Welcome to Educate & Rejuvenate: The Podcast [episode 127]

Speaker A [00:00:00]:

Welcome to episode 127 of this podcast feed, which is now called the educate and rejuvenate podcast. Let’s go. Welcome to educate and rejuvenate, the podcast to help you revitalize your teaching, renew your spirit, and reignite your passion for life. I’m your host, Kelsey Sorensen, a former teacher, current homeschool mom, published author, and certified life coach. Whether you are a teacher in a traditional classroom, homeschool from your kitchen table, or anywhere in between, I am on a mission to help you not only survive as an educator, but thrive. Get ready to up level your skills with incredible insights from guest experts and discover the missing piece, rejuvenating yourself. Are you ready to both educate and rejuvenate? Let’s go. We are back.

Speaker A [00:00:54]:

Honestly, we didn’t even really go anywhere because just last week, I revealed that it is the end of Wife Teach Your Mommy the podcast and the ending of Wife Teach Mommy the brand as we know it. And I shared a lot of reasons behind that and a lot of reflection on that on last week’s episode. So if you didn’t hear it yet, feel free to go back and listen to that one as well because it shares a lot about the journey we’ve come on together, especially for those who’ve been listening to the podcast for any length of time. If you’re not just barely starting on this episode, you’ll want to listen to that because it kind of shares what we’ve gone through to get to this point together, and how this is the next step of the work we are going to continue to do together here on the podcast, with our events, with the book, and everything else that’s going on to help you not only educate the kids that you teach, the students that you teach, but rejuvenate yourself. And you might recognize this name. When we said that there was a new name coming, some people even guessed in the chat, like, oh, is it educate and rejuvenate? And that’s because it’s the name of the conference that we’ve been doing. We’re actually on our 3rd year of the Educate and Rejuvenate conference. So we’ve had that name for a while, but here’s the really funny thing.

Speaker A [00:02:02]:

So, last year, honestly, about a year ago from now, in last May, my team and I, we went to Park City, Utah for a retreat. Most of us are in Utah, but we flew out our employee, Kelsey, from Arizona to come and join us. We were all together for 2 days in Park City. And one of the big things on our agenda for that retreat was well, 1, we were, like, doing some planning for educate and rejuvenate and for our club members. But one of the big things is that we really wanted to come up with a new name for our membership. Because wife teacher mommy club, what we found is a lot of people would be like, I’m not a wife or I’m not a mommy, and it just didn’t feel inclusive enough to me. Like, I wanna make sure that everyone knows that whether or not there are any of those things, they are welcome in the club. And as long as you’re an educator and you want to teach and you want to rejuvenate yourself, this is for you.

Speaker A [00:02:50]:

But at that time, the thought of using the educate and rejuvenate name hadn’t even crossed our minds. So we came up with different ones, but we’d realized they were either taken or they might be confused. And we just didn’t come up with something, and I didn’t wanna just settle on a name for the sake of changing a name. So we’re like, you know what? We’re just going to leave it. We’re not gonna do anything. We’ll just make sure people know they don’t need to be all of those things. Now fast forward to I’m working on my book, and teacher goals publishing, they’ve been amazing to work with. But they did recommend, like, it would be good for you to come up with your book title.

Speaker A [00:03:19]:

Because if you do that, then we’re able to, like, put a mock up on the website and actually have a book listed under your name and everything. And I’m like, I know. I know. But I was really dragging my feet because they didn’t again, for the same reason, I didn’t wanna pick a name. And then just for the sake of picking a name, I really wanted it to mean something. And so it was February. We are getting to my first deadline where I’m turning in the entire manuscript, and I still don’t have a title for the book. So I’m a week from this final deadline, and my family, my husband and I, we decided to go on a road trip to California so I could really work on the book and just kind of get out.

Speaker A [00:03:54]:

Sometimes when I get out in a way, I actually my creativity goes up. So I was, like, able to not focus on any of the other work or even the homeschooling and everything, take a break from all of that and just pour my heart into the book, and also just enjoy being in California with the warmer weather, because it’s cold here in Utah during the winter. So we went there. And while we’re driving down there, all of a sudden, just a big epiphany came to me while discussing with my husband. And I can’t remember whether he said it first or I said it first. We were like, what about educate and rejuvenate? Or I think I don’t even know. I feel like I was like, maybe I could call the book that because I feel like we were just talking about names, and he was talking about the event is educate and rejuvenate. I was like, wait.

