With the start of a new year, it is always a good reminder to help yourself to become physically fit. Although it is an old cliche that has been a staple of American society, and potentially others across the world that are looking for a "fresh start" to a new year, progress takes time and a "quick fix" does not solve everything. It takes time and persistence to build, especially if there are enemies that stand in your way in achieving that success. Today's guest, owner of Valkyrie Fitness, Jennifer Hensel, will share why it is so important to stay with your goals, as having competition can help you stay determined with the right mindset and attitude to achieve anything, especially in the New Year!

Guest Bio

Jennifer is 41 years old and has owned her own personal training business called Valkyrie Fitness for over 5 years. She trains clients and also runs fun group bootcamps. She recently started as a real estate agent in an exciting career adventure!

Jennifer has 2 kids; a daughter who is 15 and a son who is almost 13. They live in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania with her boyfriend, Mike, which includes their 3 dogs, 2 rats, 2 ducks and 18 chickens.

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Intro/Outro By: Michael Dugan, Podcast Host: Voice4Chefs

Welcome to the podcast where relationships, confidence, and

determination, all converge into an amazing, heartfelt experience.

This is Speaking From The Heart.

Welcome back to episode number 74 of Speaking from the Heart.

Today we'll have Jennifer Hensel joining us.

Jennifer is 41 years old and has owned her own personal training business called

Valkyrie Fitness for over five years.

She trains clients and also runs fun group boot camps, and she recently started as

a real estate agent, an exciting career change of adventure, which we talk about

the unique differences between running a real estate business and being in

the fitness industry in this episode.

a daughter who's 15 and a son who's almost 13, and they live

in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania with her boyfriend Mike, which include three dogs,

two rats, two ducks, and 18 chickens.

Now, despite all the farm land that she has to do all those different things,

I think what I found really interesting is the connection that she has within

her own family, which you hear about this interesting discovery that I

found out during this episode, but you also realize that there's different

people along the way that we play off to with our strengths, and that, in

itself, allows us to become the ultimate being that we want to be in our life.

We can be homegrown in more ways than just one.

And with that, let's go to the episode.

All right.

We're here with Jennifer Hensel.

Jen, thanks for sharing your heart with us today.

Hey, thanks for having me.

I'm excited to be here.

I am too, and full disclosure, I've already let a little bit about

you already out there in the world and what you do, and really my first

question for you is, and I seem to always have this sort of question

that I ask people, especially in the fitness industry, because I've had a

few people already on the show about it.

What got you prompted into helping people with fitness?

I'm really curious about the answer to that question.

Well, I have been into fitness pretty much from my high school career on.

I played sports in high school, and I'm actually a twin.

I have a twin sister.

We're identical twins, and I remember it was probably our junior year and

that summer she started going to the gym and when we had to do the mile run

for field hockey, she beat me and that was a problem, so that's when I started

going to the gym, and as the years went on, I actually got into AdvoCare,

which is a supplement company, and I started promoting that along with my

fitness and I was helping people that way, mostly women, and the biggest

thing that I heard from them is that they were afraid to go into a gym.

They didn't know what to do, so then I started holding free boot camps in

the community just for fun and to give them a place to work out, and then from

there it just kind of spiraled and I got into wanting to do it as my job,

because I'm like, "If I'm just doing this like part-time for fun, I want

to do this as my job, so I got a job at Crunch Fitness and from there I got

my NASM certification and I was not there very long, probably about four

months, and I decided it wasn't for me.

It was just too restrictive on what I could do as a trainer and there were just

a lot of roles and guidelines and I didn't like that, so then that's when I decided

to start Valkyrie Fitness, which I've been in business now for five and a half

years, and I started Valkyrie Fitness.

I had a gym in my basement, so I didn't go to a gym where I had to pay rent or

anything like that, so my clients come to my house and trained them, had all the

equipment and then I also continued doing outdoor boot camps at Cousler Park in

York, and it's just been what I've been doing since, and I actually had a move

in the process, so I'm still continuing, it just moves with me, so it's been fun.

When you were starting the business essentially and helping these

people, and maybe even before that, when you were doing just the free

boot camps, was there a particular group of people that you were trying

to help those that maybe were older, maybe having some sort of health issue?

I mean, you don't hear very often of people saying, "Oh, well I was going

to do this, and anybody that comes will just come", and I had friends myself

that have done something of that nature.

