Anna's Guide to Passions and Hobbies
57:55 Share

Four years. That's how long it took Democrats to ruin our economy and plunge our southern border into anarchy. Who helped them hurt us? Ruben Gallego. Washington could have cut taxes for Arizona families, but Ruben blocked the bill. And his fellow Democrats gave a bigger break to the millionaire class in California and New York. They played favorites and cost us billions. And Ruben wasn't done yet.

We'll be right back.

Carrie and the Republicans will secure the border, support our families, and never turn their backs on us. Carrie Lake for Senate. I'm Carrie Lake, candidate for U.S. Senate, and I approve this message. Paid for by Carrie Lake for Senate and the NRSC. Welcome back, y'all, to Anna's Guide to...

something today. I'll tell you in a minute, but first I just want to say I love being home. I love being in the studio. I love sharing life with you guys. I know you're probably hearing these podcast episodes a little bit later than when life is actually happening, obviously because there's like an editing process, there's pre-recording, things like that that are happening while the podcasts are coming live, but I'm gonna hop right into our rosebud thorn because I

my rose is so big that I can't wait to tell it to you so the rose of this week I feel like I have so many roses like that is such a blessing to say that like I'm so excited about so many things but firstly by the time you're hearing this episode

um i'm leaving for paris tomorrow for the olympics which is huge i can't believe that's real life brew is hosting a portion of it with nbc so we are moving to paris for almost a month at least he is i have katie's wedding so i will be vanishing early from the olympics to attend katie's wedding and be the maid of honor i love being her that's a huge thing watching your best friend get married that's like it's not even a rose of this week but leaving tomorrow for a long travel one of my favorite cities on the planet is paris so getting to go there for a while i'm

10 out of 10. Thing number two, that's a massive rose. That is, it feels like the one that I actually can't shut up about is the fact that my podcast is officially live. Like you guys, it's crazy because I've like, I, my podcast is live and we are number four on top pop culture podcasts, which what the fork do you mean number four? I don't

I like woke up this morning and saw that and I was ready to throw up. I could not believe it. You guys have shown so much love to it. You have, I already have over a thousand ratings from just the first episode that went live about Anna's Guide to How I Got Here. So when you guys reach this episode, if you haven't heard it a million times already from me, thank you. And I appreciate you so much. And it means the world to get to share something that I was so nervous about. And I literally made a video yesterday.

about it on TikTok today of being like who cares like what people think or what people are going to say or your fears and things that you are worried about in your own mind and how you're you're putting your pre-existent judgments before you even take a chance on yourself and I truthfully felt a little bit that way with this podcast I was like what do I have to say and truthfully I could be saying nothing and maybe these just feel like a little comfort show which is truthfully all I really ever wanted is to just have like a little safe comfort space for everyone but I

Man, does it make me feel good to like just see all the hard work that went into making this podcast come to life, be appreciated and not only appreciated, but like so cheered on. Like, come on. I could scream from the rooftops. I mean, if you saw any of my pictures from this week, it was me and my best friend yelling out the window about the fact that the podcast was live and

Oh, I've never been so excited and just so honored to get to share life with you guys. And there is so much more to come. Maybe a bud of this week then is the podcast. Maybe I can shift that from a rose to a bud. But man, number four is a pretty big rose. A bud of this week is...

The planning and preparation. I'm excited to see what happens when I'm in Paris. I have no itinerary, no agenda, no schedule, no nothing in plan and in mind. So by the time you get this episode, I probably will already be coming home from there. But at this moment in time, I'm kind of going as an open book and I'm really excited to see what happens while we're there for the Olympics. I am so proud of Bru and so I'm really excited about that. And my thorn of this week, not having any ideas for a thorn is a really great thing. Um,

So despite the travel, I never want to be ungrateful for the travel. I'm obviously, I love traveling. I love that it's part of my job. I love that it's part of what I do for work. Man, I miss being home though. I kind of started the episode with saying I love being home and I only got to be home for two or three days. So I'd say my thorn is that I wasn't just a little bit longer. But the good news is once we finish, this is the final few weeks of my like six week travel extravaganza that I knew I had planned for the summer. So once I...

enjoy this last couple of weeks. We'll be home for good for a little bit, for at least most of August. And yeah, that's going to be great. I am so excited.

But for today's episode, I am so excited to talk to you guys, even more excited than I am to be back home. I'm excited to talk to you guys about passion and not like spicy passion, but like hobby passion. My family always jokes that we're really passionate people, like we find things that we love and we really like stick to it. And I think that's something that I've always really enjoyed is having hobbies and having

I'm actually just gonna divulge about passions and hobbies because I think that that whole world gets a little bit complicated once you get out of school. In school, it's so easy to get to hobbies. It's so easy to make friends and find things that you want to do and be involved in sports and be involved in art club or music or learn new things. And it's because it's like all at your fingertips when you're at school. But the second you get into like true adulthood, um,

Sometimes it feels like you don't have time for it or I think even more is that you don't feel like you know where to go or how to find it or how to know what you love. I think that our hobbies are all little pieces of ourselves. So being able to be self-expressive, a lot of my hobbies are creative and I think that has a lot of value is having ways to express yourself creatively. So today's episode is Anna's Guide to Passion. I never do this from a notebook. I always have like a typed out

version of my podcast that I kind of refer to and today I just was pen to paper and I think that that is maybe that's a little piece of my passion. I love writing. I love handwriting. I love the pen to paper and so I was like you know what today feels like the most authentic to have a little notebook with me while I read you guys about my passions, read to you about some questions that I got from my Instagram, some questions that I got from the podcast Instagram and

So let's start with just saying that. If you don't already follow us at The Anna Guide on Instagram, on TikTok, or our YouTube channel, don't forget to go and subscribe. I post daily to all of those. And you guys can check in to see updates on the podcast, what episodes are coming out, any fun little tidbits, some reminders, some empowering things.