Speaker A [00:04:31]:

What if I call the book educate and rejuvenate? And then we kept talking. I was like, wait. We wanted to re name the club. What if we call it the educate and rejuvenate club? And then I was like, wait. What if, like, the brand becomes educate and rejuvenate? And I just got so excited and lit up about this. And I was so glad that I didn’t, like, try to force a name before, right, when I wasn’t ready and we were just trying to come up with a name for the sake of coming up with a name. And that when this epiphany came and I was like, wait. This name, this name is already resonating in the hearts of educators everywhere who are like, yes.

Speaker A [00:04:59]:

This event, this is the one that’s personal development or professional development meets personal development, where I’m able to develop as a teacher, as an educator, but also rejuvenate myself. And I realized that that’s really what we’re doing as a whole. We have all these resources. We do these events that have professional development where you’re up leveling your skills in teaching, but you’re also rejuvenating yourself. And I realized that this name described what we do so much better than that wife teacher mommy. And I explained on the last episode really where that name originally came from, but the short version is I was literally just describing myself. I had just become a mom. I was making a TPT store.

Speaker A [00:05:32]:

I was really excited that it was a wife teacher mommy. It was describing me, and that’s what a lot of people do when they’re creating a TPT store. But I now want this. It’s not it’s not about me. It’s about community. It’s about each other, and it’s about us together learning how to develop as a teacher, develop as a professional, or develop in your homeschooling abilities or your online teaching or your professor, like, whatever kind of educating you’re doing. Developing that, yes, but also rejuvenating ourselves and listening to our needs and tuning in with our thoughts, our feelings, and everything. And so I was just really, really excited about this new name and everything we’re doing.

Speaker A [00:06:10]:

And I’m so glad that things come in due time, that this name came at the right time. It’s the appropriate time for us to change the name of the company of the book is releasing, and that’s the title of the book. And it’s really going to the book is really kind of encapsulating this whole shift in the company. Like, the process of writing this book that I wrote has really been helping me to refine my coaching, refine my vision for what I want to do with all of you, and how I want to support you and help you, and how we can come together and do that. So I’m just really thrilled about this new direction of the company. And, really, it’s just the direction we’ve already been going, and it’s just a name that helps to really explain what it is that we’re doing. And this is not going to be an immediate transition. Like, right now as this comes out, it’s still wife teacher mommy.com.

Speaker A [00:06:58]:

It is going to transition to educate and rejuvenate.com, and the website is going to shift. And we’re going to figure out our socials, but that’s actually a little bit complicated and everything. So things are going to be shifting over the next few months. And rather than, like, a rocket launch, like, I was actually talking one time to my life coach, Lizzie. I was kind of stressed about like a business launch and just having to like, boom, do it all at once. And she’s like, what if you think about it more like a flower blooming? And that’s how we can think about a lot of things in life. Right? Like, we don’t it doesn’t always have to be go go go boom boom boom. It can be like, oh, I’m just, like, letting this blossom, letting this thing in my life, like, slowly blossom into what it’s going to be.

Speaker A [00:07:32]:

And that’s what I envision this and what we’re doing together here at educate and rejuvenate to be. So you’ll slowly see the name transitioning over on the website. This week, we’re already going by the time you’re listening, we probably already changed the header on the website, and the home page probably says, did you hear why teach mommy’s becoming educated in Rejuvenate or something like that? It’ll slowly be transitioning over the next while, and we have some really fun stuff coming up. We have our educate in Rejuvenate, our 3rd conference. The book is coming out. We have some big announcements to come of more ways we’re going to be able to support you, and this podcast is not going anywhere. In fact, now that I’ve written this book and the book is done, but also I’ve gotten so much clarity about everything I want to do, I just want to make this podcast even better than it’s ever been. I want to give you my all right here.

Speaker A [00:08:18]:

I want to give you everything that I can give you in this format, in this container that we have here where you’re just listening to me, and we’re not able to talk face to face, but we’re I’m able to share it with you here. And I want to give you my all right here. So even if you’re already a club member and you’re engaging on the calls each week, this is going to be an incredible compliment, and my goal is to make this podcast better than it ever was with this new name, with this new transition. And I’m really excited. The new podcast cover art you see, it actually very closely matches the cover of the book. And Tricia Fuglestad, who we actually had on the podcast at one point, you should go back and listen to that episode, she is an incredible illustrator and artist. She designed our cover, and we actually utilize the same elements on the podcast cover. Because what I love about this new direction of the brand and what the imagery she came up with is that Apple really represents, like, us as educators.

