Hormonal Women in Business with Kate Martin

Get ready for the insider's guide to local business stories. Welcome to the Business Huddle, your weekly passport into Gippsland's most inspiring businesses. Real conversations, real challenges, real local legends. Let's look at the game plan and get started. Welcome back to the Business Huddle on 104.7 Gippsland FM. I'm your host Melanie Cahani and thank you for joining me today. Did you know that the Business Huddle is now on demand thanks to Energy Australia? Simply head over to the Gippsland FM website at www.gippslandfm.org.au, click over to the program guide, scroll down until you see the Business Huddle and within that link there is all of our episodes that we have recorded to date. Now if you're new to the show, the Business Huddle is where we huddle up every week to tackle I guess the messy, exciting and ever-changing world of business. We dive into the trends that matter, the hurdles we're all facing and get real insights from our guests. And this week we're diving deep, deep into the world of women in business who have built something they're genuinely proud of, the clients, the reputation, the hard-won experience and then somewhere around 40 their bodies start sending them a completely different memo. Suddenly they're exhausted in a way that sleep doesn't fix. Second-guessing decisions they probably would have made with their eyes closed 12 months ago. Snapping at people they love, staring at their to-do list like it's written in a fine language and quietly wondering, is it even worth it anymore? If that sounds familiar then this episode is definitely for you. Today I'm sitting down with Kate Martin who is a health coach and specializes in hormonal health for women in business. Kate partners with women over 40 navigating the very real physical and emotional shifts that come with perimenopause and menopause. She's also the creator of the Healthy Hormones Club, a space that's built specifically for women who are done white-knuckling their way through their days and are ready to actually feel good again. And what I love about the conversation that we're going to have today with Kate is that we're not just talking about hot flushes and sleep. We're going to be talking about what happens to your business when your hormones are out of balance, your decision making, your visibility, your confidence to put yourself out there, to lead and to charge what you're worth. So whether you're in the thick of it right now or you are just starting to notice the signs, I think today's conversation is going to feel like a long overdue permission slip. So we're going to start off this week with a song that is probably going to relate to a lot of women that this show is going to relate to. This is Red Red Wine by UB40. Red red wine, goes in my head Makes me forget that I'm feeling miserable Red red wine, it's up to you All I can do I bet Miserable, miserable I get drunk every time I do So it's not me who's in my head I was numb, now I'm fine Just one drink makes me okay So red red wine, stay close to me Don't let me be in love Get in the mud, I lose my mind I get drunk every time I do So it's not me who's in my head I was numb, now I'm fine Just one drink makes me okay So red red wine, stay close to me Don't let me be in love Get in the mud, I lose my mind I get drunk every time I do So red red wine, stay close to me Don't let me be in love Welcome back to the Business Huddle. I'm your host today, Melanie Cahani, and that was UB40 Red Red Wine. We've introduced Kate before that song. So Kate, welcome to the Business Huddle. I'm so glad you're here. Thank you, Miss Mel. Very glad to be here. How appropriate is the song choice. I know. So you work specifically with women over 40 navigating perimenopause alongside their businesses. I feel like I fit right into this episode today. And from what I understand, it's pretty common that we're not talking about it very often. So can you tell us a little bit about who you work with and what brought you to create the Healthy Hormones Club? Well, everything I create seems to be built on personal experience and it's not like when I'm going through it I'm thinking this would make a great cause for people or I should really help these people because it wasn't until years after the fact when I want to say, quote, unquote, putting air quotes marks up that I became a little bit healthier myself. Ironically, I should have known what to do with my health because I've been a health practitioner since I was 19 and I'm closer to 50. I've got a few bad habits with sleeping with my partner and eating a little bit of fried food, a bit of vodka, a few late nights, times by multiple years, times that by obviously periods fluctuating, times that by me losing my temper a lot, not knowing that these are all signs and symptoms that now have the label of perimenopause or menopause. But that's a very big umbrella and I don't like to diagnose people. However, fast forward a couple of years and me wanting to completely lose everything and throw everything away and I did, I got rid of everything that I owned to my name because I couldn't be bothered to pay the bill. Like, it was that bad. But I also couldn't be bothered. I really wanted to leave town and leave everyone. I know that feeling. The women nodding their head and the men are like, my wife is irrational like that. I was going to get a caravan. I can go further into that story at this point. But fast forward 12 months, that was 12 months ago actually. It's probably 18 months ago now. I had a whole bunch of specific, quite specific blood tests done. I tried every supplement under the sun. Nothing was working. Changed a few structural things with my food. Ironically, introduced more green apples. There's some really cool things like that. And I popped out the other end and even said to my partner, okay, let's get that other mortgage. So now I feel like I'm playing again and I'm awake again and I'm alive again. It's a complete contrast. So out of that, I mean, I'd spent a long time helping service-based businesses anyway, always watching their own things with coaches because that's been my background forever. But out of that now I knew, well, I have to create something for these women that are going through that. So that's why I've got a team of my experts. They're people that I know in real life and they run the women through the material. That's the Healthy Hormones Club that you're referring to. But it was born out of my own pain. I was going to say, did you have to hit rock bottom, I guess, as they call it? They do call it that. I would say I'm