I post the phone number you can call to give me a little ring and check in during the podcast during Anna Answers, which is the last segment. So don't forget to go check that out over on Instagram and TikTok. But I was really excited when I saw a lot of questions come up on the sticker that I posted on my story this morning about people's curiosity about passions. And you guys asked the best questions. I...

I decided that I was going to like kind of break them all down into categories and we're going to go one at a time in a way and just talk about these like areas of life that we're navigating. As a lot of you know, I'm 27. So I feel like I have a lifetime of passions. Like I am also a jack of all trades and a master of none. And I am somebody who picks up passions like constantly.

sand on the beach. Okay. I am in love with something one week and over it by the next, or I'm in love with something and trying to pursue it for years. And then like I try and I'm like, that wasn't really what I thought it was going to be. And that's why I think that

It's kind of fun to talk about creativity and pursuing your passions and more importantly whether or not you should turn your passions into a career which is something that I did and have firsthand experience on and have watched from my parents have first-hand experience on as small business owners who my mom shifted her passion into a career and

And I just have a little bit of a, I have a particular perspective on it that I thought it'd be kind of fun to share and also get your guys' opinions on that as well. So let's get right into it. I think a big moment is how do you define a passion?

Because I think we can have passion like passion in a relationship intimacy all those things But for me, it's like passion is something that you pour yourself into It can be for a long period of time. It can be brief It can be something that you come back to regularly and I think a really great way to define it too is like a hobby it's a A pastime, but I think that when you find things that you're really passionate about and things that you really love They're a little bit evergreen and I think that they're a big identifier to who you are as an individual and for me

I, like I said, am a jack-of-all-trades. I have a lot of things that I'm passionate about from obvious being video making and creativity and painting and watercolor and calligraphy. I always found a lot of my passions growing up in the art field because I think that I excelled quite a bit more in like the math and sciences growing up. I also always loved writing and

I don't know that I was any good at it, but I ended up getting my master's in it. So it came back around as a passion for me. At first, I didn't think I was good at it. So I stopped doing it because I didn't think I was good at it. And that's a really big part of passion that I want to touch on today is I don't think you have to be good at it to enjoy it. I don't think that passion means that it's a profession. I don't think that passion means that you have to be

A1, the best of the best, top notch. I think the point of passion is that it's a way to pour yourself into something and it's a way to have a thing that you really enjoy. Sorry, I wanna make sure, I just realized I'm wearing boxers and I just went to go sit cross-legged and I was like, did I just flash everybody on camera?

Okay, guys, I feel so official because today's episode of Anna's Guide is brought to you by Command Brand. Command makes it easy and worry-free to create a space that reflects who you are with damage-free hanging products. Our first sponsor. What the heck? What are we doing? But life is so much more joyful when your space reflects you. But making every space in my house feel unique and special, like my podcast studio, to me

to me can feel more trouble than it's worth. However, Command products are here to help make it easy. I use Command strips all over my house because I feel like my style is ever changing. I can never decide where to put something and leave it. So Command strips allow me to take stuff down and put it back up easy peasy. Even in this space, I have an editing bay right behind you guys that you can't see right now, but my wall is clean.

covered in little photos of my friends so I can use Command products like their poster ships to put my pictures on the wall and be able to check out my friends and just have this nice little encouraging photos that keep me going when I'm in the editing room. So if you want to spice up your college dorm or new apartment just a little bit, keep some Command products handy, whether it's a cute string light above your bed or a functional hook for your many back to school outfits or for me, I keep my little cooking... What's the ship? My apron?

I keep my apron on a command hook in my kitchen. She could go away, but she's there now. Command Strip has got you just like they've got me. Church's original recipe is back. You can never go wrong with original. Still tastes the same like back in the day. Right now, get two pieces of chicken starting at only $2.99 or 10 pieces starting at only $10.99. Church's. All for valid at participating locations.

Visit command.com to find where you can buy Command products this back to college season. So I think that passion is something that is a way to pour yourself into the world because we put ourselves into a lot of things that we do. We put ourselves into our work, into our family, into our love lives. And I think passions are what refill your cup.

Okay, so how do you find those things? How do you find what you love? How do you find what you enjoy? I think the organic way to do it is you continue things that you started a long time ago. Like I picked up watercolor when I was in college because my mom and my sister did it. Easy. It's like a family thing at that point. I watched everybody else do and I thought that's a really cool thing. I want to try it.

