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Show Notes:

It is the first podcast episode of 2023. I'm so grateful for you. I'm so grateful that you're listening right now, that you keep listening, and that somehow my voice has found a place in your life. One thing’s for sure: you keep me coming back. You keep me coming back to record podcasts again and again. The fact that you're listening keeps me coming back and I just want to say thank you.

I wanna thank you and just let you know how grateful I am to have like-minded friends out there to connect to in this format. Now, today's episode is gonna be kind of different. It's gonna be a little behind the scenes of the podcast itself, where I've been, where I think I'm headed, and what you can expect for this upcoming year. It'll be short and sweet with lots of resources thrown your way, hopefully helpful ones. And I just wanna give you a heads up too, that I'm taking the whole month of January off, so I'll see you back here in February!

For the full episode, hit play above or read through below.

You may have noticed that the podcast, well, I have been a little inconsistent the last few months. I tried to go to every other week and then we tried to get back on the weekly bandwagon and you know, family life with four little kids, little childcare and the holidays just kind of threw me all into a big whirlwind. And so I basically said, you know what? I'm just gonna get the podcast episodes out when I can get them out. And that was that for the last few months. So thank you for your grace with me as it's been a little bit crazy in my own home, but in an effort to let my yes be yes (you can refer back to Episode 171 for that) ,and just acknowledging I have not been able to stick with my dependable Tuesday podcast releases. I am here to own that, and also declare, I just need a minute to breathe and to make a plan for this year and to listen to you so that I can come back in February and create a podcast as life giving both ways, to me and to you, and not a source of stress where I can't meet these deadlines all the time.

So I'm taking January off. I'm very excited about it and I wanna hear from you during that time. So keep listening to find out how you and I can connect over the next month. But let's just jump in to kind of where I'm at.

What is this podcast gonna hold in 2023? And if I'm honest, you know this, it's Work and Play with Nancy Ray, o while I'm talking about the podcast, I'm really just talking about me and my heart because I'm the one here talking to you every week. So, it's the podcast, it's the state of the podcast update and also kind of the state of Nancy update. So I'll just be sharing kind of my heart and where I'm at as well.

But you know, I like a good list. So I've kind of broken this down into 10 things that you can expect from Work & Play with Nancy Ray in 2023.

First, I plan to continue to share about home, faith, work, play, and the books that I am reading and loving. That's kind of how I work through my content and I love to share about something practical in my home and how to encourage you in your faith and how to work well and play well. And, and of course I love sharing about the books that I'm reading, so you can expect a similar cadence, but I want your help with the actual content and that's coming soon.

Okay, number two, I wanna get quiet more and listen, the two questions that have come to my mind as I'm creating episodes every week is: What does God want me to share? What is He teaching me? What is He speaking to me about in my life?

And what do you want me to share? What are you struggling with? What are the things that you need encouragement in or maybe need help in in your life? Those are the two driving questions for me as I create episodes this year.

Number three, this is a fun one. You can expect some new podcast art to come soon. I am getting my website and brand redone. I'm so excited about it and I'm really excited to have a fresh look to the podcast as well. I have no idea when that's gonna happen, so you're just gonna have to be pleasantly surprised whenever that does pop up, but I'm super excited about it.

Sammy Jo is the brilliant one behind all of my new branding and I can't wait to share it to you, and I'll be sure to leave a link to her website if you need someone like that.

Okay, number four, I wanna have more play in my episodes. I want them to be more lighthearted and incorporate more fun topics as well. And not just so serious work. And listen, I can just take myself too seriously. I really, I can get really passionate about things and I am recognizing that I just really need more lighthearted, fun play in my own life. So I want that to be reflected here in the podcast. I wanna do some fun things here, open to ideas on that as well.

Okay, number five, I want to interact with you more. I want to hear more from my listeners and I, I think the best place to do this is in Patreon because my patrons are my people. You are invested in this podcast. And so if you want to be connected with me, I would say be sure to join Patreon because that's where I plan to just interact more and share more. And I'm really excited to do that more in 2023.

All right, number six, I might try Ads this year. I know, I know. I'm just gonna pull back the curtain and just say, I kind of have this thing where like, I just don't wanna do Ads on my podcast. I don't, I don't know why. I just feel like, well, I do know why. It's because I want the flexibility to show up when I can show up. And then like the flexibility I've had recently, I haven't been able to make my deadlines and things like that, b I'm also realizing there are businesses out there, there are people out there who I love what they make. I love their products. It seems like such a win-win and I have to be making money in order to keep this podcast going, and I need to be making a little bit more than I am, so I might try that this year. I might not. I don't know. Again, would love to hear your thoughts on that.