They've kept with it for a little bit, but then they kind of change direction, so

I guess this is question is two pronged.

why?

Why would you do that and help people with that for free, but then secondly,

it's been five and a half years.

What keeps you going?

Well, I guess for me, starting out, I didn't really have a niche and I started

out doing it for free just because I just wanted people to come and have fun,

and at the time, I was not certified to be a trainer, so I felt like I just

shouldn't be charging people to come.

Now, obviously now I charge people, but at the time it was just something I'm

like, "Hey, let's just do this for fun.

I'm doing it too", and that kind of thing, and then, when I started my business, I

just wanted to help anybody, so I worked with teenagers, older people, men, women,

and as time has gone on, I have narrowed it down that I do prefer working with

women, so I work primarily with women and I do have, once in a while, a male,

like males are welcome at boot camp.

They have come and the average age is between 40, and I have

clients that have stuck with me.

They're 65, so-

Wow.

Between 40 and 65, and I tend to have more of a body building training

style, so lifting weights, and also depending on their age, if they're older,

we do more functional fitness, so for them it's not about necessarily losing

weight, it's more about getting stronger.

I have one that she plays golf and her golf swing has improved and she

said that it's easier to get up and down off the toilet, like stuff like

that is important when you get older.

That you're not thinking about when you're younger, and then my younger

ones that I train, it is a little more intense and then my boot camps are

definitely more of the HIIT style.

We do some weights and more cardio based, but what was the

second part of your question?

Yeah, I think you kind of answered it because what I was asking is, a,

what is it that you have done with the group of people that you really focus

on and really the why, and I think you really covered both of those aspects,

but maybe if you wanted to, could you elaborate on a little bit, because

you said earlier about being part of these free boot camps that you did.

That was something that you did in the beginning, before you started charging.

Why was that initially what you did before you started charging people, or

I like to call it, knowing your value?

Honestly, I think I felt like I had a little bit of limitation on myself

and thought people aren't going to follow me, they're not going to want to

do this, so maybe if I just do it for free, then it doesn't hold, obviously

for me, as much value, I guess, so-

Yeah.

Honestly though, when I offered boot camps for free, I see no difference from

offering them for free and charging and having clients pay for them now, so I

definitely have learned along the way.

I have too, and I feel like I had that sort of feeling myself.

I have called it on the show imposter syndrome where-

Mm-hmm.

I had this sort of feeling of, "No one's ever going to come to me

and do this", and, "No one's going to pay for what I have to offer", but we

kind of get ourselves into it and then we experiment with it and that light

bulb sort of turns on saying, "Aha.

I can do it.", so yes, I know what you mean by that, and I'm curious

because you touched on something earlier that kind of had me interested.

First off, how is it to have a twin sister?

No, I'm just kidding.

Let's not answer that question.

I don't want to incriminate you, and then she hears later, "Oh really?

You said that about me?"

We're very competitive.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, you're on the podcast, she isn't, so you won in that regard.

Yeah, exactly, so you won, but is having that relationship with your sister

helped to become who you are today, because you said, literally, that it

has helped you to really get in shape and then kind of go into this field,

but has she been a big influence for you as you continue to build this?

I think so.

I mean, really, we both kind of do the same thing, so I mean she-

Why am I not surprised by that?

Yeah, so we started out different paths, but now we've been on kind of

the same path, a little different, but I think that with the competitive, like

I'm competitive in anything I do, but with her, it was definitely someone that

I always felt like I have to be just as good or a little bit better, because as

a twin, it just, everybody just thinks you are the same person, and you're not,

and I mean, we have completely different personalities, so I felt like if she

was doing better in a certain part of life, then I was going to be left down

on or be compared, which we're compared anyway, but I guess I just felt like I

always had to like, keep up, so to speak, so I do think she was a big influence

and obviously still working out, like it's kind of sometimes in the back of

my head like, "I can't stop working out cause she still works out", and I can't

let her look better than me or something like that, but, off topic, we did not

find out that we were identical twins until we were 40 years old and we are 41.

I was going to say, wait a moment.

I literally just read that you are 41 and you literally just found out in the

last year that you're identical twins.

Yeah.

How's that?

How did that happen?

