Committing to yourself
In this episode, Amy Parravano Drummond and Melissa Halpin have the pleasure of interviewing Deepa Shastry Macha where they discuss how to take the ultimate risk professionally and culturally, and how she pivoted from doctor to entrepreneur.
Deepa is the owner and Medical Director of CosMedic LaserMD, a Medspa in Ann Arbor Michigan. She is a Double Board Certified Physician in Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine.
Raised in Long Island, New York Deepa attended attended SUNY Downstate College of Medicine. She worked and trained as a practicing Emergency Medicine physician in New York City where she was raised.
She discovered she loved people, and that every relationship matters! She believes Aesthetic Medicine is the Science of Beauty and Calculations. As a scientific mind, she is here to empower people with the confidence to Nourish their inner beauty and smile their power and bring the best version of themselves forward!
Learn more about Deepa and her business here:
Learn more about The Kindling Project at our website: https://www.thekindlingproject.com/ and join our Facebook group for women looking for that extra kindling to start their subsequent big fire! The Kindling Project - Ignite. The Kindling Project is sponsored by Memora, an experience design agency that creates memorable brand experiences. Memora is offering our listeners a FREE 30-minute brand consultation. Schedule yours now.
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[00:00:00] Melissa: Hi, and welcome to the Kindling Project Podcast! This show is where we share stories from inspiring women all over, giving us insight into the people and processes that help them bring their kindling project to fruition. Here and over in our Facebook group at Kindling Project Ignite, we are all about creating a space to empower and support women with any and all of their individual aspirations.
[00:00:33] I'm Melissa, Artist, entrepreneur and creative director of Memora Design Agency, here with my co-host Amy, a licensed social worker, therapist and yoga instructor.
[00:00:42] Amy: So Melissa, how's it going? I haven't seen you since Friday. How have you been?
[00:00:46] Melissa: You know, it was a regular weekend with teenagers. It's- the weather's changing and I had plans to go to an art fair, Arts and apples.
[00:00:55] You know, I kind of tried to go to almost, you know, regularly we went last year, but it was rainy and it was gray and I just sort of, decided, I think I'm gonna have a day at home.
[00:01:03] Amy: Yeah, yesterday, I had these intentions of going to class and you know, being productive on the workbook, and just ready to go. And I felt like I had a weighted blanket on me, like all day basically.
[00:01:16] Melissa: Some days are like that, right? Like- and I know there was like a lot of weather pressure change and several people I talked to yesterday said they had headache.
[00:01:24] Amy: Yeah. And, and also I think it being September 11th. It feels like a sad day too. Like it just, in general, It's hard to believe it's been 21 years since september 11th, 2001. You know?
[00:01:36] Melissa: I didn't actually really register that aspect of the date, but you know, maybe on some sort of, I don't know, vibrational level, a lot of us still feel it on that day, whether we know it or not.
[00:01:46] Amy: I know it's interesting because Sean and I, we were in Montana when that happened because we had just gotten married and we got married on September 8th, 2001. So we were actually on our honeymoon when September 11th happened, and we ended up driving home back to Michigan, you know, however many days afterwards. But that's definitely seared in my memory. It's, we didn't watch anything though. We didn't watch anything on the news. We were, you know, we were on our honeymoon.
[00:02:13] So drinking wine and doing what Honeymooners do, and low and behold. Nine months later, Rocco was born! So.
[00:02:20] Melissa: I associate September 11th with infertility because I remember I had just had a miscarriage, and I was home from work and I was watching- remember that show? Did you ever watch that show on tlc? I think it was called A Baby Story, followed a Pregnant Woman, Like Through a pregnancy and birth?
[00:02:38] Amy: Yeah. I, I don't think I watched it, but I remember the name.
[00:02:41] Melissa: I was just sort of like sad and crying and struggling with, Oh, I wanna have a baby, and I was watching other people have babies on tv and then Matt called me from work and he was like, Are you watching tv? Turn on the news. And you know, then that's when they were playing the constant replay of, of the planes.
[00:02:56] Amy: Yeah. You know what? I didn't watch anything. I feel like I might have said this on another podcast, but I didn't watch anything in terms of all the images till the second year anniversary. I didn't watch anything. I didn't wanna see anything. I didn't wanna have that seared in my memory, it was a sad day. So maybe it was just the vibrations.
[00:03:17] Melissa: Of the anniversary. You, you were feeling it yesterday.
