5 Amazing Home Life Hacks You Need

It’s important to do something that you’re passionate about too. Mm-hmm we can go and force ourselves into something, but if it makes you unhappy, that’s not the right direction either. So finding the thing that makes you happy, and a lot of times you’re already doing it. Just how can you build on that?
Welcome to the imperfectly empowered podcast with DIY healthy lifestyle blogger on a former empower you to transform your life one imperfect day at a time. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the imperfectly empowered podcast. I am your host on a former today. We have Chaz greener on the show.
Chaz is a blogging coach and the website handy girl behind her company site consulting services, where she loves teaching and supporting others to build and monetize their online business. She is a cancer survivor. Oswell is a former dance studio director. Welcome Chaz green. Thank you. It’s so fun to have you here.
Yeah. Thanks for allowing me to be here. Yay. Absolutely. absolutely. I, um, it was funny when I was doing a chatting, when I spoke to your group, your mentoring group about podcasting and we got talking about, I don’t think I realized that our career shifts had happened so in tandem. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Because for those of you listening and watching Chaz and I met for the first time in Waco, Texas, it was my very first ever retreat where I like actually invested in my business.
It was the first time that I remember actually thinking, huh, I could actually make a business out of blogging in this virtual space. That was what, the summer of 2020. Yes, it was. Is that right? Yes. Yeah. Anyway, that is when Chaz and I first met and I like to press the rewind button because everyone knows my story was a nurse practitioner initially, and then am now in this crazy virtual world.
But you also have quite the backstory as well between health challenges as well as a completely different professional career. So let’s start with the fact that you were a director of a dance studio, correct? Yes. For like two and a half decades. I mean, this was like. Long long career for you? It was, and I absolutely loved it.
I had, um, I have a degree in dance and oh, you have a degree in dance. I do. I have a degree in dances. There’s degrees in dance. Wait, this is amazing. So what does, first of all, what does that look like? What does a degree in dance? Um, so it’s a, um, liberal arts degree with an emphasis in dance. Um, so you go four years to school.
And while you’re there you take, uh, it depends upon the program you’re in, but I was at Colorado state university and I did ballet, jazz and modern for four years. And you increase in your levels. And then in addition to that, you also take things on production and classes on choreography and classes on teaching and anatomy and physiology classes.
Of course, cuz you need to know where all the connective tissues are so that you’re creating good alignment in your students. Something that probably some of the dance studios that I went to maybe were not the, uh, the greatest, but overall I think I had a good and like creating alignment. You’re saying this is fascinating to me because my daughter now is very into this whole world of performing arts, which makes my heart happy, cuz it was such a huge part of my life in many ways and still is singing more specifically.
But so now I’m curious, so talk to me for a second about alignment in dancing. What does that mean? So, absolutely. So a lot of times instructors, you know, if you just go to some random dance program, they maybe don’t have this kind of background. And so when you’re drawing in your alignment for dance, you’re teaching them how to use their core and how to use their back and their posture across their shoulders.
And, you know, knee safety, ankle safety, not putting kids in point shoes too soon. All of this is super important so that they don’t have injuries down the road. Now you’re gonna laugh later when we get to the fact that I actually had hip surgeries, but I will be able to fill in the blank there that that was, uh, also related to genetics.
yeah, well, yeah, it’s really fascinating too, because as. I mean, I’m always all about the research and seeing, you know, kind of give me the stats, not emotions type of a thing, but it’s also been fascinating. So with my husband being a football coach, he has also done a ton of research on injury prevention.
And it is really fascinating to see the emerging research on the correlation between dance, especially ballet as a means of strengthening in order to prevent injury, especially for like soccer and football players. And I find that really fascinating. Can you speak into that at all? Like in. In your experience, what is the physiology behind that?
Why is ballet especially so beneficial for athletes? So it’s using all your muscles appropriately. So for example, just, uh, you maybe are you’re in a lung format. And a lot of times when people think about stretching in a lunge, their knee goes past their ankle and then they are straining things. And so it’s just, again, comes back to the alignment of your, your knees need to stay, you know, over your toes, not past your toes.
You’re, you’re compensating a lot. We have natural tendencies that were constantly going to have to fight in general. Like just maybe your backways more than the average person. Maybe you tend to curve your shoulders in these kind of things. When you take ballet, it’s pulling your shoulders back using your core at the same time, not using your back.
I feel myself sitting up straighter as you’re talking, I’m realizing I’m putting my shoulders back and I’m. I can see my head changing on the screen. That’s hilarious. Sorry. I interrupted you keep going. no, that’s fine. It it’s, you know, it is too. I, I probably should talk to myself about alignment cuz you know, you do, you did fault into like these improper postures, but you know, when you’re doing your sports, you tend to, to lean into these things that help you achieve whatever it is you need.
And when we do that, we’re putting strain on either a knee or a hip or something else that is just our natural tendency. So by taking ballet or other dance formats that help you with your alignment, help you use your core and your shoulders and your back and the correct muscles in the correct way. And then it becomes more Gick to you to just naturally use the, the muscles, the correct way.
The more practice you get. So. All in all, it’s just, it’s a whole body workout is what you’re getting through ballet and it’s muscle toning and posture. And it’s, it’s everything all in one. So you’re helping all of those athletes use through body and their muscles correctly so that they don’t throw something when, and again, stretching right.
Stretching and warming up a lot of times, athletes do that, but have we done it enough? Did we stretch enough? Because if you are just going from like a squatting position and then you’re just trying to run, if you did not warm your muscles up correctly, too, chances are, you could seize something right away and you’ll get muscle cramping.
You’ll pull a 10 and a ligament, something like that too. Yeah, it is really, it’s fascinating. Fascinating to me cuz there’s just so you know, you hear so many devastating stories of kids they are doing so well. And then they have that injury that you just think like, Hmm, can that, is that preventable more than.
Is there something else we could be doing to prevent those types of injuries? I think the study that I saw with ballet was specifically assessing ankle injuries. I could be making that up, but that’s kind of the, what I’m remembering the specific study that I was reading. I think it was actually correlating that ballet ultimately reduced ankle injuries, which makes complete sense to me.
