083: Hungry For Happiness with Samantha Skelly

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback? On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. Samantha Skelly, well, she used to starve herself. She associated any food with weight gain and she suffered from body dysmorphia. She was a childhood actress, a stunt double and a dancer. And that pressure for her to look a certain way, well, that wreaked havoc on her confidence and her health. Today, Samantha is a seven figure entrepreneur, sought after international speaker, bestselling author, and wellness coach expert, and she founded both Hungry for Happiness and Paws Breath Work. Samantha is also the popular creator and host of the Hungry for Happiness podcast and her best selling hay house book, Hungry for Happiness, which is sold everywhere. Join in today and learn exactly how Samantha Skelly got over the body image struggle, leveled up and created everything from nothing. Today on Leveling Up. I'm so excited. I have my friend Samantha Skelly here today and she's not only is she a seven figure earner and a highly sought after motivational speaker who speaks on stages everywhere and, and a phenomenal coach and person, but I'm so glad to have you here because I want to dive in because that's not always who you were. And thanks for being here and could you take us back to who you were for all that?

Yeah, girl. Thank you so much for having me on the show.

Yeah, I'm excited to chat.

Beautiful home. Yeah, it was so interesting. So I had a really interesting childhood. I was a child actress and a dancer and a stunt doubles. That was my whole sort of direction growing up. Originally I thought that I wanted to just be an actress my whole life.

Random facts. I never knew this about you.

I know, like, who's a stunt double at the age of 14? This girl. It was, it was, it was weird. I was on that. Should you get. Did you guys have Smallville here?

I've heard of it, but I don't think I ever watched it.

Okay, so I was a sun devil in Smallville for like most of my career as a stunt double. But the interesting thing about that was when I was 18, I decided that, you know what, performance is not for me. It was so hard on, you know, my body and my mindset and everything. It was like auditioning constantly. It was just like hard work to be a dancer and an actress. I'm like, you know what, I'm going to quit everything. I'm going to go traveling, I'm going to go figure myself out. Okay, so at 18 years old, I always knew I didn't want to go to university. I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. So when all of my friends are going to university and doing the whole degree thing, I was like, peace out, I'm not doing this. So I ended up going to Australia and I started traveling. I told, why Australia? I don't know, I just like thought it was like a dream that I had that me and my girlfriend went to Australia and I called her. I'm like, Maria. I'm like, I had this dream that went to Australia. Do you want to go traveling for a year and go there? And she's like, sounds good. And so the deal that I made with my parents was I'm not going to go to university, but I'm going to create my education through traveling. So I traveled 33 countries in four years and just learned like. Oh yeah, learned so much. But during that time I was 18 years old and I was so terrified of gaining a single pound. Like a single pound.

Why was that?

Because I was just so insecure with my body image and with everything and being a dancer, there was so much pressure on my body image. And so at the age of 18, I went on my first ever diet, which was the cabbage soup diet. Have you ever.

Oh gosh, I can. I didn't know people actually really did that.

Oh my God, girl. I had this moment where I'm like, I have to start dieting because I'm not dancing and I'm not acting and I'm. And I'm not exercising and I'm here, I am traveling, I'm going to gain £300 and yeah, whatever. So I started my first ever diet, which was that cabbage soup diet. And I just ate cabbage soup until I was, until I turned into super hard friggin cabbage. But that was the start of this four year period that I called my diet depression time, where I was on over 50 super restrictive diets in less than 4 years. I ended up in the hospital multiple times because I was just starving myself. I didn't know how to eat like a normal person. I was so disconnected from my body. I hated my body. I was the same size I am. Thought I was £300. You know, the level of body dysmorphia that I had was just, like, through the roof. Like, I would look in the mirror and think that I was literally obese when I was.

Wow. Like, did people tell you that was. Something was wrong? Did anyone speak up to you? But did you know deep down anything was wrong?

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. But I was in such denial. Like, I knew that I was waking up every single morning in a battle with food, in a battle with my body, in a battle with everything, but I couldn't admit it to myself. And I was really good at pretending to be happy.

