Welcome to the Elevated Edit Podcast.

I'm your host, Blakely Ramsey, and the goal of this podcast is to discuss all things personal development, wellness, and the art of editing your life in an elevated way.

From mastering morning routines to mastering your mindset, we're going to sift through the noise and empower you to take Elevated action.

Make sure you catch the show notes for all the details.

Enjoy the show.

Have you ever felt like you're doing everything right, but still waking up wondering if you're missing something deeper?

That's exactly where I found myself a few weeks ago.

On paper, everything looked amazing, but my nervous system, it was not on board.

So today I'm pulling back the curtain on what's really going on behind the scenes, what I'm building, what I'm balancing, risking and why this season feels different from anything I've ever experienced.

Let's get into it.

2025 has been a year of massive growth for me and definitely not in the way I expected.

So back in 2024, the last quarter of 2024, I knew I wanted to make some big changes.

I was just feeling very stuck, very stagnant, very like there was something else out there for me and I needed to go pursue it.

I wasn't 100 sure what it was, but I knew I needed to make a, a a change.

And at the time, in my mind, I think I had this romanticized idea that once I got clarity on where I was going and what I wanted and what I wanted my life to look like, that I would just feel joyful and everything would be easy and everything would feel so aligned.

Like I thought that gaining clarity was going to be the hard part.

And boy, has 2025.

2025 has certainly humbled me quite a bit in that area because what I did was, yes, I was going to find clarity and yes, I was going to be able to say confidently like, this is exactly what I want in life and this is exactly where I want to go.

But I did not realize that when I got that clarity, my nervous system was going to start acting a fool.

And thankfully, because I know my nervous system is just trying to keep me safe and safety is in the familiar and the comfortable.

But I think because I went into it almost blindly, that kind of caught me off guard and it has certainly caught up to me in the last couple weeks and we're going to get into that today.

So I survived.

Well, take that back.

I thrived for a long time off of just hustle.

I was always the hardest worker in the room.

I was always hustling.

I was always saying yes to everything.

And I had great systems, but my systems weren't always dialed in.

So, for example, instead of creating a system to make my day feel more effortless, I would create a system just so I could get something done faster, so I could add something else in.

Like, my systems were almost out of, like, desperation to be able to keep up versus giving me the freedom to be able to get things done efficiently and then go and enjoy my life.

Like, it was just all about faster and not necessarily about dialing in and being focused and doing better.

I was just faster, faster, faster, because for me, I believed that the faster I got things done, the more successful that I would be.

And up to a certain point, that really did serve me, you know?

But they say that what got you here won't get you there.

And I read this really great book on that at the beginning of the year.

It was called the Last Word on Power by Tracy Goss.

And it's about executive reinvention.

And in the book, she walks you through, through the process of finding out what your winning strategy is.

And then she explains how your winning strategy will get you to a certain point.

And then after you get to that point, your winning strategy will not only keep you at that level, but it will also force you to start going backwards.

And so that truly helped me so much realize that, like, okay, I inherently look for ways to please people and ways to say yes and ways to make sure that everybody else is happy.

And then from there I go, okay, how can I provide value?

How can I be of service?

And I do think that.

That I, like, I'm so proud of that.

There's certain parts of me that are like, man, I'm really proud of that.

Like, if that is, like, the thing that I find out about myself, that's a really good thing.

But there is that caveat and that dark side of that where, like, people will take advantage of you.

If you are a people pleaser, and if you are constantly saying yes, there's some people that literally do not care, and they will just keep asking things of you.

And I think that is where I got caught in the trap of constantly attracting people into my life who took massive advantage of the fact that they knew I wasn't going to say no.

And so I've really had to come to terms with changing my beliefs.

And what I realized was, okay, I am in this messy middle right now.

Like, what am I going to do to move forward?

Because I do want to Build a life and a business on sustainability and depth more so than speed.

And so a few weeks ago, this all hit a wall.

I feel like I self sabotage in two different ways.

