This past Mother's Day was hugely different from my past Mother's Days.  My mom wasn't here with us this time.  I lost her in January from Covid.  It was tough, but I had my daughter and she had me and we were in Sedona.  Sedona,Arizona is beautiful.  I was kinda sad, but I was grateful to be able to spend Mother's Day with my daughter in such a beautiful place.

Sedona is said to be one of the most beautiful places on earth and I can see why.  I've never seen anything like the huge red mountains.  It almost felt like I was on another planet.  The air was dry and clean.  The views were breathtaking and the people that we met were really nice.  

The very first time I mentioned to my family that I wanted to visit Sedona, they were like okay.  Then my daughter asked me why did I want to go to the desert.  I had seen this movie called Sedona and from then on I was hooked and knew that I wanted to visit Sedona some day.  I did some research and found out about the Vortex and then I knew for a fact that I wanted to visit this magical place.  

This Mother's Day my journey began.  My daughter and I flew from Atlanta to Phoenix and then drove 2 hours to Sedona, because Sedona doesn't have a commercial airport.  That was a long drive seeing nothing pretty much but cactus and miles and miles of mountains.  Once we got to Sedona, we were extremely tired, so we had dinner and said well don't look like much else to do so we're going to go to bed.  So we both crashed.  My daughter fell asleep around 7:30pm and I fell asleep around 8:30.  I had booked us to go on the Vortex tour for the next day.  On our way to the tour we decided that one trip to Sedona was good and that we would plan on going somewhere else next time.  Well at least that was the plan in the morning.

We met up with our tour guide whose name was Frank and two sisters Sharon & Karen who were taking the tour with Frank also.  He was so nice and so very knowledgeable, that by the time our three our tour was over, we were already planning our trip to come back to Sedona next year for Mother's Day.  I hiked trails at two locations, almost stood on a cliff, but I don't like heights, learned about male and female energies at the vortexes and met some great people.  I got to hear a great story about a woman named Rachel Knoll and I visited the rock that she once owned.  As a matter of fact I went to the top of that mountain.  The day was truly magical and I didn't even get to go to Bell Rock which was one of the Vortexes on my list.  I had bought a book and Bell Rock was one the most well know Vortexes to visit and because of our time constraints I didn't get a chance to go, but there's always next year.

While in Sedona, which is known for some alien activity, I got a chance to hang out with one.  I didn't see any real ones thank God, but I did find the trip to be refreshing and one to remember. I missed my Mom a lot this year, but I am grateful that I got a chance to experience Sedona with my daughter.  I look forward to going back next year with my daughter and this time my husband said he's coming too.  ​

Life should be about loving what you do and possibly sharing it with the world.  I started the Good Morning Gwinnett Podcast December 2018.  I didn't have a real plan for it, I just knew that I wanted to connect to the community where I lived and I thought this would be a great way to do that.  I had originally thought about getting into politics, but after a few meetings I decided that I was ready to jump in with both feet.  Instead I launched a podcast that talk about people and places around Gwinnett County Georgia where I live.  

Good Morning Gwinnett is a totally different kind of podcast.  I call it a hyperlocal hybrid.  The reason being is because I go live 4 days a week, read the horoscopes, play music, share news stories, talk about business and interview people.  I know that seems like a lot, but I love doing this.  What I've come to truly embrace is that your life should be about doing the things that you love.  As long as you're not hurting anyone, do your thing and if the world can benefit from what you do, share it with them.  

As of today I've hosted 500 episodes of Good Morning Gwinnett.  I don't make a ton of money from the podcast, but I love what I do.  Prayerfully that will change in the future, but in the meantime I will continue to host the show as long as God gives me the ability to talk.  I am committed to making the podcast the best it can be while I enjoy what I'm doing.  

Although I'm extremely proud of myself for making such a huge commitment to my profession, I hope that you are inspired to make a commitment to something that you love.  Remember that you don't have to do things the way that everyone else does, you just have to do them the way that makes you happy.

Hopefully this article has inspired you.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
Audrey

This past weekend was my birthday.  I had a wonderful time with my daughter Dominique and one of my best friends Rosa.  Although the weekend was amazing, I had a few moments of sadness, because I thought about my mom, which had she still been here I would have called to share with her how much fun we were having, non the less it was amazing and I know that she was looking over us.  I went to the casino and that was fun, but that is something that I would normally do with my husband and mom, so that experience wasn't the same, but I still had fun hanging with my girl Ro.

In between all of the fun stuff my daughter had on the itinerary, and it was packed I had some time to get a little rest.  I had even more time to reflect, because she did all of the driving and with the flight time that gave me the opportunity to think about some things.  

