Showing Up & Showing Up

What happens when you say yes without having any idea what you said yes to and walk into a house full of strangers with nothing but a weekend bag and an open heart? We did exactly that at a women’s goddess gathering and left with something rare: real friendship, a calmer nervous system, and a new standard for joy. This isn’t a recap of spa vibes; it’s the story of how cacao, Human Design, Reiki, tarot, and a private-chef dinner teamed up to make vulnerability feel safe—and fun.

We start with the wobble: two lifelong “room kids” realizing they’re sharing a bedroom with someone new. Instead of bailing, we lean in. A cacao ceremony dissolves the small talk and invites real shares—the kind you usually save for a late-night phone call. From there, Human Design becomes our map. Side by side, we see how our energy works, why we click where we do, and how to give each other space where we don’t. It’s not a label; it’s a workflow for life and business that reduces friction and amplifies what’s already strong.

Then comes the bodywork that changes everything. Reiki lands like a somatic exhale, releasing what words can’t touch. Tarot and a blazing phoenix goddess card give language to the same truth: it’s shedding season. We talk about burning down old roles—pleaser, over-doer, constant performer—and rebuilding with more play and less proving. And yes, we geek out on the food. A calm, intentional private chef turns meals into care, reminding us that real ingredients and presence taste like love. Grapes in salad, chimichurri on everything, and a flourless chocolate cake that lives rent-free in our minds.

By the end, we’ve set up a “domino plan” for the month: a string of joyful commitments designed to keep the momentum going. The takeaway is simple and doable. Try the thing you wrote off. Revisit practices with a kinder lens. If it feeds you, keep it. If it doesn’t, release it without drama. This is an episode about sisterhood, spiritual awakening, practical self-care, and building community beyond business.

If you felt the tug while reading this, hit play. Then subscribe, share with a friend who needs a courage nudge, and leave a review with one thing you’ll say yes to next. Your next domino is waiting.

Music Track: Building Dreams by Aylex Source: https://freetouse.com/music Copyright Free Background Music

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Episode 125. I almost thought we forgot how to do this.

Barb 0:22

I was like, when was the last time I picked up a microphone? It has been a minute, but like not really. Has it? thrown in some interviews. Yes. And I that always makes it feel weird because we sit with someone else and not just me and you. There's something about me and you I get to look at you while I talk that makes it feel 100% different than talking to someone else.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

You know, when we're next to each other and then there's a third person in the room, it just comes vastly different.

Lyssa 0:48

And yet completely the same. Because here we are every week, baby.

Barb 0:53

What's in your cup? Ooh, a margarita. Yeah, yeah. A fun margarita. I feel like we haven't had a margarita in a minute, too. Yeah, yeah.

Lyssa 1:03

Because the last, yeah, the last time that we recorded. And I feel like it's been a while. So yeah. Smooth.

Barb 1:12

Delicious. Always, it's always delicious. This one looks different.

Lyssa 1:17

You know what's funny is when I I said the same thing. I looked at it and I was like, okay, it's a little bit different. And then it tastes like a delicious margarita.

Saying Yes Without A Plan

Barb 1:24

And I'm like the mixologist in me was like, well, you don't know what it is, so just keep drinking. Exactly. I love it. Um so we have something really fun to process slash talk about. And we haven't had time to process this weekend because in true by Lisa fashion, we are go, go, go, go, go. Even in vacation mode, it's still go, go, go, go, go. So we experienced something new. We did something that we have never done before. And again, I am left in awe of our bravery to do new things. And kind of, I don't want to call it maybe it's naive. Okay. Or I don't know. Insert a different word. How we say yes to things, and we actually have no idea what we're saying yes to. So, like on the drive to our weekend retreat, it was about 40-ish minutes away. And for 39-ish minutes. We're like, what were we doing? Genuinely had no idea what we were gonna walk into. And it was amazing. It was. It was everything that I didn't know, I needed, wanted, and can't live without now.