Speaker A [00:09:04]:

Right? We’re educating, but we also need that rejuvenating, that tree underneath it. So if you don’t know what I’m talking about, please look at the podcast art for this, or look up my educate and rejuvenate book that’s coming out. You’ll see it’s like a tree with the apple on top of it. It’s not like the apple hanging down from a tree, but it’s actually more like the tree cradling the apple. And this is where where we rejuvenate ourselves. Our rejuvenating, taking care of ourselves is what is cradling, what is making it capable for us to be the educators that we want to be, to be able to help our students in the best way? But we can’t do that without taking care of ourselves first. So I’m really excited. We kept the picture of me the same right now so people would recognize it with the new podcast name.

Speaker A [00:09:44]:

We’re probably going to do a new photoshoot. Like I mentioned, again, slow transition. I wanna do a new photoshoot soon to update the website. I did get some highlights. They’re kinda subtle, but I’m like, I want a picture of my new highlights. I’m probably gonna brighten them up a little bit more here soon. Gonna probably get a new picture on there too, but that’s just, you know, a little behind the scenes, I guess. But I’m really excited about this new direction to really help you more with your overwhelm, your burnout.

Speaker A [00:10:11]:

Still, again, that’s what I’ve been doing. Right? If you look at the past episodes, it has been more of that. I’m still bringing on experts about other things. For example, well, next week, I have Christina Kuzmic, our keynote one of our keynotes this year coming on, and she’s we’re talking about mental health. But then the following week, I have Melia Hollowell, who we’re going to be talking all about the science of reading. So, really, the podcast isn’t it’s just, like, you know, with the direction that we’re going. So, but according to a recent Gallup panel, 44% of teachers said that they were always or almost always burned out, and that was outranking all other professionals. And I’m honestly not very surprised by that because I felt it too as a teacher.

Speaker A [00:10:46]:

And my teacher stress, I remember just this time, and I talk about this in my upcoming book, when I was student teaching. I just remember this pivotal moment just, like, losing it, crying on the floor over a lost library book, just thinking if I just didn’t have to teach, then life would be great. And have you ever thought of this before? Just think about that. But what I wanna tell you is I eventually did stop teaching. Right? I stopped and I stayed home with my son, and I started just subbing part time and surprised I was still stressed even when I decided to sub part time. And the stress continued to build over the years as I started this company, TPT and everything. And until eventually and I I’ve shared this, like, way earlier on the podcast, but I’m going to just share it again quick. I have my worst anxiety attack ever when I was postpartum with my 3rd child.

Speaker A [00:11:33]:

This was in 2019. I had just started homeschooling that school year. I had my 3rd child, and I had always been an anxious person. This that’s what I called myself. I’ve been anxious ever since I was little, and the adults in my life knew it. Everybody knew it. And I really feel like this postpartum anxiety was just what my whole life had been building up to. And at that point, I started therapy.

Speaker A [00:11:57]:

I got on medication, but I also knew I was like, I don’t wanna live like this my whole life. I want to enjoy my life. And so a few months later, I was doing better than that panic attack when I was in the hospital, like, thinking I was about to die, thinking I was having a heart attack, but I just really wanted to get to a better place than I had ever been. What happened was at one point, I was asked to do something I didn’t know how to do. Like, hey. Anybody else? Have you been asked to, like, join a committee or do something that you’re like, I don’t have the capacity for this, but I don’t know how to say no. I posted a desperate plea in a Facebook group that led to me finding my first life coach, which started my journey towards becoming a coach and developing the framework that I’m going to be conti. I’ve started teaching you on this podcast and I plan on continuing to do that.

Speaker A [00:12:38]:

And it’s really gonna be a foundation of this podcast from here on out. It’s going to be a combination of me bringing on other experts who can talk about lots of different teaching subjects. Of course, I’ll share about some things too as I’m still teaching with my homeschooling and everything, but my passion has really my focus and passion has really been more on the coaching side, but I’ll still be sharing teaching tips too. But But I’ll also be bringing on lots of experts for the teaching tips. So you’re still gonna get that full balance of education, like, up leveling your skills, professional development, and personal development. That’s really the goal of this podcast. And through this podcast, that framework that is really going to be foundation, it’s my 3 step coaching framework. The first step is to be the observer.

