Burnout, Body Image & the Courage to Be Your Own Boss w/ Georgia Refalo

What's up, you guys? Welcome back to the podcast. I want to start off this episode with some really, really exciting news about the podcast. We are fast approaching the million download mark, which is absolutely just insane. I am so excited, and I'm definitely planning to do something very fun to celebrate our million downloads and include you, the podcast community, in it. I have some ideas brewing already. And I can't share them just yet because I don't have all the logistics worked out, but just know we're gonna celebrate the million downloads. And thank you to everyone who listens each and every week. If you share the podcast to your stories, if you send it to your friends, thank you so much. You guys are the reason that this podcast has been able to grow to this level, and I just love and appreciate every single one of you with all of my heart. So thank you for being here. Another very exciting announcement is that my Signature 4-month business mastermind, Abundant and Ambitious, is now currently open for enrollment. If you're listening to this in real time on Wednesday, that means you still have 2 days left to save $1,000 on your enrollment. The early bird special ends on Friday, March 24th. Doors will be open all the way until next Wednesday, March 29th. But Friday is the last day to save those $1,000. So if you haven't heard of this program, I will leave the links in the show notes below for you to check out all of the information and details. But this is really a program designed for early and aspiring online coaches who are anywhere between earning $0 to $5,000 in your business, and you're ready to scale your impact and income to the next level. A mastermind of this kind with this much contact with me, we have weekly coaching calls where you can ask your questions and get tangible hands-on on support from me for this price point just does not exist. I have yet to see another mastermind of this kind designed for early entrepreneurs, not people who are already making tons of money, and that is offered for such a low price point. I just haven't seen it in the space, and I'm so, so proud of what we've done with Abundant and Ambitious. This is the fourth time we've run this program. It's changed many women's lives and businesses. They've launched podcasts, sold their first programs, created their first courses, all of the things. And what's most special about INA is really just the sisterhood that we cultivate inside of this container, because we have weekly calls together and we have a private group chat. There's a lot of conversation, there's a lot of collaboration. You get to know the women really well, and a lot of people end up becoming really, really close friends. Some people have met their best friends inside this program, and there's a lot of cross-pollination of audiences sharing and being guests on each other's podcasts and all of those types of things. So it's a really unique opportunity because I feel like masterminds generally are only offered to people that are a little bit further along in business. But there's so much power in being in a mastermind community because of the collaboration and the connections that you get to make with other like-minded entrepreneurs, in this case female coaches in the space. So I'm so proud of this program.

I'm obsessed with it.

We are 2 days into the launch as I record this, and there's already over 13 women, I think, inside. So spots are really flying off the shelves this time around. So if you are hearing this, I recommend that you click the link in the show notes below, check out the sales page, read all the information. If you have any other additional questions, you can always send me a DM on Instagram, and I can kind of help you figure out if this is right for you, your business model, where you're at in business. All of those questions that you might have, I'm happy to answer. But just know that doors close next Wednesday, March 29th. If you want to be part of this round, get in now because People are moving fast this time, which is very, very exciting. So this week's episode, I am joined by Georgia Marie, who is a mindset and health coach, podcast host, and podcast manager, and one of my past clients. Georgia coaches women to find their version of healthy, both mentally and physically, using mindset tools, nutrition, and training advice. She's also the host of her own show, the Grow Till You Glow podcast, and helps other women build the podcasts of their dreams, allowing them to share their message while she takes care of The rest. In this episode, we chat about moving through extreme burnout, how Georgia was able to work through the anxiety and depression that was once debilitating for her. We talk about her various experiences working with me, starting her own business, launching a podcast, overcoming fear and imposter syndrome, as well as her top tips for healing your relationship to your body. This one is a goodie that I know so many of you are going to resonate with deeply. Let's dive in. Welcome to the Makeshift Happen podcast. I'm your host, Samantha Daly, entrepreneur, life coach, and your no BS bestie, here to bring you all things mindset, manifestation, and personal development. This podcast is designed to help you expand your mind and uplevel your life. So turn the volume up and roll the windows down if you're coming along for the ride. Let's go make shit happen. Welcome to the show, Georgia.

I'm so excited to have you here. This feels like a long time coming. You've been in my world for so long now. I'm trying to think back to the time when we first initially met, but it just feels like you're a totally different person in a totally different phase of your life now. There's so many beautiful things happening for you, so I'm excited to kind of bring the audience along that journey and share with them that full 180, like, transformation. But we're very, very excited to have you here and to talk all things health, wellness, fitness, body image, entrepreneurship. Everything that encompasses your life transformation, essentially.

Yes. Thank you so much for having me, Sam. I'm so excited. It's, it's been such a journey and I feel like you've seen so much of it. So it's very special to be on the podcast.

I know. I'm so pumped. I'm so pumped. So when I first met you, we'll kind of like go back a little bit for everybody. When I first met you, I remember you were in like a pretty extreme version of burnout, which I'm guessing is what led you to the course From Burnt Out to Badass, because that's kind of like where we first met each other was in that space. So I remember you were in like a severe kind of like burnout phase. You were also moving through some heavy mental health struggles. Can you just take us back and kind of give us an insight into what that time of your life looked like? Like what were you thinking and feeling on a daily basis? What were you moving through? What— yeah, what was life like back then before all of this?

