Ep#39 I Am...Empowering Female Entrepreneurs & Building Mental Strength Through Fitness with Kristen Werner

This weeks episode Kristen was invited on the Start Up & Running Podcast to talk to Ange McDonald all things fitness and entrepenurship.

Kristen Werner, co-founder of the Hive Hub Collective, opens up about her incredible journey from forging connections on TikTok to empowering a community of digital entrepreneurs.

Discover how Kristen and her co-founder, Mia, created a membership platform that supports women in building sustainable online businesses. We dive into the importance of community and personal growth, and how their collective has become a beacon of support for aspiring female entrepreneurs.

Kristen also shares her transformative fitness journey and its impact on her mental well-being and creativity. From solitary workouts in her home gym to using innovative fitness apps like TFXO, Kristen emphasises the convenience and consistency needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Her dedication to keeping  fitness in her life as a must have serves as an inspiring reminder that physical activity can be a powerful tool for building confidence and resilience.

The episode takes a heartfelt turn as Kristen recounts her battle with malignant melanoma and the life-changing decision to run a half marathon. This powerful story illustrates the profound connection between mental strength and physical endurance. Kristen’s experience serves as a testament to the transformative power of fitness, showing how overcoming mental hurdles can equip us to tackle both personal and professional challenges with greater confidence. Join us for an episode filled with motivation, inspiration, and practical advice on building both mental and physical strength.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the.

Speaker 2: 0:04

I am dot dot dot podcast, the podcast for busy mums who want to consume useful shit for their biz and their life. Here we tackle the things we know are holding mums and women back in their business. We're not afraid to tackle the big shit, the bullshit and the good shit. We go from mum guilt to confidently learning how to kick ass in this digital space. We will discuss the world of digital marketing and share life's tips and tricks for getting it done. As six-figure business owners with over 10 years of digital marketing and brand experience, and mums to young kids, we get it, we share it and we own it. So buckle up and let's go. Let's go. I don't know. That was really good. Welcome to the I Am Dot Dot Dot podcast, the podcast for busy creators who want to consume useful shit for their biz and their life.

Speaker 2: 0:53

I am Kristen Werner and today I'm not joined with Mia. Today I am lucky enough to have a little cheeky guest spot on one of our incredible members podcast, ange McDonald's podcast. Start Up and Running that is the name of her business. Ange is a legal legend and she's come into our world, certainly inside the Hive Hub Collective, and just helped us see everything we need to be legally legit. She is so incredibly helpful with members inside our community. We've had her on our podcast before. We absolutely love Ange.

Speaker 2: 1:24

So when she said to me hey, krista, would you like to come and be a guest on my new podcast talking all things moving your body for mental health well, needless to say, team, I lost my freaking mind because that is my goddamn jam.

Speaker 2: 1:39

If you have not been around the Hive Hub Collective for long, or you have not been around me for long, you may not understand this, but I am incredibly passionate when it comes to moving your body for mental health and I'm such an enormous advocate I always have been but there's been certain moments within my life that it's just shown up full steam that when we move our body, we feel better, we think better and as an entrepreneur, as a mom, but certainly as an entrepreneur it is imperative that we move our body because our mind is one goddamn powerful tool. But look, I get my passion pants on in this interview. It was such a pleasure to talk to Ange Bring your Kleenex, because every time this particular story gets me, but I want to share it because it's really, really powerful. So I had an absolute pleasure speaking to Ange. I hope you enjoy this episode.

Speaker 1: 2:28

All right, let's go Thrilled to speak with Kristen Lerner yesterday. Kristen is one half of the power duo that is the Hive Hub Collective. Kristen is a marketer, a content coach, an all-round online business guru and also a runner, so it was delightful to talk to Kristen about her experience and she's very passionate about movement and the importance that movement plays for personal development and also for the development of your business. So it was thrilling, if slightly emotional, times, to chat to Kristen. It was very exciting for the podcast. Can I welcome Kristen Werner from the Hive Hub Collective and other things that we'll talk about today? Hi, kristen.

Speaker 2: 3:20

Hey, thank you so much for having me. This is very exciting.

Speaker 1: 3:23

Thanks for being our inaugural guest Pleasure Pleasure I look forward to, you know, years down the track when we've both had podcasts that are wildly successful and businesses wildly successful. Looking back at this moment and being like remember when we guested on each other's- podcasts.

Speaker 2: 3:39

Remember that moment when it all just changed and the things happened.

Speaker 1: 3:44

Love it. So Kristen is one half of the Hive Hub Collective, along with Mia, and do you want to tell us a little bit about what you guys do over at the Hive Hub?

