The beauty in the breakdown with Alicia Grigaitis | Ep. 17 Content Magic with Lindsay Smith

This was such a fun convo with my friend (and neighbour!) Alicia. After a separation and becoming a single mom with two young kids, Alicia realized she had been lost in the role of motherhood and survival. In this episode, she shares her inspiring journey of creating a thriving online community, a membership and live events and workshops for other moms through her business, Flow and Co. 

Alicia is a natural community builder and a pro at making other moms feel seen and heard. And she accomplishes this through authenticity and vulnerability. 

If you're a mom, you're not going to want to miss this one. Tune in for an insightful and heartwarming conversation between moms built for more. 

04:24 Creating "Mindful Over Matter" mom membership program.

09:10 Prioritize self-care, find what brings joy.

10:52 Embracing movement, walking, and connecting with others.

16:40 Seeking support during challenging times fosters growth.

18:39 Sharing my single parenting journey, embracing authenticity.

20:59 Took a leap and figured it out.

CONNECT WITH ALICIA!
Instagram: @flowandco__
Links: Alicia Grigaitis 

Alicia [00:00:00]:
You kind of lose that spark for your own stuff, right? Like, what lights you up?

Lindsay [00:00:08]:
If you have an online business, you're creating content. And the way you create content is more important than ever. It's really noisy out there, and learning to stand out is the only way. Hey, I'm Lindsay, and I'm the host of the content Magic podcast, all about being an entrepreneur and creating kick ass content to market yourself and your business. I have a not so secret superpower for copywriting, marketing, and content, and I've helped hundreds of folks just like you show up with a ton of confidence in the online space. I've been doing this content thing for 20 years, and I believe the real magic is a combo of intuition, creativity, and strategy. You can create content for your business without losing your mind, I promise. So, tune in every week for tangible content, tips, inspiring guests, and some real spicy opinions.

Lindsay [00:01:00]:
Probably mine. Ready to dive in?

Lindsay [00:01:02]:
Let's go.

Alicia [00:01:04]:
Hi, friends.

Lindsay [00:01:05]:
Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Lindsay, and I'm joined by my friend Alicia, who lives, like, five doors down. Yeah, I know. So, technically, you just come in here. We could do, like, welcome, Alicia.

Alicia [00:01:26]:
Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Lindsay [00:01:28]:
So, can you tell the people who you are and what you do and who you help?

Alicia [00:01:35]:
Yes, I can. So, I'm Alicia Grigidis. I have a couple of hats. I'm a single mom of two tiny humans. I'm a primary music teacher. And then I started this journey with my own business called flow and co, where at the moment, I'm what I call mindfulness mentor and basically took my own self exploration of the wellness world, basically mind, body, soul, and decided to bring it to other mamas specifically, who are feeling like they need a little bit more time for themselves and basically are maybe not sure where to start.

Lindsay [00:02:23]:
So I know you have a membership. Right. Which is sort of like new ish. So Alicia hosted this in person event a while ago. Yeah, back in June. It was June. Oh, man. And she combined.

Lindsay [00:02:43]:
She made a journal. She just was just like, I feel like I want to make a gratitude journal. So she made it.

Alicia [00:02:51]:
I did.

Lindsay [00:02:55]:
And then she had an event at a yoga studio, and she combined, like, a gratitude practice with sort of a workout yoga practice and sound healing and all these things, and it was so lovely. So thank you for doing that. Yeah, that was a beautiful day, and I feel like what you're really good at is cultivating community. So tell us a bit more about your membership that you. This is the second time you're running it? Yes.

Alicia [00:03:31]:
Yes. It is. Yeah. Thank you. I don't know if it's because I'm a teacher and I'm in that world of sort of bringing everybody in, and I'm a music teacher, so I'm always sort of bopping around, being my goofy self, but also love that feeling of bringing everybody together. And when I hosted the event back in June, that was the first time I had done that specifically where I had had the idea for a while, but finally was able to come up with a great date that worked for a group of people. And I had basically attended some classes myself, workout classes and yoga and sound healing, and basically just found other humans I loved to pieces and asked if they would be in for helping me create this event. I absolutely loved that day.

Alicia [00:04:24]:
It was so magical as, you know, being there in the room, just kind of feeling that energy that shared at the start of the event, we had a little time to reflect of basically why you were there. And then as I read them out at the end, anonymously, to hear why people were there. And it was amazing to hear the commonalities among everybody's answers, like, just more time for self, take a hot minute to look after what we need outside of motherhood and just give back to ourselves. So that day was so amazing that I decided I wanted to find a way to bring that into more of a day to day or a weekly basis, and find a way to connect with like minded women who are just in this mindful sort of wellness space and interested in having some deeper conversations and just self reflective thinking. And so I decided to come up with a membership called mindful over matter. So it's the mom membership for short. And I started the first one in September, and we ran it for three months long, and it was really amazing. I had different wellness experts that were most of them.