So being able to find a passion in that way makes it really simple. I used to get fed calligraphy videos on Instagram when I was in college too. I don't know if anybody would like get those where it's like the little feather pen writing. And I decided that I was going to put my whole mind, heart and soul into it. And I used to actually be able to do wedding calligraphy really well. I can still write in calligraphy.

It's pretty I'm gonna be so real. It's pretty impressive Maybe I'll like put a little something on here so you guys can see that I'm like I have reason to say that i'm pretty proud of myself for what I can do on calligraphy But I always really enjoyed handwriting. I think I have pretty nice handwriting. I think I was kind of funky like fun pretty handwriting so Calligraphy in college I started doing Just from instagram videos and I think that's another big thing Think about the people that you admire and who do you love watching and what do they do?

Like lately, I think I've been getting a lot of videos on home decor So I really want to be good at home decor as like a passion like I wish I had a creative eye to see Like the way that a space would look together like this space right now that I'm in I feel like it looks easy to have known that this would be how this looks I don't think I could have done it myself though And that's like a muscle that you have to work. So a passion is like a muscle and when we were younger, I

Those muscles, I think, were worked all the time because we're kind of forced to do different weird hobbies from the classes that we had to take. And that's how you found what sports you liked or what were your friends doing. And I think that's a great way to say how you find a passion. Look at what your friends do.

Do you have a friend that knits? I think everybody has a friend that knits or like crochets. Love. If you are somebody who can handle that, I am so impatient. I want it to be done. That's how I know it's not a passion for me. Couldn't, I need a little bit, I'm like a little bit too instant payoff-y to do crocheting, truthfully. But like there's people who make the most beautiful shirts or clothes or this. I think I could do sewing and clothing like seamstress.

Only because my mother does it and I feel like when I watch her she can whip that stuff out in like three hours And i'm like that's my cup of tea or pottery like pottery I can do in 30 minutes Love sign me up not the long not the long part of it We're like it has to get like cooked for 12 hours and then painted and then I love the painting part But then cooked again the cooking part I leave it for where I have a pottery membership at the studio and somebody else does that because it's like not for me, but

You can find like find little things that you love from looking at the people around you. But what I thought was really interesting is I had a lot of people ask, what do you do when you want to do something and you don't know where to start? The internet. Okay. Obviously the internet. But I also think that asking someone who you see doing that hobby is a great place to start because people love to talk about what they're passionate about. I mean, look at me.

I'm sitting and doing a whole episode, a full 30 to 40 minute episode about what I'm passionate about. People love talking about things that they love. So if you see someone online, it's not embarrassing. It's not cringy. Also, call back. Who cares? Who cares? This is your chance to live your life and enjoy and find something that you really love and really could end up being something that you do for a long, long time after this. If you see someone walking down the street and like maybe they have their like little...

Maybe they have a camera around their waist and you're interested in photography.

Never have I ever turned down somebody asking me about a camera. I love getting asked about cameras because I could talk all day long about them. That's another huge passion is photography, which I picked up from growing up and seeing my parents do it and not only seeing my parents do it, but pulling inspiration from people you admire truthfully. Photography, I think probably came from like early influencers, JC Marie, Tezza, Aspen Ovard, like all the girlies that we grew up with on Pinterest are the reason I think I love photography.

Because I was like, they're making art. And there was just something about the strategy of like how you see the composition of an image come together and the color scheme. And it made me want to learn how to edit and learn how to do Lightroom. And it unboxed a can of worms for me. But I think that passion and where you find it and how you fall in love with it is a little bit about who you surround yourself with.

I also think that it's a lot of trial and error. But more importantly, when it's who you surround yourself with, if there's things you want to experience or see or do, make sure that like you have people to do them with. You can absolutely solo date a pottery class and learn how to do pottery if that's something that you're interested in. I think, who did I do pottery with? I think my, crazy enough, I think my managers took me to a pottery class.

And that's the first time that I tried wheel turning. And I was like, just naturally really enjoyed it. I love working with my hands. And that like sold me on it in an instant. And that was the first time I took a pottery class. And then I went alone for like the foreseeable times to learn even more. And I asked questions to people at the studio. And I tried to just absorb as much information as I can. But if you want to learn how to do something, you kind of have to indulge in it a little bit.

If you wanna learn about photography, watch the photography videos and invite your friends to go on photo shoots with you. Or if you don't have anybody to do a photo shoot with, go out and do photo shoots with a tripod and a camera and a stand. That's where I started. Like I literally love a tripod moment with a little interval timer. I like set it for like 20 photos every two seconds.

a photo every two seconds for 20 photos takes my pics as I want and then I can come home I can edit it I can look at the composition I can change around what I do I can change around what I like but who you surround yourself and what you surround yourself with and what you're absorbing I think really affects your creativity and that really plays into this idea of passion and it potentially becoming a little bit diluted with social media and doom scrolling trust me on this one

I think that I have a lot of trouble with feeling creative if I spend too much time on my phone. Where do you find inspiration? Truthfully, your life. By getting out of the house and having these experiences. 90% of my favorite videos are like stories that I'm telling or moments I'm recreating from something that I've experienced firsthand. There's so much value in going out and living life and bringing back and sharing what you learned or what you did or how you did it.