Yeah, when I first met you, I was definitely at my worst. I had never been so burnt out in my life, and I was really struggling. I feel like my— the way burnout usually kind of, um, comes up for me is that I'll go through a really, really busy period, and I'm— I'll be very in my masculine the whole time, very very stressed, very anxious, I get burnt out. And the pattern for me is that I fall into a really deep depression. And I've had a history with depression in the past, so I know it comes up for me. Um, and that was where I was at when I met you. I remember a couple of months before that, I felt myself getting burnt out, and I messaged you, and I was like, when is the next round of Burnt Out to Badass? I don't know what is going on, but I need it. And you were like, it's coming in a couple of months, like, let's go. And I knew that I had to do it. But basically, day to day, I, I was just waking up and I couldn't do anything. I was like just struggling through life, basically. I had gone through a really stressful time at my job, overloading myself. Um, I had tried to work out my hours and I they weren't really helping with kind of reducing the amount of load that was being put on me. We were super understaffed, all of the things. I was also studying a degree at the time, so I was working full-time and studying full-time, and I was pushing myself to the absolute limit. But the problem that I had was that I had a lot of, um, I guess you could say negative connotations around fitness, exercise, um, my worth at the time. So not only were there external factors that being put on me, there was also a lot of internal stuff that was going on that I was just pushing myself to the limit for no reason. And I had a really bad relationship with food, with exercise. I would be working out 7 days a week. I'd be eating next to nothing. Um, I'd come home and it would just have to be go, go, go. There was no time for rest. Um, there was no reset time. And that pushed me so far to my limits because I was so, um, driven by the fact that I was only worthy if I was being productive. And that was what pretty much encompassed my entire life until I hit a point where I was so depressed waking up every single day to get to work. And I was working as a personal trainer in a group fitness gym at the time, so that meant my work would start at 4 AM, so I would be dragging myself because I would stay up so late because I didn't want to face going to sleep, um, to be able to wake up to the next day. And I'd roll out of bed and I would get there and I was just a shell of a human. I was like not the person that I was when I started the job. People started to pick up on it, um, and from there when people started asking me like what was going on, I was like, okay, something's really wrong here. And from that moment I just spiraled. I ended up quitting my job, but my body was so stressed and overwhelmed that I fell into such a deep phase of burnout that I had never experienced before. Um, and yeah, that saw me very, very depressed, um, sleeping all day. I pretty much didn't leave my apartment for like 6 months. And it was just an internal battle of like, you're not worthy anymore, you're not doing anything with your life, you're not making money anymore. All of these thoughts that I had kind of just been neglecting, that I had just been working towards my entire life— like, you have to be productive, you have to be successful, you have to do this, you have to do that— it all came crashing down when my body stopped and I lost my period. I I, I was so sick. I was waking up so sick every single day, and it was like my body was just like, you need to stop. There's something that needs to change here. And that was pretty much the phase in my life that I was at when I, I met you and we started doing Burnt Out to Badass.

Hmm. I remember a specific call that we had in that program I remember you kind of explaining the, the, the darkness, the depth of like what you were actually going through and how deep it really was at that time. And you were— I think you were asking like, how do I get the motivation to do all these things? Like trying to return to productivity as if the productivity was going to be the thing that then made you feel better again, right? Because that was a huge part of that belief system that you said that you held was like, I'm worthy when I'm productive.

And I—

what I remember about that call was like, I basically just told you, like, it's your job to literally do nothing and to give yourself full permission to do absolutely nothing at all. And for whatever reason, I don't remember like how I said it or what was the, you know, the, the alchemy of a couple of different things that were happening at the time. But, you know, when you're in— when you just hear something in the right way at the right time, in the right condition, and you're just like, whoa, like, that actually clicks for me so much. And I just remember that, like, you saying that that really gave you a whole new perspective and it changed some things. Can you talk about that a little bit, like what you did from there? Because I feel like that was the first sort of stepping stone to your much larger, obviously, healing journey after that. But what shifted for you there?

Yeah, absolutely. I think that day, I even remember how I was set up in my little apartment. All the lights were off. It was a call at like 6 o'clock at night Australia time. And that was the only thing that I did that day. I was like, I just need to get on this call to be able to hear and talk to someone that might just shed some light on what is going on with me. Um, and I remember telling you all about what, what had kind of been going on, and I was on the verge of tears, and you just said to me, just stop. Doing everything. And you said start a list in your phone where you try to find a tiny bit of joy, and if you do find it, write it down. And so that's what I did. I think that, that honestly, it changed my entire life, that, that one call and that one little chat that we had. I was so lucky that it was— I think it was only me and another girl on the call at the time, so we really like dove into it. Um, but what was so pivotal for me, I think, was it was the first time that I had actual permission from someone else to go, stop. Like, you can stop and you're going to be okay, and it's actually what you need to do right now, and it's going to be way more productive and better for you if you do this instead of trying to do what you're currently doing. Because there's so much in, um, self-development and all of the things. It's absolutely incredible. But I think sometimes we try to distract ourselves with self-development work, doing more self-development to try and run away from something that we're experiencing, whereas you really put me in the moment and were like, just feel it, just do what you have to do to get through the day, and just slowly start to add in little things that you find joy in that you're already currently doing. So it was like there was no pressure, there was no expectations of anything that I needed to do— needed, like, in quotations— like, I just, I just had to be. And that was the first time I had heard, like, okay, I don't have to do anything. I can just be in this moment. It's okay to be here and it will get better the more that I just stop. So that was kind of what really changed for me.