Alicia [00:05:35]:
I had worked with myself personally, so I just had such a great experience working with them that I wanted to bring it to other people. And most importantly for me, was making it accessible, because when you sign up to work with different wellness experts, it can be quite pricey. And sometimes you're not sure if it's really the right thing for you, if it's your style. And because of going through a separation and becoming a single mom, I sort of took the time after we sold our house to invest in myself in some areas that I knew I needed for my own healing. And in that journey, I have just found the most amazing people around me who I decided needed to be shared with others that were interested inside the first round it was just phenomenal. The feedback was so great. We would meet once a week. Wednesday nights, we would do a live Zoom call at 08:00 and I had different people come in.

Alicia [00:06:32]:
So an energy healer. We had a therapist and relationship coach. We had myself, who I was helping, just hold accountability for those in the space. And then we also did an online piece where we were doing workouts as well. So I'm friends with another somebody else who does an amazing workout program, and she has something called the wellness web where you can work out with her online. So we included that as well. And we did breath work, worked on breath work as well, and it was just phenomenal. So we'd meet once a week, and then we also tried to have some in person connection time in there, too, where we'd just throw out a date, see if anybody could go for a hike, if they were local and close enough.

Alicia [00:07:17]:
Most people ended up being in this sort of Hamilton Halton area, and it was just so going to. We're gearing up for round two again. So it's starting next week and will run for another three months. So I'm calling this one the winter mindful over matter group, and it will run January 23 to April 30. So I've basically taken ideas I liked from the first round and switched things up a little bit and invited some new people in as well, into the space and just really looking forward to it.

Lindsay [00:07:52]:
Amazing. And I feel like, yeah, it's true. And I've talked about this in a podcast that just came. Well, as we're recording this, it just came out with my friend Carissa. We were talking about this idea of, after you have kids, it's not like it's really hard and you lose yourself. And your kids are very young, right? Mine are a little bit older. But you're in it. You're really in it.

Lindsay [00:08:30]:
And especially being a single mom, it's, like, mind blowing how you do it with such grace. And I know it's been a journey for you. I don't want to make you cry.

Alicia [00:08:46]:
No, thank you.

Lindsay [00:08:47]:
Not a good point. But is it your separation that kind of made you realize, like, oh, shit, I feel like mums sort of forget about themselves when their kids are tiny. How can I give back to other ones?

Alicia [00:09:10]:
Yeah, I think it's just so common that we put ourselves kind of at the bottom of the totem pole, right? And we always think, oh, I'll get it back, or I'll make the time eventually. And then before you know it, sometimes it's 2410 years go by, sometimes more when you talk to even like our mom's generation, where you kind of lose that spark for your own stuff, right? Like what lights you up. And it's different for everybody. And some people, it's movement is their thing. Some people, they absolutely love just that mindfulness, like finding a meditative practice that works for them. Like having that 1015 minutes of quiet, right? Or you might love to write, or maybe you love to read. Whatever it is, it doesn't have to be that. It's these things that I'm currently focusing on.

Alicia [00:09:58]:
But just finding that time for yourself seems to be the first thing to go. And definitely for me, becoming a single parent was definitely not in my life plan, right. I'm sure it is for everybody who ends up on their own with young kids. It's not where I saw things going, but I really tried to, I guess, kind of see the beauty and the breakdown where I almost needed this reminder. I didn't realize how much I needed it until it happened. And obviously in early days, it's kind of hard to see the good when other people are saying, oh, I'm sure it all makes sense one day. But becoming a single parent is really intense. And for sure, I just decided to take the time where I do have windows of time to myself and really give back to myself properly the way that I was really craving.

Alicia [00:10:52]:
And for me, movement is huge. I know you love to walk, too. I absolutely love walking. So for me, it sort of just started with going for walks. My kids are both winter babies, so it was my own sanity, even home on maternity leave, that I would just go out walking every day, find a new place to go, right? Like sometimes meet up with a friend or have a goal where you walk to get a yummy tea or whatever it is. But I see how so many of us, and again, not just single moms, every mom where we just don't make the time, we fill all of those little windows of time with other things, right? House, jobs, things we're behind on. Whatever it is, it seems to always be at the top of the list. So I've really enjoyed having the space to have these conversations with other women who are in really similar stages of life.

