Final edit with Jess

Jaylene and Jules from the Empowering Women Project are hosting a podcast for women who want more in life. They are joined by Jess from Fuel Fitness, who offers coaching and fitness classes for moms and their children. Jess shares her journey of starting her business and the importance of exercise for moms. She emphasizes the positive impact it has on mental health and the sense of community it creates. Jess encourages moms to prioritize their own health and include exercise in their daily routine. Hello, beautiful humans. This is Jaylene and Jules from the Empowering Women Project and you're listening to the 8DWP podcast. This podcast is for the women who know deep in their soul they are here for more. If you are done with the BS stories and limiting beliefs that are holding you back from your dreams becoming a reality, come jump in the driver's seat and pave the way back home to her. This is a space for you to feel seen, heard, supported, and accepted for who you are, who you were, and who you're becoming. Celebrating you wherever you are in your journey, sit back, grab a tea or a wine, and come empower yourself with us. Jules and Jay, let's grow! Hello and welcome back to the EWP. Hello, beautiful humans. We are so excited this morning to have a beautiful guest on. All right, we've got Jess from Fuel Fitness by Jess and she is Geelong, Victoria-based. She's a women's coaching specialist. She runs Fit Mama's group sessions and offers online coaching. Jess has recently launched the Empowered Moms Club, encompassing movement, mindset, community, and all things mom life. So Jess, over to you. Tell us all things about yourself. Okay, hi guys. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so pumped to be here. You guys do very similar to what I do and you're passionate about empowering moms. So I'm so stoked to be here with you guys on this podcast and to all your listeners as well. Thanks for tuning in. So my name is Jess. I am a mom of three. I have a six-year-old daughter, Scarlett, a four-year-old daughter, Lexi, and a two-year-old son, Sonny. I own two businesses, Fuel Fitness and the Empowered Moms Club, which they just said just pretty much launched not long ago. So I am a women's coaching specialist, a personal trainer, and I have been for six years. So pretty long, but not too long. And I just love my job. It's the best. I love that. I actually love watching your content on Instagram. It's so beautiful. Movement is so key in mom life and all the rest of it. Do you want to talk a little bit more about what you do in the fitness classes and stuff? So my business and my business model has always been structured around moms being able to exercise with their kids. So you'll see a lot of moms and bubs and those sorts of exercise programs out there, but mine isn't just moms and bubs. It's just moms and kids. So your kids could be any age. They can be at school. They could be toddlers. They could be older, 18 or 20 years old, and you're welcome to come and exercise with or without them. Just in a big outdoor space, they get to exercise as well. They're running around, making friends and making connections. And it's just been such an awesome thing, not only for my clients, but for myself as well. Being a mom and being able to take my kids to work is pretty awesome because not many people have that opportunity. Yeah, for sure. Do you want to take us back to where it started? Why did you start your business? So I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do after school. You get told, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? And being a personal trainer was never anything that I could have imagined or thought about doing. I was always active, always loved sport. But I moved to Queensland in 2014, and my sister is a personal trainer. So I started training with her out there, and I just started to love fitness and love the idea of outdoor boot camps and all of that sort of thing. So when I then moved back a year later, I moved back to Victoria, I was stuck in a position of like, what am I going to do? I have no idea. So she encouraged me to do my PT course, which I did. And I started my business back in Yarram, which is a small Gippsland town. And back then, I trained lots of different people. You didn't have to be a mum. It wasn't based around the mum's side of things. I had my first daughter, Scarlett, and I did early morning sessions, afternoon sessions. It was pretty hectic. But that's where my business started to grow. And then when we moved to Geelong, we had no family. I had no idea what I was going to do. I knew that I couldn't get up at 6am to run classes because I had Scarlett. My husband was working shift work. So 13 hours a day, he's gone for. Or at night time, he does days and nights. And so I just put it out on Facebook, if there was any mums that wanted to do some mums and bubs style exercise classes where their kids could come. And yeah, I had five, I think, for my first one. And they were like a mother's group, sort of like reached out to each other. And I still, to this day, train two of them. They've been with me since the start, which is so cool. And then it just kind of took off from there. Started off with five and now, yeah, trained over 200, 300 mums, which is really cool. Wow. Very bold. I love the boldness of that. Yeah. Oh, and I had no idea what it was going to be like. I had absolutely no idea. Newtown, no idea sort of what to even expect. But I think I just did it at the right time. It had its challenges, of course, as business does. It's not easy. And there were times where I thought, like, is this going to work? Like, I'm not sure if this is working for me. But it then meant that I also got to make awesome friendships and connections, which is a huge part about my training and why we do what we do. Because as a mum, we need support and we need connection and we need people around us that know what's going on. And there's times I've cried at training because my kids have just been absolutely hot. Like, it's just been hard. And I've cried and just, like, gathered around and, you know, we all know what it's like. So it was a bold move, but at the same time, it just felt so right too. I love that for you. Congratulations also. Like, that's amazing. And also, yeah, it's like finding that balance, hey, with, like, mum life