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Welcome to Monday Musings with Kissa,
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where I share what the heck happened last week,
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what I have planned for this week,
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and a story time,
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not in that particular order.
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This is the audio companion to my Substack newsletter that I send out every Thursday.
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So if you’re not already subscribed, there’s a button somewhere here where you can do so.
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And content as of this recording is currently free.
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All right, y’all.
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Let’s dive in and talk about last week.
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It was another loaded week, but, you know, I’ve said this a million times.
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When is...
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That week never loaded.
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I feel like even on a break, even on vacation, it’s a loaded week.
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Lots of volunteering happened at Micah’s school and I had tons of meetings and
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production in between.
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We also started a big project here at our house.
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We are doing our backyard renovation project and we broke ground last week.
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I am so freaking excited for this.
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It’s a project that has been a long time coming.
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And we finally decided to pull the trigger and start on this project.
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So last week, the space was prepped.
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We rented a skid steer to level out the dirt and the land
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and man, what a difference.
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I mean, we are by far not finished yet.
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It’s like a long,
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long,
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grueling process to do a renovation project,
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but I can’t tell you how much better it already feels and looks back there.
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The kids were playing, and it was just so nice to see.
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Even
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if it’s just leveled out dirt.
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We don’t have any concrete.
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We have nothing out there yet, but we’re already all so excited for this project.
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Last week’s big focus on the business side was Thursday’s investor holiday party
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event,
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and I have a story time for you for that later,
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so stay tuned.
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And then over the weekend, we just had some family time.
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We had a birthday party on Saturday morning that we all went to,
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We went to what we like to call the candy bag store and let the kids just pick and
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choose what candy they wanted to have for the weekend.
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And then we had sushi after, which was a nice treat for me.
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Then on Sunday was church day as usual.
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And then we went to the YMCA to have a family swim.
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And that was really fun too.
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We played outside all weekend,
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like I said,
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and it was just such a great way to close out the week.
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It definitely healed my heart to be able to spend time with my little family.
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This week on the work front,
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we have Unique Markets this weekend,
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which is one of our favorite events to pop up at.
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And then we have another pop-up next week.
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at the Parole Lantern Festival in Long Beach.
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So we have to do all the prep for those two last pop-ups,
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make sure we’re fully stocked,
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get our gift sets ready,
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create our packing list,
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And then finally,
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one more goal I have is to follow up on the connections that I made at the investor
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party last Thursday.
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On the personal life side, we’re going to just do more work on our backyard this week.
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The focus is going to be the drainage to make sure that
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All of the rainwater and everything flows and doesn’t collect.
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And that was a problem that we had in the past.
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So we want to make sure that’s taken care of.
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And then also decide on what we’re going to do as far as pavers or concrete for the
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patio extension portion of the renovation project.
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On top of that, I have gifts that I need to wrap and I need to finish purchasing some gifts.
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So that’s going to be part of this week’s goals as well because I want to be done
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with that and have those gifts under our Christmas tree.
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Now for our story time.
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Let’s get back into the investor’s holiday party.
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I can’t tell you what a full circle moment is.
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that holiday party was.
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So last year,
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I got an invitation on LinkedIn,
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despite being inactive on that platform,
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pretty much ever since I created my account.
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And I got an invitation from a guy named Adam who
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to attend this holiday party for his company.
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And I said, you know what?
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Why not?
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So I decided to give it a shot and I attended as a guest with Charlie.
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We didn’t know anyone.
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We had no idea what to expect.
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We had never pitched our product to investors before.
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And we just went in because we wanted to just kind of dip our toe in and like
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get our feet wet into this side of business.
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Well, last year’s party, we had an amazing time.
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We made a lot of great connections that we definitely would not have made if we didn’t go.
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And we decided to submit an application to be part of their portfolio.
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I mean, it costs nothing to apply.
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Worst case scenario, we wouldn’t get a call back.
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So we did that.
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This year, after we submitted our application,
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We got accepted.
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We received our first investment and have grown so much with their support and
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weekly check-in meetings.
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We got asked to table at this year’s.
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holiday party so that we could sample our products and get directly in front of investors.
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And oh my God, we had such an amazing response.
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It felt so good and so validating for this little Filipina to just get so much
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praise for the food that she is serving these non-Filipino people.
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It was just the best feeling ever.
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People loved our products and our story,
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and it just reinforces what we’ve already known this past year.
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We’re freaking ready.
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We’re ready to take it to the next level in scale.
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We still have a lot of background work to do, and I know that, but we’re on the right track.
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So get ready, y’all.
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2026,
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I just can feel it in my soul that it’s gonna be a big year,
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not just for me,
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but for you too.
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Thank you so much for your time today.
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If you enjoyed this audio edition, please share it with a friend.
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And for the full Monday Musics experience,
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subscribe to my Substack at justkissa.substack.com.
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Until next time, remember you are a blessing and I’m so grateful you’re here.
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Bye friends
