Be It Till You See It

It’s Friday, and Lesley is back with inspiring wins—from setting boundaries to taking those much-needed breaks. This week’s Fuck Yeah Friday episode highlights community stories that remind you to celebrate your wins, with Lesley sharing her own—finally taking a well-deserved vacation. Tune in to discover how your small efforts today can lead to big wins tomorrow.

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at [email protected].

And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.

In this episode you will learn about:

• Holding firm on client boundaries while celebrating a record month for the studio.
• Newsletter, teaching opportunities, and a fulfilling dance performance.
• Taking a long-overdue vacation and the importance of time off.
• An encouraging mantra about embracing life's unfolding events.

Episode References/Links:

• Cambodia February 2025 Retreat

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS!

Check out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper’s Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox

Be in the know with all the workshops at OPC

Be It Till You See It Podcast Survey

Be a part of Lesley’s Pilates Mentorship

FREE Ditching Busy Webinar

Resources:

• Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube!
• Lesley Logan website
• Be It Till You See It Podcast
• Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan
• Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube
• Profitable Pilates

Follow Us on Social Media:

• Instagram
• The Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channel
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• The OPC YouTube Channel

Episode Transcript:

Lesley Logan 0:00  

It's Fuck Yeah Friday.  

Brad Crowell 0:01  

Fuck yeah.

Lesley Logan 0:02  

Get ready for some wins. Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. 

Lesley Logan 0:46  

Hey, Be It babe, how are you? Oh, my God. How excellent is this? How exciting is it? It's Friday. You made it. You did it. I'm so happy that you're here. Thank you for letting us be in your ears as you kick off the weekend. And if you listen to this on a different day, hey, thanks for letting us be in your ears. This is the episode that is short and sweet, and it's celebrating your wins, wins from listeners. It's in a minute. A win of mine and it serves to remind us that, like even life's life in there's some good stuff going on, right? There's some things to celebrate and these little things add up. They really, really do. So let's kick off your wins first. 

Lesley Logan 1:17  

So this is from Christine Eschen. She is an eLevate grad and also one of our agency members, and she wrote a day late on the FYF, but here it goes. Thanks to LL, my last two clients that late canceled I held to my boundaries and charged them. I had LL in my head saying, you teach people how to treat you. Went live on Facebook and had one of my clients comment how much I have helped her and changed her life. Made me feel so good. Texted a client today to remind her to remind her to book another appointment next week as my schedule is getting full, and she did so and bought a 10-pack, which makes this a record month for my studio. Still need more to pay the bills, but hey, I'm happy my other win is thank you, LL, for creating this community. I love all my agency peeps. Okay, Christine is proof that there's like these little wins that happen in there all the time. They're always happening, like receiving a compliment is a win. It's a win. How cool, right? So, so, so cool. So, way to go. Christine, thank you for taking us on this journey, and also congrats on your record month. That's so big. That's so awesome. Yeah, I hope there's always more to make. There's always more to do. So taking and basking in that this is the best you've done. You've been doing, you were starting on your own with nothing like with no clients like this is a big deal, you know. So thank you for sharing that with us. 

Lesley Logan 2:29  

All right. Tania Tsiora, she's an agency member, and she wrote this week, wrote and sent the ninth newsletter, and received feedback by several clients. It was about how to find a hobby. Compared to previous years, July is much better. Actually, after a long time there's revenue growth, giving a mat workshop in studio in two weeks, it's almost full. I had my first performance on contemporary dance. It was amazing. So important to do other things apart from Pilates. Tania also had another win. So I'm going to just put it in here. She put two more new clients this week and nice people, excited about tomorrow's mat workshop. Love the preparation with my colleague. I got a proposal to go two times per week to give a mat class in a gym. Yes, I want to teach also elsewhere and meet new people and make an impact. I have to go outside of my studio more often. One more person register for the retreat. Yes. Okay, so do you see all these little wins in here? Like she's celebrating being consistent with her newsletter, and like people are telling her they're reading it, and she had her best month compared to previous July's. And she also has a workshop that's almost full. And someone set up for, like, there's these little wins that happen and you know, it's so easy to focus on oh my God what can I tell you? So there's like, a thing in my in my work, that just broke again, that out of her control. If I was Tania, I could go, oh, this thing isn't working. Instead of focusing like, Oh, my God, I've had one more person sign up for this thing. So thank you, Tania, for showing us, reminding us the little things that we can be celebrating. 

Lesley Logan 3:51  

All right, let's talk about one of my wins. So I'm on vacation. That's a win, and I know that that sounds like another big win. Like with last week, it's like she's just winning. No, let me be really honest, we almost canceled this vacation. You know, there's those days you have in your life when you're like, going, I don't know, we probably shouldn't be gone that much longer. I mean, it's another eight days where we're hiring a dog sitter, and then there's the hotels, and then there's these extra flights and all that, all these things. I just put my foot down. I was like, I want a vacation. Want a vacation. Us taking a vacation is a huge win, because there's always more work to do. There's always more work. I have tons to do for this podcast, but we're celebrating the wins worth making. And this win is from an action we took months ago. And actually, a lot of the wins you'll have are from things you did before. And so thanking yourself and having gratitude for the things that you did before that set you up for the win today is something I hope you make a habit out of, because it does make life really a lot more fun. So I'm celebrating that Brad and I are in Thailand, and we're having a great time.

Lesley Logan 4:59  

All right now, let's get that mantra to you because those sometimes you're like, I just need something to think about this weekend as I go through whatever you're going through. I welcome what is. I welcome what comes. Oh, some of you hate that one, but guess what? Maybe it's a medicine you need. I welcome what is. I welcome what comes. Say it with me. I welcome what is. I welcome what comes. All right, loves. You are amazing. Thank you so much for being a listener of the Be It podcast. Please share this with a friend. Share the interviews or share the recaps. Send your questions in and send your wins in so we can celebrate them with you and have an amazing day. Until next time, Be It Till You See It.

Lesley Logan 5:40  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod. 

Brad Crowell 6:19  

It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell. 

Lesley Logan 6:28  

It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co. 

Brad Crowell 6:32  

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.  

Lesley Logan 6:39  

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals. 

Brad Crowell 6:42  

Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.

What is feminine burnout? This episode explores the specific type of burnout impacting women and how it disrupts hormone balance and the body’s ability to experience joy. Lesley and Brad dive into insights from Dr. Jordin Wiggins, discussing the effects of stress and how to reclaim your energy by microdosing pleasure. Discover small yet powerful changes you can make to build resilience against stress and restore balance in your life.

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at [email protected].

And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.

In this episode you will learn about:

• How feminine burnout disrupts hormone balance.
• Why small doses of pleasure reintroduce daily joy.
• Building resilience through nervous system regulation tips.
• Long-term consequences of ignoring stress and burnout.
• Actionable steps to add pleasure into daily routines.

Episode References/Links:

• Cambodia February 2025 Retreat
• Flashcards Waitlist
• Pilates Studio Growth Accelerator
• OPC Winter Tour
• Dr. Jordin Wiggins Website
• Dr. Jordin Wiggins' Instagram
• The Pleasure Principles Podcast
• The Pink Canary by Dr. Jordin Wiggin
• Erin Hatzikostas Episode 427
• By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS!

Check out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper’s Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox

Be in the know with all the workshops at OPC

Be It Till You See It Podcast Survey

Be a part of Lesley’s Pilates Mentorship

FREE Ditching Busy Webinar

Resources:

• Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube!
• Lesley Logan website
• Be It Till You See It Podcast
• Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan
• Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube
• Profitable Pilates

Follow Us on Social Media:

• Instagram
• The Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channel
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• The OPC YouTube Channel

Episode Transcript:

Lesley Logan 0:00  

If you have to clean the kitchen, what can make that more pleasurable? Would it be but more fun to be in cozy sweats with some really great music? Would you have more fun to have your favorite beverage. I don't know. What would make it more pleasurable? Would it be more fun if your partner was naked? I don't know these things. You can try them out. 

Lesley Logan 0:16  

Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.  

Lesley Logan 0:58  

Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It interview recap where my co-host in life, Brad, and I

 are going to dig into the pleasurable convo I have with Jordin Wiggins. Dr. Jordin Wiggins, to be exact, in our last episode, if you haven't yet listened to that one, you have missed out. And you can listen to that one after you listen to this one, or pause this one. Listen to that one. You know, whatever you want to do. It's easy. They're all here for you. 

Brad Crowell 1:20  

Do it. All the things. 

Lesley Logan 1:21  

Yeah, before we get into that, today is Thursday, October 10th, and it's World Mental Health Day. I also wanted to say it's really hard to choose, because there's actually a lot of world days. Normally there's like, a World Day. 

Brad Crowell 1:32  

Yeah, there's a lot. 

Lesley Logan 1:32  

There was a lot of world days, including information on world homelessness problem, some other things. Brad also saw a vegan burger thing. So, you know, but the World Mental Health Day felt like it encompassed most of the other world days. So World Mental Health Day is October 10th and as our understanding of mental health grows, we grow along with it. Mental Health has come a long way since the early 90s, when the World Federation of Mental Health, WFMH, officially established the day. Our self-awareness and sensitivity towards it have changed things for the better. Our language surrounding mental health has improved as words like crazy and lunatic are used less flippantly, and we come to better understand that can be unintentionally hurtful and stigmatizing. While we've learned a lot, there's still so much more we can do to evolve as a society.

Brad Crowell 2:20  

Yeah, I feel like that's a good description. You know, when we were younger, in the 90s, 

Lesley Logan 2:26  

People use the R-word. 

Brad Crowell 2:27  

They did. They did. 

Lesley Logan 2:28  

Just to, like, say something was like, this cup, you know?

Brad Crowell 2:32  

Or, you know, I still think the word insane is thrown out there really a lot. I mean, we don't know that many people who are truly insane. So I guess. 

Lesley Logan 2:40  

Given, given the current climate we are in, there are a particular person who is making me use some of these words in the like, towards that person, without them having been tested, and I feel really bad about it. But also, what else do we say? Yeah, which is why, you know what? Maybe why weird is there. But also I just really, I do agree, like, growing up, no one really talked about mental health, and was kind of rare that anyone would go see a therapist, and all of this stuff, and now.

Brad Crowell 3:15  

Or it was, like, awkward, and say, oh you're seeing a therapist?

Lesley Logan 3:19  

(inaudible) get things done. And you had to rally all the time. And now we can 

Brad Crowell 3:23  

I mean, in things like ADHD, you know, and ADD. 

Lesley Logan 3:26  

Right. But also, like, it's so easy. I've, you know, like, friends that you love who really care about you be like, hey, can we catch up. It's like, you know, I'm taking a mental health day. They're not like, oh, you're bailing on me again. People just go, okay, it's actually really seen to be a positive thing. And also, sometimes I would people don't take care of the Mental Health I'm like, what is going on with you? Like, why aren't you taking care of yourself? This is the world we live in where you can. So I think it's really cool. 

Lesley Logan 3:52  

And also I will say, I just want to say, it is World Homelessness day. Please look at where you are and see what you can do to help because especially in the States, the Supreme Court just made it legal for towns to make it illegal to be homeless. And so I don't know how the fuck they think these people are going to bring into society if they go to jail for being homeless, and then guess what? They can't get an apartment. How are they going to get most jobs? I have so many problems about this so and as someone who's been without address a few times. If you have judgment towards people who are homeless, I ask you to check that, because there's a lot of different reasons people are homeless. Not every homeless person doesn't have a job. Oftentimes it's because it's really hard to get affordable housing near where they work. And if you live in a really nice neighborhood and you're like, there's fucking homeless here, well, guess who is going to work at your subway? How can they afford to live close and in that neighborhood? So we need to really invest in city planning and taking a look at these things and really making sure that mental health facilities and support systems are invested in because that is who is helping the homeless. Okay, I'll get off my little soapbox. 

Brad Crowell 5:01  

Okay, well, upcoming here in next February, Lesley and I are going to be back in Cambodia. We are currently in Cambodia right now, literally hosting a retreat as we speak. So obviously, recorded this ahead of time, but it is literally one of our most favorite things to do in the world, and I say that being on the other side of the world right now. 

Lesley Logan 5:22  

While you're listening to this, we are at a lotus farm. 

Brad Crowell 5:24  

That's right, yeah, no, it's, that's actually exactly where we are. We're literally at a lotus farm. We are. 

Lesley Logan 5:29  

We're making flowers and necklaces. 

Brad Crowell 5:31  

Yeah. And we are floating on a lake with lotuses all over the, all over it. It is stunningly beautiful. 

Lesley Logan 5:37  

At sunset. 

Brad Crowell 5:38  

Yeah, yeah. And you too could join us next February. We're gonna do it again. So it is gorgeous, amazing. It's inspirational. It will change your perspective on so many things when you see how other people live their lives, and the people of Cambodia are so friendly and open and just nice and kind, and we get to go not only meet them, see them, experience their food and culture, but then we get to explore something that is truly incredible, the eighth wonder of the world, the temple of Angkor Wat. It is the largest religious structure on the planet Earth. It is unbelievable. It is literally temples in the middle of the jungle that have been reconstructed here now. And you got to see it. It's a bucket list thing. So we want you to come with us, go to crowsnestretreats.com, crowsnestretreats.com. What do we got coming next? 

Lesley Logan 6:26  

Well, when we come back, I, you know, continue to ready myself for the accessory shoot, which is going to be in LA. Someone's going to be in LA for a week, doing some work and just preparing my strength and stamina for some of the exercise we've take pictures of. I'm so excited for this. This is actually going to be a really cool shoot. We're actually using another studio for the guillotine in there. So if you want the accessories deck, which is the sixth deck, and the final deck in the flash card decks, this is the last one. And I don't see us doing a prequel or a spin-off, this is like, this is it. This is the last installment. 

Brad Crowell 7:00  

Yeah, I think so. I'm pretty sure. 

Lesley Logan 7:01  

I know somebody else, like, somebody already thought, like, you do an expansion deck, and I was like, we're not doing that. Don't just. Nope. But never say never. So here's the deal, go to opc.me/flashcardwaitlist, because only those on the waitlist get access to the presale price. The presale price is a short time window, sometime in the 2025 year, and then you wait while we wait for them to print and ship to you, and you get them for the best price. So opc.me/flashcardwaitlist. 

Brad Crowell 7:27  

Yep, yep, yep. Next up, I am hosting a webinar coming up really soon, called the Pilates Studio Growth Accelerator. Go to prfit.biz/accelerator. That's profit without the O dot biz slash accelerator, if you're feeling at all stuck in your business, if you are wondering why you can't bring in more clients or make the money that you want to be making, we're going to be covering all those things. Lesley and I have coached more than 2000 businesses through our agency coaching program, and we boiled it down to these three big secrets, y'all, and I'm going to be digging into them live with you on this free webinar. So go to prfit.biz/accelerator. And finally.

Lesley Logan 8:08  

Last up for the year. The last thing of the year is the winter tour, and actually goes into the new year. So we actually kick off the year on tour. 

Brad Crowell 8:15  

On the road. 

Lesley Logan 8:16  

And we're doing 23 cities, and like 35 days. We want to see you. We're probably going to be somewhere where you live, and maybe somewhere you're visiting. And so yes, you can come to multiple cities. We had one person do three stops in the summer tour. 

Brad Crowell 8:26  

We did.

Lesley Logan 8:27  

And several people do two stops on the summer tour. So go to opc.me/tour to make sure you don't miss out on when we release the cities. 

Brad Crowell 8:33  

Love it. All right. Before we get into it here, pretty soon, we're going to be covering what Dr. Jordin Wiggins was digging into about pleasure, which I thought was really cool. But before we get there, let's get to the audience question today. Instagram, we have Professional Acro on Instagram asked, hey, in your YouTube videos, do you have an intermediate level chair 1-2 in order? And also, quick questions, please. If there are any special order for the Spine Corrector. Thank you so much. So it's kind of a twofer, right there.

Lesley Logan 9:07  

She has a twofer in there, like, how she snuck it in. So Joe Pilates did, and by the way, I sometimes say Joseph, but then I hear Jay on my shoulder. His name is Joe, not Joseph. I mean, it was, he was born Joseph. But there's like, a special like, just like, just like he was blue collar. It's Joe, right? 

Brad Crowell 9:26  

He's Joe. 

Lesley Logan 9:26  

So Joe Pilates did not have an order on the Chair or the Spine Corrector. Now, there are series that can have orders to them. On the Wunda Chair, there isn't really like, except for footwork, there isn't really, like, any order to any of the other series you, I mean, obviously the press down series, you can do front side crossover. That's typically what people do, because it makes a lot of sense. But you can also just do side just to cross over. So there's that. On the Spine Corrector there are, there is the leg series, and there's the arm series. And they have an order, which, by the way, are in the barrels deck (inaudible) and that is out. It has been shipping for a while now. I'm so excited about it. So that those do have orders and the series. But again, you omit what's not appropriate for your practice yet, and then you stay in that order. But the other thing about Joe was that he didn't have the levels. So I definitely don't have what you're looking for.

Brad Crowell 10:18  

There were no levels when Joseph Pilates created contrology.

Lesley Logan 10:22  

No, I mean, what I tell people in my mentorship program is like, if it's overhead, it's obviously not something to teach someone who's new. There you go. And then if it requires two spine shapes in it, then it might actually be a little bit more difficult than exercise that require one spine shape in it, so that really helps you kind of go, which exercise should I teach first? Just a little common sense. So I don't have what you're asking for on YouTube, but I have everything that exists on the Wunda Chair that Joe taught, and on the Spine Corrector and everything else that Joseph Pilates created as a free video in any of the playlists on the channel, and also, almost all are on the flashcards. The accessories deck is coming.

Brad Crowell 11:05  

Yeah. And they're also collected really nicely and neatly in one location on our website. So if you go to onlinepilatesclasses.com and go to the tutorials, you will find the section specifically for the chair that you might be looking at, because we've got them broken down across the different types of chairs, even so you could just go to the site and see them all collected together in one place. Yeah. Great question. Thanks for asking that. If you have a question, you can actually text us, 310-905-5534, 310-905-5534. If you live outside of the States, or you just use Instagram more often. Just ping us at the Be It Pod on IG or, obviously, on YouTube. So thanks so much, and stick around. We'll be right back. 

Brad Crowell 11:49  

Okay, now let's talk about Dr. Jordin Wiggins. Dr. Jordin Wiggins is a Naturopathic Doctor, Pleasure and Intimacy Coach. She's the author of The Pink Canary and host of the Pleasure Principles podcast. She is dedicated to helping high-achieving women heal feminine burnout and reconnect with their pleasure, empowering them to transform their health and their happiness. I thought this was really cool, because I didn't understand this idea of feminine burnout versus non feminine burnout, and she didn't exactly like clinically describe what that means. But I do. I have a lot, I have a feeling has a lot to do with hormones, too. So, yeah. 

Lesley Logan 12:26  

Well, because she talks about, like, burnout, it leads into constant cortisol production. And when cortisol is high, we know this from a hormone podcast we listen to Brad, progesterone is low. Remember? Right. (inaudible)

Brad Crowell 12:41  

Progesterone is what helps you sleep and helps you (inaudible).

Lesley Logan 12:46  

Around your body. It's so awesome. It can make the hormone. It can, like, lead you into your cycle in, like, a great way, or not a great way. 

Brad Crowell 12:53  

Yeah, the cortisol is important. You need it, but, like, we overproduce it because we jack ourselves up with stress and with caffeine and all these other things, and we're just basically out of balance.

Lesley Logan 13:04  

Yeah, for sure. So here's what's so great. We have an agency member who went on vacation, and she took extra time, and then she found herself in anxiety on the extra days. And now I'm discovering what she didn't do is microdose pleasure, which is what Dr Jordin Wiggins tells us to do. 

Brad Crowell 13:19  

Interesting. 

Lesley Logan 13:19  

She says when you're experiencing feminine burnout, the pleasure center in your brain is turned off. So if you gave yourself all these extra days off, and you've never had them before, you kind of put yourself in a stressful place, because actually, is it going to feel safe? So she, what Dr. Jordin Wiggins is telling us is start to microdose our pleasure slowly and turn up the dial to get it turned back on. That's amazing. 

Brad Crowell 13:40  

Yeah, so there's a clinical, there's a clinical name for this, where pleasure symptoms are turned off. Yeah, that's right, Anhedonia. 

Lesley Logan 13:48  

Anhedonia. We talked there's a great part of the podcast you want to go listen to, like she discovered what that was, and it's the inability to feel pleasure and joy. 

Brad Crowell 13:55  

Yeah, yeah, which is kind of insane, like we chase what makes us feel good, which is usually checking a thing off a list, right? But there comes a point where you're just maxed out on a, on that, and that could take, you know, it seems like that could take a long time to get to, but once you're there, what do you do? You know, you're just stuck, right? So I think it's pretty, pretty interesting to What did she say? Microdose. 

Lesley Logan 14:17  

Microdose. 

Brad Crowell 14:18  

Microdose pleasure to help reintroduce this idea, and just so that y'all know, she did talk about sex, she did talk about the intimacy and physical pleasure, but she also talked about more than just that. She said, that's, of course, part of it, but that's not, that's not what the only part of the conversation we're talking about here. What can bring you joy? What can bring you pleasure from having a glass of water? What can bring you joy from taking a morning walk, enjoying the breeze, like, you know, these other things. 

Lesley Logan 14:45  

Like, if you are going for your morning walk. I did my morning walk, okay, check, go sit in the front of the sunshine, check, like, if you are not actually 

Brad Crowell 14:53  

Got that vitamin D, what's next? 

Lesley Logan 14:54  

Enjoying the moment, I really love when I get lost on a walk and I come back and I'm like, oh, I didn't, because I normally go on Instagram and go, good morning, happy Tuesday. A lot of times lately I just fucking got home go, oh, hey guys, it was a great walk. You missed it. You missed it. It was so pleasurable. I had such a good time.

Brad Crowell 15:16  

That is, that's pretty funny. 

Lesley Logan 15:17  

What did you love? 

Brad Crowell 15:18  

Okay, so she talked about recognizing burnout, and she explained that hormones a lot of the time, they are a lag indicator, meaning burnout and stress have already impacted the body before hormone imbalances actually show up. It's like they're behind the eight ball here, y'all, another analogy there. But while hormone imbalance and adrenal dysfunction occur, it is compounded, and then it is layered, okay? So by the time you're actually realizing that you're in this place, it has been happening for a while, and it is compounded and it is layered. Okay, so that is, that's a problem. How do we then unfuck that? Basically, right? She emphasized resilience comes from a regulated nervous system, a well-regulated nervous system can handle stress without leading to those hormone imbalances. But one year past that point already, what do you do to come back, right? And that comes right back to what you're talking about, microdosing that joy. Microdosing pleasure. I don't really understand why this is feminine only, because this seems very applicable to me, too. You know I, you know. 

Lesley Logan 16:22  

Jordin, if you're listening, we would like to know. Actually, I, the time we're recording this, tomorrow I'm actually on her podcast. So, not tomorrow in the time you're listening, guys, but the tomorrow and the time that Brad and I are here. 

Brad Crowell 16:34  

Oh, well, you can ask. 

Lesley Logan 16:35  

I'll then ask her. 

Brad Crowell 16:35  

Great. 

Lesley Logan 16:36  

I'll ask her for you. I'll say hey, Brad would like to know why. 

Brad Crowell 16:39  

I would love to know. I would absolutely love to know, because I think that we have adrenals, it's like. 

Lesley Logan 16:44  

And it's also possible, like, she studies women, and she's in a women's clinic, and so that's why she can't just say it's.

Brad Crowell 16:50  

Yeah, maybe, and she specifically, that's her ICA. 

Lesley Logan 16:52  

Masculine burnout, I don't know. But also, like. 

Brad Crowell 16:55  

That's her ideal client avatar, if y'all (inaudible) study. 

Lesley Logan 16:58  

Yeah, yeah. But also, like, it might just be where she's had more experience in the medicine world she might not have (inaudible) I don't know. 

Brad Crowell 17:05  

Yeah, a well-regulated nervous system can handle stress without leading to hormone imbalances. So how do you get a well-regulated nervous system? She said resilience, right? And we didn't really have a deep conversation about resilience, so I think that's another great question to ask her is, like, how do you build resilience? How do you create a well-regulated nervous system through resilience? What does that actually mean? I'd be interested to learn more.

Lesley Logan 17:29  

Okay, Dr. Jordin Wiggins. 

Brad Crowell 17:31  

We got notes. We got notes. 

Lesley Logan 17:32  

Apparently, we have more questions. I didn't do a great job. There's two important questions. We'd like you to come back.

Brad Crowell 17:38  

It's all good. I wasn't gonna rag on you, my dear, you're amazing.

Lesley Logan 17:42  

I am amazing, but I missed that. So yes, okay.

Brad Crowell 17:45  

Well, we're gonna dig in even more about what Dr. Jordin Wiggins said in the Be It Action Items. So stick around. We'll be right back. 

Brad Crowell 17:52  

Welcome back. All right. Let's talk about those Be It Action Items. What bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted action items can we take away from your convo with Dr. Jordin Wiggins? She said hey, pull out your phone. Make a note of things that you can do to help microdose your pleasure. More specifically, make a list of pleasurable activities, right? So when you have built in that downtime for your day, you can pull out your note and you could say what do I actually want to do? She talked about doing a puzzle, reading a book. She didn't mention it, but we did, taking a walk, you know, we. 

Lesley Logan 18:27  

Yeah, I think, I don't know if I talked about this with her, but when my therapist was trying to get me to, like, not work all the time, she was like, okay, I said, I've got the time blocked out. I have time to do nothing, and I can't do nothing. And so she said write down all the things you could do and then just look at it go, when that time comes go, of these things what do I want to do? So you could do the same thing here, you'll make a big list of like, what would feel pleasurable to you? Maybe it's like having a chocolate bar and a glass of wine. I don't know.

Brad Crowell 18:55  

I mean, that's pleasurable. She talked about reading erotic books, especially if. 

Lesley Logan 19:00  

You guys could read Eliza David's erotic novels. Remember her from the pod? Kellee Forkenbrock, she writes erotic novels that are with a. 

Brad Crowell 19:08  

They were on Amazon for.

Lesley Logan 19:10  

For like a fucking dollar. 

Brad Crowell 19:11  

That's what I was gonna say, I didn't want to, I didn't wanna throw it out there without confirming. But yeah, I think there was a whole conversation in the last episode about sex being like a chore, checking it off. Okay, did that. Now, I don't have to worry about it, you know? And there's part of this microdosing, microdosing pleasure, that can help rekindle some, like, actual interest. And so reading a book on that can be good.