So my mom did not know that she was pregnant with twins when they checked for

a heartbeat, there was always only one and so they don't know if our heartbeats

were in sync or if one was in front of the other; know this was in the eighties,

so they also didn't do an ultrasound unless it was needed, and she went into

labor, had me, and then the doctor was like, "Oh, there's another one in there",

so the doctor told her that we were fraternal, and I said, "But how did he

really know?", I was like, "They didn't know that you were having twins", so then,

as a joke growing up, everyone always says, "Are you sure you're not identical?

You guys look like you're identical", so finally, joking, I said to my parents,

"You should get us a DNA test for our 40th birthday", and they did, and we sent

it and it came back that we are pretty much almost a hundred percent identical.

Wow.

It kind of turns into, "Oh, well this would be really fun to do", to, "Oh shoot.

We actually are sort of related to each other."

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean-

That's a fun story.

Has that changed your dynamic a little bit or has it been the same?

No.

It's always been the same.

I mean, we've always been pretty close.

We talk every day and now it's just a fun story we get to tell people.

It's a fun story in itself.

I mean, I've known people that have gotten DNA tests because they find out that

they're related to somebody that they have never met in their lives and they

come in their life like, "Oh yeah, I am related to you", and then it turns out

that, "Oh shoot", that it is coming back as sort of the truth, and it's sort of

those stories of, "Wow, I can't believe that's happened.", which, in that same

vein, I was pivoting back to your business a moment, so you have Valkyrie Fitness

and your identical sister essentially has something along the same lines.

Do you guys do it differently, because you were talking a little bit of

how your business is and how she does some things, but I was curious,

does she do anything different from you in terms of the fitness realm?

She is more into the nutrition side of things, so she does more

of that and also a physical therapy assistant, so she does that also.

She kind of does the nutrition stuff as a side job to her full-time job.

Do you guys play off each other when it comes to even helping each

other's clients, so for example, if you had somebody in your group that is like,

"Oh, I need some nutritional help", do you send it to your twin sister?

I have, I mean, I can give basics, so some people are just looking for

like basic nutritional help, but I'll send people her way and then if people

want training, she'll send them my way.

Yeah.

This is kind of a interconnected question then to put it bluntly.

Have you ever had a client, and if you tell me, "No, I

never had", I'm okay with it.

Have you ever had somebody that has gone through your fitness regimen, has

also received the help of your identical sister, and has essentially transformed

their life, meaning that they start out fitness, they're thinking that they were

going to get some help that way, they went over then to the nutrition side and they

have just been a complete success story, and if you do know somebody, don't mention

their name, but tell us a little bit about what that journey has been for them,

if you can share some of those details.

Yeah, so I do have someone, but it wasn't somebody that was using me and my

sister for nutrition, but she came to me and she wanted to do a bodybuilding show,

and so she had a lot of weight to lose.

She had a pretty long journey ahead of her to be able to do a fitness

competition and she trained with me three times a week for, gosh,

she was with me for over a year.

It might have been two years.

It was over a year, and then she came and when she was there, she busted her

butt and she just had that mentality of, "I'm going to do this", and I helped her

with her nutrition, but she kind of just took that and went with it on her own,

and then she just had to stop training, and then I ran into her, because she told

me she was going to keep working out.

She was going to the gym.

I ran into her at the gym; this was a couple months later and she was

completely, like she looked great when she left me, but then it was obvious

that she continued with that journey, so my goal is to always teach my clients

to continue their journey without me.

You shouldn't need your trainer forever, even though I'd love to train you forever.

You should be able to take what you're learning and then go and do it on your

own at some point, and that's exactly what she did, and I haven't seen

her, but she was getting ready, she said, to enter into a show, but then

I haven't seen her and I dunno if she did so well, but she looked amazing.

Well, if you're out there, we are looking for you.

Please get in contact with Jen as soon as possible.

We really want to know what happened to finish this story.

We'll have you on the show.

We can have you explain it, but, in all honesty, I love that, because for

some of us, we often think, "Yeah, once we have them locked in, it's all ours.

We're going to be able to have them forever.

Ha ha ha."

It's sort of like the Dr.

Jekyll, Mr.

Hyde or Dr.

Frankenstein sort of thing that we can have this creation, but

that's not really what we're doing.

We're really helping people, and I've had plenty of people on my show, and

even specifically, I've talked about this, about the importance of empowering

those people, so giving them the skills, the life skills, or in your case, the

fitness skills, to be able to do that on their own, which is why I find it

so connecting, essentially, that you're talking about doing at home, having it

homegrown, kind of turning it into this sort of mini empire that you're building

yourself, and then you're having other people take those skills along the way.