and work life and still, like, pursuing your passions and everything like that. And then also having a supportive network too. It's beautiful. So proud of you. Thank you so much. It's funny. It's not until you really, like, look back and you go, like, I did. I should have done it quite well. You know, this has been, you know, really cool. And one of my favourite things is when people walk past us because we're at the Network Court. So we're past it, like, just next to, like, quite a busy road and the plaza and all that. So it's great because it's good exposure. But people walk past all the time and they just smile. Like, they just see us training. And, like, I've had, you know, women, older women walk past and say, oh, I wish I had this when I was, you know, when I was younger. Oh, this is so beautiful. And, like, it's really cool that it's not only impacting my clients and me, but it impacts the greater community as well, which is, yeah, awesome. Yeah, Jess, I'm going to be in contact with you because I'm getting back into my strength and training days. I was prepping for a powerlifting competition before I had Little Huddy. And my body's taken a little bit longer to get back on track with some sort of roadblocks along the way. But I am feeling more ready to start venturing back into things. And being a single mom, being able to bring Hudson with me is actually pivotal to getting back on that journey, I think. So I will be in touch. Yeah, I would love that. And that's the thing, you know, the fact that you can bring your kids and they can be any, like, again, any age. You can even come. You don't need to be a mom. I've got a couple of clients who just love coming because, again, the community vibe's just awesome and they don't have kids. But the fact that you can bring them, kids are generally a reason why people don't exercise or not necessarily exercise but don't go to a gym, for example. And that's really hard because they are the reason we should be exercising. Like, if we're not exercising for us, then it should be for our kids. It's so important. And, you know, you'll see I post content about it and stuff. But, you know, even going down to the netball court, seeing the kids join in. Like, it's just so epic to see them, you know, lifting weight, like little weights or doing some boxing and running around. And I get messages from my clients all the time of their kids, like, setting up a workout in their, like, lounge room. They've got the mat out and they're training mom. And I'm like, that's so beautiful because, like, I didn't really have that growing up. And I, again, I was very active. But exercise, for me, growing up was more like you exercise to lose weight or you exercise, you know, as opposed to just including exercise into every day. You know, it's just an everyday thing. It makes us feel good. And, you know, and my kids see that already. I say, how do you feel after you did that? And they're like, so good. And I'm like, this is why you should exercise, not just to lose, you know, to lose weight, which is me growing up was something that was probably more the reason why you exercised. I'm excited. Definitely come down. We'd love to have you. I got POMO. I want to move back now. If you ever come down to visit. I'm sure there's actually this quote that it's like, everyone says that they'll die for the kids, but like, we actually live for them. Like, get healthy, you know, earn more money, you know, go on more experiences and all the rest of it. Like, it's so true. Hey, and it's so good for the mental health and just shifting out that stagnant energy out of your body. Like, you can go into the gym and you feel like absolute crap. And then you come back out, you're like, I've got this. Like, you just get this new energy. Hey, yeah, a hundred percent. And, you know, we know what mom life is like and it's hectic and it messes with your mental health and it's, you get triggered and all of this sort of stuff from all of these things. And exercise has just got all these incredible benefits when it comes to your mental health. 30 minutes of movement a day really is nothing. And if you can involve your kids, then it's going to make it easier for you than trying to like, do it without them. I'm just, I mean, as mom, I think we just have to surrender to the fact that they have to be there sometimes. Yeah, not always, but sometimes. I think the fact that community is really important as well for moms to be able to, you know, get motivated by other moms. So you build each other up and then you show up more for yourself, especially when it's, you know, that mental barrier of trying to get re-motivated again. I think that's really important to have that sense of community. So that's really beautiful that you're encompassing that. Yeah. The community side of things is the reason why people train with me. And there's multiple times where I've said, you know, why do you train with, you know, feel fitness? And they say the community, because like you said, it's motivation to come. You know, if you meet somebody there and, you know, they say to you, are you coming tomorrow? Then I'll be like, yeah, I'm coming tomorrow. And then that morning you go, oh, like, I don't know if I want to go. But then you're like, oh, but I told that person I was coming or I booked in and I don't want to message Jess and say I'm not coming. So it is accountability and all of that sort of stuff. And I say to my clients, I'm like, if you just want to come because you just need to get out of the house, I don't care what you do. I don't care if you sit down. If you're out of the house, it's better than being out. It's better than being stuck in the house, potentially feeling, you know, lonely or upset or stressed or overwhelmed. If you can at least get out, if you can at least get your kid out, you know, let them run around. And if you just want to, you know, just go, you don't have to go 100% all the time. You can just go 20% if you need to. But I'd rather you just be there than, you know, have to think that you can't be there because you can't give it your all. I'd rather you just come because that's what you can do for that day. Amen. I love that. So how do you juggle it all? I don't know. I love it. I do get asked that question a bit because my husband is a shift worker. So he does 12-hour shifts, days or nights. And he's