[00:03:19] Amy: Yeah. You know me, like, the queen of sensitivity and, and you watching, you know, a baby story. Gosh. Especially after miscarriage. Those, those are so hard and so difficult to go through.
[00:03:30] Melissa: Well, and also you've kind of been a sensitive egg, I noticed, right in May when your middle guy was about to graduate from high school till now, it's just been a highly charged time for you.
[00:03:41] Amy: I know. Now, now we're in months.
[00:03:42] Melissa: I don't know if we told everybody, but you took him up to school recently. How's that going?
[00:03:46] Amy: Actually, he's doing great. Absolutely loves it. He is jumping off of rocks into the lake. He's hiking, he's hanging out in his hammock. He's reading. He is actually going to class too, he's informed me, So that's good.
[00:04:01] Melissa: That's always important, right?
[00:04:02] Amy: He's skateboarding, he's riding his bike. He's very much of an outdoor kid, and his campus is up in Northern Michigan. You know, you have to really be an outdoor person too, I think, to really embrace that area of the state.
[00:04:16] He's doing wonderful. He's doing really good, you know, but it's just obviously been really hard for me for a lot of different reasons.
[00:04:23] Melissa: I know our guests today recently, took her daughter to New York. Her daughter graduated from UFM and got a job in New York. I think there's all these transitions like from high school to college and then like college to adult life, and your first job, and launching them in another state.
[00:04:38] So I guess this is just part of motherhood, right? I mean, it means we're doing a good job if these things are taking place, right?
[00:04:44] Amy: Absolutely. Yeah. I'm, I was really surprised at how I felt so much more self-reflection. I feel really confident that he is exactly where he is supposed to be and I'm so grateful that he is where he is.
[00:04:59] Melissa: I'm glad you're a little bit ahead of me because you can give me counsel when it's my kid next year.
[00:05:03] Amy: I'm just gonna sit and listen and rub your back, and say it's gonna be okay, we're gonna do this, we're gonna get through this.
[00:05:09] Melissa: So today's guest is Dr. Deepa Macha. She was an ER doctor for a number of years, and then she made the transition from being an ER doctor to being an entrepreneur.
[00:05:21] And she opened Cosmetic Laser MD in Ann Arbor. And we're gonna talk to her about that transition, what that was like, what the challenges were. So welcome Deepa!
[00:05:31] Deepa: Thank you so much for having me, Melissa.
[00:05:33] Amy: We're so happy to have you. I've heard so many wonderful things about you, Deepa. Thank you for carving out some time for us this morning. I'm sure you have a busy schedule and we're really honored to have you here. I'm so fascinated with the fact that you were an ER doc for, I don't know how many years, you'll have to tell us, but, but I've been in, I worked in the medical field for many, many years, and so I am always intrigued and impressed with the ER docs. So can you tell us a little bit about your professional experience? You, you started out, how did that evolve for you?
[00:06:10] Deepa: So I was uh, raised in New York, and I went to medical school in New York. I actually have double-boarded, and I have trained in emergency medicine and internal medicine. So my stomping grounds were New York City, actually, that's where I trained. I really mainly worked in emergency medicine also my heart's really as an emergency medicine physician. I worked for 25 years. I married, I traveled around the country. When I got married, I supported my husband's career.
[00:06:42] And I sought out work first as a young attending when I graduated, wherever his career took him. So first when I was a new attending, that was in San Francisco area, so I was a new attending in Redwood City in the Bay Area, and then it was Philadelphia area where I was having children. And and after Philadelphia, we moved here.
[00:07:04] So I've been here a greater Detroit area for about 15 years. Within the last 10 years I definitely felt a shift. Raising a family, I was always the one, really, I always identified myself, first and foremost is a mother. A mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend. I am also what we say is a "BAFERD", badass fucking ER doc.
[00:07:30] Amy: That's awesome!
[00:07:31] Deepa: There were people in my life, interestingly, who knew me because I worked nights who never really knew that I was doctor.
[00:07:38] Melissa: This is what I wanna know about BAFERDs and even nurses. How do you guys get any sleep? When do you sleep?
[00:07:45] Deepa: It just worked out well for me because I could spend time with my kids.
[00:07:50] I could do three hour, three 12 hour shifts or two 12 hour shifts. I mean, it wasn't easy. It was really hard to get rides for my kids to go to school and to kind of, keep up my skills because I needed to still work, right? So those are the things that I was always concerned about. I'm since divorced, but at that time I was married someone who was also a very high powered, he was a cardiac surgeon. You know, I was really, left to really carry a lot of the load for my kids.
