Behind the Scenes: The Real Reasons I'm Stepping Back from the Podcast

Phylicia Pough: 00:00:00

Hey friend. Welcome to the Mom CEO Suite podcast where faith, family and business come together.

I'm your host, Phylicia Pough, Christian wife, mom of two and life and business system strategist for mom entrepreneurs.

With over 10 years of experience working behind the scenes of businesses and ministries and as a work from home mompreneur, I'm here to share my personal journey and practical strategies to help you design systems that bring peace to your work and home life. While many strive for balance, I believe it's harmony, an integrated flow that works for you that truly sustains.

Together we'll explore how to grow your service based business in a way that is sustainable and keeps your family at the heart of it all. Plus hear real life stories and expertise from other mompreneurs who are walking the same path.

Motherhood gets hard, entrepreneurship gets hard, but together we can do hard things. Welcome to the suite. Hey friend. Welcome to the episode. Thank you so much for being here.

Now I missed two weeks being here with you on the podcast and you know, there's a reason for it and I'm going to get all into it today. But before I do, you know, happy New Year. I hope you had a wonderful holiday.

I really just wasn't sure what direction I was going to go in and at the top of the year gave myself some space to figure out what my next steps were going to be and what I was going to do. And so now here, here we are and I'm giving you real time update about all the things. Okay, so I am going to be taking a break from the podcast.

I'm going to explain why in a minute. But this kind of all, all of this thinking kind of started in December, around the holiday season, around mid December.

And if you're on my email list, then you know that I took a Christmas retreat with my family, my entire family, my parents, their spouses, my siblings, their spouses, my nieces were there as well. And so it was a big group of us and we spent the week of Christmas together.

And during that time with my family, it was really just highlighted for me the importance of family and just the importance of time and being able to step away and be present in the moment. And I really began to think about my business.

My business primarily is run online and you know, I really was starting to feel a shift to incorporate more in person things in the business and you know, really step away from social media more. And so with that, when I came back from the retreat, I really just was thinking about a lot.

So I gave myself this Space to just think through some things and allow God to lead me in the direction that he wanted me to go. And so over the past few weeks, I've really just been allowing myself to be led. And this is where I'm at right now.

So taking a break from the podcast for a few reasons.

So number one, the first reason is really more just personal because for the past few months, I think maybe going back, I don't know, maybe October, but definitely like November, all of December. I have been having challenges with eczema flare ups. And I've had eczema my whole life, but it never really flared up as bad as it is now.

And I've never had any issues with like the location of the eczema. It would just be a small, tiny patch somewhere. But recently I've had like a larger flare up on my hand and on my right hand at that.

And so it became very, very uncomfortable for me to be able to do even just the daily things that I'm used to doing, like giving my kids baths and lotioning them up. It was very irritating to my skin, to the point where even still sometimes now.

But a month or so ago, I started purchasing gloves because I needed to walk around with this glove on my hand so that my hand would not get irritated. Like, I've never had any flare ups like this before.

And so honestly, it's been very stressful just because not really knowing what is causing these triggers. And then it would kind of be like this cycle of, okay, things clear up or they seem like they're getting better and then there's another flare up.

And so I really have been having to look at what I've been eating. Like, I never ate crazy, but I did during the holiday season. I did kind of backslide and I reverted back to some sugar.

I ate a lot of chocolate chip cake during the retreat and I don't know if that overloaded my system. I also around like November, I started adding dairy back. Not adding it, but I started eating it again because I really did not eat dairy before.

I had cut cow's milk out a few years ago, like when my daughter was. Matter of fact, when I was like pregnant with my daughter, my first child, so I had stopped drinking cow's milk. You know, I didn't use cream cheese.

I still did, however, eat cheese like cheddar cheese and parmesan cheese, but it was sparingly. But in the past few months, again, I did start consuming dairy products a little bit more.

So again, you know, I could have Been doing things that was overloading my system and this is why the, the flare ups was happening.

But I got to the point where I'm at now is I have, you know, eliminated the refined sugar again, I have eliminated the dairy and I've even eliminated gluten because I, you know, notice when I would eat certain things that had gluten in it, then my hand would flare up as well.

And so just, it's taken a lot of time to be able to really focus on finding these different recipes and just thinking through what I'm going to eat, preparing meal plans and things like that. So I need the capacity to be able to do that. And I am still onboarding clients and working with clients.

