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[0:13] Hey, welcome back to another episode. Happy Wednesday or whatever day it is when you're listening to this. So I skipped publishing last week because it was a little bit of a crazy week between girls camp and running my half marathon. I did it. It was awesome. It was a great experience. I was about 10 minutes slower than I wanted to be, but I'm so happy with it. I felt great about it. I gave it my absolute max and it's like six days later and I'm still sore. So I am really looking forward to feeling un-sore and getting back into running just for the fun of it, just for the joy and enjoyment of running. So I wanted to tell you something else that I've been working on behind the
[0:55] scenes in my personal life that is so related to my business and that is growing my garden. So I'm calling this episode four things that my garden has taught me about how to make money.
[1:07] And wow, there are so many analogies that I could make with gardening and running business. And you probably have heard me use analogies about business and gardening before, but this is the first time I've actually grown a garden for myself for the first time in my life. And so far, I have successfully harvested spinach, cilantro, and basil, which if you're keeping track, those Those are all leaves. I'm still very proud of my garden. I'm still waiting for my tomatoes. I think I planted cucumbers. I can't remember for sure, but I'll make an update later when I have, if I have successfully grown any vegetables to eat. But honestly, I am thrilled by some herbs that are yummy and delicious that are just hanging out in my fridge right now, which has been so fun. But I feel a lot like how I used to feel when I was first running my And I can see so many parallels now because I can see them looking back in hindsight. There are so many parallels between growing a garden and making money. I've been practicing making money for the last seven years, but I'm on like month three of practicing growing a garden. So it's taken me right back to the early days of my business.
[2:19] Let me tell you a little backstory about the relationship between Kaylynn and plants. So like I said, this is the first time I've grown anything besides I have two little house plants that I've kept mostly alive since college. And Nate and I have this running joke because when we were first married, I bought a succulent at a farmer's market and brought it home to our tiny little 800 square foot apartment and just loved it. We named it Herb, which we thought was hilarious. But our little succulent Herb was really struggling. to survive in our tiny little 800 square foot apartment that had very little natural light. So one day Nate took him to his work office at the credit union and just kept him there on his desk and Herb thrived. He grew and he had little plant, little Herb babies. And this is not the only time this has happened. So now Nate's office is downstairs in our house and he has a full ledge of plants in his office window that he has rescued from my office and rehabilitated. And they're all down there living their best lives and they're all having little plant babies too. Apparently Nate has the green thumb that I have always wanted to have.
[3:31] Side note, you guys know I love to include random little non-important details in my podcast episode just because I think it's interesting. But one of our little succulents that I don't remember where we got it from actually, but I'm pretty sure it's an agave succulent. But a few, I don't know how long ago it was, probably a few months ago, it sends, agave plants will send up a big shoot or like a big spike when they're ready to flower and have plant babies. And so we had this little, it was like probably three inches across, so tiny little agave plant. But a few months ago, it sent up this shoot right from the middle that was like a foot tall. And it looks really weird. I was almost like, is this like a parasite or something? What's happening? That's when we learned that this is how agave plants reproduce. But that's what was happening with the plants on Nate's window. So they are just thriving, living their best lives. And apparently Nate is the plant dad. They have always needed it. But I want to talk about some specific lessons that I've learned from growing
[4:28] my garden because this is the first time I have successfully grown anything. So the first thing that I think every single time I bring in a little tiny harvest of of a bowl of spinach or a handful of basil.
[4:40] Is this truth that plants and animals that God has given us for resources to thrive are not that different than money, which is just another resource that God has given us to help us thrive. All money belongs to Him in the first place. Just like how it sounds kind of weird to think about money being a resource like spinach or cilantro where there's dirt and water involved, but there's actually so much in common. And I think that if God can provide for, you know, the verse in the Bible that talks about the lilies of the field, how they toil not, neither do they spin. Their needs are being provided for by him, by God, just like all the other, the birds in the sky, all the other wildlife, they're being provided for quite literally by God. He can provide the things that humans need too. And if one of those resources is money, it totally makes sense to me that he can provide that resource too. So as I've been growing plants in my garden, although it's dirt and water involved, and honestly, the chemistry and the science of that is crazy to me too. How this tiny, almost microscopic little seed that has the DNA for an entire plant inside of it that grows and then has fruit. And inside each of those fruits, whether we're talking literal fruit or vegetables.
[6:09] The principle is the same, that inside of that fruit from the plant, there are thousands of more seeds. And inside each of those seeds are thousands of more plants. And so it's this exponential game. And I think that's the game that God is playing here that some of us haven't quite figured out yet, that like the miracle of that, the miracle of one tiny seed literally turning into millions of other plants and seeds is completely possible and is happening on a daily basis over here. So I just love thinking about that miracle that God can create without needing our help as humans. So growing my garden really isn't that different than growing my bank account. The principles are beautifully similar.
