Erik + Emily Orton (00:01.73)
There we go. All right, so what's our hook gonna be for this one? This is episode 31. We are pros now. We just start recording before we even know what we're gonna say. That's how we are. It's new. We're gonna say, so many people get caught up in, okay, let me start over. You can do a first draft. I don't want it to sound derogatory.
There are so many different ways that people like to approach the new year. Some people set a goal. Some people set many goals, a goal in each area of their life. Some people have a phrase or word. We like to do something that's a little bit different and is very easy to be successful at. Easy win. So welcome to the What Could Go Right podcast. I'm Emily Orton. I am Eric Orton.
And here we talk about personal growth, family connections, and parenting adult kids. Eric, will you introduce this idea? I would love to. So what is it that we do that's different from a New Year's resolution or annual goals or things like that? We do what's called a New Year's first. We've been doing this for a while. In fact, I wrote an article about it for the Washington Post ran it.
And I was like, wow, you think that's cool enough to run in the Washington Post? All right. That was in 2019, I think, or 20. Anyway, it was a few years ago, but I think we've been doing this since our ninth anniversary and we are coming up on 28th. So for us, we can find our, we're our anniversary is in early January. And so that has played into how we're.
just making this our New Year's tradition. Okay, yeah. So yeah, this is what it started out as, is like when you have an anniversary on January 2nd, it just gets glommed into, it's like the day after the holidays end. Nobody wants to get together and do anything or anyway. It's just, it's kind of like your energy is low after everything that you've just been through, all the good stuff. So Emily and I decided to do what we call a New Year's first and here's what it is.
Erik + Emily Orton (02:23.178)
We pick something that neither of us have ever done before, and we go do it.
That's it. And so, ta-da! Instructions complete. So some examples of this would be, one that I recall was many years ago, I had never been to a yoga class before. Me either. And we just thought, wanna go to a yoga class? So we went to this place called Bread and Soul, or Bread Yoga or something, in our neighborhood in New York. And we had like an eight week old baby.
who came with us. And I remember there was people laying around on the floor on mats and it was really hot. And dark. And this guy was talking in the dark. They turned the lights way down. And I'm like, trying to do the stretch thing. And the next thing I know, somebody's touching me. And I'm like, ah! And it's this guy like trying to push me deeper into this stretch and I'm not very deep into this stretch. And I remember he sat on my butt and pulled my shoulders back and I was like sitting next to you like.
Why are you... Anyway, but we went through this experience together and it was new. What's great about it is that, at least for us as a couple, what was great about it is that we were both really new. We were both in a humble position. We were both as beginners. We were being the rookie and maybe we're really good.
maybe I'm really good at some things and you're really good at some things, but this was a thing where we both had to kind of start from nowhere. And so that was really great for our relationship, but it's a great solo as well. If you're looking, whether you're looking for personal growth or family connections, this works as a great idea. So just go do something you've never done before, but you wanted to try, and it might be trying a new restaurant.
Erik + Emily Orton (04:19.294)
It can be something very simple. Okay, yeah, I want to get into some of the other ideas, other things that we've done and other ideas, but I just want to say that one of the things that I like about a New Year's first is that once you've done it, it's a win, success. Unlike a New Year's resolution, which I have made, or setting a goal, a quarterly goal, or businesses have all kinds of goals, unlike that, you gotta keep working at it, you gotta keep sticking with it, you gotta have habits, and I'm all about that.
I'm not trying to dog it and I do try and, you know, build my life that way. But one of the things that I like about a New Year's first is as soon as you've done it, check it's done. And it cannot be undone. And so you could say my New Year's first is I'm going to. Wow. Well, here's what I'm thinking. So for example, this is a season of jubilee for us. We have kids graduating school. We have kids getting accepted into college. We have.
weddings, we have so many plus the holidays, right? So we have so many big celebratory things going on. So I was thinking this year, and maybe you listening know better, maybe you've done this before, I was thinking this year we maybe try doing a float tank. You've ever heard of that before? That's just the tank is set at like basically your body temperature and it's got tons of salt in it, so you don't do anything to hold your body up and you go darken the
It's like dark cocoon and there's like no outside input, right? It's supposed to be a sensory deprivation experience. But this is a one, like you do this by yourself, right? Well, you both go at the same time. You could go in- Like a couple's massage, but like a couple's float? Yeah, like you could go in one tank by yourself. I could go in one tank by myself. And afterwards you'd be like, was that weird? Was that relaxing? I've never even looked in to see how much something like this would cost, so I don't know. I think it's like a hundred and something.
