The Ultimate Blog Podcast - Blogging on a Time Budget with Diana Rice

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

Do you want to start a blog, but you’re not sure how to fit it into your schedule? This episode is for you! Today on The Ultimate Blog Podcast, we’re thrilled to chat with Diana Rice, a licensed mental health counselor and a blogger – so she understands the challenge of balancing blogging with a full schedule firsthand. Diana’s here to share how she manages blogging alongside her counseling practice, and give you real, practical ways that you can blog on a time budget.🔗Check out the show notes for Episode 163!

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We bring you in-depth interviews with successful bloggers and experts who offer valuable, actionable advice. Our mission is to educate, support, inspire, and empower you in your blogging business. Welcome to The Ultimate Blog Podcast. Welcome back to The Ultimate Blog Podcast. Today's topic is going to be one that I think is going to resonate with a lot of you. And so we brought Diana Rice on, who is a licensed mental health counselor, to talk about

blogging on a time budget. Not only is Diana going to offer us some real tactical ways to blog on a time budget, but she's a blogger herself as well. And so she kind of walks this walk and does this alongside of us and can offer us that encouragement that we need. So Diana, I am so thankful you are joining us today. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Something that we need. So, Diana, I am so thankful you are joining us today. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Something that we get a lot, in fact, a lot of messages that we receive is I want to start a blog, but I don't really know how to fit that in my schedule.

And so I think that this topic, especially as we're kind of, you know, in the first couple of weeks here of the new year, it's going to be a really important one for us to consider, And especially the person who's like, I really want to do this, but I'm not really sure how. So I would love just to kind of get your story since you do have a mental health practice as well and blogging, you obviously have, you know, your own personal testimony with this. So how did you start blogging or what started first? Like what came first, I guess, is the question. Were you a counselor first or a blogger first?

And how has that kind of evolved? Okay, so I've been a therapist since 2000. I graduated in 2007, but I started doing my internship and stuff at alternative schools in 2004, I want to say. I started, so it's been over 20 years on and off. And I also took a stint into the film industry in South Florida and then came back as a therapist. But that being said, I always liked writing poetry and writing and everything. And it was always an outlet for me because, you know, as a therapist, we have to stay

a Switzerland most of the time. If you know what I mean by that, we have to stay neutral. We have to understand all parts. We have to listen to understand instead of listening to respond. So for me, when I went, I would say around November of 2023, I decided to go online full time instead of having a hybrid model. Like as you can see, I have an office behind me and so people would come to my office and then I would also do online therapy. And it became very lonely because I'm by myself. And I also realized that I was by myself so I could only handle so my

bandwidth is only so big. And creativity was very important for me. So I stumbled upon your podcast and so I was just like, okay, and that's who I am. So when I go into a rabbit hole, I need to get as much information that I possibly can in order to be able to start putting my ducks in a row. And so it was around November. It was a little bit before that, that I was starting to listen about blogging. I'm like, blogging? I'm like, no, I'm not gonna blog.

I have no time to blog. But then I realized, and I forgot which episode it was, where it said, like said you wanna reach more people with the information you have. And even though if you're not a writer, I'm not. Honestly, I'm not gonna sit there and pretend I am. But a little bit with AI, and along with just the creative part,

I love going on Canva and creating the little pictures for my blog, that was very therapeutic for me. And then I realized like, these are things that my clients were talking about, that I was seeing in my practice constantly. And I'm like, yeah, I could help numerous of people with what I know, why not do that? So I said, January 1st, 2024,

I'm just gonna put my first blog out, no matter what it is, how it looks and how bad, because that's the encouragement you guys gave in your podcast constantly from other people and just the two of you girls, like the way you spoke and everything. I'm like, oh my goodness. So, and then two months later, no, in February, at the end of February, I started my own podcast. Oh my gosh. This is exciting. We did not know this. She's just telling us this.