Alicia [00:11:38]:
And everyone this round, everyone was a mom. And some of them have kids that are teenagers and dealing with new things that are different than the age of my kids. But it was so neat to have these conversations and almost just feel seen. Everybody felt so seen, heard, supported. We chat in a telegram chat as well. I know you use voxer when you talk one on one with people. But it's just an app called Telegram and I used it with my own energy coach, who's also in the membership. And we still talk to each other now, my first group that's still open from the last round, we've had a month off now with Christmas and we all were really missing it.

Alicia [00:12:24]:
And then in the last couple of weeks we've just said, I can't wait. We're starting back up again on this date and we're planning a sleepover night as well. That's a mom sleepover of those who are in the first round. I'm from Honey harbor, originally up north on the water, and my parents have a beautiful spot up there. So we're going to have a little sleepover night in February where whoever can make it from the first round is going to come over and just cook dinner, probably do some fun, go run around in the snow, just have some fun together and really just connect further in person again.

Lindsay [00:12:55]:
Yeah. And I think that just goes, and I keep talking about this community is like a, is it like a buzword for 2024? I'm declaring it right. We talk less about audience and we talk more about community, like in the content space. And I feel like this is just more evidence of how you build community so well. I think you have this magical gift of like, you were just like, I can make this membership. And I was like, oh, how's it going? You're like, oh, there's like 23 people. And I was like, what is happening? Right. And I think you have this magical ability to build community and I think it is because you help people feel seen and not alone and especially moms.

Lindsay [00:13:55]:
Yeah. So I don't know what your magic is, but it's working for you.

Alicia [00:13:59]:
Thanks, Lynn. Yeah. Honestly, I think I just am so passionate about giving a voice, I guess, to what it is that we do need in this stage. And again, so many different ages of the women that were inside the membership were, I'm 37, so it was a few of the same age as I am and then up into like early fifty s and it's the same for the next round. So it's just neat having these conversations because there are a lot of different stages of life, but just that commonality of making time for self and just having purposeful conversations around ways to better support yourself. I was blown away even when we started the first round, we did breath work for the first month and it was incredible how when you actually make time to do that because breath work is, again, so amazing. But we don't always make the time for it. But once you learn how to do it, you really can do it anywhere.

Lindsay [00:14:58]:
Right?

Alicia [00:14:58]:
It's not like you need to be anywhere. I find to do a lot in my car now because I take that time knowing I'm driving anyways, or I'm waiting for picking up a child or whatever it is. And it's amazing how just having access to these tools and reminding you to use them, it was really helpful. So I'm just excited to have the opportunity to be in the space.

Lindsay [00:15:23]:
And I just want to also celebrate your content because I know you in person, the way you are in person and the way you are in your content is like the exact same thing. Right. I feel like you're very good at sharing your vulnerabilities, within reason. Obviously, we don't share our entire lives, but I feel like you share just enough to be relatable and to make people say, oh, my God, me too. Oh, my God, me too. Right? And you have nailed storytelling in your content. I don't know. Was it you that you.

Lindsay [00:16:20]:
I don't remember if it was you. You were like, do I need to do this program with you? And I was like, absolutely not. No, your content is good the way it is. You don't need me.

Alicia [00:16:27]:
I know something you posted. And I said, oh, Lyn, should I do. Could I free that night? Or whatever it was when you were going to host something? And you said, no, you've already got that. Let's talk about.

Lindsay [00:16:37]:
Let's talk about something else.

Alicia [00:16:40]:
Love your authenticity, too. Right? Like, let's do that in a different way. Yeah, we can have other. I appreciate it. Yeah. I just feel like I kind of made this decision, I guess, with what was going on in my own separation, where I had somebody help me when I was going through my separation, it was actually a man I reached out to that I used to go to school with when I was a kid, and I knew he had been through a similar situation, and I just decided to send him a message and say, can I chat with you about a couple of things? And he was like, this little voice for me that I needed at the time. I didn't really know anyone who was in my world of going through a separation at this time and sort of just dealing with some really big life changes. And I knew he was about two years ahead of me, and so we used to just have these little chats back and forth, and he would literally send me a message and say, have you eaten today? What have you done to make you smile? Just like little bits.

