#17 Don't be afraid to Suck! 3 Steps to Move Forward After a Setback.
Updated: Jul 25, 2022
Lacking direction? Feel stuck? Are you allowing the fear of failure and other people’s opinions to limit you from moving forward in your life? BEEN THERE!
It's not your fault that you are feeling this way. You just haven't had the right tools to get you over the hump. Here are 3 things you can do TODAY, to help you push through.
I'm been through divorce, job loss, and being just plain lost in my life and have made myself a student of bravery. Here's what I learned from my recent podcast episode with Emmy winning journalist, Cristina Mendonsa.
[8:19] Allow the Worst Thing to Become the Best
"If you are in that time of life right now when you are thinking OH MY GOSH, my world is caving in and ending. It's okay to be there and mourn a little bit, but put your head up and start looking. It means something else is coming and you better be ready for it." -Cristina Mendonsa
Both Cristina and I have been through job loss. Her contract wasn't renewed as a TV News Anchor, I lost a dream job in radio, but we both bounced back better. Yes, at the time we thought it was the end of the world, but now that we look back it was the moment that propelled us to create our own businesses and live the life that WE choose!
I feel the same way with my divorce. At the time when I became a single mom with 3 kids under 4 years old, I thought God would never use me again to make a difference, and no one would ever love me because I came with 3 KIDS. NOPE. I pushed through and God is giving me even more of a platform to make a difference because of the divorce.
You got this! Hang in there.
[8:33] Know The First Mile Sucks, but Have the Courage to Try
"I like to run, the first mile sucks...it just does, my legs feel like leg, my breathing isn't where it needs to be. Once I get into my second mile, I've got my pacing and I'm feeling good...the same thing works in our professional lives. If you're used to feeling uncomfortable at first and you know it will smooth out, then you have the courage to try" -Cristina Mendonsa
Okay so you had a fall. It's going to hurt a bit to get back up, but don't let that stop you! Just TRY! Every day moving forward will get easier. If you wallow, stay inside, isolate yourself from the world things will only get worse. Just do 1 brave thing every day and before you know it you will have made the worst thing in your life, the best!
[27:02] Choose a Year of Yes
"2018 was my year of yes. I said yes to everything...Take a certain amount of time to say yes to everything because the people that it exposes to you are different. They are people that you may or may not need in your life, but they are people that will teach you things, show you things, and show you POSSIBILITIES. That's what we all need to see. That's what I think makes you brave, when you see the possibility of what could be! -Cristina Mendonsa
You don't have to wait until January 1st to choose to say YES. This is the perfect time, when you are facing a plot twist, and searching for a new direction, to just try new things. Don't be afraid to suck. Don't be afraid to fail. Failure is not a tattoo it's just a bruise it will heal.
Think like a weightlifter. Olympic lifters celebrate when they fail at a lift. Because they just found out how hard they can work, and what they need to work on. Say yes. Fail. Celebrate. Find Possibility!
We are always here for you! If you'd like to go deeper and want a step by step plan on building back better after a plot twist in life. Download my free Brave Life Planner. It's a morning routine, and daily planner to help you say YES, and make the worst thing that ever happened to you, become the best!
Love,
ac
Listen to our full podcast here! Rate Review and Follow on Apple Podcasts "So good! Encouraging, uplifting and authentic. Just listened to the first podcast and I am so encouraged. I really appreciate her authenticity and vulnerability. I can’t wait to hear more.: <– If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people — just like you — life a strong and courageous life and build back better after any plot twist they face. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode! Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. I’m adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the feed and, if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out. Follow now! Links mentioned in this episode:
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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Amanda: If you are feeling lost if you are feeling held back by your past if you're feeling overwhelmed by a dream that you have but maybe you're holding back chasing it down because you're afraid of failure or afraid of what other people think this podcast is for you pretty bold call on this one don't be afraid to suck how to have a growth mindset by creating templates for your life to succeed with my good friend and Emmy winning journalist Cristina Mendonsa
Amanda: Time to push through your fear of failure with my dear friend and Emmy award-winning journalist Cristina Mendonsa full disclosure the title of this podcast kind of makes me nervous but it came up so naturally during our lunch it had to stick. Cristina i'm so glad you're here and i think we can both admit that yeah we've both been afraid to suck i'm just glad to be here amanda i know this i feel like this is just a carry-on of our conversation over lunch so this is fun
Amanda: let me tell you how awesome Cristina Mendonsa is she is an emmy award-winning multimedia journalist producer spokesperson speaker and educator she finished a documentary it was nominated for an emmy covid lost and learned she's working on another documentary now she has her own podcast called a fresh agenda check that out and she has she's the founder of her own company Mendonsa Media creates branded video content for businesses non-profits and i got to meet with her i had this little small stent of or i got to know her when i was working at KFBK your day job i guess i would call it would you call it your day job my early morning job my really early morning job yeah Cristina arrives at the office at 3 30 in the morning with full hair and makeup to do the news for 93.1 kfbk in Sacramento which by the way is now number one in the market congratulations thank you very much so Cristina and i were out to lunch the other day talking about what our topic was going to be on this podcast about how to encourage you to live a strong and courageous life Cristina is someone i look up to and respect very much and that's why i wanted her so much to be on this podcast because she is a woman a mother very successful in her career and a business owner and i want to know your secrets and of all things that came out during our conversation over lunch i'm like how have you been able to do all this stuff she said you just can't be afraid to suck and i said that's it that's the podcast so Cristina when were you afraid to suck or fail at something and how did you get over it?