like on a four-week rotating roster. So no week's the same. It's sort of like every week for that four weeks is different days. But it is lucky in the sense he does get a decent chunk of time off in between those. So it's not like nine to five Monday to Friday. But of course, it has its challenges too. And I think I juggle it because I enjoy it and it's my passion. If it was something that I didn't like doing, then there's no like I wouldn't be doing it, of course. And because I want to create a lifestyle for my family too where I can bring my kids to work with me. I don't have to put them all in daycare. My kids go once a week to daycare, which I love that day. And as they're getting older, you know, they're going to be in school soon. Like I'm trying to, I want to enjoy as much time with them as I still possibly can. But also keeping in mind that I want to create a business that works for me and my family. And I do need to work. I still need to work hard for that business too. So how I juggle it all, I think I just, I'm passionate about it and I love what I do. I've never been one to sit still and not do anything. And yeah, I think I have a supportive, like Matt's really supportive of it. He, you know, lets me do my thing. He's never telling me that I shouldn't or I can't, which makes a very big difference too. And I've got beautiful friends who support us here in Geelong. Like I said earlier, we don't have much family here. Matt's brother's here with his wife, but they've just had a little one. And, you know, before that they worked full time. So we couldn't just call on them, you know, anytime and say like you could maybe with grandparents and say, hey, you can like, you look after the kids. So we've had to rely on our friends quite a lot. But they've a hundred percent helped me be able to do this as well. Our neighbours next door are amazing. We've got the kids over there. Like it's just, yeah, I don't just juggle it all. There's lots of people that help as well. But yeah, sometimes I ask myself that question and I don't know how to answer it because I don't know. Yeah. All the feels. All the feels over here, me and Julia are the same. So we're just like, you get to the end of the day sometimes and you're just like, how did I just manage that? Or the week and you're like, what the hell? I must be super. We must have superpowers, honestly. As soon as you birth a baby, we must just become superwoman. We seriously are superheroes. Like we have superpowers. All mums have superpowers, like one hundred percent. Because one, we grow a baby. We like grow a placenta. Like we grow a whole other organ. Like who the hell can even do that? Multiple times. I think about that and I'm just like, oh my God, like how awesome is that? And then we just, we do it because we have to. Like that's what I say to Matt. I just have to do it. Like I can't, sometimes it's easier too than when I'm on my own organising the kids and everything because I just have to do it. I don't have any other option. Yeah. I feel like when you have a passion and a dream and stuff, it's probably harder not to do it, like not pursue it because it's just always in the back of your mind. Like when we started this podcast, we were like, we were always talking about it. It's always in the back of our mind. And I feel like it actually just drains more energy than it gives, like just thinking about it all the time. So good on you and celebrating you for still chasing your dreams. As a busy mumma of three, like it's crazy. It's so crazy. But your kids are going to be so inspired by you. I hope so. And again, that's another reason why I do it for them as well. I want the kids to know that they can do what they put their mind to. And the Empowered Mums Club was something that I sat on, like you just said, for like a year. Like I had this idea in my head and I was like, I need to do this. And I started, I actually did, like I got an Instagram page and everything for it because I was like, I don't want anyone to take the name. So I basically made one and then someone actually messaged me and asked me if I could have the name. And I was like, oh no, no, it's coming. I'm doing something with this. But it was about a year. And it was, like you said, it was something that was in the back of my mind and it was almost more overwhelming because I wasn't doing anything yet. And I was kind of just thinking about it all the time going, oh, when am I going to do this? When am I going to do that? So when I actually did start it and I started to take the step forward, as much as it was a bit more work, I was like, this actually feels better because I'm actually doing something now. And I'm not, you know, I'm not just sitting on it waiting for the right time because I don't think there ever is a really right time for anything. Things always happen. Yeah. We love how passionate you are. So tell us a little bit about the online coaching that you do. I'm intrigued about that as well. So the online coaching that I do is customised. So people can reach out, they can get a customised program that suits them and their goals, plus their time and all of that sort of thing, what equipment they might have at home. I did run last year a group, like a group program that was called Express Fit Mummers and it was 30 minute workouts. And that was really, really good. Really fun to do too. And it was, again, a group sort of aspect, very similar to what the Empowered Mums Club would be like. Because again, online, like when you're doing it on your own, like it's great to have a coach for accountability, but even better to have other people as well to help keep you accountable. So it's all run via an app, which means it's so easy to use. All the workouts pop up on there. There's videos as well. So if you don't know what an exercise is, then you can just click on the video. There's multiple ways you can do, you know, strength workouts, you could do cardio workouts, you can do a mix of them. You can also add in nutrition, you could add in like a food diary, if that was something that you wanted to do as well. But it's just an awesome... I've worked with, again, with mums doing this too. And I think it's just so cool to be able to offer that to mums as well, because I know what it's like. And I know what it's like to maybe not have much time to train. Like I said before, 30 minutes