Speaker 2: 3:55

Absolutely so. Over the Hive Hub Collective, we have a membership which is for digital entrepreneurs, basically. So we work with content creators and we really saw this space in the content creator economy, in this space of like learning how to build digital products, learning how to build a personal brand, even, and the power of your personal brand, the power of your own brand, and what they can do in terms of creating, and what we like to say is like we want to break the mold and redefine what work looks like to you, especially for more millennial women, for more of us that are. I'm not 40 yet, but I'm heading there and you know we've been so Not for a little, yeah, and look, there's going to be a big party for it, and I'm not ashamed or upset about it, but it's happening and that's okay. But I think for us, it's more. You know, we've been to school, you get a job, you have your kids, you go back to work, and we just found ourselves.

Speaker 2: 4:46

I'm incredibly entrepreneurial, as is Mia, and we just found ourselves like I'm not going back to work after kids, like absolutely not. And so we found a way to create an online business, and then we met each other via TikTok and had never met. I actually just reached out and sent her a voice DM and was like, hey, we should do some things. And from there we started a business, the Hive Hub Collective and so we're a membership where you can come in and learn how to build a business online that's sustainable, that really looks after you and what you want.

Speaker 2: 5:20

So, whether it's UGC, whether it's creating a digital product, whether it's creating a digital course, like Ange is moving into, whether it's just finding a different way, becoming a VA or finding a different way to get paid basically redefining that. So it's been a hell of a ride. It's been one year officially since we did that random DM and we've just gone, leaps about and the community is just. I mean, ange is a part of our community, but it's just the most uplifting, beautiful, supportive community that we just want to help we get things done. That's basically what we want to do is make sure that we're the people like, yeah, it's possible, it's absolutely possible, let's try it.

Speaker 1: 5:57

Absolutely. And such helpful practical advice that you get from you guys and from other members in the community yeah, I find it's a really valuable resource that I use in my business, so thank you for creating that.

Speaker 2: 6:12

Pleasure pleasure and I think that's what you know. The cool part is is like Mia's background is really around the UGC and she started her journey in that space and had huge success coming from becoming. She was an AMBO and then she moved into content creation and saw like massive success. But then mine is like this different story where I came from brand marketing, worked a corporate career, got made redundant and then was like, oh, I don't want to go back to work, so I'm just going to have to build my own business, and so the two stories are really cool. And then what we then bring to the membership is just is nice because we compliment each other in what we kind of lack, the other picks up, so it's really cool.

Speaker 1: 6:48

Yeah, absolutely. I think you're a great partnership because of that. Yeah, and one day we'll meet In real life. I know, imagine that. So Kristen and me for the context of that is, I have never met in real life, despite having run a business together for over a year. It's crazy. Well, it's going to be a big party. It might be at the 40th.

Speaker 2: 7:14

Yeah, I know and I feel like there needs to be a content creator there to capture the content, to then publish the content. I was like that's the business we're building.

Speaker 1: 7:21

Yeah, I'm sure we can find someone. That's right. So the Hive Hot, though, is not your only business, because you are a multi-passionate business person. Yes, so tell us what other you know irons do you have in the fire?

Speaker 2: 7:36

Oh, the irons are hot in the fire. I also run. I have, we live in a vineyard. So we're in South Australia and we've got a beautiful vineyard, we in a vineyard. So we're in South Australia and we've got a beautiful vineyard, we just grow grapes. So we grow Shiraz grapes and then they get taken to a vineyard to make the wine. And then, due to that, I decided that I'd start a wedding venue. So on the vineyard we run a bespoke wedding venue. So we do about eight to 10 weddings a year.

Speaker 2: 8:00

A girlfriend about seven years ago said to me oh, we want to get married. Would you actually want to do our wedding on your vineyard? And I was like, yeah, why not? And then she's like, okay, we've got 170 guests. I was like, yeah, cool. And I told my husband he was like, um, sorry, what? I was like oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're just going to do this wedding. So that was seven years ago and ever since we've just done more. We've built it to the point where I built it from the ground up. Hire all the marquees. We've got a shipping container. We turned into a bar. It's really, really cool.

