159. Back to School Advice, Creating School/Life Balance, & My Junior Year Goals - SOLO EP

Sep 10

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In this week's solo episode, I break down my goals for my junior year of college and answer a bunch of your questions! I discuss what my exact goals are for my junior year at Penn, how I pursue my goals with a healthy mindset, if studying psychology in school brings up emotions relating to my mental health struggles, what listeners can expect from the podcast this school year, what it’s like being an upperclassman in college, things I learned in my first two years at Penn that I’m incorporating into this year, tips on balancing school with other projects, and other rapid-fire answers to your questions. If you're looking to set goals for your school year or just want to learn more about my college experience, this episode is for you!

Mentioned In The Episode…

+ Ice cube trays

+ Water bottle cleaning tablets

+ Over-the-door wall hooks

+ Light-up vanity mirror

+ Skincare shelves

+ Ikea cart

SHOP GUEST RECOMMENDATIONS: https://amzn.to/3A69GOC

About She Persisted

After a year and a half of intensive treatment for severe depression and anxiety, 20-year-old Sadie recounts her journey by interviewing family members, professionals, and fellow teens to offer self-improvement tips, DBT education, and personal experiences. She Persisted is the reminder that someone else has been there too and your inspiration to live your life worth living.

a note: this is an automated transcription so please ignore any accidental misspellings!

Sadie: [00:00:00] Welcome to She Persisted. I'm your host, Sadie Sutton, a 19 year old from the Bay Area studying psychology at the University of Penn. She Persisted is the Teen Mental Health Podcast made for teenagers by a teen. In each episode, I'll bring you authentic, accessible, and relatable conversations about every aspect of mental wellness.

You can expect evidence-based, teen approved resources, coping skills, including lots of D B T insights and education in. Each piece of content you consume, she persisted, Offers you a safe space to feel validated and understood in your struggle, while encouraging you to take ownership of your journey and build your life worth living.

So let's dive in this week on She persisted.

if you get a B on a test, or a C on a test, or whatever it is, it's probably not going to cause your entire life's trajectory to go south.

And I think we have to remind ourselves of that. We can't be putting so much weight in the day to day or you're constantly stressed and burnt out and overwhelmed, and it's really [00:01:00] difficult to feel happy and okay and good and be motivated to continue when you're in that mental state.

Hello, hello, and welcome to She Persisted. I'm so excited you're here today. If this is your first episode, welcome. I'm Sadie. I'm a 20 year old at the University of Pennsylvania, which we are talking a lot about college and back to school and the New Year in this episode, so more on that in a minute, but today is going to be a little bit of like a sit down, catch up, very casual episode.

We're going to talk about back to school advice, All things pen, and then also some other grab bag, miscellaneous rapid fire questions. Full disclaimer, I already recorded this. It took me like an hour and twenty minutes. It didn't record, so we're doing great. Round two. I already know what I'm gonna say, so hopefully it'll be very eloquent and straightforward.

But, before we dive in, I do want to say that I always put up question boxes on Instagram at at ShePersistedPodcast, so if you want to make sure you're aware the next time I'm doing the Q& A, make sure to follow on there so [00:02:00] you know when I'm doing one and you can submit your questions. You can also always see them on my website, there's like a little link to ask questions or you can email them to me.

So, let's dive into the questions!

when I was thinking about what I wanted to record for the Months solo episode, I do them every three weeks I was like, I really want to do a junior year's goal dump. I love hearing about what goals people are setting for themselves, especially around the school year and the new year.

And I've done goal stump episodes in the past, and I think it's a fun way to kind of just show you guys how I'm still working on my mental health, even in recovery. There's this idea in DBT that when you... are in stage 3 or 4 you are stable with your mental health and you're able to regulate your emotions.

You've built an everyday life and you're solving everyday problems. And I think these goal stump episodes are really cool because they do reflect that. That it's very possible to get to a place where your mental health goals and self improvement in your life is everyday problems with everyday solutions.

So,[00:03:00] my goals for this year are pretty simple. My biggest thing, and I think you'll hear this common thread throughout this episode is consistency, consistency with the podcast, consistency with my routine and schedule. And I'm at the point where it's like, I know what to do. It's just about doing it.

And it's about setting myself up for success. Like I know how much sleep I need to get. I know what time I need to go to bed. I know that relationships are important. I know how much I need to study. So it's now putting those things into action. I think I have a good amount of awareness around what different mechanisms or routines or skills allow me to get there.

