Alisha Fernandez Miranda, MY WHAT IF YEAR: A Novel
[0:02]Hi, I'm Zivi Owens, the creator and host of the award-winning podcast that you're listening to right now
[0:07]Thank you so much. Called moms. Don't have time to read books
[0:10]It is a daily podcast
[0:12]365 days a year and each day we talk to an author about all of the things related to their career
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[0:22]I am now an author myself
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[0:58]Alicia Fernandez Miranda is the author of My What If Here a memoir
[1:03]This is a particularly exciting episode because this is our very first zivi book
[1:09]Title to hit the shelves for those of you who don't know which might be impossible given how often I post about it
[1:15]I started publishing company called zivi books and today marks our very first launch
[1:21]So please join me in listening to this episode with Alicia
[1:24]Who by the way has guest hosted several of these episodes in the past and make sure to go out and get your very first
[1:31]zivi books title now
[1:33]Okay, Alicia
[1:34]I respected authority on women's empowerment social impact and sustainability
[1:39]Alicia Fernandez Miranda serves as chair and former CEO of IG advisors and award-winning social impact intelligence agency
[1:46]That consults with the world's biggest non-profits foundations and corporations on their philanthropy and social initiatives
[1:51]Our clients include the bill and Melinda Gates Foundation the Ford Foundation and UN Women a graduate of Harvard University
[1:57]And the London School of Economics her writing has been featured in Vogue business insider
[2:02]Rompa Huffington Post among others at the beginning of 2020 Alicia paused her high-powered career to pursue a series of internships on
[2:10]Broadway with contemporary art dealer
[2:12]Blaine fitness studio
[2:13]Retro Glow and in the kitchen of the Kinlock Lodge
[2:16]Alicia is the daughter of a Cuban immigrant and hails from Miami
[2:20]She currently lives in Scotland with her husband and two children and suspects that her favorite job will always be the one
[2:25]She's planning to try next go out today and get your first
[2:29]Sivi books book
[2:30]Welcome Alicia. Thank you so much for coming on mom's don't have time to read books to discuss my what if you're your memoir
[2:39]I
[2:39]Literally could not be more excited to be doing this right now with you. I am like beaming
[2:47]So my what if here is the first book from zimmie books coming out today when this airs on February 7th
[2:55]It is so exciting and as I reread this book to prepare for today because I've read it in multiple iterations
[3:01]But you know the final
[3:03]Whatever, I just am like I love this book so much. I love this like with all my heart and soul
[3:09]I could not be more excited that this is our first book
[3:13]And you did such a good job and I am just like over the moon excited so that's I just had to say that I am so glad you still feel that way
[3:23]Yeah, I feel like the opposite response. I was actually I really I really reread it like in full when I had to record my audiobook
[3:31]And I was worried. I was like what if I don't like it anymore. I was I was I was still happy with it
[3:36]So it's so good. It's so good and I'm just so honored that we get to publish it
[3:41]So thank you really I am so honored to be on the guest side of this podcast with you
[3:45]I feel like real dream like honestly like this is one of those things that was on like my
[3:51]Life vision board. I can't really believe that it's happening
[3:54]Well, not only are you on the other side
[3:56]But you have been a guest host for what how many episodes did you get to attend or 10 brilliant episodes?
[4:02]I don't know if the episodes are brilliant, but they're brilliant. They're you're everything you do is brilliant
[4:06]I love them so so much. I had so much fun doing them
[4:09]And of course you host your own podcast quit your day job, which is is it the audio podcast?