I mean, just watching, you know, my daughters, I would, I would love to do ballet for a lot of reasons, but it’s fascinating just watching, like you said, the alignment, but you must also be strengthening ligaments and muscles in a way that I don’t know what else would do that, cuz there’s such a focus on stabilization in those like fine Twitch muscles that I don’t think anything else would do that that’s true.
And a lot of times in ballet too, as your students are getting ready to get their first point shoes we are looking at, or, you know, we should be, um, looking at. Things like what that ankle strength is. Are their feet still growing? Are they still growing? What is that ankle strength? So can they stand up on their toes and not wave while they’re going up in a Reve?
Um, which is when you’re standing on your, not all the way up on the tips of your toes, but you’re in that vent half toe, four starch position. We often use the bands with their feet too. So you’re pushing through the, the bands to build that ankle strength too. And that one’s huge. So anyone who’s struggled with that, and then we’ve gotta work on like, do they tickle their foot or do they have good foot on?
My daughter was just telling me about this. She’s like, mom, don’t sickle what are you talking about? What? I don’t even know what that is. What is she was explaining to me, like point down, not out or something like. Yeah. So often I’m trying to get, figure out a way to explain it for the, uh, for the listeners.
But you know, when you point your foot straight down, that is good alignment. But a lot of times we tend to tweak our toes in. We like we’re naturally more pigeon toed people by default. And so we’re trying to straighten that alignment out. So a lot of times if you’re pigeon toed and then you bend your ankle, you’re getting this, like, you know, the chopping that’s really the farmers use, you’re curving your foot inward from your ankle, giving it improper alignment.
So you need to straighten that out and you also don’t wanna be. Like duck foot either, you know, and a lot of times in valley, we’re forcing our feet into this turned out position, but you need to make sure it’s not coming from the ankle. It’s coming from the knee, which is coming from the hips, which is coming from the core.
So it’s just a whole process. Yeah. Alignment. Yeah. It is all connected. Well, it’s so FA yeah, thank you for that. It’s so fascinating to me. I was my husband and I have talked about this before. Just the need to anyway, I’ve already prepared my son, that he will likely be required to do ballet if he wants to play certain sports.
So he’s already mentally prepared for it. We’ll see if we can pull along any of his friends in the meantime, but if it prevents injury, Why not. Well, and I think too, that one of the things that can be said for the, the men out there who are kind of like, oh, ballet, I’m not so sure. Yeah. Well, it is kind of the foundation of dance and it’s the foundation of all strength.
You can also take a jazz class. If you get a good quality jazz class, you’re gonna be working, you’re stretching your ankles, your condition, your strength, you get a lot of similar qualities in both kinds of styles of dance. You just get to dance to more upbeat and current music yeah. Versus the classical music.
So, you know, if somebody’s really reluctant, but it’s something they should do. Then find a quality jazz class, cuz that can be just as good if and you know, make sure that teachers teaching the foundations, your S your to dos and some of those core values also through their jazz class, because then you could ultimately move to a class like that as well.
I love that. That’s great. That’s great advice. Yeah. Mom’s listening. Talk to your sons and I wish I had the research studies on me. I need to, I should actually do like a blob post or a podcast episode on it so I can compile some of the research, but yeah, and it’s core building bottom line it’s core building.
So that’s a win. Prevent injury and build your core. So you were a Dan now, you actually were a direct, clearly you were an instructor as well, but did you own the dance studio or what was your role in dance over those 24 years? Sure. So I was not the owner of the dance studio. When I got hired out of college, it was a husband and wife that owned.
It was called mountain kids. And it was an overall building that had gymnastics and dance and preschool and swimming and all kinds of things. And the story behind them is they met in college themselves and the husband, Ron was a going, he was on his way to be an Olympic gen gymnast. And then, um, Mary, the wife, she was the dancer and she had her degree in PE and dance.
And so when they got married, they built this business together. And so it was owned by them. And then I started as a teacher and just worked my up to way, uh, starting. To direct their dance companies and then all the way up to directing their whole program, as well as teaching and running our Nutcracker and our other productions as well.
That’s amazing. So you were in this really a brick and mortar job is what I like to call them a brick and mortar job for 24 years. Tell me what that transition started to look like, why you went from, so for people who don’t know, you know, Chaz was initially a dance instructor, dance director, but then she started a DIY blog, very similar to myself.
That was kind of initially what you had transitioned into, which then led into this coaching business and consulting service that you have, especially for bloggers or those wanting to build their online business. But tell me how you even got to where you are. How did that transition start? Sure. So yeah, it’s kind of a wonky story.
Perfect. Those are the best kind. Yeah. So I accidentally found a company called home talk and they are a DIY website, and I just found them by accident. And I was loving the tutorials and crafts and projects that people were putting on their platform. So I started to put a few of my DIY things on there to share so that I was, you know, not just taking, but I was also giving back to their website.
This is a massive website, by the way. I mean, this is a, I am at Chaz actually is the one that introduced me to it. But there’s several million, right? I mean, this is a huge. Yes. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, they are every home and garden, everything. So crafts, um, you know, room renovations to landscaping, to seasonal DIYs, to how to style things and yeah, huge website.
And within a couple months, they actually flew me to New York to meet with them. And on the fly, I was thrown into a Facebook live with a couple other ladies to build a wreath and Facebook lives were brand new at that point. And, um, we had mystery items to work with. It was fall. And so I was given plastic eyeballs.
To implement into my wreath because that is what every woman wants on her front door, plastic eyeball. Right. Well, luckily I’m a huge like Halloween fan, so that is perfect. I would’ve been like, um, I dunno what to do with this. I’m not a huge Halloween decorator. Okay. What did you do with them though? I wanna know what did I do with plastic eyeballs?
So I, um, I had thisfor it was green. So the first thing I did was cover it with some like that black gauzy type stuff for Halloween. Yeah. And then I put the eyeballs and fake leaves on it. And then I think this, the thing that sealed the deal for me was I had learned this actually years ago, I used to work at a before and after school care.
And I had the privilege of working with an autistic child and he taught me how to make fighter web. Spiderwebs with a hot glue gun. So I utilized that lesson. I had learned from him and I built this, you know, as I built, finished building kind of the reef, I took the hot glue gun and I just started making these hot glue cobwebs all over the, the, all over the reef.