is perfect. I used to think I had to train for an hour for it to be worth it. Like, I'd be like, no, I have 60 minutes. Otherwise, it's not worth it. Otherwise, I haven't done a workout. Like, it's insane. But now I know like 30 minutes, if that's all the time I have, then that is perfect. You can get so much in in 30 minutes. And then it's not a huge chunk of your time, or if it's not like a huge weight, I guess, on your shoulders going like, oh my gosh, I need to have an hour to exercise. You could do 30 minutes in front of the TV at nighttime, doing exercises for a few rounds. So that's my online coaching. Again, it's mostly for mums. I've trained a few that aren't mums. But I think just being a mum, that's my ideal client. I'm happy to help anyone, but being a mum is my ideal client. They know that I've been through it all. I know what it's like. Even now, being a PT and everything, I still only train for 30 minutes some days, because that's the only time that I have. And it just means it's just easy. It's accessible. I'm there as well to message at any time. I can see when my clients do their workout, so I can send them a message to boost up their confidence and say, well done. I can also see when they don't do their workout, so I can send them a message and be like, hey, why don't you do this one today and just have a bit more accountability. But yeah, it's just a really cool way to be able to reach more people. And I think it's a plus side of COVID and those three years that we had of in and out of lockdowns and everything. I was able to learn quite a lot about online coaching because I used that space a lot more then, even for my group fitness clients. Like Zoom, I'm all over Zoom because I used that so much over that time. So there's one positive from that aspect that people have realised that it's quite easy to do and you can have an online programme and do it at home and all that sort of stuff too. You don't have to necessarily go to gyms and all of that sort of thing too. Is your app designed for the gym as well? Yes. It's called Trainerise, so it's like anybody can, any coach can sign up for it. So you can do anything. You can do gym workouts, you can do home workouts, you can do a mix of them. You can also add in, say you do Pilates or something, you can add that sort of stuff in too. So yeah, it's just super easy. It's got all the exercises on there in the bloody world, except for ones that I make up sometimes and I have to add them in. But yeah, it's just super easy and accessible. It's really cool. Amazing. I think I've seen that app before actually. Yeah. How cool is that? Keep the Trainerise user. I think it's probably the most popular one. Yeah, cool. Yeah. Yeah. I've used it with a previous teacher and it's so user friendly, especially with the videos. You can click them and you're like, oh, okay, and it shows you exactly how to do it. So it just makes it that much more realistic for you to definitely complete. There's no excuses. It's there. It can be done. So yeah. Well, and that's the big thing as well. The fact that, yeah, it's there in front of you. Like a little bit different if you have to think of one yourself and you go into your garage or go to the gym and you're kind of like, oh, what am I going to do today? The fact that it's right there in front of you just makes it so much easier than trying to figure out, oh, what am I going to do? And then you just kind of just do whatever. And then sometimes it works, but then sometimes for like not long after you might start to lose progress or you're kind of not making progress on certain things. And it's because you do need a structured workout program, especially if you've got certain goals that you want to hit. And I also love how it can be tailored to the equipment you have at home. So you just sort of talk to your coach and you let them know, I have this equipment and that it can be tailored around that. Am I right? Yeah, absolutely. Well, that's the way that I do it. I'm not sure if, but I know some people don't have equipment or they might just need a body weight workout plan to begin with. I always encourage my clients to get like some bands because they're normally, I don't know, $15, $20 from K-Mart and then get like a five kilo dumbbell depending on, you know, their experience and everything. Because I'm like, you know, weightlifting and lifting weights and strength training is extremely important. So even if you just start with like two bits of equipment, then that's better than nothing. And then as you continue to get better, you learn a bit more, more educated, you get stronger, then you can start to increase. And it doesn't mean you have to spend thousands of dollars creating a home gym. Like you can just have a couple of pieces of dumbbells. That's what I had. I started with like, I don't know, five dumbbells. And now I've got, you know, heaps of equipment. But that's a progress over the time. So it's very easy and it can be easy and it can be quite simple to, yeah, to sort of get yourself started too. You're such a boss, babe. I love it. Beautiful. I love it. I love the passion, the passion that you have. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Definitely. And so with the community, do you guys have like a group chat as well on top of that? We have a Facebook page. So I have, I've got two, I've got one Facebook page. It's kind of for like anyone who wants to be involved in Fuel Fitness. And then I've got a separate Facebook page for my clients who are a part of our training block. So the way that we run training is within the school term. And so we have a training block. These girls pay up front or have a membership with this. And then we just have a group chat where we can, anyone can post in there if they've got any questions or they want to share recipes or something like that. I jump in there every now and then if I've got something on my mind that I want to share and I jump into a live video or I just type away. And then of course, just a place where I can put updates in there if, you know, we can't use the netball courts, for example, we'll use somewhere else or whatever. So, and that's like really cool to have that too, because it just gives them the ability to be able to jump in and chat if they want to. If they've got any questions as well. What do you do when it rains? So we're