A Female Entrepreneur’s Journey Navigating Through The Roughest Times With Sandy Joy Weston

In a world full of turmoil, despair and darkness, you need to carry the light. Season three of the Get Attitude podcast is where we will ignite your mind, your heart and your attitude. And welcome to the Get Attitude podcast, the Gap. My name is Glenn Bill. I am your host. I am a international best selling author of the book called the ABCs of Attitude. As well as being considered America's number one attitude keynote speaker. I am so, so excited to bring some light into your life. We have the wonderful Sandy Joy Weston, who is a highly successful entrepreneur. She actually owned the Weston Fitness Center. We're going to talk to her a little bit about that. One of the coolest things I think she did is she became one of the first female trainers for the Philadelphia Flyers. Not to mention also worked with the Philadelphia 76ers, wondering if Dr. J was in her eyesight when she was doing that. She was also on NBC10s Local News as their fitness expert. She now has SW the S J W Productions, which focuses on boosting the morale of an individual or team or company by providing them with the simple tools to develop and maintain a positive attitude. She has a book called trained your head and your body will follow and a 30 day reset journal and the recess to reset. So, ladies and gentlemen, let's just get a little bit of the wonderful Sandy Joy on stage so you can get what's getting ready to happen here in the next 30 minutes.

Jason Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba da da da da da da boom boom ba ba ba woo. Now that's a celebration dance. Just one of the ways I choose to show up in the world. It shifts my mindset into a positive, powerful place that serves me well. What about you? What do you do before entering the world? Maybe not that, but do you mean.

And welcome to the Get Attitude podcast. Sandy, we're so excited to have you and have you bring the light to our audience.

I did not know you were gonna play at first until today. And I'm like, every time I see it, I go, oh my God, the things you do, Weston, the things you do.

Well, understand Hokie is good and, and one of our biggest, you know, is I'm on the stage. You know, how you show up matters. And, and having a ritual or having, you know, motion creates emotion. That's all you were doing. You were doing. You know, it's unfortunate that 99% of the people, before they get out of bed don't do what you just did. So I, I, I applaud your courage to do that, yeah, it takes a little bit to get out there and do that.

And so far, because it's a new keynote that I've been doing in the last year and a half where I'm sharing more of my journey. And I start with that, I must say, no one's throwing tomatoes at me. And they're all like, oh, whoa, that just happened.

Okay, I love it, I love it. Well, congratulations. And so that is your most recent keynote. So that this is stuff that you're doing right now from the platform, right?

Yeah. So for many, many years I spoke on wellness and as you can imagine, I was the rah rah girl. So it's all about fitness, how to get motivated, how to move. And they would always bring me in to bring the team up. Recently, during a little setback where we couldn't go out there and speak, I decided to take a course called Heroic Public Speaking to take my keynotes up to the next level. And it was a year course. I had no idea how much I didn't know, Glenn. I mean, it was like starting from scratch. I mean, I've been speaking for 20 some years, but they're like, no, no, no. If you really want to be a visionary and make a huge impact with mental and physical well being, where are you from? What's your story? And I was like, okay, I'm out. I've never told my story.

I'm good.

Peace out, suckers. And they're like, okay. And then I thought about it, I thought, I can do this. I can start telling some of my journey. And it took me about a year and a half to get it out. Yeah, because I told it like everyone just assumed, happy family, wealthy family, great family, otherwise why would she be successful and, you know, think life is grand? And basically they never asked me. So it took me a while. And then I got out there about nine to 12 times with people I really knew to see how it was received. And it did make a big impact. I mean, I wasn't used to one thing though, Glenn. They would cry at times. Like, I was always like, I'm going to make you happy, I'm going to make you joyful. I mean, you're going to get. Everyone's going to get up and dance. I mean, they know that's a given. You're going to create your celebration dance. But I had a rough time pulling in the other direction, you know, the up and down and see them cry and seeing them reflect upon their own lives. But I realized if I really want to change their Mindset. I have to be more vulnerable and share my story with them.

Yeah, I like that. So who. Who did you reach out to for that training?

Amy and Michael Port of Heroic Public Speaking. They're not far from me. They're in Lambertville, New Jersey. Oh, my God. They come from all over the world. There were. I was there right when we were allowed back out, and there were 40 to 50 people from around the world. I was lucky. I was driving an hour away that would come there, and half of it was online because you were doing the writing part, which was the hard part. And then you'd go there four to five times to perform it. And we're talking down to where you stand, how you stand. And it felt weird for me because I'm like, wait a minute. I want to be genuine. But what I realized is because I rehearsed it so much, it did allow me to be more genuine and tell the story, because there's no way. If I didn't do it, I would have just been sitting there going, oh, my God, I can't tell you the rest of this story. I just wouldn't have been able to get through it.

