How to Optimize Your Health Over 40 with Kim Schaper

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 174. Today I'm sitting down with Kim Schaper, and we're talking all about how to optimize your health over 40. Are you ready? Let's get started.

Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance and movement, package and position their products and services and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast.

What's up, coach? Thank you so much for pushing play on another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson, and if this is the first time you're hanging out with me today, welcome. I'm super excited to bring this awesome interview. Kim Shafer is a incredible human. She's very smart, and I've had the pleasure of knowing her for years. We met through a mastermind, and she is just incredibly passionate, gifted in her craft, and has helped lots of people optimize their health. And in today's episode, we are talking about how to optimize your health, how to identify the signature hormonal breakdowns, how to be an advocate for your own health against many of the conventional ways people measure their health. When you stay till the end of this episode, you will walk away having a very clear understanding of how best to help your clients over 40. So without further ado, let's go ahead and roll that interview. Kim, I am so excited to have you on the show today. Thank you so much for being here.

How are you? Oh, I love you. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me. And I'm just, like, so pumped to talk today. Your audience is so lucky to have you. So I can't wait to share and offer any guidance that I can.

You're so kind. I love you so much. So for those of you who have not heard of Kim, I would love for you, Kim, to please share a little bit about who you are, who you serve, and how you got there.

Yeah, great question. So real quick. I was always, you know, into fitness and health and wellness after my own battle with eating disorders and all of that stuff. And so, so I got more into the market. I did in person training for a long time, and then I realized, you know what? I really want to help a larger audience outside of just these four walls. So how can I take my expertise and make it larger and a bigger scale. So I went online, and that's kind of how you and I met. And I took my business online in 2015, and I solely focused on fitness for quite some time. And then I did some nutrition stuff here and there. And then what I started to realize based off my own journey and then just the journey of my clients is we were doing all the things we having them watch their portions and even doing some sort of macro tracking and really doing progressive overload and working on building strength and endurance. And for whatever reason, some of these women, their physiques were just not changing, even though they were consistent, even though they are showing up religiously and eating well. Like, what is it? Why are their bodies still not changing after a prolonged period of time? And I knew there had to be some reason why. And I was going through some of my own health issues at the time. I was exhausted all the time, and by this point, I had been eating very normally and so forth. But, yeah, I was tired all the time. I was bloated constantly. I just had major brain fog, and I just felt off. I knew something was wrong. And so I took it upon myself to, like, just went to my endocrinologist. I'm like, I think I have a thyroid problem. So I went to the endocrinologist, and he's like, no, you're fine. All your levels are fine. And I still kept feeling worse and worse, and I didn't feel like I had the right resource to figure out what was going on. So here I was, trying to work this busy job and also not. Not have this imposter syndrome that, okay, I'm talking about wellness, but I feel like crap over here. So I was going to, like, a hematologist thinking I had blood issues. And so I finally found a functional medicine doctor who really took the time to sit and listen to what was going on. And they did a deep dive into my hormones and nutrition and gut health, and it changed my life. I went from feeling depressed to happy. I went from bloated to waking up feeling like a new person with no bloat in the morning. My. You know, my. My weight definitely balanced out. And so I was like, I feel like I found part of the missing link here. And so I really started helping my clients with a lot of the stuff that I was learning, and they started changing. So I thought, all right, well, something's going on. I've got to look at this. It's not just about food and exercise. There's so many Other components, right, like stress management and sleep and the right type of nutrition, nutrient dense food, as well as balancing hormones, especially as we get older and if we've been on birth control pills, that our bodies are just changing and what might work for one person isn't necessarily going to work for someone else.

Oh my gosh, there's so much to unpack here. I mean, this is. Honestly, right before we hit record, I was like, oh, we have to hit record. Because I just want to ask you all the questions now because I think that this is, you know, and we had been talking about it, and I actually have been talking about this with one of my clients is I feel like this group of people is very underserved because I think there's a misunderstanding of what the actual issue is, because these people have been doing all the, like, if you looked at it from a textbook, you know, 30,000 foot view, and they're hit. They're not under eating, so they're not in binge cycles. They're not, they're. They're working out, they know that they're walking. They're not like doing seven hours of, you know, the other extreme. So it's kind of like this weird, you know, how do you navigate, you know, for your clients, right? How. What are the levers that you're actually looking at? What do you pull when you are looking at someone and you're like, well, by the textbook you should be shredded, essentially.

