Why I Disappeared for 2.5 Months (& FINALLY revealing a REBRAND after 350 episodes)

Nov 30

We're Back: Introducing Rain or Shine

Season 16, Episode 383 | November 25, 2024

Quick Summary

After a two-and-a-half-month hiatus, Kelsey returns to announce the podcast rebrand from "Visionary Life" to "Rain or Shine." This deeply personal episode explores the philosophy behind the new name, why consistency matters even when life gets hard, and how planting seeds during difficult seasons leads to future growth. Kelsey shares vulnerable insights about business ownership, seasonal transitions, motherhood, and the courage it takes to make changes when something feels stagnant.

In This Episode

Why Kelsey took an extended break and what she learned during the pause
The origin story of the "Rain or Shine" philosophy and what it means
How the 52 Pickup Method led to the podcast rebrand
The importance of showing up consistently, even when things are difficult
Why business owners are feeling collective heaviness right now
The 90-day accountability framework for understanding your current results
Making November the best month ever with intentional planning
Seasonal transitions and the gift of slower, more introspective seasons
Behind-the-scenes updates: speaking gigs, WAVE event, teaching, and motherhood

Key Takeaways

Your marketing plan isn't static—when something stops feeling good, it's okay to pause and reassess
The "rain or shine" mentality means showing up consistently regardless of circumstances, knowing that sunny seasons follow rainy ones
If you're unhappy with your current results, look back 90 days and take accountability for what you did (or didn't do)
Planting seeds during difficult seasons changes your relationship with those challenges
Slowing down in winter months isn't weakness—it's an opportunity for strategic thinking and planning
Changing direction doesn't mean you're making a mistake; sometimes it's the exact risk you need to take

Memorable Quotes

"Planting seeds inevitably changes my feelings about rain." —Lucy Shaw
"The more somebody complains, the less accurate their perspective of the world is." —Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
"I want to know that there's sunshine coming on the rainy days... by planting seeds, we can enjoy the rainy season."
"To kill time or to wish time away just feels like the biggest waste of life."

Resources Mentioned

Visionary 2026 Workshop: Annual business planning session on December 17th (www.kelseyreidl.com/2026)
All Things Visionary Newsletter: Weekly insights at kelseyreidl.com/newsletter
The 52 Pickup Method: Kelsey's framework for setting weekly goals
My First Million Podcast: Discussion on the importance of unscheduled thinking time
Ed Mylett Show: 90-day accountability framework
Chris Williamson Podcast: Dr. Rangan Chatterjee's perspective on complaints
Bandit Creative: Designed by Josie for the Rain or Shine rebrand

About the Host

Kelsey Reidl is a marketing strategist, business consultant, and host of the newly renamed Rain or Shine podcast (formerly Visionary Life). With over 350 episodes and seven years of podcasting, she helps entrepreneurs build sustainable marketing strategies while navigating the ups and downs of business ownership. She's also a speaker on topics like ranking on ChatGPT, a course creator, and a mother balancing it all with her signature "rain or shine" philosophy.

Connect

Instagram: @kelseyreidl
Website: kelseyreidl.com
Subscribe to the weekly newsletter: kelseyreidl.com/newsletter