[4:13]So you are like such a pro. I mean you could just do this
[4:16]I'll just sit here and like let you just talk. It's
[4:18]You know here's my night in my eight dollar headphones
[4:23]I love it. I love that. This is my life now though, but I get to do this like how
[4:27]Crazy is this and how different is it from what my life used to be which certainly you'll see a lot when you read the book
[4:33]Yes, I know I'm knowing knowing that you're here and where you started and all this stuff
[4:38]I mean, I'd love you to explain to listeners what my what of year is about
[4:43]But in general you have a quote in the book where you say how long had it been since I had been happy for so long
[4:49]I thought the pursuit of happiness had been what was guiding me
[4:51]But now I wasn't so sure and you kept saying things like it should have been the perfect time in my life except it wasn't
[4:59]So talk to me about
[5:01]This book and the project that led to the book
[5:04]So it's weird and amazing to have your own words quoted back to you as I'm sure you know from having written your memoir
[5:10]I love it. I have to say it's pretty great
[5:12]But that you know, I was writing there
[5:15]From the beginning of the book and about a time in my life
[5:17]Which was back in sort of 2019 where you know on paper. I kind of had all the things
[5:22]I was approaching 40. I was CEO of my own business
[5:26]I had healthy twins and a loving husband and a really cute dog with an Instagrammable face
[5:32]And I had just all the things that I had been kind of working toward and instead of feeling
[5:37]Happy and content and satisfied. I felt this major itch like what
[5:43]If as in the title of the book
[5:45]What else why am I not happy and then of course
[5:48]Incredibly guilty that I had all of this and I still somehow was not satisfied with my life
[5:53]And so I kind of hatched this idea that evolved over time
[5:57]Which was to go back and explore the uncharted career paths of my youth and to
[6:02]Try to get unpaid internships at the jobs
[6:04]I always wanted to do when I was a kid at that original time
[6:07]It was thinking about things like musical theater and art and marine biology was on the shortlist back then
[6:14]And so I actually managed to turn this project into a reality
[6:18]And that is what my what-if-year is about. It's my experience of going and taking four internships in these dream jobs
[6:24]And by the way during the first waves of the COVID pandemic was when all of this takes place. So
[6:31]That's generally what it is about
[6:34]So in the book you referred yourself as sort of just another normal Cuban Jewish girl
[6:39]And how from the very beginning you have been
[6:43]This not perfectionist but someone who's striving for excellence at all times starting with the fact that you started to read in an extremely early age
[6:50]preschool
[6:52]Start at the beginning and just explain a little bit about your background and
[6:57]Sort of where this
[6:58]Meles may have come from this like because what happens when you set goals and keep reaching them like then what you have to find
[7:05]Sort of what's underneath all that so take us back to the beginning for a second
[7:09]So I am from Miami originally my dad immigrated from Cuba in the 60s. My mom is
[7:16]nice Jewish girl from North Miami Beach
[7:18]And I grew up you know in like a very sort of
[7:22]We lived in the suburbs very close to the Everglades. I went public school
[7:25]But I was always I had this drive to always be the best do the best being smart being good at school
[7:32]That was like my thing and
[7:35]You know, I've had a lot of time to reflect on that having written a whole memoir about my life
[7:40]It's like free therapy really and you know
[7:43]I came from this family like many
[7:44]I think kids who grew up with immigrant parents of you know education is the way forward
[7:48]That is what we do that is your single
[7:51]Kind of responsibility in your life. You have to do on school. You have to get a good education and that was really ingrained in me from a very
[7:57]Young age, but I was also very
[7:59]Self-motivated. I loved the feeling of being the best. I loved getting a's
[8:03]I loved achieving things like that was where I got my big serotonin
[8:07]You know bump from doing all of that endorphin endorphin rush serotonin. Whatever the thing is that makes you feel really good
[8:13]That's what happened. So you know, I powered my way through school. I graduated high school
[8:18]I said when I was nine years old that I wanted to go to Harvard
[8:21]I don't even know how I heard about Harvard. I didn't know anybody that went to Harvard or I don't I must have seen it in a movie or something like that
[8:28]But that was what I wanted to do. I did my undergraduate there
[8:31]And then I kind of just I got on the treadmill, right?
[8:34]I was like doing
[8:35]Successively more kind of bigger jobs bigger roles
[8:38]Move to the UK because I had a real love for travel and being abroad and
[8:43]Husband who's going to come along with me and you know, so I was just I just kept like unlocking the levels
[8:49]I'm like leveling up leveling up and then I got to this point where I really
[8:53]Kind of had had at those at the top of my game like I was doing all of the things that I was supposed to be doing
[9:00]And it was very very hard to get there and then somehow still think
[9:04]Wait is this is this it now? Is this just what I do forever?
[9:08]Like what what more is out there and why am I so unsatisfied?
