Episode 231: Vickie Poole: Voices of Vulnerability, The Healing Power of Podcasting

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. Well, you guys, this is the moment that I love, honestly, I think more than anything is when I get to talk to someone that's in the do the Thing community that's been living and breathing and doing the challenges and really doing the thing, and not only doing the thing, but helping others do the thing and really just impacting people. While she's been moving and sharing her story and what experiences she has to be able to help others, it's been really quite transformational to be a part of her journey. And so I'm just so excited. Our next guest is Vicki Poole, and she has the podcast Today's Dream, Tomorrow's Reality, and she's a coach. She's so many things. I can't wait to dive into her story even deeper than what I know it now. Because when you see people in the community, you definitely get to see pieces of who they are and what they do and expand. But the nice thing that I love about having a podcast is now we can go even deeper than we've gone before. And I was actually on her podcast last month, and it was so much fun just getting a chance to be interviewed by someone, knowing that I helped kind of start it, and then also having her interview me and almost happen to things that I actually hadn't even realized. So it was kind of neat just getting to see the other side. So now it's her turn. I'm excited to welcome Vicki Poole to the show. Hey, Vicki.

Hey.

It's good to be here.

Yay. Super excited.

I know.

I'm so excited. I was excited before, but now that we're here in this moment.

I know, I know.

Yeah. So on our interview together on your podcast, it was cool because you brought out something that I hadn't thought about before, about the podcast being this form of self care. And it's interesting because for me, my podcast has been my almost awakening. Not to sound too esoteric, but really it was because it was that activation of voice getting this reason to connect together. And there was so much about what you said about it being your self care that was alive for me. And I feel like this is a good place to start.

Yes, definitely. Well, it's really interesting because I'm sorry, I've got allergies to my eyes beginning to water.

You're just crying because it's so emotional.

I know, I know. Well, that'll come. That'll come.

Probably.

Yeah, it usually does. But I was so wanting to do A podcast, because I would see podcasts and it was like, oh, I want to do that, and give me a chance to have my voice and do all these things. But it seemed like such a daunting thing that it's got to be hard. So I loved doing your challenge because since you broke it down into these little bite sized pieces, nothing seemed too hard. It was like, oh, I can do that. Oh, I can do that. And then when you said, I reached out, I want to have you as a guest on my podcast. And you said, well, you have to have 20. And I thought, okay, all right. So I kept. I was pumping them out because I got to get to 20 because I got to have Stacy on my podcast. So I was so super excited when I was able to send you that message and say, okay, let's schedule it. And it's like, the more I do this, the more excited I become. And it's interesting because I had a hypnosis client yesterday that I worked with and when we got finished, it was like 9pm And I was so pumped from having been able to help her to make these adjustments in her life and her thoughts and everything. And she was in tears part of the time, and it was just amazing. And I feel the same elation when I have a guest on my podcast. It just gives me that feeling of, I can't believe I get to do this and I don't make money from it. And I'll be honest with you, if I'd never made a damn dime, I would still do this. Because it. It's just. It feeds my soul and feels like it's the one place. Not that I am always censoring everything I say, but this is the one place I don't have to censor at all. It's amazing.

Yeah. Isn't it cool? It's almost like you rediscover who you are through the podcast because it gives you this intentional space and time to be able to have these conversations. And the other person knows that you're going deep, typically. So it's immediately. You don't need to have any kind of pre foreplay, I guess you could say.

Yeah, with getting there, we're just getting into it.

Yeah.

And one of the funny things for me is I like to be surprised. And it's almost like I'm having a regular coaching session. I don't want to know too much. That way I can hear what you say, I can filter it, and I can decide exactly what to say. So I might read somebody's book. Ahead of time just so I can make sure I read it. I know who they are, but I really want to dive deeper. And there are so many people that. And I know you find this as well, that will give you such a superficial thing that they're telling you because they've polished, that this is what they've practiced for so long. And then you can ask them one question, and suddenly waterworks come. I didn't know you were going to ask that. And you can almost feel like there's this release that they're getting from having to. Even though they're in the public and so to speak in this. But it gives them a way to. To release. And even I have one guest that I've had on several times, and her thing is, she has multiple personalities from a tragic childhood, sexual abuse and all kinds of things. Trafficking. I mean, it's a lot. And so I asked her this last time I had her on, I said, so why is it that you want to do this? Because the first time I had her on, she even messaged me and said, I'm not ready to put this out. And I said, well, honey, I've already put it out. I'm wham, bam, I don't edit anything. So it's right.

