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Episode Description:

After her corporate position was eliminated during the pandemic, Chelsea Smith started Elevation Comforts. LLC, a catering and culinary experience company based in Philadelphia, PA. Fast forward to four years later, she is balancing a 9-to-5 corporate job, her clients at Elevation Comforts, an inspiring travel schedule and being a mom to a very adventurous four year old son.

On this episode, Chelsea shares her experience with identifying burnout, and coming up with a strategy to mitigate it. She also takes Beth through the making of a perfect travel itinerary, the eye-opening experiences she’s had while traveling the world, and how she finds her inspiration.

Chelsea’s Bio:

Chelsea Smith is the current owner and chef of Elevation Comforts LLC. The business began in 2021 starting from selling individual platters and attending vending events, to catering in corporate settings, hospitals, universities, and hosting vending events.

Links mentioned in the episode:

HOST:

Beth Lawrence LinkedIn

Beth Lawrence Meetings & Events Instagram

The Type A Plus Podcast Instagram

Beth and other Type A+ Guests will be back each week, delivering bite-sized tips on how to optimize your work and life.

GUEST:

Email: elevationcomfortsllc@gmail.com

Episode Transcript can be found below:

Beth Lawrence: Hello, and welcome back to the type a plus podcast. I am so excited to have Chelsea Smith back today. I say back because in true type a fashion, I, we recorded before and it just didn't turn out to be an optimal Listening experience. So I wanted to make sure that we get Chelsea back on because you have such an amazing story.

And I really want everyone to hear about your business and how you started it. Chelsea, please introduce yourself. 

Chelsea Smith: Well, hello, hello, hello, everyone. I'm super excited to be back, first and foremost. I am the owner of Elevation Comfort LLC. And we are a small catering company with a focus and emphasis on creating a catered experience more than just service.

 We started back in 2020. It started as selling platters from the house because I was let go from a job due to COVID. I didn't have any source of income. I was cooking a lot for friends and family. And more importantly, I was at home with a Six month old.

So I was trying to fill my time and find something to do and different things of that nature. And before I knew it, within my first weekend, I saw a pretty decent profit and decided it's time to truly step back into the food world and really give it my all. Since 2020 and over the last few years, I've gotten to cater for some large names that includes John Hopkins University, Einstein Hospital. I've done some caterings for some major law firms in the city, some caterings for Penn University.

So things have been moving. Also over the last few years, the mentors that I had, The biggest thing they said was to make sure I travel more. 

And the reason for that is because in order to expand your palate, you have to know where all these different flavors come from. Within the last couple of months, I've noticed that even more is ultimately the larger aspect of the business will be to have a catering business that offers unique flavors from around the world in order for that to happen, I keep going around the world.

So I've been blessed enough within last year, I've gotten to try flavors of Hawaii, California, and then Japan. And that was absolutely beautiful. So this year I'm going back to Hawaii, California, and I'm taking my baby with me so he can explore. And then next year I will be going to South Africa.

So I'm really looking forward to this stuff because I can't wait to be exposed. And on a smaller scale, as I continue to build I will go back into vending events, which is something that I stopped because I just felt like it was the time at the time to stop, but now in this current space and starting a new, I look forward to getting back into vending and then those trips in between.

So that's a pretty decent rundown of what's going on in this world. 

Beth Lawrence: Wow. Wow. So I'm hearing you are obviously an individual. You are a woman, you are a mom, you're an entrepreneur, you're a business person, and you're an explorer, which is really, really neat as someone who loves to travel, but hasn't gotten a chance to do that a lot of my life. I think it's really admirable that you want to take your own guided experiences and seek the knowledge that you want to seek and learn from the people that you want to learn from. And. I think that that's really wonderful.

So many type a people that I talk to, sometimes we think all that we need is inside of ourselves. And sometimes that's to our detriment where we don't want to go out and look for new flavors or recipes. But I think you also are going to bring an authenticity to your clients just by being able to say, I went to Japan.