like, we're very lucky. Like this spot is so good. I remember my first session I held was on the oval. And I hadn't really looked around the area yet, but on the oval and there would have been no, if I had stayed in that spot, there would have been no place for the rain. And then I moved to the netball courts, but we've got a massive undercover area. So the netball courts is looking like a fake grass area, which used to be gravel. And then we got a grant from the Bendigo Bank to change that and it looks so much better. Oh, yay. And so, and then we got up the stairs and there's a whole undercover area. So it kind of goes around the whole, like the whole building. So sometimes it's raining and it's coming in sideways. And so we go around the corner and we're protected from the wind and the rain over there. So very lucky. But yeah, we're safe. And I always say that to people, like, just because it's raining, you can still come. Just getting out of the car park, everyone's running, running with the kids. And I'm like, I try not to use weights on those days because there's nothing worse than having to cart weights from my car when it's pouring with rain. So I normally just do like a body weight, a body weight session for that one, because no one wants to, no one wants to do that. Do you feel called to share the location? Like whereabouts in Geelong are you? Yeah, we're in Leopold. So in the netball court, yeah, netball court. So it's on Malalooka Road. It's just across from the plaza, which is perfect because we all will train and then every now and then go over and grab a coffee together, which is really nice as well. Again, the kids muck around and play or get like a booze juice or something. But Kmart's across the road too. So with a little shimmy, Kmart. And even Coles, like some of the girls go over and grab some shopping before training and all of that sort of stuff too. It's quite central, which is really nice. There's toilets and yeah, everything's there. I can already see mums using Kmart as bribery. They do, won't you? Yeah, yeah. I would. I'd be like, guys, you can have $5 or $10 at Kmart if you just be quiet. Even my kids with the booze juice, they're just like, can we get a booze? I'm like, oh, okay. There's $50 down the drain, everyone getting booze juice. I have a mum hack with the booze juice. So you can like put a large one and then have it split into like three cups. And if it doesn't fill to the top, they're always like, it won't fill to the top. Is that okay? I'm like, that's fine. I don't care. And $8 instead of $21, which is what it normally would be if I got those kids cups. Because I'm like, I can't get those cups anymore. I'm like, mate, come on. $21. I always get them split up now. It's so good. Inflation, kids. Inflation. I used to do that when the kids were little, actually, and they stopped doing it at like Wampum shopping center. I used to be like, oh, yeah. I was like, that's rude. I didn't know they still do that. Well, it's funny. The girl knows me now. She's like, three cups. I'm like, oh, just two today. I've only got two kids. She's so funny. She knows. And I don't think it's bad. I'm like, you wouldn't stop doing that. I wouldn't go back and stop doing that anyway. Yeah, literally. Not when you're bringing her heaps of business as well from all the mums coming over. No, it's 100%. 100%. Definitely. Yeah. It's been so amazing hearing about you today, Jess. Is there anything that you haven't got to touch on that you wanted to say? Well, I wanted to have a little chat about the Empowered Mums Club. So the Empowered Mums Club is my second business. And we've got a project starting next week. So this project is for 12 weeks, and it encompasses movement. So there will be an exercise training program for 12 weeks, which can be customized to you. It also can be like body weight, can be strength training. Depending if you have equipment at home, it can be to the gym, anything. It'll be for 12 weeks. It then encompasses mindset. So we're going to do six live Zoom calls across the 12 weeks. It'll be fortnightly, and every single one will be on a different topic. So the first one, for example, is going to be on habit setting, goal setting, how we create healthy habits and keep them, how we can ditch the unhealthy ones, and just create these sustainable lifestyle choices and habits to continue on for the rest of forever, really, because that's what it's about, being sustainable. We don't want to just do a quick fix for 12 weeks. It's about creating sustainable life choices and habits. The second one is about inner confidence. So it's finding that inner confidence within yourself so that you're able to then have the outer confidence as well. And you can start to love yourself more, love your body, body changes throughout pregnancies and motherhood and all of that sort of stuff. But our confidence can be built and can be strengthened to grow past all of that so that you can learn to love yourself. So things like that. There's other ones, limiting beliefs. I'm trying to think off the top of my head what else there is. But there'll be six topics across that 12 weeks. We'll also jump in and do some Q&As. I'll probably do some more live calls, too, knowing me. I'll love a love chat. I love the support. And then it encompasses community and connection as well. So there'll be a group chat for us. It's a Voxer app. I'm not sure if you guys have used Voxer before, but it's voice messaging. So you'll download this app, and it's kind of like a walkie-talkie in a way. So you can jump on and say you're having a really good day and you've had some wins and you want to share that with the group, you can jump in and you can either message or send a voice message and have a chat about it. Maybe you're not having a great day and you need a little bit of extra encouragement and support, and you can jump into the group. So it's a perfect group to just feel safe and feel seen and know that there's going to be no judgment. I'll jump in there as well quite a lot, too, and just send encouragement. Or if things drop in for me, which normally happens and I want to share it, then I'll be jumping into that group, too. And it's just, honestly, it's for mums who just feel like they've lost themselves a little bit along the way, maybe a lot, maybe not so much, and they just feel like they're ready to just