And so then the logical thing for me to do is to take a pause on the podcast to give me some space to be able to focus in, in on really my health.

You know, figure out what's going on with this eczema, what's flaring it up and just get to a place where it's calming down and I'm just back into a healthier state as it relates to my nutrition and this, this eczema, figuring out how that's affecting the eczema. My husband did bring up a good point that it could also be stress as well. So just taking that into consideration.

But again, taking a pause on the podcast to give me the capacity to really focus on these things. But yeah, the past few months dealing just with the eczema in addition to another health issue, I'm not really going to go into.

It's nothing major but just dealing with those things when your body just doesn't function the way that you're used to it functioning, it can be really stressful. And it's just been times where there's like this insatiable itch. You know, my skin is itching and there's no relief for it.

If you have eczema then, or if you've ever experienced that, then you kind of know what I mean. To the point where it's so stressful that I'm in tears.

And so I really am just giving myself, myself the space and capacity to really just focus in on figuring out what's going on with this. And also trying to find a doctor that can kind of guide me. I know though, they can only tell me but so much, right?

So looking for either a dermatologist or an allergist or, you know, somebody that is accepting new patients because apparently some doctors are not accepting new patients and that I can get seen before the spring. So that's one reason why I am pausing the podcast. Another reason that I'm pausing is because I am working on my own systems in my business. Right?

It's kind of like that phenomenon or that saying where the cobbler's children have no shoes or the hairdresser's hair is not done.

Like, I can build other people's systems easily and, you know, with my eyes closed, but when it comes to my own systems, they have kind of taken a backseat to the work that I do for other people.

And so I'm going to be spending some time really working on my own systems with, you know, I have things in place in terms of a system, but really just documenting things more and implementing automation in areas that I know it will be helpful. And so I've started doing that in January, and I'll continue doing that for the next six weeks.

So not just for, like, my client experience, but also for specifically the podcast, some systems that I need to kind of work on in terms of executing the production of posting on Pinterest and the blogging piece of it, because I mentioned in previous episodes that I'm going to be incorporating that into my marketing. And so I need to kind of get those systems in place and up and running for the podcast. Okay.

So I did not want to have the pressure of also having to be putting out new episodes while I was doing that. And so, again, the logical thing for me to do was to take a pause and just give myself these next six weeks to be able to get those things done.

All right?

And then the last reason why I am pausing the podcast is because the podcast is going to be getting a rebrand, the name of the podcast is going to change, and also going to be getting some new cover art. And so, again, just giving myself that space and time to get these things done.

And I'm really excited about just giving the podcast a facelift, giving it a refresh.

And so if you're on my email list, you'll be getting some more information and details about this, and you'll actually be able to kind of help me select the new name and the new cover art.

episodes at the top of March: 2025

By then, the new name will be launched, the new podcast cover art will be launched, and I will have a solid content strategy for the podcast and for, for my email marketing as well, because I'm literally right now in a podcast accelerator that's led by Andrea Singletary, and that's what we're focusing on. And so the timing of it really does allow me to kind of get that content strategy solid and in place before I really launch some new episodes.

And when I come back in March, you'll hear, you know, about some new offers that I have coming up through the business, which I'm really excited about. So this is not goodbye. I'm not shutting down the podcast. I'm just taking a little break.

But I am still working behind the scenes if you want to stay connected. Where I'll be is in my email list and on threads, and I'll still be taking on clients and just working on my own systems in the background.

ecause I was so consistent in: 2024

And it was one of the things that I was honestly really proud about, that I had been so consistent releasing an episode every week. And then even for like, I think it was Q4, I had added a second episode each week. So I really had prided myself one day.

And so I did not really at first want to kind of break that momentum, but again, it's needed is necessary. And the main reason, again, number one, is my health.

And that's a priority, making sure that I get, you know, that taken care of, but then also just giving myself that space and that time to work on my systems and get my, my content strategy in place. So that is where I have been, that is what I am doing, what I'm going to be doing.

And we will be back here at the top of March with brand new episodes.

And I'm already excited about the things that we're going to be talking about, but I am going to be talking more, incorporating more talk about life systems in addition to business systems. You know, I think last year I talked a lot about business systems and sops and automation and all those things, which I love, and it's amazing.

re when we come back in March: 2025

tion for that and until March: 2025

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