So there's been the trial and error. Now it's about implementing and being really consistent with that implementation. So junior year, that looks like schedule is a big one. I'm always trying to maintain and be really consistent with my sleep schedule and my morning and night routine. I'm trying to be really consistent this year with my physical health goals.

So doing movement consistently, whether that's going to the gym or going on a walk. Eating balanced and being intentional with the meals [00:04:00] that I'm choosing for myself. I'm now at a point where I'm doing, like, less dining hall meals and I'm eating things that I'm making in my dorm more often, so being an adult and planning meals when I go grocery shopping.

And then a lot of comes to the podcast, creating content on social media, showing up at work. If you don't know, I do a lot of video editing and like social media type stuff, , in addition to the podcast as my like little side hustle type thing. And so being really consistent, showing up in that area, continuing to build mastery in video editing and web design and graphic design and all those things that I enjoy.

They creatively are very interesting to me, but also. From like, not necessarily a career perspective, from like a work perspective though, allow me to like continue on those goals. Whatever passions you have, whether it's a sport, or an instrument or you like art or you like coding, whatever it is, being able to continue to refine and maintain those skills, they become really marketable, which I think people don't talk about that how marketable those skills in college are, not just for [00:05:00] internships and opportunities after college, but as a side hustle, if you do have the time to be able to monetize those.

And then with the podcast, continuing to put out episodes, pitch really incredible guests, always looking to improve how we're structuring episodes and Conducting interviews and then also being really consistent with showing up on social media to share my story and share advice in a way that's really intentional and impactful.

Because it's a skill. It's not just like talking and everyone's going to hear your story and it's going to resonate and have a big reach. And it's not just going to help people. And you're not just waving a magic wand and then all these people are like, that was so helpful, thank you for teaching this random skill.

It's about telling it in the right way and using social media and podcasting on all these different platforms, , in a way that help you do that. So those are... My main goals this year, I also tend to approach the new year and the school years with different intentions with regard to what skills I'm using.

This last year, I [00:06:00] believe when I did 2023 goals, I was talking a lot about opposite action and radical acceptance were two skills that I was really working on throughout the year. And I think going into junior year of college, please skills is one just really being very consistent with sleep, exercise, movement, , physical health, all of those things.

, building mastery with the podcast, with work and with school, and then being really mindful, like spending more time just being aware of my thoughts and emotions. And , I think my default is still always to like ignore my emotions or just have my thoughts continue going. And so it's something that I have to be intentional about to like, okay, like what emotion is coming up there?

What thought am I having? Why am I feeling nervous about that? Or. Why is my instinct to avoid that, , thought pattern or whatever it is. So that's kind of what my thoughts are and where I'm at mentally for this year. The next question I got on Instagram was, How do you pursue [00:07:00] goals while having a healthy mindset?

The first time I did this recording, like, two hours ago, I gave a very long winded answer to this question. I think it took me like 25 minutes. It was really bad. But the Too Long Don't Read version, I just learned that acronym, TLDR, is that it's about making the day to day very manageable and very enjoyable.

and preventing long term stress and overwhelm. So when I think about the big goals that I have going on in my life right now, I have my academic goals, which is continuing to do well in school and, , getting experience working in a lab and doing research and then graduating Penn and then taking the next steps.

To become a clinical psychologist. I have the podcast. And so my goal there is to be consistent with episodes, increase downloads, increase reach, grow the show, continue to have on incredible guests and get better at telling my story, , both on the podcast and on social media. And just be able to increase the number of people that I'm able to help and just share [00:08:00] information to.

And then there's work, which, , like my little side hustle podcast video, marketing type stuff. And under that umbrella is, like, client outreach, onboarding clients, continuing to improve my video editing skills, continuing to share what I do know about podcasting and all of that kind of stuff.

So when I think about those three goals, I could think, like, really long term and get really overwhelmed really, really quickly of, like, For school, I need to get my name on posters and papers, and I need to find a long term lab position after I graduate, and then I need to find where I'm going to do research for graduate school, and then after that, I'm going to work in a clinical setting.

