Solo: Portugal, book coaching, and a new decade ahead | Episode 213

Stacy: I feel like a lot of it for me at this stage is about creating more adventure and more harmony in my life and more space. And one of the things that I’m really grateful for at this point in my life and my career is the systems and people that I’ve brought in to help me function and have space and live a real life rather than just working, living to work. I really feel like I work to live and I feel like the work I do is really meaningful and it really changes people’s lives. Not just my clients, but their readers, their clients, the people they give talks to, the people that listen to their interviews. I really feel like pretty awesome about what I’ve built in my career. Welcome to Beyond Better, a podcast that explores a simple but profound idea.

Stacy: Hello friend, I am back with you this week. Back from vacation, I took most of August off, back into the swing of things, back into the exciting welcoming of new authors into my cohort. This week, Fall. This is going to be a shortish episode where I want to tell you all that’s been going on. I want to share some of the things I’m excited about and just connect with you. I like to do these personal episodes every so often because the information is great. But what’s the point of this podcast if you and I can’t connect personally every so often? So as I mentioned, I just took the month of August mostly off and I didn’t really do this how I’ve done it in the past. In the past I have taken off the entire month of August.

Stacy: I usually do have one and a half workdays kind of in the middle of August because I have book coaching clients. I cannot leave them high and dry. We really have a rhythm that we need to stick with. I have an idea to draft cohort running we usually have. We try to stack those on the same day. So while I’m not truly taking the full entire month off, pretty much it’s off this year I did it a little differently. I don’t think I’ll do it the same way next year because my goal this year was to take most of August off. I took three full weeks. Although, as I mentioned before, I did have a day that I came into the office, actually two late afternoons that I came in and I had client calls. I had a community event.

Stacy: So I did work a little. But my plan was that the first week of August would be very light and it would just be wrapping up final things and, you know, getting my, my office closed up and really being able to leave feeling like I was completely caught up now. I did accomplish that. I did feel that way, but it just turned out that week was incredibly intense. And what I was trying to do was replace the intensity with a lighter week, an extra week of work that would just be chill and ease me into vacation. It did not turn out that way. So I don’t think I’m going to do it this way again.

Stacy: I think next year I’m going to take the entirety of August off and I’ll probably still work maybe a half day or two half days or two afternoons because I have things that need to continue running and I would not want to go a month without seeing a book coaching client because they really need that accountability and support. So it’s a month off. But I do have to, I mean, have to. I don’t have to. I want to integrate some touch points while I’m away. But I am going to take that full month off because I really felt like at the end of the three weeks that I truly took off, I really needed another week, wanted another week just to. To feel the fullness of that rest. I am coming back feeling incredibly rested. So it’s not like I didn’t get great rest.

Stacy: And I did do a really good job of being caught up before I left. And so that is helping me a lot. I mean, I’m in my second week back as I record this after vacation. Last week I focused on getting my inbox caught up. Shout out to Kayla on our team for getting my inbox all pretty for me when I came back, it was. It only took me a couple days to catch up, which normally it’s like a nightmare. One thing I did do during my vacation time is I stayed caught up on my personal inbox. I didn’t look at it every day and I didn’t completely clear it out, but at least I checked it. Whereas in the past I’ve kind of neglected it during vacation.

Stacy: So that helped a lot transitioning back and I still didn’t feel like I was working per se. And so here I am second week, I am feeling good, I feel on top of things and I’m coming right back into the fullness of our idea to draft launch, which is so exciting. So this week again as I record this, I’m in the second week of September back from vacation and I am prepping for all the things. So next week, September 17, 2025 if you’re listening to this before then, please join my webinar. I will be doing a free webinar all about how to unlock the book within you to grow your brand, your business and impact. You can sign up for that webinar at stacyennis.com/unlockyourbooklivetrainings I know that’s a mouthful, but you can remember it.