[00:08:26] Amy: Probably why you worked nights, because you worked nights so you could be with your kids, you could do the mom role during the day, and that's part of the, that's part of the many sacrifices and the many hats that women wear that's that admirable.
[00:08:42] How, did you do nights Deepa for essentially those 25 years?
[00:08:47] Deepa: I did nights and swing shift and it was for mostly 25 years. And also the other reason was, it for my own mental health I needed to kind of also take care of myself a little. You know, I knew that the recipe for my own mental health was also getting to work out and exercise. So I learned from my own mother to prioritize taking care of myself.
[00:09:14] Melissa: That's so important. I know I'm not always good at that. When did you start feeling the shift, though? So, you know, here at the Kindling project we kind of talk about Kindley projects and a lot of times it's a transition or a career change or relationship change or a, a new passion project. Like when did that sort of, knocking at the door come to you that you would be an entrepreneur?
[00:09:35] Deepa: I didn't really plan on becoming an entrepreneur. Probably, 2017 is when I opened these doors. I loved my job, but there was definitely an unrest in me and I know now that what it was looking back that my core values did not match where I was doing it in my job. For some people it's burnout. But for, and I, at first I left my employer and I worked for myself as what we call "well ____" where I got to still do my job, but I didn't work for the hospital and it became a very toxic type of thing, where initially it was a very- where I loved the culture, it lost that and it became more about a money-making operation, but it lost the core values for me. It stopped being about me and the patient. I just knew I needed something different and I wanted to go back to that doctor- patient relationship and doing what I loved. And I think, you know, when we start thinking about that glass of, that bottle of wine, mid-way through the day, and, and that's your coping mechanism. It's not good.
[00:10:48] Melissa: No.
[00:10:48] Amy: Mm-hmm.
[00:10:49] Deepa: You know, and, and it is for, for many, many people, you know. And I jumped off a cliff to do this, and I didn't even really realize I was an entrepreneur and that's what it was. And, but I'll, I'll tell you that um, I didn't think I was brave. I didn't see it as that. When I went to start to become as an, as an emergency medicine physician, even in my own culture, I remember some of the, the uncles in my community, "Are you sure you wanted to go into emergency medicine?"
[00:11:23] You know, like emergency medicine wasn't as respected, you know, as opposed to internal medicine. It was like the, not as respected as some of the other fields. I'm like, thanks, I'm, I'm fine.
[00:11:35] Melissa: Yeah.
[00:11:36] Deepa: I know what I'm doing, you know?
[00:11:38] Amy: Yeah. Internal medicine is so, it's predictable in a lot of ways. It's, you know, it's, I mean, in the ER you get every single experience in so many ways.
[00:11:48] You get lots of walks of life that, that walk in through the doors. And especially if you're in the, you were in the Detroit metropolitan area, so you see, you see a lot of different types of cases come in.
[00:12:01] Melissa: Well, what, what was it about emergency medicine? Is it like, is it the immediacy or, you know, you're, you're solving an emergency like a need right then and there?
[00:12:10] Deepa: Well, back then it was like, I just wanted to find an option and an opportunity.
[00:12:17] Melissa: So why, why skincare? So you made a shift though, from E- emergency medicine to owning medical spa and laser treatment center. What was that progression?
[00:12:28] Deepa: So, you know, I, you know, back even when I was a kid, I was chasing my brother around to try and pop his pimples. And if I look at anyone too closely, they get a little nervous.
[00:12:41] Melissa: Here she comes.
[00:12:43] Deepa: Yeah, exactly. My kids too. Like Stop it, mom, stop it. Stop it.
[00:12:47] Amy: Oh, I love that.
[00:12:48] Deepa: Yeah. My dad too, the, "No no, no!"
[00:12:50] Melissa: You kinda had an obsession with skin at a young age and, And then what?
[00:12:55] Deepa: In my twenties, I was literally obsessed, self taught person. I, I try to, make stuff up and it works. I experiment and I read and I'm like, "What if I do this" and what if I mix this laser with this thing?" So it's, and it's because I read, it's because I read and I try and I, you know, I'm not just, you know, freelancing or winging it. So, I mean, it started back in my twenties when, you know, I put stuff on my face, I put stuff on my face, and then I'd like break out.
