When life gives you lemons...

Hello, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and coach, and I'm here with Jamie Jenkins, who is the founder and organizer of Lemon Rebellion. And I am so excited to talk to Jamie. It's funny. We met because I was applying to speak at an event, and I was not the right fit for this event. And I just felt like we hit it off in that conversation. I was like, but we should go live together.

You're amazing.

So, Jamie, thank you for being with us today. You're coming all the way from Ecuador. Virtually.

Yes, virtually connected from Ecuador in the city of Quito, high up in the Andes mountains.

Right.

Right along almost the equator. It's just a few miles north from here.

Awesome. So I think you are my furthest south guest I've ever had. The Southern hemisphere. But close. Close enough.

I'll take it. I'll take it. I am from Ohio originally, but I've been down here 16 years now.

Oh, my gosh. What took you there?

I came originally for work. I used to work in international nonprofits, and I got relocated here for work, and then I really just had hundreds of reasons to stay over the years, so I've just stuck around down here. Can't beat the weather.

Yeah. No, right. It's pretty much the same all year round.

Yeah. Keto itself is called the city of Eternal Spring. It really never goes below maybe 50, 55 a few times a year, mostly at night and then during the day, you know, in the upper 60s, lower 70s. So it's just a very comfortable climate almost all year long.

That's, like, better than San Francisco. Maybe I should rethink. Yeah, it's good. It's good.

And we don't get a lot. I mean, we do have a rainy season, but there's never a time when it's just always overcast or always rainy. It tends, like, downpour, and then the sun comes out again kind of of thing.

Oh, I love that.

Yeah.

So lots of rainbows. I'm. I'm imagining lots of rainbows and mountains and volcanoes.

It's a very exotic, beautiful place to live. So I can't. I can't complain. Oh, my God.

Well, I. You have to have, like, an in person, live event there at some point.

Absolutely. I definitely will. That's definitely how we're going to grow with what I'm doing with Lemon Rebellion.

Awesome. And Lemon Rebellion, this organization that I'm. I'm borderline obsessed with. Oh, can you get me. I'm here. Are you there, Jamie? Okay. Well, sometimes we have we have connectivity issues, but.

Sorry. Hey, Katie, we're back. I don't know. Sorry about that.

No worries. You had a freeze frame on a pleasant, you know, facial expression. So there you go. Yeah.

All right.

What's the worst when you're like.

Normally, that's how I look. I'm actually putting on a face for you. I normally have.

Flattered. Thank you. I wore this yellow top in honor of you being the owner of Lemon Rebellion. I was like, yellow top. Well, I was just about to ask. Tell us about Lemon Rebellion.

Okay. All right. So Lemon Rebellion is. It's about a movement, really. At the end of the day, it's a movement that has different pieces of things that we're doing in terms of, like, virtual summits and creating a community. But Lemon Rebellion is basically about, you know, when life gives you lemons, there's that saying, make lemonade. Okay. It's not about that. That saying sucks. Within that saying is everything that, you know, as women, I think we experience, like, put on a smile, fake through, be toxically positive, you know, everything's okay, Everything's okay. And it detaches us from ourselves, our reality, our authenticity, and really, our true joy and purpose. So Lemon Rebellion is about, you know, adversity is going to happen. Life's going to give us lemons. Things are going to fall apart and come back together. But we have a choice in our reaction of how are we going to react with that lemon. And through the events that we host with this community of life coaches and motivational speakers and embodiment facilitators and everything. It's about helping equip women to manage those lemons and create an extraordinary life with the learning and growth that comes through the adversity and challenges that we face. We have to get used to it, because shit's gonna hit the fan. You said I could swear. And anywhere between the average person has between three to five, what people call life quakes. Like, major life situations that knock you down and make you question who you are and where am I gonna go from here? And Lemon Rebellion is about equipping people to be able to manage those life quakes and not be. Not stay down, but learning how to get back up, move forward, and again, using all of that to create, each time they get back up, a more extraordinary life.

Right. You know, the thing that I love the most about this concept is that it really gives everyone permission to own the narrative in the story and not try to dress it up and make it pretty. Mm.

Yeah, it's not. It's messy.

It's messy. Oh my God. But I'm looking back at these, you know, you call them life clicks. And I love that term. And it's like those moments, like I wouldn't be who I am today if I didn't like fully dive into. Oh my God, everything's falling to hell and I'm in the shit right now and I just need to be here for a bit.