Speaker A [00:13:17]:

And I’ve talked about this on the podcast, but I’m gonna just do a really quick overview of it. There’s gonna be a lot more, like, even little episodes that fall under each topic because there’s just so much that could be talked about under each one. That’s why I feel like it could be a whole show with, like, 500 episodes, this framework. But be the observer. It’s all about observing ourselves, our thoughts, our feelings, our nervous system to gain awareness of how all of that is driving so much of our lives, in our teaching, in our personal lives, in our family lives, everything. And we observe what is going on versus what our expectations were and how our internal design what our internal desires are. And We’re not focused on making changes. We’re really just noticing what’s going on, and this is the most important step because a lot of times we aren’t aware of what’s going on.

Speaker A [00:14:02]:

So that awareness is always huge, and we continue to circle back to awareness. We just always wanna be aware of what we’re thinking, what we’re feeling. And then we choose our direction. This is where we take what we learn from our observations and start to get really intentional about what we want for our lives. We decide what changes we wanna make based on what we learn, as well as what we want to keep and what even what values we want to keep that are we’re underneath the surface of thoughts or feelings or actions we might be doing, but we need to shift, like, the way it manifests itself. Right? So now that you’re starting to observe yourself, you can use those to choose what you truly want in your lives, diving deep into your psyche to truly understand yourself and your unique perspective. And we’re going to be enhancing those observational skills while adding on this, choosing our direction and getting clear on what we really want, where we want to go creating goals. I really think the process of creating goals is choosing your direction, and then it’s the following through on it that is the next step, which is aligning yourself.

Speaker A [00:14:56]:

And this is where we have observed ourselves. We plan with attention where we want to go, and we’re looking at our inner compass and looking, like, are we headed the direction we want to go? The direction we decided we wanna go and being true to ourselves, being true to what our inner desires are. And this is where I mean, I’ve had a lot of podcast episodes so far, and, we’ll have future ones on other things such as, like, intentional scheduling. We have a podcast episode about that. Definitely go back and check it out. Vision Born’s morning and evening routines. I did a recent podcast episode about minimum baselines. You’ll wanna check that out if you haven’t.

Speaker A [00:15:27]:

Honoring boundaries. I feel like I need to do some episodes specifically on that, but I know I talked about it during the self love challenge. And finding your people in community, we’ve been weaving that into everything I feel like we talk about, but I do think I should do some episodes specifically on that. So stay tuned because I do have a lot of research in my book about how finding your people in community is just huge. Now, like I said, I don’t have time to go super in-depth on this episode today. This is just a quick one to give you a sense of the direction that this podcast is going and to celebrate everything we’ve been through and we’ll continue to do together. But as you continue engaging with me on this podcast or on social media, in our Facebook group, on Instagram, or in the club if you’re one of our members, or at our educate and rejuvenate events, you’ll continue to learn more and get a deeper understanding. Like I said, now that the book is done, I have so much more energy, so many new perspectives, so much new research to share with you over the next 6 to 12 months on this show.

Speaker A [00:16:22]:

So I think the episodes that are to come are going to be some of the best yet. I don’t plan on holding back. I wanna give you my all here. Whether or not you, like, come to our event or whether you subscribe to the club, I mean, I would love to have you because there’s so much more you can get when we actually come face to face. But I wanna give you whatever I can in this format. So tune in each week. Even if you’re already a club member, you’re going to want to tune in to this podcast each week as well. And a few more ways you can get free support from me as we go on this educate and rejuvenate journey.

Speaker A [00:16:52]:

We’re really revitalizing our Instagram as well. And I can’t even tell you what the handle is because we’re still figuring out the whole mess of, like, trying to change Instagram handles and whatnot. But just make sure that you find us. So you should be able to find us under wife, teacher, mommy, educate, rejuvenate, something similar. And, again, it’ll be linked on our website. Instagram will be a great place to connect. I plan on checking lots of tips, lots of strategies, stories, reels, carousels with little tips. You’re going to wanna follow along there.

Speaker A [00:17:18]:

You’re gonna wanna make sure you’re on our email list if you’re not too, because we send send a coaching clip of the week reminders about this podcast and everything we do on the email list. Lots of freebies that only go to our email list, so make sure you’re subscribed to that. And finally, our Facebook group. And as I’m recording right now, it is called wife teacher mommies unite, but we’re still brainstorming a new name for the group as a team right now. We don’t wanna call it the educate and rejuvenate group because there might be some confusion with all the different groups for the event. So we want it to be, like, some sort of name by educate and rejuvenate, most likely. But the link in the show notes, that is to the wife teacher mommy’s unite group. Luckily, it’s just a bunch of numbers, so it’ll stay the same.