Yeah. For people not knowing this for themselves. Like, for people. Because I know a lot of people have struggled with weight, but a lot of people are also not anorexic or go to that extreme or don't know. The whole body dysmorphia thing, like, what do you think sets that apart?

And people.

Like, what do you know about that now? Like, do you think that. Why do some people go to that extreme? Like. Like, for me, for instance, I don't think I could just eat cabbage soup. I would freak out. Like, I need my food. I want food.

Yeah.

How does that get to that? Like, how do you even survive, too, when you don't actually eat nutrients?

It's when you value your body image over your mental health. Right. I talk to so many women who struggle with eating disorders and bulimia and anorexia and binge eating and everything, and they're in that, like, diet, binge, diet, binge, diet, binge cycle, where they are restricting so heavily, and then they binge eat, because that's just a natural reaction to deprivation. And they stay stuck in that cycle until they value their mental health over their body image.

Got it. And that takes, I would imagine, either an intervention from somebody.

Totally. Totally. Or for them just to get sick of their own crap.

Yeah.

Nice wear on the show.

Definitely.

They get sick of their own shit. They get to a place where they're like, I can't stand hating myself every single day. I can't stand this anymore.

You know what's interesting about the. As you're saying, man, Because I deal with a lot of people in fat loss.

Right.

So the opposite. So almost. It's the same driving thing, though. Like, you talk to somebody that's really overweight, and they'll say that they feel like they hate themselves. So it's like the both extremes go to that.

Totally. Totally. Yeah. And it's interesting because a lot, like, potentially a larger woman would look at a Smaller girl. And go, how can you hate your body? You're 120 pounds, 130 pounds. But the mind is so distorted that your mind literally convinces yourself that you're. That you're obese when you're. Now.

Do you think being in the. The fame childhood, like, that had a lot to do with what created this?

I think so on a very subconscious level. Right. Because there's a lot of rejection. There's a lot of. I was a dancer. I was a ballerina, Right. And so I looked at all the ballerinas that I looked up to, and they're all, you know, so small and so that graceful.

So there's like something attached. Beauty wise to that.

Exactly. So, yeah, there was definitely some messaging there. But the interesting thing was I didn't struggle with food at all until I was after. Until after 18.

Okay.

It was from 18 to about 23, where I. Probably 80% of my mental capacity was. Was spent wondering what. What I'm gonna eat, when I'm gonna work it, when I'm gonna work out. I would eat something and then immediately plan my workout. I would go into, like, a deficit where I'd work out for three hours in the morning so that I could go and eat. You know, everything was calculated and measured and managed. And there was such a. There was such an incredible amount of guilt and shame. If I had overeaten in the day, I would, like, stay up in my bedroom and do crunches until I was blue in the face.

Oh, wow.

To burn it off. And it was very transactional and all.

Consuming, I would imagine.

Completely. Completely. And here's the interesting thing. During that time, I was living in London in England, and I had started my first company, which was a personal training company. So there I was training people how to be healthy. And then behind closed doors, I was so out of alignment because I couldn't figure it out.

So you weren't being authentic?

I was not being authentic. And it was eating. So not only was that driving me into insanity, like the actual obsession, but then knowing that I was in this position where I was trying to help people with their health and wellness, and I was struggling myself, so I felt like a complete fraud.

So when was the turning point? How did you get to rock bottom? And then when did you know that that was the turning point?

So I can remember this day so clearly. I was living in London. I had fallen in love with this British boy in Australia, and I was like, I'm going to move to London and marry him. So that's What I did. And so I got. I. I moved there. We ended up breaking up, but I stayed there. Cause I just love the city. But I got to this place where I can remember being in my bathroom and I would weigh myself probably 40 times a day. Like anytime, like.

Cause it would change so much.

Exactly.

In five minutes.

