Where the h*ll have we been?

New York is not just a city. It is a symbol. It is the place the world glamorizes as the center of ambition, reinvention, and “the dream finally happening.” From Broadway lights to skyscraper skylines, it sells the fantasy that your life starts when you get there. But when you actually stand in New York, you realize something deeper: the city does not create dream chasers. It reveals them.

This episode was born from my winter trip to NYC with my daughter, watching her step into a dream she has been building toward—photo shoots, agency visits, and the quiet confidence of someone who belongs in the rooms she worked for. And it made me think about every woman listening from small towns, rural places, suburbs, or anywhere in the world where New York feels like a faraway promise. Because you do not need to live in NYC to live with NYC energy. You need what New York represents: hope you can see, motion you can sustain, and a personal “skyline” that expands you right where you are.

Key Takeaways:

✨ Why New York is not where dreams happen—it is where dream chasers get revealed

✨ How to stop treating your dream like a someday thought and make it visible in your real life

✨ “Build your torch”: the one physical symbol that keeps your dream from becoming optional

✨ “Maximize your commute”: how New Yorkers turn dead time into life-building momentum

✨ Practical commute ideas for drivers, train riders, and anyone who works from home

✨ “Create your skyline”: the ritual that makes your life feel awake, expanded, and in motion

✨ How to bring Big Apple energy home without needing a big city, big break, or perfect schedule

You do not need Manhattan to become the woman you keep picturing. You need daily visibility, daily movement, and a ritual that reshapes your identity from the inside out. When you build a torch, turn your commute into a bridge, and create your own skyline, your life stops feeling like a waiting room and starts feeling like something you are actively.

✨ Rewrite. Reclaim. Reinvent. ✨

Because New York City isn’t always where dreams come true. Sometimes, they are true because of you, right where you are.

January always shows up with main-character energy. A clean calendar. Fresh pages. That seductive “this is my year” feeling. But the problem is the new year does not arrive with a new life attached to it. You wake up in the same demands, the same responsibilities, the same mental load, and the same patterns that kept you stuck last year. So the dream version of you might be ready to sprint, but real life has you dragging—staying up late for “me time,” violating your own boundaries, and trying to force a big transformation into a schedule that never made room for you in the first place.

This episode is a realistic reset. Not a glow-up fantasy. It is about building a pace you can actually sustain inside your real day, so you stop quitting on yourself every time the month gets hard. You will learn how to create a starting block that fits your life, a final-lap signal that protects your sleep, and a weekly mid-race check-in that helps you tweak the plan instead of abandoning it. This is how you finish January strong without burning out by week two.

Key Takeaways:

✨ Why “new year energy” collapses when your life stays the same

✨ How to build a starting block that actually fits inside your real day

✨ Why nights are where momentum gets lost—and how to stop self-sabotaging your sleep

✨ How to create a final-lap signal that cues your brain to downshift

✨ Why the mid-race check-in keeps you from quitting when the plan gets heavy

✨ How to refine your approach weekly without going into self-attack mode

✨ Why finishing January strong is about pacing, not willpower

You do not need a perfect routine to change your life. You need repeatable beginnings, a clear downshift, and the self-respect to check in and adjust instead of quitting. When you build a starting block, create a final-lap signal, and regulate your pace with weekly check-ins, you stop running your year on adrenaline and start finishing stronger than you started.

✨ Rewrite. Reclaim. Reinvent.

✨Because this year is not about more willpower. It is about better pacing and a stronger finish.

In Part I, we kicked the door in on your brain’s crime family and exposed the mob boss obsessed with safety, the muscle protecting comfort, and the casino boss feeding you cheap dopamine while your real goals waited in the corner. But crime families do not appear out of nowhere. They rise because something broke. Because survival demanded a new system. And in your brain, that moment was trauma.

Trauma did not just hurt you. It trained your brain to overprotect long after the danger passed. The system stayed armed, alert, and suspicious. We meet the Archivist, hoarding receipts of every betrayal and near miss, the Mole, quietly rewriting the operation through repetition, and the slick attorney of emotion who keeps you loyal to the status quo. This episode breaks down why peace can feel unsafe, why understanding is never enough to change behavior, and why rest is not laziness but neurological wealth that allows real rewiring to happen.