And so there's a lot of next steps until I get to that point that could be really overwhelming. There's also even smaller stepping stones that are underneath that goal, like doing well on tests and getting good grades ,

And performance and accomplished based things there. For the podcast, where I get overwhelmed is when I'm like, I gotta post this many TikToks, or I have to make this much content, or this much reach needs to happen on social media. So those are [00:09:00] the big goals there. I want to, , work with this brand, or something like that.

With work, it's like, , I wanted work with this client or be able to, , expand in this way or have this passive offering, like, all the different ways that you can expand, like, the marketing agency model.

And so. What I do is I only focus on the day to day. And there are systems in place that are getting me towards those larger goals. So like, I'm going to class so I can get my credits and graduate. And that's like, going to keep me on trajectory for my academic goals. And I'm working in a lab, and as I continue to learn skills there, that will help my resume when I apply to whatever the next lab I'm going to work at is.

And as I continue to build these relationships in the research world, more opportunities will come to be able to be involved in posters and papers. With a podcast, if I stay consistent with recording and releasing episodes and posting about them on social media, I will continue to build my reach and impact.

With work, if I'm continuing to edit videos and work with clients, I'm building my [00:10:00] portfolio, , and then I'm able to onboard more clients or be better at what I'm doing or share more about what I've learned. So the day to day is what is going to get you there, and as long as you have those general structures in place, you can just focus on the day to day and kind of let the rest take a back seat.

Of course there's larger goals, like I know this is my second semester at the lab I'm working at, so I need to start thinking about this spring what lab am I going to work at and starting to like put feelers out and research. I also know, like, for the podcast, I have to keep coming up with ideas of guests I want to have on, or episodes and things I want to talk about, or videos to create on social media so that that content creation cycle kind of continues, but that's not something that's happening all day, every day, mentally.

And so, those larger trajectories being in place, I organize myself on a day to day basis like this. My iCloud calendar is like where I need to be. So it's classes, it's a meeting, it's a Zoom call, it's what time I'm going to [00:11:00] the gym if that's something that's being scheduled in. And that's like the logistics of the day.

And then I have my asana, which is how I organize, like, all deadlines, deliverables, and assignments. So all the readings for the semester, what dates exams are, when video edits are due, when I post the blog post for She Persisted, when I need to have the intros recorded by, and that's on asana.

And then I can really simply and easily take it day by day and be like, okay, it's Thursday night, I have one reading due tomorrow. one homework assignment that needs to be submitted, , oh, and I have that exam next week, so I want to flag that and start thinking about how I want to review for that. As an example.

And if you put those things in your calendar, they're no longer space up mentally. You do have to be consistent about checking a sauna or it doesn't serve its purpose. But I find that when I have things written down and on paper or on an organizational system, I spend no mental energy stressing about what has to get done because I have complete trust that it's there.

And when I go in to check what do I have to do today, what to do tonight, I can then do it at that point. And then,[00:12:00] , because I'm crazy, I also use bullet journal because I really love checking things off and I think it's a really fun, visual way to do things.

I'm very creative sometimes and it's something I did a lot during treatment was doing bullet journals instead of diary cards. I enjoy it, so I do it. And that's where I'll put like smaller daily tasks like go to the gym or grocery shop or send that random email in addition to like these larger readings or exams or deadlines.

So, I find that my mindset is healthiest when I have these larger structures in place that are getting me towards my goal, and I'm just focused on, what am I doing today? And I am very careful to not overcommit myself, like I'm not in a position where I can only get everything done on my list done if I'm working for every hour of the day, like there's a lot of wiggle room, there's still other times to study if an exam comes up, or take a break, or watch a TV show.

But I also do have these small goals on a daily basis that are helping me reach those larger goals in a meaningful way.

Okay, and then

Like I talked about, my one of my biggest goals for junior year is consistently executing on these [00:13:00] goals or , showing up and doing the things I know I need to do. I am not someone who if I'm sitting around with 12 hours, like over the weekend or over the summer, I'm going to like be super motivated to use those 12 hours.

I work really well when it's like I have a class at 10, 15 and, , I have a gap for three hours. Those three hours I'm going to be studying and getting all my work done and getting all the TikToks posted. Or, I'm waiting for my professor to come into class, I have an extra 15 minutes, I've gone through my entire inbox.

Like, that works really well for me when I already have to be somewhere and show up for something and I'm in the productive mindset and don't have to trick myself, like, mentally, like, you should really go to the library right now, because you have that thing next week. Like, if I'm already up and in the productive mental state, it's easier to do things.

