuel for creative thinking, being curiosity and the openness and willingness to experiment and try something new different, and that that whole process is uncomfortable.

Esther: Mm-hmm.

Kerri: I think creativitiy is something that. Sometimes I can feel it can come in spurts. And just remembering, stepping back and thinking about that mind mindset, that frame, frame of mind being just curiosity. And being okay with just trying and experimenting and doing something uncomfortable. And, you know, failing sometimes too. And I think as someone. I, I love a plan. I also like, kind of like chaos. I like chaos and a plan it’s a good encouragement to, to dive into that. 

And then Maki, who was episode nine, our very first guest, she talked about reframing the new year. And one of her quotes was around how motivation is the spark and the commitment comes from being grounded in why it matters to you.

Esther: So good.

Kerri: I just thought, man, these are just wisdom nuggets that are, can apply to any and all facets of our life. And I just so appreciated each of them for sharing their voices with us on the podcast this season.

Esther: So good.

Kerri: My second highlight was Fresh Picks when you got your Hey couch finally.

Esther: Yes,

Kerri: We’ll have to look. I can’t remember which episode it was, but I felt so happy and excited for you guys. Like it was, it felt like a personal win for me too. But just to hear that you had got it, and this is this gorgeous couch. That’s also functional and you waited so many months just to get it. I just love it. 

How how is it now I guess several weeks later, still loving it?

Esther: you know um, we do. Cody’s mom got to like sleep on it and she said it was very comfortable and firm and it was, yeah. So it’s, it’s doing its job. It fits lots of people and yeah, it’s doing a great job.

Kerri: And it looks good while doing it.

Esther: Exactly.

Kerri: Well that was, that was definitely highlight and yeah, I, I just will always remember the season of the hay couch and the anticipation.

Esther: I mean, for a while we were sitting on the floor, so we are very glad it’s here.

Kerri: It was a literal upgrade.

Esther: Yes.

Kerri: And my final highlight, there’s so many highlights to choose from, but just overall having this space to really chat through these different topics that I value, I know you value to Esther. Just to be able to integrate these different spaces of leadership and personal development to more hands-on learning, to just chatting about more personal things too. 

I, when I envisioned having a podcast, kind of creating a space to do that and doing it in a more human way, that’s just different than doing a social post or an email. Love both those things, but I just felt like this, this first season was a great kickoff to that. And I feel like, yeah, it’s just been, it’s been a great start to, to holding this space for that and I’m excited for what’s to come in the future.

Esther: Absolutely. Me too. 

Kerri: So we pulled also the episodes that you all loved because we love analytics

Esther: Yes, we do.

Kerri: And it was really interesting to see the analytics behind what episodes, I don’t wanna say performed, but just the most listened episodes. And so we have our top three. Our number one was starting something new, which, I don’t feel as very surprising cause it was our first episode and people were like, what’s going on?

Esther: Yeah.

Kerri: And really excited to listen in. But I’m, I’m really proud of that conversation too, cuz I felt like it was a great kickoff to the whole series. And like you said, integrated the personal and professional things as well.

Esther: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Number two was digital minimalism book club.

Kerri: Woo woo.

Esther: That was our episode 10. We got together, discussed the book and maybe there’ll be more books in the future. But yet loved that conversation and the topic, digital mini minimalism was just such a good and relevant conversation.

Kerri: Absolutely. And rounding out our top three was Vision Party episode eight. This, to me, was like a surprise because I, I guess it was again, the kickoff. We took a little break and we came back. Kickoff to the new year, but we were able to just kind of share about vision, and talk about vision boarding and different ways of approaching it. So that was a really fun episode and kind of interactive as well. 

Well, we really appreciate you listening and we love looking at the analytics and seeing what you all are interested in. We also would love if you wanna reach out to hello@flourishcreative.co. If you have any topics you would love to hear covered, or if you have a guest or industry leader that you’d love us to feature, please let us know. We in terms of season two, we are going to take a pause and take some breathing room before our second season. And, Esther, thank you so much for being my first co-host. It’s been an absolute joy. This experiment of Flourish and Friends would not have been the same without you, and I just so appreciate your presence.

Esther: Yeah. It was so fun and I again, learned so much and I love podcasts, so being a part of one has been so enjoyable for me as well as your collaborator. I’m really excited for season two, though.

