Monday Musings with Kissa

In this episode I share about learning how to care for myself when life feels overwhelming and finding things that recharge my batteries that bring me true joy and happiness. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

In this week’s episode of Monday Musings with Kissa, I share off the cuff with no script. Just a raw conversation with my fam about what’s going on lately. If I’m being completely honest I’m feeling an overwhelming sense of burnout but I’m refusing to let that get in the way of me showing up for myself and for you all. As always, I’m so grateful that you’re here! Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

In this week’s Monday Musings with Kissa I share how our trip to Hawaii went, hitting the ground running he moment we came back home, and what’s going on this week. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of Monday Musings with Kissa I share about the shift that’s happening in our lives currently, prepping for Hawaii, and a funny memory during my first time there. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of Monday Musings I share about Amazon stock, personal goals, and prepping for our trip to Hawaii. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of Monday Musings with Kissa I share the exhaustion from the previous week, trying to turn it around by improving my environment, and not feeling guilty about resting Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

In episode 26 of Monday Musings with Kissa I share about how great I was feeling the week before, the 180 to being exhausted the following week, and how we got the opportunity to showcase our products without paying thousands of dollars to tradeshow this year. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

In episode 25 of Monday Musings with Kissa I share updates post-party after Micah’s birthday weekend, an exciting opportunity to sample during a reception event at Expo West, and an early lesson learned my mom taught me about forgiveness. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s podcast episode I share what the heck happened last week, what’s going on this week, and a little bit about my mom and the impact she’s had on my life. I miss her so much. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

I can’t believe I’m approaching 25 episodes of this podcast! I’m so grateful for those of you that listen and watch.In this episode I share updates on our backyard renovation project, business wins, and allowing ourselves to pause and exhale before we burn out. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

Hope you had a great week, Fam!Welcome to this week’s Monday Musings episode. I’m sharing the updates on our backyard renovation project, our 1st steps into our goals for the business, and how I’m feeling about entering the Little Kid Era of parenting. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

This week I’m sharing an update on some personal projects, what I have planned to move the business forward, and how I feel about being a parent in the United States right now. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

Happy Monday fam! I think I’m finally finding my stride with content, and I’m so grateful to see some clarity about how it’s all making sense. In this week’s episode I share how I chose my word for 2026. Cheers to the dreams that may feel unfathomable and the commitment to believe beyond what we can see. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

Transcript taken from audio is below:(00:00:01):We’re changing the way we show up, guys.(00:00:03):We’re changing the way we show up.(00:00:06):All right, y’all.(00:00:07):As you can see, I’m changing the way I’m showing up.(00:00:11):I conduct myself and I set my goals.(00:00:14):So if you want to know more, stay tuned.(00:00:16):We’re going to get through it all together.(00:00:18):Welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa,(00:00:20):where I share what the heck happened last week,(00:00:23):what I have planned for this week,(00:00:24):and a story time,(00:00:25):not in that particular order.(00:00:28):This is the video companion to my Substack newsletter that I share every Thursday.(00:00:34):So if you’re not already subscribed to this channel or to my Substack, make sure you do so.(00:00:40):And content as of this recording is currently free.(00:00:43):So first things first, Happy New Year, you guys.(00:00:47):I can’t believe we are already here, but hey, we’re here.(00:00:53):We’re showing up.(00:00:54):And I’ve been thinking about ways that I can improve how I show up for you guys.(00:01:00):And so that’s why we are doing video.(00:01:03):for the first time ever so bear with me i’m working on it i just wanted to get(00:01:09):started with that done is better than perfect mindset and we’ll just go from there(00:01:14):let’s go on this journey together so last week was a pretty good start to the new(00:01:21):year and a pretty good start(00:01:23):to the week.(00:01:25):I have been feeling this feeling of just wanting to ease in to the new year instead(00:01:31):of going hard,(00:01:32):setting goals,(00:01:33):breaking it down by quarter,(00:01:35):month,(00:01:35):week,(00:01:36):day,(00:01:37):and just kill it.(00:01:38):Usually that is my MO.(00:01:41):That’s how I want to attack the new year.(00:01:45):But this year feels a little bit different.(00:01:48):And if you are subscribed to my Substack newsletter, you’ll know that(00:01:53):I have been feeling a different way on how I want to approach my goals for 2026.(00:02:00):Last week was my mom’s birthday so we celebrated her birthday as a family.(00:02:06):We went out to dinner.(00:02:07):She would have been 75 this year and I can’t tell you in the moments where you know(00:02:15):I see the kids playing and(00:02:18):My dad is with them and spending quality time with them and building bonds and(00:02:23):relationships with my kids.(00:02:25):Those are the moments where I miss her the most,(00:02:27):but I think January is just a particularly hard month when it comes to thinking and(00:02:34):remembering about my mom because it’s her birthday.(00:02:38):It’s also the same month that she passed away.(00:02:41):So it’s a very roller coaster, a big roller coaster of emotions, but I’m so glad(00:02:47):that we got to celebrate her on her birthday and spend time together as a family(00:02:52):because I got to tell my kids about my mom.(00:02:56):I showed them pictures and it was a celebration.(00:03:00):The kids wanted to bake her a birthday cake.(00:03:03):It was really, really sweet.(00:03:05):It’s what my heart needed for sure.(00:03:07):and then the rest of the week was a community building theme i guess i hosted a(00:03:13):coffee event at my son’s school on friday and then we just laid low aside from our(00:03:21):normal markets that we started up last week as well so charlie does a thursday(00:03:26):market and a saturday pop-up currently and then on top of that like i said we just(00:03:31):laid low(00:03:32):The kids started up their swim classes again,(00:03:36):and we just kind of caught up,(00:03:38):played here at home,(00:03:40):spent time together,(00:03:41):and considering how busy the holidays were for us,(00:03:48):it was like back-to-back pop-ups,(00:03:50):lots of parties,(00:03:51):and as much as I enjoy that,(00:03:53):it felt nice to just kind of relax and lay low for a little while.(00:03:56):So what do I have planned for this week?(00:03:59):Well, this week, I think my intention, my theme for the week is to be what I call in the pocket.(00:04:06):I want to be in the pocket,(00:04:07):not necessarily ahead of things and not definitely not behind on things.(00:04:14):And so there’s a few things that I feel like will help me stay in the pocket this week.(00:04:21):to make sure that I am continuing to just ease in to the new year and not trying to(00:04:27):attack it and burn out.(00:04:29):So the first thing is I want to improve my environment.(00:04:33):So there’s two projects there that are business and personal related that I’m going(00:04:37):to be focusing on this week.(00:04:39):And that is my vanity area in my bedroom.(00:04:44):It’s where I have my skincare,(00:04:46):it’s where I have my makeup,(00:04:47):but also it is kind of the entry point into our bedroom.(00:04:52):So when I walk in, it’s the first thing that I see and it also acts(00:04:58):as a drop zone for a lot of things.(00:05:00):So we hosted a few parties here at our house and it became that area where we would(00:05:06):just drop things and put them away and hide them from guests.(00:05:10):And I haven’t sorted through, cleaned up or picked up in that area.(00:05:14):So this week I’m going to work on that and it’s going to be an ongoing project.(00:05:20):So this year, this week, my plan is to organize the cubbies that I have in there.(00:05:26):Throw away any expired old makeup and skincare and then rearrange everything and(00:05:33):just do it little by little.(00:05:35):The second project I have that’s going to start this week but is going to also go(00:05:41):through February and March too.(00:05:44):It’s going to be a quarter goal.(00:05:46):is to file away 2025.(00:05:47):And the reason I wanna do that in a quarter is because there’s a lot of paperwork(00:05:55):when it comes to running a business,(00:05:57):having a home and all the expenses and all the things that come in.(00:06:01):So I want to make sure that that is all organized and filed away.(00:06:06):And then also there’s gonna be paperwork that I’m going to need(00:06:09):for when it comes time to file taxes.(00:06:11):And I want to make sure that is all put aside before I archive everything and put(00:06:18):it all away for the next seven years.(00:06:21):so i’m going to work on that this week it’s going to be the kickoff project and i(00:06:25):think the main thing that i need to do is open all of the unopened mail that i(00:06:31):haven’t been opening for the last month um so that’s going to be my first project(00:06:37):and then we’ll see how far we can take it but once again i’m not trying to attack(00:06:42):this project i’m not trying to get it done in a week or a day i’m going to let(00:06:46):myself(00:06:48):spread out the tasks through the quarter so that I don’t get overwhelmed and I do(00:06:54):everything little by little.(00:06:56):So those are the two projects that I have for this week on top of all the other(00:07:01):normal responsibilities that I have during the week.(00:07:04):preparation for the farmers markets,(00:07:06):picking up and dropping off the kids to school,(00:07:09):volunteering when needed,(00:07:11):all of those things,(00:07:12):laundry,(00:07:13):cleaning,(00:07:14):all of those things are still ongoing on top of those two projects.(00:07:20):And for today’s story time, I just wanna quickly touch on 2025.(00:07:23):And if you have read my Substack newsletter, then you’ll know that(00:07:34):2025 was such a great year in a lot of ways, and it was a devastating year in a lot of ways.(00:07:41):And in my Substack newsletter that I wrote,(00:07:43):I was talking about the fires here in Southern California and what kind of impact(00:07:49):it had on me,(00:07:51):not just worry about whether or not we were going to be safe,(00:07:56):but also just a realization of what was really important to me, and that was community.(00:08:04):My family,(00:08:05):my friends,(00:08:06):and the people physically around me were so important to me and it put that into(00:08:10):perspective.(00:08:11):it shaped the way that i want to plan for this year it made me realize that there(00:08:17):are so many things outside of my control that i can’t change i can’t immediately(00:08:25):make a big dent into and the only thing that i can do is change the way that i(00:08:33):approach things change my mindset on things and(00:08:38):do what I can control, focus on what I can control.(00:08:42):And that’s a really hard thing to grasp for me at least.(00:08:47):Normally my goals would be something around sales goals or being able to get a(00:08:52):certain kind of client or whatever it might be.(00:08:55):But I realized those are external goals.(00:08:57):How can I set goals that will be measurable based on only what I can control?(00:09:02):So that’s a good example of why my quarter one goal for business(00:09:08):is to file away my papers and everything and have my tax documents ready for 2025.(00:09:16):Same thing with my vanity project.(00:09:19):I can organize,(00:09:21):I can put things away,(00:09:22):I can purge and throw things away that no longer serve me or are no longer good for(00:09:27):me.(00:09:28):So that is my mentality and kind of my approach to 2026.(00:09:33):And it all was because of(00:09:35):the things that happened in 2025.(00:09:38):Don’t get me wrong.(00:09:40):I know 2025 started off as a really rough year.(00:09:44):Like I,(00:09:44):like I mentioned,(00:09:45):I mean,(00:09:46):we started the year with the SoCal fires here in California and it was devastating,(00:09:50):but(00:09:51):When I started shifting my mindset and shifting my focus,(00:09:56):things really started to change for me.(00:09:59):And I’m sharing this because I hope this is effective for you as well.(00:10:03):If you implement it this year,(00:10:05):I stopped making goals that were,(00:10:08):I want to make X amount of money,(00:10:11):or I want the sales to be X amount.(00:10:15):We can do those goals,(00:10:16):but they’re harder to measure because there’s other people that are a factor.(00:10:22):in those goals so i started focusing instead on doing a Substack newsletter every(00:10:29):week that was not only for marketing purposes but as a way to express myself be(00:10:37):able to get comfortable in my own skin and really feel comfortable with the voice(00:10:42):that i am putting out into the world so i started focusing on just sending you guys(00:10:47):a newsletter every single week(00:10:50):that changed so many things in so many positive ways and then another thing that i(00:10:56):focused on was my backyard project i wanted to be able to use our backyard more(00:11:04):take advantage of the real estate that we had and i learned so much from starting(00:11:10):that project i didn’t start with what i wanted to(00:11:16):wanted the end result of my backyard to look like i started with parcel by parcel(00:11:21):the first project that we tackled was the extension of our patio we wanted to add(00:11:27):pavers and make an extension for our patio so that we have more real estate that we(00:11:33):can use for when we host parties and things like that that alone transformed the(00:11:39):way that we use our backyard(00:11:42):It transformed the way that us as a family live in this house.(00:11:47):and it was something that I can control.(00:11:50):Now is the backyard done?(00:11:52):No,(00:11:53):there’s going to be other things that we need to get done so that it truly is(00:11:59):transformed in the way that we’re envisioning,(00:12:01):but we’re going piece by piece,(00:12:04):project by project.(00:12:05):But that is how I am approaching goals this year, is just working on the projects,(00:12:13):little by little one foot in front of the other making sure that there is even just(00:12:18):one percent improvement or one percent tackling toward that project and then moving(00:12:24):on to something else well i hope this video podcast was useful to you(00:12:30):If it is, or you might think it would be useful to someone else, please share it with a friend.(00:12:36):I have more coming and I’m so excited to be able to share it with you, but one thing at a time.(00:12:41):And until next time, know that you are a blessing and I am so glad you’re here.(00:12:48):Bye friends. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week, what I have planned for this week, and a story time, not in that particular order. This is the audio companion to my substec newsletter that I send out every Thursday. So if you’re not already subscribed, there’s a button somewhere here where you can do so, and content as of this recording is currently free. Y’all, we did it. Our last pop-up of the year was last week and we are done with pop-ups for this year. Oh, man, last week just felt like the countdown to this big thing, which it wasn’t really. It was basically the countdown to winter break, but the kids started winter break last Thursday. My bestie is in town for the holiday. Rain is about to hit SoCal on Tuesday, so it just feels like last week was this scramble to maximize and get as much done as we could before this week of transitional rest. So this week, work isn’t officially done just yet. We have one last large order to fulfill. We have online orders to fulfill, and then on the personal side, we’re still working on our backyard project to really finish it up. We’re going to finish the pavers this week, and then we’re going to complete the drainage before the rain, so that it doesn’t flood too much back there. And then the plan is to just enjoy Christmas week with Charlie and the kids, hopefully rest a little and mentally prepare for the new year. Instead of a story time today guys, I just want to tell you how incredibly grateful I am that you’re here. I know I say it every week and there’s a reason. I know that there is so many people you can follow. There’s so many people you can take inspiration from. There’s so many podcasts that you can listen to. And the fact that you chose me is just so meaningful beyond words. This year has been such a big transition for us. Not just in business life, but in personal life too, transitioning into, you know, bigger kid life and what that looks like in the dynamic of what our schedule is. And so I just want to thank you so much for rolling with me this year. And to navigate life together like this has been one of the most rewarding things about this past year. So as we go into 2026, I just want to let you know, I’m going to be taking a short break. I’m going to be back, um, after the New Year, the Monday after Monday. So make sure you stay tuned for that, but I am going to take a week or so off just to recalibrate, start fresh, but turn this Monday musings up a notch a little bit in the upcoming year. Because I want to keep adding value to this community as we create and build it together. So thank you so much. I hope you had a wonderful holiday with your family, with your friends, and your loved ones. I hope that you have a wonderful, wonderful celebration to the new year. Cheers to 2026. Let’s do this together, regardless of what lies ahead before us. And thank you so much for your time. If you enjoyed this audio edition, please share it with a friend. And for the full Monday musings experience, subscribe to my substack for all the content at justkissa.substack.com. Until next time, remember you are a blessing, and I’m so grateful you’re here. Bye friends. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

