#145: Retrain Your Brain with Jamie Hess, Fitness & Lifestyle Expert
Today I was joined by Jamie Hess, Fitness & Lifestyle Expert, and host of The Reset Retreat, a weekend retreat where top performers like you retrain your brain to permanently break bad habits.
Bad habits can be hard to break, especially if you’ve been stuck in a rut for a long time. For business owners, this can be particularly troublesome, as bad habits can hold back the growth of your business and cause problems with employees, clients and suppliers.
Fortunately, there are three easy steps that business owners can take to help retrain their brain and permanently break even the toughest bad habits.
Step 1: Identifying your bad habits
Many people don’t realize that they have bad habits until someone points them out or they start noticing how their behavior affects their work life. Once you’ve identified your bad habits, it’s time to start replacing them.
Start by creating a list of all the bad habits you have and write down why they are bad for your business. This will help you understand why they need to be broken and what needs to take their place instead. From there, create a plan of action for how you will break each specific habit and replace it with something healthier for both your business and yourself.
It can also be helpful to develop some positive reinforcement systems that reward yourself when you make progress towards breaking your bad habits. For example, if you want to stop procrastinating on important tasks, give yourself rewards such as taking a break from work or allowing yourself some extra time off each day when you complete the task. This can help you stay motivated and create a positive mindset for success.
Step 2: Acknowledge your triggers
It’s also important to be aware of your triggers for bad habits so that you can avoid them as much as possible. For example, if you often tend to procrastinate when there is too much work on your plate, try breaking down big tasks into smaller steps and setting specific deadlines for each one. This will help keep you from getting overwhelmed and allow you to focus better on the task at hand. Additionally, if there are certain people or situations that tend to trigger your bad habits, try setting boundaries with those people or avoiding those situations altogether.
Step 3: Take time for yourself
Stress is one of the biggest contributors to bad habits, and it can be hard to break them if you don’t take time for yourself every now and then. Some things you can do as an entrepreneur to reduce stress is:
1. Take a break - Taking regular breaks throughout the day can help to reduce stress and maintain focus.
2. Exercise - Regular physical activity releases endorphins, which can help to increase energy levels and improve mood.
3. Connect with nature - Spending time in nature has been proven to reduce anxiety and depression while increasing feelings of wellbeing and happiness.
4. Meditation or yoga - Meditation or yoga can be used to relax both the mind and body, helping to reduce stress levels.
5. Listen to music - Listening to calming music can help clear your mind, relax your body and create a peaceful environment around you.
6. Spend time with family/friends – Enjoying quality time with family or friends is a great way to relieve stress, take your mind off work and remember what’s important in life.
7. Get a massage - Massages can reduce muscle tension, improve circulation and leave you feeling relaxed and rejuvenated.
8. Read a book – Reading can be an enjoyable way to de-stress by taking yourself away from the situation or problem at hand for a while.
9. Take up a hobby – Having something fun to do that is unrelated to work can help to switch off from the pressures of running a business and allow you some ‘me time’.
10. Keep a journal - Writing down worries, thoughts or ideas can help clear your head and provide perspective on how best to proceed with any decisions.
By following these steps, any business owner can retrain their brain and permanently break bad habits that are holding back their success. It might not be easy at first, but with patience and dedication, breaking bad habits is possible. With a little bit of effort, business owners will soon find themselves on the path to success!
Learn more about Jamie:
Website: www.nycfitfam.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/nycfitfam
Listen to the Show:
Laura 0:01
Welcome to the Next Level Leap podcast. I'm your host, Laura Meyer top growth strategist to some of the country's fastest growing brands, and mentor to consultants. My signature leap methodology has changed the way 1000s of companies look at growth strategy, and this podcast shares, best practices, and inspirational interviews to help you make that next level leap in your business. Stick around and join me as I share the journey of how we as founders can multiply our income impact and influence by landing on the other side of our next big leap. Let's go.
Hi, everybody, and welcome back to the Next Level Leap Podcast. I'm here with a friend of mine. She's a new friend and she's become a dear friend. Hey, Jamie, welcome to the podcast.
Jamie 0:54
Hey, girl. Hey, it's so good to be here.