Yeah. Such a great question. And I can honestly now look at a woman's physique and kind of know hormonally. All right, there's some things we need to adjust. And I'll tell you just from. Again, just, you know, my own experience and working with so many women is that there's usually four issues that are going on, especially again, as we get older. So you either have. Or it can be a combination of some. You have high cortisol, which is basically your stress hormone, which a lot of us are in that fight or flight mode as women. We're going 100 miles an hour. We stay super busy. We're trying to do all the things and be 100%. So high cortisol often leads to more of that belly fat feeling, more inflammation, just feeling puffy. That's number one. Number two is low thyroid, which is actually very common in women as well. And a lot of women don't realize that if they go to the endocrinologists, and I don't know if you guys know this, but labs, if you go and you Print out a section of labs, they have different markers on the side, like the different ranges. And what a lot of people don't know is if you look at that testing, there's been research shown and I have to find the exact research paper. But basically those levels were taken from the 1950s with 21 men. And they took the average levels of the men from 1950. And that's how they gauged the ranges on the labs, which obviously does h tremendous disservice, not only for some men, but women especially. So then here we are trying to set these ranges that are not even for our body. And so we go to the doctor and they're like, oh, everything's normal, you're fine. Actually, no, you're really not. You're out of range and you're symptomatic. So you know, if you got to look at the whole person too. So I think that's important.

I also, I'm glad you're bringing up this, the ranges because the ranges are also obscene. They're like 1.4, so 6.0. Like that. Exactly.

It's ridiculous. And the thing is, a lot of the doctors don't look at the symptoms. They're like, oh, let me look at this lab. Okay, you're fine. So low thyroid is a big one. And then the two other weight gaining factors are insulin resistance, which is very common, kind of going into the, the type 2 diabetic, where our blood sugar is super high and that can often be caused from stress or improper nutrition. And then we also have estrogen, Dominan, which is very prevalent in women as well because the number one hormone that gets depleted during times of high stress is progesterone. So if the estrogen progesterone ratio is not balanced, you're going to be more estrogen dominant. So that's when you'll see really heavy periods, blood clotting, the inability to work out effectively, you know, soaring, more weight in your hips, butt and thighs, more PMS type symptoms. So those are, those four are very, very common in women.

So you also mentioned one of the symptoms that you felt was brain fog. So I'm curious, you know, how, because how do you help people and help your clients see that it can be better? And the reason why I say that is because I feel like the majority of humans were designed to survive. So we get trapped and stuck in the I'm fine coma. And so many people just live with their current circumstances and for a survival mechanism because they don't understand or see how well it could be.

Absolutely. Gosh. And I love that, I love that you brought that up so much because so many women are in that survival mode versus thrive mode. And so the body is so friggin smart and resilient. And so what happens is if we're, if something's off with our body, you're going to have other parts of the body try and compensate. And so you're out of balance. And so you'll know you're out of balance because you do have the brain fog. You're feeling tired all the time, you can't concentrate, you're bloated after every meal, you're storing more body fat, you can't build lean muscle, you feel depressed and anxious. All of those things are signs that, hello, your body is not in a good state right now. But I think we just mask it with tons of caffeine or wine or whatever it may be because we're like, this is how we're supposed to feel. But I have women all the time say, oh my gosh, I didn't realize how that I felt until I feel so much better. And so for me, it's all about, okay, what are some very significant things we can start doing ASAP just to clear the brain fog and get you feeling better. And I believe that starts with proper nutrition and gut health and liver detoxification. And I mean, there's so many different components to it. But I think hands down, one of the best things women can do is manage their blood sugar, and that's usually with proper nutrition because if you can manage your blood sugar, you can really try optimize some of these other things that might be going on in the background.

So. Good. So I do want to dive into this concept because I feel like, you know, we're inundated with information in terms of, of, you know, how to do this.