And so then at the end they had voting of course going on on Facebook. And so I ended up winning and I got a Michael’s gift card. So yay. yeah. Michael’s absolutely. Yeah. So when I got home from that trip, they actually hired me to do live crafting episodes for them weekly. And then that turned into creating videos, DIY videos for them weekly.
And then I started realizing. Maybe I should start my own website, you know, I guess what I do, isn’t that crazy after all. So eventually then I built my DIY website, which is called chassis crazy creations, and I do anything from seasonal stuff to repurpose and upcycle, to cooking. And then also some cleaning and organizing just things that I’m passionate about.
So I had that going while I started doing all that through while I was teaching, I just, it was, to me, it was like a fun side thing that I was just doing. What was the, what year was this? Like when was this exactly for you? Oh gosh. So I would say I started with home talk. It had to be around maybe 2000.
1413, something like that, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm so it’s been a while. And then I started the website around, I think it was 2017. And so I, you know, just started getting all that going. And again, it was kind of more of a side thing, but in 2019, well, actually it was 2018. I was in a performance cuz I, with my college buddies, we have our own dance company and it’s called high performance dance theater.
And while we were doing one of the show run throughs, I did one of these massive slides to the floor and the labor room in my hip. Popped and I tore it. And so I made it through the show and I gave it time to heal, but I knew it. I just, I knew it wasn’t going to heal on its own. So I went and had it looked at and it turned out, yes, I had torn my labum, which is the cartilage that holds your hip joint together.
So the femur into the socket from there, I did the research and I met with a fantastic surgeon who does, does this. He does labor and replacement. So a lot of times people will do a repair, which is a tear and they just stitch it together. But they admitted with my 40 some years of dancing and the genetics that I had, which was basically my hip bone and my femur bone, my leg bone were beating on each other.
So it was like sawing away at the lab or at the cartilage that whole time. And so that’s pretty much ultimately what did it more than, oh, you danced and that’s on you. I mean, yes, I dance. I’m sure that didn’t help, but yeah, sure. Ultimately it was a genetic thing, right? Yeah. So Dr. White was his name and he’s from Western orthopedics.
He, we agreed to do a surgery and the surgery was to replace it. So they basically. Took donor tissue stripped out the old labor and put this donor tissue in there. And for two weeks, I could not, I had delay in a, like a CPM machine, a continuous passive movement machine. And then for about six weeks, I couldn’t put weight on it.
And then you slowly work your way up to, you get like 2000 steps till month four, and then you rehabilitate. And about six months in, you can do just about everything. Mm-hmm six months I was hiking and doing everything. And then during that time, about a month after my surgery, they accidentally found that I had breast cancer.
So I was getting a different thing, done, a different little lump move that was benign. And when they took out the tissue for the Ben and they knew it was benign when they took the tissue out, they said, we got cancer with that too. So. It was at that point that I realized, I don’t know how long this whole journey’s gonna take.
I knew I was not directing the dance program. Like I had. Um, my assistant director was taking over while I was healing from the hip surgery. Now I’ve got breast cancer. I had to go through radiation treatment and everything, and I just didn’t know how long this journey was going to take. So I retired from the dance directing job during this time, so that I could just take the time to heal and was grateful that I had my DIY website to kinda lean on for just something to do while you’re kinda laying around and healing.
Yeah. And I made it through all of that. Uh, both of those and then found out my right hip also was torn and shredded. So in 2019, I had two hip surgeries, two labor and replacements and breast cancer, but, you know, It is what it is. And I, you know, I, I figure like in some warped way it was meant to be because then after I got done and I had retired from this dance program, I could still dance for fun with my college buddies, but I might be able to teach down the road, but I also realized the stress that, that job carried with me too.
Mm-hmm , it was a lot of, a lot of stress and I knew that I needed to keep some of that. More in check, moving forward. So from there then I just focused more on my DIY website. And through that, I was meeting bloggers like you at Waco. And, and I was able to help bloggers and start teaching bloggers, you know, about different things they had questions on.
And so that led into a new website that I’ve built also. And it’s called site consulting services where I can do one-on-one coaching. I have masterminds and things like that to help bloggers because I realized I really miss teaching. And this was the way I got to bring teaching back into my life. So’s very cool.
I love, love, love when you hear stories, because I mean, ours are similar in some veins, but you know, it like no day was wasted, you know, and it’s such an amazing. Thing to see how these stories get written and it’s like, without even realizing it, the chapters just flow right into each other, even though it seems like a major break in the story, like, how does this possibly where’s the through line here and yet it’s amazing how, yeah.
It’s like every day is there’s, there’s a purpose for it. So it’s so neat to see how you can now use that experience. And also, I mean, I’m sure there’s a lot of correlation between even just the director position and what you’re doing currently. And let’s talk about that for a second. You went from this brick and mortar job to this more entrepreneurial you’re working from home.
You have children as well. I believe right? I do. Yep. I have two children. Oh boy, girl. Yes. How was that transition for you going from, you know, 24 years of you go into work to now. You’re working at home. What did, was there challenges at all for you or was that smoother than my husband? ? Um, it was, I guess, because I worked in the evenings and I did do some working from home.
The kids, like what just happened to you totally had happened to me, you know, would say, oh, mom’s going into work. Right. And I walk in the office and, but they’re so used to coming to mom that even though dad’s there, it was still like, oh, I’m gonna come to mom. Yeah. And then as I got older, I think there’s like this understanding, you know, of what.
That means, but yes, I’ve still been working. This is like my basement space where, you know, cuz COVID hit. So we’re all we were all at home and, and so everybody had to find their space. And so this, this is kind of my whole workspace down here and was the best place for me otherwise. Yeah. I just felt like I didn’t have a place to go.
And every once in a while I’ll, I’ll be on something like this and the stairs are actually on the other side of me right now. And you see the body come walking down and so you you’re in that zoom and your eyes shift and you know, everybody knows what’s happening, but I guess, you know, that’s the, the, the good thing is everybody knows.
Everybody knows that this is real life and has been through it now. So it’s more of an you’re like trying, I was literally like trying to signal him like my hand outside of the screen. he did not take the hint. My girls would’ve he was clueless, but yeah, that’s so funny real world. And I guess like, that’s kind of the interesting thing with COVID too, is this type of virtual job.