Lesley Logan 19:34  

Also, there are so many novels now that don't look like the ones that were sold at grocery stores. That was just like, my grandma always bought all of those.

Brad Crowell 19:39  

Like, some dude who's some jack dude in front of (inaudible). 

Lesley Logan 19:42  

You mean, Fabio? You mean, like, just Fabio? 

Brad Crowell 19:44  

Yeah or Fabio with long golden hair. 

Lesley Logan 19:46  

Oh, my God, every time Fabio would come to the gym. 

Brad Crowell 19:48  

For those YouTubers. 

Lesley Logan 19:49  

I couldn't look at Fabio. I couldn't look at Fabio because, like, he's on like, the cover of half my grandmother's books, you know what I mean. Or, like, some (inaudible) but also, like, you can microdose it. I'm reading Jodi Picoult's book. My first time reading Jodi Picoult, I'm reading By Any Other Name, and there are some micromoments of erotic pleasure in there. And I was like, oh, this is a fun book. And then I'm like, maybe that, maybe there. So I don't know if you have a fun erotic novel that I should be reading that is not 50 shades of anything. Send it my way. 

Brad Crowell 20:19  

Yeah, reach out. 

Lesley Logan 20:20  

Anyways, go. That's a Be It Action Item. I think it's also fun. Also, like. 

Brad Crowell 20:23  

Yeah, what about you? 

Lesley Logan 20:23  

I'm sure it can also be art. It can be a lot of things. So it doesn't have to be those things. 

Brad Crowell 20:27  

I mean, pleasure can even be taking a break, right? Like we. 

Lesley Logan 20:32  

I, do you know what I do every morning that I find pleasurable? 

Brad Crowell 20:34  

Tell me. 

Lesley Logan 20:35  

I don't do it every day of every year, but in this moment, what I'm finding pleasure in is doing the diffusers. We have two in the house. 

Brad Crowell 20:42  

Oh, I noticed them. (inaudible)

Lesley Logan 20:43  

And I also do my humidifier for my beautiful plants. And then sometimes during the day, I'm like, this just feels boring. And I'm like, what would make this more fun? Or what would this make, would this work more pleasurable? And I will find a playlist that I want to listen to, and I don't listen to my earbuds. I listen to it on a speaker. 

Brad Crowell 21:01  

In the room. 

Lesley Logan 21:02  

In the room, so it takes up this ambiance, and it's so fun. 

Brad Crowell 21:06  

That's cool. That's pleasure. What's your biggest takeaway? 

Lesley Logan 21:09  

Okay, so we talked about this, but she, this is a Be It Action Item for you. And here it is. Ask yourself how can I make this moment more pleasure? 

Brad Crowell 21:16  

That's right. 

Lesley Logan 21:16  

So you can take a list of things that could be pleasurable, or how could I make the moment right now more pleasurable, the moment that I'm in in this moment. And pleasure can be erotic, or it can just be pleasure is also another word for joy, fun, enjoyment. So if you have to clean the kitchen, like, what can make that more pleasurable? Would it be but more fun to be in, like, cozy sweats with some really great music? Would it be more fun to like, have your favorite beverage? I don't know. Like, what would make it more pleasurable? Would it be more fun if your partner was naked. I don't know these things. Try them out. And then she said incorporate small pleasurable tweaks into daily life. So what little tweaks, little microdoses, can we do to feel better? So start with microdoses. This is a Be It Till You See it, not a like, 100% it. And by the way, Erin Hatzikostas' 50% Rule, and apply it to pleasure in this moment, and I bet you'll have a little bit more pleasurable moments. I'm just saying.

Brad Crowell 22:06  

I love it. 

Lesley Logan 22:07  

So take a listen to Dr. Jordin Wiggins and if you like her, you can go listen to the episode I'm going to be on on her podcast. I don't know what we're talking about.

Brad Crowell 22:17  

It's called Pleasure Principles. Like, the pod. We'll put the link in the show notes. 

Lesley Logan 22:22  

Yeah, we will. I'm Lesley Logan.

Brad Crowell 22:24  

And I'm Brad Crowell. 

Lesley Logan 22:25  

How are you going to use these tips in your life? Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for listening. Thank you for downloading. Share this with a friend. If you've got a friend who's just always saying, like, I'm so burnt out, they need to hear this. 

Brad Crowell 22:35  

I want to know how many of you are going to make your husband be naked in the kitchen? 

Lesley Logan 22:39  

Okay, you don't. Do you really want to know this, Brad? No, you don't. He's joking. He's joking. He's joking. Also.

Brad Crowell 22:49  

That's just funny. 

Lesley Logan 22:51  

We have these like.

Brad Crowell 22:53  

I might not ever be able to meet your husband.

Lesley Logan 22:54  

No, don't tell. 

Brad Crowell 22:55  

So, don't tell me. 

Lesley Logan 22:56  

Don't tell him, uh, keep it to yourself. That's what's pleasurable about it. But we do have, I'm gonna keep, not keep this to myself, we have this film on the glass that like you can't really see in our house unless it's at night when the lights are on. And sometimes I think you forget that. 

Brad Crowell 23:11  

Me? 

Lesley Logan 23:12  

Yes. 

Brad Crowell 23:14  

Maybe.

Lesley Logan 23:14  

Because we don't have any window treatments.

Brad Crowell 23:17  

Not telling y'all where I live.

Lesley Logan 23:19  

Oh, okay. Also, hopefully our neighbors don't listen. Um, my dad asked if one of our neighbors still is naked in the backyard. And I said, not that I've seen because I don't look there. Since I know that.

Brad Crowell 23:33  

I'm pretty sure he must have seen me on the roof and been like, well, last time we're doing this. 

Lesley Logan 23:37  

No, it's not because my dad saw him back there, walk out, go into their fish pond, grab a fish out with his hand, and, like, walk back in the house, totally naked. 

Brad Crowell 23:45  

What? I love this guy.

Lesley Logan 23:47  

Yeah, here's what I want to say. I was like, well, dad, he wants his tanning even. But here's what I just want to say, he has no fucks to give. That is pleasurable for him, and there's no shame in it. I'm not looking because it's not pleasurable for me. 

Brad Crowell 23:59  

I mean, he's like, 75 so, yeah. 

Lesley Logan 24:01  

Minimum. So what I would just say is, like, walk around your house naked. 

Brad Crowell 24:05  

That's awesome. 

Lesley Logan 24:05  

You know what? Walk in your backyard naked. It's if people see it, they were looking in your yard. 

Brad Crowell 24:10  

That's right. 

Lesley Logan 24:11  

And your windows. That's (inaudible) for that. All right? I'm Lesley Logan. 

Brad Crowell 24:15  

And I'm Brad Crowell. 

Lesley Logan 24:16  

Thank you so much. 

Brad Crowell 24:21  

This is immediately gonna turn into a favorite episode.

Lesley Logan 24:32  

And until next time, Be It Till You See It.

Brad Crowell 25:19  

Bye for now.

Lesley Logan 25:22  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod. 

Brad Crowell 26:04  

It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell. 

Lesley Logan 26:09  

It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co. 

Brad Crowell 26:13  

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi. 

Lesley Logan 26:21  

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals. 

Brad Crowell 26:24  

Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.

How can women heal from burnout while prioritizing joy and pleasure? In this episode, Dr. Jordin Wiggins, an expert in feminine burnout, shares her experiences with pelvic pain and explains how high-achieving women experience burnout differently. Lesley and Dr. Wiggins explore the science behind burnout, the concept of the 'pleasure tank,' and how to 'microdose' pleasure to rewire your brain for joy. Discover how small, intentional shifts can help you refill your pleasure tank and enhance your overall well-being.

In this episode you will learn about:

• Dr. Wiggins' own experiences with pelvic pain, hormone issues, and anhedonia.
• How women are conditioned to delay pleasure and how this contributes to burnout.
• Why burnout in women is often overlooked, misunderstood, and misdiagnosed.
• The link between anhedonia and the increasing rates of antidepressant prescriptions for women.
• How prioritizing personal pleasure can lead to healthier, more fulfilling relationships.
• Tips for "microdosing" pleasure to rewire your brain and refuel your pleasure tank.

Episode References/Links:

• Dr. Jordin Wiggins' Instagram
• Dr. Jordin Wiggins Website
• The Pleasure Principles Podcast

Guest Bio:

Dr. Jordin Wiggins is a Naturopathic Doctor, Author of The Pink Canary, and Pleasure and Intimacy Coach. She is the host of a top ranked global podcast, Pleasure Principals. And she is the CEO of the Pleasure Collective, a coaching community for high achieving women who want more pleasure in their lives, in and out of the bedroom. Combining her 13 years of medical and tantra knowledge with personal experience as domestic and sexual abuse survivor, she is on a mission to reverse the statistic that 1 in 2 women globally suffer from sexual dysfunction. She believes that great sex is just the beginning - everything comes when you learn how to receive: better sex, better health, more wealth.

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at [email protected].

And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.

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Episode Transcript:

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 0:00  

What we have to do is retrain our brains for pleasure, okay, but hear me, okay, hear me the hear the process. Because at first it's like, okay, this sounds so simple that it can't be true, but when you are experiencing feminine burnout, the pleasure centers in your brain are turned off. 

Lesley Logan 0:23  

Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.

Lesley Logan 1:02  

Okay, Be It babe, my overachievers, my peeps who are doing all the things, checking all the boxes and still sometimes wondering why they don't feel awesome. I have an episode for you. In fact, I have a doctor for you. Her name is Dr. Jordin Wiggins and she kind of blew my mind in some way. And it all makes sense. What's so cool is, as soon as she explained it, it all made sense, and I think you're going to really love it. And also, as overachievers, it might be a little bit frustrating, but in a good way, with lots of potential. So we're going to talk joy. We're gonna talk pleasure. We're also going to talk about feminine burnout. And out of the hundreds of episodes that I've done, I've never had anyone explain it like this. And I think this is gonna be one of those episodes you share with a friend and another friend and another friend. So thank you in advance for doing it. Here is Dr. Jordin Wiggins. 

Lesley Logan 1:55  

All right, Be It, babe. I'm really so excited to have this conversation today with our guest, Dr. Jordin Wiggins, I am going to be honest, like, I read all the things that she is doing amazing things in this world, and I was like, yes, this is a conversation we have to have. And so,. Dr. Jordin Wiggins, will you tell everyone who you are and what you rock at? 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 2:12  

Yes, thank you so much for having me, Lesley. I am. Dr Jordin Wiggins, I help high-achieving women heal feminine burnout through pleasure.

Lesley Logan 2:25  

I mean, that's just so perfect. I mean, everyone who's listening, if you're high-achieving women, raise your hand. That's, that's all of you. Okay, so we but like, have you, like, spent your life avoiding burnout? Have you like, did, what led you, what led you to do it?

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 2:40  

I had so many episodes of burnout. So we want to go back in high school I started with pelvic pain. And I'll give you a Cole's notes of this, because, like most high-achieving women, I don't do things small scale. I do them big. Right? Like, my wins are big and it's like (inaudible).

Lesley Logan 2:48  

You are in great family. I already love you.

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 3:01  

So high school, pelvic pain. I was a competitive rower doing very, very elite training, but they didn't know it was pelvic pain. So I would get this stabbing pain in between my vagina and my rectum. Can we say? (inaudible) Okay, yeah, I should have asked beforehand. 

Lesley Logan 3:25  

You don't have to ask. 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 3:26  

I normally do.

Lesley Logan 3:26  

I think we should just say the real words, because, you know, and also, what you're gonna love is that we have a lot of listeners who have boys, and they tell them all the things. They tell them all the things, because they're like, no matter what, no matter who you are in this world, you're gonna be around women. You're gonna work with them. You might be married to them. You might be a parent once, you got to know so you can use all the words.

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 3:43  

Okay, love, we will use all the vocabulary, and we'll hopefully add to some vocabulary too, because I have my own glossary of terms. Okay. So stabbing pelvic pain would take my breath away, and I am, I am a tough person, not really neurotypical, ADHD, like, I can ignore pain quite easily, forget about it. And this was bad. So I ended up in the ER, a couple times, sent to all different specialists. No one could figure out what it, what the pain was, and they couldn't see it on imaging. Nothing showed in my blood work. So they were basically like, well, this must be in your head. Offered me antidepressants, antipsychotics. And I knew the pain wasn't in my head. I'm not a person that wants to be sick. I don't enjoy being sick, being slowed down by any stretch of the imagination, so I but I felt very let down and very alone during that experience. Fast forward a few more years, when I was doing my pre-med degree, first year, my pre-med degree, went on birth control, and I had my period three weeks out of the month. 

Lesley Logan 4:01  

Like the opposite of what should happen with birth control. 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 4:51  

Right. So bleeding for three weeks and not bleeding for one week. So aside from being very iron deficient, depressed, all the things because the solution was, we'll just try a different pill. Just try a different pill. Anyways, all of these times led me to dark places, feeling alone, feeling unsupported, not believed. And my thought was, well, I'm going to become a doctor to help figure this out for women, help solve the problems. Okay? And then when I realized that conventional medicine didn't have the answers that I was seeking because of those experiences, that's when I went into naturopathic medicine. So two degrees, eight years of post-secondary education later, I opened a women's health clinic and loved it, loved it, crushed it, helped so many women, 2000 actually. So did that for 10 years, and hit another burnout, personally. And what was interesting with this one is this one was reflected with my patients at the time. So those first two my pelvic pain and the hormone issues with birth control, I kind of like suffered in silence and was quietly reading research articles, and I felt like something was wrong with me, right? Then, this was a different level. So I'd achieved everything that I wanted to achieve that I set out to achieve. I had my thriving business, I had my house, I had my dream car, and I was not happy. I was like, is this it? There was something so deeply missing and the cognitive dissonance of it. You know, for years, that was my goal, and in so many ways, I was doing it, but not actually feeling happy. So there was that mental part of it, which there is a medical term for it. And I wrote a book about this. 

Lesley Logan 7:09  

Stop. I call it like an expectation hangover. But what's the medical term?

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 7:15  

So it's anhedonia, and it's the inability to feel pleasure and joy, and it's one of the diagnostic criteria of major depressive disorder. This is what I was seeing in myself and in my patients. They were being offered antidepressant prescriptions. They're just like, I don't feel like myself. The things that used to make me happy don't make me happy anymore. I don't know what's wrong with me. Something's off. They didn't really have language for it, neither did I, until I, and obviously, the rate of antidepressant prescriptions, which, no pill shaming here, do what you need to do always. But it's just the rate of antidepressant prescriptions. Women are two times more likely to get prescribed an antidepressant than men, and the rate has gone up four or five times since the 90s. So it's like, are we way more depressed? Are we way more depressed than men? Like, what's going on here. But something is. Something's off, and we're feeling off, yeah. So I personally think that anhedonia needs to be treated as its own thing and not be lumped in with major depressive disorder.

Lesley Logan 8:32  

Right. Because, I mean, like, what an interesting thing. Even in my own life, I'm doing all the things, right, and you have these moments and you're like, I don't think I'm depressed though. Like, I know that, and so it's and so you almost are afraid to tell your doctor, because you're like, they're going to put me on an antidepressant. I have an amazing doctor that I work with now, and she did ask. She's like, are you depressed? I said, I'm not depressed, but I don't feel like myself. And what I feel like that's almost like the, what you're saying there. Like, what an interesting thing to think about, because, and not to knock it's not like, I don't want to be depressed, like I'm trying to avoid figuring out what it is, but if it isn't depression, if it's this inability to feel pleasure and joy, that's a fascinating thing. So I think a lot of people have that issue, and maybe it's mixed in with depression, but it might actually just be that.

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 9:19  

Exactly. And I think sometimes it is. It's mixed in with depression. And I've definitely had episodes of major depressive disorder, guaranteed, but there's this looks a little different. It feels a little different. It comes with different physical symptoms as well. So this is what I was noticing in myself. So my hair was falling out. I had adult acne. I wasn't sleeping through the night. I was waking with night sweats, and I was like 20, 29 almost what looked like perimenopausal symptoms, but should not be happening. Crazy, heavy periods. Was gaining weight that was hard to get off. So, yeah, like mood swings, just not myself. Not myself at all. And then my clients were saying the same, coming to me for the same sort of cluster of issues. Yeah, so that's what I now call feminine burnout. And there's the mental, emotional aspect, which is the anhedonia, the mood swings. We're just not as happy as we used to be. It's like, something's off. I'm not like myself. It's really and that's the other piece, is, if we don't have language to put to it, when we are going to our healthcare providers, they're doing their best, and it's like, okay, well, this kind of looks like depression, so that's how we're going to approach treatment. But then I had such a massive patient base, and some of them even tried antidepressants for a time, and they're like, it didn't really work. (inaudible) A lot of them just said, I know I'm not depressed. It's something like this. So we have the mental, emotional stuff, the physical symptoms, and then it was also affecting my patients and myself relationally, like how we were showing up in relationship, so feeling very alone, very unsupported, either things were not great in the bedroom, one way or the other, where some of my patients had literally no desire, no libido, no drive whatsoever. Or they had higher drive, like they were looking for that connection and their part like mismatch libidos, one way or the other. But things were not so great in relationship as well.

Lesley Logan 9:24  

And so you're seeing this in your patients. You're seeing this in yourself, and you found this diagnosis, I guess my, I'm gonna tell you my listeners like, okay, tell us what we have to do, though. What is the thing? Do we have to, like, is ita pill? Is it a medication? (inaudible) Is it, do I have to, like, twirl, like, what do we have to do? 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 12:16  

So this, and this is, I always get the initial eye roll. So go with me on this, but what we have to do is retrain our brains for pleasure, okay, but hear me, okay, hear me, hear the process. Because at first it's like, okay, this sounds so simple that it can't be true. But when you are experiencing feminine burnout, the pleasure centers in your brain are turned off. They've done MRIs like this is a scientific fact. So we are literally focused on survival, fixing to do lists, like crossing items off our to do list feels good. We feel accomplished. Yes, sitting, relaxing, enjoying that's hard to do. So my clients would talk about, I went on vacation and it took me an entire week to relax, or I was out for a walk, or they have their self-care time, but they'll start to, I talk about it. One of my clients gave me this sort of analogy. She's like, it's kind of like old gum that I pick up and chew. If I'm able to relax, or I have time to relax, I'll start to worry about something. Or we'll create a project for ourselves, like a new initiative with work, or start a home reno, the ability to truly be and receive pleasure have a relaxed and regulated nervous system, adrenals that properly respond to stress and aren't just pumping out cortisol all day long. We can't do that when we are experiencing feminine burnout, and nor do we want to because we're focusing on putting out the fires. So the one thing that we should be doing and want to focus on doing that like our body is telling us to resist that, to not do it. Don't focus on it. 

Lesley Logan 14:19  

Yeah, yeah. It's interesting, because it's like, I guess the next question would be like, and how do we retrain? Because to take that person who feels so safe in a high-stress, almost perfectionist, environment. 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 14:31  

Addicted to dopamine, to the cortisol. 

Lesley Logan 14:35  

Do you practice sitting still? Do you like sit still for one minute? Do you eat chocolate? 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 14:40  

Okay, so this is where we need to do a little bit of pleasure research. And because, like we already talked about, if we're anhedonic, the things that used to make us happy don't make us happy anymore, and our brain is in this simple solution, check the box, move on, kind of thing, which is often like the sex that a lot of my clients describe having, like they're having it to just like, say they did and move on kind of thing. Get it off the to do list and focus on something else. So like, we're not really present with pleasure. We're not really present with connection, but it is what we are so deeply craving at the time, so that's where we have that massive mismatch. So we need to do some research on what makes us feel good, and it's different for every person, and it's probably different for a woman experiencing feminine burnout, you know, if she's going to a Pilates class and doing her meditations, but none of it is landing, like. 

Lesley Logan 15:49  

Self-care is just not, she's, but it's like that old gum your other clients talk about, yeah. 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 15:53  

Exactly. It's like, this isn't working, so we need a new approach. So it's twofold. We start to microdose our pleasure. And I say that because the pleasure centers are off, so we need to, just like slowly turn up that dial to get them turned back on. And how I get people to do that is we start by brainstorming a list. So what are things that are going to make you feel good? Is it a bath? Is it sitting in silence? Is it saying no to something? Is it letting somebody, letting your partner, take care of something for you while you relax? It could literally be anything that makes you feel good. But now, again, I'm saying this to you now, and it sounds very simple, and it's like, are you kidding me?

Lesley Logan 16:47  

I, you know, here's the thing, I actually know how not simple this is because I had a somatic therapist who was like, I said, I have, I got this space in my day, and I don't really know what to do with it. I don't have a hobby. And she said, just write down everything that could, you think, could feel good. And then when you get to that space in your day, look at the list and just see which one of those things you want to try and you guys, it was so hard because I was like, okay, so I'm gonna go sit down and read a book. And I like, sat there, and I was like, this doesn't feel really good right now. I think I'd rather do this later. And it's just, but you have to be, it's so fucking hard to be patient to figure out what the micro-dose is going to be. 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 17:25  

Exactly. But I'm so glad that you said that and you tried this, because you can validate it. And that's I literally make my clients put a note on their phone and a pleasure block in their day, whatever they can commit to if it's 10 minutes, 15 minutes. I mean, ideally we've got, like, half an hour, an hour, and it's this time that you would visit the note on your phone and check out what would make me feel good right now. And I call it increasing your pleasure pulse. So 10 out of 10 is fulfilled, abundant. We call it juicy at the pleasure collective, like, you're just like overflowing, you're magnetic, you've your energy, you're like the sun, people want to be around you. It's like warm, or like honey. It's however you want to picture your own higher self-fulfillment. And zero, you're like empty. Pleasure tank is empty. Not happy with yourself, physically like emotionally, just drained. Got nothing, nothing left to give. So if I'm at a two, then my goal becomes, what would make me be a three in my pleasure time? And we're like adding. 

Lesley Logan 18:39  

I love that. It's like, what when we get a three, not what would get me to 10, you're not going to get to a 10 if you're at a two.

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 18:46  

Exactly. And then we like to, because, you know, our high-achieving, all or nothing, thinking brains, right? The perfectionist, which is why I'm did the pleasure pulse, because it's like, ladies, we're not getting we're not going to get from a 10 to a two. This is going to take time. And if it was our businesses, or if it was something else, we would totally understand and give it grace. But I did the pleasure pulse so that we can't just be like, well, this is hard, and I'm not a 10, so it didn't work, and just gonna shut down and say that it didn't work, yeah. So note on the phone block in the day, and how am I going to increase my pleasure pulse? What is something that I can do that's going to make me feel good? And yes, sounds simple, but thank you for sharing your experience. Because you think, okay, I'm going to read a book, but you tried the book and you're like, that wasn't it, and it's because we've been conditioned to focus externally, right, on others. We're not focused inward on ourself at all, disconnected from our intuition and the pleasure centers in our brain are off. So it takes time to get them turned back on, and now, in any moment, I can tell you exactly what I want, exactly what would feel good for me right now, but it took time and practice to hone that skill. And if I'm not doing my pleasure practices and I, you know, life, life happens. Like to think that we can be at a 10 all day, every day, unrealistic. So if life happens and I am a two or I am a four, then, like, it's, it's even harder for me, like I have to work harder at it, right? Because neurologically, neurochemically, I'm in survival. I'm in nervous system dysregulation, so it's harder to know what to do to feel good. 

Lesley Logan 20:50  

Right. Hopefully you start to notice when you go from a 10 to a five before you get to a two, hopefully. But also, you know, I heard this interesting thing, because the Olympics are on while we're recording this. And this one person in Olympics said, like, if when you're going for a goal, it always feels good, it's always achievable, your goal isn't big enough. It should also not be that every day is a bad day. So it shouldn't be like, so hard every day to achieve your goal. And he also said, 1/3 of the day should be good, 1/3 of the days you should feel like you're making progress, it's awesome, 1/3 of the day should just feel like it was achievable, not like, meh, you know, like, whelmed, right? Like, this right there, there's nothing wrong. It's not bad, it's not good, it's just even. And then 1/3 of the day are gonna feel really hard. And so the goal is to just man it, make sure that you're in balance there and you're not tipping too far in one direction. And I think what's hard for most people is they notice the one day that they're going down and like, oh, and they excuse it. I have this so much stuff going on. I just gotta win. This happens all and then by the time that they actually acknowledge that they've gone down, they're back to a two, and that's when it's so hard to get back up, because they're going to try to go back to that 10, doing the things they're doing at a 10. But like you said, you're dysregulated, so you have to actually do something really small again. You have to go back to the 10 thing.

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 22:09  

I love it. It's, yeah, exactly those. And that's why that concept of micro-dosing, you know, how do I just feel a little better, little better, and I'm working with my clients, training them to know, okay, I took a hit today or the last couple days. I'm a five. What am I going to need to do to get back up and recognizing it? What are those warning signs to see it coming, so that we know before we're at the two.

Lesley Logan 22:09  

Yeah, yeah. So I want it like, I think this is really fascinating. So now that you you saw this in your clients, you saw this in your patients, you saw it in yourself. You did some research, you started to like, experience and explore, and now you've got what you're teaching. How has that been like, even received among the women you're trying to help? And what are some things that you're seeing? Like, either push back on from people, or maybe they're just thinking, like, it's too easy. I like, it should be hard. I should have the pill. I'm missing this hormone. Like, what are you seeing?

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 23:10  

I do get a lot of people that are like, it's, I think it's, I think it's my hormones. I think I have a hormone imbalance. Like, there's, there's wanting to explain it away to be one thing, right, that one box to check, especially when our brain is in that mode. And that's why, because I was trained, and I did so much continuing education, I was flying everywhere to learn how to treat what I didn't know was feminine burnout, and yes, there is a component of hormone imbalance. Yes, there is a component of adrenal dysfunction, or if we have been stressed for a really long time, then we can have digestive issues. Like there's it is compounded and it is layered. However, if we are at a five plus, like if our nervous systems are, for the most part, regulated, if we can mount a good stress response, if we're not inflamed, then we have that resiliency to handle what life throws at us without having a hormone imbalance. So to me, hormones, a lot of the time, are a lag indicator. It's an indicator that you were experiencing feminine burnout. There was other things happening well before you got to the point of hormone imbalance. 