Speaker A [00:17:55]:

It should at least We would love for you to join the group, and it’s just a great way for us to be able to discuss the podcast and everything else. And then other ways to get even more deeper support is, again, the book. I cannot recommend the book enough. I feel like it’s the best piece of work that I’ve created in a long, long time, or probably ever. It is coming sometime this summer. I don’t have the date yet, but I will let all of you know as soon as I know. It is more in-depth than I could even get, like, in a single episode of the show. And even just trying to put together episodes, like, oh, you can get, like, tips about this here, tips about this there, but a book is just like it was really tied together with a bow.

Speaker A [00:18:30]:

Like, everything you could possibly need to know about this 3 step framework, you’ll get it inside the book. It’s coming out in paperback and Kindle really soon this summer. We have a plan to do an audio as well that will be coming later. There’s a benchmark of sales that I should hit. So, like, before I get an audio they’ll produce an audio book for me. So by preordering the book by ordering the book, you’re helping that audiobook to happen. And if you’re listening to a podcast, you’re probably like, I would love an audio. But this is one where I really think it would be beneficial to have a physical copy to refer to because there’s just so much information in there.

Speaker A [00:19:03]:

There are a lot of books where I get the physical and the audio, like, audio to listen to and get through the whole thing, but then that physical to refer back to to really have it as that guide book, that playbook for you. So I’d really recommend getting the physical copy. And then when the audio comes out, I wanna talk to teacher goals about making sure there’s some bonus content there as well. So it’s really worth having purchased both copies, and it won’t even be at the same time. So definitely recommend grabbing the book. There will be pre order bonuses too that more than pay for your physical copy. I don’t know what those are yet. We’re still in discussion about that, but I will keep you posted.

Speaker A [00:19:34]:

For right now, you can head to the link of the show notes for the wait list for the book, and we’ll get you more information about that. And then the next way you can get support from me really soon is the conference, the educate and rejuvenate conference. This is the main way right now that you can sign up for our community to come together because the club is still closed while we make some changes to the website and everything with this rebrand. The club doors are not open right now for our weekly coaching that we do. So right now, what you’ll need to do is join us, grab a ticket to educate and rejuvenate. It’s happening on July 16th 17th are the 2 live days where the keynotes and all the live panels are happening, but you’ll also have 10 full days to watch the replays and the prerecorded sessions and everything. There’s so much more we can do together when we come face to face virtually with each other. The chat is always hopping.

Speaker A [00:20:20]:

People are connecting with each other. They’re actually making friends with each other. It’s not just like you listening to me, but you can actually engage with me, the speakers, and others in the community. Other teachers who want to not only educate but also rejuvenate are at this event. And I will be doing live teaching, like, full seminars on my 3 step framework at the conference as well. You’ll have live panels with presenters, tons of amazing prerecorded sessions. I just really make it recommend snagging a ticket to the event. We have the link to that in the show notes as well.

Speaker A [00:20:49]:

Okay. That is it for right now, but stay tuned. Next week, I have Christina Kuzmich, who is one of our keynotes on the podcast. We’re talking all about mental health and what’s important for us to know as educators who work with others who might have like, you know, if our students have mental health problems or our children or even ourselves. We’re talking about all of it. It’s such an important conversation that I think everybody needs to hear. So make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss that episode. So much more to come here, and we’ll talk soon.

Speaker A [00:21:21]:

If you enjoyed this episode, please hit subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode. And if you’re hungry for more, be sure to check out the book that I wrote. It’s called educate and rejuvenate a 3 step guide to revitalize your teaching, renew your spirit and reignite your passion for life. It is scheduled to be released in summer 2024. This book takes all the life coaching skills we talk about here on the podcast and puts them together in one easy to understand guide. Plus, when you pre order, you’ll receive a PDF workbook and tons of additional resources and audios to deepen your understanding and application of the concepts we’ve covered in the book and on this podcast. You won’t find these resources anywhere else. Visit the link in the show notes to join the wait list and be the first to know when the book becomes available for pre order on Amazon.

Speaker A [00:22:06]:

Let’s continue this journey of growth and rejuvenation together. Until next time.