There really is just a different understanding of. Working from home, which is kind of cool in a sense, I feel like it’s brought to light the reality of working moms. Like these are the jobs that we juggle all of the time and there’s been a greater understanding for that. So I think that’s the one upside that has come, yes.
Total wo woman power too, right? Because yeah, we are doing this, you know, you’re, you are podcasting and blogging and doing all of these things. Plus we’re being a mom, plus we’re doing. The cooking and the grocery shopping and making lunches and you know, the man we can really juggle go girls superwomen.
That’s exactly right. Superwomen. Amen. I love to ask this question all of your years of speaking of go girls, hold on time out. Let me just say this too. You are such a beautiful example of it’s never too late. We’re gonna give a shout out to chassis for a second, because you are such a fabulous example of showing that it’s never too late.
I mean, I don’t know about you. If you hear this from clients that you coach, but I, I see this and, and hear this a lot that a lot of women just feel like. It’s too late for them. It’s too late for them to do something else, to learn a new skill, to succeed in a different area. When they’ve been doing X, Y, Z for, you know, what feels like a million years, or they just feel stuck, but they don’t even know the way to move forward.
And you are such a wonderful example. I mean, 24 years is a long time to be doing something, especially as niche down as dancing and life threw some curve balls at you. And instead of just like laying on the floor, you know, immobilized, you basically faced it and you pivoted. So I, you know, you deserve so much credit for that.
And you’re an inspiration. And I hope anyone listening and watching can hear Chaz’s testimony, hear her story and feel empowered that with the right tools. You can do the same thing. You just have to find the tools and the resources and it’s okay. If you don’t know, you just need to take the right next best step.
So thank you for being that example. Cause I think you’ve been such a great one. Oh, you’re sweet. Thank you. And, and I think too part of the, is being open minded sometimes it’s right there and you didn’t even know, like, if somebody would’ve said that I would be creating projects and putting them on a website or teaching other bloggers how to blog or anything.
I don’t, you know, like that, I don’t think I would’ve ever in a million years or I’m editing videos and things like that. Yeah. I mean, I don’t know that that ever would’ve been something that I would’ve been able to say, oh yeah, that’s what I’m gonna do with my life. But just through listening to the journey of what I was doing and what comes next, You know, I just, it was there, it was there.
And I just decided to ride, ride the train per se and, and see where it’s taking me. And I’m still on the train deciding where it’s gonna take me and, and being open to that, I think is huge because it’s important to, I think, do something that you’re passionate about too. Mm-hmm , I mean, we can go and force ourselves into something, but if it makes you unhappy, that’s not the right direction either.
So finding the thing that makes you happy, and a lot of times you’re already doing it. Just how can you build on that? Yeah, it’s, it’s taking bold action and it’s being willing to make the choice. I mean, the fact is you still had a choice you could have chosen to, you know, allow, especially the health circumstances to sort of defeat you and you didn’t, you made the choice to face it and, and pivot.
And I think that is the challenge that a lot of us face is taking that bold action. When that choice does sort of stare us in the face, we are going to take a quick break, but when we come back, stay tuned, we’re gonna play a speed round of this or that with Chaz. And we are going to hear more of her expert advice on several things, but specifically we’re gonna hone in on her favorite DIY home hack.
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We’re gonna play around of this or that two choices, no stress, whatever first comes to mind, would you rather decorate or craft craft? Would you rather craft something for Halloween or for Christmas? Halloween, how she’s a Halloween girl. Is that your favorite holiday? Would you say? Like to actually like craft or decorate?
It’s my brothers too. I wouldn’t have even known. This was a thing that like Halloween would Trump something like Christmas, but, well, I, and I, I can give you backstory, at least for me. I don’t know what it is for everyone else, but you know, um, it’s the start of the holidays season. Yes. Coming. Right. So it’s your excuse to put, to decorate, put lights up, light candles, smell your favorite SC.
I love watching kids dress up with what they wanna be when they grow up, you know? Yeah. And they come to your house. I mean, we, at our house, we serve like Charlie brown rocks, hot apple cider, glow sticks, you know, all this stuff because we get really into it. Yeah. And then it’s the one holiday too, where your family comes together.
And it doesn’t have to be about the gifts you made or bought, or it’s just easy. It’s just, yeah. You just light the candles, watch scary movies, eat some popcorn, turn the lights on and give kids candy. Or, you know, like I said, other items that are maybe healthier too. Yeah. Yeah. It’s not like, I see what you’re saying.
It’s not like a hosting situation where you feel the stress of prepping things. And I can, I can see that it always blew my mind the way that some I’m like the laziest Halloween mom. Oh, my word, this stuff. I’m like literally just taking leftovers from people because I mean, I have girlfriends, like they’re super into trick or treating.
Like they go all out brand new costumes every year. my kids are wearing sheets that I cut up, like cut eyes out of to be a ghost. Literally people, this is my. Just say your going vintage, your going vintage in your classic. There there’s. No, there’s no shame of that. Vintage is exactly what it was. It was a cut up toddler bedsheet that my kids have probably peed on 5 million times and I no longer wanted to offer it to guests.
So I cut it up for a ghost anyway. I, well, that’s fair. I, I know multiple people that Halloween is just their absolute favorite. I love fall. So I would feel similarly like fall is, but definitely the more like boring vanilla pottery barn kind of a fall. Like that’s what I love about fall. Like the eyeballs.
I would’ve been like, Ugh. Don’t know what to do with these I would’ve like flipped them around and made them into like a pretty flower or something. Oh, that’s good. See, there you go right there. That would’ve been easy. I look, the fall is been, and then Chad, would’ve been putting cobwebs all over my flower.
She would’ve. Stop it and she’d be putting great. We would’ve made a good team. yeah, I do say though, that fall is a thing. Like people get really just in general, ready for fall. I am too. Yeah. So a lot of times when I try to decorate for any of the, like I decorate for the season, right. So if, if it’s fall, then you get to leave it up for three months at a time instead of a month or it’s winter or it’s, you know, something like that.
So that you’re not constantly putting up and, and tearing down. That’s exactly right. That’s how I am with fall. My fall stuff stays up until Christmas basically. Well, anyway, we got into that whole, okay. Would you rather a garage sale or thrift store? Ooh, that one’s tough. So tough. I don’t even know how I’d answer my own question, which is bad.
