Molly Donlan: Mundane Magic Part Deux

Megan Hamilton (00:02.585)
I'm Megan Hamilton and this is the Embracing Enchantment podcast. Today we have our very first repeat guest. It was just under a year ago that we first chatted and since then I've taken her Reiki program and she's hot.

by any standard a pretty big year. But before we get to that, she has a highly anticipated book coming February 17th called Mundane Magic, a lazy witch's guide to hacking your brain, building a daily practice and getting stuff done. Welcome back, Molly Donlan.

Molly (00:39.266)
Thank you so much. What an honor. First repeat guest. I'm like a regular. I feel like, I feel like remember, remember like in the early 2000s sitcoms when they'd have like a repeat guest and it was a celebrity and then they'd open the door and everyone would be like, whoa, that's what I'm picturing everyone listening is doing right now. So thank you for the warm welcome.

Megan Hamilton (00:43.363)
First one! Yes! Well...

Megan Hamilton (01:01.067)
It's probably what they're doing, yeah.

Megan Hamilton (01:06.297)
No doubt they are because the feedback from your first episode was really positive and people loved it. So what do we do? We give the people what they love. So we're going to pull a card or I'm going to pull a card just to set a tone and kind of guidance for the collective is somehow

Molly (01:15.97)
Hmm.

Molly (01:22.776)
Give them what they want.

Megan Hamilton (01:36.077)
sometimes what I think of when we go with the cards. But while I do, can you guide us through? Because I find this really interesting because we talked about your book last year. So it's almost been a year since you were on the podcast and we started to talk about it then. And now it's almost here. But a lot of people don't know, right? Like how long it takes, what the process is like. Can you talk about the process of, you know, what what

Molly (01:51.278)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (02:05.049)
happened from last year even, because you even knew the title I think last year, to now.

Molly (02:10.069)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, title hasn't changed that much. We did have to change one word from shit to stuff. And that was a sales concession I agreed to make. You know, just to the like being in bookstores and things like that. Apparently they care about what's on the title. Kind of weird, but. yeah, I think when I was writing a book, I did not expect it to be as long of a process. It's like a

15 month to two year process on average from signing a deal to actually like getting a book on shelves, which is fascinating to me. So I think when we talked, I submitted my manuscript January 1st of 2025. So a lot of the first half of last year was editing. So lots of different rounds of editing, different types of editing, different.

like I have an editor, but then there's like proofreaders and just all the, all the things. I don't know how many times I combed through that book with a fine tooth comb. So much of like, you we were like, you said the word that 17 times in this chapter. Do we want to change one or whatever? Like, or you, you, you talked about this crystal in this, but you didn't include it over here. Should we move it? Like I,

Amazing the the amount of detail they pick up on. And then after editing it goes into like design. So really, you know, I had all these amazing illustrators from my my illustrator, Elena Borst, who has been my best friend since I was 11. And so it was about like, where are we putting these great illustrations? Like, where exactly on the page are they going to be? How big are they going to be? What is the font? How are we going to differentiate between

Megan Hamilton (03:38.105)
Mm-hmm.

Molly (04:06.478)
you know, a written word and a meditation in the book and what's the appendix going to look like and all of that. And then it went into cover and we had lots and lots and lots of revisions of the cover to get to where we are now. And then, yeah, we kind of went into marketing, publicity. I don't even know. Now we're in the depth of like, what do we want our influencer boxes to look like? And like, you know, all of that. And then next thing you know, the book's going to be here. So.

Yeah, there's so it's been like a whirlwind. There's so much so many different steps that I'm just like, yeah, sure. Great. Another round of edits. Awesome.

Megan Hamilton (04:36.693)
Yeah, soon.

Megan Hamilton (04:46.913)
I actually, want to ask you about that next. We'll pull a card right now, but it occurred to me like as someone with ADHD and as somebody who created a bunch of ways to get through mundane tasks, perhaps you developed your own stuff for editing. But you know what? Actually, we'll just take this one because it popped up.