become and be who they are and who they want to be, feel confident, feel empowered. And this is something that I've been working on, especially in the last six months, where the last two years have been quite hard, three years have been quite hard on me. I've had postnatal anxiety, postnatal depression, adjustment disorder, a few different mental health battles, also some relationship troubles, and all of that sort of stuff that really got me down and got me started doubting myself and all of that. And I don't know what it was, but I think I was just frustrated at how I was feeling. And I was like, dude, you have to change. You cannot stay in this position because you deserve to feel good and you deserve to feel loved. You deserve to feel supported. You deserve to feel confident and empowered. And so I just started to make changes. And it wasn't huge changes. They weren't massive. I just started to move my body more, be more consistent with my training, really be a little bit harder on myself in that sense and say, you've got to do this, Jess. You can't just think that things are going to change without actually trying. I worked on my mindset a lot. And then, of course, I have a beautiful community around me who have been able to support me with that. I opened up to them. I spoke with them. I talked to friends about things that were going on. And that itself helps you feel a bit more empowered when you can actually get it out. And so I have lived all of this and I've done all of it as well. And I just want to give that to other mums too. And I want to help support them because I hated the feeling of not feeling in control of myself and my thoughts. And I hate feeling crap, I guess. And I was like, I know I can do better than this. And I know I can feel better than this. So what do I need to do? And then I did it. And now I feel so much better. Still a work in progress, of course, but I've been able to manage things so much more. So I want to help mums do that too. Oh, I got goosebumps. I was celebrating you. That was so beautiful. Honestly, I got tears in my eyes. It's fine. I was trying not to cry. Oh, thank you. That was so powerful. You're going to make me cry now, guys. You just explained exactly how we all feel as mums. We just sometimes lose our identity, and this is why we are so passionate about our podcast as well, is because we just lose ourselves a little bit. And then our relationship falls. Our kids don't see the best version of us. We're stuck in our head and we're like, we hate our body and all this stuff. But all it takes is those micro little changes every single day, those thought switches, and moving your body a little bit, nourishing your body with better food. That's what it's all about. It is. That's the thing. It's not big changes. You don't have to go all out and everything. I feel like if you were going to focus and be like, everything has to be perfect. It'll never be that way because there will be road humps. Our progress is like this. It's not like this. And then, of course, in the project, you'll have me to help support you. But then you'll learn the tools and the things that you need to help you through those moments. I've had, in the last couple of weeks, a few moments of quite bad anxiety because of a few things with the kids. But I've been able to move through them so much quicker than what I could a year ago, where I would stay in that slump and I'd just go like, as opposed to going down and then going like, no, no, no, Kate, you are a good mum. You're an amazing mum. You are good enough. Let's keep going up because you've come too far to let yourself sit back. And I've been able to do that through exercise and through movement and remembering where I came from, from what I came from to what I am now too, which is really important also. But yeah, just little changes. They don't have to be massive. Yeah, you won't be perfect, but it's worth it. You deserve it. We always say perfectly imperfect on this podcast. And it's all about believing in yourself, having that, loving yourself enough to know that you can get yourself back on track and reframing those thoughts and having those little chats with yourself. You can do this. Come on. You can get through this day. You've got dinner, bath, bed. You can do this. You've got this. You've done it before. You know, just really believing in yourself. And as you sort of hit those little milestones that you create for yourself, you kind of then begin to build. I always do that mixed words together. Begin to build that self-trust. And as you have that self-trust, that confidence goes back up and, you know, you begin to get back on track again. So it's all about that self-belief and that self-love, I think. Yeah, 100%. And being self-aware. I think being self-aware was very big for me because I've always been a people pleaser. Always. But I've also been someone who has probably seemed confident on the outside, but I haven't necessarily been on the inside and always kind of chased like, you know, like I wanted, you know, more love from people or whatever, like, and I wanted this and I want... But people pleasing more than anything. And so even like becoming self-aware of like, you know, saying, no, like that's not what I want. So I'm going to stand up for myself. And then becoming self-aware on when, you know, those sort of things, you know, work and when things don't work. And then when I find myself going back down, I'm like, no, no, no. And being self-aware of going, hang on, no, this isn't it. Like, this isn't where you're going to go because you've done it before and it hasn't worked. So you need to keep going up. Like self-awareness is something a lot of people don't have. And I think a lot of people need to have. And it's something that is hard because it brings up things about you that maybe aren't right. Or, you know, brings up things in other people that maybe aren't right and things in your life that don't feel good. And you don't necessarily want to have hard conversations about it, but you also need to, to be able to discover yourself and what it is that you actually want to be too. Yeah. Taking, like, radical responsibility. I think me and Julie were saying this yesterday. Like, taking radical responsibility for what's not in your life and what is in it, and then taking action on that as well. And like, if you're