Yeah, yeah. And I being in the bathroom, just sitting on the bathroom floor, just looking at Instagram on Instagram models or whatever it was. And I got a text from my girlfriend and she's like, let's go for a walk. And I'm like, okay, cool. So I grabbed my stuff and I go for a walk. And she was like, I want you to know, like, I know how badly you're struggling and. And it's. It's okay. Wow. You just need to admit it to yourself and be real so you can change.

Whoa. What? What in you did she see? Did she? Because you weren't telling people what I wasn't telling people.

But I. I socially isolated myself. So she'd be like, let's go to this Italian restaurant. I'm like, no, no, no, I'm good. Because I didn't want to.

The bread and the olive oil.

Yeah, yeah. 100% today. I'm like, give me more. But yeah, like, that would freak me out. So even though I'm a very social person, I was afraid of overeating. So I just wouldn't engage in those sorts of activities. And so it was so all consuming. And everything I did revolved around this obsession. And so she was close to me at the time, and so she just called me out and I was like, you're right. I'm like, I'm struggling so much with this.

Good for her. That, like, I. I gotta interject here because so many people are scared to like, actually confront somebod with and be an interruption.

Yeah.

Or take a stand for them.

Totally.

And what they do is gossip instead.

Yeah, exactly.

And good for that person. Like, that was a real friend.

Absolutely. Yeah. 100%. 100%. And I'm so grateful to her for this day because there was that moment where I'm like, she's so right and I need to do something about this.

You probably are mad at her, I would imagine. Like, she found you out.

Totally. I was triggered. I was like, oh, she found me out. But it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. So I realized so. And the timing was so perfect. So she called me out a week later. I actually got deported from England because I overstayed my visa. Yeah. I had a two year visa and I was like, they won't find me. And they did. So I got deported from England. I moved back to Vancouver, where I'm from, and I just started to realize, like, the patterns and the destructive behaviors in myself and in my clients. I looked at, like, I looked at it as a whole and I thought, this issue is so much deeper. I'm not going to heal this through food. This is an emotional issue.

By the way, I want to point out, you literally just like completely skirted over the. I got deported where most people would be like. And because I would imagine you were dealing with such a big earth problem.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That. That was like a drop in the bucket. Totally.

And. And I took it as a sign. I was like, all right, like, this is my sign.

Like, you scored over the. The breakup and the being deported. Like, that would devastate people. And you're just like, you didn't even notice that the scale budget was my.

My priority was this obsession.

Yes, I get it.

So addiction. Totally these big. It's an addiction, right? So it takes over everything. And like, yes, it's food, but it still is so all consuming. And I know, I know, like, food is the most readily available and socially acceptable drug there is. Right. So people don't get it unless you're in it. People are like, what do you mean? You struggle with food? It's like, it's fucking terrible. Like, it's the worst.

Yeah.

So anyway, so I get back to Vancouver and I'm like, I'm like, okay, I have this issue and I started googling it and everything was like, track your calories, do this. And it was just making it worse because.

Were you Googling anorexia or were you Googling?

I was Googling. How do I stop using food as a drug? How do I stop restricting? How do I learn to love myself? And. And everything was very. All the strategies were very external. So it was like, got it. Get a cat, make it worse. Or. Or get a food journal. I'm like, this is making it worse.

Because I find. And I don't know, and I don't know you well enough to know this, but I would. I think I find a correlation between people on the extreme, the thin side of the obsession, the anorexia, they tend to be a high level of control.

Oh, yeah.

And perfection.

Oh, yeah.

So then when you start counting calories and being meticulous about it and the sc. All the number stuff makes you more.

So I would imagine, oh, 100%. It was driving my need for control, my perfectionism. I need to have everything accurate and perfect. It was, it was making that worse.

And, and I'm wondering, did people compliment you on your ability to be perfection? And see, so that's another thing that comes up because you're almost getting rewarded from society because you're so meticulous and perfect and tiny. Right?

Yeah. You're so dedicated. You're so committed. You're so this. And on outside, yeah, I looked like that.

Yes.

