Lorissa (01:02):
Yes, it’s so much fun. And so here we are the power of celebration. There’s so much that we wanna talk about, not only about our own little celebrations that we’re talking about today, but really about talking about how as women, we need to celebrate our wins. We need to celebrate the good things that are happening in our life. So we are all about that today. Is there anything you wanna share?

Sterling (01:27):
No, I just, as you listen to us and you listen to the joy in our voice, we are teaching you how to say your accomplishments out loud. I think it’s true that for a lot of us that, you know, are quietly raising children or loudly raising children in our homes. You know, there’s no awards for that. There’s no PhD for that. There’s no job raises for that. And it’s so easy for us to kind of fade into the background and to not celebrate what we have done. And so we are coming today to celebrate some of the work that we’ve done. And we want you to hear how that sounds so that you can begin even just in your own mind to celebrate yourself and the work that you’ve done.

Lorissa (02:08):
Yes. All right. So let’s do this. Let’s jump in Sterling. Kick us off with the first thing that we are celebrating today.

Sterling (02:18):
Yes, we are celebrating our new website launch you guys. We have been working quietly behind the scenes for gosh, almost three months now building a brand new website. And we had a couple goals with this website. One was that it looked really Catholic. Yes. If anyone has met Lorissa, I, and if anyone’s been in our homes, right, you guys know, we just like our dripping Catholicism all the time. Right? our jewelry, the art in our homes, what we talk about, I mean, we really eat and breathe Catholicism all the time. And our website had a little bit of that in there, but we wanted it to be just so obvious that first and foremost, we are a Catholic company and we hired a non-Catholic web designer, but she was very talented. And she really spent a lot of time with us understanding our faith and the imagery that was important to us, and then pulling that into our website. And it is so beautiful. Every time I go there, it just feels like how I would want my home to look. Do you feel like that?

Lorissa (03:25):
Yes. Yes. I love it. It’s peaceful. It is very Catholic in a, in a, in a very beautiful way. And I can’t wait for women to go check it out.

Sterling (03:37):
Yeah. And the other thing we really wanted to work on was the words on the website. So the words that a website has is called copy. So we wanted to improve the copy because life coaching is kind of a mysterious concept. Like if you were to ask a hundred people on the street, what does life coaching mean? A lot of them wouldn’t understand that. Whereas if you said, Hey, what’s a school teacher, everyone kind of gets like, oh, I know what a school teacher is and what that person does is a job. But life coaching is still fairly new sounding and people wonder, is it therapy? Is it like having a basketball coach? Is it only for business people? There’s a lot of questions out there. And so we wanted to answer that more clearly. So we really, we slowed down, we spent time together.

Sterling (04:21):
We talked to our clients, we talked about their challenges and how life coaching tools help them overcome those challenges. And we just spoke so much more clearly to not only what life coaching is, but what Catholic life coaching is on our website, just so that anyone who landed there really understood the work that we were doing here at made for greatness. And the other big addition to our website is we are opening up private one-on-one coaching to everyone. So previously the only way to hire a made for greatness coach was to be part of our membership. And then you could see our private coaching page and you could hire a coach and work with her one on one. And we really wanted to bring that to everyone because some people really weren’t interested in signing up for the membership, but really did want a coach about coaching.

Sterling (05:19):
And maybe they’d even talked to a not Catholic coach. And we had so many emails saying, Hey, do you offer one-on -one coaching? And so, you know, it takes a lot of work behind the scenes, you guys to offer anything as a business, the systems and the way that we do it and the way that we onboard a new coaching client. And so we knew we wanted to offer that to everyone. So if you go to made for greatness.co, you can now click on one on one coaching and read about our coaches and book a discovery call with them. So what that call is about is just seeing if you’re a good fit for each other, asking questions about coaching and really telling that coach your story. So she can say, all right, based on what you’ve said, you know, this is the work I think that we could do together.