[6:53] And the crazy thing about growing a garden, I've learned, is that there is actually very little that you have to do. There is some tending, there's weeding, there's watering, there's making sure the watering system is working correctly, which I haven't quite figured out yet, to be honest. But, That's pretty much it. And all of a sudden I have these beautiful plants growing in my garden that I didn't really have to do that much for. And I love thinking about my money being the same way that, you know, although we're really good at overcomplicating business, it's actually really simple. The principle is providing something that people need that they trade you their finances for in order to get the help that they need. It's actually really simple and it's complicated too at the same time. I get it. But I just love the simplicity of it and the truth that it doesn't have to be
[7:36] that hard to grow a big, luscious, abundant garden. But there is something that you need in order to make that happen, which is principle number two. If you want to grow a big, luscious, abundant garden, you have to match up your beliefs about yourself with being the person who can create that result. You have to match up your beliefs about yourself with what you want. So if there's something that you want, you have to believe that you can have it or that you are capable of creating it. If you want to be someone who makes a lot of money, you have to believe that you have something to offer, that you can help people, that people want the things that you offer, that you are good enough.
[8:19] That, by the way, could all be its own podcast episode, but I see this happening with a lot of business owners where we have this little desire inside of us to make a lot of money. But the beliefs and identities that we carry around with ourselves are in direct opposition with what we want to create because we're over here like, oh, I don't actually need to make that much money or I don't know if I'm good enough at what I do or I don't know if I'm capable of being the person who's able to do it. I think about myself. This is me, right? And I think about my plant babies that have fallen through the cracks, for lack of a better word that apparently Nate can make them grow, but I can't. I have definitely adopted a little bit of a belief that I'm not someone who can grow plants. And so I also have a little desire inside of me to have a big thriving garden and an amazing yard.
[9:10] But because I'm still carrying around these beliefs about myself that I'm not very good at keeping plants alive, it's in direct contrast, in complete opposition with what I want, which is that I want to have a big garden. And so I basically have two options, and you do too. My two options are to either upgrade my beliefs about myself and what I'm worthy and capable of, or to abandon my desires. And you can probably guess which one of those options I want for you.
[9:36] Item number three that I've learned about money from my garden is that if you expect perfection, you're going to be frequently disappointed. You have to be willing to try and to mess up and to try again. So I think about, actually, we put these garden boxes in our backyard last summer. They were like fully installed. Well, we got to it a little bit late. They were fully installed by mid-June. We could have grown something in the garden boxes last June, but we didn't because honestly, I've been like coaching myself through this because the honest truth is that I was scared of messing it up. I was so overwhelmed by the abundance of information. I was overwhelmed by feeling like we were too late that I was just like, you know what, I'm not even going to try. And so I just left them empty last year. And I think of how often we do this as business owners. I'm thinking of those of us who have maybe empty Instagram accounts where it's like, it feels too big to even try to put something out there.
[10:30] So I'm just feels too overwhelming. It feels like there's too much information I would have to learn in order to make it happen. And I'm probably going to mess it up. So therefore, I'm just not even going to try. My perfectionism has had a heyday with this. And it's so funny because I remember when I used to do this exact same thing with my little baby business. I was obsessed with not messing anything up. I was obsessed with doing it in the best possible way.
[10:56] That has looked like me sort of trying to optimize every single piece of the garden process. I want it to be amazing from day one. and so it's been really overwhelming because it feels like there's so much I have to learn with optimizing like how to actually plant the plants at the right time of year because some of them need colder temperatures to germinate some of them need warmer temperatures there's a lot to figure out with that then there's a lot to learn with optimizing the growth of the actual plant when to water how much to water when to prune how to prune and then there's this whole other layer are figuring out how to harvest something. When do you harvest it? When do you cut it back? When do you let it sit? What's the best way to harvest it? Do you cut everything down and then bring it inside and then store it inside? You can see how I think our brains do the same thing with businesses. It feels like there's 25 million different pieces to figure out. And so we're trying to perfect every single one before we even take the first step. But what I've learned is that if I wasn't willing to mess it up, I wouldn't have ever put a seed in the ground. That was sort of the mental place I had to get myself to was like, I'm probably going to totally screw this up. If some expert gardener came in here, they would probably be like, you did this and this and this perfectly wrong. And I just had to be okay with that. I just had to be okay with me putting a seed in the ground and learning how to help it grow.