I think when you don't have the luxury of procrastinating, you just have to get things done. I'm a procrastinator at heart, and so... My instinct is always like, I can do that later. It'll happen at another time. So when I'm already being forced to be productive, it's really easy for me to do those things.

And so another way that I have trust that I'm gonna be able to do [00:14:00] those daily tasks is setting up my class schedule in a way that, , like almost forces me to be productive. So like scheduling morning classes most days of the week, , And having classes that end later in the day, most days of the week, so that I know that I'm out of my dorm for most of the day.

And then when I get back, it's like, okay, but if I don't go and work out now, I'm not gonna be able to work out today. And so then I'm like, okay, I'm going to go walk on the treadmill for a bit, and then I'll come back and do more work type of thing. , so that can be something helpful as well to flag, , that if you're struggling with, Getting all those little tasks done, kind of putting them in between other things that you're already being forced to be productive about.

And I do think this is, like, the high school experience, where So many adults will be like, how did I do that in high school, where I was going from 7am to 9pm and I was in class and doing a zero period and I had a sport I was playing five days a week and I was studying for the SATs and running college apps, and it's like not having that luxury to procrastinate, and high school is very stressful, high school is not my best mental state at times, [00:15:00] But like you understand the principle where when you don't set your day up with 12 hours of free time where you hope to get two things done, like that for me is more challenging to motivate with than being like, okay, Monday I have class at 10 15 and then another class at two.

And so that chunk in between, I know I'm going to be able to like motivate and study and get work done. The next question is, does learning about mental illnesses and psychology bring up past experiences and emotions? This was something I was super worried about when I started the podcast and then when I realized I might want to major in psychology in college and continue, down a mental health career path.

I remember, like, learning about depression as I was depressed and learning about anxiety as I was depressed and, Filling out those like little DSM, um Criteria is, and like really personally identifying with those symptoms. And so it was difficult for these things to not bring up emotions.

And now I'm in a position where I'll like be sitting in class, they might even mention D B T and I'm like, ah, I love that they're teaching D B T, this is great. And I'm so excited that people are learning about these things. [00:16:00] And I think a big part of that is the emotional distance. Like it's been a long time since I was Actively struggling with my mental health and at that low point. So having that period to kind of like heal and recover and then talking about it more often has been helpful. , with the kind of content you're consuming and what you're exposing yourself to, especially when you're in early recovery. I saw an article this week because someone in class mentioned something related to, like, pedimental health, and I was reading this article and I was like, wow, like, that's really sad.

I almost had the mental thought where I was like, I would never have let myself read this in early recovery. And I've talked about this before, but I've never watched 13 Reasons Why. It was like very trending and big right after I got out of treatment. , knowing that I had struggled with my mental health, I was like, that cannot be good for me to consume.

And so, You do have to have that willpower and set those boundaries for yourself. Like if you see something that's referencing what you're struggling with or glamorizes it or whatever it is, just like scrolling past and setting that boundary and going on to the next thing, at least when those emotions are still raw and fresh, can be really helpful.

, but the [00:17:00] short answer is no. I Of course, when someone's like, oh, depression, of course I'm like, oh my gosh, I used to struggle with that, or like, I have a whole podcast where I talk about that, but the emotions tied to it are now very different, so I think that's partially of the time that has passed, , and also the being very, like, intellectually passionate about depression and anxiety and education, , I feel a good example here is like I used to get ear infections all the time and I had tubes when I was in early middle school and elementary school and I have no interest in hosting a podcast about that or taking a class about it, that would be my worst nightmare.

So it's like if you're interested in it in an intellectual way and you're really passionate about it, I think it's different than like, , just because you've struggled with something or gone through something, continuing to learn about it, , and being exposed to it.

Next question is goals for the podcast this year and what can we expect? We go back to consistency. I want to be really consistent with bringing you guys new episodes every single week. Solo episodes, right now the cadence is every two interviews there's a solo episode.