Stacy: That’s stacyennis.com/unlockyourbooklivetrainings and I will of course drop that in the show notes for you. So right now, if you wanna attend, why not just go sign up right now and I’m sure we’ll do something with that landing page in the future. So if you’re listening to this in the future, do hop over there and see what we’ve changed that over to. Maybe we have a recording of the live training. Maybe we have some kind of resource for you. So it’s still going to be an active link, but again, if it’s before September 17, 2025, don’t miss this. I really pour a lot of heart, energy, time, wisdom into these trainings and I try really hard to make them incredibly valuable for you. Of course this is integrated with the launch of my program idea to draft.

Stacy: If you’re watching on YouTube, you just saw me get a huge smile as I brought up this program. I love this program. I think what I love about it, along with it allowing me to scale my impact and serve more authors, is that there is such a beautiful community aspect to this cohort. The shared accountability, this not competition. Because that’s not. Although let’s be honest, I’m a very competitive person, but this is not the vibe I foster in the group. It is really about seeing each other’s success as inspiration for your own success. And that is a really wonderful thing when you’re working toward a goal like writing a book is big, right? This is often one of the top goals that people want to achieve in their lifetimes.

Stacy: And yet we assume that it’s just a matter of sitting down and writing the book. And that’s just not the case. You need to learn the skill of book writing. You will greatly benefit from coaching to support you along the way. There’s so much unknowns in the book writing process and it doesn’t have to be done alone. It can be really joyful and exciting and it will be challenging. But why not do that with somebody that would be me and your cohort to support you through those challenges and keep you moving to achieve your goal of authorhood. That is what Idea to Draft is all about. It’s stacyennis.com/ideatodraft again. I will drop some information in the show notes for you so you can learn more about that.

Stacy: And anytime you want to know more about private coaching with me about the group program that I run, idea to draft, you can reach out to helloacianess.com I have heard from a lot of people recently that they’ve been trying to book a call with me, and my calendar on my site is very full. So if you reach out to me at hello@stacyennis.com, i will find time for you. I will make it happen so that we can connect and I can share more about how I can support you in your goal of becoming an author. So those are the two main things happening right now. The next cohort of Idea to draft begins October 7th. We will close enrollment at the end of September or when we are full. We already have a number of authors signed up before we’ve even truly started promoting it.

Stacy: So that is really exciting. For sure. This is the most, I would say, robust year we’ve had of authors out, actively reaching out, actively saying I really want to be part of this. And that for me is so cool because I have been building this program for years now. For many years, in fact. I started the first iteration of this 10 years ago. Over 10 years ago. I did it live in workshops. I kept testing. And this is the program that has evolved over those 10 years of heart of work and a lot of success with authors. So again, two dates to remember, September 17th. I’m doing a free webinar on how to Unlock the Book within youn to grow your brand, your business, and your impact.

Stacy: And I will be sharing about my program, Idea to Draft, and that is starting October 7, 2025. But we will close enrollment at the End of September. So that’s it for the work stuff. I want to give you a little update on personal stuff. I know I shared a little bit about my vacation. I didn’t tell you what we did. It was the first summer that we’ve had where we didn’t have guests and we didn’t have anywhere to go. Some of the reason for that is my sister ended up visiting my parents over the summer, so they didn’t come visit us. And then the other reason is that our residency permits are currently expired. Yes. Although mine’s not, but the rest of the family is. There’s been a change over here in Portugal from the main immigration office to a brand new immigration office.

Stacy: It has been a hot mess. We are, we have applied for our kids renewal, but my husband has not even been able to apply yet. And all of them expired on August 1. The government has given an extension to October 15 for residency that has expired. But I mean, I’m again, I’m recording this the second week of September. We have heard zilch, nada from the Portuguese government, from my husband. I’ve been in offices, I have tried all the things. So let’s see. Hopefully that goes okay. And the other thing related to that’s been a little bit disheartening is that the Portuguese in the process of changing its citizenship requirements now, at face value, I have no issue with this. I think it is fair and reasonable when foreigners come in that we have to put in a period of time into the country.