But on the inside, I was like, this is horrible.

Gosh, that's really, that's a big awareness for people listening to hear that too. Because, you know, I really am a fan of not actually commenting on people's weight because you really never know what they're struggling with.

Honestly, you just never know. I have friends who I know because I'm close with them who have severe body image issues and they have a beautiful bodies.

Why'd you gotta call me out like that? I'm just kidding.

No, yeah, she told me before the show.

But you're right, though. A lot of people have it 100%.

Yeah. Yeah. So if I was to say, hey, insert name here, you look really amazing today. Or. Or that outfit is so slimming, they would take that completely different way than for someone who does not struggle with, with disorder eating. So we really do have to be careful. We really do have to be careful.

You don't know, somebody could be sick and struggling with their weight and we're, you know, we don't, we really don't know what's going on.

Yeah.

So, yeah, it's better just to say. My friend Chalene Johnson, I heard her, she was sharing about this. She. That she's a big believer of just saying to people, you know, good to see you. Like, we've lost that. We want to come in their weight or their.

Yeah, like, good to see you. Like, you, you have really nice energy. Like, wow, your eyes look so clear. Or wow, you have this like, softness to you or you seem really feminine or graceful. Like, like. What about commenting on like energetics and presence versus, like aesthetics?

Yeah, I'm with it. So you hit this moment. Your friend brings this up to you.

You're.

Now you're, you've deported. You didn't even care about it. You break up with a guy young, care about it. What do you do now? Because I would imagine you're now battling this with yourself because you're, you're googling and it's just making it worse.

Totally. So. So I realized so I spent a lot of time in doctor's offices trying to figure out this issue and spent a lot of money trying to understand what was going on. And then I got to this place.

Where I like psychologists or psychiatrists, doctors.

All sorts of things, and eating disorder recovery centers and things like that, where they were really strict. And then I got to this place where there was something in me that was literally communicating. And now I can say that as, like, higher source, universe, intuition, whatever. But at the time, I'm like, I feel so disconnected from my body. I don't even know why I'm doing this. But the message was basically like, go away from all of this Western medicine and all these fixes and go. Go to Asia, okay, And sort this out. So I did. I'm like, mom, dad, out of here, went to Bali and started to just heal myself through those modalities, those Eastern modalities of just, like, meditation and breath work. And, you know, that's why I'm stoked on breath work.

Do you do. I mean, like, plant medicine medicines, too, or was it mostly.

I didn't do plant medicines until I was, like, in my older. Like, okay, I was recovered. But there's a lot of research around MDMA therapy and, like, mushrooms for connecting people back into their bodies. The reason why we develop eating disorders is because we're so disconnected from our bodies. And what is an emotional hunger cue versus a physical hunger cue? How do we actually discern the difference? Like, what does our bodies actually need?

You know what? You bring up a really interesting point too, because I would say that people. Any disorder in any place is related to a disconnection.

Yeah.

Like, if you even. You think of, like, a workaholic or not working, that's a disconnection.

Absolutely.

Drug abuse, like, literally anything you could say is a result of a. Just a disconnection. Like, isolating.

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's interesting. Like, what we. What we want to always be mindful of is the intention behind any behavior that we do. Right. So whether it's working or eating or can. Or drinking wine or whatever it is, is the intention to enhance our experience or to numb our experience.

Yeah.

Right. So. So with food, for instance, or. Or let's take a glass of wine. That's an easy example. You and I can sit down and have a glass of wine because we want to enjoy the experience. We want to add value to. To, like, what we're doing.

Yeah.

Or I can sit down at the end of the day by myself and drink wine because I want to numb out my experience and. Because I hate my life or whatever, or hate my body, whatever it is. And. And I definitely used to use alcohol like that. But it can be a very different experience if the intention is different. Food is the same thing.