I worked with these chefs, I've seen these ingredients when they come from the ground, et cetera. 

Chelsea Smith: And I look, I. So look forward to that. And, it's so funny because here, especially being able to travel so much, I've so far been to three continents. So I'm making my way through and I'm including North America only because I went to Canada.

So I get to include that one. 

Beth Lawrence: Yes. I do the same thing. I'm, I do an international event planner because I planned in Canada. Technically, 

Chelsea Smith: it works, it counts. And, it's so funny how. accessible things are outside of America and how open and how willing and just it's so funny how overall we just If you ask, you shall receive, kind of.

Whereas, when we're here, we get to jump through a bunch of different hoops to, even just to shadow a chef, even just to work with a person. It just takes so much. So to be able to have people that I talk to and say, well, here, try this because you're going to need to explore this kind of thing, or try this because you're going to learn this about it.

It's just been absolutely beautiful. It opens up a different world. So I grew up in a Hispanic and African American household because I'm biracial and my stepmother is Filipino. So we did get a little bit of that exposure to a different culture, but at such a level that I never really got a chance to take a hold of it and truly understand.

So now it's funny when I was in Japan, I was posting a lot of what I'm eating throughout the day and explaining to people what's going on. And all I got was, are you serious? You're really going to try that? You're really going to eat that? And it's, it's so funny how small minded we can be in a reality.

Yes. So much that we're missing out on because of our small mind mentality. So I look forward to it. I noticed this over the last couple of months and it's something I want to do, and I know that it's not going to be done overnight. It's not going to be done by the end of the year, but this is something that I'm not putting an end date on, honestly speaking.

Beth Lawrence: Amazing. And you know, you really are, I think, leading with your true identity as well, and like really exploring what matters to you and to me, that's contagious in the business world. 

Chelsea Smith: Yes, 

Beth Lawrence: I love that you are bringing your identity and your familial experiences also into your work, and something that I heard you say when you were talking about exploring other countries and even just other parts of the country or the world in general, the U S we're so individual focused that to your point, if you ask a chef, if you can, you know, shadow them, it's like, Oh, what?

I don't, you know, like they get nervous almost like, what are you going to take from me? What are you going to learn from me? And so many other cultures around the world community means more than individualism. So it's interesting that your ability to even be able to have access to those things is exposed just by your travels.

Chelsea Smith: Yes, very much so. And it's so funny because I only realized this within the last few months because I was dealing with a mentor that I thought we were working towards the same goal. And that was not true. And the more I realized like, okay, this isn't making sense anymore. What are we doing? And I started asking those hard questions and those hard questions that left me very uncomfortable, extremely uncomfortable.

And Making, making me feel like I'm not cut out for this anymore. Oh my goodness. Such a battle. And I still get chills about it because it was such a battle. And I thought, if I keep going down this way, I'm not going to want to do this anymore. I want to, I'm going to want to find something else.

I'm going to want to make sense of this in a different light. I make fun to my friends. I tell them, food calls me the way Moana is called by the water, you know? I don't want to keep putting it off or keep finding ways to avoid it or keep finding ways to say, I don't want to do this anymore.

Once we parted ways, it was kind of a relief, but in the saddest way, if that makes sense. So. When we worked together, there was a lot of exposure in the sense of more gigs and I also work a corporate job. So I would leave my corporate world and go do a catering event, maybe Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then maybe I'll have my own personal one on Saturday.

So it was a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff. And then that's what made me sit back and realize I'm working myself to the bone, but is this in the right direction? And more importantly, you know, when you have a mentor, you want to learn from them, but I don't want to be misguided anymore either. So I took a step back from that and just went into thinking about, okay, what are you learning and how does this relate to what you want to do?

A few people actually had me laughing when I, when I was in Japan, they're like, you know, at one point I was just going on Instagram to see what you were eating now, what you're doing now. we don't get the exposure. Why not offer it? Why not provide, you know, these, and not only offer it so they can see it visually, but also be able to provide it to them. Because, you know, some people would never get to experience the beauty of traveling outside their own area. So, um, yeah. That's wonderful. It's like clarity now. A little bit more clarity.