Speaker 2: 8:28

But that's like my creative outlet that I love project management, I love. My why and what we talk about, certainly inside the Hive Hub, is like I want to simplify things for people and I want to make it easier so that when people come to me or when people come to us and they're stressed and they're overwhelmed, they don't know how to do it I'm like it's okay, I got you, not a problem, I'll do it. I like to take that stress away from people. For me, maybe it's the entrepreneurial. I'm dyslexic, there's probably some ADHD in there, who knows? But chaos doesn't bother me in that respect, because I can make it quite clear and quite linear. And so that wedding business is something that, if nothing else, I just love, love. It sets my soul on fire, and when we do it, all my family help out on the day too. So we pay them as staff, but they're there and it's just a really beautiful thing to do.

Speaker 1: 9:15

So that's the other business I do, that's so cool and I wonder whether I mean I find a lot of satisfaction in like doing, like physical tasks, and so, like I like being in our garden. We've just been doing a renovation and I've been doing parts of the renovation myself to the extent that I have the skills about doing something physical, particularly when your job often has you in an intellectual space and on a computer, that it's so nice to kind of be doing something with your hands. And then you see the product that you have created and so you can see the wedding and how it's all come together, and that's really satisfying when usually the product that you've created might be a document or, you know, a video or something like that. But I wonder whether that's also part of the enjoyment of having that separate side of your business.

Speaker 2: 10:14

Oh yeah, absolutely. I think you know you're so right, because even when we do it, one of my cousins who I know I've got on my phone but she's always wearing her Apple watch that night and stuff like that, and I've always got my phone in my pocket, anyway she came in one morning. She was like, did you realize, over the Saturday morning when we kind of finished setting up and we've usually set up like Thursday, friday and then Saturday morning until Sunday morning when we got up again, she's like we did like 25,000 steps yesterday. I was like, huh, there you go.

Speaker 2: 10:45

But you're right, like the physical part of it is like I'm lifting wine barrels and I'm lifting furniture and I'm moving things, I'm clunning ladders, I'm getting things out of the shipping container. I'm using my brain in a different way that you know. I can see what I want it to look like, but I'll literally be like, no, that carpet's not right, so I'll move that one to there and that one to there, and you know things like that. That, yeah, it's the physical part of it. You're outside, I'm in the fresh air, I'm moving around. I'm not allowing my brain to overthink, like when I'm at the computer. Your brain's overthinking. I'll show you this. I shouldn't Maybe that like. I think that's the really cool part about it.

Speaker 2: 11:18

Probably why I love it the most is that you do get that element of movement and you do get that. You know the amount of times people are like oh, I'll help you lift that table. I was like I'll lift the table. These are not painted on like that. That's my determination and my grit, I suppose, coming to light. Where I can do it, I don't need you to do it for me. Like that's that stubbornness. I suppose that comes through me, which, and because it's my venture and my idea, I feel like I have to be the front runner of it and that, to me, is another part of my personality, that I'm always in competition with myself. I do like to compete in sport, but at the end of the day, I'm my greatest competition and I'm perfectly happy with that, and that's kind of the way that I push myself when I do want to do things. I think even with that, I'm like no, we'll make this happen. No matter what, I will make this happen.

Speaker 1: 12:10

I love that. I'm a bit the same. I like to do the heavy lifting as much as possible, both in reality and in a metaphorical sense, and so I think that leads nicely into what we talk about here on the podcast, which is the importance of movement and exercise, and, in particular, we're fans of running on these floodguards. But how do you incorporate that into your schedule?

Speaker 2: 12:42

Well, I think for me, now I'm a mum and now that I you know, now the kids are both at school, it's becoming easier, but, like in the past, it's been a bit hard. So for me, the movement side of things running was always a little bit more difficult in terms of getting out and having that solid amount of time. And, like I said, we live on a vineyard, so the roads aren't that great. My knees aren't that great anymore. I'm not going to lie. So for me, what I like to do is I've got a gym shed here. It's pretty dusty, it's pretty dirty, but I don't really care, because I've always said that when I talk about confidence, I always say to my clients and things okay, what's your most confident moment? And they'll kind of think exactly what it is. And I'm like, for me, my most confident moment is when I am sweating from a workout, when I know I've done it, when there's nobody else there but me and I'm like you did that. That's when I feel the most confident, the most beautiful, the most healthy. It's not when I'm in my favorite outfit or something like that, like it's just a really I can always like. I feel just so much better in myself in that moment. And so, for me, I go to the gym and I've got a boxing circuit set up, I've got weights, I've got my treadmill, which, I must admit, heading into the 40s. I got that for my 30th birthday because it's still got the ribbon on it. My husband and his family bought it for me, and the amount of people that said to me, like, weren't you pissed off that someone bought you, like your husband bought you a treadmill that's pretty rude. I was like, mate, best gift I've ever got in my life I mean, maybe not my life, but like it's 10 years. It's done me. I love it, I use it all the time and because we've got the farm and we're home, I can do it whenever. So I'd like to either get up in the morning and do it before the kids wake up, or I do it on the weekend in the morning or, you know, while they're at school now. So between that, I also have the TFXO app. I don't know if you've heard it, yeah, so I love that. I've been a member of hers since my son was born and probably since we moved here, because I also have my certificate for personal training. So that's just another entrepreneurial thing that I did when I left, when I was made redundant.