So that brings me to another question. Like, what is the intention? And I'm just trying to get in the mindset of it when someone has an eating disorder. Because, like, so you're. When you were struggling with what you were struggling with, like, was there any number on the scale that was going to make you happy? Like, so no matter what it said, you would still be there. So. And I would say the same thing about somebody struggling with, you know, with being a workaholic or, like, nothing's enough.

100%. Yeah. Because what we do as entrepreneurs, we're like, okay, I want to get to 20k a month. I want to get to 100k a month. I want to get.

Never enough.

It's never enough.

Yeah.

Ever enough. So the, The. What we need to understand is fulfillment is never going to come from achievement. Right. Tony Robbins talks about the science of achievement, the art of fulfillment. A lot of entrepreneurs or business people or whatever are so good at achieving things. But are we fulfilled? No.

No. And there is. Because that starts getting used just like the wine for nothing 100. They're just gonna stay on the next.

Benchmark because when we're busy, we can't actually feel our emotions. When we're stressed and focused on something, it's difficult to feel through pain with you. And that's exactly what so many. So many entrepreneurs are doing. And I see them. I. I really believe that.

That you describe everyone I know.

Yeah. Like, businesses don't fail because. Because we have the wrong marketing strategy. Businesses fail because the entrepreneurs are so burnt out and operating from fear. Constantly. Totally operating from fight or flight.

Constantly. Yes.

Right. It's like we're jacking up our nervous systems and we're not operating.

I feel like I'm psychology right now. Psychiatrist, chair.

Dang.

You're talking to me.

Yeah.

This is. It's so true, though. It's so true.

It's like we're in overdrive constantly. Like, we just need to chill.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah. So you go to Bali, which. I've never been to Bali, but I just heard it.

We should go.

I've just heard it's an experience and that you get whatever you. You need there.

Yeah, you do.

So you. You feel that you got on this path there because you were away from here. Like, what was and was it the meditation and the breath work? Was it being away from here? What do you think you would put that?

Yeah, I think there was a. A few like, pivotal things. And I would say there's three. Number one, I began to just witness people who were like, healing and transforming, not through using external things. Right. So in today's world, we're so used to transformation through consumption. Right. I'm going to read a shitload of books and I'm going to. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this course and I'm going to do this, I'm going to do. And there's a lot of things that we're doing and there's not a lot of being. And transformation happens when we're being still, when there's space, when we're feeling. And that's truly when transformation happens. And so when we're so busy trying to get somewhere, we're missing the point. So that's the first one.

Okay.

The second thing is I discovered breath work, which I know you and I chatted about the other night when we were at our friends house. And breath work for me was the biggest catalyst that got me into my body.

Now, was that hard for you to start that? Because I know there's people listening that know they're supposed to meditate, they're supposed to do breath work, but they don't. Is it, was it a challenge to start that?

Well, it was a total accident to start it, to be honest. I. So I went to this meditation class and I thought it started at 2 or I started anyway, I was late and I missed it. And I was like, what else is available right now? So I look on this like community board and it said breath work. And I'm like, like I was thinking breath work just like for relaxation. Relaxation like in through the nose. Right, right, right. But so there's two, two types of breath work. There's that relaxation work that we can do throughout the day, but then there's breath work for transformation, okay. Which is using the breath to actually unlock energy and emotion in the body to heal it. And so that's what I was getting into, but I didn't know at the time. So I go into this class and we start this like breathing pattern that is fairly intense. And within 10 minutes I'm. I feel like I'm on mushrooms. I feel like I'm in this like psychedelic state and I'm. I am feeling everything. And for someone who's been numb to their body for at that time, I was like 24 or something for 24 years. It was just like the most profound experience I've ever experienced. Yeah, I could feel my self love, I could feel my heart. I could feel all these things. It was so interesting.

Such a total divine intervention too, if you think about it like you, you weren't even looking for that and it accidentally happened.

Exactly.

That's amazing.

Yeah. So that was, that was profound. And so that would be the second thing of just viscerally feeling sensations in my body because I normally would either feel completely numb or anxious. Like those were like the two things I would feel most days. So it sort of like unlocked myself to this whole other world of emotion.

