Thriving Mosaic - Discover & Embrace Your Unique Identity

Since attending Empowered Podcasting 3 in August, I’ve been asking myself some honest questions about Thriving Mosaic. Who’s listening, whether the work is landing, and what role this podcast is playing in the work I’m building now. Then something happened that reminded me that silence is not proof that nothing is happening. In this episode, I’m talking about unseen impact, parenting, responsibility without control, and the things we plant long before we ever see evidence of growth. A few questions to sit with: Where am I assuming nothing is happening because I cannot see the result yet? What am I planting that may take years to reveal itself? Where am I taking responsibility for an outcome that actually belongs to someone else? I can take responsibility for what I plant without taking ownership of what grows.  

Have you ever heard a song that once felt like it was written just for you, only to realize that the words no longer describe who you are? A couple of weeks ago, I was standing at my kitchen sink, washing dishes and listening to some of my favorite '90s country music. A familiar song came on, and I immediately started singing along. It was Who I Am by Jessica Andrews, the very first song I ever claimed as my personal theme song. But as I sang the chorus, something stopped me. I realized that some of the lyrics I had once identified with so deeply no longer felt true. The song hadn't changed. I had. That simple realization led me to reflect on the different theme songs I've embraced throughout my life and how each one represented something meaningful about the woman I was becoming. In this episode, I share the stories behind four songs that have played significant roles in my journey: Who I Am by Jessica Andrews: A song that reflected my roots, my family, and the confidence I felt in knowing who I was. This Is the Stuff by Francesca Battistelli: A reminder to recognize the blessings in the middle of the beautiful chaos of raising a family. Blown Away by Carrie Underwood: A powerful anthem that accompanied my emotional healing journey and helped me release the hold my past had on my identity. Free by Faith Hill: A celebration of the freedom I discovered and eventually learned to live without needing constant reminders. As I reflected on these songs, I began to recognize something beautiful about personal growth. I can honor the woman I was twenty-six years ago without needing to remain that version of myself today. The things I believed, the experiences that shaped me, and the identities I embraced were real and meaningful in their time. But I have continued to grow, learn, heal, and become. Every version of myself is still part of my story. Every one of those Stephanies is a piece of my mosaic. And I love knowing that my story is still being written. As you listen, I invite you to consider a few questions: What songs have served as the soundtrack to different seasons of your life? Are there things you once believed about yourself that no longer feel true? Can you honor who you used to be while giving yourself permission to become someone new? If this conversation resonates with you and you'd like to explore your own journey of becoming, I'd love to connect. I offer one-on-one coaching and the Mosaic Mastermind, both designed to create space for meaningful conversations, personal growth, and transformation. You can learn more at StephanieRavenscraft.com or reach out to me directly at [email protected]. Thank you for being part of this journey with me. Until next time, live your life on purpose! Stephanie  

Last week, I had almost no capacity. I was tired. My body hurt more than usual. My walks were slower. I was dealing with brain fog, taking naps almost every day, and looking around at all of the things I had planned to do that simply were not getting done. And I started questioning my commitment. Was I really committed to my goals if I wasn’t accomplishing them? Was I committed to my work if things I planned for Monday were still unfinished on Friday? Was I committed to this podcast if another Wednesday came and went without recording an episode? But when I looked more closely at the week, I realized there was much more there than a list of unfinished tasks could show me. My son turned 25. We spent time together as a family. I had breakfast with Megan. I noticed quiet moments on a morning walk. I was present with the people I love when they wanted my attention. My body also needed something from me, and apparently that something was rest. This week has looked completely different. My energy returned. I showed up in my office. I moved meaningful work forward. I worked on my manifesto, thought about the life and business I want to be living a year from now, and began preparing for a speaking opportunity coming later this fall. But Friday arrived, and I still had not recorded this podcast. That is when I realized something about commitment. Commitment does not mean I will never miss a week, fall behind, lose momentum, or have a season when my capacity simply is not there. Sometimes commitment looks like returning. A productivity chart can tell me what I completed. It cannot tell me everything my life held. A full life includes meaningful work, relationships, celebrations, and ordinary days. It also includes physical limitations, disappointment, rest, and the choice to begin again. So in this episode, I’m thinking about what our days really hold, what we use to measure whether we are moving forward, and what it means to return to something that still matters to us after we have drifted away from it. What is something that matters to you that you are ready to return to today? Just because you drifted doesn’t mean you can’t return.

