Seasons of Change: Simplifying, Pivoting, and Moving Forward

Podcast Episode Summary:

In this heartfelt episode of Cafecito Con Jefas, Kita Zuleta shares an honest update on her challenging year and the life transitions impacting her work. She reflects on navigating grief after a significant family loss over the summer, managing an unexpected move, and balancing personal struggles with her commitment to the community she leads. Despite these obstacles, Kita celebrates successes like her birthday sale, which brought in new clients, and ongoing community events such as strategy calls, co-working sessions, and the CCJ Casita.

Kita also opens up about the toll of overstimulation and burnout, her efforts to simplify her life and business processes, and her decision to postpone events like the vision board party to prioritize health and rest. She emphasizes the importance of self-care and adjusting plans in response to unforeseen challenges.

Looking ahead, Kita plans to reset rhythms in the new year, settle into a new home, and focus on expanding her agency, Zuleta Unlimited, with additional support. While the podcast has faced inconsistency, she remains committed to releasing the final episodes of the year and returning with renewed focus in season three.

Kita's transparency and resilience shine through as she reassures listeners that she’s navigating this season with grace and determination while staying connected to her community.

Transcript

Life Updates and Future Plans

Kita 0:00

Hi, jefas, welcome back to the Cabecito con Jefas podcast. I'm your host, gita Zuleta. Well, I haven't been much of a host lately. Y'all your girl has been caught up in the real life, part of this jefa life. This year was rough on your girl. There was major loss in my family over the summer. It was right for Fourth of July weekend and that impacted my family in many ways and made that season difficult. Difficult and coming out of that season of grief to get back into a rhythm, back into a groove. I was starting to see some of that come back and was really grateful for it, especially for the week of my birthday, which is the time that I had the birthday sale and received so much support from my current clients. The community was able to have a successful sale and booked seven clients, which is amazing and was able to although imperfect in many ways, was able to not just have a strong plan but actually execute quite a bit.

Kita 1:28

Ever since the beginning of November, we found out that we need to pack up and move from our home of four years. We had absolutely zero intention of moving or looking for a new home. We certainly weren't shopping for a new place and also certainly not prepared for a move move. So it's been a roller coaster, to say the least. These past few weeks since we found out the news, we unfortunately have what feels like quite the novella happening over here. Every day has been the plot thickening and unfortunately it hasn't been a nice situation. So Johnny and I have sought out legal counsel. So for those reasons I won't be dumping the entire novella here on the podcast or on any of my platforms. But yeah, there's, there's lots happening there, I mean, and just the simple fact that is, you know, needing to generate the additional income during the holidays to find a place and move and and go through our home and pack, and I think that's a big reason why I haven't been able to jumping on the mic with y'all.

Kita 3:33

But one of the things that I'm very proud to be a Detroit Yecho person, like if we talk about something and I tell you, cool, I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it Now. Depending on what it is, it may be later than I had initially anticipated, but I will do it. So, especially when it comes to the kinds of things that I want to accomplish or standards I have set for myself, expectations, all kinds of things I'm really hard on myself, and especially because I have y'all as my community, who I serve and lead and love and want to still have loving me, like I really critique myself on the things that I do or don't do or fail to do when it comes to running this community, which has running this community, which has evolved to grow so much larger and deeper than I had ever initially dreamt of when CCJ first started. Pero, that's aparte. So when we launched season two and finally got back around to bringing the podcast back, a big thing that I wanted to shift in season two was to bring structure to my solo episodes and I wanted to come back and teach on here. And I have yet to do that and I have yet to do that and it's why I think I'm holding myself back from coming and talking to y'all and just keeping y'all posted, even if it's mostly through the podcast.

Kita 5:40

Due to all of the real life things that have been happening, your girl has not been at capacity to hang out online. Um, by the time my days are over. I'm so fried like jumping onto social media is overstimulating even like I just I can't. It's it's been too much and too heavy to pick up, and so I've just been trying to do as much as I can, as much as I can, as often as I can and you know, in my head I'm failing constantly, but I'm just trying my best to move forward. But I'm just trying my best to move forward because I had originally planned for this show up FF challenge and this sale and this launch and so many things, but there's so many things that were not planned for this season and so many plans that have changed. You know things like things that we could not have foreseen. Um, like rescheduling the vision board party. You know we had it scheduled for this weekend.

Kita 6:56

Um, turns out not just myself is in the middle of all the things. Fellow Hefa, who was going to be co-hosting with me, was having some health issues as well. So, as we talk about here on the podcast, we value taking care of our bodies and listening to our bodies and resting in order to be able to serve properly. So we definitely we definitely canceled it for this Saturday, but we may postpone it until January and host then, or I even said, or we won't host. You know there's, if we're going to truly prioritize our health, like let's wait till we're on the other side of this season, yeah, and get back to some of these extracurricular activities once the ground has settled. And so, due to how unsettled life has been for yours truly, there's been a lot of plans that have changed, a lot of pivoting that has needed to happen. There's plenty of unknowns for yours truly.