It's something I don't know if it's something that will do or not But my idea was like what if we tried something we've never tried before that's actually really relaxing Okay, it could be any kind of thing. Okay, so yoga and float tanks are kind of in their own category I want to say a couple of things that we've done that are been like No-brainers. We were in South Carolina. It was cold. We were by the beach and we said, we've never seen the sun rise in South Carolina. Over Charleston. In South Carolina. So we walked down to the beach and we watched the sun rise in Charleston.
Neither of us had ever done that before. Check, that was a new thing that neither of us had done. It was a New Year's first. One time before that, we were looking at sailboats to potentially move aboard. And so we just said, hey, what if we go look at sailboats in person as a family? That was crazy. That was very cold.
That was a very cold New Year's first. Can I tell that story? Okay, so we decided to do this and these poor boat brokers, I called them up like, hey, happy New Year's day. We're thinking of coming and looking at boats. We're in New York, so it's like New England. We're gonna go look. I'm talking about boats in Connecticut and Rhode Island. I was like, hey, could we come look at a boat tomorrow? Because that's sentimental, you know?
We did, we were doing it on our anniversary, which is January 2nd. And so I lined up visits at three different boats and we showed up and, you know, I know like having to, one guy has to take us out on a launch. It was cold. And the other one, like this was taking so long and you know, the sun sets pretty early in the new year. And so it was like 4 30 and it was already dark and I called this guy and I was like, Hey, we're running late. Can they still come see your boat? And he's like,
Yeah, no problem. I live here. So, so we, you know, we go out to this marina in Rhode Island and the guy honestly looks like Santa Claus. And it's this old custom steel hold boat and we go inside and it is so cozy in there. He had
Was it a wood burning stove? I just wanted to buy the boat immediately because I was like, this boat will keep us warm. Even though we were not planning to sail in a cold. I was emotionally driven. Yeah. So we'd never been boat shopping before. And we felt like frauds because we're like, Oh, don't you have to be a certain kind of person to go look at buying a boat or a yacht? Have to have a certain amount of money in the bank. Of which we did not have. We did not have any, we just looked. So we're like.
You know, we're just going to window shop and learn how this whole thing goes. So anyway, we went, our kids went and it was really fun, but it was cold. So that was one I remember, but it didn't cost us except for a tank of gas, you know, and sandwiches at Subway. Yeah. They can be some just so simple, like a local class in your neighborhood. You could just try something new at a restaurant, like a new kind of dish. I mean, what got you down the road from YouTube? Like really just depends on what you're interested in that you thought, I wanted to try that.
Just try it, just try the one, try something new. Okay, so maybe we're over hammering this, but basically if you can do a New Year's resolution, but you can also do a New Year's first, pick something that you've never done before, or you and your partner or spouse have never done before, and just- Or with your kids. Or with your kids, and just do it. And then you start the year with like, hey, that was kind of, whatever. You know, like it could be good- I did something a little daring. I took a risk, I tried something new. It sets a tone for the year. That's kind of what it is. So.
Okay, so if you haven't already done this thing before, we want to invite you to a New Year's first. It's a discovery call. We would like to invite- Free, free, free. You don't even have to leave your house. You can just pick up your phone, schedule it, and then you gotta just like point the camera at you when it comes time to do it. And hopefully it can set a tone for your year. It can hopefully set you on a path to- Like what is a discovery call? You're gonna-
Okay, so a discovery call, you're gonna talk to me and we get on and really it's just about getting you into a good headspace where you can think about what might be possible in your life that you're not thinking about right now. It's about helping you come up with ideas if you don't have ideas. It's about helping you come up with some clarity if you have some ideas but you don't know which one might be the most interesting. And then, you know, I want to give you a little bit of boost of confidence.
You're gonna ask like three specific questions. Three specific questions. Yeah, I'm a big believer in the art of encouragement. And if you go back three episodes ago, we talked about encouragement. And that's what I wanna give you. That's what I wanna give you for the new year. And so a discovery call- What if they're like, I don't wanna get on a discovery call because I know for sure that I'm not gonna then sign up for coaching to do the thing. Oh.
then we probably shouldn't talk at all. I don't even want to hear from you. No. Please. Look, I love getting on these calls and it's really satisfying to me in just 30 minutes seeing what a shift it can make in people's lives. And yes, if you want to then work together going forward and we can be helpful on your journey, we'd love to, we'll tell you all about it, tell you what it's involved, how it works, what it costs, all that sort of stuff. Happy to tell you that.