Speaker 2: 14:46

There's a big, long story to my fitness background and how it culminates to my life in general. But I got my personal training certificate and I don't know, I just kind of, ever since we moved out here, I figured, well, I'm going to have to find another way, because for me I don't mind going to gym, I quite enjoy going to the gym. When I worked in my corporate career the gym was part of the workplace so I'd go at lunchtime or in the morning or something like that. So for me I knew it had to be easy to access. It's not that I wouldn't do it, but you always find a reason not to. And for me, if we lived out here, it's not far. It's probably 15 minutes to get to the closest gym. So it's not hard.

Speaker 2: 15:28

But in my brand I go okay, that's 15 minutes to get there. Then you get there, that's an hour workout. Then that's 15 minutes to get there. Then you get there, that's an hour workout. Then you leave that hour workout and you come home, that's 15 minutes. You have a shower, that's three hours. Because it's out there, I'm like, cool, I'll just get dressed, I'll go out there. I'll come in Like that to me. I needed the path of least resistance, or I wasn't going to do like that, so I just for me. I don't mind solidarity in a workout either. I quite enjoy just being on my own. I don't want anyone else there nine times out of ten. So I needed that more than anything. So that, for me, was what I always choose.

Speaker 1: 16:09

It's so interesting that you raised the TIFX. I've used it before and part of because I also have a background in Taekwondo oh great, I have my third den in Taekwondo and before we moved to where we live now, which is a bit more regional, I was practicing Taekwondo all the time and it was my main source. I mean, I loved that because it has like the goals built in. You know, you do the grading, you get the next belt, you learn new skills, you do the grading, you get the next belt. Yeah, and a good community vibe as well. And yeah, that's I find. I found that really empowering as well to learn those skills of you know the kind of more physical nature. So that app is great and that's. I mean she'd be a wonderful person to talk to because she's such an entrepreneur. I mean she grew up, as I understand it, there's Holland Taekwondo, which is in Melbourne, and that's her family, as I understand it. Yeah, it is, yeah, growing that business and you know she does a lot for women, particularly through having her own babies.

Speaker 2: 17:23

And I think what I like about her is she's got that same mentality that it's not about like, I think, the one she did after her babies was bounce forward. So it's not about bouncing back to your baby, pre-baby, it's about getting a strong body, and that's something for me that I've never done fitness to lose weight, I've always done fitness to build my mental strength, to build my physical strength, just because I know it makes me feel better, and so it's never been for me like the weight part Great, that's fine, whatever but it's never been a main focus. And that's what I love about her program is it's more about building your strength, mentally and physically, so that you can enjoy the nicer things in life, so you can feel better, even if it's just feeling better day to day. I think that's why I love, that's why I've been a member of her since, yeah, whenever my son was born seven or eight years ago.

Speaker 1: 18:14

So, yeah, I absolutely love it it's so interesting you say that as well, because I think whenever I I mean I am lucky in that my weight generally hasn't fluctuated that much throughout my life, um and but whenever I have tried to exercise for the sake of exercising, I've never had success. No, whereas with Taekwondo that was, you know, I lost, I guess, quite a bit of weight and put on quite a bit of muscle while I was doing that. But that was never the reason that I would go. I was going for the mental health and the physical health aspects in, like, you know, just getting that energy out, and you know I have a fairly stressful job and, yeah, being able to get all the other things, the social side, the kind of health benefits just kind of come along with it. You're like, oh yeah, great, yeah, exactly, love that. And it's been the same since I started running.

Speaker 1: 19:14

I was saying in a previous podcast we don't have scales in our house because I don't think weight is a good reflection of health. But I was at my parents-in-law and they've got scales and I weighed myself and I had lost like five or seven kilos and I was like, ah, that's why my pants aren't fitting. Yeah, that makes sense. And now I'm actively trying to eat more of a bottle of weight, but it's one of those things people are like oh yeah, I'm going to run to lose weight.

