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Episode 159: How We Stayed Organized, Energized, and Focused
813 Plays2 years ago
About a year ago, we had a little too much in common with a 24-hour dinner. Not in the way of aging fluorescent lighting or the smell of greasy french fries—but if you walked into our house any time before 5pm, it's likely that there was a pot of coffee on.
4am wake up? Time for a coffee.
10am mid morning slump? _Don't mind if I do.
_
2pm post-lunch debate: nap or coffee? _How much is too much? _
And on really exhausting days, Davey was known to mix a little pre-workout in.
If you're keeping track, that's a LOT of caffeine.
Thankfully, these days we've found a few alternate ways to stay organized, energized and focused throughout the day. Not only do the methods we're about to discuss help us stay focused on summer days when the pool is calling our names, but they also help us avoid burnout.
Find it quickly:
4:17 - Krista's Organization tips (TeuxDeux)
8:15 - Block Scheduling
11:41 - Cutting out coffee
14:01 - Carnivore Diet
17:40 - Exercise, Learn Something New, Do Something Fun
18:15 - Stay Hydrated (and add electrolytes)
20:30 - Short periods of work time
22:01 - Remove Slack & Email from Your Phone
23:02 - Davey's task board
For show notes and other resources, check out https://daveyandkrista.com/organized-energized-focused-tips/.
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Transcript
Simplicity in Business Tools
00:00:05
Speaker
what you can learn from business about to do, you know, like, I think we always want to make something we think complex is better. And to do is just so simple. And that's why it's amazing. And probably why we've been using it for just so long.
Introduction to Hosts and Purpose
00:00:20
Speaker
Welcome to the Brands at Book Show where we help creative service based businesses build their brands and find more clients. I'm your host, Davy Jones.
00:00:29
Speaker
Krista joins me on the podcast today to chat about ways we stay organized, energized, and focused, balancing both our work and our lives.
Disclaimer and Episode Nature
00:00:38
Speaker
We hope that you all find this episode super practical. It was a fun one to record, especially as we share some experiments that we have going on in our lives.
00:00:46
Speaker
We do chat about some new diets that we're trying. Just as a quick disclaimer, nothing we share in this episode should be construed as nutrition advice or otherwise professional advice. For that kind of advice, go and see the proper professional. We're simply sharing our own experiences. Be sure to check out the show notes at DavyandChrista.com for the resources that we mentioned during the episode. And we want to hear from you. Let us know what kind of content you'd like to see in the Branson Book Podcast as we move forward. To leave your feedback, just send us a DM on Instagram at DavyandChrista.
Staying Energized Despite Challenges
00:01:18
Speaker
All right. We're live. Hi. I'm excited to be back. Yep. You got to act energetic if we're going to talk about energy. I'm getting there. That's right. Friday, it's always a little tough to stay energized.
00:01:31
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm getting over cold that you gave me. So I feel like normally you blame me for giving you or Jack for giving you cold. I think it is kind of rare for me to be the first person sick in the house. You were patient zero this time. I was. I was. I was patient zero. Colds are the worst though because even though you only feel bad for like a day or two, like there's lingering effects for like two weeks.
00:01:53
Speaker
Also, coldness doesn't work for me. You keep swearing that Tylenol cold is going to make me feel better and nothing.
Organization Tips and Scheduling
00:02:02
Speaker
I feel a little relief. But anyways, not here to talk about that. We're here to talk about organization, staying energized, and staying focused. Yeah, I'm excited to talk about these topics.
00:02:12
Speaker
Yeah, me too. I think I'm excited to talk about these topics for a few reasons. One, it's summertime. And so mine, I'm immediately thinking, okay, I'm excited to go pick Jack up from summer camp and then go to the pool. Yes. So it's, you know, I think maybe takes a little extra effort to stay focused in the summer.
00:02:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. And then second, you know, we recently talked about burnout. Right. And so I shared about a season of burnout in that episode. It wasn't too long ago. So you can check out that episode if you haven't. But you know, point being is, I think these things really helped me avoid burnout. Okay, that's I'm yeah, I'm excited to see and talk about the things that you've been experimenting with lately.
