Episode 1: Nice to Meet You!

This episode of Dreamers Rising is brought to you by Sowing Joy. At Dreamers Rising, we talk a lot about creating a life filled with intention, beauty, and joy. Sometimes those transformations begin with a big dream. Sometimes they begin with something much simpler, like flowers on your kitchen table. Fresh flowers have a unique way of reminding us to slow down, be present, and appreciate the beauty that’s already around us. They brighten our homes, lift our spirits, and create moments of joy in the middle of ordinary days. At Sowing Joy, we believe flowers aren’t a luxury reserved for special occasions. They’re a simple way to care for yourself, encourage someone you love, and bring more beauty into your everyday life. From seasonal bouquets to flower subscriptions to wedding flowers and unforgettable events, Sowing Joy is dedicated to helping people celebrate life’s meaningful moments through flowers. And the best part, we ship our bouquets nationwide and would love to ship some to you. If you’re ready to bring a little more beauty into your life or someone else’s, you can find the link to Sowing Joy in this week’s show notes. Sowing Joy, because sometimes the smallest acts of beauty create the biggest transformations.

Welcome everyone to our very first episode of Dreamers Rising. We’re super excited about this. We’re so glad you’re here.

It feels amazing. Yeah, it really does. Welcome everybody.

We’ve had so many conversations over the years about our dreams and about business, and we just kept saying other people need to hear this. So, it’s really cool to be here. Yes. It’s really fun. Yes. And so, this is how that happened.

So, Andrea, tell us a little bit about your history and your story.

I grew up here in the Northwest and spent the majority of my time outdoors and just enjoying everything that came with it. I have a younger sister who I adore, was married when I was 21, started having a family, and we have four beautiful children, ages 10 to 18. Spent our early marriage life where we homeschooled them and just really enjoyed being a family. We took a lot of adventures together as a family. At one point we lived in a motor home for a couple of years and adventured around the country, and we still talk about that because it was just so much fun. From there, as everybody has grown up, I’ve just really ventured into a transformative phase where I was just really not feeling like I was fulfilling everything that I wanted to do, which has created the place where I started searching and growing and listening. And it created this place where I can see where I was and how much I want to help other women do the same that are ready for that.

What about you? Tell us about yourself.

Yeah. Okay. So, Ondrea here, I just turned 50 this year. Should I say that on air? I don’t know if that’s a good thing. Anyway, so I too was raised in this area, a small town in Sandpoint, Idaho. I met my husband when we were 18. I went on to have six kiddos. My oldest is 28 now and my youngest is 16. I live on a farm. We bought the farm years ago when the kids were younger to have room to grow and run around. Then, as the kids got older, I was wondering who I was anymore and started to explore that a little bit and grow and think about who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do, and I chose to create a flower farm and am now the CEO of Sowing Joy, which is now a luxury national floral brand. We ship nationwide. And so that’s been kind of a fun experience, and just enjoying continuing to grow, hanging out with my family, traveling and inspiring and helping other people to grow during those crazy years.

So, tell us the story of how we met.

All right. So, Andrea and I met when my fifth baby and Andrea’s first baby were just a couple months old. We met at a little church with a couple families in it, doing the whole home with children stuff. So that’s been… what those babies are now 18. So, it’s been 18 years since we met. And it’s been really fun to grow together. I’ve gotten to see Andrea grow from that young mom, all the insecurities and fears and all those crazy things, into a very encouraging and powerful and inspiring woman. So, I’m excited for you guys to get to know her and to get to hear some of her stories and be inspired by some of the things that she’s learned along the way.

Thank you. Same. I have loved growing with you. It’s been so much fun. You’ve become this leader, whether it’s in your business or just in social settings. You just emanate such peace and joy and you just bring it with you and it’s so special. And yeah, I remember in the beginning, right, there’s all of that insecurity and all of that. And it’s so cool that we both have grown so much through that, through the life experiences and through child rearing and through knowing that there’s more, and that part has been really special. Yeah.

Yeah, it’s so fun. And so, through all of our experiences, it was really fun. We were having this conversation with a mutual friend a few months ago. And that mutual friend, we were telling her each totally separately, totally different days. Each of us were telling her this idea that we’ve had and the wording that went with us and with this idea and how exciting it was and all about these dreams and helping other women, and she turned around to both of us and was like, “Have you talked to Andrea? Have you talked to Ondrea.” So, we realized at that point we probably needed to get together and chat. So, we got together in my office one morning and we started comparing notes and it was crazy. We had like the same wording, the same ideas for the podcast. We had both had some retreat ideas that we’re going to be telling you guys about later. Yeah, it was super crazy. So that’s kind of how Dreamers Rising was born, and we’re super excited to kind of see what comes out of it.