Alicia [00:17:39]:
It was just a friendship of how are you doing? I know how it is to be where you are and trust me, it gets better. Just keep at it. Keep at those things that are going to help you physically, help yourself mentally, help yourself, all those things. So it was like I had this sounding board and a friend that I knew from forever ago, and I was so grateful for that because it was just this teeny, tiny little check in that I needed more than ever. And I still would talk. Even in the past, it was, I don't know, many months ago now, but I even just sent a message. He's since met somebody new and they've blended their families and just kind of an example of he's ahead of where I'm at and I've just sent him some messages to say how happy I am for him, to see this next season of life for him. When that happened for me, I just felt like, man, I wish I had a community where I felt like I could just be myself and be real and talk about the difficult things and just not be afraid, I guess, to be authentic.

Alicia [00:18:39]:
So content wise, I just decided to start sharing a little bit of my story here and there about becoming a single parent. And in the beginning, it's almost like I felt embarrassed to talk about it, I didn't want to admit, almost like in that acceptance phase where you're realizing this is my new reality, and instead of running away from how it felt to talk about it, I just decided to dive in and share it. And again, like you said, within reason, I talk about it here and there, but it is a huge part of the driving force behind what I'm doing and just the feedback I've had from people who have been involved in whether it was the event or the membership, and I've had six or seven women from the first round of the membership that are continuing in the next one because they loved it so much that they just said, yeah, I honestly don't want to leave. I'd love to continue. So that was such a gift for me because we've already created this community feeling, and now we're welcoming in some new women into that. So I guess just started to realize the value of being real. I've always been a real person. I guess, like you said, when you talk to me, I am who I am and you're the same way.

Alicia [00:19:47]:
But it is a big decision to kind of mix business with your personal life and so, yeah, I've been on this journey of, I guess, figuring it out along the way. So I appreciate that you see value in it.

Lindsay [00:20:02]:
Well, and I think you help people feel less alone. Right. Whether or not they are going through a separation or whether or not they are a single parent. I think what you're really good at, well, one, you're an incredible communicator, and you have this magic community building thing about you which I can't quite describe or figure out or calculate. You're just really good at it. And you have this authenticity thing that I think people relate to, and they're like, oh, she's a real person. And if we're going to talk about client retention, that those people are going into the membership again. Right.

Lindsay [00:20:55]:
I feel like those are the diehard Alicia fans. Right? Yeah.

Alicia [00:20:59]:
It is amazing, actually, because there's a number of them that have. When I first came out with my journal, and I was sharing the journal, and then I brought it out in March 2023, and then had the event in June where my journal was part of it. So there was only a few that day that had already had my journal, so I included something else for them instead. But it is kind of neat to see that as I decided to just try it. Just try it before I was ready, really, I just decided to. What did I have to lose, right? It was like, I either start this and put everything I have into it, or I think about it for years and years and don't pull the plug and just go for it. So it has been really neat to sort of figure it out as I go. And I know, knowing you personally, it's been fun to have you along for the ride here where I would sort know, catch you on a walk and say, hey, Lindse, I'm thinking about this idea.

Alicia [00:21:54]:
What do you think? And it's always been fun to have your little side of professional Lindsay opinion, too. So thank you for that.

Lindsay [00:22:00]:
Well, I'm happy to give it. Alicia, you're lovely.

Alicia [00:22:05]:
Thank you.

Lindsay [00:22:07]:
Where can people find you?

Alicia [00:22:09]:
So my Instagram handle is Flowandco with two underscores at the end.

Lindsay [00:22:16]:
Okay. All right, so we'll throw all that stuff in the show notes. By the time this comes out, your membership will have already started.

Alicia [00:22:27]:
Yes.

Lindsay [00:22:28]:
But I'm going to encourage people to reach out to you. If this sounds like something that you're like, oh, this sounds really cool, I want to talk to other moms and figure out how to make more time for myself. I feel like, yeah, just reach out to Alicia and she'll give you more.

Alicia [00:22:43]:
I'd love to be have some. I have an upcoming event coming up again in April. I'm just deciding on the location again, but it's definitely going to be sort of Halton Hamilton area, and it'll be similar to my last one where know movement, but also some journaling, connection time, all that good stuff.

Lindsay [00:23:01]:
Yeah. Thank you, Alicia, for coming. And I'll see you outside.

Alicia [00:23:06]:
Yeah, I'll see you on walks.

Lindsay [00:23:08]:
Sounds good.

Alicia [00:23:09]:
Thanks, Linda.

Lindsay [00:23:10]:
All right, toodleoo, everyone. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you next time.

Lindsay [00:23:14]:
Thank you so much for listening. If you loved what you heard, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share this episode on social media. And don't forget to tag me on Instagram at Lindsaysmith Creative. And if you do all three, I'll be your best friend forever and invite you to all my birthday parties. That's it for today, and I'll see you next time.