Yeah.

And I said, but you don't have to share it. And right now, my podcast is kind of small, so the likelihood of your family getting a hold of this is very small. Right. But then the third time I had her on, she said, I want to get this out because it heals me and gives other people that may be suffering from the same thing a reason to say it's okay and give them a voice. And when she said that, I thought, oh, man, this shit is powerful. More powerful than. I mean, I get tingles right now when I think about the power that we hold in this microphone, in this zoom link and being able to do this. It's just profound.

I totally agree. And it reminds me of. I think it was episode number eight or nine. It was in my first 10. And I had interviewed someone about her story. And when we were talking, I was still new at it. When we were talking, I was asking her about what drives her. And she had said something that I didn't even hear when we were talking. I didn't hear it in the way that. But she basically, when I heard the recording back, she had said she was building this community cleanup event every month. And I was like, how do you go after the people? Because every week she gets raffle prizes for people to participate. And I was like, how do you go up to the people? And she's like, well, I guess it was something about when I was younger, I used to have to beg for food. And I didn't hear it in that interview, and I listened to it after, and I asked her if she could come back on and we could talk more about it and explore it more. Because it's that idea, right. Of these lateral skills that we build in our life that we don't even imagine that we are doing it at the time. Our greatest struggles, when we look back at them, those are the biggest things that we're able to use now. And by her begging for food and going through that process, she's okay asking for help. She's okay dealing with rejection. She's okay just putting herself out there and realizing I could survive and have that resiliency. And I remember after that interview when I published it, and she's someone that's never had that kind of story out.

She with disability.

Yeah. Visibility. Yeah. She was crying because she was just like, I just am so honored by my story, meaning her story. I'm so honored to that. And I didn't even realize those dots connected about this thing that happened when I was younger. And she said it was so healing for her. And you're right. It's this gift that we get to give to people that is really remarkable. And we don't even sometimes realize it until after it's out there and they get to hear it. And they're like, oh, my gosh, I never even knew that about myself.

Yeah. Because I know for her in particular, she said she told me things on that first podcast that she's never even told her family. And I hear that with a lot of people that I interview that it's like, oh, I can't believe I said that. I can't believe I let that out. And. And a few of them have said, this just feels really, really uncomfortable. And so I said, well, you share it when you're ready. But it's already out. That's my thing. And they do, when they sign up to do the podcast, they fill out a little form. I'm giving Vicki and Today's Dream, Tomorrow's Reality, permission to use all of this material. And I agree that I will share it out and all those different things. So they've already signed that release, so I feel okay with not waiting and anything like that. Plus, a lot of times, I think in the moment, people get scared, but then once it's out, it's like, yeah, what a release.

Yeah, I'd love to talk about the no editing part because I actually use your podcast as an example of how to move quicker because you already have 30 episodes at least on your podcast, and that's because you move so quick. And when I interviewed on your podcast, I was like, oh my God, it's.

Hard to be interviewed. Or the next day you're like, here it is. I'm like, oh my gosh, you're literally.

The perfect podcasting example for everyone. Because that's what bottlenecks people when they're starting a podcast. And that's. When would you rather edit and do all this craziness and no one gets to hear the story when the experience and the knowledge when they need it the most? It's always that one thing that when you're struggling and you're going through that hard time, or you need to tap in to move and do something, it's that one person, that one moment, that one voice that gets you to move. And if you had held on to these, then they would miss it. And so I would love to just kind of talk about that, how you feel about just that no editing piece and being able to be raw. And I love that you say it in your intro too.