Transcript from audio:Welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week. What’s going on this week and a story time? Not in that particular order. This is the audio companion to my substack newsletter that I send out every Thursday. So if you’re not already subscribed, there’s a button somewhere here where you can do so, and content as of this recording is currently free. All right, fam, let’s get into last week. It is the sprint to the end, my friends, and I cannot think about anything else. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our freedom is almost there. One more pop-up to go. But let’s talk about last week first. Jelly had her winter show at her school. It’s so cute. They do 2 shows a year and watching the little kids perform and sing and dance. It’s just, it brings joy to our hearts, and I’m so glad that that’s something that her school does and does for the families. We had dinner with our family afterward, and really the focus this past week was to prep for unique markets. Because it’s a 2 day event. It’s over the weekend. And honestly, it’s one of our favorite markets to do. We had an amazing turnout. Once again, we came prepared and ready, and it is just such a good feeling when you are just in your groove and you’re not worried as much as you normally are about what you might be forgetting or what you might have forgotten to pack. It’s just such a good feeling to know that, like, you’ve got a good rotation going, you know what I mean? We ended up selling out on Sunday and we got to shop and support our fellow vendors. And my dad watched the kids all weekend. So we were so grateful that we have a support system to be able to do these back-to-back events. On the personal side, the backyard project is making more progress. Last week, we finished the drainage, and then we got our rock and sand compacted and ready for pavers. So let’s move on to this week. This week, what’s on the calendar? Our last pop-up of the year is this Saturday in Long Beach. So we are so excited. We’d love to pop up in Long Beach. The community there is always so welcoming and so kind to us. And we ordered more sand and pavers for our backyard project, and that’s going to be hopefully completed. By the end of this week. If not, maybe the beginning of next week because it’s going to be raining here in LA. And we want to get as much done before that rain begins. Instead of a story time, I just want to share how extremely grateful I am for the relationships that we’ve developed over the years. And as a business owner, I know that saying it’s all about who you know. It is so true on so many levels, but really not just who you know, but the deep connections and friendships that you make over the years as an entrepreneur. Every time we do events like unique markets or any of our pop up events, it almost feels like a reunion because we’ve been doing the same ones for years. We always try out new ones and, you know, we test out the waters on things like that, but really the ones that we find our people at are the same ones. And so as I go into next year, that’s something that I want to allow to just be. for next year. There’s always this FOMO when you do pop-up markets of like, what if this event is good? What if we’re missing out? Um, people are other frienders are also recommending events that we should participate in. And like, Of course, there’s importance to that. Trying out and testing out new markets is always important because you never know what kind of connections or what kind of audience might be drawn to what you’re selling. But in this phase of life and in this season of our business, I think what we want to personally focus on is quality, not quantity of markets. So that’s something that we’re going to be considering going into next year because we have big plans for our CPG products. And that is growing our Amazon store, making sure that’s maintained, growing our own online store and building back up our direct to consumer base. And all the things that go in between. We have a huge goal of wanting to enter the US grocery market and not just Asian grocery stores. And so there are so many things that we have that are up in the air and are in play that we want to accomplish for next year. And as you know, we can’t clone ourselves and take it all on. If we’re going to add something on the plate for my own sanity, something’s got to give. So I think that’s going to be our pop-up markets. We are going to do markets, not saying that we’re not going to. We’re still going to do markets, but I wanna be really selective and wise about which ones we do next year. I want to thank you for your time. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this audio edition, please share it with a friend. And for the full Monday musings experience, subscribe to my substack at justkissa.substack.com. Until next time, remember that you are a blessing and I’m so grateful you’re here. Bye, friends. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

00:00:00):Welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa,(00:00:03):where I share what the heck happened last week,(00:00:05):what I have planned for this week,(00:00:07):and a story time,(00:00:08):not in that particular order.(00:00:10):This is the audio companion to my Substack newsletter that I send out every Thursday.(00:00:15):So if you’re not already subscribed, there’s a button somewhere here where you can do so.(00:00:19):And content as of this recording is currently free.(00:00:23):All right, y’all.(00:00:24):Let’s dive in and talk about last week.(00:00:27):It was another loaded week, but, you know, I’ve said this a million times.(00:00:32):When is...(00:00:34):That week never loaded.(00:00:35):I feel like even on a break, even on vacation, it’s a loaded week.(00:00:39):Lots of volunteering happened at Micah’s school and I had tons of meetings and(00:00:44):production in between.(00:00:46):We also started a big project here at our house.(00:00:50):We are doing our backyard renovation project and we broke ground last week.(00:00:56):I am so freaking excited for this.(00:00:59):It’s a project that has been a long time coming.(00:01:03):And we finally decided to pull the trigger and start on this project.(00:01:08):So last week, the space was prepped.(00:01:11):We rented a skid steer to level out the dirt and the land(00:01:15):and man, what a difference.(00:01:17):I mean, we are by far not finished yet.(00:01:20):It’s like a long,(00:01:22):long,(00:01:24):grueling process to do a renovation project,(00:01:26):but I can’t tell you how much better it already feels and looks back there.(00:01:33):The kids were playing, and it was just so nice to see.(00:01:36):Even(00:01:37):if it’s just leveled out dirt.(00:01:39):We don’t have any concrete.(00:01:40):We have nothing out there yet, but we’re already all so excited for this project.(00:01:47):Last week’s big focus on the business side was Thursday’s investor holiday party(00:01:54):event,(00:01:54):and I have a story time for you for that later,(00:01:57):so stay tuned.(00:01:58):And then over the weekend, we just had some family time.(00:02:02):We had a birthday party on Saturday morning that we all went to,(00:02:05):We went to what we like to call the candy bag store and let the kids just pick and(00:02:10):choose what candy they wanted to have for the weekend.(00:02:14):And then we had sushi after, which was a nice treat for me.(00:02:18):Then on Sunday was church day as usual.(00:02:22):And then we went to the YMCA to have a family swim.(00:02:25):And that was really fun too.(00:02:28):We played outside all weekend,(00:02:30):like I said,(00:02:31):and it was just such a great way to close out the week.(00:02:34):It definitely healed my heart to be able to spend time with my little family.(00:02:39):This week on the work front,(00:02:43):we have Unique Markets this weekend,(00:02:45):which is one of our favorite events to pop up at.(00:02:49):And then we have another pop-up next week.(00:02:52):at the Parole Lantern Festival in Long Beach.(00:02:55):So we have to do all the prep for those two last pop-ups,(00:02:59):make sure we’re fully stocked,(00:03:01):get our gift sets ready,(00:03:02):create our packing list,(00:03:04):And then finally,(00:03:06):one more goal I have is to follow up on the connections that I made at the investor(00:03:11):party last Thursday.(00:03:13):On the personal life side, we’re going to just do more work on our backyard this week.(00:03:18):The focus is going to be the drainage to make sure that(00:03:23):All of the rainwater and everything flows and doesn’t collect.(00:03:29):And that was a problem that we had in the past.(00:03:31):So we want to make sure that’s taken care of.(00:03:34):And then also decide on what we’re going to do as far as pavers or concrete for the(00:03:40):patio extension portion of the renovation project.(00:03:44):On top of that, I have gifts that I need to wrap and I need to finish purchasing some gifts.(00:03:50):So that’s going to be part of this week’s goals as well because I want to be done(00:03:54):with that and have those gifts under our Christmas tree.(00:03:59):Now for our story time.(00:04:01):Let’s get back into the investor’s holiday party.(00:04:06):I can’t tell you what a full circle moment is.(00:04:10):that holiday party was.(00:04:14):So last year,(00:04:15):I got an invitation on LinkedIn,(00:04:18):despite being inactive on that platform,(00:04:21):pretty much ever since I created my account.(00:04:25):And I got an invitation from a guy named Adam who(00:04:31):to attend this holiday party for his company.(00:04:36):And I said, you know what?(00:04:37):Why not?(00:04:39):So I decided to give it a shot and I attended as a guest with Charlie.(00:04:44):We didn’t know anyone.(00:04:45):We had no idea what to expect.(00:04:47):We had never pitched our product to investors before.(00:04:51):And we just went in because we wanted to just kind of dip our toe in and like(00:04:59):get our feet wet into this side of business.(00:05:03):Well, last year’s party, we had an amazing time.(00:05:07):We made a lot of great connections that we definitely would not have made if we didn’t go.(00:05:13):And we decided to submit an application to be part of their portfolio.(00:05:17):I mean, it costs nothing to apply.(00:05:20):Worst case scenario, we wouldn’t get a call back.(00:05:22):So we did that.(00:05:25):This year, after we submitted our application,(00:05:29):We got accepted.(00:05:31):We received our first investment and have grown so much with their support and(00:05:37):weekly check-in meetings.(00:05:39):We got asked to table at this year’s.(00:05:43):holiday party so that we could sample our products and get directly in front of investors.(00:05:49):And oh my God, we had such an amazing response.(00:05:54):It felt so good and so validating for this little Filipina to just get so much(00:06:02):praise for the food that she is serving these non-Filipino people.(00:06:08):It was just the best feeling ever.(00:06:11):People loved our products and our story,(00:06:14):and it just reinforces what we’ve already known this past year.(00:06:19):We’re freaking ready.(00:06:21):We’re ready to take it to the next level in scale.(00:06:24):We still have a lot of background work to do, and I know that, but we’re on the right track.(00:06:29):So get ready, y’all.(00:06:31):2026,(00:06:31):I just can feel it in my soul that it’s gonna be a big year,(00:06:36):not just for me,(00:06:37):but for you too.(00:06:39):Thank you so much for your time today.(00:06:42):If you enjoyed this audio edition, please share it with a friend.(00:06:46):And for the full Monday Musics experience,(00:06:49):subscribe to my Substack at justkissa.substack.com.(00:06:53):Until next time, remember you are a blessing and I’m so grateful you’re here.(00:06:58):Bye friends Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

