289 THE SECRET to Creating Lasting Change In Your Life: Healthy Habits
Habit Coach & Podcast Host
Valerie LaVigne
Valerie LaVigne is a Certified Health Coach specializing in Healthy Habits. She's also the host of The Women's Empowerment Podcast, a Pilates Studio Owner and an Entrepreneur.
Valeria works with motivated go-getters who love what they do and enthusiastically believe in natural living, but wish someone would give them a roadmap to their healthiest lifestyle.
In this episode, we chat about:
When did healthy habits first become of importance
Exactly how to create the dream life you want to create
The misconception that healthy habits makes your life DULL
Why are healthy habits VITAL for entrepreneurs?
Tips for mastering Health and Wellness Habits, Mindset, and Entrepreneurship
The champagne tower analogy
To connect with Valerie:
Access the transcript for this episode:
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You're listening to the visionary life podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey Reidl.
Each week, I'll bring you conversations with the most visionary humans on this earth, in hopes that you'll be able to absorb their wisdom, avoid their failures and feel less alone on the roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship.
This season, I'll be chatting with creative thinkers, masterful marketers, brick and mortar shop owners, brand builders, and people just like you who have a story to share or a vision that inspires. If I can share one quick secret with you before we get into the episode. It's that we all have a little bit of visionary inside of us, you know, that spark that nudges us to pursue our full potential in this lifetime. But perhaps somewhere along the line, it got covered up. I'm here to tell you that it's never too late to explore that inner voice and access the brilliance deep down inside of you. It's in you. It's in all of us. Let's dive in.Hey, visionaries. Welcome back to the show. I want to ask you a question. Do you feel like you've really dialed in your habits, specifically your health habits? And do you believe that the compound effect of all of your micro habits will actually lead you to living your dream life? Well, today's guest Valerie Levine is actually a habits coach, specifically a healthy habits coach. And after finding herself totally stuck, and totally afraid of actually reaching for her best life, she decided to stop everything she was doing head on a life changing trip to Guatemala.
And this is where her journey really began. Now, Valerie is somebody who I didn't know previous to this podcast, we actually just connected through a mutual friend. But when we got on the mic, she only lives an hour from me, we were just able to riff and talk and have a conversation about the realness of running a business and life and the importance of health as an entrepreneur. She is not only a podcast host of the Women's Empowerment Podcast, but she also works one on one with people. She also is the co owner of a Pilates studio. Needless to say, she is very busy and understands that with without her health and without these habits that she has in place, and the mindset of always looking for ways to improve that she wouldn't be able to balance it all. So I'm really excited because in this episode, she's gonna talk to us kind of about the before unit, she wasn't always this way. And eventually, she found herself feeling stuck and uninspired.
So she dropped everything went on a trip to Guatemala traveled the world. And when she came back, she found herself really inspired to take a new path and really create the life that she previously thought wasn't possible for her. So we're gonna get into her story, then we're going to dissect the art of adopting healthy habits and some of the tips that she has, we're going to talk about why healthy habits are specifically so important for entrepreneurs. You guys know, I am so passionate about this topic of health and I actually sprinkle it into the podcast every now and again, you can scroll back to find a couple episodes where I share some of my favorite health tools and rituals and routines that I've adopted as an entrepreneur. ButValerie really believes that habits create freedom, she mentions that habits are not dull. They're not meant to take away from your life. They're actually meant to enhance your life. And there's some really, really good strategies and tips here. If you listen, I think around the middle of the show or the end, she talks about connecting with a feeling word. This one's really, really important. So definitely make sure you don't miss that. She also talks about asking the right questions in order to get the right answer. We talked about how to build habits and really so much more and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Valerie while recording and now airing it to all of you. It's so funny to have a first friend date that we press record on but anyways, I think you're gonna love it. I will link all of Valerie's website social media channels in the show notes over at Kelsey rydell.com. And as always, I am just so grateful that you're here. What at the time of recording this it's beginning of May I just feel like there's this collective renewed sense of energy that has just to come all over us, like if you're in my hemisphere of the world, it's just Summertime is here.
And it's such a beautiful time to start exploring what new habits you want to introduce, and maybe what habits are no longer serving you that you'd like to give up. So lots of good stuff coming your way. As always, if you are interested in exploring how you and I can work together if you've been looking for more structure in your marketing and business growth habits, hit me up at Kelsey Rydell on Instagram or Kelsey rydell.com. And without further ado, let's dive right into the episode.So today, I'm sitting down with Valerie Levine, we actually just recorded for her incredible podcast. So I will link that episode in the show notes. And it's so cool Valerie to sit down with someone and to be only meeting for the first time like, yes, we followed each other on social, but then to have two hours to get into conversation.