Well, that's great that you sought out after 20 years, a way to improve. And certainly the folks that are listening here, the question for them right now needs to be, who have I learned from? Or am I living the same mind trash for the past 20 years that I've been doing? So, you know, this world is changing. It's changing fast. Every time I talk to somebody 30, I can't understand them because the world is freaking going crazy. So for people like us, you know, what do you do? Talk to me a little bit about this thing called attitude. I'd love to know what your definition of attitude is. And who do you think was the biggest attitude influencer in your life?

So, for me, attitude, obviously, is everything. It's all the thoughts and beliefs that twirl around your head. And the magical thing for me is you get to decide every single day how you want to show up. Every single day. You can choose. And I tell people, listen, if you got it going on and it's serving you well, then stay with those thoughts. But if not, you might want to change it. Just slightly change your morning routine. Change something. So every single day before I get out of bed, I said, okay, Weston, how do you want to show up today? What's your word? And I pick one word, and then I focus on it. So, not a lot. I'm a simple person, but it works.

What was your word today?

Oh, my. Your. Today was power. Because I had some negotiations later with some people. You know, they may be a little tough, but power. Power I'm coming from. So. And.

And then. And then tell me so. I love that it's everything, obviously, it's everything that goes on in your thoughts and minds when you. When you look back on who created. Because I'm guessing you've always kind of been like this. I don't think anything's really changed from you. From what I've seen, who would you say influenced your attitude? Or who is your first attitude coach the most?

Well, there are five, I call them. I always thought I had five angels above and below, but my five angels, I call my project peeps. They were my gang that I hung out on the benches because my house was all kinds of crazy, and they really were having struggles with life. But my project peeps, there were five of them. There was Stoner Pete. Loved Stoner Pete. Sexy Debbie. She was very sexy. Rock and roll George always came with his guitar heartthrob Billy, and rough them up top. And I know it sounds like a motley crew, but these people were the only people that believed in me. The only ones. My counselors were like, just be glad to graduate high school, Weston. You know, don't think beyond it. Just, you know, waitressing, pumping gas. I'm like, it's a good living, but I got sort of other things in mind. But my peeps, they're like, we're counting on you. I didn't do drugs. I didn't, you know, smoke. I didn't drink. They wouldn't let me do anything but have popcorn on the bench because they said they were counting on me to get out of there and change the attitude of project people. And let me tell you, they were the best people in the entire world.

So let's. I want to go down that rabbit hole a little bit. Stoner Pete. Is that who number one was?

Stoner Pete?

Yeah. So who doesn't anymore, right? So. So here's what I'd like you to try to do. When you think of Stoner Pete, you know, in a. In a sentence or two. Like, what was his attitude? What was the attitude lesson that you garnered from him that sticks with.

Oh, he taught. He taught me not to be ashamed of my family, that I couldn't change who they were, but I could change who I wanted to be and where I wanted to go. And he helped me visualize in really getting inside of where I want to be, how I Want to get there and then what do I have to do, you know, to make that happen for me? I was a dancer, so I always would dance on the picnic tables. And so I would dance and then visualize where I wanted to go.

That's awesome. And as you know, when we talk about the gap, we talk about bridging the gap from who you are to who you want to become, and from where you are to where you want to go. That's what this podcast is about. This is why people tune into this, because they may feel lost, they may feel abandoned, they may feel undirected. And we have amazing people like you sharing their story of how they bridged the gap from who they were to who they became, and from where they were to where they are now. So we appreciate Stoner Pete's contribution to this podcast. And that was again, what did you say he taught you? It was.

Not to be ashamed of where I came from. I was already in the projects, but they also had their own reputation, and it wasn't a good one. And I couldn't change them, but I could change me.

And then tell me about the sexy girl. What. What was.

Oh, sexy Debbie.

So tell me about sexy Debbie. What was her attitude mantra or what was the attitude lesson that she gave you that stuck with you?

I don't know. Well, this is it. She made a living off of turning tricks, and she helped her family put food on the table. And she had, though, the biggest, kindest heart. And she taught me, you know, when you look at someone, you know, don't just see, okay, here they are. You know, whatever you want to say. There's a prostitute and already put a judgment seal on them. There's way more depth and layers. And this young lady, you know, she made it work in a difficult environment to figure out a way to help her family have food for her four brothers and sisters.

Wow.

And I thought she had courage.

I love it. I love it. And yeah. And she was resourceful.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know that. How old were you?

I was nine when I moved to the projects and I got my life lessons. I was nine years old.

Wow. And they. And these. And these people were older than you, but they let you hang out?