[9:12]Why do I keep feeling like I have to do more and more and so
[9:16]This internship plan was like the way to solve that
[9:19]Crisis and it ended up bringing so much more into my life than I ever possibly could have imagined including use it be and
[9:26]This whole new kind of universe that I was not a part of and exploring all these creative sides of my life
[9:32]I had just sort of put to the side because they weren't strategic and they weren't going to get me to the right place in my career
[9:37]And it's just been the most
[9:39]Extraordinary experience kind of from day one. Oh my gosh. Well the book itself
[9:43]You wrote a great essay for what was mom's and no time to write back then or maybe then it was we found time
[9:49]Anyway, I'm now zippy Meg and I remember reading it and being like this is so great
[9:52]And then didn't I reach out and say like do you have a book in you or something like what and I was like don't sell it anywhere else
[9:58]I'm starting a company
[10:00]And that's exactly what happened, like you reached, I submitted this essay.
[10:04]It was really in like the deep dark days still of COVID, like it was still, everybody was
[10:08]still at home.
[10:10]And it was an essay that was based on what is now the fitness section of the book.
[10:14]And you wrote back immediately.
[10:15]First of all, I was like, I couldn't believe you were the one reading the essays for
[10:18]your site.
[10:19]And you wrote me back and you were like, can we get on Zoom?
[10:22]And I was just telling this story this morning to a friend of mine and I tell it to anybody
[10:25]who would listen, which is that you were so generous with your time.
[10:30]And you just talked in a call with me and you were like, tell me what you're doing and tell
[10:33]me about yourself.
[10:34]And let me introduce you to some people.
[10:35]And it was really amazing.
[10:37]And that has been overwhelmingly my experience actually in the book industry with other
[10:42]writers and other people.
[10:43]It's just this real generosity of spirit and wanting to share.
[10:47]And then, you know, people are like, what's your publishing journey?
[10:49]And I'm like, well, I cleared seven million agents and finally got one.
[10:54]And then I got a two line email from Zivi that said, have you sold your book yet?
[10:58]I'm starting my publishing company.
[10:59]I want to publish your book, which is still like adding out this Cinderella story of
[11:03]the century for me, I think, oh my gosh, no, I am the lucky one.
[11:08]It goes along with this sort of entrepreneurial drive and spirit you have to make a difference
[11:14]to try to do things, to not be afraid.
[11:16]Like this whole venture is what if between both of us and go back to the internships for
[11:20]a minute.
[11:21]You can look, lodge, even though it's the last of your internships was like laugh out loud
[11:25]funny.
[11:26]The mishaps that happened when you were working at this lodge, when you went into the
[11:31]wrong room, oh my gosh, just talk about each one a little bit.
[11:35]And some of the highlights that people will find sure.
[11:38]So I started before COVID really kicked off.
[11:41]I left my husband and kids in London and I got on a plane and I went to New York.
[11:45]But to be clear, you did not leave your husband.
[11:47]You just kind of.
[11:48]No, he was.
[11:49]He was, I temporarily left.
[11:51]I temporarily left him.
[11:52]He was going to come meet me after two weeks with the kids.
[11:56]And I had been very generously introduced to two directors, John Doyle and James LaPine
[12:01]to incredible directors who were in rehearsals for a Broadway and an off-Broadway musical
[12:06]that we're going to open in the spring.
[12:07]And so the mandate was like, come and shadow and you can sit in and learn.
[12:12]And of course, immediately I was like, I have to do something and make myself useful.
[12:15]So I started like volunteering to sweep up the floor and filling the water jugs before
[12:20]people would ask me and like actually buying coffees for the cast because no one would ask
[12:24]me to go get them coffee.
[12:25]But I was like, no, no, it's my treat.
[12:27]Let me just go buy all of you coffee because I was so desperate to be useful.
[12:31]And so that was the first one.
[12:33]And I think timing wise, it's not as boiler to say that I left at the end of February
[12:37]2020.
[12:38]So I had to kind of cut that short and come home in the UK, come back to the UK very shortly
[12:43]after.
[12:44]My second internship was with a fitness brand, a retro dance and fitness brand called
[12:49]Retro Glow.
[12:50]And at the very beginning of COVID, they were looking to go virtual.
[12:55]And I begged Frankie Taylor, who's the owner to let me intern for her, do a virtual internship
[13:00]and sort of help her figure out how she was going to transition to putting her entire
[13:04]business and running it out of her living room and doing it on TV.