[00:13:25] And at that time it was like, is this an allergic reaction? But no, it wasn't. What it was, was acclimation. Acclamations. So like, after a couple days, everything would peel off and then I'd be glowing! And when I started, you know, to get really get into the business, my brother said, "Why didn't you do this shit before? You really, you really love this stuff!" but to be honest, to be a dermatologist, din't seem that attractive at the time.
[00:13:52] Melissa: Was that more, more cultural pressure, like the Indian uncles, like the same thing with the ER or?
[00:13:58] Deepa: You know, I'll be honest Dermatology, plastics, EMT they are highly, highly, highly, highly competitive fields. I really had, you know, more of a, "I'm going to help people." And that wasn't my journey, really. My journey. What it was, and I really love my journey as it was. I don't think I, I would've done it another way.
[00:14:21] Melissa: It's a common thing that we hear a lot about, you know, people wouldn't change their path, but at some point they do take a left turn. They do change the direction they're going in or start a new career, a new relationship. And you'd, you had a lot of change.
[00:14:36] Deepa: I'm a, I'm a lifelong learner and I am definitely in shift right now. Like right now, you are meeting me at a time when I am manifesting a tremendous future. Like this moment, this moment is my greatest, greatest, greatest time. I cannot explain, explain to you like I am gonna be here, so I'm just in the place right now where I see a brilliant future for myself and I believe it's going to happen.
[00:15:04] Amy: Yeah. I love that you describe your shift though. That's so, that's so it's admirable because you are mindful, you are tapped in and tuned in and there is a shift going on. I don't know if it's it, it's an energetic shift. It's a vibrational shift.
[00:15:21] I know Melissa and I have definitely been feeling shifts significantly, and so I love how now we are in your space experiencing this shift with you. So what I would ask you Deepa, is how do you trust that shift? Because oftentimes it's not something that you can see, it's something that you may feel. How do you trust that and move, move through it, as opposed to just stopping and not going forward?
[00:15:50] Deepa: So Melissa knows, knows me a little bit out outside of this. Up until now, I've been kinda like, like kind of all over the place doing the work, but kind of wondering, you know, "where should I focus?" Or trying to do a lot of things. To kinda put it more into perspective: I'm, I have two heavy suitcases, like the old fashioned suitcases where I don't have the rollers.
[00:16:16] Right, then I'm lifting. Okay. And I also have heavy weights on my shoulders. And my feet are walking through quicksand okay? Now what I've decided to do is to let go of the suitcases, release the weights, and just get outta the quicksand trust that everything I'm doing is working.
[00:16:35] Amy: That's beautiful.
[00:16:36] Melissa: Hard, Hard to do.
[00:16:37] Deepa: No, it's easy. I just believe it's gonna work. I believe it and I know that, that the universe is going to,
[00:16:45] Melissa: Right, Right. You have a certainty!
[00:16:47] Deepa: And I'm a bright light and my light's gonna shine bright. And I have your bright lights. And I have tremendous knowledge and I wanna spread my gift and I'm gonna work hard and I'm gonna keep learning.
[00:17:05] I want, I love people and I want to share everything that I have. I have a passion. Money will come, I know that. But my passion really is to give people confidence. Ok? And the confidence is, comes from within. Ok. When people come to me, they don't know what it is that they want. Concretely, they want better skin. Concretely, they, they feel like they look sad, they wanna look younger. And you know, they've been taking care of their kids all these years and suddenly it's their time. They just don't feel good about themselves. So what is my job? To give him back some confidence. What it is, is someone is telling me "I don't feel good about myself."
[00:17:48] Now, when someone doesn't feel good about themselves, that's no good. You know, we all have to love ourselves. If you don't love yourself, you don't love yourself. You, you, Who do you spend the most time with in the world? You spend time with yourself. My mission in life really is to lift, is to lift up everyone. I see. And I, and I think it goes back to when I was a teenager because that's where it all starts. That's where our self esteem took the biggest hit. And we all still live with that inner child.
[00:18:17] Amy: Yes. Unless you've had good therapy.
[00:18:19] Deepa: Right, Exactly. And we're doing that therapy now as, we're smart. So I kind of focus on that within the consultation. So that's why I'm also extremely relationship- oriented. Everyone I work with here becomes a friend. So part of my vision is, I consider everyone a family and I have a vision that we're all on a globe, and that we all hold hands and that we lift each other up. And I think it starts with skin. You know, I, I feel like Melissa, I had worked with you and I feel happy to see how beautiful your skin looks! So I think that when you look the mirror, you must feel good!