Sterling (06:05):
It’s a very no pressure call. It’s very lovely. And it’s one of my favorite things to do. And so now you’ll be able to go see the lineup of coaches that we have. They’re all incredibly well trained, both as life coaches, but also deeply, deeply in Deval Catholic. Because like I said, first and foremost, that’s who this company is for us. And so I’m excited for you guys to get to see that. And then on our website, we wanted to create some free resources for you that could help you write now. So this podcast is one way that we get to minister to all Catholic moms, but we wanted you to get a taste of either us on video or our life coaching wisdom in your inbox. And so we created four opt-ins. So that word opt-in just means you put in your email address and then we’re gonna send you something. So LA, if you wanna talk about love, your husband challenges one.

Lorissa (07:05):
Sure. Yes. And really, truly these are, we want you to think of these opt-ins as our gift to you. These are bundles of gifts that are really, it’s our way of telling the people that come to our site, that we are thankful for them. And thankful for those of you that are listening to the podcast, those of you that are involved in masters, all of it, it’s our gift to you. And these opt-ins are, are gifts that we’ve put a lot of time and energy into. They’re not just something we’ve thrown together. We’ve really, we’ve wanted to make these gifts have significant value in your life. So this first one is called the love, your husband challenge. We actually ran this challenge back in February. It was a little bit like a Valentine’s day challenge, and now we’re making it available to anyone that wants to do it.

Lorissa (07:58):
It’s 14 days of receiving these amazing emails into your email box every single day. And each email has a daily reflection. It has a challenge, something that you need to, you know, a challenge for you to do for your husband or with your husband. It gives you some fun and flirtatious text messages that you can send to him along with a really beautiful prayer that one of our master’s members has written. There’s so much goodness in each of these emails. And we’ve had such extraordinary feedback from this challenge women. I mean, we had, I don’t know, initially almost, do you know how many women did it? A couple hundred, at least

Sterling (08:45):
Thousand women do the challenge in February. And we really, we closed the doors to it. You guys, the day or two after it started. And we just got so many requests from people who wanted to do it. And then after it started running, people started telling our friends about it. So then we got so many more emails saying, can I do it? And that’s when we really knew we wanted to make this available on our website all the time. And we got, I wanna say at least 50 testimonials. We said, Hey, at the end, we said, Hey, if this challenge helped you replied to this email and told us how, and there were just dozens and dozens and dozens of women saying this was amazing. This was exactly what I needed. It was such a boost to my marriage. It was really beautiful.

Lorissa (09:24):
Yes. And it is a 14 day challenge that you can do anytime of the year, not just in February it’s it’s, we’ve, we’ve made it so that it could be used anytime. And it is so special. I’m pretty sure some of our members have already done it twice now. Like they ‘ve had people reach out to us asking us, can you resend me the emails? Can I redo the challenge? It was so lovely. And so this is, this is one, this was, you know, this took quite a bit of time to put together, but we’re so happy with how it turned out. And especially to hear from so many women that it was a blessing in their life. So we’re excited. So if you have not done this challenge, you’ve got to go to the website and sign up for it. It’ll instantly come to your inbox. And then for the next 14 days after you will be getting these amazing emails that will be a blessing to you, me, to your marriage, in one way or another. We promise.

Sterling (10:25):
Yeah, absolutely. And then the other opt-in that we created was the five lies optin and this was about weight loss and what we know as mindset coaches, and I didn’t know this two years ago, did not know this, that the way that we think really drives our behavior. And so for most of us, we have no training about that. And there’s just a jumble of thoughts running around in your mind. And then you have all of these actions and that’s why a lot of us feel like we eat against our will. Like we wake up and they’re like, I’m gonna eat healthy today. And then all of a sudden we’re like scooping goldfish off the kids’ plates. And we’re like, how did that happen? And it’s because we don’t know how to find lies in our brain. The only reason you are overeating is because you’re believing something that isn’t true.

Sterling (11:14):
I promise. And what was so amazing to me is after I learned this, it became so obvious why I was eating. And then I could address the root problem, not just the symptoms. I didn’t mean another diet. I didn’t need another food list. I could just address why I was feeling upset or stressed or sad that was causing me to eat. And I could just drop those stories and pick new ones. And so this free workshop is me teaching you the exact tool that we use in our program for how women lose weight. Now, our weight loss programs are pretty involved. I think it’s probably one of our longest programs in our master’s membership. But this is just, this is the biggest tool. We’re just giving it to you. The biggest tool for you to discover why you are overeating and you were overweight is because you were overeating.