Key Takeaways:

✨ Why trauma wires your brain for survival, not peace

✨ How the Archivist keeps you loyal to the past

✨ Why you are stuck in choices, not in your ways

✨ How the Mole shifts power through repetition

✨ Why emotion beats logic every time

✨ Why rest is strategy, not weakness

Your brain’s crime family is not permanent. It is adaptable. Rewireable. Trainable. When you change what you repeat, what you feel, and how you rest, the entire operation shifts and you step into the role of the new boss in charge.

✨ Rewrite. Reclaim. Reinvent.

✨Because your brain might be a sneaky little liar, but it is also rewireable, and you are the new boss in charge.

We sit down to talk honestly about how we’re approaching 2026 as writers — what we’re prioritizing, what we’re leaving behind, and how we’re building a writing life that supports creativity and longevity.

✨ In this episode:

00:00 Welcome to a More Intentional Writing Year

01:15 Setting Writing Goals That Support Your Real Life

03:00 Building a Writing Life Around Work, Business, and Energy

06:45 Lessons From Years That Didn’t Go as Planned1

5:25 Choosing What to Write Next With Strategy

22:26 Writing Sprint #1

42:40 Resetting and Reviewing Our Work

49:27 Writing Sprint #2

1:09:39 Closing Thoughts

We host live writing sprints and conversations throughout the week:

Monday — Instagram

Wednesday — Substack

Friday — TikTok⏰ 6 AM CST (US) / 8 PM AWST (Australia)

The last three weeks took me out. First strep throat, then the flu, and not the cute movie version either. I’m talking razor-blade throat, fever-dream spirals, sweaty sheets, and existential questioning at 2 a.m. The upside of being forced to slow down was that it gave me space to sit with a truth most of us avoid.

Starting new things is actually good for us. Well duh. But here me out.

Your brain needs newness the way your body needs movement. But the problem is your brain does not want you to be successful. It wants you safe. So when you try to grow, upgrade, or step into the version of you that your dream requires, your brain starts running a crime-family protection racket. It pulls alarms, manufactures doubt, and recruits backup to keep you loyal to the old version of your life.

In Part 1 of this two-part series, we break down the first three neurological reasons people stay stuck and expose the brain’s most reliable mobster enforcers. We unpack the survival wiring that makes success feel dangerous, the willpower system that shrinks when comfort stays in charge, and the dopamine boss that keeps you hooked on short-term hits while your long-term goals sit ignored.

Key Takeaways:

✨ Why your brain treats “new” like a threat and “familiar” like safety.

✨ How the anterior midcingulate cortex acts like the muscle guy of discipline and why comfort weakens it.

✨ Why procrastination is often a self-trust issue, not a laziness issue.

✨ How perfectionism shows up dressed like standards while protecting your fear.

✨ Why dopamine is the chase, not the reward, and how scrolling keeps you broke in ambition.

✨ How to retrain your brain to respect slow greatness over fast fixes.

This episode is your reminder that you are not broken. You are not lazy. You are not behind. You are simply up against old wiring and an inner system designed to keep you alive, not expanded. Once you understand how the “family” operates, you stop negotiating with comfort and start building real power.

✨ Rewrite. Reclaim. Reinvent.

✨Because you deserve to dismantle your brain’s crime family and build the life you dream of.

We’re back and celebrating big wins today! 🎉

GiGi officially finished Twisted Throttle and is sending it off to her line editor today!! Hooray! Nothing beats that “manuscript delivered” feeling. 🏍️✨

@sienna_gypsy_author was working on her dark anthology, but she also had an exciting motorcycle photo shoot with her male model for Caged Fear, the first book in her brand-new series coming in 2026. 🔥📸 That cover is going to be incredible!

Come join us live three times a week:

📅 Monday – Instagram

📅 Wednesday – Substack

📅 Friday – TikTok

⏰ 6AM CST (USA) 🇺🇸 / 8PM AWST (Australia) 🇦🇺