[00:19:01] Melissa: You do, You do have a gift. I think that- that time that you're spending visualizing it, it transcends. It transcends you and the skincare. I mean, I felt that when I came to your office, the time that you're spending, and this is kind of Amy's area more than mine, but that's sort of mental-shifting and envisioning and manifesting. That comes through with you. People feel it. It goes beyond your sort of business mission or your business core values, and it kind of fills the room and fills the spaces that you're in.
[00:19:31] Deepa: The ability to become vulnerable with people is extremely important. You know, because it bridges a gap and it's not something I consciously do.
[00:19:41] I think it's what people say they, when, when you're genuine with someone, it builds a trust. And trust is really important. You know, because people need to know that they're safe. We all need to know at the end of the day that we're really, really safe. It's just a practice that I have. And this is what I love to do, but what I do underneath it all is, provide this. Doing what I love. That's my mission.
[00:20:09] Amy: That's so beautiful. I can only imagine Deepa, with the patients that you worked in, worked with over the years, because you know, as you know, people are so vulnerable when they're in the ER or in the hospital in general, and I can only imagine that trust that you started building right away.
[00:20:27] Because there's something about people being so vulnerable in that setting and then they have a doctor like you that comes in and just, they just know there's an instinct. And I don't, I'm sure there's been studies done, maybe there has, maybe there hasn't. I've, I've often wondered about this because there's almost a, this sixth sense of whether you're gonna trust that person that's gonna come into the room.
[00:20:48] And I can only imagine the, the relationships that you that you cultivated and that you built and the, the lives that you saved and, you know, fast forward to the patients that you work with now. They are so vulnerable, and I admire that, that you have that instinct to know that they're there for the skin, but there's so much more.
[00:21:09] There's so much more to that. I bet you have a lot of repeat clients and patients. I don't know if you call 'em clients or patients, but people that come back because they know that they're safe with you and they know that you care. You couldn't express yourself in that capacity, especially towards the end of your career, probably as an ER doc, you got caught up in all this misogynist, patriarchal, kind of environment and now you're in this space where you can really have that one on one. I admire that. Thank you for sharing that. That's really beautiful.
[00:21:41] Melissa: I think for me, and you know, I think the three of us are you know, middle-aged women and mothers and wives or ex-wives, and you do wake up one day and you look in the mirror and you realize, "I haven't really been looking in this mirror very carefully for a while. This isn't the face I remember." Like something happens, some sort of shift happens like right around 50 where I started actually stopping and looking in the mirror and, my skin was a reflection of everything else that was going on. Like, I have not been taking care of me.
[00:22:10] Deepa: Thank goodness I had a mother. My mom taught me at a young age that prioritizing yourself is very important, you know, take care of yourself, and then take care of other people. You're not a martyr. There's nothing wrong with taking care of yourself. And the more you have, the more you give yourself, the more you can give to others.
[00:22:28] Amy: Yeah. That is so wise. That is so wise because unfortunately, I don't think that's really the norm. The norm is take care of everybody else, and if there's a teeny tiny left bit for you, then maybe you can get to yourself. But it's really the opposite of- And your mom sounds like she really, she really was ahead of her time in some ways, because that's not typically what is, is taught. It's about, you know, I always say make sure everybody else is fed and then if there's a little bit of food left, then you know, maybe you can have some scraps. But we know that that's not the case. In order to sustain, in order to be, you know, true to ourselves, to be authentic women, we have to be able to prioritize ourselves and do it without guilt too, you know, without explanation. So many women want to explain themselves. "Oh, well I have to do this, I have to go to the gym. I-" No, just do it. Just that's it, you know?
[00:23:19] Melissa: Yeah. I, I definitely had a very different upbringing. I think I got the message from my mother who got the message from her mother: Take care of everybody else first. And, and if you are taking care of yourself, it's, it's some sort of level of selfishness, you know. What are you doing with that time or that money? You could be giving that to your kids or to your career, or to your community. And so, you were really lucky that your mom already had learned that lesson before- sounds like before you even showed up.
[00:23:44] Amy: I would just ask you just really, what kind of messaging would you have for other women that may have, have difficulty following that inner voice or lighting that fire inside? You know, what, what messaging would you have for them?
[00:23:59] Deepa: Where I'm at now, is not where I was a month or two ago. I alluded to that, but I didn't tell you how difficult things were for me a couple of months ago, I was in kinda a rough place, but I made a shift because I decided to manifest. Now and really changed my path. When I talked about that analogy with the suitcases, it's a truth I've decided to live, I have decided to invest in myself. And what that means is that, I've carved out the time to do specifically that. And I've made some concrete changes, some work with, you know, therapists so that I can dig in to where I need to make some personal changes. Coaching, in terms of business, also business coach.
