1. Rebranding and a Welcome Back

In this episode, "Rebranding and a Welcome Back," we're covering:

• Reflecting on branding and operations, particularly after significant events like the U.S. election
• Staying in a grounded energy for our business and work, as often as we can
• Creating a new path and activating our unique content, as we shift and evolve

In this episode, I wanted to share a 2024 recap and what I've been reflecting on in business because of how the world keeps changing. This rebranding journey showcases a new chapter for FSW bringing you growth, expansion, and evolution, for LGBTQ+ women and/or Sapphic women. Welcome!

~

Gain inspiration and aligned wisdom to embody your soul's work and business using your unique gifts and soul's pace. LGBTQ+ women are creative as Hell, so let's share our prose, intuition, and rebellious creativity. Welcome!

Virginia James [00:00:03]:
Welcome to the Soul Business Show where we do business and our souls work with creativity, inspiration, prose, and a little bit of rebelliousness. Hey there. It's Virginia James, and welcome back. Welcome back. We're sitting here together, pretend we're at a coffee or tea shop and just drinking our favorite beverage. And also, if you've known me for a while, if you've followed my episodes or my content, my work, you'll see that there's a new name. There's a new vibe. There's a new energy.

Virginia James [00:00:33]:
There's kind of a new look. And I'm gonna explain all of that. And let's just be truthful about it. Let's be honest about this because that's what doing our souls work is about. It's not faking it till you make it all the time. It's really about just digging into what sings to you. Okay? So for those who are new here, I'm Virginia James. I'm the CEO and founder of Feminine Sage Wisdom.

Virginia James [00:00:54]:
And that business has always had its like, we'll have, we'll say this crescendo effect. Okay? I started it part time while I was working, while I was going to school, then the pandemic happened. So, it kept all of our lives in this really funky tailspin, riptide kind of feeling. And so, really, I've been settling into feminine sage wisdom for about the last year and a half, 2 years now or so. And, it's really really been an interesting journey. So, when I think about 2024, which many of us, we got through the pandemic and then 2024 continued to happen. Life happened. Business happened.

Virginia James [00:01:35]:
All the things. So I wanna just recap my 2024 for you. There were lots of new beginnings. There was closure. There was endings. There was pivots. There were tweaks. There were shifts.

Virginia James [00:01:46]:
And, there were a lot of offers as well that were very aligned. But, the cool thing about 2024, and I do try to look at life with the, you know, the glasses half full as often as possible, is this fact of it was so fucking busy. There's just no way around that. Let's just call it what it is. It was really, really busy. When, Yule I I I celebrate Yule and all the other sacred holidays for me, for for my belief system. So when Yule hit winter solstice in December, I was just fucking I was tapped out. I really I ended the year, the calendar year with just this grind.

Virginia James [00:02:28]:
And I knew that I was getting to the point of burning out again. And I was like, okay, we can't do this. We need to really, really rest. So I took the entire time of you off, which for some of you, you might know this is a number of days. And I just didn't try to rush into 2025. That's why you're getting this episode now because what's great about that, we'll call it a quote delay or time separate of this work and this business is it really gave me a lot of time to reflect. Now another piece of reflection for any of us, depending upon who you are and no. I don't want trolls commenting on this crap or anything like that.

Virginia James [00:03:08]:
The election in the United States. I am an American citizen. The election in the United States also made me look at business and my soul's work, why I'm here on this planet in this lifetime going, what the fuck do we do now? Not everyone's agree going to agree with that and that's fine. But if you are like me and other soul beings who are going holy shit, what does what is life gonna look like now? For so many reasons, so many layers. It it it took a lot of us back, frankly. And I guess you can call that symbolic. So it took a lot of us back. We just went holy shit.

Virginia James [00:03:50]:
Culture is the way it is still. Progression, evolution. All the things. And I don't have to get into it right now. I could get into it another time. But because this is a welcome party and let's keep the vibe a little bit higher. But if you know, you know. You're listening to me now and you feel it in your gut, you feel it in your soul and your bones, you you know what I'm talking about.

Virginia James [00:04:12]:
And I'm not the only one. So the election made me think through of what do I want my business to look like? What do I want my impact to look like with this turn of events? I had to go deep into that. And I was deep in it, but then I had to get my CEUs done for my social work licensure, which I did. You know, and that's fine. But basically, again, by the time Yule came around, I was fucking, whoo, needed a break. And that's where this has taken me. So let's now talk about the break. Okay? I really I I literally just watched some holiday films, built my fire in my fireplace, had blankets, tea, the whole nine, a great red wine, and my dogs, and just, like, everyone in my world, I just basically just settled.

Virginia James [00:04:58]:
I just tried to settle and soothe and regroup while still recognizing our work is not done. So, in that reflection time and in that processing time, I was able to sit back physically, I guess, and symbolically. I was able to sit back. I wasn't even in my office for a couple weeks. It was glorious. I just really sat back. And normally, in the culture that I grew up in here in the United States and in other spaces of the world, it's like the grind. You gotta get all those fucking sales in.

Virginia James [00:05:27]:
You've gotta, like, tell everyone to do their New Year's resolutions or slay their goals or all these things. And I was just like, I'm sitting there, you know, with my fire, my red wine, and my blankets going, yeah. But what about? What about? There were some ideas that came to mind and I was like holy shit do I start a new business? What is this thing? I need to unpack that further. So I've been sitting with it and now you're gonna start seeing it come into action. We're gonna see it blossoming. But we are still, again, my belief system, but we're still very much in winter vibes. If you look at nature, at least here in the northern hemisphere, we're in nature vibes and, winter vibes. Well, all of it.