Yeah.

That's freaking awesome.

Well, they felt bad for me, so they were right.

Right.

Here we go.

Let's talk about rock and roll guy. What? What?

Rock and roll George. He was. He was just always play music to lift the spirit. So he always had his guitar and music. Just changed the mood. Like when we be really sad you know, rock and roll George wouldn't have it, you know, and by the way, their names are different. I'm protecting the innocent. George, you know, he always had a song to lift the mood.

I love it. And then the Heartthrob.

Oh, it was just great to look at hot throb Billy. I mean, he was just the sexiest dude ever and also the kindest dude ever.

How about that?

And accepting of every. Every shape and size. Every shape and size.

I love it. That's so cool. And then our last one was who?

Wrap him up, Tom. Hey, everybody needs a bodyguard. I mean, you need to be protected. You got to have your peeps, you know?

Right?

You know, you messed with me. You're messing up with rock. You know, with. Rough him up, Tom. He would. Yeah, you don't mess. You don't mess with me.

I love it. So the attitude lesson as we go through this, you know, we have the ABCs of attitude. We have the 10 attitude boosters, and we've just created what I call the. The five attitudes of the fantastic Joy who's on our show Boost. But having no shame, right? I mean, to understand if you're listening to this podcast, to really gauge yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, and to say, look, I have no shame. I am courageous. I am resourceful. I got to have rhythm, and I got to have music, right? There's got to be energy flow, which you're going to talk about, I'm sure, but that ability to be kind and accepting, right? And to always be able to let somebody protect you or to protect others. I would say all five or six of those traits would make for a great attitude. Maybe we just help somebody today who's out there floundering, wondering, what's the key? Maybe that's just the key. I want to talk about you becoming a female entrepreneur. You owned your own gym. And so what I'd love to hear a little bit is, like, what was the attitude it took you to open your own freaking gym? That's pretty awesome. And then to have it become so successful. Talk a little bit about that story in time.

Well, so I was very fortunate. I had three gyms, and I also had another company, which was a corporate wellness company that we actually competed against ourselves and ran corporations wellness programs so well. You know, Glenn, everything I've ever done, I did with pure joy and to serve others. So I started out as a aerobic dance instructor because I was doing my internship in dance, and a lot of the members were so freaking thrilled that I actually taught the class for them that my main concern was not just giving them a great workout, but I also wanted to entertain them. And so they would say to me, oh, my God, you're so great at this. Come to my home and train me. And back then, there weren't any private trainers. I'm like, okay, if you want me to. And it was a mainline area, and they had money and all that. So for many years, I went into people's homes and worked them out. It got big. I then started a company, Specialty fit, and set 15 other trainers in. Now, keep in mind, I don't want to be an entrepreneur. I just want to be nothing. I wanted to be a dance instructor, teach kids dance, and I was really happy with it, but it just kept falling in my lap. And I never said no to anything. And I think the biggest thing, because I mentor so many people, like, how could you get your first gym? And then someone said, do you want another gym? Like, yeah, okay. Oh, I'll give you all the money and you'll get 50%. Like, okay. And then another one would happen is because whatever I did, I wanted to do it, like I said, with love, peace, and joy in my heart and really do it the best I could. So whether I was pumping gas or waitressing, which I did for many, many years, I wanted to put a smile on your face. My clients saw that, because I had some of the biggest clients in the Philadelphia area. And they would say to me, sandy, you don't want anything from us. You're not trying to make like, I didn't care. Like, I had Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, Ed Snyder, owner, Flyers, Pat Croce, who owned the Sixers and multiple physical therapy companies. I didn't care who they were. I wanted to be there for them. And if they didn't, you know, get up in the morning, I'd be like, you, mother. And I'll tell you what I said. I don't want your money. I'm coming here and you're working out. I'm going to keep banging on your door. So they respected that. And that built in. You should open a gym. I'm like, oh, that sounds like a great idea. And then three years later, I open a gym with some of their help, and I open the next one. Then I open the next one, and before I know it, it's like, wow, this just seemed like it happened overnight. But what I realized, it was really just me knowing that the one thing in life I wanted to do, my main mission was to Spread Joy. And how can I serve you? I'm here for you. That's it.

Did your parents name you Joy or is that self given?

They named me Joy. No kidding was Joy. So my middle name is Joy, Sandy Joy.

And so I'm, I'm wondering, are you a Libra?

No, I'm a Sagittarian. My birthday's, My birthday's on Thanksgiving.

Well, on Thanksgiving, I had a feeling I was close. Talk to me a little bit. Now owning three gyms, I mean, it sounds awesome and, and I get it, but you know, there's rent to pay, there's people to hire. Tell me about the time when you own those gyms and when everybody might have looked and said, man, she's so successful and everything's perfect. Can you tell me about a time where your attitude carried you through maybe in some of the roughest times when you had owned those three gyms?