Sterling (12:12):
And so you can watch this workshop. It’s an hour long, it comes with worksheets and we’re gonna help you find the five lies that your brain is believing. They’re not like universal lies. We all have a special brand. We all have unique lies that our brain decides are important to believe. And so you’re gonna find those and then have the tool that we teach that helps you to shift them so that you don’t believe them anymore. And that is going to make weight loss feel possible for you. And I just mean this with all my heart. I was overweight for most of my whole life. And I thought that was something I would battle for my whole life. And this tool helped me lose 70 pounds. And I just know exactly how to lose weight without even drama about it. It’s the most amazing thing. And I will, I will never be that person again. I will never be a person who feels like I eat against my own will. And I don’t know why I weigh what I weigh. Like now I know exactly why my brain is setting me up for success or dragging me down to failure. And I know how to get it back to where I want.

Lorissa (13:19):
So good. So awesome. I know we also have had a lot of feedback on that workshop and those resources that you give out. So thank you Sterling for doing that. And then again, this is our gift to you guys. So go check it out. If that sounds like something that you’re struggling with or wanna know more about super easy, you just go put your email in and then that video will be sent directly to you. The other option that we have, this one, I love this one. This is our Catholic moms encouraging bundle. And this is really special. This is something that Sterling and I put together for moms to just give their kiddos a little extra love and encouragement to brighten their day. And so there are 30 beautiful encouraging cards that you can just print off and give to your children.

Lorissa (14:16):
You can put ’em in their lunch boxes or leave it, you know, on their pillow in the morning when they get home or whatever, that’s there or in their backpack, whatever. And then there’s also a hundred encouraging phrases that we give to you so that you can just have those encouraging phrases on hand to build your children up, to love on your children, to surprise them. And then to just, you know, it’s a, it’s a gift for your children, but it’s also a reminder for us as parents to be working on focusing on the positives and building our kids up. A lot of times, I know for me, I love this because I can, sometimes it’s just very easy for me to focus on the negative and oh, you know, they left their toys on the ground or they’re not picking up after themselves, but at the same time, my kids do a lot of really awesome things. And so it’s just that reminder to give that positive reinforcement, to recognize the little things they do and to love them in those ways. So if you think that is something that would be a blessing to you and to your kids, go ahead and check that out. A lot of the cards are probably, you know, with the images on ’em are geared towards younger kids, probably 12 years old and under, but there are definitely some that we created that would be wonderful for teenagers so

Sterling (15:43):
Well, and I just wanna jump in there because you can give these to teenagers and here’s what happens. They have this eye rolly moment, like if you give them and they’re so cute, if you give them the bright, colorful thing that says you are my sunshine, your 15 year old is just gonna be like, Ugh, but then they smile. They always smile after the eye roll. Like it’s almost that they get it. They are cute and they are for little kids, but they get it. They get that. You love them too. And it’s still just a sweet moment. If you could leave it in their backpack or their lunch, or put it on the dash of their car. And they’re like, mom, the kids feel so loved in those moments. And then the other thing you guys, that’s hilarious is leaving them for your husband because they are really cute.

Sterling (16:25):
And so sometimes I’ll put one on my husband’s desk and it just makes us laugh because they are meant for children. I like, I love, there’s this one that I put on that says dream big says dream big, but it’s like, obviously for kids, but I put it in his office. And so this is just one of my favorite things that we’ve created and I printed out I’ll, I’ll just remind myself, I’ll just feel this moment, this prompting from the holy spirit. Oh, go print those out again, start, start giving those out to your family. And I just keep ’em on my desk and I just put the cards in places and it never gets old. No one ever gets tired of being encouraged and loved. Yes, nobody ever does. So they are just, they’re really wonderful. And then right. Be right above the download. Once you’re in, I will give you a little video on how to not accidentally discourage your kids. And I think this is so important because I was definitely encouraged in, I don’t wanna say the wrong way, but in a not optimal way before I learned how the brain works. And so I give a really short like, Hey, do it this way. And not that way just to set you up for success with your kids. And I think that that is really powerful too.