00:02:51
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm excited to get into some of that stuff as well. I should say we're going to talk about some exercise stuff, some diet stuff, just as a general disclaimer, we're not nutritionists, we're not doctors. Correct. This isn't nutrition or fitness advice. You should always talk to your doctor first before changing any of these things.
00:03:12
Speaker
So don't do it because we said so because we're not saying so. Right. Yeah. Anyways, I haven't even really seen, you know, we each picked, you know, one tip that's worked for us in the categories of organization, staying energized and staying focused. Right. I haven't really even seen your tips yet. So I'm excited to jump into these and chat with you about that. So where do you want to start? Organization, staying energized or staying focused? How about organization?
00:03:41
Speaker
I could have guessed that for you. I really like to organize. I actually just asked Davey if we could start organizing our house. Yes, which is always so exciting, especially on a Friday. Hey, you want to spend some time this weekend organizing the house? I want to spend time at the pool. We will spend time at the pool. We could do little bits. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways. Okay. So for staying organized, and I would say you are a pro at staying organized.
00:04:07
Speaker
You have to like convince me to not be organized sometimes. Yeah, just because it doesn't always, you know, like the house doesn't have to be vacuumed every day.
00:04:17
Speaker
I know, but it just makes me happy. Okay. What's your tip for staying organized? Okay. Well, when it comes to staying organized for work, my best tip is to use, I love the program to do. It's kind of like if you have, I know a lot of people like to use those legal notepads where like they write down all of their ideas and brain dump.
00:04:37
Speaker
that is what this is for me and we use a content management system we use click up to organize our team projects and assign things and upload files for everyone to access but to do is just like my own personal crystal brain dump and so everything that needs to get done goes in here.
00:04:55
Speaker
And if you look at it, it's organized by days. And then within each day, I tend to like put in my work tasks that I need to do that day. And then I'll like also have another section of my day that's like all of my personal things. So like right now I need to categorize my mint transactions and I need to send a care package to a friend who's at summer camp. And so I have all of these things on here and I think it's just easier for me to see.
00:05:21
Speaker
And then down at the bottom, I have other areas that are kind of like my dreaming things. Like I have things that I'd like to get to for our business. I have things that I'd like to do for our personal lives. I have a name list of all of our design projects and where they are. And so it's really easy for me to see like what I have at a glance that day. If you don't get to it, they automatically bump to the next day. And then like if I do have a light day, I can always pull something in from the bottom, like one of my dreaming tasks.
00:05:50
Speaker
and start working on that. Yeah, no surprise that to do is your tip. I've been using it for at least 10 years. Yeah, I mean it's one of those tools that we've talked about a bunch on the podcast before. We've talked about it on the blog and honestly probably our longest running tool. Yeah. I mean outside of like Photoshop maybe or something. I remember finding it just out of college and it's a paid program but it's not expensive. Yeah, I would say it's like four bucks a month maybe.
00:06:18
Speaker
Yeah, not, and there's a phone app too, which is great because you could add things on the go and it all sinks. You can do recurring to-dos. So like every Wednesday it reminds me to order my groceries for pickup on Friday. Every Saturday it reminds me to water my indoor houseplants.
00:06:35
Speaker
I don't check it on Saturday. But the beauty of to do, and it's spelled, maybe you already said this, but T-E-U-X, D-E-U-X, all right? And we have more information about it on the blog, and of course you can check the show notes if you want to link to that.
00:06:50
Speaker
The great thing about Todo is its simplicity. It's not like a click up. And click up is a tool that we use for both. We use it for everything. Actually, we use it for David and Krista. We use it for FarmFedbox. We use it for Till Agency. And it's a great organization and project management tool, especially if you're working as part of a team. The hard thing is that it has so many features. So many things. Yeah, there's so many different things you can do. And if you have space for every one of your clients, it can be hard to keep track of.
00:07:18
Speaker
So I do something similar with To Do where it's like the stuff I have to focus on that day goes on To Do. And it's easy, I like that I can put life stuff in there and it's all mixed together. Yeah, because it's really, okay, what do I have to do today? What's most pressing and what's coming up this week? Right. So To Do is an awesome program and super inexpensive and it's just genius. I mean, also, what you can learn from business about To Do. I think we always want to make something, we think complex is better.