Speaker 1: 19:43

I feel like that's not necessarily something that's going to keep you motivated, but that's why I signed up for a half marathon, because I know if I've got that goal, that's what's going to keep me going and get me out the door. And then you get the wonderful side effects of you know the mental health benefits and the physical health benefits. And you know, one thing that we've spoken about here before as well as like, and that I didn't anticipate, was I get a lot of creativity. When I go out for a run, like, I find I come up with a lot more ideas. Is that something you've experienced?

Speaker 2: 20:15

Absolutely Like some of my best moments have been. Once I've been for a run and my epiphanies and like my just like my brain, just kind of it goes to this space that I mustn't allow it to go to when I'm in need. So whenever I'm creatively blocked or and I always say I have this I get to a point where, if I get itchy, scratchy and I can feel it, I'm getting annoyed with the kids, I'm getting annoyed with my husband, or just I just kind of have that feeling. I'm like there's like a bear on my back and as soon as I can feel that, I'm like, oh, you haven't been for a run for a while, oh, you haven't been to the gym for a while. The second it's like this creative release that just the ideas come and they're different and they're unique and it's kind of like, oh, anything really is possible. This is like that's where it just it's like your I don't know your body, just I think because your mind is free and it's kind of it's trying to think about your body, because your body needs to keep working. So you're kind of like trying to talk to yourself and make it all happen, and so then your mind just kind of wanders sometimes and all these ideas come. And yeah, it's definitely.

Speaker 2: 21:19

I've found when I feel stuck and blocked, like yesterday even I had a day where I was just like nah, and so I went out there and the second I put my gym clothes on. The second I got into my shed, I automatically just felt like huge weight lifted from my shoulder. On the second I got into my shed, I automatically just felt like huge weight lifted from my shoulder and as I was running I was like, oh, life's amazing, Like God, what were you worried about? And then I got off and I was like, oh, life's amazing, Like it's just a complete mood shift. And that's why I go back, because I've learned what it can do for you and I've always been physically active.

Speaker 2: 21:52

As a kid, I always played sport and stuff like that. But I just know now, as an adult and even as a mom and as an entrepreneur especially like that, just it's part of the only way I think I've been able to keep my mental health in such great form is I know my body enough to know when. If I'm talking, I don't really talk to myself nastily, but if I'm getting that kind of conversation through my head, I'm like, hang on a minute, you need to go for a run or you need to go to the gym, and it just completely changes my mood. It's huge.

Speaker 1: 22:25

Absolutely. I've had a very similar experience End of a long day, you've been working hard and just because your body has to concentrate on, your body has to concentrate on and your mind has to concentrate on what your body is doing. It's almost like a meditation and it's that that escape from anything that's kind of going on in your mind. And then, yeah, all those things that were troubling or taking up mental space all of a sudden don't seem so, they just melt away. They're just like it's not that bad. Those endorphins, they're really good. Never dealing with those things. So what's your? Have you run now in your home gym, which I'm very?

Speaker 2: 23:06

jealous of it's very dirty. I come out with black hands and it's not, but it's how we roll around here on the farm. It's what we do black hands and it's not but it's.

Speaker 1: 23:15

You know, it's how we roll around here on the farm, it's what we do, Absolutely, absolutely, and so has that always been what you've done, or have you had periods of time where you're kind of doing races or running outside?

Speaker 2: 23:25

Well, I did do a half marathon. I did that. I know I did that about 12, maybe 12 or 13 years ago. I did that about 12, maybe 12 or 13 years ago and, like the long and short story of it is when I used to, when I was at school and I played hockey. I used to run at hockey, obviously, but I could do that because short sprint and I was always the one at the back, I was the full back. I was not. I was like I was a solid unit, as in like I've always been very strong and I rode as well and I was always like just that position of the muscle, I was like the muscle kid Right, and so I always said I can't run, I can't run. And so I told myself this story that I can't run. And then I, when I went, when I was in my corporate career, I met a girl who she used to run all the time and she was like of course you can run. I was like I can't run, which is hilarious for the story that I will tell in terms of I really dislike people that say they can't do something because you can. It's just you've told yourself you can't do it, which is also my passion with fitness as well. But I told myself that I can't run. I got a short distance and she said to me no, you can run. I was like my dad used to run. Anyway, it got to the point where I was like, yeah, I'm going to do a half marathon. Now that was off the back of.