Right.

And so because of that, in this is also my opinion, you know, but because of the inundation of information, people get, you know, start to believe, oh, I know what to do, I know how to fix this. So they start making all these stories about how hard it's going to be, the effort and sacrifice and how miserable their life is in order to get better. It's ironic, right? Humans are so silly. Yeah. So I'm curious for you, like what when you are, you know, walking someone through this process, what, what is the levels of difficulties that you have seen people go through? What are some, you know, can you walk us through a little bit of your process?

Sure. Well, what's so Interesting that you brought that up is because I. I talk to women all the time. They're like, I know what's wrong with me. I have this, this and this. And I was like, but how do you know? Oh, because I went on Google and it says this and this. I'm like, but where's the data? Like, do you actually. How do you know you physically? Well, I don't know, but Google said this and Dr. Oz said this. And I'm like, no, shut that shit out. She's my. And just like with your audience, my women are very well educated. It's not like they don't know or they don't research. But you're right, it's like anal is paralysis because it's like, well, no, I'm supposed to do keto. Wait, no, I'm so low carb. But then I need protein this time and then I need to do this and then it's it again. I think social media is great, but there's also so much information, we get incredibly overwhelmed. And so it's like, take a step back and let's really focus on the main dial movers. And once we start with one area, it's definitely going to bleed into other areas and things are going to get more balanced. So one of my biggest things by far, and this is just a very tactical skill that people can apply, is I am a firm believer and not everyone agrees and it is like this whole intermittent fasting, all this nonsense, but I wholeheartedly believe women need a solid breakfast. And the reason for that is because we are already in survival mode. When we get up, we have coffee on an empty stomach and that sets the day for this constant churning of your stress hormone versus if you have a good quality breakfast. Not saying you have to make some organic meal. One of my favorite things to do to start women and they already feel better is something called my BAE breakfast. And it's bae. So it's beans, avocado and eggs. So I will do two whole eggs. I'll do a little like two egg whites, I'll do a half a cup of beans, rinse and drain so you're not gassy. And avocado. And so I mix that. I have that for my breakfast almost every morning. And it sets the stage for energy, for mood stabilization. For.

Is this before you have coffee? If you have my coffee?

I never. And I do not suggest this for anyone. I do not recommend coffee on an empty stomach because for women and for men, we are a grind, push hard society. We feel like Right. When we get up, we have to be on. The worst thing you can do is have coffee, a stimulant on an empty stomach. Because, as I mentioned, you're automatically setting the day for a higher, high stress environment. And that's why you might be dealing with belly fat, why you can't lose weight. Your body has to feel safe in order to drop body fat. And if your body's in this high stress state and you're starting out automatically with something that can be inflammatory or something that can impact your adrenals, you're setting the stage for a whole day of not feeling regulated. So if you have coffee, I cannot stress enough. Eat it with food. It's a game changer. Game changer. Yeah.

It's interesting. It's so interesting because I feel like too, as human beings, I mean, we're designed to be tribal, right? So we get very dogmatic. And so I feel like I can. In listening to you speak, I hear the two. Like, I can already hear the two sides. Like, no, I wake up, it's my freshest. That's what, I'm just gonna get to work. Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Sure.

And then you have the other side, which is like, I flow and I'm fairy. I don't even look at my phone until 3pm Right. And it's not.

It's a balance.

It's about.

And I, and I wholeheartedly believe there's not one specific way to do things. Right. You don't have to do it my way. But here's the thing. I think it's important to look at, okay. Like when you were thinking so dogmatically, so extreme, you're missing other parts that could be very beneficial for you. So, okay, you eat your breakfast, you drink coffee. At the same time, you get on the computer and you're doing what you have to do. You're dealing with the kids. You figure it out. Sure. It's. You can't be Zen all the time. And listen, you and I are both business owners, and I don't get up and meditate and have this whole, like, cold plunge. Let me do all these things. No, I'm like, all right, let me eat. I gotta get to work. I gotta do this. So, you know, it's. It's finding what works.