Kelsey: Welcome back, visionaries. It has been a hot minute since I have been here for you, and I swear I have a good excuse, but I do feel bad that I took such an extended break without really giving you a reason why or queuing you up for what was going on. Yes, I shared a few teasers behind the scenes saying we're taking a pause, we're doing a bit of a rebrand, and I'm changing the name of the show. All that to say that things took a little longer than I thought.
September and October in my world were really full, and I am someone who usually can hold quite a lot, but with speaking gigs, travel, family stuff, and everything going on, I really had to look at my priorities and say, "Okay, what can I truly handle in this season?" I knew that certain things had to go or stay on pause. Being that we were putting a hold on the show before launching season 16, I thought maybe I'll give myself four weeks and just get through this busy season and make sure I don't drop the ball with one-on-one clients or consulting projects. But that really turned into two and a half months at this point.
Please accept my apology. Please know that I missed you guys so much. I think a lot about why I do this podcast, why I've recorded 350 episodes, why I am willing to show up every single week until a couple months ago and spend time with you. I think it's because I feel like I can go deeper here in a world where things feel very surface level. I don't know if you feel that way too. It's like you open Instagram and you're quickly scrolling. You don't really get the true gist of somebody and you might skim an email but not actually get the tone of voice.
For me, the podcast feels like a place where I can sink in, I can get cozy, I can sip a coffee with you, and just get a little deeper. I feel like I can become a bit more undone and be my true self. Not that I'm not always my true self, but with an Instagram reel, for example, it's a soundbite. You have to capture this cute footage and put a voiceover over it, and it all feels so highly produced. To make it big in the Instagram world, the TikTok world, it does feel like there has to be this production value. But I do feel like on this podcast, I can show up in my most real state of being and not feel like I have to be performative for you. That means a lot to me in this day and age where I do crave more depth out of the conversations and the relationships that I'm having. I want to offer that level of depth through my own brand and the messages that I'm putting out into the world.
So here we are. We're back. We rebranded. I really struggled with this one. This concept hit me about six months ago. I have this method I call the 52 Pickup Method, and every week of the year—there's 52 weeks in a year—I set a goal, just a random goal, something that I want to work on. It might be sleep. I'll base all my decisions around, "Will this help me sleep better?" It might be a goal to host the best event ever, so everything I do that week is to make sure I'm the best, most present vessel for hosting an event. Maybe it's around nutrition and nourishment.
One week I wrote this goal and it said, "What is the biggest risk you can take that if it failed would not deeply impact the business?" I wrote that down and moved about my week, and it was on that week that I started to feel this stuck energy with the podcast. I don't know what it was. We're on year seven, I think going on year eight. Maybe it's just that typical seven-year itch that people talk about. But I just didn't know what the future of it was. As my time has become more limited, I've had to really look at where I'm devoting it and what makes sense and what's lighting me up.
This is something that I guide all of my one-to-one clients to do. Your marketing plan is not static. The things that you commit to—even though I have a rain or shine mentality of show up, do the thing, be consistent—when something isn't feeling good, that is reason to pause and say, "Why am I doing it then?" Because it can be bringing you millions of dollars, but if it zaps your joy and totally sucks up your energy dry, then that's not necessarily the best strategy or you need to outsource it. This is something that I work with all my clients on all the time because as small marketing teams, maybe you're a marketing team of one, you need to see data that strategies are working and you need to enjoy the process.
For me, I see the data that the podcast works. We get great listenership, we have new subscribers. I have a lot of clients who really start to trust me through the podcast because you're listening to me while you're doing the dishes, while you're out on a walk, driving your child to daycare. I'm kind of revealing it all, maybe more than I actually tell my immediate family. Maybe besides Dave, but even Dave—I don't sit down and just talk. This is such a weird, unique platform and yeah, it takes a lot of work for me to show up and produce this content, but I feel like podcasts have given me such a gift in my life over the last 15 years.
I think really when I moved to Toronto—I feel like I'm so not Toronto for saying Toronto—when I moved there, I remember starting to listen to podcasts. I'd ride the subway and I'm in this new big city and I barely knew anyone and podcasts were my best friends. I learned so much and I grew to feel less alone and to feel connected and to meet others through the podcasting community. There are just infinite benefits, which is why I feel so passionate about it. I just feel like I can be so intimate here.