needing to seek therapy or, you know, join a gym or anything, doing things that make you feel good. But also you're having time alone as well, if you can. I know in mum life it's really hard, but reaching out to friends and stuff being like, can you take the kids to a park or just have a hot minute? Yeah. You can do it too. Like, that was probably something for me that I didn't do, was the, like, spending time on my own. Like, I kind of was like, I was kind of just like, oh, I'm like, I can't, I can't do it. Like, isn't that too hard to ask people? Whereas now I'm just like, no way. Like, just, it's fine. I'll say no if they can't do it. They say yes and it's okay. Like, we're allowed to do it. And when you have beautiful friends around you who are able to support that, then that of course makes it easier. But you also need to, yes, support it too. And again, take action when you know that it's not something that you need to do. Thank you so much, Jess. That was so empowering. And we are honestly so grateful to have you share your journey and all things that you are doing. You're just, you're an inspiration, honestly. And this is exactly what we're trying to, the message we're trying to get across to women everywhere. So we're so grateful that you have been able to share with us today and be our first guest on EWP. I know. Thank you so much for having me. It's been awesome. I've loved chatting with you guys and I'm very excited to be your first guest. So, so good. Well, hopefully you come again on future episodes as we start growing our little community as well. And as you start to keep expanding and all the rest of it, we'd love to have you as like a regular guest so we can chat all the things. I would love that. That would be so awesome. Very beautiful. Is there anything else that you want to add or anything like that? Yeah. I don't think so, no. I think I'm good. Amazing. We are going to end the episode. We want to do this with all our collaborations going forward, I guess. We're just going to ask you a couple of questions. So the first one is, if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be? It would be to love yourself before you chase love from other people. It would just be to love yourself as who you are and build and strengthen that knowing that you are enough just as you are before you try and look for it from other people. Oh, imagine how much that would change the trajectory of everyone's life if we did that. Crazy. Yeah, that's where attachment styles come in in childhood. If we can really hone that in on our children, then yeah, I feel like we set them up for success, don't we? 100%. Yep. And what advice would you give someone who is putting off their dreams? I would – I thought about this one before in the shower. Shower thoughts. Oh, yeah, always. I would encourage them to just do it. I think it doesn't have to be, I guess, similar to what we were talking about before, doesn't have to be just straight into it. You've got to do all of the things, like all the changes and everything. It could just be small, it could just be small steps towards your dream. Say your dream is to start a business, a certain kind of business. Just take the small steps to begin with. You don't have to go and quit your job and all of that sort of stuff. Do anything too full on. I mean, you can if you want to. But it would be, yeah, take those small steps because too often we're just afraid we're going to fail. But I don't believe that even if something doesn't work out, I don't believe it's a failure if you tried. And we hold ourselves back and we don't even give it a shot. And I've done it as well. I've held myself back from things, being scared, one, about what people might think or being scared mostly that it might not work. And then if it doesn't work, oh, what are people going to think of me? Oh, what's the matter? One, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. Two, at least I gave it a go. It'd be disappointing, of course, if something didn't work. But maybe it's not actually your dream that's not working. Maybe it is the way you're doing it. So then maybe you can go, OK, so it didn't work this way. What about if I try a different way? And then you try a different way and then it works. And all of a sudden, you're living out your dream. Like, I don't ever see a failure as an actual. It's not a failure in my mind if you give it a go. What is a failure is never ever trying. So if you are sitting there and you're thinking, this is what I really want to do. I have this dream. Then just take small steps forward and just give it a go. Just try. Just do it. Amen. And I think the universe is going to test you along the way as well and be like, I'm going to send you this hurdle. I'm going to send you this roadblock. Is this really what you want? You know, how bad do you want your dreams? And so it's important not to give up. Don't give up. You know, you might have moments where you cry. You might have moments where you're like, oh, why didn't anybody show up when they said they were going to show up? And, you know, it's just still believing in yourself. So it's a journey. Yeah. And don't give up too easily either. Because it takes time. Like I said, I started my business and I had five clients. Sometimes I'd only have two people come to training. And then I've had 30 people now, you know, not always, but I've had, you know, 30 people at some sessions. Like it's a journey. It doesn't happen necessarily straight away. And I think it'd be scary if things kind of went from zero to 100 straight away. I feel like taking a little bit of a slower approach is a good thing. And then, you know, if someone doesn't sign up or if someone doesn't buy your things, like just keep going, like keep trying. Don't be brought down because it hasn't worked straight away. And like you said, there'll be hurdles. It might be before. It's not like this. It's very like this. And it will test you if that is truly what you want to do. And you'll know as well as that is. You're speaking directly to me because... Yeah, I was thinking that. I recently started my healing business as well for women's healing where one of the things that I do is women's full moon circles. And I had so much interest in this past Saturday. And then, you know, little by little, I didn't hear from a few people or, you know, a few people