Yeah, well, I'll be honest, that was one of the things when I had thought about a podcast was the ones I watched were so polished and they had all the music intros and they had all these different things going on. And you could tell every now and then that they edited something out or whatever. And so I thought, oh, there is no friggin way that I'm going to do all that. If I have to do that, I'm not doing it. And I think one of the times when you were talking to us on the challenge that you said something about, if you don't want to edit, don't edit. And I thought, okay, I'm not going to edit. And the more I thought about it, I thought, that just feels so me. Because one of the things that I love about the podcast is I don't have to edit my voice. So why do I want to edit the whole thing? I want to take it just as it is. And there are so many times that I'll be in my intro. It's raw. And I'm. And I say, okay, there we are. Not edited. Because it kind of feels good that I guess in one way it's the only place in my life and I feel that if I make a mistake or a Perceived mistake, that there's no judgment, because I've said right up front, this is how it is, and that's the way. So it almost feels like when I make a blubber or whatever, I almost feel like, yes, I did that. And so it changes the whole thing about it. And in the beginning, when I would have a guest, I would tell them, okay, just so you know, before you get on this podcast, I'm not going to be editing anything, so if we make a mistake or you say something you don't like, we can't take it out. And I was really surprised. Everybody has said, oh, that's great, that's great. And I've even had people, when I do my intro, then later they'll even say, I love that you don't edit. And I love that you say that it's raw and that we live this mosaic life. And so. And that was not the first intro that I was going to do, but something came to me because I love the Kitsu, or however you say it is, the Japanese art of filling in the cracks with gold and making the vases even stronger and more beautiful. And it was like those thoughts were coming to me. And then somebody said something about a mosaic tapestry or something. I thought, that's what this is. And so it just feels so good. And there's times that when I'll listen to it back, because I listen to it back, so I could take enough notes to put in the description and everything. And so when I listen to it back, every now and then I'll wince a little bit. But that's okay. I'm loving it. So that's just. And I can say nobody has had any qualms at all, except for if they said something that they weren't comfortable saying later. But I'd already told them, we can't take it out. I'm not taking it out.

And the funny part, when you mentioned you wincing, I bet at the moments that when you wince, or the moment when the other person feels seen. Right. Because they're hearing it, there's something about that rawness that makes it really come alive, I think.

Yeah. And I was telling you earlier, I did a podcast interview the other day, and we were right in middle of the interview, and my cat, I didn't realize the cat was in the room, and it walked up my bookshelves, it decided it was going to lay down, and it pushed everything off the shelf, books and papers and folders. And so we're in the middle of this, and all of a Sudden you hear this crashing sound. And I look over there and I think, okay. And we just kept going. But the really funny thing to me was at the end of it, when I said goodbye, I got off. Nothing popped up that anything was recorded. I thought, holy shit. We just did this amazing thing, but there's this crash. But maybe that was just God saying, you can do better. So I sent them a message and said, hey, you're not going to believe this. I know we had a great conversation, but it didn't record, are you open to doing it again? And he said, yes, of course. And so he even immediately sent me a date. Okay, let's do it again. Because he got so much from it that time. And just to share really quick, and I did share it with you earlier, but I'll share it with everybody. George's is a friend of mine that I've never met in person. We went to the same life coaching, mastery school and everything. But George's is a stage four brain cancer survivor. And so his coaching is so different from mine in the fact that he focuses on cancer. And so because I know him and I've had him as a guest before, I knew he was a cancer coach before he was my guest, but for some reason, once he became my guest and I was on a Facebook group and somebody posted that their brother was in the hospital, the doctors had said, okay, you might as well get your shit together, because, well, I'm sure they didn't say it that way, but picture shit together because you're not long on this earth. And so she was asking for prayers and different things. And so I reached out to her and I said, hey, I don't know if this would be helpful to you or not, but this is my friend George's. He does. He's a cancer coach. And here's a link to my podcast so that you can actually hear him and see if it's something that you want. And I said, if you want to reach back out to me, I said, I can. The information is on the podcast because I put it all in the description. I said, but if you want to reach back out to me and have me connect you personally, I'm more than happy to do that. And so she did. She reached out and said, please connect us. So I connected them and her family. They all got together and had a meeting with George's, and they hired him to help her brother. And he is definitely the pictures I saw of him in the beginning to the pictures I see of him now on Facebook. And Everything. He's definitely smiling. He's having a different experience. He's not feeling like he's at death's door. And I'm sure it's going to just keep improving because of all the stuff that George's knows from what he's gone through. And he can help with the nutrition and. And the mindset, because a lot of it's not just your nutrition, it's your mindset, too. And so it was so exciting for me that I could connect these two people and feel like I'm able to help somebody. I don't have anything to gain from it other than helping, because George just doesn't give me any money or anything. He says thank you, and he said, you let me know what your client is, and I'll send you anybody that doesn't fit my space. And I said, okay, that works. So it's not that I get any monetary gain from it, but the satisfaction of having this lady reach out to me several times.