August has always felt like a reset for me. Maybe it is because I spent so many years associating August with the beginning of a new school year. Maybe it is because my birthday is in August. Either way, this month has always invited me to look at where I am, where I’m going, what has changed, and what I’ve learned along the way. And this August gave me a lot to reflect on. I started the month by helping our youngest daughter, Jane, move to Texas for law school. What began as a long road trip and a week of helping her settle into a new home became a powerful lesson for me about loving the people closest to me without taking responsibility for carrying their stress. I can love someone deeply. I can encourage them, support them, listen to them, and help them think through what comes next. But their stress does not have to become mine. Then I came home just in time for my 48th birthday and discovered another lesson. For years, I had moved away from making a big deal out of my own birthday because I wanted someone else to celebrate me. This year reminded me that two things can be true at once. I can celebrate myself, and I can allow other people to celebrate me. I also learned something about rhythm. After being away for more than a week, I expected myself to come home and simply get back to normal. I could resume my routine, but that did not mean I immediately felt the rhythm again. There is a difference. Sometimes I am not off track. I am simply between rhythms. August also included celebrating 30 years of marriage with Cliff and reflecting on the life we have built together through so many different seasons. One of the things I appreciate most about our marriage is that we have made room for one another to continue becoming. Neither of us is the same person we were when we got married, and I don’t think we were ever supposed to be. Then came another significant step for me. I attended Empowered Podcasting 3 in Charlotte, my first conference since 2019. My goal was simple. I wanted to start being in rooms with people again. What I did not expect was the moment when I looked around and realized: These are my peers. I wasn’t there because I was Cliff’s wife. I wasn’t just tagging along. I have been podcasting for 20 years. I have recorded more than 1,500 podcast episodes across multiple shows. I am a podcaster. I am a speaker. I am a coach. Somewhere along the way, I had become disconnected from parts of that identity. Going to the conference did not magically turn me back into a podcaster. It reminded me that I already was one. Sometimes you have to step back into the room before you can remember that it is a room you belong in. August held travel, motherhood, stress, celebration, marriage, friendship, identity, transition, reentry, and a whole lot of becoming. It did not fit neatly into one category. But it was drenched in lessons. In this episode, I invite you to consider a few questions alongside me: What has this last season been teaching you that you may have missed because you were too busy living it? Where have you absorbed someone else’s stress and made it your responsibility? Where have you stopped allowing yourself to be celebrated? What part of your identity might need to step back into the room to remember who you already are? Sometimes the lesson is not simply in what happened. Sometimes the lesson is who we discover ourselves to be while it is happening.

Stephanie and I are celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. Thirty years. As we thought about how we wanted to mark this milestone, I had the idea of sitting down together with 30 questions designed to help us reflect on the life we have built, the challenges we have navigated, the ways we have changed, and what we have learned about love and partnership along the way. Neither of us reviewed the questions ahead of time. That turned out to be part of what made this conversation so meaningful. Some questions immediately opened the door to stories we had not talked about in years. Some caused us to see our past differently. A few contained assumptions we completely rejected, which led to conversations that were probably more revealing than the questions themselves. We talked about the two young people who got married 30 years ago and what they understood, and misunderstood, about love. We reflected on the financial struggles of our early years, including digging through our change jar to buy gasoline with pennies. We talked about becoming parents, the mistakes we made, the parenting philosophies we eventually rejected, and our realization that we were not simply raising children. We were raising adults. We revisited the season when I left the insurance business and we went all in on building our own business, including the enormous financial and emotional pressure that decision created. We talked about how our beliefs have changed, how our understanding of marriage has changed, and how we have learned to give each other the freedom to continue becoming who we are. One of the themes that emerged throughout the conversation is that neither of us needs the other to remain the person we used to be. Stephanie is not simply my wife. I am not simply her husband. Neither of us completes the other because neither of us is incomplete. Instead, we have created a relationship where we can continue growing, changing, exploring, and becoming while choosing to walk through life together. There is one phrase from this conversation that may stay with me more than anything else. Recently, while Stephanie and I were navigating a particularly difficult and emotionally charged situation, I asked her, “Are we good?” Her response was: “We’re never not good.” That phrase captures something about our marriage that I had never been able to articulate quite that way before. Circumstances change. Money changes. Health changes. Children grow up. Beliefs evolve. Careers shift. Life brings things we could never predict. But our relationship is not built on those surface-level circumstances. As we approached the final question, we were asked to imagine sitting together on our 60th wedding anniversary and looking back on the next 30 years. What would need to happen for us to consider that second half of our life extraordinary? My answer ultimately became very simple. I have no idea what the next 30 years will bring. But if I have the opportunity to partner with Stephanie through all of it, that will be extraordinary. This episode is a special crossover episode of Building a Life and Business Together, The Cliff Ravenscraft Show, and Thriving Mosaic. I hope our conversation encourages you to think about the relationships, choices, changes, and experiences that are shaping your own life. And perhaps it will even inspire you to sit down with someone you love and ask a few questions of your own.