Lorissa (17:37):
Yes. And even in the hundred encouraging phrases, those are really fun things that you can do. You can text those to your kids as well, or even just use them as a handwritten note. There’s probably even a few of those that you could share with your husband as well. So,

Sterling (17:55):
Absolutely. All right. So the last opt-in that is on our website and it’s on every single page we’re telling our web designer, our main mission in our company is to lead Catholic moms to the holy spirit. That’s it be like if you could sum up my whole life, my whole life is gonna be about leading my kids and other Catholic moms to the holy spirit, because he is the ultimate life coach. He knows exactly what you should be doing with your life. And so we had created this video and a worksheet on hearing God’s voice and this was in our master’s membership. And we just thought, you know what, everyone in the world should have that everyone in the world should believe that you can hear God’s voice and should know how to do it, which is kind of an audacious claim. Like it sounds pretty crazy. I don’t feel bad claiming it though, because the Bible says so all the time, the Bible tells us all the time that God speaks to us and it is possible. And so we put this resource together for you. If you’re feeling like you’re drowning or you’re in a lot of pain or your relationship with God is just strange right now or missing, this is a wonderful place to remind yourself that you can hear God’s voice. And we have a guided audio prayer that will help you to hear him. It’s so beautiful.

Lorissa (19:27):
Yes, it is so beautiful. And again, and I think it’s like just even being reminded of that, being reminded that God is always speaking to us that the holy spirit is always working and present in our lives. And the more we pay attention to his voice, the more we hear it, like the more, the more I feel the promptings of the holy spirit within me. And then I respond to that prompting. Then it just becomes so much more familiar. And I don’t have to question it the next time I feel it. It’s like, oh, I know that voice. I know that stirring within me. I know that’s the holy spirit. And I just, I should just do what he’s telling me to do right now, because if I fight it, then I’m gonna miss out on something really beautiful. I’m gonna miss out on a potential miracle that he wants to do at this moment.

Lorissa (20:20):
So I love it. And that’s who we’re called to be. And it’s really special. Cuz here we are in this Easter season, we’re about to come up to Pentecost and we’re hearing all of these readings at mass where, you know, our Lord is, you know, where God is sending forth the holy spirit, where Jesus is promising to send his holy spirit. And it’s no different than then. Like it’s no different today than it was back then. The power of the holy spirit is just the power of it. And the saints over the centuries have been guided by the holy spirit and we are no different. He is guiding us right now.

Sterling (21:01):
Absolutely. And so you guys, you can’t miss it. It’s on every single page. It’s on every single page. If you want to hear God’s voice, you can just put in your email address and listen to that really lovely video. Okay. That was the longest thing we had to celebrate, but we’ve been working on it for a very long time and we’re very excited for you to see it. If you like it, just send us a message, send us a message to the team it made for greatness.co or Instagram us, or just tell us because you know what, we don’t get a lot of feedback in an online space, right? We do this podcast and we like to toss it into the internet world and we do this website and we don’t get a lot of feedback if this is in a store where we get to shake your hand and exchange a t-shirt with you. So your feedback is just so meaningful to us. And so if you like it and you just shoot us a quick message anywhere that you can find us, that would just be so meaningful to our hearts because we just love hearing from you and we’re doing this for you, we’re doing this so that you can have a deeper relationship with the Lord. That is the mission that is on our hearts.

Lorissa (22:04):
Absolutely. All right. Number two, our next big celebration. This is funny. Webster and I were kind of joking about this earlier. Cause in, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not necessarily like the biggest thing to talk about, but to, to Sterling and I, this is kind of a big deal, but we recently hit 3000 followers on our Instagram accounts. yay… This is a big deal for us. And I, you know, and the reason why, I mean we’re growing and we put ourselves out into the world with this you know, which is made for greatness and our master’s program, the podcast, all of it, putting it out there and it’s been exciting to watch it grow. But the deal is, especially with social media, is it kind of, it, it starts to, it grows slowly and then it kind of builds momentum over time. And so we’ve just been doing the things that we, we believe God is calling us to do, putting ourselves out there. And it really ties into our mission because we are made for greatness, you know, we really take seriously the quote that the world offers you comfort, but you’re not made for comfort. You’re made for greatness and Australian. I don’t wanna speak for you on this, but I know putting myself out on social media is stepping out of my comfort zone a little bit.