Beth Lawrence: Sometimes it takes those, especially for, thank you for sharing that first of all, and, I've had my experiences with mentors, both good and bad, and I think they most of the time, you know, have your best interest at heart. Right. But they may not see what you see, or they don't have the why that you have your why is what is going to lead you to your own level of success.

And it's really hard sometimes. I mean, I don't know if you find this. Are you a person who runs things by people before you do them or do you go with your gut and you just do it? 

Chelsea Smith: Sometimes? It's so funny. You say that because The decisions I made it ended up to be for example, I'm just gonna use this one.

For example, I bought my first house at 21. And when I was going through the process in the very beginning, I was telling everyone about it. And it just felt like nothing was happening, you know, like nothing was happening. It's not working. So then the and I remember because I bought a close in November.

But the six months leading up to November, I didn't tell anyone. The only person I knew was my mom because she would call me to the house. All, all they saw was I posted on Facebook closing and I was shaking the guy's hand. And that's all they saw. And I'm getting phone calls left and right.

Like, why didn't you tell me? I want to come help and come see and come do this and come do that. And I just felt as much as I wanted to share with you guys. I had to do this for myself. I had to because what I'm noticing is the more I share, the more the outside noise is getting in my head too. And it's just like, your opinion is becoming too loud on what I think is right and what I need, what I know, because I already Count myself out enough. I don't want to hear other people's opinions, even if they're, counting on me or whatever it is that they're doing.

It's just too much pressure. I don't want it anymore. 

Beth Lawrence: Oh, Chelsea, we definitely are alike in that way. I feel like I have two extremes. I either tell I'm either like showing everything this is what's going on, or I'm a hermit. And there's a saying I think it's work hard in silence. Let your success be the noise.

And that's the energy that I'm feeling from you right now. 

Chelsea Smith: I love it. I love that with the clarity, but with the common clarity, because like I said, the last we talked a few months ago and I swore up and down, I knew where I was going. And then everything changed in the last few months. I was just in a brain fog every day when it came to business.

The only thing I knew was that I was traveling. So this Has really been, uh, like in the last two weeks of clarity of what I want to do, where I want things to go. Um, and like I said, no longer putting that pressure. I've had quite a few people that question what's going on. What am I doing next?

What's going to happen? They were like, you were running full force. And it's like, yeah, but running where? I don't want to be in a hamster wheel. And I felt that was happening a lot, quite a lot. So it's, I know there's a lot of work to do, but I'm not worried about how long it's going to take me to do the work anymore.

Now I'm okay with, you know, letting things ride. 

Beth Lawrence: Yes. You have that North star now, it's on your heart now, so you know what you want to do. It's just a matter of navigating to your point, which way. You're going to take to get there. And I love that you're bringing your child to travel with you.

Chelsea Smith: Oh my goodness. He's the best travel person in the world. 

Beth Lawrence: So he's four now, almost four. 

Chelsea Smith: Yes, he's four now. He's five in November. He's four and he's already been to five states. He travels every year and it cracks me up. This is his second time going to California. First time going to Hawaii and he's been to Florida, Texas.

I don't even know if we should count Maryland, but he's been to Maryland. He is my, he's my biggest supporter and my biggest debt.

Cause I, I think kids deserve luxury. Um, I am a firm believer of that. Something I thought about was. If I had been exposed to more in terms of like cultures and just different things, I think my thought process and my willingness to even leave my home state would have been a lot different. But I also know as a mom that you can only do what you know, you know, um, so that's something that I thought about. And luckily I was raised as an army child, but my mom stayed in Philly for my dad. We traveled a lot with my dad. So, I want to give him that same experience to know what it is to travel to have a steady home, but to know what it is to travel and to know the beauty of travel.