Cristina: Well there have been a lot of times i've been a great suck in my life but uh the most recent was during my career transition i mean i had done uh television for almost 30 years and i felt very confident in my skills as a journalist and a television journalist specifically and i felt like you know i have that down and it still was interesting and fun and all of that but during my career transition i just thought i want to start a business using these skills so i wasn't afraid to suck with the skills that i have that i've been developing over 30 years i was afraid to suck in how do i get this business going how do i incorporate how do i find the right people to help me how do i know when to grow how do i know what to uh spin off to other people and what i needed to focus on as a business owner how do i set up that structure and and that was you know a little bit um that was disconcerting as i kind of walked my way through it but what i found is i found some great mentors men and women i found some excellent templates uh for how to do it and i just thought you know what i can't be afraid to suck at this i just have to try to set it up and if something fails then i'll learn from it and i'll go on and i think it's that growth not being afraid to suck is a growth mindset in that i have something to learn i still can learn and i'm not stuck in my old ways just using the same things that have gotten me this far in life
Amanda: I really like that i know that i have battled this fear of failure in my life for example i just signed a book deal get your brave ons coming out august of 2023 and now i'm realizing oh my gosh what if nobody likes it what if it sucks but whenever i have that fear of failure i remember back in the days when i did competitive weightlifting i learned about celebrating failure because that's what weight lifters do they keep packing on the pounds and the bar they lift it if they succeed they put more weights on it and then if they fail at a lift the whole gym applauds because that means they found out how far they could push themselves and the one thing they need to work on
Cristina: that's a beautiful analogy to you know what we do in our careers and our professional lives it really is have you dealt with that almost even putting certain goals off because of a fear of failure well and sometimes you know that stuff gets put on the back burners we're raising kids and you know earning a living and all of that and i think as our kids get older i know you're not quite an empty nester yet i found that my um empty nest hood uh which started in 2020 um was a renaissance time for me really i mean my kids got older i think you know in your early 20s as your starting career your career you're afraid to suck and you're you have that imposter syndrome i have a daughter in her early 20s that's going through this right now and we talk all the time about how do you navigate through that as you start to pick up more skills um and start to feel less like an imposter but more like you know this need to perform how do you navigate and then i think we face it again in midlife when we decide to make a career change or the kids are out and you you have time now to pursue that book you've wanted to write or that documentary you've wanted to film and and i think if you have a growth mindset um then then you can get over it and how do we develop that growth mindset well i think there are several ways weightlifting is a great way uh the physical mental connection i think um works well together so i like to run and i've always found that the first mile sucks the first model just it just does my my legs feel like lead and you know my breathing isn't uh where it needs to be but as you as you move along and once i hit my second mile i've got my pacing and i'm feeling good same you know maybe with weightlifting that first set is uh not the best and then the second set feels a little bit better and you have that muscle memory and i think the same thing works for us in our professional lives if you're used to feeling uncomfortable at first but know it'll smooth out then you have the courage to try.