Sterling (23:25):
Yeah. I mean, sharing our life, especially because when I had a personal account, I would just be like, here’s my kids, here’s my dog. I don’t know. It’s just things like that. But on our, our made for greatness account, when I go to post something, I’m really thinking like there’s a woman out there who needs to be uplifted right now. And I really sit and ask the Lord to guide me and what does she need to hear? And, what do you wanna say to her Lord? So it feels like a big responsibility and it is uncomfortable because you know, Instagram is public. And of course there are people who are not Catholic who can find it and say things you can’t control what other people say. And so it is a space of vulnerability for both of us, because I think in a lot of ways, most of us will choose to live very private lives.

Sterling (24:07):
But when God calls you to spread the gospel in a public way, he’s just asking you to walk on the water and to trust him and, and to be vulnerable and that he will care for our hearts in the meantime. So just thank you. If we could put all 3000 of you in a room, we would just cry. Like I would look at all of you and I would just cry and think it’s just so incredible that this many women have come together to worship the Lord and who desire sainthood. As I look out on Facebook and the news, you can just see the majority of the world is not desiring sainthood right now. That is not the biggest message that I see. I see a lot of pain and confusion and fear. And so for us to come together and say, you know, we believe in Jesus, we believe in the gospel and we believe that he called us to be saints. And we’re kind of linking our arms together. That it’s just very inspiring. And I just wanna celebrate that we’ve created this space and that all of you have been brave enough to come join us because it does require bravery to do that. And we’re just so thankful for all of you.

Lorissa (25:12):
Yes, absolutely. And we hope if you’re not, if you haven’t come to our Instagram page, come check it out. And we would love to have you join us there. And again, we are so very thankful for all of you that follow us, that comment on things and that are supporting us as we continue to do this work.

Sterling (25:35):
Absolutely. Okay. Next step. This is just still mind blowing to me, but 500 women have come through our master’s program. And I know that we said at the beginning, we had this huge audacious goal of saying, you know, that we want 10,000 women to have gone through our program and learned some of the tools that we teach so that we could help moms have more peace in their lives. Right. We just want moms to go from, from drowning and feeling stressed and being upset with God or confused to having peace and self-control and joy and gentleness. Those are the kind of women that we wanna be. And we have exactly the thing that women need to go from point A to point B, right? We have the exact tools to take you from feeling those negative drowning, helpless feelings, to feeling in control and powerful and doing the things that God wants you to do.

Sterling (26:31):
And so Laris is right. It’s like you put your head down. When you create a company, you put your head down and you do the work and you write emails and you record podcasts. And it’s sometimes easy to get stuck in the work, but this is our moment where we kind of wanted to pop up and go, oh my goodness, did you know that 500 women have gone through our program? And it was just so exciting for both of us to see that number. Cause it feels like such a milestone number for us that we have created something that has touched that many lives. And you know, we get testimonials. First of all, every week we have this post called Wednesday wins in masters and every week women go in there and tell us what their wins were and they’re big and small and, and happy and wonderful and everyone cheers each other on.

Sterling (27:20):
And it’s so great to see those. And then sometimes people email us out of the blue. They’ll just say, thank you so much. My relationships have never been better. I am so much calmer or it’s also very special to me when we get an email that says, you know what, this really, really difficult thing just happened. This really hard thing, dark thing, scary thing happened in my life. And if I had not had the tools that you guys taught me, I would’ve crumbled. I would not have been able to make it through in the way that I have. And that is so powerful. So we’re just celebrating, we’re celebrating those 500 women that you have chosen to invest in yourself and to put your mental health as a priority. And that you have chosen to have hope because that’s really what it is. It’s this moment where you think what if it could be better? What if my life doesn’t have to be like this? And it takes a lot of courage to hope, especially when you’ve had a lot of difficult things in your life. A lot of crosses either a lot of them are heavy crosses to just have the courage to hope again. And so I’m just very thankful for each one of you who have done that and been through our program. It’s been such a beautiful thing to see.

