Resources from this episode:

Show Notes:

Today we are celebrating two whole years of this podcast, Work and Play with Nancy Ray! I have a really fun, unique episode planed—it’s like a birthday party that I want to celebrate and encourage you with. But two quick things I wanted to mention before we dive in:

First, if you have never left a review for this podcast in Apple podcasts, would you consider doing that today? It takes less than two minutes. It is a great way for others to discover this podcast. Just pretend like your review is the birthday present that you're bringing to this podcast on her second birthday, and then pretend like I give you a big hug and say, "Thank you! This is exactly what we wanted!" because it is.

But truly, thank you, I'm so grateful that you spend your time listening to this podcast. I know life is short. The fact you take your precious time and listen to my podcast means so so much. I'm so grateful.

The second thing I wanted to share is there is a giveaway happening for this week to celebrate the second birthday of this podcast! And it's full of some really great things. So here's what you need to know about the giveaway: nancyray.com/podcastgiveaway is going to have all of the details.

It starts April 6th and ends April 13th at midnight, and it's really easy for you to enter!

But first of all, I want to tell you what's in the giveaway:

My Legacy Photo System (Premium!) and my Contentment Reset.
Shunta, who you're going to hear from today, her Right Now Routine, which I've been through—it’s amazing—and her Clean One Room program.
Kat Schmoyer's Ultimate Calendar Bundle. If you're planner like me, you are going to want this, it's so good.
And a Cultivate What Matters Custom Write the Word Journal Bundle of 3!

Now there are different winners, different tiers and categories of winners. And the first tier, the big winner is going to get most of the stuff. The second tier winner, they're going to get:

So, bottom line is, make sure you register because there's going to be four winners, which is so great!

Enter the giveaway

All right, let's get to today's episode!

Today, you are going to hear from a few friends of mine—dear friends, friends that I trust, friends that have so much wisdom and encouragement to offer you. A lot of these friends have been on the podcast before, I've interviewed several of them, so they might be familiar to you. All of them have contributed to this birthday party, to this encouragement. They're all going to speak life to you, give you some encouragement or advice. Maybe just a helpful tip or words of wisdom, but no matter what, I promise is going to be something valuable.

You might be familiar with them, but even if you're not, I want you to know they are people that I deeply respect and admire, and if something they say resonates with you, I'd encourage you to find them online or on social media. I'm going to be sure to leave all of their links in the show notes today, because what they say today is just the tip of the iceberg of what they have to offer. I love them dearly. I'm so grateful for them.

So, Happy Birthday Work and Play Podcast! Thank you so much for coming to our little party today. I hope you find encouragement, I hope you win the giveaway and I hope you're blessed.

For the full episode, hit play above or read through it below.

“Hello everybody. This is Kate from Naptime Kitchen. I am so, so excited to get to share with y'all to celebrate one of my absolute favorite podcasts. And when I was thinking back over the last year, something that really stood out to me was, what we called at our house, the Monday Mantra. And it was just something that I would try and think of it at the beginning of the week that I felt like our family needed to carry us through the week. And so I shared these throughout COVID in 2020 on my Instagram, and it could be something so, so simple.

One week it was 'patience in play,' just a reminder to be patient and play with my kids. And another week it was 'give the benefit of the doubt,' and this was a reminder to me. Everybody in the world was stressed. Everybody in the world was struggling in our own way. And I was going to fight really, really hard that week to-whenever I came in contact with someone, be it in person or online-to give that person the benefit of the doubt, that they meant well in such a stressful time.

So my kind of piece of wisdom for this year has just been, maybe think of a Monday Mantra for your family or yourself. Think about what's something that I could really, really use right now, or my family could use, or a way that we could really serve people and make your own-unique to you and unique to your family-Monday Mantra. That's all I've got! Have a lovely day.”

“My name is Ashlyn Carter. I have listened to Nancy and learned from her since I started my business five years ago. And one thing I've always admired about Nancy is how she approaches things from a theologically sound standpoint.

