Well today I’m excited to announce something that has been years in the making:

An Integrated Life : Practical tools for your Faith, your Home and your Work

An Integrated Life is an 18 lesson audio course (think a podcast that you can keep coming back to!) outlining a framework for you to grow deeper in your faith, take authority in your home, and gain clarity in your work - all for the kingdom of God.

And most of all, this course is about integrating your faith, home and work to work beautifully TOGETHER.

You can learn all about it here.

It will only be available for 2 weeks (until July 13th!), as I am preparing to welcome our 4th baby in just 4 more weeks and will be taking a 6 month work and social media break after that. 

Here’s what is included:

There are 18 audio lessons (think podcast meets short audiobook meets online course!)

• 6 Lessons on Faith

• 6 Lessons on Home

• 6 Lessons on Work

• A full Workbook for you to complete as you listen

You can buy each set of lessons separately, and I’ll be going over whats in each over the next few days. Or you can buy them all together! 

I have been SO excited to release this course. I feel like it’s truly a representation of my heart, life, and work. I begin each lesson with Scripture, and I talk about my faith in Jesus in almost every lesson. I share practical ways we run our home, and my favorite tools to work effectively with a clear vision.

I’m so grateful to finally be able to share it with you!

It’s basically my heart meets my podcast meets my life meets an online course.

Can’t wait to hear what you think about it!

If you’re reading this, you’ve likely purchased the Business Bundle and might be feeling a bit overwhelmed. 96 Courses and 3 Membership sites are a LOT.

(Don’t know what I’m talking about? Go HERE to learn all about the Business Bundle and to grab yours before it goes away forever on July 11th!)

As someone who has already bought the bundle and worked through several of the courses, I know that overwhelming feeling, but I also know a few practical ways you can simplify this bundle and extract the most value from it for YOUR business.

Here are my top 5 tips on how to get the most value out of your bundle

1. Choose 5 Courses from the bundle that you want to take by the end of 2020

2. Buy a 3 Ring Binder and tabs to go with it (YES - back to school style!!)

3. Print out the PDF below 3 hole punch it, and put it in your binder

4. Use 1 tab for each course you take. Print out their notes prior to taking their courses and put them in the binder ahead of time.

5. Schedule these courses into your calendar as part of your job this year.

Here is my free Bundle Printable that you can print and use for your own 3 ring binder system!

Inside the Bundle PDF you’ll find:

• A list of my TOP 10 Business Courses I recommend from the bundle. These are the ones that I am personally planning on taking or have already taken!

• A business snapshot of where you are right now so you can track your progress

• A place to write down all of your major takeaways from each course and your plan to implement them

• A place to mark the actual dates you plan to take and complete the courses

While $100 for $22,000 of educational content is an INCREDIBLE deal and the value inside is really hard to describe, if you don’t take any courses because you are overwhelmed, it won’t be valuable to you.

But if you take and implement just ONE course, it’ll be worth your $100!

A few practical tips:

• ACTUALLY TAKE A COURSE. This month. Start now. Get moving! Don’t let the bundle sit on your internet shelf. This won’t be a deal at all if you don’t actually take a course (and IMPLEMENT what you’ve learned)!

• You won’t go through all 96 courses! You don’t need to, and you don’t have time to. Do not make that your goal or you will be completely overwhelmed. What makes this bundle so amazing is YOU get to choose the courses that most serve you, and take them at the best time for you. That’s why I recommend choosing 5 courses to take and implement by the end of 2020.

• If you create logins for every single course, it will take a ton of your time. I used to recommend this, but now I do NOT. You are more than welcome to do that if you want to make sure you get lifetime access to all 96 courses, but fair warning: you will be added to all of their email lists and it can get overwhelming. (I know because I did this!) Right now, create logins for the courses you plan to TAKE. Then come back in January and enroll in some more or all of them if you’d like.

• I recommend choosing 10-20 courses to create logins for, and that’s it. Again : the value is in the fact that you get to choose exactly what you want to learn!

• Heads up : there are all different backgrounds and faiths represented in this bundle, and that’s okay! It’s what makes it diverse and good. You will likely come across some that you don’t agree with and some that you love. Peruse the bundle and listen to the first lesson before you decide to commit to it, to get a feel for the teacher, their style, and the content they are offering. I started listening to some and thought, “Nah, I’ll pass on this one.” And others I’d listen to and say “YES! This one is for me!”

• REMINDER: You have until June of 2021 to make logins for the courses that you want lifetime access to. After that, you don’t get access anymore. That’s an entire year! So plan accordingly 😘

Here’s what I DON’T want you to do: I don’t want you to be mad at me in August of 2021 when you never enrolled in a course that you really wanted to have access to, and you lost access. PLEASE DON’T LET THAT HAPPEN! But I also don’t want you to get burned out on the time it takes to make all these logins and all the emails that you will be subscribed to as a result of it. I want you to be thoughtful and intentional.

Here’s what I DO want you to do: Take actual courses. Learn the thing you need to learn. Make all the logins that you want to with intentionality, BEFORE it expires in June of 2021! Keep your inbox subscribed to emails that will actually help you.

And if you want to make logins for all 96 courses, by all means do so! I just don’t want the overwhelm to get to you on the front end.

OKAY! Get that 3 ring binder ready, sharpen your pencils, and get ready to go back to school! (I wat in Target this morning and they have some darn cute stuff. Just sayin'.) There’s a lot to learn and implement, and I hope this helps inspire you to make the most of this amazing opportunity!

PS. The BUNDLE GOES AWAY AT 11:59PM on Saturday night, July 11th. Do. Not. Wait.