Stacy: We need to have cultural appreciation, we need to understand the language. I think that’s completely fair, especially here because there has been a real influx of foreigners. It’s impacting the local economy a lot. It’s making it hard for Portuguese citizens to afford accommodations and just life. So I don’t have an issue with this. However, what is happening is that the government has passed. It’s not into law yet, but essentially like it’s like in the US it would have passed the House and the Senate. Right. Like they have this law. It’s becoming a law that citizenship, you can apply for citizenship after 10 years of residency instead of after five years of residency. Reasonable, I think. But for me it’s pretty frustrating because we have been here for six years. I, this is me being super naive.

Stacy: I had no idea I needed to even worry about this changing. We haven’t applied yet. There’s a couple, there’s a few reasons for that. The main reason is just simply I, I didn’t Feel like I was in a hurry. I was like, I had it on my radar. I will apply in the next X months. Fine. It just was not something I was worried about because I didn’t realize this could change. Which I know sounds so silly now that I say it out loud, but it just wasn’t something that you think about as a foreigner that these immigration laws can just change so quickly. So I own some of that.

Stacy: But also I think it’s really unfair for people that have been here for five plus years who have life plans related to this citizenship, who have goals and have really set a life up to not have access to what were promised when we came. So I feel a little frustrated about that. At the same time really understanding why they’re doing it. But I’m hopeful that, I don’t know, maybe they’ll have something change. I’ve heard that there may be some adjustments made to it. I’m hoping maybe they will grandmother some of us in. Let’s see, there’s also some new requirements of understanding Portuguese history and culture. Language was already a requirement. You have to pass two levels of Portuguese.

Stacy: So you have to have basic Portuguese working like language ability, not working in a job context, but just your ability to converse basics in Portuguese, which again, totally reasonable. But that has been a little bit disappointing and unsettling. And I’m curious to see what the results of this are. They’re keeping it at seven years in this proposed law for Portuguese speaking countries. So these would be former Portuguese settlements like Brazil. There’s some other ones that probably you haven’t heard of because they’re pretty small. And then 10 years for non Portuguese speaking countries. So vamoslaver, let’s see what happens. I’m keeping an eye. Certainly if you’ve been thinking about moving to Portugal, there’s a bunch of other stuff that really impacts you too. It’s way harder to come than it was when we did six years ago.

Stacy: The other thing on my horizon right now is my birthday is coming up and I am turning 40 on October 1st. Wow, that’s weird. I remember turning 30 and thinking that was weird. And now I’m about to turn 40 and that’s super weird. And I think it’s probably even weirder for me because I feel so young still. Is that true for you too? If you’re in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s. I just don’t feel like a 40 year old. I thought that 40 year olds had everything figured out, like, nope, it’s not true. I’M sorry to burst your bubble. 20 somethings and younger that are listening. Grownups don’t know everything and we’re still figuring things out. I have to say though, I have looked forward to this birthday since I was in my 20s.

Stacy: I always had this idea of my 40s being my best decade yet or ever. And hopefully not ever. Because now as I get older, I’m like, no, every decade’s going to be my best decade. Why not? But I think coming into my 40s, I am so established in my profession and that feels amazing to just feel so confident and so good about what I’ve done professionally. That feels so incredible. And I feel like I’ve done so much in my life. I mean, I’ve traveled the world, I’ve lived all over the world, Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Thailand, here in Portugal, a couple US states. So I’m really curious to see what this next decade holds because I don’t know, I really need to think about what I want to create in this next decade.

Stacy: I feel like a lot of it for me at this stage is about creating more adventure and more harmony in my life and more space. And one of the things that I’m really grateful for at this point in my life and my career is the systems and people that I’ve brought in to help me function and have space and live a real life rather than just working, living to work. I really feel like I work to live and I feel like the work I do is really meaningful and it really changes people’s lives. Not just my clients, but their readers, their clients, the people they give talks to, the people that listen to their interviews. I really feel like pretty awesome about what I’ve built in my career.