Amanda: Oh i'm going to steal that from you have the courage to try it's like that scene in we bought a zoo 15 seconds of courage yes i love that my husband uses that with his students he does yes so remember that if there's something you really want to do but you're afraid to start maybe because you're afraid of people's opinions that's my heart for you my brave babe listening because i know what it was like when i first became a single mom i just thought my life was over but i had this tribe of friends that held me up put me back together and gave me the courage to try as Cristina says and i asked what could i ever do to repay you and they said just go do it for somebody else so that's what get your brave on is this podcast Cristina and i are your cheerleaders so Cristina did you have a fear of what other people's opinions would be about you when you did your first documentary did you think oh no what if i suck right
Cristina: I mean and you don't know right so until you actually create it and put it out in the world you don't know and i think i mean you made a really important important point about you know people who may be watching and listening to this who are at a low point in their life i mean having someone you can talk to about that or a podcast you can listen to or something inspiring uh to turn to whether it's you know friends or scriptures or you know whatever it is um it is so important to be able to admit that to yourself and to others it's okay to be vulnerable and say to a friend things are going well right now and i'm not really sure what to do and i'm thinking on it and um praying on it and talking to friends about it i think it's important to be able to admit that to yourself and admit it to other people because what you'll find is that you do have a support system that wants to come around you and help you um and it can come sometimes from the most unusual places i mean uh as i was starting my business i found people that i had uh met maybe just in the happenstance phoning me up and saying let's have lunch i have some ideas for you i have some like and you could like them or not like them but i have some ideas and that was so encouraging and so and you never know where it's gonna come from but it's okay to be vulnerable and admit i don't know exactly the path right now i don't i love that don't be afraid to ask questions where to find that inspiration that you need to get to the next level in life that's next
Amanda: back with Cristina so what is it that inspires you?
Cristina: ah other entrepreneurs i kind of fan girl over i because i i really do i like to i like to know people's strategy how did they do that how did they had what is the template they built for their success and how do i replicate that and add my own twist and i think that's why i focus on them so much in my podcast because i like to find out what people's strategy is how they think um and how their their philosophy um informs their decisions so i took a lot of inspiration from that i read a lot of you know every like self-development book i both read those we rip through those every time there's a new one i can't wait to read yours once it's out thanks but i think that's really valuable uh and and just pulling inspiration from different parts of your life and seeking it most of us know it's not going to come knocking on the door you have to seek it
Amanda: it's not hard to find inspiration is everywhere how about right now Cristina so there's someone that's maybe a little lost without some direction or afraid they have this big dream and they don't know how to take the first step what's the first thing that they can do?
Cristina: Develop an appetite for problem solving i think that's another huge benefit i remember when i wanted to start a podcast i didn't have really the right equipment at home so i went online and let some 14 year old on youtube teach me what did i need what i needed i love that how to set it up how to produce it and and figured out a way to do it with very little equipment at home so i think you have to have that passion for problem solving as well Amanda: okay Cristina i know one of the ways that you problem solve is during lunch you said that life is about creating a bunch of templates making them your own and replicating that teach us how you do that Cristina: i think when i say templates i use templates to problem solve so uh for instance like you know 20 years ago i was helping some people start a business and they said you know you're a journalist can you write a business plan and i was like never written a business plan so i i went out and i looked at different templates for a business plan and chose one and put my own twist on it and that that's probably the most simplistic um explanation of how i've used a template in the past but i use them going forward like things that worked for me in my career i think okay what can i take that worked for me in my career building a career as a journalist that can apply to business you know what what how how do i the way i built my career as a journalist uh the con how i made contacts um you know how i identified what markets i wanted to be in uh how you know how i decided on an agent you know those kinds of decisions i then tried to apply to my business life and in that way i built a template that i then reused and i think that our problem solving in life or how we get a career how we find love how we fulfill our spiritual life how we parent all of that we build our own templates and then we can use them for other things in our life Amanda: oh i'm getting it i think i probably did that with how i operated when i was a single mom with three young children it's like i had to create my own parenting template because the one that i thought i was gonna use with two parents in the same household wasn't going to fit so i had to create my unique ways and now that's probably how it can become so effective and multitasking now it worked i was able to parent three kids on my own with a specific routine that i wrote down and now i implemented that same strategy with a routine for doing a morning radio show in Sacramento then a syndicated show every single day and a podcast and running a website Cristina: yes it's interesting so maybe do you think that if your life is going down one path and all of a sudden you've got a plot twist and the path suddenly changes you struggle because you don't know what template to implement i think expectations that comes down to what we yeah others expectations of us and i think the older we get the more those we shed thank goodness but i do think that we have built up in our mind you know we can't use other people's templates right we have to build our own and use our own