264: Why Captivate is My 2025 Word: A Mom Founder's Challenge to Think Differently

Ever notice how everyone picks the same predictable words for their New Year - peace, joy, freedom? What if your 2025 word of the year could be something totally unexpected that lights up everyone's face when you share it?

2025: The Year of Captivation Yep, that's MY word this year.

2025 is not just another year—it's the year of captivation for me. In the past, my time has been driven by business goals, from client acquisition to serving a growing audience predominantly of mothers. This year, however, my focus is on discovering and pursuing what truly captivates me—my word of the year.

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**Captivation: Inspired by Family and Stories**

Reflecting on memorable moments of captivation, I am reminded of summers spent with my grandmothers in Miami and Puerto Rico. My Cuban grandmother and her family were expert storytellers, captivating me with tales from their lives and adventures. These moments instilled in me a love for storytelling and a fascination with human expression.

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**Choosing a Word of the Year: A Journey of Self-Discovery**

I invite you to join me on this journey of selecting a word of the year—a concept popularized by Danielle Laporte in her work on desire mapping. Find a word that resonates deeply, one that isn't commonly chosen but is authentic to the sensation you aim to experience. Whether it's a bold choice like "captivating" or something uniquely personal, let it guide your experiences and interactions.

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**Practice Captivation in Everyday Life**

Achieving a sense of captivation doesn't necessarily require grand gestures; it can be found in simple, everyday experiences. Whether it's listening intently to your child's story or discovering a new passion, these moments hold the potential to enrich our lives profoundly.

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**Conclusion: A Year of Unforeseen Opportunities**

As we traverse 2025, I aim to provide you with content that not only captivates but also adds value to your life. This year will be marked by transformative changes in how I approach my business and personal life, integrating my newly acquired skills as a meditation practitioner.

Let's explore how we can make this year uniquely ours. I encourage you, my listeners, to think expansively, embrace words that are different, and stand unafraid in your journey.

Happy New Year! While we're at it, why not make it official? Subscribe or follow the Mom Founder Imagination Hub podcast, and feel free to send me a note afterwards so I can thank you—seriously, feel encouraged to email me melissa.llarena (at) gmail.com. Let's keep this engaging dialogue alive as we explore the art of captivation together. Have a captivating week ahead!

This episode is brought to you by:

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This holiday season purchase a copy or two of Fertile Imagination, email me your picture (under the tree by the candles) using this email address melissa [at ]melissallarena.com , and then on Christmas day I hope to share these images across my social media. Let’s support the moms we are and love this holiday season!

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TRANSCRIPT

  Welcome to 2025. It is Melissa, your host of the Mom Founder Imagination Hub podcast.  Wow, like what was that? Seriously, it's so funny. I just returned from a trip to the colonies, as I like to refer the states that I have a lot of family in. So we went to New York, we went to New Jersey and we went to Connecticut.

Yeah. And I will say that the experience was a bit of a whirlwind, but it ended with just like feeling really, really sick. And so I'm on the mend, definitely feeling very, very. alive and excited and pumped about 2025. This morning, I already went to the gym. I did my 10, 000 steps, went to the groceries, did some laundry part two.

I mean, it's been a productive set of hours on this feast of the epiphany Three Wise Men Day. I even put incense with the scent of myrrh for the occasion of the Three Wise Men. You remember? What did they give baby Jesus? Frankincense, myrrh, and gold. So I would say, you know, it's been a really interesting start to the new year. 

And in this unedited episode, you thoroughly hear that I still have the remnants of a, a bad set of bacteria, virus,  But notwithstanding, I feel good. I feel good about 2025. And the reason why I do is because it's going to be different than years past. Years past have been really dictated by business initiatives, figuring out what needs to happen in order to bring in new clients, in order to better serve, You know, a brand new target audience being you a mom and also, you know, just a lot of novelty when it comes to the different ways that people approach, you know, lead generation and all that businessy stuff.

And so this year is going to be a little bit different.  It's really going to be about figuring out what.  exactly captivates me. That is the word for me of 2025. And as I tell individuals, my word, I am met with this whole idea of, wow, that's crazy, but like in a good way, because it's definitely a very high vibe word, captivating, captivate to captivate. 

I put a lot of thought into it.  And just to kind of share a story of those moments when I have been the most captivated, I remember every single summer I would spend a month in Miami and a month in Puerto Rico with my respective grandmothers. And my Cuban grandmother on one hand was A really good storyteller, as was my entire family from a paternal perspective.

And I would say that they really got into storytelling. So let's imagine they got home from work and they all worked in the police department and they had these amazing stories. Whether it was, you know, about criminals or if it was about, I don't even know, a salsero that they would have invited to like a Christmas party.

I mean, a lot of my memories are a little bit of a Patchwork quilt, should I say?  Point of the matter, they would use their body to really express themselves. They would stand up in the middle of the living room to absolutely, you know, be on stage, quote unquote.  And I felt captivated,  completely engrossed in what they were saying.

And I'm pretty sure I had no idea what they were really, really saying. Because I was a little girl, but I was always really intrigued by the way they express themselves and the stories they would tell. And that's why for me, that is the word that popped up, captivating to captivate. And when I started looking up wha