And by the way, there were a lot of rough times. I remember my business part. Sandy, Sandy, we got to figure something out. You're spending more money than make it. I'm like, plug in holes, you know? Yeah, I was. So I had my first one for 10 years before I had an opportunity. So I was very fortunate. And a few years into it, one of my members said, hey, I'd like to open a gym. We opened the second one. We sold that after two or three years. And then my one downtown, it had a 20 year lease on it, but we sold it. The landlord wanted to buy me out and we sold it in 2019. Thank you, God. I didn't, I didn't want to go two and a half years early, but I'm a stay. But there were so many times you have to go out there and go show time, and you're wondering how you're paying your employees. Like, you know, should you discount the membership? Shouldn't you discount the membership? But everything looks hunky dory, but you have to put on that face. I think every time the elevator doors would open up in my gym in Center City, I would just do the same thing though. It's showtime. You have to leave it, Leave it out there and you're there for them. And I told my whole staff that I go, I will give you one shot if I hear you complaining to the members because trainers can do that. My life, I don't care. Here's the line. When you cross here, this is where your attitude is for them. I want it to be like Disney of fitness clubs. This. We can talk later, you know, afterwards. But that's how I felt every single time. Every single class, every single member. And I would tell my members that, by the way, here's the attitude adjustment. When you walk in here, there is no politics. There is no religion. I don't care about it. You cross this line, you put. You do mind shift. I always had a word. So they would focus in on the word and a power statement. And every kettlebell class, spin class, they had to focus in. And then I'd say, okay, what's the good news? Every single class, what's the good news? And they say, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Somebody said good news, or she won't start class. I can see. Can you tell I'm really big into attitude.

Yes, yes, yes. But I think as entrepreneurs listen to this. And especially in today's world, there's a lot of people struggling to keep their businesses afloat. Right?

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. And I'm telling you, I brought in a business partner that was with me since the time he was 19. He was a trainer, and he worked his way up when by the time he was 35, he was my partner. And I brought him in to help me with the separation of stay in my lane, what I do well, but make sure that we're making money. I mean, that was my secret. Like, I was great at creating new ideas. I can create a party, create a theme, but to make sure the profit. Not that I couldn't do them, but I knew I had someone going, okay, so where are we going with this? Are we just going to be a nonprofit, or are we for profit? And my secret was having him who knew where I wanted to be in the world but could balance me out.

Mm.

Believe me, there were plenty of times that we would sit and go, how the hell are we getting out of this one? But he had my mindset, so I'm a journaling freak. We journal everything. Read, write down the impossible. Firm believer in a higher power. I call him Neil. So me and Neil will talk and chat. And my partner believed the same way the staff would come in. In whatever their belief system is, we all journal. We all came from a positive mindset. They weren't allowed to and complain, and that's how the logical answers happen. And I know it sounds like really wackadoo, but that's how I ran the company, and that's how I stayed in business all those years.

I love it. And I think most successful companies are authentic, and they are a bit wackadoo. And I think that's what attracts people? Yeah, for those who don't journal. I love that you journal and you, you know the importance of it. Give us a 60 second how to start journaling lesson. Or you know that the, the person that's out there going, oh crap, journaling, I don't believe in journaling. Give it, give us a stick. Give us a 60 second sales pitch or whatever. Speak to that person who is, who hasn't journaled and how it could change their life if they just do steps one, two and three. If you get where I'm coming from.

Yep. So if your life is going the way you want it and everything you set out to get happens. Kumbaya. Whatever you're doing, it's working. But if not, you might want to consider writing it down because when you see it, you're more likely to make it happen. Yes, there's studies, 40%, but the truth is, you remind yourself, oh, that's what I, Glenn was going after today. And my theme on everything is it only takes one to three minutes. I don't have a long attention span. So you just need to wake up in the morning. How do you want to show up? Pick your word, reflect on it throughout the day. If it's joy, power, ease and flow, what can you do to get back there? And then write a small thing of what you want to go after, even just for that day. Start small. That's it. That's all I want you to do and see what happens for the next 30 days.

That's pretty cool. Let's talk about the attitude of Philly. What? You're a Philly girl, right? And do you know Jeffrey Gittermer at all? Have you ever heard of Jeffrey?

No.

All right, so Jeffrey wrote the number one sales book in the history of the world called the Little Red Book of Selling. And he loves Philly.

Gotta know Jeffrey.