Yeah, exactly. The time that you need as long as you need. And it's not about becoming a victim and staying stuck, but it's about the grace and the self compassion to allow yourself to grieve and experience the loss and be real and messy and chaotic in that. And then when the day and the time comes, which I think it always does, at one point or another, looking at that, staring it in the face and saying, and who am I going to be now? Like, how am I going to write the next chapter of my story? What is it going to be? Because when those lifequakes happen and shit hits the fan, it's so easy in the moment to think that that's all there is to our story. That's all we're ever going to be. How are we ever going to move on? At least that's, that's what I do to myself.

Yeah, I think that we, we all.

Do that in, at some point or another in our lives. It's natural, honestly. But when the day comes to figure out, okay, what is that next chapter? How am I going to show up and what's next in my life, like, move, move forward.

Right, right. I mean, two things come to mind. One is like that, that trope of, you know, the woman who's going through a divorce and she's so concerned with being. And that's my new identity and that's all I'm going to be known for, is someone who had a failed marriage, which in that moment, any moment where you're going through something that's traumatic in your life, it's really easy to paint yourself as that.

Yeah, sure, yeah.

And then also Modern Family. Are you a Modern Family fan?

I've not seen it. I think I'm not a good American because we're supposed to know certain music and certain TV shows.

You've been out of the States for a while. I think you gotta pass on this. But there's very lovable, very goofy, like dad character there and he makes a book for his daughter when she goes off to college. And it's philosophy and in there, like it's ridiculous, like Watch a sunset at least once a day, you know? At least once a day, you know, and then when life gives you lemonade, like when life gives you lemonade, give it back lemons. And life will be like, what?

I like that. That's hysterical. Wait, what? I love that because that, that also is like challenging the narrative. Like, you. You want to do it.

Exactly. You know, you just get to be in choice. You get to be in choice about everything.

Right. I also love this idea because it reminds us that in any given moment, we can change the story. We can show up differently. We can. You know, you. You mentioned something interesting, the divorce. That's like, oh, who's ever going to love me again? Or now I'm divorced and, you know, no one going to want to remarry or whatever. We put these labels on ourselves as if they were truth and they're just labels. Like, we can choose to identify or not with any of those labels. And. And maybe that's how society perceives us or some people in society perceives us. But at no point is that ever the complete definition of who we are. We are energy in motion, creating our reality, creating, you know, experiences and connecting with others around us. So those labels, in my opinion, are meaningless. I know they're there. I know we use them. Sometimes I use them on myself, but it's good to remember that it's just bullshit at the end of the day. Those labels.

Yeah. You know, it brings to mind a client of mine wrote this beautiful post the other day about. He was going into work, and this woman who works, I think, on the maintenance staff or something, she was struggling to get a trolley of soft beverages through the door. And he let me help you because, like, she was trying to get it over that little, like, ledge and it wasn't going. And he was saying that she said she's worked there for about three years. Not one person has ever offered to help her. And she does this every single day. But, you know, he sees himself in a certain light. Like, he sees himself as like, an engineer, writer, all these different things. But now the impact he had on her, she's probably like, oh, that's the guy who helps me. That's the guy who noticed me and decided to help me through that. Like, that is his identity to her at this moment.

Yeah.

More of that. But it's like, you know, those little moments also define us. It's not just the big scary that. Yeah, that takes our life sideways.

Yeah, absolutely. I. I love that, and I really think we need more of that. More of people relating to each other as. As humans, as equals. Being empathetic and understanding different experiences that different people have in life because of where they were born or their socioeconomic class or their racial experience or their gender or sexual experience. Like using our. Our empathy to connect with each other in a real, vulnerable, authentic way and. And show each other that we see our shared humanity like your. Your client did with. We need more of that. We need so much more of that.

Yeah, I so agree. And this is one of the things that I really appreciate about the events and the workshops that you do with Lemon and Rebellion is because it sounds like you create these opportunities for people of all different backgrounds and all different experiences to come together and to share these. Knowing that it's a safe space and there's no judgment, and that people, even if they didn't experience something similar, they'll still relate to that.