Kerri: Yeah, likewise. So looking forward to season two, Flourish and Friends. We are gonna be making room for even more guest hosts as Esther is moving behind the scenes. But not to worry. Esther will definitely be, be back at some point on the mic. I also have an incredible lineup of conversations with industry leaders, and we’re gonna be chatting about more fun and serious slash professional topics with experts, leaders and friends of flourish. 

So very excited for things to come. There’s a lot of fun in store, so please be sure to stay tuned via social and our newsletter, which is called The Greenhouse to hear when Season Two drops. And if you aren’t subscribed to the greenhouse please visit flourishcreative.co. 

It’s a twice a month newsletter that we send out to our community. And we kind of like to say it’s not your typical newsletter. It’s full of encouragement, latest resources and articles, industry news, and also tips and different things like that too. So definitely stay tuned. 

Esther: If you like the podcast, I guarantee you’re gonna like the greenhouse. So that’s my plug to sign up as well.

Kerri: And like I said, I’ve said multiple times today. Thank you so much for listening. We so appreciate you tuning in and joining the conversation here with us.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Esther: So this weeks a little different. And in lieu of bookmarks, we would like to actually take a moment and celebrate our birthdays. We’re both April babies. I’m April 3rd.

Kerri: I’m April 10th.

Esther: And we celebrate the same birthday week. So, I would like to start out by just asking Kerri, what are some of your favorite birthday traditions? Or do you have any favorite birthday food? Love to know.

Kerri: Mmm. Well, I, yeah I don’t have anything specific that I, every year I do this exact thing. But I do have some traditions kind of from childhood. So I shared a birthday with my grandpa growing up. He was also born on April 10th.

So we gotta be birthday buddies. And now my husband is, his birthday is really close to mine, so we’re birthday buddies now, so I always kind of have people that I’m sharing my birthday with, which I love. I, I really think is fun. 

Growing up we would always do like a brunch, but since our birthday was always around Easter time, yours is kind of around Easter time too probably.

Esther: Mm-hmm. . Yeah.

Kerri: We would always do a brunch of extended family at this place called the Lead Lodge in Nebraska City. And I just have really fond memories of going into this big lodge. And I think they had like a make your own omelet station and it was just kind of like a fun thing that we got to do. And I don’t, I honestly, I’ll have to ask my parents. I don’t even know if it was for my birthday I think it might’ve just been for Easter, but I associate it with my birthday..

Esther: Yeah.

Kerri: Which kind of is in line you know, nowadays, which is, I really love brunch. I feel like millennial thing to love. But we love brunch. We love cooking brunch. So I think birthday brunch will definitely be in store and some…

Esther: Ooh,

Kerri: Some shape or form. I just, I just love everything about it. So

Esther: That’s so good.

Kerri: How about you, Esther? Did you have any birthday traditions that you like or any special food you like for your

Esther: Yeah, I I love doing dinner and normally we’ll try something new, but for a while we ended up going to Antler Room, which is in Kansas City, I think like, Three birthdays in a row. 

And the last one was really special. Last year we decided it’s normally just me and Cody that will go. We decided to invite all our friends since this is my last birthday in Kansas City. And we got their big dining room upstairs and we shared so much good food. I think my favorite thing is sharing good food with friends that I love. So that was really special to me. That was a highlight of my whole year. So yeah, eating food, I’m the same.

Kerri: That antler room food is magical too. That was a magical night. I felt very honored to be present and it was. I had never even heard of Antler Room before, so I’m glad that you introduced us and what a special, what a special experience. I love it.

Esther: Yes. 

Kerri : Well, wishing you an awesome birthday, Esther. We’re cheersing virtually with our water, celebrating you and you being alive.

Esther: Celebrating you too, Kerri!

Kerri: Cheers.

Esther: Cheers.

OUTRO

Kerri: Thank you for joining us today and this whole season. Be sure to check out flourishcreative.co/podcast to see the shownotes

Esther: Yeah, we’d love to hear from you. You can always send us a note to hello flourishcreative.co or tag us on Instagram we’re @FlourishCreativeCo. And feel free to leave a review wherever you’re listening. This helps new friends. Discover our podcast community.

Kerri: Until next season. Live well and flourish. 

Kerri: Yay.

Esther: Amazing.