Lyssa 2:49

I think now that I have experienced this, it's going to be almost impossible to say I'm never gonna do that again. Yes. Because why would I deprive myself of something that was so fun, so nourishing for my soul? And did I mention fun? That's it, right? And like that's what I want to move into. That's what we're we're doing with our lives, is we are integrating more fun because there is absolutely no reason why your life can't be fun. You know, it I really do see that as a choice. And I'm gonna choose joy and I'm gonna choose fun and I'm gonna choose laughter as many times as I possibly can. And I didn't know that's what I was choosing when I signed up for this, not at all, um, because that's classic Bar Lisa. And it was everything that we needed it to be, you know. I just listened to our episode that dropped today, um, and we talked about cannonballing, right? Because that's that's who we are. We just cannonball into things, we figure it out, and we decide whether or not we're gonna stay in the water afterwards. And I love that we take that approach to things because we will talk ourselves out of doing certain things if we know too much. And so I think that the universe has conveniently just crafted these things and they put them in our path so that way we don't have to think that hard. We just flow and we move with the flow and we get everything that we didn't know we even needed. It's solely because we're just staying open to receiving. And I am now able to plant all of this evidence to show my brain and my body that like I'm safe in these types of environments to allow myself to remain open and receive because only good is ever coming from them. And I'm just having a blast being here, you know, grateful to be here.

Barb 4:42

So we attended a I I I'm hesitant to use the word retreat, right? Because even the hostess don't use that word. Because it is a I can it's a masculine word, right? Retreat, or you know, you're going to learn something to bring back because you and it wasn't that, it was a women's retreat, but also uh it was called a goddess gathering. Yes. So these wonderful group of women came together for a weekend of fun, of laughter, of connection, of sharing stories and being vulnerable and doing all of those things, right? So we didn't know we were doing those. We were full on in on doing it. Packed Judy up, drove 40-ish minutes, almost got stuck in the driveway because it's Rochester in February. So, you know, snow is snowing and ice icing and it's crazy up here. If you know, you know. And if you don't, stay away. You know, you don't want to know, so don't worry, you're lucky. And we were open to everything that we received last weekend, so much so that we came home on Sunday with a meeting already scheduled for the next one. The next one. And that's how you know it was like so much fun because I bet let's do this again.

Lyssa 6:09

There's no doubt we're gonna build on this momentum. And like, I'm already scheduled. I saw it on her on her page. I looked this morning and she already has the dates and everything lined up. She's taking people, so if you want to do it, July.

Barb 6:19

In the show notes, right? We'll put it in the show notes. But it was a new experience in the sense of we shared during the weekend that we've never lived with strangers. We never did the dorm life at school when we went to college. We never did, you know, okay, well, like let's get an apartment together because I need an apartment and you need an apartment, and we're kind of strangers, but like, let's do this thing. We've always either been with each other or with like a significant other, a chosen partner to live with that we're gonna like do the thing. Yep. And holy shit. Being in a right, we've experienced this at our last retreat. Being in a house full of people is different, it's just different energies. And that's a lot for us because we've not experienced that with like quote unquote strangers, right? One woman came from Dallas, Texas, another woman came from New Jersey. So these women are new to our ecosystem, we're new to their ecosystem. And through the weekend, we made genuine connections with each person. We shared pieces of our story, pieces of ourselves, everyone. So that the common thread line is oh, you feel that way too. Oh, you experience something similar to what I experienced. Oh my goodness, you have a kid and you write the birth and all of this stuff.

Connection, Vulnerability, And Feeling Seen

Lyssa 7:48

And it I feel less alone. Yeah. There's a beauty in that, right? Like we've we've talked about that. That's the whole point of our podcast, right? Is to help build that shared experience to show you that you're not alone in this world trying to make your dreams come true. And I've always thought about that. I feel like in a grander stage, right? In a podcast, on this, on this large platform, I'm gonna share my story so that way someone can hear it and and they can relate. It is very different when that person who is relating to you is sitting right next to you on the couch. You know, when you are there in that energy and you can genuinely share yourself in a safe space, that's not something that we're used to, right? Like you said, we've never done things with strangers, we've never had roommates in that manner. We've we did everything with just family, and even, you know, through our childhood, we are quote unquote room kids, you know. We s we hung out in the room, which is why at our very first retreat, what did we do when we were in this house full of adults, you know, like grown-ups, but like we stayed in our room the whole time. We would come home baby, and then we're gonna go upstairs. I'm gonna go to my room because that's what I that's what I did, that's what I know. Um, and this time we we got to expand a little bit more on that and and not stay in our room. Um the whole time. The whole time, you know. But I think that was one of the very, the very first things, right? We walked into that room and we realized that we had a shared room. We didn't think we were gonna have a shared room.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

So fast.