Molly (05:01.89)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (05:10.777)
And I love it. I love it for you. And I love it for us because we have the six of ones, which we call the victory card. It's overcoming a challenge. It's coming out the other side. It's being celebrated. It is riding your high horse. It is. You know, there's not there's not a lot of bad that we see with this card, but it really does.

Speak to.

like achieving a goal, but getting past there's there's some kind of challenge that's happened. And, you know, we've come out the other side, quote unquote, victorious. And then I like to look further like what does the victory look like? Does it look like what we thought it was going to look like? How do we feel now that we're here? Because this has been a topic that's come up a lot lately with coaching clients who are reaching goals and it feels different.

than they thought it was going to. And you and I talked about this really briefly before we started today. And I'm always so curious about that. And so if we collectively think about what a victory might look like, could that help us get to that place a little bit further rather than feeling

stuck in overwhelm and or not being sure what to do. If we could imagine where we're going to, would that make it easier to get to that victory? That's what wanted to come through. Do you have anything you want to add to that, Molly?

Molly (07:01.132)
I love wands. I feel like the wands as a suit. I've been learning tarot over the last year and I just, every time I think about like the wands, my friend Madison, who I have a podcast with, she described it for me as like, the wands are like the ace of wands in particular is like kind of like the beginning of a new hyper fixation or a new hyper focus, like a new idea. And so I always see it's like, like the six of wands always feels like,

Megan Hamilton (07:24.185)
I like that, mm-hmm.

Molly (07:31.272)
It's finally like started to land, you know, like you're seeing the fruits of your hyper focus or your hyper fixation kind of, and you can take that and build momentum off of that result really.

Megan Hamilton (07:33.497)
you

Megan Hamilton (07:46.233)
Yeah, because, you we often talk about, I mean, you talk about hyperfixation a lot and we talk about it sort of certainly more than we used to. And sometimes, I mean, not the way you talk about it, but sometimes it can be seen in kind of like a jokey or a or like not maybe with a negative connotation, right? Like, oh, I'm in a hyperfixation as though there's something wrong with that. But the truth is in any kind of

Molly (08:08.588)
Hmm.

Megan Hamilton (08:16.557)
capacity where you want to get really good at something, you often kind of have to hyper fixate on it so that you can take in all of the bits and pieces that are going to help contribute to getting really good at something.

What?

What's your latest hyper fixation?

Molly (08:40.59)
Mine is crochet. I taught myself how to crochet. So, okay, so I'll tell you, this came out of, I'm really, struggled to take time off because I run a business. And when you run a business, you have the potentiality to work 24 seven, 365. there's never, your to-do list is never done. It's so hard. And also I love what I do. So it's like taking time off is both a challenge, you know, logistically.

Megan Hamilton (09:00.397)
and that's hard.

Molly (09:10.498)
but also like motivation-wise, like I don't want to. And so I challenged myself between Christmas and New Year's to not work, period. Like not work. didn't, I told the whole team, was like, nobody's allowed to work if I see you in your inbox. No, I didn't. Like literally, you're done. None of us are working. And so I had to fill the time with something. And so I started making little whoobles.

crochet whoo-boos. And now I'm like 80 % done with my first sweater. And it's like all I want to do. Like I just wake up and I'm like, can I crochet today? And I like get, get done work. And I just like sitting watching Parks and Rec and just crocheting away. And yeah, so that's mine. So good.

Megan Hamilton (09:56.119)
I love that show. Mm Yeah, I did see your sweater and it is looking really, cute.

Molly (10:03.832)
Thank you. I'm like in the, I'm in the hyper-focus zone where I see sweaters that I like online and I'm like, I can make that. I'm gonna make that instead of buying it. So we're deep in it.

Megan Hamilton (10:15.609)
You can have you can start doing your own because one of the things that that I've commented on a ton is you get these clothing like you're renting clothes, right? And you have had these like amazing sweaters that I'm like, keep this one by this one. This is the one. And now you're going to you can just make them. Mm hmm. You can also make matching sweaters for your dogs, which I think would be

Molly (10:29.41)
Yeah, yeah.

Molly (10:35.982)
Mm-hmm.