And I just feel like all of a sudden, we're like sharing all the parts of our lives and telling each other our secret. So it's been such a pleasure getting to know you. But now I want the listeners to get to know you. So first off, thank you for being here. Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited. I'm a big fan of your podcast.
Oh, well, thank you. And back at you too. I want to rewind the clock a little bit. So before you created the Women's Empowerment Podcast before you started collaborating and coaching women all around the world, I know you say you were kind of stuck, you were in a routine, and you were afraid of reaching your wildest dreams. So obviously, you weren't really living in the Empowered state that you are now can you kind of just take us back to that moment and describe what did life used to look like in Valerie's world. And then we could fast forward to today and share some of your brilliance? Sure. So I was hustling.
That's kind of how people call it now I was stuck in the hustle culture. I was working split shifts as a Pilates and yoga instructor teaching at four or five different studios, which means I was driving around I was in front of a lot of people I was eating in my car or you know, drinking smoothies while I was teaching because I couldn't sit down for a proper meal. In between those split shifts, I was trying to build my online business, which meant hours in front of a computer, but then I'd have to jump back into my car again to drive to another studio. I was also in a relationship where that person was also trying to kind of discover themselves and find themselves and build their own business. And so it didn't really feel like we had a lot of time to connect with each other because we were both just so busy.
And I know that I wore busy as a badge of honor. And I definitely don't see it as that now. And I can't remember what this aha moment was for me. But it felt like a very quick moment like almost that, you know, brick to the chest slap in the face that that Wake Up Call of I can't do this anymore. And I think it was just taking a moment to because even in all of this hustle even in all this bustle of my life, I still had a morning routine where I was journaling. And yes, I'd go to the gym every day. And you know, people would maybe look in to my life and say, Oh, but you know, you work as a Pilates teacher, which is what you wanted to do. And you have this relationship with another ambitious person and you know, you're healthy. And I'm like, I don't feel good. Like I don't I don't have joy in my life. I don't have like peace in my life. I don't feel good in body.
So what's wrong? Like, I'm doing all the things that you're quote unquote, supposed to do? Why do I feel this way. And so through my own personal development practices, or my meditation practice, I sat there and I thought, if I keep doing what I'm doing today, I'm either going to burn out, or I'm just going to be in this same stagnant place that I am in a year or two years or three years. And so it was during one of my meditation practices when you're, I, it's gonna sound crazy, but I heard this whisper and I felt this, this call, and the call was to buy a one way ticket to Guatemala. People were like, you're gonna die, you're gonna get kidnapped, like, what are you doing? Are you crazy when you're when your parents think about this? And I just said, I don't care. I need to do this. I need to do something. And I left my job. My dream job, I left my relationship. I left my family. And I just said I have to do this. I have to do this for me. And I don't know why. And so I bought this one way ticket to Guatemala, which I didn't even know where Guatemala was, which is so embarrassing.The country name and you're like, I just liked that. Guy just was like I honestly I know. It sounds crazy. saying it out loud. It sounds crazy. But you have to understand it was this visceral feeling that I had to do it.
So I go to Guatemala and I have no idea what I'm doing the only thing I booked while I was there, the only thing I organized was a one week homestay, where I would learn Spanish in the mornings and then explore the town in the afternoons and I stayed with a family who fed you.
And so because I'm living with this family that speaks very little English, and I have to tell you this really funny part of the story, my Guatemalan dad will call him the, the dad of the homestay that I was in, he picked me up from the airport, and he was speaking Spanish to me. And I was just like, I don't know, Spanish. That's why I'm here. So like, learn Spanish. I'm so sorry. And so he's asking me in Spanish, like, do you sing? Do you dance? And I'm like, I don't know. You don't know these words yet. And we're in what we're in Guatemala City, and we're on our way to Antigua. So Guatemala City's like not very safe. It's a little bit rough. But Antigua is this beautiful, like UNESCO world heritage city or town. And it's stunning, and it's colorful. And so that's where I'm going to stay.And so my Guatemalan dad, he says Guatemala, or Guatemala City is like, not good. And then he says that antiguas paradisio, like paradise. And that is and then I'm like, Well, hey, like, I just, he's talking so fast in a language that I just don't know yet. And then he says, Guatemala City, Welcome to the jungle.
And I'm just, I'm sitting in this car with this man thinking like, Oh, my God, what did I do? And basically, we drive, I don't know, I think it's like, I think it's 30 or 40 minutes into Antigua, we get to Antigua. It's stunning. It's beautiful. I'm like, Okay, I just need to unpack it just you just settle in. And so I spend the night with the family, we have dinner together, you know, I'm kind of like absorbing the Spanish as much as I can.
