Episode 100 - 100 Episodes! What We Have Learned + Exciting Announcements! (Full Transcript)

This is a full transcript of the Nirvana Sisters podcast Episode 100.

[00:07] Amy: Welcome to Nirvana Sisters podcast, where we take the intimidation out of well being and beauty to help you achieve your highest state, your nirvana. We are Sisters in law and your hosts. I'm Amy Sherman.

[00:18] Katie: And I'm Katie Chandler. So let's get into some real conversation.

[00:24] Amy: You um, hello and welcome back to the show Nirvana Sisters Family. This is a very, very special episode. We are celebrating 100 episodes today. I cannot believe it, Katie. I'm literally in disbelief. I know, but we're here.

[00:43] Katie: Congrats. Woohoo.

[00:46] Amy: Congrats to you too. I just cannot believe how far we've come. This was a nugget of an idea, what, two years ago? Two ish two and a half years ago, and we've done 100 episodes. So first and foremost, I just want to thank you for being my partner in crime, my sister in law, one of my best friends. I just think so much has changed over the last couple of years for us, and I think we've gotten so much closer because of this podcast, because we're connecting on things more often. We're talking all the time. We're business partners. We've become closer friends. It's just like the whole thing has been so amazing. It's just like thinking about it. We're always so rushed. We were just talking before we started this recording. We're so rushed, we don't really get a chance to reflect. So my first thank you is to you.

[01:36] Katie: That's really sweet. Yeah, I feel the same way. I'm in shock and disbelief that we're at 100 episodes, but at the same time, we've done everything souped to nuts for this thing. So it's also like kind of when you think about the weight of all the work that we've done, you can feel that as well. And it feels like a huge accomplishment. And I want to thank you too. I love you so much. And this was your idea. This is like your little you called me one day. I remember when you said this to me. I was sitting on the corner of my bathtub in my old house, looking out the window, thinking, she's insane. How are we going to do a podcast? Look, here we are. And it has it's been great. Here we are.

[02:16] Amy: Yeah, I know. It's just crazy how if you put your mind to something, you can have a nugget of an idea and you put your mind to something and do it and keep doing it and keep doing it over and over again, and it grows and more people know about it. And all of our listeners have been so incredible. So thank you to everyone listening. Thank you for all your support, all your comments, all your feedback. It's just been so encouraging to hear from you and to hear about what you want to hear about when you like something, when you don't like something. And so, yeah, we're just going to spend the next few minutes just kind of talking through the last 100 episodes and some of the highlights. And we also have some exciting announcements we're going to talk about at the end. So, yeah, just thank you to everyone who has supported and listened to us over the last few years. We're just so excited we've reached this really huge milestone and can't wait for more. So, Katie, what's your takeaway from these last 100 episodes, if you have one?

[03:11] Katie: Oh, my gosh. I mean, it's hard to just have one other than I've learned so much. And a massive thank you to all of our unbelievably talented and intelligent and powerful guests that we've had. We've spoken to some of the most amazing entrepreneurs, some of the most amazing doctors. I've learned so much. I think I could touch on a few of probably the most powerful ones that have resonated with me the most. The most recent one would be Dr. Angela Holiday Bell on sleep hygiene. She just like, tapping into she really helped me kind of understand what I need to be doing to kind of reel my sleep in. And that literally has kind of changed my life. The thing as simple as wearing blue lights when you watch TV before you go to bed helped me fall asleep faster and helping me understand why I need more time to wind down because I have a harder time producing melatonin, like does all of that. And then Jessica McGuire. Remember Jessica McGuire from the Vagus Nerve talking about the nervous system? The Vagus Nerve, I think that was the single most powerful episode out of all of our 100 episodes for me personally, the window of tolerance, understanding what it means to have a dysregulated nervous system, recognizing someone's dysregulated nervous system, and then learning how to co regulate. It's helped me. It's helped my husband, it's helped my kids. That episode was really profound for me. And, I mean, I could say that about so many of them. Natasha Brinkman. It's like a master class on skincare, right?

[04:58] Amy: Oh my God, that was amazing.

[05:00] Katie: Obsessed. What about you? What are some of yours?