So this is really exciting. And I love that you leaned in because I think it could have been very easy to kind of put your blinders on and be like, nope, I they're not talking to me or I don't think that this could serve me well, especially because you do have a service based business. So I think that this is even more powerful for somebody who has a service based business. I'm thinking of people just in my own personal life, who I know that this episode is going to help because when you have a service based business to your capacity of time looks different because you have people in your door. And so that looks different. It's it's you're not as in control of your time. I mean, you are but you aren't you know, you have clients that you're seeing or or. And so it was kind of your idea with that was just to expand that reach and in an effort to help more people, whether they could come in or not, you know, whether they're going to be local to you in Florida, or if they could just learn from you online, it was that

kind of the idea behind adding this other component to your business. Yes, it was, it was just like, I'm trying, I think what happened is being a crisis intervention therapist for a couple years, honestly, between, so I worked in alternative Broward County schools and I saw a lot of trauma, right? And so of course me, you know, being the therapist that I am, I feel other people's feelings. I just can't help who I am. But that's the work that I do with the client as well. And I realized, man, I'm only helping like, you know, I could only

handle like 16 a week. That was my max, 16 people a week, because that is a lot of work for us therapists. And to me, I'm like, but there's more than 16 people that are suffering with anxiety or, and I don't want to say suffering, wrestling. Because that's what I try to teach. If you read my blog and you go through, and I'm also faith-based, so I'm trying to break stigma in the churches. I am trying, you know, I do different things and understanding that there's a holistic approach. That's why I started the Holistic Counselor podcast as well. So my blog is kind of like what I talk about in my podcast at times. And it's also a way for me to heal as well. It is because I share personal, you know, not too much because it's kind of like I'm

a therapist, so I have to be careful. But I'm pretty real about like when I'm talking about couples things. I talk about my husband and I, he doesn't like that too much at times, but you know, he understands like what I'm trying to do. So it's the intention of the heart. So that's the thing with, and people have asked me, this is why I reached out to you girls, because people are like, how'd you start? What did you do?

And I keep telling them, like, it's the intention of your heart. Because if you're just trying to get SEO and you're just trying to, you know, get paid as this is your side gig for that, that's the intention. That's your why, then you are going to be so caught up on how other people are doing things that you're not going to be authentic. That's definitely something people struggle with is that authenticity and feeling like SEO can kind of take over their whole blogging journey. I mean, it's obviously an important part, but yeah, but you have to like keep that heart and soul behind it. And I guess my question is, does that like, how do you figure out a good balance of that?

And like what kind of content you want to create? How do you go about deciding what to blog about? So in the very beginning, right, the first, and you could see it. I think you could look back because honestly, I'll put some out. It's kind of like posting ghost. Like what I just posted ghost because I try to stay busy and I know it's also my age and what I do for a living. I've done my own work. I go to my own therapist. I can continually read books to try to become a better human,

you know, and that's what I do. I'm a psycho educational trainer basically. And so it's the comparative, you know, compare, you know, comparing yourself to everybody else. You're trying to learn, it is this balance, right? I'm trying to learn from you ladies without trying to become you ladies, you know? And so doing that, that's the balance. And the only way I know how to do that though is to be intentional of who I'm called to be. And that's really, then this is what I do for a living.

Like people come to me because they're feeling a sort of way, you know, they're feeling anxious, hurt by things and everything. So I, you know, I practice a lot of neuroplasticity and reframing cognitive behavioral therapists. So I'm challenging thoughts constantly, and then I give them a plan, but I have to get them first to, to really understand their why and what, and what stories their tribe has given them or the village that raised them. Oh my goodness. You are a blessing. Truly. I just think what you're sharing is so powerful. And I love that you said, you know, you have to be you.

You can gain all this knowledge from all these people. But the goal isn't to be somebody just like them. You know, I have I have a 13 year old son who's kind of in that process right now. And he's just shared that because I feel like all all the kids are trying to be one person. And he's like, and I just don't really want to be that person, mom. I love that. I thought it was very like just insightful for him to recognize that. But it also takes a level of bravery when we are told like, this is the way,

this is the only way this is what's expected and accepted. And so to give that encouragement, not just as a mom, but also I'm so thankful that we've been able to do that in this space that, you know, we hope that when people are tuning in each week that it's not like you have to do every single thing that we're ever sharing, that every single guest is doing. We really want people to be able to take those nuggets of information out and be like, OK, that doesn't apply to me or I have no interest in doing that.