And then the next day, I'm walking to the Spanish school, and I just start crying, like, but I'm so happy. And I'm feeling joy for like the first time in a very long time. And so I just knew I get it was like gut feeling. I just knew that I was supposed to be here. So fast forward. Seven months later, I've traveled all the way around Central America, I've actually gone back to Guatemala, because I loved it so much. Then I went to Mexico. And in Mexico, I became a certified health and life coach. So it was like a health coach or a life coach for yoga teachers or for people who are really inspired by health. So it's kind of like a combo. So it's not the holistic, nutrition school education that you got. But it is a very, like health inspired life coaching. And I loved it. And it was just like, not part of the plan at all. Like basically that whole trip, I was just going off of people were saying, Hey, you can try this. I'm like, Well, yeah, that sounds good. I'm going to do that. Or like, oh, you should go here. And I'm like, No, that's not for me. So I'm not going to go there. And so just going with the flow of what felt good in my body, and led me to that life coaching School, which was a really interesting point in the journey. Because through that life coaching school, Mikey asked, this is what I want to do. But I need to go home now. And I felt so ungrounded. And I just knew that I had to leave like I had to go back. So I went back. And I did things differently. So I'm still a Pilates teacher, I now do health coaching, in combination, or in complementary to my Pilates teaching. So a lot of my clients kind of like crossover, I guess you could say, I don't teach as much as I used to.And yet I make more or as much money as I used to, even though I'm teaching less hours. So I started creating these boundaries, I started creating, you know, a more ideal life and lifestyle and work life balance for myself. So it was just this really amazing awakening. And I know that not everyone can take seven months off to just, you know, travel around, and I get that. So it doesn't have to be this big transformation. But it can be through these little tiny habits and health habits that you can feel better, you can find that joy, you can experience the growth and the transformation that I did in that seven months time. But maybe yours is through 12 or 14 months or 18 months with just tiny little things you can do every single day and you don't have to buy that one way ticket. So that was my long winded story. Oh my gosh, what an experience to have. So I kind of want to double tap on that a bit. Number one, like I do love the idea of booking a ticket or going on an adventure to really shake everything up. Because it gives you a lot of perspective on your own life when you're all of a sudden transplanted to somebody somewhere else in the world and completely out of your routine. So I'm curious, like, what is it for you that happened through that travel? Like why do you think that going to Guatemala somehow was the catalyst to you experiencing joy in life again, that's a really great
question. I think it's a few things. So first of all, I went by myself. So I was completely alone on this trip, I was meeting people as I was traveling. And one of the things that solo travel really helps you do is it helps you take ownership and responsibility for yourself. So if I got lost, there was no blaming anybody.
There's no pointing fingers. It was I screwed up. And I had to own that. It was also part of that solo travel was I would wake up and think, Okay, what do I want to do today? And I know this, because I see it from so many women. And I think it's also part of my family lineage. It's like, it's so easy to just say, oh, yeah, whatever you want. We'll do whatever you want. Where do you want to eat tonight? Oh, whatever you want. And so for me, it was like, I actually had to ask myself, What do I want? Where do I want to eat today? What do I want to do today? Where do I want to go today? And yeah, I had some people, you know, make recommendations of like, oh, you should check out the beach here. And like, Oh, I've never heard of that beach. That sounds really cool. I want to do that. That feels exciting for me. And so it was almost like a daily question of like, what do I want? What would make me joyful? Because at home, I didn't ever ask myself that question. I had to follow this schedule that I had created. And you know, I created that schedule for myself. I'm still a business owner, because I was contracted out for those studios. But I could have said, No, I don't want to work twice. Like I don't want to work two shifts, which means I'm working from like, 6am till 9pm. At night, that's too much. So, you know, it was a new, it was a new opportunity of this freedom for me to do this. The other thing was, I was learning all these new skills. So I learned how to speak pretty, pretty decent, conversational Spanish. It's been a little while and now I'm learning French. So I kind of get them confused a little bit. But learning that skill was so empowering. Like being able to hold a conversation with a total stranger who knows no English was so cool.