Absolutely, absolutely. And I think too, it goes back to the I'm fine coma. Right? Is that if you're always just. Just, you know. So in my opinion, if you're always fixated on trying to do the right thing, you're missing the cues that your body is giving you because your body and your mind are going to give you cues about what works and what doesn't.

Well, the two is, I'll say is that as females especially we're so caught in our heads. We're always thinking in our heads, we're overanalyzing, we're obsessing rather than leaning more into our body, our body's always telling us, but it's our heads that get in the way. And then that just convolutes things and makes things way more, way more complicated than it needs to be.

Now one of the things too is you mentioned you eat beans. What about the like the FODMAP stuff, right?

Yes.

Yeah, so, yeah, so this is the other thing too about information overload that can be really confusing is because people are. And social media, it's just the law of polarity. For every greatness that there is, there's always just going to be the other side. And so social media has connected us. I mean that's how I know you. I love, I love social media for so many reasons but and at the same time, you know, people are creating to be right as opposed to creating to share information and share what works for them and their people. Right. So that can be really overwhelming and confusing because it's conflicting. It's like one person's like don't eat breakfast. Next person is like, you know, fodmap. And I, you know, I saw, it's just, it can be really confusing 100%. So how do you, yeah, go.

Here's the deal with that. It's like okay, if beans make you super gassy and you're farting up a storm, one of the best things you can do do before you eat the beans is rinse and drain them. So get rinse and drain the beans. All the white bubbles and stuff you see are the one or is that's what's going to give you a lot of the gas. Now if you have a little bit of digestive issues that can be stress related too, but you can take digestive enzymes. If I did beans constantly without digestive enzymes, I would be tootin too. So you can play around with it. You can try the beans. If you're not gassy, then okay, you can still continue to do it. If you are having the beans and you're a little gassy, get some digestive enzymes. If that still doesn't work, okay, maybe the beans for you right now is not an ideal source. But also it doesn't have to Be again, so complicated. Like, listen to your body. If you eat something and you feel super gassy and bloated, okay, that might be a sign, but I would try it again a couple days later, because what often happens if we go down this digestive traction, you can be bloated from one food of food one day, and you can eat the same food two days later and not be bloated at all. And that's usually a sign that your body's stressed. So you have to try your hardest. And by no means do I do this. I'll stand up and eat sometimes, but you kind of want to be in a calmer state when you're eating. Otherwise it's going to make you feel gassy and bloated. So trying to mitigate that stress as much as possible.

So I also. Can we. Can we unpack stress just a little bit more? Because I feel like that's a word that we all use and know, but it's one of those things that we unconsciously use and know because it means something very different to lots of people because people don't realize they're in a constant sympathetic state.

Sure.

So can you unpack that for us a little bit in terms of, you know, how do you define it and how do you know when you're in.

A sense, sympathetic state? Yeah, great question. So, I mean, again, I'm assuming your audience is super smart. So you have, you know, the. The nervous system. You have the branches, the parasympathetic and sympathetic. Parasympathetic is rest and digest. Sympathetic is fight or flight. And believe it or not, you only want to be in the sympathetic max 20% of the day. And we're not. It's usually the opposite. Usually we're in sympathetic 80% para 20%. But it's. You want to try and do the opposite. But for a lot of us, it feels very uncomfortable because we're not used to. So stress does not go away. Right. And inevitably is what it is. And you can't make it go away, but what you can do is almost embrace it. And how you view it is everything we can say, oh, I'm so stressed. I'm so stressed. I'm so stressed. Okay, guess what? We all are. But instead of constantly giving yourself this internal dialogue that I can't do it. It's so hard. Okay, how can you take a step back? How can you show up differently? How can you change your narrative around it? Okay, yeah, you know what? There's a lot going right now, and I'm Going to do the best that I can. I'm going to make a priority list. I'm going to focus on the things that have to get done today. The other things can wait. I don't have to finish every single thing on my to do list. Also, I think it's so important to be present. We're often so fixated on hurrying up and getting ahead or we're reminiscing about the past. And when that happens, when we can't be present, we're in that state of stress. Because when we're thinking about the future, we have anxiety and fear and overwhelm and then we think about the past. It often correlates with depression and sadness or shoulda, woulda, coulda versus if you bring yourself back to the present moment, you often realize, okay, it's okay, I'm okay, I'm looking at my feet, I know where I am right now and I'm just going to do the very best that I can. And I also think it's important, again, if we go back to just the physiology of stress. Again, how can you change the narrative, but also how can you support your body in a way where it's not going to constantly feel jacked up? And that's why I don't do coffee on an empty stomach. That's why I try to balance proper meals throughout the course of the day. Why movement is so important, especially getting outside in the sun. Why strength training, I think is so important for proper blood sugar and carbohydrate sensitivity. And I think, yeah, if you do meditation, cool. If not, can you just breathe for a minute on the way to pick up the kids at daycare? Or can you find ways to sprinkle in those moments of calm again? It doesn't mean that you have to completely overhaul your life, but how can you implement these little subtle things that make a huge difference?

