00:00:00
Where the heck have I been? What is
00:00:03
going on with the show? Is it cancelled?
00:00:06
Are there new episodes coming? What is
00:00:08
happening? These are all things I'm
00:00:10
going to answer on today's episode of
00:00:12
the Ex Homeschoolers Club.
00:00:17
Hey, what's going on? It's uh Jacob
00:00:19
Gooden and we are back. First and
00:00:21
foremost, let me tell you this. The Exom
00:00:23
Club is not cancelled. It's not going
00:00:25
anywhere. Uh it very much still has
00:00:28
episodes to come. is not dead yet. Okay,
00:00:30
where have I been? What has been going
00:00:32
on? Because it has been a month uh since
00:00:35
I posted an episode and uh and I really
00:00:38
just went dark without saying I was
00:00:40
taking a break. Nothing. Um so, what's
00:00:42
been going on? Well, a couple of things.
00:00:45
Uh first and foremost,
00:00:47
work got a little crazy. Just good
00:00:49
things like new projects, new editing
00:00:52
styles, new productions, new podcasts
00:00:54
getting released for people. Um, very
00:00:57
cool, fun opportunities. Um, and when
00:00:59
you freelance and do the work that I do,
00:01:02
sometimes when there's a lot, you got to
00:01:04
take it when it comes. Uh, cuz these
00:01:07
things come in waves. And, uh, I chose
00:01:09
to take it. Now, the other hard part of
00:01:11
that is that sometimes when you spend
00:01:12
all day editing other people's content
00:01:14
and other people's podcasts, uh, and
00:01:17
then you have some free time, the last
00:01:19
thing you want to do is turn around and
00:01:20
start editing another podcast. That is
00:01:22
your hobby, is is your fun thing. And
00:01:25
so, um, yeah, so definitely a little bit
00:01:28
of a disconnect there and I was just
00:01:30
like not really feeling it. It kind of
00:01:32
leads into the second part which is that
00:01:34
since the end of August, September,
00:01:37
definitely been feeling a little bit of
00:01:38
like anxiety, depression, overwhelm, um,
00:01:42
just burnout overall. That's tough. If
00:01:46
you've ever experienced that feeling of
00:01:48
like not wanting to get out of bed in
00:01:50
the morning or just like not even being
00:01:52
able to do basic tasks, you kind of know
00:01:56
what I'm talking about. There's a lot of
00:01:57
things that played a role in that and
00:02:00
I'm going to talk about maybe what I'm
00:02:02
doing a little bit differently right now
00:02:03
that seems to be pulling me out of that.
00:02:05
So number one, I think the biggest thing
00:02:08
that changed for me was
00:02:12
I kind of did an audit of how much I was
00:02:14
on social media and consuming consuming
00:02:17
consuming. And it was high. It was a lot
00:02:19
higher than I wanted to admit. And you
00:02:23
know, social media is it's like a slot
00:02:25
machine, right? It's just it's like
00:02:27
gambling. You never know what you're
00:02:28
going to get. Some days it's really good
00:02:30
stuff and really happy, positive
00:02:32
content. And then other days it's just
00:02:33
very doom and gloom uh with the state of
00:02:35
the world. And um me being the person
00:02:39
that I am, I take a lot of stuff on
00:02:40
personally and want to fix and want to
00:02:43
make the world a better place. Um and
00:02:46
when I feel powerless to do that, I get
00:02:48
sad. And so stepped away from social
00:02:51
media, deleted it all off my phone.
00:02:54
Helped a lot. um helped me sleep better
00:02:57
at night, right? Um it's put me in a
00:03:00
little bit of a better mood. And I will
00:03:02
confess, I maybe have logged on once or
00:03:04
twice, but nothing's been back on my
00:03:06
phone. I've looked at a few Tik Toks
00:03:08
over someone's shoulder, but like taking
00:03:10
a break and really just invested the
00:03:13
time that I would spend in scrolling on
00:03:16
doing something productive, whether it's
00:03:18
reading. I started a couple new books,
00:03:20
um, writing, being creative, not wasting
00:03:24
that time away on a slot machine, so to
00:03:26
speak. And so that's been really great.
00:03:29
Um, I also cut back my caffeine intake.
00:03:33
If you have anxiety and you drink
00:03:34
caffeine every single day,
00:03:37
take a break. And I don't mean just like
00:03:39
go cold turkey. I mean like wean
00:03:41
yourself off of it, but I don't drink
00:03:43
coffee every day right now. Um I'll
00:03:46
drink a couple times a week. And I feel
00:03:48
great. Feel a lot better. Um and
00:03:52
sleeping better. And just I don't know.