Lesley Logan 24:40  

I think that's also, probably the stomach issues as well, there's those kinds of things. They're like, okay, fine, you're not going to help me here. Now, we're over here, so it's almost like there was a yellow light slow down, and we didn't listen until it was the red. And then it's a bigger a bigger fish to fry, because you've got to do, you still have, it sounds like you can take care of the hormones, you could take care of the gut, but you still have to figure out the pleasure. You still have that. 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 25:05  

And that's exactly what I was finding. And what I didn't like about what I was doing and the treatment plans and the protocols that I was giving is women were feeling better. The digestive issues was better, the hormone issues were better, but they had to be very regimented about what they were doing, and it was so easy for them to fall back, to get back to that too. And I mean, again, I'm talking about pleasure. It's all about pleasure to be to have to be so restrictive on a diet, to digest well and to feel light and like 

Lesley Logan 25:06  

There's no joy in that. No. There's no pleasure. No. 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 25:27  

No, you're and it was like, I'm not, I'm missing something. I'm not really getting to the root here, because we need to be so careful, or the hormones needed to be tweaked, or their thyroid medication needed to be tweaked, and it's just like what was I missing? 

Lesley Logan 26:08  

Yeah. So, okay, so because I think the overachievers in the room have not felt pleasure in a long time, can you explain even, like, just idea why? What are different forms of enjoying pleasure or feeling joy? Like, just in case they're like, okay, I've heard the word, but if we ask them today, like, what would make them feel joy? But obviously they're gonna have, like, very few things, or they're gonna think it should be like, time with their kids or sitting at a beach or something like that. So what are, what are just some list examples that could help people find pleasure and joy. What are some things that they could do? 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 26:44  

Yes, and I want to say because if people are new to my work, sometimes even the word pleasure feels like repulsive or jarring. 

Lesley Logan 26:52  

I think it's like not even repulsive for jarring. It almost feels like selfish. I have so much to do. The dishes have to get done. The laundry has to get done. How dare I sit down and do a puzzle to feel joy right now? Or this dessert is amazing, but I gotta clean before bed. I gotta get to bed so I'm not gonna sit and enjoy the pleasure of the bite of ice cream.

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 27:15  

It's part of our conditioning, right? Do first, pleasures last. Work hard, then play hard. That's how we've been conditioned, and that's what creates the recipe for feminine burnout. Is that we feel like feeling good should come last, but there's always so much to do that we never get to the feeling good part. So really, it's about flipping it, putting pleasure first, and you are more efficient. And when you ask people to do things for you, and you are, you know, a five or an eight, it's when you have more of that attractive energy. When you're at a zero and you are asking somebody for help with something for the dishes that need to get done so that you can do a puzzle or read it's just a, it comes out sideways, you know, when we are so burnt out. And then that's also where women get pissed, where, okay, I'm doing so much, and now you're telling me I have to do more, because it's frustrating, right? So you're telling me that I have to work on myself. Or do, you know, I call it plugging the holes in our pleasure tank, because the pleasure, what we're pouring in, the things that we're doing to feel good, that's one part of it. But if our container, our system, I call it a pleasure tank, just for the visual, has holes poked in it, we could self-care all day long and still not feel fulfilled. We're still not raising. 

Lesley Logan 28:50  

Right, right, because you're pouring it's all just, it's going out through one of the holes. Yeah. I got it.

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 28:54  

Exactly, exactly. So the list of the pleasure things, and we can, let me tell you that, but that that's the one piece, and then the part that's like, the harder work to do is, how do we plug the holes and make sure that we can maintain, you know, I like to say a seven, so that we've got that resiliency. Because life's going to happen and we're going to things are going to be hard sometimes, but then at least if we're dropping, we're dropping to a five and not a two. So pleasure, and I like to look at it in two ways, because we have that sort of negative connotation to it. We think it's about sex or bedroom. And yes, that is part of it. But there's also just, like, look at kids, how happy they are, how joyful they are. Life is amazing. Little things are amazing and awe-inspiring. And it's about finding that wonder and play and things that feel good outside as well. So calling a friend you. Now also this is, this is where it gets deep, right? Because if you are an overachiever, you're probably overachieving in your friendships too, and you're probably the one that people go to with the problems. So you're probably get, calling a friend that helps fill your tank that you feel great after talking to them, not that you've just given them a therapy session and all these suggestions on how to run their business.

Lesley Logan 29:23  

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And don't, don't call the aunt who's negative all the time. Like it sounds like a little breaking system has to happen. And then you call the, you can call a friend who like fills your cup. 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 30:40  

Yeah, exactly. So you're writing in the note in your phone, like, call X, like the friend that fills your cup up. Yeah, movement. So people, again, we're starting small, but I love if people would enroll themselves in some type of movement class, like, some type of dance yoga is amazing. Pilates is amazing. We know this, getting a massage is amazing. But some type of dance class, or feminine movement class, like pole dancing a heels class, which is also way, like, I have clients that do it, and they're in our group chat, they're like, oh my god. I can't believe I just did that. Like, it's a very out of their comfort zone. 

Lesley Logan 31:25  

Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna get a pole in the house, because, to be honest, the pole classes in Vegas are always at night, and I'm like, I'm in bed at eight o'clock, ladies, I need a four o'clock pole class. That's what I want. So, but it is super fun. You have it. It's a different kind of dopamine high. It's so fun. And then there and the heels classes, like, just like having a practice walking in those heels, you become it's a different kind of be it till you see it. I'll tell you, it's a be it till you see it for pleasure. Those kinds of classes, yes.

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 31:50  

Yes. I have a pole in my house. So there you go, get grab one in yours. There's even great free online. There's so much free online, like beginner poles, to have it in your house, but you know, I'm personally the special kind of person, like I need to be held accountable to the class. I'm better at using my but sometimes, if I'm in burnout, I will go months without touching my pole at home. But if I sign up for a class, I will show up every time because I did. 

Lesley Logan 31:51  

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If, I mean, it's a good reminder. Like, if you know that you're going down to a five on this pleasure pulse, maybe sign up for things that hold you accountable to get you back up to that seven so that you can do it on your own time. But yeah, it's okay to need accountability.

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 32:36  

Yeah, for sure. I'm totally a need accountability kind of person. So there's the like, the stuff, you know, reading, bath, things that are going to make us feel good, slow us down. There's movement, which I highly recommend, some type of feminine movement class, dance class. And if that's too much, then anything yoga, Pilates, but not boot camp style, right? Like, generally, we're doing too much when we are experiencing burnout, because to build muscle is an inflammatory process, and if you have feminine burnout, you are already very inflamed. And that's why a lot of women are like, why can't I lose weight? I'm more, I'm doing boot camps five days a week. 

Lesley Logan 33:21  

Well, zone two, ladies, come on. Zone two. You know if you're listening to us and you're over 40. You don't even need to do 40-minute workouts, actually. So. 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 33:29  

Yes, thank you. 

Lesley Logan 33:32  

I leave class early. It's okay. They're not gonna say anything. Show up on time. Leave early. Take care of yourself. But it's very interesting all the research that's out there for perimenopause and post menopause to keep your cortisol down, you should be doing under 40-minute workouts.

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 33:48  

Thank you. Like I'd say that on repeat, it's just so good, too. 

Lesley Logan 33:57  

Yeah. But I love that. I think that these are some really good things that people can, like, there might even be, and if we listen, if she said anything that you're already doing, then maybe notice, like, are you doing too much, or are you needing to put on some music while you're doing? Like, is there something else you can change with it? Because, as the overachievers listening there probably are going to class seven days a week, maybe we actually need to (inaudible).

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 34:19  

(inaudible) doing less. And what else doing less, and then asking yourself, How can I make this moment more pleasurable?

Lesley Logan 34:27  

Yes, oh, I love that question. That question is so good. 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 34:30  

If you're stuck, that's what you're asking yourself. And is it, you know, do I need flesh fresh flowers on my desk? Do I need to light a candle and put music on while I'm making dinner. What little tweaks, little micro-doses can we do to feel better? And then obviously, there is the physical stuff as well. Like more, you know, when you think of pleasure, what you would think of so, massages, self-pleasure, reading an erotic novel, like things like that. The more spicy types of pleasure.

Lesley Logan 35:06  

There's like a whole new uptick in the romance novel world like that is that, that genre of books is like having, it's a new resurgence, and it's kind of, it's quite amazing. So I love, I think that's I love these. I think it's great. So if you're going to class seven days a week and you're having this feminine burnout, take one of those classes off and try self-pleasure stuff.

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 35:07  

Reading erotic novel. 

Lesley Logan 35:11  

Yeah, yeah. I think this is really exciting stuff, and we could talk about it forever, and obviously you're like, the expert at it. We're going to take a brief break, and then we're gonna find out how people can find you, follow you, work with you. 

Lesley Logan 35:40  

All right. Dr. Jordin Wiggins, this has been awesome. I think you may have just helped a lot of listeners go, hmm, I wonder if this is feminine burnout and not just my hormones and stress and all these things. I think that there's a lot of pondering going on. Where can people find you, follow you work with you?

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 35:57  

Find me on Instagram @DrJordinWiggins, my podcast, The Pleasure Principles podcast is another great place. If you are pondering and you're like, is this me? There's a ton of amazing information there. And if you want to work with me, send me a DM on Instagram. 

Lesley Logan 36:15  

Perfect. Love that it's so easy as it should be, we're in there in front of burnout, so it should be easy.

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 36:20  

Yeah. Oh, trust me, simple, more, the simpler the better. 

Lesley Logan 36:24  

All right, you actually have given us some great tips already. But just in case anyone missed it, they skipped to the end, bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted steps people can take to be it till they see it. What do you have for us? 

Dr. Jordin Wiggins 36:34  

Ask yourself, how can I make this moment more pleasurable? If you can ask yourself that multiple times a day, I guarantee you you will be increasing your pleasure pulse. And the second thing is, make a note in your phone of things that you can do to help micro-dose your pleasure. What is going to make you feel a little bit better, so that when you have downtime, ideally, it's scheduled downtime, scheduled pleasure breaks in your day. You're going to look at that note in your phone and you're going to do something that helps increase your pleasure pulse, helps turn on the pleasure centers in your brain.

Lesley Logan 37:18  

Those are good. Those are good. I love, I love a good question. We have Gay Hendricks on the, on our 400th episode, and he has, he likes to go, hmm, I wonder, because the brain loves a hmm, and a I wonder. And I love that your question's like, I wonder, how can I make this more pleasurable? What a great thing. You guys, it's such a, it's, you'd be surprised, you know, like, I don't like to do, I like to clean the house, and so when I do, I'm like, what's a podcast that would be really fun to listen to, not stressful, because I'm doing something I don't want to do. Or, like, if it's, if Brad's awake, I can turn on some music and I can play something, or sometimes I throw on an Abraham Hicks, like, Morning Rampage, you know. So I think this is a really fun, easy thing that we can do just to start to enjoy the pleasurable moments in our lives. And you know, wow, great stuff. Dr Wiggins, you are so amazing. Thank you so much. You guys, how are you doing these tips in your life? Make sure you tag. Dr Jordin Wiggins. Tag the Be It Pod. Share this with us. Share this episode with a friend who needs it. I bet you probably, as you were thinking through, you might be thinking, oh, my friend, like, share this with them, because what an interesting thing when we can actually go, oh, it's not just my stomach and my hormones and these things. It could be those things. It also could be that they have feminine burnout, and they could actually take Jordin's words and enjoy more joy and pleasure and get the help that they need. Until next time, Be It Till You See It. 

Lesley Logan 38:40  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.

Brad Crowell 39:23  

It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.

Lesley Logan 39:28  

It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.

Brad Crowell 39:32  

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.

Lesley Logan 39:39  

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.

Brad Crowell 39:43  

Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.

Lesley kicks off the first Friday of October by sharing community wins and her own celebration while in Cambodia. From a corporate exit to growing a Pilates business, this FYF episode is packed with inspiring stories about embracing transitions and celebrating milestones, both big and small.

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at [email protected].

And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.

In this episode you will learn about:

• Leaving a corporate job of 24 years to focus on Pilates career.
• Steady growth in Pilates business and reconnecting with past clients.
• Lesley hosted her largest-ever retreat in Cambodia, a result of consistent effort.
• The importance of celebrating small wins during big transitions.

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Episode Transcript:

Lesley Logan 0:00  

It's Fuck Yeah Friday.

Brad Crowell 0:01  

Fuck yeah.

Lesley Logan 0:02  

Get ready for some wins. Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.

Lesley Logan 0:46  

All right, Be It babe. How are you? How are you? Happy, happy first Friday of October. I am in Cambodia when you hear this and that'll be in my win in a second. But just in case, it's the first episode of the Be It Pod you've ever heard, this is a short one, because we do your wins, win of mine and a little mantra, and it is to remind us that there's good things happening, right? Like, as I record this right now, there are 17 things that went wrong today, all out of my control, and to be honest, makes me go, you know, I'm thinking, I'm just gonna hang today up, just gonna hang it up. But also there's good stuff, and I think that's what's most important about taking time, at least on Fridays, to go FYF, here is a win for me today. So let's start with yours, and we'll get into mine. 

Lesley Logan 1:32  

I'm going to do Stacey Extence. I'm, I think we had a win from her recently, but I just want to, I'm really excited for this win for her, so I want to get this in here. My win is big and lengthy, so apologies. And by the way, it's not lengthy enough, to be honest, Stacey, so no apologies necessary. I've been in my corporate job for 24 years on top of Pilates part-time for three years. For the past decade or so, I worried about being laid off, which is one reason I did teacher training. In June, I received an email letting me know I could participate in a voluntary severance package. No guarantee that I get it, but I pushed the button to apply and left it up to fate. I received notice Wednesday that I was accepted and will be leaving in a month. I am not sad to leave. There are so many reasons I believe I'm ready. They're giving me a nice package and opens the door for so many other things to grow. Stacey, I'm so happy for you. I mean, gosh, 10 years of work and you're gonna get fired at any moment, is so stressful, and I love that you just put it out there, like, yeah, let's see if this happens. And I'm this is a huge win, because you get to go try something new, and that's so scary, but also so exciting. It's not even new, you've been teaching already. You're an excellent teacher. I've known you for a lot of those 10 years, and I'm just so freaking excited to celebrate this with you. 

Lesley Logan 2:40  

We also have a couple from Katie, so I'm going to read them both. Katie is an agency member, just like Stacey and she wrote, my entire month of July is booked, so obviously (inaudible) but here we go, except today, because everyone took a long fourth holiday but I used the time to film three classes. Getting ready to start at a new studio in the fall now that my four year old is going to preschool longer, I've got a few pop-ups scheduled and for the new place this summer, and I've already booked some spots. I love the pace I've been growing at since Piper was born four years ago, and I left teaching high school to be a stay-at-home mom and focus on Pilates. It started with four hours a week, then five, then eight, and now I'm at 10. It's so important to look back and realize I'm doing it. And I raised my prices. Love that one. Then we have an update to this. It says, from Katie Donnelly, this week, I subbed at a studio I taught at from 2017 to 2020. I left, I left because of a new baby, pandemic, 30-minute commute, so good terms. Some old clients saw my name and signed up for class, even though they normally don't take it that time, one even asked what springs I had her on for short spine because, with your cueing, that was the best short spine I've ever done. My client who lost her daughter at 22 weeks in November of 22 had her rainbow baby last week. I (inaudible) her via text message, because I was on vacation. These are my favorite moments in my job. Katie Donnelly, so okay, you guys, I'm gonna go back four years. I remember her being pregnant, and like making this plan to switch from having this school job to having teaching as a job. And it is incredible to see how she's made it work with her dreams. And that doesn't mean it's easy, by the way, like if you're hearing this, cool, must be nice for her, it's she worked hard for it. And I'm not saying that you don't if you're listening to this. I'm saying, like, patience, rolling with it, getting curious, getting support. Both these people had support during these big transitions, and so these wins are humongous. But also, do you see the little wins in between acknowledging what they've done and celebrating, like, the small stuff? Because you gotta do that, y'all, gotta do that. 

Lesley Logan 4:42  

All right, a win of mine. So we are, this is (inaudible) a big win, because it is a big win, but we are starting kicking off our biggest retreat ever in Siem Reap and we're gonna have our biggest retreat ever, March of 2020 and obviously we had a few people drop out. We couldn't cancel the retreat, because no one would call it a pandemic. So we, no one's insurance would go in, so nor would ours. So we actually had to host it, and we had an amazing retreat. And what a family that was. I got to see some of those retreaters on the tour this summer, but this is our first retreat Since 2020 that is at capacity, and we're actually celebrating with some people, like, my mom's coming for the first time, my brother's coming. Our publicist is coming. Like, it's a really big party. We have a whole, a group of people who have all come together. They're related, they're best friends. It's just really amazing. And so this win is actually a culmination of a lot of little wins along the way of us just continuing to go and be consistent and showing up for what we know is best, and like relearning and learning and adjusting and making changes and so Brad and I are really excited as we get ready for everyone to arrive. And actually a lot of people arrived a day early. We are celebrating and basking in, this win is huge and we don't normally want to promote only the big wins, but I do mean it when I say it's a culmination of a lot of little wins we celebrate along the way, and every single day will be a celebration. And I think that's really cool. That's really fun. And I'm excited, and I'm excited because several of you are with me on this retreat. You're part of this win, and some of you are going to be with us on the February retreat because we'll keep doing this. So anyways, I hope to see you on a retreat. We definitely talk a lot about celebrating our wins and being present and breath work and mindset and manifestation and all this awesome stuff, and we see some cool temples along the way. But yeah, that's my win this week. I think it's good to celebrate the big ones every once in a while, especially when you work so hard to get there. But if you don't have a big win coming together just yet, like Katie did, or the close of a chapter, like Stacey did, or like our retreat, please remember that those small wins, like I slept in or I didn't scream at my dog for doing the wrong thing because he's a puppy and doesn't know better. Like those, those are all wins, and you can celebrate those, too and I want to hear them, so make sure you send them in to the Be It Pod so we can shout them out to you, because by the time you hear them, you might just need to be reminded that you had a win last week or last month or whatever. 

Lesley Logan 7:10  

All right, so now let me lead you to a little mantra to kick off your weekend. I'm going to use this one too. All right, today I celebrate that I'm younger than I'm ever going to be. You guys, I pull these out randomly. Today I celebrate that I'm younger than I'm ever going to be. Today I celebrate I'm younger than I'm ever going to be. Y'all cannot at all once today say I'm getting old, because today you are the youngest you will ever be, and we're celebrating that. You are awesome. And thank you for listening to the Be It Pod. Until next time, Be It Till You See It. 

Lesley Logan 7:42  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.

Brad Crowell 8:24  

It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.

Lesley Logan 8:29  

It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.

Brad Crowell 8:34  

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.

Lesley Logan 8:41  

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.

Brad Crowell 8:44  

Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.

Step into the world of real, unapologetic leadership with Lesley and Brad in this powerful recap episode. They revisit key insights from Erin Hatzikostas, author of You Do You(ish) and The 50% Rule. Learn about Erin’s unique approach to authenticity, the impact of small experiments, and how to break free from overwhelm, one intentional action at time.

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at [email protected].

And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.

In this episode you will learn about:

• How to be an authentic leader through small, tangible experiments.
• The power 50% rule and why it encourages intentional progress.
• The dangers of pioneer paralysis and how to overcome perfection pain.
• Brad’s overcoming cold plunge hesitation through consistency.
• The importance of intent in authentic leadership and decision-making.

Episode References/Links:

• Cambodia February 2025 Retreat
• Deck Flashcards Waitlist
• Pilates Studio Growth Accelerator
• OPC Winter Tour
• Erin Hatzikostas Website
• Erin’s Hatzikostas Book, The 50% Rule
• Erin’s Hatzikostas Book, You Do You(ish)
• Erin Hatzikostas Podcast, b Cause Work Doesn’t Have to Suck
• The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

DEALS! Check out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper’s Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox

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Resources:

• Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube!
• Lesley Logan website
• Be It Till You See It Podcast
• Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan
• Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube
• Profitable Pilates

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Episode Transcript:

Brad Crowell 0:00  

When you give yourself permission to not do 100% but to start at 50% it doesn't seem so overwhelming. 

Lesley Logan 0:09  

Yeah.

Lesley Logan 0:11  

Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.

Lesley Logan 0:52  

Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It interview recap where my co-host in life, Brad, and I

 are going to dig into the authentic convo I had with Erin Hatzikostas in our last episode. If you haven't yet listened to that one, you want to go listen to that one, because it's fucking great. She's amazing. She's a force to be reckoned with. And her book is out this week, guys.

Brad Crowell 1:11  

Her book is out this week.  

Lesley Logan 1:13  

All right, so today is Thursday, October 3rd 2024 and guess what day it is, you guys?

Brad Crowell 1:20  

I know. 

Lesley Logan 1:20  

It's our anniversary day. About this day. 

Brad Crowell 1:26  

About this day. 

Lesley Logan 1:27  

Nine years ago, today, bless you, August. 

Brad Crowell 1:28  

Why, you don't like our anniversary? 

Lesley Logan 1:31  

Yeah, he does not. Nine years ago today, Brad and I got married in a hardware store on La Brea. And let me tell you that was a be it till you see it wedding. We really worked backwards from what we wanted. We had so much fun. We had all its ups and downs, but it was one of the most amazing nights that we still, I still love. Our pictures are beautiful and amazing. And so we're married for nine years, and we're spending it together in Cambodia.

Brad Crowell 1:56  

I know it's exciting. In fact, I think we've

Lesley Logan 1:58  

Usually we're like, flying. Oh, are we missing, one year we flew, and so the day we missed on the calendar was our anniversary day. So it's just very rare that we're either together or that it exists, because we're.

Brad Crowell 1:59  

Yes, I was literally just checking my calendar to be like, is it our anniversary, though? 

Lesley Logan 2:16  

It is. 

Brad Crowell 2:17  

It definitely is.

Lesley Logan 2:17  

It is. My grandparents would fight around their anniversary, if it was like November 2nd or November 3rd. And they fought forever. They fought for as long as my dad was alive, so I don't know, like 50-something years, right? My dad's still alive, but they're dead. Anyways, when my grandfather died, so yeah, my dad was in his 40s, 50s, late 40s, late 50s. My grandfather died. My grandmother took his wedding ring off, right? They gave it to him, and the fucking anniversary date is in the ring, engraved, and she was right the whole time. And he knew he had it in his ring. He knew what day it was. Anyways. So clearly, we're in Cambodia because we have a retreat, and you can join us in February. It's not too late. In fact, this is the best time to snag your spot, because it's the best time to even look at flights and everything.

Brad Crowell 3:05  

But on this day, you said, already, we got married in a hardware store. It was called The Loft at Liz's. I think it still is there. It's in Los Angeles. 

Lesley Logan 3:14  

Very famous hardware store. 

Brad Crowell 3:15  

Yeah, we had our wedding venue change on us last minute, and it turns out they have an art gallery upstairs in the back, and in there they also have a kitchen. And so it was actually even better than where we thought we wanted to get married initially, because we had all of our friends help us put the wedding on. So the chef was my friend, the photographer was Lesley's friend, the band was my friend.

Lesley Logan 3:38  

And also the kitchen was in the dancing area. So, like, the chef was part of the event. He wasn't like tucked away.

Brad Crowell 3:39  

He wasn't in the back room somewhere, like, slaving away, you know, he was part of the party and that made it even more fun. It was really lovely. So yeah, it was a super fun day.

Lesley Logan 3:55  

We only had 75 people in this wedding and we knew everyone but my hairdresser's fiance and it was so funny, because we made everybody wear black and white, and we wore the color, and you were walking around in color, getting ready for the wedding. You were ready for the wedding, right? And walking around. And I was hidden away, and he said to his fiance, now wife, but he said, like, that guy's wearing colors, like, that's the groom.

Brad Crowell 4:18  

That's the only one that we didn't know. You know what's really I was also laughing about this the other night, so we decided to do the after the party party at a bar right next door to the venue. 

Lesley Logan 4:30  

This is hilarious. 

Brad Crowell 4:30  

That I had been to, I don't know, a few times, like twice, three times. And I called them and I said, hey guys, this is Brad, my wife and I are going to get married. We want to come have our after party at your place. And they were like, that is so cool. We are so excited. We can't wait. It's gonna be amazing. I was like, great, all right, so we booked this whole thing, and they're like, you know what? We're even gonna do, champagne. It's gonna be so fun. And then, you know, a couple months go by and I call them, like, a month before the wedding, just to confirm everything, to lock it in, to triple check. Hey. Just to make sure we got a place sectioned off for us. And this, this other person answers the phone, and she said, we are so excited that you're coming. We love you. And I was like, you do? I was like, that's kind of weird. I've only been there a few times, but I'm so excited too. That's amazing.

Lesley Logan 5:14  

And also, we even said to ourselves, it's so weird. They didn't want a credit card. 

Brad Crowell 5:18  

Yeah, they didn't ask for anything.

Lesley Logan 5:19  

They didn't ask for like, quantity of people.

Brad Crowell 5:21  

They were just like, love it. You guys come party here, right? So, so, okay, so we, we have our wedding, then we have our reception up in the art gallery, and then the night's closing down, and I'm like, anyone who wants to hang we're all gonna go right next door to this bar. And we show up at the bar, and I said, hey guys, I'm Brad, and I'm here with our wedding party. And there's 15 people piling in the door, and they're like, what? But what? It turns out, there was another fucking dude named Brad getting married on the exact same night who was a regular at that bar, and he and his new wife were also bringing the after party, and we both showed up at the same exact time.

Lesley Logan 6:02  

Yes, so they gave us. They did give us some champagne.

Brad Crowell 6:05  

They still did. (inaudible)

Lesley Logan 6:08  

We didn't have a table, we didn't have a section, but, like, it's okay. It was really a lot of fun. 

Brad Crowell 6:13  

It was so funny and they definitely accommodated us. It was, made the miscommunication make more sense at that point. 

Lesley Logan 6:19  

Do you have any, do you have any more things about this day before I roll back into. 

Brad Crowell 6:23  

No, let's keep going. 

Lesley Logan 6:24  

So, so we are in Cambodia. You can join us in Cambodia. There's room in the February retreat right now. So you want to go to crowsnestretreats.com we're going right after the Lunar New Year, so which is going to be really great.

Brad Crowell 6:36  

Oh it's gonna be amazing. 

Lesley Logan 6:36  

Because the stuff from celebration, it's still going to be up, and it's just what they do is so beautiful. The sunrises of February are amazing. And so we hope you join us, crowsnestretreats.com.