Laura 0:56
Oh my gosh, so good to have you here. You are a fitness and lifestyle expert, you’re a QVC host and you happen to be like my neighbor, we go to the same country club. It's so fun. I
Jamie 1:06
t's so fun. I love how we met because it's so it's like so something I would do. And it's how I make friends. Do you mind if I share the story?
Laura 1:15
Oh my gosh, please.
Jamie 1:16
Okay, so I was at the Gingerbread making party at our country club with my two boys, Mason and Asher who are foreign seven. And I posted to the social media as we do. And then afterwards, then Laura slid up in my DMs and was like, hey, I think we were sitting next to each other. Do you want to be best friends? And I was like, obviously, that's what I do. And I think it's so let me tell you something. Can you tell you how many people don't do that? They're going to tell you how many people I know, especially over the pandemic moved out of the city or moved to the suburbs and are not happy with their choice. Because we're like, it's so hard to make friends. And I'm like, what are you actually did like, did you try? Like, well, no, I'm like, well, I mean, like, the friend brigade isn't just going to show up at your door. But like, you can make friends if you just talk to people.
Laura 1:59
Yeah, it's amazing how that works. It was so funny because I posted a photo or video and then I looked to see it the location because you can see the most popular posts for location. And then I was like how we are not friends and then I looked I was like, Oh, she's in from New York. She's She doesn't live here. And that was like, Wait a second.
She lives here. I was like, we have kids the same age. We're both like online people. How are we not friends? It's nice to get fixed immediately.
Jamie 2:26
100% and I'm new to the country club and I'm new to the area so I so I just want you to know also how doubly I appreciate it and how like welcome it is and how nice it is just to make new friends.
Laura 2:39
Yeah, yes. Stereotypical as we sound right now, we're going to the country club. Before you know it. I'm going to have you playing tennis.
Jamie 2:45
You know what, I will say this too, because I've gotten some flack on social media for like, talking about my country club. But like, here's the deal. Like when you have kids, you make them playdates, right, right? When you're an adult, you do have to, like, invest in yourself and in things that are social and make you happy. Because otherwise again, you're going to like to be in a new place and be like, I don't know. I didn't mean any friends walking out in front of my house. Well, no, you might not.
Laura 3:12
And I love it. We got our families together; husbands were in the corner having their bromance. It was awesome. We had a great time, our kids for tearing up the country club. And so, you have a huge Instagram account, your New York City Fit Fam, which is why I was like, Oh, she's in from New York. And you have your business. How did this all start? I know we've talked about it, but I'm super excited to share it with this with the audience.
Jamie 3:35
Yeah, here's the thing. I was in PR and marketing for almost 20 years. And actually, let me take it one clicks back because this is always my really fun mic drop moment. Before I was all those fancy things. I was a hopeless drug addict and alcoholic such a fun way to start a story. But you know what, it's such and it's to me it's such a part of my story. And I start with this to like to set the set the stage. I had a very like difficult time struggling with my own darkness and demons in my teens and 20s. And as I was starting in the PR world, in the corporate world, that still was you know, there was still whiffs of that like kind of like floating through my life. As I got sober and found recovery and started to find myself and find joy in life and become a more whole person.
Boutique fitness became my new nightclub like I changed you know what I found on the dance floor with like drugs and alcohol and like party friends, to you know, this sweaty kind of fun tribal energy communal energy that I found with my friends in a fitness space, like a Barry's boot camp or a SoulCycle. And it really did save my life. And so I also started because I was getting well, I started looking around me the people that I worked with, and I'd worked in corporate for a pretty long time at the point where I got sober I was in my late 20s, almost 30s maybe early 30s And I was like wow, these
people are dropping like flies from burnout like right and left, right and like or they're not dropping like flies. They're just like, everything's okay. And they're miserable. Yeah. So, I started helping people one by one around me to kind of reclaim their health and vitality, reclaim like their actual health goals like health and wellness. And then also just like mindset shifts. And I make no secret that like, a lot of it is what I learned. And 12 step recovery, because if you are somebody who is recovering from drug or alcohol addiction, you're actually so lucky. Because you get this amazing blueprint for living that's actually abundantly helpful in the rest of your life. And it's like, it's like, really complex things, like, have integrity, you're not always the victim take accountability, like, you know, wake up and make your bed and be a good person. And I was like, really?