00:03:54
Also, sleep is so important. So just get
00:03:56
good sleep, okay? Go to bed at a
00:03:58
reasonable hour. Get 8 to 10 hours.
00:04:00
listen to what your body is telling you
00:04:01
you need and just give it that. Um, and
00:04:04
you will feel a lot better. Um, also go
00:04:06
outside, touch grass, see the sunshine.
00:04:09
That helps too. Okay? And do things that
00:04:11
are not workrelated. Do things that are
00:04:13
not chores that are not you having to go
00:04:16
do errands. Like go do something fun. Go
00:04:20
read in the park. Go Yeah. Anyway,
00:04:22
that's my little spiel on mental health.
00:04:24
Kind of coming out of that, feeling a
00:04:26
little bit better. Uh, what is going on
00:04:28
with the show? where where where are we
00:04:30
at? What's Yeah. What's on the docket?
00:04:33
So, since August, I've recorded four
00:04:36
episodes, four interviews. Um and
00:04:38
they've just kind of been sitting.
00:04:39
They're in various stages of editing. Um
00:04:41
we got some cool stuff coming. So, those
00:04:43
are going to be coming out uh as soon as
00:04:45
possible. Trying to get one done uh so
00:04:48
that you'll have one next week. Brand
00:04:50
new interview. They're cool interviews.
00:04:52
Um they're some of them are a little bit
00:04:54
different than the usual. Only one of
00:04:56
those four is with a former homeschool
00:04:58
kid. Uh, and about their experience. Uh,
00:05:01
one of them is with a sex expert. Um,
00:05:04
and we talk kind of about like healthy
00:05:07
sex education. Um, I had on some college
00:05:10
prep people um, who talked more to
00:05:14
current homeschool families or families
00:05:17
with young kids about college prep. Um,
00:05:19
kind of an interesting conversation,
00:05:20
very different than the usual. Um, and
00:05:23
then lastly, I interviewed someone who
00:05:24
is a current homeschool mom, uh, but is
00:05:26
doing secular homeschooling,
00:05:28
microchooling, uh, just a very
00:05:30
interesting conversation around like the
00:05:32
state of where homeschooling is, but
00:05:34
also we touch on how we as exhchoolers
00:05:39
can help those people and um, how our
00:05:43
stories are important uh, to tell. And
00:05:46
so anyway, so those are coming uh, in
00:05:49
the weeks ahead. uh working really hard
00:05:51
to get those out for you guys. A few
00:05:53
things on the future of the show. And
00:05:56
this is where I would love your guys's
00:05:59
feedback. And so if you're watching this
00:06:01
on YouTube, you can leave a comment down
00:06:03
below. If you're on Spotify, Spotify
00:06:06
also has a comment section. You can drop
00:06:08
some things down in there or you can
00:06:10
shoot me an email at [email protected].
00:06:13
So here's kind of my questions and what
00:06:17
I'm thinking about and thinking about
00:06:19
changing. and just looking forward uh to
00:06:22
the future of the show. So, one, like I
00:06:25
said, I'm still kind of in the burnout,
00:06:27
overwhelm, anxiety stage. And so, I am
00:06:31
thinking about changing up uh posting
00:06:35
and not posting every single week and
00:06:37
instead posting twice a month uh or just
00:06:40
every two weeks, however that lands.
00:06:42
Some months it might be three episodes.
00:06:44
Um but so that might be something that's
00:06:46
coming. Um, let me know how you feel
00:06:50
about that. Um, I would like to get back
00:06:52
to doing once a week, but it can be a
00:06:54
little overwhelming at times. Um, and
00:06:57
one of the things that I want to do and
00:06:59
change about the show is I do want to
00:07:01
change some of the editing and the
00:07:04
storytelling and I want to take more
00:07:05
time on it. And so that's part of the
00:07:07
reason for that. But anyway, let me know
00:07:10
your thoughts on that. The other aspect
00:07:13
of the show that I'm interested to get
00:07:14
your guys' opinion on is I would like to
00:07:17
build some kind of community off of this
00:07:20
and
00:07:22
one that is not only a conversation
00:07:24
between you and I or me and my guest,
00:07:27
but also between audience member and
00:07:30
audience member um exhomeschooler and
00:07:33
ex-h homeschooler, right? And so I know
00:07:35
early on in the show I was like all
00:07:38
about pushing like we have a Reddit or
00:07:40
should we do a Discord or a Slack group
00:07:43
or um a Facebook page or like what does
00:07:46
that look like? Um and I still haven't
00:07:49
figured it out. I did a book club um and
00:07:53
I still haven't really figured out what
00:07:55
that looks like, that kind of a thing.