Yeah, I love what you said because I think that's so real about using the personal development tools that we learn about as almost like a coping mechanism to deal with the parts of our lives that feel out of alignment or that feel really hard or that feel really sticky. And You know, the tools are incredible, and when they work, they work. But sometimes we also have to have the, the radical responsibility of looking at how we're using them and questioning, like, you know, am I trying to journal and meditate my way out of this unhealthy pattern that I have with food or exercise, or out of this unhealthy relationship that I feel stuck in, or out of this unhealthy job that I hate my existence in? Right. It's like, Sometimes we think, oh, if I just add more and more tools and create this like big, huge daily routine where I'm doing tons of quote unquote positive things, that it will then cancel out or erase a bunch of like the negative or hard things that are happening in my life. And the real truth of like true personal development is like doing more than just the supplementary tools, right? Like those are just things that you get to add in to supplement your life. Not to solve or fix your life. There's, there's deeper work that has to happen in order for that to take place. So what would you say is kind of the like, how did personal development first come along for you? What was your entry point or like your own sort of like version of an awakening of some kind, would you say?

My first experience with personal development came from podcasts and I was a huge fan of the Georgie Stevenson podcast and that's where I came across you. I heard your first, um, episode on there, and you were talking about your 335 journal prompt method. And that was the first time I had started journaling because I was very much like, I don't know what to journal about, like, what do I do? And that simplified it for me, and I was like, okay, I could do that. Um, and I was big on trying to go after some bigger goals, and you had in there that you write down your 5 big goals that you just want to achieve, and you write them down every single day. And so I was doing that. That's how I kind of got into your world. I did, um, a little course, a little manifestation course, um, and that's kind of where it all started for me. But I think at the start it was very much like trying to constantly be better and do better rather than acknowledging what was actually going on behind the scenes. So for a really long time, personal development was something that was always added to my plate, and it was like, okay, on the to-do list today is meditate because that's going to make me a better person, um, and it's what all the other people are doing, all of the people I want to be like are doing, which is great in theory. But as someone who's very much a Type A person that is in their masculine a lot and is constantly trying to do, do, do, I, I burnt out from that kind of style of personal development. So by the time I had got to Burnt Out to Badass, so much of the course that we— all of the content and all of that kind of stuff, I knew quite a lot of it, but that wasn't what I was in there for. It was for that deeper kind of awakening, the deeper level of like, okay, let's get to the actual nitty-gritty instead of trying to constantly add more to our life. What can we start to change internally. And that's what Burnt Out to Badass really did for me. Um, so that was kind of the starting point, I would say, where I really started to take that personal development seriously. And from there it just grew. I just started learning about patterns and all of the limiting beliefs that I had and working through that so that I wouldn't constantly be putting myself in the same cycle over and over and over again. Um, because that was huge for me as someone that is very— was very highly strung to the point where I had to be doing things constantly, or I felt like I was a really shit human being and just wasn't worthy of being on this earth. I, I needed to strip back and go, okay, why is that? And start looking back instead of constantly looking forward and going, okay, what's on the vision board? What can we be going to? Blah blah blah. Because if you do that, it just keeps getting you to that same point of burnout where it just cycles back and back and back. So that was kind of what I had to focus on, and that was definitely what I learned from your course that we did first together, um, to, to kind of change how I was looking at things.

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Yeah, it's— it kind of reminds me of something that we talk about a lot when it comes to manifestation of like needing to clear space. In order for new beautiful things to drop into your life, new opportunities, new people, new relationships, whatever it is, more money. But that idea of like we have to clean things out before the new shiny, beautiful things are going to drop in. One of my friends, Lauren Russell, she just talked about this recently in a video where she calls this like the full closet theory. And it's like thinking of your, your mind or your internal world, your belief systems as a closet that is chock full of a bunch of stuff, and a lot of that stuff is things that you don't need anymore. It's, it's old programs that you don't use anymore that are unhelpful to you. That's basically junk now at this point. And so if you want to bring in these new, beautiful, more nourishing things into your life, the first thing that you have to do is you have to clean out some of that junk. And that's exactly what you're speaking to, is like instead of just going for the goals and the vision boards and trying to attract more and more and more and more and input more things in a space where it doesn't actually fit, right? Because your belief systems, your patterns, it's not able to hold those new things. It doesn't fit. So you got to do that, like, cleaning work, that inner work of clearing up those belief systems first. So I love seeing that in, like, a real life example of how you really experienced that. I want to kind of circle back to this idea of our relationship to food and exercise, because I know you mentioned it's something that you struggled with, and I know that you're so much healthier in that space now, and it's actually part of the work that you do with your clients. So I'd love for you to just speak to, like, how you knew your relationship to food or exercise was unhealthy, and maybe what that journey was like to unravel that and, and heal it.