I either overwork, you know, I'll work like 12 hours in a row and not take a single break, or I will do the opposite and I'll watch a lot of TV and I'll skip workouts and I will spend way too much time on social media.

And that was exactly where I was a couple of weeks ago ago.

And yes, the weather was bad.

We had like two weeks of non stop rain, but.

And I was blaming everything on the weather.

I was like, oh, do you know, just when the sun comes out, I'll.

I'll start performing better.

But I was like, blakely, okay, I'm gonna hold your hand when I tell you this, but you cannot keep blaming external circumstances.

You have to take some kind of responsibility because there's going to be times in your life, a lot of times in your life where it's raining outside.

And I can't just be like, oh, well, sorry it's raining.

I can't show up as my best self today.

Like, I knew that I had to take ownership of the season that I was in and stop blaming external circumstances.

And so what I have learned throughout this year is that working harder is no longer an option for me.

Like, I can't just be like, okay, well, I'm in a stuck season.

That means I just need to work harder.

Because I now know too much about working harder.

And I know that it hardly ever benefits you.

Like, working harder is not the answer.

And so I knew that wasn't an option.

And then I knew giving up wasn't an option.

Like, personally, that that's just never an option for me.

And so I was like, okay, that means that I'm going to have to recalibrate a lot of things and I'm going to have to go in and change things.

And I knew that I needed to go in and reevaluate my life and my business and my systems and all of the backend stuff that I knew wasn't going to work long term.

And so I have slowed down even more, which is crazy because I'm getting more done than I've ever gotten done before.

And it sounds so counterintuitive, and it is very uncomfortable.

But the last couple weeks, I have slowed down and completely overhauled how I am operating.

And that looks like recalibrating my book list.

So I feel like I've always read pretty High level books.

But here lately I'm so dialed in on my book list, like if it is not fully entertaining me or fully stretching my brain, like I'm not reading it, which is so wild because I used to just read whatever, you know, I would just.

If a good book came across my desk, I was like, yeah, I'll read it.

But now I'm like, no.

Is this really aligning with where I want to go?

I have rebuilt my time blocks.

So there were a lot of things before that I was doing that I was doing either because I felt like I needed to do them because everyone else who was successful did them, or I did them because I didn't have any boundaries.

And I feel like every new season that I'm stepping into right now, like my boundaries are getting stronger and the guilt around my boundaries is starting to drift away.

This is not perfect.

There's definitely still the guilt there.

I am still a people pleaser are at heart.

And so there are still times where I find myself saying yes to things that I really shouldn't say yes to.

But I have really tried to rebuild my time blocks and get really focused and really disciplined with my time.

And that's not saying that I want to work more hours, but the hours that I do have set for deep work.

I want to make sure that, okay, if I'm working for an hour, what is the end result?

What exactly do I need to be accomplishing and can I actually sustain, sustainably accomplish that in that one hour?

And so that has been wild to just sit down and like actually evaluate what I'm doing and how I'm doing it.

And it's been such a mindset shift for me.

And even just I've been doing this for a couple weeks now and I'm already starting to see a difference.

And then another big one for me.

And this was something that I didn't realize I was going to have to work on this year.

But I have had to redefine what done actually means to me.

And I think if you are like a creator or an entrepreneur, this is something that you might always struggle with.

With.

I don't know if I'll ever be super comfortable with this, but there you have to find a time where it's done.

Because for me, especially with, you know, social media and with the podcast and with the website and with ads and all of the different things I'm working on right now, I can keep working on them forever.

I can keep tweaking things, I can keep researching just non stop and There has to be a certain point where you're done.

And I have found myself kind of wanting to slide back into that analysis paralysis situation where I feel like I lived for a couple of years where I told myself I was just being a perfectionist, but really I was just procrastinating.

And I have really had to recalibrate my brain the last couple of weeks and be like, okay, this is done.

Like, at a certain point, I need to just put the thing that is done out into the world and get some feedback and then I can edit it from there.