Wow, this is like, fascinating. Like, I have an attitude of gratitude. I was like, oh, don't be like this stinky office gossiper and like, shit on everybody's parade like, alright, yeah. And so, I started kind of like sharing that and paying it forward. And then my I met my now husband, he proposed me on a treadmill at Barry's boot camp, that became a public facing part of our story. And the reason why is because my mom is Joan London, she's a TV journalist, for those of you who are too young to have watched Good Morning, America, she was on Good Morning America for almost 20 years. So, the press covered our engagement. And I took that moment and I kind of ran with it as I we started an Instagram account together, because what had happened is like our engagement was on page six, and we kind of became that fitness couple in New York City.
And I started an Instagram account called NYC fit fam. And it was our story is like a health of our health and wellness journey. But also, my you know me a little bit sharing my lifestyle tips on how to vibe up a little that took off. And so, over the next like five or so years, people followed me through my fit pregnancy journey and my corporate life, but really, it wasn't sharing as much about that I was really sharing about just, you know, fitness, nutrition, conscious parenting, mindfulness, meditation, things like that. And after about five years, even though I love my corporate job, and I was very good at it, I was the SVP of a big agency. My side hustle was outpacing my full-time hustle. And I had a choice to make. And also, I'll say this for anybody who's balancing a full-time corporate career and a side hustle. What I also realized was, I wasn't putting 100% of myself into either, I was representing big brands like McDonald's, LinkedIn, General Motors, W hotels Worldwide, all these brands, but also working this business on nights and weekends. That was like actually earning like, becoming very profitable. And I loved it. It was like my passion. And eventually, I was like, Alright, you got to pick a lane. It's great that you did this, you have two things going, you had to pick a lane. And so, I left corporate. And then the time sense, it's been a tremendously exciting ride and trajectory. And it's taken me to have now a TV career podcasting career. I'm a one-on- one wellness coach and a keynote speaker.
Laura 7:52
It's so fascinating that story, and congratulations on just your recovery process and how you've turned it into such a beacon of light. And like, that was one of the first things I noticed about you. When we had lunch together. I was like that takes so much courage,
even a little hutzpah for the Jews in the audience, but it really it takes so much courage to face your demons. And I think everybody has them. They just come in different forms. If somebody isn't, you know, if they hadn't had experience with drug and alcohol, maybe it's anxiety, maybe its body image, whatever it is, I think we all have shadow sides, right to our lightness. And when we learn how to flip it into a positive force for good, then we're unstoppable. But that becomes such and it's everybody's work, right? Like it's not just one person's work, who happens to have one type of demon. I think it's everybody's work. And you've done such an incredible job just like facing it head on and being so inspirational to so many people.
Jamie 8:52
Thank you, every single person who's struggling with something. And I know that for you listening right now I see you. We feel you. I feel you right now sitting on this podcast, you're listening and you're thinking, well, let me think what's my one thing we all have our one thing, right? And here's what I say though, like I was really lucky because my one thing really blew up my life. So, I had what's called the gift of desperation. Right? A lot of people just live with this thing for just lingering. Whether it's anxiety or self-doubt or the body stuff. I call it your red stapler. so, here's the thing. I talked about this in my keynotes. Did you ever see the movie Office Space?
Laura 9:29
Favorite movie? I quote it in my webinars.
Jamie 9:36
It's so good and Milton, God bless Milton, that character, you know, it's like he just takes it and takes it and takes it and life is giving it to him and all of his colleagues. Everyone's just like, pooping on Melton, and he just takes it and then one day, someone steals that stupid red stapler on his desk and he's like, you know what? I'm going to burn the whole place down. What is your red stapler it's like what when is enough? And can you put your finger on it, so you don't have to burn the whole place down. But instead, maybe you would like to set your soul on fire and do some good stuff with it.
Laura 10:07
Oh my gosh, I love that such a good analogy. And I know your you mentioned your mom, Joan London, like, how do you think that has shaped your career? Do you think that has had a pretty heavy influence on what you're doing right now? Or do you think you would have kind of ended up in the same spot either way?