Stacy: I think an area that I want to build and grow is having more community impact, both locally, but also just bigger nonprofit efforts. That has felt just being really honest. As a mom of two, I often think of myself as a medical mom because one of my children has had a lot of medical issues since very little. Literally 8 months old was the first time we had to start serious medical stuff. And eight months is very little. It’s just, you know, just imagine that tiny baby and he’s now 10. So it’s. Although he wasn’t so tiny, he was a little Buddha baby with big old rolls. He was very cute. But now my kids are 10 and 12. Things have gotten a little easier. They’ve gotten so much healthier.

Stacy: I’ve done so much over the last four years in combination with my husband and six years Even, like, even further back than that. But really, the last four years, we have devoted ourselves to making our children well and living a lifestyle that will help both of them thrive in every way possible. From, you know, food to exercise to emotional wellness. We’ve just really, that’s been like my life’s work. And I think in this next stage, what I’m hoping for is that will continue and it will continue to be good and my work will continue to be good and dare I say, great in both areas.

Stacy: And that will give me more time to do some of the work that I want to do in the world around just human freedom, really, in all areas, from supporting causes that stand up for humanitarian rights violations, to gender equity work, to anti racist work. There’s just so much I want to do. And until now, I haven’t really felt like I had the capacity to do it fully. I’ve done it through my work for sure. A huge, huge part of our catalog of we put our author’s books in. If were to put all of our author’s books into a catalog, a huge portion of them have a social equity component of some kind of. So I do feel like I am making a huge effort there, but I’d like to be doing a more direct work. I don’t know if that looks like volunteering.

Stacy: I don’t know exactly what that looks like, but it’s something that I think can happen more in my next decade. So it’s interesting you just walked through a point of awareness with me. So thanks for being there for that. Let’s see what else. I think that’s mostly it. Kids start school this week. I am not one of those parents that’s like, yeah, kids are going back to school. I miss them when they’re gone. There is a part of me that’s like, it’s nice to have the routine. It’s nice to have a quiet house, a tidier house. But I do miss them a lot when they’re gone. So bittersweet. And that’s it. That’s my shortish update episode, Life here in Portugal. Vacay Vibes Cohort. Coming up, Webinar. All the Things do.

Stacy: Be sure to check out the links in the show notes for the webinar and for the cohort. And listen, if you’re listening to this and you’re like, I really want to make this book happen, but you have those little gremlins in your head that are like, who would want to read what you have to write? Are you even Capable of writing a book. Wait a few years until you’re more qualified. Girl boy, no. Let’s get on a call, let’s talk about it. Come to my webinar because I will also be helping you think through that. You’ve got this. That book is possible, it’s within you and you can make it happen. And lastly, I have a note from our producer, Rita Dominguez.

Stacy: She says she wants me to let you know, which I agree with that we have some super exciting episodes lined up and we want to know from you what you want to hear more of. I do try so hard to curate our guests. We get so many pitches, so many guest pitches and we, as much as I would love to have all of the like, really qualified, amazing guests on, I, I cannot do that. So I have to be very choosy and selective about who comes on the podcast. And I can make. Rita can make smarter decisions if we know what you want. So do drop us a note. You can write Rita at rita@stacyennis.com, send her a note. Just say, hey, I want this guest to come on the pod. Or I’d like to hear about this. And she will add it to our queue.

Stacy: She’ll send you a nice note back because she’s like that and we would love to hear from you. So that’s it for today. I want to thank, as always, Juta Dominguez for her production of this fine podcast. Also would be grateful you’re listening still, you’re probably near your phone. If you would just rate and review this show, it would make such a huge difference for me in reaching more listeners with the message of living a life that’s not just better, but beyond better. And do be sure you’re subscribed because you don’t want to miss these episodes, right, these short ones. But also, as Krita told me to let you know, we have a ton, ton of awesome episodes coming up. So thank you all, thank you for being here, thank you for your time and energy and I will be back with you before you know it.