Redefining “Retreat” As Goddess Gathering

Lyssa 9:24

Right. And it was that instant, like, oh my God, I don't have my own room. I'm not gonna be able to come here with my best friend, shut the door, and do whatever it is that we want to do just us inside this room because there's actually another person in here with us. And there was that immediate reaction of like, fuck, can we go home? Can we can we pack everything up and just bounce? Sorry, I'm not doing this, you know? And so it was like that first immediate test. Sure was. Now I have I can't leave. I gotta stay here, I gotta build these connections. And it was another layer that we had to we had to shed. And in a way, it sounds like it was almost forceful, but I think I need that. I need it to be stay in. I'll just I'll just r retreat. I will retreat every single time. And so this it wasn't a retreat in any way, shape, or form because that that didn't happen. I didn't feel the need to retreat inside of my body once. I felt so open to whatever it was that we were gonna talk about, to whatever it was we were going to do, to experience. I was just here to vibe. And that switched something in me, right? It it showed that I'm capable of change, that I can do these things, even though I didn't grow up this way, even though I never experienced it until I was 36 years old. I can now go and spend the next 36 years of my life and experiencing these things. I don't have to stop. I don't have to say, well, I'm too old to do something like this. I should have been doing this in my 20s or whatever. No, I did it for the first time at 36, and I want to keep doing it. I want to keep having slumber parties with my girlfriends for the rest of my life because there was something so fulfilling in all of that to share this space with strangers, people that I didn't know. There was this interest, you know what I mean? Like, I know everything about you, and I still learn new things all the time, and I'm still very much interested in you. But you know, I understand that like I have to expand that. I have to give other people a chance to be friends in order for us to to grow this community and I think to feel the way that we want to feel. We say all the time, like we're the same person, so like we're always seeking this outside, you know, connection because for us it's Siamese, you know, we are connected to each other permanently, and so I am still seeking that outside connection, and that's what we got this weekend that is underrated and it's not talked about enough. And I think it's one of those things where we think that we're grown-ups and that we're adults and that we can't play anymore, and that we can't have fun anymore, and that we can't have slumber parties with our friends because we have partners and we have kids, and we have to go and and do those roles. Fuck that. I'm throwing that notion out the window. I'm leaving my partner and my kids at home, and I'm going to a fucking girls' goddess gathering, and I'm gonna do that as many times as I want to because the cup overfilleth in that space. And it makes me feel so whole. And it showed us, you know, one of the things I had mentioned when we were we were kind of ending things, and everybody was giving their last little, you know, thank yous and and like what they took from it. And what I took from it is that we are building community. We have done such an amazing job of building a community around our business because that's what we wanted, that's what we set out to do, and we fucking did that shit. And we did it good. And I love the community that we've built around our business, and that some of that is trickling into our personal lives, but it has left us personally feeling like, okay, well, like, but where's my friend at? Like, where's the girl that I'm not gonna just talk business with, but I'm just gonna talk to her about my previous relationships and and the things that happened to me and how those are coming into my new life and how I can get better just from a personal level, not just from a business level. And I think that's what this was. This filled us up personally and filled up Elisa and Bar Lisa in a way that I don't think we really have before. We've sought it out, we've sought out these connections with other women, and it's always been very close, but never something that was like, oh no, this girl's got my back, this girl cares about me. This girl can share in my experience, and she's gonna hug me as I cry because she knows exactly what I've gone through because she's gone through the same thing. That is very, very powerful, and that is something not to be taken for granted, and it is something that is so easy to ignore in the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives, and you do need to press pause on that and escape for a couple of days to really wrap your mind around all of that and get right on the inside to feel good and then bring it back home to your partner and your kids and be your best self. But I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to like do all the time, right? We live in that masculine be and this was on and performing and all the time, and this was something that we definitely were able to refill and recharge, I think, our feminine energy in that space. And I I didn't know how to do that before. I didn't know that was like a thing.