He went to Puerto Rico last year. He won't stop talking about it. So I'm looking forward to him being in Hawaii and California this year.

Beth Lawrence: That's amazing. You're, you're expanding his world so much and you're making the world so much bigger and more possibilities. And you're also, I mean, traveling is uncomfortable, whether, you know, I've never flown first class.

I hope to someday, but whether you're in first class or not, like travel is uncomfortable. Even in the most luxurious hotel. You're not, you don't have the comforts of home. And I think that that's an essential tool to teach children because if you don't know how to train yourself to, to withstand discomfort, the discomfort, um, I don't have children, but we, we close children's minds by, books are one way. And then physically talking to people, meeting people and experiencing other cultures. I think. It's just going to make for a much better world and a much more well rounded human being. 

Chelsea Smith: I agree. And it's eyeopening, of course, because you realize you didn't get to do any of this as a child.

And this one's on his sixth flight already. You know, I should get him a credit card or something with points because he's going to be taking you to the Skylounge. Yeah, you know, he walks through the airport with his suitcase. It's just so funny. And he's four years old. And it makes me. Think about, I'm gonna say it like this. Even with the power of social media, we have the world at our hands. We have so much that we can go and explore, but for him to be able to get out here and truly explore it, to truly know that there's so much more outside of your, filled up your home and your schoolyard and all these different things.

And, it's funny because I hear constantly, why are you taking him? He's so young. He's not going to remember yada, yada, yada. And it drives me crazy because it's like, he's been flying since he was six months. He's probably the best kid in the airport. The best kid on the plane. And I'm biased, of course.

Um. And like I said, we just went to Puerto Rico last year. He's like, he won't stop talking about Puerto Rico. He knows how to fly this year. So he's asking if we can go swim with sharks. I said, almost swim with dolphins. So like his fear is he hasn't had fear put on his dreams yet. And I don't want to, you know, enable that.

So I told him, you know, we'll swim with sharks when you're a little bit older. Well, let's go swim with the dolphins. It's okay. You know, let's start with the dolphins. They're big enough. And he, he's been on boat rides and he's, he loves it. He got to go snorkeling, things I didn't get to do till I was older and, you know, More experience.

And to be fair, my mom told me, for her, she was scared of those things. She was scared to get out and do those things, scared to be in the water. And it's like, it's a beautiful thing. Once you're there, it's absolutely beautiful. The hardest part is jumping in. So I'm thankful, blessed and glad that I can give him this while, um.

in the background still exposing him to so many different things. Like, uh, you know, they, they make fun of him because he likes to eat seafood and sushi and stuff like that. And it's like, Oh, I would have started sooner too, had I known, but you know, you only show me what you guys know. And, um, that's okay.

Beth Lawrence: They're just jealous he doesn't have a mom like you that exposes him to all that stuff. They're eating their Lunchables. 

Chelsea Smith: Yeah, like we're not doing that. 

Beth Lawrence: Yeah, totally. To your point with social media, yes, the world is at our fingertips with AI. You can create any image that you want.

But the thing about traveling and the thing about Existing and being outside is that you get all five senses stimulated. That's going to create a memory versus staring at a screen. I mean, my husband and I, we haven't been on vacation in a while. We'll put like a YouTube on where it's just like a drone flying 

Chelsea Smith: over.

Beth Lawrence: And like, yeah, it makes me feel better sitting in an apartment, but there's something about like when you go to Hawaii, like breathing the different air, feeling the sand in your toes, seeing the volcanoes. Seeing the greenery, like it just completely changes. I remember the first time I went to the desert, which wasn't that long ago.

It felt like a different planet. And it's like, you don't even know that you don't know what you don't know. And so I'm very all for this exploratory, adventure with your son is amazing. 

Chelsea Smith: A hundred percent. Once he's a little bit older, we'll roll, go everywhere. I just got to get them older. But, even Hawaii might be a little bit of a.

Too big of a trip for an adventure. It is for sure. I create daily itineraries for when we travel. And, um, the itineraries are packed. 