[13:08]That involved learning how to use social media in a more meaningful way, which was not
[13:12]natural to me as a child of the 80s and also trying out all of the competitor classes
[13:19]that she had.
[13:20]So I did a retro aerobics from an Australian class.
[13:23]I did a lot of sexy dancing in my living room, which was really, really difficult.
[13:28]One of my kids were running around.
[13:30]I did some gong bats and meditations.
[13:32]I did something called Voga, which was like really weird.
[13:35]I really got my fill of novelty exercise classes during that internship.
[13:39]And it really got me through the real worst parts of like that first lockdown.
[13:43]My third internship was for a contemporary art dealer in London called Blaine Art.
[13:48]And they sell contemporary painting and sculpture by and sell at the very top tier of
[13:52]the market.
[13:53]So I was seeing hockneys and Picasso's and Frida Kahlo's and these incredible pieces
[13:59]of art.
[14:00]I very quickly realized that even though I had minored in art history some almost 20 years
[14:05]before, I knew absolutely nothing and remembered nothing.
[14:09]I knew none of the words and none of the artists and none of the terminology.
[14:13]And that was a real lesson in humility and learning how to ask questions and kind of exploring
[14:20]this like, I was going out, all these galleries all the time, you know, as things were starting
[14:24]to open back up.
[14:25]And I had really missed that part of my life.
[14:26]So that was just a joy.
[14:28]And then the final internship as you referred to was at Kenlock Lodge.
[14:31]It is a hotel and restaurant on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.
[14:35]And oh my god, I was so, I was just so bad, I was so bad at all.
[14:40]And I have to say that I've been back subsequently, we go to Skye a lot and Isabella,
[14:45]the owner is a very good friend now in spite of my terrible internship for her.
[14:49]And like there have been times, you know, with COVID and Brexit, there's been a lot of
[14:53]staffing issues in the UK like trying to get people staffed.
[14:56]And I'm always every time I go, I'm like, if you need someone to come and waitress the
[14:59]restaurant shift, I know what I'm doing, come and call me and literally no one has ever
[15:04]picked up the phone to call me in spite of the fact that they've like been desperately
[15:07]recruited staff for six months, they really don't want me to come back there.
[15:12]So understandable, perhaps my skills are better used elsewhere, but man, anything revolving,
[15:17]hand-eye coordination, caring plates, remembering people's room numbers, I was just so
[15:23]bad at it.
[15:24]But I loved every single one and I learned so much from every single one.
[15:28]So what was your final not to give the ending away?
[15:31]But just after doing all these internships, like what are you taking away from this?
[15:34]How are you inspiring other people?
[15:36]Should they try it?
[15:37]Or what is the hack that they could get from just reading your book?
[15:41]I mean, I think, you know, it was an interesting circumstance.
[15:45]What I recommend that everybody go and take a sabbatical from their job to do internships?
[15:49]No.
[15:50]I don't think it's for everyone, although if you can make it work, it was a great experience
[15:54]for me.
[15:55]But there was a lot of privilege that I had to be able to do that, you know, a husband
[15:58]that was willing to watch the kids, a job that I was running the company.
[16:02]So I was able to take time off and kind of manage that on my own.
[16:06]But I think the real lessons that came out of it are much more widely applicable.
[16:09]I mean, you know, you said that I wasn't doing all these things that I wasn't afraid
[16:14]to do all these things.
[16:15]But actually, like, I'm still terrified all the time to do all of these things.
[16:18]And one of the big differences that's come as a result of this internship project for me
[16:22]is that I do them anyway, even though I am afraid to do them.
[16:26]So it's not at all the absence of fear.
[16:29]It's just trying to push through that and knowing that whatever comes on the other side
[16:33]of it is going to be worth it, even if it's terrible.
[16:35]I went to an acting class the other night, I can't act like I'm terrible actor.
[16:39]I don't even know how to act, but it was something I'd always wanted to try.
[16:42]So I was like, let me just go to this workshop and see what happens and play zipped
[16:45]that boop with all of these other theater kids and like, why not?
[16:49]Am I going to do an internship and professional acting?
[16:52]No, definitely not.
[16:53]But, you know, I'm so, so glad I did it.