Transcript from audio:Welcome to Monday musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week what I have planned for this week and a story time not in that particular order this is the audio companion to my substack newsletter that I send out every Thursday so if you’re not already subscribed, there’s a button somewhere here where you can do so and content as of this recording is currently free Well, let’s jump into last week as usual last week was Thanksgiving week, which means it was fall break for my kids and that meant they were off of school for an entire week and even though I thought it was gonna be a slow week for us, it was jampacked to say the least to kick off fall break on Monday we went to Disneyland for Jelly’s birthday. We spent the entire day there with grandparents friends family. It was an amazing day. Jelly had the best time and so did Micah so it was a great day and then we had one work day on Tuesday where we sent in more Amazon inventory. We had meetings. I sent out follow-ups. I just did everything that I possibly could on Tuesday and then on Wednesday, we had a play date and a dentist appointment. It was a great day. We got to reunite with friends that we haven’t had a play date with in in quite a while. And it was a lot of fun. We went straight to the dentist after that. So it was a pack day. And then Thanksgiving was Thursday and Friday. We had our friendsgiving on Saturday and then we had church in the LA Auto show on Sunday and next thing you know, here we are on Monday. So this week, to tell you the truth, it was kind of hard to ease back into regular life. So my plan for the first half of the week is just to get my bearings. It’s, I don’t know. I just have this feeling that time is passing by really really quickly. We have another jump-packed week. We’re going to do more production this week because we had such a successful Black Friday, Cyber Monday weekend that we have to make more stock. We have to ship out all the orders so we have a jam packed week and then on top of that, on Thursday, we have a holiday party for our investors and we’re going to be tabling and sampling our products there to try and get in front of the eyes of more investors and then we have a birthday party on Saturday. We have church on Sunday. It’s just a lot going on now I wanted to share a story about how there was one moment in during Thanksgiving week that really warmed my heart and it was when we had a play date with our friend um with the kids’ friends that we haven’t had a playdate with in quite some time. And because of that, it’s not that they forgot each other, but they’re young enough to like, if they haven’t seen each other in a while, maybe they’re not going to really remember each other or kind of, you know, take to each other and start playing with each other right away. And when we went to the play date, I was just kind of observing how the kids were acting with their friend and almost immediately they just kind of clicked and picked up where they left off. And it was such a heartwarming thing to see because as a parent and you see your kids grow up and you see their relationships that they’re forming with their own friends. It’s awesome to see kids grow up together and I really hope that you know, Micah and Jelly really cling onto the friends that are good friends that look out for them, that they care about and will look out for their friend. It’s just something that I experienced in my own childhood and I really want that to be for my kids too. So going to that play date, it was just so great to see them kind of catch up with each other. And then also because they’re a little bit older, it was really sweet to see how different they play at an older age. They’re having conversations, they’re not just playing around each other. And in some ways, I almost feel like they were picking up where they left off, but they also were kind of filling each other in on how much they’ve grown. And I’m just so proud of all those kids for just being good friends to each other, despite how much time may pass between them. Well, that’s all for today friends. I want to thank you so much for listening and for your time. If you enjoyed this audio edition, please share it with a friend and for the full Monday musings experience subscribe to my substack at just Kissa.substack.com until next time remember, you are a blessing in this world and I’m so grateful that you’re here Bye friends. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

Transcript from audio, auto captured:Welcome to Monday Musings with KISissa, where I share what the heck happened last week, what I have planned for this week, and a story time, not in that particular order. This is the audio companion to my substack newsletter that I send out every Thursday, so if you’re not already subscribed, there’s a button somewhere here where you can do so. And content as of this recording is currently free. All right, y’, let’s get into last week. So last weekend was Jelly’s birthday party. My daughter, she turned three on Saturday and it was pouring here in Los Angeles. So last week was basically just planning, making sure that everything had arrived, that I had ordered, and a lot of it was actually making last minute accommodations because of said rain. But more on that later, on the business side, the Amazon store is doing great. Our biggest concern is just making sure we have enough inventory. So we’ve been focusing on sending more units, which is a good problem to have, but it is definitely stressful because we’re wanting to make sure that everything arrives on time and we’re trying to avoid going out of stock and all the things. But otherwise, we are so happy and blessed that things are going in an upward direction. So very happy about that. Now, this week, on the business side, we’re going to progress to step two of our winter fancy Fair application. So if you don’t know about Winter Fancy Fair, the Specialty Food Association, who is based in New York, throws two events and they’re basically trade shows for the CPG space, which is consumer package goods. And so this trade show they’ve been doing, they have one in the winter and one in the summer. And this winter, in January, they’re going to be having it in San Diego, and we feel like we are ready for this next step. So we are in the application process to participate in Winter Fancy Fair. And the goal this week is to send out a sample to get approved to be able to participate in the show. So prayers up, fingers crossed, all the things so that we can move to step three, which will be planning and, you know, getting our booth all set up and registered for winter fancy fear. That is a huge goal of ours. It’s something that has been on our bucket list as far as the business goes for quite some time now, I think since 2022. So to be able to do this in 2026 would be a huge milestone for the business and it’s something that we’re hoping is the right timing. But if it doesn’t happen, it’s all right. We’ll focus on the next one. But I think this time, the timing is just right. Another thing that we’re working on is access to capital. I feel like that’s just something that we should always be doing as small businesses because those opportunities take a long time to come to fruition. There’s a long process. There’s always complications. And the timeline to get access to capital is always longer than you think. So that is something that’s always kind of in the back of our minds that we’re working toward, especially at this phase of the business and what’s required to be able to take big leaps like Winter Fancy Fare and moving to nationwide distribution and things like that. So that is something that I am working on this week as well. And then another thing is our online store. So our online store has not gotten a facift for a very long time. And if I’m being honest, we actually kind of neglected it because of how well we’ve been doing on Amazon and through our wholesale and all of that. And that is just something that I don’t want to just get put on the back burner. It’s something that I always think about and I’m like, this is the customer facing site. This is wholesalers come here for information. I want to make sure that it looks the way we want. where it’s presentable and we put our best foot forward. So I’m working on that slowly, but surely. And the goal for this week is to just update the product photos. We had a professional photographer take some amazing product photos for the website. And so we definitely want to update those because just the photos alone will definitely give that website the upgrade that it needs, or at least the first step. Then on the personal side, the road to self-confidence and self-discovery has been a huge theme for me this year. Part of it is this Monday Musings podcast and just putting out content again. More on that, probably in a different episode, because I can dive way, way deep into that topic, but that is something that I’ve been just kind of working on and trying to get better at a little bit every day. I’ve always just kind of struggled with my self-confidence and all of that, especially postpartum. But I think step one for me this week is just treating my body with respect and love. And that’s something that even just saying out loud to you guys is actually very difficult because I not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t feel like I’m doing it. And so that is the intention that I want to set up for this week is to just really treat my body with respect and love. And that starts with what I put into it. So I’m going to get serious with just the food choices that I make and what I’m putting into my body. And I think that’s enough. That’s a good first step for me. Another thing that I’m going to be working on is environment, because, man, I can’t tell you guys how I’ve I’ve just learned that my environment is such an important factor into my mental health improvement productivity. If things are messy, my brain feels foggy, I feel messy. My mind is always stimulated and working from home doesn’t make it any easier, right? So I’m going to make some small changes just so that I can feel like our environment is on the upward tick. I’m not expecting our home and our office and our entire environment to 100% be improved overnight. I know that it’s a process, especially with a home that we have. It’s, you know, it’s going to take steps and it’s going to be projects that affect other people and has a timeline and things like that. So I know it’s going to be a process, but I’m going to work toward it and work with what I currently have. I want to love my environment the way it is. And so if there’s things that I can do, like tidying things up or donating things that no longer serve us to free up that space, that is, I think, what my focus this week is going to be. And then the last thing is prepping for the holidays. You guys, the holiday season is just my most favorite time of year. I don’t like the summer. I love the cold, so it works and falls right in with the holidays. And then on top of that, there’s just this magical spirit that I just that enters into my heart and I want to, you know, just spread more joy and cheer that I do throughout the year during the holiday season. So we’re going to be working on putting up some Christmas decorations this weekend. and then my kids have fall break next week and they’re going to have winter break. So a couple things that I want to do is just research some like holiday crafts that they can do during winter break because they love to do art. They love to paint. They love to draw, they love to color. They love to use like other mixed like materials. But because I’m always so busy and I’m like running around, I never have time to like find activities to do with them. So I want to, you know, just go on good old Pinterest, research some things, and then plan some activities, especially during the fall and winter break that we’re going to be spending together. All right, guys, let’s get into our story time. Can I dish the tea about Jelly’s birthday party? Oh, man, guys, it was pouring. Like I said, I think they call it an atmospheric river. Is that what they call it? And it was passing through LA the weekend of Jelly’sburg.’s birthday party. And we kept going back and forth about whether or not we wanted to reschedule or if we were going to, you know, move forward with it. And the big factor was there was one day I was playing with her in her bedroom and it was just me and her. And I said, hey girlie, do you want to reschedule your birthday party? Because it’s going to rain. And she said, it’s going to rain on my birthday. And I said, yeah. And she said, yay. And I said, that sounds fun to you. She’s like, yeah. And I said, do you want to reschedule your birthday on a day that it doesn’t rain like next week? And she goes, no, mommy, I want to have my birthday party. And that was it. That’s all I needed. So we decided to move forward with it. And despite the rain, despite the torrential rain, we decided to still move forward with it. So we made a few changes. We had to rent a tent with walls to try and keep the water out. We originally rented a big pink bounce house for her birthday and we had to get something smaller. And luckily, our rental guy, who is amazing. He had a smaller jumper that would fit in the canopy that we rented. So we did that instead. And the morning of the party, we were, Charlie and I were just, you know, getting everything set up. And as the rain kept pouring down harder and hot harder on us while we were trying to set everything up, Charlie and I just got more and more sad because there was people that said that they were canceling and couldn’t make it understandably because especially those people that were driving from far away, I would not want them to be driving in that kind of weather. It was just, it was really coming down. And for LA, it was like beyond what we’re used to around here. So I understood, but it just really made us sad for her that all of her family and friends couldn’t come and and celebrate. And we were just reminding ourselves, this is for jelly. This is what she wanted. She didn’t want to reschedule. And I know she’s a three-year-old. I know. But it really meant a lot to her. And so we wanted to make it the best that we could. So I had a bunch of decorations already purchased, but we just kept repeating that mantra of this is for her as long as she’s happy. That’s all that matters. And, guys, can I tell you what a perspective shift our little three-year-old did for her mom and dad? Every time we had a new piece of decoration go up and she would see it, she would say, oh, my gosh, look, it’s my party. Yay, this is amazing. And she would just be so excited. And she would get more and more pumped every time she saw another piece of decoration go up And when we turned down the bounce house for her to jump in before all the guests came, she was just living her best life. And Charlie and I finally looked at her and just we paused for a moment and was just like, this is what’s important. It’s her special day. And if she’s happy, that’s all that really matters. And that joy filled our heart again because we could see that our little girl was happy despite the rain, despite people not being able to make it. It was just such a happy day for her. And that’s all that matters. We’re just so grateful for the people that did come and celebrate and the people that couldn’t come that still sent their well wishes and love to her. We were just surrounded by people that love on us all the time. And it’s such a blessing to be able to have people in our circle that love on us and are there for us like everyone, all our friends and family are. Well, thank you guys for listening. If you enjoyed this audio edition, please share it with a friend. For the full Monday music experience, subscribe to my substag at justa.substack.com. Until next time, remember, you are a blessing and I’m so grateful you’re here. Bye, friends. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

Transcript of the audio: Welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week, what I have planned for this week, and a story time, not in that particular order. This is the Audio companion to my Substack newsletter that I send out every Thursday. So if you’re not already subscribed, there’s a button somewhere here where you can do so, and content as of this recording is currently free.Hello fam. So how was last week? Let’s get into it. Well, last week was Halloween and it was actually a really great day. We ended up going to a farmer’s market that Charlie does in our area, and we went trick or treating at the houses that were behind it, and I think it was the most ideal situation, we got something to eat at the farmer’s market. We walked around a little bit there, and then after we went into the houses in the neighborhood and shout out to them because they were prepared, they had the World Series playing out in their front yards they had beautiful decorations, they had tons of candy for the kids. So it was a really good time. Last week on the business side, we also inquired officially about trade showing at an event called Winter Fancy Fair. And so that has been something that we’ve been wanting to do basically since 2022. And I think we. Have gotten to the point where we’ve grown and we’ve learned, and I think we’re ready. So we sent the initial contact and we’re just waiting to hear back.The weather has been beautiful, so we have all been starting to play outside and it has been really great to get out of our house where we live the summers tend to get really, really hot, so it has been inside and indoors for us for most of the time, and so it’s really great to just get outside and play instead of be inside all day long.And then also I mentioned about wanting to improve my environment. So over the weekend, Charlie and I carved out some time and cleaned both of the kids’ rooms and their shared bathroom, and that was a huge win. I can’t tell you how good it feels to look into their bedrooms and not see Kala everywhere. Kala is basically mess in Filipino and it’s just great to look into their rooms and see it all, you know, put away and everything in its place. We also took the time over the weekend to make space because the kids are growing and so we cleaned out their closets, donated all the things that don’t fit them anymore, donating toys that they don’t play with anymore. So that also feels good to just really do a deep dive into that and make some progress on it.Now this week, what’s on the calendar? Well, my intention is to get back into some sort of routine. So when it comes to the last few weeks, of course we had a Halloween and then the week before Halloween we had a Halloween event at Micah’s school.And so we have been off of our normal routine for a little while, and so I’m really just excited to get back into some sort of normal rhythm. And then also planning Angel’s third birthday, which is coming up very soon. So that is what I have planned coming up for this week because we gotta make some progress on that. We’ve just been working, focusing on Halloween and then work things. And so I really do need to carve out time and dedicate time to that.Now the bricks in my backpack, which basically means what are the things that are kind of weighing me down or keeping me from doing the best work that I can or being the most present with my family and I would say that is environment. And I think you can tell because we took the whole weekend to clean up shop, to clean up room, the kids’ bedrooms and everything. So it’s going to carry on to this week, and I’m going to be working on different areas in our house so that the environment is as best as it can be.So an a few areas that I have to choose from that are on the top of my head are probably the playroom area my closet area in our master bedroom, and definitely the backyard because we want to have it ready for Jo’s birthday party.Now going into our story time. Last week I didn’t really share a story with you, more of a reflection, and it goes into sort of a hybrid of the two this week. And one of the things that I’ve been reflecting on is the concept of you don’t have to do what everyone is doing to be successful. I’m gonna say it again ‘cause I need to hear it again. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing to be successful. So let me give you a little bit of a background on my thoughts on this.So our last day of service at our restaurant that we had open for over 12 years was November 1st, 2020. Like I said, we’d been open for over 12 years. We had just moved from our original location to a location three times the size and the pandemic hit, so we had to make a decision at some point and decided we just need to cut our losses, and we ended up doing our last service on November 1st.Originally when we opened our restaurant, we had so many big dreams. We wanted to be the next red Ribbon, Goldilocks of the Filipino community. That’s what we originally wanted to be. And then even Portos here in SoCal, if you’re familiar, that was one of our biggest inspirations when it came to building out our business. To have a brick and mortar and to have multiple locations expand and grow throughout Southern California, into Northern California, possibly nationwide. That was the goal. That was the dream.Well, when we lost the restaurant, we thought we failed. We felt so deflated and so defeated. It was just really tough to stay positive because there were so many things coming at us at once and having to make a difficult decision. It felt like we were. Giving up, we were letting our customers down.That situation happening, it forced me to realize that there’s more to the food industry that I’ve dedicated 12 years of my life to. I thought the way to be accomplished in the food industry was to open a brick and mortar and expand by having multiple locations, like I told you, and that’s not the only avenue to pursue, and I just didn’t realize that. I just kept thinking that to, to say that I’ve arrived or to say that I’ve made it means that I have a growing business that’s going to expand with multiple brick and mortar locations and like I said, that’s simply not true.There’s the restaurants, there’s food trucks and popups. There’s catering and events. There’s CPG, and wholesale. I don’t have to copy what other people’s paths are. Yeah, let me say that again. I don’t have to copy what other people’s paths are. I can carve out my own path every different avenue within your industry. In my case, it’s the food industry, but any industry has different paths that you can take. And today. If you are in an industry, you are either doing a side hustle, thinking about starting one or are elbows deep in one. I want you to sit down and figure out what all the different paths that you can take within this industry are. Don’t peg yourself into the one everyone talks about.Don’t copy. Weigh out the pros and cons of each path and decide which best fits within your lifestyle goals. And for me, for my family, that was CPG and wholesale, because for us, we want to have freedom to be there for our children, especially during these younger years. We want to have flexibility and schedule. We want to have a small but mighty team. We realized that the CPG industry has given us the potential to live that life. To tell you the truth, I loved being in the restaurant industry. I loved being in the food industry. It was just so much fun. The busyness was such an adrenaline rush.I adored being in the restaurant industry, but one thing that I wish that I did. I would never take our journey back. I would never change anything. But if you did ask me what is one thing that I wish I would have done is I would have from the beginning, explored all the different avenues that I could pursue within the food industry.Because while we had the restaurant, not only were we operating as a restaurant, but we were also doing popups at the same time. We were also doing catering at the same time. But I didn’t explore everything and I think things might have been clearer for me if I really sat down and thought about it instead of just let things come to me and realize, oh, there’s, a street fair in front of our restaurant every year people pop up. We could do that too in different locations. And then I thought those things after seeing what other people were doing, I didn’t do research and so. All is still meant to be, and here we are in the CPG industry and I’m so grateful that we’ve been able to pivot and see what this part of the industry has to offer to us.Thank you so much for your time. I hope you enjoyed this audio edition, and if you did, please share it with a friend for the full Monday musings experience. Subscribe to my [email protected]. Until next time, remember, you are a blessing and I’m so grateful you’re here. Bye friends. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