00:07:47
Speaker
You know? Oh, yeah. And to do is just so simple. Yes. And that's why it's amazing. Love it. And probably why we've been using it for just so long. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So is that it for? Organization. I mean, I know that's not all the tips you could give about staying organized. You said one. So that is my one business and life organization tip.
00:08:11
Speaker
Well, maybe we'll do another podcast on just all your organization tips. But block scheduling is mine. That's how I stay organized. I think this primarily has to do with how I structure my meetings throughout the week. So I try to make sure that nearly all of my meetings are on the same days. And that's Tuesday and Thursday. Discovery calls I might take throughout the week just because if someone wants to work with us, I don't want to make everybody fit into my nice little box of like, okay,
00:08:38
Speaker
I only take calls on Tuesday from nine to ten, something like that, right? Because people are in different places and so it's time zones you're dealing with and people have different routine for their own lives. So I try to be flexible when it comes to discovery calls. But outside of that, standing meetings, they happen on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
00:08:56
Speaker
And, you know, pretty much like for instance, till a lot of my standing meetings are on Tuesday mornings. So till is a little bit or Tuesdays a little bit more of a till heavy day, right? And especially as I organize across multiple businesses, that really helps me figure out, you know, where I'm going to spend my time.
00:09:13
Speaker
And then I typically have more, you know, quote unquote free time, not that I'm not doing anything, but it's more flex time, I guess on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And that's been a really nice rhythm for me. I think as much as I love talking with people, you know, if I had to do a podcast interview every day, that would be very exhausting for me.
00:09:33
Speaker
Whereas if I really just do all of my podcast interviews on, now I'm doing on Wednesdays, it's just nice to know like, okay, I'm gonna go in, I'm gonna have to stay energized for, you know, three hours here on a Wednesday while I knock out a couple podcast episodes and do those really well, but then I can rest a little bit the next day.
00:09:51
Speaker
So do you go as far with your block schedule as to say like from 7 to 7.30 I'm going to answer emails from 8.30 to 9 I'm going to work on content?
Dietary Experiments and Energy Levels
00:10:01
Speaker
Yes and no. I mean I block schedule so to a certain extent that's how block scheduling works. And if you go back and listen to previous episodes I think it's fun now that I started the podcast right back in 2018.
00:10:13
Speaker
Prior to jack being born right and so i did a routine podcast back then i've done one since he's been born and now with two kids changed even a little bit more i find that you know with as with anything you can get really rigid with even block scheduling my days follow the same rhythm pretty much and so i am going to clear my inbox
00:10:33
Speaker
pretty much first thing every morning. And by first thing, I mean, that's the first work activity I'm doing. But I'm gonna get up early, and I've talked about that a lot on the podcast. I try to start my day as close to four a.m. as possible. But from four to five, that's me time. That's rolling out of bed, making some coffee, drinking some electrolytes, reading, writing a little bit. I've been doing more of that lately. And then one of the first things I'm gonna do is clear my inbox, get back to people, things like that.
00:11:02
Speaker
you know, and then depending on the morning too, I might go work out. But sometimes, typically on like Tuesdays and Thursdays, for instance, I'm working out in the afternoon rather in the morning. So there is a little bit of flexibility in there, but I do try to group things together so that I'm not doing, even for podcast interviews, I'm not doing one interview at, you know, nine in the morning and another interview at two in the afternoon. Right. Try to really group that similar task together.
00:11:28
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Great tip. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I just rambled a little bit on that one, but. It's okay. I think it was good. All right. So do you want to talk about staying energized? Yes. Stay energized. Without just loading on the coffee. That's right. You know, that's interesting. I mean, I actually gave up coffee for Lent. I'm not sure if I shared that on the podcast or not.
00:11:49
Speaker
I don't remember. It was really eye-opening for me because I guess maybe I just didn't really believe people who are like, oh coffee, having that much caffeine is not actually good for you. You were drinking a lot of caffeine. You would have multiple cups of coffee a day. We'd make a pot in the morning and you would drink most of the pot.