No, I can make them. Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. trust me. I'm on that. Yeah, I already bought the pattern. Like, God. Yeah. And then I can make little plushies of my dogs and make sweaters for the plushie dogs. Yeah, trust me. That's the rabbit hole we're going down.

Megan Hamilton (10:44.921)
pretty amazing.

Hehehehehe

my god.

Megan Hamilton (11:01.818)
Mm Well, I mean, you know, you need to fill your time with something if you've taken a week off.

Molly (11:08.508)
Ha ha!

Megan Hamilton (11:11.577)
Okay, so why do you think so I'm talking about mundane magic is about finding magical ways of making chores that we would otherwise not want to do, especially if you have ADHD fun and like actually make you want to do them, right? That's the whole point of the book. But

Molly (11:34.455)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (11:36.249)
Why do you think that using sigils and spells and different magical practices help us to get this stuff done that we really don't want to do? And we're talking like vacuuming and cleaning your water bottle, right? I remember, I don't know why I think about this every time I go to drink from my water bottle. I'm like, when's the last time I cleaned this? I remember you mentioning all the bacteria and I'm like, okay, time to go clean the water bottle.

Molly (11:57.447)
yeah. Yeah, for anyone who didn't see that video, I do mention it in the book as well, but I learned once about a decade ago, this fact and it ruined my life. So now I have to ruin everyone else's, but after seven days, your water bottle, if you don't clean it, has more bacteria than a dog's water dish. And yeah, I know, I'm sorry. If I have to know it, you have to know it. And so that's often a motivator for me to...

Megan Hamilton (12:17.101)
really terrible news everybody.

Molly (12:25.877)
get a new water bottle and then collect a bunch of them on the side of my sink until finally I, you know, clean it. But yeah, I talk about this in the book. The intro chapters really go into like the science behind the theory of mundane magic. But a lot of it comes down to, you know, especially for neurodivergent brains, we lack the kind of like the gas that starts the car.

or the motivation to do the thing. So if you've ever sat around, and this can happen to anyone, it's just in particular neurodivergent brains, we just have different wiring. And so it's especially difficult for us to begin a task. And so when we introduce an element of novelty, an element of fun, of curiosity, of playfulness, of something that feels new or exciting, which is often, you know,

when we sprinkle a little bit of magic, it's like, I'm not mopping my house. I'm making a potion for creativity and spreading it throughout my space. Now we increase that novelty factor and we have the dopamine needed to actually start the task. And then as we start doing these tasks, we build momentum. And so we start to see, for instance, I have a meditation that I call the dish banishing spell.

And it's 10 minutes long. And a lot of times people say, you know, I thought doing my sink full of dishes would take way longer, but I finished the dishes before the meditation was even over. And I'm, I'm the same way, right? Like I think emptying the dishwasher is going to take me 20 minutes. So I put it off and put it off and put it off. And then, you know, when I started racing my kettle in the morning, I was like, wow. It takes me 90 seconds to two and a half minutes to empty the dishwasher, right?

Megan Hamilton (14:00.151)
Hmm.

Molly (14:17.633)
And so it's a little bit of that like dopamine from the novelty that get us started. And then it's the achievement of actually doing the thing. And then when we combine that with the mindfulness element of mundane magic, now all of a sudden we have this cycle of I'm excited to do the thing. So I do the thing. And in doing the thing, my nervous system settles down into that relaxation response, which makes me feel better.

which then decreases the amount of stress I have, which then makes it easier to do the thing. And so it becomes this cycle of just generally once you get going, it becomes easier to continue.

Megan Hamilton (15:00.621)
Yeah, well, and we, you know, we're creatures of habit. And so our brains and bodies start to recognize what we're doing more quickly and gives gives us, you know, less of a less of a barrier to getting started on this stuff. Once we've already we have positive associations with it, we're that much more likely to do it. I still I need to still figure out the one that's going to work for cleaning my floors. That is my nemesis. I'm

Molly (15:11.267)
Mm-hmm.

Molly (15:20.899)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (15:30.391)
really hate it. So I think I'm going to have to look in your book for how to get that going. And so can I just say that you've had like a bonkers year? Is that an accurate is bonkers the correct word?

