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Welcome back, CEO teachers. We took the longest break that we have ever taken since 2018. So seven years of not missing a show and then we took about six weeks off. And I'll be honest, I'm back and re energized more than ever. It was really, really nice to be able to think again about the direction that I want this show to go in. I feel like we've been talking about just teacher business stuff for so many years that I was completely burnt out. I was not, not excited about showing up for you. And I knew then that I needed to take a break. So we're going to take a new direction with the show. We're going to talk a lot more about life, about how to manage the stresses, the ups and the downs, how to be a parent, and how to get back in control of your faith, your lifestyle, movement, and all the things that make life worth living again. And the reason why I decided to shift this stuff was because I was taking a long look in the mirror and thinking to myself, you know what? This isn't the really the way that I want everything to turn out. And maybe you've been like that before. I've had these pivotal moments in my life. Sometimes it happened when I was a teacher in the classroom, other times it happened when I became a new mom. And now I'm kind of reinventing myself again. And so I thought that if we could embrace a fresh start together, whether that's a teacher in the classroom, a teacher starting a business, maybe that's in a new relationship, maybe that's in becoming a parent, or maybe it's just that you need a fresh start in life. I think that this is going to give us all a new feel for where we're going to go together. So welcome back to the show. Today's episode is all about the power of a fresh start. So stick around, you don't wanna miss it. Welcome to the CEO Teacher where educators turn what they already know and love into a successful and sustainable online business. With actionable strategies, simple business tips and mindset shifts. It's a weekly lesson plan for teacher business owners. Whether you're teaching full time in the classroom or rocking the small business from home life. I'm your host, Kasey Morris, a former Georgia English teacher, mom at a four turned seven figure online teacher, business owner and founder of the CEO Teacher Movement. Three teaching degrees got me a few extra bucks each year, but what I will show you will help you make that every single month. If you have a heart for education and a passion to use your experience to help more teachers and families. You belong here. Fresh starts aren't just for New Year's resolutions. They can happen on a random Wednesday in September when you finally say, you know, this isn't the life that I want to settle for as a teacher. That's why I created a brand new book. It's called 10 Steps to Reinventing life as a teacher Teacher and how to make more income than you ever dreamed possible. It's a hard pill to swallow, but I realized the woman standing in that Pinterest perfect classroom, she wasn't the same little girl who used to line up her Cabbage Patch dolls and dream of teaching. Somewhere along the way, the spark dimmed and I had to find a new way forward. So this guide is the exact roadmap and kind of like a little bit of a journal that I wanted to share with you. Something that I wish I would have had all those years ago. It's 10 steps to help you take back control of your life. How to reinvent your life not only as a human, but also as a teacher. And how to create the freedom and flexibility that you've been craving. You can grab it for free right now@casey morris.com now. Because your reinvention, it doesn't have to wait. It can start the moment that you say yes. That's Casey morris.com now. K-A Y S E M O R-R-I S.com now. So it was a hard pill to swallow. The woman I saw standing in my Pinterest perfect classroom, she wasn't the same little girl that used to line up her Cabbage patch dolls at a makeshift desk in her bedroom and teach them about life on the outside. Yeah, sure, I looked the part as a teacher. I had a messy bun. It was in place. I had a beaded lanyard and an ID badge that hu my neck like a badge of honor. But inside, something fell off. Waking up before the sun to wrangle 118 middle school students, then rushing home to feed my kids and clinging to yet another stack of college textbooks in hopes of climbing the ladder. It didn't feel like the calling that I thought it would. And if I'm being honest, I was broke. You don't even need for me to explain what that feels like. Because if you're listening to this, I know you already know. And when God told me, teacher, I was sure that he did not mean for it to look like this. Over time, the spark that I once carried, it started to dim into a flicker. The bags under my eyes told the story before I ever could. I felt lifeless, like a puppet in a play that I no longer wanted to star in. Somewhere along the way, I lost her, the woman behind the teacher badge. I've lost myself a lot in life, and sometimes it was all those years ago back in the classroom. And even recently, I lost myself in what I thought I was supposed to become. So when I stood in that Pinterest perfect classroom, that's when the bigger questions started to press in. I thought, why am I here? What makes me want