EP 101: Morning Routines with Angela Duncan | Part 1
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Before we start today's episode, I want to give you a heads up that this is a two-parter. Tune into part one today, then come back next week for part two. Enjoy.
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Hello.
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Welcome back to the Think Happy Podcast. It is raining here in Houston. And honestly, I love it. We went through such a long drought that the rain is actually putting a smile on my face today. Something else that's making me smile today is it's James' first birthday. Yes, today my little boy is a one year old and I just cannot believe how quickly this past year flew by. This kid, let me tell you, he constantly smiles. He loves eating. Some favorites are taco meat, pretty much any fruit. He loves cheese. He gives the world's best cuddles. He loves crawling with his tongue out, and he makes a dog sound when he does it. It's really freaking adorable. And did I mention he's literally the smiliest baby I have ever met in my entire life? Some of our friends call him and it just makes me so happy. I love you, sweet boy. Happy, happy, happy birthday. Okay, so quick announcement for you. If you follow along on Instagram or if you're part of the email list, then you have possibly already seen that I decided to pause the rollout of mom life, okay? I did this for two reasons.
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So first, in the back of my mind, I kept feeling like something about it just wasn't sitting well with me. After a lot of thinking and journaling and even chatting with one of my own coaches, I realized what my hang up was. And that hang up leads me to the second reason why I decided to pause it. And it is that just a monthly membership did not feel right to me. So my goal with Think Happy and my goal with mom life is to help moms make lasting, sustainable, truly impactful adjustments to their daily lives so that they can stop feeling so stressed and start feeling more happy. So lasting, sustainable and impactful adjustments cannot be made inside of just one month. No. It takes time. It takes trial and error. It takes making tweaks and changes here and there. And so because of that, I decided to pause the rollout of mom life. So what now? I'm going back to the drawing board, okay? The idea and the intention behind mom life is not going anywhere. My plan is to convert it into a six-month program where moms will truly be set up for success, okay?
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And not just success for a month, but for the long term, okay? So let me give you a high level overview of what I'm planning for mom life. So it will be built specifically for moms who feel like they are going non-stop and who want to create systems and routines for not only productivity, but also to keep their own cups full, okay? So inside of the six months, moms will receive a combination of one-on-one coaching, which would be between just you and me, and then group coaching, which would be between you, me and the other moms in mom life. And on demand/selfpaste, aka at your own schedule, coaching and support just to help you in your journey of creating systems and routines that you love and that serve you and your family so, so, well. So if you want to be the first to know about mom life updates, send me a DM on Instagram and I can get you added to a list to stay in the know, to stay in the loop. And I'm targeting for this new and improved version of mom life to roll out in January of 2024. So stay tuned, my friends.
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And of course, in the meantime, I will still be here to support you. Follow along on Instagram. Keep tuning into the podcast. You can even book a free mini session with me if you have something specific that you would like support in. You can do that from the link in my Instagram bio. Okay, so on to the show. So today I am joined by Angela Duncan to chat about morning routines and totally crushing it in the first hour of the day. When she originally reached out with this episode idea, I could not help but say yes. I mean, how awesome does it sound to it in the first hour of the day? So, raised in Section 8 housing, relying on welfare and working from a young age, Angela Duncan's journey has been marked by resilience and determination. With 25 years of personal finance study, being a Florida broker real estate or getting a Florida broker real estate license and a Dave Ramsey Coach certification, she certainly stays busy. She's also host of Empower Her Money podcast, a speaker and an author. Angela is committed to closing the poverty gap by empowering others to change their financial future, firmly believing that no matter where one starts in life, they have the power to shape their own destiny.
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As you will hear in our conversation, Angela gives credit to her morning routine for helping her accomplish everything that she has up to this point. And if you have been part of the Think Happy community for more than five seconds, then you also know how strongly I feel about my own mornings and mornings in general. So with that being said, let's get to the good stuff. Here is part one of my conversation with Angela. Angela, welcome to the Think Happy podcast. I'm so happy to have you here today. How are you doing? How's your day going?