Yeah, it was really cool. Yeah. And looking at me and saying, “Have you talked to Andrea?” And I’m like, “No.” Which is funny because usually when we have ideas like this, we’re the people we talk to each other with, right? That part was so funny because she knew, and it was just totally divine. It was really great. Yeah.

Yeah. That’s really amazing and such really cool timing, because I think both of us take some time at the beginning of the year and we’re looking at dreams, what we want to do, and so it was right after that time period and we’re like, wow, we both came up with the same thing with the same words. This is crazy.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I couldn’t think of anybody better to do this with. That part is so fun. It’s true.

Yeah. Cuz we got to see each other 18 years ago.

That’s really true. And we love to have really fun conversations. So, we’re really excited for you guys to be along on this journey with us. And I hope you feel like you’re part of the conversation and just feel part of this little group and are inspired and have fun with us.

Yeah. Yeah. Grab your coffee, get cozy with us. Yeah. Wine, coffee, whatever, a mimosa, [laughter] whatever makes you happy, and just join us and just sit with us and be with us. And yeah, we’re excited to have you here.

Yes.

All right, so let’s talk a little bit more about Dreamers Rising. What are some things that we’re going to be talking about?

We have so much more that we’re really excited to talk about. What is our list, Andrea? Give them a few ideas of some things that we’re going to talk about. What is next? What’s our next podcast going to include?

Our very next one. So, next week is going to be why so many women stop dreaming and how they can begin again. So, we’ll get into just a few of the ways that can really stop us as women, get in our way, get into our heads, and get into our hearts to keep us from becoming who we’re created to be. And then we’ll give you guys some ideas and some tips and some things that we’ve learned along the way that can help you begin the process of dreaming again. It’s good. I’m excited for that. Yes.

Yes. And we have a ton of other great topics that we’re going to be going through. We have plenty, but this will be kind of a little taste of what’s to come in the next few months.

Slowing down enough to be able to hear yourself and hear what your steps are. Just being able to push out that outside noise so that you can really sink into who you are and be able to listen inward.

Yeah, that kind of goes along with one that I had, really learning to listen to that quiet voice within you, getting to know yourself.

It’s good. And having the courage to follow what you hear. Courage is a big one. Being comfortable. We have a couple about comfortability as well. But yeah, beginning to walk in the journey you’re called to walk in takes courage.

Yes.

But that’s why it’s so fun to have women to support and encourage you along the way. Yeah.

The permission to want that big life kind of goes in with that, too. But being able to kind of break out of the box that you’ve put yourself in is another part of that, and something we’ll be talking about. The hidden ways that women diminish themselves so that they’re not actually living to their potential. So, they’re not actually living to the person that they were created to be.

Going to walk you through some ways to dream and envision, come up with your own vision and your big dreams and give you some steps towards those big dreams so that you can start getting closer and walk in that. You want to talk about what happens when your dream changes, when something doesn’t align anymore with where you were going and how to shift, how to pivot, because these things happen. Being able to let go of that dream and where it was heading, where you were going with that, and being able to move just beautifully and gracefully forward into where you feel like you’re really supposed to be going.

That’s a good one.

There’s a couple other ones. Living a life that inspires others. That’s one of my big whys. Yeah, there’s just so many. We’ve got so many ideas. And we also plan to have some really great speakers and guests here that are incredible people that you’re going to want to hear. We hope to do that at least once a month. So, it’s going to be a lot of fun. Yep. Okay. What else did we talk about doing?

Creating with intention. There’s an aspect of dreams, but there’s also this aspect of just being able to live the life that you want to live. Down to the simple things of how you want to feel. How do you want to feel about yourself? What do you want your relationships with other people to look like? And being able to create that place where you can have what you want and you can rise up above the circumstances, or what you feel like is blocking you, or what you feel like is in the way of you being able to have that. We’re going to be talking a lot about just rising up above the circumstances, because what you want is possible.

That’s perfect. Ondrea, what are you most excited about?

I am excited to have these conversations with you and our listeners, and for them to walk away from these conversations inspired and excited to step into their dreams, into their callings, and have some tools to really begin to do that with excitement. And I’m excited to see people doing just that.