And I think that you can express that through your passions, through your pottery, your art, your photography, your crocheting, maybe the little like animals that you make when you're knitting. Maybe the scarf that you make your mom is the colors of the sunset you just watched on the beach. Like it could be anything, but being able to go and experience life and bringing back all of that knowledge is inspiration.

That's why I think traveling has such a big effect on me. I feel immensely more creative when I'm on the road than when I'm sitting at home because 9% of the time when I'm sitting at home, I love being home because I do this and I pull out my phone and I do this and then I wonder where the last like three hours went. When I'm somewhere I don't know, I kind of am like on the wrong time zone. This is really comfy down here. I might stay here for a minute. Me being lazy at home once again. Yeah.

I go out. I don't know where I am. There's so much to experience. There's so much world out there that we have access to. Everyone's on the wrong time zone. So I can't even post my content when I normally would. And I'm just on the streets. I'm living. And then I come home and I make a cute video about all the things that I experienced while I was out. Now, this is another question. This is something that I saw today. And this is something that I think quite a bit about too. And I have a funny story about this.

If you choose to share your passions with the people around you, sometimes we have passions that we do not tell anybody about, which I love. I always love having like a little passion that like nobody really knows about me. I think the internet. Okay, hang on. A majority of my passions that I had as a kid growing up, I acquired because I thought that having cool things to show people that I could do would make me popular. Okay, cool.

So I thought that, like, learning a bunch of really cool weird skills would make me, like, cool. Because then I could show off that I knew all this really crazy stuff. And here's the first example. When I was in a sophomore in high school, 10th grade, I decided to learn how to ride the unicycle after I learned how to juggle. Yeah, really popular. So...

In that moment, I was like, this is going to be a really cool thing. I saw a video of a girl on YouTube. I could find the video in 0.5 seconds. It was like some championship in a gymnasium. And it's this girl to the song. That's like, what song was it? Dun, dun, dun, dun.

So, you want to be a marketer? It's easy. You just have to score a ton of leads and figure out a way to turn them all into customers. Plus, manage a dozen channels, write a million blogs, and launch a hundred campaigns all at once. When that's done, simply make your socials go viral and bring in record profits. No sweat.

Okay, fine. It's a lot of sweat. But with HubSpot's AI-powered marketing tools, launching benchmark-breaking campaigns is easier than ever. Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers. When I thought I was you, no, no, that you were true, guess I... Okay, everyone knows it now that I've given you that much, all right? Some video of a girl in the gym unicycling to this song, doing like a rhythmic dance routine.

work of art absolutely stunning out of this world incredible 10 out of 10 would watch 10,000 more times in my lifetime I was like guys I could totally do that the delusion so I asked Santa for a unicycle for Christmas and Santa provided a unicycle um and then my mom also pulled me to the side and said and if you fail it's okay we can return this this is if you if you change your mind I think she was warning me looking back

Madhika probably knew what I was getting myself into and the route I was going down. Clown school was the route I was going down. She was like, if you want to like not do this, we can return it. And I was like, no, I'm absolutely going to learn this. And because you said that I'm absolutely going to learn this even faster than I was going to before. I rode the unicycle two weeks later, like could get down my entire driveway on the unicycle. And since then,

I have ridden the unicycle. That remained a party trick for me where like it would from time to time come out. Like I would, I owned a unicycle for a little bit in college and I would like sometimes ride on campus on the weekends or like, you know, if I felt like it, it would come out. But people who really, who like knew me didn't, it wasn't, it would be like a fun fact, you know, it wasn't something that I really like outwardly showed or like I wasn't posting on my Instagram like

Hey, just out here on my unicycle going to class. Okay, that wasn't the vibe. So I kind of kept unicycling intimate, especially when I wanted to reinvent myself and move to LA. So a few years later, okay, I've been riding unicycle for what, five years now? The only people who would see me ride a unicycle were my family members. I moved to LA, I go to grad school, I'm getting my master's. COVID hits, bike rides and walks become really popular.

I'm out. My family would go on bike rides all the time and we only owned enough bikes for people who didn't unicycle. That means that I rode a unicycle every time. So my family would ride bikes and I would unicycle. Now you're probably like, Anna, why is this story so freaking long? The answer is because eventually a time came where I brought a boy home. I brought home Brew and he was staying the night at my parents' house for the first time. And I think we, my parents were like, we should all just go on a sunset bike ride.

And there were only enough bikes for people who didn't ride unicycles. Which means that if we were going to go on a sunset bike ride with the boy that I don't even think was my boyfriend yet, it was just this boy that I had brought home for the weekend, that means that I would have to unicycle in front of him. And that was a very deeply rooted passion of mine that I wasn't ready to share with the man that I wanted to see me, I don't know, in a, I'm not going to say in a sexual way, but in a way that wasn't like a clown, you know? Like I wanted him to be like, this girl's hot. I was so scared to get on that unicycle.

I was so scared. I was like, this man is going to look at me, get up on this unicycle and he's going to start biking back to LA. Like we were 40, 40 minutes. I was 40 miles outside of the city. I was like, he is going to be on the PCH so fast on this bicycle. He's going to steal my parent family's bike and he's going to abandon me. Um, the good news is he didn't. Okay. Um,

But there was something so terrifyingly intimate about him seeing me do something that I was passionate about. And I feel the same way about someone who watches me film a video for the first time. I film all my videos alone in this house. Like there's literally no one here. So...