Kita 8:18

So I have been in a season where I have been simplifying all of the things, um, from simplifying my closet to what I need to keep on the ready, um, and also simplifying my, my business needs, my um process for showing up online all of my processes, um what tools I need. Like, literally just trying to detox. It feels like as I pivot and restructure and really looking at my calendar to see like, what can I cancel today, or what can I reschedule, what can I push back, reschedule, what can I push back? Just to be able to breathe a bit. And take these next couple weeks, which the majority of the world is in full holiday mode. It's holiday season, supposed to be happy and jolly and joyful and just prioritizing time to rest and be nostalgic and, um, to be frank, I don't feel jolly currently. I feel stressed, um, and because of that, you know there's there's so many things happening, like, yes, I'm stressed about what's going to happen in my future.

Kita 10:05

You know, I'm someone who likes to take action. I'm someone who prefers to know the plan in head of hands. I like to strategize, I like to be able to chew on the data, play out the scenarios, calculate, um. But I literally have zero data to calculate right now. I have a million scenarios that I can play out and there's absolutely no point in doing all of that, um. So your girl is moving forward as best as I can. Um, with faith. You know, like I'm, I'm allowing myself to quote unquote take advantage of the casita tour that was going to be for this Friday, december 13th, is now going to be on next Friday, december 20th, and that tour is going to be so that I can properly introduce the casita to community members who have never seen it before, who are interested to hear or to know and see.

Kita 11:39

What the heck am I talking about when I say inside the casita? And the truth is I need more time. As much as I could walk through the casitaita. There's so much work that I need to put in and, you know, kind of like cleaning up your literal house before guests come in like. That's the kind of thing yours truly needs to do inside of our virtual casita and update the events for, you know, december and for this new year and make it that much more easily accessible for the community.

Kita 12:24

There's going to be lots of things coming in the new year, definitely taking into account this transition. As much as I would love to say, you know, get excited for all the new things coming in quarter one, I think Q1 is going to be a big focus on just resetting the rhythms for the new year and settling in. You know, I think that's going to be a big theme for yours truly personally. Where I'll be settling into physically I do not know, but at some point throughout Q1, I will be officially settling into a new home and I think also in the new year we get to settle in as far as the business, how we're going to show up the rhythm that it's going to be and what the plan is going to be for the business. I'd love to be able to map out my year right now because I love to plan and see things in the big way, but truthfully, I can only do a mock-up of my plan for next year as I won't know when to plan for the move, that transition, and so it affects, for example, the next round of the cohort. Originally was going to kick off mid-January. It's possible that it kicks off mid-January, it's possible it kicks off February or March.

Kita 14:08

So because of all those unknowns, it's been hard to not just jump back on here but jump into social media when I feel like I utilize these platforms so much to keep y'all updated and tell y'all like this is what's happening, sure, with me but also with the community, right, and so there are still things happening. Because as much as I am doing my best to simplify what is on my plate and prioritize the most necessary aspects of my business and serving the community and showing up, as much as I am doing that and trying to show myself grace on the expectation that I have in my head versus reality of the capacity that I have, I still have a full calendar of events and places I need to be and rooms and spaces I need to host. For example, in our CCJ casita I host hyper-focused sessions, which are now on Friday mornings from 9 am to 11 am, pacific standard time. There's no cafecito during this session. It's specifically for body doubling and getting into a groove and working alongside each other. So hyperfocus sessions are now on Friday mornings.

Kita 15:52

We have our monthly group strategy calls. We had our first strategy call last month, which was fantastic In November. It really allowed us to dig into quite a few different topics. The way I've been doing it is essentially kind of like hot seats, where each hefa does a very fast introduction like who I am, what I'm doing and this is the current problem that I'm chewing on the current, you know, question I have. I'd love your opinion and we kind of like mastermind things and chew on them and come up with different strategies and share resources. So these monthly strategy calls are really helpful to be able to close the gap for each other, learn from one another, a specific question, concern, thought or process that you would want to talk out with the group. It's a great place to bring your questions in order to be able to get that feedback, get some answers and get some help and support from your fellow HFAs.

Kita 17:09

So this space has plenty of um events. Like I said, we have the hyper focus session, we have the uh strategy calls, we have the, have a book club um, as well as uh biweekly cafecitos where we get together uh, bi-weekly cafecitos where we get together. So there's still plenty of events that I need to show up in um and be, of course, our weekly cafecito and co-working um that so many of you are a part of and join at some point or another um, and then, of course, my one on one clients that I coach and being able to do all of those things on top of, of course, whatever photography gigs I have and the editing and turning around of those projects. There's been quite a bit on my plate and especially when I look at you know the prioritization of things and when, as much as I want to do all the things, there are certain aspects of what's on my plate that needs to be sacrificed According to my capacity, as currently we are a team of two, my husband and I where you don't have any additional support currently with CCJ, it's something that we are looking to expand in the new year is really seeking out support, guidance, as well as assistance and potentially interns for our agency, not just CCJ CCJ.