 Hello everyone and welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week, what I have planned for this week, and a story time, not in that particular order. This is the audio companion to my Substack newsletter that I send out every Thursday. So if you’re not already subscribed, there’s a button somewhere here where you can do so, and content as of this recording is currently free.All right, y’all. Let’s talk about last week. On the business side, we had a lot of great things going on. We had wholesale deliveries to do. We had production for Amazon as we’re gearing up for Black Friday, cyber Monday, that whole season, and I am learning the rhythm. Of creating content on here. So it has been good and steady.And on the personal side, it’s been just as busy. I’ve been volunteering at Micah’s school. Uh, my daughter had parent teacher conferences and I am helping to plan as well as popping up at Micah’s Trun of Ween event at school.So needless to say, pretty busy, and we capped off the week with a trip to the pumpkin patch in church on Sunday. It was exactly what we needed considering how busy it’s been latelynow this week. What’s on the calendar? Well, for the business, my goal is to get ahead of production for the holidays. So as I mentioned, we’ve been working on production for Amazon. We’re continuing to do more for Amazon, as well as get our online store stocked and ready and also have enough stock for our wholesale clients for when they order as well. So raw materials have been ordered. They are starting to arrive and we’ll do more production at the end of the week. But we’re trying to do our best to just plan ahead because one of the things that I don’t want to feel is stress. And pressure about not having enough and missing out on sales.Now, on the personal side, my goal is to log in my food every single day. So the reason why I am actually logging my food because this is not something that I enjoy to do.But as an experiment, I wanted to kind of see how much I eat in a day, and I just input it into an app that asks you a few general questions that gives you, you know, a budget of how many calories and then breaks it down into protein, carbs, and fat that I should be eating on, on a daily basis, how much water I should be drinking and all of that.So I wanted to see, how much I’ve been eating. And turns out I have not been eating nearly enough. Oh my gosh. So, as a person that does not have a healthy relationship with food, this whole time I’ve been thinking that I’ve been overeating and my mindset has always been, you’re eating too much. You need to dial it back. You’re, you’re not putting good things in your body. Like everything that I was telling myself was basically negative self-talk. And so I wanted to put kind of my money where my mouth is and just kind of say, okay, well if I’m putting myself down and I’m trying to improve, I have good intentions here. I want to make a change. Let’s see where we’re at, and that’s why I started logging my food last week, but I wasn’t doing it consistently every day. So my goal this week is to do it regularly every day so I can see where I am as far as my caloric intake, how much protein I’m taking in, and all of that so that I don’t starve myself. Oh my goodness. I’m sorry. Body. I’m sorry. I’m doing this to you.Now for the bricks in my backpack. I think the main thing that’s weighing me down is my environment. Oh. So the goal is to chip away at tidying around the house for 20 minutes a day. So there’s different zones in the house that I’ve kind of like sectioned off.So there’s the playroom, the patio, our master bedroom, the kids’ rooms, the office. You know, all of that. And so I think the areas that I wanna focus on that I think will make the biggest impact as far as like changing, my environment into a positive one would be the playroom, the patio, and my vanity closet area.So I’m going to be working on that this week and just chipping away at it, not trying to like make a whole day out of it or anything, but just slowly. clean and tidy. maybe in passing I grab a piece of trash and just pick it up and throw it away, and then if I pass by again, pick up a toy that I think needs to be put away just so I can slowly get all those little things that are making the environment feel negative and make it turn into a positive.So let’s get into our story time. It’s not necessarily a story, but I wanna do some reflection with you guys and just talk about the remainder of this year, because October is usually around the time that I just start thinking about the past year. What we’ve accomplished, what I’ve accomplished, what still needs to be done, but also what has changed and what was a goal that not necessarily is a goal anymore. Because once November 1st hits, we officially have 60 days before the end of the year. And for me, when it comes to October, it’s kind of a 50/50. How do I feel about it? Do I either feel like I still have two months to rock 2025 and make it the best year that I can yet, or am I laying the foundation, planting the seeds for a great new year, a great 2026. I always feel like it’s one or the other because I’m either doing forward planning or I’m wrapping things up.I’ve been thinking about it because the month of October has been busy. Anniversaries, popups, farmer’s markets, orders, school events. Not only that, but we’re gearing up for the holidays and it’s always a busy season every year. But don’t get me wrong, I contribute to that busyness because usually I come from a place of scarcity, and I always have a fear of missing out.So I pack our calendar to try and do as many events as we can. I end up procrastinating and not managing my time wisely because I have so many things on my calendar. And fitting all of that in into a short two months just is not enough. So usually when January comes, we are all kinds of exhausted and it takes a really long time for us to recover and say, okay, we’ve finally gotten enough rest. We’re ready to go all in. And my question for myself is, do I want that? Because it’s not necessarily wrong. obviously I could do it better and there’s always room for improvement, but is that how I want the end of my year to pan out? Is that how I want to live? November and December every year. And I think before in the past, my answer would’ve been yes because part of me loves that adrenaline rush.Part of me loves to see all our vendor friends and our customers and meet new people, maximize opportunities. Part of me loves that stuff. I crave the adrenaline. And then there’s the other part of me that says, at what cost? I don’t get to see my kids as much. I don’t get to do the holiday crafts that I want to do with them on the weekends when they don’t have school.I don’t get to spend time with them during their winter break where we can all spend some quality time together. There’s always a cost, and with my kids at the age that they are. Uh, growing up and knowing that these moments are fleeting, there’s never gonna be another time like this, and so I want to enjoy it while my kids are at this age. I want to make memories. I want to participate and be part of their lives in these moments because these are the building blocks to the relationship that I’m going to have with my kids in the future. And so there’s that balance to it as well. And I’m asking myself, do I want to sacrifice the time that I have with my family to go hard and hustle and push and grind myself into the ground during this holiday season, and I think the answer for myself this time around is no, I don’t want that.It’s not something that aligns with my values at this point in my life. Maybe that’ll change. But in this season of life, I want to savor my family, make memories with them, and just be present and together on my favorite time of year.So that has been a question that has been running through my mind, and it’s just something that I’ve been thinking about as the days and weeks go by, because if I want that outcome of spending more time with my kids, like I said, something has got to give. And that means I can’t say yes to every single event that we get invited to. I’ve got to figure out what we want to say yes to and what we’re going to say not this time to, and that is a process because I’m still working on the abundance mindset versus the scarcity mindset, but we’ll get there.Thank you listeners so much for your time. If you enjoyed this audio edition, please share it with a friend and for the full Monday musings experience, please do subscribe to my Substack at justkissa.substack.com.Until next time, remember that you are a blessing and I’m so grateful you’re here. Bye friends. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

 Transcript from the audio:Hello fam. And welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week, what I have planned for this week, and a story time, not in that particular order. This is the audio companion to my Substack newsletter that I send out every Thursday. So if you’re not already subscribed, there’s a button somewhere here on the app or on the website where you can do so, and content as of this recording is currently free. So y’all. Let’s debrief. Let’s go through what happened this past week. Girl, last week was another wild week, but when is it ever not? I keep, I feel like I’m in this season of like, oh, this week was another crazy week, was another packed week, was another wild week. So it wasn’t any different, but there was a lot going on. Our wedding anniversary was on Wednesday. We had a huge wholesale order that went out on Friday and sneak peak - we are going to be in the Bay Area! We have a store that picked up our pancake mix called Andronico’s. So make sure you stay tuned for that. And then to cap the end of the week, we had a big event in Downtown LA. It was Filled Market collaborating with Smorgasburg LA to celebrate Filipino American History month and more on this during story time, but let’s just say it was a perfect way to cap off a really big week. All right. Now this week, what’s on the calendar? Well on the business side, I think my small goal for this week is just to get ahead of production. And I know it’s really early or you know, to most people’s mind, it’s really early to think about the holiday shopping and Black Friday, Cyber Monday. But when you are in the retail world and you sell a product direct to consumer or wholesale, you are thinking of these things way in advance. We have been thinking about Black Friday, cyber Monday ever since like August, and so that is the goal for this particular week is to just get ahead of production, chip away instead of trying to go crazy right before the rush. So we wanna do this smart. We don’t wanna overexert ourselves. That is the goal for this week, for the business. And then on the personal side, honestly, the goal is just simply to drink more water. It’s been off and on where, you know, especially during the weekday, I’m so busy in the mornings going into the afternoons that by like 12:00 or 1:00 PM I realized a lot of times I haven’t had a drop of water, which is not good at all.Another thing that I wanted to add to this podcast is what my business coach would call the “Bricks in my Backpack.” What are the things that are kind of weighing on me this week and what can I do about them? So the first thing is exhaustion From the things that happened last week, like I said, it has been a wild week and I am tired. To be honest with you, I’m tired physically from all the events and production, but I’m also mentally and emotionally tired. Not necessarily because of things, bad things that happened, but more of just like overstimulation of all the things that were happening back to back. So the brick in my backpack this week is definitely exhaustion and my goal for this week is just to listen to myself. Not feel guilty about wanting to rest and actually making time to do so, because as a mom, as an entrepreneur, I feel this pressure of just wanting to constantly and consistently produce, I want to execute. And when I’m not doing that, I feel this sense of guilt. Allowing myself to not feel guilty and listen to my own intuition saying, “Girl, you gotta chill because if you don’t, you’re gonna burn out at some point.” So that is one of the bricks in my backpack that I wanna work on this week.Now let’s go into our story time. Going back to the Filled Market x Smorgasburg event for Filipino American History Month. The TLDR of the story is Roy Choi ate our food at that event! Ahhhhh! Oh my gosh. Okay, so let’s dial back, let’s, let’s go back on how we even got to this point. So if you follow Roy Choi on Instagram, he does food vlogs on there. And in one of the videos that he posted, he visited an onigiri shop here in Los Angeles and I follow him on Instagram. So does Charlie and I happened to see it, so I sent Charlie the vlog that Roy Choi posted and I told him, “Hey. You should comment on his video and invite him to Smog to try your Filipino onigiri. We knew it was a long shot, but Charlie did it. He just commented very quickly and just said, “Chef, come try my Filipino onigiri. I’ll be at Smorgasburg this Sunday. Hope to see you.” Something like that. Well, the day was already amazing. The turnout was huge. There were lots of people. Our line was long, it was going for days, and the event organizers kept checking in on us and kept asking, are you guys okay? Do you guys need anything but y’all, we came prepared this time around.Anyway, the event organizer comes to the back part of our booth and she comes back and she was like, I wanted it to be a surprise. And I am like, what are you talking about? She said, “Roy Choi is here. He saw your post. We asked him to come and he’s here! I know you guys got a long line, I wanted it to be a surprise, but you probably will need to mentally prepare for when he comes and wants to chat up with you.”We were so excited. We hadn’t even seen him yet. Charlie was just beside himself that Roy Choy actually showed up. Well, when he came, he was just so gracious. We got to chat with him for a little while. We gave him some food to try and we got a chance to take a picture with him, but oh my gosh, we were so busy, so we didn’t get to chat it up with him very long. But to just talk to him and be able to share our story with him was just such a bucket list thing. We were so incredibly grateful. It was like the thing to cap off an amazing week Now. Roy Choi is one of our most inspirational chefs. He took a concept and ran with it and made it his own. And I think that he just made such an impact, especially here in Los Angeles with fusion food. And to see another Asian American be able to execute that in a way where it had changed the landscape of a food scene, especially here in Los Angeles, he was just such, he is just such an inspiration to us. So to be able to feed one of the chefs that we look up to and find a source of inspiration from has just been icing on the cake, and we are so grateful that we had the chance to do that.Well, that’s it for today, y’all. I want to thank you for your time. If you enjoyed this audio edition, please share it with a friend. For the full Monday Musings experience, subscribe to my substack at thenotionmama.substack.com. Until next time, know that you are blessed and I am so grateful that you’re here. Bye friends. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