Molly (15:44.206)
It feels like a, yeah, think bonkers, yeah, the past like two years have really been different levels of bonkers. But yeah, last year was a lot of just like bouncing around in new and fun and exciting ways.

Megan Hamilton (15:59.715)
Yeah, okay, so these are the things that I know about. You've been selling out your Reiki courses and your book, obviously. I remember you won Justin Moore's sponsor games. That looked really fun and also like bonkers. You ran a half marathon. You celebrated over a million downloads on your podcast, Demystify Magic. And you hosted what looks

Molly (16:12.387)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Molly (16:18.766)
Mm-hmm.

Molly (16:24.239)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (16:27.555)
like a killer retreat for your team. Like that looked, I was like, okay, how do I get a job on this team? So when you take a minute to think about it, like how's it feeling? Does it feel, this is what I get so curious about, does it feel real? Does it feel like you thought it would? Like how are you, how's it landing for you?

Molly (16:30.499)
Mm-hmm.

Molly (16:49.217)
Yeah, I mean, I think the last couple of years, I've sort of like taken my hands off the wheel a little bit and just like let the universe sort of like guide in the expansion that's happening. So I really, you you and I were talking about this before, but I don't really like set expectations around like what I think this will look like. Like when people ask me like, what do think it's gonna be like when your book is in a store?

Megan Hamilton (17:00.281)
you

Megan Hamilton (17:17.721)
You

Molly (17:18.613)
I have no frickin idea. I haven't even thought about that. Like I'm so excited the fact that like I have a book, you know, and like people are going to read it like and so I've just been open to being surprised and delighted by whatever presents itself to me. So yeah, I think it does feel real. I think the retreat especially was like, wow, this is really, really real because I remember, you know, I didn't have a team for a long time and now I have.

Megan Hamilton (17:25.763)
Mm-hmm.

Molly (17:48.268)
Now I have a team that like supports everything that I do. So I'm not doing it by myself. But I just remember sitting in that retreat and thinking back to when I was in corporate and was managing, you know, 19 different people across. don't even know how many states like across the entire like eastern side of the United States. I activity directors in retirement homes that I was sort of managing, but sort of like not.

And I remember having one that was real standout and wanting to do something for her and wanting to really celebrate her. And corporate was just like, no, she's just an activities director. Like she doesn't make money for the company. And so I remember sitting there and being like, this is not the type of boss I want to be. I want to be the type of boss where you were like, I fucking love working here. And not in like a weird, know, like we're all family and it's like real toxic underneath. Yeah. But like,

Megan Hamilton (18:41.731)
like Michael Scott.

Molly (18:44.519)
Genuinely, like I want people to feel that appreciation and I want people to know that like, yes, like mundane magic exists and is like changing people's lives. But like, that's not just me. That is, you know, I have I have a team of people that have helped bring this to the world and they deserve to be recognized. They deserve to be paid well and they deserve to be spoiled and they deserve to

be told they should take time off and then actually let them take time off. And they deserve to have a boss that like, isn't a dictator, you know? And so the retreat was really like that moment where I got to say like, yeah, we've had a really big year and I shouldn't be celebrating alone. Like I wanna celebrate the people who are actually there. So it was fun. got to like, I was like.

I want them to feel like bougie influencers for the day. And it was like we had swag bags and we had great food and we got to see each other. Like it was some of their first time in the United States, like everyone's first time in Maine. Like it was just really fun. And yeah, it was just one of those moments where I was like, hell yeah. Like this is what I've always wanted to do. I've always wanted to just like create a company that supports people and is fun and is not that serious because we don't do brain surgery.

Megan Hamilton (19:55.993)
you

Megan Hamilton (20:05.689)
I love it. love. Yeah, it is really fun to.

Megan Hamilton (20:16.791)
When you get to when you reach a certain point and you have that reflection and you just you're like, I wanted this to happen and now it's happening. And here we are. like and and also feeling really good about it. Like so fun. Yeah. Really, really, really cool. OK, what would you say to somebody who's curious about Reiki, but not sure where. So I mentioned earlier that.