So hopefully this little nugget today is something that I can give that it came from our pastor presented this sermon or mentioned this in a sermon wasn't even the whole point a couple of weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago. And I've thought about it literally every single day since. So I hope that it is something that encourages your heart as well. Okay.

So when we, we all have heard, you know, if you grow up in the church or even if you're not in terms of long, I feel like you hear the story of Jesus feeding 5,000, which we know more accurately. It was probably around, you know, 15, 20 plus thousand, just the way that numbers were counted, then. So huge head count, all that to say-huge headcount. And this is the only story in all- it's told in all four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So what we can deduce from that is it's a benchmark. It's a chronological marker that we can say, okay, because the stories don't always, the stories are-he did so much during his three years of ministry-so the stories are a little all over the place, but we know if this happened at this point in every single gospel, we can kind of put together what happened before, what happened after. Right? Okay, so that said, what we see then-and I've got Luke opened up-is right before this had happened, right before the feeding of the 5,000 Herod killed John the Baptist at Herod's wife's bidding.

This was Christ's first cousin. And we also know just by seeing the way that he dealt with the death of Lazarus and other friends, that this was, this was a huge blow to him. And then it tells us too, in Luke, this is Luke 9:10, "when the apostles returned, they reported Jesus what they'd done, and he took them with him. They withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethesda." Like we know that Jesus had to withdraw from this from just his ministry. He was, he was really torn up and emotional about it, as we can imagine this was his first cousin. So all that said, what I love is right after that, the crowds find him again. They're pulling on him again. They're asking him to teach again. There they're begging for just more, more, more, and more and more and more.

And this is where the story just, I had never seen this before, because I think we live in a world in a culture where we're here so much that, you know, Lordy me, we hear that you can only, you can only pour from a full tank and you have to fill your, you have to love yourself before you can love other people and you've gotta be filled up. But like, that is not, that is not biblical. That is not how Christ served. Yes. He withdrew for times. But I don't know if that was, I think that's a lie, especially as women, we hear all the time that you got to have these—and I'm not saying, you know, facial night, manicure night, just taking time for yourself, is a bad thing. We know that that's not true. But I do think sometimes I've gotten frustrated over time being a business owner and a wife and a mom that I have to I’m, I'm not going to be my best self. If I don't take this, like, I don't know, like fill myself up all the time. And that is not true. Christ served from a place of having nothing in him and needing to rely on God to show up, and his Father to help perform that miracle, feeding all those people and blessing them.

So much so that they, they wanted to listen to him for hours. And there was food to the point of everybody being full. Like he, because he was at his, his end because he had nothing in him. He was really able to see his neediness on the Father, and that is so encouraging to me to realize that I'm not going to be-I had this written down-God doesn't always give us assignments on days we're happy and ready. Jesus had just received devastating news. And then he had thousands of people coming to him to ask for something. I guess, just as, again, as a wife and a mom and a business owner, I'm not always going to be in a place where I'm like, okay, my tank is full.

I'm ready to pour out. Like, if anything, I feel the tugging of things on me all day. But the beauty in that is that, that is where I can see my neediness on the Lord and the Father shows up in those kind of moments. And that's where I can see him and realize again, that it's not up to me and it's not up to my little tank being full, but Him showing up. So I hope that that is encouraging. That was again, when pastor Brady mentioned that it just was so counter-cultural to, I feel like what everything on like my Instagram feed and stuff says about how I'm going to be my best self, because that's just not how, it's just not always how life works. So I, again, I hope that that encourages you to just get out there and keep realizing your neediness on the Lord, and that that's the beauty of our dependency on Him and letting Him show up there. So that's all that I have, but thanks again, Nancy, for the chance to do this.”

“Hi Work and Play friends! I'm Lara Casey, and I am definitely Nancy Ray's biggest fan, and long time friend. And I just adore you Nancy. Congratulations on this big milestone.