So good. What are some of the things that you've noticed that people who are, you know, have a hard time meditating? What are some of the things that they've done that have calmed the mind? And I'm also curious too, that for you and just, you know, you're out of, in your experience, do you find that it's easier to get women on board with meditating? Like, do you feel like there's some more buy in for men that they have to, you know, if you told the dude to meditate, are they like, no, stop.

Yeah. I mean, to be honest, I think meditation isn't for everybody. And meditation can be totally different. For each individual person, my meditation is walking outside with my dog. Someone else's meditation is sitting on the floor and listening to Deepak Chopra for five minutes. Meditation is relative. It can be whatever you need at the time and what works best for you. But yeah, I mean, I think meditation is important if that's what you choose to do. Some others will try journaling again. They'll go outside and walk. One thing I'm huge on is, and this I believe is meditation. Mindfulness at its finest is the five senses exercise. So where you take a minute out of your day and you stop and you put everything down and you truly tap into your five senses. Like, okay, what am I doing right now? I'm talking to Beverly. What am I hearing right now? Okay, I hear a lawnmower outside. What do I smell? There's a candle right here on my desk. What do I taste? I have a Lacroix that I'm drinking right now. So I think really, really being present with things like that, I guarantee if you do that at least one time a day, day, you're going to remember that distinct moment at the end of the day because you were present. So I love that. Five senses exercise. What else?

I'm so glad you brought that up, though, because two things, right? And I also want to clarify that, you know, when I'm talking about female and male, and I'm actually also speaking specifically to the energy, right? I happen to be a more male dominant energy, so I'm a very, I'm a driver when someone is like, like, hey, let's meditate. I'm. I'm looking at them like, what do you mean by meditate? You know, while I'm like, juggling and doing all these 10 things. So it's more of like, I'm just a driving energy and not necessarily gender specific. So that's one clarification that I just want to offer. And the second is that five senses exercise, that's what we use to help regulate our children. Which came from a behavioral therapist that I work with.

Interesting, interesting. So piggybacking off of that, that you can also lay on the floor. And this is great for kids, too, you lay on the floor and you elevate your feet 90 degrees on a chair or a bench or a couch. So again, laying on your back, your feet are, your legs are elevated on the couch chair and your, your, your, your calves are on the chair and then like, the back of your legs are touching the chair. So and you lay there. And that makes a huge difference. That Helps calm the system, too. So some kids will do that. Yeah.

So good. So. Yeah. Okay, so now I know that you work specifically, too, with women and work on hormone testing. And so I'm curious, you know, how many. How many? Well, two questions. Where are they in their process? Like, does someone need to come to you who's already tried everything? And, Or, Or. Or just someone. Can someone come to you when they know they have a lot of work. Work to do? Like, for example, me. I'll use me as an example. Yeah, I know better. But listen, I do not do better in 2020 and 2021 were hard years. Right. So sometimes when you know better or when you've done all this information, you're like, oh, my gosh, I got all this work to do, so then I'll. Then I'll call Kim.

Yeah.

Or is this more of like. No, no. We start at ground zero and build up.