cancelled last minute. And so it ended up only being me and my one friend. And I was just in tears. Like I just bawled my eyes out. I had set up this beautiful circle, put so much love and time and energy into it. I just was bawling my eyes out, called Jaylene and, you know, and then it was just my one friend. And she messaged me and I was like, look, I'll have no makeup on. She's like, I don't care about that. I'll take mine off too. We're still going to do exactly what you planned. I'm showing up for you. And she did. And it was honestly the perfect evening. And I could very easily be like, oh, well, you know, I'm going to let those doubts get in and I'm not going to pursue this next month and continue on with it. But I'm like, hell no, you're going to be louder. You're going to be bolder. You're going to be prouder, you know. And if only Leah shows up next time. So thank you, Leah, for showing up for me. But if she only shows up next time, so be it. I'll jump online. I'll do a Zoom. You know, I will totally make sure that I am going to chase this because it's my passion. It's one of my passions. It's what I want to do. So, yeah, you're speaking directly to me and, yeah, resonates. Yeah. Well, and it's also like you're still doing it and you're still getting the practice. Do you know what I mean? So, like, you're still showing, like, even if it is just one person, you know, like the Empowered Mums Club project. Like, I've got no idea how many people are going to sign up for it. And I could have one. I could have three. I could have 10. I have no idea. When I first started, I was like, I actually don't care. If I have one, I'd love to have at least one. But I'm like, I don't mind because it's practice for me as well, which means then after the 12 weeks, when I then do another one, I've actually feel even more kind of aligned with what I want to do or I know, like, what I don't want to do. And so it's not even having one person or not even having anyone, like, still going through with what it is that you said is really cool and really brave too. But just thinking of it like, well, I'm still doing it. I'm still showing up. And now I, you know, maybe you did something and you're like, oh, maybe I'll do it differently next time. Like, do you know what I mean? So, it's not even, it's not a failure. Like, you're still going and it's awesome that you can still do that. So, yeah, a lot of learning. True. Very true. Maybe the universe was waiting for the little rose petals, the little flowers to come in the mail, I reckon. It did. They came in the mail Friday. Oh, were they in the circle? Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah, they were. It's just the universe seeing how bad you want it. Do you know what I mean? And I truly believe in that and I want it bad. So, I'm coming in hot next month. Yeah, you are, honey. Yeah, you are. We're going to drop your Insta handle in the show notes as well, my honey. I don't think we've done that yet, have we? For the Sweetgrass Circle? No, I don't think we have. So, we will. We'll drop Sweetgrass Circle of Healing in the show notes. And then also, Jess, we'd love to share your handles as well. Yeah. Do you want to voice them out loud just in case people don't look in the show notes? Because I know I'm probably using it wrong. Yeah, so my Instagram handle for Feel Fitness is feelfitnessbyjess. So, on that Instagram, I just post. It's probably a bit more of a personal Instagram account for myself too. So, I post lots of different things on there. But that's where you can reach out if you would like to do any online coaching exercise only or if you want to join us down at the netball courts. I don't have any PT spaces left for the rest of this year. So, I just do the group sessions or we do online. And then my other Instagram handle for the Empowered Mums Club is the Empowered Mums Club. And on there, I post a heap of different things as well. But that is more of our motivational kind of posts and talks about mum life and the ways that we're going to be feeling. Obviously, I'll have the information for the project is on there too. So, you can go in, there's a link in my bio for it, or you can even have a look on the pinned post and it's got all the info there. And I would love to, as well, if you're listening to this podcast, I'd love to offer you a special discount on the Empowered Mums project. We do start next Monday. So, if you're listening next Monday or even Tuesday, then still DM me. Just send me a message and say you had a listen to the podcast and you'd love to know a little bit more about it, or you'd love to sign up. And I've got a special little discount for you guys, or a special little offer. I like to say offer instead of discount. But yeah, that's where you can find me. Oh, thank you for doing that. That was a nice little surprise. Thank you. I love it. Thank you. So, usually, Julia does the outro, but thank you so much for coming on and spending that good hour with us and being our first collaboration. It's been amazing. Oh my God, I'm full of inspiration now. I want to start a new hobby or a business or something. Honestly. I'm glad. Thank you so much for having me. I love talking and I love this sort of stuff as well. So, thanks for having me. I feel really grateful and really blessed that you guys reached what we connected on Instagram. That was Instagram. I love it. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you so much, Jess. We appreciate it so much. And all of our EWT followers, please get around this beautiful mama. She is doing some amazing things, very inspirational. Please give her a follow, like, share, jump around this. We hope you feel inspired to take back your power. Thank you for listening into the EWT party with Jules and Zae. We want to challenge you to share this party with someone you love. Let's get all women involved. Follow us on Insta at empoweringwomen underscore project. Facebook and TikTok at empoweringwomenproject. We invite you to interact with us on Instagram at empoweringwomenproject. We invite you to interact with us on our socials, our threads and in our DMs. We are open to collaborating and invite you to reach out if you feel inspired to be a guest on our EWT podcast. Remember, you are the creator of your reality. We encourage you to start believing in yourself and the magic of the universe.