Yeah.

You know, thank you so much. Thank you so much. And it's like there's this divine intervention, because what are the odds that right after he does my podcast, I get on this Facebook group, I see this post, and then I actually reach out. Yeah. It's like just. The synchronicities are just too big.

I totally agree. And that's part of. I say this a lot with. Your path is almost lit and you're just walking, and I think it's because you're just exposing yourself to so many things and so many people, and all of a sudden, that's when you start to see all these synchronicities to be able to keep going. And then there's something about that. Activation of voice through the podcast also clears out the stuff in your head. So it's almost like you see things easier because it's all coming out.

Yeah. Yeah. And my prayer every morning before I start my day, I say my. My gratitude of the things I'm grateful for. But then I always pray for me to be able to honor God and serve the people that he put me here to serve. And however that is supposed to happen, whether that's me physically being there or mentally being there or being the channel that reaches out and says, hey, you need this connection. So it's beautiful.

Your podcast is almost this pocket of your life experience, too, because you get to almost kind of track all these breadcrumbs of people that you're meeting, experiences that you're having, and then you get to just have this memorialization of it all, too.

Yeah. Yeah. The thing that I love, and I keep wondering, am I representing my business in this? And I think in a lot of ways, I am. But it's not just about my coaching business. My whole goal was to, when I first was thinking of it, and the reason it has the name that it does is because we spend so much of our lives dreaming other people's dreams. We are inundated with people showing this airplane, people showing this car, people showing this house or this vacation or whatever, and they're living their dream, or they might be living somebody else's, and hell, they might not even be showing you the truth on social media. Who the hell knows, right? But we get to where we start setting goals for things that we really, if we get down to it, are not even things we want. It's like, I don't want to live in this McMansion. I want a house that has enough room for the things that I want. But do I want to have a thousand rooms that are sitting there with nobody in them and it echoes throughout the house? Hell, no. I want something that just feels cozy and comfortable. I don't mean small. I mean cozy and comfortable. But there's a lot of people that start making it out, like, if you don't have this elaborate dream that you're not dreaming big enough, you're not this, you're not that. And I think so many people fall prey to that. Then I started thinking about it is making sure that the dreams that you're dreaming are actually your dreams and how to make sure that they're your dreams. And then somehow that kind of morphed into, let me talk to people who have had a story of where they didn't know where their life was going to go, and then all of a sudden realize, holy shit, if all that stuff hadn't happened, I wouldn't be living this dream I have right here. And I don't even know how it went from here to here, but it did. And so now it's like I'm constantly looking for people that they'll say something about this horrible thing happened. And now I'm in this place, and I'm so grateful, and it's like, oh, I'm just drawn to them. I want to hear your story. And I just think there's so many times in our lives that we look around and we compare ourselves to others, and it's finding out that the things that happened in your life, man, that's what put you where you are. And if you're not happy where that is. That just means you need a little bit more growth. And those things you need to be really honing in on. What did I learn from that? Where's the growth in that? Instead of being in the mentality of Woe's me, because that happened, I can't be anything that I want to be.

I totally. I know what you're saying. And as you're talking, it's just making me tap into that idea of hearing somebody say story and being able to see that progression of the pain to the hero part and hearing it from different people and different perspectives. It's that wisdom is getting ingrained in you, and it almost takes the fear out of something bad happening because you are hearing it every day from different people about how that bad thing turned into a good thing. So then the fear of the bad thing is gone because, you know, okay, what's the worst that's going to happen? It's going to turn into something good. So I don't know, it's almost like this encapsulated version of just all this life experience that we get to hear the people's stories.