Great question. We have both, actually. And actually, we just started working with men, too, because a lot of men have been reaching out with their own hormonal issues, and they wonder why they feel depressed or they can't get an erection or they can't build muscle or why they feel like crap. So a lot of times it's. It's. Men struggle with the exact same thing, so it's nothing to be ashamed about. So, you know, we honestly have kind of a different group of people depending on where they are. We have some women that have, like, tried every diet under the sun and are, you know, honestly elite athletes or crossfitters, and they can't lose weight to save their life and that they. What they were doing before used to work, and it's not working anymore. We have women that are over £100, and they really just need to start moving again and getting their body going. So we have both. But for me, and I'm sure you agree with this as well, it's got to be simple. Regardless. It doesn't matter where you are in the journey. By trying to overwhelm and inundate with a client with so much, it's very overwhelming. So, again, starting strategically with one or two things and mastering that and then adding things over time. But what I find to be so beneficial, you know, say, with our program is that, like, it's all encompassing. So if someone's like, I just want to do, like, a whole overhaul of my health. I don't want to just do nutrition. I want to look at the big picture. I want to look at, okay, how are my hormones right now? How do I need to eat based off where I am in my life. What is going to be the most effective exercise? And so that's why I think, I think it's, it's great because it's an all encompassing plan and you're supported so much so it's not like you're left trying to figure this out on your own.

I love it. And I'm also, I'm also curious. Does, does the level of effort and sacrifice that is required for someone to optimize their health as high as people think it is?

No, not at all. It's very minimal. No, but you just have to get out of your own way and quite cannily you have to. Can I cuss in here or not?

Yeah, sure, sure, sure.

I mean, you have to cut all the bullshit and you have to trim the fat and, and literally, literally and figuratively, but you, you have to trim the extra stuff. That doesn't matter because we just, we get so caught up on trying to do all the things and do everything just right. And it's like, what, what can you dial down to really make your life more simplistic? What are the things that truly matter? Because if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. I truly believe that you can't show up and be the best version of yourself. You can't, you just, you don't feel great. So it's again, it's like, how can you start minimizing? There's something to be said though. Even if we're suffering, we're getting something out of the suffering. So it's taking a step back and it's like, what, what am I, what am I doing? Because I know something needs to change and I'm miserable, or I feel like crap, or, or I'm doing this thing that's a pattern, but I still continue to do it. So there's something within that suffering that you're benefiting from. And you have to really be honest with yourself and say, what is it? What, what am I getting from this? And a lot of times it's fear of not if, you know, like, oh, well, what's going to happen if I don't live this chaotic lifestyle, how am I going to, you know, do this or that?

I mean, it is the hardest question to answer because this is. Now we're really untapping this unconscious, like, what is the, what is playing in the background of your brain? But it is the most important for your health, for your fear, for you as a human being, for your Health for your business, growth for it all. Because wherever you go, there you are. And we talked about that right before we hit record, right? And it's true in your business, it's true in your health that you will repeat the pattern unless you heal that root cause.

Period. True. Right. And you have to face it head on. You can't ignore it, because so many times people ignore it by doing, you know, copious amounts of drugs or alcohol or work, you know, they're a workaholic or they're, you know, whatever it may be, staying super busy. A lot of times, the biggest fear people have is facing their stuff, facing the shadow or facing parts of themselves they don't like. But when you go in that direction and you actually face it and you get curious without judgment, judgment, you realize, okay, I'm actually, I'm a good human. Like, I. I have parts of myself I'm not super proud of, but at the same time, I'm also a good person. And I can look at the big picture and say, actually, yeah, this was a hard time, and I kind of need to process it and move through it. And then, you know, once you face it, everything else is just like, oh, here I was binging and restricting and doing all these things that really, really kept me stuck. They didn't help me grow because I was too afraid to face the things that were causing the pain and suffering.

So. Good. Okay, so there is something. I do want to circle back to something that you said, and I'm curious how you navigated that, that time period, because I think it happens to so many people is. And it sounds almost like you had to. Where it was, you were dealing with your own stuff while you were also working with clients. So a lot of people feel that sense of imposter syndrome in terms of, you know, I need to wait to get started because A, I don't look the part, or B, I'm dealing with my own stuff, or C, how can I help someone when I haven't gone through that? Because that's also a thing. People, you know, are working with women that might not have thyroid issues or they've never lost, you know, so there's a lot of fear about how to navigate something that is hard and difficult and challenging when they haven't gone through it themselves.