I think the, the part where I started to go, okay, my relationship with food and exercise isn't healthy, is when I lost my period. I had never experienced that before. And I, and I had always, um, like being in the industry, I was constantly listening to podcasts and I would hear it all the time that if you don't have a menstrual start, if you don't have a menstrual cycle when you should have one, it is so detrimental to your health and it is a sign of being unhealthy. No matter how quote unquote healthy you are being. Um, and so that always stuck with me. And when I got to the point where I lost my period, I was like, okay, something's wrong here. What is going on with our body? And because I was so like so stuck in a world where I had just thought that exercising 7 days a week was normal, and I was like, I'm just, you know, I'm just doing my thing, it's fine, I'm just a fitness girly. I'm in the gym every day. I may as well, all of those kinds of things. You fully justify what you're doing. And I would come home and all of my eating patterns seem very justified in my head because I would go straight to work at 4:00 and I would say, oh, I don't have time to eat anything on the way to work, which meant that I would work till 10:00 and then I would train after that. So I wasn't coming home until 11:00, 12:00, and that would be my first meal of the day. And I would be eating as little as possible, and then I would try and go without until dinner. And all of these things seemed so justified in my head because I was like, well, that's when normal people would eat, so like, that's what I should be doing. But I started to slowly dissect things when I lost my period, and I realized that I was walking almost 20,000 steps without even realizing it because of my job, being on my feet all day. I would then thrash myself through a 45-minute workout, which was an F45 style workout at the time, so very high intensity every single day of the week. And because I was a coach, I had such a, um, like stigma around I needed to be the fittest one in the room to be able to justify why I was there. And as someone who had grown up with a lot of body image issues in the past, I was always trying to prove myself, to prove that I needed to be there, to prove why I was standing up in front of a room of people, training them, coaching them. So that was where I started to look first, and I realized very quickly that the relationship that I had with those things was very tainted because I couldn't let go of it. So when I would have to not train, or when I had to go out to dinner with friends and I would eat a little bit more, or I would, um, you know, they would be eating a little bit more unhealthy, my body would go into fight or flight straight away because I was so stressed at what was going to happen to me. And that was where I realized that it's, it's not okay what's going on here, and it's going to be hard to kind of rein it back. So I struggled with that for quite some time, and I kept trying to push through it because, again, the thoughts of, like, you have to be doing this to be successful, to be worthy, to be the fittest one in the room, to be whatever it was, it kept going to the point where then I would start seeing binge eating tendencies come up in my world. So I would starve myself for weeks, and then it would result in crazy binges. And the more that I would go, the, the crazier it got. I was very much— I see it on like TikTok all the time, like you're either an ingredients girly or you're a snack girly. And my family was an ingredients family, so like we never had that many snacks. It was always like ingredients to make food. And so that's what I was like. But that meant that my binge eating would be like a whole bag of natural cashews or a whole tub of peanut butter. And I would be standing in the pantry and I'm like, this is not normal. Like, that is not normal. And I would be so embarrassed, so ashamed. But it would make that cycle go over again because the next day I'd wake up feeling so sick and I would go, okay, well, just don't eat much today. And that's how it would kind of continue. So it meant that I had to start, like, outsourcing where I was getting my advice from, because I knew that it was— it wasn't going to help itself because of the thoughts that I had in my head. I was like, I can't get around this. So I ended up going to some professionals. I started going to acupuncture to help getting my hormones sorted and getting my period back. And through that that, she started looking at my lifestyle and we broke it down completely. And she was like, this level of what you're doing right now is putting so much stress on your body that you're not going to get your period back unless you change it. And that was what I needed to hear to go, okay, I can start to justify— and while that's still quite unhealthy, I needed that to be able to justify eating a little bit more and exercising a little bit less. At least it was the thing that kind of shifted my perspective so that then I could start reining it back while I was working on the mindset behind it. Because as we all know, limiting beliefs and such restrictive behavior does not change overnight. So I needed that to go, okay, I can justify now exercising a little bit less, going on a few more walks instead of high-intensity stuff, eating more, and just focusing on my rest and recovery. I'll do that until I start seeing some improvements. And as I started doing that, my mindset slowly started to change through the inner work that I was doing, but also because I was seeing the results happen in person. So it was kind of like a positive feedback loop. I was just seeing it a little bit more, and I'd go, okay, cool, I can take another step. And it was really starting to make me feel safe in going against everything that I had known in the fitness industry of not eating, of exercising every single day. So that's really where it started to change for me, and I started to learn more and more about it. I was studying nutrition at the time, so, so much of my focus turned to how can women fuel themselves to be the healthiest version of themselves, not just to fit certain standards. And that's what I help my clients with now, is the mindset behind that, but also finding the tangible things that we can do to keep ourselves the healthiest versions of ourselves.

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Hmm.

I'm curious to know what— like what your kind of relationship to exercise looks like now or what you like to do, because it's so interesting as someone who started as a personal trainer and now you obviously coach in like health and wellness and just to see, you know, the recovery from binge eating and the body and image issues, how that translates to your relationship to health and fitness now. But what I'll say also is I remember in my era of struggling a lot with body image, I was also doing HIIT workouts all the time. And that style of workout was really just adding to my overall stress levels. And it was actually making me hold on to fat way more because when the body is in fight or flight and also the under eating, it's like, okay, well, we're starving, right? So everything gets held onto, it's stored more. So I was so confused of why I wasn't getting quote unquote results, right? When I was killing myself in the gym doing these intense HIIT workouts and really restricting what I was eating, it was like, well, my body was in stress and it was trying to prevent me from dying, so it wasn't going to be burning fat. I wasn't giving it the signals of like, hey, it's safe to let go of some of this fat. It was like, no, we're in danger. We need to hold on to all the fat that we can because you're starving us or, you know, so it was really that like stress response. And I had like a similar experience. I— but I was kind of extreme. I literally quit the gym and I didn't go to the gym for 7 months and I just did yoga and I was like, I'm just going to see what happens. And that was like my turning point where I actually like lost weight and I got toned and like my arms looked better than they ever had before from all my chaturangas. And like, I wasn't killing myself in workouts that I hated. So, yeah, it's just interesting to kind of see someone else who's mirrored that similar journey of like almost doing too much. It's like you're doing too much to even have a good result. And when you can scale that back, like you were saying, sometimes you actually get better results. So what is it? What does it look like for you nowadays?