Like I spent, I even remember I went back to Guatemala and 2020. And no one in our tour group spoke Spanish. And my on our tour guide didn't speak any English. And so I was the translator of that group. I'm like, wow, this is so cool. I remember going to Guatemala and not speaking any English and looking to the other gringos to like, help me translate. Whereas like, that's me. Now, I get to do that. And the other thing is, I learned how to scuba dive like I learned, there's all these cool things, I was taking these risks that I would never have the opportunity to do here. I live in Milton, Ontario, like, there's no scuba diving here, we're not going to be doing that. But the other thing was, is I was really learning how to love myself and appreciate myself and give myself a pat on the back for saying, Hey, you got yourself across an entire country, on a bus or a tuk tuk, or, you know, three buses, and a tuk tuk, and all these different things. Or hey, you were able to speak, you know, conversational Spanish with someone for that one hour ride. And now you have the best recommendation for the most amazing dinner you've ever had at some locals house like just cool things that I did, like I was able to do that. And you develop this self awareness, you just built the self trust, you develop the self love. And then you start to be excited about like who you are and what you can offer and how you can help people on how, you know, like, I like hanging out with myself. I love solo traveling. I like traveling with people too. But I love the freedom and the flexibility and like long time I get with me when I get to solo travel. So that was really huge and empowering part of the journey.
I find it so interesting what you're saying, because I see you in this light of being a habits expert and healthy habits expert. But then when we rewind to the early parts of your journey, you almost had to like drop the habits and routine in favor of tuning into the flow of life. And I really do think that we build so much character as humans when we interact with the world around us. But what I mean by that is not just doing your daily Monday to Friday interact, like I wake up, I go to the same studio for a fitness class. And then I go to my same desk, like when you really get out of your bubble and start having these new interactions. But then I know the work that you do today is really about cultivating healthy habits. So to set the stage for the rest of our conversation, I'd love to know like, how do you manage this dichotomy between sometimes needing unstructured time and to truly flow with the opportunities of life and to just get on a bus and Guatemala and go see where you end up and where you're going to eat dinner and what am I going to have for breakfast tomorrow? What bed am I going to sleep in? Yet the work that you do today is all about cultivating habits
which generally make me think about routine and structure and ritual. So when I present that topic, what comes to mind for you? I laugh because I used to hate habits.
I used to hate routine. And obviously for my story, you can see that. And what I used to think this was a past belief pass a very limiting belief was that habits restrict freedom. And what I teach now is that habits do not restrict freedom, they create freedom. And it's such a powerful thing to understand is that having healthy habits, having routines in your life, having these rituals, they allow you to tap into that joy every single day. So I think a lot of people think habits like, I need to get up really early so that I have 20 minutes of meditation and 20 minutes of workout and 20 minutes of, you know, personal development, journaling time. And yeah, you know what some people have that morning routine, and they love that power hour for themselves that works. But for a lot of people, they're not getting up at 630 in the morning, and they don't want to spend the first hour of the day trying to focus on writing something down, my eyes are barely open. So what I like to teach people and what I like to support people with is that we're creating habits that help you open up to the world that is this incredible space of adventure and beauty and joy and whatever it is that you want to feel.
So part of how I work with people, the very first thing we do is we find our feeling word. So what is your feeling word? How do you want to feel when you wake up in the morning? What do you want to feel in your body. And so when you know that feeling word, then we can create actual habits that actually matter. Now this arbitrary list of things to do. So for example, my feeling word this year is strong, something that helps me feel as strong as going to the gym and lifting weights, I love lifting weights, I love weight training. I don't do that every single day. And that, and that practice doesn't look the same every single day. So I don't do 20 lunges and 10 squats and I do a different workout every time I'm at the gym, and I listen to a different audio book, or maybe it's a podcast, or maybe it's music. And so those little kind of changes and tweaks really helped me get out of this like rigid bubble. And the other thing I like to teach is, the habits that we're creating are not necessarily the exact same motions that we're going through every day. But maybe it's the same question. We're asking ourselves that opens up a new answer every day. So it really depends on the person. But I think for someone like you were I, you know, we like to have a bit of flexibility and freedom in our everyday life. The question could be, if my feeling word is strength, what would what would make me feel strong today. And maybe today, you know, I'm looking outside, it's a beautiful day, it would make me feel really strong if I was able to go for like a long rollerblade where I'm one of sweat and I want to feel like the wind in my hair, you know, I want to come home like smelling like outside. And that would make me feel really strong. It's so beautiful outside, I don't really want to go and lift weights at the gym like you just, we've been in winter for long enough, I need to like be outside. So for you you're feeling my word might also be strong, but you feel strong in other ways. Like maybe you find more of this mental strength or your strength comes from your mountain biking. And I don't like to mountain bike. So this is where things are going to change a little bit for us, even though we have the same foundational feeling word. And so I think that if you really recognize that the habits are here to support you to support your growth, not restrict you, then that's where you're really struggling to thrive and feel that empowerment.Hey, visionary, I want to quickly interrupt this episode to ask you if you've been curious what it's like to work with a private business and marketing coach. If you're a business owner, and you feel like your marketing plan is all over the place, you haven't figured out your search engine optimization or your SEO strategy, you have no idea what your social media marketing plan is, and you are not doing so well on the self Express content front. I call these the marketing trio. It's the three S's SEO social media self Express content. And by dialing in all three of these pillars, you too can get more visible, generate more income and increase your lead generation where you're actually turning your followers into paid clients and you're constantly bringing new people in at the top of the funnel. If you're not familiar with my work, I am a private business and marketing coach and I have spent the last 13 years working in the marketing industry. Many of those years doing consulting with clients like you who want to finally get more visible and get in front of their dream clients. So when we work together, you have me for four months as your marketing partner, I'm going to do a full audit of your business, put you on a private project management software with me and then based on your
your innate skill sets based on your strength based on where you are curious and where your dream clients are paying attention. We're going to build out a custom marketing strategy, we're going to track it, we're going to optimize it.