[05:05] Amy: Honestly, I'm like sitting here scrolling through all of these 100 episodes, and I think for me, there were pieces of information that I've gotten from every single episode that I've applied to my life. I mean, to your point. Like The Vagus Nerve episode and breathing from Erica Brunozer and talking about parenting tips and how to talk to your kids, that one was really helpful for me. Also, shout out to Zoe Feldman. I was just looking. She was our first official guest on Nirvana Sisters in episode six. So we love Zoe, and so many of our kind of like, people that we knew, friends of friends of Friends kind of started out with us in the beginning and then we sort of grew from there. And I think I've just taken bits and pieces, like whether it be from Cat Can Cook and The Hungry Lady salad to, like you said, skincare with Natasha or hormone stuff with Michelle Aspinwall. Also, of course, one of my favorites was talking to Ellie Webb, which was definitely a dream come true for me, and talking to Brittany Driscoll and talking to some of these business leaders, just getting advice on entrepreneurial stuff and how to balance motherhood and working and all of these things. So I don't know, it's so hard to pick a favorite. I think for me, it's just taking bits and pieces of all of these things and using the ones that work for me. And I think from a listener standpoint, too, it seems like people listen to the episodes that they're interested in and then they take pieces from that. And it's like everyone that we have on is an expert in something, but it doesn't mean that what they're saying works for everyone. And so I think that using some of these bits and pieces across all the episodes helps you in whatever way you want. I also thought I'm just kind of scrolling through and looking like episode 50, the psychedelic therapy with Julia Mirror was just so fascinating. Like, it's so out of our ether and something we don't really talk about and think about, but just learning about that. And I also find now that I'm talking to people or a subject comes up and it's related to any one of our episodes, whether it was chiropractics or psychedelics or vagus nerve or chromal wellness, even, I find that I have this information somehow stuck in the back of my head and I just regurgitate it, not even realizing that I knew it. Yeah, because we're just picking up pieces of information as we go. It's just kind of like sinking in and then you do something differently and you're like, oh, yeah, I learned that in this Chroma episode. Or I learned this from Janelle Kim when we talked to her about traditional Chinese medicine. And I think we've made so many great connections with other women, which I really like, too. When we think about someone like Rachel Johnson, who we did the episode on, it was episode 63 when we talked about Green's Water Move Repeat and her whole company, AMI Health. It's just been great to meet these other women who were doing similar things to us, and we're all sort of this family and everyone supports each other, which I think is so nice about the podcasting world. There's so many podcasts, but in a good way, right? Like, everyone encourages each other and everybody wants to help, and it's just like one big podcast family, I feel like. And when we meet all these women that are in wellness or View Your Skincare, everyone's excited for everyone and everyone celebrates one another. And I really like that about this space.

[08:27] Katie: Yeah, it's incredibly supportive. I think you're exactly right. We've had a few amazing male guests also, that we've learned a lot from I think it's funny, when we first started, we didn't know if we were going to necessarily lean more female centric and it's just kind of been a natural gravitation. But it's all part of that support system and I'm really proud of it, actually. I think it's great. And it's also when you were talking about things that you learned and I was also just thinking about a way that this has kind of shaped me as a person. Doing this with you for the last two years is it's just made me more confident. When I meet new people, I almost find them. Like, I'm like and I'm not interviewing them, but I just have such an easier time meeting new people now because it's what we do. We talk to new people and we interview them pretty much weekly. And then a lot of these people are stuck in my head. They live rent free in my head with some of their amazing quotes like Andrea Marcellus, I just hear her say, like, your afternoon snack should be protein and a healthy fat. And then I hear Dr. Janelle Kim saying things like, stop being drunk on your own thoughts. Or Rachel, you just said Rachel and me greens, water, move, repeat. I can't tell you how many times these things just pop in my head. I'm like, oh yeah, that'll help my day get better. Just follow that. Follow that. So it's amazing. We're really fortunate and grateful to have come across the people that we have and had them on the show.

[09:56] Amy: Yeah, and I also it's funny because I feel like we've done episodes that we aired a long time ago and some of those topics are coming up now, like Fascia or Guaca and all of these things we sort of talked about a couple of years ago that are now coming into the world. And it's just I love learning about things that we see are sort of bubbling up and trending and then all of a sudden you hear them all the time as people's regular vernacular. So I think that's interesting. We also can't forget about our product junkie episodes because I think those have grown and we've gotten a lot of really positive feedback about those. And those are definitely one of my favorites because they're just us talking and chitchatting about what products we like, which we do all the time anyway, which was part of the reason we started this podcast. Like, let's just record our phone conversations and talk about, oh, I tried this, I tried this. So just like, doing all that has been super fun and tapped into the passion that we both had for products and just trying new things and talking about those new things. But I agree with you. When I meet with people, too, I definitely feel more confident and have kind of like, more ways to communicate because I don't think sometimes I'm the best communicator and I think this podcast has helped me to slow down, try and work on not saying as much. I also think it's helped with my public speaking. So from my corporate job, just being confident to go up in front of a room of people and talk, it's like one of those things that everyone's always nervous about no matter how many times you've done it. It's like a scary thing. But I think being able to talk every week on the mic and have it being recorded kind of gives you a lot of practice. So it helps just in general with communication and active listening.