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Well, today has been an amazing day. Got up early, got my plan done, and I'm ready to hit the day running.
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Oh, heck, yes. You just teed us up for this conversation literally perfectly. So, spoiler alert for the listeners, Angela and I are here to talk to you about morning routines and totally crushing it in the first hour of your day. Before we dive into that topic, Angela, just introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about you, your family, your business.
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Yeah. So I like to start with I am a survivor of childhood trauma and abuse. I learned a lot of things of what not to do very early on in life. As I turned 18, decided to get out of that situation and start my own path and just spent a lot of time learning, absorbing, meeting people. I got married very young and I had my daughter pretty young. Now that she's 20, I just continue to grow and to learn and give back and just hope to be the best role model possible for her and for other people that I interact with in my life.
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That's beautiful. That's beautiful. And so tell us about your business and what you do for work.
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Yeah. So my current company, I'm a serial entrepreneur. I've been a financial advisor. I owned the top 10 RE/MAX in the country. I had an insurance company that was also top-rank, and now I've wanted to do something fun. So I launched Empower Her Money this year. And really my goal is to utilize every platform possible to give back and to teach females, specifically female entrepreneurs, how to master their money, how to change their money mindset, how to set goals, how to be intentional with their time and just create the financial freedom and success that each one of them deserve and wants.
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Yeah, that is amazing. And I love that you brought up how being intentional is such a key part of that.
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So thank you for introducing yourself. So when you first reached out to me about the idea of a podcast episode surrounding, and I'm going to literally use your exact words because I love them so much, of an episode surrounding crushing it in the first hour of the day, it was pretty freaking obvious to me that we needed to get this conversation scheduled. Personally, my mornings play a key role in not only my overall productivity, but also my physical and mental health and just my just happiness all around. Yeah. So let's start this conversation with just a little bit of a backstory. So I know that you currently have a morning routine that's very sacred to you, but I'm sure it wasn't always that way. Let's start, if you don't mind, by taking us back to the point in time, maybe when you realized you needed to create a morning routine or when you realized you needed to create the current routine you have now, what was happening in your life, what led you to this morning routine?
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Yeah. I feel like I haven't always been a happy, positive person, and I was feeling like my life was chaotic. When you're running your own companies, you feel like you're spread over a million different channels and you have absolutely no control of what's going on. And so feeling that chaos is what I'm passing on to employees. The version of me that they're seeing is someone who feels like they're not in control, that they're having a chaotic life and that positive mental attitude is not the role model that I was being. It wasn't being who I was truly myself. And so at some point, and this was probably just a few years ago where I finally said, I've got to change something. I've got to be able to control that first hour of my day because if I don't, then the rest of the day just feels like it's completely out of control. So if I start that day with feeling like I'm in control, and I think most people can do this no matter what stage you are in your life. You can have 12 kids at home and it might seem impossible, but it really truly is.
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If you can block that first part of your day and control what comes into your mind and how you're feeling and what you want to accomplish and being intentional for the day, even if you don't get everything done that you sought after, at least you're leading the day with a good positive mindset so that whatever happens, you just roll with it.
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Yeah. Something that what you just said made me think of is this notion that I talk about a lot, and that is serving yourself first so that you can then serve others better. And when we carve out this time for ourselves at the beginning of the day, that is literally the epitome of serving yourself first, so that then throughout the rest of the day, you can be showing up as the best version of yourself, or at least you're doing what you can to set yourself up to be showing up as that best version of yourself. Like you said, for your coworkers, for your family, for your friends, for yourself. Something else that you had said, and now I'm forgetting what it was, there were two things I wanted to say, It'll come back to me. It'll come back to me. So this happened. The routine that you're in now and listeners, I promise we're going to get to what her routine is. We're actually going to talk about both of our morning routines because I know you guys love hearing stuff like that. But so would you say... So this was a couple of years ago when you hit this point.
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What was going on in your head? How did you come to realize mornings are the key here?