That’s a really good one though. Um, I guess I would say thrift store, would you rather wear flats or heels flats? Would you rather dance ballet? Or modern, modern. Would you rather teach ballet or modern, modern, modern? Yeah. This I’ve learned all these, like I had no idea. There were so many dance categories.
If you will. Like when my daughter signed up for these classes, I was like, what is modern? I was like hip hop. Nope. It’s not hip hop. It’s interesting. Oh, I totally have a good story about modern. So for those listening who maybe don’t know what modern is, it’s more of a free form dance. So think of it kind of like creative movement for you have creative movement for kids, but you also have like more of a free form creative movement for adults too, but it has a lot of ballet in it.
So you, a lot of times have, but it can range anything from like structure to kind of really out there. And so I went to college and I had never taken modern before in my life. I always took ballet, tap and jazz, and I loved tap and was bummed. I didn’t get to take as much of it in college, but. So I’m there and they tell me, I have to sign up for a modern class.
I walk into it and in my head, I’m thinking modern is hip hop, right? Yeah. Like modern, current. Right. So I walk into this class thinking that it’s a modern, you know, a hip hop class. I’m like, yeah. All right, this is gonna be awesome. And in walks this instructor with this like crazy bright red frizzy, all over the place hair, and she walks into the room and she says, you’re a tree, or you’re a speck of dust and the wind is picking up, go.
And I just was like, what? Like, I’m a spec of dust. And so I’m looking around at everyone else. And like they hip hop about cleaning. Totally. I know. So this was like, um, I’m really confused right now. So yeah, everybody just starts randomly moving around the room and then. Yeah. Like the first dance she choreographed to us, we would do, it was about stuff like stuff we collect.
And so we danced to her answering machine recordings and we had a shopping cart that was pushed across the stage and we picked things up off the floor and put it into the shopping cart. And I thought I never wanna take another modern class again in my whole life. This is way too weird for me now, is that a little extreme?
Like, is that yes. Okay. Cause I’m thinking I would’ve, first of all, I love dance. I love, in fact, I’m like actively trying to figure out how I can take a dance class at my daughter’s studio, cuz I’m there for three hours anyway. Like I wanna do something fun again, cuz I work too much, but I think I’d laugh.
Like if I walked into that studio and they told me to be a speck of dust, I would not be able to stop laughing and then I’d probably get kicked out. So you’re telling me that’s not really the normal approach to modern. No, not necessarily. I mean, there is, I would never make it. Yeah, that’s the range we’re talking about.
So that’s like the one end and then the other end is definitely more of a, you know, ballet crossover, lyrical task, you know, and you just get there’s no right or wrong. Let’s just put it that way. Yeah. So, you know, in ballet, you’re always in a turned out position, but in modern you can be turned out parallel or whatever, and it’s.
Whatever you wanna make up into a dance. There’s no rules, there’s no boundaries with it. And so, and you can dance to any kind of music you can use. You know, you can make your body tweak and curve and weird formations if you want. Yeah. But it’s absolutely lovely and inspiring. So it’s just kind of more of a broad, a broad realm, but I always was more on the structured end where I was teaching a lot of techniques still because you wanted, you were you weren’t on the speck of dust end, floating in the wind, not on the speck of dust end I really wish somebody had recorded that.
I would love to see what a speck of dust floating in the wind as a human body looks like that would’ve been, yeah. Fascinating. Very fascinating. Well, I actually really enjoyed modern at her, um, their big dance performance at the end of the year, their spring concert. I enjoyed watching the modern choreography, but yeah, I had no idea what modern was when I was first on.
Not hip hop people. It’s not hip hop. That’s the bottom line. Yeah, exactly. Well, we’ve already chatted quite a bunch of different things. Lots of dance, which is exciting. I love learning. People never know what I’m gonna talk about on here. The questions that I’m gonna ask where we’re going to go. So it’s lovely.
It’s why I love podcasting, but now let’s chat your newer expertise in life. Let’s start with home hacks. You have so many, a lot of what you’ve done for home. Talk. You have a free offering. In fact that at the end of the podcast, we will make sure the links are included where somebody can type in their email and get 21 home hacks from you, which is awesome.
But for now, just share with us, what are some of your that come to mind? We’re spitballing here. What are five of your favorite DIY home hacks, home life hacks to make our. Simpler smarter. Sure. All of the above. Sure. So one that comes to mind that has been a more popular one was I took the 12 mirrors from the dollar store and I glued them together and it was called the pottery barn mirror hack.
So you can buy these mirrors at pottery barn and the air about $300. And I glued the dollar store mirrors together and made a replica of that pottery barn mirror and spent $12. So is that like, tell me if I’m picturing the right thing. Is that like almost the 12 window frame looking? Yeah, I can. I think I can picture the pottery barn one.
So for those of you listening, it’s like 12 sort of little, it’s like a 12 pain window, except it’s a very big mirror. So what you’re saying is you bought 12 of those little mirrors and then what did you use for the frame part. So the mirrors were in a frame, so, oh. Um, I flipped all the mirrors over and then I taped them all together, reinforced ’em with glue and then, uh, adhered foam core board to the back of ’em.
Okay. And then they were all stuck together and then I hung it on the wall with those command picture strips. Yeah. So that’s brilliant. Yeah. So they were already framed and then you just basically pushed them together and then connected them in the back. Yes. I love that $12. Yeah. So the, the, exactly. So you can make decor, uh, decor hacks on a budget, right.
So you can take things from the dollar store and do them to look like pottery barn. Um, so that mirror hack, if somebody wants to see it on your blog, what would they wanna search on Chaz crazy creations? What would they wanna search to find that pottery barn? Mirror, pottery barn. Mirror. Okay. Okay. So that’s hack number one.
I love this. I like that idea. What’s another one. Okay. So that would be a decor hack. Let’s see. Um, so then, um, I actually have a whole section on my blogs dedicated to hacks, but I just did one recently that was using Irish spring soap. Okay. And how to. Away flies from indoors, outdoors and different things.
Mm-hmm so you take, like, you could take the Irish spring soap and you can rub it on your doors and flies will really ly won’t wanna come inside your house can sprinkle it in your garbage can, you know, just a little bit of in your garbage can and it shouldn’t, then it should, you know, not attract flies.