But this is something I could do. And this is one small thing I can do. And so I just I'm so glad that the podcast has inspired you in that way. That's our goal is never to make people feel like they have to do, you know, 75 million things. But like, what are three things you can do? What's one thing you can do? What's the thing that you can do to put one foot in front of the other to get started to share your story, to share your passion and all that. So yeah, I'm so thankful that it inspired you in that way. And I'm sure

that when you went from, you know, seeing people in person to then adding this other essentially layer to your business and a podcast where we're bloggers and podcasters too. So we understand what you just added on your plate. Yeah. That's where the time management has had to come in. And I would love to kind of understand what that journey looked like for you and how you have been able, cause now you're a year in

and so I'm sure you've learned a lot along the way. What has been that journey and how have you kind of layered that into your business? I had to really do a time analysis, right? Because we all get sometimes stuck in habits, right? And so the habit would be, you know, some people get up and go straight to their phone to go look on social media. Some people go straight up to get that coffee, right? You know, to make the coffee. Some people get some people just lay there and their kids

are jumping up on them or their animals, right? And they're just like, oh, and then you know, snooze, snooze, snooze, just let's all cuddle up, which is fine. It's understanding, budgeting the time. So in that month of December, remember November is when it started going into my heart, like you're going to write a blog, you're going to write it. I'm like, what? Okay. And I named it, the name came to me first before I even knew what to do.

And so it's called Liberation Lunis. And I decided that Monday, people are always complaining about Monday, right? Monday, Monday, Monday. And so to me, liberation, right? It's it's Spanish because I am. I'm a Latina girl from South Florida. And so liberation, like, why not be free on Monday? Freedom on Monday.

And so I had the idea. So what I did was outline first, just outline. These are my ideas. Like I want to always have like some kind of spirit, my body spirit. I am a holistic therapist, right? And so something that touches each one. And then me being real of what's happening or how I feel or share my poetry or whatever. So it's like my kind of like memoir, diary slash let's help everybody else too, right?

And so I was just like, well, I'm just gonna do it. What do I have to lose? Really? And I gained a lot. I gained understanding. I gained, you know, people reached out to me like from the podcast and also they're like, oh, this thing, like I realized I don't go back

and that's the thing that I had to be careful because we could spend a lot of time going back to analyze our results. How many people liked it? How many people read it? How many this, how many that, but then that goes back to the intent, a different intention that I started with. So I actually had a mission statement and a vision statement for it, kind of like a business.

You know, I think that's such a great place to start because you kind of have to write down somewhere that you can refer back to, because as you go along in your journey, there's gonna, you're gonna listen to another podcast or you're gonna talk to another blogger or you're gonna see something on Instagram and you're gonna be like, oh, I have to do that. But if you have a place where you've said, here's my goal, here's kind of the kind of content that I want to write, here's the reason I'm doing it, then you always have that to refer back to before

you make a decision about refer back to before you make a decision about changing the way that you're doing anything in your business. And I think that's really important because I feel like that's a place where we lose a lot of time. We're just jumping from this thing to this thing, chasing something that we don't even understand the purpose of, versus like trying to really stick to our goals. It's not that there's not times when you'd have to change something, but you have to be really intentional about that. And so, yeah. And we're totally on board with that whole like, how are you spending your time? That's something that we recommend too, is like,

you have to kind of figure out where you're starting from before you figure out what you can layer in. You talk a little bit about like how often you write a blog post, you have like a schedule you stick to and how often you write a blog post? Do you have like a schedule you stick to and how do you make sure all that gets done? Okay. So, I mean, when I first started, of course, you know, you're excited. You're like, yes, I'm going to do this. And I had everything bam, bam, bam, bam because of my personality and just me being a businesswoman and, you know, and I'm older and wiser now and I have

a little more time. I mean, I remember those times, I think we were talking before we started recording with, you know, having kids, I raised four kids and I, you know, I'm aware of that. So this is why it's not about comparing yourself to the other mothers or to me because I am older with different kinds of time limits. So what I did actually was tell a chat GPT what I wanted. And I said, these are the things I want. I needed to outline it. I wanna be able to have the time to do this for others.

And also, I want people to know I exist. I mean, that's basically too, the SEO thing. And these are the things I wanna talk about. And it gave me an outline for the whole year. Did I go by that outline? No, because life changes. Things happen. I got sick.