So making sure that I'm continuing to bring lots of DBT and deep dives for you guys as well as these [00:18:00] Q& As. I think they're really fun and I love recording them. And being really consistent and showing up on social media. Bringing a lot of the things I talk about on the podcast to social media in like a more visual way So you can learn about these things on Instagram reels or however you like to consume your content But yeah, that's the biggest thing Continuing to reach out to really incredible cool guests and can you curate this resource that I think is really powerful and really incredible and Hopefully at some point like merch or downloadables and could be fun to do something with A journaling template based on what I use to plan my days and also, , track my mental health because that's been such a constant in my journey.

yeah, that's kind of what I'm thinking right now. The next question, does being an upperclassman feel different? I did not think it would, but... I honestly do feel the difference. I think freshman year, you're just orienting. You don't know where your classes are, you don't know what college is like, whether it's like what meals you're eating, what are the good dining halls, what is it like living in a [00:19:00] dorm and having your own schedule.

How do you study for an exam? How do you take notes? Like, all these things are unknown, so you're just learning everything. You're really just orienting yourself to the experience. Sophomore year, it's not new, but you're still finding out what works with your study schedule and your sleep routine and your friends and all of those things.

Junior year, I felt like I got to campus and I moved in and I was like, Okay, \ I know what time works for me to go to bed. I know what time I need to get up for a 10 15 class.

I know what time I like to eat my meals and where I like to go to grab food between class. It's a lot less chaotic and overwhelming and I feel like you can just kind of be in it and enjoy it and appreciate it and I also think there's a lot more clarity of like what you're doing. You're not figuring out your major, you're not figuring out what classes you still need to take or what clubs you're in or if you're doing research or not and so you're kind of just on your path and you're able to really get in that groove which I think is really awesome.

Next question, what have you learned from your first two years at Penn that you're implementing this year? [00:20:00] Oh my gosh, so many things. A little one is like, Trader Joe's is the best. I know not everyone has a Trader Joe's near their college campus, but it is the least expensive compared to like, the grocery store, , like we have an Acme near us, there's something called Heirloom Markets, , there's a grocery store on campus.

They are so expensive compared to Trader Joe's. So we love Trader Joe's and also just like the snacks are incredible and then they also have a lot of really good frozen or pre made options almost. As a college student, you probably don't have a lot of cooking resources. You don't have like a full kitchen with all of these different spices and pans and all these kinds of things.

So those are really easy options. You can still get nutrients and have a good dinner and mix it up. It's really great. So we love Trader Joe's. Shop at Trader Joe's if you can or something similar. , another really big thing that I learned was...

The importance of spacing out my disciplines of classes. Freshman year fall semester, I took four classes. I took Spanish, and then I took Children's Language Acquisition, Introduction to Psychology, and Children and Media, and I felt like I was learning the same thing over and over again. I was learning [00:21:00] about Children, I was learning about the brain, I was learning about development, and I was just like, I cannot learn any more about this.

I was writing essays, I was taking tests on it, I was listening to lectures constantly, and it really led me to be very mentally burnt out with regard to children's brains. This semester, just to give you like a little bit of a juxtaposition, I am taking positive psychology, ideas in mathematics, neuroscience and society, psychology, world film history, and language and thought. And so, yes, my major is psychology, so there's a lot of neuroscience and psychology classes, but the way that the classes are set up, like a seminar versus a lecture, , and a more essay heavy class versus more exams, and, .

the way that the schedule is laid out is a lot more balanced. I remember second semester, freshman year, we made a lot of mistakes with my schedule. I had like four classes in one day, which if you're a high school student, you're like, that's nothing. And like, trust me, I know when you get to college and you're just sitting there and listening for like 90 minutes to two hours straight and just consuming content at a really

fast [00:22:00] pace, doing that four periods in a row with like no lunch break is not it. It's really hard. I'm sure some people can do it, I struggled with that. And so, being really intentional with balancing the times of your classes and the disciplines is something I learned that is just a game changer for like, not even mental health, but like your ability to show up as your best self in class.

I also think a really great thing, , especially as people get like more in their lane with their majors and their clubs and if your friends are in different majors than you, being really attentional about spending time with them. You have those friends that you're texting like, do you want to get dinner tonight?

Or do you want to go to the gym? I'm going right now. But for the friends that maybe you don't. organically run into as often. Texting them at the beginning of the week and being like, what day should we study? What day can we grab coffee? And like, making those appointments almost. Especially if you are someone where when you get stressed or overwhelmed your instinct is to withdraw and you're more introverted.