It depends upon what you’re putting in your garbage of course. Yeah. Um, you can spread it around your table or sprinkle it around your eating area and we’ll keep flies away. Of course, now this will all melt over time, you know, with rain and different things, but you can, you know, just replenish it. You can, you can also melt it into, um, or melt it.
You put it in like water and shake it up till it dissolves and you can spray it on your plants outside and it like kills aphids and he’s brilliant off your, so it’s the Irish. Bar like the soap bar. Yes. That we’re talking about. The one that I’m stuck on that I’m thinking through is like the outdoor scenario.
Like the eating. Yeah. That’s such a great idea. So you basically are crushing up the bar and then you’re sprinkling it around your food, like your outdoor buffet, and then you could sprinkle it on. Yeah. I love that one. Yeah. You can rub the table with it too. Right. So if you don’t really wanna sprinkle the bar around or you could leave, um, like put the bar in a Mason jar and then like keep the lid off.
Right. And then just place those around too. Mm-hmm then put the lid on it when you’re going back inside so that you can preserve the smell. It’s like the smell it’s supposed to be the deterrent. Well, that tip balloon people is worth the entire interview. if you missed everything else, don’t miss the bar.
So packed that. I love that. Okay. That is life changing. All right. So that’s hack number two. What else can you think of? This is on the spot guys, by the way. I know, cuz I was like, now I’m not prepared. Shouldn’t have done some research I know, but it’s organic and people love it. And it also shows just how brilliant you really are real life.
Let’s do a cleaning hack. So most people don’t realize we, we spend way too much money on different things and all you really need to clean is soapy water. And if you’re looking for something that doesn’t have any chemicals in it, Castile soap is a natural soap it’s you can buy in a bar form or a liquid form and you can buy cast soap.
Yep. Castile soap and you can buy it forwe if you want or not, but if you do buy it fragrance, I recommend looking for the kind that have a lot of times that’s a, a fabricated smell, but if it sells like the Latin word of lavender, that means it was actually derived from like from the oil. Okay. Yes. Yes.
Interesting. But you can use the baby version of Castile soap or unscented and they work great. But yeah, you just mix that with a little bit of water and you can use it to disinfect and spray your counters. It’s safe for granite. You can use it to clean your sinks, your showers, your tubs, pretty much your entire house with this one, very inexpensive product.
If you have soap scum, you just rub soap on soap and the soap scum comes off. And then you S it sort of like oil and oil, right. That’s really what exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Makes sense. That and the good micro clean microfiber cloth. So like, I’ll give you an example. I get a lot of questions about like, how do you make your granite or quartz counters or whatever shiny.
They’ll say, you know, they look streaky. And so I’ll say, well, first of all, you need a clean cloth. So go ahead and wipe off all the G first and then make a clean sink of soapy water or user spray and a clean cloth. Because a lot of times what they’re doing is they’re just pushing the grease around. And that’s what a lot of times is a streak.
If you use the soap clean, soapy water, nothing’s been washed in it and a clean cloth, it’ll make it streak free every time. So yeah, that’s really all, you need no need to spend super expensive products. You, you, you know, and disinfect, it’s a disinfectant cuz it’s soap. So yeah. And that’s Castile like C a S T I L L E just one L one L T I L E.
Yep. I okay. That’s awesome. Castile. This is amazing. Okay. Yeah. What else? This is wonderful. What are we on? That’s three. That’s three. Oh goodness. You can do another decor. You can do whatever you want. Yeah. I’m trying to think now, like what, what are some, what are some other ones? Um, let’s see. Organizing hacks.
A lot of people think about, you know, you’ve gotta buy these very expensive organizers to organize your closet. One of the big secrets there is first, you gotta be in the right mindset, right? If you’re not in a purging mood, you’re gonna get too sentimental and you’re gonna wanna keep everything. So you gotta be in the right mindset that you’re ready.
Not a problem that I have on for good or for bad. My poor children. They’re like, where did this paper go? I’m like, I threw it out. I already kept the other paper. I know. I get accused of being a purger too. A lot of people think very I’m not. They’re like, oh, you’re a DIY or you have to be a hoarder. I’m like, no way.
I’m a purger. yes. Yes, because clutter is stress in my world. It is. It does. It gives me anxiety when everything. Yes, I preach. Yes. Yes. Okay. I’m sorry. You’re happy. Yeah, no worries. Organizing. So the other thing you need to do is get the space. So choose what you’re gonna work on and try not to overwhelm. So if it’s, you know, you’re like, oh, I’m gonna do my bedroom and closet or whatever.
If you do it all at once, you’re gonna get overwhelmed. So pick something to start with and then gut it, gut the whole thing out, wipe it down, get it all clean because starting with a clean slate, isn’t you trying to fit puzzles into the wrong places. Again, you’re just going to start with clean slate and then you don’t have to buy.
Super fancy organizers. You can go to Walmart in the dollar store and buy great bins. They have those beautiful cloth bins for inexpensive, and you can put those up on your shelf and then find things that fit in those. Like we put all of our hats in one of those little bins on the shelf, and then you don’t see hats laying all over the place or figure out how to hang them or whatnot.
I’ve taken the back of our door and I’ve hung like two command hooks on it and used attention rod. And I slide our, like my bags and purses onto them. So, oh, that’s mm-hmm . Yeah. And that’s using like unused space efficiently. Right? And then if you are crammed for space, Man a good shoe organizer can be a lifesaver.
Those shoe organizers can be used in your bathroom, in your closets, in the kitchen. I mean, you can put pantry items in ’em. You can put hair stuff in ’em you can put first aid stuff in ’em. You can put wrapping paper. I mean, I have a whole thing on shoe organizers that you can, 20 things you can do with the shoe organizer.
That is not just, I love that. Yeah. And for those of you wondering, like, if you can’t picture what she’s talking about, she’s talking about the over the door shoe organizers that are vertical storage that lay flat up against the door. That historically speaking for shoes, you would like put one shoe in.