I'm alone all day. No one has to watch me film my content, pick my outfits, be a little bit embarrassing. I mean, it gets posted and it's like best version to the world. But in the actual act of doing it, not many people experience it. And there's something really scary about sharing your passion and like almost opening yourself up to the criticism that

of someone that you want to impress or someone that you just simply know and want to be impressed with you. Like even opening up to a friend and being like, so this is what I do. It can feel scary because you want them to still like you beyond how weird your passions are or how like quirky. I know people don't like the word quirky, but I like the word quirky. How quirky your passions might be. So

I think that there's something beautiful about passions being shared, but I do understand the intimacy and the embarrassment of them. And it's just because it's a piece of you. And I want to reassure you that you don't need to share your passions if you don't want to. I think a lot of people are looking to turn their passions into something more, which is the next thing I'm going to touch on. But some passions are really beautiful when they're really sacred to you.

And not everything needs to be shared. I think the internet makes it feel like everything we do needs to be shared, needs to be monetized, is potentially the breaking point for us finding success is doing what you're passionate about. And I do think that you should be passionate about what you do for work, but I don't think your work needs to be a passion, okay? Keep that in mind. It's okay to be nervous to show people, but I also think it's nerve-wracking because you

at least i hope when you're doing something that you love when you're doing an arts and crafts when you're doing a hobby when you're making something if no one ever sees it it doesn't have to be that good you know like the point is that it's a release for you i think when people start seeing it you become fearful of the judgment of what if it's not good what if it's not as impressive as you are in other things and i also think it becomes scary because we all want to be good at what we do

And the beauty of passion is that it's not, it's only as good as it means to you. That's what it's intended for. So don't be afraid to keep some of the stuff just for yourself because it could be really nice to just be able to enjoy something for you. I saw this quote. I'm actually gonna grab my phone quick because I saw this quote. Hang on. Hang on. Here we go. Ready? The sooner you figure out that other people's opinions of you are never your business and it literally doesn't matter what they think of you, you become free.

I mean, I think that's on like a bigger perception level, but I also think that like that's with your passions. It doesn't matter what they think about your passions. You can show them or you can keep it for yourself. And as long as you're enjoying it, that's what really matters. I touched on something lightly earlier, and that is monetizing your passion and turning your passion into a career. And truthfully, whether or not you should do that,

And I have a lot of opinions on this because I think that I've seen it generationally, for me at least. And I also have seen it myself now, which I didn't expect to happen. I think everybody romanticizes the idea that your passion would turn into a career. And I think that they go with the saying of, oh my gosh, you get to do what you love every single day. It's the greatest thing. Now, I love my job. I absolutely hit the jackpot.

when I fell into content creation and it worked. I still can't piece together what I did right. I don't know. It's such a blessing that I get to do what I do every single day. It's not the same as when it was passion though. And I think that's what people don't often say anything about. The behind the scenes and the logistics of doing what I do for work

And the meetings, the planning, the like legal behind it, kind of all these other things. You're managing people. You're not really making, you know, it's not as easy either because now your passion is only good if people like it. It negates the entire idea that we just talked about before of it not mattering what anybody thinks about what you do and what you love.

Because if it's not good and people don't like it, you're not getting paid for what you do, which is really complicated. And I think that happens for a lot of people. I've like seen what's a really good example. This is like a lot of people who do like Etsy or who do like jewelry or calligraphy or poster or even wedding photography. If people don't like

your photos or they don't like how much you're charging for them or if they don't like you know x y and z about them or your color stuff or you know any of your presets or your style or maybe like what your f-stop is and they want to be dreamier they want to shallow it up the field they want to feel more like a documentary they want to feel more like this it all changes how much you're gonna make obviously you get paid for your work that's the point so if you suddenly you

open up your work to be at the judgment of others until you'll be able to be a career for you you're allowing the chance of it not feeling like a passion anymore because it's an expectation now that it's going to do well for you to be successful okay that's a scary conversation because I think that it I think for me as someone who like made videos when I was in grad school I think I had a lot of an easier time making videos because I

My job wasn't videos mentally. My job was getting my master's. So every day I like poured my work into my work work. Like I poured my like work mind and strategy mind into getting my schooling done. And then I would just be like a free as a bird girly. I also spent a very long time in content creation, not monetizing.

Which I don't know that a lot of people know is that I wasn't represented by like a lot of people sign like managers and agents and publicists and literary agents and acting agents and public speaking agents. And then you start like all these different avenues and like, okay, I did not sign anybody to be like in charge of my business, my content creation business.