[11:38] Katie: Yeah. Also I've had some just like fun favorite moments. Like nothing is funnier to me than when we're doing product junkies and I hold up a product and you're like, yes, I have that one too. I was going to review it this week. Or how fun is I know, we're like same brain. Exactly. And then seeing our guests in the wild. How wild was that, that you ran into Brittany Driscoll in La a little while ago and then seeing Meredith Quill running into her? Well, we didn't run into her, but going to her event in Westport and those little connections are really special. So yeah, it's all just been a lot of fun.

[12:18] Amy: Yeah, I love it. And it's actually really funny too, because then you start seeing people that we've interviewed connect. Who was it? I think Brittany Driscoll and Katie Whelan, who we just had on recently, talked about all the peptide stuff. They both live in Nashville and I saw that they were on some panel together.

[12:34] Katie: Oh, nice.

[12:34] Amy: And I was just like, oh my God, that's so weird that they happen to be on the same panel. We've had them both on the show, like they're in the same space, so it's just like all these crazy worlds colliding. But I think it's just this was definitely born out of a passion project. It still is. And I wanted to also talk a little bit about the blood, sweat and tears that this has been for us because again, we're busy and running and everyone says to me, and I'm sure they say to you too, like, how are you doing at all? And the answer is, I have no idea. But I think when you have a passion and you enjoy something, it doesn't matter and you just kind of figure out a way to do it. Nothing is perfect. Of course. It's like we always say, we could be doing more, we could be doing this, we could be doing that. But at the end of the day, we make **** happen. And I think it's really hard to do being like having another full time job, being a mom, doing this. We do this on the nights, we do this on the weekends, we do it when we can squeeze it in, but it's ours and we can kind of figure it out as we go. And I think for you, Katie, a lot has evolved in your world, too, from where you were to where you are now. So I kind of want to get your thoughts on how you're balancing it and how you're feeling because I think we don't spend enough time reflecting on that part.

[13:38] Katie: Yeah, no, I think that's really true. It's funny, I have been thinking recently about how happy I am with the balance in my life right now, because when we first started, I was a stay at home mom and I was wanting something more, so we did this. But then there was moments where it was so overwhelming because I hadn't worked in a decade. And then I have just gone back to my other job recently. And while there's a lot going on, I just feel like every box is being ticked right now. Like, I have my family time, I have my passion project, my passion job, which is this that's like, fun and so exciting. I have my work, which is also great, and I'm making my own money. So while the balance of it can be a struggle at times, it's very fulfilling and well rounded. And I've had moments where I thought, how are we going to keep doing this? But I think that happens when there's unnecessary pressure applied. And I think we've both been really smart about making sure we're just continuously enjoying it and not putting so much pressure on ourselves. And as long as we keep doing that, then we just keep plugging away and trucking away. And now we're doing everything that we do. It's like we could do it in our sleep.

[15:04] Amy: Exactly. I mean, looking back when we first started editing a podcast, we were like, wait, how do you do this? And how do you do this? And now we literally do everything, soup to nuts. And it's time consuming, but we know how to do it and we've become experts in it, which is so cool. I just love learning and to be able to learn a new craft and to be able to produce a podcast. And for people who don't do it, it's really hard to envision what goes into it. But there's probably like, I don't know, 250 steps from like A to Z right, to get it launched on a weekly basis. And it's a lot. And I think just being able to learn another skill set as you're moving along your life is so important. We're learning every week. Every time we talk to someone, we're learning new information. I think we're both learners and we love to learn, especially when it comes to something that we're personally passionate about. But just learning a new skill is so rewarding. I mean, just like, this is so technical and so different than what I do in my marketing role of big ideas and all this strategy work. And this is so technical editing and producing, but I really love it, like, getting into the nitty gritty. It's actually like I love producing the episodes and launching sometimes more than other things. I don't know why. And I know for you, Katie, you didn't know much about social media before, and you've learned how to use that tool really well. And I just think it's so cool.