Has there been somebody, maybe in the last five years since you've opened,

that they have reached out to you and said, "Wow, thank you so much, Jen.

You have really given me the skills to really excel."

Has there been a story like that, and how has that made you feel, especially

being somebody that had a personal touch or sort of an embodiment of

that experience with that person?

So I actually had somebody; she actually was bad mouthing me to me-

Wow.

In a private message on Facebook.

She had a lot of not very nice things to say about me, basically saying that

I wasn't helping the right people.

I only work with people who were already in shape, and I'm like, "I

can't help who comes to me", and at first I was really upset and I'm

like, "Why would she say these things to me", and so I just responded and

basically defended myself, and then she responded and shes like, "Wow.

I didn't expect you to respond that way."

She decided that she wanted to train with me, and at first I was

like, "I'm not training this person.

She just was so mean to me.

Why would I train her?", and then I decided, "You know what?

I'm going to prove to her that I can help her", and so I always say, "You should

follow the person that you want to become, like, who you might want to be more like."

If you're following negative people, you're going to be negative.

If you're following positive people, you're going to be more positive.

You're not going to get advice from a poor person if you want to be rich.

You're going to get advice from a rich person, so with training, I feel like

you should be getting advice from a trainer who is in shape and is following

what they preach as opposed to someone who's out of shape and is not following

what they are preaching to other people, and she kind of had that frame of mind

was that I can't train with somebody like you because you don't understand.

You don't have the struggles that I have, so then she decided she wanted to

train with me and at first I was going to tell her no, but then I decided to

train her and give her a chance, and she trained with me for three months because

that's just what she could afford, and she lost like 25 pounds in that three

months, and I'm telling you, she would come and a lot of training sessions

turn into therapy sessions and she cried more than she didn't in her training

sessions, not because of the workouts, but because we were talking about something

else and she would cry and she ended up having this great transformation,

not just physically, but also mentally.

I could see it, and how she came with me in the beginning to how she left,

she was just so much more positive and she was so grateful and she

raved about me on the Internet and she didn't think she could do it.

She didn't think that she could have the results that she had,

so that was honestly, probably my favorite story just because of how

it started and then how it ended.

That is simply incredible.

I never heard a story like that where someone's just bad mouthing you and

saying, "You only work out with the best people", and I hate that so much.

I know I normally don't say the word hate for my listeners that

have been following me all along.

I normally don't say that because it's such a strong word, but you never

know that person that's coming in.

They might have everything put together, but they might actually need some help

because they are struggling inside, and although you were in the intention

of, "Yeah, I'm going to help them out physically", like you said, you did help

them in the mental sense with getting them into that mindset and helping them to get

to that next level, so that's incredible and kudos to you to say, "You know what?

I am going to prove them wrong.", and I was thinking, "Yeah, that's

because Jen is competitive and she wanted to make a point."

Yeah.

But Jen, I want to ask you, this is very interesting.

I don't think I've had anybody on the show that has done this yet.

You do fitness, but you also do real estate?

What's the connection there, and maybe tell us a little bit about

your real estate adventures too.

How'd you come into that sort of field?

So there's really no connection other than helping people again.

That seems that's always been my job, but I knew from a young age, maybe

middle school, that I didn't want to work for other people, so I always had

it, maybe not in that sense that I knew I was eventually going to someday own

my own business, but I definitely had a thought that I don't want to work for

other people, so that's when I started on my fitness journey, my own business,

and real estate's kind of the same.

You're working for a brokerage, but you really are still

pretty much your own boss.

You create your own hours, and you're doing what you want to do, so I got

into real estate because I had somebody ask me a question and she said, "Do you

think you'll still be a personal trainer when you are in your sixties?", and I

was like, "Oh, that's a good question.

I could be, but do I want to be?", so I imagined I could go into like nursing

homes and train older people, like my niche can change, but I said, "I don't

know if I want to train for the rest of my life.", so that's when I started thinking

about real estate, more so because I would like to have investment properties

down the road and I feel like real estate really would be beneficial with that,

and it just always sounded fun to me.