Virginia James [00:06:08]:
And so I'm still trying to stay in this grounded, rooted, dormant like energy because if I look outside my office window right now, my animals are doing the same thing. They're kinda chilling out a little bit. The trees, they don't have their leaves yet. They haven't started blossoming and blooming with that spring yummy scrumptious chaotic energy. That hasn't begun yet. So again, we're in, let's see, the time I'm recording this is January 17, k, 2025. We're a couple weeks into this new Gregorian calendar year and and yet and yet nature is saying, Virginia, do what you need to, do what you can, but also soothe. Be dormant.

Virginia James [00:06:52]:
Let things percolate, so to speak. So that's what things, are still doing behind the scenes. But I did wanna do this episode now, 1, as as a welcome back and, a reintroduction, but then also to explain and explore together that I've started a new, memo. I almost said blog. It's not really a blog. I started a Substack account. There you go. Words.

Virginia James [00:07:16]:
That's another thing. You take a break and then you have to find your lexicon again. So I started a Substack letter. I did launch the first letter in December last month, just to kind of get the ball rolling and let it be. And it's basically about bracing a slow soul business. Now, I didn't want that to be what this show is about because this has its own flavor. At the end of the day, I want this to relate to my Substack, to all my other social platforms and about talking about like, how to do our business with Sol, yes, and that's been a thing for a while now. But also our Sol's work and that takes time sometimes.

Virginia James [00:07:57]:
Even that's why my substack is written content because when I write, it takes me time. I sit with it. It's like, you know, taking a long bath. I don't just like hop in and hop out. I like to I like to have time with the expression that I'm trying to tap into. I like to have time and sit with what I'm really trying to say or express. And so really, this space is about expressing ourselves in a very creative way. It's about embodying our soul's work and I can get into that further.

Virginia James [00:08:27]:
It's about expressing ourselves to bring others hope, joy, frankly, solidarity and community. Because again, depending upon which roughly side of the camp you're on, we're gonna need more solidarity and community than ever than ever. It's really fucking important. And the final piece to this little puzzle here, so far, actually it's not the final piece. There's more to come like I've said but I'll give you another piece right now for the puzzle. I identify as an LGBTQ plus woman, lesbian, sapphic, gay. However you want to put that together. Okay? That's how I identify.

Virginia James [00:09:06]:
And it hasn't always been easy, my path, in in on my rainbow path. Okay? And I know that's that's also for other folk. Okay? For different reasons and different different experiences. But me embracing myself and my true authentic self over the years has been a journey and I know it's a journey for others. Now, when or as this show continues to morph and and blossom as we talked about before, I want this to be a space of acceptance, authenticity, differences, similarities, all the things. And it's specifically meant for LGBT plus women or sapphic women. Because I feel now is, I mean it's always been the time to come together but it's now really a big time to come together. To support one another.

Virginia James [00:10:00]:
To show up for one another. I can't even talk. And champion one another. That's what I'm about. Okay? So feminine sage wisdom still exists. I didn't create a whole new business. Thank the goddess for that. But ultimately, I'm I'm here for this this shift, this ascension, this transformation, this blossom of who we really are and who we can be together.

Virginia James [00:10:25]:
This episode is getting a little long for my typical solo shows. And again, we're gonna figure this out together. I'm kind of excited to see how this goes. And I know already in my head where I want it to go. That'll just be the teaser for now. Okay? So stick around. I know this is also I do wanna address this one, before I wrap this this up. So this it originally was the zone of purpose podcast.

Virginia James [00:10:50]:
Now it's morphed into the soul business show. Okay? Yes. The former podcast was free for access and now this one is is $5 a month. So, like, we're having, again, tea or coffee together once a month. So the reason why I did that is, you know, just to honor my own work, honor my own soul's work in showing up. And also, there's still a lot of places where you can get free stuff from me. It's it's not just like, oh, everything's paid now or there's a paywall. So I just wanted to say that out loud.

Virginia James [00:11:18]:
Okay? So again, welcome. Welcome if you're new here. I'm excited for you to be here. I'm excited to do the episodes again, and see where things continue. I even made a new YouTube channel. So if you wanna follow me over there, that would be amazing. And we can have some other conversations on that space. I am also and I'll put all the socials, but I've been trying to navigate the right platforms for me.

Virginia James [00:11:41]:
And, as much as I can, ethos, integrity, all of that. Alright. I think that's it. I'm looking at my piece of paper. Yes. That seems to be it. Okay. I hope that you all have had a beautiful holiday season.

Virginia James [00:11:54]:
If not a soothing holiday season, restful as much as you can. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. Just know that you're not alone in this time at all. You've got me. You've got others like us. And again, we gotta stick together through this. Okay? We're gonna make it. We're gonna figure it out.

Virginia James [00:12:12]:
And we're gonna do it together. So keep me posted. Leave a comment if you if you want to. You're always welcome to. Also, if there's anything you'd like me to talk more about, I'd appreciate a comment, simply so I know. And if I know how to talk about it, I will. And if not, maybe I know somebody else who does. Alright, so have a beautiful, beautiful week ahead or day whenever you're listening to this.

Virginia James [00:12:38]:
And I wish you so many blessings. I will talk to you soon.