Okay.

And so I started to research breathwork and now I'm obviously obsessed with it and have a breath work company. But I was obsessed with it when I first started working with it. And then I healed myself, I healed my eating disorder through breath work and through meditation and through just like energetic work versus, you know, calorie and is this because you.

I, I want to just kind of connect the dots on this. Is this because you, when you do breath work or meditation, it's like you're seeing through a different lens now. Like, is that what, like, does it take you out of the sub. The conscious into.

Yeah, two things. So, so definitely with breath work, especially this style of breath work that I'm talking about, you are completely out of your head. Okay, so what's happening?

We need to try this later because I need to be curious.

Incredible. It's. You get, you can't get completely out of your head. So normally when people try and feel better or change their mindset, they think too hard about how to feel better.

That's what I do.

Right? Yeah.

Yeah.

So. So you have all this knowledge, like you're super intelligent. So you have all this knowledge of like, all right, I'm supposed to do this and I'm supposed to do this. It's like we're think we're thinking too much. Like, what's the system? Give me the three, two, one. Right. So it's with breath work and meditation, it's not that it's just releasing the mind because honestly I, I say this all the time, but I'm so much smarter when I'm, when I don't use my mind, I'm so much smarter and body.

And I, I am with you because I, I will also. And I. For anyone listening that's not into breath work yet or meditation or any of that, because that was me for sure.

Yeah.

The way how I'll related, I'm assuming is like just even when I'm focusing on somebody else or something outside of me, like that freedom or that flow, I get it.

Totally.

And I think that has a lot to do with it because you've separated your mind. I know it's different things, but you separated out of your own head and your own issues and whatever.

Absolutely. Just think about like how we feel when we help someone.

Yeah.

Or we write someone a thank you card or we send them a text or we're choosing to feel grateful for something. So. Yeah. It's a beautiful thing. So we don't think about it. We just get into our bodies and then we can tap into the intelligence of our body and the wisdom of our body. And I understand for people listening to this, they're probably like, I don't get it.

Yeah.

And the feedback that I get so often from people who do breath work is like, I never knew my body could do that. And neither did I. I was so numbed out. Like, I was so checked out. I was so numbed out. I was trying to think my way out of my eating disorder, like for so long. And it finally gave me a tool to feel my way out of it.

Gosh. And now I definitely have to try it. I got all kinds of disorders I want to solve. I'm going to be on it. Okay, so you basically fix this eating disorder. Now what I would imagine though, like, it's always kind of probably with you. Like you, it's. Do you, is that, do you get scared of that coming back or like.

So here, here's my story around that My eating disorder never went away, but I changed my relationship to it, so it never affects my behavior.

Okay, so you're not triggered by food or scale or anything now that's awesome.

No, because I, I know, I know it's there and I know it exists and I know how to speak to it and I know, I know what I need to do when I hear. Hear it. If that makes sense.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's almost like the trigger is still there, but you know how to.

Like, so right now it's data for me. So if, if my mind is like, oh, you need to go to the gym twice today or whatever, if that is there, then all that's telling me is like, there's something in my self care practice that I'm not doing or there's something in my body that I'm ignoring. There's, there's another layer that I need to get to energetically and emotionally that I'm ignoring. So let me slow down and figure out what that is.

Oh, that's really, that's a great self awareness. So how do you go from that to like what you're doing now? Because I get the breath work part. But you're doing so much more than breath work right now. Like how does that even evolve and happen?

So I got back to Vancouver and I, I sort of looked at the world and I went, wow, like we are really putting band aids on bullet wounds when it comes to eating disorders. I was a fitness competitor for, for a long time and I, and I was a fitness competitor because I was masking my eating disorder.

I think a lot of fitness competitors.

Are, you know, I have this conversation a lot and I think they're may of like everybody who does it for like the quote unquote sport of it.

Yeah.

I don't know how it's a sport but whatever.

It's like a way to be exceptional, to focus on perfection.