to teach? And who am I outside of this role? And what would it mean to become her again? You know, I think that there's something so beautiful and symbolic about the power of new beginnings. I am a fan girl for a new year. New me, fresh start. And I love birthdays. Actually, my son just celebrated his 16th birthday. We were supposed to go get his driver's license this morning, but unfortunately, in the state of Georgia, you have to complete, like, I don't even know, 70 hours of this thing called Joshua's law, and he did not complete it. So we're going to go do that tomorrow. And then I have another son that has a birthday on Friday. And, you know, it's just something special. I even love Mondays. Mondays are the day that we meet for team meetings, and we kind of set up our entire week. New beginnings are important because they represent more than just a fresh calendar date or a change in circumstance. For me, it's like this proverbial reset button of the soul. And so I want to take you back on a few reasons why I think that fresh starts have such a powerful move in life. They can break the cycle of stuckness. You know, life feels like an endless loop. Sometimes the same routines, the same conversations, the same frustrations, and a new beginning, it can disrupt the entire pattern. It's a chance to say, I don't have to keep living this way. That small shift can restore hope where burnout or despair or frustration has completely settled in. Fresh starts also offer permission to redefine yourself. Many of us carry labels. I'm a teacher. I'm a mom. I'm the one who always says yes. I'm a giver. And a fresh start could allow you to rewrite the script for your life. So instead of being trapped in who you've always been, you get to decide every single day who you're becoming. It also creates an energy and this momentum shift. Psychologists call it the fresh start effect. We're more motivated to pursue change after a reset moment. That's why people set goals on Mondays. They set a new, maybe weight loss goal on a birthday. Or maybe they are at their lowest point in life and they realize how they want to fix everything. Or like I said earlier, maybe just a new year. A new beginning makes big goals feel possible again. And that surge of energy can propel us forward. The best news is that today's Wednesday in September. You can start all over again today. Fresh starts also help you let go of what no longer serves you. A new beginning often comes with this sense of release. Leaving behind something that's draining you or sucking the life out of you and walking away from someone, something unhealthy, into something better. Or even just letting go of this idea that every single thing has to be perfect. Letting go creates space for new opportunities that maybe you couldn't see before. I am the queen of not letting go. So I'm preaching to the choir here as I'm sharing this story with you. I would rather have this, like, tight grip control over everything in my life, but the happier I am, the more I am able to just let go. Our starts also align with your growth instead of your fear. Fear keeps us clinging to what we know because it's comfortable, even if it hurts us. But a new beginning, it just flips all of that and we start walking by faith instead of by fear. It's not about losing what you had or the life that you thought you were supposed to have. It's about gaining what's going to happen next. And that reframe can turn all of your fear into faith. And then finally, the power of a fresh start is it reflects the bigger story. If you are a person of faith, fresh starts to mirror God's grace and the idea that no matter how many times we fall short, a new day brings new mercies, that spiritual truth. It makes a new beginning more practical. And it starts to become deeply spiritual and deeply meaningful. So again, you don't need a calendar date. That day can happen any day. And maybe today is when you decide to take a fresh start. I know that we often feel stuck as teachers. Maybe it's curriculum changes. Maybe it's a new grade, standardized testing. Maybe it's living paycheck to paycheck. I mean, if I had a dollar for every time I said, this year I'm finally going to do things for me, then that would have happened overnight because I said it so many times. It's not about doing everything overnight. It's about permission to pivot. Slow starts can make things last. So I talked about my Pinterest perfect classroom, but also knowing deep down that that wasn't the life that God intended for me. Some days when I was in the classroom, I prayed. Other days I meditated. Some days I simply just closed my eyes and let myself drift into another world. It was like this grown up version of the never ending story. And for 40 precious minutes a day when my K were gone and it was my planning period, I was free. Little by little, I began to imagine a new life. A life where I wasn't chained to the system of education. A life where I was not only Ms. Morris the teacher, but I was Casey, a mom, a dreamer, a believer, a builder. And day by day, I started piecing it back together. Step by step, I reclaimed control of the life that I was created for. I started immersing myself in podcast like this one and books that began to reshape my mind. And they began to return my power. I studied Eckhart Tolle, I