Pack it. So somebody would go to Chaz, crazy creations and just look up shoe organizer. Yep. You would just look search shoe, shoe organizer, and then it’ll show you 20 ways to use that shoe organizer. Yeah, that’s brilliant because people have heard me say this before, but vertical storage is the key to decluttering using the space that you have, you will instantly create so much more space for organizing.
The other piece that you said that I love is not trying decluttering and reorganizing is not trying to refit the puzzle pieces that are already there. It is totally clearing it out. I love that gutting it and starting over. I think that is really, really important because too often, we’re not willing to actually go the extra step to.
Get everything out of the space. And then that also kind of forces you, you realize like, oh, forgot about that shirt that I haven’t worn in five years. yeah. Time to donate that. Yeah. So I think that’s brilliant gut the space before you organize and then get a shoe organizer. Look at this. She is throwing us.
You’ve just hit, I think four different life categories has a fifth, one popped to your mind. Maybe a surprise. One would be pool noodles, listen, pool noodles. There’s a whole, okay, let me stop for a second. I can’t believe all the things you can do with pool noodles. It’s amazing. Yeah, it’s crazy. Okay. Keep going.
I’m excited to hear what you’re saying. Yeah. So I have several different ones that I’ve done pool noodles with. So I’ve got, um, talking about vertical space. There was a hack that I did where you take a pool noodle and you stick it on the wall and you cut slacks in it. And that vertical storage is where you can hang your brooms.
You stick them into the SLS that you’ve cut. So, you know, finding an empty wall space. And then how do you anchor it to the wall? How do you anchor the pool noodle to wall those, uh, command strips? So you just gotta find the right weight of those command strips. Their picture hanging strips is what they are and they carry, they have different weights for like I, um, pictures.
So you could hang ’em to the wall with that. I’ve made a door draft stopper out of them that you attached to the door. So you don’t have to pull it away. It just is always there. I’ve also played, made outdoor games, like a kickball croquet with the pool noodles. That’s amazing. Yeah. Um, I’ve taken a pool noodle and stuck it to the faucet.
And then, you know, instead of me having to lift a heavy bucket of water to mop, I, um, I leave the bucket on the ground and you take the one end of the pool. It’ll stick it on your faucet and then drap it over into the bucket and you turn your water on. It fills your bucket and you don’t have to break your back lifting the bucket.
Okay. Does that make sense? I think so. Yeah. So you’re basically attaching the pool noodle yeah. To the faucet on the wall. Or on the sink. Is that what you’re saying on the sink? Yep. Yes. And then you are, I see what you’re saying. You’re taking it to the sink and then you are draping it over the front of the sink cabinetry onto or into the bucket on the floor.
Yes, it’s genius. Okay. Let me throw out one that I saw the other date. So we’re in a rental house now, so it’s like a totally different setup doesn’t matter. But in the one house that we did our washer and dryer constantly rattled. And would like end up hitting each other. And I saw somebody, basically, they just stuck a pool noodle in between them.
And it was like, silence. It stopped them from rattling because it, it like, basically like gave some support in between so that it wasn’t just like rat anyways. I was like, what pool noodles? yeah. I’ve never thought of pool noodle things you can do with them. It’s amazing. Like, yeah. I just, and I’m not even touching on all the ones that I’ve done.
I, and it I’ve made candles out of ’em for like Christmas time, turned them into candles and I wait, how do you turn a pool noodle into a candle now? Yeah, it’s really weird. So you cut the top out and you put like a battery operated tea light in it, but before you do you spray paint them all. So they look whatever color you want and then you, um, but before you spray paint, ’em you have to use like hot glue to make the dries on it.
So it looks like it’s cute and you’re cutting them, obviously. Like you’re cutting them into smaller. Yep. In into different light. Listen, this is amazing. Well, we can talk about hacks. I love hacks who doesn’t love hacks. Part of it is just the like mind blowing moment where you’re like, what? I can do that with that anyways.
Yeah. Hacks. There you go. Oh, if you, if you’re a boot person, if you have, you know, your fancy dress boots me. Yes. Yeah. Cut pool noodles to stick inside your boots so that they stand up nice. And they don’t get all the creases in them from holding over. Yep. That’s also brilliant. I actually have like boot plastic things, but in some ways, skinny P pool noodles would almost be easier.
I love that. Well, I could talk about hacks for, for hours transitioning into your other expertise. So not only does Chaz have her DIY site with all these hacks that ladies, you all need to go visit and check out, make your life easier, work smarter, not harder. But then you also have this other business, which is ultimately a business that is helping people grow and build their online business really is what you’re doing.
And you especially have an expertise in blogging. Um, what advice would you have for somebody who is either an aspiring blogger they’re considering starting a blog or maybe they have been blogging and they’re just kind of like stagnant. What advice? What is the number one thing every blogger should be doing, but isn’t whether you are about to start one or you’re currently doing one, what is a repeat performance issue that you see that if you could tell everyone right now, this is what you should be doing and you’re not, or you shouldn’t be doing and you are.
Yeah. So I will tell you from my own personal experience, when we start blogging, we try to do everything for free just because you’re not making any money yet. And so, you know, you’re trying to get your theme for free or your plugins for free or all these different things for free. And really you’ve gotta make money, spend money to make money.
And I invested in a coach myself and I was probably only a year in and it was the best thing I ever did. And. I wished I would’ve done it sooner. I wish I would’ve done it from the start, because once I hired that coach, you know, you learned how to write your blog posts the best you can. You learn what image sizes you should have.
You, you get all this information that you had no idea. And now, you know, if you’re a hundred blog posts in now, you’ve gotta go backtrack and fix errors. Sometimes you can’t fix that. That was me. I’m waving my hand. so much backtracking. Yeah. Yeah. That is excellent. That’s what that’s part of the challenge.
I think in any business, I said this before is you don’t know what is worth spending the money on. I mean, nobody had to tell me twice that you need to spend money to make money. And I wasn’t even a businesswoman like that made sense to me that initial investment would pay dividends in the long run. But my issue was, I didn’t know what to spend money on.
Like what was in the long run really necessary to spend money on. Right now. And I think your point is. An excellent one, because ultimately what you are doing is you are hiring somebody who can answer that question. Yes. And that, I think in and of itself is sort of the one stop shop. So maybe this is just in general, a principle for anyone starting a small business, whether it’s online or not is hiring somebody who can answer all those questions for you.