After the passing of my mom I realized that life for real can be short and death can be sudden and unexpected.  I also realized that every day is a gift and that I should be enjoying my life more and enjoying time with my family more whilst doing only the things that I love.  When I took a long hard look at my life, I realized that I wasn't using my gifts correctly and that I was still chasing money.  I love podcasting and I love helping people and I have these platforms set up, but I find myself chasing the new shinny objects, which is absolutely dangerous when you are trying to accomplish something.  I know that I love starting new things, so in my moments of reflection I had to figure out how to use my gifts to always start something new without starting something new all whilst doing what I love.

So this morning I did an assessment of my business and I already do podcasting almost daily, which allows me to tell new stories everyday.  I also realized that I already offer this amazing package called the NoiseMaker Spotlight that I definitely have not marketed correctly.  Now this service allows me to do what I love which is podcasting, create new profiles and add those profiles to my TV network.  Doing these profiles also allows me to help business owners get their business out there.  

I know that I will be doubling my workload, but this to me is part work and mostly passion.  I consider 2/3 of what I do passion and 1/3 is work.  That's because I love what I do.  

So I shared this with you just to let you know that sometimes you have rest, so that you can reflect and restart for a fresh new beginning on your journey.

Thanks for stopping by.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
Audrey

I had a Zoom call today with an organization about what I needed to do to land government contracts.  The presenter told me all of the steps it would take for me to make sure that I was compliant with the federal government guidelines to bid on projects.  As I listened to him I was really excited about positioning my company to possibly get a million dollar contract with the federal government.  

Once the call had ended I sat quietly to digest all of the information that I had just received.  The more I thought about the information that was shared with me the more I realized that going after government contracts did not fit into the life that I had designed for myself.  My new designer life is one of more fun and authenticity, and less stress all while making money.  Now don't get me wrong, I understand that a million dollar contract could really change my life for the better financially, but the stress that comes with that million dollar contract is not something I'm willing to take on.

I've spent so much time grinding and stressing about my business, I'm not willing to do that anymore.  My frame of mind right now is to work smart and have fun.  Right now I feel that chasing down government contracts will not be all that fun.  

My designer life consist of me hosting the Good Morning Podcast Monday-Thursday and writing blog posts weekly about things that interest me like business, things happening around Gwinnett and living my best life.  It also consist of me consulting with others who are stuck or who want to  start a business or podcast.  I want to share my entrepreneurial story and journey with others by being a guest on other people's podcast. 

I've spent the last 24 years working in my business that I'm sure that I missed out on a lot in life.  I have a granddaughter and I want to spend more quality time with her and my family.  I want to learn how to play the piano and take amazing pictures.  These are the things that make me happy and I'm looking forward to this new designer life that I'm creating for myself.

Hopefully my experience will inspire someone to follow their dream and create their designer life.  

The next phase of my life is making me a priority and I will not chase money, not even a million dollar contract.

I hope you find some inspiration in this story.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
Audrey

The last month and a half have been tough, but I'm getting stronger every day.  The loss of my mom to Covid was a terrible blow to my family and I, but by the grace of God we are all getting a little stronger every day.  

My mom suffered with COPD, which we think came from her smoking in the past.  She started smoking at a young age and stopped in 2009 when one of oldest brothers was diagnosed with lung cancer.  He could not beat the cancer and passed about in July 2009.  My mom stopped smoking in March 2009 and by September 2010 she had COPD and breast cancer.  She had breast cancer twice and survived both bouts, but the COPD was tough.  She struggled with it for the next 11 years where she was on oxygen 24/7.  She was on the best medications that were on the market, but slowly her breathing got worse.  Then the week of Christmas we all contracted Covid and she did not make it.

As I tried to make some sense of what had just happened, I had to start thinking about my life and taking my health more seriously.  I've been overweight my entire life.  I had gastric bypass surgery in 2018 and have lost 120 pounds, but I got comfortable and my weight hit a plateau.  Although I feel great, by medical standards I am still overweight.  

My mom worried about me working all the time.  She would always say to me aren't you going to take some time off?  I would work on weekends and holidays, but I love what I do, so for me it wasn't really work.  As I look back, I was so focused on chasing the dream that I missed out on precious time that I could have spent with her and taking care of myself at the same time.

Now that I'm starting to feel stronger after her passing, I am taking better care of myself.  I purchased a juicer, so my husband I are juicing a couple of times a week.  One of our key ingredients is ginger.  Ginger is good for inflammation which we both have.  We are mixing the ginger with lemon and honey and taking ginger shots.  Another thing I am so guilty of is not taking great care of my hair.  My scalp is so dry and my edges were thin.  I started to use a product called Edge Naturale Follicle Enhancer.  I love this stuff, because my scalp is so dry and itchy and when I put this in my hair it makes my scalp feel so tingly and refreshed and my hair is starting to get thicker where it was thinning out at.