Cacao Ceremony And Showing Up Fully

Barb 15:07

I didn't know that this was the thing that was going to fill me up and all of the things and in classic Bar Lisa style, right? We did work, right? We always we cannot beautiful tablescape and selfie station, so that our community dinner, our goddess dinner was elevated and you know, uh just an addition to like this is my magic and this is what I can bring. Like, here you go, enjoy. I want us to enjoy, and that we did. Um, but the focus was on us, the focus wasn't on the business. How do we scale? How do we grow? What I do want to talk about and love that we did was we for years now have been very interested in learning about ourselves, archetype, yes, if you will. And there are tons of personality quizzes and you know, all of these frameworks and things like that. And I'm pretty sure we have like touched the big ones. Yes, all of the big ones now. We have touched in some way. We kind of have an archetype for each framework, and it's changed the game. We had Barbara Ellen on in the very beginning of this podcast talking about personality types and how to work with that. And it's something that we've integrated very early on. Yeah. This experience we had this weekend, we got to touch the human design archetypes and like understand in a way that we didn't know before because we hadn't had a connection to that framework. Um, but Melissa, one of the co-hosts, yeah, she is very versed and skilled with the human design, and that was part of the weekend was you know, you sent your birthday, all the things, and she built up a mini kit, a portfolio if you're a little bit. Um, true, like, you know, serial killer style. She dissected us and I loved it. And, you know, we received those kits beforehand, so we got to read them separately. We obviously read each other, right? Because that's a thing. I need to know how do you work, right? We have come out very much the same, and there are things that are different about us that each personality type has pointed out. So this was just another one. And we decided that we were gonna go together. Yeah, classic Bar Lisa. Immediately was like, um, can we have a joint session? So this, you know, 20-minute session was essentially to cover your archetype, your how do you process in all of this? But we decided to go together and strategically learn so that we could work better together. So that was a business decision. Yeah. And while it was a business decision, because we are so truly fucking on to integrated, yeah, it was a life decision, right? Because the more I know about how you operate on the inside in a in a way that you're not even thinking about, the better I can engage with you and vice versa. So all of that to say, I think we're fucking cool. I think we're the coolest because we continue to find pockets of people, of time, of experiences to actually grow, right? I remember a point in time where we didn't go anywhere, we didn't talk to anybody, we didn't do anything, we had to stay home, I had to be a mom, I had to be a wife, I had to clean my home, I had to do all of these checkmarked to do items. And it was never about me. Yeah, it was never about us, it was never about pause, still time thinking, and we're doing it, which means we are integrated, which means we are thinking about ourselves. Before we left, I wanted to strangle my family. I wanted to strangle them because I right, it's just so much is happening. We have vacations coming up, we have business stuff, we have kids. There's so much on the plate, and I don't want to scrape the plate off. Yeah, but I also don't want to eat it begrudgingly. I want it to flow, and this is how it flows by taking these moments, by taking these times, by doing things that you may not want to do, right? That first night we had a cacao ceremony, and right, these cups were passed around, and that's the start, right? That was like the opening fire of the Olympics. It really was. Shit has started the cacao around.

Lyssa 19:58

And tell the person behind you how grateful you are that they are here.

Barb 20:02

In true me style, I was at the end. I was in the corner, in the back of the room, at the very end. I didn't have to look at anybody and be like, thanks for being here. Because I had to just look inward and be like, thanks for being. Good job. Good job, you. And you said something to me in the car. In in the sense it wasn't to me. It was actually to you, you know? And I took it and I had to tell that to myself where you know you had said, like, am I gonna come all this way and like not do the thing? I'm not gonna participate. I'm not gonna that seems crazy. Yeah. I drove the 40-ish minute, I packed the car, I washed the things. I did all of that. And how can I show up and then not show up? That seems crazy to me. So I said that in my head as I'm sipping my heart-opening cacao, which was delicious, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

She had frozen of us from like. I remember the first time we tried cacao, and it was like, oh my God, we gotta drink this all the time. I was like, this is not okay. But it has actually gotten better every time we've had it.

Barb 21:09

And this one was another, you know, another thing to be proud of. Yeah. And I sat there and I shared. Yeah. And you told me later. So proud.