um so i think that has to do with dropping expectations that others may have on you yep so what kind of expectations have you had to drop i raised my children in a community with extremely involved um moms at school so uh my template was not uh the volunteer in class go on all the field trips um you know be the mom that's there all the time helping in the classroom and or even picking up my kids from school or being home every night for dinner that wasn't my template so and and sometimes i struggled with the expectations that i thought others had of me you know when i'd walk in a half an hour late to the recital yeah because i was finishing the newscast you know and i and i felt bad and i so i did i struggled with that sometimes when it came to being a mom and you know luckily i i married someone who uh we've never had normal schedules together like since we've met and we're you know but that's your normal yeah that's our normal right it's absolutely normal for me to get up at three o'clock in the morning or you know or him to be coming to bed at two o'clock in the morning when he was managing the bar so i mean it's just like we've never really had a normal schedule and you know what our kids are well adjusted and uh you know we've been able to keep the therapy bills to a minimum Amanda: so that's good okay big fan of therapy i struggled with that too as a single parent i had to realize the picture perfect family is attainable you just have to realize that the contents of everyone's picture is different maybe it's just being confident in the template that you're creating for your success so my template was different your template was different what was it about yours that helped you out? Cristina: i was lucky because i found a mother's group we could all meet early in the day and have coffee you know we started when our kids were little in that group of women i there was no judgment um some were stay-at-home moms some worked from home some worked outside the home and i found i think you need to find your tribe that's definitely got to find your tribe and sometimes it takes some looking um but you can find them they're there because there are other people that whose temples are similar to yours and you just have to look for them and you can find that inspiration so i really did seek out like a group of women early on uh later you know as we all kind of went our separate ways and kids were going separate ways it was a little bit you know there was there was a few years there where i didn't have a lot of female friends but as my kids got older again i went out and sought them and and now i mean i feel like i've got a really great group of professional women that i know and love and have lunch with you know every month and feel supported by Amanda: oh that's okay so Cristina i heard about this crazy thing from an nba coach it's an African term and i'm not sure if it's pronounced this way but i'm going to say it like this um okay it means humanity i am because we are the universal bond of a team the coach put this philosophy into place because there was like big stars on the team that didn't care about the rest of the team and things weren't fair so they practiced Umbuntu where they were a group and even if a player got on the plane after a game to go back home and he only had food for himself everyone's like hey where's Umbuntu you got to think of everybody we're in this together i would love for women to do more of that Umbuntu philosophy to be together and help each other out instead of competing with each other all the time did you experience a lot of that in tv news more of a competition among women instead of lifting each other up? Cristina: oh yeah definitely i mean early on especially i mean as you know in broadcasting um and in television broadcasting specifically where uh you know your look is so much a part of it absolutely i felt competition and it was it's it's lonely to feel that kind of competition but you know you're striving trying to get that seat for you know whatever newscast is up in the air and someone else gets it and you're wondering why and you know but i've broken these stories and i've done those stories and yeah i mean there is bad and then and then even as i moved along there was you know professional i wouldn't say jealousy but more like envy you know when i'd see someone that uh wrote a book or got a network uh position you know i'd be like wow you know that i wonder what that would feel like that would be amazing um but then as i as i aged through that i realized you know i made certain decisions and gave up certain opportunities because i wanted my life to look a certain way so i um early on was offered a an opportunity to go to the network and but it was going to mean moving to my family to New York it was going to mean overnights and i thought to myself you know what's more important to me is is you know being at the network more important or is it more important to have a healthy marriage and happy children good for you that must have been really hard it was but i don't know what it is about me maybe i just lack the ambition it takes to get to get to that network chair but i thought no it's more important to me to have a happy marriage and healthy children because that that seat is never owned it's leased and and and there will be someone just right down the road that'll be that they will replace me with i mean you are so ultimately replaceable in broadcasting i mean it's really it's really kind of a masochistic existence you really are replaceable i mean anyone's replaceable but especially in this in this industry you really are the fact that i spent 22 years at one television station is amazing i mean unheard of that doesn't happen so i feel really fortunate that i did that and unfortunately i got to do it in my hometown and you know when i get opportunities to go elsewhere i'd look at my life and say what's missing that this opportunity would give me would it give me a better like um you know is it financially better is it going to help me grow is it going to make my family happier is it going to is it going to to bring a wealth of anything to my life and each each of the opportunities i was offered at that time i thought no it's not i have a happy marriage i have healthy children i have enough opportunity and um excitement in my in my current position i get to do the kinds of stories i want to do i have enough like power in my position i have enough money in my position i was really happy to be doing it in a community where i grow grew up and that meant a lot to me so you know i think we make choices in life and i think you have to uh make the best decision you can with the information you have and don't look back.