Jamie 10:25
100%, my mom shaped so much of what I did, because I look up to and respect her so much. She's my absolute best friend on the planet. What’s really interesting is like now that I'm raising kids, I see so much of I see and understand my mom for who she was, it is more, do you know what I mean? She worked so hard to show up and be at all of our things while she was also prioritizing work. And rightfully so, she taught us that it's not the Work comes first. But I am. I'm a professional. And I'm a mother. And both can be true. And both are really important. And I want you to understand that like work matters.
And you can be anything you want. But you have to like their sacrifice. You got to like to do the wraps, you got to pay the dues, you got to you know, and she really, really formed how I think about work. She also obviously broke like monumental glass ceilings. She found out she was pregnant with me two weeks after she got the job on GMA in 1980. So, she literally got the job. Yeah, she got the job. And literally less than a month later, she got the news from her OBGYN. So, she literally imagines getting a new job that you'd wanted your whole life and you had to go to your boss and be like, oh, by the way, this is a time when they were not keen on having, you know, that was not like, oh, great. Like, you'll just be pregnant and we're cool maternity clothes. Like, they're like, okay, we'll just hide it.
Laura 11:50
We won't tell anybody that you can actually give birth. Yeah, like, we won't tell anyone that you're capable of having children.
Jamie 11:57
Literally, that and Barbara Walters. She's been sharing this a lot recently, since Barbara just passed away. The Barbara Walters gave her some incredible advice. She was like, you know, you're going to have to like to be a trailblazer. But also, like, you got to like, you got to go at their pace, right? Like, there's only so much that they're ready for. And that was good advice. And so, she kind of like she tread lightly. And then eventually, ABC, let her bring me in with her. So, she would like to breastfeed. This would be for car seats for mandatory, she would breastfeed in the in the limo in the back of the limo while she was reading her script, and then like, change sides halfway through, and then go into the studio. And just thinking back on what she did. I mean, jeez, when I had just when I was like postpartum, like maternity, like, I couldn't even get out of my apartment for three months, the back that she was like, just in hosting national TV like a couple of weeks later, but she did it because she had to, and she just persevered. And she's always showing me what's possible.
Laura 12:49
That's so, so awesome. And so, I want to talk to you a little bit about your retreat coming up in April. And I think that's a, this is such a nice tie into some of what we were just talking about when it comes to addressing your demons and like really looking at, even if you don't have something that you would maybe call a demon, which is things that hold us all back. And most of the people who are listening, here are entrepreneurs, I would say probably all of them are. And I just want to have a really honest conversation about trauma, because I think this is something that a lot of people struggle with. It's something that you are partnering with the top trauma expert in the country, if not the world, on a retreat. And I think it's something that that, that a lot of people struggle to even think about. But as ramped in the entrepreneurial world, like if you look at statistically, and you probably know this the number of entrepreneurs who grew up in a dysfunctional environment or grew up in chaos, because in a lot of ways, entrepreneurship is pretty chaotic, and you end up kind of addicted to that chaos. And then you end up in entrepreneurship, and it's the way in which you know how to survive
in the world. But when do you think it's really time to look at this, like in terms of your own background and to start addressing it?
Jamie 14:09
You just put that so well, because let me say this first. So, I partnered with Dr. Don Wood on this retreat. And I'll tell you how that came to be in a second. But one of the things I was really found interesting is like, well, I guess I'll tell you how it came to be. Now Dr. Don came to me. And he said, I would love to partner with you on something I hear you're doing really great work because a big part of what I do is my coaching program. It's called the Big Ask method. I essentially teach hyper local accountability. So, I teach people how to ask for the help that they need with achieving their weight loss and wellness goals. So, what that means is like I teach a new healthy habit, but then I teach them how to use somebody in their life, their hyperlocal environment, their husband, their mother, their roommate, to keep those that new framework in place and make it sustainable because willpower alone, even though we're all type A people on here, we're all entrepreneurs sitting here on this podcast right now. willpower alone is bad especially in those tricky spaces, it just doesn't work, right?