No obligation to do any of that, of course. But we just love connecting with you in person because right now we know you're out there, but we don't get to hear from you. And so it's a chance to connect in person for us. That's one of the things that's in it for us. And also it feels great to put that kind of energy out into the world and see you come up with the things that you want to do that you may not have realized you want to do. You're going to discover them and then just get started going down that path.
Whether you go down that path is up to you. If you want help going down that path, we're happy to help you. But that's what a discovery call is. It's really in, and it's, I can't think of a better way to start the year other than going to a yoga class and having some guy sit on me and pull my shoulders back. That would be like the second best way. But it's seriously, if you have never responded to one of those opportunities to hop on a free discovery call, I don't know how long we're gonna be.
offering those, but for now we are really enjoying it. And in just 30 minutes, people are stepping away, inspired, motivated, and with their next steps in mind for what they wanna do and just feel excited and encouraged and we're happy for you, whether you take that 30 minutes and run with it or whether we keep working together. So either way, happy, happy new year. Happy, happy new year. And keep asking. What could go right?
Hey, it's Erik. To sign up for a discovery called go to theawesomfactory.nyc/discovery. theawesomfactory.nyc/discovery. Pick a time and I'll see you there.
If you wanna go sailing with us next year, or you're just curious about where we're going, here are the details. We've had a great 2023, we've had some amazing trips, and we're having a lot of fun doing this, so we're gonna do a few more here. And we've added some for early 2024.
Our January trip for the Bahamas is already sold out, but we're gonna go back for another week. If you wanna spend Valentine's Day in a warm place with beautiful turquoise waters, this is your trip. February 12th through the 16th, we're gonna meet up there and go sailing for the week. It's gonna be a great way to share a lovely day with the person you love. You can also, if you wanna add some time on the end. Add a couple days to extend the magic, prolong the magic, go for it.
The next trip is going to be in March, the British Virgin Islands. We're going to go March 11th through the 16th. It's the last week of winter. So if you want to spend the last week of winter somewhere where it's beautiful and warm, this is your chance. We're going to go to the British Virgin Islands, one of my favorite places on earth and it's the sailing capital of the world. Why? Because of the trade winds and the beautiful, flat, easy conditions. And so we're gonna do some sailing, we're gonna do some swimming, snorkeling. If you're into scuba diving, we can figure that out as well. But come join us, we're gonna take a boat out and enjoy this beautiful spot, the British Virgin Islands. Super easy to get to.
Okay, some of you might remember that I was just in Mexico a few weeks ago, and it blew my mind. It was my first time there to Southern Mexico, and I didn't know quite what to expect. I'd heard really great things about it, but I loved it so much that I can't wait to go back. So April 8th through the 13th, we're going back to La Paz, Mexico. It's the sea of Cortez, the very south tip of the Baja Peninsula. Why these dates? Because the solar eclipse is passing through there. April 8th, you'll be able to see the solar eclipse in the path, and then we're gonna go sailing the rest of the week.
So it's one of the most pristine places I've ever been. You can check my Instagram feed and see some footage from there. And so I'm eager to get back there and the cherry on top is gonna be getting to see the solar eclipse that's happening April 8th.
Lastly, Athens, Greece. This trip is already almost sold out, but we do have one cabin left. It's gonna be July 15th through the 20th, fly into Athens. We're gonna get to explore ancient Greece, ancient Athens, the Parthenon, the Acropolis, all that. And then we're gonna go hit some islands, go island hopping for the rest of the week. So that's gonna be July 15th through the 20th. There's one cabin left. So if you're interested in any of these, email me directly, hello at thea Hello at thea Just let me know that you're interested. We'll chat through all the details. I'll give you all the information, answer your questions.
We'll see if one of these trips is a good fit. And even if you just kind of like, well, you're not sure, but you wanna know more, this is the perfect way to do it. Just reach out, no commitment, no stress, no worries, but we'd be happy to tell you all about it and see if it's a fit. And if we get to go sailing, it's one of my favorite things to do. So thanks a lot, thanks for listening. What could go right?