All right, let's chat. So much changed over the last 12 months, right? But there was one thing that remained the same. In fact, it got a whole lot clearer and that's what truly matters. We realized as a family when the pandemic came and changed all of our lives and turn things upside down, that we were really moving too fast. And I thought we were moving pretty slow. You know, I thought, man, we've got good time together. We're living an intentional life. And then bam, all the normal things got stripped away from us. And it's amazing to see how much closer our family is now with the absence of all those after school activities, all of the social—so much. And they were good things, but even too much of a good thing is still too much.

So, practically speaking, as the world opens back up, there are some things that we are keeping. And that's my question for you. What are you keeping from this time? What's the good that you're going to keep. I love this-there's an article written by Julio Gambino and he has these amazing words to share that I'm going to share with you now.

"Well, the treadmill you've been on for decades just stopped. Bam. And the feeling you have right now is the same as if you'd been thrown off your Peloton bike and onto the ground. What just happened? I hope you might consider this: what happened is inexplicably incredible. It's the greatest gift ever unwrapped, not the deaths, not the virus, but the great pause. It is in a word profound. Please don't recoil from the bright light beaming through the window. I know it hurts your eyes, hurts mine too, but the curtain is wide open."

And he goes on to talk about how sometimes these hard things can open our eyes to what truly matters.”

“Hi, my name is Chrystal Evans Hurst, and I am a writer, a speaker, , a podcaster, a YouTuber, encourager, a mom, a wife, and hopefully a good member of my church, and a person who's really good at making fried chicken. Anyway, I am really excited about the opportunity to share some wisdom that I've learned in the last year or so.

I think my biggest takeaway from 2020 is that as a person who is providing content in this world, that you have to be super sensitive to what content is needed in the world that can come from you. In other words, you need to know what you are supposed to give and who needs what you have to give and then be unapologetic about giving it even when you did not plan on that give.

2020 for me was the year of the pivot. It was a year of shifting. It was a year of paying attention to the temperature. It was a year of realizing what I had to offer other people that would be encouraging to them. And it was a year of switching how I deliver that content in ways I'd never planned to. It was also a year of unprecedented growth for my ministry, for my business. It was also a year of unprecedented reach to people who had never heard of me before. But the reason why I was able to do that is because I was ridiculously attentive to the needs in the culture, to the needs of my audience, into the needs of people in the season that I was living in. I think you have to realize that if you are the mom, the wife, the business owner, the content producer, that you are in a certain space because that space is yours. It belongs to you. And if you are in that space, your ability to notice when the temperature shifts and your ability to notice when it's time for you to do something different is also yours. You may have people that work with you. You may have people that you follow people that follow you, people that you look to for inspiration, but when you notice that something new is needed, it may be that you are the first person who notices and that you have to go with that. That has happened to me in business. It's happened to me in ministry. It's happened me with my family.

I can look at my kids and I know they're changing. They need something different from me. How I've approached them in the last three years is different than how I need to approach them now. The same thing in marriage. This has worked for us for 10 years, but I notice as a wife, as a woman, that what has worked for us before may need to be different in this season. You have what you need as a woman, especially as a woman who loves God, to know when the temperature is shifting. And to know when you need to deliver something different in a new season, that that change is something you can notice and something you can walk into. I believe God made women powerful. And I believe that with the power of the Holy Spirit, we are even more powerful. When you notice that the season is shifting, go with your knower and know that God gave you that knower and that you can know what to do differently right now. Hope that encourages you.“

“Hi there, my name is Emily Thomas from Cultivate What Matters and Em for Marvelous, and something that has been really helpful for me recently is the idea of banned phrases in my marriage.

And like us, I'm guessing you might have phrases that, when uttered by your partner, almost literally send you through the roof. The ones that send your blood pressure rising, make your face red, and maybe some smoke coming out of your ears and take what might have been. Let's say a level five argument to a 10 in a snap, and we have two.