I had to go to Spain for my son's wedding. And I ran out of... Because I would draft them all, just thoughts, right? Put them in the draft department of like, this is what I want to talk... Internal family systems, anxiety. Oh my goodness, I just finished reading this book and I want to talk about this. I want to talk about that. And so I have the drafts and then that's when I would revisit. I usually spend one day, honestly, and especially in between clients because I usually have, and I can't go back to back. There's some therapists that can do that. And that's what I'm

saying. I'm not going to compare myself to that. Good for you. If you need 40 hour, 40, you know, you could do that. I love that for you. Please, I hope you succeed because I want everyone to succeed. So I will go in between clients to go on or I'll schedule my clientele a certain day or time and then I will, you know, stack them, like work on them. And I think what I enjoyed the most honestly, ladies, is not only the writing

part, you know, chat GPT. I mean, I'm sure you guys have talked about this, especially if you're a writer. I know a lot of writers have gotten really upset about it, but it's like you're either going to fight it or you're going to learn how to master it. Yeah. Right. And so I really learned how to master it to help me because it is a tool, just like a lot of things.

Like the cell phone when it first came to smartphone when it first came out or a calculator when it first came out, it's a tool. And so I will go on Canva and I think that's my therapeutic is to create the visuals for my blog. So I'll write the blog first and then I'll create the visuals and then, you know, two or three and share them on social media and do people. I mean, I'm not, I have like a thousand followers. Do I care? No. Well, I think especially in your line of work, if you, if you impacted a foul, I mean, think about that, put a thousand people in a room. I think so often we can, like you said, get

so wrapped up in traffic and all of that. But think about if you had a thousand people in a room and you were able to help them get through their anxiety, like get through some of those traumas. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing work that we're doing. And whether you might be a counselor like Diana, you might be a food blogger listening, you might be a personal trainer. I think so often we can get too wrapped up in those numbers. And I'm not saying that those numbers aren't important because if you're on an ad network or that's your goal or affiliate revenue, obviously we are all here to make money too. And so I want to make sure that we say that. But I don't want people to feel like they're

not making an impact, even with those first 200 people who are reading your post or, you know, the person who's at a million page views or who's at a million followers or a million downloads in their podcast. At one point, they they only had a couple. Right. They had to start somewhere. We all had to start somewhere. And in your impacting as you're growing, you're impacting. And so don't lose sight of that. And in this process that, you know, you've, you added a huge layer, quite honestly, to

your business by adding the blog and the podcast. And you don't know where that's all going to head, you know? Well, do any of us though? Like, that's the thing, right, Amy? It's like, we have to understand. This is what I realized. Do any of us though? Like that's the thing, right Amy? It's like we have to understand. This is what I realized. Many humans that wrestle with anxiety,

they're worried so much about the future. And many humans that really wrestle with depression, they worry so much about the past. And so if we're able to really understand the present moment and the choices we do have, because that's the stuck feeling. That's the feeling of like, I am stuck in this. I'm stuck in this. I'm stuck. You're not. You are not stuck at all. And it's just facing, you know, this is something

I utilize a lot too. It's fear, right? False evidence appearing real, right? It is. It's false evidence appearing real. Where's the evidence? You know, show me the evidence of that fear of what's happening right now in your problem. We could sit there and point at the news and point at social media and point at edited videos and we could point at, you know, AI stuff. But it's like right now in your listener, when you're listening, like right now listening to my voice, wherever you are, you have choices from this second on and you have a story to tell. I love, I mean, that's what I do for a living.

I listen to someone's story. Do I love that they suffered or been abused or traumatized? No. But what I love to see is when my client shifts their perspective and reframes their mindset and understands that the power they do have blows my mind, right? And that's where you, like, I listen to, I'll read, the only thing I don't like, I'm gonna be honest with you,

because you guys are pro bloggers. I do not like, and I'll just cut it off right quick, because I don't, like, none of us have time nowadays. Like, this is our thing, right? So I'm looking right now, I'm redoing my house. And so I'm looking for, you know, ideas. So I go on a blog and I'll click the blog and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, all these ads, all these videos. And I'm like, oh no, they're only

about money. I don't care about you. And I'll X out. Really annoying. To me, I love the blog that is just so beautifully done. And it doesn't have to have a lot of stuff at all, you know? And I understand it is a money. I mean, this is something I hear. I hear your podcast where people are making this is their avenue. This is what got them out of whatever debt or got them to get an extra pay or pay, you know, as a stay at home mom. I respect that, you know? So, but to me, it goes back to the intention of your heart, the why, why would you do it? Are you a blogger who is interested in growing your Pinterest traffic without spending hours on the platform every week? Tailwind is the perfect tool to make Pinterest work for you seamlessly.