All that to say, I was feeling this itch. I wanted to take some version of a risk with the show because I didn't want to bring that stale energy into the podcast. That's exactly when it hit me—it was time for a refresh. Of course, many of you know the origin story of the Visionary Life brand. It was about seven or eight years ago. I had just been let go from my dream job, and my husband and I were going on a trip to Peru. We were hiking Machu Picchu. I was listening to Justin Bieber's brand new album, and the song "Children" came on and he said the word "visionary"—"be a visionary for a change" in the song. That's when I knew I'm going to create something.
I remember coming home and I went out for coffee with my friend Rachel in Toronto. We went to Propeller, I think it was called, in the West End. She was asking me about the trip and "What are you going to do now, Kel? Now that you're fun employed, we'll call it." I said, "I think I want to start a community and I'm going to call it the Visionary Co." She's like, "Awesome. What are you going to do in that community?" I was going to start a Facebook community—this was eight years ago—and I was like, "I don't know. I'm just going to post what I'm listening to and people I am following and podcasts and just get conversation with other visionaries." She was like, "Oh yeah, cool. Go for it."
I actually started the community and I grew this Facebook group and I just shared stuff, shared the podcast, and it all grew from there. Visionary Life was just the name that I launched the show with. I also had the Visionary Method, which was my course, and All Things Visionary, which is the newsletter. Visionary is a huge piece of my brand. To even depart from that has felt really scary. But in the direction of the show, I kept thinking, "Visionary Life—am I explaining this to my guests? Do they know what they're coming onto?" I'm doing a lot more solo shows now, and I just felt the call to change it. I knew what it was going to be because there's a motto that I have lived by my entire life and it was more of a subconscious operating system within me. It's called rain or shine.
I have so many stories to share with you, so many reasons why this phrase resonates with me. For the very least, I remember going back six years ago, I had a running buddy in Toronto, her name's Laura. I don't know if she listens to this podcast, but we would always schedule 6 AM runs. We were such go-getters. We lived in the same neighborhood and we'd go run High Park in Toronto. We'd say, "Okay, meet at the lights at 6 AM." This was a 12-month-a-year run club—winter, summer, spring, fall, ice, snow, rain, sleet, sunshine, whatever. We'd wake up in the morning, my alarm would go off and I knew I was meeting Laura for a run and it could have been pouring rain outside, but I just knew I didn't even need to text her and say, "Hey, we still on today?"
When people send you that, my immediate reaction is always, "Duh, of course I'm going to be there." Are we rain or shine friends? I just felt like it was so neat to have a rain or shine friend who you don't even have to ask, "Are you going to show up for me? Am I going to show up for you?" You just have this unspoken agreement with yourself. Maybe it's with a friend and it's like, "Yeah, I'll be there, rain or shine. I will show up for you no matter the circumstances."
Something else that I was listening to was a quote from, I believe he's a doctor named Rangan Chatterjee, and I heard this through the Chris Williamson podcast. He basically said that the more somebody complains, the less accurate their perspective of the world is. That a complaint—say you're complaining that it's a rainy, cloudy day outside—you're basically saying, "Why is the world not working in the way that I expected to?" Because of course it's going to rain, so then to be upset when it rains is kind of silly because it shows you that you don't really have an accurate model of how the world works. There will always be rainy days and there will always be sunny days, and there'll always be things in between. To be upset or to be surprised when there's rain one day is not really a great way to live because this is just having an inaccurate model.
Instead of saying, "Awesome, I'm glad it's a rainy day today. We have to have a certain number of these. I'm still going to make the best of it." I really have to straddle here because I'm not trying to be toxic positive—what do they even call it? Toxic positivity, which I feel like is a really trendy phrase these days. It's more so just let's ride out these rain or shine days, the highs and lows, knowing that they all exist and they can all coexist and they can live harmoniously. Two can be true at once.
I'll be so honest right now in my world, it's so sunny and it's pouring rain on me. It's pouring rain on me—sorry to be vulgar—but that's the truth. There's so much to be grateful for. The sun shines on me in so many ways. I am lucky, I'm blessed, I'm happy. But behind the scenes, and I think this goes for everybody's life, there is dark storminess. Rain or shine, I'm still going to show up. I'm still going to get up each morning, put on my outfit, brush my hair, put in my contacts, whether it's a rainy day or a shiny day, because I know that the opposite will be true eventually, and that by planting seeds—this is actually such a good quote that I love by Lucy Shaw. She says, "Planting seeds inevitably changes my feelings about rain."