Mm-hmm. Nowadays it looks like a very flexible— I'll say there's is there's no kind of expectations around how much I need to do, but it's more for how I want to feel. So in like intangible kind of terms, it looks like 3 to 4 weight sessions a week. Um, so I just do strength-based training where I'll lift moderately heavy, but I'm never pushing myself too much to the, to the extremes. Um, it looks like going for a couple of runs a week if I'm at a phase in my cycle where that feels good for me. It definitely doesn't feel good all month. Um, so I'll try to do 2 runs a week with a friend because it means that we get to catch up. But also, if we're not feeling it, if we're in a phase of our cycle where we're struggling, it's just going for a quick walk and then calling it a day. Um, so I'll do that a couple of— um, if I like— if I'm not going to the gym, I'll do like an at-home little yoga flow or a Pilates at-home workout, but it's very much just flexible. I would say it's the overall word. It's— there's no expectation around how hard I need to push, how long the sessions need to be. I would always put myself into a little box that like it didn't count if it was outside of what I had kind of set the expectation for.

If you weren't drenched in sweat, 100% count. If you didn't hit X amount of calories on the fucking elliptical, didn't count.

Yeah, exactly. So I, I do like— I'll try to get as many steps in as I can because that's just great for your overall mental and physical health in terms of your cardiovascular system. So that's really important to me. But it's just doing things that I know make my body feel good. And I never wake up going, oh, I've got to go, gotta go to the gym today. It's like It's a complete 360 from where I was being like, we need to do this, to I want to do this because it feels good. It's what makes me happy. And like, this is what's going to be sustainable for the rest of my life. And in terms of eating, I, I went through a phase where when I started learning all about nutrition through my degree, I started to look at my own nutrition where it was back in the day. And I started to track calories. And while most people would track for the reason of losing weight, I started tracking to set, uh, set a calorie limit that I had to reach. So I would force myself to reach that level of whatever the calorie target was that day to be able to build my body back up to where I needed it to be, which was huge for me. I started to realize how much food we can actually eat in a day without needing to be stressed without the thought of like, I'm gonna put on weight and I'm gonna change overnight, all of these things. I started to track in that way to get a baseline of like, okay, this is what I should be eating in a day to fuel my body for everything that I want to achieve. So I started learning about nutrition in that way, and now I don't have to track, I don't have to overcomplicate anything. I just wake up, I eat what feels good, but I know in my mind how much it is that I need to eat to be able to keep going long term. So I'm never undercutting myself. I'm never letting thoughts like, oh, I ate a burger at lunch, so like I need to restrict at dinner— there's none of that because I know just how much my body for itself needs. And, and I can go off that when I'm day to day, in my day to day, without kind of letting those thoughts take over. So that's kind of what it looks like now. It's very, very flexible and very sustainable.

Hmm. What are some tangible tips that you would give to the woman who's still feeling really stuck with body image or wants to stop hyper-focusing on her body? I think you did a post recently about stopping hyper-focusing on your body. What are some of those things? What are some of those, like, tangible action steps that you can do to take away that focus.

My first thing would be to, if you can, cover the mirrors in your apartment, in your house, because when we're in a state of hyper-focusing on our body, you don't realize how much you look at yourself or take photos of yourself and your body. Um, there is a noticeable difference in my camera roll when I started trying to love myself again. There is a notable difference in how my camera roll went from being all photos of my body in bikinis, in gym clothes, in all the poses, to there being no photos of myself, just because I was learning to love myself no matter what my body looked like that day. So there was no pressure on the fact that I need to take a photo in this outfit, or I need to take a photo when I'm at the beach today. I took all of that pressure off myself. Standing in front of the mirror stopped. Picking myself apart stopped. So that would be my first thing: take less photos with the sole purpose of your body being the main focus of the photo, and try to either turn mirrors around, cover them, or start to notice how many times you walk past a mirror and you stop and you body check and you try to fix whatever your posture is or whatever. I would always, as soon as I'd walk across the mirror, suck my belly in. And it was like, you're at home by yourself, you're fine, you don't need to do that, you can be relaxed. But it was, it was such a hyperfixation to the point where I wasted so much time taking these photos, looking in the mirror, over-analyzing all of these things. So I needed that to stop. So that would be my first tip. The second tip that I would say is, like you were saying, Sam, um, how you went from doing a lot of HIIT to pretty much cutting it all out. I would say stop— it sounds very counterintuitive for a personal trainer to say, but I would say only exercise when you feel like it for a little while. And the more that you put that kind of as your new minimum, you'll start to want to exercise for the sole reason of making your body feel good instead of trying to maintain this level of a six-pack or having a super lean, um, body and legs and whatever. You'll start to go, okay, I actually feel like exercising today because I feel like it's going to give me a little bit of energy, or it's going to make my digestion better, or it's going to help me with this or that. So only exercise when you feel like it for a little while and see what happens. You'll learn to fall in love with the, um, the feeling that exercise gives you instead of trying to keep up with certain expectations that we have on ourselves and that are put on us by the fitness industry. The last thing that I would say is to let go of food rules. So, um, a huge, a huge lesson that I learned was like, there's so much in our society that tells us what we should eat and when. So I started taking away the food rules of I have to eat lunch at 12, I have to eat breakfast at 8 AM, I have to eat dinner at 6 PM. So when you start to take away those rules, you realize I actually am hungry a little bit earlier in the day. Maybe I need to eat a little bit more in the morning. Or I'm actually not super hungry at dinner, so maybe I can have a little bit less then, but my lunch is going to be a little bit more filling. So when we start to take away these food rules, also what we eat at certain times, because I was very much a, you know, you can only have dessert after dinner kind of girl, we let ourselves and we give ourselves permission to eat whatever we want whenever we want. And And while it sounds like, okay, well, then I would just eat donuts at any time of the day— while yes, you may fall into that a little bit at the start because it will be a novelty and it will be new, you'll slowly start to find a place of equilibrium where there's no restrictions throughout the day. It's just you eating what your body needs, and it will start to become a balance of nutritious foods because your body needs nutritious foods to thrive and to give you energy and to help your brain function, but also those soul foods where you're just feeling so ecstatically happy after you eat them because you're like, that feels so good. I really wanted that donut and it meant that I got to go on a date with my partner and we enjoyed it together. So when we take away all of those food rules and we just eat whenever we want and whatever we you want, you'll start to find that balance between like, um, kind of like what's, what's needed, but also what's needed by our soul, like our soul foods that just make us happy in general. So they're kind of my 3 things that I say to my clients to stop— to stop hyper-focusing on your body, because it kind of takes the expectations around we need to maintain a certain level of leaness, fitness, but it's bringing us back into the present moment with our body in that kind of state. So that's how we do it. Instead of looking forward, looking back, we're just, we're just there and we're just experiencing life for what it should be.