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You'll have everything you need to grow your audience, schedule pins with ease, and optimize your strategy so you can stay focused on your growing blog business. Visit the link in our show notes to sign up for Tailwind today and simplify your Pinterest strategy. I think that, yeah, you're right. I mean, we all have our different goals with our blogging. And so people are going to hear a lot about getting on an ad network, making ad revenue, and we obviously believe in that as such an impactful way to share your story and make money, but that's not necessarily what everybody needs to do.

You kind of have to carve your own path and see your own purpose. And so, especially for somebody that's a service provider, like with what you're doing, you may have a completely different intention with your blog. And I'd love for you to talk a little bit about like how you keep that. I know it's, you know, first and foremost is to help people. But what other ways are you utilizing your blog and what's your kind of plan for the future with it? Will you monetize it in

some way? Will you use it to bring people to your services that you provide? Like, what will keep you going long term with this blog? So to me, I learned something about evergreen content, right? And I'm going, what? Am I going to talk about trees? And I realized, like, I could do that, honestly. I love trees. But so I researched that and I heard you guys talk about it. And then I'm like, no, that makes sense.

So it's kind of like a legacy I'm leaving behind for my grandkids and for whoever reads it. Like if God asked to take me today, I want whatever's left behind to something where people point and said, yeah, she loved Jesus and she loved me. And so I wouldn't mind, I think that's the next level, honestly, is a little bit of passive income because the job I do is hard and I'm ready to retire. And I am shifting right now from through the Valley therapy into transform mind consulting and coaching. So I have both businesses right now. And that just literally

opened this year a couple of weeks ago. Like I just announced it in my, and this is another thing. Listen, ladies, I need your help because I need to figure out, do I blog on that website too? I'm like, I can't, I can't. So now see, as the human being that I am, I'm overwhelmed a little going, I need guidance. So of course, what am I going to do? I'm going to rabbit hole into the ultimate blog podcast. And there's another one that I listened to about SEO.

And just to figure out if I'm going to batch content there and maybe instead of dropping every Monday, every other Monday on one and every other Monday or see. And so this is now I have to go back and figure that out. Or do I utilize what I wrote in through the Valley Therapy blog and reframe it to make it more consulting and coaching? But the same kind of topic. That's where I'm at right now. I don't know. I think that brings up a good question. And it also falls in line with the time management kind of piece that we're talking about too,

is repurposing your content. And you're obviously in sessions. So let's just kind of break that down. So you're in sessions with clients. You're learning about the struggles that people have been through or are going through. And I would guess that the people that you see face to face probably mimic what a lot of us are going through or have gone through. Not saying there's not other extenuating circumstances or

whatever, but my guess is that you learn a lot from them with the struggles. And then you take some of that without obviously using names and then you reframe that in a way that it can help the person as a whole. So somebody who's going to come to the blog and maybe doesn't live in Florida where they can come see you in person or doesn't have the ability or the financial capability to see a therapist. And so you can help them in that way. And then the person who doesn't read blogs at all can tune into your podcast. You can once again repurpose that content there. And so I think that that's another way that when you're thinking about adding layers into your

business, whether you're a blogger or a service-based business that's going to add a blog component to your business, I think you have to kind of think about how those layers work and how you reach different people. The goal isn't to reach the same person in all three spaces. So sure, if your clients want to listen to your podcast or want to read your blog, that's fine. But the goal really would be to maybe find people in each of those markets to where you're casting

a wider net, essentially. But with your question with adding like that other business, each of those markets to where you're, you're, you're gaining a casting, a wider net essentially. But with your question with adding like that other business, what I would ask is each, each blog should have like, we call it a reader avatar. So like, who are you speaking to exactly? And how does the content that you're creating on that given site, how does that speak to that person? So it's not that the content can't be similar. I wouldn't title them the same thing, because then they're just going to compete with each other. You probably know that.