The past week for me has been rainy and I don't really want to get into why, but just a personal storm of sorts. What I am doing during this personal storm is I'm planting seeds. That doesn't mean I'm just showing up, distracting, working. I feel like maybe some therapist needs to come at me and be like, "Kel, you're just trying to distract by planting seeds in a rainy season." But this is how I navigate life. I want to know that there's sunshine coming on the rainy days. Again, going back to the quote that planting seeds inevitably changes my feelings about rain—we can enjoy the rainy season. It doesn't all have to be doomsday. We don't have to take a rain check on our life when it's rainy or when it's beautiful. Let's just show up for those days. Let's bottle sunshine, bring it to the rainy days, but also know that it's okay whatever season you're in to feel both, to feel skewed one way or the other.
All that to say, that's my philosophy here. There's so much that I want to share, and I really think at the core of this podcast, we interview entrepreneurs, visionaries, creative thinkers, marketing experts. I want to interview athletes and people who are performing rain or shine, and mothers who are balancing a lot and people who—I don't care what their title is, what they do—but who exude this mentality and who feel passionate about this topic that I do. Because we're all weathering storms.
I think especially business owners, especially right now—I'm recording this at the end of November—whether you want to say we're in a recession, a lull, we're going into the Christmas season, it's Black Friday, there's so much going on right now. I think there's this collective heaviness. I feel that too. I really do. It is not easy to be a business owner right now. Never is it, but right now especially, the more people I talk to, no matter the industry, there's just a heaviness or something going on under the surface that it's not necessarily a time of abundance for every business. That's not to say go adopt this mentality of, "Oh, business is hard right now." But you know, business is hard right now, and so we have to keep showing up, rain or shine, because the shiny season is coming. We know it's on the other side of a rainy season.
I think it's important to bring this topic to light, especially for business owners, especially those of you who are in the early stages, because I know that's so many of you listening. You need that encouragement that it's not going to be rainy forever. The planting seeds in the rain philosophy is—on a time horizon, we fast forward six months—you're going to be in a new season. Are you going to be happy that you looked back six months ago, 90 days ago, and you planted the right seeds to be where you are today?
I heard this on an Ed Mylett show the other day: if you are unhappy with the space you are currently in, you have to ask yourself, "What was I doing the last 90 days?" Today, if you feel unhappy in your body, you don't feel strong, you feel like maybe you've just been eating so many carbs and you've gained a little bit of weight, that is a product of the last 90 days. In business, if you feel like, "Okay, I don't have that many one-to-one applications coming through, or my group program didn't sell out, or my event tickets aren't moving as I thought they would," you have to ask yourself, "What have I been doing the last 90 days? Is there something that I stopped doing that I should have been doing? How can I take accountability for perhaps why this result that I have today is actually a byproduct of the last 90 days?"
I actually find that to be quite a fascinating topic because I think so often we think 90 days is—whether you see it as a short amount of time or a long amount of time—so much can change in a few months, and if you start planting seeds today, I guarantee you that your world in 90 days, no matter what your goal is, is going to look a whole lot different.
Let's rewind, catch up as friends and I'll give you some line of sight into what's coming from the podcast. Just as a recap, September, October was busy. September, I had a couple speaking gigs. People have been booking me for the topic of how to rank on ChatGPT, and that's a whole quickly moving world right now. I had to stay on top of what's relevant, what's current, and to make sure that I had my ducks in a row. I did a lot of just going deep and figuring out how I could deliver the best content to groups of entrepreneurs. I've still been doing a lot of speaking on that topic.
Coming into October, I had a couple major events. First one being our WAVE event with 70 female entrepreneurs in Alton. It was a massive success. I still can't believe we had that many incredible women in a room. I think it almost blew our minds how far you can come in the span of two years. For context, Emily and I started that event about two and a half years ago. We started very small, just at a cafe called Little Lake Market, and we started with 10 women gathered around a cafe. Just a handful of weeks ago, we had 70 women at the Alton Mill, which is Ontario's premium wedding venue. That was just crazy. Event planning is no joke. I've shared more about that in my All Things Visionary newsletter, which I send out every single week. You can subscribe at kelseyreidl.com/newsletter.