Yeah. Yeah, that's a big part of it. I've really. It is important to me that all voices are heard and have a space to share their message. And by no means do I feel like because I'm the organizer or the founder or the whatever, I don't need to be the voice that establishes everything that's said from my perspective at all. So really, with the community of women that are coming, I guess that that is the one filter women or people who identify as woman or female are. Are really leading the experience as a women Supporting women event. But beyond that, it's really about listening to the different coaches and their experiences and allowing them to create within their sessions and workshops that they'll be leading within the event and the future events that we'll have even after this big summit in September, to. What I tell them is they've. Many of them ask, what would you like me to present about? And I'm like, what is your greatest gift that you could share in this space? Knowing that the people that are going to show up are women that are in transition one way or another, that have gone through some sort of, you know, hitting the fan. They're reevaluating who they are, how they want to show up in life. What is the greatest message and gift you have for them? And then really giving each person the freedom to define what that is. And then I'm, you know, curating it and organizing it in a way that will create a meaningful experience as topics build on one another. But each of the. The people in the network that are sharing and doing the coaching and the speaking and the. And the teaching and all that are really coming with their greatest gifts. And it's. Yeah, it's a very diverse in every way kind of group of people, people from all over the world. And I'm, I'm just like thrilled. I feel like I'm, I'm just a space creator. I'm in this, creating space, being a bridge, setting it up and then letting the magic happen really with all the incredible people that are, are joining this effort. And you know, this is just one of many things that are going to happen. This is our second summit, but we're going to have two a year and like you said, other workshops and different things to give many people the opportunity to, to share.

Yeah. And I'm so curious, what inspired you to start this?

Oh, that's a good question. So I always start out with the same phrase. I'm getting annoyed at hearing myself say the same phrase every time I answer this question. But it goes like this. About 10 years ago.

Well, it's okay because next year you'll be like about 11 years ago. Yeah, that's true.

I only have to repeat myself for a year and then I can upload it. So 10 years ago, you know. And, and I also just want to start with, by no means is my experience like the worst experience that's out there. And I also don't think it's a competition about who's, who's had it worse or not. We can all empathize with each other's difficult times. But so the character traits of kind of my difficult time 10 years ago were, you know, I'm living here in Ecuador, which is not my country of origin. So I don't have a big social, a big family circle here locally. And because of the circumstances at the time, I also didn't have a very strong social circle and I got divorced from my, my husband, ex husband who's from here. My dream job that since I was 14 was the thing I always wanted to do. I got promoted to be the executive director of this thing locally and then the company left the country, decided to pull out of all Latin America pretty much. So I lost my dream career, lost my, you know, life partner, became a single mom, lost my income all at that same time. And then within a very short period of time my ex husband also moved out of the country so that I was a single mom without a job in a foreign country with a four year old little daughter. And just it was too many things in, in my identity that I lost at once. And it really threw me into, thank gosh. It was like Two or three years, honestly, of depression and feeling very like, victimized and sad and lonely. And it was incredibly hard to pull myself back up from that. And I'm so grateful now that I have, because I've found different guides along the way. You know, from silly things like learning how to lift weights, going to dance class, starting to find a couple positive friends that followed some positive influencers that I'd never heard of at the time, that now are like people that are in my daily life, you know, and building myself back up little by little by kind of haphazardly stumbling across these again, guides that would just happen to resonate with me in my journey in that moment. So what Lemon Rebellion is about is creating a singular space online, a singular community and events, bringing all of those guides and resources together. So if it. So that it doesn't have to take you two to three years to haphazardly stumble across, you know, maybe that one embodiment practice that's going to be the thing that helps you finally overcome your anxiety. So. Or whatever the case may be, or challenge that one limiting belief that has had you stuck for years in a job that you hate or relationship that you don't like or whatever it may be. So I, I do miss Costco because I haven't been there in the US in a long time. But I compare it kind of like a Costco table of wellness, like a sampler table of wellness.

Rebellion.

And in very small doses of, you know, half an hour, 45 minute sessions each arranged around five different kind of like growth tracks or reasons that you might want to come and join. You can experience five to eight different life coaches and new wellness practices and different things to see what resonates for you. And it's impossible that going to this event, you wouldn't find at least one thing, if not, you know, a dozen, half a dozen, that will be those things that push you forward and get you kind of moving in a better direction. So it was really long, long answer, but it was my own pain. And I'm, I guess I'm doing the Lemon Rebellion thing. Like I'm taking my own pain and creating purpose from it, my own. If this had existed 10 years ago, it wouldn't have taken me two to three years to find myself again. It would have really shortened the time to find those tools that would be the things that would eventually pull me out. So.

Yeah, no, Well, I mean, you went through two. The four most stressful things a person can go through. The other two are moving and death.

Luckily, that one hasn't. Yeah, okay.

Yeah, Right. But I mean, you went through two of the four. That's a lot usually. Yeah. I'm a firm believer that when you go through a breakup, you kind of have to break up with who you believed you were going to be with. That person, even. Yeah, I can see that. Right.