Lyssa 21:21

That was hilarious. So you did. So, right, this whole time, right? We're going in a circle and true Barlisa fashion. We are at the ends, right? So we're gonna be the second last to go, me, second, last, you last to go. So we're going around and all the women are sharing their things, and you know, we're patting the tears and feeling it on the inside, and we're just like, oh my God, these women are all really sharing. This is amazing, right? They showed up. And so, you know, it got to me and I I did my thing, I let it out, and I showed up the way that I told myself, you gotta show up. And then you went and you showed up. And in my head, right, I couldn't say out loud because I totally. Would have broken the ceremony. But in my head, I was like, oh my God, those are real feelings. Those are real feelings and real thoughts that she just put out there into this circle. Like she said them out loud. She didn't just say them to me. She said them to other people. And she's said them to me before, which is how I know that they're her real true inner thoughts and her real true inner feelings. And like she expressed them to other people. Like I, again, because we know each other, I know when you are giving a surface level answer and when you are giving a real heartfelt answer. And when you opened up, like you really didn't, I was so proud of you in that moment because I I'll be honest, I didn't expect it. I thought you were gonna give, you know, you were gonna give enough where everyone else was gonna be like, oh my god, I love it. Just enough. You know, just enough where people believe you, but inside I'm like, this bitch, that's not what she really feels. But I didn't. I was I was so proud in that moment. I was like, oh my God, she she gave real feelings.

Human Design Insights As A Duo

Barb 22:54

And that's how I know that we have to do this again, right? There's we actually talked about this on the drive up because on Thursday we had an inner circle meeting talking about like all these things, right? Your intuition, your gut, all these things. There is an inner knowing that I didn't know before, and I am learning to trust. I think I do trust. I think I've passed the learning. I I was doing that already. Yes. There's an inner knowing. There is a fuck yes, we're gonna do this, or mm-mm, that shit is not for me, dog. I'll see you like on the other side. I'll see you later. I'm not doing that. And it was an inner right, like I I have to, I have to do this. I am safe, and maybe that was the cacao doing the thing to the heart that it needed to do, right? And this is why ceremonies exist and like these acts that you do to commemorate something. So yeah, I just I I knew as soon as we went to bed Friday night, so like one half day in that I was like, no, this is gonna be really fucking fun. Yeah, and it was, it was a blast. We obviously are in for the next one, yeah, and it's gonna be a blast, and it's gonna come with so many more things, right? I learned so much about me in just a day and a half's time because you know you gotta leave early Sunday morning and get out of there. And I'm interested to learn more. I'm interested to go deeper. I'm into I'm interested in shedding more of the story that no longer serves me because yes, I was that person. I am no longer. And that comes with a whole slew of things, right? We received Reiki for the second time ever. Yeah. And the first time, I'm not gonna lie, right? It's it was Ray Ann. So no, she's a master Reiki, but that's why this I had this visceral sensation experience, whatever release because Ray Ann was doing. Yeah, exactly. And when the provider there, Brie, came around and did Reiki, like that, there's no denying I know that's real. At first, I'm like, what is Reiki? That seems what is that? And now I know, and for me, yeah, that shit is real. I feel, I release, I let go. There's shit that happens in there that I can't do by myself. Yeah, I can't replicate what happens, yeah, and I can't, I can't say that's fake anymore. I have to integrate it. That's real. I need that. Going forward, me, Barbara, my body is saying, I need more of that.

Lyssa 25:54

Yeah.

Barb 25:55

Because there is magic in there and it it is a part of shedding, shedding the story, shedding the personas, shedding it all. Yeah. Because I'm no longer that.