[16:56]So really, the biggest thing for me has been forcing myself to not get too comfortable
[17:01]to push myself out of my comfort zone, to remember that learning is part of what motivates
[17:06]me to do almost anything.
[17:08]So if I'm going to go into an activity and learn from it, you know, that that's in and
[17:12]of itself a really good goal and to be okay to not be good at stuff.
[17:16]And that is still, I'm constantly working on that, but to be comfortable with failure,
[17:21]to be comfortable with not being the best, you know, from my entire childhood that has
[17:26]been very difficult for me to not be, you know, really good at things.
[17:30]And I think I for a long time shied away from doing stuff that I wasn't good at naturally
[17:34]because I didn't want to not be the best at it.
[17:36]And now I'm trying to do the opposite.
[17:38]I'm intentionally have to do things that I may not be good at and I'm not the best at
[17:43]and be okay with that.
[17:44]And truly it has made my life so much richer and deeper.
[17:48]Tell your husband great for me, actually, I think it's working really well.
[17:52]Oh, that is so amazing.
[17:55]Tell listeners about your upcoming tour.
[17:57]You're going to so many places.
[17:59]Oh my God, we're having a party.
[18:01]So I mean, look, you, I think you approach publishing to be from this way of like, here's
[18:05]what's happening and how can we make it better and different and why does it have to
[18:08]be this way?
[18:09]So I think all of yours to be books, table of authors are really like taking that ethos
[18:13]in.
[18:14]I was desperate to go on tour.
[18:16]I have missed seeing people.
[18:18]I love being around people and like what, I mean, it's like incredible that this book
[18:22]is even coming out.
[18:23]So celebrating it, I really wanted to do, but I started thinking like what kinds of things
[18:28]would I want to go to?
[18:30]And it's nice, of course, to go here and author read their book if you like know their
[18:34]book and who they are, but nobody really knows who I am yet.
[18:36]So I was like, how can we actually kind of take the spirit of my what if you're and do
[18:40]some really fun, exciting, interesting things?
[18:43]So we have got a wild agenda coming up.
[18:46]We are doing a dance class together in New York.
[18:49]That's right.
[18:50]Plus a launch at this trend, which is going to be amazing.
[18:52]We're doing cocktail making also in New York with terrors.
[18:55]Then I go down to Miami and I've got a family fun day with laser tag and virtual reality
[19:00]and a craft workshop and cookies.
[19:04]I mean, all kinds of things will be in New Orleans the week before Mardi Gras.
[19:07]So we are celebrating there with a Mardi Gras headdress making workshop and mimosas.
[19:13]Good night before the morning of the Musas parade, which is in the evening.
[19:17]And my high school crush is DJing, which is pretty much reason to go on book tour enough
[19:22]in and of itself.
[19:23]We're that house concert in Houston and then some really fun stuff being planned for
[19:27]LA and Seattle.
[19:28]So I would love to see as many people as possible there.
[19:31]This is like, I am an extrovert in the sense that I get my energy from being around
[19:36]other people.
[19:37]So I just cannot wait to do this.
[19:40]I'm like planning all my outfits.
[19:41]This is my big crisis now.
[19:44]On book tour.
[19:46]And everyone can find details of your tour on Alicia F Miranda dot com.
[19:50]Correct.
[19:51]Yeah.
[19:52]And we will link to it as well.
[19:54]One thing I just want to talk about for two seconds are your twins because you seem
[19:59]to me.
[20:00]and edge everything with such grace.
[20:02]And I don't know, this great, fun-loving attitude
[20:07]that I love, and you referred to parenting
[20:09]as a rush of code switching,
[20:11]which I just think is so perfect.
[20:14]So talk about just your experience with being a mom,
[20:18]now of your kids that are older.
[20:19]And I love how you wrote about it in the book
[20:22]and how you were finally willing to sort of come clean about
[20:25]just how hard it was to have twins,
[20:26]which is fella mom of twins I completely relate to.
[20:29]Just how you're incorporating all that and making it all work.
[20:34]If it looks like I've got it all under control,
[20:36]then I'm doing a great job of promoting that.
[20:38]I'm such a media because honestly it's extremely challenging.
[20:43]I mean, I never give people, I hate getting people
[20:46]parenting advice because I'm always like,
[20:47]that's the thing they're gonna pull back
[20:49]when your kids are like in rehab one day or something like that.