This day never gets old to me. The fresh start, the new year, the clean slate! 2020, being that it’s the mark of not only a new year but a new decade, feels like an entirely new chapter. Of course it feels that way to me especially, because I’ve closed down Nancy Ray Photography and am now looking ahead to my new rhythm and pace of life. I am FULL of expectation.

Many people have been asking, “So what’s next for you?”

I’m usually the girl with the 5 year business plan, and I can easily articulate a clear answer moving forward. But this time, I have some clarity about this year, 2020, and I know that even that can change. I’m finding my way trusting God to write my story, instead of me writing in and inviting Him along for the ride.

Here’s what I know, as of now, to be my assignment for the year ahead!

What’s Next

• Be home with the kiddos 6 days a week, and work 1 day a week. I’ll most certainly be working some on my “home” days and doing some self care on my “work” day. But it’s a new, healthier rhythm for me. I’ll have reliable childcare for 1 whole day (we’ve scaled back our nanny from 3 days a week to 1 day a week), and I’m calling those days my freedom days! Ha! I plan to work out in the middle of that day (non-negotiable), and feel free to work or get coffee with friends those days too. It’s mainly a day for me to do the things I can’t do with the kiddos around - like record podcasts and write content, and have some uninterrupted adult conversations.

• Be a present mama with the kiddos. On my home days, I’m excited to be in the thick of it with them. I want to be more invested in teaching Milly to read, in spending more one on one time with each of them. I look forward to being Mom Taxi, doing all the preschool drop offs and pick ups, taking them to swim Lessons, and helping Milly transition into Kindergarten in the fall!

• Turn my NRP studio into a Guest House / AirBnB. We are excited to create something we truly love, and are hoping that it will be a bit of supplemental income after the close of my business as well.

• Speak life on the platforms God has given me: my podcast, this blog, instagram, and wherever else He wants to use me. I hope to take a limited handful of speaking engagements as well, which I love! The plan now is simply to invest in what I currently have been given!

• Serve Will and support his growing career, as he has mine for the last 12 years. Of course I’ve always supported his growing career, but without NRP, I’ll have the time and capacity to do more for him, which I’m excited about. Also, His workload is about to be crazy! The timing is really sweet - God gave Him a lot more just as I closed NRP. We couldn’t have planned it like this if we tried.

• Take more pictures for ME. I’ve honestly missed that! I’ll never stop being a photographer, and it’s time for me to do what I love for no other reason than I want to.

• Get to know myself again. I’m really ready to just get to know Nancy Ray, without the “Photography” at the end. It’s been all consuming at times, and I’m looking forward to just being me.

• Strengthen my body. Since September of 2014, I have been either pregnant or breastfeeding or both! I am still breastfeeding B and I hope to as long as I can, but one thing I know: I have MISSED working out. I have MISSED running. I feel more like myself, and this year I plan to prioritize this like I never have before - for my physical health, but honestly more for my mental health. I’ve felt pretty defeated in this area if I’m honest : postpartum with Baby 3 was hard and more challenging to bounce back than my other two. I am hopeful that 2020 will be the first time in 5+ years that I’ll have my body back to myself (once B stops), and I plan to strengthen and fuel my body in a way that stretches me and gives me life!

I heard this sermon earlier this year, and the pastor talked about the “Pace of Grace.” THAT is what I’m aiming for: the pace of grace for Nancy!

So how does all of this translate into goals? Well, for the first time, I feel like my goals have little/nothing to do with work, and everything to do with my life. And that makes me excited! Some of these goals are going to be redundant of what I typed above, but that’s okay. It’s how we make the important stuff happen, isn’t it?

2020 Goals

Strengthen My Body
- Work out 3x/week
- Sign up for a Race
- Do a 30 day strengthening challenge

Spiritual Healing & Connection
- Counseling for this new chapter
- Get plugged into church

Invest in our Marriage
- Go on a Marriage Retreat
- Finish the small groups we are part of
- Monthly Date Nights

Be a nurturing mama
- Go back through Positive Parenting Solutions Course
- Read Parenting with Love & Logic
- MBST with each kid daily

Be a faithful friend
- Host 2-3 girls nights throughout the year
- Monthly coffee with a friend
- Invite friends over into our craziness

Integrate Giving Intentionally
- Host a Journey of Generosity Retreat
- Blessing Fund
- More regular check ins with accountability couples

Joyfully Manage my Home
- Clean out clothes and toys
- Renew my love for meal planning and cooking
- Manage the new AirBnB

Speak Life through the Podcast
- Release one helpful episode a week

Complete the Contentment Challenge
- As you may know, I’m hosting the Contentment Challenge which starts TODAY! I could have put “Finish the Contentment Challenge” under several of these categories, because it affects so many areas of life: Spiritual healing, Integrate Giving, Joyfully manage my home… but I decided to just make it its own goal. It’s not too late for you to join, if you’d like! Just click here to learn more.

As you know, these goals won’t gain traction until we actually put them in our calendars! So finally, here is it broken down for you this month:

January Goals

• Finish Setting up Guest House / AirBnb

• Take photos of kids and Winston

• Read You are the Girl for the Job with the Nancy Ray Book Club

• Complete Contentment Challenge: Month 1

• Have a girls getaway with my 3 best friends

• Book our Marriage Retreat

• Speak at Return to Rest (There might be one more seat if you want to come!)

Well I’d love to read your 2020 goals if you’ve shared them somewhere - leave a link in the comments! And even if you didn’t share them somewhere online, I’d love to hear: what’s the ONE goal you are most excited about this year? (I asked my husband, and he said getting better sleep!)

Happy New Year, friend!