Lorissa (28:39):
Yeah. And you know, certainly I just did the math really quickly and, you know, took the number of weeks that we’ve been up and running with our company, which is, you know, a little over or less than a year and a half now. And we’ve put out over probably 250 coaching calls in that time group coaching calls where those 500 women have had the opportunity to jump on a group coaching call, many of whom have had the opportunity to be coached on a, on an issue or a struggle that they’re, that they’re going through in that moment and get help immediately and get support. And it’s so funny. I mean, I got off on Saturday off of my, one of my group coaching calls and I was in tears because it was just so beautiful to, to witness the women, not only being coached and having, you know, kind of some aha moments there, but also the other women that were present on that call and the support that they were giving to each other was so beautiful.

Lorissa (29:41):
Here we were, you know, women saying, gosh, I’ve been through that too. Or I’m going through something similar. I’m praying for you, things like that. I mean, just lifting up each other and supporting each other. And that’s the beauty of what takes place in masters, not only learning the tools, but being part of a bigger community. It’s also beautiful that out of those 500 women, women, not just in the United States, in Canada, in Europe other parts of the world are part of our master’s program. And so what’s really cool is being together with a group of like-minded women who are striving, all, all of us are striving to be saints. We love our vocations and we wanna love our vocations even more. And we desire to grow with other women in our, you know, in this, in this walk because we can’t do it alone. We need each other.

Sterling (30:37):
Yeah. That said, I decided to do a coaching call this morning. And it was just like that. There was a woman who came and she was on the verge of tears. She could barely breathe. She was so stressed out and she had some big things happen in her job. And she said, I remembered you had a call. So I just thought, you know what, I’m gonna try. So she hopped on and raised her hand. And so the first thing that I did with her was just calm her down. So we’re not gonna coach anything. I said, you gotta calm down my friends. And we just prayed and breathed and she got calm and I said, you’re safe. And I’m with you. And God’s with you and was so powerful. And then I just started coaching her. And when we really were able to settle the dust and see the facts of the situation, she realized she did have a really good plan.

Sterling (31:21):
And she was really good at doing what she needed to do. And of course she was stressed because of some unique things that had happened, but they were over now and she was okay. And she made a plan for the rest of the day and she said, oh my gosh, it just feels so much better. Thank you so much. And it’s just, Lorissa’s right. It never gets old for us to see that transformation in your face when we watch you guys go from just crunched and, and so upset to feeling free and light. It’s just so powerful. And, and that’s one of the things I love about why we chose to have a membership because Laris and I could have just been one among coaches. Right? We could have just done coaching one on one, but we said, no, we wanna do it together with a community of women or we can lift each other up and support each other. And you’re absolutely right. Lorissa, the chat was just blowing up for this woman in love. And so many people are saying, yep, I’ve been there and you can do this. And you know, there aren’t a lot of places we can go right now for that as moms. And so it’s, it’s really a powerful part of our program.

Lorissa (32:18):
Absolutely. Okay. The last big thing we wanna celebrate, I think this is a big deal. We have officially hit 110,000 downloads on our podcast. Wow.  Sterling. This is so exciting. We are on, as we mentioned at the beginning episode 82 of this podcast. I think we launched the podcast back in November of 2020, right?

Sterling (32:47):
Yes.

Lorissa (32:47):
Wait, where are we? And so here we are 82, 82 episodes later, and 110,000 downloads. And it’s so exciting. I, I, this one, this one kills me because I remember the first few episodes that we recorded and being so nervous. And for me anyways, I know Sterling’s been doing podcasting for, for many years. So she’s a pro at this, but for me it’s been a big learning curve and it’s been at times terrifying and frustrating and exciting and so much fun, all like all wrapped together. And it’s, it’s kind of crazy recording a podcast cuz you know, you’re sitting in your room or sometimes I’ve had to lock myself in my closet to get some quiet space. You’re in there with a microphone in your computer and you know, trying to understand the software and figure it all out and just praying, praying, praying that the message that is on your heart, that, that you believe God is placed in your heart.

Lorissa (33:55):
That’s meant to be shared. You pray and hope that it resonates with someone that it impacts or it inspires or challenges. Another woman out there who is doing this hard work of raising her children and loving our Lord and loving her family. And so I don’t know, it’s a labor of love obviously. I mean we spend hours a week putting this podcast out, making it possible. And it’s just so exciting to hit these numbers and to know that this is just the beginning and to hope that you know, in another 80 episodes, I, I don’t even know what we’ll be celebrating at that point, but it’s just very exciting.