Yeah, that’s good. So, Andrea, what does Dreamers Rising mean to you?

So, for me, as somebody that I’m a big dreamer and I’m a big thinker, I think big picture. And I think bigger than reality than what anybody would say is really realistic. Has always been with me, but it was pushed down. It was something that was just — I always had these dreams, but they were like fragmented and they were kind of like a whisper, like a really quiet whisper, and never felt like anything that could be reality. Partly because I didn’t ever believe I was capable, and secondly because, well, that’s just not realistic. Which is a sentence that has left my vocabulary.

Like that’s right. That’s not what we’re going for. I’m not going for realistic. I am going for outrageous. I am going for amazing. So what ended up happening was those dreams that were in my heart got louder, and they got louder, and they started to become like, well, what ifs, like what if it was possible, and then I started thinking, okay, well, what does it take to get there? But I had to start listening and I had to stop making excuses.

Right. Right. I had to stop being, well, I can’t because — and as I started taking these small steps, my family didn’t fall apart. My four kids were fine. They were actually inspired, and I started to see the changes within just my family. And I started seeing other women that were doing the same things and I was like, “This is interesting. There might be something to this.” So, it created the place where I wanted more. And what was unrealistic, even the small thing that was unrealistic, became realistic. And I was like, “Wait.” So, this group of dreams that was never possible started to become possible. And as that became possible, I was encouraged because I was like, “Oh, I’m doing it.” Going from school in San Francisco as a baker, right, to all of a sudden having wholesale accounts around town — like that was amazing and that was a dream and I did it. I worked hard and I did it. But it proved to myself that I could, and that everything was fine in the process and that things do work out. Does that answer the question?

I love that. Oh, that’s really perfect. And I love it that it does work. When you step out and you follow those dreams, it does work. And it doesn’t have to work the way we think it has to work, right? And things don’t fall apart that we think are going to fall apart. And we don’t have to have the people’s permission that we think we have to have. And so, yeah, I’m excited for this journey. And it’s good to see other people begin to see the same results. Yeah. So cool. Yeah. It’s going to be great. Yes.

Do you want to tell me what Dreamers Rising means to you?

Well, one of my dreams, big dreams, is to live a life that inspires others. I too am a very big dreamer. I get really big crazy ideas, and I have done most of the ones that I have dreamt of so far. So, it’s very exciting. But I kind of go to that end the life story, right? Like when I am 90, I want to be one of those really cute, happy 90-year-old ladies that everybody loves to be around, that I make smile. And so, I want to be the person at that age that is not filled with regrets and that is grateful for the life I lived — not just to others around me, but that I did what I was supposed to do. I want to be grateful to myself that I lived the life that I was meant to live. And I think that’s really exciting to go from there. And I’m excited to help other people and inspire them to do great things, because when we do that, we touch the next person and the next person. And yes, we live in a crazy world, but we really can make it better. And I love doing that. And we can focus on that. And it’s fun. Yeah.

Yeah. And the whole process, is it comfortable? The growing part is not comfortable at all. But it’s terrifying and really exciting at the same time. And it becomes fun. I think it’s exposure therapy maybe. I don’t know. But yeah, something like that.

It’s good exposure therapy to grow. Totally. That’s good. So yeah. So that is what Dreamers Rising means to me. So, I’m excited to have an outlet for that, to inspire and encourage women.

That’s great. Yeah, I love that. Started getting me thinking about the aspect of what I once wanted, and my dreams years ago when I first had kids definitely have developed into something different. Yeah. And so, as we talk about leaning inward and we talk about who you were created to be and we talk about what you want, I’m excited to get into that part too, because what I once thought I should want is no longer even a reality. No, that’s not a thing. I just wanted to fit in the box. That’s genuinely all — I just wanted to fit in the box, and now there’s no box. So that part will be fun to talk about.

That’s really exciting.

Well, this has been a little taste, the first episode of Dreamers Rising, and we’re excited for you guys to be along for the ride, and we’re excited for you to join us on new episodes and that next episode that we mentioned. And thank you for being here.

Yeah, thank you for being here, you guys. This has been really fun. And this is a dream, one of our dreams, that you get to come along the journey for, and that is really special. We’re really excited to get to share all of this with you guys. So yeah, come on. It’s going to be fun.

Yes. So yeah, if this conversation encouraged you, inspired you, or made you feel a little less alone, we’d love for you to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone else who needs it. It’s good. We’d love to have them along for the ride as well. Yeah. We did it.