Brad Crowell 6:46  

You should absolutely join us. February is going to be a great group, and it's gonna, it's a beautiful time of year. Yeah, next up.

Lesley Logan 6:52  

I'm gonna be going to L.A. when we get back. First, I actually have a little trip to Arizona, and then I'm going to be going to L.A. when we get back, and I'm going to be doing the photo shoot for the accessories deck. So you want to get on the wait list for that, because only those on the wait list get the presale price. Yes, you have to wait after you buy it, wait, but you get the best price on a new deck. And here's what you need to know about the waitlist. When I see that more and more people are on the waitlist, it's kind of like, like, happiness for Tinker Bell. Like, you know what I mean? Like, think happy thoughts for Tinker Bell, because there are times when I'm like, I'm so excited about this deck, and then there are times like, this deck is so much work, and so your.

Brad Crowell 6:52  

Think of a wonderful thing. 

Lesley Logan 7:30  

Yeah, helps me fly, really is what it helps me do. So get on the waitlist at opc.me/flashcardwaitlist, we are making sure that so many of these accessories are things you either have at home or you can make at home. So on the YouTube channel, we've already made a two by four, we've made a sandbag, we made a toe corrector. We're going to work on the push-up devices. I have more research to do on that, but right now, I think you'd only have to do a Ped-O-Pul and then a (inaudible), and a foot corrector.

Brad Crowell 8:02  

Sounds amazing.

Lesley Logan 8:03  

There's the Breath-a-Cizer as well. It's one card, guys. So you could always skip that one. It's still good. Also, Brad is still offering his amazing webinar. 

Brad Crowell 8:03  

That's right. 

Lesley Logan 8:03  

It's the Accelerator. Tell them all about it. 

Brad Crowell 8:08  

Yeah, if you are running a small fitness business, up to, like, a million dollars, you should come join us at the Pilates Studio Growth Accelerator that I've been hosting. Go to prfit.biz/accelerator if you're feeling stuck at all with your money, or getting new clients, or you're just not sure how to grow, move forward, any of those things, you could be about to be a teacher, a brand new teacher. You could have a home studio. You could be running a boutique studio. Any of those different roles, this is applicable for you. I want you to come join me. It's totally free. prfit.biz/accelerator. That's profit without the O, prfit.biz/accelerator.

Lesley Logan 8:58  

And then when all of this is going on, we're half-stop winter tour.

Brad Crowell 9:02  

That's right. 

Lesley Logan 9:03  

We, it's the biggest tour we've ever done. 

Brad Crowell 9:05  

Yeah, it's quite an undertaking. It's going to be 8200 miles. We're looking at 23 locations over 35 days, I think, like that. Wow. I'm very excited. 

Lesley Logan 9:18  

It's a long time for me to be out of my routines. I'm just going to say it here. So we will be bringing some equipment on this shindig because I'm going to need it. 

Brad Crowell 9:27  

Yeah, well, not only that, we're giving ourselves more days off in between. You know, this summer tour that we did was nine days in a row of teaching, plus we had the week before of like work, so we really didn't do ourselves any favors on that. This we're going to be a lot more intentional. We're going to take a day off here, a day off there, all throughout, so that we have a little bit of a breather and we get to explore different parts of the country a little bit more and enjoy ourselves. It's going to be amazing. Yeah, we can't wait. Yeah, you should come join us. Go to opc.me/tour, opc.me/tour.

Lesley Logan 9:56  

All right, we're about to get into Erin's amazingness, her authenticness, but before that we have an audience question. 

Brad Crowell 10:01  

Yeah, we do. This is a cool one from YouTube. Sherryhenefin535 asks, hey I would like to make a Pedi Pole. Hope you have some ideas for this! I made my Gondola and Reformer poles from maple and gift to my teacher training students when they test out.

Lesley Logan 10:17  

Yeah, isn't that cool? So we actually showed how easy it is to make those. I mean, maple, so nice, that we just took whatever wood they sell.

Brad Crowell 10:24  

Yeah, we just got pine from the store. Wasn't anything fancy, although you could lacquer the pine and it would make it cool. You could paint it.

Lesley Logan 10:30  

You could also paint it. Mindy painted me a pole. Yeah, so cute. It's OPC colors. I love it so much. 

Brad Crowell 10:35  

But Maple is fancy. 

Lesley Logan 10:36  

So here's the deal about that. It's actually not that difficult to make but, but here's why, I wouldn't suggest you make it. The length of the pole you need to get that if you don't have some sort of like pole, what would you call a pole store, like a lumber store, like.

Brad Crowell 10:58  

A plumbing store, a hardware store.

Lesley Logan 10:59  

A plumbing store. But the length you need and the, it's not that thick, it's on purpose it's not that thick. So one of our eLevate grads. 

Brad Crowell 11:07  

I bet you could call around and find a spot. 

Lesley Logan 11:09  

So one of our eLevate grads Pilates (inaudible). So we know how detail-oriented this one is. 

Brad Crowell 11:15  

Very much so. 

Lesley Logan 11:15  

And how she's a project manager, so she can make anything happen. And she was going to make one, and after all the research they were going to do, they bought one instead, because to get the pole that you need, to ship that pole costs almost as much as a new Pedi Pole. 

Brad Crowell 11:34  

Come on, really? 

Lesley Logan 11:36  

So unless you live somewhere where this particular type of pole exists in the diameter, the right diameter, at the right length. It's not you can, like, attach two poles together. It's gonna be one long pole. So the shipping on one long pole is the problem. 

Brad Crowell 11:50  

I see. 

Lesley Logan 11:50  

And so it's not that expensive to buy. I think Contrology's is, I want to say it was like, I don't know, you could look it up. I felt like it was, like, five or 600 bucks. It's not the most expensive thing I've ever purchased in my life. Obviously, it might be more now, since cost of metal has gone up, but you'll have to order the springs from someone. And here's what I will tell you, Contrology will not sell you the Ped-O-Pul springs if you don't have a Ped-O-Pul. 

Brad Crowell 12:17  

Yeah, it's just under 600 bucks. 

Lesley Logan 12:19  

Yeah. So Contrology won't sell you. And by the way, during Black Friday Cyber Monday, which is coming up, they have a free shipping typically don't quote me, because I didn't tell them it's coming, but it's typically there every Black Friday Cyber Monday. 

Brad Crowell 12:30  

And then. 

Lesley Logan 12:31  

So you could use my discount. 

Brad Crowell 12:32  

That's right. 

Lesley Logan 12:33  

Get a little little off, save on the shipping, and then you just screw it in and you're done. So it's actually. 

Brad Crowell 12:37  

If you want us to introduce you to them so you can get that discount. Just ping us and we'll happily make an email intro for you. 

Lesley Logan 12:42  

Yeah, it's super easy. It's, our person is so nice that we'll take care of you. But here's the deal, if you live in some sort of metal yard, like you're in a famous area that's got poles, by all means, but what I will say is, again, it's gonna be very difficult to buy the Contrology Ped-O-Pul springs, because last time my friend who tried to make one that was shorter, because she's super short. So she made a shorter one that's like, the dimensions would have been like, you know, she tried to make it as close to what it was, but her ceilings are also low. She could not order the Ped-O-Pul springs from Contrology. She had to go through another company. 

Brad Crowell 13:17  

That's annoying. 

Lesley Logan 13:18  

And it's really annoying because other companies suck at customer service. So, Sherryhenefin535, there's a lot of things you can make, and there's some things that it's just probably cheaper based on how much time it's going to take you to hunt all these materials down. Just buy it.

Brad Crowell 13:35  

I love it. Awesome. All right. Well, if you're ready to get into what Erin Hatzikostas said, stick around. We'll be right back. 

Brad Crowell 13:44  

All right. Now let's talk about Erin Hatzikostas. Erin is a former corporate CEO turned entrepreneur, speaker and author of the books You Do You(ish) and The 50% Rule. She co-hosts the podcast, b Cause, that's B space C-A-U-S-E, b Cause Work Doesn’t Have to Suck. That's the name of the pod. I love it. Erin is dedicated to helping leaders and organizations foster environments where authenticity is recognized and incentivized. I just really enjoyed her vibe.

Lesley Logan 14:13  

She's so fun. She's really a lot of fun. I saw her speak at She Who Wins, and even though, like, I could have had all these connections with her, Jessica Papineau is how I got introduced to her. 

Brad Crowell 14:24  

Come on. 

Lesley Logan 14:25  

Yeah. And then we did a coffee date, and we had way too much fun chatting back and forth. 

Brad Crowell 14:28  

Yeah, she was here in town, right? 

Lesley Logan 14:29  

And that, well, then, then I booked her on the pod, but before I interviewed her, she did come into town and I took an Uber, and we went to Superfriko, which is a bizarre restaurant to go to with a brand new friend. So, like, this weird, not a minion, not a penguin, but some sort of, like Monsters Inc. came out with a big lizo butt, and it like moves one butt cheek than the other. She got a kick out of it. Anyways, we talked a lot about authentic leadership and like that it doesn't happen overnight. And if you're like, I'm not, I don't know a leader, like we all are leaders of some kind. But let's just take just replace authentic leadership with be it till you see it. Be it till you see it doesn't happen overnight. You start and this is what she said about authentic leadership. You start with little experiments, and you observe more than you normally would. So if you normally just send out emails to people, and you don't really like, do a check in, like, oh, do we have a response rate on that? Did anyone actually write back in? You would actually do a little experiment, and then you would actually go, be more observant of that thing, just to see how it goes. And I love the word experiment, because we're not trying to be perfect here. You're just trying to see how this works. And it is a muscle. It's like, going to take it to the gym, which means you don't grab the big weights right up at once. You're going to grab little ones and you're going to you're going to work with that. So she also said you have to unlearn and you have to do tangible experiments to start collecting that quote, unquote data. So this is hard for us sometimes, too, because we're like, this is how it usually goes. Whenever we do something like, it usually just like, does this thing, and when something doesn't, like, hit it out of the ballpark right away. You have to, like, unlearn your expectation that things work out, and you have to focus on tangible experiments that you can actually go well, what worked there? And we've talked about this with agency members, like, reflecting on the things that you do, what actually happened? How many people did you present that information to? How many people bought like you have to go off of data, not feelings, and because it's really hard when you're stepping out of your comfort zone and you're trying to be more authentic, or trying to be it till you see it, it's easy to go off of vibes. And really you should be going off of the data. 

Brad Crowell 16:37  

That's a really good point at the end. It just throws my example out the window, but. 

Lesley Logan 16:40  

The vibes? 

Brad Crowell 16:41  

Yeah, well, I was, I was thinking, I guess that's fair. So we got ourselves a cold plunge, right? And I haven't, like, really thought about it in the the way that we just described about data and vibes, but what I did notice is that we've now had it for, I don't know, four months, maybe every time I'm home, every day that I'm home, I've been using it. And what I noticed it took until this past week for me to just get all the way in right away. Like, just do it, get in bed. 

Lesley Logan 17:12  

What were you doing before? 

Brad Crowell 17:13  

I would stand in it and then sit and then lean back. Now, it's almost like, if I could freaking cannonball into that thing, I would do it, because it's almost like I'm in before I'm even cold, and then I'm cold and I'm cold all around my body at the same time. Then if I, like, sit my butt in first, and I'm like, it's cold, and then lean back, and then I'm like, you know? And so, like, this past week, what I've been doing.

Lesley Logan 17:36  

I haven't watched how you get in because I do step in, sit down pretty quickly, and then I lower myself back, and it's still lowering myself back that takes my breath away. 

Brad Crowell 17:46  

Of course, that's what I mean. So.

Lesley Logan 17:48  

It feels like, it feels like the breath is literally being sucked out of my body, like I could watch it, like, there it goes.

Brad Crowell 17:56  

So anyway, we're talking about data, and I've now done this three days, three mornings in a row where I just like, okay, here we go. I actually put my hands down on the sides first, and then I just scoops and I'm in. And I noticed that it's easier to get in that way, because there's still like, I know how much I feel good after doing it. I know all that stuff, you know, but there's still that moment of hesitation, of like, do I really want to do this today? It's gonna be cold and then I just do it.

Lesley Logan 18:21  

Oh, yeah, I can't even, here's the thing, like, just idea of wasting a day with not using it is, like, just outside of who I am. 

Brad Crowell 18:25  

Well, the other day I was, I don't remember, I was outside.

Lesley Logan 18:32  

Are you talking about unlearning and then, like? 

Brad Crowell 18:34  

I was talking about data collection, like, yeah, that's how this somehow ties in with what. 

Lesley Logan 18:38  

Okay, I'm just trying to bring it back. 

Brad Crowell 18:40  

The data collection is that it took me this long to collect that data. We've been doing it every day for four months, and I finally just had this revelation now, you know, like yesterday, I was like, oh, okay, this is definitely a better way to do it. So, you know, sometimes it takes some time, but I think being analytical about that will also help you realize.

Lesley Logan 19:02  

Yeah, I'm in.

Brad Crowell 19:03  

Quote-unquote data. Love it all right. She said we have this big idea about authenticity, but we get paralyzed because we think we have to do it all at once. And I think it's a little, little out of context here, because we don't really have the rest of the conversation, but when we think about it's like, compare ourselves to other people who we think, oh, wow, they're so authentic, and they're authentic in all these amazing ways. And that is what can become overwhelming, because we're like, well, maybe I have to be just like them, being authentic in all of these ways that I, that I look up to that person and think that they're cool and awesome and whatever, and, you know, or inspirational and all that stuff. And I really, like, she kind of rattled off a whole list of these. What are they? Alliterations, alliterations. And she said there's two that specifically she mentioned, called the perfection pain, or the pioneer paralysis, which happens when people feel overwhelmed by these big ideas. And she had, like, a bunch more. There's a couple that (inaudible).

Lesley Logan 19:10  

Yes, they're all in her You Do You(ish) book and they're so good. You guys, I got an advanced copy, sort of, not physical. I got it like a secret. No, this is not it. This is her first book, Brad, no, that's You Do You(ish). 

Brad Crowell 19:57  

That's what you said. 

Lesley Logan 19:59  

Yeah. But I actually know this. 

Brad Crowell 20:02  

The new one is called 50%, The 50% Rule. 

Lesley Logan 20:14  

Yes and what you're quoting is from The 50% Rule. It's in the first chapter I think and I got to read, or at least the first part, and I got to read it while it was, like, going through. Anyways, I'm just bragging a little bit. It's so there's so many, and I was like, oh, because I like, I like those alliterations, because, just like, I like The Big Leap where I'm like, oh, I'm upper limiting myself right there I can go, oh, I'm pioneering paralysis right now. Like, I love it. 

Brad Crowell 20:39  

They're really cool, really helpful. And I think it is, you know, high level. The idea is that we should take one step at a time, at a damn time, one step at a damn time. Because when you see someone who we look at and go, oh my gosh, that person is like, they're clearly genuinely being themselves. They didn't just start doing that all at once, one day at a time. They've been doing these things over many, many years. And so if we feel like I have to be authentic like them, first off, that's funny, ironic, but also too, it can be paralyzing. It can lead to that inaction of overwhelm, of like, the perfectionist, of like, you know what I mean. So I thought it was cool. You don't have to try to figure it out all at once, just one step at a time, so.

Lesley Logan 21:23  

Yeah. I can't wait to get the actual copy, the printed copy of the book. 

Brad Crowell 21:27  

Well, show us this one more time. What are we looking (inaudible).

Lesley Logan 21:29  

This is You Do You(ish). 

Brad Crowell 21:30  

You Do You(ish). 

Lesley Logan 21:31  

And it is, Unleash Your Authentic Superpowers to Get the Career of your dreams. And I heard her speak a little bit about this, and I really like it. Anyways, I think sometimes we try to be so perfect, we're not even being ourselves. So if you're just like -ish yourself, like, probably I'm more authentic than you. And then The 50% Rule, we'll get into, I don't want to give it away, because it's in my Be It Action Items, so.

Brad Crowell 21:51  

Okay. All right, all right. Well, stick around for that tantalizing, Be It Action Item teaser. We'll be right back. 

Brad Crowell 21:58  

Okay. So finally, y'all know what time it is. It is time for those, be it action items. Say it with me, y'all. What bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted action items can we take away from your convo with Erin Hatzikostas? I'm gonna jump in first. She said, nothing you're gonna do is like anybody else. And y'all know how much we agree with this and love this. Lesley says it all the time. You're the only one that can do what you do the way that you do it. What Erin was talking about, she said, for those managing larger teams or complex projects, Erin introduced this idea of it's called an Innovation Framework, and it breaks down the 50% Rule. It is six steps. In your convo, she actually only mentioned one of those six, which is, you gotta go get the book. But she talked about intent. She said she believes it is the most powerful of the six. When trying to do something, strip away the how or the why, just think about the intention. Why are we doing this or the intent of doing this. Ask yourself, what are you really trying to achieve here? I thought this was cool. I think that it's going to make more sense to go with the other five parts as well. And of the six, I bet it is the most powerful. But I'm, I'm unaware of what the rest of them are just yet. But I think this is important, you know, why are we doing something? How are we doing something? We get stuck in those things. And I think, like, intent and why, kind of are parallel, so. 

Lesley Logan 23:16  

Or -ish, but also, like, sometimes just the why you get stuck on that. So what's the intention? What's the like outcome that you desire to have? Then you could often ask yourself, why do I want to have that outcome? You know what I mean? Because maybe the why you do everything you do is to make sure no one's homeless, right? But what you're doing actually is providing a fundraiser, and you have all these things you're trying to get and all this stuff. And so it's like your intent of that fundraiser is to raise money, because your why is this? So I think I like intent, because it actually whittles it down, and you can kind of take away the pressure and just go, what the fuck am I doing here?

Brad Crowell 23:57  

What are we doing here people? What are we doing here people? And so I think this helps too with leading a team. I just really appreciated her talking about her celebrating with her team as they were achieving milestones in their goals, and when she finally did decide to step away, her team said we're gonna miss your authenticity. So that's pretty cool. Well, what about you? 

Lesley Logan 24:19  

Well, she talked a little bit about The 50% Rule, which I think is important to talk about here, because it's really easy to consider, like, oh, maybe it means, like, doing 50% of something. And then there's the cynic who can go, well, that's just half-assing it. It's like, that's not it at all. She's like, anytime someone tells you about something new and something you can do in your life, whether it is a fitness coach or a business coach or a, like all these things, they'll go, here are the five things you gotta do to have X in your life. She is suggesting that you actually look at it and take only 50% of it and then curate the other 50%. For example, I've talked about this a couple of times on the pod. I really like Mindy Powell's idea of fasting. I know it's really helpful for people with gut issues. Now she's got a 30-day thing, especially if you're a female with a cycle, there's like, on this day you can fast 15 hours. On this day you could fast 13 hours. I'm like, it's complicated, okay, and unless I'm gonna print this fucking thing out. So what I did is I was just like, okay, what's my goal here? And what can I take from this information, and what am I going to add myself? And so what I could take from it is, like on every day of my cycle, I could fast for 13 hours. Doesn't matter where I'm at. So right now I'm doing 13 hours. And the other part of the thing that I saw of hers is, first two weeks my cycle heavy on the protein. Second two weeks, enjoy the carbs. And so I have taken 50% of her stuff and like, I can do this, and the other 50% I am curating and coming up with my own way so it fits with my lifestyle. And that is way better than if I had printed the thing out and was like, well, today I have to, I could go to 17, so I should go, like it make it just makes us not fun, and it doesn't bring our authenticity to it. 

Brad Crowell 26:02  

Right. Yeah, I think it's great. I think also she started to see the 50% Rule everywhere she was talking about as she was writing the book, where she saw people who embraced the idea and then made a shift with whatever they had learned, and that actually made it more authentic to themselves anyway.

Lesley Logan 26:21  

Yeah. Because also, like, this is something like, when we coach people on too, they're like, well, you said X, Y and Z, and I said well, I said that. And I also said, take one step at a time and you are trying to take 20 steps and do it exactly right. Like, yep, it's gonna be different for everyone. There isn't. There's not a single business coach out there, fitness trainer, anything, who's gonna be like, this template will always work for you. Yeah. So if you can take the intention behind it and the goal and understand like the concepts, and then, how do you work? How do you operate? I'm someone who can get a little bit a little obsessed about things. So in order to not get obsessed, I was like, what's the bare minimum? Got it, you know, because, like, that's going to allow me to stay myself. 

Brad Crowell 27:06  

Fifty-percented. 

Lesley Logan 27:07  

Yeah, fifty-percented. So I just think it's a really, really great. I think it's really, it's a good way for the perfectionist to get out of the pain. I think it's one of the options.

Brad Crowell 27:16  

I think that's the thing too. This really fits with what we were talking about earlier, about trying to do all the things at once. You know, when you give yourself permission to not do 100% but to start at 50% it doesn't seem so overwhelming. Suddenly, you're not like in that what does she say? Paralysis, 

Lesley Logan 27:36  

Pioneer paralysis. 

Brad Crowell 27:38  

Yeah. Pioneer paralysis or that perfection pain, you're able to work your way through it.

Lesley Logan 27:42  

Yeah. So you guys, go get her fucking book. 

Brad Crowell 27:45  

Yeah, do it.

Lesley Logan 27:45  

Go get The 50% Rule. It's on sale now. 

Brad Crowell 27:48  

Then tell her that we sent you. DM her.

Lesley Logan 27:50  

Yes, and also, here's another thing you can do. You can DM her and say, I left you a review after I bought the book. 

Brad Crowell 27:57  

Yeah, she was just so great. 

Lesley Logan 27:58  

Because that is currency right there, and she's a cool chick, and we want this book to get out because it actually, I think it's helped a lot of people out there.

Brad Crowell 28:06  

Yeah, Erin Hatzikostas. 

Lesley Logan 28:08  

Yes. So my loves, how are you going to use these tips in your life? We want to know. Tag Erin. Tag The Be It Pod. Share this with a friend who needs to 50% you know, here and there, and until next time, Be It Till You See It. 

Brad Crowell 28:20  

Bye for now. 

Lesley Logan 28:22  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.

Brad Crowell 29:05  

It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.

Lesley Logan 29:10  

It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.

Brad Crowell 29:14  

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.

Lesley Logan 29:21  

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.

Brad Crowell 29:24  

Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.

What if you could ditch perfectionism and still get results? Lesley Logan interviews Erin Hatzikostas, author of You Do You(ish) and The 50% Rule. Erin shares her powerful 50% Rule for simplifying decisions, cutting through the overwhelm, and staying authentic. Drawing on her experience as a former corporate CEO, Erin reveals how embracing imperfection can help you find a path that truly reflects your values and goals.

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at [email protected].

And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.

In this episode you will learn about:

• Erin’s journey from corporate CEO to authenticity advocate.
• What the 50% Rule is and how it can simplify decision-making.
• How authenticity became Erin’s secret weapon in the corporate world.
• Practical ways to experiment with authenticity and reflect on your results
• Why perfectionism and comparison cramps can hold you back.

Episode References/Links:

• Follow Erin on IG erinhatzikostas
• b Authentic inc on FB @bAuthenticInc
• Erin Hatzikostas Website
• Erin’s Hatzikostas Book, The 50% Rule
• Erin’s Hatzikostas Book, You Do You(ish)
• Erin Hatzikostas TEDx
• Erin Hatzikostas Podcast, b Cause Work Doesn’t Have to Suck

Guest Bio:

Erin Hatzikostas is a former Corporate CEO turned Professional Pot-Stirrer. Recently called “An up-and-coming Mel Robbins” by the Founder of The Keynote Shop, Erin Hatzikostas is an internationally-recognized leader on the impact of authenticity in the workplace. The CEO and founder of b Authentic inc, Erin is a global keynote speaker, the best-selling author of You Do You(ish), the co-host of the podcast, b Cause Work Doesn’t Have to Suck, and coach-sultant. Her TEDx Talk was one of the Top 20 globally most viewed TEDx Talks released in 2021.Her talks have reached hundreds of thousands of people and her thought leadership has been featured on ABC, CBS and published in Business Insider, Fast Company, Well+Good, among several others. Her company also conducted a national study on the impact of authenticity in the workplace.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

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Resources:

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Episode Transcript:

Erin Hatzikostas 0:00  

You don't wake up tomorrow and go from being nervous about being authentic to being as authentic AF as me. You start with little experiments and you observe more than you normally would.

Lesley Logan 0:13  

 Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.

Lesley Logan 0:54  

Be It babe, get ready to be inspired. I know you always are. I'm just gonna say, of course, the episodes are always great, but I have been looking forward to today's interview for a really long time. I watched this woman when she was on stage, and I couldn't take my eyes off of her. I could not and she was running around the stage, and like most keynote speakers, I always get something out of but like, it was like a cardio it was a show, it was an entertainment, it was all these things. And I learned so much from her, and I wrote her name down, like, I have to have her on the podcast. And then life got a little bit busy. Stuff was going crazy. I had a little bit of like, who might ask her? Like, and then about eight months later, this girlfriend, who I've had on the show, Jessica Papineau, was like, oh, you should know Erin. Like, oh, you know how to get in touch with Erin, because I absolutely I can awe of her, right? And so she put us in contact. We had a phone call that went for like an hour. We felt like it was like a friend that I've always known, but I just met, and two weeks later, we had dinner together, and sure book, The 50% Rule is coming out, and you must pre-order it or order it if it's already out by this comes out, but I'm telling you, it will be a mantra that you use, just like be it till you see it is. And I hope it is. I really, really hope it is. I really am in love with what she's doing, and I do think it's something that can actually help propel you out of stuckness or feeling like there's too much on your plate and you don't know how to take action. Like I really do think this is great. So here's Erin Hatzikostas and I am obsessed. So after this, please follow her, stalk her, get this book. Let us know what your favorite part is. I know Erin would love to hear that. And by the way, if you ever have something to say to any of our guests, I promise you you're not bothering them if you tell them. I promise you. And if you're too afraid to DM them, then comment it on the social posts and tag them. Or you don't have to tag them, because guess what? They're tagged on it and they will see it. So you have no idea when you leave a comment like that, when you share people, it lets people like Erin and myself and our other guests know, like, oh my gosh, they get it. The impact of my intent was there. So here's Erin. 

Lesley Logan 2:57  

All right, Be It babe, this is going to be an amazing conversation. I know already because I've had amazing conversations with our guest today. Erin Hatzikostas is our guest. She is the author of You Do You(ish) and her upcoming book, The 50% Rule. And I'm gonna tell you, in honor of today's interview, I 50% ruled my makeup and getting ready today. It was like, today is not gonna be the day that we do it 100% so. And I was like, It's Erin, though, and she would be honored by me doing that. So Erin, tell everyone who you are and what you rock at.