Reiki, Release, And Shedding Stories

Lyssa 26:05

I I couldn't agree more. I think it definitely was about shedding. Do you remember the goddess card that you pulled? Ah, yes. A little bit. I I remember mine, and that's that's what it that's what it's been feeling like lately, right? We've been talking about shedding, and I know like the whole, you know, year of the snake and year of the horse, right? We're supposed to be shedding these things, and that's exactly what it feels like. I I am a different person. I'm a completely different person than I was, and I am ready to just let go of all of those limiting beliefs that that I used to have. And I pulled my goddess card, and it was Bridget, was her name, and she was on fire. She was the she was the phoenix, right? She she took all of her pain and she burned it down and she rebirthed herself through healing. And if that is not me, I mean, who is? And it's been all of these little signs, all of these little nuggets over the past couple of months. I would say since getting, you know, the Reiki and having that that real visceral reaction at the retreat with Ray Ann and understanding that I am a spiritual being. I never ever once considered myself to be spiritual or religious in any way, shape, or form. And thanks to Shanna Banana and thanks to Ray Ann and and Dom and all of these people that we've put in our court to help us move past a lot of these things. I am very spiritual and I have to, I want to lean into that. And I think I've been scared to lean into that because I keep telling myself that this is not real, that this is just magic or whatever. And it's so fucking real. This weekend just shows exactly how you can you can be different, you can change, you can be reborn, you can be one person in one part of your life and be a completely different person in another part of your life, and that's okay, and there's nothing wrong with that, and there are going to be people who are gonna hold you and love you through that transition, and that's just a beautiful, a beautiful piece to to integrate. And that's really what I feel like this weekend gave me. I'm a new person, and I think there was this fear of being this person because who's gonna love me if I'm this person, and who's gonna who's gonna be my friend if I'm this person, and you know, I'm gonna have to let go of all these other things in my past, and if I don't have those anymore, then what now defines me? And I get to choose that. I get to define me now. I get I I burned it all down. I I burned my whole life to the ground, and I have slowly but surely, beautifully built that baby back up. And I want to be proud of that, and I'm ready to shed, I'm ready to let go. Those versions of Elisa were exactly who they needed to be to become this version of Elisa, and I'm just really excited to be this version of Elisa because I think she's pretty cool.

Barb 29:34

I am biased, I think every version is really cool, but yes, I agree. And that was that was our weekend.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

And that was the weekend.

Barb 29:45

We had a lot of crying, we had a lot of laughter, so much laughter. We had a lot of fun, we ate delicious food. We did. Let's talk about that for a second.

Lyssa 29:55

Things again that I would just never eat. Like it's all of these experiences that I would just never have. But to be able to say that I went to this goddess gathering and I had a private chef all weekend.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

You know, you know how much I love flexing now? It's that's the new version of Elisa. She likes the flex. And it always involves a chef, a private one.

Barb 30:15

It doesn't involve a restaurant. It doesn't involve like I'm not about that restaurant game anymore. It involves someone cooking specifically for me. Someone that I know is not stressed out because they have 30 other tables to worry about. They don't have to worry about any of the where's this? Where's no, you are there to infuse love into that food and make it a magical experience. And that it was. I love being cooked for.

Lyssa 30:45

So good. Um, no, all of the food. And again, right? We've we talk about this with Searod and Sacrum. These are just we never ate these types of foods. We didn't eat in this way, we didn't eat in this manner. So to have just this spread to be to be put out for us and to have someone genuinely caring about the the food and the nutrients and the things that you're putting into your body and curating this custom menu, um, that's special. And and all of that love and that energy went into the food. And I think that gives it a special kind of flavor. It really does. Um, so yeah, no, this weekend, all the meals like were just breakfasts, the lunches were cute, um, little snacky snacks, and yeah, then to just have this goddess dinner. What was it? Salmon and um lamb and lamb. The main course. So it was like a three-course very fancy. Oh, the carrot ginger soup. We started off with the carrot ginger soup. That was delicious. Loved it. I ate mine and yours.

Barb 31:46

So I want to say that I did eat it. You did, you did. I did like it-ish. If I had a little bit of pun or nan or any kind of bread type of carbs, yeah, it was just the soup. I would have fucked it up. But I can see how that's a me thing, right? I am a carnivore through and through. If I can't like chomp my teeth into something, I'm like, is this baby food? I know baby normal. It was definitely baby food and it was delicious.

SPEAKER_02 32:15

And that's why you like it. I loved it.