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Yeah, for me, it really started to wear on my health, feeling that chaos and the stress of everyday running companies, just trying to show up and be there and help everybody that's asking me for help, it was really weighing on my health. I was not able to sleep properly. I was constantly feeling tired. I just felt like there was not enough hours in the day. Some days I just didn't even want to get up because I knew that I had so much on my plate that I couldn't take care of everything that I wanted to. And so that feeling of heaviness, of going to sleep, knowing that I didn't get everything done, I'm so stressed out, I can't sleep tonight. And then repeating that same routine every day and then just looking in the mirror and thinking like, Is this who I want to be? Is this how I'm showing up for people? Why would I want to work for me if this is the version I'm putting forward? I've got to change something. There has to be a way for me to figure out how to not feel so stressed and tired all the time.
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And that's when I started looking into how other people start their day and asking mentors that I felt like had just happy, positive attitudes like, what are you doing that I'm not doing? And seek first to understand and figuring out how, like you said, how do I serve myself first so that I can serve others and learning from all of those people and putting it into a routine that makes sense for me.
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Yeah, yeah. And something that I think is unique about mornings is mornings are, in my opinion, the only time of day where there is not an opportunity or there are fewer opportunities for other people, other situations, for other things to derail us. So when you're up and when you're up before you have to go to work, your boss, your co-workers, your clients, they haven't gotten the opportunity yet to derail you. If you're up before your kids, your kids have not gotten the chance to derail your plans for the day, right? So the mornings are so unique and that we have the most control over how we get to spend that time in the morning. As I'm sitting here, I'm drinking the most delicious cup of Kirbeans coffee. Kirbeans is a wife and husband duo who turned their passion for coffee into a business. They are so sweet and it makes me so happy seeing their business thrive. Now, let me tell you why Kirbeans is thriving. To put it simply, it's because their coffee is amazing. Think Happy has had the honor of getting to pick a Think Happy Signature roast. These dark roasted Mexico beans smell like a good day waiting to happen.
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When brewed, they create the smoothest cup of coffee you have ever tasted, and it is even still good after being preheated. If you're like and frequently get pulled away from your coffee, you know that's important. And I have a special treat for you. Think Happy listeners receive 15 % off their order of Kirbeans. Head to Kirbeans. Coffee. Kirbeans is spelled K-I-R-B-E-A-N-S. And use code Think Happy at checkout for your 15 % discount. Again, that's Kirbeans coffee code Think Happy for 15% off. And so similarly for me, my physical health has been part of the journey of Think Happy also. And it was actually part of what led me to making the decision to leave my nine to five to pursue Think Happy full-time. And it has been the foundation. The things that I've learned along the way have become the foundation for a lot of the things I teach other women now. And so for me, I was so stressed. My plate was so full of things that I thought were serving me but weren't that I was just constantly sick. I was getting these reoccurring upper respiratory infections. I wasn't getting good sleep.
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I was getting up early to work, but then I was staying up late to work. So I was not getting up early necessarily to serve myself. I was just burning the candle at both ends of the stick, and it showed. And then on top of the physical illness, the upper respiratory infections that were chronic, that was like the peak of my anxiety. And so I was physically not feeling well. I was mentally not feeling well. And something just had to give. It was like my body was screaming at me like, Something's got to give, Kaitlin. Stop doing this. It's not sustainable. Cool. And I think it's so interesting just how our body will do that. I truly believe that our bodies tell us everything that we need to know. We just have to get used to tuning in and listening. So let's fast forward to today. So you filled us in on a little bit of the backstory. Today you are a serial entrepreneur. You have multiple businesses. You just launched Empower Her Money. You are a best-selling author. Your daughter, your plate is clearly full. So now that you are here, can you tell us why mornings are still so important to you and how your morning routine has helped you get where you are today?
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Yeah. So as we go through life transitions, my daughter is out of the house now, so I am an empty nester, which feels like I have more time. But I've learned to, again, be intentional with that extra time and also being able to set aside time to still go visit with my daughter. She's in college. It gives me more time to do some passion projects like charity work. And I still time block. So when it comes to my business, I know what my drivers are, what is going to create profit. How am I going to make a difference in people's lives? And so I'm still time blocking for that. But I also have to time block for me too. I still have some health issues that are not stress related, so I have to make sure I'm time blocking to take care of that. And as I've transitioned into this empty nester, it feels different. But I know that I have the same amount of minutes that I did when my daughter lived at my house. So now how do I reallocate those so that I'm still being intentional with my time, that I'm still meeting my goals, but I'm also still serving me and my family and my friends.