I found this all in on supplement Immune Defense, which I am excited about because I was taking about 8 different supplements a day.  You can get this supplement on Amazon for about $30 for a double pack.  I took a pack and my husband took a pack.  At the beginning of the Covid Pandemic we were hearing take Zinc, Vitamin C, Elderberry and some of everything else and because we didn't want to get Covid we did that.  Needless to say taking all of this stuff didn't stop Covid, because we all got it at the same time.  Our cases wasn't as severe as my Moms and maybe the supplements had something to do with that I don't know, but I will keep taking them.

So, you can see that I am on a journey to excellent health.  We only get one life and we should take care of that one life as best we can.  Life can be short why not decide to live it as long as you can as healthy as you can.
​
Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
Audrey

2020 is finally gone and at first I was excited to put this crazy year behind us, but right towards the end things took a turn for the worst for my family. We've all contracted Covid.  This has been such a crazy situation because I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how this all happened.  I was feeling guilty because I felt like I did not protect my mom who has underlining issues and now she is fighting for her life.  After talking to my family, I finally decided to give myself some grace and accept that God's plan is not our plan and that he knows best and can heal us all if it's his will.

So moving forward in 2021 my theme for this year is Gratitude.  I've always practiced being grateful, but I plan on leveling up my gratitude meter.  If I've learned nothing else from this Covid monester is that you have to be grateful for the small things.  I plan on living my life to the fullest because you never know when your time will be up.  

I've been living in Gwinnett county for almost 8 years and I've never really discovered all that the county has to offer, but that is about to change.  As I produce the show daily I will also share what I've learned about Gwinnett and all of the places that I intend to visit.  This is me being grateful for the small things.  I will spend quality protected time with my family and friends and just enjoy the simplicity of life and all that it has to offer.

As my family recover and work on getting back to a new normal, we will never take life for granted again and gratitude will be a core value of how we live our life moving forward.

Stay Safe!
Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day
Audrey

Before Covid-19 took over the world, I thought I knew what I wanted.  I had just opened my new podcast studio where I would be hosting the the show from and also producing podcasts for others.  I was on my way to speak at Podfest in Orlando Florida and that was exciting.  I did get a chance to go and speak and had an amazing time only to return home and in few days the whole world just shut down.

I thought to myself, what the heck is going on.  For a minute I felt like this would soon be over, but in just a few short weeks I lost my uncle to the virus and about two weeks after that I lost the best man in my wedding to this same virus.  I closed my studio down, because the whole world was on lockdown and on top of that I was deathly afraid to leave my house.  

During the time that I was sheltered in place I took the time to look at my life and my business.  I realized that for over 20 years I had been chasing success, but had not reached the level of success that I wanted to achieve.  Although being on locked down gave me time to think, it also sent me into a mild depression, because I started to focus on all that I had done wrong up until that point.  What's crazy is that I didn't know that I was slightly depressed.  It was not until my husband suggested that I might be going through a mid life crisis.  I stopped to think about what he had said and thought to myself that maybe I was going through a mid life crisis.  As time went on and I became less afraid I started to venture out again.  I was sheltered in place from March 9th - June 6th.  I would not leave the house at all except to go on the deck to get fresh air.  

My 17th wedding anniversary was coming up on June 7th, so my husband and I decided to take a short trip.  We left on June 6th to go to a beautiful quaint town called Helen which is about an hour and a half drive from my home.  It felt so good to get out of the house and just be around people.  We kept our masks on for safety and avoided really large crowds.  We had a great time.  I had forgot how nice it was to just relax and not worry about business or anything else for that matter.  While there I had even more time to think.  I started to reflect on my life and again I beat myself up, because here I was at 53 years old not really sure about what the heck I was doing with my life.  Even though my trip was great I was still confused about what I wanted to do with my life at this point.  

God has given me the ability to come up with some of the most amazing ideas that I've turned into businesses.  Now I had 3 amazing businesses, but I was my happiest when I was hosting my podcast.  The problem with hosting Good Morning Gwinnett, was that I didn't believe it could earn me the kind of money I wanted, so instead of focusing on what brought me joy, I was chasing money and to be honest I was so unhappy.  

In July my husband and I went on our second short trip to a ranch in Madison Georgia, which is about an hour and a half away from where we live.  This was one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had in my life.  I love horses and this was the first time I was up close and personal with one.  We went horseback ridding and that was so much fun.  We met an elderly couple who had drove in from Florida and they were so nice.  I was so relaxed and had more time to think.

On my second adventure I declared that I would only do my podcast and everything else would take a back seat to that.  My mind was made up and I was ready to make it happen, that was until I got home and that belief that it wasn't going to make me the money that I needed kicked in.  So for the next 3 months I agonized over what I would do.  Finally at the beginning of October I decided that I was going for it and nothing was going to stop me not even myself.  So, I paused everything else I was doing and just focused on growing Good Morning Gwinnett.  Once I made that decision and stuck with it I felt like I was reborn.