That happened. I also wrapped up teaching at Toronto Metropolitan University, and that was a course that was 20 weeks long. I mentored a handful of participants in the Digital Marketing Accelerator program. That really took the bulk of my Tuesdays. Life stuff as well, just keeping afloat on all things motherhood and watching my little guy grow so fast and really just shifting our winter routines. I don't know if you ever feel this, but come the change in season, I always have this—maybe it's a two-week period of pure discomfort.
I go from being Summer Kel where I'm riding and we're spending the evenings at the park as a family, and we're out with friends and we bike every night when Dave gets home. Then when it gets dark and it gets cold and the time change so it gets dark at 5 PM now, we have to change everything. I'm not riding as much, we're not outside as much as we once were, and we're in that slower, contractive season. It's a beautiful season and my body needs it. But it almost is such an abrupt change that I fall into this existential questioning of, "Oh my God, what do I do with myself? Am I a good human? Why am I not feeling so—" I love the adrenaline rush of having lots on the go and I love being physically active with my body.
November and December are certainly a time—and January, February—to go more inward. To me that takes a little bit of time to chill out my nervous system and relax and to accept the fact that I'm going to more yoga and I'm going to sit in the sauna and I'm going to have evenings that are just quiet where I go to bed by 8:45 after I put Freddy down, or Dave and I sit in the hot tub together. That's our activity. We're just going a little slower. But that also for me bubbles up a lot of insecurity. I don't know what that is, but it's just when I'm not going so quickly, I always question, "Am I doing enough?" I have trouble just being.
Of course, it takes hard work to run a business. I'm not going to say that I'll just sit back, relax for the entire winter and hope that money finds me. I think it requires a certain amount of work to keep up with your health and your life and your friendships and your family and your health goals and to be reaching for the life that you want. But also I think the shift in season, if it teaches us anything, it's that there are ways to slow down and to be more methodical about business. To actually sit and plan and strategize and think—oh my god, when was the last time you had thinking time in your calendar?
I was listening to the My First Million podcast and they were saying that even as very successful entrepreneurs, it's very hard to find, or even just have, unscheduled thinking time because we'll always find something else that can replace that time. It's just the world we live in. We're so stimulated, but I feel like this time of year is actually just perfect for that. I'm always nostalgic for this time of year too, because two years ago, at this time, I was very pregnant and I was four weeks away from going into labor with Freddy. I just remember really sinking into that nesting feeling. It was dark outside and I felt so creative and I was loving the flow of just settling into a slow season.
Even though to me this might be rainy season—we'll call it—where it's just a little darker, it is a little rainy in November, it's also that great time to plant seeds for what's next and to tie beautiful bows on the last 12 months or the last year. To think ahead to what we want the new year to look like and to feel like and to sound like. What stories will we tell at the end of next year and what changes will I be happy that I made, and who am I going to become in 2026?
Big changes and big questions to be asking. If this type of topic actually interests you at all, then I would encourage you to join our Visionary 2026. It's an annual business planning workshop. As long as you have a business and you want to grow it in 2026, this is a great workshop for you to attend. You can just go to kelseyreidl.com/2026 and grab your ticket. We'd love to see you there because it's an amazing two-hour virtual planning session. I give you the entire PDF workbook, 13 pages long, that guides you through my process. We get 12 months of planning done in just two hours together. That's happening on December 17th. I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that it is one of the most incredible spends of two hours that you'll ever have, because I really think it's worthwhile and essential to wrap up this year with success and then move into next year with peace of mind and clarity.
All that to say, here we are at the end of November. I actually feel very nostalgic and emotional today. I don't want to go deep on it because I'll probably cry, but Dave called me this morning and he said, "Did you know that this is Freddy's last monthly milestone because he's technically 23 months old today?" Yeah, you just stop counting months. Not that we're counting months anymore, but we have this recurring calendar invite and it says Freddy's monthly milestone. Anyways, Dave was like, "Oh, I'm just so proud of the boy he's becoming," and I just lost it. I'm like, "Of course I'm proud too, but I'm also bawling my eyes out." It's hard to grapple with how quickly these little beautiful beings grow and just all the emotions that come with that. That's what's been on my mind.