00:12:09
Speaker
I would only ever have cup and then you had this like energy drink for workouts in the afternoon that is like so strong that you would warn friends who had never taken something like that before like it's gonna make you jittery yeah and and it really didn't and just because I'd you know been so accustomed to caffeine and
00:12:27
Speaker
Well, it didn't make you jittery. It would make them jittery. Exactly. But that's the thing. That's how much caffeine I was drinking. And I guess I didn't believe people who were like, oh, well, actually, if you actually get off of caffeine, you're going to have more energy throughout the day. And I was like, that makes no sense to me. Anyways, I gave it up during Lent. It was a lot harder to give up than I thought it would be. For two weeks, I was just super tired. And then I didn't really even start seeing the benefits until probably 40 days in. Lent's actually 44 days.
00:12:56
Speaker
you know, until then. And I'm so grateful that because I think if I were just to give up caffeine during another part of the year, I'd probably do it for like a week, you know, and I don't think I would have seen the benefits of doing that. So I do feel a lot more energy having given up caffeine and not relying on that. I have gone back to drinking a little coffee in the morning, but I drink one cup and that's it. And you do the mud coffee? No, it's not mud, it's mushroom coffee. So similar idea.
00:13:20
Speaker
The brand I'm drinking right now is Four Sigmatic. If anybody has any other recommendations out there, please let me know. Always interested in that kind of stuff. Do you like the taste? Do you feel like it tastes like coffee? I feel like it tastes like coffee. Granted, I'm not much of a coffee snob, so I don't know if I really know the nuances of coffee. Of good coffee, yeah. Yeah, exactly.
00:13:37
Speaker
Point being is giving up coffee has actually helped me increase my energy levels, I think. And so I'm not on a ton of caffeine anymore. So that's been really helpful. It's just not being so dependent on caffeine. I don't feel like I hit that afternoon slump as much. And then lately, I just started the carnivore diet. You just love talking about this.
00:13:58
Speaker
I mean, it's so interesting to me. I mean, it's just, I'd heard of the carnivore diet before, but I thought it was just something that like, I don't know, influencers did online to be cool, right? Like, but it turns out, you know, so I started looking into it. And it turns out it's like one of the best elimination diets out there. Yeah, I mean, because you're only eating meat. Yeah. And so there's people who have autoimmune disorders who apparently have been able to, I don't know if cure is the right word, but suppress, I don't know if that's a better word.
00:14:27
Speaker
Yeah. I've heard some people say they don't have to take their medicine anymore. Like they were supposed to get surgeries for joints and they no longer need them. Yeah. So it's just insane stories. And again, we're not doctors. So we're not saying, Hey, we're just telling you what we've heard firsthand from other people. Yeah, exactly. And so with the carnivore diet, you know, I just thought, okay, well that's interesting. And I like the challenge of doing something like that, you know, like just eating meat for 45 days. So that's what I've committed to. So you were four days in. How is it going? Can you give us an update?
00:14:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, and I've been updating on Instagram as well. I've been updating on farm fed boxes Instagram, mostly. So if you're interested in following along with that, that's where to check that out. It's hard to say because we started out day one with the cold. And so it's been a little bit interesting. A lot of people say the first two weeks on the diet is rough. I have not experienced that. You know, everything, I think a lot of people say, okay, you're gonna feel kind of lousy. It's gonna mess up your GI track. Your energy is gonna be down. I have not experienced that at all. My energy levels have been pretty good.
00:15:26
Speaker
No GI stuff, which is good. And the hardest part is just the variety. I mean, going into it, I'm like, this is amazing. A diet where I can eat all the breakfast foods that I love as much as I want. I had a whole pack of bacon one day, which is probably not great. That is disgusting. It was throughout the day. Day one, you're like, this is amazing. But then you're like, oh man, what I would give for just like a banana right now.
00:15:51
Speaker
We made you bone broth. You're drinking that. Bone broth, yeah. That's been interesting. I actually really like bone broth. So that's easy to drink for me. I made you beef liver jerky. Yeah, we need to work on our beef liver jerky recipe. I think it was too thick. Cut too thick. It's really hard to cut so you can get it next time. And the thing is, when you cook it and it's hot, it's good. Eating it, you put it in the refrigerator or you store it or whatever and then you take it out, it's just...