It's just another. Yeah. It was like the perfect thing for my eating disorder. I, I, I, I had to work really hard for my worth. I had to be validated, I had to be judged. Like it was like it fit the box for my eating disorder and my.

Addiction to perfectionism to achieve anyone, Anyone I personally know that was a competitor shares that same thing.

Yeah. It's so crazy. It's such a mess up industry. I wish it would just go away, honestly. Wow. So I got back to Vancouver and I, I was like, I need to help people who are struggling with food in their body who have these emotional issues because they're putting band aids on bullet wounds with restrictive dieting and over exercising and all of this crap.

Yeah.

And really it's so much deeper. And so I just started to coach people and teach them what I learned through my experience and through my journey. And then I started to get insane results. Wow. I was like, wow, this is, there's something to this. And then so I just began taking courses and educating myself on all of these like emotional techniques and energetic techniques and training in breath work and all sorts of things. And that was sort of the birth of Hungry for Happiness, which is my company.

Got it. Okay. All makes sense now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So how do you even get those clients though, I wonder? Because like I would imagine maybe they're not in that awareness yet. Like they're still where you were before your friend intervened or.

Yeah.

So how do you even meet them and get like, are you that intervention for them. Like, how does that happen?

We basically, like, reach people when they're just so sick of their own crap.

Got it Right.

But we've changed over the years. The company's been around for about six years now. And when we first started out, we were directly working with people who struggled with food and their bodies, so we were directly working with them. Now the companies shifted into all we do is we train and certify people to work, work with clients. So. Oh, wow. Health coaches, wellness coaches, personal trainers, nutritionists, or even if you want to do this work in the world, our academy certifies people and takes them through the process and.

Oh, my gosh. Okay.

So.

So, yeah, I didn't even know this existed for people, so. So if someone's listening and they're a health coach and they want to learn how to serve, that. Yeah, you have that.

That's all we do. That's all we do.

That's amazing.

That's our secret sauce. So. So, yeah, what. What. What tends to happen a lot is a woman will have an eating disorder. She'll go to IIN or some sort of nutrition school, and she'll be like, I want to help people with food because she's overcome her eating disorder, whatever it is. Then she'll start working with people and go, oh, my God. It's so much more than just the food. And the Hungry for Happiness certification gives them the tools and the framework of how to actually emotionally help them to.

Do out with mindset, too. Totally.

Like mindset, emotions, energetics, breath work, the whole spirituality. Just the whole.

So do people actually get certified through you?

Oh, wow.

That's so cool.

Yeah. So then they can become a cert Hungry for Happiness coach. Then they can start taking on people and coaching them with disordered eating and body image issues.

So I love this story. I always tell people, your pain one day can become your purpose if you. If you're authentic about it. Because had you not faced it head on, it could have destroyed you.

Oh, 100.

But now it's like, fueling what you've developed and how you're helping so many others.

Yeah. If only I knew that. Knew that in the moment, you know?

Like, I don't think anyone does, though. If anyone listening is there, like, I don't believe anyone knows while things are happening to them, why they're happening.

Right. And so I live by this philosophy now that I just believe so, so, so deeply that everything is happening for me in perfect timing. Everything. Like even, like the smallest little things, like today, like the Internet of my house was just, like, completely shut off. And I was like, what's going on? And I'm like, all right, this is happening for me. And having that mindset around life just, like, makes life really easy.

Really?

Yeah. I always say, like, I'm the laziest high achiever ever, because I just want to hack things to make life really easy.

But that's the way we should live, to be honest with you. Like, we don't have to complicate it.

Exactly. And, like, my whole thing is, like, I just want to have fun, and I just want to play, and I just want to, like, like, muck about, and I don't want to be addicted to the struggle anymore because I did that for so long.

Yeah.

You know, and so, like, my whole thing is, like, hacking my way to happiness, and how can I. How can I tap into my body to make life just easy and fun?

That's so awesome. So when you speak now on stages, what. What are you typically speaking on?