Like how many people are entrepreneurs are killing it in the rest of their life. But then I'll then I'll get them on a zoom with me and my big ask coaching program and I'll say, well, how long have you actually been struggling with like, the weight thing and the body image thing? And she's like, oh, since I was 13. And I'm like, Linda, you're 57. It's like, when is it? Like, when do you when is enough? It nothing changes, nothing changes. So, I work with people of all ages, all shapes and sizes, all lifestyles, on weight loss and wellness. But Dr. Dawn came to me, and he said, you know, I want to partner on a retreat. And I was like, Cool. I'd heard of him. I knew who he was. And I was like, I want to come down and do your, if I'm going to partner with you, I need to do your program. First. I need to understand what it is before we like, you know, meld together. I said, but there's one problem. I don't have any trauma. Like I was like, I don't, you know, I was never abused. I wasn't in like a terrible car accident. He was like, no, I didn't want to just come on down. Yeah, like he kind of laughed. And I think what they didn't understand well, first of all, I started off this podcast by explaining to everybody that I was a drug addict and alcoholic. So clearly, I had all sorts of trauma that I was not even aware of. But that aside, that doesn't even have to be your truth. There's big T trauma, and little T trauma. And that's what Dr. would explain to me. So little T trauma that I haven't carried today. Here's a good one. My wonderful, amazing mother who's so inspirational and such a cheerleader of mine said to me one time when I was a teenager,
I had always been a writer. And I always wanted to write a book, right? So here I am a teenager. Now here's imagine it from her side, she sees her teenage daughter who's a total like degenerate, like struggling with drugs and alcohol, right? And I'm like, I'm going to write a book, right? And she's like, as a, you know, she was at that time, like an eight- time bestselling author, she looked at me and she was like, probably also frustrated, you know, here, she's a mom, and she just was like, Jamie, you don't just write a book, like, you know what I mean. And what she was identifying was like, I was clearly simplifying it, I was living in some sort of like parallel universe where I was like, capable of functioning like an adult at that time.
But also, she was like, she was operating off of her know how you don't just write a book, like, there's a lot of steps. As you know, Laura, having just launched a book, you know, it's incredible, like birthing a baby. It's like your book, baby. So, all of that was true. But what I heard at that age was my mom telling me, you will never be good enough to write a book, you can't write a book, you're not capable of writing a book. You suck. You know what I mean? And I carry that with me for the next 25 years. And I didn't realize I had internalized that for such a long time until finally this past year, I wrote a book. And I was like, unpacking this stuff. And I was like, wow, I literally believe that I couldn't do that for 25 years. Now, that's little T trauma. That's Little, nobody intentionally harmed me at you know, but that is what Dr. Wood would call emotional concussions. It is something that gets stuck in my mind as a part of my brain is part of my thinking that literally impacted and impeded me for all this time. So, my question to people out there is like, whether you have big T trauma, which he absolutely can work on, he's helped victims of the Boston Marathon bombing come back to real life and all these different things, or whether you're just a high performing professional, entrepreneur, C suite, professional world class athlete, he works with people like that, to elicit more inspired performance. Because what he does is he takes away some of those emotional concussions that have maybe been impeding your thinking and your behavior. And he makes you think that he allows you to think more clearly and more confidently because you sweep away some of that wreckage.
Laura 18:45
Gosh, that's so fascinating. So, what is it like to go through that type of process where you are identifying maybe even a small t trauma that you didn't even know you had? And then working through it with somebody like Dr. Wood?
Jamie 19:00
So, it's a neuroscientific approach. And what's interesting about that, I had no idea what to expect when I went down there. He's in a place called Lake Nona, Florida, which I also have to say the coolest place I've ever been and that's where the retreat is. It's an Orlando when I think of Orlando, I just think of like Disney World. So I had no idea that there was this amazing, they call it like the Silicon Valley of like the southeast, but for health, it's like this very tech forward super cool, beautiful area that has a lot of like health and wellness startups and co working spaces and research hospitals and he's there but they also have these gorgeous hotels, our partner hotels called the Lake Nona wave, and it's I mean it's like Instagram threw up on it. It's like the most beautiful backdrop you'd ever want to take pictures at. The room is super tech forward the toilet was smarter than me I walked in the bathroom the toilet started like spraying like sanitizer and heating up the seat that the lid opened, and it was like talking to me I was like What is even happening but so good. That's our hotel partner. So, it's, it's already I was impressed with the area and excited on the potential to do retreat with them. But I had no idea what to expect when I showed up at his clinic.