pretty good at that. But it's funny. Usually rock bottom goes along with a lot of stress and anxiety and care and fear and oh, my goodness. But I had none of those feelings. I really didn't give up. You know? It was another level of wanting to throw in the towel. But I've never, ever given up. Especially being in this industry, I guess, where you're coaching people all the time, for you to just want to put your tools down and say, no, thank you. This isn't for me and I'm going to buy a caravan and go and live like a hermit. I definitely feel that. Let's just say it out loud. A lot of women in their 40s hit a wall, I guess, physically, emotionally, professionally. What's actually happening in their body during this perimenopause stage that can make a successful woman feel like she wants to burn everything down and start over? Look, I don't know if it's just my algorithm on social media or if everybody actually already does know about all of this, so I will say it to the layperson and now that you're listening to this, it's going to pop up on your algorithm anyway. Without overcomplicating things, I do think it's a very natural progression. Now, I'm not saying that because everything has to be natural and I'm against medication, because I'm not. I think that life is hard enough as it is for humans without judging anyone. Before I had a child, I was very judgmental about everything, but now it's like, what? Everyone's doing their best job. I agree with you, yep. And see, now I've forgotten the question. I'm just thinking like successful women wanting to burn it down, start all over again. I feel like a lot of my friends are listening to this as well and this is that stage. Our algorithms are being... Oh, yes. Sorry. Where I was going with that is when a female gets their period, they have an influx of estrogen and then the counterbalance hormones to balance that out. Now, it doesn't balance successfully and we are typically known to be BITCHs as we're teenage women. Yes. We are literally just on the other end of that and that, yes, our estrogen is declining. There is nothing wrong with us at the same time. While that's happening, the best way for your body to handle it is for your digestion and your elimination. So you're sweating and pooing, you can think of it, to be at their most optimal so that you can excrete excess toxins in the form of cortisol. Because when your ovaries don't produce estrogen anymore, while it's not in the same cycle, it's not the end of the world. However, their dream glands take over what would usually be happening in that cycle which is why we can become so sensitive to stress and other people just breathing and chewing around us is freaking annoying. Also, because of the decline in estrogen, we then care less about being gentle and beautiful with the community and forgiving and all of that and we've moved into the monarch or the matriarch or whatever their name might be. The crone. The crone phase. We move into the older teaching mentoring phase of our life which probably means we need to do less work and more advising. From a hormone perspective, it's going to be an easier journey if you do look after your stress levels and if you fix your digestion and make sure you're sweating on a regular basis to keep it quite simply. But it's the other end of puberty. So you were getting an influx of estrogen. Now you're having a slight decline of estrogen. It's the other end of the scale. It's not meant to be the end of the world. Already it's for some families. It almost was for mine too. You need to burn it down and start all over again. So I guess when your hormones are out of balance, what are some of the specific ways that it affects how these women show up in their businesses I guess, their decision making, their visibility and by visibility I'm talking about the way that they are perceiving themselves on social media especially if they've been very heavy on socials and recently talking to a lady who's been making content for 10 years and she said, I'm done. I'm running out of ideas and I'm thinking this is a little bit for her as well. So how does this show up in the way that a woman is in their own business? The thing with people that work for themselves or they have their own business or they're someone that's quite in charge, we're used to being fast. We're used to being decisive decision makers. We're used to being in charge and so that level of production also turns into a level of sensitivity where we notice the symptoms I think sometimes more than somebody that's in a normal job or in some cases I'm in some Facebook groups, maybe you are as well, where there are women that are saying that they actually have to stop their job because they are putting people's lives at risk. They're working in hospitals because they aren't able to make decisions as decisively or as clearly as they were before. A lot of it does come from a disrupted sleep cycle and obviously if your brain's not having a chance to repair, it doesn't matter if you do more of what used to work. You can't exercise more to get rid of excess weight because it makes us tired because exercise produces cortisol. How they notice it, do you want to fire your team? Do you want to hire more team? Do you think that you're burning the whole thing down and changing niches or building a new funnel? I spoke to someone the other day that's like, oh no, I need to build new funnels and run new ads. I'm like, well, I'm pretty sure actually you don't. You don't. Yeah. Is that a common confusion like where am I going now? I can't make a decision. I used to, like I said in the intro, making decisions that we could make with our eyes closed 12, 18 months ago now is something that we're constantly thinking about and overanalyzing is that sort of confusion part of it. I think brain fog is another thing that someone's mentioned about the perimenopausal woman. It's really hard to get through the day. True. I guess if you flag yourself as that and you are the entrepreneurial type, you'll probably go to the ends of the earth to find the answer. It won't just be a matter of I'll just take the answer from that person over there or from an influencer on social media. You'll find the answer. If I relate it back to how I was feeling when I really wanted to, I wanted to not answer people's questions online. I have been making content for a really long time as well to make it for people in the gym like clients. Yes. I would get inquiries. I'd always answer clients first and foremost. Yes. I'd always usually happily answer random people's messages, comments and all that, but I really wanted to tell