SLT 025: “Someday” Isn’t On The Calendar & An Interview With Kerry Reifel

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“Someday” Isn’t On The Calendar & An Interview With Kerry Reifel of The Simple Year

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Dan and Vanessa’s Topic: “Someday” Isn’t On The Calendar

As we traditionally do when we have a guest interview on the show, the two of us will do a joint topic.  We’ve hit our 25th episode, and so we thought we’d reflect back on where we started and throw some ideas out to our listeners about where we might be headed with Simple Life Together.  Here are the things we reflected on and discussed:

  • Made the decision to simplify our lives and for us that meant somewhere between consumerism and minimalism...not exactly sure how to define it other than “simple”, but now we know it’s not consumerism, not minimalism, not raising our own chickens and sewing our own clothes. Nothing wrong with that…just we’re not at that level!
  • We looked for a community but couldn’t find one!
  • Dan wanted to start a podcast for years and said he’d do it “someday.” Well, no matter how many times he looked on the calendar, he never found “someday” there.
  • We decided that maybe the community we were looking for was looking for us, too. So, Dan floated the idea to Vanessa for a sanity check and she was all for it…and Simple Life Together was born.
  • Dan brought some tech simplicity and military techniques to the mix while Van brought the organizer background to the mix.
  • We’ve been amazed at the number of people who felt just like we did and joined us!

Not that episode 25 is some magical number, but we’re having some pretty strong feelings about the show and the future of the show. We think a lot of people listen to the show and take some positive steps in their lives…not because of anything we say or do, but just because they know they’re not alone in the fight. We’re thinking of some logical next steps and we really need some help and advice from all of you on where we go from here:

  • Considering a community site for more interaction, videos, tutorials, forums to share experiences, arranged by topic, etc.
  • We’re also considering doing products for the community, too. Dan has already been asked numerous times to do a video screencast to go along with his Evernote Simplified Parts 1 & 2.
  • It will be an investment on our part if we do it. If there is enough interest in the community, Dan may stop doing client work or seriously draw down on it to support the community
  • In the end, it’s not about what we want, it’s about what you want! If you just want the podcast and that’s it, that’s fine, but if there is an interest on a full community then we’re considering that too.
  • Dan create a survey that we ask you to please take 1 minute to click some boxes so we can gauge the level of interest.
  • No commitment on your part or our part…yet…but we wanted to ask you what you’d like to see.

So, please go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/survey to take a 1 minute survey to share your thoughts with us.  We won’t make any decisions about the community’s future without your input. Heck you ARE the community!  So please, share your thoughts with us. It’s just 4 Questions, 4 clicks and and one block to share anything else that’s on your mind.  We really need your help on this one! Thanks so much and we look forward to your input, thoughts and ideas as we go forward with SimpleLifeTogether.com!

Guest Interview: Kerry Reifel Of The Simple Year

We were so lucky to have Kerry Reifel here on the show! Kerry is a middle class, working mother of two young girls and wife to an active duty military officer.  One year ago on April 24th 2012, just as her husband took off on a 6 month long deployment overseas, Kerry set out on her own exciting adventure of not buying anything new for one year.

Although her family had the means to buy the things they needed and wanted, she realized much of it they really didn’t need. So in an effort to cut down on the waste (environmentally and financially speaking), she set out to do one thing….live simply.  And so she decided to chronicle her journey, adventures, and challenges on her Blog: The Simple Year.

We first heard about Kerry through Joshua Becker’s Blog Becoming Minimalist and were immediately drawn to her incredibly funny and inspiring story. Kerry’s story resonated so strongly with us and we KNEW it would be a perfect fit for Simple Life Together listeners!

We highly recommend clicking on the “play” button above to hear this fantastic interview! Here is a look at some of the questions we asked:

Questions:

  • Who are you and how are you making lives simpler?
  • What was the impetus for starting your blog the Simple Year?
  • Can you explain your rules for yourself for this challenge? Were there any special considerations for your family…kids and even hubby who was deployed?
  • What was the most surprising thing or realization you discovered about yourself during this challenge?
  • What about your kids?  How did they adapt?
  • Can you share one of your most challenging experiences or close calls you had during this challenge?
  • How has this challenge affected the way you live? Any new habits or life-style changes that you’ll keep?
  • So you’ve reach the end of your one year adventure…can you sum up your feelings on the consumer society we live in and will your experiences guide you in your future now that you’ve met your goal?
  • So what’s the next step for your blog?

We also discovered that Kerry is “handing off” her blog to an aspiring blogger who would like to chronicle a year-long challenge themselves.  She has built up a healthy following of readers and would love to give someone the opportunity to share their experience too.  For more information please check out her Handoff Page on The Simple Year.

Thing Segment

  • Dan’s Thing: Google Docs and how useful, functional and sharable this program is!

Links

Would you like to help us help Charity Water? If you make purchases on Amazon.com through this link it will be applied to  Vanessa’s Charity Water Campaign

PLEASE TAKE ONE MINUTE TO TAKE OUR COMMUNITY SURVEY. THANKS!!!!

Give directly to Charity Water Through Vanessa’s Campaign

The Simple Year

The Simple Year Handoff page

Storyline Blog

Dove Real Beauty Sketches YouTube video

 

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Categories: Interviews, Lifestyle, Podcast Episodes
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2 thoughts on “SLT 025: “Someday” Isn’t On The Calendar & An Interview With Kerry Reifel”

  1. Thanks Dan and Vanessa for your podcast. I love the podcast and look forward to a new one each week. It is the best podcast, in my opinion, that I’ve found so far. The humor and so fun, and the quality is first class. You two are a well oiled machine.

    Could you speak to organizing end of life documents? My husband and I took a week vacation recently. I realized a need to organizing our estate docs. If I get hit by the proverbial Mack truck, would anybody be able to access One Password, or find the Will, or the financial adviser? I have the Life.doc from Franklin Covey-it’s been sitting on the office floor for 3 years with blank pages! I have the Dave Ramsey Love Drawer outline. Guess I just lack the follow through. I tried to schedule a few minutes with our oldest son who is named the executor of our Wills. We couldn’t coordinate a time to meet, so I at least showed another son how to access One Password. I’d hate to leave my loved ones clueless when I’m no longer around. Can I be the only one with this problem?

    • Deb,

      This is an excellent topic and one that I definitely want to discuss in the future. End of life preparation is something that you don’t want to ignore…but like you said, it’s all about just getting it done. You know, just recently I organized my mother and father in laws documents on my recent visit with them. I simply sorted and organized their files to include important documents like insurance policies wills, living wills, account information, etc. It wasn’t anything fancy but it was organized and everything was in one spot. Turns out, the family needed them and were so thankful that they didn’t have to go searching in piles of files to figure things out. Anyhoos…yes…we’ll definitely talk about this on an upcoming show. Thanks so much for your kind feedback and input!!!!!

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