Molly (20:25.487)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (20:45.845)
You're a Reiki master. we both had Nicholas Pearson on our podcast. And what does he call himself again? He uses Reiki. He doesn't use the word master. He uses, I think, the Japanese name. Sam. So but Molly is a Reiki master and has incredible courses. I took Reiki one and I'm planning on taking Reiki two.

Molly (20:54.979)
I don't know, man.

Megan Hamilton (21:10.841)
It's always showing me something new, right? So I've been pretty much practicing for two minutes a day, at least ever since taking the course. And I have a friend who also took your program and we kind of were accountability buddies. I know I love it. But what I love is that it's like,

Molly (21:26.576)
Ah, I love that.

Megan Hamilton (21:33.561)
Sometimes new colors show up and I'm like, this is really interesting or like a different physical sensation comes into it. And like I can get it on a level that I might not be able to explain with words, but I'm like, I think I know what's happening here. And so again, for someone who's neurodivergent, it keeps me really interested in the same way that Tarot does because I'm always learning. I've been doing it for 27 years and I'm always learning something new.

Molly (21:54.81)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (22:02.637)
What are some of the out of the box ways that we can use Reiki that we might not usually think about?

Molly (22:08.634)
Ooh, OK, I was just talking about this because someone asked me what were some magical practices I used to write the book. And one of them, and the one that I always recommend for my creatives in Reiki training, is you aren't just limited to placing your hands on your body and letting Reiki flow through. You can let that flow and do whatever the heck you want with your hands. You can paint. You can write. You can garden. You can cook.

Megan Hamilton (22:18.649)
Molly (22:38.424)
right? Like so I think some of my favorite ways to use Reiki are creative practices. So when I'm writing or when I'm crocheting like I just crocheted a baby blanket for my literary agent and I was like weaving Reiki into it and knot magic and all those things. So I think any any of those you know creative moments are really fun.

But I'm also an IBS girly. So I also love to use Reiki when I've had too much cheese at a restaurant. You know, so that I can, yeah. So there's that. I remember like when I first went through Reiki training, I used to use it on first dates. If I felt like I had a fart coming, I would just like send myself Reiki to dissolve it, you know? So if you ever, if you ever need that one.

Megan Hamilton (23:15.66)
Same.

Megan Hamilton (23:31.085)
Yep, yep, necessary.

Molly (23:34.597)
I also really love doing Reiki when I'm washing my hair or showering to help cleanse the energy. So those are really fun. But yeah, I think that's one of the reasons why I love our graduate community is because so many of the ideas for like using Reiki creatively like come out of them. Like they're just like, I did this and decided to do Reiki and it was great. I'm like, that's genius. Let me write that down.

Megan Hamilton (23:39.705)
Hmm.

Megan Hamilton (23:59.875)
So, so fun. mean, I think I mentioned this on Instagram, but when I was, made bath bombs for Christmas or for Yule and I put lots of fun stuff into them. And then I also put Reiki into them. It was like four leaf clovers, Reiki, some other fun stuff that I made or put together. And it just, adds a whole other level of intention. And I think really,

Molly (24:15.598)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (24:29.655)
love to the thing that you're doing. But what I love about what you just said as well is so another guest on the podcast, Pam Grossman, who is the podcast host of The Witch Wave, her latest book is about blending magic and creativity. And so she talked about what she does in order to sort of prepare for sitting down and writing. And it's just interesting to me how

Molly (24:30.554)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (24:56.905)
It's very there's similar practices and this is the case. I mean, I'm not saying anything new here, but we all know that there's a lot of similarities between different practices around the world that have been around for a really long time. And one of the things that Pam Grossman does is she will stand and take the position of the magician. Right. So in in Tarot, there's

Molly (25:23.514)
Hmm. Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (25:25.803)
as above so below with the hands and that, you know, the magician is holding magic one and harnesses the energy to come down through and out the other side and like basically filling her body with the energy, the energy, and then moving into her magical practice in this case of writing. And I love the idea that you can invite Reiki to support kind of

all kinds of different things. I mean, I have definitely sent my car Reiki. I have for sure my dog. And I think even like last week when my computer wasn't starting and I was getting really worried because I had a call, you know, it's just like, okay.