Sure. Right.

And I feel like that came up with you. You has come up twice or a couple of times in your journey. So how did you navigate that?

Yeah, like, as far as just my own health stuff and the imposter syndrome.

Yeah. And How. How were you, you know, how, you know, what were the things that you attribute the success, like, getting to that other side? What were some of the things that you did to become an expert, step into the expert that you already were and moving through that, that imposter syndrome syndrome?

I love that. I love that so much. So, to be perfectly candid, and I don't know if this is the right way to say this, so we all have our stuff, right? We all have things that we are insecure about or, you know, stories we tell ourselves. And it's still stuff we're working through, and I'm working through as well. But for me, it was okay. I. I don't have a PhD. I don't have a master's degree. I didn't go to a prestigious college. I don't. So for me, it was always, I'm not smart enough. I'm not smart enough. And so what I did is I, instead of focusing solely on, I don't have all these letters behind my name, it doesn't mean that I can't help people. And I kept myself stuck there for a long time because I didn't feel smart enough or I didn't feel like I fit the part, if you will. But what I did, and I think this is so important, is you can be really great and book smart, which is awesome. And at the same time, I truly believe it's like you have to go through your own experience to be able to really help the person that you want to help. Because I feel like we're where we are. It was former versions of ourselves that we love helping those type of people. And so I think the experience is very important. And even if you're going through it, what I have found from my own experience is people love vulnerability because the more you can allow yourself to be vulnerable with yourself and acknowledge that, hey, I'm not perfect. I still have my stuff. I still struggle with this, but not in a victim mentality, just showing up and being honest. People really resonate with that. So we have this fear of, oh, I don't want to say these things because I don't want to come across as, I don't know what I'm talking about or I'm not polished enough. No, if you say, like, some of the stuff that you're dealing with and things that you're doing to help people appreciate that so much because they don't feel alone and they. It makes them feel more connected to you, you, like silly enough. A couple days ago, I talked about How I was smelling my armpit. And sometimes I get fixated on smelling my armpit. And I had probably 200 DMs saying, oh, my God, I do the same thing. I smell my armpit. And so it's just, you know, so things like that, we get so caught up in trying to do it just right or sound like this professional constantly where we can't show up and be our whole selves. And people appreciate that again. They really do. So I think there's something to be said for number one, just going in, you know, not being afraid to show up, even when it's uncomfortable just doing it anyway, gaining those reps, gaining those wins so you can prove to yourself that it wasn't so scary. And then the second one is, no one's got it figured out. None of us have it figured out. It doesn't matter how high up you are, are. None of us have our shit figured out. And so if you can recognize that so true. It's so true and be okay with that, you can say, hey, all right, nobody else has this figure out either, and I'm doing the best that I can, so I'm going to go ahead and say it.

So, yeah, I think, I think that, that. I think that's just it. And honestly, if you aren't following Kim, go do that now because you'll see and notice that. And it's one of the things that I think magnetizes you and you as, as anyone listening, that when you can just show up and share from your own context, that is going to set you apart in the market space. Because it doesn't matter. You're going to learn your things and then share the things that you learned. Then it'll be. It'll be you.

Yeah.

So. And it's not. And it's coming from a place of wanting to share to help, not coming from a place to share to solve this for me.

Right. Or to whine or sorry for you. Listen, we're all tired, we're all stressed. We're all trying to figure it out. So, you know, it's not about coming in and saying, oh, my God, I'm so tired. Life's so hard continuously. No, you know, how can you show up at a higher level person and say, yeah, you know what? I'm dealing with this, but this is what I'm doing to move through it. This is what's helping. So hopefully this is going to help you too. And the more you lean into kind of just your authenticity and who you are and feeling more Confident, Confident in who you are as a person. You kind of stop sign up, kind of stop caring what people think because you attract the people that you actually want to work with, not the people that are, you know, energy suckers or people that don't resonate with you. You don't want those people anyway. So I think that's important too.