Erin Hatzikostas 3:26  

So first of all, I have to make a comment, because so I did do my makeup. Sometimes I have big girl days. I did an, I did an interview before this too, but we had a mattress delivered this morning. After, like, 12 years, we're past our 10th year we got, finally got a new mattress. We did Safa, which is the online one. Anyway, we're super excited about it. So the guys brought it. They got it all up. They get down. Guys going to say goodbye, tipped him, and he looks at me and he goes, by the way, I like your makeups. It was like, first of all, it was random. Second of all, if you know me, first of all, I'm almost 50. I was not born and raised in the YouTube video. So, like, I do my makeup the same way I probably did it when I was freaking 16. It's like, totally junior league. And to have a guy like, have the guts to like, and I didn't take it as like a, anyway. So it's funny that you brought up makeup, just like, two hours ago, I had some random mattress delivery dudes on the way out say, I like your your makeup.

Lesley Logan 4:26  

You're having a great day. And I love it. It's a big girl day. You know what? I have big girl days. And then some days I'm like, we're just not even doing that today. We're just gonna not.

Erin Hatzikostas 4:34  

No. And then some of them, you know, when I'm like, looking scroungy and I might have to meet with a client or, sort of, you know, not a friend. Here's what I do. I like, oh, you're getting to see author friend. And they think it's so cool, because I'll have the headband, I'll have my glasses, and my hair is clearly, you know, dirty, but I brand it as like author Erin and I think they think it's like a little cooler, even though I haven't written shit in three months, since my last book has been (inaudible). That's another tip. 

Lesley Logan 5:01  

You just gave everyone a tip. You guys just brand the other look like you're getting, you're getting like journal person. You're getting like artists. You're getting, I'm deep in thought.

Erin Hatzikostas 5:12  

Yeah, just freaking name it. Name it. You know, you know, in this world, naming it is (inaudible).

Lesley Logan 5:17  

Gardener Lesley. Brad would laugh. He's like Lesley, garden, no way. Okay, so thank you for all those tips already. But back to you. You're amazing. Who are you? 

Erin Hatzikostas 5:27  

So it's funny. I will first tell you what my son calls me. So a couple years ago, he was out in the kitchen making a bagel. So it was just sort of a random moment, and he says to me, I think he was about 11, 10 or 11, and he says, Mommy, do you know what a perfectionist is? And I said, yeah, Mick, I do. He goes, you're an imperfectionist. So in honor of sort of a lot of the people that listen, who I know can get caught in the perfectionism, I am a professional imperfectionist, apparently based on my son. But you know, background, I am a former corporate CEO. I was an executive that somehow swindled my way into a CEO position of 1000-person company, had great, quote-unquote, what I thought was luck, turned it around, and always thought that I was going to be found out, though, even though I'm not like, it wasn't imposter syndrome, not like I'd gotten a memo on that, but I would look around and notice that a lot of my peers and colleagues were sacrificing a lot more than me, right? They were getting on planes more often. They were moving their families for things. They were giving up vacations. They were working nights and weekends. And, you know, I worked hard, but I wasn't doing that, and so I sort of had this super, super great turnaround to the company, but I thought, oh shit, my luck's gonna run out soon. And then I just, I decided it was time to retire. I technically could retire because I'd been there so long. I was only 42 years old, but it was technically a retirement. And I just was itching for something new. I thought I would go run maybe a smaller startup, healthcare, financial services company, because that's the place I was in, and when I went to leave, everybody kept saying, we're going to miss your authenticity. We're going to miss your authentic leadership. And I wasn't surprised they called me that, but it wasn't this thing that people were throwing that badge on me when we were running around in the rat race. And what I realized was that I wasn't actually getting lucky, or that I wasn't going to be found out. I was just playing a different game than everybody else, and I was actually, at the time, subconsciously using authenticity as my strategic advantage, my way to sort of compete in a league of my own, because most executives weren't dancing with their employees celebrating a big IT win. They weren't writing their own emails. They're letting their corporate comms people do it, like I, I didn't realize it until that moment that the things that really I had learned from my father, subconsciously also, were actually my strategic advantage. And so that's when I, I started blogging, writing blogs up in the the hockey bleachers at practice, like in a Word document, like, if I ever actually had something to say on a blog, whatever that is, this is what I would say. And one day, I looked down and I was like, holy shit, there are 53 pages, I have some stuff. I have some stuff to say. And one thing led to another. And that's when I finally realized that, oh my gosh, what helped me have success was also the same thing that helped me enjoy for the most part in my days, being in the corporate world, being an executive, being in a high-pressure thing, and I sort of had like this magic formula and a view of authenticity that everybody else wasn't seeing. I knew it wasn't simply be yourself. That's not the real definition. And so I thought, well, crap. I think I need to go out and talk about, teach this, and that's what I've been doing for five and a half years like a weirdo. 

Lesley Logan 8:50  

That is the best weirdo. And also it's so interesting that you say, I remember your story of like being found out, like not get on these planes. I remember during this time that I was in corporate fitness. Everyone who was in management was like, they're there as soon as the club opened 'til when the club closed, sometimes, especially the last week of every month that I was sneaking off on a plane to go study in Colorado. And I was like, yeah, well, you can access reports online. There's this thing called this internet. And so I remember when someday they're gonna find out that I'm not there, you know, and but also, I was hitting all of these numbers and having amazing success, and I was teaching the people who were underneath me who had studios. I'm like, here's how you do it, here's how you plan your vacations, here's how you plan your life, here, here's how you would teach all these different things. And I was like, I'm gonna get found out one day, and one day it wasn't I was found out. They're just like, oh, you gotta run the reports this way, and you've got to do meetings like this. And I was like, that is not it. And if that's what you want, I'm retiring because, and it's like, I really felt like, you know, and it's this authenticity, it's just like, doesn't have to work. Everyone is doing this thing this way, but there's another way to do it and have fun and be yourself, but like, be yourself at work, you know? 

Erin Hatzikostas 10:01  

Right. Right. I think, yeah, it was just actually on another I was interviewing somebody from my podcast before this, and we were talking about, okay, it's such a no-brainer, right, to be authentic, especially in the corporate workplace, better retention culture, but also externally, it's easier to sell. You know, you stand up and just like, I just don't understand why nobody does it. And what I told her, you know, I think it's helpful to diagnosis, because whenever you have a no-brain solution, and then you walk away, and then you're like, okay, I heard all that stuff. But why the fuck am I just not doing the things that I should? Why am I not changing? I think a big part of it is for so many years in school and college, we're taught that success is the answer is C, the answer is 72, the answer is, you know, here's the rubric, right? And we judge ourselves based on following that rubric, that box. And then we go to the corporate world, and nobody sits us down and says, what we care about most is results and how you get there, unlike what you've been doing for the last 20 years of your life, it really doesn't matter. And so we sort of go into this like, gotta look right, gotta get the rubric right, don't want to look stupid, there's one path that the teacher laid out, and it's totally not the case. That, you know, it screws us up. 

Lesley Logan 10:01  

Yeah it does. It screws us up. It makes us, it almost makes us be pretending to be doing because we gotta make sure we check all the boxes. 

Erin Hatzikostas 11:28  

Yeah, pretend, like you were checking the boxes. Like, oh, if I'm seen, I'm gonna get the rubric right. Like somebody who's judging me is responsible for telling me if I'm a good worker or not, is not going to give me the five points for staying till late on the end of the month. And it's like, wait, no, there isn't a rubric actually, there's just like, we want you to get results. 

Lesley Logan 11:51  

Yeah, we get stuck on like, what people see versus what the results are. And I think that's because no one is really so like you said, you dance with the people like, no one's actually celebrating the results. They're so focused on being seen doing the steps, that when we get results, people are like, okay, next thing. Instead of going, hey, we got, these are the results we got. And like, how did we get there? And like, what worked and what didn't work, celebrating that result part, as opposed to focusing so much on the check marks that could maybe possibly not get you results.

Erin Hatzikostas 12:21  

I would say yes and no. I would say almost. I think that the results eventually get, quote-unquote, celebrated. Maybe there's not a party, but whether it's you're an entrepreneur and it's your client, or you're in the corporate world and it's your boss promoting you, those results get rewarded, maybe not celebrated, but rewarded. But we're so addicted to the short term it's like, for this hour, I want to look cool on this meeting. I want to look right. Not cool, it's probably the wrong word. I want to look right, right? And so we're addicted to, like, short-term results. And if we were just comfortable a little bit like, when I became interim CEO. I was interim first, because that's what us ladies sometimes get to do, you know, the trial period, make sure there isn't anybody better. That's a whole nother story. I know there was a solid month or two where my boss, who was very rant, rant, rant, was a woman probably thought I was nuts and was going to fail, like I was doing some crazy negotiations, etc. But there is that period where, yeah, you might not look like you're going to do right, or people might doubt you. And there were definitely tangible things that happened where I was like, she doubts me, I'm sure. But, Lesley, as soon as I started getting results. Now for me, because I was running a business that was very tangible, like, literally every month we had to do a monthly operating reviews where we went through the frickin financial like, that's right, it was very tangible. It's like, here are the financials, here's our forecast, here's our actuals. But as soon as she started to see that turn around as a leading indicator, and then later, probably started to see, oh, employees really like her, oh, her employee engagement score, she didn't give two hoots about, how I did it and if I did it different, and it's just having the courage in that interim period. And I mean that like small I, not like interim CEO, but in that short term period, to forego that instant gratification of feeling like people think you did it right, so that you can hold out for the bigger reward, and then you can, you know, celebrate it all you want. 

Lesley Logan 12:25  

Okay, you answered the question I was gonna ask, because I was like, how do you do that, though? And you said, having the courage. And I think that's the, think that's the hardest part, like, where do you find your courage? How do you how do people, you know, is that gonna, is there an answer to that? 

Erin Hatzikostas 14:30  

Yeah, it's data. It's data. And I don't mean data in the traditional sense. For me, and I didn't know this till I wrote my first book because sometimes we have to slow the frick down and then, you know, I'm 40, whatever I was, 40 years, 44 years old writing a book and I was like, oh, oh, crap, I didn't know that, for me, it started, I had a lot of data from my father. My father was a teacher for 20 some years, and he took an early retirement package, and then he became a real estate agent, and he was very, very authentic. And he would tell stories every night. He would come home, and instead of bitching and moaning about this person or this student, most of the stories I heard, or at least remember are about how he got the attention of his students differently. He did some wacky game, and it even translated as he went into real estate, which I was just coming out of college when he was making that transition. So I was starting, and I would watch his success in real estate, and he would tell stories about, oh, I met with this client, and I didn't bullshit them about the, you know, the price of their home. I told them, you know, it was like, all these, like, where he was. You could tell he was just doing a little different, because it was easy to know what the normal box was for a real estate agent. And so to me, I got a jump start on data. So I saw again, very subconsciously, oh, when he does this, he has success. And so as I went in to the workplace, I started doing experiments, I call them, it all, I would do a little thing and I would notice, oh, people all of a sudden pay attention on this meeting when normally they're like, on their blackberries back in the day or whatever it is. And so I think for people, you don't wake up tomorrow and go from being nervous about being authentic to being as authentic AF as me. You start with little experiments, and you observe more than you normally would. So you might write an email that's got a little like, the workplace is so easy, the bar is so low, so it's just like, maybe you change a word instead of saying, our results weren't that great. You could say our results were really poopy, you know, or just like, one little word, just like talking a little more flippant, talking a little more human. Actually, my number one thing I have people first experiment, change your out of office. Make it, doesn't even have to be funny, just make it like human. Tell people what you're doing. I'm going to a softball tournament this weekend. I'm taking a three-day weekend. Or, you know, a lot of people make them a lot more fun, and then observe what happens. And I guarantee you people are gonna, oh my gosh, I love those days when we used to go to tournaments. My kids are older now or oh, that's so amazing that you did a trip to Ireland. We went there, back and blah, blah, blah. I love your out of office. So it really is about taking little experiments. That's why I love what I do. Like, I'm not a motivational speaker. I'm a get shit done better speaker. My books aren't about like, first of all, they don't tell you to be yourself, because that's not how I talk about authenticity, but they're really very tangible, because you have to, you have to unlearn and you have to do tangible experiments to start collecting that quote-unquote data. And then once you, you know, once somebody smiles or responds when they normally don't or a client you sell something, or people notice your website that normally they've never said anything about. You're just gonna, you're gonna change your pattern. You're gonna be like, maybe I should do more of that. 

Lesley Logan 17:32  

Yeah, I really, I love that you go on little experiments and reflect and observe, because that is what life is always kind of about, whether it's work or, like, for, you know, I have to do things on social media. And, trust me, I wish I could just, I'm like, when do I don't have to, like, you know? But I, like, recently did a little experiment because my friends are like, you should do this. And I was like, okay, I'm just gonna do, just gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take what you said. I'm gonna do it as easily as possible, because I don't, if it slays and I had to spend two hours, I'm not doing that again, so it has to be so easy. And I did it as and I was like, I was like, Erin's gonna be so proud, because I am 50 percenting all of this. I'm just like, I'm not even careful. I'm just going to do this. And it is one of the best posts we've ever did. So it's a little experiment. And I was like, great. So if I can get that result, not stressing about it, let's we can repeat that experiment and see what happens, and we can kind of see tweak things here and there, but it's got to stay, got to stay, it's got to stay something I can do. That's got to be possible. But I think little experiments with observations are so great because observation is not the same as waiting for feedback. They're waiting for the external feedback, versus with their own meter of what how things are working. 

Erin Hatzikostas 18:35  

Oh, yeah, totally. They're waiting for that party that will never come, that Bar Mitzvah or that surprise party never comes, you got to look inside. 

Lesley Logan 18:47  

Okay, so you wrote a second book. And I'm wondering, like, did you always know you had a second book in you? Because you have You Do You(ish). You guys have to know. When I met Erin, she was speaking at She Who Wins and I feel like you did a talk on like it was either the 50% Rule like thing, but I feel like it's a You Do You(ish) and I was like, I am eating this up. I love all of this. This is so great for the recovering perfectionist that is me. So did you know you had a second book in you, or did it kind of just come about as you were talking about your first one?

Erin Hatzikostas 19:15  

No, I mean, I did. When I wrote my first book, I was surprised at how much I, I didn't love, I don't have love for writing, but I wasn't a bad writer, I guess. You know, I was a math major on college like writing was not my thing, but I sort of had this epiphany early on in the process, that writing is just talking on paper, and so that's very much my book. Some people always say I can hear you, and I'm like, yeah, because I just talk on paper. I don't overthink it. I say the words like they come out of my mouth. But for both of my books, actually, I really did not get down to writing them until it felt like a gremlin that was trying to crawl out of my stomach. And what I mean by that, even my first book, I remember, had a coach at the time. And I was only about a year into my business and I was like, Elizabeth, I want to do this book. I don't know what it's called, but here's what it's going to be about. And she's like, Erin, you have a lot on your plate. I don't know if you should, you know, be doing that. And I'm like, okay, I'll listen to that. And then I just couldn't stop thinking about it. And then actually, Covid hit. So it was like, no more hockey practices, no more like, why not sit around and write? With the 50% Rule, what happened was it was really an organic, just to kind of tell the story how it came about, so here I was, like, this badass speaking about authenticity on stages, wrote a book, did a TED talk, and meanwhile, I was an entrepreneur, trying to learn how the frick to be an entrepreneur. And I was soaking in all the courses and all the playbooks. And I was part of this group, Brand Builders group, which, literally, will tell you everything you need to do. And I was sitting in Nashville at a two-day session. And I should have been elated, because they have two straight days of training and an 87-page PowerPoint, like, I don't remember which one this was on, but like, how to do X, and instead, I felt totally overwhelmed, uninspired, felt lazy, I didn't want to do it. And I remember though thinking all of a sudden, like, well, what if you just 50% Rule it? And that doesn't mean half ass it. What it meant was, what if you throw out half of the stuff that they're teaching that just doesn't feel like you, feel stupid, maybe feels outdated, you're like, I don't know if that will really resonate with people. But then you bring in your own ideas. You know, you're very creative. You understand the intent, what you're trying to do. What if you bring in your own which I write about in the book. Part of that is the self-determination theory, which absolutely says that people are way more propelled if we have sort of autonomy, or say in whatt we do. So I just remember how quickly that snapped me out of it. So then as I was going along for the next year, same thing would happen. But it wasn't like, right away. It was like, I'd go through something, I'd get all hung up, and then I was like, don't mess, 50% Rule it, right? And then people, whether it was coaching, clients, friends, whatever, it just seemed like, came up all the time. They would be like, oh, I'm struggling with blah, blah, blah. And I would be like, why don't you just 50% Rule it? And they were like, tell me more.

Erin Hatzikostas 22:07  

And I would say 50% rule basically, anytime you're doing something new, you're learning from others, listening to a podcast, starting a new product or business, only do about half of what's normal, or what people are telling you to do and then save room for half, what's new and curate that and I just, so then, data, I started to observe people lighting up, coming up with ideas, like, just back to the very beginning, branding, like just part of it is, you know, just putting a name to something and then, but that was not enough to write a book. So I still wasn't like, oh, this is the book. But then what happened is I started kind of seeing it everywhere, meaning I would watch a documentary, or I went, so I, for the first time, I was a little late to the game, but I finally saw Hamilton last year, and I was sitting there. 

Lesley Logan 22:51  

I still haven't finished it. I know, I know it was only HBO or whatever we watched. 

Erin Hatzikostas 22:56  

No, no, no, no. Don't see that.

Lesley Logan 22:57  

I know. You guys, you have to get there. We have to get to the play in person. I'm hoping it, maybe, it'll come through Vegas. I mean, everything does right, so. 

Erin Hatzikostas 23:02  

How does it not come (inaudible). You have to see it. It's life changing. So, I was like, wait, his success isn't just because he put together a really freaking good musical. He 50% ruled it, right? He's got half, sort of the normal Broadway formula, but half is just totally juxtaposed, right? With the the rap and the people of color playing white dudes from 300 years ago, etc. So I started to see it there. I saw it with John Madden in the documentary. I saw it with the savannah bananas, Whitney Houston, like I just kept seeing all these examples. And what hit me was that the 50% rule isn't just sort of the step ladder to get over your sort of little mini hurdles and moments that it is actually a formula that helps you really, what I say is go from underdog to unmatched. It helps people like Weird Al is a crappy singer. His voice is not good. 

Lesley Logan 23:56  

Yeah, it's pretty bad. 

Erin Hatzikostas 23:57  

He's a phenomenon, like he sold more, some of those songs that he parodied sold more than the actual original, super famous artists, right? All because he 50% ruled it. And so anytime you're trying, you're behind, you're smaller, you're I mean, anytime you do anything, but if you don't want to just work harder, which is just something I don't ever want to do, I don't want to win by being the hardest worker or the best I want to win by standing out and being unique and doing something that's fresh and new and that people want. And so when I finally saw that, I was like, okay, this is, this is a book. This is a gremlin that, and you know, my phone notes when they started being, you know, a mile long. That's when I started the process of, okay, this needs to be book number two.

Lesley Logan 24:45  

That's so cool. Thank you for sharing that. And also it's like, as you were sharing, like, all these different examples, of course, as a recipe, for a reason, but then really the things that make even your grandmother's lasagna stand out is because it's not the same lasagna recipe that everyone else is using. Grandma took the basics of it and was like, yeah, but I want to add this cheese instead, or I want to add this meat, or I want to put it this many layers like that is what makes things different, and that indifferent is what stands out. I mean, there's singers every single day trying to make it, and they're doing the exact same thing that other people have done, and it doesn't stand out because we already heard that one already.

Erin Hatzikostas 25:24  

That's exactly right. I love it. 

Lesley Logan 25:26  

So okay, your 50% Rule book as, by the time that this comes out, it will be on shelves or close to it. You guys, we're going to try to time it. But what are you hoping people do with this book?

Erin Hatzikostas 25:38  

Yeah, I mean, so I'm obsessed with it, to be honest. And I'm, I'm obsessed first and foremost, with the rule, like, when you start, there's, there's something so beautiful. My team does this. I have a book sort of board that's been meeting for a year and a half. There's a total of like 70 people that volunteered to help, sort of collaborate and guide this book. There's about 25-30 that have been meeting and others have been supporting a whole, you know, a little bit further away. And when you start to hear people constantly like, Well, why don't you 50% rule it, even me as the 50% ruler of all rulers who like, forget like, it just, there's like this in your brain. It's kind of like some of these books where I want people to read it, because I think it's super fun. I. 

Lesley Logan 26:22  

It's so funny. youAnd you do sound like you're talking to me and like, you guys don't even have to know her voice as well as I know it. It does sound like a friend is telling you amazing advice. 

Erin Hatzikostas 26:30  

Yeah and it's like amazing advice smacking you upside the head sometimes crazy metaphor, like, because I'm not a disciplined person, I don't want to give people a book that they read because they should, because it's got noble advice in that. I get, I want to give you a book that you're like, just like a fiction book where you're like, I want to read to the end because I'm enjoying it, so that I'm excited about but even if the book's like The One Thing and stuff like that, I gotta be honest, I never read that book, but the concept, I get it. So if there's a whole bunch of people too that are like, oh, my friend told me about the concept or whatever, and you don't read the book, whatever, that would be totally off-brand. If I said, No, you have to read the book. It's like, no, do it your own way. So I just, I really hope that I create sort of this vernacular that has people sort of switch their brain into a different mode on a regular basis and collectively, when you could start doing that, and I'll understand what you're talking about, that's like the real power. 

Lesley Logan 27:23  

I agree. And I also think it is, instead of like a snap out of it, or just do it, or just get started. You know what I mean? Like, there's a bit of advice in the same tone when you say 50% rule it, it's like an action step with also permission to not have to do it exactly like, check all the boxes. Going back to what we talked about in the corporate world, it is really just like, okay, what if I like these three steps, and what if I start there and I do this because that's what I have access to, and I like, as someone who's had started many companies and done many things, people are like, how did you do that? And I'm like, I just did what I knew I could do, and then kind of had to go, okay, well, what's my version of that? Like, how is, you know, and so it's also putting a name to something that people might already be doing, and thinking, maybe I'm cheating. And instead of it's like, no, you're not cheating, and you're not being lazy, you're actually doing it your way, with some advice that from the people before you,

Erin Hatzikostas 28:16  

That's right, you're innovating. And I even say in the book, like, look it's like three quarters of the way, and I'm like, timeout. I just want to be clear, this is not something new. And people say to me all the time, oh, yeah, I love that concept. Like, when they say, oh, you're writing book. What's it about? Oh, I do that all the time, and I say, you do and you don't. And what I'd say is, look, I don't want to pretend like I created something totally new. It's sort of like if you went out into a field and you're like, I found the first coccyx bone ever of a dinosaur. And people are like, no, it's actually called a tailbone. And other people have found that it's like, oh, well, I call it a coccyx bone because whatever. But you actually know what a coccyx is, some people dont.

Lesley Logan 28:30  

I do.

Erin Hatzikostas 28:31  

Because you do Pilates. But the reason I wrote a book, I always say, not a cute little meme and stop there, is that even while I was writing this book, Lesley, I had instances in my life where I was doing shit, and then I finally was like, oh, wait, why don't you 50% rule it like a perfect example. I was dealing with my back, as you know, I talked about, like my back woes, which my back is doing fabulous.

Lesley Logan 28:31  

Yay!

Erin Hatzikostas 28:31  

Yay. But had some major issues, and I was ping-ponging. And one of the chapters is Binary Be Bad. It's like this whole lesson of like, we just sometimes we think it's one or another thing, and we don't look at the middle. And I was ping ponging like a cat, watching a match between my chiropractor and my physical therapist, back and forth, back and forth, and didn't say, okay, why don't I 50% rule it, which means curate what works from both like, I would be like, oh, the PT really gets it. She fixed me. And then when she asked me up, I was like, oh, wait, no, the chiropractor's right. And so my point is, I think a lot of people say think they do it, and there's so many opportunities where they're missing the bow. And so that's what I think any book that's the present that it gives you. If you read the whole thing, then it's like cemented in you, right? You will, you will get to that solution faster than if you don't, right? And so the more repetition, the more you read, the more stories, the more you like. There's different lessons, there's 60 some different quotes. The more those are ingrained in you, then it's more likely that you'll suffer for a less amount of time before you head to that solution. 

Lesley Logan 30:22  

I agree. Like, I think a meme is great. And also, like, okay, you're all hearing it here, but there was before the pandemic, you had to see something 17 to 26 times to, like, click on it. And so, like, reading the book and hearing it over and over again, it makes it part of your vernacular in a way that it's sticky and it stays with you in a bit, a bit more. So I think that, I think it's really cool. I'm so excited for it to be out in people's hands, as I know our listeners are going to absolutely love it. They're gonna because being it till you see it, it's so easy for that to be a perfectionist saying, and it's like, what if you just 50% that? Like, what does that mean to you in this moment and in this day, and just acting as if you already know what you're supposed to do. 

Erin Hatzikostas 31:03  

That's totally right. I just had an example of this, because I know you were saying, like, part of your message is, just take baby steps. And I feel like this is such a good example of it. So about three or four years ago, I was like, oh, because we always have ideas when we're entrepreneurs. And I was like, I want to create an authenticity index for companies so kind of like, there's diversity index right, where you can say, okay, I either want to do business with them, I might want to work for this company. Where are they on their diversity? But where are they in their authenticity? Where is their their culture, right? And, and then I was like, oh, well, all these other indexes they work with, like Forbes, or they have some major like institution behind them, and like, how do they get the clout? And, and I could have been like, yeah, that's just, that's just too much work. And instead what we did, and I, you know, I have a great team, and we just started bouncing things off. And I thought, well, what would a baby step be? And we're like, what if we first create national authenticity day? Because you can create days, right? So we did. It's August 16. We created it four years ago, in 2021 three years ago, and created, you know, the website, a mission file there, whatever. And then we said, well, what if we just do authenticity awards, where it's, it's just us, we're, you know, same sort of concept, which is rewarding, highlighting, incentivizing leaders and companies to be more authentic, and we just do awards. And I will tell you, for the first couple years of those awards, Lesley, well, the first year, we were like, we got down to the deadline. We're like, shit, Rachel, who do you want to nominate? I was like, I'll nominate, like, I think we had like, two submissions, and we had to do the nominating. And then the next year we had a little bit more. And then the next this year, we're like, we probably should have some judges instead of basically me being, you know, and so we just took a baby step, and I and as soon as my team suggested, I was like, oh, I know the five leaders, I'm going to ask it just, you know, quickly came to mind. They're super authentic. They're in these great executive roles. And so that's what we're doing this year, and now, and and my team is pushing me for more posts and stuff. And so now we have more nominations that we've ever had, plus we have the judges who are advocates. And I always talk about it, I think the thing I love about it most is it's like, we're at step four of probably a hundred, but I am talking, I've got a friend at Yale. She's like, oh, maybe we could connect you with this person. Like, eventually, maybe we'll have a collaborator, whether it's a Yale or a fortune or whoever. Yeah, but we're just, every year, we're just like, What can we do just a tiny bit better? And that's all it's about. 