Molly (25:56.4)
Mm-hmm.

Molly (26:07.812)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, printers. Printers are one of my favorites. used to when I was like, I used to be a consent educator, so I'd go into schools and teach kids and we'd always have like handouts. So I'd often get to a school at like 640 a.m. That was like three hours away. And I would have to print really quickly, like 150 like worksheets and the printers. I don't know if you've been in a public school lately and use their printer, but they never work.

Megan Hamilton (26:34.403)
Hmm.

Molly (26:41.546)
They're always jamming. And so I'd be like, just for this breath, I will not kick this printer. Like I have to be a professional. And it always worked. So I never kicked a printer to the point where I got booted out of the school. I'll say that.

Megan Hamilton (26:45.561)
Yeah

Megan Hamilton (26:59.395)
Well, that's a win. That's a Reiki win, right? That's five-star Reiki practice. What is your favorite, what's your favorite grounding exercise right now?

Molly (27:15.856)
Ooh, just like being on the floor. Yeah, I mean, it's so simple, but like, I think it was something that I've always tried to find the exact quote. I haven't been able to find it, but there was something I read by Thich Nhat Hanh years and years and years years and years ago, where he basically said like, when you feel overwhelmed, get close to the ground. And I always...

Megan Hamilton (27:21.131)
You

Molly (27:44.641)
was a floor sitter growing up. I remember living in a crappy apartment with all my roommates and we would all just sit on the kitchen floor and talk. We wouldn't sit in the living room. It was like, on the floor. Or if I had to do a school project, I was on the floor propped up against my bed. I don't know, somewhere in my adulthood, I lost that and I started sitting in chairs all the time.

Megan Hamilton (27:53.721)
Mm-hmm.

Molly (28:09.518)
And so recently I've started getting back to the floor, know, like it's easier to crochet a sweater from the floor. I will tell you that. And yeah, that's been my go-to. So it's like, you know, if I've had a day and I feel kind of overwhelmed, I just lay on the floor and just exist. Or, you know, when I meditate, I've been sitting on the floor or when I'm crocheting, I'm on the floor. When I was editing my book on the floor and it's just been really

Megan Hamilton (28:16.089)
Hmm.

Molly (28:39.48)
I don't know, really been grounding for me lately.

Megan Hamilton (28:43.449)
I love that it is literal and metaphorical.

Molly (28:48.836)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (28:50.393)
Do you find that is part of it that you kind of have to move around a lot and that I think maybe helps as opposed to in a chair? There's not really much you can do. I mean, you can sort of cross your legs sometimes or you can put one of your knees up, but being on the floor, you kind of have to move around or else something's going to fall asleep pretty quick.

Molly (29:11.436)
Yeah, I also think it's like every part of me is connected when I'm on the floor, right? Like I'm sitting in a chair right now and like my knees are floating. You know, like my butt is in the chair and my feet are on the floor, but my knees aren't. But when I'm on the ground, you know, all parts of my lower body are making contact. I don't know if it's that. I don't know if it's, you know, the fact that I can sprawl when I'm on the floor. I don't know if it's

Megan Hamilton (29:18.425)
Hmmmm

Molly (29:39.992)
you know, the fact that I had chronic hip pain for most of my 20s and literally couldn't sit on the floor. And now I'm like so grateful for the fact that I can sit on the floor and not hobble around the next day. I don't know. I just I've always felt comfort in just being low to the ground.

Megan Hamilton (29:56.813)
Yeah, I definitely was a floor sitter as well. I had a tailbone injury working in a restaurant where I went to kick the doors and I fell like a V. And ever since then, know sitting on the floors is I still do it though, because you're right. There's something about it that just yeah, it it feels there's something really comfortable about it.