Well, you need to check out Jeffrey. He's written about 11 New York Times best selling books, he's a Hall of fame speaker and a dear friend, and he was also a guest on my podcast. He's actually the one that taught me how to do the podcast. I went to him and he said, dude, you need to do a podcast. And here we are, 150 episodes later. So yeah, Jeffrey's somebody, but you're a Philly girl. What's the attitude of Philly like? You know, you can feel it. The Phillies and the 76ers and the Flyers and the Eagles. I mean, I'm a big Eagle fan right now because I bought them in A Calcutta at the beginning of the season. So that's awesome. But people from Philly are a little different. There's a lot of pride there. I just want to know kind of, you know, the attitude of Philly and what. That's all.

Okay. I'm going to tell you what Philly's like. So my son is a freshman at Tyler R, which is at Temple's campus in Philly. He's home for the weekend. Driving him down there. As we're driving past the Temple hospital, I see some people on the street, A female, and she is just standing there waiting for the but. And this is what she's doing. She shadow boxing with a smile on her face. And then she goes. She boxes a little more and then she's like, that's Philly attitude. I mean, we're a little rough around the edges, but I love it. The energy in the camaraderie, there's nothing like it. I mean, I love in the suburbs, but, you know, I worked in the city for many, many years. I still go in there all the time.

Camaraderie, I like that. I think that's very apropos.

I feel it. And of course, I feel the energy right now because we do like that Cowboys, you know, and I love sports. I mean, and I love sporting events and I like being in Philly. There's nothing like them.

So let's talk about the attitude lesson you learned being a trainer for the Flyers. And. And like, who is the most influential or when you think about attitude in the Flyers organization, whether it be a player or an exec, who. Who. Who really taught you an attitude lesson there?

Oh, it's gonna have to be a tie between Pat Croce and Ed Snyder. So Pat Croce was their trainer and he brought me in. And Pat Croce is like high energy, feel good. He's written tons of books on it. And besides that, he had really, really successful physical therapy companies. Owned a piece of the Sixers. And he was close with Ed Snyder, who also was a client. And the two of them were so different in their style. But like, Croce was very much Sandy, you know, don't ever back down to who you are. You know, you're loud, you know you're out there. Don't ever apologize for it because it's going to get you a lot of places. And Snyder taught me business and that you had to make sure you tuned out all the negative chatter what people were saying about you, because 90% of it isn't true. And you don't let them see you sweat. Because all the stuff they said about him, and I'm like. But he's like, you can't. You can't. And I remember one time they were. I opened another club, and somebody I really cared about stole all my plans and my staffing and all this other stuff. And she was spreading a lot of rumors. And he. And he says, you go in there with your head all high. You don't justify him. You walk through those doors because everyone loved this person, and they're not going to not believe it. Goes, hey, Sandy, we heard this, this, this, and this. What do you think? He goes, tell them it's all true and you're having a time of your life and just keep walking.

Wow.

It's all true, man. Everything you said. Everything you said and then some. Now can we get down to business? And it shut them right up. Valuable lesson. I love it.

What's the most memorable Flyers game you ever were at?

Oh, I. Okay. So I was fortunate enough to train Eric Lindros. That's why I was brought in, because my team and seven other trainers were brought in to train the players that kept getting injured. So one of my most memorable was. Oh, God, I can't. I was dancing on top of my spin bike to entertain the troops. I had a porno spin class, they called it. That's another podcast. And I was dancing to entertain the spin class, and I fell, knocked my front teeth out. And I had a playoff game, and I had to go to the box. I mean, I'm training the trainers, right? So I had to go to the game without my front teeth, and they thought I did it and just was blackened out for the team. And I just remember saying to me as Snyder, and I was like, man, you got balls, Weston. You got balls.

I love it. Let's talk about the time with the 76ers. So you were a dancer. Were you in the.

Oh, yeah. Oh, so, okay. So at the time, yeah, Croce was one of the owners, and Brian Roberts. The city of Philadelphia was the fattest city in the world. They said, all right, it was cleaned, probably were. We love our cheesesteaks. And I decided that I had an idea. I was going to storm one of the city meetings and tell them what they needed, what the city needed. So I finally, after months of sitting out there, I got in a meeting, and they're like, I just. I have an idea. I mean, all their ideas were boring. Like, you know, memo and eat this and do that and work out this. And they kept just sending memos. I'm like, no one's reading your dumb memos. So I remember sitting there like, do you have a better idea? And I didn't. But then some. I popped up, go, know what the city needs? City needs a line dance. And they go, a line dance. Like, yeah. And like, you have a line dance. Yeah, let me tweak it. No line dance. I didn't know line dance. I went back, came up with dance, showed it, presented it. Next thing I know, it went all over Philadelphia.

Wow.