But until I actually put this in front of real people and until I get actual feedback, I'm just running things in my brain and I'm always going to find problems in my brain and I might be solving problems that the audience doesn't even see, like they might have other problems or other issues with it.

And I'm not even working on those.

And so just being a creative and being an entrepreneur, I think especially with the way that we have so many options and so much access in the online space, we have been given almost unlimited options and unlimited choices.

And so I think with all that being said, it is really important to figure out what done is to you.

And yes, I have a certain level of excellence that I expect out of everything that I do.

And finding that balance has been kind of difficult, but also kind of fun to the point where I'm like, okay, I can sit down and do this project and know it's not going to take me all day long because I know what done looks like and I'm going to get it to done and I'm going to put the thing out there.

And then once it's done and I get feedback on it, I'm going to edit and improve next time.

And like, it sounds like such a simple feedback loop and it is.

But once again, the things that are easy to do are the things that are also easy not to do.

And that is all.

Of this is why I'm so proud of the archive, the digital planner that I have built.

And the wait list is officially open as of today.

It is linked in the show notes.

I did launch it to Instagram earlier, but ads are officially on for the wait list today and it is launching and open to the public next Monday, the 21st.

But if you're on the wait list, there is a really amazing bonus that the wait list only is going to get.

And I'm so excited for y'all to see what that is.

It is truly so amazing.

But I Loved having the archive in the season.

And that's why I'm so proud of the Archives, because I built it for myself.

And I built it for myself almost out of desperation.

Like, I was like, I can't keep doing things the way that I've been doing them.

Something has to change.

And that is where the Archive came from.

And I love it because in this current season that I'm in, where I am wanting to recalibrate my systems and I am wanting to recalibrate my habits and the way that I operate in the way that I manage my life, I am not having to start from scratch.

I can just edit the systems that I've already built.

And it has made pivoting so much more exciting.

Exciting and so much more doable and so much more accessible for me, because I already had a system in place that encompassed my whole entire life.

Not just my business, not just my habits, not just my morning routine, not just my evening routine.

Everything is built into my archive.

And instead of having to start from scratch and feeling overwhelmed, I know exactly what my systems are.

And I can go plug into those systems and just edit the specific parts that need change, changing.

And it has been wild for me.

I think that's one of the reasons why I am growing as quickly as I am this year, is because I do have such grounded systems.

They're not overly complicated.

They're not these beautiful esthetic systems, like all these beautiful planners that you see that you can't actually use.

Like, it is just a system that works with your everyday.

And it's just been so impactful for me in the season of my life, to have something like that.

So back to my personal season.

So in my coaching program, one of the things that I really talk about is your future.

Vision, clarity, and making sure that you know what you want your life to.

Not just, like.

Not just, okay, I want to make a certain amount of money by this day, but, like, a year from now, what do I want my calendar to feel like?

You know, how many trips do I want to have booked?

How often do I want to be hanging out with my friends?

How often do I want to have, you know, a date night with my husband or whatever that looks like?

How many books do I want to be reading?

You know, what do I want my work schedule to look like?

Like, what do you want your life to actually feel like?

Not just like, oh, I want to make X amount of money by this day.

Because I think really diving into that makes you think about things besides just working more.

Like you have to think about your life in a holistic way.

And so I have taken my own advice in these last few weeks, and I have really taken a hard look at what I want my life to look like in a year, in three years.

And I've learned a lot since January.

I have learned more since January of 2025 than I have learned, I think, ever in a year.

I mean, the last three months have been wild for me, wild in the best way possible.

But I have really had to sit down and look at my life and go, okay, what do I want this to look like?

And I've done a lot of journaling.

I've done a lot of reading.

I've had a lot of really hard conversations, a lot of deep conversations about, you know, where I'm at right now and where I want to go.

And what I realized was I did a lot of healing in 2024, so my eyes were open to a lot of things.

And I realized, you know, things that I didn't like, things I did.