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So that transition has been interesting this past couple of years, and I've gotten used to it. My routine changed. Your routine is going to change as you transition different areas of your life. But it's always being intentional and paying attention to it so that I can stay in control of what's going on.
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Yeah. I love that you brought up the fact that routines change. It's something that I love. I don't think it's talked about enough how for routines to be sustainable, I think that an aspect of fluidity should be built into them because as humans, we are fluid. So why would we try... Why would this fluid being try to be in an unf fluid, super strict and structured routine? To me, that just does not make sense. So I guess how did your routine change from when your daughter was still at home to now that she's not at home?
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Yeah. I started removing things from me because oftentimes as women, we put pressures on ourselves. Like, I'm a woman, I should cook. I'm a woman, I should clean. I'm a woman, I should do this or I should not do that. I started to take a look at those tasks now that I'm an empty nester. What can I hire out and be okay hiring out and not being so difficult on myself for not taking care of those things as the woman still in the house. So I absolutely don't like to cook, but I love to eat and I want to be healthy. So I have a meal service that gets delivered. It's cheaper for me to do that than to spend the time to go to the grocery store to cook something and to not feel happy cooking because I don't enjoy it.
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Same thing with cleaning my house. I have found someone who does it so much better. And when I come back after she's cleaned my house, I just I love it. I love coming home. My house is clean. I feel so accomplished even though I didn't do it, but I hired someone to do it. So it's allocating those tasks and being okay that I'm not in control of everything. I'm not going to do everything myself. And that's the best version of me to show up for my company, for my clients, because if I was doing things that I didn't enjoy, then it goes back to how are you leading a positive, happy life if you're doing things that don't make you happy? So choosing to say yes and choosing to say no so that I'm still controlling as much as possible in my environment so that my attitude and my mental attitude is positive and happy because that's the person I know I am.
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Yeah. So talking about allocating those tasks, it does make me think of something that you said a couple of minutes ago, which is you still have the same number of hours, the number of minutes in the day as you did when your daughter was at home versus when she's not at home. I think that's such an interesting concept because to me, it all just boils down to optimizing your time and making sure that you're being a good steward of your time. Time is such a valuable resource that we all have. And you get to be in the driver's seat of your life. You get to be that person who decides where your time is going. Sure, some things might feel more necessary than others, but at the end of the day, you're the driver. Don't sit in the passenger seat of your own life. You might still get to the same destination, but you're not in control of that route. And if you want to be in control of that route, you got to be behind the wheel.
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Yeah. And the time factor, too, because if you think about it, we all have exactly the same amount of time. It doesn't matter if you're rich, poor, doesn't matter your background. It doesn't matter if you went to school, if you're man, woman, whatever your ethnicity is, it's the one playing field that we all have exactly the same of. So you just have to learn how to master it and tell your time what to do and not just let things happen to you all the time. Now, of course, we can't control everything in our life, but when you control your time as much as possible and you control your attitude, then when things do get thrown at you or things don't work out the way that you want them to, you're better able and equipped to deal with it. But knowing that you have the same amount of time as anybody else should help you realize that I can be in control of this. Yep.
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Yep. Time does not discriminate at all from across the world. That is one thing we all have in common.
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Yes.
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So at this point in the conversation, I'm sure the listeners are like, Kaitlin, you said that we get to hear what Angela's morning routine is. When do we get to do that? So I thought it would be fun for each of us to share our morning routines and then maybe do a little comparison of what yours looks like now that you're an empty nester versus mine, what it looks like with having two kiddos under three years old. How does that sound?
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Sounds perfect. Okay, let's hear yours first.