We were doing it on the streets. I closed down Market Street. We were doing a top of fire trucks. Everyone was doing this line dance. And then my vision was I always wanted to dance in front of 24,000 people at a Sixers game. And so I approached the dance team and they're like, Well, I was 40. You're a little old. I'm like, I'll put a lot of makeup on. I can do things. So anyhow, I created the dance for them and I got to perform it at one of the games. Oh, my God. In front of 24,000 people at 40 years old. Even Croce said, sandy, you can't be doing that. I can't get you in that door. You're a little. I'm like, so you're never too old to have one of your dreams come true.

It was so much fun, such a great attitude lesson. I just absolutely love that. So let's talk a little bit now about your new manifestation of you and your company and your keynote. What's going on with you? Do you have any online courses? What's a great way for people to see you and like, tell us what your mission is. What's going on with you right now?

So my mission still is to spread pure joy. And I do it with what my side gig was. So I always was doing speaking engagements. I've been podcasting for like 15 years. Called it radio and books and journals. And I took that and made it my main gig. The big shift is Glenn. It's more mental fitness. So right now I'm going into colleges, high schools and corporations, teaching them mental strength and conditioning programs. My main thing recently is I got asked to go into some high risk schools and teach them a six week program for mental strength and mental conditioning. So I had to take a lot of time, think, do I really want to do that? And how can I change the programs? But then when I went in to meet them, it was great. It was so awesome. Yeah. So I do my keynotes which I love. And I've been doing that. My goal is I want to do. Keep up with one big one a month.

Cool.

And then I do a workshop for schools, a workshop for corporations besides my podcast. And I just recently wrote the book Recessed to Reset was for middle school kids, but now I'm writing one for high school kids.

Nice.

And I love it all. Like, it's not like, I can't. People say you gotta pick a niche, but I don't. I don't want to do that. I love my keynotes. I love being on the big stage. But I also like, you know, going into the schools and working either with the teachers and the kids has been really rewarding, especially for me to go back in there to the high schools.

Yeah.

And tell them where, you know, like, what do you want? And I'm like, let me tell you what I got. And then they. All of a sudden, you know, I can. I can get them to listen to me.

Let's. Let's talk about mental toughness. Right? We. We had Mark Zanetti called Wrestling Mindset. He's one of our podcasts. He's a mental toughness coach. It's called Wrestling Mindset. He was on Joe Rogan. Freaking great guy. Check that one out. You'll like it.

Yeah.

What? So again, I'm. I'm sitting here listening to the Get Attitude podcast. I don't feel mentally tough. I'm feeling weak. I'm feeling like I'm overwhelmed. Like, what. What is your. 1, 2, 3. I know we can't go into it all. And, guys, you can go to her website and you can take her course, but hopefully she's going to give us two or three things that can help the person listening today. What can you do to become more mentally tougher? What does it mean to be mentally tough? What do we need to be telling people today about this?

Okay, here's my big thing. Stop making a big hairy deal over things. I mean that, like, I get it. If I feel like I walk outside and if I go into a coffee house, I can feel the anxiousness of people. It's okay. It's okay. You know, you're going to have thoughts that serve you well and thoughts that don't. They're not good, they're not bad, they're not right or wrong. They're just thoughts. Embrace those thoughts. Don't run for them. Go. It's okay. I feel this way. But now what. What's the one simple thing that you could do to lift your spirits for Many people, it's breathing. Taking deep breaths in and out and walking outside. For me, every single freaking hour, I get up and do a dance. Reset. It doesn't have to be complicated. Just like I said with journaling, you know, before you get out of bed every morning, just for a few seconds, I know you're busy. We don't want to take up a lot of your time, just say, how do I want to show up in the world? And then ask for guidance for whatever you embrace and come down and just put that word down, and what could you do to get there? There's a little things over time, and I know there's so many books about it, but I truly believe that we overanalyze it. What works for you? What do you enjoy doing? I talk to trees. It works for me. I hug. I don't meditate sitting still. I mountain bike and meditate. So find your way to feel. And just for a minute.

That's so good. Thank you so much. I. I think we help some people with that. I. I was just thinking about, you know, not political or anything, but I was thinking about the hostages that were taken a month ago and how shitty their day must be right now. Like, you know, for us to even think that anything is that big of a deal compared to where those people are. Lord knows where they're at in a tunnel or whatever. And I'm like, okay, yeah, you know what? Things aren't that big of a deal. So gappers. Trust me, whatever is bringing you down, it's not that big a freaking deal. Spoken from our fantastic guest, Sandy Joy Weston. Now, Sandy, we're going to close our podcast like we always do, with my little interview technique called Knowledge through the Decades. Knowledge through the Decades means I'm going to have you go through your life and tell me the attitude lesson from each age that I give you. And I want you to go back and think, because what's great is, like, our people get to know you, but they also go back through their life and they. And they kind of replay. Maybe that's something I would. So we always like to start with birth. You said you had kids. I don't know if you remember being born or not, but what do you think the attitude lesson is? Of birth? Of being born or starting a life?