And the first is 'what is wrong with you?', which is usually expressed more like, 'what is wrong with you?' And this bothers us, I think because it implies that who we are is the problem, not what we're doing or thinking. And the second for us is any variation of 'calm down' or 'relax' because obviously those are the least calming or relaxing words in the English language, and the last thing you want to hear when you're decidedly not calm or relaxed. And once we realized that these phrases had this unique ability to explode our arguments, we simply decided to ban them. And for the last few years we have, and it has made such a difference. Of course, we still get into arguments, but this simple change has helped us work through them in a more productive way and left us less bruised in the process. And in fact, if one of us now kind of says one of them by mistake it, they actually now serve as a pressure valve taking down the temperature a few notches instead of ratcheting it up. And I wanted to share this because not only might it be specifically helpful for you, but just the idea that how comforting it is that even the smallest changes can make such big differences, even in relationships as grand and complicated as marriage. And I just want to encourage you today that whether things seem hard or easy in yours, whether it's marriage or another relationship, never hesitate to move the needle, even just a little bit in the right direction, because it really can make all the difference. “

“Hey, Hey everyone! This is Shunta Grant. I am the creator of the Best Today Guide and the owner of the Best Today Brand, where we are on a mission to equip women with resources to trade busy for intention. We help women live lives of vision and intention by teaching you how to be proactive and intentional with your time. And in that realm, I have two things to share with you.

One is a practical piece of advice. And the second is more of something that has really encouraged me throughout the last year, more than ever. So, I'll start with the encouraging. And for me, the scripture from Jeremiah 17: 7-8 has been a bedrock for me over the last year: "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose hope is the Lord for he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought nor will cease from yielding fruit."

As many hats that I wear. One of which is a business owner. This particular scripture has been a bedrock, a foundation for me, to remind me that even in seasons that look droughty-I don't know if that's a real word-I will continue to seek. I will not cease. I will continue to yield fruit because I am connected to living water that is everlasting, and for whoever needs that encouragement, I offer that to you.

Now for my second piece of practical advice, here's one tip that I have for you that will help you to be proactive and intentional with your time, because how we spend our time becomes how we spend our days, which becomes how we spend our life. It's one simple tip, and that is to plan every day the night before, before you rest your head on your pillow, be intentional, be proactive. What time are you going to wake up? And when you wake up, what are you going to do? What are you going to commit to doing for yourself, to pour into yourself first? Input before, before output is what I always say. What are you going to do for your mental health, your emotional health, your physical health? And then think through the things that are most important for that day. Not all the things you could humanly do, but what is most important and above all, remember that being comes before doing. So think about who you want to be before you think of all the things you have to do. I hope these words have encouraged you, will encourage you, on your journey and thank you so much for listening. “

“Hey, y'all this is Kat Schmoyer, business coach and founder of Creative at Heart.

Listen. If the last seven years as a small business owner have taught me anything it's that the old saying is true: When one door closes another opens. However, what I've come to discover is that sometimes the only way it's going to open is if we start knocking.

We can't just sit in our business and expect great things to come. We need to make moves, create a plan, understand the strategy, so that you can truly uncover the endless possibilities that your business has to offer.

So, if you find yourself standing there, looking at a door that feels closed, turn your head to the left, or turn your head to the right and see if there's another door. I'm willing to bet you there is, and all you need to do is take a tiny step forward. Put your hand up, start knocking and see what happens. I'm over here, cheering for you.”

A special thanks to Kate Ashlyn, Laura, Chrystal, Emily, Shunta, and Kat. I am so grateful for each of you, and thank YOU so much for listening.

Truly, thank you. Thank you for leaving reviews. Thank you for sharing episodes that resonate with you. Thank you for cheering me on. Every email or message, it means so much, and I'm so grateful, and don't forget to enter the giveaway! It's going to be good.