Amanda: that's one thing also i don't do i don't i don't look back wow see i know that i struggle with that i'd like to say that i don't but i know that i do um because i think sometimes we look at our past and our mistakes and spiritually i think well i'm not perfect so that counts me out of god really being able to use me because of the divorce or i've had job loss too in this crazy media world how do you get past those times when you failed you sucked?
Cristina: I think early on i had an agent a really good agent who said to me you know never believe your own press whether it's good or bad don't believe it don't take it too much to heart i've always been kind of a stoic kind of person so in fact my husband um laughs at me because he he's like he's like you you never are like super high or super low you're just kind of like in this like in the center and i think that's that's partially just my personality i just tend to be pretty stoic about stuff so i don't get too upset about stuff uh and i don't get too excited about stuff either so um i i kind of took that to heart early on from my age and i thought you know whatever happens i'm going to do what i think is best for the viewer or listener uh what i think makes sense based on the information that i have and i'm not going to worry too much about decisions i made that could have gone one way or the other i don't know i do think that in we are being guided you know yes there's free will yes we can make decisions but i think in large part we're being guided through the lessons that that we need to learn that god wants us to learn when i'm trying to make a decision about something i i just try to sit back and listen to my inner voice and say okay is this decision going to help me grow is this opportunity going to help me grow and can i move forward with no regrets by making this decision does that make sense oh that's so good yes and not limiting yourself because you were so afraid oh no what if i fail or what if i suck at this right and i failed i've stopped it so much but i but you know when i suck at it i'm like okay do i want to learn how to be better at it or am i going to leave that alone and do something else. Amanda: yeah i love the phrase failure is not a tattoo it's just a bruise it's going to heal right right and i think not taking stuff so personally i mean it's hard i mean obviously in a relationship you take it personally in a business relationship you take it personally when you know i was at my last television station and my contract wasn't renewed i took it personally for about this much until i could like kind of widen out and see the bigger picture i mean and i try to when i i mentor a lot of young broadcast people who say oh you know my news director doesn't like me or you know the general manager doesn't like me and i i try to help them widen out and see the bigger picture try to manage up as much as you know you manage down manage up and manage self and if you can widen out and see the bigger picture what your boss is dealing with what the company's dealing with then i mean it's still going to hurt but it won't feel so personal you'll be able to reframe it once you have a bigger picture that's good advice so how do you do like um now and not compete with other women but support other women well i you know i think just like in my personal relationships with women and my good friends that i've known for years i just try to be there to listen and and help them reflect that they have issues in their life and have problems in their life i try not to offer too much advice i just try to listen um and reflect back to them help them work through things that way uh professionally i love to collaborate and brainstorm and and discuss i mean you know that just from our couple of lunches together and we do that really well i just had a great lunch yesterday with a woman who owns a similar business as mine um and and we had a great time collaborating on something you know something for one of her projects she's working on she helped me think of ways to improve something i'm working on so that is what turns me on these days i i love that i love um i love helping people brainstorm them come up with ideas on the things that they most want to do
Amanda: and Cristina you're fantastic at that i appreciate you i have this goal of being one percent more brave every single day because you don't just wake up wearing the wonder woman cape it's a practice that you make a daily habit out of right so maybe if you're a little lost or facing a plot twist that you're just unsure of you've got a goal you're kind of afraid of what people are thinking about if you go chase it down you could start by just doing one percent more brave kind of like i did i reached out to Cristina sent her text i just thought hey maybe she'd agree to have lunch with me because she's someone i look up to and respect i bet you have that person in your life and you can talk to them about hey what is your template for success what's working for you can you give me some tips and some help here and we can all practice that Umbuntu philosophy what's good for one is good for all of us i mean you can start with just a text hey wanna go get some tacos yeah and if you're the one that gets a text like that of somebody wanting your advice say yes i agree and Cristina: you know when i was starting my business um and and every year i kind of and i know you do the same i think you've told me you do this you pick a theme for yourself for everything i do so i had like 2018 was my year of yes i said yes to everything everything every collaboration i was so busy my husband was like you're gonna kill yourself you're working so much but i was having fun i was like i was learning and growing and i just said yes to everything and uh and i think you know having a year like that where you you set your mindset at the beginning of the year