Oh, it's just one amazing miracle, and you have this freaking awesome life. And when you look at a newborn, tell them how amazing the world is going to be for them.

Isn't that great? Just such a positive way to do it, right?

Yeah, yeah, I just freaking great, awesome life and let's not blow it, baby.

I like, I just had a shout out to Max. My fifth grandchild was born two weeks ago. So, Max, this podcast is for you. Sandy Joy just hooked it up. It's a miracle. Life is a miracle. That is the attitude lesson. And so many people, when we talk about showing up, we're not amazed by the miracle that that works for us every day. It's pretty crazy. Now, you gave us a little bit of insight, but I want you to go back to when you were 10 years old. That's third or fourth grade, I think. Was there something that occurred in your life at 10 that that was an attitude lesson for you, whether it be, you know, bullying or getting in trouble or doing something great. At 10, what was your attitude lesson?

Well, my mom, she battled many demons, so she spent about 50% of her life in mental institutions and not the well funded ones. So when I would go, my brother, who was a year and a half older than me, he had a really rough time with it. So I'd say, don't worry, don't worry, bro. I'm going to get in trouble and look like a fool. You like that? Entertain people. So what I would do is I'd bring a little boombox when I would go and my tap shoes. And I always wanted to go when they were gathering for their medicine. Keep in mind, I probably was like nine and a half at the time when I started going. And I'd walk around to each one of them, I'd say, you don't need that medicine. You don't need that. Just watch me, I'll bring you joy. And then I quickly throw on my tap shoes before I get in trouble, push the boombox and I start dancing away. And if you could see, talk about attitude, just for that one brief moment, the smiles on, they would laugh and have such a good item. And so I realized back then this is what I was going to do because in just a minute I could shift their life. Now, I don't know what happened, Glenn, long term, but I knew every time I went and tap danced, I mean, they felt, I felt like they had hope and I probably brought me hope. But man, instantly they went, you know, from feeling so depressed to laughing and smiling and carrying on. Best thing ever.

That is so powerful and I can't imagine that it wouldn't work today. If there's some little girl out there that wants to try that, she should do it. And we've seen it as we do Work with in old folks homes. We'll take young kids in and man, those old people, they light up. It just lights them up. It's so, so cool. How many siblings do you have?

I have an older brother.

Just one?

Yeah.

Okay, cool. All right, now I want you to think about when you were 20. You were what, sophomore, junior in college. This must have been good, Jason. I can't wait to hear about her when she was 20.

Well, I was really like, okay, you really want to know what happened? 20?

Yes.

Oh, my God. All right. Dance major in college, third year. Fell in love, got pregnant. Everybody wanted me, which I. I have no judgment here to have an abortion because I had a full boat scholarship to college.

Wow.

Dance and, you know, no money. That helps. And here I am. What am I going to do? My friend's like, you're having an abortion, man. You're going to. You got a third year in college. Well, it wasn't right for me, so I lost my scholarship. I quit school. I went to the house of his creation, which was for college. Kids were thinking about adoption in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. My family, you know, they had other things. They didn't even know where I was, but everyone thought I was just touring, dancing. My friends from school disowned me because I thought I was throwing my life away. And I had Mandy, my daughter, who I'm now in contact with when she became 18, who's now 40.

Wow.

That road looked like, have you lost your mind? But I didn't listen to anyone because it was the right path for me. And that path took me to another college where dance was in their health and phys ed department, which took to me to a house, who took me in for two years to get back on my feet and then took me to the dance student, which took me to aerobics and took me to the most beautiful life I could ever imagine. And yes, I worked three jobs and hitchhiked to get back in school. There is that. But, man, it was right for me. And to the day, it's the one of the most beautiful things I've ever did in my life because I trusted and listened to myself. Yeah, that was one. I know that's probably not what you expected, but that was what happened.

No.