[00:24:52] I sought out business coach to help me really scale. Spiritually I've really decided to stop getting in my own way. That's actually the biggest change. I've decided that I'm just gonna stop, stop not believing in myself. You know, I, we all have this feeling of imposter syndrome that lives in us. You know, something inside us that at some point says, you know, we can't do it.
[00:25:23] You know, and that comes from somewhere. We need to tell that voice, or not, or just not heed that voice anymore because we can do it. We need to just receive the fruits of our labor and enjoy
[00:25:37] Amy: them.
[00:25:37] Thank you for being vulnerable with us. I think that's- one thing that I've learned Deepa, in the last few years is that, being vulnerable is a super power for me. It's a strength. It takes courage and it's powerful. There's something powerful in being vulnerable. I don't know if there was some messaging at some point where we were taught that being vulnerable means being weak, or letting other people walk over us, or not having an opinion, or not having a say in things.
[00:26:05] But what I've learned also is that being vulnerable means that I'm in a space, that I'm gonna be teachable, I'm gonna be willing, I'm gonna grow. And that's what I hear from you is that you're asking for help, you're doing introspection. You're growing spiritually, emotionally, physically, and that's like, the sky's the limit when we get into that space, because we do have to step out of our own way.
[00:26:29] It's just, it's one of the things that, I've taught yoga for years and I tell my students, "No one's gonna be more critical of yourself than yourself." So there is no judgment, only coming from yourself, which we don't even want that anymore. So thank you so much for sharing that. For sharing just a little, a little glimpse and sparkle into your journey. Your patients are very lucky to have you, and I'm gonna have to make an appointment and come and come and see you soon.
[00:26:54] Deepa: I'd be honored.
[00:26:54] Melissa: I think that confidence that you expressed is gonna inspire a lot of people today. I really do, because hearing other women say these things helps women. We don't, we don't always have these conversations so openly. So I really appreciate it.
[00:27:09] Deepa: I am just extremely grateful to the both of you. I extremely excited. I hope that you have me back some months from now and I can share what's happened in my journey, because I'm so excited for what's going to happen and I will share with you what's gonna happen. I truly know that my light is gonna shine and I'm gonna shine it on all of you.
[00:27:39] Melissa: You are shining it already. You're already doing it, and we need that. We need to be around- we, we deserve to be around light- shiners. Truly. That's what Amy and I are doing. I mean, we've said this a bunch of times, but I'm running a design agency and Amy's a busy social worker and therapist, and why are we doing this other thing? It's to create this space. This space for people like you and all the women we know that have an untapped potential or a dream, or a passion or a transformation, a safe space for that to happen. That's, that's why we're doing this.
[00:28:12] Deepa: There was a time where I was, I, I, I remember, I was such a bright light, and for some reason it dimmed, and maybe I needed to learn something. So that's what I'm doing now.
[00:28:26] Amy: We have to dim, you know, and that dimming, at least for me, is going inside. It's that introspection, because in order to sustain, we have to always, we have to be doing that work inside. And if we're always bright out here for everybody else, we're not gonna be bright inside. So I, I do believe that, that's part of our evolution of realizing, "Wait a minute, my light has gotten dim. I gotta scale back, do that introspection and then I can shine it." There's something to be said for that and it's, it's just becomes part of our story. It becomes part of our journey. And then we realize, "yeah, I gotta get rid of those, that quick sand, I gotta get rid of those old school suitcases," all of that extra baggage, you know? So thank you so much. Thank you so much for being here. Truly.
[00:29:14] Deepa: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:29:16] Melissa: We will have you back soon! I hope you have a beautiful day, and I'll get to see you soon!
[00:29:20] Amy: Thank you so much, Deepa!
[00:29:22] Thank you so much for listening to today's episode! Give a rating and subscribe on whatever platform you listen to be notified whenever there's a new episode. Be sure to join our online community, The Kindling Project, Ignite on Facebook. The link is in our show notes below. Come bring your ideas, goals, and questions to the group where we can all help one another get on the path to success. No matter where you are in the process of your kindling project, there is a place for you among the rest of the women.
[00:29:50] Thank you again, Dr. Deepa, and be sure to check out our guest resources that will be provided in the show notes.
[00:29:58] Melissa: Have a wonderful day!