or the middle of the year whenever i'm gonna just say yes to whatever comes along even if you're like oh do i really want to do that do i really want to you know empty that or do this thing you know just you know take a certain amount of time say yes to everything because the people that it exposes you to um are different they're people that you may or may not need in your life but there are people who will teach you things show you things and show you possibilities for your life that's what we all need to see that's i think what makes you brave when you see the possibility of would it be Amanda: yeah instead of limiting yourself because you're afraid to suck or afraid to fail and instead of thinking that bad thing that happened to you as the end of you maybe it could be the thing that makes you i mean that's my experience i thought that that moment i became a single mom with three little kids that god could never use me again in ministry i was just going to be canceled but it wasn't it actually ended up being the thing that made me focus more in my career and create a ministry to help people be more brave because i was teaching myself in the process christina do you agree i think sometimes the worst thing that happens to us actually becomes the best thing? Cristina: oh truly truly and we've talked about this i mean in leaving my last position i probably should have left five years before i did and i really i when i look at it and look about look at uh how happy i am now and fulfilled in professionally and and and having my business which i had dreamed about starting a business for years i mean i i look at it now and i think wow so yeah if you are listening and watching and you're in that time in your life right now where you're thinking oh my gosh this my world is caving in and ending um and it's okay to be there and mourn a little bit but then put your head up and start looking because it means something else is coming and you better be ready for it. Amanda: create some templates you know i've got actually one template without realizing it Cristina i have one available shameless plug get your brave on dot info i created a template to start my mornings every morning instead of focusing on all that's bad and i put it all together for you you can fill it out download it for free get your brave on dot info and you fill out things that you're grateful for every day you're going to write your i am statements positive things your dream the date you want to accomplish it by and then you write down pathways that you're going to do and then there's even a spot for like 20 minutes of prayer and meditation writing down what you did i also have a daily planner sheet that will help you fill it out and you choose one brave thing a day just to keep you on track again it's free just download it to get your brave on info Cristina anything else that i didn't ask you that you wanted to share about how we can get our brave on? Cristina: I would just say have have at least one but try to have a few people in your life that you really consider your time people that you could be vulnerable with and tell anything to have have you know make the effort to make some professional friends who will collaborate with you and help improve upon your ideas and people that you can help a bit on their journey so i would suggest that and surround yourself as much as you can especially with the news of the day and everything that's going on in the world surround yourself with as much positivity as possible you need that it's like it'll juice your batteries um because you need that optimism to propel yourself forward you need that it's crucial so fill yourself with goodness as much as you can and positivity wherever you get that. Amanda: really good advice so where do you get that what are some books that you could recommend to the brave babes i i liked um the seven habits of highly effective people that's a great one i really like that one i like leadership the new science that's a good one too um and that's a really interesting like kind of the analogies that uh that that author draws between leadership and and actually and and scientific principles so that one's really interesting too i love anything by Daniel Pink is fantastic too oh and i'm reading right now um if you if you are thinking about starting your own business or or needing some inspiration the four hour work week okay that one is officially now next on my list Cristina: so if you want to know more about the amazing Cristina Mendonsa where should we go yes you can just go to mndonsamedia.com and that's my website that's the best touch point to make contact with me you can also check me out on any of the socials i'm at cmendonsa on instagram that's probably where i'm most active and uh and then also i'm on twitter and and that sort of thing and facebook of course too and linkedin reach out i would love to hear from you i'd love to hear uh you know what you found valuable here and uh yeah so reach out she really means that so take her up on the offer and if there's anything in this podcast that really helped you that was very meaningful to you would you let us know by writing a review that is extremely helpful the more reviews that get your brave on has the more lives we can impact because apple sends it out to more people have this goal of reaching 10 000 lives this summer with get your brave on the podcast to inspire more people to live a strong and courageous life it would be amazing if you wrote that review and you can download the free brave life planner the template that i came up with at get yourbraveon.info Cristina you're the best thank you so much thank you so much man glad to be here also wanted to say thank you so much the team at lifeaudio.com check them out for more faith-based podcasts their podcasts on bible study prayer parenting and more just go to lifeaudio.com and get your brave on