Good Things Are Gonna Come

Dolly Parton wrote “I Will Always Love You” in 1974 when she was leaving Porter Wagoner’s show to pursue a solo career.

Years later, Elvis Presley wanted to record it. For a songwriter from East Tennessee who had grown up loving Elvis, this was enormous.

Then, Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told her they would only record it if she gave up half of the publishing rights.

And she said no.

Not because she didn’t want Elvis to sing it. She desperately did. She has said she cried over the decision. But she also understood that the song belonged to her and that the publishing rights could matter for the rest of her life.

So Elvis never recorded it.

Then almost 20 years later, Whitney Houston recorded the song for The Bodyguard. Her version spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of the most successful recordings in music history. Dolly still owned her publishing.

But Dolly didn’t know Whitney was coming.

She didn’t know that saying no to Elvis would eventually become one of the best business decisions of her life.

She only knew that what she had created was worth more than what she was being asked to give it away for.

Sometimes knowing your worth means saying no (even to Elvis) long before you know what the yes will be.

I’ve never been able to get an orchid to bloom twice.

The last one I had, I kept alive for almost a year after the flowers fell off. I researched how to water it. I moved it around to try more sun, less sun.

I kept waiting for another flower, but never happened.

When I moved into my new place in May, my landlord gave me an orchid. It was beautiful! Then, after a few months, the flowers fell off.

I was so sad but I kept watering it and talking nice to it, and a few days ago, I looked closely at the orchid and saw two tiny buds starting to grow.

I know it’s just an orchid.

But I’ve thought about those little buds a lot these past few days in a season of change.

I think we spend a lot of time assuming we know when a season is over. The flowers are gone and it gets quieter.

And meanwhile, something is already growing. You just have to keep watering it.

Today is my birthday! 🎉

Find your people who believe in you the way this little girl believed she deserved that crown.

Better yet—believe in yourself!

(Me rocking it in 1981/82 with a cardboard aluminum foil crown held together with scotch tape on my birthday).

Social media has allowed everyone to get good at sharing their highlight reel.

The dinner out.
The vacation.
The promotion.
The cute picture where everyone looks happy.
Smiles.

And sometimes, we really are happy.

But a photograph captures a fraction of a second. It doesn’t tell you what happened that morning. What someone is worried about. What they cried about in the car. What they’re carrying quietly. Or what happens after they put the phone down.

I think we all forget that sometimes.

We see someone smiling and think, They’re good.

We see them posting and think, They’re good.

We see them showing up to work, answering texts, making plans, laughing at dinner and think, They’re good.

But “looks good” and “is good” aren’t always the same thing.

So check on your people.

And when you do, don’t always settle for the automatic “I’m fine.”

Ask again.

“No, really. How are you?”

You don’t need the perfect words. You don’t need to have advice ready. Sometimes the most important thing you can give another person is comfort to tell you the answer they almost didn’t.

Social media is a highlight reel.

And life is everything happening outside the frame. ❤️

My beautiful niece is heading into her senior year in a few weeks, and I love this senior photo of her SO MUCH!

That laugh. That ease. That little bit of “I know who I am” mixed with all the things she still gets to figure out this year.

Senior year is such a strange place to be. You are still very much in one chapter, but everyone keeps asking you about the next one. Where are you going after you graduate? What are you doing? What do you want to be?

Well, she doesn’t need to have all of that figured out yet. I just hope this year she keeps becoming more of herself.

I hope she stays curious. I hope she makes a few mistakes. I hope she changes her mind about things. I hope she finds people who make her laugh this hard.

Mostly, I hope she knows there is no prize for rushing through this part of life, to slow down and enjoy it, there will be plenty of time for what comes next.

For now, I hope she keeps laughing.

I remember riding in the car with my dad when I was little and coming up to a red light, he looked over at me and said, “You wanna watch me make this red light turn green?”

Then he’d blow toward the windshield.

And the light would turn green.

At the next red light, he’d do it again. Blow. Green.

I thought it was magic. Like my dad had some kind of secret power that could control traffic lights.

It wasn’t until I was older that I realized he just knew how the lights were timed. 😂

But I kind of love that I believed it.

So on this Monday, I hope you get a little bit of that blow-magic feeling.

May the timing work in your favor. May things move when you need them to move. And may you hit every damn green light today. 💚

For most of my life, my favorite color was red.

Red is was bold and loud and passionate and sexy and maybe a little too much, which, depending on who you ask, could also describe me. I even painted my kitchen red in 2004!

Then about eight years ago, after life happenings, I started loving teal. I wanted teal everywhere.

My house. My clothes. My throw pillows. If something came in teal, suddenly I needed it.

I wanted calm. I wanted peace. I wanted something that felt like water instead of fire.

So teal became my favorite color.

But lately I keep finding myself reaching for red again.

Maybe teal didn’t replace red. Perhaps I just needed something different for a while.

Maybe there are times in life when we need the calm, and there are times when we need the fire.

I love teal because I fought hard for peace. But I still love red because there is still a part of me that wants to burn bright, take chances, get excited, make things happen and occasionally be a little too much.

My favorite color now, both. Which feels less like indecision and more like finally knowing myself.

And I can rock a red lip … not sure teal would work! 😂

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about competition, especially in the entrepreneur world.

Healthy competition can be a good thing. It pushes us and can makes us better. It forces us to figure out what makes us different.

But competition can turn into this idea that if someone else succeeds, there’s somehow less success available for us.

Business doesn’t work that way.

There are thousands of Mexican restaurants. We still have our favorite.

There are thousands of doctors, realtors, hairstylists, financial advisors, photographers and attorneys. We choose the ones we connect with, trust and believe are right for us.

People aren’t interchangeable just because they offer similar things.

Your experience is different. Your personality is different. Your approach is different. The people who connect with you may not be the same people who connect with someone else.

Personally, I would much rather build relationships with people doing great work than spend my energy treating everyone in a similar space like a threat.

Refer them when they’re a better fit. Share what you’ve learned. Celebrate the win. Ask them how they did something. Collaborate when it makes sense.

There is room for competition and collaboration.

Someone else doing well doesn’t mean there’s less available for you.

Sometimes it just means there’s a market for what both of you do.

This was Sunday. This photo makes me think about how easy it is to believe we’re supposed to have everything figured out.

Your life plan, your career, your next move.

And then there are days you’re sitting on the water, surrounded by mountains, and for a few minutes none of the things you’ve been worrying about have changed, but today they don’t feel quite as heavy.

I’ve spent a lot of my life pushing toward the next thing. But I’m learning that a good life can’t only exist on the other side of the next accomplishment.

Sometimes it’s right here, on a paddle board.

Hmmm…
I have a question.

When does “sticking to your guns” stop being strength and start getting in your own way?

We are taught to stand our ground. Don’t back down. Don’t let someone else win. If you believe you’re right, hold your position.

But what if swallowing your pride is the thing that gets you through the gateway to something you really want?

Maybe you apologize even though you don’t think you were completely wrong. Perhaps you make the first move. Maybe you let someone else feel like they won the argument, or you bite your tongue when every part of you wants to prove your point.

And because you did, the door opens.

You get the relationship. The opportunity. The conversation. The peace. The next step. Whatever is on the other side that matters more than being right in that particular moment.

So who really “won”?

The person who stuck to their guns and proved their point?

Or the person who swallowed their pride, walked through the gateway, and got to the thing they wanted?

I genuinely don’t know if there’s one right answer.

What do you think? Is swallowing your pride sometimes the bigger power move, or should you always stand your ground when you believe you’re right?

I’d love your thoughts!