Lyssa 32:17

I loved all of it. Yeah, no. So you did. You did you did eat some, but there was some left over, and I was not gonna like go to waste. So I was like, you want to switch bowls? Thanks. Um downed that. And then she gave us a salad. The salad. That was so minimal. It was um spinach. What was the other one? Ugala. Ugala. And um walnuts, walnuts, grapes, grapes, and a little bit of like a balsamic dressing. It was like Eeveo and pushed and balsam. Oh, and pushette. What? Or no, um. Prosciuta. Prosciutto. Yes. So, like five things. That was it. That shit was so good. I've never had a grape in a salad before. No, I liked it. And I liked it. I was not thinking, I was like, that's that's weird. What are we doing? That's a that's a grape. You put it with a leaf. I'm not eating grapes and leaves. That's crazy. Don't don't let me stop you guys. That shit was banging. You should put grapes in your salad. Um, and then we got to move into to the main course. Um, and that was yes, salmon, um, lamb as our proteins. Um, and then what else was there? Potatoes. Oh, the the hassleback sweet potatoes. So they were all cut up and delicious. And then we had a delicious chimichuri that we just like put all over everything. So it just made everything taste delicious. Um, and Brussels sprouts. And the Brussels sprouts were good too.

Barb 33:39

They were good. I ate them. You ate them. I like Brussels sprouts. I learned that I can't cook Brussels sprouts for shit, dog. I am not a Brussels sprouts cooker, but I am someone else's Brussels sprout eater.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

If you cook it good.

Lyssa 33:53

If you cook it good enough, that makes sense. That makes sense. Um, so yeah, so it was like all of these like really good, you know, hearty, nutritious foods. Um, and it was just chef's kiss. Shout out to Chef Bonnie, she she did her thing. Um and then we had dessert, which was this flourless chocolate cake, which when you first said it to me, I was like, I was I just didn't expect what I ate.

Barb 34:19

You know, when you say a flourless chocolate cake, I'm immediately like, I'm out. Yeah. I'm like, well, that's what that tastes like, and I don't like it.

Lyssa 34:27

I don't want it. I don't want it. Not gonna eat that. Um, because you know, when there's like cake flour, and then you're telling me this is a flourless cake, that tells me that it's not cake. Because in order for it to be cake, you have to make with flour. Exactly. Anyways, most delicious thing I've ever put in my mouth.

Barb 34:45

She made me eat my words.

Tarot, Archetypes, And Spiritual Awakening

Lyssa 34:46

Oh my god, it was so rich. The chocolate was so rich. She made this ganache that went on top that hardened just enough to give it a slightly different texture than the chocolate cake. So it was chocolate on chocolate, but it was like different and delicious. And I I could eat it now. I could eat it. I I could ate the whole thing. You know what it was? It tasted real.

Barb 35:10

Yes. You ever eat chocolate and you're like, yo, that is fake chocolate. That is not even real cacao chocolate. It tasted like real chocolate, like real ingredients, not overprocessed, not overdone. And she blew me away. And so much so where I needed to have like a segment on the podcast. She blew me away. That doesn't happen often. And I'm not out here saying that I'm the best cook because I'm not. I would much rather someone else cook for me. But I guess I just because I've never experienced this at my bar was entirely way too low. I see that now because she blew me away. Yeah. The end by the end, I had to tell her, like, Bonnie, you blew me away. You impressed me. You impressed me. Yes. That's like a lot. That takes a lot to do, but you did it.

Lyssa 36:02

No, for real.

Barb 36:03

I can't wait for the next time, you know?

Lyssa 36:05

And I can't wait for the next time because I just I already know that she has all the ideas flowing, and she's had a couple of these under her belt. So I know that she's like excited to try new things and do whatever. And I just I love everyone having their own craft and like bringing that their gift into this. I think that's like the other part of it, right? Like we had our co-hosts with Shanna and Melissa, and you know, Shanna is such an amazing human, and she brings just light everywhere she goes. And we did have a tarot reading, which also I my healing spirit came up, you know, so it was just more of that. Like, this is what I'm meant to do. I meant to heal myself and share my story. And, you know, then we had our human design where we were able to dive into that. Then we have this person who's take care of taking care of us, you know, nutritionally. Then we had Brie who came in and she shared her gift of Reiki with us. And like we came in and we shared our gift and we elevated this experience so that way every woman could feel like the goddess that they were trying to embody at that dinner that night. And to me, that is such beautiful harmony when these group of women get together and they just share their gifts with each other. And that's that's all we're doing. We're just sharing ourselves, a little piece of me. This is what I bring into the world, and I want to share that with you. I want to gift that to you. And I I think there is just there's a beauty and a harmony in that to be in that space, to be in that container, and to know that all of these women here are here with a gift, here with something to offer you. Not physical, you know, just them, their energy, their existence is a gift. Every single person's existence is a gift. And I think it was beautiful to share space with nine other women and and share in their gift for three days. So much so that we're gonna do it again.