Speaker 2: 24:43

I was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma when I was 22. And so it was on my forehead. I've got like this mad scar, like huge scar on my forehead, on my temple, and it was one of those moments where I was 22 and it was really dark, really black. I went to get it checked out and the lady was like okay, we're going to get a biopsy of that right now. And I was like, okay, this can't be good. And so she did that. And so they went in and so it went away for a while. They took the test away and what was like I think it was like two days, for like about six months Cause I was like nobody's calling. And then she called, but the call was you need to come in. And I was like so went in there. That was like on a Friday morning. She said this is a malignant melanoma, but luckily for you it's spread wide. So like that was the luckiest thing that could have happened to me, because it was big, like it was probably about that you can't see it can't see because the podcast but five cent piece was about that big and it was right on my temple.

Speaker 2: 25:43

And so they that day I had an MRR scan, I had a, I had it cut out. That night the surgeon was meant to be flying to Melbourne. He stayed. They cut it out because she was like we just need to get this out and the urgency of it was what frightened me, I suppose, the most obviously. Yeah, and because I had to get it out, they had to cut it probably the size of a 50-cent piece on my temple. But then they had to go deep because they had to make sure they got it all. And the surgeon said to me now we have to leave this wound open in case we miss anything before we close it up. And I was like what so? And during that surgery I was awake, so they just numbed the whole area and I was awake the whole time. So that was enormous.

Speaker 2: 26:31

And then it was like a week, longer than that, that the biopsy results didn't come back, so was just waiting Like I didn't know what was going to happen. You know, you don't just note to self, don't read anything ever on the internet, ever. When you're going through a problem like that and I didn't I must admit it was a blessing and a curse. The diagnosis in terms of I thought it was something, and then I did the Google search and everything that came up was like malignant myeloma, you're going to die. And I was like, oh, and that's what prompted me to get sorted. So that was a massive bonus.

Speaker 2: 27:03

So, anyway, I got that, finally got the results, and they said they'd got it all, which was incredible. So they closed it all up and I had like a hundred. They basically took my cheek to the top of my head and they stitched me like this huge scar, and so that was a lot of healing and a lot of like just deep work and a lot of just mental strength that it took to kind of not tell yourself that it was all done and dusted. And so once that all happened and this friend of mine was like she was through the whole process and she was like you can, you can run. And I was like, oh, I don't know. And then I was like you know what I'm going to do? A half marathon, because it's the only way that I can deal with this in terms of if I can do this, I can tell myself I can do anything. It's going to be emotional, absolutely, but that was the moment for me that was like Impressive. You got this far. So am I actually.

Speaker 2: 28:00

It's blown my mind, but it was that thing for me that I didn't run this half marathon for anybody but me, like I had to do this so that I could tell myself that I would be okay. And so for me that was like, yeah, gosh, that was what made me do it. And so many people kind of said to me you know, do you want to? I'll train with you. And I was like I have to do this alone. I have to know that when I crossed that line, I did all of that work. And so for me, for somebody that has always I'm very happy-go-lucky, shit doesn't bother me. I can always find the cup harmful, it's never empty. And so this was like the way for me to be like the cup is full. Now you just have to prove to yourself that if this ever happens again, you will be okay. And I think that, for me, was like.

Speaker 2: 29:01

That was the part that has made me so passionate about saying to people like your mental health is driven by moving your goddamn body. Like, yeah, like that. That. That to me, that was what got me through it. That, to me, is what anytime something shitty happens, anytime something hard happens, anytime something fucking great happens, what I do is I turn to fitness. I'm like see, you're okay, your body is strong, your mind is strong, your heart is strong. You know, like, what it takes for you. You know, some people are really good runners. Some people are built to run. Their bodies are built to run. My body is not built to run like you can fucking run, but it's not built to like. It's it, you know, and that's not a bad thing, I'm not it, just it. Just I just know when I run that my body's like damn, my joints are sore and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2: 29:50

But for me, what it did for me to run that half marathon was every time I got up, I was like you can do it. Every time I got hard, my brain was like you can do it. Every time I said to myself I don't want to do it today. I was like but you will do it because you can do it. I don't want to do it today. I was like but you will do it because you can do it. And so I changed that language. And that, to me, is the power of what moving your body and running does for you, is it becomes like. This is what I get passionate about Nobody will make you do it Like, nobody is going to make you get up and go to work. Nobody is going to make you get up and go for a run. Nobody will ever make you do it. You have to do it.

Speaker 2: 30:41

So if your mind is not right and you're having sad thoughts, bad thoughts, hard thoughts about life in general, if you get up and you move your body away from those thoughts and you climb a hill and halfway up that hill you go I can't do it. And then you go. You know what I'm going to do five more steps. And you do five more steps. You go I did five steps, I'm going to do another five. All of a sudden, you're at the top of that goddamn hill and you look down and you go. I did it and that's what it was. For me is to go do another half, do another hundred meters. Oh, you did that, okay, do another.