Lesley Logan 33:47  

Thank you for sharing that. Because I do. I know a lot of people listening have these amazing ideas, and then they get overwhelmed by the steps around that amazing idea and not like anything you're seeing that caused you to have that amazing idea, you're like, oh, I want to do it like this. They, they actually did start five years prior, doing like a thing. We just don't see that part because it's like, it's the, you know, most people don't see, like, when Adele came on the scene, we didn't see the seven teen years she spent singing in a bar like, you know what I mean, like Lady Gaga was Stephanie for a long time, everyone, and no one knew who she was, like, you know? So we don't see that, and we just see, oh, they did this and they came out, and it's like, it's like, Yeah, but there's those baby steps. And when you take those baby steps, you get more feedback, and you get more confidence, and I think you get more ideas that make the original idea better. You know, we just need to have those patience. 

Erin Hatzikostas 34:39  

Totally and that's why, in the book, I have a whole chapter dedicated to sleep running syndrome. And you know, most people are like, I don't have sleep running syndrome, and I break it down. I'm like, you probably do. And one of the, you know, there's a couple, there's six symptoms, but one of them is comparison cramps. And you know, one of the comparison cramps. 

Lesley Logan 34:56  

Oh my gosh, this is my favorite part of the book so far. Like this, I was like, oh, yeah, I have had comparison cramps, those suck. 

Erin Hatzikostas 35:02  

Those suck, right? And that's like, and part of it is you don't normalize your data, so you compare your singing career to Lady Gaga's, who started 20 years before yours. And then perfection pain is one of the symptoms, too, and pioneer paralysis, which I think is what you're talking about. We have the ideas about how we can like we have the big idea about the authenticity and but we get paralyzed because we think we have to do it all at once. We have to do it like everybody else. And so in the chapter, we end up thinking we should just stay in Kansas like Dorothy does in the Wizard of Oz, and we don't have to. And that's what the 50% rule can help you get out of. 

Lesley Logan 35:37  

Oh my gosh, you guys, you have to wait for this book. We're gonna take a brief break. I keep talking forever, but that's just because I love you. We're gonna find out where people can find you, follow you, work with you and your Be It Action Items. 

Lesley Logan 35:37  

All right, Erin, where can we buy this book? Where can people like stalk you in the best way and be reminded of the 50% tip. What do you got for us? 

Erin Hatzikostas 35:53  

Yeah, so the book you can go to anywhere you buy books. But there's also the50percentrule.com, it's spelled out. You can learn a little bit more. There's some freebies. There's we just shot and finished up a really fun video, quirky video around it. You know, that kind that will give you the vibe of the book. So, the50percentrule.com. Once you're done, soaking in all that is wonderful, Be It Till You See It. If you're a podcast listener, which you obviously are, we also have a podcast you can go to b cause work doesn't have to suck. It's just the letter B and then cause work doesn't have to suck, because we're weirdos, um, and then I'm kind of a nerd. I mostly interact on LinkedIn, although I'm on Instagram as well. So.

Lesley Logan 36:34  

Your Instagram makes me laugh, like you could be a comedian. Because (inaudible).

Erin Hatzikostas 36:38  

So I just did once a day, I did a, I did a quick reel about the, we were talking about this offline, about me spilling my freaking chocolate protein shake everywhere. Please go watch it and tell me if you actually get it, because I thought it was pretty freaking funny, but it's very subtle. No, I'm terrible at Instagram, but I'm really cool on LinkedIn, because most people aren't cool, so that's why I'm there. I'm like, oh, it's easier to be cool. So either one of those. 

Lesley Logan 37:00  

Okay, but I just have to shout, like, months ago, you did one of those walking videos, which I've never figured out how to do, and you're like, I'm trying to film this thing where I'm walking and I write something inspirational on the screen that's too small for most people to read. And then you just like, were like, so I'm just gonna walk, and I'm gonna put this thing that's like, make it like your font larger?

Erin Hatzikostas 37:20  

Yes, yeah, that was, that's a big trend. I think it's still kind of there, like, (inaudible) walking or putting on my makeup, doing something, but the freaking text, I'm like, dude, if you're over 45 nobody's reading your shit. I can't read it. I can't read a freaking thing you just said. So yeah, thank you for thank you for getting it. The one today about my spilled protein shake, you'll have to let me know if you get it, because I think it's kind of subtle. But it's, it's actually, there's a joke in there. 

Lesley Logan 37:45  

I think we have similar humor, so I will, but I like that humor. It's like, yeah, what am, what are we all doing here? What's happening? Okay, before I let you go, Bold, Executable, Intrinsic, Targeted steps people can take to be it till they see it.

Erin Hatzikostas 37:58  

I love it. So I think the first thing is you have to understand that nothing you're going to do is like anybody else, right? So the 50% Rule, I break it down so you could just think it and do it. But I also have this innovation framework for like companies who are like, no, I have to wrangle like 32 people to use a 50% rule. I need some steps. And the first step, and it's called the innovation framework. There's six I steps, and the first one is intent, and I think it's the most powerful. So when you're trying to do something, strip away the how, strip away the what. And just think about intent. What are you trying to do? So social media, it's so easy to be like, I gotta do this thing. It's like, well, what are you trying to do? You're trying to build trust. You're trying to grab attention. And when you really think about the intent, it helps you shed the layers of the normal formula that you don't need. Because you're like, that's great. But I can get to the intent a different way. So it's almost like the intent is the underwear skivvies of what you're trying to do, right? It's like, okay, now that I can see the underwear skivvies, I can figure out the best way to dress that up. So yeah, I would say, pause and really think, what am I trying to do? Like, so often, like the authenticity index. I could be like, oh, we want it to be like the diversity. What's the intent? The intent is to make it A. easier for people to decide if they want to work for that company or do business. But B. the intent is to incentivize. It's a little bit of a stick, because if there's an index, then people will, you know, I want to, I want to coerce people to start being more authentic. So if my intent is to coerce them, what's the first things? What? What else can I do on the path there to coerce them, incentivize them, beat them on a, with a stick, to be more authentic? So understand the intent and then just experiment the shit out of it. 

Lesley Logan 39:54  

I love that because there are multiple ways to often get to the thing you're wanting. And if you strip the how and the what, and you just get to intent, you can almost brainstorm all the different ways you can do that. Erin, I love you. You're so great. I learned so much today.

Erin Hatzikostas 40:14  

I love you too. I mean, I'm sure your listeners know that, but this chick is such a kind and generous like, I was out in Vegas. It's funny, when we met, you're like, if you're ever out in Vegas, and I was like, I'm gonna be there in two weeks for a talk. And you, like, arranged dinner. You like, came out. She had the busiest freaking week. I was exhausted just hearing she had, like, a retreat going on, and

Lesley Logan 40:35  

There were two retreats in one week.

Erin Hatzikostas 40:38  

And the one night, like, she didn't have it. She had people out on their own. She came in and came into this, you know, strip, and had dinner with me. And I'm just forever grateful. 

Lesley Logan 40:47  

Oh, it meant the world to me. So thank you for letting me have dinner also, like I let the restaurant entertain you, really, that's (inaudible). 

Erin Hatzikostas 40:55  

I broke out those videos the other day. I'm like, look at the bunny with the butt dancing in my face.

Lesley Logan 41:00  

You guys, you have to go to Superfriko. They don't sponsor the show, but they have a bunny with a BBL. That'll just, really, the best way to describe what's happening in Vegas. It's so Vegas. Erin, thank you so much for being you. Thank you for your amazing book. You guys, let Erin know if you got the book, what your takeaways were. Share this episode with a friend who happens to be getting in their own way. Because here's the coolest thing, if your friends around you start to do a 50% rule, it makes it easier for you to do a 50% rule, and it actually makes it life more fun, because your friends are not trying to be perfect all the time, and they're actually being their unique selves, taking action on their intent. So thank you, Erin. Everyone, share this podcast with a friend and until next time, Be It Till You See It. 

Lesley Logan 41:00  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.

Brad Crowell 42:26  

It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.

Lesley Logan 42:31  

It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.

Brad Crowell 42:35  

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.

Lesley Logan 42:43  

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.

Brad Crowell 42:46  

Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.

Lesley wraps up the final Friday of September by encouraging listeners to stay grounded during the busy Q4 season. In this Fuck Yeah Friday episode, she shares wins from the community, like retreat sign-ups and book launches, while also celebrating her own progress with improved sleep. Tune in for an uplifting reminder to celebrate progress, no matter how small.

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at [email protected].

And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.

In this episode you will learn about:

• Tania securing a retreat sign-up and preparing for a workshop.
• Natalia book launch and landing TV spots this year.
• Lesley's incredible sleep scores after months of consistent efforts.
• The importance of celebrating small wins along the way to larger goals.
• A powerful mantra for healing and releasing emotional burdens.

Episode References/Links:

• Wand Pilates
• FemGevity

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

DEALS! Check out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper’s Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox

Be in the know with all the workshops at OPC

Be It Till You See It Podcast Survey

Be a part of Lesley’s Pilates Mentorship

FREE Ditching Busy Webinar

Resources:

• Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube!
• Lesley Logan website
• Be It Till You See It Podcast
• Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan
• Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube
• Profitable Pilates

Follow Us on Social Media:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Episode Transcript:

Lesley Logan 0:00  

It's Fuck Yeah Friday. 

Brad Crowell 0:01  

Fuck yeah. 

Lesley Logan 0:02  

Get ready for some wins. Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. 

Lesley Logan 0:46  

Hello, Be It babe, welcome to your final Friday of September. Oh my gosh, we made it. We did it. We're here. And what does that mean? Q4 is around the corner and this is the chaotic months, and this is the months you're gonna forget to celebrate your wins. In fact, you're gonna stop listening to the things that support you, and you're gonna get a little bit crazy and chaotic and I'm gonna encourage you to keep, keep doing the things that make you feel like a human, because you will feel like a human on the other side of this. Just because it's chaotic and crazy and demanding of a Q4 does not mean you can't feel good while doing it. Just saying. So, on these FYF episodes, these Fuck Yeah Fridays, I share some wins of yours. I share a win of mine. And then we have a little mantra, and we take on the weekend, right?

Lesley Logan 1:32  

All right. Tania Tsiora, an agency member, wrote, one more person registered for my retreat. We organized in October. I prepared everything for the second workshop, Welcome to Pilates, I give tomorrow in the studio. Let's see some newbies. And I finished writing June's newsletter. It is, of course, about the retreat, which will be sent out on the sixth. Hugs, everyone. Oh, my God, Tania, yes, that is a major, look at all these wins. Celebrating that you got a new signup, celebrating that you've already got everything prepped for the weekend workshop, and celebrating that you did the newsletter. You know, I think so often we have things that come up on our to-do list, and we do them. We totally do them, but we don't always celebrate that we did them. We're like, just move on to the next thing. We just move on to the next thing. And that, my loves, is such a bummer. So thank you, Tania, for sharing that with us. 

Lesley Logan 2:18  

All right, Natalia, she wrote, my landing page, my book, which will be released in September, is live, and it is wandpilates.de. Oh my gosh. If someone had told me last year that I'd be invited on TV several times this year and write a book, I would have thought they were crazy. I'm feeling so excited, scared and grateful at the same time. It is unbelievable. I'm looking forward to everything that comes. Natalia, you wrote a book, you've been on TV, you did all of these things in a year. I just love this one so much, because you guys, she didn't go into the year knowing she'd be on TV. She didn't go into the year knowing she's going to write a book. Sometimes we're like, okay, I'm going to write a book this year. I'm gonna do this and like, we just like, there's no surprise. And she had so many surprises, and she is rolling with those surprises. She was so present. So congratulations, Natalia, on writing the book, but also on celebrating the landing page is ready like again, there's wins so we can celebrate along the way to a big goal. And I love helping remind you of that each and every day. 

Lesley Logan 3:18  

All right, my win. So here it is, my sleep scores for my Oura ring are insane. They're insane. They're absolutely amazing. Is not a fluke that they're insane. It has been months of this, and so I've been celebrating them along the way with, I'll tell you. So the first two nights amazing sleep. I celebrated with my FemGevity doctor. Then I was celebrating with, like, all of the people, anyone who listened to me. I'm like, look at my sleep score. Look at the sleep score. Look at this one. And then I was like, looking at the deep sleep and the REM cycle sleep. And like watching it each and every night get a little bit better and a little bit better. And the reason I'm celebrating my sleep is, you guys, we need to sleep. We're supposed to sleep a third of our life, and we need more sleep. Sometimes we think, and some of us have convinced ourselves we need less sleep, and that's fine. I'm not saying you need eight hours. I don't get that. I do really, really well with seven. Seven is awesome. If I get seven and a half, it's even better. But seven is like a sweet spot for me, and I've been sleeping through the night, and so I'm celebrating that, because all of this is efforting come to fruition. Efforting in first doing things like creating a sleep routine that worked for me. Then it was like a morning routine that helped me set up for a better night's sleep that night. Then it was getting my hormones checked so I could help me sleep. Then it's getting my gut checked that can help me sleep. All these just different things I've been trying to do to come together and I'm sleeping, and it is great. And so if all you can recognize of yourself today is that you were sleeping and drinking enough water, you slayed. You have so many wins. That's two wins. That's amazing. It's amazing. So go celebrate that. 

Lesley Logan 4:50  

Send in your wins to the Be It Pod because we can celebrate you here, and you can then hear this win in your ear when you are probably on a day when you need it, like I just need a win right now. Now you're here in the exact right moment. I'm going to remind you of all the things you're awesome at. So what are your wins? We want to hear them. Make sure you share with a friend. It helps take those negative Nellies and turn them into people who celebrate some wins. 

Lesley Logan 5:11  

And our mantra for the weekend is I breathe in healing. I exhale the painful things that burden my heart. I breathe in healing. I exhale the painful things that burden my heart. I breathe in healing. I exhale the painful things that burden my heart. My love, breathe in healing and exhale the painful things that burden your heart. You are amazing. And until next time, Be It Till You See It. 

Lesley Logan 5:37  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.

Brad Crowell 6:20  

It's written, filmed and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.

Lesley Logan 6:25  

It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.

Brad Crowell 6:29  

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.

Lesley Logan 6:36  

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals. 

Brad Crowell 6:40  

Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally, to Meredith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.

What does it really mean to brand your higher self? Lesley and Brad dive into the key insights from the conversation with branding expert Nadine Hanafi. Discover how branding goes far beyond just fonts and colors, and learn how Nadine’s actionable advice on personal branding can elevate your business. Tune in to find out how to present your higher self and build a brand that truly aligns with your energy and message.

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at [email protected].

And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.

In this episode you will learn about:

• Nadine's expertise in helping small business owners build standout brands.
• How energy and authenticity create a memorable personal brand.
• The importance of positioning yourself as an expert through branding.
• How to brand your higher self and elevate your business presence.
• Why a professional photo shoot can take your branding to the next level.

Episode References/Links:

• Digital Brand Kit
• Nadine Hanafi’s Instagram
• Cambodia February 2025 Retreat
• OPC Flashcard Waitlist
• Pilates Studio Growth Accelerator
• OPC Winter Tour
• Balanced Body Pilates Equipment
• Girl Squad Media Website

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

DEALS! Check out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper’s Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox

Be in the know with all the workshops at OPC

Be It Till You See It Podcast Survey

Be a part of Lesley’s Pilates Mentorship

FREE Ditching Busy Webinar

Resources:

• Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube!
• Lesley Logan website
• Be It Till You See It Podcast
• Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan
• Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube
• Profitable Pilates

Follow Us on Social Media:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Episode Transcript:

Brad Crowell 0:00  

You have a brand, even if you don't realize it, right? You know, you are your brand. And then you can begin to define these things and hone that stuff, and make adjustments to it. But it already exists, and now we just have to bring it out.

Lesley Logan 0:13  

Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.

Lesley Logan 0:55  

Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It interview recap where my co-host in life, Brad, and I are going to dig into the refining convo I have with Nadine Hanafi in our last episode. If you haven't yet listened to that one, go listen to it and come back and listen to this one, or listen to this one and let your podcast just play through the previous one. It's all amazing. 

Lesley Logan 1:10  

Before we get into it, today is September 26th 2024 and it's Alpaca Day. About this day, Alpaca Day is observed on September 26th each year in the USA. Alpacas are cute, fuzzy animals that have been of help to human beings and agriculture for a super long time. These animals have unique personalities and are highly sensitive to their environment, and are most timid in temperament. Oh, okay, are these the spitters?

Brad Crowell 1:33  

They usually I think it's camels that spit or llamas. No, I think it's the 

Lesley Logan 1:39  

Can you look this up? Because I swear, okay, so let me finish it, because people are waiting for you, and I'll finish it. 

Brad Crowell 1:45  

Okay, so I literally got do Al, and then Google finished alpaca spit. So yes, they do. 

Lesley Logan 1:51  

Yeah, I thought so. I thought I saw 

Brad Crowell 1:52  

Not a cause for concern, but yes it's (inaudible).

Lesley Logan 1:55  

I saw a reel where a woman looked like she's trying to kiss the alpaca. And this is why I asked.

Brad Crowell 1:59  

Oh, I thought that was a llama. 

Lesley Logan 2:00  

No, no, it was an alpaca. It was the hair and you remember that, and it like literally spit in her face, yeah, no, that was an alpaca. The llama looks like what's on my arm. So anyways, Alpaca Day raises awareness about the need for conservation of alpacas and their habitats. Human activities have affected alpacas, and like other animals, they too are struggling with the increasing human interference in their daily lives. Find out what you can do to conserve alpacas on Alpaca Day. I don't know where you go for that, so I don't know how to help you understand how you can conserve land for alpacas this day just tells you it is it. But I've also never seen alpacas in the wild, so I'm very curious, like, where in the USA alpacas are in the wild?

Brad Crowell 2:39  

Yeah, I don't know that. 

Lesley Logan 2:41  

We can't help you there. 

Brad Crowell 2:42  

So you can donate through the National Alpaca Foundation, or there are also local charities or hospitals. There's a Alpaca Research Foundation, A.R.F. or ARF for short, there is the Windrush. Donate to Windrush Alpacas.

Lesley Logan 2:43  

If you know where I can see alpacas in the wild I'm in. I want to know. 

Brad Crowell 3:02  

We're gonna find out. 

Lesley Logan 3:03  

But also, when we were on winter tour last year, we got to meet Andres the llama, and we also met some alpacas. And the alpacas were a little more timid than Andre. Andre? Andres? I think it was Andre. 

Brad Crowell 3:16  

Andre. There are no known wild alpacas anymore. They are all domesticated farm animals now.

Lesley Logan 3:21  

Okay, well, that's because we took their fucking land. So.

Brad Crowell 3:25  

It's true. 

Lesley Logan 3:26  

Like we did for many people, places and things, we got to be better everyone. You got to do better things. So okay, so thank you for that information. Bet you didn't know you would learn about alpacas today. Was it on your bingo card? If it was, let us know. 

Lesley Logan 3:39  

We are literally leaving in four days before Cambodia, and unless you signed up, you're not invited. Holy alpacas, there won't be any in Cambodia. Because it's so, so sold out, and so you need to sign up for the February one, where we still have time to put you in there. 

Brad Crowell 3:56  

That's right. 

Lesley Logan 3:56  

Also, there's still plenty of time to buy a flight. This is kind of about when you'd buy a flight, it's like three months before, four tops, anything more than that, it's not a good deal. So you want to go to crowsnestretreats.com I have been looking at all these different temple pictures, like, just getting excited for what we're doing. And you guys, we've gone so many times, and it never gets old. 

Brad Crowell 4:15  

Never gets old. 

Lesley Logan 4:15  

It never gets old. It's so much fun. 

Brad Crowell 4:18  

Mind blowing. 

Lesley Logan 4:18  

And we have several people coming for the second time. So we've had multiple people do this, but it just keeps happening. And so we want you to come. So go to crowsnestretreats.com to snag your spot.

Brad Crowell 4:29  

Do it. 

Lesley Logan 4:29  

And you can bring your friend or family member who doesn't want to do the Pilates classes or the workshops. It's totally fine. There's an option for them. Also, when I get back, somehow on my, on the retreat and everything, I've got to stay in my Pilates readiness, because when we come back, like, two weeks later, I end up in L.A. where I'm doing the photo shoot for the accessories deck, and a lot of them are really going to be totally cool to do and easy to do. And then there's the push up handles and the Guillotine. And I'm like, a little scared, so I have been readying myself for this. So you, if you are interested in the accessories deck, which is going to be like towel exercises and breath a cizer and two by four.

Brad Crowell 4:39  

Two by four foot corrector. 

Lesley Logan 4:52  

Toe corrector. And also, I'm on a mission to make sure that you know how to make at least half the deck. And guess what? Shout out to Karen Fishman, who told me how you can just make the push up handles. And so we have to figure that out, because I want so the only thing you'd have to buy is the Guillotine. And so I'm really trying to make sure that most of this deck is some household things you can make, so that. 

Brad Crowell 5:32  

My foot corrector is hard to make. 

Lesley Logan 5:34  

No, you'd have to buy that. The toe corrector, J's favorite toe corrector was a broccoli rubber band. 

Brad Crowell 5:40  

That's awesome. 

Lesley Logan 5:41  

I know. He's so simple. I loved him. So you want to go to opc.me/flashcardwaitlist, opc.me/flashcardwaitlist, that's all singular, to get on that, because people on the wait list get the best deal. 

Brad Crowell 5:53  

Yes, they do. 

Lesley Logan 5:53  

Then, Brad, what do you have for them? Because I, clearly, am busy.

Brad Crowell 5:57  

I am excited to be supporting fitness business owners just like you. So if you are feeling stuck with income for your business, whether that is a small business, a medium business, or even a large business, we have worked with more than 2000 companies, whether you're renting space, you have a home studio or whatever, over the past six years, and we have come to realize that there are three main secrets, three main secrets, that help you grow your income. So if you're feeling stuck at all with your income, this is a free webinar. I'd love for you to join me. It's called the Pilates Studio Growth Accelerator. So go to prfit, prfit.biz, that's profit without the O, prfit.biz/accelerator. Sign up for free. You'll see when the next one is that I'm going to hold. I'm gonna, I'm gonna host. Come join me. We can chat, get to meet each other, and I'm gonna share these three big tips that we have boiled down after, like, I don't know, thousands of coaching calls. I mean, it's been so many years now, so, yeah, come join me. prprfit.biz/accelerator. After that. 

Lesley Logan 6:59  

We're going on winter tour.

Brad Crowell 7:01  

What? We're hitting the road again. This is our most ambitious one yet. Y'all, I know I said that last year. Well, we're topping it this winter. 

Lesley Logan 7:08  

At some point we have to stop topping it. I'm just gonna say. 

Brad Crowell 7:11  

We'll see, we'll see. 

Lesley Logan 7:12  

We'll see? No, at some point we say, there's the last. 

Brad Crowell 7:16  

I would love for us to go to Europe. That kind of tops a domestic tour.

Lesley Logan 7:20  

Well, that, that's true, that's true. 

Brad Crowell 7:23  

That would be really amazing.

Lesley Logan 7:24  

But that's a different tour. That's a different goal. I'm just saying that at some point the winter tour does not get to grow any. 

Brad Crowell 7:30  

Yeah, this one's pretty. This one's pretty much capping it off. This is over a month and we're gonna be on the road for over a month, 24 locations that we're planning and all across the United States, mostly like along Route 40, and then all the way up to, we're literally looking at Maine right now, and then down to Miami and back through Texas to get back home. So come join us. We are definitely going to be driving to a city near you, even if you're coming like an hour or two. Come anyway. It's so much fun. We love to meet you in person. We do raffles. Balanced Body is going to be doing some raffles and stuff, all the things, and we just love it. So yeah, and it'd be awesome to meet you in person. So go to opc.me/tour, opc.me/tour.

Lesley Logan 8:13  

All right, before we get into Nadine's amazingness, what is our audience question about this time? 

Brad Crowell 8:17  

We have a question from mayab487 on YouTube, she said I am 143 centimeters, often vertically challenged, which, I had to look up, is four foot eight inches and change. What Reformer Pilates machine would you recommend, especially for those who are on the smaller side of height, your recommendation is greatly appreciated.

Lesley Logan 8:35  

So here's the deal. There was someone who was making Reformers for like kids a long time ago, I, clearly, Maya, you are not a child. I don't know, clearly, you could be, but I'm assuming you're done growing. So there was someone doing this. I can't speak to the quality or the temperament or if it works, but there was someone. That being said, if you were teaching other people or other people are going to use this in your family, then I would suggest you get the 80-inch Contrology. I actually suggest that for all of my five footers, and you're not going to get the deep hip flexion on footwork, but there are other exercises in Pilates that will give you the deep hip flexion. Coordination will give you deep hip flexion. You can use a moon box so you can get deep hip flexion in knee stretches or in stomach massage, you can just sit at the edge like anyone else wouldn't get deep. So just because we can't get you deep hip flexion in footwork doesn't mean you're not going to get it. So the 80-inch is what I use, and that's what I would suggest you use, and what I suggest on my five feet tall. And even if someone in your life is taller than you, I'm five nine and a half, my husband is six one and we use the same Reformer. So that's what I would suggest for anyone. And honestly, like for most people, I want them all to have the 80-inch. It's nice to have an 86 if you have, like, multiple people over five ten just for a couple exercises. Every once in a while, it's really nice to do a short spine with a little bit more room, but not necessary. Not necessary. So that's what I would recommend. You can use my link, Maya, we'll put it in the show notes that will get you a discount on that Reformer or any of the Balanced Body and Contrology equipment. If you want a special color, make sure you reach out to us, though, so we can connect you with someone, because that way you'll get the special color and the discount. 