Private Chef Magic And Nourishment

Barb 38:00

Probably for four days this time. So we're like, we need more time. It was it went by entirely way too fast. We knew that from the last retreat, though. It's just not enough time, right? And time is the currency that is just how do you value? How do you put a a thing on that? But yeah, no, I want more time. Yep, need more of that. So it was an amazing weekend. Um, we talked about in the car how we strategically planned all of this. This was not an accident, this didn't just happen stance. This was strategically planned by our hand, crafted specifically for us. Right. This was this retreat, goddess gathering, was the first domino in a line of dominoes that we perfectly curated for ourselves. And on the way up there, we were talking, all right, like we normally do, and say, after all of this, after all of these dominoes fall and they land and they, you know, swivel around, whatever pattern we made, we're going to be different people. There's no other option. There's no other because I've never done this domino thing before. Not like this. We've never done it this way. We must be different at the end. Because when you do something that you've never done, you get something that you've never had before. And there's no doubt, no question now, right? After experiencing the first domino of the bunch, I'm different. In a day and a half's time, I'm different. I think differently. I integrated something differently. You know, I see my wise ISIS, right? My tarot card. I it it's real, it's changed. And now we have the rest of the dominoes lined up to where I am just so excited to live. I'm excited to just be in that domino at that time, experience everything it has to give me, and then quickly jump to the next one.

Lyssa 40:16

I think that's what it is too, is that they're all so close together that it it's gonna be it's gonna be quick. But like you said, all we have to do for the next four weeks is live. Show up. That's what I gotta do. I just gotta get on the plane. I just gotta be on the beach. I just gotta get on another plane. I just gotta go be in Vegas. I gotta just go down and be with my family in North Carolina. Like I just I just have to be. I don't have to do anything. I literally just have to be and exist and live my life and find the joy, find the fun, have the play.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

Okay. Done. Send me the fuck up.

Lyssa 40:56

Say less, you know, like it's it's crazy to think that that is what our life is built for right now.

Barb 41:03

And it wasn't like that. It was it was not like that. It wasn't just last year's time, right? Last year's time we were mourning, we were crying sad little babies. Yeah, and this year we are thriving. Yeah, we are growing, we are scaling, we are integrating, we are experiencing. Yeah, and that just 365 days difference, and then compound that with how many years have we been strategically moving forward to gain the momentum that we have now? To be here now. It's beautiful, it's beautiful, and that's why we pick up these mics, and that's why we share these crazy ass stories that we do, because just do it. Nike has something so good. Lucky Dusty. So good. Just live. Yeah. And all of the things that you say, no, I don't like that, try them again. Yeah, because maybe you like it now, right? 16-year-old me, 18-year-old me, 22-year-old me who was pregnant, would never, right? I couldn't, I wasn't in the right headspace at that time to put myself into a container where I had to share true feelings. Yeah. Me now, she is. And I have to honor that because if not, then I'm holding her back. Yeah. And that's not fair. So try it because you might fucking like it. And if you don't like it, don't do the shit again. Do it again, right?

Lyssa 42:28

Then that's the beauty of being a fucking adult and making your own goddamn choices. You try something, and if you don't like it, you genuinely don't have to do it ever again. But every time we put ourselves in these situations, we never walk away upset. No, we never walk away disappointed. So I'm gonna keep that evidence. I'm gonna put that in my pocket, and we uh we better start planning that next one. You know? All right. Well, this feels like a good place to love and leave our friends. So this is the part where you are gonna do all the things. You're gonna like and follow and subscribe. You can find us on Instagram and YouTube at Margus and Mindset Podcast. And if you're local to the ROC and you want to party with us at Homemade Events ROC. Until next time, bye. Let's drink.

SPEAKER_02 43:11

Oh yeah.