But how can you reframe it in this new way, on this new website in such a way that is going to speak directly to the person who is finding that for whatever reason they need it to be? So it's not like you can't take things that you've done on Liberation Lunis and put it over on there, but it's definitely not a copy paste. It's more of a, okay, I've done this research already. Now, how do I use it in a way that's going to help the people who are coming on to this new site? So that would be, that would be

my, my small little pep talk there. There you go. I love it. And yeah, and that's, and it's also understanding how much energy do I have at the moment too, right? And so it's like, I, I do sometimes bite off more than I can chew. That's just lessons being taught to me constantly, you know? And I think that's just something that happens to many American mothers, honestly, you know, like just our culture in general. And so being said, like I'm gonna probably, maybe I'll go back and look at the numbers and see. But a lot of my content is not for consulting and coaching either, right? It isn't because a lot of my content has to do

with anxiety, like I think the one blog, and I did look it up before I came on, just in case you asked me that question, which blog has the highest number? It's called, it's on P's called a silent purity culture. I was surprised. I was very surprised that that's the one that's my highest one. And I'm like, oh, interesting. I wrote all about all this and all this energy here and this is the one, but that's okay because this is where I know like a couple of people found me. They're

like, I found that interesting. And that's what I'm dealing with is the guilt and the shame of being raised in that kind of culture. And I was like, oh, wow. So it, you know, people have reached out and I'm grateful for that, you know, for the future of it. Like, I don't know. I mean, I think the content is important in the way you put it out there. That's one thing I think for it to be.

Here's an example of what I just did. I had one, like my second blog I ever made, second or third, and it was on a faith and wellness board. Instead of a vision board, I like to call it a, you know, faith and wellness because I am a Christian counselor. And so I looked back and I'm like, oh, this was horrible. I'm like, what was I thinking? But at that time, it worked, right? It was what I'm trying. I'm just taking the risk because that's, listen, we have to, we have to learn to fail forward. We have to learn that it is okay to fail.

It's okay, it's okay. We fail forward, we learn. These are lessons to learn. You have to, that's the only way to learn is to, you know, not be good at something for a while until you get good at it. Too many people are so scared to fail. And to me, I'm like, so I took that, I deleted it and revamped it and put it out.

I think it was this past Monday. That's funny. I'll be interested to see how that does when you when you redid it. Yeah, I redid it. I dropped it on, you know, on the past Monday and I created something new and put more of something I thought was more important. Because of the year I spent listening to my clients and what their needs are, so I shift changed it and it's still the same kind of content though.

Yeah. That feedback that we get is so helpful if we can just, like you said, you listen and you hear what questions are people asking, what content is getting the most views and that what you don't want to spend all your time like in the weeds, analyzing every single like and in page view and all of that if you can take a step back and look at it as a whole I think it can help shape how you will move forward in the future. But I think it's also a challenge as well because we are such multifaceted people and we feel like we want to help everybody with all different kinds of problems. And we have to sort of set some boundaries around ourselves to make sure that we're doing the right things and being impactful. Do you have any advice for like somebody starting out and like, okay, I have this service based business.

I want to layer in some other aspects like a blog or this or that. Like, how do they, I know, you know, we look at our time and stuff, but how do we set up like these boundaries around ourselves and our time so that we can make sure that we're accomplishing the things that are the most important to us? Well, I think, well, first of all, many of us go into analysis paralysis, right? And then we're wanting things to be so perfect because that's something a lot of people struggle with, is perfection, right? And so to me, I think it's either to find a mentor,

maybe at your local library, or listen to the ultimate from the beginning. I mean, they titled it very well. So I would like go in and search and then see, or maybe you could recommend it on this, the show notes of where to start. I think that would be a great idea of where to start or just hire them or hire me

because I am a consultant and coach now. I mean, so it's like I could help, accountability is really important, I think. And to me, if you don't have accountability, it's so easy to just keep, you know, we just go here, we go there, we go there, we go there. And to me, for someone to be like, hey, listen, no, no, no, come on, gently come back. This is what we discussed. These are the goals. Let's remind you. But we need that. We need that.

