Ayla and Potato3s: A Nightly Message From Your Best Friend

I’m feeling overwhelmed by the weight of building my books, marketing, customer discovery, income, school, and content creation as a one-person team. I’m also learning that support can mean more than people realize. In this episode, I reflect on a friend’s reminder that something small to them can be something meaningful to me, reassess my book timeline and sales goals, and remind myself that I am allowed to admit when I need help.

I had a hard day with disappointment, shifting book deadlines, financial pressure, and the feeling that too much of my time belonged to everyone except me and somehow I still found my way back to creating. In this episode, I share why I am learning to protect my time, give myself more compassion, and trust the original YouTube concept I created, directed, and prepared for Grace Reads Out Loud.

I’m turning my ideas into a more intentional plan: building potential UGC brand partnerships, creating content that can work like a commercial for my children’s books, and figuring out what it will take to cover my November expenses. I also reflect on my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, my upcoming illustrator conversation, returning to Houston, and the practical work of creating income while I build the future I want.

I’m learning that rest is not falling behind, it is producing the energy I need to create, connect, and keep building. In this episode, I share my mentor’s next four big founder assignments, a sweet day with a friend in New York, finishing my Naikan reflection practice, thinking through publishing contracts and my writing future, and why I want my success to create both freedom and more joy.

I’m giving myself permission to call this a rest week, even though my brain keeps trying to tell me I should be doing more. In this episode, I share my first YouTube upload, a TikTok Live that helped shape a week of content ideas, submitting my work to a gift guide, reconnecting with community through dog walks, releasing guilt, and celebrating the return of my favorite sweatpants.

I’m sharing a snippet of a long, full day: a humid dog walk, my first TikTok Live, refilming a company video, cupcakes, class, and new ideas for getting my children’s book in front of more people. I talk about building real community instead of being a “post-and-ghost” creator, experimenting with my voice on camera, reaching out to podcasts and publishers, and continuing to choose my own company and creative future.

I had a scattered day full of missed timing, canceled appointments, and shifting plans but I still filmed my first company video, learned more about my final MBA assessment, and reminded myself that success does not have to happen in a straight line. I’m sharing what it means to trust my process as an abstract painter and founder, give myself grace on ADHD days, and keep reverse-engineering the life, business, freedom, and support I want to build.

I’m rethinking runway as more than a countdown, it is the time and clarity I have to build a real path to revenue. In this episode, I share why a dog-walking opportunity falling through may have been for the best, a welcome Replit credit win, making intentional space to rest with Mabel, defining my ideal customer and value proposition, and figuring out how to create accessible offers that can support my business.

I’m feeling supported in ways I did not expect, from a possible weekend dog-walking opportunity and new PR ideas to progress with my illustrator and a deeper reflection on my relationship with my mom. In this episode, I share what I learned about gift guides, finishing my book before investing in promotion, building a YouTube strategy, and how choosing support over scarcity is helping me move forward.

I’m reframing my so-called problems as reminders that I am supported, cared for, and allowed to receive help without making it mean something is wrong. In this episode, I share a quiet New York day with Mabel, my favorite sandwich, the “champagne problems” mindset, letting go of scarcity, and a relationship-reflection practice that helps me hold the full picture of love, conflict, gratitude, and growth.