Reanna & Davis Karousis

Introducing Our Guests

Our regular listeners will recognize the name of at least one of today’s guests – Reanna Karousis, of Collective Reach, and the Social Distance Happy Hour podcast. You hear us mention her at the end of each of our podcast episodes because she and her husband Davis inspired and challenged us to start this podcast! And we’re so excited to finally have them here on That’s a Hard No.

Reanna and Davis Karousis are a young professional couple that found themselves living as what they call “hobbyist farmers” deep in the suburbs, which is a complete left turn from their original plan.

During our conversation, we talk about how that major life change came to be, the boundaries they had to set as a couple to make their new life manageable, finding connection as a couple when life is crazy, and accepting whatever season of life we find ourselves in.

We also learn about life on the farm, including when to plant fruit trees, cautionary tales about buying goats and keeping bees, and how to keep young chicks warm.

They’re an engaging and totally adorable couple – you can just sense that in addition to being life partners, they’re best friends. We had a ton of fun talking with them, and we’re super excited that we somehow finagled an invite to the farm sometime in the future!

A Few of Our Favorite Quotes from the Conversation

“A boundary, I’ve found, is not something that you set once and forget about it. It’s something that we’re continually renegotiating. And again, we change our minds about things sometimes and things get forgotten. And we have to have those conversations again.”

“I think that when we’re setting boundaries, there are different ways to do it. And sometimes it does take having to sit down, have that direct conversation, and sometimes it truly is just muddling through our behavior. And so, as you know, certain things start to happen, just kind of acknowledging, verbalizing, communicating. But it doesn’t always have to be this, you know, businesslike discussion. But sometimes if boundaries are not being respected, you may need to go that route. And I think that that’s what can be so confusing. And I love, again, reiterating what you said in the beginning and something I like to really another we talk about this all the time, like you have permission to change your mind and boundaries, serve you for certain periods, and then you have to go back and you have to decide, can we loosen this? Does this need to be tightened? And it’s OK.”

“It was a hard-earned lesson, you know. The baby years, literally sitting underneath the feeding baby, looking out the window and watching the weeds grow and knowing that there was nowhere else I could be, there was no other way to do it. But what I was doing and almost a surrendering of this is the path that we’re on. And there’s no way to go any faster. And you need to stop wishing for it to go faster.” […] “[I’m] coming to the conclusion that we are in a particular season and it is not a failure and it is not just us not being able to figure out the right way to do things. The right way to do things was the way we were doing it. But there’s just a hard limit on how much you can get done in certain periods of time.”

Links

• Reanna’s communications consulting firm – Collective Reach
• Social Distance Happy Hour Podcast – Find it on Anchor, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts

Credits and Thanks

• Special thanks to Reanna Karousis of Collective Reach and the Social Distance Happy Hour, who inspired and challenged us to start this podcast and helped us produce our first episode.
• Thanks also to our families and friends for all their encouragement and support, and to you, our listeners, for joining us on this adventure.
• That’s a Hard No is a joint production of Clever Girl Marketing and Purposeful Growth & Wellness.
• Cover art and logo design by Angela Giaco of A Pink Sunset. You can find her at apinksunset.com.
• Music: “Whiskey for Lunch” by GG Rigs. (Don’t judge us, you guys. We just like the song.)