 Transcript from the audio:What is up fam? Welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week, what I have planned for this week, and a story time, not in that particular order. This is an audio companion to my Substack newsletter, and I send it out every Thursday. So if you're not already subscribed, there's a button here on my Substack somewhere where you can do so and content as of this recording is currently free. Hi fam. So if I may, will you allow me to kind of freestyle this podcast because there is something on my heart that I just feel like I need to share and it's just something that is so ingrained in me, , because I have just been someone that. The process is the best when I am expressing myself, whether it be through writing or through talking it over with a friend and since you guys are my friends, why don't we hash it out together. So let's talk about last week. Last week was is, I don't even know, we're in a time where being one party or another or having one belief or another pits people against each other. And so last week for me felt incredibly heavy.Community is just such an important aspect of my life, and it's just something that is so important to me that I seek community. And if I don't find it, I'm so bold as to create my own. I've done this my entire life. My now husband, we were dating at the time, we started a dance group together that was not a paid dance company it was just for fun. I also started an Entrepreneur's Life group with him at our church just recently, and it's just something that I think is such an integral part of the human existence. Community is a group of people, those beliefs can be different things. And as things have been leading up to last week, as life has played itself out there has just been such a lack of authentic and gracious and loving community online and probably in person, but a lot of it was online. And I was just so done.I was so done with seeing that, and I was so done with feeling that because it was spurring on this anger that was in my, in my heart, and it was being planted, and that seed of anger was being fertilized and it just was not who I was or who I am. It really got to me and I had to pause for a second and I just said, this is not who I am.I am a person that is a realist but also someone that seeks the good in the people around me, in my communities, in people that I don't agree with and with people that I do agree with. And I felt like I just needed to take a stance. I needed to take a stance for love, for grace, for just who I think more of us need to be toward each other - and that's kind, loving…and I just wasn't seeing it. The thing that actually tipped the scale over for me was last week everyone talking about how divided people are, whether you're on the left or on the right. And how the right is saying this about the left and how the left is saying this about the right and what each side needs to do and the lack of what they're doing.But one thing that I didn't hear that was being shared was those of us in the middle, those of us that were hurt by violence but don't necessarily see the world the same way as others. Those of us that believe that we can disagree, but also can come to the common ground that violence and hate toward another person is not okay.There was not enough of that rhetoric, not enough of the understanding of finding common ground, but seeing other people's points of view. And disagreeing is okay too. You don't need to be all one way or all the other way. You can believe what you believe. You can stand for where you stand, and it's not my job or anyone else's job to convince you to change your mind. That's not why we are here. We are here because we need each other. It's built into our society, into our DNA. We are not meant to be alone.As I come into this upcoming week, I had to write something. So I wrote an extra bonus post on my substack. I invite you to go check it out. And it's because I've been really thinking about, when it comes to be my time and I'm no longer here, what do I want my kids, my family, my friends and loved ones to remember me by?How do I want to be remembered? One of those things is gracious. It's one of the most important things to me and it's because it has been what I've seen ever since I can remember. My mom is such a huge inspiration, and you can read more about this in the post, but she was just such a gracious person and the impact that she had on her friends, loved ones, her community was big. She was never the type to hide behind anything or anyone. She had friends of all kinds of walks of life, all kinds of cultures, all ethnicities, and she was beloved. And the reason why, and I can tell you this from seeing it with my own eyes, was because she was gracious, but she was also real.And as a person that so inspired by the way she led her life, it has been ingrained in me to do the same.So this week I had to write that post and I'm going to live it out. That's my goal this week is to be a little more brave, a little more emboldened to show graciousness love and the good 'cause. You could go anywhere and find the negative, but that's not why I am here. I am here because I know part of my purpose is not to convince anyone to sway one way or the other, or believe one thing or not believe the other. My role is to find common ground, show people from different walks of life or polarizing opinions and views to see and find some common ground. So that is my new goal, especially for this week, but really moving forward.For my story time this week, this is going to go in tangent with the post I posted yesterday on Sunday. So I invite you to go read that.But one of the things that I do feel like I have to share was something that I shared in my mom's eulogy it was this moment that I still, I can close my eyes and relive over and over. It was when I was probably six or seven years old. I had a best friend. And we had gotten into a big fight about God knows what, but it was definitely something that we were disagreeing on. I was crying. I ran to my mom and basically I just tattled on my friend and told her what she said to me and how I didn't like it, and it made me so upset and. I can just remember my mom's face listening to what I had to say. And then when she realized I was finished, she came down to me, she looked me in the eye and she said, “That's okay. You can be angry, but you need to forgive her. Don't let that anger fester in your heart. Don't let it stay in your heart. Let it go. And be friends again tomorrow.” And I remember being a kid and being like, “What?! No!” And I could tell my mom knew, probably saw it in my eyes. And she said, “You don't need to agree on everything. But what matters is that you show her love and you continue to be her friend.” And at the time, being seven years old, I didn't understand. But that is how my mom lived her life. And now that I have grown, I am now an adult with my own kids and seeing where life has brought us - not just my immediate family, but us as a society. I realize how important that advice that my mom gave was. Regardless of if I disagreed with my friend or not. That doesn't mean I need to cancel her or shut her out of my life. In fact, there might be something that I could learn from her because we don't see the world in the same way. We have our own sets of eyes, our own lived experiences and her perspective could be completely different from mine. Even if we're looking at the same thing. But that doesn't mean we need to stop being friends.I wanna thank you so much for letting me just kind of spill my heart out and do this podcast episode in more of an impromptu and casual way. So thank you so much for being here. If you enjoyed this audio edition, please share it with a friend. For the full Monday musings experience, please subscribe to my Substack at justkissa.substack.com.Until next time, thank you so much for listening. Know that you are blessed and I am so glad you're here. Bye friends. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

Transcripted generated below: Hello fam and welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week, what I have planned for this week, and a story time, not in that particular order. This is the audio companion to my Substack newsletter that I send out every Thursday. So if you're not already subscribed, there's a button somewhere here where you can do so, and content. As of this recording is currently free.All right y'all. Let's talk about last week. So we didn't have a Monday musings episode last week because it was Labor Day and I just decided, you know what? I'm going to take a day and I'm so glad I did. But it was a short week and whenever it's a short week like that, I definitely do feel a little bit rushed.On top of Labor Day, Micah, my son also had Tuesday off. So we had to make Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday work for us as best as possible. There's a lot going on. It was back to school night at school, and we started extracurricular activities for both the kids Gelie, My 3-year-old - or she's going to be three, started ballet last week and it did not go very well. I thought she was going to be so excited to be part of ballet and she was very hesitant. Uh, didn't even participate, but we sat there and we stayed for the entire class so that she can watch, get a little bit familiar. With her surroundings and the other kids and just kind of observe what was going on. So it was really important to me that we stuck with the schedule. We stayed for the entire class, even if she wasn't participating, just to get her more comfortable.And then Micah, who is five, he restarted TAP class and that went really well. He picked up pretty much where he left off, and it was really exciting for him to be seen and acknowledged that he knew a few things about tap. It really lifted up his confidence in a way that I think he really needed because he's going through so much change and newness. I think being familiar with something and jumping in and feeling like he knew a little bit instead of learning something new yet again, gave him a little bit of a confidence boost. So I was really happy about that.And then for me, there was a realization somewhere within the week that there is just a readjustment that needs to happen and how I prepare for business and life, like my approach to scheduling and preparedness and. You know, prepping lunches and doing all these things, there has to be some kind of readjustment because the last few weeks, what I was doing in the past just wasn't really working for me.And I now understand why there are so many different options as far as mom or parent planners because there are so many calendars that need to be managed. Not just mine, but I have to work with my husband's schedule. What are on the kids' schedules? There's two different kids' schedules going on and it's, it tends to get really overwhelming and that realization. Also just kind of pushed me to realize that a readjustment needs to happen.So let's get into this week since I knew something needed to change. These are the, you know, two or three things that I'm going to try personally to help with that change or facilitate that change.First, after I drop off the kids, I'm gonna do what's called. What I call barista time, that is making my morning drink, whether it's a coffee or a matcha or whatever it might be, and figure my stuff out. I think I just need a moment at the beginning of the day before anything else starts where I can add to my to-do list. I can figure out what needs to be reprioritized and what is a non-negotiable that can't be moved.It'll give me kind of like that moment to just iron things out and helps me to feel like I have more of a handle on things. Another thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to schedule buffer time in between items. So before or after an event or a meeting, I'm gonna give myself like 10 or 15 minutes just to regroup.So here's an example. Today I have my weekly call with my friend Elisa. And ideally what I would wanna do is before the call, I want to recap what we talked about the week before so I can give her an update on anything that she's supposed to hold me accountable to. And then during the call I used Notion AI to take meeting notes and jot down actionable tasks.And then at the end of the call, I want to debrief before I close things out, before I forget about the meeting notes. I wanna read through them, make sure that what notion AI actually captured was things that are. Important to me and then add if need be, or take away if necessary, and then move those action items into my tasks database within notion.That way I know it's there. I can remove that out of my brain space, and then I can check on what's next on my calendar. So those three things, having that prelude to the event. Being able to be present during the event and then doing a debrief at the end of the event I think will be very helpful for me.But I need to make time in my calendar for those things. And that leads me to the third thing that I wanna do. Which is be more detailed in my calendar. I wanna add that buffer time before and after each event in my calendar. But I also want to include travel time when applicable. I am an Apple user, so I can only say this with confidence about Apple Calendar, but. There's a portion in there where if you enter the address of the place that you need to get to, you're able to include travel time and factor that in to your calendar, and I think that's just. Such a smart idea. It's something that I need to factor in because that is a necessary step for things like picking up the kids, running an errand, going to the grocery store.Anything that requires me traveling out of the house should factor in travel time. Now, that leads me to. My pseudo story time, and here I just wanted to share with you why, why do I even want to do this? And I've been reflecting about it for the last week or so now, and I realized that these past few months. I've been trying to focus on the word maximize and mostly in regards to time. I've been wanting to focus on maximizing my time, mainly while the kids are at school. And last week I was asked why this was so important to me and I realized I kept saying. My why was because I wanted to focus on work while the kids were at school and when the kids are home, I want to be present and not be thinking about work.And I realized that there's more to it than that. I feel like I'm not doing enough while the kids are at school. There's just this feeling of scarcity there that I could be doing more or I'm not doing enough, and that's not necessarily true every day. Yes, there are those moments where I make bad decisions and I choose to just be lazy and not do anything.But there are a lot of days too where I get a lot of things done, but I had to ask myself, why do I feel like I'm not getting things done, but I feel like I don't have enough time? The things that get in the way are actually distractions that are happening when I'm transitioning from one thing to the next, or one event to the next.I fill that time with busy work. And I find myself pushing the important things to the very last minute. So I tend to feel rushed all the time. Yes, there are days when I don't make wise decisions, but there are also days where I knock it out of the park and it's okay.I don't need to have a home run every single day. That's honestly not sustainable. I'm gonna burn out. And realizing these things made me reflect and ask myself what could help me to reduce these feelings of my schedule being packed, but not actually getting a lot done, which is what led me to what I mentioned before about planning my week. This week.I wanna be. More intentional. I want to add buffer times. I wanna be more detailed with my calendar in hopes that. It'll help me to reduce those feelings of not being productive enough. I don't know if this resonates with anyone else, but hey, I thought I'd share what's going on in this brain of mine, but that's it for today, friends.Thank you for your time and if you enjoyed this audio edition, please share it with a friend. For the full Monday musings experience, subscribe to my substack at the notion mama.substack.com.And until next time. Know that you are a blessing, and I am so glad you're here. Bye friends. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