Well, if you looked at it, you'd say you're an insane human. And I don't believe anything is right or wrong for anyone. I just knew. And even when they came around to say, okay, here's the adoptive family, like, because it was closed adoption back there, this Family. This family. I had this vision in my head of what the family would look like, and I kept saying, no, no, no. And they're like, you're the baby. You better pick up family. And what happened is I had this vision every single night that there was a broken swing set in the backyard, and that would be the family. So finally they came. They're like, what's backyard? What's backyard look like? They're like. They go, there's some stupid broken swing set. Like, we have a winner.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Well, it's no wonder your life's calling has come out of that time, right? It's like perseverance, you know, without adversity, you can never be a person of perseverance. And sometimes it's always darkest before the dawn. And your story aligns with me. I was a college football player and, you know, had the same circumstance. We kept her. I'm still married to the same woman that we started with, but my daughter just had her fifth baby, so, you know, here I am, young, younger than you, and that one child that you decided, hey, this is what's right for us has now given me five grandkids. Now think about that, right? So if you're out there and you're going, what the hell did I just do with my life? Or if you are in the same situation that Sandy and Joy found ourselves in, you. You got to trust yourself. Don't let somebody else make that choice, because you got to live with it. So you got to live with your decision. So, awesome story. Let's go to 30 years old. You're 30. You remember where you were when you're 30. You remember your 30th birthday? And what was your attitude lesson at 30?

Oh, my God. I sure remember it. I had my first health club, and they threw me a surprise party, and they flew my friends in from all over the country, and they had a limo pull out. And my staff really showed me how much they appreciated me.

Appreciation. Right.

It was amazing how they just. My clients, my staff, they did bring in a male dancer into one of my classes. I was so embarrassed about that. But everyone, you know, favorite daughter. I mean, they just made me feel so special.

I love it. And then you kind of told us your attitude lesson at 40. You dance for 24,000 people. But if there's another attitude lesson you want to give us on 40, please do so, or we can move on. You're probably never too old.

You're never too old. I mean, come on, right?

I love it.

I don't care if one more person says, why? Because I want to. That's why.

Yeah, Exactly. Are you 50 yet?

I'm going to be 64 on Thanksgiving.

Whoa. All right, well, good. We have two more to go then. Talk to me about turning 50. What it means for a woman to turn 50 or anyone to turn 50. And what was the attitude lesson? Where were you on your 50th? And what. What did you learn? What was your attitude lesson when you hit the big 50 my again?

The staff and the members at the other gym, they threw big parties, had big posters blown up all over the place. They went to town for me, took me to New York City. It was telling people that to embrace every single year because I never cared that I was getting older. I. I would be like, how old are you, though? Women don't tell, don't tell. I don't care. I mean, I want to live life to the fullest. I want to embrace each and every year. So every year to me was a blessing. And I got excited. I never got depressed. I'm like, no, I'm excited. I'm 50. I'm 50. Woo.

I love it. I love it. Embrace it. Embrace it. And so four years ago, you hit the big six. Zero. My sister Molly. Love you. Sorry. I told everybody in our audience that. And she's a redhead and has a lot of spunk, just like you. So what was it like? I mean, what was your thought or your attitude lesson at 60? I mean, what were you thinking?

Remember I told you about the project peeps the five? Well, there was a young lady that now and then showed up and we called her Gypsy Gina. And she was a palm reader. She said, I think she was just completely tripping out of her mind. But she, you know, I was nine and so she read my palm. You know, she was new to the bench. Gypsy Gina, she said, let me read your palm. And I can remember it still to this day. She's like, sorry, sweetie. Sorry, sweetie. You're gonna have a very, very, very, very short life. And I'm like, sorry, sweetie. I was nine years old, and so my staff was like, my staff, my peach were like, don't worry about her. You know, she doesn't know what she's talking about. But ever since she said that to me, I thought, carbide them. I may not have much time.

Yeah.

So every time I reach in, I'm like, gypsy Gina was wrong. So 60, I thought, I think I'm safe now. I think Gypsy Gina might have been tripping out of her mind.

I love it. I love it. So fun. Well, Sandy, I hope you had fun with us on the Get Attitude podcast. We always like to let you get on your platform, even though you're sitting in your living room right now, and just simply think about or try to channel that person that's in their car, that's crying, that's walking on the beach, that's all alone. Somebody that came to this podcast to bridge the gap from who they are to who they want to become, and from where they are to where they want to go, could you just give them a message of hope and a couple closing thoughts on On Attitude and the message of hope for them.

This is Somebody just asked me recently, what would be the gift if there were no limitations on what you would want to give to society? And it took me a while to think about it, but I would want every single person to know, no matter what is going on in their life or in their heads, that they are a unique gift to the world. And whatever way their brain works, it's supposed to work that way. And the more that they show up the way they are, with no apologies and they shine bright with everything about them, they will not only be a blessing to the world, but they'll be a blessing to themselves. And I just want to send them so much peace, love, love and joy every single day. Tap in and listen to your peace, love and joy that you innately came on Earth for.

I love it. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the amazing Sandy Joy Weston on the Get Attitude podcast. We will see you next week on the Gap.