Yeah, yeah. And it's interesting because I don't feel like looking at the things that have happened in our past as something that was bad or went wrong. It might have been uncomfortable, it might not have been what we would have chosen, but maybe it was just the life lesson that was going to permeate the exact growth that we needed to be where we are. And it's like when we're visioning where we want to be, the only reason we're not there is because we haven't had the exponential growth that will take us from where we are to that place. And so something has to happen right now to get you on that growth path. And if you're a person that is not happy where you are, it's looking at, well, where do I need to grow? And if you start looking at things that happen not as mistakes, but as a lesson, a growth, then you can continue to grow. But if you don't, a catastrophe has to happen to throw you into the trajectory of the growth. And so it's kind of like when I'm talking to people about health. It's like, you can either take control of your health now when there's nothing going on, and you can say, yes, I want to eat better, I want to live longer, I want to be whatever, or you can wait till some diagnosis hits you, and then you can start trying to correct whatever was created. Because you didn't take care of it to start with. And I'm just as guilty as anybody on that shit, because I've been a yo yo dieter my entire life, and it was always looking for the magic pill. Oh, if I could just do this diet, and suddenly I'll be fixed, or I'll take this medicine and then I'll be fixed. And I think we've gotten into this mentality of the quick fix. And so it's like, you want to have a conversation with somebody, just fix me. Just fix me. And it doesn't come that way. It comes from you getting stronger so that you can handle whatever is coming up.

I'd love to hear, do you have anything that you noticed just in common from the. All the people that you've interviewed? Any kind of common pattern that you've gotten to explore, even on a deeper level?

The main thing is, is that I've not had one single person that said they would change what happened to them in their past.

Because they are who they are. And as uncomfortable as it might have been or as painful as it might have been, they wouldn't change anything. But most of the people that have this desire to help people and to do things like this or to coach any of those things, those people have had some very, very, very traumatic things that have happened. There's very few of them that don't come to tears when they're talking about their journey, because it still has a piece of their heart, because we want to remove the energetic horror of it, but we don't want to lose the memory and the lesson of it. And so I guess to answer your question is it's mainly that even if it wasn't a really horrific thing, there's always something that was a pivotal moment that it's like, I don't want to do it this way anymore. I want to do something different. And that's kind of what happened with me, too. It's like, I'm so tired of doing this. Gaining weight, losing weight, gaining weight, losing weight.

Yeah. So you also participated in the GO Live Challenge, and. Yes, I did. I know. Even one of the community members, Joyce, who's also incredible, she had mentioned by you just even going live with her, I think she was watching you, and then she went live on yours. She said that was the moment that everything changed for me because I got out of my comfort zone in such a deep way. And so I was just wondering, well, how that was for you, the GO Live Challenge. And then also if you noticed anything like that for yourself, too, while you were going through it?

Yes. Well, I loved it because I don't really have a problem going live. I get a little nervous and stuff, but it was like, that just pushed me to do it more strategically. And so I will say that even if you don't have a problem going live, it really helps you to hone in on helping others with it, but to have a more of a purpose with it. So you do it strategically, and it can affect your business. But, yes, having her on was great. And I think I got on somebody else's, and I can't remember who it was when they were on Live. But the thing that was really cool to me was when we were on the Zoom and we would be watching people go live, and it's like we're stumbling and we're doing things, but it was fun. And so doing it in that setting was so much more relaxed and fun than it was just deciding, okay, I'm going to go live, and you go do it. And I'll be honest, when we were first talking about it, I thought that going live with a group where you're going live and everybody's watching or whatever, that. That would make me nervous.

Yeah.

But it didn't. It was kind of like, it's my friends. Come on.

It was so much fun. I know. I love that challenge because I was figuring it out.

Literally, that one came up because I just had the Sid.

I wanted to go live on YouTube, which turned into Instagram, because I couldn't go live until I had a couple days or whatever.

And then we had those experts come on again. Podcasts. Right. I didn't know something.

I realized I'm like, oh, shoot, I'm guiding this challenge, and I don't know anything about going live other than on Facebook. So then I started interviewing different experts who helped us then with restream and all this different stuff. And so it was such a fun challenge because we're all just figuring it out together.

And it really showed me how much fun you can have doing something kind of scary. Normally when you're in a group, I.

Think that was a game changer for do the Thing.