 Transcript from this episode:Welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week, what I have planned for this week, and a story time, not in that particular order. This is the Audio companion to my Substack newsletter that I send out every Thursday. All right y'all. What the heck happened last week? I could barely remember. I think the theme was though, the theme was easing our way back into school life. Last week was the first official week of school. Micah started kindergarten and Angelie started preschool, and it still felt really hectic because of short days, squeezing in meetings while the kids are at school, and getting back into kids' classes on the weekends. So it felt really hectic.The theme of this week is to get ahead. This week is different from last week in the sense that regular school schedule is now in full effect, no half days, full days of school, and I'm looking forward to that regular routine. Once you're in summer mode, things kind of change and you have to adapt, but when school starts, there's this sense of normalcy, regularity, and I'm actually really looking forward to it.Unfortunately, I had a small injury yesterday. I sprained my big toe guys. Ugh. We were swimming. I had to catch jelly before she fell into the pool without a floaty, and I thought I just stubbed my toe, but it turns out I sprained it. And so now I am limping around, but at least it's not any worse than that and it's already getting better. It's only been a day and it, I'm able to put some more weight on it, so I can't complain. But I do have to work this week with a small injury. Ugh. So the week's business projects are number one, website migration. So we have a new website platform that we're going to be migrating our online store to, and our goal is to have it launched and ready by September 13th. There's a lot of work on our end moving products over. We're looking for a product photographer to take some professional photos and really make our website come to life. It hasn't been where we've wanted it to be for quite some time now. So this website migration is the perfect catalyst to be able to revamp our website, give it some life again, and really make it stand out.Another thing that we're going to be working on is consulting work and then also the launch plan for our Uber spread on Amazon. So we're going to be sending some units in, and once it's all checked in, we're going to do an official launch for our Amazon store with a new product. And then lastly is to get ahead of content. Ever since I left for vacation, I have just not been able to get ahead of my content plan. So my goal for this week is to really focus on that and get things. Ahead of schedule like it was before we went on vacation. On the personal side of the goals, my main goal this week is to change our entire family's eating habits.When we went to church yesterday, part of the church sermon was. Talking about how we treat our bodies as an act of worship, and that was the mindset shift. I personally needed to feel convicted to finally make a change again. So Charlie and I had a discussion about it, and our goal is to start eating more raw foods where we have to do more meal prep, but it'll be worth it in the end because we know what ingredients are going into our food and making sure that it aligns with more of a healthy lifestyle instead of frozen or prepacked meals. And there's nothing wrong with that. Don't get me wrong, we're still going to have those things. But to have less of it is our focus. Now for a story time. I wanna talk about when the pandemic hit and how it affected our restaurant in 2020. Y'all remember? Or don't remember because we all wanna block out that time of our life.The COVID-19 pandemic. Micah was just three weeks old when our restaurant had to shut down due to the pandemic. I had prepped and trained my staff for months prior to giving birth so that I could take a maternity leave and take three months off, but. Because of unprecedented times, plans changed because of the shutdowns, adjusting to changing protocols, keeping our staff and family safe. We just had to figure it out and figure out how to survive well while we were shut down. There were days where we didn't even make $30 for the entire day. But customers were still commenting on our social media about how much they missed our pancakes.So we had to think quick and we had to figure out how we were going to make money. So we decided to bag our mix that we used to use at the restaurant and sell it in our online store and ship the mix to our customers so that they could make it at home. And I share this because my takeaway from that time of our life, though it was traumatic, it was scary, and it was just so unprecedented, my biggest takeaway was that in every phase of life and business, we can't stay stagnant for too long. I'm so grateful that we had the foresight to say, “Okay, people can't come into our restaurant, so let's bring our food to them.” And we live in a time where information and products are changing at lightning speed compared to the past. As entrepreneurs, part of a healthy business is to learn and adapt. And I know that's not the easiest thing to do, especially when you feel like things are fine the way that they are. But what worked 10 years ago, five years ago, or even a year ago, doesn't necessarily work today. And let's face it, things will continue to evolve whether we like it or not.So the question is, what are you gonna do about it? I'm not saying that we need to uproot who we are or sell out to stay relevant, but the thing that I really took away and am reminding myself is mm-hmm. We need to dig deep, think outside the box to figure out how we can evolve and change, but still stay true to our values and core beliefs.Thank you guys so much for your time. I hope you enjoyed this audio edition, and if you did, please share it with a friend. For the full Monday musings experience, subscribe to my substack at justkissa.substack.com. And until next time, remember, you are a blessing and I'm so glad you're here.Bye friends. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

 Trascript:Welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week, what I have planned for this week, and a story time, not in that particular order. This is the Audio companion to my Substack newsletter that I send out every Thursday. So if you're not already subscribed, there's a button here somewhere where you can do so and content as of this recording is currently free. All right y'all. I know I've been saying that I will get into it and talk about how the vacation went and let's get into it. So we arrived at our destination. We went to Cabo for our family vacation last Tuesday, and we were there for one week. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort and TL;DR it was such a good vacation, y'all. Like, I have to say, of course, it had its shares of ups and downs, but all in all, it was such a memorable and fun vacation. The resort we stayed at was called the Riu Santa Fe, and it was such a cool space. It's known for being like a party resort kind of destination, but there is still so much to do for us as a family. They had a waterpark that was specifically for kids so it was amazing. All of us had so much fun. And then on top of that, our food and drink was included. I mean, how can you be upset about that? Granted, the food wasn't like exceptional, but it was good for all inclusive. I have to say that Charlie and I, we travel through food and we get to know cultures through food, so we didn't get that, you know, authentic Mexican food experience, but considering we are a young family that hasn't taken a vacation altogether like this ever, we knew that we were going to want to be at a place where we could kind of stay on property that had the amenities that we're looking for and Riu Santa Fe definitely delivered that. So if you are a family and want to take a trip to Cabo, I highly recommend Riu Santa Fe. It was very good. We had a great time. Now, on top of that though, I do have to say, like I said, there were a share of ups and a share of downs. So let's get into like what happened and it started even before we even got on the plane. So my 2-year-old Angelie, she got a slight fever before we even left home. We knew that that was gonna be like, oh boy, something's happening. And we had the feeling it was either a cold of some kind or it was, um, some kind of growth spurt because both of our kids, whenever they're about to like go through like a developmental change or go through a growth spurt, they do get a slight fever. And it wasn't one of those fevers that we were like, oh my gosh. Like, you know, her fever is climbing. It wasn't anything like that, but it was just kind of that constant sort of low fever. So we had the feeling that something was up. So it started even before we left. So I packed Tylenol for her, but that was basically it.She ended up needing to take Motrin as well. She had a cold, so she also needed to take cold medicine. And then while we were at the resort, she ended up getting an ear infection because we were in the pool pretty much all the time. The kids were just having such a blast going swimming, especially because they've been taking swimming lessons and they didn't need any floaties or anything like that, so they were just having the best time. But because of that and because she couldn't communicate quite yet that she was getting water stuck in her ear. She developed an ear infection. Luckily, the resort has a doctor on site and was able to see her and give her some antibiotics for that. But of course, you know, it was just one of those things.And then on top of that Micah ended up catching whatever Gelie had, so he had some kind of cold. He ended up needing to take cold medicine for it. I also got an ear infection because I got water stuck in my ear. I didn't see a doctor. I just got some water drops from the drugstore, but not before. I had to endure some pain for a couple days, but it got better thankfully.The only one that almost went unscathed was Charlie, but he ended up catching that cold that we all ended up getting right before we left to come back home. So aside from all the health stuff, we had a really great vacation. Like I said, the resort was awesome.We loved how expansive it was, and we were kind of able to just relax. You know, we didn't have a, an agenda or anything like that, and we just played it by ear. It was really nice. It was the perfect amount of vacation for us. We were all sad to leave Cabo, but we were also happy and excited to come home.So this past week, ever since we arrived back home, has been getting back into our home routine. Today was the first day of school, so that's also why my Monday Musings episode. Today is coming out super late because it's just been a hectic week. We've had to schedule production for product restocks on our Amazon store, on our online store, on all the things we are changing online store platforms. So we're working on that. This week, we're jumping back into consulting meetings. We're starting up our farmer's markets again, it's just this game of catch up. On things that we, we had put pause on, and I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful that we have all these projects happening because we have been waiting for this moment of feeling like the momentum is finally moving in our favor, and we want to maximize and capitalize on this momentum and keep it going.All right, fam. Thank you so much for tuning in to this week's Monday Musings. If you enjoyed this audio edition, please share it with a friend and for the full Monday musings experience, subscribe to my substack at thenotionmama.substack.com. Thursday's newsletter topic is going to be the items that I loved and really came in clutch during our trip to Cabo so make sure you stay tuned for that. And until next time, remember that you are a blessing and I'm so glad you're here. Bye Friends. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