Beth Lawrence: Ooh, love this. Wait a minute, wait. I say, listeners, listen. 

Chelsea Smith: Daily itineraries. Yeah, I save them.

It's funny because I just gave the Japan one to somebody else that's going this year and they needed some help, so I do save them. It's, I Thoroughly enjoy planning trips, creating the itinerary. I do it all in Excel and it's organized by date, time, links are, and it's fully packed and, um... 

Beth Lawrence: my heart is singing right now.

Chelsea Smith: I love it. I'm still hesitant about including on my website. Right now, but it is something that I do enjoy doing so it's we're working on I'm seeing how would I incorporate that in the world of travel and food, but as I'm planning it I'm looking at the itinerary and I'm just like wow, so he's going snorkeling this day whale watching this day He had like jumping off of boats this day and I'm just like it's mind blowing what's going on, but hey, why not?

Beth Lawrence: Absolutely.

Why not? So it sounds like you've been going through a time in your business where you're less type a you're more like, you know, I'm, this is the North star, but let's experiment. Let's you're more using the artistic side, which is really, really cool. What do you think you are the most type a about when it comes to creating experiences for your clients.

Chelsea Smith: That's a good question because originally I thought it was based on the over control, the wanting to hold on to everything, the wanting to make sure that I'm best, everything's perfect, everything's going. And now it's like, whoa, slow down, take a breather, you don't have to be this aggressive anymore on this.

 Let me also preface this by saying experiences have changed compared to the first time we had this talk versus now. So originally the goal was to be that overkill, make sure overambitious to make sure that everything was perfect, aligned, doing all these great things.

Now I'm looking. More towards the fun and authentic side of it and it goes back to vending because when you're vending you get in this one on one with multiple people, they're trying different things. They're getting to meet you first and foremost, whereas, and once they meet you, it's It's a wrap.

They had a little bite here. They know that you're funny. They know that you're coming with a smile. They know you're coming with good food. So, and you're going to take the time to make sure everything works. So I think that's where the change has been for me is. trying to be all those things by the book versus just bringing my authentic, funny self.

And that's the best way I can explain it for now, because this can also change in six months. I have no idea. It's never ending. It's never ending. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Beth Lawrence: So I love that your focus has changed. And the more that we hold on to all of those things, to your point, the less fun our jobs become.

And then the more we're like, do I even like doing this? Think about the reason you like doing this in the first place and make that the thing that you do every day. 

Chelsea Smith: Yeah. Yes, I had that decide the because I'm doing very well corporate. I just thought I'm like, maybe I'll just focus on corporate for a few years.

Maybe I'll just put this on the back burner. And the more I thought that the louder in my head and said, go to school, do something, do something. And I'm just like, all right, what I need to do, you know, like, what is it? Just tell me. So I know I'm not fulfilled enough in corporate. I enjoy it, but I'm not fulfilled yet.

I want to be able to enjoy and be fulfilled. And I don't think that's a selfish ask what I want, you know? 

Beth Lawrence: Yeah, I think that you can have both. And I think that we live in a culture that makes you feel like you can have both. How do you find balance or is it really just like, like you said, there's like a season for each?

Chelsea Smith: I would say there is the season. And I also think to our points earlier is being mindful of who you're talking to. Not letting all the outside noise in because people don't know what you're going through in your corporate or your business, or if you just want to do nothing, you know, that's they look at that option as.

Not a viable option. For example, for the holiday season, I took off. I didn't take any catering events. I didn't do anything. My focus was being a mom and I felt like that, that was enough. And, you know, I'm hearing, well, you're not catering, you're not, Drop another recipe or do it. No, I don't want to right now.

You're not going to force me to do it. 

Beth Lawrence: Yeah. That's why we design our lives the way that we design them. And it's funny. I did the exact same thing. Normally I would be taking holiday parties. I would be working up until like the 20th. I took three weeks off in December and my body needed it. 