The first thing that he does that he did for me, and that he will do for our retreat participants is he does brain mapping. So, they put a thing on your head, and you go through like a host of questions and all these different things where they measure the way that your synapses are firing in different parts of your brain, and what kind of a learner are you and yada, yada, yada. So, he literally mapped my brain, his team mapped my brain, and then you go in, and you do essentially like the trauma clearing work with him, which is essentially it's like talk therapy, but it's not. It's not like, I'm going to tell you about this thing that my dad died when I was five, and just like lamenting about it, what it is, is like, he has you walk through the experience, and I won't probably describe it exactly right. So, I'll leave it a bit vague, because I do want people just to come experience it, you know, have you walked through the experience and do several different techniques, verbal and physical to remap the way that your brain processes the information.
So, I'll give you an example. Like I have like a sense memory of like, falling off my horse and dislocated my shoulder. And anytime I talk about like dislocating that, like whatever I would even have this conversation we're having right now. I would like to have a visceral reaction; I tears like I would start like almost crying. And then I would like cringe, I would get nauseous, like it was such a horrible gross memory. And it just did something physically in my body. He walked through that experience. And we did a few different exercises where he literally had me play the experience in my mind. And then we kind of ascribe a number to each time segmentation of the experience, and then we remapped we talked about the numbers in different order. And all of a sudden, that grip that the mental experience had on my brain was gone. Like my brain was just processing the information in a way that it my brain felt more in control of it, because we had taken that control back. So, it's very, very fascinating. You don't even have to talk about the actual trauma. Like if you're not ready to talk about it publicly. He can do it by without you actually verbalizing it. So, I thought that was fascinating as well. So, understand that to come and do this work with Dr. Don.
He's essentially taking my group, it's a small group, you know, 10 to 15 humans. So, everybody gets a really personalized amount of work. And he resets you, it's like pushing the reset button. So, you can literally walk out of there like your best, clearest, highest performing self. And last thing is that he also remapped your brain. When you're leaving, he remapped my brain, the date the last day I was there, I had a 47% increase in neuroplasticity, a 51% decrease in rumination. So, like ruminating on like negative thoughts. I was like that is bananas. It really is. We don't know so much you know about the brain. I mean, I don't claim to be a brain scientist. But it is fascinating how we can restructure or manipulate the way our brain processes information to really free us up for the way that our mind can control us.
Laura 22:58
Yeah, it's amazing. I have love here. And I had heard of him. Before even mentioned it to me. And I was like, oh my gosh, I I've heard of that guy. Like he's been a speaker at masterminds that I've been part of. And it's he's really like making a name for himself on
helping people deal with the different traumas that come with just life. But it sounds like he really works with a lot of entrepreneurs too.
Jamie 23:20
He really does. A big part of his business is working with very high performing people, like athletes will call him and they're like, oh, man, I'm third in the world. And like, you know, this is Ironman. Not Ironman. Yeah, Ironman. Third in the world, this this sport, but I want to be, but I want to be first in the world. Like, can you help me get there? And he's like, Yeah, you know, Nike called him. They had just signed an athlete like a marathoner. And the person wasn't there. Like, you know, this guy, physically. He's got it, but he's just not performing at his highest output. And it's here, and I'm pointing to my brain right now, in my head. It's up here, his block is up here. Can you help him, and he worked with the guy and the guy took like, 30 seconds off his splits, which if you're a runner, that is a tremendous amount of time to take off your splits. So, you know, that is really what's so interesting about him. His center is called the inspired Performance Institute. It's not called like the trauma center. It's called like, the instant think about inspired performance. I think that's something that we can all kind of take a shine to. And then, in addition to Dr. Don, I have two other people who decided to participate in this weekend, this retreat, and they're two of the most exciting, phenomenal, badass women that I've ever met had the pleasure meeting in my life. One of them is Ann Mallam. She is the founder of solid core, which is my new favorite workout modality. I just started going there's one in Wilmington, by the way, Delaware.