That's another thing that's really helpful and really effective. The last thing that I'll mention here is my daily routine. ,

Like, these are just such small things. Beginning of the morning, doing my [00:23:00] skincare, and having my coffee and breakfast before I go to class, and making my bed, and getting ready, and then at night, , working out, or if I'm not working out that day, like, showering, getting ready for bed, doing my skincare routine, reading, or watching a show before bed, just having those bookends that are really consistent and enjoyable is a game changer, and something that I feel like keeps me really grounded and de stressed throughout the semester.

And I also think creating space to consume content that you enjoy is really huge. I've talked to students where they're like, Oh, I don't have time to watch TV or I haven't watched TV in like months. School's so stressful and so busy. And... Yes, there are days when you're like, I literally have been working all day and I'm just studying for this test, but the whole semester is not like that.

And I think making time to listen to podcasts or read a book or, , if you like Audible, listening to a book, watching a show you like, especially if you meet up with friends and watch a show every week. I've done that before with Survivor and Love Island and Love is Blind. That's really fun and really enjoyable and help boost your mood, , because you're consuming a lot of academic content.

[00:24:00] So balancing that out can be really great.

Next question is tips to balance school and other projects. I feel like I have been pretty effective at this. I have school, and then I also have, like, school adjacent is doing research. I'm a research assistant, and I have the podcast and work. And so, my biggest tip here is to add things on very slowly.

And I'll, like, be really detailed here with how All of these commitments have come to be. So I started the podcast my junior year of high school. It was the summer before school. I was still at a therapeutic boarding school, so I had like

very low expectations with regard to deliverables. Like, there weren't a ton of assignments or huge exams because the academics there were very interesting. And then once I started junior year and, , really was like, oh my gosh, , this class is so hard and things are so busy and I was taking APs, I took a step back from the podcast and it wasn't weekly, but as much as I had time to show up and do that, I was still making time for it.

, and when that started, I was literally just doing and then I'm going to work and uploading it to Anchor. So it was like I would record the episode, I would make really minor edits, it was really about please don't [00:25:00] listen to the early episodes, and then it would go on Anchor and go to the platforms.

And then very slowly I would like, okay, when the podcast episode goes out, I'll put a graphic up on Instagram or I'll pull an audio byte and share that, or maybe I'll do a little graphic with a quote from the episode. And then it was like, okay, I'm gonna do a website, and then I'll also make each episode be a blog post on a website, and then it was like, okay, maybe I'll add video, and then I'll start sharing video on social media, and then I'll start sharing additional videos in addition to the podcast on social media that are similar in content, and then I'll start reaching out to more guests, and I'll start reaching out to like aligned brands or sponsors or whatever it is.

And so it's like very slowly every couple of weeks or every month or even every quarter these things were added on. It was not overnight and that made it feel much more manageable at this point, like complete transparency with regard to how these things work. I record the podcast, and I have an incredible, , team member, Sam, who's listening right now, and she edits them, and she writes the description, and then I go in, and I [00:26:00] schedule it, it goes live on Captivate, and then now you're listening to it, and she adds it on YouTube, and I do the thumbnail, and then that's how that gets uploaded there.

And then through Waveform, which is the podcast marketing company, , An incredible girl named Nixie edits the videos, and she does all of the fun little graphics and animations, I add captions, and then post it to social media. And so, freshman year, I was doing all my podcast recording. editing, posting, and social media promo.

I also had social media clients and I was fully doing school by myself and that was really overwhelming and not even remotely sustainable. I was so stressed out. Now it feels a lot more sustainable because there is a team and people helping in these different ways. Sam also helps with guest outreach. I send like all these people and I'm like, can we please email them?

And she emails them and asks if they'll come on the podcast. And then I have a lot of things I automated with like release forms and scheduling and calendar links and zooms and all of that. And then with Waveform, which is the podcast marketing and work, I have clients which have videos due like pretty much on a weekly basis.

And [00:27:00] so on a daily basis, I'm posting for She Persisted and maybe like one or two clients at the very most. And then I'm like in contact via text or email, but there's pretty consistent deadlines. So like this client posts every day, this client posts twice a week, , And I do have a pretty clear cap of like, okay, I can take on more video editing than I can do over the weekend, but like, I can maybe post for one to two additional clients per week and that's it.

So these things are not done just all by me, at all, by any means whatsoever. , and then also I didn't explain how this worked with the, with Waveforum, which is the podcast marketing. The way that that came to be was I did, she persisted by myself and taught myself how to edit videos and edit audio and write show notes and do very bad graphic design at that point.