It was a little scary thinking about starting over at 53 years old, but I loved what I was doing and I had to believe in it enough to know that because I loved it, it would take care of me.  I sleep so much better because I believe that I have finally accepted that Good Morning Gwinnett is my purpose and my passion.  Now I am excited about the road ahead and to see just how it all plays out.  As I take this journey of living my best life and being true to myself I will share it here with you.

I hope you feel inspired to be true to yourself. Stay safe and stay strong.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
​Audrey

I love having conversations with my daughter.  She is 29 years old and single.  She is a sweet and beautiful young lady, but for some reason she can't find a Boo.  So the other day we were chatting when the people came to pick up some stuff that we were giving away.  She went down to give the stuff to the guy, but she took a long time coming out of the garage.  I figured that it was someone trying to shoot their shot as they say.  Sure enough I was right.  The young man was handsome and he was trying to get to her number.  

When she finally came upstairs she started to tell us the story about how he was trying to get her number and she asked him where he lived he said in Atlanta.  She asked him where in Atlanta and he said behind the county jail.  Well he was on probation for robbery.  That's when she said to me "The Dating Pool Has Pee In It." 

I fell out laughing.  I thought this statement was so funny.  Anyway I shared this story with one of my best friends who is my daughter's God mother and she said that the dating pool definitely has pee in it.  Now I thought that this was just for millennials, apparently this pool of pee has no age limit.  I shared the story again because it was funny to me, but I keep getting the same response and that is the dating pool really does have pee in it.

So it seems that man are not interesting in settling down anymore.  Everyone of my single friends that I talk to say the same thing.  Men are not serious they just want to hit and run.  They are not interested in being in relationships with just one woman and I wonder why?  Is there too many women out there?  Is there a man shortage?  What the heck is going on?  There are these amazing women who want to be in a serious relationship and there aren't any men who want to join them.  This is crazy.  So what is a girl to do?  Do they swim in the pool that has the pee in it or do they wait until they put some chlorine it to get rid of the germs?

I would love to hear your take on this issue especially if you are a man.  Why don't men want to be in serious relationships anymore?

Still trying to get our life back on track, my husband and I decided to join a local bowling league.  Stars & Strikes is the closest alley to us, so we went there.  We weren't sure what to expect when we got there since this was our first time back since the end of last year before the whole corona virus pandemic.  So the first night we went our plans were to bowl in the doubles league on Tuesday evening, but we and one other team were the only ones to show up.  Of course you can't have a league with just two teams, so we decided to move to the Thursday league.

The Thursday league has 10 four person teams, so that was about 40 people congregating together.  Now I wasn't nervous, because I've learned to social distance and to wear a mask.  Also the employees at the bowling alley were all wearing masks, so that made us feel safe.  We have to face it that wearing a mask is a new normal for a lot of us.  Now I must admit that on Tuesday when we first went we had our masks on, but we forgot them on Thursday.  I still felt okay, because we were spread apart from the other teams.  This week though I will make sure that I have my mask on so that I can continue to practice safety and get used to this new normal that we are now living.

Stay Safe 
Until Next Time 
Make It  A Great Day!
Audrey

I was so excited about the baby  and planning of the events leading up to her birth like the baby reveal and the baby shower.   Every time I would feel a flutter in my stomach I would talk to my "Butterfly". Pretty soon everyone was calling her Butterfly and she wasn't even here yet. 

As the months went on, I knew she was going to be something special.  She was so active;  Butterfly did all kinds of turns in my belly.  I thought it came from all of the spicy food that I was eating and boy, did I eat my share of spicy foods.  

I didn't gain a lot of weight with the pregnancy at first, only about 20 pounds.  So, I felt good, but then I gained another 20 pounds and everything started to change!

​Carrying that extra 20 pounds was tough, but things got even worse after the baby was born.  My relationship collapsed.  I didn't feel sexy anymore and my freedom was gone.  I thought that I lost myself.  I was a first time mom and I felt like I didn't know what the heck I was doing. 

Every time I looked at my daughter I knew that I had to pull myself together, so I started meditating and journaling.  I had to find my strength again.  That's when I realized my strength was dressing up, but I did it on a budget.  

Dressing up always made me feel good, so I decided to launch my blog The Budget Boutique  to help other mothers who wanted to bounce back on a budget and feel good about who they were again.  The more I planned out my outfits I knew I was on to something.   Blogging brings me so much joy.  It's still very new, but I feel like I've found myself again and the road ahead looks pretty damn amazing.​

I hope you enjoyed this article.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day
Audrey