[20:51]You know, I never want somebody to sing my article
[20:54]about bragging about what a good mom I am.
[20:56]I'm not sure if I would say I have struggled with parenting,
[20:59]but I have found parenting very hard.
[21:01]It's been the biggest challenge of my life.
[21:04]And I think in large part, it's because it's been a thing
[21:06]I can't really control and I have addressed most of the challenges
[21:10]in my life by trying to control them
[21:12]because that's the type of person I am.
[21:13]And then I had kids and I had a challenging journey
[21:17]to even getting pregnant.
[21:18]And then when I had the twins, you know, I mean,
[21:21]it was so, so difficult.
[21:23]Those early days were really tough for me.
[21:25]And I found very little joy in it.
[21:27]I love my children, but I found that initial stage
[21:31]really, really hard.
[21:32]And so I, I wished when my kids were little
[21:36]that I had more people that were willing to just be like,
[21:38]yes, having kids is amazing
[21:40]and also having kids is really difficult
[21:41]and let's like embrace it all.
[21:43]I think a lot more people are willing to do that now
[21:45]than they were 11 years ago in my twins or babies.
[21:48]And so I try to be honest with people
[21:49]about what that experience has been.
[21:51]It has not been easy.
[21:52]My kids are coming on book tour with me.
[21:55]They're coming along for the ride.
[21:57]You know, I drag them to all sorts of things.
[22:01]And I am starting to understand as they grow older
[22:03]and develop their own personalities
[22:05]that it's okay where my kids are not like me.
[22:06]My kids are total home bodies.
[22:08]Whereas I would get on a plane of somebody
[22:10]who's like, do you want to meet me in Paris
[22:12]for lunch tomorrow, which is a short flight for me
[22:14]because I live in Scotland?
[22:15]I'd be like, yeah, let's go.
[22:16]Where do you want to meet?
[22:17]What time and where?
[22:18]I'll be there.
[22:19]Where's my kids?
[22:20]They really prefer, they like to stay home.
[22:22]They like stability, they like to be in one place.
[22:24]And that is for someone like me
[22:26]who wants to create all these fun adventures
[22:28]from them all the time and go and do this.
[22:29]You know, it's been a constant learning
[22:31]that I can't control who they are.
[22:32]I can't control what they do.
[22:34]So I'm just trying my best every day.
[22:36]I try to role model for them.
[22:39]I try not to get frustrated.
[22:40]I do not always succeed.
[22:42]But ultimately I try to be honest
[22:43]when I talk about parenting,
[22:45]the good parts and the challenging parts
[22:46]because I think I love when other people are honest
[22:49]with me about that.
[22:50]And so I try to pay that forward
[22:51]since my kids are a bit older now.
[22:54]No, it's true.
[22:55]I do think there has been a shift
[22:57]with the parenting dialogue that it's okay.
[23:00]And I don't know, I felt my twins are 15 and a half.
[23:03]But I felt like there was still so much like,
[23:06]my kids did this at this age.
[23:07]And yes, we've already mastered this.
[23:09]And I was always feeling bad about everything.
[23:12]So I'm glad that it's okay to say,
[23:15]yeah, this is really hard and it's okay.
[23:17]And I mean, honestly, I think sites like
[23:20]moms don't have time to write now is to be mags.
[23:22]Like places for moms, you know, parents,
[23:26]but really for my personal experience,
[23:27]mothers to talk about what they're really going through,
[23:31]what it's really like.
[23:32]I think that has made a really big difference
[23:34]in also there being kind of outlets,
[23:36]places to go and Google and read about
[23:39]not just this very picture perfect idealized,
[23:42]you know, Instagram filter ready,
[23:44]like version of parenting,
[23:45]but how it can be challenging.
[23:47]And how if you're a person with your own identity
[23:50]and your own ambitions and you're kind of planned
[23:52]for your life and then you have kids
[23:54]and that changes things and it shifts things
[23:56]and it's not necessarily a negative thing,
[23:59]but it is something that you have to kind of reckon with.
[24:01]And so I think that having outlets like Zibi Mag
[24:05]and like, you know, there's now a lot of different places
[24:07]you can go to read about parenting.
[24:09]I have found reading other people's personal stories
[24:11]incredibly helpful.