Laura 24:40
I know you keep wanting to invite me and I'm like, gosh, that looks really hard.
Jamie 24:44
It's so good. But I knew about solid court I knew about and because I also knew about one of the other charities that she started called Back on my Feet, which is it gets people recently incarcerated like into running as like a method to give them life skills, job skills and confidence. And so, I was familiar with that already familiar with her. And then we were connected by somebody, a colleague. And she was like, I want to, I want to speak to your people, and she has $100 million net worth. And she's public about that. And I always say like, because I just really crush on Girl boss entrepreneurs, I think, if you have 100 million net worth, and we are like around the same age, I would like to know how you did that. I think that's very fascinating, totally. Like, you just share that with my audience as well, because I really like to know how you did that. And then the second person is a girl named Nikki Sharp, and she is another badass wellness personality. She's a transformational life coach. She has about 500,000 followers on Instagram, not that that makes you a whole invalidated person. But it does mean a lot of people like what she says.
And she's amazing. She's also like, drop dead gorgeous. And she's one of those people who she knows, when you you're like going to have a call with somebody like that, like, she's just like, highly influential, gorgeous, like, looks like a supermodel. Now that I get intimidated, but like, you know, you're getting on the call, and you're like, oh, what's this
going to be like, you know, and we ended up just like getting on this call and goofing off. Like girlfriends, we're on the call for an hour and 20 minutes, she was like, showing me her new shoes out of her closet, by the end of the call, like, we were back kind of girlfriends. And I was like, oh, so good to somebody, I want speaking to my people. Because not only is she you know, very, you know, highly aspirational, let's put it that way. But she's also that girlfriend, that basketball friend that you didn't know you needed. But then she's also the one who's going to call you on your shit and be like, when you're going to drop that old story, you know, and I think we all need someone like that in our lives. So, it's all four of us participating in this retreat that, you know, leading as the practitioners of this retreat. And I'm very excited to have opened up spots and to be offering them to your community specifically.
Laura 26:43
Oh, so good. All right. So, if somebody wants to learn more about this retreat, we'll get into how they can get in touch with you. But if they want to attend this retreat, what's the best place for them to go?
Jamie 26:52
Easy, breezy. My site for my coaching is thebigaskmethod.com. So, there's a landing page for the retreat, which is thebigaskmethod.com/retreat.
Laura 27:05
Okay, so good. I think it's so amazing that you are doing this work. Because I think what a lot of fitness and probably even health professionals miss is just the mental side of things. And I love that you are so dedicated to both and committed to both, because they're equally important. And one might even argue that the mental health side is even more important so that you can be able to really fully realize you’re the physical benefits of having great mental health.
Jamie 27:34
It's so true, Laura, and I, you know, I was just talking about this yesterday, I have another podcast that's launching this year with Warner Brothers dedicated to The Big Ask, I have another podcast called Off the Ground, which has been really fun covering the wellness space. But my new podcast is really dedicated to the big ask method, because I believe so strongly in what I'm doing over there, the accountability piece, I think, is what changes the game. But somebody was asking me, one of our sponsors over they're like, hey, what are what are the takeaways like what really is like, what makes your thing different. And when I said this easy, most diet and exercise programs start with the program, and then you have to fit in to the framework of their program. And I take like a human centric approach, like everybody is different. So, the first thing I do with people is unpack your why. And then we get to the bottom of your story, because also, quite frankly, and this might be like bringing up a controversial topic. But I take issue with the body positivity movement only because I'm obviously extremely body positive and all bodies are beautiful. But what I take issue with is there is the complete rejection of all conversation of like diet and exercise culture. And I get a lot of pushbacks on my see fit fam. People saying like, don't you know that talking about? You
know, dieting is passe? And I suppose I'm sorry. 62% of America is overweight or obese. I didn't make up that stat. It's according to the CDC. Okay. So, I hold space for people who are struggling. But what's so important about this podcast that I'm doing and why I'm doing it, the way I'm doing it, is that each season we follow one woman, and we're telling her story from the beginning.