For a very long time because I was really scared that someone would try to like make it into something that it was not That was my really big fear truthfully when I was making content was like You just hear horror stories people taking advantage of you This is a totally other story I want to do an entire episode on anna's guide to content creation where I can really dive into like What it's like to do content because I think there's a lot of people who want this To be in addition to their career or want this to be their career or like you make a video you make videos for a living but

What made difficult is when I had something else that I was focused on that felt like work, despite content making me money or being an avenue for me to have success, it didn't feel like work yet because I had something else that I was doing and something else that was making me get experiences in the real world. So when I came back to make videos, I had a lot of ideas. When all you do is make videos for a living, you get burnt out very quickly because you're

You're not living life for the experiences. You're living life thinking about what you're going to make from it. And I think that that can be altered not only to content creators, but to any avenue. When you're looking for inspiration, it's a lot more difficult to find it. So if you want your passion to become your career, you have to keep in mind that you have to continually find something else to fill your cup because now your passion won't be the thing that refills you as much.

It might refill you a little bit. Don't get me wrong. When I have a video that I make that I'm like, I, no matter how it performs, I'm like, I ate that up, fills my cup, but I still have to go and do like all the other little things that I do to like boost me. An example is like, I go to pottery or I love writing or lately I'm obsessed with reading. So I will fill my cup from reading and I'll get like a little inspiration, like live somebody else's like little life story and like a fantasy realm. Um,

But that's the thing is that if you make it your job, I'm not saying don't do it. It's a great thing. It is one of my like the fact that I get to wake up every day and do what I love. I never I also make this like huge statement right now in no way, shape or form. Am I complaining at all? I just had nobody tell me this.

I had no idea, but I wouldn't change it for the world. I just hope you know that I spent so many years after I graduated school trying to figure out why I didn't feel like myself online. And it's because I wasn't filling my cup and giving me juice to make stuff with.

Because I didn't have any other passions except for the one that made me money. And then I tied my self-worth to the performance and how well things were doing. And I was like, if this doesn't do good, I'm not good. And what I'm making, I used to make because I thought it was pretty. Not because 10,000 comments said that it was cringy. Okay? Like, it's kind of this thing of you end up realizing that, like, your passion is very intimate. It says something about you.

And if you open that to be what you do for work, you're opening it to allow people to say something about you, even no matter how much you love it, okay? It's not a bad thing. It can be a great thing because maybe everybody loves it. And then like, what a blessing you were to bring that to the world and share something of your passion to inspire other people. That is something that I will say is the greatest blessing is seeing people that have been impacted positively. That's my ultimate dream is to be able to have like,

This podcast specifically, being able to share something that felt so scary that I was like, oh my gosh, this is a little piece of me and everybody's going to see it. What if they hate it? And it not be like that. Cloud9 made me feel so safe. Made me feel so appreciated. No amount of money could buy that happiness and that passion. Like no amount of anything could outweigh the joy that I felt knowing that like my vulnerability was safe in the hands of the people that I shared it with.

But there's always a little bit of a risk. And there was a chance that people didn't like it. And now I was, it was worth the risk. But just keep that in mind. That if you decide that you want to turn your passion into a career or your hobby into a career, there's going to be parts of it that change. There's going to be parts of it that shift. It'll all be, it'll be good. And it could be bad. And it could be both. It's going to be both. I'm so afraid. It's going to be both. But just keep in mind that like your mind, your body, your spirit, your passion is

deserve to be loved by you and just know that if you're doing it with the right intentions and you're doing it for how much you love it nothing's going to waver how wonderful that is as someone who does something creative for work and can massively relate to this question that I saw is what do you do when you're losing passion I saw this sticker a lot is people being like what happens when you're not motivated or like don't feel like it

You are either two kinds of people when it comes down to how you treat burnout and losing motivation for a passion. You're either the person who works through it, as in like, I don't feel like making a video today, so I'm going to make five. I'm sometimes that person. Or...

Potentially the more healthy option, in my opinion, too, but could feel a bit discouraging is you can pivot. We all have plans in life, maybe to take a cross-country road trip or simply get through this workout without any back pain. Whether our plans are big, small, spontaneous, or years in the making, good health helps us accomplish them.

And change something a little bit. And I think that I've tried both. I'm trying to think which one I like more. Um,

For example, when I started to feel burnout from content creation, I had a multitude of ideas of what it could have been that's causing me to not feel this like as inspired as I usually do. I picked up other hobbies and then ended up making videos about what other hobbies I picked up.

That's kind of combining the two. Like I tried to pivot what I was doing, but then I didn't really keep them all that sacred to me. I kind of just kept sharing them or use them as inspiration for making more videos because I know at my root, I love my video making. I'm a video girly at heart. I'm a visual girl at heart.

forever and always there's just something wonderful to me about seeing and watching things come to life or seeing it in my brain and watching it turn into like this beautiful cinematic creation so for me um I think that often when I start to lose passion in something when it's related to my work I find myself feeling like I need to just work through it

When it's related to something that I'm really just truly passion, enjoying, not for sharing with the world, I pivot. That's actually the answer. That's my like clean cut answer. I think the worst thing you can do is punish yourself for not feeling excited about it anymore because we are ever-growing individuals. We are constantly changing.

We're getting better. We're getting worse. We're learning. Our life experiences are shifting. The things that we love are shifting. The people we're around are changing. How can you expect to love the same things for forever? I didn't always love the color yellow. I did. Here's better. I used to hate the color pink. And now I love the color pink. Like, look it. I'm literally wearing it today. Peach on my walls. I have like a red and pink and yellow couch. And I used to hate the color pink.