Oh. Oh, yeah, definitely. And the cool thing was, I don't know, it's like, you know, the people in the group to a certain extent, but then when you connect with them in that way, it's like you feel like you know one more, even though you really don't, but you just have more of a connection, I guess. And so then it's when I'M on Instagram or something, and one of them pop up live. It's like, oh, let me go over there. And so it develops the more of camaraderie, I guess you'd say, with the group. That's one of the things that I love about the group that you have, is that everybody is more of a community than some of the other groups that I've been in. Actually, I have Vicki Nevins. I'm going to be on her podcast next week. Oh, good. Yeah, yeah. So it's fun that we can be there for each other. And like I said, I've been in a lot of groups and there are some groups that have the camaraderie, but yours is just a little bit more intimate camaraderie, I guess. Does that make sense?

It does, yeah. What do you think if you could say something about the do the Thing community, what would be kind of the big thing that would kind of stand out to you?

Oh, supportive. They are all super supportive. If you go in there and you post anything, they will give you an honest answer. They will help you. And if you say, I'm going to be going live at this time, can you come more than likely somebody, if not all of them are going to be there. And so it's just. And I will say I don't utilize it as much as I should because as soon as I said that, I thought, damn, I should have messaged them the other day when I was going to be going live on this thing. So that's a quick reminder to utilize it because it's there and everybody is so good about being a helping hand and supportive.

Yeah. Okay. I would love to hear more about your coaching and what that's been like for you.

Well, I will be honest. I've been a coach for a while because I started this journey because I was a yo yo Dieter. And at the time that I started my health coaching journey, I was about 75, 80 pounds heavier than what I needed to be. Couldn't reach over and touch my toes. I couldn't do any of that stuff. And it was like, I've got to do something and change this narrative because I didn't have any health issues at that time. But I thought, if I keep on this journey, it's going to be that something happens and then I have to make a change. So I decided, what can I do? So if I pay out this $10,000 for this coaching program, there is no way I'm going to walk away. Right. Because I didn't trust Myself with staying with something that I hadn't put so much into. And so that's why I started that. And then their big thing was habit change. And I thought, that's what I need. I'm tired of looking for the pill. I'm tired of searching for answers outside of me. And so the first year I was studying, I really didn't lose a lot of weight, but the man, oh man, the things that were changing in me were extensive. And then I started reducing the weight. And even though I had that experience, I was still just kind of playing at it because I had a full time job and I still felt like a fraud because I hadn't had the weight off for long. What if I gained it back? I had all of this stuff in my head. And so I finally decided if I'm making these changes in me, even if the scale didn't move at all, it was so worth the money that I put in. And then when I started changing that, I started thinking. But other people may be thinking they need to lose all this weight, but in reality they need to lose it in here first. And if they do, then it's not going to be instantaneous, but it's going to come. And when I breathe that in, that was when I could start coaching. And then I became a life coach. And then I wanted to bump it up a little bit more. So I became a hypnotist. I have five hypnosis certifications because one wasn't good enough, right? I had to keep. There are a lot of different modalities. So I just wanted to be so well versed. And I'm one of those people, I love to learn. And I used to be afraid that I love to learn because I didn't think I know enough. But now I realize it's not that I don't think I know enough. It's because I just want to know more. I just. It feeds me. It's kind of like my podcast. It feeds my soul. I've got the books I have and the books on Audible and all these things, but I primarily work with women who have been yo yo dieters their whole life like me, and help them to see a different path. And one of the things that a lot of people do is they condemn the bodies that they're in so much that it's like, why the hell would it do what you want it to do? All you've been doing is telling it how horrible it is. And so it's helping to change the mindset of being grateful for this body, it allows you to move. You can open your eyes, you can hear, you can move your fingers and your toes. And sometimes that's where you start is just having that gratitude, right? And I will share one of the times when I had decided I was going to embark on this journey of weight loss. How it started with me was I had been at the bus stop with my daughter and my great niece getting on the bus for school. And my sister was so excited about her granddaughter getting on the bus that she was taking pictures and everything. So later on she's showing me these pictures and I said, who is that? And she said, what do you mean? I said, who is that? And she turned and she looked at me and she said, well dummy, that's you. I said, what? I said, that's me? And she said, yeah. And I said, oh my God, if that's me, I have got to do something. She said, it's just the way you're standing. I said, if I can stand any way and look like that, then there's the problem. And so at that time I had not started my health coaching journey completely, but it was like, holy shit. The first thing I thought of was, I know I don't know how to do this diet thing right, because if I started, I'm not going to stay with it, so what can I do? So at that time I saw an advertisement to sew these synchronicities, right? I saw this little advertisement for a marathon and I thought, oh, there's a half marathon too. I think I'll sign up for this. So I go to this meeting and I'm listening to all these people. Now nobody is in there is heavy like me, not a soul, right? And I'm listening and they can have different people get up and talk and suddenly somebody says that something about the half marathon and you could walk it, you can run it, and it's 13.2 miles and I just.