And like you said at the start, you might go a little bit overboard of like having a bunch of the snacks or allowing yourself to eat all that stuff, but eventually that doesn't feel good anymore. Either. Like, you feel like crap, you feel like garbage. Like, we've all had where we've, like, eaten way too much of something sweet and then we actually have, like, a stomachache and it, like, doesn't feel good. So you, you find your way back into that equilibrium for sure. But giving yourself the freedom to have whatever you want whenever you want, I think, is super liberating. And I know so many of my clients that have gone on that journey of, like, healing their relationship to food, and they need that experience of I can have whatever I want whenever I want to actually arrive at a place of being able to eat intuitively and not make it mean that you're eating donuts all day, every day, because it won't end up being like that. People fear that if you've been in a space of like hypercontrol for a long time, you fear that you are without those restrictions and parameters and barriers that you've put, that you are uncontrollable. But that's not actually true. Right?

Yes. Yeah.

So this is a lot of like what you do now with your clients that you help with like health and wellness. So you, you found your way into entrepreneurship. What do you think in your experience has been the hardest part of your entrepreneurship journey so far?

Oh, I think taking the first step was the hardest. Hardest part of it. Now I feel like I've built the self-trust behind myself to be able to back whatever it is that I'm doing and face whatever challenge that comes up. But I think it was that initial leap of going after what I wanted for the reasons that I wanted to. Um, I, I always knew that I wanted to be some sort of my own boss, whatever that kind of looked like for me. But it was very, um, like it changed a lot when I had been going through burnout and been very depressed and all of the things. It changed so much for me then because one, I wanted to be— start my own business to be able to help women like myself and help them them not have to go through what I had been through to learn these lessons, and also help women that needed to recover from a similar journey. That was one of the reasons why I started. But it was also a huge turning point when I went through this crazy burnout and all of that kind of stuff, because I was like, working for myself is what is going to help provide me with the flexibility that I need in my life and that I'm craving— the time freedom, the being able to make money with doing a little bit less instead of grinding my ass off every single day for someone else's dream. So those were the two reasons why I wanted to start my own business. But taking that first step is where all of the limiting beliefs that you have never kind of faced before really come up. Because it's putting yourself out there into the world in a totally different way. The imposter syndrome comes up. All of these things that you've never really had to dive into because it's just a new phase, a new journey that you're going on, come up. So I think that was the hardest and the biggest challenge in starting, which why— which is why I was so lucky to have you along for that journey. To just keep pushing me forward and being that kind of cheerleader in the back of my mind, like, it is possible, you can do it. Um, and because you were so involved in the process of it, it was like, just do this, like, just go this way. Like, it was totally seamless in the way that I had the idea and I knew I wanted to start it, and then having you as my little cheerleader, as my coach, being able to steer me in the right direction and, and support me as soon as I would go, but I don't like this, isn't gonna work, whatever, and you would just keep, keep pushing me forward. So that was a huge part of, yeah, my journey at the start, and very grateful for your support.

Yeah, so obviously you were part of Abundant and Ambitious, and that was, you know, the journey to you then going from all of the inner work and the healing that you had done and the transformation that you created for yourself. And then, you know, figuring out the tools and the behind the scenes of how do I turn this into something so that I can help others? How would you describe like the experience of ANA and kind of like being in that mastermind and like maybe, you know, the main sort of thing that you remember from it or that you took away from it?

My main thing that I took away from ANA was that it was as well as being a massive support system, um, of amazing women plus yourself, the, the thing that I took away most from it was that I had tangible things that I could do each week to set up my business from the baseline. So after, because we had weekly calls, I think, through Ana, so So every single week, plus doing like the modules where it was a lot more, um, theory-based, and then we kind of chat about it in our calls. But after every single week, I had a to-do list of things that I could actually do to take steps into building the business of my dreams, which that was the main thing that I really took away from it. Because it, it took my vision from being just a vision and me sitting back and going, okay, I know that I want it, but like I've got no idea where I'm going to start and how I'm even going to make this thing a reality. But it took it to being, this is what you have to do, start doing these little things. And, and I would do it. I would write down a huge to-do list each week after the modules, and I would literally just sit there ticking them off. And then those calls that we had were just that accountability, like, okay, where are you at? What are you working on? Um, what do you need help with? And, and it was so supportive but also so like guiding, I guess, at the same time because I was like, okay, this is actually what is going to set me up. I feel like there's a lot of, um, there's a lot of amazing business coaches out there, but very few will focus on the tangible things that you need to know, like how do you set up an email list? What do you do when this happens with a client? What do you do when you want to post but like you've got no content for that week? Like all of these things that you struggle with as a startup business owner because you literally know nothing of it and it's so new for you. All of those questions were answered in my mind and I was like, okay, cool, this is what I have to do this week, this is going to get me a step closer. And then we would always have really expansive conversations where it would be like, okay, but what about this next level and what's going on with the energetics and all of that kind of stuff. But it was like bringing it into a reality. And I slowly started to see my business form out of nothing, which was totally life-changing.