So true. Go all in on you faster and then no one's going to be worrying about you're in, you're always in momentum. So if you're always just focusing on the best version of you, you, then everyone else is just going to be in the dust because everyone's talking about what happened five minutes ago. Not what we're not your future. Not now.

Not now. Right? Yeah. And it's now. Now is everything. Because you can't get back. You can't get it back. So, so true.

Yeah, so, so true. Kim, I want to be very mindful of your time. So, so thank you so much for pouring into us, sharing, sharing with us a little bit about your journey, your process. So last question and then please share with us a little bit about, you know, where we can work with you. What are the best ways we can connect with you and learn, continue to learn from you, is that I'm curious, you know, as you start to grow and become, you know, next level versions of yourself, what are some of your favorite ways that you continue to sharpen the saw and grow and, and stay motivated, stay energized when you're working, when it seems like you're in the day to day of it all.

That's such a great question. And I kind of honestly apply it to the way I run my business essentially. And I think this can work great, especially for women and men too. But what I have found to be, hands down, the most effective is as women, we can't grind all the time. We have times where we're hot and other times where we struggle, struggle. So I am a huge believer in the first part of my cycle, days like 1 through 17, I freaking crush. I have, and this is, this has been proven, you have more energy, you have more creativity, you have more stamina, you are, you are able to just give more of yourself. Then the last half of your cycle, like two weeks before you start your period, even a week before, you are going to feel more, you are going to feel less motivated, you are going to feel more tired, you are not going to, to have as much energy. And quite candidly, I'm on day 15 right now and I know because I just have that intuition with my body and I know that everyone can get there too. You just have to pay attention. But the first few weeks is when I do everything. I will create all my content. I will do podcasts, like with you. I will really double down on work because that is when I know I am most creative. I swear it is like clockwork. At the second part of my cycle after ovulation and especially, especially before I get my period, I've got nothing. And I fully recognize that. So that's a time when I decompress. I don't do as much content. I share what I've done the first few weeks, so I find that to be incredibly helpful. And I notice other women do it too. I've brought it up and they love it.

Oh my gosh. I said last question, but now I have a follow up. But what about when I swear this will be the last but what about like the perimenopausal or is this true about like, women as they're starting to enter the, the menopause phase of their life?

Yep, such a great question about that too. So my suggestion, if you are starting to enter perimenopause and your periods are coming and going, you'll know based off your mood and your energy and you just have to really pay attention. Right? So am I more anxious? Am I feeling a bit more sad? You know, are my boobs hurting? A little bit, But I'm not really getting my period. Some things I can not recommend enough off are magnesium glycinate, B6, B12, and omega 3 fatty acids, especially, especially like a couple, a couple weeks out of the month. And if you are perimenopause, I'm getting ready to go into that phase. I take those things consistently. So again, I take magnesium, which I think is essential. 80% of the population's deficient magnesium glycinate is my favorite. It B6 and B12, both of those help immensely with energy and mood and just feeling happy. And then omega 3 fatty acids or fish oil, that's great for inflammation, for brain health, for, you know, just joint health and mood. So to me, those things are kind of non negotiables and I highly recommend those for perimenopausal women. And also making sure you're getting enough fiber. So you're, you, you're moving through, you're getting the bowel movements, you're feeling regulated. Those are, those are key ones.

Oh my gosh. Amazing. Okay, so I will ask. Yeah, I'll ask you. So that we can link it up. Like, I'm assuming you have your favorite companies that you love. Cool, cool. So will you send me all of your links and we'll make sure that we'll put them in the show notes.

Like the supplement stuff?

Yeah, absolutely. Give us your affiliate link so that we can make sure we put that in there.

You're sweet. I don't really have the affiliate links, but I've got my favorite brands that I know are top notch because the supplement industry is a multi billion dollar industry and anyone can slap a label on something. But I have some that are fantastic. So I'd be happy to do that.

Oh, I would love that. That would be amazing. Kim, you are the dream. Thank you. Thank you.

Of course. Thank you.

I loved it.

I love seeing you. Thank you. I appreciate you.

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