Kita 19:10

So there's quite a bit of expansion and growth on the horizon for Zuleta Unlimited, which is the creative media and marketing agency that houses Quita, zuleta and Cabecito con Jefas as brands. So that's on the technical, business side of things. There's going to be expansion and growth there, which of course affects CCJ and how I get to show up in the community. So because we are not quite where we see ourselves to be once we have a team and support system, because we're not quite yet there, we do need to prioritize the income generating activities and although the podcast is great for marketing and bringing us together and getting our name out there, it has suffered this season. It has been inconsistent. We'll be releasing the last four episodes before the end of the year. We'll be doing a double episode for Christmas week in order to be able to end the year with a bang, and then we'll bring back the podcast for season three properly closer to the end of Q1 and really give this platform, this tool, this space, the energy that it deserves.

Kita 20:50

Between my own personal blockage of getting on the mic due to my overthinking, my over critiquing of myself, um, and also not wanting to continuously show up in it, if that makes sense, like for those of y'all who have been with me since the beginning of season one or who have followed along on this journey and heard me cry on the mic and heard you know the novella that has been your girl's journey to where I am today. Where I am today. It's been a lot and I feel like, especially because y'all were with me through such a hard season last year as I was burning out and quitting my job and going through all of those things, you know, I was thinking about how much I miss y'all, in the sense that I miss talking to y'all, I miss keeping y'all posted with what's going on with myself. Um, and I think the overthinking that has been. I've been promising y'all for more structure. I've been promising y'all, you know, more education.

Kita 22:11

And here I am, when I do jump on the mic for a solo episode, I'm just heart dumping and updating y'all on life because it's been. It's been hard to both jump on the mic and then hard to keep up with it all. And you know, know I share freely here on the podcast about how hard life has been this year, because that's what this platform is about. You know, it's not about making it, painting it a certain way, painting it like it's all just a breeze. It's not glamorous this life. It is hard work and it takes time to build and it takes time to get everything where we want it to be, to get everything where we want it to be, and these pivots and these shifts and reorganization of things. It's natural in life and in this Hefa life of running a business and being an entrepreneur.

Kita 23:37

So there's still plenty of unknowns, but one thing I do know to be true is that I believe in the mission that we've been pursuing. I am grateful to have my business and be able to continue my business from anywhere in the world, and I know that by continuing to show up and talk about my business and educate my audience on who I am and what I do and who I serve and how I serve them and where I'm located and where I'm located, over time I will get in front of new people who are ready to work with me and ready to invest in my business and in theirs, and that will keep my lights on a roof over my head and a future for my family. I believe that and it may not all be here now and all the questions aren't answered just yet, but it's coming, it's coming, it's coming. So, if any of y'all happen to be in a season where you're looking to invest in your brand and growing online and curious about working with yours truly. I serve Hefas in a few different ways, from brand photography to brand strategy, to one-on-one coaching, to creating brand bibles, book a free consultation, talk to me to see if it's the right season for us to jump in the trenches together. I'd be honored to walk with you on your half-hour journey, but if you're not in a season where you're looking to work with yours truly, maybe you business.

Kita 25:57

But especially in this season of transition, I'm looking to get booked and busy and put in as much work as I can in order to continue to generate that income and luck and work through this season of transition. So lots of things are happening and not all bad. It's just a lot, you know, and it's a lot to hold and it's why I haven't had the chance to be here. I hope to be back. I want to be back, but I'm not promising anything at this point. I'm just going to show up as much as I can, as best as I can, and I'll let you know how things go.

Kita 27:09

So for now, I hope to see y'all at the Casita tour next Friday. If you're already inside the Casita, I'll see you at the Strategy Call and at Book Club. Those will be the lastorking for the holidays. Um, both Christmas Day and New Year's Day land on Wednesdays, um, and so we won't be getting together those days for Cafesito and Coworking. Um, so it'll'll be this upcoming Wednesday will be the last Wednesday of 2024. And yeah, that'll be a wrap for the year.

Kita 28:04

Man, there's still so much to do. There's so much to do y'all, but that's this life. No para and uh, as jefas, we have that much more on our plates, and so, for those of you maybe feeling a bit of that overwhelm or a bit of a lot, I'm sending y'all so much love and I know that, although I'm not super peppy and just excited and happy, I do want to make it clear that I am am confident, I do have that faith that everything is going to work out exactly the way it needs to. I just don't know what it looks like and I like, I like to know, like the plan, I like to know where I'm going, I like the clarity, I like to know where I'm going, I like the clarity, I like direction. So we'll see, we'll see how it all pans out.

Kita 29:18

I hope to be updating y'all soon, but until next time, thank you for hanging out with me and just catching this head and heart dump and what I feel felt like a ramble. But I love y'all, I'm grateful for y'all. Thank you for writing with me. I'll talk to you soon. Until next time, thanks for listening to the Cafecito con Jefas podcast.