I haven't been in it quite a year yet, but so far I love it and it works great with

my training business, and I am trying to take my personal training business into

more of an online route and do the group fitness face-to-face, so I feel like it

would be a really good transition for me to be able to do the real estate and

the online training and group fitness.

You actually have a really cool niche in doing that now that I

heard your explanation as to kind of how you got into it, because now you

can leverage the ability to say, "Well, I want to open a gym", and you're a

real estate agent, so you know what you're going to get your yourself

into in terms of the characteristics, the investment that's involved.

Mm-hmm.

I have a buddy of mine, his name is John Schuchman.

John, if you listen to this, I say hello.

He runs his own podcast called The Real Estate Survival Guide.

I'll have to connect you with him then Jen, because he would be a great

connection for you to kind of learn a little bit about that, because John

has been doing that himself, and for anybody that is looking to do any sort

of things in which you're thinking about, "I want to enter this one field."

I've had a guest that has talked about marketing in which you go into

all these different areas that have synergy so that you can create that

opportunity down the road, no matter how far away it is, so kudos to you.

I mean it is something that you normally won't think, "Oh, really?

Somebody that does fitness and also can help me with selling or buying a home?"

Yeah.

It can make some pretty powerful connections.

I call myself the real fit agent.

Yeah, there you go, and that's allows for some awesome,

cool taglines, just like that.

Yeah.

Moving With Jen.

Yeah, and I'm the Speaking From The Heart dude, because I

haven't figured out my tagline yet, but Jen I'm really curious.

We're getting closer to the end of our time and I really want to

ask you this one last question and get your thoughts on this.

I mean, I feel that we're approaching the end of the year.

We're going to start a new year, 2024, and I often think about the

fact that most people have zero goals.

They have set nothing, and then they're going to go and they're

going to go to a Crunch Fitness.

Nope.

No harm to that, and they're going to spend the initiation fee, and then they're

going to have their monthly membership.

They're going to say, "Yes, I'm going to lose this weight", or,

"I'm going to work on my nutrition."

We all know it.

It's the 1st of January, the 2nd of January.

Normally they're going in and they're going to work on these goals, and I'm

using big air quotes for my listeners as I say that, because we all know

that it can be such a struggle.

For someone like you that has been through a couple industries and you're

building yourself, what is it that you would say to somebody, even somebody

that's listening to this, that is saying, "Yeah, I do want to do this,

but I want to do it intentionally."

Mm-hmm.

When it comes to fitness, which my question's more about,

what would you say to someone just to help them stay accountable,

especially as we enter the new year?

What are your thoughts?

I would say you want to start with hire a trainer.

Smart answer.

You're more likely to go to your trainer if you were paying

for one, but start small so you can't necessarily rely on a friend.

If you want to go to the gym, sometimes saying, "I'm going to go with a friend"

doesn't always work because then that friend doesn't go, which causes you

to then not go, so really kind of just focus on yourself and you have to

give yourself small goals to complete and write them down, so I think of

like a staircase and you have on each step you have a goal that you want to

meet, and you can't go from the bottom step and jump to the very top step.

You have to walk up the stairs to get to that final destination, so if you're

somebody that has never gone to the gym or you stopped going to the gym,

start out by going two times a week, and schedule it, so actually put it in

your calendar that this is when you're going to the gym or this is what time

you're working out and do not cancel those plans for any other plans.

You are going to the gym and stick to that goal, and then when you're

in the gym, just start out small.

I always say walk on the treadmill, watch what other people are doing, so that's

how I learned how to do everything in the gym, most everything, is I watched other

people and then I just did what they did, and then you can learn more as you go.

Start out with like a small weight loss goal.

Focus on changing with your nutrition one thing at a time, so if you drink

soda, maybe stop drinking soda.

If you don't eat fruits and vegetables, add in a fruit and a vegetable

for your meals throughout the day.

Eat your veggies first and eat more protein because that keeps you fuller

longer; that kind of thing, but definitely write it down because you're

more likely to follow your goals if you write them down and see them on paper.

Such powerful advice, because for some people, they don't even write

it down, and that is something that I have even reminded my own clients when

they go through my coaching program too.

Write it down, make yourself accountable, and we actually work on that to

then check in and see how things are going and if there is a struggle, we

adjust, we move the needle to make it so that it isn't as overwhelming or

overbearing, so I think that's some pretty powerful advice, especially as

we enter this new year, and Jen, I want to give you the last few minutes now.