Sterling (34:41):
Yeah, it is. And it is really special. And, one of the things I do love about podcasting is it kind of creates an online diary of what we’re going through because Lorissa and I pray every week about what to talk about. We don’t really plan it that far in advance. And we certainly don’t plan it strategically for just kinda praying. And we say like, God has been putting this topic on my heart and, and then we speak about it. And so, you know, it’s really lovely to get to look back and see, oh yeah, that was what was on my heart back in the spring and last year. And, and then to reference them, somebody emailed me and said, Hey, I need some help with the topic. And I thought, you know, I know we’ve covered a podcast on that.

Sterling (35:22):
And so I went back and looked and we had covered four podcasts on it. I thought, oh, that’s amazing that I could just send this woman for podcasts right now to help her in her journey. And that was always a big part of our mission is really putting this work out here for you guys for any time that you need it. So, you know, if you have listened to one of our episodes and it’s really been moving for you book market or come back to it, there are no rules that say that you only have to listen to an episode one time if one of them was really powerful for you, then, then go back. And I often hear you guys tell me that the episode about acceptance versus indifference, you know, having a challenging person in your life and what is the difference between accepting them for who they are, but then not letting them trample all over you.

Sterling (36:12):
That’s such a powerful episode and you may need to hear that before you go to an event. Maybe you’re seeing a bunch of people in one of these big, you know, events that happened in may and, and you need a reminder that you can love someone without co-signing their behavior that hurts you. And that makes you feel so protected. And so thank you for listening to this podcast. And I just wanna encourage you to share it. I rarely do that. So this is why I’m saying this to you. It takes me many, many, many times of listening to a podcast and loving it before I actually hit that square with the arrow. And I, I hit, I always hit share, and then I just text it to one of my friends. And I’m like, are you listening to this podcast? Because it’s amazing. And I just don’t always think about it.

Sterling (36:58):
And so this is just my invitation to you to open your phone right now, hit that share button and just text it to one friend, just one friend, because really every single Catholic mom needs to hear these tools. And when I share a podcast that I really love, I usually say, start at episode one, go start at episode one. They could start anywhere that they want, but we really crafted those beginning episodes to teach women about how powerful their minds are and how they really can the will of God. And so, you know, encouraging them to start at the beginning, I think is just such a great tactic. Anything else you wanna say about sharing podcasts? Do you do that lo

Lorissa (37:40):
No. Yeah. I mean, I, I try to, if I listen to a podcast and I am really deeply impacted by it, I try to think, okay, who else do I know that needs to hear this right now? And but we do, we really do appreciate it when, when women share it. And that’s how we grow. This is kind of a word of mouth ministry really. I mean, we’re not running ads to it. We’re not, you know, marketing it. And so to me, that’s why it really is so special that we’re able to celebrate this many downloads right now, because I think it, it means that hopefully the content that we’re putting out is having an impact in some way, even if it’s a small way, that’s what our hope and that’s what our prayer has been. But we thank all of you that listen to us and listen to it and support this ministry that we’re putting out into the world.

Sterling (38:32):
Yeah. So today’s episode really is about the power of celebration. And I think women and in particular moms, you know what? We just do a terrible job. You guys are celebrating ourselves and someday Lorissa and I are gonna run a made for greatness conference. And hundreds of you are gonna come and we’re going to celebrate you for really ordinary things. We’re gonna celebrate all of the moms who potty trained someone this year. We’re gonna celebrate all the moms who empty nested one of their kids into college and cried and cried after they drove away. And we’re gonna celebrate every mom who had kids that, you know, got sick and threw up and they took care of them, right? Like those are amazing things that you guys are doing. And I just want you to like, actually pat yourself on the back today about ordinary things and big things that you have done, because it is important for your brain and the way that the brain works. It is important that you celebrate, that you tell the brain, Hey brain, this thing that we did, it is good. Yeah, it is good. And I feel like that’s something that comes up in the Bible a lot where God just says, you know what? And it is good. It is powerful to declare that. And that is why we are getting here, getting on this podcast. And we’re like, tooting our own horn. We’re doing it. We are throwing ourselves a party and saying, this work that we have done, it is good.