[12:22] I would have to learn, be okay with, you know, my tomato plants that I planted a couple weeks ago, again, a few weeks late. One of them blew over in the wind because I hadn't staked it down correctly yet. There's going to be a lot of different little touch points of areas that I still need to learn. And I need to be okay with letting myself learn those things. And if it does mean that it's going to get messed up, that's okay. And is it okay with me if I'm a master gardener in 25 years?
[12:52] Yeah, actually I'm okay with that. Does it need to happen next week? No, it doesn't. So that leads me to item number four, which is that if you want to grow a chunk of money in your bank account, just the same way that you want to grow a garden, you have to be willing to look at a wider time frame. I think part of what was keeping me in knots with my empty garden boxes was feeling so much pressure that I had to have it all figured out. You know, when you plant a garden, you plant lots of different seeds and lots of different items. They all have different needs and different requirements and different growing seasons. And I just felt like, you know what, in Utah, we have a pretty short growing season. I don't know if it's shorter or average or good, but it seems pretty short, right? There's basically like six months of the year that growing something in my outdoor garden is available. And so because the timeframe was so short, that was contributing to a lot of pressure. It made it feel like I only have a limited amount amount of time to figure this out and led to me like building it up in my mind is this big, huge deal.
[13:53] I think there's two different ways this shows up for business owners. One looks like I'm in a season of my life that's so short that I don't have time to allocate it to growing my business, which is a totally personal, intuitive decision. And I'm not making a statement about whether that's right or wrong. I just think it's interesting that that same thought process of like, this season that I'm in right now is so short that it's leading us to make decisions out of scarcity instead of like, hey, it's okay if I don't get it right the first time. It's okay if I spread this out a little bit. I think of women who I coach frequently have young kids at home. And there's often this thought process of like, this season that I have with my kids right now is so short. Am I willing to spend any time doing anything else besides growing my kids during this short time. Like I said, that's a super intuitive decision. But where I've come to for myself is that, yes, it's a short season, but I'm still perfectly capable of building a thriving business, even with the amount of time that I have.
[14:54] Yes, my growing season in Utah is short, but I'm still perfectly capable of growing some cilantro and tomatoes with the time that I have. And that's okay with me. The second way that this shows up, I think, looks like a lot of business owners expecting themselves to be millionaires overnight.
[15:09] And we hear a lot of messages being perpetuated that this is the expectation and the reality, which leads us into all kinds of conflicting thoughts and feelings.
[15:18] But if I am willing to look at a wider timeframe, it looks like this. What if all I learned how to grow this summer is cilantro and spinach and basil and tomatoes? Is that okay with me? Yeah, it actually is okay with me.
[15:33] What if I don't learn how to grow peppers and cucumbers until next year? Yeah, that'd be fine with me. What if I don't learn how to grow any flowers or roses until next year? I'm just going to sort of put that on the back burner and wait to figure that out. Is that okay with me? Yeah, I don't need to learn how to grow every single plant this year in this six-month time frame. For me, lengthening the time frame of when I expect all of these results, both for my garden and for my business, has been very useful and has helped me enjoy the time that I spend in my garden and in my business instead of constantly feeling like there's something that I could be or should be doing better. Helps me feel like I don't have to pack everything in or rush to hurry and get it planted so that I can harvest it in three months, right? I hope you're listening to that analogy with your business ears because I think we do that a lot as business owners. I have to hurry and put out this content and do this marketing right now so that I can make money a month from now or two months from now. And while I do think that's a useful skill and a useful habit to develop, I don't like you doing it from the place of hurry and rush and pressure because there's plenty of time and there is no rush. And for me, I've found so much more joy and fulfillment when I release the pressure so that I can just enjoy what I'm creating.
[16:51] Something else that's been really fun is that I've sort of turned my Sunday afternoons into my garden research days. And so I'm just learning so much. Like I said, it reminds me so much of the early days of my business where I was just consuming information and taking all the notes. So on Sundays after church, I'll come home. Usually Drew will have a nap and Grant and Nora will be off playing and Nate will be doing whatever he's doing. And I'll just have some quiet time with my computer. And I started keeping a little journal to take notes of what I've learned for each of my different plants. So I'm just like learning one plant per week. Last week it was cilantro, two weeks ago it was basil. And I'm just like, I can learn one thing at a time. And I want to learn, like I said, how to plant it, how to grow it, how to lengthen the harvesting season as long as possible, how to water it, how to prune it, how to harvest it. There's a lot of things to learn for each plant. But what has been really helpful for me is sort of approaching my garden with the mindset that.