If you like to pitch Valkyrie Fitness, let us know how we

could get in contact with you.

How is it that we could schedule some time if we want to learn a little bit

more about what you're doing and how you can help potential clients, maybe even

real estate too, since you are "That Fit Gal", I'm sure that you can also help

them out with a fit home as well, so I wanna give you the last few minutes, Jen.

Go ahead.

All right, so Valkyrie Fitness, I actually have a Facebook page.

It's just Valkyrie Fitness.

You can find me on there, you can follow me.

I post a lot of stuff with my boot camps and just other information

about fitness in general.

My classes are $12 a class, or you can purchase a punch card, which is $60,

and there are six punches on the card, so it's a little cheaper if you get a

card and I do that because I want people to be accountable and come to class,

and then I offer class on Saturdays because I do live in New Cumberland, so

Saturday mornings 7:30 AM to 8:30 and you can message me for that address.

It's a undisclosed location, and then with training, I am getting into the online

fitness, which is great for people that maybe can't afford a one-on-one personal

trainer, and that is an entire program that I write personally for my clients,

and there's video demonstrations in there so they can go do it in the gym,

and then we have check-ins every week along with some other fun activities

for them to do, and then of course, my personal training, which is one-on-one

and face to face, and I have done some virtual personal training also, but

if you are looking to sell your home.

Now is the time to sell.

It is still a seller's market and you can hit me up and I will sell your house.

I will help you find a house to buy, but yeah, I work for Berkshire Hathaway and

you can just hit me up on Facebook and find me and chat with me through there.

Awesome, and thank you, Jen.

I think that a lot of people might be interested in not only getting a house,

but also getting trained at the same time, so that in itself makes it so

competitive, but I have to tell you, thank you so much for just sharing so many

different aspects about your life, and really what I find interesting is that

you beat your twin sister onto a podcast, so congratulations, you get that stamp.

Sorry, twin sister.

You're going have to reach out to me.

Nah, nah, nah, but Jen, all seriousness, thanks for being

on Speaking From The Heart.

I really enjoyed our conversation today, and it was really

good getting to know you.

Thank you.

Oh thank you.

I want to thank Jen again for being part of the show and listening to

her story, especially with the way that she got started, homegrown, with the gym

that she has, Valkyrie Fitness, really helped to put in perspective the fact

that many of the best ideas are started right at home, and for her, especially,

with her twin sister, which was quite a surprise to me when I found out about it,

is that it really helped to understand and create some of the best things that

she's doing with her sister as well.

I think that for many of us, we think about the fact that bodybuilding: this

big, bulky muscles that we can have, almost like Arnold Schwarzenegger, I think

that for many of us, we often think, "Man, I don't know if we really want to do that.

I really don't feel like we need to be that strong in our lives.", but being

able to strength train, and especially with the things that we are tackling in

our lives, whether that is going to the grocery store, being able to drive to

one place to another in sort of endurance race, or even walk around the theme

parks that are local to even where you're located at, can be really important.

We can have different people that help us to push us along the way, and I

love the fact that she even shared some of those stories about some of those

people after I asked her about them, that really helped to showcase that they

can make a lasting impact on others.

We can all play off of those strengths and create some of those best versions

of ourselves as a result of creating not just that strength training exercise

program, but maybe getting a little bit of nutrition on the side, which, hey, if

you talk to Jen, and her twin sister, can certainly do that for you, and especially

as we approach the new year, I think that health and fitness is so important

for many different aspects of our lives.

I think that it helps us to reflect on the importance of not only the things that we

need to do to take care of ourselves in the physical sense, but it allows us to

have the proper feeding of our brains, of our muscles, of our entire bodies, which

in itself, need the chemicals and the nutrients to help ourselves become some of

the best things, the best positive things, because if we feed ourselves the wrong

way and we feed ourselves different things that often aren't healthy, those negative

things are really what we consume.

Those are the things that oftentimes create that lack of energy, that inability

to move forward, to be able to understand truly, with pure conviction, what we

can do to create the opportunities that exist, and we need to be able to

follow those like-minded people that are positive, that have those opinions about

themselves, that can change our opinions about our own selves, but oftentimes

then too, you might hear, "Well, don't worry about those other people.

They're not like you.

Why should it matter?", and I know I've talked about them many episodes

about the importance of just staying away from those toxic people.