I can't believe we're at November 25th already. I am actually taking off on a small little vacation to the sunshine. As you know, if you've listened to the podcast for a while, I always run a little Project November in my mind because my mission is always to make November the best month ever. I think that when we hear the month of November, we're always like, "Oh," it almost just evokes dread because it's a quieter, more dead month. But in reality, we are in control. Rain or shine, I'm going to enjoy this month. You can come with me or you can stay on the sidelines, but what can we do to actually enjoy November overall?
We've been going skating every Saturday. We've had some really fun plans with friends. I did wreath making. We did a wine night. I've still been getting out, biking some weekends with my friends. I'm headed to Florida on a little trip, a dose of sunshine. I don't know, the list goes on, but I just feel like I've done so much to make sure that this month is enjoyable. I got to go watch my friend and colleague Christine teach her incredible Soma class. Just spending more time as a family. I feel like it hasn't been outwardly the most glamorous month, but inwardly, I feel like it's been just a beautiful past 25 days.
I know I'm a little late on sharing Project November and how it's so important to enjoy November, December, January. Do things that really keep you looking forward to every month versus just saying, "Oh, I'm just going to go to sleep and wake up in April or May when it's spring." You know that time is the thing that I'm fascinated with. To kill time or to wish time away just feels like the biggest waste of life. How can we enjoy each season, rain or shine?
Yeah, I mean there's the update. It took a lot to sit down and record this and eventually I will open up about what's been going on behind the scenes personally, but it felt like I really just needed to take that first break in seven and a half years, eight years. Thank you for sticking with me. Thanks for tuning into the rebrand and just listening in to what's been going on in my head. I'll be so honest with you, I just didn't know if this was the right decision. I kept asking myself, "Do I do this? Am I making a big mistake leaving the word visionary and going to rain or shine? Will I regret this?"
However, I remind myself two things. Going back to that quote, "What's the biggest risk I can take without losing the business?" Changing the name of the podcast is not risky, so I'm just doing it. I was in a little valley of stagnation, and so change helps that, to get to that other side. I needed to just plant some seeds. I worked with an incredible designer named Josie from Bandit Creative. She did the graphic for Rain or Shine. Probably going to put it on a hoodie or something because I really like it and I just think it's fun. I just wanted something a little more unique, something that I could have some fun leaning into and creating for, and could tie into my questions.
I'll be honest, the content of the podcast is not going to change. I'm not doing a new format. I tried—I've been recording episodes the last two months. I tried to weave in, "What's a rainy moment you've had?" But it almost felt forced. So we're going to keep the podcast as is. It's just a new title. It's a new intro, new philosophy. But at its core, I am still here. I'm interviewing creative thinkers, masterful marketers, visionary entrepreneurs, and people just like you who have a story to share or a vision that inspires or a rain or shine philosophy that needs to be heard.
That's that. We have incredible interviews coming up. I'm excited to start dripping them out to you and to finally have this platform back to share with you. Some episodes will be solos—short ones. We'll have longer ones where I kind of teach on a certain topic or educate. We'll also be doing tons of interviews with incredible people who I can't wait to introduce you to.
Let this be our official welcome back party, our kickoff party. It would mean the world to me if you would screenshot this episode, share it on Instagram, let us know that you're listening. Tag me at @kelseyreidl or just shoot me a message on Instagram or text me or email me and just say, "Hey, listened to the podcast," because I'm always curious who's listening. I don't want this to be a one-way conversation. I'm so happy to be in your ears, but I want this to be a dialogue between you and me and hopefully even more people if we get a little digital community going.
I didn't want to wait till January. I knew this needed to get out before the new year because I've been sitting on this project for a while and it finally feels like the right time to just show up. Very unpolished, very imperfectly. But that's what this show is about. It's not me showing up as the most buttoned up version of myself. That's not how I want this to be. I want it to be me showing up, rain or shine, whatever mood I'm in. I might be mourning the loss of my little almost 2-year-old who I can no longer identify by the amount of months that he's at. I might be going through stuff, but I'm here. This rain or shine philosophy is truly my operating system. It's not just a pretty quote. It is something that I try to live by and that guides a lot of the decisions that I make. I'm happy to be able to share it with you.
Hopefully next time you want to go out for a run and you lace up and it starts drizzling, or you want to show up and write the email or record the podcast but your lighting's not working or your microphone—just do it rain or shine. Show up and reap the benefits of planting seeds on those rainy days.
That's it for now, visionaries. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Please let me know what you thought and I will see you on the next one. Bye.