We need each other. We're meant to be in community. We are. I mean, that's the thing that I really was taught during the pandemic. What I saw was brutal, you know, and how I had to, you know, get people to go outside and trust nature, you know,

and be like, okay, take a deep breath and get back to who you are in your creator. I mean, many people that listen might not be a Christian. So whoever, what do you believe in? Because if you just believe in yourself so much, you're going to go to the end of your rope. So we need each other. We need to understand who we are, why we're made and what are you going to do about it? You know, there's hope out there. And this is one thing too. I had to train myself because I was a Netflix girl. I was social media. I mean, it's just, I mean, they purposely hired psychologists to get us addicted to these things, okay? If you,

if you do the research, you will understand why we are so addicted to all this stuff, these little smartphones or the laptop. And so I started to replace little by little of, okay, why am I sitting here just letting them feed me information in that manner? Why not create information? Why not create? And so that instead of, and the evenings,

instead of sitting there for two, three hours to wind down, I would make myself a special cup of tea. And really, if I did research, it would be researching actual scientific stuff or positive things so I can put it together and pass it along to others. Because change starts with us, each person. So if you're listening, you have a story.

You have a story to tell. You have a gift. You are gifted with something. I don't care if you don't feel it right now. Let's not talk about feelings. Let's talk about who you are and you are made in the image of God. I'm not telling you you're a God because that's narcissistic. I'm telling you that you have gifts and talents that need to be told. There's 8 billion people in the world. I realize a lot of my people that read my blog, there's a map where you could see who's reading it. I'm like, what? India, all over different areas.

I'm going Africa. Wow. The reach is huge. We here, especially in the Westernized culture, we're a little bit more advanced than a lot of people and that's, they look for us for information. So why not create something you guys to inform others with, with your passion, your icky guy. And if you don't know what icky guy is,

I will send a link to the ladies to put. We will put it in the show notes for sure. I think that that kind of tied in perfectly kind of what you were just talking about was what you said in the beginning and taking a real honest look at our habits and how those align and that we are in control of those. And I think often we talk about it being good habits

or bad habits and taking those labels off, whether they're good or bad and just noticing and getting curious, like what are my habits? What are my rhythms throughout the day? And do those rhythms fit with the way that I want my life to look or what I want what are my habits? What are my rhythms throughout the day? And do those rhythms fit with the way that I want my life to look or what I want out of my life? And just getting really curious with that, you know, we're at the beginning of a new year. And so I hope that this episode has kind of challenged you in that way to kind of look at what you're doing and what you want

and what shifts can be made. Nobody has unlimited time, but it's all in how we spend the time can really impact who we can impact. I mean, I think it's just kind of like a full circle moment there. So I really appreciate your insight that you've shared with us today, Diana. And I'm so glad you reached out. Thank you for being a listener of the podcast. And also thank you just for sharing your journey

and also your expertise with us today. It was so insightful and I think it's going to inspire a lot of people. And can you please share with them how they can find not only your blog, but also your podcast and how they can connect with you? Oh, wonderful. You go to www.throughthevalleytherapy.com or at through the valley therapy in social media. I'm only on Instagram and Instagram goes straight to Facebook. So don't message me at Facebook because I hardly go on. And then the holistic counselor podcast.

That's the name of it, the holistic counselor podcast. And you can reach out to me and, you know, like if I have time to reach out back, I would love it. I'll try my best. That's all we can all do is try our best. Thank you so much Diana. This has been so wonderful. I'm excited to share this with everybody. Thanks for having me ladies and I'll continue to listen and maybe one day when I don't do this job I'll just jump in and take one of your classes big time and because I'm like yes and I'm I'm like, Oh, no, I can't see you have to understand your budget, not only time, your money, everything. All of it. Right. 100%. Thanks, Diana. All right. Bye. Thanks for listening to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. If you'd like to learn

more about building your blog, visit theultimateblogpodcast.com backslash newsletter to get signed up for our email newsletter. If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love for you to share it with a friend, subscribe and leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts. Thanks for tuning in today and we'll see you next time.