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Okay, so I focus and I wake up early. I'm up when the sun comes up. So typically for me, I'm in Florida about this time of year. It's up at 6:30. So I wake up at 6:30 and I'm grateful enough to not have an alarm, but because I'm intentional with what time I go to bed and what time I wake up, my body is already routine to that. So I tend to wake up at the same time Monday through Friday during the week. The first thing I do is I get up and I grab a glass of water and I grab my journal. And I've got two dogs at home. So my two dogs, my journal, my water, we all go outside of my backyard, assuming it's not raining because I am in Florida. And I sit down on my patio and my dogs do their thing. And I am intentional with what I'm doing with my journal. So being outside, being in the sun, having that sunlight, that fresh air to start my day is very intentional for me. And in this journal, I am doing several things. First, I am writing my top 10 goals.
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Now, sometimes I have more, sometimes I have less. But what you focus on truly does expand. And you can think about this, like when you're looking for a new car, all of a sudden you see that car everywhere. What you tell your mind to look for and be intentional with, it's going to constantly be looking like, Where can I find this? This is what I need. Because you're telling your brain, this is what I need. So it's looking for it in your external environment. So I write down my 10 goals and they're big goals, they're short goals. It doesn't matter. I'm focused on these are my 10 things that I want to be super focused on. And then I write a statement as if all 10 goals have already been achieved. An example is I also have a podcast and so I want to be number one top financial adviser in the female category for podcasting. So I write that down. But then I write, I am grateful to have met, interviewed and promoted other female entrepreneurs and becoming the number one podcast host. So you write a statement. For me, I love doing the gratitude statement because I am grateful for every day that I'm here, all of the impact that I can create for other people I am so grateful for.
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So write the goal, write it in a gratitude statement as if it already occurred. And then I take the time just to sit and meditate and pray and visualize. What does that feel like? What do these goals feel like when I've accomplished them? Because I truly think that if you tie a feeling to a goal, you're going to accomplish it. If you just set a goal like I want to make six figures, but you don't know why or you don't feel, you don't know what the impact that's going to have on your life and other people's, it's just not something that your body is going to accomplish because it doesn't have a reason why. So that feeling and envisioning it, and it's already happened, and what does the environment look like? How do I feel? Who is in my life right now? All of those three steps combined really helped me start my day in just a positive manner. I don't pick up my phone. I don't look at social media, I don't check emails. I am intentional with my journaling, my meditating, my praying and just being outside in the natural, God given, beautiful environment that we live in.
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And that's how I start my day. And I think that no matter where you are in your stages of life, you can always set aside 20 minutes, and that's about the time it takes for me to do that part of my routine, and that doesn't change. So whether I'm on vacation, I'm home, I have a conference, I'm still going to wake up in time for me to finish that first. And then I do work out three or four times a week. I do it in the morning because if I don't, then it doesn't seem to make it in my schedule. So if I can journal, bring the dogs in, head right to the gym, work out, and then come home. And I understand if you have children at home, maybe the gym is not the first thing you can do. But that first 20 minutes, I think anybody can implement that into their schedules.
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Yeah. Something that stood out to me that you just said is talking about having a feeling behind the goal. I also feel so strongly about that. I call it having a why behind your what. And I mean, I just could not agree more. And I even think that when... So if someone's listening to this podcast right now and wanting to start their own morning routine, I think that you should have a why behind wanting to start that morning routine because for the first couple of weeks, you're going to be gung ho, feeling all excited about getting up early and carving out this time for yourself. But when that shininess and excitement wears off after the first couple of weeks, which it will, you need to have those stronger feelings, that stronger driver pushing you to keep up with that morning routine, to keep getting up when your alarm goes off and become intentional because it's just all about being intentional with the time that we have.
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Okay.
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I love that morning routine. It's not that different from certain aspects of mine also. Thank you for joining me for this week's episode of The Think Happy Podcast. I would so appreciate it if you could leave a rating and review. And if you just can't get enough, find me on Instagram @thinkhapy_co, that's co, and online at thinkhapyco.Com. I'll be back in your ears next week with another episode of The Think Happy Podcast.