Speaker 2: 31:12

And for me, training the half marathon was literally that Like I just started from light post to light post and then I started one kilometer, two kilometer, and then when I ran the half marathon, I ran it in under two hours. I didn't stop once. I had the best time of my life and the entire time it got to like the last, like that home run, and all I could think about I wasn't like, oh, there's my family, they're there for me. All I was like it's like you fucking did it, like you will always be okay.

Speaker 2: 31:41

That, to me, is like you know, I just, I just am so passionate about people realizing the strength of their mind when they put it into action, in terms of if something's really hard and then you do it, you're building your mental strength. And that to me, like you know, your body will run. Like if I had to run a half marathon tomorrow, my body would do it, but it's my mind that I'd have to get across the line. And that I think for any of us is the most powerful tool that we have as human beings, as entrepreneurs, is to just know that that mental strength is what it takes, and I believe that moving your body and doing the hard things is what builds your mental strength, because your body's always going to do it. So that's my little half marathon reasoning why I did it.

Speaker 1: 32:36

Jeez, I mean thank you for sharing that and being so vulnerable in sharing that, um, and I mean, I think also, just, I mean God, so many things, you mean everyone. Go get your skin checked, yes, yes, please. But that's so true because everything that you've just said about like you will be okay. Teaching yourself that you can do hard things means that you can do hard things however they present themselves to you, and so much of it is about whether you're talking about fitness or whether you're talking about business.

Speaker 1: 33:21

It's about consistency, and the thing that gives you consistency is your mental fortitude, your ability to get up and do what you said you were going to do every day, and and that's you know, and and helps to set goals and and have you know, I'm going to do that half marathon and I'm going to build. You know, this is what my goals are for my business this year. Um, there's so, and this is why I'm so passionate about this particular topic and why I'd, you know, chose to to focus this podcast specifically on this interrelationship between the entrepreneurism and fitness and running, because I think there is so much to learn there and there's so many benefits, personally, professionally, that you can get out of understanding how your mind works in both of those contexts Absolutely, and I think that's the thing that you know from that story.

Speaker 2: 34:16

When I then was made redundant from my work, it was the best thing that ever happened to me because it sent me on my incredible path now. But the next kind of stage that I moved into was we created a program where I had a business partner back then called the Honor Project, and we created a program for young women in schools to show them the power of moving their body and what that does, and the story that we shared with them and what we did with them through this program was taught them around resilience through fitness, and so it was never and what we wanted to really speak to them about. What we did speak to them about. The program ran for about three years and then I had kids and life moves on and all of those things, but at the time that we did it, what we were talking to these young women was about their personal brand and about understanding that when they move their body, it's not to get skinny. It's never to get skinny. It's never to get skinny. It's to use the biggest muscle in your body and that is your brain. And, if you can, you know when these young women are going through bullying and going through hard times and things like that. We were trying to teach them that if they're using their body and they're building their strength, they're building their mindset, they're building their clarity. They're building resistance, not resistance. They're using their body and they're building their strength, they're building their mindset, they're building their clarity, they're building resilience and that's what's going to keep them instead for the rest of their life. And you know, that was just the that need to share this with younger women, because we wanted to make sure that they understood the power of this themselves through moving their body.

Speaker 2: 35:58

And you know that all stemmed from, you know, as a kid, when I used to play sports and stuff like that, when I got into that moment of like oh it's hard, I just found my brain would all be like, always be like yeah, but you can do it. Come on, and just coming back to that fact that, at the end of the day, nobody made me do the half marathon, nobody made me get up in the morning, put my shoes on, nobody made me write out a training program, nobody made me do any of that. I had to decide to do it, and that in itself is a huge, and that in itself is a huge mental leap forward. And so I think there's just, you know, and then it just so closely aligned with how we build a business and how we, every time decisions get tough, what it means to change your mind and what it means to do hard things.

Speaker 2: 36:45

I think the two, just like you said, they absolutely sit together and one can't have the other. I think the two, just like you said, they absolutely sit together and one can't have the other. And like it's the coolest thing when you can see the power of your own mind through pushing your body.