Realized maybe I could help someone else with this on their podcast and became a production assistant. And so I was writing show notes and doing their blog posts, , and doing edits for that show. And then, , started to take on social media clients. After I was taking on a good number of social media clients, there was kind of the awareness of okay, like, I [00:28:00] could structure this more as, , an agency offering and onboard clients and oversee other people also managing accounts, and that also meant that She Persisted no longer had to be done by me, and there was more budget for that to be possible.

So that's kind of how all of that works, but these things were added on very slowly over years. Like, the podcast has been going on for four years. I've been doing social media management for at least two now, and so, , These things were very slowly, , titrated. The last questions are going to be rapid fire, some fun and miscellaneous ones.

The first one is, what TV shows are you watching? So I just watched the Love is Blind, like, one year later episodes, public service announcement that there are, like, three episodes that just got released, or from a year after the season. , so I watched those, there's a new season also coming out in September, so I will be tuning in, you will be hearing about that on Instagram stories.

It's so fascinating. Love is Blind is, , Probably one of the only reality shows that I truly am like committed and watching every season, but so much drama. I love [00:29:00] it I also have the bear on my list I have heard so many people speak so highly about that and I really want to watch that So that'll be my next like serious watch I kind of break things up into like I have things I watch in the background like modern family or Family Guy, or The Office things like that that are very just like, , cheesy, funny, you don't pay a ton of attention to.

Then things like Succession or Suits. Suits is also on my list, those I like want to pay attention to and watch. And we'll watch like two episodes a week at a time. I'm also watching Young Sheldon because a new season just came out. So that's kind of all my television interests at the moment.

Next question is dorm room recommendations. Trader Joe's, number one. We love Trader Joe's. I'm just gonna do like a bunch of rapid fire random ones that come to mind. Ice cube trays if you like iced coffee or iced water. Game changer. Little water bottle cleaning tablets because you definitely don't have a dishwasher in your dorm room.

The over the door hangers for robes and towels. If you're watching this on YouTube, you can see that in the background. I have this really bright vanity mirror and it's incredible because it like [00:30:00] literally lights up the room but also you probably don't have a great mirror for like skin care and makeup, so.

That I highly recommend. All these are going to be in the show notes, by the way. I just got skincare shelves, so like those clear shelves you've probably seen all over TikTok and Pinterest. I post them on Instagram, but I hung them with command hooks so I didn't have to drill into the wall and they're so cute.

I am obsessed. And then

if you are struggling with storage in your dorm room, Ikea carts. Perfect for kitchen stuff, perfect for if you just do not have any more drawer space but you do have some items like cleaning stuff or your shower caddy. Highly recommend. Little Ikea cards are like 30 for the whole cart. It's literally the most insane thing and I love.

Last rapid fire question before we wrap this up is what food is always in your dorm? We're really food heavy today. , Trader Joe's chicken soup dumplings. so good. , I really like the premier protein coffee shakes. It tastes like a cup of coffee, but it has 30 grams of protein. So on the days I'm like literally running out of the door, but I cannot go to class without breakfast because I love [00:31:00] breakfast.

I'll take one of those and I will feel full until I have like a snack or lunch right after class. So highly recommend those. I've also been doing the Trader Joe's protein oatmeal. It's like cinnamon flavored. I do it in the microwave and I had frozen berries and it's Top notch, incredible college breakfast.

Any adults listening to this are like, this is not the stage of life I'm in. These are not helpful recommendations, but for the high school and college students, hopefully this is helpful. , and I always love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in the fridge. Constantly a staple in my dorm. Thank you for listening to this week's episode.

I kept it much more concise this time. I'm very proud of myself. I really hope this was helpful if you are headed back to school and just starting up. You got this. I'm so proud of you, and I hope this was helpful in balancing your goals, transitioning to college, all of the things. So I'll see you next week, and , have a great rest of your week.

Sadie: Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of she persisted. If you enjoyed, make sure to share with a friend or family member, it really helps out the podcast. And if you haven't already leave a review on apple podcasts or Spotify, [00:32:00] you can also make sure to follow along at actually persisted podcast on both Instagram and Tik TOK, and check out all the bonus resources, content and information on my website.

She persisted podcast.com. Thanks for supporting. Keep persisting and I'll see you next week.

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