Yeah, I can totally see that. It was just a lot of shifts, I think, from them. The career that really defined me, because it was a career, Katie, that meant a lot to me. I was working in non profits, really serving people, helping private sector companies develop, like, more fair trade and just business models to help people get out of poverty in a country that is, you know, a country and still developing and still has a long way to go. So it was a very meaningful career. And to lose that and then the financial stability and the relationship and the, you know, not having any support, being in my own culture, I didn't even. It was very complicated. But anyway, I wouldn't wish it on anyone. And as I like to say, with Lemon Rebellion, too, like, nobody wants trauma or hard times to happen. And Lemon Rebellion isn't about glorifying, you know, hard times. Like, oh, well, I was the through something so hard, so now I'm amazing. No, it's not about that. But. But when these things come, you know, how are we going to use them again? How are we going to show up and move forward once we're kind of like, in a place that we're ready to move forward?

Right, right. Yeah. Overcoming can look like a lot of different things. It can mean, you know, conquering the world and it can also mean, like, getting out of bed in the morning.

Yes, yes, yes, Absolutely. There's room for all of that at any given point in time.

Right, right. I had a question. Where did it go? Oh, no, No, no, no. It's just, you know what. So you have this event coming up, and what kind of transitions is it geared to this time around? Because you said it kind of shifts to different tracks as you go through.

Yeah. So this time is actually kind of a broad, broad topic that could encompass any of these kind of major life changes, but the five growth tracks. The first day is dedicated to building an appreciation for life. So all of the presenters that day are going to be looking at that topic from different angles, from authenticity, how to connect with your authentic happiness, things like that. The second day is dedicated to new possibilities. So that day is about challenging, limiting beliefs, getting in touch with your dreams, that future self that you want to create and build and getting you in the openness and the expansiveness of the mind to be able to look at new possibilities. The third day is about personal strength and resilience. So that day has, from physical resilience, emotional, mental resilience, financial resilience as well. Just all sorts of different perspectives on how to overcome obstacles, live beyond your limits, and really become someone that not just bounces back, but thrives even in the face of challenges. The fourth day, which is Thursday, September 23, is about radically closer relationships. So in the research on post traumatic growth, which is kind of the framework I'm using to organize the content of the event itself, it says that when we go through something really traumatic, we examine those relationships and we examine how we're showing up in the relationships in our lives. And it's so much easier to be intentional about the relationships we have and the quality of those relationships. So that day is dedicated, you know, from parenting to romantic partners, to our relationship with our inner child and ourselves. Just looking at how do we create radically closer relationships, kind of built on the knowledge and wisdom that comes from the lemons that maybe we. We've overcome or survived. And then the last day is about spiritual connection and growth. So that's just really about pulling back, looking at everything from a higher perspective, not associated with any religion or belief system in particular, just really from. Just connecting with our authenticity and taking that step back. Right. Those are the five growth tracks.

Oh, man. I can see this being so transformational for so many different people just by giving them the options, like, choose your own adventure. You know, like, the spirituality may be the thing that lands with some people, but then reassessing relationships could be the thing that really needs to happen with others.

Yeah, man. I've also tried to create it in such a way that it's very easy to sign up and show up for the sessions that you feel are most relevant for you. Because I think you're right. People will. Many things will resonate for some people and maybe just a couple for another. But the price point is also super comfortable. So if you did only show up to three or four, you'd still feel like, I can't believe, you know, I was able to get into all these places and everything from the rebellion is live. So you're able to interact with the coaches, do the practices with people. None of it is staged. So there. There may be blips, technological blips. I hope not. But really choose your own, your own experience, because you're right, everyone comes in at different points and needs different things. So, right.

So beautiful. And then you're going to be running workshops throughout the year. And then the next summit, what time of year are you going to be doing your two summits?

It's probably going to stick with, like September, March. I feel like that's a good, good time to do it. We'll see. I hope we have a great turnout. I mean, we really should have a great turnout. People should be settled back for summer vacations in September. So.

Yeah, no, amazing. And if people want to sign up, if they're like hearing all this and like, that's me, that's me, that's me. I should go to this thing. Yes, they should go to the website. Lemonrebellion.com Yep, that's the place.

Lemonrebellion.com Grab your ticket for general. General admission, you get access to over 60 different sessions. Again, within these growth tracks, led by 35 different life coaches and embodiment facilitators. But there's also an all access pass. And with that all access pass you get, you can choose from up to. It's going to be around 20 different extended workshops that will be an hour to two hours long to actually begin to get deeper into the work with the different coaches. So there are those two options depending on what you're looking for and how fast you want to fly.

Oh, my God, it's so needed and I want to end on. What's the impact you want to have with this?