[16:29] Katie: Yeah, I think so, too. I'm incredibly proud of us, and also we keep each other accountable and we keep each other in the game. And if there's a time where you're feeling stressed and crazy and you're not in it, then I try to reel you back in and vice versa. And there's also times where we're perfectly guilty of like, oh, I didn't get that done this week. But it's like we don't beat each other up either. It's like we get the critical stuff done and we keep moving forward. And as we've always said, progress over perfection. And I think that has gotten us very far.

[17:06] Amy: Yeah. And I think especially in the beginning, I think the first probably, I don't know, 2030 episodes were the most challenging because I think you and I struggled a lot and had open communication. Remember, we had some not blowouts, but we definitely had some tough conversations of like, well, who's doing this? And are we doing this every week? And DA DA DA. And, like, until we got our flow, it was like a little, like, tense, right? Like, there were definitely some tense times, looking back, but now I just feel like we're in the flow. And I think, too, I was going to go back to what I was saying about you going back to work. I've actually seen a huge difference because for you, I feel like you're more in a flow than you were before because I feel like it's because you're more structured, right. And, you know, you have to be certain places at certain times. Not that you didn't before, but it's just different. So you almost are more organized and more in the flow. Yeah, I see that. I don't know if you feel that.

[18:03] Katie: But I've definitely noticed that there has been a shift, for sure. And I think also just like, having something else, having my other job, it's released some of the pressure of this and allowed me to enjoy this for what it's always been. It's been our passion and it's fun, and we love doing it together. So I think that has a lot.

[18:27] Amy: To do with it. Yeah, I think you're right. You're totally right. I also think it's given us both more perspective. Like, now that you're back at work, you have a perspective of like, oh, now you sort of know. I know what you go through and you know what I go through when we have other responsibilities that are not just family. Right. And it's like, oh, my God, I have this deadline, or I'm working all day. I'm out and I'm like, okay, I'll do this or you'll do that. I think we bounce off each other really well. So anyway, I'm just trying to think about more fun stories. I think there's like so many random things that have happened throughout the last few years. I mean, I think, again, our guests have been amazing. I think people have been so generous with their time. People have given us so much time and so much of their expertise, and it's just been really gratifying. And again, just want to shout out to all the guests that have been on our show and even some guests more than once.

[19:22] Katie: Yeah, just how generous they have been with sharing their time with not their time, but sharing our podcast with their people and kind of just giving us more exposure and being excited about being on the podcast with us too. I mean, we've had some guests that have a million followers, we've had guests that have 500,000 followers and everything below and in between and above. So we've just been very fortunate. So thank you to all of our amazing guests. And we have amazing guests lined up and more to come, so it's all super exciting.

[20:00] Amy: Yeah, lots more to come. So with that being said, a couple really exciting announcements that Katie and I wanted to share with our amazing listeners. And thank you to our listeners for loving this as much as we do. We love doing it and we do it for you. We do it for us because we love it, but we do it for you more, so because we know you love it too. And you love to get in all the minutiae of the details of health, wellness, beauty like we do. So thank you again.

[20:28] Katie: Yeah, that's exactly what I was just thinking. We have always done this to share with you all because we want you to learn and have access and to have the ability to achieve anything and everything you want for your health and wellness journey. Whether that is just making sure you get in eight cups of water a day or the fact that you do Reiki healing and you work with crystals and you go and do face yoga. Whatever your journey may be, we are just really grateful that we can be a part of it and that we can help you along with it. So thank you.

[21:06] Amy: Yes, good point. And one last thank you before we get to our exciting announcements. Wanted to thank my husband Stu, who really is sort of been my partner in crime behind the scenes in this. He was the one who really gave me the motivation to do this because he knew that I'm an entrepreneur and at heart he knew I love all this stuff. And he's like, you got to do something with it because, yes, you have your other job, but you need to put all this effort into something else. Too, for you. And he kind of gave me a lot of motivation to really even start the idea. And he also came up with the word Nirvana because Katie and I had a list of 50 different titles, which are hilarious, which we should post about one day, but he actually came up with the word Nirvana and he really captured what we were trying to get at, like, what is your Nirvana? What's going to make you feel joyful? So shout out to Stew.

[22:04] Katie: Yeah, thank you still. And thank you to my husband, too. He's been incredibly supportive. Shout out to Adam.

[22:09] Amy: Yes, they've both been super supportive. Okay, a couple big updates.

[22:15] Katie: Big announcements.