Lorissa (40:00):
Yes, absolutely. And and again, you’re so right. Certainly because when we do celebrate this and the brain recognizes it, then the brain wants to do more of it. Like, and the brain starts looking for more things that we can, that we can do to celebrate. And it just feels so good. I think for so many of us we’re, so it’s so easy to be critical about things or maybe how I felt short or didn’t do something good enough. And so we contend like the brain tends to focus on those things, but then when we shift it and we start celebrating the wins, which is what we, again, what we do in our master’s program, we do that a lot. We do it strategically for a reason on purpose, because we need to practice that more and more. And the more we do it, the better we get at it. And the more we start to recognize the little wins throughout our day. So, I mean, I start, I start trying to celebrate small little things that I do during the day. Oh, I got this done. Great. I’m so excited about that. Good job, Lorissa, all of those little things, not just the big things, it’s all of the little things. And when we do that, it brings a lot of joy to our lives and that’s what we want.

Sterling (41:18):
Yeah. And so to go along with that, we really wanted to kind of keep this momentum up and, and to really give you guys a chance to practice celebrating yourself. So in honor of all of these things, we are gonna do a celebration giveaway over the next few days. And so what that’s gonna look like is we’re gonna make a post on our Instagram account that says, celebrate your wins. And we’re gonna mention these things that we’re celebrating. And then we want you to comment and celebrate something about yourself, big, small, anything. And it’s gonna feel vulnerable. Any amount of celebrating in a public space makes you feel vulnerable, but we’re asking you to do it, to stand up for yourself and to show yourself that the work that you do is important. It is valuable and it’s okay to celebrate yourself. So you’re gonna comment either on our Instagram post, which then automatically goes to our Facebook page.

Sterling (42:14):
So you can comment there too. And what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna take all of those comments and we’re gonna pick four of them. And four people are going to win a $50 gift card to a brick house in the city, which is one of our favorite Catholic companies. And what I love about brick houses in the city is that she has these amazing t-shirts. I love her t-shirts every time I see them, I’m like, oh, I love that, but I don’t buy t-shirts. I don’t wear t-shirts. I don’t buy t-shirts. And so she also has this line of things for your home. And I have several of the things that she has for Catholic decor. And some of them are just beautiful and some of them are functional. And we just wanted to share this company with you because it’s just one of our favorites and we wanna celebrate her. And then also just celebrate you guys. We want, we can’t wait to like this flood of celebrations and winds are gonna come in and then we will choose four of you. And so you have until midnight on Friday, midnight on Friday, the 27th, for those of you who are listening in on real time, and then we will choose someone Saturday morning, well for someone’s and we will send out we’ll contact them and we send you guys those gift cards. So I’m excited. Laura said to see what these women have to celebrate.

Lorissa (43:32):
I know yes. Think about it. Let’s recognize it, claim it owns it. And I think what’s really cool is that the more we do this as women, then it gives other women permission to do the same thing. So as women are going to this, like, let’s just all celebrate each other and let’s just keep that on the forefront of our minds. How can we celebrate with each other? How can we encourage each other, build each other up and just keep doing more of that. That is our hope. That’s our goal. And again, thank you for joining us for this podcast episode. Thank you for celebrating with us. Go and check out, made for greatness, doco, and tell us what you think we’re so excited for you to see our new website. Yes. Sterling.

Sterling (44:23):
Yeah. We just love to know. We’d love to know what you think, because it may seem small to you. Like sometimes people will email us and say, oh, I don’t know if this matters, or I just wanted to reach out and then kind of minimize it. But it’s huge to us every time. And one of us will get it right? Cause we both check our email and one of us will get it and forward it to the other one and say, oh my goodness, did you see this? This is so amazing. Praise God that we get to do this work and that we get to put more of him out into the world. And so it is really, really meaningful to us when you guys do that, it’s just such a gift to us and it just keeps us going. It keeps us going to do this work because it is a lot of time and something that we feel like God has put on our hearts, but wow. When you do online work and you don’t ever get to see if the people like it you’re just hoping. And so your feedback to us is just such a light for us to keep going. And, we just appreciate you all so much. And we just want you to know the world offers you comfort that you were not made for comfort. You were Made for Greatness.