Transcript: Welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week, what I have planned for this week, and a story time, not in that particular order. This is an audio companion to my Substack newsletter that I send out every Thursday. So if you're not already subscribed, there's a button somewhere here where you can do so, and content.As of this recording is currently free. So let's get into my weekly reflection slash storytime for this week. I wanna talk about last week. Let's talk about it. The start of the week last week, as you guys know, if you don't already, basically we're leaving for family vacation tomorrow, Tuesday. So last week's goal was basically just to try get ahead.We had a lot of things on our plate business-wise. We got our first non-Asian grocery store order, which was a huge win because it has been a goal of mine for quite a long time, and it finally happened more on that, on a different episode. We also had to do an Amazon restock for our Amazon store. And then on the personal side, we had household chores that I wanted to get ahead of, and first day of school is coming up pretty much right when we get back.So I wanted to just get a jumpstart on all the things, business things, household things, school things, vacation prep. I had loads of meetings, production schedule updates, and I just kept telling myself. Girl, push. Be proactive. You can rest on Tuesday. Just keep going. Push harder. You can rest on Tuesday. By the end of the week, I was so exhausted.I was mentally spent and I just couldn't get myself to do anything. I was just a lump and even guilting myself into being more proactive and productive. Wasn't doing it. this week I just had to accept that my body needed that rest. Do I regret that I rested?Absolutely not. I'm so grateful that I have come to know myself and my body a little bit better to where I don't guilt myself anymore for taking that rest. It just takes me a little while to realize it. So here I am on Monday, and if you have seen my Instagram stories, I'm doing all the things today.Even if I had to push hard today, I'm still grateful that I listened to my body last week and I took some rest. So this week. What is my goal? Well, after today, my goal is to just make memories with my family on this vacation. It's our first time going on vacation as a family of four for more than two days, and so it's a very special one for all of us.I wanna also let my mind rest and do all the things that just recharge my batteries and fill my soul. Why? Why might you ask, is this so important to me? And honestly, it's because in this season of life I realize that time is fleeting, y'all. It is short this season of toddlerhood and with a kid entering kindergarten, it's a special, special season of life.It's a hectic season of life, but it's still special and I feel some type of way about it. The same feelings that I felt when it was time to say goodbye to baby clothes. When it was time to say goodbye to the diapers, when it was the kids moving into a big kid bed, all those milestone moments, I always felt some type of way because I just get sentimental and I love that about myself.I've learned to embrace it, and I wanna be able to embrace that gratitude I feel for this season of life, no matter how hectic and stressful it may be. And honestly, the reason why I wanna sit in this gratitude and never forget it was because there was a time where I didn't think that we would even be able to experience this, this stressful, hectic time with all the extracurricular activities and learning how to raise a human.I couldn't even wrap my head around the thought because I didn't think I would even be able to see what it looked like. I didn't think we would be able to have a family, and so I wanna cherish this time while we're in it, not when it has passed. I wanna ingrain these core memories into my brain and not just look back at the memories through pictures and videos.I wanna relish in them. I wanna laugh loud. I want to embrace my kids and hug my family tight, and I wanna feel it. I don't wanna just look back on pictures. So off we go for our first long vacation as a family of four. I wanna thank you for your time and for listening.There's a lot that you could be listening to right now, and I thank you for choosing me. Let's chat when we get back. In the meantime, for the full JustKissa experience, subscribe to my substack at thenotionmama.substack.com and for next week's topic. Since I'll be in Cabo at the time, I can't promise, but I'm going to try to do my best to do a Monday musings from there.If not, y'all will get the full story when I get back, for sure. Until next time, remember, you are a blessing and I'm so grateful you're here. Bye friends. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week, what I have planned for this week, and a story time, not in that particular order. This is an audio companion to my Substack newsletter that I send out every Thursday, so if you're not already subscribed, there's a button somewhere here where you can do so, and content as of this recording is currently free.Hi everyone, welcome. My name is Kissa. I'm a mom, a wife, an entrepreneur based in the suburbs of LA and this Monday Musings is basically just to not only share with you but keep myself accountable to what's going on in life and hopefully it's beneficial to you.So let's talk about what happened this past week. Honestly, it was another full week and I think I've just had to accept the reality that it's never really going to be slow during this season of life.There's just so much happening in personal and business life that even though the week might look slow on Monday, something will come up, an email will arrive in my inbox, a new opportunity is going to present itself, and that's just the season of life that I'm in.There's already things happening for my kids as we plan for this upcoming school year that's going to start in less than a month. We have play dates going on, end of summer pop-ups, we're adding new markets to our weekly rotation. We even got our first investment last week and we could not be more proud of just the journey that we've been on because we're entering a whole new territory and I can't believe this is where we're at. It's such a blessing. And then on top of that, we had meetings with clients and friends, which honestly just fill me up, gives me so much energy to have connection with fellow entrepreneurs, with our friends and with our family. It really is what keeps me going. Community is just such a big cornerstone to what's important to me and I think my takeaway from last week was honestly that like I said, things aren't going to slow down and that's not a bad thing. It's actually a blessing. That means life is full and I wouldn't have it any other way.Now let's talk about this week. This week is the last full week before we go on vacation. And if you are subscribed to my Thursday posts, you'll know that we are preparing the to leave for a one-week vacation. We're going to Cabo and we are so excited because this is going to be our first family vacation as a family of four. We haven't taken a vacation any longer than a couple days ever since 2021. So it's been four years since we've gone on a vacation of this magnitude. And the four of us could not be more excited.So on the work side, the focus is production. We want to make sure that we get a head start on production for products because there are a few things that we are waiting for. And those orders might go through while we're on vacation. So if we can get a head start, I'm sure it'll be a less stressful process coming back from vacation if we get a head start this week. So that's what's on our docket for work.On the personal side, the focus is prep for vacation, just like the business. So for me, that means I'm starting to organize our packing list as a family. I have a template in Notion that I just have and house. And so I'm going to generate that packing list template and then customize it to this vacation and then fill out all of my travel itinerary stuff. That way it's housed in one central place where Charlie and I can see it and also family members. So that is my project for this week. And then to stack on top of that, I don't think I've ever told you guys, but every single day I do some kind of 10 minute tidy up in our house. The house can get messy really, really quick because there's someone always here pretty much throughout the day. 10 minutes a day is my minimum and I can pick any section of the house where I feel like I want to put my energy to tidy up, or it could be throughout the house. This week, because we are going on a family vacation, I want to extend that to 30 minutes a day. One of the things that I want to feel when I return home from vacation is that I'm coming home to a peaceful place, not a place that's messy where I can start generating that laundry list of things that I need to work on the moment I walk through the door after vacation. So that's going to take a little extra effort from me. Our house isn't a complete mess, but there's a lot of things that I know would help improve our environment so that when we return, it'll be ready and in a better place.And my mindset shift for this week is when I look at my calendar for this particular week, there's not a lot of work that has to be done on our end. And that's not always the case. But when it is, I somehow feel this sense of guilt that there's no urgent business. And so I tend to create a project just so I can feel productive. And I realize that's not necessary because if there's other aspects of my life outside of business that do need more attention, then that's where I should put my focus. And I should be grateful that I have that slowness on one aspect of life so that I can fill in the blanks on the opposite.A lie that I'm telling myself is, “No urgent business means I need to create a project to feel productive.”Another lie that I'm telling myself is that if I'm not cleaning or organizing something at home every day, then I'm failing.And those are obviously not true.The truth is, if there isn't a non-negotiable for both parts of life, aka business and personal life, in a day, then I don't need to do both. I can just focus on one if I want to and pick up on the other another day. That's okay. It's not a crime to do that. And for whatever reason, up until today, I just kept thinking I have to move both needles forward. I have to move my business needle and my personal needle forward every single day. And that's not true.All right, y'all. So now let's break into that story time.I want to talk about when we used to have Food Truck Fridays at our original restaurant. And this was back in 2010, 2011-ish. I can't remember exactly when. But our restaurant in Granada Hills, we were a brunch and lunch spot. So we were basically open from 8 a.m. or 7.30 a.m., something like that, until about 4 p.m. We had a brick and mortar. And if you guys remember this, 2010, 2011-ish, that's when the food truck trend really started to pick up steam.So at 5 p.m., food trucks would pull up and they would line the street where our original restaurant was. And it was such a popular thing for that neighborhood.Customers were riled up about it. They were asking us if we were upset. They would say that they were upset for us because these food trucks were taking away our sales.Us as a brick and mortar, we could do a few things, right?We could copy and get our own food truck. We could do that.We could be upset and bitter and angry and just keep doing what we're doing.Or we could tell ourselves, “If you can't beat them, join them.” And that's the route that I decided to take.That's what we did. We decided to close and then wait until about six o'clock when the traffic on Fridays for the food trucks would get really busy and we would reopen. And my mom would create some kind of weekend special she would launch that one dish it would be a filipino dish that she would sell on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We sold desserts and smoothies and did so freaking well and let me tell you why all the food trucks that were parked on our street “disrupting our business and taking up the parking spots on our street.”They were all serving savory food.They all had different concepts.And so what I did was I filled a gap.I realized that no one was serving drinks, specialty drinks. I realized no one was really serving desserts outside. And that's where we found our little pocket where we belonged on those food truck Fridays.I could have been upset and bitter and tried to block the food trucks from parking in front of our store. I could have given them the side eye or not welcomed the customers because I was upset that another business was doing well. Or I could take advantage of that momentum that was happening and figure out how to make it work for my business. And let me tell you, off of desserts and smoothies, which are not high ticket items, we were making at least $1,000 for two hours of work on those food truck Fridays. Off of low ticket, low priced items. And it was the momentum that I needed and the perspective change that I needed to make me realize that I have the power, you have the power to choose how you perceive things and approach times of challenge. We could choose to be upset about what's happening or we can accept it, pivot, grow, and adapt. And because of that, that was the turning point for our business where I realized there's a corner pocket for everyone.If you have a concept and you feel like you are being pushed out by some kind of trend or some kind of new up and coming thing, you don't have to copy what they're doing. You don't have to be upset. You can reflect inward and ask yourself, “How can I differentiate myself?” To fit within this new thing you don't have to compromise you just have to figure out how your business can fit and there is a way you just have to think outside the box and that can get uncomfortable. Thinking outside the box can feel new and scary and different but what if that's the thing that you need to really set your business apart.Alright, that's it for today, you guys. I want to thank you for your time and listening to this episode. If you enjoyed this audio edition, please share it with a friend if you think it will resonate with them.For the full Monday Musings experience, subscribe to my Substack at thenotionmama.substack.com. This week's Thursday post is going to be more about prepping for travel, so make sure you stay tuned for that.Until next time, remember, you are blessed and you are wonderful. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

 Well, hello Fam and welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week, what I have planned for this week, and a story time, not in that particular order. This is an audio companion to my Substack that I send out every Thursday. So if you're not already subscribed, there's a button somewhere here where you can do so. And content as of this recording is currently free. So definitely take advantage of that. So let's go over what the heck happened last week. Well, last week, I gotta say, to summarize it, the TLDR of it is. It was full of meetings and hangouts. Every day had an in-person meeting of some kind and I've got to tell you, I surprisingly was not exhausted from it.I think that comes from just my love of community. I think being together with people that I really align with and can talk real life or real business with, just gives me so much energy and so much life that it actually energized me instead of sucking the energy out of me. I'm so grateful that I had a week where it was just nonstop when it came to the community aspect of life.On top of that, I had a trademark meeting. Our trademark application was officially submitted, which is great and then we had more business forward projects that we're slowly working on, and they're slowly moving and making more progress. More on that probably next week. Uh, but in the meantime, just know that there's a lot of, background projects that are being worked on. Charlie and I are working on those things so that we can make some nice, fun, exciting announcements in the near future. Now, this week, I think one of my goals for this particular week is to focus on working with the natural flow. Of what my week looks like. And that is AKA, setting the parameters around natural rhythms. And here's a good example.Working between the hours of 8:30 and 3:30 is a natural flow of mine because I drop my kids off at eight o'clock, I get back at 8:30 and then I leave at 3:30 to pick them up from school. And so that is an easy boundary of saying, these are my work hours, and ideally I would want to have everything done by 3:30 PM when I go and pick them up.So how do I maximize my time to move projects forward, to take care of fires that have happened in the interim so that I can make space? For the things that are really important to me, like being more present with my kids and my family, and also take care of household things, right? Because taking care of your household is also a responsibility in itself on top of whatever work or business responsibilities that we have.And then not to mention, my kids are at the age where extracurricular activities are becoming more and more important in their weekly routine. And so this summer was our time to start testing the waters out of what do the kids enjoy, what do they want to be part of? And that's going to carry into the fall when the official school year starts and when that happens, when we go back to school, we're going to need to adjust once again to a new routine, a new flow when the school year starts. This is the part of productivity that I think tends to be unspoken and is almost taboo about adjusting and pivoting your system or your flow or your daily routine, weekly routine instead of being stubborn and rigid. I think it's just so important to be open-minded and a little bit flexible and not be afraid to pivot so that you can adjust when a new routine or a new aspect of life gets inserted or introduced into your regular daily life.I always used to say, “I just got used to my schedule and now it has to change. Now I have to come up with a whole new schedule!” And yeah, I mean, that's just reality because if we were going to stay stagnant and not change, and not grow or not enter new seasons of life, are we really living at all?So that's my goal for this particular week is just to remember that I wanna maximize my time when it comes to business while the kids are at school. I want to be more present when they're at home. When the four of us are together, I know that this time is sacred. My oldest is five and a half, and my youngest is about to turn three years old in four months, and so I just want to really embrace and be present in this time because I know sooner or later, before I even know it, they're going to grow up.Now for the story time. So if you read last week's post on Thursday, I briefly talked about my mom at the very beginning, and I'm sure you're going to hear more about her because she was such an important person in my life, not just in my personal life, but in my journey of entrepreneurship and business as well. This was the first time I actually introduced her on Substack, and it was because I was sharing how she impacted my process of productivity because she used to carry this thing around. It was an organizer, a date book, a leather bound one. By Franklin Covey, and if you are familiar with paper planners or paper notebooks or you know, tangible physical notebooks, you will know the name Franklin Covey. This planner that she used to carry around was leather bound. It was really big and hefty. It was a black leather planner, and I can't tell you what a love/hate relationship I had with this planner. She used to take it with her everywhere. Go to dinner. She has the planner. Go to work. She has the planner. We go on vacation. She still has the damn planner. Oh, these memories, I swear there were moments where I was like, oh man, this is so cool. I wanna have a planner. And then on the flip side, I wanted to throw that damn planner out the window. I wanted to burn that thing down sometimes because as a kid, I knew my mom's work lived in that planner, and if she pulled out that planner that meant no time for me and it was time for work. I remember taking a trip to Hawaii and before we left, I made her promise to not pack that planner in her luggage. She looked at me and she laughed, and I'm pretty sure she laughed from just feeling uncomfortable about me setting an ultimatum. And she just said, “Okay, I won't bring it.” When we get to Hawaii, I'm pretty sure she was kind of calculating when she would be able to bust it out but a few days after settling in, on our family vacation in Hawaii, she finally in front of me, pulled out that Black Franklin Covey and I was so upset and I was like, “I thought you said you weren't gonna bring this with you!” But she couldn't.She needed to because she was just the type of person that worked all the time. It was her way of showing love. Being a provider and contributing financially to our family was her love language. And so, yeah, when I was a kid, I was so upset. In that moment I didn't understand. But I do now, as a mom, as a homeowner, as an entrepreneur, I completely understand because now I have my own form of this Franklin Covey. My phone, my iPad - I cannot leave the house without my phone but this Franklin Covey that she carried around everywhere definitely made an impact on my productivity. I was copying what I saw. I knew I wanted the same thing. I wanted to be able to have some kind of organizer where I can put all my important events and everyone's phone numbers and all the things inside my own version of this planner. While I was in middle school, I thought I had the busiest schedule with all my dance classes and all my music and piano classes and all the dates that I had with my friends as early as I can remember. I just remember thinking, I need to have a planner too. It sparked my interest in productivity and then as I got older, I realized I can create my own system. I don't have to follow what is being printed in these organizers. I can study my own natural rhythms and figure out how to create my own. Now I still have my mom's planner. She's been gone. She passed away in January of 2016, and one of the most prized possessions I have of hers is her Franklin Covey Planner. It's on a shelf up with some business books and out for display just so that I can think of her every time I walk by it in my office. It's just a reminder that my mom had such a big impact on me, not just as a mom, but also an entrepreneur. She has been such a cornerstone for me of how to be so gracious as an entrepreneur, as a woman, as a friend, as a mother, and this book definitely is a reflection and a reminder of who she was.Okay that's it for today. I wanna thank you so much for listening in. If you enjoyed this audio edition, please feel free to share it with a friend. For the full Monday Musings experience, I definitely suggest subscribing to my Substack at https://thenotionmama.substack.com.This week's topic for Thursday is going to be about preparing for travel as an entrepreneur since we are going on a family vacation in about two weeks. So stay tuned for that. Until then, stay curious, my friends, and I will see you in the next post. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

 Welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa, where I share what the heck happened last week, what I have planned for this week, and a story time, not in that particular order.This is an audio companion to my Substack newsletter that I send out every Thursday. So if you're not already subscribed, there's a button somewhere here where you can do so, and content. As of this recording is currently free. So welcome. Let's talk about last week. So last week. Was actually my birthday week.I had my birthday on Thursday, July 10th, and I was talking to a friend about this, but honestly, I feel like turning 40 is very polarizing. You're either. Thinking that it's a milestone birthday, so you're gonna have some kind of party and you're like ready to celebrate, or you're on the opposite end and you're like me, where I just wanted to keep things quiet, spend time with my family and not really celebrate.Not in a negative way, but just more of like I don't feel the need and either one is okay, but I feel like people turning 40, maybe, y'all feel me? It's very polarizing as one or the other and possibly nothing in between. But the great thing is last week my bestie came into town from Colorado and I was so excited to be able to spend some time with her.She is going to be here through the week this week, and so I have been trying to soak up all the time that I have with her because. We don't get to see each other very often, even though we do love to send voice memos to each other back and forth, just checking in and chatting about stuff. Another thing that happened this past week was we got our first investment offer.Now, it wasn't a big offer, but it was still our first investment offer, and we are so excited. It's just almost validating, you know, to know that someone believes in you, your business, your product, enough to put in their money to grow your business because they see potential in you expanding and growing and excited to walk through that with you.So we got our first investment offer last week, which was a huge, huge milestone for our business. Let's talk about what actually worked for me last week. Last week, I was very intentional about opening up my weekly agenda every day in Notion. And I have to say that I know that this is something that I personally need.It's something that's important to my productivity, and if I just kind of wing it and I don't open. It up on a regular basis. I just start flying by the seat of my pants and I have no idea what I'm doing, and I feel very scrambled. and I said, no, I don't want to act like that anymore.I want to have control. It's not about getting things done when I scheduled it, but being flexible on changing things up when things get added to my schedule, because let's be real. What I say I'm going to set out to do on Monday is going to look very, very different come Friday. I have intentions, I have things that I find are important, but as the days go, you guys know this.Things come up and sometimes it's important and sometimes it's not. But things come up and they do have to get dealt with, and it's me going into my notion setup, my weekly agenda, and prioritizing what's going to get handled today and what's going to get handled later. So let's talk about this upcoming week and what my goal is, and just in general.My overall theme for this week is to focus on being proactive versus reactive. And what do I mean by that? That means not using my inbox as a task manager keeping it in my inbox just does not work for me.I've gotta take it out of my inbox and put it into my system. That also means checking in on my weekly agenda, not just once a day, but two times a day, once in the morning and once. At night, and I'm not gonna put a timer on it. I'm not gonna set a certain amount of time. What I want to do is just have the act of checking my weekly agenda.And another thing this means is getting a little bit clearer on what is required to complete a task or move forward on a project. I do not have a good sense of how long something is going to take me. Sometimes I think it's going to be really quick and it turns out to take way longer. And sometimes I think this thing is such a daunting.Task or project, but it actually doesn't take me very much time. And I think getting into the practice of just listing out all the required steps to complete a task or to move forward on a project is going to be what is going to be the game changer for me. Let me give you a couple examples.One, when we got this investment offer, it was such an exciting thing and I thought, okay, we can just simply move forward. That's not going to be a. Very difficult, but then I realized, wait a minute, I should probably consult with an attorney. I have to wait for that attorney's response.I should probably also ask the investor the questions that we have and get clarification and then also wait for their reply. So things like these small menial tasks might not sound like a big deal, but they do take up time and what I think would only take me a week or maybe a day might take longer because I did the action on my part.But there are other parties involved that. Require their response to continue to move the project. Another example would be meal planning for the week. It isn't just about setting up meals for each day. I also need to think about what do we already have grocery wise? What do we need to buy? What is something we actually will happily eat?What is something that the kids can eat too, or we can break down so that they can have a version of what we're eating. And it's not just as easy as saying, okay, I'm going to eat this Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, et cetera. There's still a lot of thought that still goes along with it.Now let's ask that question. What will happen or what do I believe will happen if I do this one? I will definitely feel more grounded and in some kind of control whenever I allow my task manager to be my inbox or my email. I do not feel a sense of control because I just feel like I'm putting out fires and I'm just reacting to whatever is showing up in my email inbox instead of looking at my weekly agendathere's no movement on it until I make a move and I might not be looking at my inbox to remember that this is something that's in notion and it's a project that I need to take care of, and I'm not waiting on anyone. It's on me. Another thing that'll happen is I will set up myself with a good foundation for the week, which will give me a higher success rate.At the end, right? Because if I check in on a regular basis and being proactive versus reactive, I'm going to have that habit of moving those things that are just internally important forward instead of moving on the things that people are asking me to move forward on. And then another thing that I believe will happen is I'll have forward movement.On goals that are on my radar, even when unexpected fires arise. And that's just a part of life, right? As the days move forward, someone will reach out to you and ask you for something, or you'll make a connection and you wanna have a lunch with someone, or you have an unexpected opportunity. Show up or an unexpected emergency show up, and that's all part of life.The ebb and flow of life is unavoidable, but having a centralized place where you can go back and say, hold up. Let me write this down. Let me jot this down and let me look at what else I have on my plate. And taking that pause. We'll help move things forward and not just move the fires forward or put the fires out.Everything will move forward in its due time. All right, now we have gotten to the story time of this episode, and it had to do. And this week's story has to do with last week's newsletter. Last week, I wrote about how I stopped selling certain products for our business because it just didn't serve us anymore and it didn't align with what we wanted for our personal life.And I'm a firm believer that business and personal life, especially when you're a small business, just go hand in hand. I didn't realize how intertwined they were until I really dove deep and went all in on my business and. That's what I wrote about last week. So the short version of this story is we had a restaurant, a Philippine restaurant here in the San Fernando Valley called Nino's Pastries Cafe.When we first opened the place, it was started by my aunt and my uncle, and my mom and my dad. And the goal was basically to become the next famous Philippine Bake shop, not just here in the San Fernando Valley, but. Just be known and. For a while we were doing that, we were selling pastries.And then along came the UBIT pancakes that we started selling at the restaurant. And then we were finding success in that area of the food industry and the restaurant industry. And then the pandemic hit and I had a baby, and then I had two babies. And, I realized that I. There was a sign for me to walk away from the restaurant to say, I need to close this chapter because what I want to do isfocus on my family and cherish these years while they're still young and being in the restaurant industry. I'm not saying that you can't do that, right? Our plan was to do that, but I realize now how much, I realize now how much our restaurant would have been un prioritized compared to the. Level that I was performing at prior to having kids, , because the restaurant was my baby, and now I have two babies, human babies, and I knew that it was time to walk away.Well, then we decided, we're just going to sell online and, and sell prepackaged things. So we moved and started selling pastries online and at popups and things like that. And then we were also selling our pancake mix and other things. And then we realized, wait a minute. I think the pastry aspect of the business just does not align anymore because even though that's what we first set out to do, the other products that we grew and evolved and changed into align more with our values and what we want for our family, our pancake mix.And our CPG products, which are consumer packaged goods. Our prepackaged products allow us the freedom to make an income but distribute them throughout the United States. It still accomplishes the mission of sharing Filipino food and culture with the world and. It takes less time, less cleanup. And so we decided, and we made that difficult to decision to say, we're closing the chapter on that and focusing on what's really performing and focus, on what aligns with our family and personal values.So that's the story for today. I just wanna thank you so much for taking the time to listen. If you enjoyed this audio audition, please share it with a friend and let me know what your current goal for this upcoming week is going to be. I would love to know for the full just Kissa experience, subscribe to my substack at the notion mama.substack.com.And I'll see you in your inbox on Thursday. Have an awesome week, fam. Talk to you soon. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe

 Hello fam and welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa. I'm Kissa, the Notion Mama. I'm a wife, mom of two and small business owner based here in Los Angeles. I own a company called Co-Creative Cartel, LLC, with my husband, where a family business that creates Filipino American pantry food staples for every home to enjoy.And welcome to the first episode of this weekly podcast. So my intention here is every Monday I'm going to share life about. So my intention here is I'm going to be sharing about life that happened the past week, what's going on in business and personal life this upcoming week, and a story to share, but not necessarily in that order. This is meant to be kind of like an audio companion to my weekly newsletter that I send out.Every Thursday at 12:00 PM Pacific time. So if you're not already subscribed, definitely do that. That'll, that'll be kind of an extension or a deep dive into whatever we're talking about today. But welcome, I am so glad you're here. So let's dive in and talk about this past week. My goal here with the reflection is not only to share real life with you guys, but to also keep myself accountable.'cause honestly, as a mom, an entrepreneur and adult in general, I can barely remember what happened the week before. So this kind of helps me to reflect and remember so that I can set up this upcoming week for myself much better. So last week was 4th of July weekend, and to be honest with you, it was an off week.Anytime it's a long weekend, ugh. I just get thrown off because I'm such a creature of habit and routine that anytime. Something is a little bit different. I just feel off as it as it is. But then on top of that, my mental health hasn't been great considering the politics that are happening here in America.And then, like I said, long weekend vibes. So we didn't have our regular farmer's market schedule like we normally do every week. We took an extra day off because the kids were off from school on Friday. And then. We're dog sitting for family, so we have an extra family member here at home. So I am definitely struggling finding a way to jump back into our regular routine today, this Monday, and so I'm trying to figure out how I can start to find my rhythm again.And I had a Monday. Every Monday I have an accountability call with my friend Elisa from your Vivid Edge, and I was telling her about how I just felt so sluggish this morning, and I think reflecting on it, the big reason why is because I am immediately picking up my phone, checking email, scrolling on social media right when I get up.It's just such a bad habit and it does nothing. It does not serve me in any way, shape, or form, and I compare that to Charlie, my husband. He has this. Normal routine that he has, and I am low key jealous of it. And I was telling Elisa about it, that you know when he wakes up and his alarm goes off, like he goes straight to the bathroom, brushes his teeth, gets ready for the morning, and then he'll come out, make breakfast for the kids, put them on the dining table, and then while they're eating breakfast in the morning, he will continue with his morning routine, he will make himself coffee and do all the things.And I am. So not like that. Sometimes I'm, I will have that productivity kind of boost and I'll do the same thing. And then other days if I'm not feeling it, I kind of sway with the wind. And I low key want his discipline. So when I was talking to Elisa, she was like, why don't you find one thing to promise to yourself that you'll do every day to feel great about your mornings?And that was like a light mode. Light bulb moment. I was like, yes, that is such a good idea. And I've been wanting a morning routine that just doesn't involve checking emails or scrolling, because that just already puts me in such a negative place. So I was thinking about it and I was asking myself, what do I wanna do?And honestly, this is so embarrassing to admit, but I think that one thing I can do is honestly wash my face. I mean, I am a mom and a wife and an entrepreneur, and I just. Don't, I don't wash my face every morning, so I feel like that will be a good place to start. I mean, when I ask myself what will happen if I do this one, I won't be scrolling first thing in the morning, so that's already a good thing.Two, I can stack the ne, the ne. Two, I can stack those good habits since I'm already in the bathroom, like brushing my teeth, brushing my hair, doing all the things to get ready. That way I can then get my kids ready, drop them off at school. I'll prioritize and get my day going. Huh. In the end, honestly, I just want a morning routine that fills me up, right?I don't want something that will negatively affect me, and eventually I wanna be able to stack even more good things on top of this morning routine, like journaling, Bible study, prayer time, quiet time, all the things. Um, but I gotta start somewhere. So I'm gonna start with washing my face. Now I want to.Share a story with you guys about finding my voice again. So let me start by sharing what happened yesterday, this weekend at church, our pastor was preaching on Luke 5 27 to 31. It's the story of Levi, the tax collector, and basically how Jesus just invited him to leave everything behind and come and follow him and.When he was preaching about how. And when he was preaching about this passage, like one of the big key takeaways that I had was about how we can't become who we are called to be if we stay where we've always been. Oof. That hit so close to home. I share that because somewhere along the line. You know, life has happened and I've changed a little bit.I've grown a little bit, but I've started feeling comfortable staying quiet while people out there that are louder and more negative have things to say. And they're filling up the space with such negativity. I've also been taking the easy way out of allowing my overwhelm to paralyze me from taking action instead of doing a little bit every day to tackle those big projects.I mean, there's so many days where I remember thinking, should I just stay on my phone? And not do work because that productive thing that I could be doing just seems like so much and such a big undertaking. So many times that has happened to me and that conversation in my head is that's exactly how it pans out, and I've also found myself ignoring what I believe. And I've also found myself ignoring what I believe is my God-given talent of sharing perspectives to help others see a different side of different situations. This has been something that I've always done and um, I think it's because I do believe that one of my. Like greatest gifts is, um, something that I took for after my mom, and she was just a person that always led with this heart of grace, kindness and love, no matter how people treated her.And somewhere along the line. I, I kind of lost that. There are so many moments where, you know, I, I let those negative people chip away at that part of my heart where I don't wanna show people grace. I don't wanna show them kindness. I don't wanna lead from love. And I decided that. I didn't want that anymore.I feel like there's more, there's more people with voices of love that just get shut down and are, are kept quiet and now more than ever, we need those voices to be louder. We need kindness to step in. We need grace to step in. We need people that have words of love to share with people instead of words of hate.And I mean, that's basically why I started this substack because one of my biggest goals this year has been just embracing the process of shedding my chronic people pleaser mentality and that immigrant mentality of just blending in. I don't wanna do that anymore. I don't want to. Fade into the background.I wanna exercise my voice again. I wanna step into myself, and I wanna be proud of who I am and finding my community of like-minded people. There's one thing that I definitely do crave all the time, and that's community. I love talking to people. I love being surrounded by like-minded people that help me expand my thoughts, that teach me and help me grow and not stay stagnant.And I really find I wanna find those people here on Substack. So that is basically it. But I wanted to thank you. For listening, especially to this first episode. If you enjoyed this audio edition, please share it with a friend. Comment below and let me know what your current morning routine is like. If you feel bold enough and brave enough, share with me something that you're struggling with.I'm here. This is an open place. This is a safe space, and I would love to hear from you. For the full Jessica experience, definitely subscribe. Don't miss out on that Thursday newsletter. You can subscribe at the notion mama.substack.com and I will see you in your inbox on Thursday. Have an awesome week, fam.I'll talk to you soon. Get full access to Kissa - the Notion Mama at justkissa.substack.com/subscribe