[22:16] Amy: Big, I know. So, a few announcements as we close out this episode. So, I don't know if you all know, but we have a website, Nirvanasisters.com, which we've launched kind of in a soft way a couple of months ago. Don't know if any of you have seen it yet, but we've been linking out all of our show notes there and we wanted to just call it out because it's really exciting. We've been working on it behind the scenes for a long time and we're continuing to add to it. And so if you go onto the website now, you'll see every single podcast episode that we've had out, you'll see all the show notes, you'll see all the BIOS, you'll see all the product links. It's all there in the blog. And so we wanted to have a place where you all could go and reference just more content around all of our episodes. So that's really exciting. So we wanted to make sure you checked out Nirvanasisters.com when you get a chance. And Katie. What's next? What else do we have to announce?

[23:02] Katie: Also equally as exciting, the other thing you're going to find on our website is we now have Nirvana Sisters Merch yay. We have great swags, I mean, great sweatshirts and t shirts and tumblers and a hat that I'm obsessed with. Amy has a hat on.

[23:20] Amy: I'm showing everyone the hat. Kind of 1 second. I'm going to do this.

[23:25] Katie: Yeah, the hat's. Super cute.

[23:27] Amy: Everyone check out the hat.

[23:29] Katie: Love the hat. And then check out the sweatshirt and our new logo. My tea. Keep glowing. Nirvana Sisters. Tea. So there's a lot in there and we would love you to just go on there and get whatever you want. You can order it straight from the website. It's so fun. Come straight to your house. Yeah.

[23:47] Amy: That is going to be launching the day that this launches. So our shop will be launching Thursday, April 6, in conjunction with this episode. And like Katie said, there's sweatshirts, hats. We've got a coffee tumbler or coffee mug that says Daily Nirvana. We have a water bottle that says Nirvana in a bottle.

[24:07] Katie: We have a hoodie, a few great hoodies.

[24:11] Amy: Yeah, we've got a really awesome hoodie. We've got shirts that say a few different quotes like keep glowing and hustle and doses and different quotes from a lot of our episodes. And we're going to be continuing to add new products over the next few months. So tell us what you like and we'll keep working on it. We also have our new logo. We're really excited to share with you all, so please check out our website, check out our new store with all of our new merch support us. We are so excited. We've been working in the background on the design of all of our merch. It's really elevated and we're so excited for you all to check it out and let us know what you think. And we'll post some of these products on social throughout the week so you can get a little sneak peek of the shop.

[24:51] Katie: Yeah, exciting. All right. And then here's the last news, and it's very exciting. Amy, do you want to share?

[24:59] Amy: Sure. So we are now joined with Podcast Nation, which is a podcast network, and we are so excited to announce this news. So we're really excited to join the team at Podcast Nation. We started chatting with them a few months ago and they're an incredible group of women. There's about, I think, like 20 or 30 podcasts that are part of this network. And what that means for you is the show is growing, so we'll be connected to more people, more amazing podcasters, we'll have more access to guests. We'll probably be on some more podcasts, and we'll be on the Podcast Nation channel, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, et cetera. And that's going to be happening over the next couple of weeks. But as of today, we've joined their network and we are super excited to be joining the Podcast Nation family. So thank you to that team for welcoming us with open arms as we start this journey with them. So more to come there, but wanted to make sure we shared all of our exciting updates. And again, thank you all for the last 100 episodes. Looking forward to hundreds more with my partner in crime, Katie. Anything else, Katie, before we close out?

[26:10] Katie: No, other than thank you. Thank you, thank you. We are so grateful. We are filled with gratitude for our listeners and our supporters and our guests. And this 100th episode is my Nirvana of the Week, I think of the year. So I don't know about you.

[26:27] Amy: Yeah, agreed, agreed. Huge milestone, Nirvana of the Day in the week, along with our other launches. It's all good stuff and more to come. So. Thank you. Nirvana Sisters family.

[26:37] Katie: Bye.

[26:38] Amy: Have a good week. Thanks for listening to Nirvana Sisters. For more information on this episode, check out the show notes. Please subscribe and leave us a review. Also, find us on Instagram at Nirvana Sisters. If you loved what you just listened to or know someone that would, please share it and tag us, tune in next. Week for a fresh new episode of Nirvana Sisters. We'll continue to watch out for all things wellness so you don't have to bye.

[27:04] Katie: You know.

Editor’s Note: Please know that this podcast transcript is automatically generated and may contain minor errors such as typos and word switches. For more information, be sure to listen to the podcast here or view our podcast episode guide.