don't know if I say his name correctly. Joe Dispenza, Napoleon Hill, Michael Singer. And all of these men carried this common thread among their voices that was so clear. They taught me that perception creates reality. I could only become what I truly believed I could become. Teaching was part of my God given design. But I began to see that the system holding me captive could only keep me limited for so long. Deep inside, something stronger was rising. And a voice in my chest whispered, more people need what you can give. So I started searching. Searching for ways to reinvent myself in the same way that any teacher listening here today could reinvent himself or herself. I began to understand what that could look like. Now don't get me wrong, I was still tired. I had student loans. I was still broke. But I understood that a fresh start for me was no longer optional. It's actually kind of where my life has been for the last couple of years. I became a single mom of four about two years ago. And that fresh start also wasn't optional. It was survival. Bills were every month now. I had four mouths to feed off of. My salary alone, four pairs of school clothes. I still wanted to travel. I still wanted to live. I still wanted to be happy. And knowing that I could do all of this because I was able to take that fresh start as a teacher in the classroom was a gift that only God himself could design. So a fresh start doesn't mean burning your whole life down. Don't get me wrong, I don't want you to think that you have to think. I want to quit. Teaching or oh, I want to get a divorce. There's really nothing in it that says you have to be miserable in order to start again. You just have to know that you were meant for more. You have to shift your perspective. So what feels like failure is often just preparation for what's to come. You just have to take one small step forward and rewrite your story. Because you are not defined by your past or your present. You're defined by the pivot. So I want you to start naming the things in your life that are draining you. Maybe it's your job. Maybe it's your phone. Maybe it's your schedule. Maybe it's your relationship. Maybe it's your mindset. And I want you to stop right there when you name the thing and let it go and start to dream about what's next for you without judgment. What if you gave yourself permission to imagine a better life? What if you centered yourself around people, a community of people that wanted to do the same things you did? What if you began to take aligned action? As teachers, we're pros at action. We make lesson plans, grade papers, decorate bulletin boards, mentor students. But aligned action means taking those same skills and channeling them into something that moves your life forward, not just into your job or to your students. So I created this guide for you to take New Aligned Action 10 Steps to Reinventing your life As a teacher. It's not about adding another thing to your plate. It's about helping you clear the noise and take the steps back that actually matter so that you can take steps that lead to more income and a life that you never really dreamed possible. One that doesn't drain you. In this guide, I'll walk you through the 10 shifts that I had to make when I went from stressed out, broke teacher to building a business that gave me the freedom and the courage to become a single mom of four. One that allows me to travel and be happy and plan my days exactly as they are. These aren't just random tips now. These are Aligned Action steps that create momentum and lasting change. I'm trying to share a lot more about my life on social media. I've recently joined back on TikTok and have been posting on Instagram what my life looks like from 5 to 9 or from 7am to 10am and if you want to come hang out with me, you can follow me at Casey Morris on TikTok or Instagram. And if you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and finally start moving toward a life that feels a lot more aligned with your purpose. Then grab your copy of the 10 Steps to Reinventing Life as a Teacher@casey morris.com now. I know it's a new year. So many of you are just starting back after the holiday of Labor Day, and some of you are in your first month of back to school. I know you have a million things on your plate, but ask yourself, what have I done for me? A fresh start is always possible. That doesn't mean you need another teaching degree or an administrator's approval. You just need to give yourself one brave yes. I'm excited to talk about life and to talk about movement and momentum and happiness and joy. I'm excited to bring teacher authors onto the show that are doing more than just starting their businesses that are really, truly living a life that gives them value. And that's exactly the direction that we're going on inside of the CEO Teacher Podcast. In case you forgot, we post a new show every Wednesday, Wednesday and I'll be right back here next Wednesday to share a little bit more about what fresh starts can look like and a new beginning for you. Hey, reach out to me. Let's chat on Instagram. Send me a direct message. I'm so happy to be back and I am so excited to see what the future holds for all of us together. As always, remember your best is yet to come and I'll see you right back here next week. It.