I know we have to talk about your, like, massive strides and successes just to— like, I'm so proud of you, obviously. But like, you launched your coaching business, you built an awesome podcast, right? The Grow to Your Glow podcast. And you do a couple of other things now. You're managing other podcast shows, you're helping clients uplevel their health and mindset, you're landing speaking gigs and in-person workshops. And there's just like a lot that has unfolded for you as a result of you taking that leap and having the courage to go all in with yourself and with your vision. So it's just like so incredible to witness it and to see you like over time just continuing to step further and further into that role.

Thank you. Yeah, it's been, it's been such a journey, but I feel like it was all very, um, logical in the way that it happened because I had those foundations there. It was no surprise when the podcast slowly started to grow or certain opportunities came up or my business got bigger because because it was all there from the foundations. And, um, the, the vision that I had was slowly growing as I was growing. So it's been, it's been a massive journey, and I'm so, so, so grateful for all of it. Um, but yeah, it's, it's such a testament to the program that really sets up the business from that starting place of pretty much nothing. So Yeah, it was amazing.

What would you say, like, if someone— because you mentioned imposter syndrome and like starting a business is this thing that really— it's almost like getting in a relationship, right? You think you're healed until you get into a relationship and then this person is a mirror and shows you all of the things that you do that are weird. And then they have all these things that you're like, what the fuck is that and why are you doing that? And then you're like, why was I triggered by that? And then you have all a whole bunch of new work to do, right? And the same thing happens when you start a business. Like, it really is like a— it deepens your personal personal work journey so much. It's like a spiritual experience. I always say entrepreneurship is such a spiritual experience. It's a, it's a wild roller coaster. But you mentioned that of like, wow, you know, the, the— it's almost like this whole new closet of like limiting beliefs and things are open. What would you say to someone who's like really in the like imposter syndrome or like having those fears or doubts? Like, can I actually do this? Am I worth it? Does anyone care? Like like, what, what do I have to contribute to this space? There's so many people already doing this, um, you know, there's coaches that are already talking about this. Why would anyone hire me? Like, from a mindset perspective, what would you say to someone who's sitting with that?

The first thing that I would say is no one is you, and that is what you bring to your business. That no matter what it is that you're doing, no matter how much information you have or what level of expertise you're at, no one's you, and no one can convey the messages that you want to convey in the same way that you are going to convey them. So that is something that I really anchored in, because like you were saying, there's so many imposter syndrome type beliefs that come up at the start where it's like, people are already doing this, people are already doing it better than me. They're, um, more set up, they're more well off, they've got more money to fund behind their business, all of these things. But it's like, they're not you, and you are here for a certain reason. The reason that you're listening to this podcast right now, the reason that you've got the idea to start a business right now, there's a reason that you're thinking that, and there's a reason why you feel like that is your purpose. And there's a person that is going to be exactly aligned with the kind of person that you are that needs to hear it from you. Because it was like we were saying with, with that one-on-one call that we had, um, in Burnt Out to Badass, I had heard that I should stop, I should slow down, I should do it this— like, I should do it a certain way, blah blah blah. But it took hearing it from you, Sam, that it clicked for me. And I truly believe that each and every one of us have those kind of people that we're meant to impact. So I really stay anchored in that. Like, no one's going to say it like I will, no one's going to have the certain energy that I have. Um, we all bring different things to the table, and there's going to be a certain person that aligns with that specifically. So that's really what I kept anchored in because like the market's so saturated, people are way better at communicating than I am. All of these beliefs will come up. It's inevitable. Like you were saying, it's just a new facet of kind of things that you're going to have to process through. They just arise without you knowing that they were something that you struggle with already.

Yeah, because you've reached a new threshold of like, now You're getting out of the comfort zone again. So every time that you exit the comfort zone, it's like you're met with a wall of fears, doubts, limiting beliefs. So it's natural. And I think that's important for people to hear of, like, you know, because I think some people take it as like a sign of like, oh, well, maybe I'm not confident enough yet, or maybe I'm not ready yet. And it's like, no, dude, we all literally felt that way. We just decided to go for it anyway.

Yeah, totally. And I, I so believe, like, the, the people that are doing the thing that you want to do, the most successful people in the world, they aren't any different to you. They don't have any different beliefs to you or anything like that, but they're the people that kept persevering through those limiting beliefs, through the negativity, through the people saying that they couldn't do it, through the people saying they should just get a real job. They all— they have all of the same imposter syndrome, all of the limiting beliefs that we have. No one's different. But the people that are truly successful are the ones that keep taking the risk, keep putting themselves out on the firing line, keep just showing up no matter what. And I truly believe that. I think it's so important because because they're never going to go away. And it's either you keep pushing to those new levels or you stay in the one that you're already at. And for me, that's just not an option. I just don't want that for my life. I want something bigger. I want to create bigger impact. So it's something that you have to just be okay with. And the moment that you realize that you're safe in, in going through all of those limiting beliefs and feeling the anxiety and, and feeling all of that stress, when you realize that it's better for you to face it head-on instead of running away from it, is when that kind of next level pops up for you. Because you're going to start to realize that it's okay to feel anxious and still be on that phone call with a client. It's okay to be anxious and still launch this program. It's okay to be anxious and still try this new gym. Whatever it is, that's what, that's what's waiting for you on the other side, that new level of you. And if you want more, you have to be okay with the fact that those things are going to come up. And when you do that, and when you realize that it is okay and that it is going to be there, you're, you're going to be more susceptible to going, okay, cool, we know that something's going to come up, but this is just another challenge that I'm just going to get and I've got through a million before, so it's going to be fine.