What? 13.2 miles. I can't even walk through the friggin mailbox. Holy. And so I went ahead and signed up for it. I thought, okay, I'm going to do this because I've got to push myself. I got to make myself do something.

Yeah.

And so I started my training and most of the the group training was on Saturdays, which I'm a hairstylist, so I couldn't go to those, right? So I started training on my own. And when I started, I walked from my sister's mailbox to the next mailbox and back. That's all I could do. And I think this was in early spring that I signed up. And the thing was at Thanksgiving. And so by time I got close to the marathon, I was walking four miles a day. And doing 13 miles on Sunday took me four hours, but I did 13 miles on Sunday. The first time I did it, I got home, I unlocked the door, I walked in. My daughter was sitting and watching tv, and I could hardly lift my feet up to come up, just the little step. And she said, oh, mom, you look terrible. And I said, thanks. And I was gonna go take a shower, but I couldn't. I walked in my room, just fell flat on the bed. Okay, I'm gonna nap and then. Then I'll do it. But I went to that half marathon and. Well, let me back up. I went to the. You had to go in at a certain point, and they checked to see how far along you were in your training and how you were doing and all this stuff. And so they asked me, so since you're training on your own, what are you doing? I said, well, I'm doing four miles a day, and then 13 on Sunday. And the lady just put her pin down. I said, what? And she said, damn. She said, nobody's doing that. And I thought, well, I didn't know what anybody was doing because I wasn't in any of the trainings, right? And so she said, I can't believe you've been able to train at this level all by yourself. Wow. And I thought, well, it's because I have this goal that I'm getting to, and I don't know how much time it takes from. Get from here to here. So I just go as far as I can, and I figure I'll get there. And so when I started out, I said, now I'm going to finish this race. I don't care. And it started at 4 in the morning, Right. I said, and it may be that at the end of the day, they're out there with a lantern. We still got one out. I didn't have a clue, but I knew I would finish. And I actually. I finished it in four hours. Wow. And was so pumped afterwards. I was tired, but I was so pumped. Holy. How long? They hadn't been that long. And I couldn't even walk to the mailbox. And now I did this amazing. Yeah. Went over the finish line. But see, the thing that I've learned in all my coaching is that that was a great. That was a great goal. But once you set a goal like that, once the goal's over, it goes to hell, because now I didn't have that goal in front of me, pushing me. So I started reverting back to all the old things that I did. And at that point, I had lost a ton of weight, because if you're walking four miles a day and 13 on Sunday, you're putting in some exercise. My diet had not changed at all, but I was burning it all off, so I lost a lot of weight. So very quickly, I started piling it back on. And so it's one of the things I make sure that my clients may have a goal, but that is not their goal. It's like, let's get to the deep place to where we know why you're doing this. I have a client right now, and the reason she's doing this and she is so committed and she is so amazing is because she's pre diabetic. Her father passed away from diabetes after two amputations. His first is. Well, no, three. First his foot, his toe, then his foot, then his leg up to his knee, and then he passed. And so she's faced with this place where if she wants to live and not repeat the same thing because she's on the path. And so when we really dove into this is not because you want to lose weight, to look good in a bathing suit or to go to this dance or to connect with some man or whatever it is, you want to be alive.

Yeah.

And when you get to a place where that's why you're doing it.

Amazing.

Yeah. Then you can really do it. So if I had been doing it for my life instead of that marathon. Yeah. Then I would have continued to do the things after the marathon.

Totally. I did the same thing after I did 75 hard. It's a really restrictive program. And then afterwards, I lost everything. And it's true. I love that you do that with your clients, because, number one, you're tapping into their why, which then helps with their mindset, and then you're helping them through their goals. How does the hypnotherapy work with it? How do you integrate that in.