How can you expect to love or hate something in life, you know, for forever? Life is so long. Life is so long. You're going to find things that you absolutely love and things that you just grow out of. And that's okay. I think a passion that I really had when I was younger was swimming. I was a swimmer for kind of like late middle school. I kind of started right at the start of high school. And I swam all of high school and the start of college. I don't think I could ever competitively swim again.

Just because like, dang, it's hard. But there was something that I loved so much about it when I was younger. It was just something I could have done. I did morning and evening. I swam twice a day. I was at the gym constantly. I was watching videos. I was watching the Olympics. I was watching athletes. I was dialed in and it was something that I lived and breathed was that.

And now I prefer things that are like a little bit more calm and patient. And like, you know, swimming's an aggressive sport. It's like a lot of exhaustion. And like, I love a swim. I love to get in an ocean and just go for a little like casual. But you can't punish yourself for growing out of things. That's part of life.

It's okay if you don't love it anymore. No one's going to be upset. Think, who cares? If you know that there's something better for you out there, if you know there's a life waiting for you where you can really enjoy some things and like find something new that you love, pursue that.

What you loved first, though, will also always be waiting for you. The things that you learned, the lessons that you learned, the skills that you picked up from that passion, they're not going anywhere. They might just get like a little bit shaky, but they'll come right back. It's muscle memory. So don't be afraid to try new things. I think that's a big thing when you're losing passion. You could have like invested so much time and effort and then you're like frustrated with yourself that it didn't stick around. It's not worth the stress.

It's not going anywhere. You can pick it up again if you want to, or you can never pick it up again. Both are great. You're great. You're wonderful. You're doing it right. It's okay if you get tired. It happens to everybody. Also, if you're starting to feel that lack of inspiration again, don't forget what I said earlier. Get out of there and live a little bit. Go out of your house and do fun things.

Go spend an entire day not thinking about how it's going to turn into work or how it's going to turn into a passion or how it's going to turn into your pottery, your color scheme, your photos. Like my brain works in videos. It really does. Like when I'm watching an experience, I'm like, dang, I should have recorded that. But also, no, it's good. There will be an entire lifetime of recording things.

Put it away and experience things firsthand because that's going to end up giving you so much juice for later on and so much inspiration that you're missing right now and everything

It's going to be wonderful to have the chance to like look back and be like, I needed that. I need that vacation. I need that break. I was feeling burnt out. And like, look at all the beautiful things you can create now because you took the break for yourself and you gave your body and your mind time to say, where am I? What do I love? What makes me excited? What ideas do I have? A little detox. It's good for you. We all need it. I need them. I probably need them more than I take them. That's what everybody tells me. But I feel great.

Sometimes. I also want to touch for a moment on imposter syndrome. And I think that you only feel imposter syndrome in a passion if you share what your passion is. And what I mean by that is like if you're posting about it or if it's part of what you do for work or if you go to like events, like pottery events or ways to like learn things about your passion and you become fearful that what you're doing isn't as good or doesn't make you worthy of

of the experiences that you're getting or maybe the opportunities that you're getting like other people like I think I often felt imposter syndrome when I would go to like an event for social media and I would see everybody making these really cool videos I'm like oh gosh

I shouldn't be here all these people are way more important than I am and I just it's I'm terrified because I don't know why what do I do that makes anybody interested in what I have to do or perfect example I start a podcast why does anybody care what I have to say I'm terrified like what happens if I say some people are like I hate everything that you said and the truth is that's okay it's okay if you do I sometimes I hate what I say too and that's just that's just part of it but I

I think that you only can really feel imposter syndrome if you open up what you're doing for interpretation and for criticism. If I, this is kind of this joke of like, if a tree falls in a forest and nobody heard it, did it really fall? If you have something that you love that you did and no one ever saw it, did it still matter? And the answer is yes, because it mattered to you. So it's okay if you feel like an imposter. You're not.

It mattered to you. What you did makes you worthy. Even if you don't feel like it does. It all is important. It's all is valuable. And I think a lot of people in life are learning and no one wants to admit it. But the truth is that everybody in a room where you feel like imposter probably also does too.

Imagine what's possible when learning doesn't get in the way of life. At Capella University, our game-changing FlexPath learning format lets you set your own deadline so you can learn at a time and pace that works for you. It's an education you can tailor to your schedule. That means you don't have to put your life on hold to pursue your professional goals. Instead, enjoy learning your way and earn your degree without missing a beat. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at capella.edu.

So do it with imposter syndrome, you know? It's okay. I feel it all the time. Literally every time I meet anybody, I'm like, I'm not cool enough to be sitting in this room with them. But here you are and what you make matters and what you do matters and your passions matter and the way you express yourself matters. And I'm so proud of you for doing that still. Even if you're scared and nervous and embarrassed and terrified.

Okay, guys, it's that time of the episode where we get to Anna answers and a lot of you guys send me over a little ring-a-ding-ding, a little phone call, which I'm just going to remind you that if you ever want to talk to me on the phone, I will not always be there to answer, but I will be there in spirit and in voicemail. You can give me a call at 323-433-0683, which is my own little personal fan line. And every week I post a little question that you can call in with.

and kind of just share your world with me because this is not a one-way street. I don't want to only hear my voice. I want to hear your voice too. And today's topic was tell me a hobby you wish you could bring back in adulthood. And I'm so excited because I've not heard any of these yet, but I just got the first voicemail. So let's take a peek at what you guys said.