Okay, so you do a fair amount of magic spells, magic practices. Can you think of one that? Okay, so I'll give an example. I was at a tarot conference a couple of years ago and we were trying to build our intuition around tarot and to see if we could kind if we could predict or, you know, start to have a more in tune relationship with the deck. It was just building.

building our relationships. And one of the women who was at the table with me, she had kind of predicted that she was going to pull the tower. And then she was like, if I pull the tower, I'm going to lose my mind. And she pulled the tower. just like, and all of us were like, whoa. And I've certainly had moments like that.

Molly (31:15.492)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (31:20.449)
in my life, in my own practice, but I'm wondering if you can think of and share with us some of those ones that you're just like, my God.

Molly (31:30.48)
Oh man, I feel like I have so many that I'm just like, is a good one that I can share? like, is one that I can think of off the dome? You really did. Oh my gosh. I think.

Megan Hamilton (31:36.121)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (31:45.613)
I know that's the thing. I put you on the spot.

Molly (31:53.454)
All right, let me let me think for a second because I know I've had one recently.

Molly (32:11.405)
I can't think of one.

Megan Hamilton (32:12.535)
I know, I'm sorry. I knew as I was asking it, was like, what would I, like if I wasn't thinking of it, would I be able to come up with it? It'll come to you maybe in a little bit when we're talking about something else anyways. That's how these things tend to do, right? As soon as you focus on something else, comes in, it's like, poof. What are you the most proud of?

Molly (32:23.727)
Yeah, yeah. I know.

Megan Hamilton (32:34.253)
Just doing low balls here.

Molly (32:35.629)
I know, wow, jeez.

Megan Hamilton (32:37.955)
This is an in-depth podcast, Molly, we need to know.

Molly (32:42.225)
I think just honestly like on an intangible level, I'm just really proud of the fact that I feel really deeply connected to my values. Like that has never changed. And despite opportunities to go against my values, many, many opportunities.

I've always just stuck with them and in particular, my values around consent have always been a through line in my work. I've mentioned a couple of times I worked with survivors of sexual violence. I worked as a consent educator. So I taught kids as young as three and people as old as like 97, your body belongs to you. And that is still a through line in a lot of the work that I do. So that.

And I've had people tell me that like, you could make more sales if you apply pressure tactics or you could go viral more if you, you know, use a hook that's a little bit more, but I've always been one that I believe in, you know, helping people make decisions, whether that's I want to follow this creator, I want to read this book, I want to join this training based on

their own intuition and based on what feels right to you. And in order to do that, you know, we need to explore the nuance and we need to let go of pressure tactics and we need to just really stay true to the fact that everything I offer is an invitation. Everything I offer is optional. Like you don't need me to be a magical creature. You don't need me to learn Reiki. You don't need me to

achieve your wildest desires. Like I would love to be on the journey with you, but I am I'm no guru. I'm just walking this path with you. And I think, you know, that is something that I you know, when I think about the book, and when I think about the success I've had, that's always just stayed in the forefront. And I think I'm really proud of the fact that, you know, despite

Molly (35:02.081)
growing a large audience and despite, you know, even when I was working with the publisher, it's like turning down opportunities that misaligned with that value or, you know, for instance, I just I probably get like 12 of these a week, but I get like a an email from like a new app that's like an AI, you know, affirmation app or whatever. And it's like and I'm just like, I'm OK. I think I'm good.

Megan Hamilton (35:26.041)
Breathe.

Hmm.

Molly (35:31.653)
And I think that's difficult, you know, like it's difficult to continue to make that choice, but it's, I think what has led to my success and also is like the thing I'm most proud of. So yeah.

Megan Hamilton (35:45.377)
Yeah, I love that. I'm really proud of you for that too.

Molly (35:49.969)
Thank you!

Megan Hamilton (35:52.237)
You're welcome. But it also, mean, if you're thinking about one of the biggest ways that you work with people, which is teaching Reiki and how much your practice and I'm assuming, you know, I've only learned from you. So I'm assuming it's the same with most practices is that consent first and foremost, right? If you have to ask somebody, you have to have somebody's consent before you'll do Reiki.

Molly (36:02.501)
Mm-hmm.

Molly (36:21.425)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (36:21.625)
I don't know how we asked the computer, generally the computer is pretty fine with me sending Reiki to her.