I would love. Let me guide you through a visual because I. This the other day. What. What would it feel like in your family, Katie, if there were more women who didn't question their worth, who showed up in their full power and were living their lives as their best, most extraordinary selves, like just, just. You don't even have to tell me, but just feel what that would feel like if in your family it wasn't just you, it was you and a couple more? How different would that dynamic be? And then how different would that would your experience be in the place that you live if there were 5,000 women showing up in that way? What would it be like to go to the grocery store to, you know, be at local parties with your friends, to go to the workplace? How different would it feel if there were 5,000 more women? And how different would the country feel, you know, wherever you live, if there were a million, even just a million, which really in a global scale is.

Not that many people, there were just.

A million women more showing up fully confident about their power and their potential and, and looking at like life's lemons. Not as something to feel bad about or disempowered by, but they're like this. I'm going to take this and use it as fuel to, like, rocket power my life forward into the way I want it to be. So my goal, the impact I want to create at whatever scale it happens. And I don't know, I can't predict the future. I don't know what will happen with it. My vision is just helping women accelerate that journey to getting to that point where they are a woman fully confident in their power, creating an extraordinary life and living extraordinary life that's really aligned with their most authentic selves. And I think when we're aligned with our authentic selves, we're also going to always end up serving others in one way or another. So I would love to live in a world like that. I'd love to be in a community like that. I'd love to have a family like that. And that's not to criticize any of the things around it. Just how beautiful would it be if more of us showed up that way every day?

Right. And you know, you're saying all that, and I want to underline for anyone listening, like, I don't think you're saying that women are, like, going and fixing other people around them. They're just going and setting this beautiful example. Yeah. It reminds me, have you ever heard of transcendental meditation?

I have, but I don't know anything about it.

So it's. You kind of have to be trained in how to do it, and you have, like, a mentor for the first, like, three days. And I was talking to my mentor when I got trained in it, and she was saying how they did this study where they went into an inner city school in a neighborhood that had so much crime, it was so dangerous for anyone to go through this neighborhood. And they actually did a program where they taught all the students how to meditate in this way. And they instituted, like, a program where there was meditation time with the school. And I'm forgetting where it was because I'm like, the words are referencing stuff that I heard about once. Right. I heard the story and I want to share it, but I can't remember where I heard it from and all this stuff.

But the story is still valid, even without the details.

Exactly. Exactly. But what was insane is that the crime rate over the few months that they ran this program dropped off dramatically.

I don't doubt it. That's amazing.

And it's not like these kids were the Criminals, they, they were not the ones causing trouble, but just the fact that they were just being a little more peaceful in their lives, like just had this beautiful ripple effect in the community that just, you know, just washed through and just brought the, the stress levels down enough.

That's amazing.

As you're describing this impact that you want to have, like, I completely see that happening in that way.

Yeah. And thank you. I appreciate the, the clarification. But that, that's, that's also the way I see it. It's the ripple effect. It's just showing up who we are when we are our authentic natural selves that happens, that impacts people around us. So what a cool example though, if you figure out what town it was, I'd love to know to read the same article.

Oh, I forget her name, but I think I have it like an old Yahoo account. Her email. I'll have to like. Yeah, I know, right? Yahoo.

I know. That's good. Good for them.

I checked my Yahoo account because I think I have like one ex boyfriend who I like still like to keep in contact with who we exchange emails like once a year. And that's the email.

I think I still have one too, to be honest. I don't know if I remember the past password, but I'll look at it.

Yeah, that's, that's always the fun guessing game. Like what did I care about back then? Beautiful, Jamie. So for everyone who's watching, I have put the, the link to lemon rebellion.com in the chat. So go ahead and click on that. If you want to buy tickets, you should do it. When does, when does the event start?

It's from September 19th through the 25th. So we're still several weeks out, but it would be good to get the ticket as soon as possible, especially if you're going to get the all access pass because some of those longer workshops have a limited number of spots available because you want to keep it like small group, intimate experience. So that will be kind of first come, first choice with those extra sessions.

Right. Kind of like signing up for college classes. You just have to sign up for everyone else.

Yes, just like that. Good job. Thank you so much for having me and chatting with me. It was super fun. I hope that some things in here are valuable for your audience. You're a great interviewer and I'm also thrilled about what you're doing in the world. It's wonderful to connect with you and share this time together.

Thank you. No, it's been so much fun to have you. I hope you'll come back soon. And, yeah, I hope that. I know this event is going to go off swimmingly, but I'm so excited to see the impact and to hear the feedback that you get that I know is going to be incredible.

Awesome. Thanks, Katie. I appreciate it. And thanks again for creating the space here to chat today.

Yeah.

Thank you.

And to everyone who's been watching, thank you so much for joining us this evening. This is Jamie Jenkins with Lemon Rebellion. And I'm Katie McManus, business coach and strategist. And that is our Wednesday. So have a great night, everyone, and we will see you later this week. Bye.

Bye, everyone.