Well, what I do is, as I'm working with them, like, I'll just go back to this particular client that I'm working with right now on the weight issue is that we have sessions where we talk about. I'm not a nutritionist at all, but I have a lot of knowledge about things that move the needle. So we talk about the things that move the needle. And the first few weeks, the first three weeks of her program, it was all about who you're being when you eat, what you're eating and different things. Because she wanted to be more aggressive with her approach because she's afraid that she's going to go in for her physical and they're going to say, you're diabetic.

Yeah.

And that would just be such a moment that would throw her into depression like you would not believe, because it would feel like I'm repeating this. So the first three weeks we do that, and as we're going, I assess, because I've done this with other clients, too. If we came into our next session and one of her goals was not to eat sugar, and she said, oh, I wanted to not eat sugar, but I did, then we would do a hypnosis session to help her with reframing things so that it didn't call to her in the same way. And there's like, I do eft sometimes to help take away the pull of a particular item. Like this one lady I worked with, she had a really hard time with chocolate. And every night she wanted to have this chocolate bar. So I did this process with her to where we didn't take the deliciousness away from chocolate, but what we did was we took the pull that chocolate had on her so she could have chocolate for a little treat. But it didn't feel like this compulsion anymore. And so when I'm working with someone and I see that they're having some struggles with doing whatever it is that they've set because they set the goal, I tell them the things that are going to help, and then they set the goal for what they're going to do for the week. And if they struggle with that after they set it, then they need something more to kind of help them to remove some of these limiting beliefs that they have. Because a lot of times our trauma in our lives, I would say I might be totally off on this percentage, but in my mind, 80% of the people that are morbidly obese had something happen in their childhood that they couldn't deal with, and they used food to deal. And so they've just, over their life, have just created. This is what I do. And I mean, sometimes it comes to when you skin your knee and your mama gives you a cookie to make you feel better, or when I was a kid, you go to the damn doctor and he gives you a lollipop. Even the dentist gave you a sucker. And so we learn these things, but it's helping people to remove some of that learned behavior and create a new behavior.

In its place, you're changing people's lives, truly. So I would love to hear what your biggest piece of advice for people is on doing the thing. And doing the thing is anything from losing weight, starting a podcast, going live. You've done it all, so let's hear it.

Okay, well, I've done it all. That sounds really amazing. I love it.

I think.

The most important thing is to look at why you're wanting to do this thing. Are you wanting to do this thing because it's something that is just truly in your heart? Are you doing this because somebody has said something that makes you feel like, oh, well, everybody's doing it. I should do that, I should do it this way, or whatever. So really look at why you're choosing to do whatever it is that you're doing. And if you come out with a resounding, oh, my God, this would just make me feel so good, then just no matter what the obstacle seems, do it. Whether that means you join a challenge or whether that means you hire a coach, whatever it means, because I have a coach. Because you don't know what you don't know. And so you can't move from point A to point B unless you're up above and you can see all the path.

So make the decision.

From your heart, and then make sure that as you look at it, that you reach out to someone who has been there or can guide you so that it can lower the learning curve. And it makes it so much more rewarding to be able to get there and say, holy shit, I did this. I can't believe I did this. And that's what you were for me. Because, like I said, I had wanted to do a podcast, but I didn't because it just sounded too hard and you simplified it for me. And I feel that that's what I do with my clients, too. I give them little 1%. Let's change just 1% right now. That's what my client. Yesterday with the hypnosis, it was like, we only have to change 1% and we're going in the right direction. And so mostly it's making the decision and gathering the people that can help you to make that decision a reality.

Okay, please share with everyone where they can listen to your podcast. And also if they want to reach out to you regarding coaching, I would love to have you share that as well.

Okay, well, my podcast is today's dream, tomorrow's reality, and it's on Spotify, Amazon, itunes, and then I have a YouTube channel where I share all this as well. My YouTube channel is Vicki Sue Poole, and then I have a calendly link that I can share with you that you can put on the description, but anybody can reach out to me as well. On Facebook, I'm the Enlightened Peach. And on Instagram I'm the Underscore Enlightened Underscore Peach. And then my Gmail. So you can also email me. It's the enlightenedpeachmail.com thank you so much.

For coming on and congratulations for doing the thing. It's so incredible having you a part of the community. And thank you for helping so many people in the community do the thing too.

Yeah, wonderful. Thank you so much for doing the thing and getting it started.

And for the listeners, do the thing. Don't wait for opportunity. Create it.