Brad Crowell 10:15  

I was looking them up while you were talking, and I did find a 75-inch Reformer and then one that's even less than that. So they do exist. I have no idea about the brand or the company or the quality. 

Lesley Logan 10:26  

Send me the link. Can you text me? 

Brad Crowell 10:27  

Right now? 

Lesley Logan 10:28  

Yeah.

Brad Crowell 10:28  

Yeah. Sure. That one's 190 centimeters. This one is 160 centimeters, which turns into 63 inches. So that's definitely for, you know.

Lesley Logan 10:42  

This is really inexpensive. That makes me nervous. I don't like ropes. I don't like ropes.

Brad Crowell 10:47  

Yeah, it does have ropes. 

Lesley Logan 10:49  

Yeah? So, you know, I see this, I don't love it. I don't love it, Maya. You do you, but.

Brad Crowell 10:56  

She have no idea what Reformer we're actually talking about, we're referring to in this conversation. 

Lesley Logan 11:00  

Well, I can't, I don't want to put the name out, because I'm clearly saying I don't like it. So. 

Brad Crowell 11:03  

Well, anyway, I'm with you on that. Totally with you on that. So the 80-inch, aside from the deep inflection on footwork, the 80-inch should, will still be beneficial? 

Lesley Logan 11:13  

Yeah, because you can use a moon box or yoga blocks for some things, and if you're an OPC member, I can literally tell you where to put your feet, where to put your body, so you can use it. It's totally, perfectly fine, and so that's what I recommend.

Brad Crowell 11:24  

Maya, great question. Thanks so much for writing in. If you have a question, you can ask it on YouTube, you can ping us on Instagram, or you can text us at 310-905-5534. Stick around. We are going to get nerdy about Nadine Hanafi's interview in just a minute. 

Brad Crowell 11:42  

All right, now, let's talk about Nadine Hanafi. Nadine is a branding expert and the CEO of Digital Brand Kit, the world's first full-stack branding company. With over 10 years of experience, Nadine specializes in helping personal brands elevate their visual identity and confidence through innovative brand strategies. Her first business, We are Visual, established her expertise in presentation design. She works with TED speakers and bestselling authors, and now today, she's working with small business owners like us, like you. 

Lesley Logan 12:13  

Yeah, she's super cool. One of the things that I love, that she said is that branding is energy. It's definitely not just your colors or your fonts and your website, it's that your branding encompasses the messaging and the voice and visuals, the overall presentation. So you can, like, focus on your fonts, and you can pick some beautiful colors, but the consistency and the energy that you bring and the way that you talk about things, and even the words that you use, and all of that, that is, it's all of it. It's like when certain people walk into the room, we went to this in the last episode, like charisma, it's the energy of the person that just walked in. And it encompasses, yes, their outfit and what they're saying and how they're standing and what they're doing and how they talk to you, it's all of that. So, I really appreciate that because I really think people just said, oh, I can't start my business until I have a logo and I have this. It's like you can start sooner than that, and your branding is already starting before you pick any of those things.

Brad Crowell 13:09  

That's right. I mean, you have a brand, even if you don't realize it. Right? You know, you are your brand. And then you can begin to define these things and hone that, that stuff, and make adjustments to it, but it already exists, and now we just have to bring it out. 

Lesley Logan 13:22  

Well and also, like, one of my favorite things that anyone's ever said about me is, like, why you're the same in person as you are online. I'm like, yeah, because it's the energy that I bring is not made up. It's not forced. It is in everything that we do. What did you love? 

Brad Crowell 13:36  

She said seven or eight years ago, the online business world was less saturated, and entrepreneurs could succeed with messy, unpolished content. There was less competition, fewer experts sharing valuable insights. Today, the online space is definitely more crowded, especially with business coaching, with many individuals, some knowledgeable, and others not, trying to sell and teach. And so definitely your branding and the presentation that you are, you have, plus all the things that Lesley was just mentioning, you will use those things to grab people's attention. And she said, if you're somebody who actually knows what you're talking about, you owe it to yourself to brand yourself as the expert that you are, and to make that brand, that, the whole thing, cohesive. So it is helpful to be, it's important to be intentional about your branding as you're going, as you're beginning to see your business taking shape. But I do agree with what you said just a minute ago, that you don't need it. You won't even know your brand when you first get started to be honest, y'all, it took a long time for us to like, figure out how we, you know, saw ourselves being and acting in the space. Because it's not just colors and text fonts. It is the energy you bring to the table. It is the transformation that you're creating for people. It is the language that you use, your posture, and those things aren't very clear right away.

Lesley Logan 14:58  

Yeah. Yeah. That is just, you kind of have to grow into it. 

Brad Crowell 15:01  

Yeah, yeah, I love it, but that's where Nadine's saying she can help you grow into it. So, I love that. 

Lesley Logan 15:05  

She can, we have a special link for that. 

Brad Crowell 15:07  

Yeah, yeah, we do. All right, stick around. We'll be right back with some Be It Action Items. 

Brad Crowell 15:12  

All right, let's finally, let's talk about those Be It Action Items. Say with me, what bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted action items can we take away from your convo with Nadine Hanafi? 

Lesley Logan 15:21  

I love how you always ask that, and I've never said it with you. I'm like, you must be talking to them.

Brad Crowell 15:27  

I'm talking to everybody who's listening. 

Lesley Logan 15:28  

Yeah, it's not me, apparently. 

Brad Crowell 15:30  

Yeah, yeah, no, no. She said brand your higher self. 

Lesley Logan 15:34  

That's a be it till you see it right there. 

Brad Crowell 15:36  

That's be it till you see it. Brand your higher self. When it comes to branding, there's a way to show up as the next version of yourself. So even though you may be who you are this moment, it might not be where you see yourself down the road. So you can definitely create the branding for where you're going, and that will help you act the part and to grow into those shoes. And I do, I do agree that is really it's a, be it action item, if there ever was one. Specifically, one of the things I know you've mentioned on previous pods is like, what would a 10-figure business owner do in this situation? What would a seven-figure business owner do in this situation? Right? That is the same concept here, except we're talking about branding instead of, you know, decision making. Which, they go together. She said make them want to meet you and learn from you and create that attractive energy with your branding. So, love that. What about you? 

Lesley Logan 15:42  

Of course, I love this one. Book a professional photo shoot. Book a professional brand photo shoot and actually do it properly. So we talked about this, and she actually has, like, a blog post about this. But when Monica and I do photo shoots, you guys, Monica and I are like, two little hummingbirds that, like, run around all the time until photo shoot time. And then it is like, which brand, what photos we need. Like, here's the list. It's like, oh, headshot, here, this here. And like, I look at the list. She looks at the list. We have the clothes put out the night before everything is ready to go. So it's just, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And she said, you want 50 solid shots. At least.

Brad Crowell 16:29  

We have a full-blown checklist of the photos that we know we want to take before it even starts. 

Lesley Logan 17:07  

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Brad Crowell 17:08  

So yeah, we'll go in with, like, all right, we got 100 we want to hit, go. 

Lesley Logan 17:12  

Yeah. And we do an annual shoot. So if you've never had any shots, like, photo shoots done for your business, you might have to do a couple a year or a few a year to, like, get. 

Brad Crowell 17:22  

I think the first year we did three. 

Lesley Logan 17:23  

Three. So really build the library up, you know? So now we can go down to like, one a year, and we pretty much do a two-hour shoots. We could just, like, it's almost like two shoots at one time, but we have a checklist, because you will forget or you'll get distracted. I mean, I will, I literally saved this one checklist. I was like, hey, babe, I just need a few shots in this outfit for my birthday invitations. Thank God it was at the end, because I think we did 50 shots just in that. 

Brad Crowell 17:48  

I remember which one you're talking about. 

Lesley Logan 17:49  

I was like, I was like, oh, let's add this. Let's add this. Oh yeah. So you want to stay on, you want to stay on. And also, like, may, I also suggest you have a third person there to help with the checklist. Hey, did you get this one? Hey, do you get this one? Because while you're changing clothes, they can be talking to the photographer and making sure you got the different shots. Also, you need someone there to make sure that your shirt's tucked in or not tucked in, or. 

Brad Crowell 18:09  

Yeah, because the photographer is they're definitely trying to look at everything, but as having another set of eyes to be like. 

Lesley Logan 18:15  

Do you remember when, so this is, photographers are amazing. And I'm not throwing one under the bus, because I've used a lot of photographers, and I've been like, how they not catch this? They're so focused on the lighting and the shot and how good you look. We did a bunch of shoots with the deck upside down. 

Brad Crowell 18:28  

Oh, did we?

Lesley Logan 18:29  

Oh yeah. 

Brad Crowell 18:30  

Well, I missed that.

Lesley Logan 18:30  

We had to Photoshop the cover of the deck on correctly.

Brad Crowell 18:35  

I didn't even know that.

Lesley Logan 18:36  

Oh yeah, no, there's a bunch. 

Brad Crowell 18:37  

That is really hilarious. 

Lesley Logan 18:39  

You guys, go book your shoot. 

Brad Crowell 18:41  

Yeah, yeah. Get yourself a shoot. It's worth. It's worth doing a photo shoot. 

Lesley Logan 18:44  

And of course, we recommend Monica. She's been on the show before. We've had two episodes with her, so you can listen to her and check her out. She has pop-ups everywhere, you can go to L.A. if you want. But she does do pop-ups at a lot of places. 

Brad Crowell 18:53  

Having professionally done shots will make you excited to use them. 

Lesley Logan 18:57  

And make sure they're a branding photographer, and not a family photographer. They're very different things. 

Brad Crowell 19:02  

We're not doing headshots here. That's not what we're talking about. 

Lesley Logan 19:05  

Yeah, I'm Lesley Logan.

Brad Crowell 19:06  

And I'm Brad Crowell. 

Lesley Logan 19:07  

You're fucking amazing. You are.

Brad Crowell 19:08  

Yeah, thanks for being here. 

Lesley Logan 19:09  

And we're so grateful for you. We love that you listen. Please leave us a review. If you could leave us a review that really helps the show continue to go and show this to a friend. One friend. Just pick one friend who's like, trying to kick their business off the ground. They're stuck on the logo, send them this and until next time, Be It Till You See It. 

Brad Crowell 19:24  

Bye for now. 

Lesley Logan 19:26  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.

 pod.

Brad Crowell 20:09  

It's written, filmed and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.

Lesley Logan 20:14  

It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.

Brad Crowell 20:18  

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.

Lesley Logan 20:25  

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals. 

Brad Crowell 20:28  

Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally, to Meredith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.

In this episode, Lesley Logan talks with branding expert Nadine Hanafi about confidence, personal branding, and overcoming fear to show up authentically. Nadine shares her journey of building her second business, Digital Brand Kit, and offers actionable tips to create a brand that represents your higher self.

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at [email protected].

And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.

In this episode you will learn about:

• Nadine’s journey from PowerPoint to becoming a brand expert.
• How to understand the full scope of branding beyond logos and colors.
• The importance of setting boundaries when building a business.
• The mindset shifts needed to overcome fear of visibility.
• How brand photography can elevate the look and feel of a business.
• Steps to confidently create a brand that reflects your higher self.

Episode References/Links:

• Nadine Hanafi’s Instagram
• Nadine Hanafi’s Website
• Digital Brand Kit
• Digital Brand Kit Website

Guest Bio:

If you’ve been thinking about branding or rebranding your business but you’ve felt overwhelmed by the process, intimidated by the investment or you’re not even sure where to start, then today’s {episode/presentation} is for you. I’m joined by award-winning branding expert Nadine Hanafi {pronounced: Ha·Naw·Fee} who is a trailblazer in the branding world, most notably for her signature product Digital Brand Kit which is the world's first full-stack branding system made specifically for personal brands. She spent the better part of the last 10 years providing creative direction to some of the world’s biggest brands and since 2020, she has helped brand hundreds of coaches, consultants and speakers. Now she’s on a mission to help early and mid-stage entrepreneurs translate their personality and business goals into a visual identity engineered to attract their dream clients and reflect their uniqueness. Nadine is certified in both Digital Psychology and Behavioral Design and her science-based approach to design will completely change the way you think about branding.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

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Resources:

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• Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube
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Episode Transcript:

Nadine Hanafi 0:00  

There's a way for you to use branding to show up as the next version of yourself, or, as I like to say, brand your higher self, right? And we've seen this with our clients. We've seen it with me and my brand and my business. And when you brand yourself as the business that you want to build, as that seven-figure business, six-figure business, whatever it is, and you show up with that big brand energy, your confidence catches up to that, right? 

Lesley Logan 0:27  

Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.

Lesley Logan 1:09  

All right, be it, babe. This is a fun conversation today. We've got confidence. We've got branding. When do you start a business? What are you expecting out of it? It's just been, was a really fun conversation. Nadine Hanafi is our guest today. And you know, it's so crazy. It's like the world just make sure you meet the right people in your life. First of all, I would love to keep talking with us. I wish we lived closer. I would love to hang out with her, just one of those people in business. You're like, yeah, I'm so glad I know this person. She is a mutual friend of Jessica Papineau's and mine. But then also, when I was talking to her, I was like, Oh, my God, I've got to introduce you to my photographer, Monica Linda of Girl Squad Media. And she's like, oh, I worked with Monica. And funny enough, Monica showed her my photo. So, like, it's just full circle. It's like we were destined to meet. We were destined for each other. And so I'm excited for you to this conversation, because there's a lot of honesty about, like, you know, how we grow our businesses, and what do we need to do to keep growing them, and what does that look like? And if you're not someone who has a business. There's still a lot of fun things to listen to in this podcast that can give you a lot of things to think about. Just because it's along business side doesn't mean there's not some personal growth stuff in here that's going to change your life. I know it. So take a listen. And here is Nadine Hanafi. 

Lesley Logan 2:15  

All right, Be It babe. I am so excited because we are, we're going to learn a lot from today's guest. I'm and you're going to love all of it. I was introduced by this woman, to this woman by Jessica Papineau, who you all loved. We had her on the pod. If you're an OPC member, we had her in the community. And Nadine Hanafi is our guest today. She is an incredible branding person. Branding strategies for your business. And if you don't have a business, I still, do not stop, you are a brand yourself and I'm so excited to dive into this. Nadine, can you tell everyone who you are and what you rock at?

Nadine Hanafi 2:46  

Oh, well, thank you, Lesley, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. So my name is Nadine Hanafi. I am a branding expert. I'm the CEO of a company called Digital Brand Kit, which is the world's first full-stack branding company, where we basically provide you with all the brand assets that you need as a personal brand. And I've been in business for 10 years. This is not my first business. This is my second business. I started out as a presentation design expert with a company called We Are Visual and my jam was PowerPoint. I know, boring, but I used to make what I call these artistic, beautiful PowerPoints. And I've worked with TED speakers, I've worked with bestselling authors, I've worked with all these beautiful brands with their presentation. And eventually I decided to expand beyond just the presentation to really how you present yourself in the world, which is your branding. And so that's what brought me to doing what I do now.

Lesley Logan 3:41  

Oh, my God, that is so you know, I've gone this entire life without making a single, like. 

Nadine Hanafi 3:47  

Powerpoint?

Lesley Logan 3:47  

Yeah, when I know how to use one.

Nadine Hanafi 3:51  

Lucky you. 

Lesley Logan 3:54  

I know. 

Nadine Hanafi 3:54  

How did you do that?

Lesley Logan 3:55  

I tell people to take notes. Here we go. I actually would love to change that for myself, and I'd love to be more prepared in advance for things so that will change in my future. I feel it, but also like I teach Pilates so there's no PowerPoint.

Nadine Hanafi 4:11  

I totally get that. 

Lesley Logan 4:12  

But you know, thank you for sharing that you, this is your second rodeo in your own business, and also like going into, so let's talk about, just in case people have never heard of personal brand or branding itself, I think a lot of people think branding is like colors, my colors, my logo, my fonts. Can you have a little bit of personal brand and a little bit more on what is branding? 

Nadine Hanafi 4:31  

Oh my gosh, yes. Love this question. So first of all, your branding is definitely not just your colors and your fonts and your website. It is so much more than that. There's a lot of debate about what branding is exactly, but to me, it's your brand messaging, it's your brand voice, it's your visuals, it's how you show up in the world, what you sound like, and the energy that you give off. And so we're all about brand energetics, right, which might be something that resonates with your audience, because, you know, it's like, it's all about energy. Branding is energy. And so that's one thing about branding. And then personal brand. What is a personal brand? Well, personal brand versus corporate brand, right? A corporate brand is just a company. It's impersonal. There are lots of humans behind it, but there isn't one human right behind it. A personal brand is you. So you might have a personal brand that then feeds leads leads to your business separately, but you are you. You're your own personality. You show up with a completely different visual identity, a different brand voice, from the corporation that maybe you own or work for. So that's the difference between a corporate brand and a personal brand. And then in terms of visuals, super different, right? Corporations, they have these logos and brand guidelines. It's very much, very strict, whereas your personal brand is where you get to have a little bit more more fun, right? You can color outside the lines. 

Lesley Logan 5:53  

Yeah, that's true. I love that. Color outside the lines. My perfectionist listening, hi, you can color outside the lines.

Nadine Hanafi 6:01  

Yeah, way outside.

Lesley Logan 6:03  

So okay, but how did you get into all of this stuff? Like, were you a creative kid? Are you artistic? You love computers? How did this all come about? Because you're really great at what you do. I've seen it, and I know like, and we also have so many mutual friends who, like Monica Linda, and things like that. We always attract You're so awesome at it. But what led you to do this? Because I feel there's got to be like, were you born, is someone from your family a digital brander? 

Nadine Hanafi 6:29  

No, not at all. I totally fell into this by accident. That sounds cliche, but it's true. I didn't discover my, quote-unquote, creative side until much later in life. I think I was always a creative kid, but then I think school kind of has a tendency to beat that out of us. You know, it's like, and especially parents are like, oh, you have to be good at math and you have to do business or be a lawyer or and so I had one of those parents that wanted me to be a lawyer or a businesswoman. And so I went to business school, and I really disconnected from my creativity very early on, and rediscovered it while I was in college, totally by accident, because we had a professor ask us to make a PowerPoint presentation for a class, for the marketing class. And I don't know why, but I decided I was going to make the best damn, you know, PowerPoint presentation ever made. And I did, and it was beautiful, really, I spent like three weeks working on it. It was really awesome. And I enjoyed the process so much, and I enjoyed the feedback that I got so much that it was unique and different and original. And so I just kind of kept playing in that sandbox of making nice fun PowerPoints, just for fun in school. And then when I started my first job out of college, I was asked to make a lot of presentations again, and so I brought those skills to the corporate world, and it made a huge difference in the company I worked for. They really enjoyed the work that I did. It was shared across the company. They have me do PowerPoint presentations for other departments. Next thing I know, I'm creating all these templates for everyone. So it just kind of took on a life of its own. I was like, you know what? I'm kind of good at this thing. Why don't I make a business out of it? Because I wasn't really enjoying corporate life anyways. I don't love being told what to do and when to do it. So corporate, you know, the corporate world wasn't really good for me, and so I just started a business as a PowerPoint presentation expert, and that's how I got into it. And I'm basically self-taught. I took classes online, I took certifications, got certified in digital psychology and all the things, and basically taught myself branding, taught myself design, and that's how I landed here.

Lesley Logan 8:42  

That is so cool, because I know for myself, I went to college, first I went to be in kinesiology, and then I switched to communications, and then I, like, got out of so it's business, communications, interpersonal communication, and I got out of college, and I just really loved retail. I just thought it was the greatest thing. And I was like, I don't know why I have this $80,000 degree that I'm not using, but I got these student loans to pay off. (inaudible) And so when I got into Pilates, I just want to be Pilates instructor, I was like, oh my God. Like, I already am not using, now I have to spend more money. And but it's interesting how like your skill sets of what you love, they follow you wherever you're going. And, yeah, so I think it's cool that you're self-taught slash you also kind of did some things that were in alignment with what you loved. So you're taking your natural instincts with, you know, some of the information and combining those efforts. That's really cool. Okay, so let's talk a little about you, though, you, obviously, working for yourself and leaving corporate. There's a lot of be it till you see it stories in there, because I know a lot of people listening are like, someday I want to leave corporate. One day they will do it. Were there any like be it till you see it, stories or actions you took to help yourself either get out of corporate or like, recently in your life that you can share with us? 

Nadine Hanafi 9:55  

Oh my gosh. First of all, I have to say that I've been in business for 10 years, but I feel like I've only started really breaking the surface of what I'm capable of in the last maybe two years, and I had a lot of stigma around that. I mean, I gave myself a hard time for that, that I was like, such a late bloomer, such a late learner. Why did it take me so long to finally get this right? 

Lesley Logan 10:18  

Oh my God. Let's just, don't forget what you're gonna have to say. But can we just take a moment like, like I am so hard on myself about like I should be further, I've been doing all the things. Like, the pressure that we put on ourselves is not fun, and it's not helping anyone get anywhere,

Nadine Hanafi 10:34  

No, no, especially not ourselves. Then it's, you know, I'm like, oh, you're 37 look at all these young women who's 30, 29, 30, they've already built their multi-server figure business like, what's wrong with you? And so the minute that I stopped giving myself help for that, things kind of opened up for me. But it was mostly, it was mostly just accepting that that's my journey, and I can choose my path, and I can just write my own story, and it doesn't have to be a story of like early success. And I heard, I read a quote the other day, and I might mention a lot of quotes (inaudible).

Lesley Logan 11:10  

We love quotes. 

Nadine Hanafi 11:11  

Love quotes, but it said, "Your first business is not where you make money, it's where you learn." And it's so true for me in my first business, because I made all the mistakes in my first business. And I won't come around to like answering your question, Lesley, I promise, but one of the one of the mistakes that I made was building a golden cage for myself and because, and I want to share the story, especially if a lot of your listeners are maybe in corporate, thinking about getting out of corporate like you said, my only model for what a business would look like was based on what I've seen in the corporate world. I didn't know it was possible to build a business on my own terms, a business around my lifestyle, a business around what I want to do with my time. And so I built, I built another nine to five job for myself when I created my first business. 

Lesley Logan 12:00  

Or nine to nine, something like that. 

Nadine Hanafi 12:02  

Yeah, exactly. And I unwillingly traded one boss, who is a nasty boss, into like, 12 bosses, because every single one of my clients was my boss, and because I did not know how to set boundaries. You know, I was just being bossed around by my own clients. And so my first business was really a playground for me to make all the mistakes and learn from them. And so this second business that I'm building is me doing going back and taking all the things I did wrong the first time and doing them right this time around. But the be it examples, my gosh. I mean, the biggest thing that I did when I was starting my first business was give myself mentors to see examples of what my future success could look like. Because I didn't have those good examples around me. I had to expand my horizons. And meeting people, other entrepreneurs who were further ahead than me and seeing how they run their business like, what does the behind the scenes of their business look like, that was me, my effort of trying to project what my future could look like and how I could design a business for myself on my terms.

Lesley Logan 13:15  

I, that's so, I love it all. Okay, let's just talk about the like, create what we, it's, in business and in relationships, we create date what we know. 

Nadine Hanafi 13:27  

Exactly.

Lesley Logan 13:27  

You know, and it can be, which is, makes it hard to be it till you see it, because you're, if you don't look outward, which I love that you talk about mentors, like, if you don't like the situation you're in before you start something, one, be it till you see it can think, can actually just be like, seeking out examples of what you don't, because otherwise, yeah. And then I, so funny that you mentioned boundaries. I just posted from my Profitable Pilates account today, like, if you have policies but you don't enforce them, you don't have policies, what you have is future resentment. Like, you know, like, I have clients who tell me, charge me if they're late canceling because I told them I'm going to charge you. You late cancel, I'm charging you, and now they go, charge me. But like, people aren't going to be like, hey, you didn't charge me for that late cancel.

Nadine Hanafi 13:27  

That's right. They're not going to enforce your boundaries for you. 

Lesley Logan 13:37  

No, they're not. And you had mentioned your 12 clients, it's true. Like, if you don't tell them, here's when I respond to you, here's the appropriate way to communicate with me, here's when you're when your money is due. They're going to just push you around because they can. It just makes everything unclear. So that is really, I just love that that happened on the same day that I literally said I'm like, if you don't have like, policies or boundaries, to me, they're this, they're the exact same thing. They're like, telling people how you can treat someone. I think the first business is where you learn, it's, you know, it's really hard because of social media. Like young kids on YouTube, young kids can make millions of dollars with their social media, and it's hard to be, I'm 41 to look at that and go, oh my God, I didn't even, like, that wasn't even an opportunity for me. Also, like, good for them, because they are living in a, they don't have bills, they're living at their parent's house, they can do whatever they want. Like the rest of us, do? We have to be kinder to ourselves because we're exactly where we're supposed to be if we learn the lessons we're supposed to learn, and then also we get to do what we want with that. They might be stuck with whatever. They just created $7 million with of subscriber, you know what I mean? 

Nadine Hanafi 15:21  

That's right. And if I may share one more thing on that topic, I guess the biggest lesson for me, and I was telling you how I've been in business for 10 years, but I've only started truly growing my business in the last two years. And that's because two years ago, I had an epiphany, which is that my business growth plateaued at the level of my personal growth, and I, for years, would take all the courses, read all the books, learn from all the gurus about the tactics and strategies of what to do. And I had it all right, and I was doing all the right things. I thought I was. But what I was missing was belief in myself, confidence and my ability to actually create results with those strategies and tactics. It wasn't until I prioritized my personal growth that I actually started seeing real growth in my business, financial growth in my business, and so that mindset shift unlocked a lot of things for me. So I just wanted to share that, because it just was one of my biggest aha moments. 