00:07:59
Here's some ideas I have. Um, but in
00:08:03
order to implement them, here's the
00:08:04
other thing. In order to implement some
00:08:06
of these ideas, I can't do this alone. I
00:08:09
need people who want to come alongside
00:08:11
of me and help kind of lead the charge
00:08:14
on some of these things happening um and
00:08:16
be leaders in the exhomeschool club
00:08:20
world. Okay. Um, so here's ideas I have.
00:08:24
Let me know. I would love to hear from
00:08:25
you guys ideas you have, what you would
00:08:27
like to see if you want to take charge,
00:08:29
if you have the capacity to take charge
00:08:30
of that. um what that would look like.
00:08:32
So number one, we could bring the book
00:08:34
club back. And
00:08:37
initially when I had pitched the book
00:08:38
club, it was very much like, hey, let's
00:08:40
read books that like make us better
00:08:41
human beings. Um and so we read When
00:08:44
Religion Hurts You. A couple people did.
00:08:46
Um had some conversations around it, but
00:08:48
never, I'll be honest, I dropped the
00:08:50
ball and never followed up with like,
00:08:51
hey, let's have a Zoom call at the end
00:08:53
and discuss the book. Um we could do
00:08:56
something like that and read books. They
00:08:59
do not have to be let's get better. They
00:09:01
could be fiction. They could be any kind
00:09:02
of thing. But we could have a book club
00:09:04
uh and do a monthly or every two-month
00:09:07
discussion on on a book we read. That
00:09:09
could be something that could be fun.
00:09:10
Number two,
00:09:12
we could do monthly hangouts on some
00:09:15
kind of a Zoom call or something like
00:09:17
that. Uh exomschooler happy hour. Uh I
00:09:21
don't I don't know what it would look
00:09:22
like, but just get together, hang out,
00:09:25
play a game, play bingo, get to know
00:09:26
each other. um could be an option as
00:09:29
well. Um so there's that. Uh we still
00:09:33
have of course the opportunity we could
00:09:35
do Reddit or we could do some other kind
00:09:38
of app and build some kind of chat
00:09:41
room experience for people. I just don't
00:09:46
I don't know. But let me know what you
00:09:48
guys think. What sounds interesting?
00:09:52
What you guys would want to do? um what
00:09:56
would be beneficial to you? Um because I
00:09:59
that's that's the next stage is I want
00:10:01
to figure out this community aspect to
00:10:04
the show. And then of course lastly, you
00:10:07
know, shoot me an email with things you
00:10:09
want to see on the show, right? Uh
00:10:11
things I could be doing better,
00:10:12
questions I should ask, uh guests I
00:10:14
should have on, topics you want to hear
00:10:16
me kind of go deeper on, um solos that
00:10:19
you want me to do. If you got questions
00:10:21
for me, just shoot me your feedback on
00:10:23
the show. I guess is what I'm asking.
00:10:25
Um, love to hear from you. And with
00:10:28
that, I think that's everything that
00:10:30
I've got rolling around inside my brain.
00:10:33
But like I said, big overarching things
00:10:36
to remember here. The show is not
00:10:38
cancelled. New episodes are coming. Uh,
00:10:41
it's okay to take a break. Okay? It's
00:10:43
okay. It's okay to take a break.
00:10:46
Breathe.
00:10:48
Relieve the stress. Come back stronger
00:10:50
and better than ever before. And so
00:10:52
there's that. Okay. Do all of the
00:10:55
internet things that you know how to do.
00:10:57
Share this episode. Like this episode.
00:10:59
Subscribe if you're brand new here and
00:11:00
you're like, "Oh my gosh, this kind of
00:11:02
sounds like a cool thing. I want to be
00:11:04
part of it." Go check out other
00:11:05
episodes. Uh share those with friends.
00:11:07
Uh do all of again the internet things
00:11:10
that you already know how to do. Uh
00:11:12
leave comments down below. Uh shoot me
00:11:15
an email. Follow me on social medias.
00:11:17
All of all of the things you know,
00:11:20
everything. uh I discussed is linked
00:11:23
down below. Go check it out. All right,
00:11:26
till next time. We'll see you. Peace.
00:11:34
[Music]
00:11:40
[Music]