Like, I was very honest with myself about what I wanted, what I didn't want, and I faced a lot of fears, and I just dealt with a lot of junk in 2024.

And I think that my conclusion at the end of 2024 was, like, okay, I am now in my soft girl era.

Like, I just want my life to be calm, and I want my life to be quiet and slow.

And that felt really good for a little while, and then I felt like I was missing something.

I was like, what in the heck?

Like, I thought I wanted to be a soft girl.

What's happening?

And it wasn't until I read the Alter Ego book, which I did a podcast episode on a couple of weeks ago, and I'll link that in the show notes.

But I realized in my personal life, I definitely want to be a soft girl, for sure.

Like, I'm just a girl.

I want to watch Southern Charm and Sex and the City and walk around the house in my robe with my tea and my face mask on.

And, like, I want to do all the girly things, and I want to drink espresso martinis, and I just want to scroll TikTok and Pinterest and just be a girl.

Like, because I'm just a girl.

But in my business life, I am very ruthless when I am working.

I don't want anybody to talk to me.

I am.

I will.

I will get so focused.

Like, I will get mad if somebody talks to me.

And I know people are just trying to be conversational but, like, that's how intense I am when it comes to work.

I am very intense when it comes to excellence and going the, the farthest and doing the most and like, just trying to put the best possible effort into everything that I do and ensuring that anyone who comes, you know, into my business as a customer or whatever it is, that they are like, wow.

Blakely really took the time to make sure this was a really good experience for me.

And she's going above and beyond to make.

To, like, make sure that I am getting the most out of this.

Like, that's why it's taken me so long to launch this digital planner, because I wanted to make sure that it wasn't just something that, like, oh, you know, I'm buying this planner because Blakely's saying that it's going to change my life.

And then you buy it and you download it and you can't even use it because you're so overwhelmed.

And so I took the time, and this took a lot more time than I thought it was going to.

But I wanted to make sure that there was a tutorial in every single section.

And so embedded with within every section of the archive, there is a very easy to follow tutorial, video tutorial.

And those took a really long time, not only to script, but to record and then to figure out how to embed them in a way that worked with the speed of the.

I mean, it's just been a whole thing.

I've learned so much this year.

It's been so good.

But I realized that, okay, there.

There are two different versions of me.

And I think I felt a little bit of guilt where I was like, man, I've told everybody that I want to slow life, and I've told everybody that I want to scale back.

And now I'm realizing that I do, like, want to have that part of me that is very ruthless when it comes to business and does go the extra mile and does put in the extra hours when she needs to.

And I've realized that I can have both like it.

That is okay to have both.

There are some hours where, you know, I'm just a girl.

And then there are some hours and days where I'm like, get out of my way.

I'm coming through whether the door's locked or not.

Like, I might be working until 11:00 at night, but I think that is the difference now versus, you know, even last year, we're like, okay, there might be a day where I am so dialed in.

I'm so focused I'm so locked in where I am working until 11 o'clock at night.

You know, when I told myself I was going to stop at six but like I'm in the middle of a project and I really want to finish it and I know I'm in the flow and I've got the energy for it and it feels good and I've got my, you know, tea and I've got my lo fi beats and I'm just like everything is good and I just want to keep working and so I allow myself to do that.

But the difference now is that, you know, if I do work until 11:00 at night, I am not setting an alarm.

I am making sure I drink some sleepy time tea and you know, lights are off.

I am trying to sleep as long as I can.

When I do wake up, I am not jumping straight out of the bed.

I'm kind of moseying around a little bit.

I might watch a little TV right when I wake up instead of jumping right into personal development, like I am just listening to my body a lot more and to me that is that balance between that, the boss babe that is still inside of me for sure and the soft girl that's there.

Like I'm trying to listen to my body more and listen to my brain.

Like if I am tapped out, I'm not going to force myself to work until 11:00.

But if I'm in the zone, I'm going to allow myself to work until, until 11 and know that, you know, the next morning I'm going to give myself a little bit of time off, I'm going to give myself a little bit of a break.