00:16:21
Speaker
Could you microwave it to heat it up? I don't know. And it smells like it's just not... People are going to turn us off right now because they're talking about... I have to figure it out. But anyways, really, I mean, I think that's one of the ways that I stay energized. I mean, not to ramble on about it because we're not... That's not necessarily... The topic is the carnivore diet. But I do when I eat better and when I'm working out, those things keep me energized.
00:16:43
Speaker
Well, you started carnivore because I decided to start keto to see if that helps with some of my autoimmune disorders. And I definitely feel more energy not having so much sugar in my body every day because there's no like up and down, there's no crash.
00:16:58
Speaker
Yeah, just like more steady, right? Yeah, it's more steady. And if like the fats and proteins keep me feeling more full longer, and I'm not reaching for like sugary things, even if it was just a granola bar. Yeah. And that's interesting to say that because that's something that I, I assumed I was gonna be hungrier than I have been on the diet. But like,
00:17:17
Speaker
You know, if you stuff yourself with, you know, all this protein, like you're just not that hungry during the day. So I haven't, you know, I guess on my normal diet, which did consist sometimes of more sweets. It was just like constant throughout the day, like just kind of grazing, right? Right. And I find that's not the case. I mean, one other sort of this is like,
00:17:37
Speaker
I guess the larger principle here for staying energized for me is I have three things on my board and I try to check these off every day and it's exercise a learn something new and then do something fun and they don't have to be like, you know, it's not like go to a theme park, you know, not this massive activity but doing something fun might be as simple as like,
00:17:57
Speaker
Sometimes I want to go out and do some chicken chores. I have maybe some improvements I want to make to the pig paddock. That's fun for me. Learning something new, it might be as simple as I had this question as I was reading the other day and I want to go look it up. Those are the kinds of things that keep me kind of energized. I think that taking a mental step away from work really helps. Anyways, your energy tip.
00:18:23
Speaker
Yeah, so like along those lines, it's drinking water and then adding electrolytes to one of my water bottles a day. I feel like, well, especially last summer when I was pregnant, I know that I was probably not drinking enough water or the water that I was drinking, I was not retaining because I was passing out.
00:18:42
Speaker
Pretty obvious sign. And this year I started to feel a little dizzy again. And so you drink these electrolytes after you run and I tried adding them to my water and I definitely feel a lot more energy. So it's basically just like drinking saltwater in one of your bottles a day, but it helps you retain your nutrients and helps you retain the water. And there's another like a method that I read about too, and I've done it a few times is to make Soleil water.
00:19:09
Speaker
It looks like Sol, S-O-L-E, but I think it's pronounced Solay. And basically you take a quarter cup of pink Himalayan sea salt because it's like one of the only unrefined salts out there. And you put it in a mason jar and you fill it up with like filtered water and then you let it sit for 24 hours and the water soaks up all the salt. And then you just like put a tablespoon in your water and you drink that, like one cup of water a day like that.
00:19:36
Speaker
and that is also supposed to help you keep salts in your body and stay energized.
00:19:40
Speaker
Yeah, it's all these things that I feel like we're told to avoid, but they really do make a big difference. I certainly feel that with the electrolytes, especially after or before long runs, I used to get these nasty headaches for any run that's over 10 miles for sure. And a little bit of electrolytes goes a long way in preventing that, which is obviously I think for a long run. But I've been doing the same thing
Enhancing Focus and Productivity
00:20:01
Speaker
in the morning. I have an unflavored electrolyte mix that I use. It's called Relight. We can like join the show notes. Yeah, it's by Redmond's Real Salt, I think.
00:20:09
Speaker
that some influencer online told me to get so I got. It's been really good. So that's what I've been using for electrolytes as well. And I think that has made a difference. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Well, moving on to our last tip here. I think we're making good time. Focused, staying focused. Do you want to start with your tip for staying focused?
00:20:28
Speaker
So since I have a not newborn baby, an eight month old baby, right now he's not in any childcare situation. So I have really short periods to work. And so having those short chunks to work helps me stay focused because I know like, okay, I have an hour, maybe up to two hours.
00:20:50
Speaker
to do this work that I need to do. So if I get no other time today, what do I need to do to move the business forward? And so that helps me focus on business propelling forward, business propelling tasks. I don't know how to say it. During that time. Moving forward tasks.