Don't even associate with them, but when I talk about association, when it comes

to people, I'm always referring to the fact that we need to have positivity.

We need a community that surrounds ourselves with the

expectation of saying that we are not going to go down that path.

Instead, we're going to go down another path that allows us to

build that energy, or what I like to call building that synergy.

Oh yes.

That sort of energy level when we are able to synchronously create that

opportunity of different areas where we are syncing ourselves, and helping

ourselves, achieve the goals that are in mind, but I think that sometimes we get

in a little bit over our head, and we even talked about in this episode about the

importance of just doing the small things.

Jen really broke it down in some great ways in which we can even just start out

in the new year, which I want to repeat.

First off, start small.

It doesn't have to be these big changes that you do, and I'm not literally

just talking about eating rice instead of just eating the cheesy rice.

I'm not even just talking about eating food that is often bad, like

the M&Ms, which I know you're still putting them up because of Christmas.

It's after Christmas though.

Put the M&Ms down!

I think that for many of us though, it's about starting with the

small things that we can change.

Maybe we can get up 15 minutes earlier than we usually do so we can journal,

write about the things that we want to accomplish in a day; take the

tasks that we want to have in order to create successes so that we feel

a little bit better about ourselves.

We start to write those things down; that's even a second step in itself.

It's one thing to just think about it.

It's another thing to just write it down, because when you write it down, it has

a whole other visual impact, because we can visually see it in our minds, but

visually seeing it on a piece of paper, or even on a notepad for that matter, which

I always keep to the side of me, can make such a big difference, but the purpose

of all of this is to just start small.

To grow big.

Doesn't this sound familiar with what Jen's story is?

She started small in just a little fitness studio in her own home, bringing in

people that she knew she could help and doing that, especially the bootcamp and

creating those opportunities, I think that you start to really see how much

of an impact you can have, so that then eventually that value grows inside of you.

It's almost like a seed that was planted and turns into a beautiful flower with

strong roots at its foundation, because just in Jen's case, those powerful

words of positivity turned into a awesome fitness business that she's

now been doing for over five years.

As a matter of fact, has allowed her to expand into a real estate career

that is just only beginning, but it has allowed her to make connections

not only for her own business, but to help people find a home maybe for the

first time or even for the 10th time.

It is something of remarkable influence, of great creativity, to body build

yourself into something that you never thought you could see yourself in

the mirror to become, because having the roots of being able to just start

somewhere can help you become something that you never thought possible,

and we can do it all by ourselves.

We can do it with groups, but the most important thing that we do with

all of those things is to have fun.

We can all have fun with the experiences that lie ahead.

I think we all have to be willing to understand that there's connections

to all those different aspects of our lives, if we're willing to have that

fun, if we're willing to create those best versions of ourself, if we're just

willing to understand that maybe having different people to help us get from

point A to point B can shift the mental focus that we have inside of ourselves.

Sound familiar?

We've had fitness instructors, fitness gym owners.

We've had nutritionists on this show that have talked about that this past

year, and I think that does something worth noting that the consistent theme

that we hear in each of those stories is about learning how we can grow,

and Jen's is no different, but you have to have the right energy levels

with the right people surrounding you.

This is my challenge to you as we start out the new year of 2024.

What are you waiting for to change that mindset?

What are you waiting for to help you move from point A to point B, because we

can help ourselves and not be surrounded with that negative context anymore.

It isn't just about getting into the gym and working on that treadmill

because there are so much more equipment than just that treadmill in the gym.

It's about building areas of your life that you never thought you could build

out, and hey, you might actually have a twin that you meet along the way

that might be doing such a similar process that you might want to compete

with them too, to see who's the best.

Jen's doing that.

I think for many of us we're doing that.

We have our own twin.

It's the positive and the negative sides of us.

Who are you going to let win?

The negative or the positive?

For all of us, it's something that we can all do, and that's why this

community, Speaking From The Heart, has been a positive influence for me

in the year 2023, and I want to take the last few moments to say thank you

so much for all the support that you have given me as I started my journey

with this podcast, and look forward to sharing more fantastic episodes with

you in the year 2024, but with that said, as your podcast host, Joshua D.

Smith, thank you for Speaking From The Heart with us this year, and thank you

for listening especially to episode number 74 of Speaking From The Heart,

and in the new year, I look forward to hearing from your heart very soon.

Thanks for listening.

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