And by the end of the four months, you have a plan that works. And you're seeing results. It's truly incredible. Christina crook, just landed a $100,000 consulting contract after implementing just one of my marketing strategies. Emily Fraser signed multiple new clients in one day, after just one month of working with me. And now she is having consistent five figure months. And Natasha, she started leveraging her email list in December, and 30 days later, in January, she pulled in $25,000, from one single email that we created. So these results are possible for you too. But don't sign up yet. Just had to Kelsey rydell.com. And check out how we can work together, learn all about it, make sure you feel informed. And if you'd like to book a discovery call with me, just fill out the application on my website, we can get on the phone and see if it's a good fit for you. So anyways, I don't want to interrupt this episode anymore. I cannot wait to work with you to support you and getting you more visible. And let's get back into the show. Yeah, I love how you describe that. And I can really see why habits are so vital and continuing to progress and grow through life. And I really resonate with that feeling word. I think that's such a good takeaway for all the listeners of just Do you have a feeling word that's actually guiding your daily decision making or your routines and rituals? Or are you just doing things to do things, but you don't actually connect with the why behind them? So yeah, I'm definitely going to sit after this and think about what is my feeling word for, I guess the year do you set an annual word? Yeah, some people like to do a feeling word for the month, usually I try to get people to when we're working together, it's it's typically on a three month one on one basis. So we'll pick one, maybe two feeling words, and we'll work from there. But it's really cool. Because when you do figure out your feeling word, you it brings so much more clarity to what you're doing. And so even the intention behind the habits you already have, are now fueled with this feeling word and so you're not just you're not just making your bed. You know what I mean? Like there's just more intention behind it. It's really helped set you up for the day.And this is your profession, right? So you teach people the importance of healthy habits, and you show them your process of how to actually adopt them. I'm curious, why would it be important to invest? And I'm a big believer in coaching. I love hiring experts who can help me but I think a lot of the listeners they're always kind of toying with like, where do I spend my money? Why would somebody reach out to a habits expert, professional like yourself, when really we could just like write a few tips down and I could go implement all the habits and become my best self tomorrow? If I wanted? Why do people reach out to you and like, what do you offer them? That's different from what they could do for themselves? Yeah, I love that question. So number one would be the accountability. The American Society of training and development has a this is probably really well known in the coaching world. I don't think all of these a lot of people use this this statistic. But the American Society of training and development found that nine you are 95% more likely to achieve a goal. If you have a regular meeting with someone to hold you accountable, flub 95% is humongous, right? And I'm sure the listener can even think of a time where you know, we set out a goal, which makes you 10% more likely to achieve it is if you just set a goal, okay, check we can do, we can do that. We set our goal and then we get really excited about it and all of a sudden the motivation drops, and then it gets lower and lower. And so every single day that goes by an obstacle comes up or again, that lack of motivation, or maybe we didn't realize that something else was getting in the way there was some other block and so what really helps with not just the accountability, but because I have worked with many people on different habits and because I understand the behavior science behind it and how behavior crafting is really a skill. And so because I know how to develop that skill I can then see kind of like
almost like a well for yourself. For example, like we talked about this on my podcast when you're looking at the insights and analytics of your business. Someone who's not into marketing or someone who isn't a marketing expert doesn't know what to do with that information. So when you're coming to me a healthy habit coach and you're saying okay, well, I want to create this habit but this is getting in the way or I really
You want to do this, but I get stuck here, then I say, Oh, I know exactly what that is like your queue isn't set up properly. So you don't have a trigger? Or, Hey, did you know that you actually have to do this thing before you have to do that habit? So that's why that's not working or like, it goes back to the intention. A lot of the time, I'm like, Why do you want to get 10,000 steps a day? And then they kind of draw a blank and then like, oh, I don't know. I'm like, okay, great. Well, let's backtrack. Like, let's circle back. And let's try to figure out why you want to do that. And so a lot of the times, it's like the focus, the clarity and the accountability, we need to figure out what you want, how we're going to do it. And then I can usually foresee the obstacles that would come up based off of that conversation in that interaction that we have. So I think it's very powerful.