Molly (36:29.702)
Ha ha.

Megan Hamilton (36:35.849)
If you are, if that is like the place from which everything else that you're doing is coming from, then it would necessarily follow that for other people to be able to trust you, that you must be in alignment with your values. But I mean, like that's almost second, like at the end of the day, it's us, it's us and ourselves. And like, can you sleep at night going

I know I just made a bunch of sales from something really crappy like damn it it's not gonna feel good

Molly (37:13.197)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, for sure.

Megan Hamilton (37:19.127)
Yeah. And it's always so wonderful when you see somebody doing really well and who has core values that you know are like at the basis of everything. And also it helps you make make decisions, right? Because sometimes you're in overwhelm as you're saying if you get 12 offers a week of whatever app people are asking you if you want to whatever with.

Like if you're already, if you have made decisions based on your values about this, it's easy to say, I mean, I say it's easy, but I use the same principles as well. It's like this doesn't align with my values. Would I like this aspect of it? Yes, but not at this cost.

Molly (38:00.379)
Mm-hmm.

Molly (38:06.863)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, we have like a set of values in our business. And it's like, that's our guiding lights. And one of them, my favorite one that I preached to my team is that nothing is urgent. Like, I've literally worked in crisis. I was taking hospital calls with sexual assault survivors at 2, 3 AM.

Megan Hamilton (38:25.87)
Yeah.

Yeah, right.

Molly (38:34.489)
you know, I, and then I worked at a retirement community where it's like, I was calling an ambulance like every other day. and so I have, I have worked in life or death. This is not that nothing we do is life or death, but we're so programmed into believing that if I don't respond to this email right now, this instance, everything is going to like, it's going to blow up. and so I'm constantly like turning our team back to that. Like I literally, one of my, one of my teachers,

emailed me and she's like, I'm feeling a little sick, so I'm not going to be online. But if anything urgent comes up, just ping me. And I literally responded like, reply all, nothing is urgent, rest. I don't want to see you online. Literally, we're always echoing that back to each other. Because like, when we are regulated, you know, business owners, teachers, whatever, then we can role model that for our students.

And like you said, know, like when you're teaching something like Reiki, you have to be in alignment with that. And so imagine if I responded to every student question from a place of like, I have to respond right now and I have to versus like, okay, I'm just going to take a breath. You know, I'm going to log off. I'm going to take a walk and then I'm going to come back to this and then I'm going to respond. Right. Like that gives them permission to unwire some of that urgency wiring too.

Megan Hamilton (39:44.217)
Mm-hmm.

Molly (40:00.598)
And also they get a more compassionate, cohesive, comprehensive response from me.

Megan Hamilton (40:00.729)
you

Megan Hamilton (40:08.715)
Yep. Yep. I love it. We don't always realize how...

The way we show up can create such a powerful ripple effect, right? Or we do, or we do, and then we take it seriously and we show up in that way. Listen, you are a true joy. I'm so happy to be talking to you again. I'm really excited about your book. Our sweet bookseller, Downtown, has it on pre-order for me. I can't wait to get it.

Molly (40:23.878)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (40:48.249)
Which by the way, so there's still time to pre-order the book. Pre-order in an author's world is so wonderful. Yeah, so, so huge. I'll put a link to some of the places you can pre-order it in the show notes. you know, thanks for being awesome and leading by example and generally making magic really fun and accessible.

Molly (40:57.211)
huge.

Molly (41:17.98)
Thanks for having me on as your first repeat guest.

Megan Hamilton (41:21.815)
Repeat Molly, darling part. OK, you can find all the information and takeaways from today's episode in the show notes or embracing enchantment dot com. Subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts. And we'd love for you to leave a review. You can also leave a voice note, which I love to get at embracing enchantment dot com. And we might feature it in a future episode. Find out more about Molly and where to follow her in the show notes and make sure to

pre-order her book because it's going to be great. You're going to want to make sure you're subscribed because we have some exciting episodes coming up and you can catch up on previous episodes where we talk about collapse, tarot, the magic of music and so much more until then. Here's to building an enchanted life.

Alright, let me press stop.