#1 – Introduction to the “Teach Me Freedom” Podcast

Transcript

Welcome to Teach Me Freedom. I’m so excited that we’ve entered each other’s worlds. I’m Alisia Young. And in this introduction episode, I’m going to be sharing with you the intended vision and purpose for this podcast along with introducing a little bit more about who I am.

So first, I’ll start with where the seed for this podcast was sown, along with how that relates to the title. But first, I will also say the title was also influenced by one of my favorite personal finance books, which was I will teach you to be rich by Ramit Sethi. So that was definitely a big influencer of the title of this podcast. So I’m a huge lover of reading and journaling, very nerdy. And I was fortunate enough to have the creative juices and resources to publish my first book in late 2020. And it’s called Congrats Superwoman: When You’ve Climbed The Mountain And Still Don’t Feel Good Enough. So that’s something I would love to share with more about with you in a future episode. But basically, I have a goal of sharing some of my life experiences as a tied to being a millennial, along with being a woman of colour, along with entering my 30s. And after over a decade of just the pursuing and actually completing a series of training and higher education, and then getting to the other side and finishing it and entering the real world; going through a mini identity crisis and questioning my path along with whose guidance should I really be trusting going forward… and realizing that, you know, being in school, there’s a lot. Especially if you’re in a devoted field, there’s going to be – if you’re putting a lot of time and effort into certain fields, you’re training to become an expert. So that’s going to require an investment of time and mental energy and intellectual energy. And that can come at the cost in some ways of learning other things that might be more applicable, depending on where you are in your life and what your goals are.

So one of the goals of that book was to was to kind of vent in a productive manner, but also to forgive myself because I had been harboring a lot of anger, and just sadness about what I felt like, was a good chunk in some of my better years that I had given and really committed to something where partway through, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue, but kept going to persevere and thinking it would be the better thing to do. But anyways, that was kind of what was influencing the book, and also wanting to move forward in life, through letting go of the past to be able to move forward, but really strongly hoping that it would really help others and be a source of inspiration for others, so that other people – maybe like you who’s listening – can realize that you’re not alone in your frustrations, other people are not alone and in their frustrations as much as it can feel that way.

And also, a big part of it is as well is I find that as I’m getting older, this is really important to me, especially as I tutor several individuals who are younger than me and entering that stage of finishing high school or, or early years in university or college, and just wanting to provide that mentorship that hopefully, they can learn from some of my mistakes, but also contextualize it to where they are in their lives. So while while I was writing Congrats Superwoman, I had started my business, which is called Eat ‘N’ Live Free. And it’s really focused on food freedom, especially with that concern of overcoming binge eating. But of course, there’s other things that are related to it, such as stress eating, overeating, emotional eating, that kind of thing. And so the theme of freedom was something that continued to be the thread throughout many projects that I was working on. And so after creatively giving birth to Congrats Superwoman, and just kind of taking some time to let it be that, okay, this has been created, it’s out there now, like, just give yourself a time to rest. And I had to focus on some other stuff that were job related. I just kept getting these ideas of topics that I really wanted to go more in depth that were touched upon in the book. And so some of those topics include emotional freedom, time freedom, career freedom, creative freedom, financial freedom, productivity, and then certain things that are kind of really at the forefront of my mind, at least at this stage of my life, for example…

comparing homeownership versus renting, dating, relationships, potentially marriage, potentially pregnancy, to have children or to not, fertility, and then self love and acceptance.

So that has led to one of the major goals of this podcast, which is to encapsulate all of that. And so I aim to do that through sharing thoughts and lessons that I’ve learned from books that I’m reading, along with some life experiences and anecdotes. But also one of my favorite parts will be interviewing guests on the show – I love learning from other people. And I feel we can learn so much from reading different books, reading the words of others and, and actually getting to go into their head…people who are not even with us anymore, and reading the words that they had had written to get an idea of what they were thinking, and also picking the brains of other people who are doing certain things that we’re like, okay, that’s amazing! How did you achieve that? And what steps would you encourage us to take because when we have the opportunity to apply certain things to our life, it can help us to live a little bit more freely.

So before wrapping up this introductory episode, I’ll just share a little bit more about me and I’m sure you’ll learn more as time goes on. So first and foremost, I am a huge nerd and a massive homebody. So right now I’m very blessed, I have the opportunity to be working at a role where I’m currently remote. Because right now, it’s still in the quarantine – it’s currently may 2021. And so I love being at home. And my dream in the future is to be able to be at home most of the time and hang out with puppies and cats. And yeah, so that’s what I look forward to. And I really enjoy reading… very nerdy. And some of my favorite things include book clubs, and one on one fellowship. For example, with some of my closest friends, closest family, and just having heart to hearts, or even just vibing out with good company, even if we’re not saying anything, just feeling the good vibes of each other’s company.

So as you’ve heard, I’ve spent a large chunk of my life in school. And one of the biggest things that kind of is the underlying aspect of this podcast is that I feel – and you know, some people who I’ve talked to feel like – we didn’t really start really growing up until we entered our 30s. And, it’s like that failure to launch kind of feeling. And of course, we need to be very compassionate with ourselves and understand that we’re doing the best that we can with the knowledge that we have. But sometimes we also need to accept that we’re feeling certain ways. And so now, just at this stage in my life, I’m currently navigating the working world while building my education and coaching business. And I’m also entering a second career. And so in addition to all of that, just really trying to find balance and stay mindful, and aiming to keep my fitness and nutrition on track. And really, really wanting to kind of stay in tuned, because I’m a believer that God has a plan for me. So, that’s something that I tried to keep into perspective as well.

So in terms of the show, I aim to release one show every three weeks. And then get to a pace of once per week, depending on how things unfold. And so my goal is to have a connection with you. I would love to know who’s listening and what you’re gathering from it. And that’s one of the things I love about globalism and technologies – that ability to connect with people who are not local to you. So I would love for you to reach out to me. The email address is [email protected]. So if you glean any insights or if you have any suggestions or if you just want to connect, please feel free to reach out to me. You’re also welcome to post a comment.

And so, thank you so much for tuning in for the first episode. I look forward to connecting with you. And please remember, this is a key thing I’d hope a key message I hope to share in this podcast is please remember to honor your time and your energy. So this is Alisia Young, signing out and have a lovely, lovely day.