And it's going to increase your chances of success, for sure. Mm hmm. Oh, it's so true. And when you put money and time and energy on the line, I really think that there's a different level of commitment that happens, like I'm going to show up to my meeting with you. And I'm going to be a different person than I was last meeting, because I know that I'm reporting into you, and I'm accountable. And it just changes how I go about my week when I know that I have to follow up with someone and be accountable to someone. So I think it's invaluable, and it probably progresses people so much faster than without a coach, what are some of the main healthy habits or main habits that people are looking to pick up when they come to work with you?Oh, all kinds of things. So a lot of physical health because I am a also a Pilates teacher. So I get a lot of people who want to improve their physical health habits, including nutrition, so nutrition and exercise would be pretty big. The other ones also have to do with some business habits. So mostly you're on mindset, I would say. So I call those usually like intellectual habits or mindset and things like personal growth and development. A lot of the time surprisingly, people don't really know what they want, they don't know what habits to create. And so they'll come to me with the feelings that they don't want to feel. And so that's kind of an interesting experiment that we get to do together too. And so, oftentimes, where understanding what our
we like, we'll do some journaling prompts, for example, to help. So for example, one of my past clients, she wanted to give up sugar and alcohol. And so I was like, okay, that's huge. But we can definitely do that together. So for the first five weeks, and I should say, the first three weeks, we didn't talk about sugar or alcohol at all, I had her doing so we basically we tried to unpack why she was craving sugar, or what times she wanted alcohol or who she was around. And so we're actually looking more at the environment. And the environment plays a huge role in your habits as well. So, you know, at the, after the first call, I gave her some journal prompts to work on and just like, you know, think about this, when this happens, eat as much sugar as you want, drink as much wine as you want. And she kind of looked at me like, Oh, God, what did I do? This is not what I signed up for. And then the next week, you know, we revisited here are some obstacles that came up, great, let's, let's recalibrate this. Let's focus on this for our mindset. And then after the first three weeks, she was telling me how much of the self awareness she was getting. She was like, Oh, my goodness, when I hang out with this group of friends, I drink way more wine. And they talk about this mindset. But when I'm with this group of friends, you know, they only have one glass of wine, and then we get up together and we go for a run in the morning. And she's really starting to see like where she wants to be and who she wants to be and how she wants to show up and who she wants to be around. And then in the first five weeks, she told me that she didn't drink. So after week five,
for working together, she stopped drinking excessively, so she would have one glass and she would be okay to say no where she was really having a hard time with that boundary. And she didn't have any sugar that last that fifth week. So she was like, I didn't even think about it. It wasn't even top of mind for me. I wasn't obsessing over it. And so I think a lot of the times, we want something so bad that we're so fixated on it. And yet, there's all these other things that we can focus on to help us to grow. We just have to kind of take ourselves out of that space of obsessing over this one thing and realizing that actually, there's a lot of things that are affecting you to want this thing.
So that actually leads me to a lot of people want to work with me for stress management habits as well. That's a huge one.A little bit of everything. Yeah. And I love that you can kind of straddle the health and the stress and the relationships in the social. And also for anyone who runs a business like the business habits and especially like you said, the mindset required to succeed that's something
thing that I feel is so important and often under discussed, especially with a lot of my clients who come to me for strategy and tactics, and tools, but then I find that they're in this mindset where they'll say things like, and I saw you post about this, like, Oh, I just like hate Mondays, or oh my god, here we go another week, or, Oh, I have to work till five today, or, you know, there's just these patterns that come out. And I always have to help them check themselves like you don't work for anyone anymore, like you started your own business. And this mindset is completely holding you back from experiencing so much joy and growth and potential in your business. So I'm curious, do you see that, especially in working with anybody who is trying to shift their mindset, like the way we talk to ourselves and these stories that we hold on to, especially as entrepreneurs that may have come from our more corporate days, but like, why is it important to train ourselves out of those stories? So many reasons? That's a great question, too. So I like to tell people I'm like a little bit gooey. And so I'm very practical, but I also like spirituality. So I love human design, and astrology and actually use a lot of this in my one on one coaching. So I'll look at your birth chart, and I'll pull things out, like your moon sign, tells us a lot about what we crave. And with your human design, if you're a generator, for example, I'm going to ask you yes or no questions versus if you are a manifester, I'm gonna get you to really tap into your urges and your feelings. So it's just like different ways that I like to interact with people based off of their human design and their astrology. And so when it comes to mindset, and having these stories, I kind of call them spells, it's like you're casting a spell or hex on yourself. Gotta throw in the Whoo. So if you're someone who says, I hate Mondays, or, you know, my job sucks, like someone is hearing that, if it's not your subconscious, which is always going to be it's going to be your partner. And so I noticed this a lot, because my partner works in the corporate world, and he's constantly complaining about work, then I'm like, quit your job, do something else go somewhere else. He's like, Well, no. And then I'm like, Listen to how you talk about your job. When you're with me. I don't know what you do. I don't follow you around all day. I don't understand what like what your work entails. But it sounds horrible. And so I just don't like if I'm your subconscious, I'm thinking, why are we doing this? Why are you here. And then he started noticing that his colleague was doing the same thing with his wife.