Speaker 1: 36:58

Like that, to me, just blows my mind Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 37:06

Oh, getting chills. I just it's something that, like, people don't talk about enough and it and it's and it's something that, um, you know which is such a great thing about the podcast? And it's something that, you know, sometimes we don't talk about, I think, as women, because it feels like when you talk about fitness, they've got to talk about weight loss and you've got to like I have never and I, you know, I credit to my mom and my parents, but we never lived in a household of don't eat, that it'll make you fat, or you can't do that because you get fat Like that was never a conversation. It was always. You know, we'd always go out for sports or it always the conversation just never came back to weight, and so for me it was kind of like whatever I am, what I am, and if I've eaten, that I've done that, I'm just going to go for a run, a walk, I'm going to go outside, like it was just a conversation that we didn't have, and so whether that's part of it, I don't know, but I think, as women, we don't talk about it because it feels like it's a weight loss thing or we should be doing it for the like. We're really at the end of the day, it's just like there's so much mental health going on and I am no expert, absolutely no expert but I do fundamentally believe that if you move your body, you will feel better.

Speaker 2: 38:14

And even if it's just a walk outside in the sunshine, like I think this one, this one girlfriend of mine that got me into the half marathon. She said to me one day cause I was like you know, when you're in the training of a half marathon and I was like, oh, my God, I was just so tired, I just don't think I can do it today and she was like I'll give you some advice. I'm like okay, and she said, you'll never regret a workout. I'm like, oh, and that has stuck with me every single day since, because every time I think, oh, I'm so tired, I can't be bothered. I'm like you'll never regret a workout. And then I do it At the end of it, I'm like, god damn, I feel good, Like your endorphins are naturally going to boost anyway. And then what you, the gain you get from that mental lift, is just like it's part and parcel.

Speaker 2: 38:58

I think you know this whole mental health crisis could be shifted if people just lent in to you know what, when I feel like shit, I'm just going to do something for myself. I'm going to go for a walk'm just going to do something for myself. I'm going to go for a walk, I'm going to go for a run, I'm going to go do some boxing, I'm going to put some music on. Just tried something different and learn what it does for them. In the hard times, in the times when being an entrepreneur is really hard and it's really lonely, that's the moments where that brain that you've trained in the gym goes I can do this. No, I can, it's a fun, it's cool, it's cool, I got this. That's the part that I see. The difference is you're actually training your brain more than your body in those instances, because you're training your brain to say I can do it, I can do it, I can do it, I can do it.

Speaker 1: 39:50

I'll get there. I think that's. That's the really cool thing about it. Yeah, absolutely, I'm actually um. So, as we've been talking about, I'm running a half marathon on sunday and I am raising money for black dog institute, which is a mental health um charity yeah, um, and they have a lot of resources. So if, if anyone and obviously movement and mental health is something that they promote and if you want to go onto their website to find any of those resources, I would encourage you to do so, our listeners to do so, but I think that's probably, unfortunately, all the time that we have today. I just wanted to give you an opportunity to do a bit of a shout out. What have you got going on over at your many business ventures that you think our listeners would be interested in?

Speaker 2: 40:42

Well, I suppose the biggest one, and thank you so much for having me today.

Speaker 2: 40:45

It's been a pleasure to share it and I think the podcast you're doing is incredible and really is going to support a lot of people in this space, because the two are so important. So what's coming up is I'll share about the Hive Hub Collective, because we have a free bootcamp coming up in June, which is, if you are at all a little bit entrepreneurial and looking at how you can create content that's actually going to get you paid. What we found in this space is it's not always the easiest space, but when you can get paid for your content it becomes a lot easier. So in that bootcamp we're going to give you the kind of fundamental things to get you going so by the end of it you can start to get paid. And then, obviously, inside our membership, we are there all the time to support our members and celebrate them. So any of that information is in. If you go to Hive Hub Collective, it's all there and you can join the boot camp. You just put the wait list and join us.

Speaker 1: 41:37

I'll put the info in the show notes as well. So I've actually done. I did your last boot camp and it was hugely valuable in terms of content creation, and I think that applies whether you're looking to build an online business or whether you're a small business. But you need to start building up an online part of your business. I think it would be really important for people to come along and learn from you guys, and it's all you know. It's a huge value, but it's all free, so I think that's just insane. I thought we'd do it, but absolutely we. What you do? Well, yeah, you want to help people. You guys do a great job. So, yeah, check that out. I really encourage everyone who has settled curious to jump along to the free boot camp, because what have you got to lose? That's right, but more importantly, what have you got to gain?

Speaker 2: 42:28

That's.

Speaker 1: 42:29

you got only one, but more importantly, what have you got to gain? That's, you got only one. Well, thank you again for joining us. It has been my pleasure and until next time. There you go.

Speaker 2: 42:41

Shit podcast. There's so many good ones too.