So yes, you might have to spend more money on top of the coach, but at least now you’re spending it well. Yes. Which is one of the reasons why I started coaching. Yes. And why I started helping everybody is because I knew it was the biggest piece that really helped me. And now I wanna pay that forward. You know, I wanna, I wanna give back again and, um, help other people who are ready to launch their careers and, or, or if they’re struggling too, you know, like I just don’t get how to make my email system work or I just don’t know how to do something.
Well, I wanna help you do that because we’ve all been there. Yeah. We’ve all been in those places. Yeah. So you do, I mean, you, you offer a lot of different things in your site consultation service, but basically you will not only help somebody like with a site audit, look at your site and see how to optimize it.
Better help with email lists. You also do video editing. Is that right? I do use some video editing, editing. Yeah. I also coach people how to get started, how to video. Yeah. How to do it. Um, but I have done video editing for other people too. It’s not as hard as everyone thinks it is. Yeah. Uh, at least just to get started.
Right. You know, and, and then again, as you grow, you can take that wherever you want to take it. But just to get started with video. So many people are so intimidated by it and it’s actually not that hard. And essential for businesses. Now, if you have an online business and you don’t have any video on your website, you need to come see cha cuz seriously, that is sort of the way right now when it comes, content is king video is queen
You can quote me on that. That is what I’m seeing right now, at least. And I, it’s not gonna go away. It’s totally not gonna go away. It’s only gonna continue to go that direction. Yeah. And the, and the good news is by creating one video, there is so much content then that you have Shaz knows this. I just talked to her whole group about the power of video with podcasting too.
Is there so much that you can do with it? What, tell me a little bit, um, for people listening might be interested in what you offer. Everyone needs to go check out your DOI site. There’s no woman here that could not need to go see all of the amazing home life hacks that you have on there, but from your site consultation, what else do you offer?
Who do you best serve in that business? Sure. So I would say I currently best. Bloggers and DIY, well, just DIY bloggers. Right. But other people too, cuz I don’t, I guess I shouldn’t say I limit it to DIYers. Those are the ones most easily fed to you probably. Right. Because of groups, probably that the niche that you’re in.
But absolutely. I think a lot of your expertise would benefit if your food blogger or yeah. Yeah, exactly. Cuz I do food. I do recipes too. So I understand that as well. So I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t limit myself there, but you know, um, I’ll do anything from a site audit where I look at the front end of your blog and the back end of your blog.
Make sure everything’s running. Look at your site. Speed. Look at your. You know, just do, do you have everything set up? Right. You know, a lot of people don’t know. Um, and then I get in there and I like, Ooh, whoop, we haven’t, we haven’t done this. Or we haven’t done that. Then I also, you know, um, sometimes people something’s not working.
And so I have these handy girl services where I can take a look and, and try to fix websites that are having some issues. So there’s sometimes things like that or connecting things like, oh, my email service doesn’t seem to be working and it’s a plugin that’s gone wonky. So I do some technical things like that for website people.
So that’s more broad, like anybody who’s got some website issues, which is amazing though. I just wanna hone in on that for a second, because not everybody, Abby, this is a whole nother podcast episode, but there’s a lot of people who have an online business, an online website, but they don’t have a blog.
Whole another story there. But if you have a website, what you offer with the handy girl services is phenomenal. That was one of the things early on that when I would have these little, like, I was like, I don’t even who do I ask this? Isn’t like a brick and mortar where I call it. And I’m like, Hey, I can’t chart on this patient because I don’t know what’s happening.
Come fix it. , you know, there’s nobody like, you don’t even know where to go. So if you have an online business, you have a website and you need somebody who you can call on. If you will. I highly recommend Chaz. Everybody needs the it person for your website, I guess really is what it is. Handy. Girl services.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then outside of that, I just have the mastermind. Why I coach small groups of people who want to grow and, and then the other thing. If you are one, a person that needs more one on one, you know, my groups are small. I don’t like them to get overwhelmed. Uh, I want everybody to be able to have a turn.
So I always keep those groups small for the mastermind, but I’ve definitely had several people come to me who just want one on one, because maybe they’re a visual learner. Maybe they’re an auditory learner. And we look into what their learning style is. And then we proceed with, you know, their questions and then I work with them and how, however long it takes, you know, we work on it till they understand what they need understand.
Or, um, sometimes you just need direction, you know, you just, which things are important. What do I need to start with? And we prioritize that and tack it. One thing at a time without getting overwhelmed. I love that. And you’re, you’re empowering people to understand how to do it themselves, really, in many cases, which is so important.
But if you don’t feel like learning how to do it yourself and you just wanna pay somebody to do it. I can’t, I wish I had a dollar every time I had said that I wouldn’t even need to work anymore because I’m like, I just wanna pay somebody to do this for me. I don’t wanna DIY it. People would always give you, well, if you do, this is what I would always get.
If you do X, Y, Z, then check it. I’m like, I don’t wanna do X, Y, Z. Can you just do it for me anyway? Definitely wanna check out Chaz, check out her business. There are two freebies that she is offering everyone listening. One of them is talking about home hacks. She already mentioned a bunch of them, but she actually is a freebie there’s 21 home hacks that, um, will help you work smarter and not harder.
That link will be included in the show notes. Certainly she is also sharing 11 ways to diversify your income. If you are a blogger and you’re trying to figure out how on earth are people making six figures doing this? This is a great place to start. So you wanna also check that link out. That is again in the show notes.
If you’re watching on YouTube, it is right below here. If you wanna check out the show notes on my blog@hammersandhugs.com, they will all be there as well, as well as her websites. On top of all of that, Chaz, I pray God’s blessing over your heart, your home, your health, all of it. You have been in remission, correct from breast cancer.
Yes, I am. And, uh, for how many years? Uh, three years out now. So, yep. It’s amazing. Yeah. That’s amazing. I pray. It goes for much, much longer. Me too. yeah. So grateful to have you here. Thank you so much for having me. This has been awesome. Thanks for listening to this episode of the imperfectly empowered podcast.
I would love to hear your thoughts from today. Head to your preferred podcasting platform and give the show an honest review and let me know what you think. Remember, you cannot be redefined only redeveloped one imperfect day at a time. Your story matters and you are loved.