[24:12]I still do it now now that we're entering like pre adolescence
[24:16]and you know, the preteen years
[24:18]and that's a totally different phase of parenting
[24:20]that's nothing like what came before.
[24:22]I am like constantly reading about other mothers
[24:25]of teenagers like tell me, tell me how you did it.
[24:28]Now you survived.
[24:29]I want to know everything.
[24:30]So don't raise a beer on my list of people
[24:33]to get up for parenting and so many people had terrified me
[24:37]about my kids being completely different people
[24:40]and that the teenagers were going to be like
[24:42]the worst things of my life.
[24:43]Like from when they were little
[24:44]and they probably did this to you like,
[24:46]wait till they're teenagers, but you know what?
[24:48]Teenagers, if you're close to your kids,
[24:50]it's just the next day, like it's one day after another.
[24:52]It's like, if you take your eye off the ball,
[24:55]it may be it's a huge thing.
[24:57]But I don't know, I just, I don't know.
[24:59]I, you can, we can handle it anything.
[25:02]So Alicia, yeah, I feel like, I don't know.
[25:06]I think it's all about respecting your kids
[25:08]and knowing who they are.
[25:10]But I am no parenting expert either.
[25:12]Okay, so your butt is coming out,
[25:14]you're going on this fabulous tour.
[25:16]Tell us what's next.
[25:18]Where do you want your life to go?
[25:20]I saw my world domination.
[25:22]No, I have some ideas.
[25:25]I am working on a novel as someone who's also writing a novel.
[25:29]You were relating to me that that is a challenging process
[25:32]but I am still enjoying it mostly.
[25:35]You know, but one thing I would say that is different now
[25:39]from basically every other stage of my professional life
[25:42]is I'm trying to remain open to different opportunities
[25:46]to seeing where this takes me.
[25:48]The things that have materialized as a result
[25:50]of the internships themselves
[25:53]and then the process of writing the book
[25:55]have taken my life into all of these directions
[25:58]that I never could have expected.
[25:59]I mean, I don't think it's a spoiler to share that
[26:01]Walt Kimmuck Lodge has never once invited me back to Waitress.
[26:05]They did ask me to write the narrative
[26:08]and a bunch of essays for a cookbook celebrating
[26:10]their 50th year.
[26:11]I mean, never in a million years
[26:12]when I have imagined that I was gonna be able to do something
[26:14]like that and that came as a result of doing this internship
[26:17]and getting to know them a bit better
[26:19]and kind of building that relationship.
[26:21]So I'm trying to see what the universe is gonna throw at me.
[26:25]That's a very unusual for me
[26:27]because I normally like to play on absolutely everything.
[26:30]But I just, I'm already, I've been so delighted
[26:34]with where the different opportunities
[26:36]for my What If You're Have Taken Me
[26:37]and I can't wait to see what's gonna happen
[26:38]when it actually comes out.
[26:40]Oh my gosh, me too.
[26:41]Well, for everyone listening,
[26:42]please join Alicia on tour.
[26:45]She'll be everywhere and it'll be really exciting.
[26:47]She'll be popping by so many bookstores for signings
[26:50]and all of that great stuff.
[26:52]Pick up my What If You're Today
[26:54]and yeah, just follow, follow along.
[26:57]We're so excited.
[26:58]We're so excited.
[26:59]It's our joint baby.
[27:00]We're gonna parent this baby very well together
[27:01]as if you had no doubt.
[27:03]You're like the parent.
[27:04]I'm like the babysitter on the side.
[27:05]I'm like, you know, are the teachers.
[27:07]I'm like off on the sidelines, you know,
[27:09]just like helping it along.
[27:10]But you're the real parent here.
[27:13]Anyway, congratulations.
[27:14]I'm so excited.
[27:15]We're gonna have so much fun.
[27:16]Thank you so much for having me.
[27:20]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms.
[27:22]Don't have time to read books.
[27:23]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram,
[27:26]at Zibi Owens and at Moms.
[27:27]Don't have time to read books.
[27:29]Also sign up for my newsletter at Zibi Owens.com
[27:31]and sign up for my virtual book club
[27:33]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.
[27:35]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan.
[27:37]Take a textured sound for the sound editing.
[27:39]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[27:41]for providing this fantastic intro and out trim music.