Chelsea Smith: Yeah. I love you for that. Yeah. Oh, I had to. And I think because I've also gotten to a point where I realized where I burned out and when burnout is coming. And I think that's a huge thing that one, we don't talk enough about, or 

Beth Lawrence: I to say, take me through that. Take me through 

Chelsea Smith: the burnout. So like I said, there was a point where I was doing catering events back to back on top of the corporate work, weeks on weeks.

And not only for, Me and my mentor for myself and then still mom. It was just too much at one point and I was coming home Getting you know, I would get sick on the weekends or I didn't have the energy to do anything, wasn't working out wasn't just not doing anything. I couldn't do anything but run through the motions and when I was realized when I realized I was running through the motions, this was so we went to Puerto Rico in June and I found myself looking forward to the vacation.

So that's the only thing that kept me going was looking forward to vacation. And June is when the distance between myself and my mental started to happen a little bit. And I let them know that all these things were coming up. We'll talk when I come back type stuff. So June, of course, vacation came.

I felt a little bit refreshed, but. Vacation's only about two weeks. You go back to the same stuff. Yep. From June to September, I left for Japan in September, end of September into October, and between, I did an event and the event stressed me out so bad. It was a free tasting event for the community.

 And I had to put everything together and I'm overcompensating like crazy to get this event together. And out of a hundred people, 60 something people were to show up, maybe 30 did. So I overplanned, overdid everything. And at that point I told myself you need to stop. So when that event was over, I started focusing on the planning of Japan and getting ready for that and just enjoying and living in that moment. So slow down. And then when I was in Japan is when I decided I'm not doing anything for the holiday season.

I'm going to enjoy the holiday season. I'm going to be a part of the holiday season. When I started to release a little bit of control, I finally felt like the weight was slowly coming off of me. I was becoming a lot more organized. I was also standing very firm on my boundaries. I'm telling you, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it.

Boundaries. Yes. I was very, very, very stern on that. Cause I, I enjoy working hard. I genuinely do. But I don't enjoy getting to the point where I'm burning myself out and that came with losing people.

It came with being the bad guy sometimes. And it came with choosing you first over and over and over. People don't want to hear that. 

Beth Lawrence: They don't, especially not during the holidays. 

Chelsea Smith: No, not at all. They don't want to hear that. And I just, I blocked it out, continued in my prayer, continued in my journaling, I was in the gym more consistently and I started putting my energy, time, and focus on things that I wanted to see for me and my family.

And my family, I'm talking about, my son is who I care for, who I want to have the best of the life. So, Yeah, it's been doing that. And, as I started thinking through everything, I'm just like, more clarity is going to come through. I just have to keep, keep on this course.

Beth Lawrence: Yeah. Keep on this course. Wow. Thank you for sharing that. I heard a couple things. I heard, You know, overscheduling yourself, you realize you were looking forward to a vacation, but didn't even have the boundaries in place to be able to look forward to coming back from vacation. That's terrifying.

Scheduling things between two vacations, not easy taking on volunteer or unpaid work, which honestly, sometimes for people like us. I think we put more into it if it's volunteer.

Chelsea Smith: We do! And I don't know if it's like a, I'm worth it, choose me type of thought. I have no idea. But I told myself, If you're volunteering, make sure it's because it's on your heart.

Not because you feel like you have to, you need validation from somebody. No, I will no longer do that. 

Beth Lawrence: Same. Same. That's a, that's great to hear because it can be really easy also as type a people , I think we also think if I take it over, it'll be easy.

It'll be great. it can't be that much work, whatever. And then we isolate ourselves and we were like, we're doing the whole thing. I got to do it all. I got to do it all myself. And then you wind up getting completely burned out. And I love that when you were on vacation, it allowed you to have the clarity of I need to take a break.