And his call, he was complaining about work all the time. And I heard the two of them on the phone together. And I told them, I was like, You guys have to stop complaining about your jobs. You clearly like each other in this business, you clearly support each other, you are still here after X amount of years. So why are you telling your partners that you hate this so much. And it really kind of woke them up to be like, oh, yeah, there are lots of things that I like about my job. This is just the habit that I've been of unloading on my partner. And so what's really cool about working on your own habits, is that it ripples into all of these other areas of your life. And this can happen for your bad habits as well as your good habits. So it can affect the people around you. One of the clients that I have, she was working on a daily meditation habit. And she would, she has little kids, and she told her husband that you know, this meditations habit, something that I'm working on, it's really important to me. And so he understood that, but the kids didn't really get it. They're like two and five, I think. And eventually, the kids were seeing that their mom was, you know, sitting quietly and meditating. And she would do a mudra with her hands, you know, kids are really curious. And the daughter started doing the meditations with her. And then the whole family just felt like a little more at peace and the, you know, the dad was seeing or the husband was seeing this incredible impact that it was having on his wife. And so he was like, I'll take the kids, you do your meditation, like, giving her that respect and giving her habit that respect, because she respected and her habit and took there was it was important to her. So I think a lot of people maybe like roll their eyes like healthy habits. Like that's easy. It's like, okay, great. I'm so happy that you feel that's easy, and that you're doing that. But I think a lot of people don't realize like, everything we do is based out of habit or comes from habit. And so you really have to be mindful. Is this a good habit? Is this a bad habit? Maybe it's something just neutral, like going to the bathroom, or brushing your teeth and brushing your teeth. So good habit, but you know what I mean? Like they're always going to be around us. And so we really need to as business owners as well, like, is this supporting my growth? Is this helping me help more people? Is this helping me be better at what I do? You know, I thinkyou said something really powerful. I think it was on my podcast. When you talk for two hours in a row. You just kind of lose. I know I'm at that point. Yeah.
But, but you said, you really want to give your attention to the person you're with, you want them to feel heard and to feel seen. That is an incredible mindset habit, if you have the intention, before jumping on a zoom call with someone of I'm going to see this person, I'm going to hear this person, I'm going to really be here, nothing else has my attention, just them that impact for that person to experience that is incredible. And that person is going to remember that feeling, even if they don't recognize it right away. Even if they're not like, holy crap, I feel so seen and heard, they're gonna feel so good. And so when they leave the session, they're gonna want to talk to you, again, they're gonna want to work with you, again, they're gonna want to tell more people about you. And that is really powerful for your business as well.
And I really think about all of these habits and especially healthy habits that we instill. They're really like causing this compound effect. It's like anyone on the opposite end of the spectrum like complaining about your job once, probably not going to send you into a downhill spiral and ruin your life. But when you do it repeatedly, and then you compound that with treating your body horribly, and eating junk food and too much caffeine and deciding to go out partying, instead of sleeping, all these things kind of put you on this declining line to a bottomless pit, which is not a fun place to be yet, when we really start to focus on cultivating healthy habits and working with someone like yourself to really make sure that all of our actions are in line with how we want to feel and how we want to live. I feel like there's this gradual Upswing that happens and then we wake up one day, and we're like, wow, like I'm really living a dream life, or I'm close to it. And it's not just one thing that got me there. It's like the culmination of all of these baby baby habits, and the work that you've done to kind of mitigate the bad habits or eliminate them, that have eventually gotten you to the point where you truly feel like life is amazing. And I built this progressively for myself. Hmm, exactly. And that's such a proud moment or proud feeling or an accomplished and empowered feeling of, I got to do this. And so yeah, for for me at a point in my life, it was Biden that one way ticket that really shot me into this new environment, this new way of being this, you know, I have to work with exactly what's in front of me, I don't have the same habits, the same people the same stories to latch on to, I've got to create this whole new experience. Whereas now I also recognize that I can't do that every time I feel stale and stagnant. I have different responsibilities now. Like I own a Pilates studio, I can't just leave for seven months. So what can you do in the here in the now in the present, and it's adjust those small habits. And when you're feeling that staleness when you're feeling that stuckness, you know, maybe it is reevaluating, and doing your own habit audit, and maybe it's reaching out to someone like me, or listening to a podcast like like the Women's Empowerment Podcast to see if there's something there that would resonate with you in making those little shifts. So, you know, sometimes it's just you heard something on your podcast, or you saw a quote that really inspired you to shift things. I would say if you are feeling that gut feeling that call to do something that call to move that call to change, answer it, you know, like do something, change something shifts something, brush your teeth with the other hand, and change your neural connections when you do that. Drink your water bottle with the other hand, you know, just put your shirt on a different way. Like all these little things that you don't think are going to make a big difference. You just notice your habits so much more when you try to switch your hand, especially with the toothbrush thing. Like it's so automatic to just pick up your toothbrush and then go for it. But if you're like ooh, we switch hands. And then it's almost like you don't know how to brush your teeth, because you're using the other hand is pretty cool.