And I think that that comes, that came with the clarity, but it also came with trusting myself.

And part of being able to trust myself is knowing that I have systems that are going to run in the background so that when I do need to take that morning off, I am not coming back to work and everything is crumbled because I didn't show up at 8 o'clock when I normally do.

You know, having that system in the background and being able to trust myself and allow my brain to fully shut off has been pivotal for me.

And that's why I'm so proud of everything that I'm building.

And that's not from an egotistical standpoint but the planner and the systems academy and everything that I'm working on right now is built from experience.

It is built from really difficult experience because I have lived through a lot of chaos the last couple of years, and I have learned a lot of lessons the hard way, the hardest way possible.

I'm like, how can I, how can I make this 10 times harder than it needs to be?

Oh, that way, let me go do that.

Like, that has been my life the last couple of years.

And I do feel like I am out of that mentally.

But there are still times where I'm, I slide back.

And I'm thankful for everything I've built because the systems that I've built have allowed me to pivot and change and allowed my nervous system to keep up with everything that I'm doing.

And that's why I am proud of everything right now.

Because it, I do know it works.

And I know it works because I've lived it.

And I use these systems every single day.

And they're not just like a get rich quick scheme that I feel like so many people, once you get into certain circles, there's some people in there, it's like, wow, you really are providing no value, value to your customers.

And it kind of makes me sad because they're still making money hand over foot.

And then I can't imagine being a customer or a client of theirs and getting into their program or buying their service and opening it for the first time being like, wow, that is garbage.

But I know that my clients and my customers won't say that because y'all, I put so much effort into all this, even the little tiny things.

Like, that's why I've really had to get.

Be careful about knowing when something is done, because I will just want to make it better and better and better and I'll learn something new.

And I'm like, oh, but I want to give them this or I want to edit that.

And so being able to complete a product and launch it has been a little difficult for me because I do want everything to be the very best.

And I want, if someone purchases something from me, I want them to be like, wow, this is the best digital planner that I've ever had in my whole life.

And I truly do think that the women that purchase archive, that's exactly what they're going to say.

Because I know it works because I'm living it.

And I'm now getting feedback from my Systems Academy clients and they are living it and they are seeing massive changes, not just in their business, but in their personal life as, as well.

And so this whole episode, I hope, is just a reminder for you that you don't have to rush your growth to prove that you're successful that there are going to be different seasons.

And some seasons you're going to be on the up and everything's going to feel great and then life is going to bring you back down and then you're going to be up again and life is going to bring you back down and that's just part of it.

And there's nothing to feel guilty about.

And we all sometimes need to just sit down with a journalist and a pen and just some music that makes us feel really good and journal through all of this because life is hard and it's changing quickly with technology and you're probably like me.

And we are very ambitious and we want all the things.

And yeah, if we are going to go for the moon, we have to build lives that are sustainable that are going to allow us to, yes, show up as our best versions of ourself.

And yes, you know, live in excellence and provide great customer service and do all the good things.

But we also have to remember to take care of ourselves as well because our businesses are an extension of our personal lives.

I firmly believe that.

I think that businesses that have struggled and failed have failed because the leaders didn't keep up with their own personal development.

And it's really sad and you see it happen so often.

But that's not going to happen to any of us because we're going to take care of ourselves and we are going to build something deep and intentional and sustainable and because that's the version that wins.

And so I will keep sharing the real story, the real systems, the real vision, because you deserve to see what is possible and you also deserve to hear like the not so pretty side of everything, which I am learning with entrepreneurship is basically every other day is not so pretty.

There is always an issue.

There is always something that needs to be handled and needs to be taken care of and needs to be edited and reviewed and learned.

And it's all part of it and it's great, wonderful.

But I hope you got some value out of this episode and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day and I'll see you in the next episode.

Thank you for tuning in to the Elevated Edit podcast.

I hope you found today's episode inspiring and full of actionable tips.

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