Lesley Logan 16:29  

Everyone, hit rewind and re-listen to that, because it's like we're on the same parallel universe right now. Earlier this week, I was telling, I've told my agency members this before, I told them this actually the last couple of times we've been in a group session together, and I just reminded them, I'm like, if you don't believe in you, no strategy I give you is going to work. Like, this strategy I'm giving you might not be the right strategy for you, but you're definitely going to think it's crap if you don't believe in you. And I said to them also, like, if you're not protecting, because they're Pilates instructors who are teaching, right, if you're not protecting your Pilates practice, no strategy I give you is going to work, because you're not prioritizing yourself, and you will run out of energy. When we run out of energy, what do we, we don't actually have the ability to believe in ourselves more than we did, you know, you just, you're out of energy. And so, like, it is so your personal growth, protecting your self-care, taking care of like, what do I need today? What is my, how's my body doing today? Those things are going to affect tremendously at your growth of your business, for sure. For sure. Yeah, it's so interesting because being in a business as long as we've been in and having this, some of the success we've had, I've been on some stages with some people who have even bigger success. And I was listening to things that they're saying and and it was so funny, because some of my listeners have heard of the story already, but I was on stage with two guys who have businesses way bigger than mine. We're like, we almost hit a million, this guy runs $100 million of ads across social media platforms. And this other guy worked for like (inaudible). They're all huge, multi, like, right, huge. So it's like, small, medium, large. And I was like, kind of intimidated, right? Like, why am I on the stage with these people? But then they were saying things that I was like, yeah, that works, and I don't, that's not also good. And so it's really interesting. We can put these people on a pedestal who are farther along than us, and we forget we know things. And like, you know, our intuition knows things, and our values know things. And so if you aren't taking care of your personal growth and you're not spending time with yourself, can be so easy to fall into the trap of these other people. What they were saying, and I've like, was like, I really, I really disagree with that.

Nadine Hanafi 18:36  

I love that. Yeah, straight up. Yeah, you have to be able to tune in to your own thoughts and your own intuition and operate from a place of like conviction, because you know what's right, rather than just listen to what everyone else is telling you, because they're telling you it's good advice. You have to, you know, be able to have that discernment to recognize well what's right for you at this stage for what you're trying to do.

Lesley Logan 19:02  

Yeah. Discernment is very different than, like, a negative self-talk or self-doubt or a lack of confidence. Like, discernment is, you know, you're actually more firmly planted. Has it been easy? Like, do you find, was confidence easy for you? 

Nadine Hanafi 19:16  

No, absolutely not. So as somebody who is heavily bullied as a child, confidence has been my life's battle. I was born in Minnesota, but I grew up in Morocco. My parents are from Morocco, and I learned English at a very young age, but then they moved me back to Morocco and put me in school right away, before I had a chance to remember Arabic and French, because that's what we speak in Morocco, right? 

Lesley Logan 19:40  

Arabic and French. You have to do two? 

Nadine Hanafi 19:42  

Yes, two. So I grew up trilingual. 

Lesley Logan 19:46  

That is so cool, by the way. 

Nadine Hanafi 19:48  

Thank you. 

Lesley Logan 19:49  

Yeah, I get, so, I learned enough Arabic to say hello, thank you, no, I cannot give you that discount.

Nadine Hanafi 19:55  

All the martinis.

Lesley Logan 19:59  

Yeah. And so my wives would shop, and then, like, the husband come in and ask for a discount, and I would say, all I know how to say is, shukran, okay, sorry, I cut you off. That's so hard as a child to remember all three.

Nadine Hanafi 20:17  

Yeah, so I learned Arabic and French. I'm like, three years old, and then four years old, and they moved me back to Minnesota. I learned English there, and they moved me back to Morocco and put me in school. And I'd forgotten English and Arabic, or, sorry, French and Arabic, and I only know how to speak English, but nobody else did. And so rather than (inaudible) school, I was the American kid. Don't talk to her. She doesn't speak our language. And that just followed me through elementary school, and I was just like the odd kid, and so I would just hang out by myself a lot, and my social skills obviously suffered from that as a child and then as a teenager, and I didn't really grow into my own self until my 20s, and this, this fear, this sense of being inadequate, not belonging, kind of followed me. It's just, and I'm sharing this with you, because I didn't come to this realization until a couple of years ago where I was like, damn, this has actually been following me my entire life, and it's been stunting my growth. This feeling of not being good enough, not being loved, you know? And so, yes, confidence has been like my biggest battle in life is having that confidence. So the name of your podcast speaks to me a lot, because I basically have had to fake it, you know, I've had to fake this confidence for so many years, until finally it just started feeling real. And basically it was my experience, the expertise that I built, the amount of clients that I served, the result that I was able to get for them. All of that is what started to fill the gap between who, how I was showing up, and that quote, unquote, fake confidence and the real me. And today I'm confident because I know the results I can deliver. I know my history, I know my expertise, I know my staff, and that's where my confidence comes from. And I also know my worth. I know my worth now better than I ever have in my entire life, not just my worth as a business owner and as an expert in my field, but also just as a human being. I've come to terms with the fact that I am enough, even if I was crap at business, I would still be enough, and that's huge.

Lesley Logan 22:29  

I love, yeah, confidence really does come from doing the thing you said you were gonna do, you know. And so, like. 

Nadine Hanafi 22:29  

You keep promises to yourself. 

Lesley Logan 22:29  

Yeah, and then, and just keeping up, and doesn't mean you do it perfectly, but just like you told the client you were going to deliver this amazing product, you did deliver an amazing product, and then you acknowledge you delivered an amazing product. And so often we do the first two things, and then we don't give ourselves the credit for having done the thing. And so we don't get the benefits of the confidence that it comes from being so consistent with what we know.

Nadine Hanafi 23:01  

And the other aspect of confidence that I struggled with, I know so many people do, is visibility. And so visibility has been a huge thing for me. I was always really comfortable in the behind the scenes of my business, not being the face, you know, like, oh, I like putting my clients in the spotlight, in the limelight, like you go out there, you shine. I'll just sit here and support you. That was comfortable for me. But again, I realized that my business growth was going to plateau at the level of my visibility too, because visibility is also exposure. It's growth. It's putting yourself out there and getting your message out there, so more eyes on what you do. And so that's been the late, the latest monster that I've slain, is the fear of visibility for me. In fact, I just recorded my first podcast episode today because I'm launching a podcast. 

Lesley Logan 23:52  

That's so cool. You guys heard it here first. That is so cool.

Nadine Hanafi 23:57  

It's called Grand Party and it's been sitting in my head and in my heart for over a year, and I've been so scared of starting it, of doing it because I've been scared of the visibility that will come with it, also the commitment of, like, consistent content every week, but mostly the visibility. And so it's a really huge deal for me that I was finally over, you know, able to overcome that fear and pull the trigger and do this.

Lesley Logan 24:24  

Yeah, be surprised. Hire someone to do all the editing and all the stuff, and then whether you do it or not, you're paying them, and that makes me get my -ish done.

Nadine Hanafi 24:33  

Well, you know, that's actually so true, I'm so glad you said that, because I procrastinated for a year. And so I met this woman who owns a production company, and she's like, oh, well, let's do this. And she sent me the contracts. Th e contract sat in my inbox for three months, and she finally sent me an ultimatum, saying, all right, if you don't sign this, I'm gonna have to, like, take down your contract from our system. And I, I said to myself, I didn't write this term, but I said, thank you. Thank you for giving me, sending me that email, because I needed somebody to light a fire under my butt in that moment and just sign the damn thing. And the thing is, is when I signed it, I also had to pay. Now I have skin in the game, and yeah, like you said, the minute you have skin in the game, and you actually have to put out money for this, you better make that thing happen. So it is one way to hold yourself accountable. 

Lesley Logan 25:22  

And also, like, I am not someone who typically needs an accountability person, but especially if there's a little bit of fear, especially putting something out there that is a part of you, yes, visibility, but also, like, the feedback that you didn't ask for from the people you know, like, you can tell yourself a story of like, what it could be and it's never, it's never as bad or as good as you think it's going to be. But there's that fear, until you put it out there, like, when we started a YouTube channel, I resisted it big time. I'm not going to do a YouTube channel. This is back in like, 2014 my husband's like, you should do a YouTube channel. I'm like, no, there's other people who are better teachers than me. They should be doing it, they've been teaching longer. I was just downplaying myself. All the excuses. And really, what it came down to is I was so afraid of what people were gonna say about the videos. They're gonna say I was teaching it wrong or doing it wrong, and so we did some, we put it out there. And you know what happened? Nothing. Because. 

Nadine Hanafi 26:17  

Plot twist. 

Lesley Logan 26:18  

Yeah, like, I mean, people watched it, but especially when you're a new YouTube or a new podcast, like, now if you have a following and a platform to tell people about it, but back then, I had nothing. Instagram was anything. Guys like, I didn't have anything to share what I was doing on, so I was just waiting for the random people to come across it. And the first thing someone said was, thank you, this is amazing. So, like, we tell ourselves a story that like, oh my God, what if people don't like it. What if they say anything? And so that's it. But I do, for the big things that scare me in my business, I do like there has to be some skin in the game, so that I can't talk myself out of it or procrastinate or tell myself I should do it later, or whatever it is. So I'm excited for your podcast. I can't wait to listen to it. 

Nadine Hanafi 26:56  

Oh, thank you. 

Lesley Logan 26:57  

This is so exciting. Okay, so obviously, your next thing, you're being it till you see it as the podcast host. Is there anything else that you are working on as far as being it till you see it? Yeah, tell me more.

Nadine Hanafi 27:09  

Okay, so with Digital Brand Kit, we are wanting to change the game when it comes to branding. Really, we are innovating in so many ways, and one of the platforms and one of the messages that we want to put out there is that branding can actually help you with your confidence, right? It can help you. We're all about helping you grow your business from the outside in, which is counterintuitive, because I've been talking to you about growing your business from the inside out and like you have to embody the person you want to be, etc, yes. But also, when it comes to branding, there's a way for you to use branding to show up as the next version of yourself, as I like to say, brand your higher self, right? And we've seen this with our clients. We've seen it with me and my brand and my business. And when you brand yourself as the business that you want to build, as that seven-figure business, six-figure business, whatever it is. And you show up with that big brand energy, you then, kind of your confidence catches up to that, right?

Lesley Logan 27:09  

I mean, it's a BBE, that's what you need, guys. 

Nadine Hanafi 28:04  

That's right. Your confidence kind of just catches up to that. Because, the way, I mean, there's something to be said about how people see you, the love that you get, right, the how you are received and perceived, and how you are going to feel and act, right? And if somebody, if you walk into a room and you have a room full of people, who are you know, they know you, they like you, they want to hear from you, they're eager to learn from you. You're going to come into it with a completely different sense of confidence than if you walk into a room where nobody knows who you are or they don't like you. And so branding is really how you're able to create that perception, create that perception of who you want to be to these people before they even meet you. And make them want to work with you. Make them want to meet you and learn from you, and create like that attractive energy, right?

Lesley Logan 29:10  

I think you got to coin BBE, babe. Big Brand Energy. I love it. I love it. 

Nadine Hanafi 29:16  

I will. 

Lesley Logan 29:17  

I completely, it's so true. It's kind of like it's an and, right? It's like you gotta work on yourself for your business to grow, but also you might need to put out into the world what you expect your business to be, so that you can kind of close the gap. And that's a be it till you see it like, this is the thing I want, I'll put that out there, and I'm going to get myself developed up to it. 

Nadine Hanafi 29:36  

Yeah, and what I want to say about that too, is we, maybe seven, eight years ago, we lived in a world, in the online business world, where people could afford to just show up and make, take a lot of massive action and put themselves out there, put their content out there in a very messy, unprofessional I just thought this together last night, way, right, but because they were teaching good stuff and there wasn't a lot of people teaching this stuff. They would get attention, they would get business. There's so many people in the online business world now, and there's a lot of charlatans, and there's a lot of people who don't know what they're talking about. And so if you are somebody who actually knows what you're talking about, you owe it to yourself to brand yourself as the expert that you are, so that you don't get mistaken for one of those charlatans who are out there teaching things stuff that they don't know, just because maybe they have better branding than you, right? And so.

Lesley Logan 30:30  

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you owe it to the people you're here to help to, you know, like. 

Nadine Hanafi 30:34  

Most importantly. 

Lesley Logan 30:35  

Not to put pressure on my perfectionist overachievers listening. I see you, but like Daniel Pink said it in an interview I listened to him years ago, and I have never forgotten it. He said, "If what you do takes pain away from someone, solves a problem that they have, you have a moral obligation to make sure it gets to them." You have moral obligation to sell it to them. It's actually really freaking selfish of you to keep it to yourself.

Nadine Hanafi 31:01  

1,000% oh, my God, I'm so glad you shared that, because I wrote a blog post about this a few weeks ago, about how I overcame my fear of selling, and it was that exact mindset shift. It was somebody who told me, like Nadine, just get over yourself already. This is not about you. This is about all the people that you can help, and the longer you keep, you stay in this fear of showing up and you're not putting yourself out there, you're not putting your products out there. You are depriving all these people from the solutions that you could share with them, that could change their businesses. So what are you doing? Get over yourself. And I was like, damn, that's a good point. Yeah, that's a mindset shift right there.

Lesley Logan 31:41  

Yeah, it really is. Okay, we're gonna take a brief break. Find out how people can find you, follow you, work with you. 

Lesley Logan 31:47  

All right, Nadine, if somebody is obsessed and ready to, like, step into their big brand energy, they want you to help them because, my goodness, branding ourselves, it's not easy, and you've already figured it out. So where can people find you, follow you, work with you? 

Nadine Hanafi 31:59  

Well, if you're interested in learning more, I'd love to see you over at our Instagram, @digitalbrandkit or my personal Instagram, which is @Nadine.Hanafi, H-A-N-A-F-I, and if you want to check out our full-stack branding system, that's digitalbrandkit.com.

Lesley Logan 32:15  

Awesome. You guys, we'll have all the links in the notes below, so it's super easy for you to find everything. And I'm so excited because part of the things we've been able to share with our agency members is your amazing kit. And you guys, I normally don't say this, but I'm going to, we have spent a lot of money as a company on branding and then rebranding things and what you your company has done is figured out a way to make it easy for people to step into that without it being like $10,000. So you do things like, I mean, just amazing how you figure things out. So I just really, really love the work that you put out there. It's very unique. 

Nadine Hanafi 32:21  

Thank you. Thank you. 

Lesley Logan 32:54  

Okay, be it action items, bold, executable, intrinsic target steps people can take to be it till they see it being that big brand energy. What do you got for us?

Nadine Hanafi 33:01  

Yeah. So my first piece of advice if you want to brand your higher self is book a photo shoot. So we have beautiful templates. We have beautiful branding templates, yes, but our beautiful branding templates are not going to look nice if you put your old, crappy photos in them, right? You're gonna need some really nice high-end brand photography. And brand photography isn't regular photography, isn't going to a studio and doing three poses and getting these professional headshots that look like passport photos, right? It's actual branding photos where it's like you in your natural environment working, assuming your natural environment is a Airbnb you rented for the weekend that's super stylish and doesn't look anything like your house. But that's okay, right? But anyways, creating this library of brand images that are showcasing you in action, working with people, working with your clients, doing work on your laptop, on a whiteboard, whatever it is, is how you're going to allow people to or create an immersive brand experience. So you know, you're not your branding, you're not your beautiful colors and fonts, but when you infuse this beautiful brand photography into it, then it comes to life, right? So I can't stress enough how important it is to book a professional brand photo shoot and actually do it properly. So you need to get at least 50 solid shots, not three, because you need variety, right? Super important. But that's one of the biggest things that you can do that is going to help you create that big brand energy very quickly.

Lesley Logan 34:38  

I couldn't agree more. I think, like our business changed when, and I also was able to step into that version of myself when I actually worked with Monica Linda of Girl Squad, you guys know her, but we didn't use my space. I used her beautiful space. And I was like, oh, my God, people are gonna think this is my living room. No one cared. No one's like, that's not your living room. Like, no. I didn't have a living room, guys, at the time, we didn't have a living room. Like, people now, all of the stuff we use as my, as my space, but like, it really does make a big difference. And you do want those photos to be the thing that you're wishing you're showing up as, and that you would be showing up at someday, because you'll actually share them. You'll actually use them. Your website will be the thing that you're excited to share and send people to, like if you're embarrassed of the photos you won't, you won't use them.

Nadine Hanafi 35:26  

And you know, let me share something with you, Lesley, that I did not share with you when we first talked because I didn't realize it after, until after we talked, Monica, before I worked with her, she shared with me some portfolio images, and one of the images that she shared with me were your photos, and I remember your photos were fabulous. And I remember seeing your photos, and I think I asked her even I said, is she a model? Because your photos were just so good. You're so poised, and they're so fun and original. And I just remember, because that was before I worked with here, I was like, oh, I can't wait to have, like, nice, professional images like this, too, and that stayed with me, like, you looked amazing, and you gave off that big brand energy, big time in your photos.

Lesley Logan 35:26  

Yeah, and you know, thank you, and also like. 

Nadine Hanafi 35:29  

You're welcome. 

Lesley Logan 35:30  

Here is, here's a little tip, guys, laugh out loud, actually, like, make yourself laugh. It, it makes the smile have energy to it, versus, like, right?

Nadine Hanafi 36:23  

So true.

Lesley Logan 36:24  

Like, there's a whole different energy that comes out of it. And so that is my big tip on a fun photo. Like a fun energetic photo is like, laugh out loud. 

Nadine Hanafi 36:33  

Authentic. 

Lesley Logan 36:34  

Yes. And I also like to go back, Monica is a branding photographer. I want to highlight you said that a branding photographer is very different than your family photo shoot, than, like, you know, because they do get, but nowadays, you guys, there are these crazy places where people have staged photo rooms, like, here in Vegas, I used one the other day just to get five pictures for our flashcard deck redone. And I walked in, there was like a floral wall. There was a little room that looked like an office, like it was $100 an hour, and you had like, eight different stages that were already set up. And I was like, oh, I can be in a phone booth right now. 

Nadine Hanafi 37:08  

That's right, that's right. No, it's super important. And I can't stress that enough, because I'm explaining this to people all the time. Look, what is the difference between brand photography and regular photography? You want brand photography and you want to see what that looks like, we have a blog post at digitalbrandkit.com which is about like how to plan your photo shoot, exactly our most opened email newsletter that we sent, how to plan your photoshoot like a pro. And in it, we have these examples of how to organize your shot lists, which is a very, very handy tool that most photographers will do for you, but not all of them do. So it's good if you can be proactive and create your own shot list. So go find that blog post on our website to learn more about how to plan your shots.

Lesley Logan 37:52  

Oh my God, yes. And if you'll send me that link, we'll also put it in the show notes, because that is an essential thing. I can get way more photos than what they said was in the contract because I'm organized.

Nadine Hanafi 38:03  

That's right, that's exactly what I did. I basically 10x how many photos I was able to get out of my last photo shoot because I was so organized, and my photographer loved me. She's like, I'm literally just checking boxes. 

Lesley Logan 38:14  

Yep, yep. That's exactly what you need to do. We could go on and on for hours. You are so amazing. I'm so grateful for you, and I'm grateful that we got to meet, and thank you for sharing so generously your stories about your life and growing your business and what branding is. You guys, how are you going to use these tips in your life? Let Nadine know, let the Be It Pod know, share this with a friend who's struggling with their business and just kind of like trying to figure things out, this might be the thing they need to get out of their own way and maybe show up with that big brand energy. All right, love, until next time. Be It Till You See It. 

Lesley Logan 38:44  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.

Brad Crowell 39:27  

It's written, filmed and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.

Lesley Logan 39:32  

It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.

Brad Crowell 39:36  

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.

Lesley Logan 39:43  

Special, thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.

Brad Crowell 39:47  

Also to Angelina Herrico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meredith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.

In this week’s Fuck Yeah Friday episode, Lesley Logan highlights the inspiring wins of her listeners and shares one of her own. Lesley reflects on Mary Dellanina’s ability to find joy during injury recovery and Jennifer Hildebrandt’s courage to set boundaries in her business. Plus, she celebrates the success of her fourth round of eLevate. Tune in for uplifting stories that show how recognizing both big and small victories can keep you motivated, especially during challenging times. This episode is a powerful reminder that you're always in control of how you feel!

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at [email protected].

And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.

In this episode you will learn about:

• How Mary stayed productive despite her foot injury.
• Jennifer’s journey to enforcing new pricing policies with confidence.
• The impact of eLevate round 4 on participants' confidence.
• Lesley’s insights on building a program aligned with passion and values.

Episode References/Links:

• eLevate Round 5

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

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Resources:

• Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube!
• Lesley Logan website
• Be It Till You See It Podcast
• Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan
• Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube
• Profitable Pilates

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Episode Transcript:

Lesley Logan 0:00  

It's Fuck Yeah Friday. 

Brad Crowell 0:01  

Fuck yeah. 

Lesley Logan 0:02  

Get ready for some wins. Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.

Lesley Logan 0:46  

Hi, Be It babe. How are you? Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It podcast, where we are going to discuss your wins and one of mine, and remind ourselves that there are ways that we could be celebrating more than we are doing in this world to be it till you see it, which means taking the step while you're scared and doing the best you can and not being so hard on yourself. So let's start with your wins. We have Mary Dellanina. Past few weeks of wins. Here we go. Kelly and I had let me know about being on the FYF pod, the only one I hadn't listened to, and I needed it just then. Thanks, LL. So little pause, guys. What that meant is I actually had shared one of Mary's wins in an episode, and she got to hear her win again and relive that win, which is so needed, because sometimes you're like, nothing's going right, and then you remember some things were going right back then. So there you go. So that is exactly why you want to send your wins in. So thank you, Kelly, for telling Mary about it. All right, back to Mary. I needed a reminder from February to keep my head up as the studio is a little emptier in July, I wrote a newsletter about sharing our wins, and it was fun to see people write back about their weekly wins. Way to go. I love that. I love that you had your people, Sarah, their wins too. This is so fun. Met Kelly and I hand to work on her website. Gave me a break as I have a stress fracture on my left foot, to reach out to other instructors and try to stay sane as I don't, I can't do my cardio, I love my bike ride in the summer. I took a class with an instructor I met through LL, winter tour years ago, she opened a new studio. It's fun to see what she's been going on with a lovely day. Really working on my Pilates self-practice as I can't do my pickleball or biking, making time to write my newsletters during classes that I had to cancel due to low turnout. A few folks in my membership have been giving me frustrated vibes this week, and I probably kindly, yes, it is usually user error, but treating them with kindness does help. I told my clients that I'm not making any decisions regarding moving for at least a year. This also helped me know that I have a timeline that is not immediate. My young gals in my entrepreneur group, so they are so impressed I continue to see coaching at my age. I'm not dead yet at 59. Mary, there are so many wins here, and I just want to highlight a couple things, you guys. So it is the summer, and she is using these empty hours to get ahead on some things, to help other people out, because then you'll get to see, like, how awesome you are at something, and also to take the head on some things that you'd have to do. So she's not doing them on other hours. She's also taking care of herself, even though she's injured. Huge, huge, huge. Finding ways to work around an injury is a big deal. That's a win. And also, you know, it is a win to be kind and also honest with people when they're screwing some things up. I love that, Mary. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. 

Lesley Logan 3:31  

Jennifer Hildebrandt, she's an agency member, and here is her win. My win. After months, more accurately, years, of hemming, hawing, fawning, fretting and procrastinating, I finally sent out a letter to all my Zoom students who I've been teaching online since March 2020 informing them my rate increase, schedule changes and cancelation policy effective August 1st. In a panic, when the pandemic hit, I slashed my prices and eliminated my cancelation policy and literally, literally had no boundaries around my schedule. And I haven't changed any of that all these years. Resentment, shame and embarrassment, along with a host of other thoughts and feelings, have been building up inside me. I was at a boiling point. Something had to be done. I got some great feedback from members, as well as some really helpful video responses from LL about how to approach this, which helped fortify my courage, gave me direction and motivated me to park my ass and write the damn letter. I took so many deep breaths, held myself in grace, compassion, understanding throughout the process, and then I hit send. I was filled with relief and peace that knowing that this act was a huge step and align my work with my life, I am so grateful, the strong, supportive energy of this group which helped me through this challenge. Way to go, Jennifer. You guys, sometimes you spend so much time thinking about the conversation you have to have with someone that you forget you create all the stress. You create all this worry. You create all the stories in your head. You got to know that as soon as you actually have the conversation, confrontation, you will have a huge flood of peace and relief because you said the thing, you did the thing, you took the step. So take the step. Thank you, Jennifer, for sharing your step with us so we can all celebrate that with you and be inspired by you. Some of you are gonna write a letter today. 

Lesley Logan 5:16  

All right guys, my win, eLevate round four has wrapped. Now, it doesn't mean it's goodbye from these amazing humans that I've been able to teach for the last nine months. It is actually like you've graduated and now you're with the alumni, and we can continue to chat and answer questions and support you. And it's just really cool. This is a really cool time. And when every eLevate round starts, it is overwhelming. People are at all different levels. They're all different confidence levels, all different practice levels, all different levels of understanding what Pilates is, and it is really fun for me to help them find trust in their practice and trust in their bodies and trust in their method and to prioritize themselves, and so congratulations, round four, you are epic humans, and I am so, so, so grateful that you trusted me in your journey. Thank you for letting me share what my mentor passed along to me with you so that you can continue to pass it on to your students. And it's not over, because now you're in the alumni and now you can come to the alumni retreat, and when that, and also some of the stuff that we learn takes years to kind of come into your body, takes time, you know. So I'm so, so, so, so, so grateful, and I'm so proud of you, and it's a win for me, because honestly, when we created eLevate, I was like, does anyone want this? Is this something people are going to need? Am I going to like doing it? And I do, I love doing it. I absolutely love doing it. And I created a program that changes people's lives that I love doing and I think we all need to know that you can create things that support and have amazing impact on people that align with your work and your values and your needs and your goals. So that is a huge win. Get a few months off of actually, like eLevate-ish stuff we do quarterly calls and things like that. But round five will start in January. So in January, you'll hear a win that I'm celebrating round five kicked off. Because, yes, it is a win, even if I do it every January. And if you are a teacher who's interested in eLevate, you can reach out to us. If there's spots left in 2025 we'd love to chat with you about it and go to lesleylogan.co/elevate.

Lesley Logan 7:34  

All right, let me leave you with your mantra. Remember, these are random. I just scroll on down and see which one pops out, and it is, I am in charge of how I feel and I choose to feel happy. I am in charge of how I feel and I choose to feel happy. I am in charge of how I feel and I choose to feel happy. My loves, you are in charge of how you feel. Please choose to be happy. You are amazing. And until next time, Be It Till You See It.

Lesley Logan 8:03  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.

Brad Crowell 8:46  

It's written, filmed and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan and me, Brad Crowell. 

Lesley Logan 8:51  

It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.

Brad Crowell 8:55  

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi. 

Lesley Logan 9:02  

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals. 

Brad Crowell 9:06  

Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally, to Meredith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.