So many good tips. And I feel like this is such an important topic that I want people to go dive into your world and listen to your podcast because I don't know that we ever really create space in our calendars to audit our habits, right? I'm really good at reporting my monthly metrics and doing my bookkeeping preparation, but I don't audit my habits, but I see so much value in doing just that, and giving myself the time and space to really look at what positive habits I want to cultivate. And maybe what habits I'm ready to give up or just say goodbye to for at least a short period of time. So this has been so helpful. So if people want to listen to the pod or find you on Instagram or your website, can you drop all of the links for us now? Sure. So my website is Valerie Levine, life.com pretty much everything
Is there the podcast is called Women's Empowerment Podcast. And that's available on every platform, I'm pretty sure. And then on Instagram and YouTube and Tiktok. I'm at Val Levine life. Amazing. Thank you so much. It's been such a fun podcast swap. And yeah, I can't wait to do this again soon. So thank you, Valerie. Thank you.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of visionary life. I love bringing you these conversations on a weekly basis. So it would mean so much to me, if you could help me out by rating and reviewing the show on either iTunes or Spotify, it just takes a second. And if you don't want to rate the show, you could also just take a screenshot of the episode and share it on your social media platform of choice tagging me at Kelsey Rydell. I'll catch you in the next episode.
Hey, visionaries, are you an entrepreneur that started your business to feel the freedom that it can bring? I know, that's certainly one of the reasons the main drivers actually why I decided to take the leap, leave my corporate marketing management job and to start the visionary brand. So we start the business, we crave the freedom, but then we kind of get bogged down in things like too much responsibility, and we have decision paralysis. And it's really challenging to figure out where to put your time and energy and how to not stay up all night, worrying about your marketing worrying about whether this business is ever going to feel easy and take off. Well, what if we told you that you could enrich your weeks and your days with a community of devoted passionate, impact driven and health and lifestyle anchored entrepreneurs, like you don't want to just build a massive company that supports you financially and that supports your well being. You also want to do it in a way that supports being your best self feeling healthy being around people who are like minded with shared values. I know for me that eating well and making sure I'm accountable to my workouts and being around amazing driven positive women who lift me up and cheer me on rather than bring me backwards. It has been essential to my success. Over the last seven years, I've gone through phases where I felt lonely and disconnected. And I can tell you that those have been the worst months in my business. So that's where we want to talk about the mastermind presented by the visionary method and the magnetic life. So my business partner Emily Elliot is a certified mindset and success coach, and myself being a professional marketing coach. We've collaborated and we've created what we believe is the top mastermind for female entrepreneurs like yourself, if you are feeling a strong call for connection and you want accountability to get through your launches, and to make sure your marketing plan is on track and you want to space to ask questions about hiring virtual assistants and knowing when the right time is to launch that next offer versus scale your existing one. You're definitely going to want to be part of this group. It is weekly elevation, we are calling you forward to your highest version of your CEO self. But we're also going to be there for you through the lows and the challenges. Maybe you're a new mom, maybe you are going through some sort of relationship struggles. You know, this is a place to be your full self. We are not just entrepreneurs in silos who just work like workhorses all day. We have stuff going on, and let's make a space where that's accepted. And let's make a space where we challenge each other to be better both in and outside of our office. If you are interested in applying this as a very intimate small group, head to Kelsey rydell.com/mastermind. Or you can just head to Kelsey rattle.com and click the coaching drop down. We would love to have you apply I'll jump on a call with you give you the full overview of what this space is like we meet every single week and we cannot wait to see your application come through
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