You know, and when I say at the beginning, I mean, like, she's 10 years old. She's coming down for her first day of fifth grade, and she's really excited to show her mom, you know, her new dress and her mom says, this is verbatim. Oh, please, Jennifer, do you think anyone's going to see anything other than a fat girl? Now most people don't have that experience. Thank goodness. Yeah, but a lot of people do have experiences maybe they were teased for being the pudgy girl in middle school. I have a client, the beautiful client who lives in Arizona. She's in her 60s and when we got to the bottom of it, she literally was holding on to an old story that when she was teased for being, what they said was, you know, your fat, and she was a child. And she has just believed that about herself. It's been a self-fulfilling prophecy for her entire life. And my point is, my point in telling these stories is for everyone to give themselves a little bit of grace.
When other people are telling you just get tough on yourself, just put on your big girl panties, and don't eat too much and follow this diet and exercise more. It's like, it is not that easy. And I am abundantly aware of that. And everybody needs to just take a breath and give themselves a break. So if anything, I'm the most kind of body positive, forward type of person, because I really believe that like, not only should we celebrate everybody, we should celebrate everybody's frustration and disappointment in themselves like or allow for it, if you have not been able to get it up until now, rather than just celebrating where you are, and being like, it's okay that I'm like, not at a healthy BMI, maybe be like, You know what, I can give that version of me a really big hug. Because it's been really hard. Yeah, and I deserve some grace. And I deserve to own my story around that. But I also deserve to give myself the power and the credibility that I can take that narrative back. And I can change it for the future. And so that's what I'm trying to bring forward.
Laura 31:28
I love that. I love that. And for me, movement has saved me. And it is it's so tied to our mental health. And when we think about, you know how probably I felt or your felt right before after pregnancy, that's the time where I've been the heaviest. And I just didn't feel like me, I didn't feel like I could move well, or I didn't have the mental space that you have when you're in motion. And you're just used to that being part of your world, or when you're eating things that make you feel good, it's all connected. And I love that you're really inviting people into that reinvention process, no matter where they're coming from. It's so powerful.
Jamie 32:08
And nutrition is medicine as well. So just so everybody understands, it's like to call it all blanket diet culture is just such a misnomer. Like, you eat processed food for a week. And then you go, and you eat nourishing foods and, and fruits and vegetables and
avocados and things that are yummy and nourishing. And, and you tell me how you feel one week versus the other, your mind works better your gut health is better. So, your mood is better, like, you know, is also intrinsically tied. So, I find it always very, you know, interesting that people are so against diet culture, but here we are talking about mental health at the forefront. It's like, hello, they're tied together, you treat yourself well. And it's like how you do one thing is how you do all things.
Laura 32:49
Oh, totally, totally. And then once you get into it, it's like fun and exciting. And you're like, oh, I didn't even know about this nutrient or supplement, or I didn't even know that this type of food would create this kind of you know, response and you start feeling really in control of your body and it's very empowering. So, I could chat with you forever about health and wellness, and of the day here, and friendship, which I'm so grateful for ours and if people want to connect with you, in addition to getting to know about the retreat, what's the best way for them to get in touch?
Jamie 33:20
They can head on over to Instagram, I am always available at Nikita. My DMS are always open and is a great way to get in touch with me. And if you want to ask questions about the retreat, I'm available over there as well.
Laura 33:31
Awesome. Thank you, Jamie, for being here. Thank you for sharing your perspective. I appreciate you and I look forward to seeing you soon.
Jamie 33:37
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Laura 33:39
Make sure to visit our website your nextlevelleap.com where you can subscribe to the show in Apple podcasts, Stitcher or RSS, so you never miss a show. And while you're at it, if you found value in what you heard today, we would love a rating on Apple podcast. Or if you simply tell a friend about the show that would help us out too.
The Next Level Leap podcast dives into the mindset and strategies of scaling your company to the million dollar mark and beyond. Each week, we follow the journeys of innovators, disruptors, experts and leaders - sharing behind the scenes stories of their most challenging moments and greatest lessons learned-all while building their multi-million dollar empires.