Hi, Anna. I'm responding from your story. One hobby that I want to bring back is lemonade stands. If I could make a lemonade and sell it to people like outside my college apartment, I think that would be really fun. Another hobby, I guess not really a hobby, but I currently have my cat sitting on my lap. I don't know if you can hear her purring. Let me hold her up for a second. Who knows?

That just made my whole day. Like, my cat is my child. I feel like she should meet other cats. Although that sometimes doesn't go well. But anyway, I love the first episode of your podcast. And I'm really excited to keep listening. Thank you. Bye. I'm so excited for you to keep listening. Also, wait, the way that my hang on, let's have a little wake up call quick.

I just spent 53 minutes talking about passions and my brain literally, maybe this just goes to like the fact that maybe I have like a little bit of a tunnel vision to what I see passion as. Um, I only like my brain very much dials into my creative when I think of my passions, fricking lemonade stands, bro. Sign me up. I'm if I ever do a meet and greet, I'm doing a lemon and statement meet and greet. Thank you for this idea. Um, that's so cute.

I grew up in a small town, so I feel like those are still very present if I still lived in Michigan, but in LA or in a college town, are you kidding? Do you know how fun that would be to have like a little like lemonade stand outside of like a tailgate? Okay, love this idea. Also, the fact that you let me listen to your kitten purr just filled my entire body with serotonin, so I appreciate you so much. Okay, guys, here we go. This is the next one.

Hi, Anna, Grayson. So one hobby that I wish I could bring back into adulthood, I'm going to have to say nap time. I cannot express that how much.

Nap time is, like, normalized, especially as adults. It's just one of those things, like, all right, everyone deserves nap at jobs, in general, you come home. Nap time, like, pretty fire. Pretty fire. I love that. Or maybe just maybe color time is really...

setting a designated time to color every day. All right, everyone, we're going to color for 30 minutes. Relax. Don't stress. The world is your oyster. That's all I hope. I am a big fan. But, you know, doing God's work, doing what you told us to do on the ground. Have a nice day. Love you. Bye. Grayson, I love you. Bye.

Wait, also coloring time. Are you kidding? That would be, I haven't had a coloring book in so long. And I actually thought about it recently. That'd be really, really wholesome to have like an Anna's guide coloring book where it's all like little motivational, like letters that you just like, like I said, I'm a big calligraphy girly. So like my brain's thinking typography, like what would you want to hang up on your wall? Um,

And wow, Grace and I love also nap time. I'm not a napper. Okay. I have way too much anxiety and caffeine in my body to ever nap. But what I will say I do is I, or not even that I do, but I did yesterday for the first time is I did fall asleep yesterday while watching a movie during the daytime. And that felt nice. I'm not going to lie. I took a little 40 minutes snooze.

Out like a light. Probably because I was Little Spoon with Brew watching a movie. And I feel like that's the only time that I ever chill is when I'm Little Spoon. Or Big Spoon. I love being Big Spoon. But...

nap time would be nice can you imagine if we just had like a little siesta especially in the summer i feel like it would be nice if we all got breaks during the summer i don't even know if this makes it a hobby but breaks during the summer where they're like yeah go home for the middle three hours of the day enjoy the warmest weather enjoy the good time like go go to your local lemonade stand and take a nap i think the world would be a better place

Well, guys, thank you so much for tuning into this episode of Anna's Guide to Passion and Hobbies. I'm so happy that you're here and I'm so glad that I got to share another episode with you guys in this room. Once again, I want to say thank you so much, so, so, so much for making us number four on podcasting.

pop culture podcast this week. I'm shook to my core, but I'm so excited. It's only the beginning. Guys, listen, that was week one of the pod and we're on the seventh episode, which means there's much, much more to happen while we're here. And I'm so happy that I get to share it all with you and I hope you have the most beautiful week.

Don't forget to tune in every Thursday at 9 p.m. Pacific Standard Time and midnight Eastern Standard Time. I can't wait to share the weekends with you and hear your voices on tape. So give me a call if you ever want to. Also, don't forget to follow at TheAnnaGuide on Instagram and TikTok and subscribe, like, comment to Anna's Guide on YouTube where you can get the visual version of every one of these podcasts. And you can find me wherever you, you know, stream podcasts.

your podcast episodes. So look out for me there too. I love you guys. I'm so thankful for you and I can't wait to see you next week for another episode of Anna's Guide.

Ooh, so official because this episode of Anna's Guide is brought to you by Command Brand. Command makes it easy and worry-free to create a space that reflects who you are with damage-free hanging products. I know on socials you guys are always asking me about my DIY tips and tricks, and honestly, Command products are my go-to whenever I feel like I need to make a quick change to my apartment or make my house feel more like a home.

My favorite part about Command products is that they're so versatile and I can change and move with my style as I feel and they leave no marks, no residue and don't ruin any of my walls. So you can visit command.com to find out where to buy Command products on this back to college season.