00:21:05
Speaker
And then anything else that might be less intensive or just a little more fun, I kind of reward myself with in the off time. So like I'll work for an hour, hour and a half, feed Bennett, and I can work while I feed him. And then we'll go out and work in the garden or go run errands. And so having those breaks in between hard work periods helps me to stay focused.
00:21:29
Speaker
We also have a hard stop time at the end of the day, which is when Jack gets home from school. And so knowing that I need to be wrapped up by three also helps me to do more intense work during the day because I know I'm not going to have time later.
00:21:42
Speaker
Yeah. And I think most of mine, I think one thing that comes to mind, that sort of insight that I've gleaned from that is even with taking Slack and email off of my phone, right? So similar principle where, you know, if you have Slack and email on your phone or whatever business tool it is, and you constantly handle those things as you go, one, it feels like maybe you're never disconnected from work.
00:22:09
Speaker
But then, you know, I found that I was more productive when I took those things off my phone because when I sat down to work, that was my work time. You know, when I step away from my computer, I'm done, you know, that's – I'm finished, you know, with work for that period of time. So that time was more productive because instead of kind of handling things as they came in and maybe saying, oh, I'll get to that later and never really quite remembering, you know, sitting down at my computer,
00:22:34
Speaker
And that's when I encounter work. It forces me to deal with work right then, organize myself right then. So I think similar to just having the hard stop and start times.
Non-Work Activities and Business Ideas
00:22:46
Speaker
Yeah. And I think lately we found that that white space in our day is important. Some of our best business ideas we come up with, not when we're sitting in front of the computer, but when we're out doing other things.
00:22:57
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. My focus tip actually is to do. So funny. I won't talk anymore about to do because we've already talked about to do. The general principle there and the other tip I put there was actually my board and I've talked about this. I have a board next to my desk here.
00:23:14
Speaker
And the reason it keeps me organized is the same reason that to do keeps me organized, which is on that board, I put the three priorities I have for that day. And those three priorities line up with the three businesses that I run.
00:23:29
Speaker
So it comes down to what's the one thing I need to do for that business each day to help move it forward. And then I also have a goal for the week. So those daily goals should roll up into that weekly goal and then that weekly goal should roll up into my one monthly priority. And that really just helps me stay focused and it helps me figure out what is the most important thing here.
00:23:53
Speaker
If I just had to do the app, I get into the habit of just crossing things off the to-do list. Have you ever put things on your to-do list just to cross them off? You probably haven't, but I know someone out there is resonating with us right now. Anyways, and I've talked about that struggle a little bit as well. That's what I do. I keep on meaning to record a YouTube video just to show people exactly how it works. Especially if you feel like you're pulled in a lot of different directions, this has really helped me mentally figure out, okay, what do I need to do?
Listener Engagement and Resources
00:24:40
Speaker
So that's helpful. Sending us a DM on Instagram, always a great way to get in front of us. You know, Krista is usually going to read those or at least somebody from the team is going to read those, but we're going to hear about it. And that's, I think, one of the best, you know, I think, means of feedback for us. So if you like some of these other episodes where we're talking about eating meat for 45 days, let us know so that we know to keep recording that kind of content. You might need to do like a follow-up after you finish Ciscarnivore Diet.
00:24:43
Speaker
Anything else? I don't think so.
00:25:08
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. I think you really have to wait. One of the reasons I picked 45 days was because of my experience giving up coffee during Lent. I really feel like you need that amount of time. Any sort of feedback along the way, it's just hard to figure out whether that's going to be characteristic of the entire experiment, so to speak.
00:25:30
Speaker
Yeah, and if you have any tips for staying organized, energized or focused, you go ahead and comment on the Instagram post that comes with this or our comments on the blog post because we'd love to hear about them and I'm sure other people would too.
00:25:44
Speaker
Yeah, and honestly, it's conversations that I feel like we've learned a lot of these different things. So we really do. We read all the feedback that we get. So anyways, thanks for tuning in. And as always, you can find more brands that book on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Thanks for doing, guys.
00:26:09
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Brands That Book Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving a review in iTunes. For show notes and other resources, head on over to dvandchrista.com.