Yeah, I was just listening to an interview with Seth Rogen, and he was talking about his journey through self-doubt and how the criticism when movies come out or they tank or they don't do well, how it actually really does impact the writers and the producers and the actors and how they see those things and they feel those things. But obviously they just have to keep moving. So this is exactly the same thing. It was just interesting to hear the perspective of a totally different industry. Obviously we're talking about Hollywood, right? And it's on a much bigger scale, like millions and millions and millions of people, you know, watching your films or, you know, seeing your work or being critical of your performance and things like that. Um, but he basically said exactly what you were just saying, which is like If you, if you quit, you definitely won't get there. Yeah, but like, if you don't quit, you might get there. That's what he, that's what he was saying of like how to move through all of that. And there were years in his career where he didn't have any work, like no one would hire him. No one, like no one was wanting to make the movies that he wrote. And so it's remembering also that we're not special in, you know, special in terms of like, oh, it's it's I'm having so much self-doubt or there's so much resistance or I'm not making sales. So it must mean it's a sign that I'm not good at this or I shouldn't do this. It's like, no, it's a sign that you just have to keep going, right? Because if you don't quit, you might get there. But if you do quit, you definitely won't. And so it's about like wanting it badly enough and also cultivating like the support systems to be able to keep putting one foot in front of the other during those times. I was like, shit, like, that's hard when— because there's real times where you're like really doubting yourself and you're like, damn, can I really keep moving? So having those like support systems in your life that hype you up and can be a sounding board for you and can, you know, give you some direction and say like, don't quit, like, you can do this, you know, this is the next step, like, just keep moving. And I love what you said. Like, I say this all the time, right? The fear doesn't go away. I think worrying about the opinions of other people, it doesn't go away. It's just about about exactly as you said, you can feel the anxiety and still do the hard thing. That's, that's the shift that we make. It's not that we become invincible and we no longer feel fear or the opinions of other people no longer impact us. It's that we recognize those things and then we go, okay, I can see where that's coming from. And also I'm going to keep moving anyway, right? So it just stops dictating what we do or don't do next. I think that's like truly the evolution.

Mm-hmm, definitely. And I think it takes away that idea that we need to completely get rid of the negative thing— I like negative quote unquote because, I mean, anxiety and, and fear isn't always negative, but we kind of deem it as negative. But it takes away the idea that we need to get rid of that feeling before we can do it and before we're worthy of taking that step. Whereas when it comes to mental health, and if you are someone that struggles with mental health, the, the moment that you realize that it's something that you have to be okay with— and, and for a regular person that might not struggle as much with mental health issues, it's fear. And that is something that's part of the human experience. We can't run away from it. And the moment that you realize that you won't fully get to a place where it's like, ah, it's fine, everything's good. Especially when you're pushing the boundaries and you're starting a new thing and you're putting yourself out there. The moment that you realize that you don't have to wait until it's all gone, until you're the perfect human to take a step, is when things start to change. Because it's like, you're not going to get to that new level of human, you're not going to be that amazing multimillionaire girl if you're not constantly taking a step forward and taking that step where you're testing yourself and then you're getting comfortable there and then you're testing yourself again and you're comfortable there. You're not going to get there if you stay in the same spot waiting for everything to just simmer out and be perfect before you take a step. It, it never is because it's so normal for humans to feel stressed, anxious, be scared of what's going to happen because it's a complete unknown. So the moment that we just take that and run with it, I think that's where the power comes with harnessing your mental health to help you and to, to improve your life.

Not waiting to feel like you have healed it all or solved it all to, to be able to move forward and take that next step. I love that so much. Thank you so much, Georgia, for coming on the podcast and sharing your journey with us and all of your accomplishments and your expertise in this arena of like health and wellness. I love seeing you and all the things that you're accomplishing and just how you're flourishing, and it's just such a beautiful journey that you've been on. I'm grateful to be— to have been even just a small part of it. Um, so let everyone know like how they can connect with you, where they can find you, um, or even potentially work with you if they want to get into your coaching or have their podcast managed by you? Share all the things with us.

Absolutely. First of all, I want to say a huge thank you, Sam, for having me on the show today. And just your presence in my life has been absolutely life-changing. So I'm so grateful for you. But for any listeners that want to connect with me, the main place that I hang out is Instagram. So head over there. It's @bygeorgiamarie, and I'll give all of the details to Sam as well. Um, but at my Instagram, you can head to the link in my bio, which has all of the options for my coaching, nutrition, mindset, health coaching is all on there, um, as well as an inquiry form for managing your podcast. Um, so you can inquire with me and we can talk about how you can work with me in that space. Um, otherwise I have a podcast, Grow Till You Glow, which is on Apple and Spotify. Um, so yeah, they're all the places that I hang out and I would love to see you over in my Amazing.

Thank you so much, Georgia. If you guys enjoyed this episode, make sure you take a screenshot, share it to your Instagram stories, tag both me and Georgia. We will leave all of her links in the show notes below so you guys can easily connect with her.

Thank you guys for tuning in. If you are interested in joining this round of Abundant and Ambitious and you are building a conscious online coaching business and you're ready to scale your impact and your income, don't forget to click the link in the show notes below and enroll before doors close on Wednesday, March 29th, or send me a DM on Instagram at _samanthadaily with any of your questions, and I'm happy to help. I hope to see you inside this round of A&A if it feels aligned for you. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. I will catch you next week. Love you so much.

Bye!