[17:51] The only thing that I can really do is what I can do today. I can't jump into the future and, you know, accelerate the growth of this garden. The only thing that I really can do is go out there today and pull a couple of weeds.
[18:04] The only thing I can really do is, you know, pinch off my tomato plants or whatever. It makes me think of, I have three quotes from you from Eckhart Tolle, who I really love the way that he talks about the now, how he talks about the present moment. moment because, well, I'll just let him speak for himself. This is the first quote that I really love. First, realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the now the primary focus of your life. Whereas before you dwelt in time and paid brief visits to the now.
[18:40] Have your dwelling place in the now and pay brief visits to the past and future when required. I really love this truth that, you know, your plants are on a growth journey, just like you are on a growth journey. And as cool as it would be to be able to like fast forward time and make it happen faster, it's really not an option. It's not a thing. And so I love this intention of being really deeply rooted and focused on what am I capable of doing or creating today? Instead of feeling like I'm constantly thinking, looking forward to the future, anticipating the future, I want to have my dwelling place in the now. I want to be totally focused and present on what's happening right here today instead of being distracted by what's coming. This is the next quote. Nothing ever happened in the past. It happened in the now. Nothing will ever happen in the future. It will happen in the now. I know this is kind of like a little bit ethereal and maybe hard to grasp. But I think this is so fascinating that really the only thing that we can do is the thing that we can do right now. Nothing ever happened in the past. Nothing will ever happen in the future. It will always happen in the now, which is really beautiful because that's what we have access to.
[19:55] And this is the last one. Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.
[20:09] I feel like that could be another podcast episode all on its own. But again, another analogy that I'm just playing with and having so much fun with of the way that the plants in our garden, their one job is just to be there their one job is just to allow to allow themselves to be watered to allow themselves to receive sunlight and be still that's really their one and only job and i love to think about that being true for us as humans another one of god's creations as well and that really that's the same for us too our one and only job is to be so rooted in being here, being present and being still. And I think we can learn a lot from nature about the beautiful truth that there really is not all that much that we have to do. There is so much more that we can allow God to provide for us. There is so much more that we can allow ourselves to receive, especially financially.
[21:10] And really, there's not all that much that we really have to do. And I know when I say that, you're thinking of, there's a lot that I have to do. There's all the marketing that I have to do. I have to create offers. I have to market them. I have to create the payment systems for them. So I understand, yes, there are things to do too. But I want the overarching principle to be the truth that you and I are both being provided for. There's nothing that we have to go scrounge up. There's nothing we we have to go hustle to put together. For me, business and life feels so much better when I allow myself to receive what is already coming to me in the here and now. And it feels so much better than feeling like I have to go work really hard on something or push really hard to make something happen sooner. So I hope after you listen to this episode, you start to look for ways that you can allow more money to flow into your life.
[22:05] Without pushing so dang hard. I want you to be like the tomato plant that's like, I'm just here. I'm just going to receive the water when it comes. I'm just going to try to open myself up to as much sunlight as possible. And when it's the right time, there's going to be a flower that grows here. That's going to turn into a fruit. That's going to turn into more fruits. That's going to turn into more fruits. And I can be, I can be patient and allow that to happen in its divinely inspired timeline.
[22:32] So as a recap, these are the four things that I've learned from my garden about making money. First, that plants and animals are a resource given to us by God and money is so similar and that it's a resource that God has given to us to help us thrive. Two, if you want something, you have to match up your beliefs about yourself, about being the person who can have something like that. You have to match up your belief that you can have the thing that you want. If you don't, you're going to live in a constant identity clash and a constant frustration and wonder why you're not receiving the results that you want. Well, it's because you don't believe that you are the person who can receive those results.
[23:14] Thirdly, if you expect perfection, you're going to be frequently disappointed. You have to be willing to try and to mess up and try cry again. And lastly, you have to be willing to look at a wider timeframe. Expand the timeline of your expectation of when the right time for the results to come through is and allow God to let you know when the right time is so that you can rest and be still and be fully aware and just be and allow yourself to just live your life and patiently allow the results to come when they're are going to come. I hope you loved this episode. I will see you next week, my friend, and I hope you have the best week growing your garden and growing your financial garden as well. Hey, I hope you loved this week's episode. If you did, I know you would love to be a member of my community, The Greenhouse. It's where I teach you how to build an amazing, fruitful life while you build an amazing, fruitful business. It is a movement for women who want to unsubscribe from the traditional success path that says that life has to be a struggle and instead learn how good making more money can get, how fun marketing can be, and how much joy and presence you're capable of feeling as a woman and as a mother. Find out more and join at kaylenpriest.com slash greenhouse and I'll see you there.
[24:41] Music.