I need to take the holidays off. I commend you very, very much. A lot of people that I talked to on this podcast talk about burnout and they talk about not knowing they were burnt out. So it's really great to hear from your perspective. What are the warning signs? And I also heard you say that your care of yourself was the first thing that went. It's really challenging, I think, because it's, We also, I'm a similar type of person. I always say the first thing that goes is my gym and walking outside and drinking water. I'll notice that I didn't, you know, I didn't drink any water all day and it's 4 30 and I think we really need to start paying attention to our bodies because we also, I think as people in the United States, as workers in the United States, I think we pride ourselves on productivity too and just like going hustling and getting through it.

But if you hustle and get through it, you're going to burn out and then you won't be able to do anything. So you have to be able to recognize those signs, choose yourself and tell people that if they don't want, if they're not on board, like, sorry for 

Chelsea Smith: you. Yeah, very much so. And it's funny because, um, culture, culture teaches us to continue to work, work, grind until you can't anymore, no sleep or whatever.

And it's like I said, prayer and journaling was one of the things I did. And one of the things it said was you're supposed to rest. You need to rest. And as I started really, truly resting, maybe I could think a little bit, you know, I don't have to get this recipe book out by this date. I, knowing that it's not ready, you know, I don't have to do this.

Don't have to do that. And if I want it to be the authentic way I want it to be. I can't keep going this way. I have to take time to rest to take time to get out that brain fog because the brain fog mixed with the burnout, it's disgusting. It's horrible. So I'm, I'm a lot more mindful these days about, um, I'm like, damn, I need a break.

Like even today, I took the day off. 

Beth Lawrence: Good for you. It's a leap year. You have to stay every four years. Take it off. 

Chelsea Smith: You know, I'm taking it off. I got things to do. I already went to the gym. I had breakfast, you know, it's only 11 o'clock. I feel good. That's amazing. Prioritizing myself for sure, 

Beth Lawrence: you know, I think there's a reason that we were meant to rerecord this because I think that we had such an amazing and needed conversation.

I loved it. 

Chelsea Smith: I'm excited to listen back because it's going to remind me like, Hey. You did reach that level of clarity. You were looking for it. You did all this stuff is happening that you've been asking for. So I look forward to hearing this. Um, I look forward to it. I hope others look forward to hearing it too and learning that, we cook and we plan, you know, 

Beth Lawrence: we cook, we plan, we avoid burnout.

Chelsea Smith: That's what we do. Yes. You know what, I might steal that slogan because It's yours. It's yours. I really like that. Maybe that's what the episode will be called. We cook, we plan, we avoid burnout. I like that a lot. Oh my goodness, I'm writing that down because 

Beth Lawrence: Oh my gosh, Chelsea, you are such a light in this world.

I'm so glad that I got to chat with you again. 

Chelsea Smith: So glad it really needed to happen. 

Beth Lawrence: Agree. Um, so Chelsea, thank you so much for coming today on the show. It's been a pleasure having 

Chelsea Smith: you. Likewise. Thank you for having me. I hope, hopefully we get to talk in another few months or so and see all the beautiful things that are happening here. Even after Africa, I know I'll have good stories.

I was going to say, 

Beth Lawrence: maybe if you need a planner or an assistant to come with you to Africa, I mean, you know, never know, 

Chelsea Smith: you know, 

Beth Lawrence: but tell people how they can get in touch with you.

And I'll put all the links in the show notes. 

Chelsea Smith: Sounds good. So the best way is to contact my email at elevation comforts, LLC at gmail.

com, or you can always call or text me at 2 6 7 3 6 8 7 3 5 6. And that will take you through a quick recording. I always get back to people on those lines. So whenever you prefer email preferably because. It's 2024.

Beth Lawrence: Listeners, you heard that right? Email preferred. That's a boundary. We love a boundary. Thank you so much, Chelsea. I cannot wait to see all the amazing places that you travel, whether it's solo or with your son.

And I can't wait to see what happens with elevation comforts coming up. 

Chelsea Smith: Thank you so much. 

Beth Lawrence: Thanks for joining me and thank you so much listeners. We will be back next time on the type a plus podcast. Take care.