Yeah, it depends on the stage. Three big things I talk on is conscious business, so how we can start businesses that are super aligned with, like, who we are, and businesses that change the world. So. So I'm really into conscious capitalism and, like, making money so we can change the world. So that really excites me. The second thing I talk on is. Is breath work, obviously. And then the third thing is this Hungry for Happiness mission, which is, like, helping the world who are overweight and overwhelmed.

Such an incredible story. I. If people want to find you, where do they go?

So I'm super active on Instagram, so you can come hang out with me at Samantha Skelly if you have any questions about anything I share.

That rhymes with Kelly.

That rhymes with Kelly. A lot of people call me Samantha Kelly, and I found out that that's actually a por. And I'm like, oh, you're like, she kind of looks like me. I'm like, oh, man, I hope I don't go to her site and think.

I know the truth.

Maybe it's you. That's how you made seven figures. Okay, if you're listening and you're excited about the mission and excited about wanting to. Wanting to be a coach in this area, just head on over to Hungry for Happiness Dot com. Natalie. Jill. Oh, cool. Yeah.

Yes. That will. They will know you came from me.

Yes. And let us know you listen to the show.

Awesome. Well, I think this was super helpful on a lot of fronts. One, no reminding people that they can turn their pain into purpose, but also Knowing that some. Some clue ins to what somebody's struggling with when they. When we're just viewing them going, they're too skinny or they're anatotic or whatever. I do have a question for you that I ask everybody, and I don't want to not ask you this. If. If somebody's listening right now and they're in their own personal rock bottom spot right now. So maybe it's an eating disorder, maybe it's something different. Maybe it's a financial problem or the relationship breakdown. Maybe they're deported. Any of their. Whatever their own personal rock bottom is. If you were to give them three pieces of advice on how they can start shifting out of that and leveling up, what would you tell them?

Number one, the biggest thing that's helped me during all of my rock bottoms because there's been multiple is changing my relationship to pain. Oh, huge one.

What does that mean?

So the feeling of, like, stress, anxiety, overwhelm. How can we just feel it more? And I know that sounds counterintuitive because we've been conditioned to push it away and to ignore it and to suppress it and to put food and drugs and sex and everything over top of the it. But what if we were to eliminate all of our external numbing devices and just, like, feel it and. And just really go back to that thing I said of, like, this. This is happening for me.

For some reason, I love that.

And it could be the worst thing ever. It could be the worst thing ever. Like, this past year has been, like, I had some, like, really gnarly life. Things happen, and I'm like, all right, this is happening for me. Like, this is painful, and this is happening for me. And it just gives us perspective. So that's the first thing, changing our relationship to pain.

Okay.

The second thing on that as well is we so often identify with pain. Like, I used to always carry the story of, like, I am an I am anxious.

I mean. Yes.

And that used to be my story.

I have that story.

Yeah. Well, let's. Let's shift it to I am experiencing anxiety.

Yeah.

Right. So. So then we can, like, observe the anxiety and we don't become it.

I like that.

Yeah. So that's the second thing. The third thing would be really be mindful of, like, where you're going. What's the outcome? How do you want to feel? Right. If we were to really tap into, like, all right, if I was to choose how I wanted to feel right now, what would that be? Playful, excited, vibrant. All right, well, who do I have to be.

Yeah.

To be that now, despite what's happening in the external world.

Question.

Yeah.

I love that especially. Especially because I'm a vision board. As you're looking at my vision, I was.

I was like this vision things ever like. I.

That's because I believe that that puts me in that frame of where I want to go, what I want to be.

Absolutely. Yeah. You look at that and you get inspired. You get excited like most people have. Tony Robbins says the most people have a dirt road to happiness on a highway to hell. Meaning we're so good at feeling crap. We. We are so good at it. We have a strategy. So what are your strategies for feeling amazing and how can we double down on those to feel those energies more often?

This is so good. Thank you so much for being here. This is awesome. Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review, I appreciate that so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram @nataliejofit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.