Okay, number seven, I wanna figure out solid times to devote to working on this podcast, big picture and the content and the rhythm, and just really making it the best it can be. I know that's kind of a no-brainer and I do that anyway, but I also just wanna say, I really wanna be intentional about that this year because the last couple years, as we've added baby number four, I just feel like I've just been trying to show up and do the episodes every week. And that alone has just been hard. And now I'm like, okay, I wanna figure out some time to like really pour my heart into this and make a really good game plan. And I'm excited for that. I really am.

All right, number eight, I plan to take off January and July every year minimum, but definitely January and July. I need some space to listen to you, to listen to the Lord, to just kind of catch my breath and maybe create some more episodes like ahead of time so that I'm not scrambling every week. Yeah, I just am really excited to just declare that as like a new podcast rhythm for sure.

And obviously I just have to keep my hands open to what God wants to do in my life and my work and my family at all times. You know, that's number one for me. And so I hold this even loosely because if God is like, Hey, you need to take off more time, or, you know, this happens and I just need to pivot or do whatever, I'm open to that. But I do know that I need to have these little pockets in my year where I just take off and yeah, and, and just work on the podcast or just be with my family and rest and not even do anything. I'm excited for that.

Okay, number nine. I am going to be reading over and praying over the responses to my survey, and I would be so grateful if you sent your honest thoughts in to the survey, which you can find at nancyray.com/survey. And this is kind of what I've alluded to earlier in the podcast where there's a place where you can connect with me whether or not you are a patron. I want to hear from you. If you are a patron, I definitely wanna hear from you. I just have a handful of questions, 5 max I think, and I would just love to hear like what are you struggling with? Where are you right now? What feedback do you have? Good, bad, ugly, anything. I want to hear any little tweak that I can make to serve you better when you are listening to me week to week.

I would love to hear podcast episode ideas, anything, any feedback. Go there. Right now. I'm gonna be taking, like I said, the month of January off, and that's the time that I'm planning to really read over and pray for you as you submit your responses. I plan to read everyone, and if you could do that, it would just mean the world to me.

W&P 2023 Survey

So thank you. All right, that was number nine, and my last one is number 10, which is my Book Club. I have yet to finalize my reading list for 2023, but when I do, you can find it over at nancyray.com/bookclub in the next few weeks. The only update I'm really gonna be making to my book club is that I'm just gonna simplify it a little by deleting the old Facebook group.

Not even sure if you knew I had a Facebook group for my book club or not, but I've moved away from Facebook almost entirely, and I don't have the margin to invest in that, so I'm gonna be archiving that and it's gonna be the most chill book club ever. Kind of continuing my theme. I'm gonna just share the list of books that I'm gonna read that year. I can't commit to having every author on my podcast because my childcare's so limited, but I will have a handful of the authors on as my schedule allows, and I'm just gonna be so joyful knowing that the book club is continuing in a very relaxed way in that we are reading and growing together.

All right, my last little bonus item, I guess my bonus update is that I am looking to hire someone very part-time to help me work on just doing the backend of the podcast. Sammy Jo, who's worked with me for so long, has her own amazing branding business. And so I'm looking for someone just to come alongside and kind of take over what she's been doing for me for years, which is basically publishing the podcast every week and kind of managing the show notes and some of the tedious work of it.

And if you are detail oriented and you love this podcast and you would like to work with me on a very part-time basis and just help keep this podcast and the mission of this podcast going forward, I would love to hear from you. You can go to nancyray.com/apply. I figured I would mention it here first because I want someone who knows the podcast and who believes in it.

So I'm looking for someone (you can be remote) who loves details and loves the podcast. So I can't wait to to see who applies and to hear from you soon. So just a quick roundup of links and resources for you.

As I know I've shared a lot with you, so here are all of the links:

nancyray.com/survey is where you need to go right when this podcast is over, so you can leave me your thoughts and feedback.
nancyray.com/patreon is where you can support this podcast for as little as a dollar a month. And also connect with me more consistently over there this year.
nancyray.com/contentmentchallenge is where you can learn all about the Contentment Challenge, which is starting now, but it's not too late to join.
nancyray.com/bookclub is where you can find my books I'll be reading for this year.
and nancyray.com/apply is where you can apply to work part-time with me!

I'm gonna close with Psalm 19:14, which is my prayer for this podcast.