them. I thought, wow, I really need to stop talking about this topic. I thought it was the topic. Yes. I shouldn't talk about the topic. Then I related it back to maybe it's COVID. Maybe it's this. Maybe it's that. To be honest, I was so tired I lost my care factor about it all anyway. Yes. But I am speaking to quite a few people who they don't want to sell all their assets or they are at the point of almost losing their business. Yes. Okay. Because they do need to change the structure of it, whether it's changing the team members, changing their niche slightly, changing the way it's delivered. Yes. I think maybe it's a bit of a, and this is just me because I'm super competitive, and I'm only able to think this way now though because I swear my brain is back functioning mostly, is that I look at it, you know what it's like to be a single mom. Yes. I look at this as this is another layer of how to get it to work in even less time than you had over here when you already didn't have as much time as everybody else. I know. I think it makes us better when we allow it. And also what I've noticed in conversations with women our age too, we don't want to do it by ourselves anymore. No. I think we're kind of happy to be all independent and raising and then there's like a scare factor. There's a fear factor that sort of creeps in with all of this as well, like am I good enough anymore? Is there somebody else who's better than this and they're half my age and I'm tired because I've raised kids for the last however many years. I think there's definitely a fear factor involved as well. Am I still good enough? It's like we've opened another part of our brain because I had never felt this much self-doubt in my life. It's funny. One of my partners in stuff is a male and he's digital and he said, oh yeah, yeah, I know what it's like. It's like this and this and this and he was relating it back to when he had an injury or something. I said actually, no, it's not. And I was blunt before but wow, am I blunt now. I don't have time to beat around the bush. I don't have time to care if you like me. Another level. That has actually even given me another level of freedom but also another level of freedom in the business because no, I don't know. Don't get me wrong. I'm still a very caring person but I did need to shed another layer of that. Is that just, I mean, I'm thinking you've got your hormones in check. You know what's going on with yourself. Did that clarity only really just come after that balanced out for you? Yeah. Yeah. Look, there's no such thing as balanced out. I still get my period and then I miss it. I've missed it for six months before and then I've also, sorry, boys, close your ears. This is one of obviously the signs which I didn't know but again, I'm not into being diagnosed with a thing so that I can have a medicine prescribed because even if the medicine for this time of your life is prescribed, it doesn't work all the time and you better make sure you've got a really good person to do it for you. Yeah. So if you need a contact for that, I do have a good referral that I can send people to and I've got a great network of people so please reach out if you aren't getting tested at the right time of the month and if you get given the wrong thing for you. It's not a one size fits all thing and it doesn't work consistently over the long term for everybody and definitely not in the same way. So again, if the pumps in the body aren't eliminating, you can't eliminate the excess whatever they've given you, extrusion, even if it goes in via a cream. Yeah. Okay, great. So while it can be a thing to help you get over some pumps, what I was mentioning was my period still fluctuates and then it stops for a month at a time and now it comes in and out but I have very few symptoms. Yeah. It's a point. So while the anxiety in terms of, why didn't I send that message or I'll send that message and then people think, was that the right response? Where was I with that? And double think, I thought I would just pull those through. Yeah. I think it's different for everybody as well. There's going to be different, I guess, symptoms if you could call it that. Yeah. It might manifest in confusion in some people. It might manifest in self-doubt in others but I think the thing is we're all in it together and you don't have to think that. You can't perform anymore just because this is happening. Yeah. So there are more workplaces. Sorry, Mel's cut off there. Yeah, you're on. Workplaces that are at least now open to the conversation. So there's a version that we can do for the people in the workplace being the women and also the managers, quote unquote, which oftentimes are men but workplaces are now knowing that this is a conversation that needs to be had because the way women work is different and we need some understanding and empathy there and everybody has women in their lives, right? Yeah. Yeah. And that's what I want for those women to be able to explain things to their husbands. No, you don't need to see a psychiatrist or a psychologist or break up with your husband. Or burn your business down. No, don't need to do that. Yeah. Well, we're talking with Kate Martin from Healthy Hormones Club. Kate's also a business coach and we're talking all things over 40 women and perimenopause, I guess we're just going to say that naughty word. I think we sort of touched on before, Kate, that there's a growing conversation about women finding this fierce clarity and confidence, maybe towards their 50s, a bit like what you were saying before. It's almost like a superpower that emerges and I'm thinking the way that you've described that. So maybe once your hormones are becoming balanced again, whatever you're doing to treat those, whether it's through replacement therapy or sweating more or not feeling as overwhelmed as you were before. Is that what's actually happening, do you think? Is it your hormones balancing out? Are you doing the right work and your hormones are balanced and you've got that fierce clarity, that superpower that comes out? Or is that something else entirely? Sorry, what do you mean? Is that a superpower that's brought on by being healthy? Maybe a superpower. I can make decisions again and I don't care what people say now. That sort of real clarity, like I used to care what people thought about me before but now I'm good. I'm just going to be clear and not take any crap from nobody. Well, let me ask you this Mel. How do you sleep? On my back with my eyes closed. I think I do alright. I probably don't sleep long enough but there's always that few hours before I'm supposed to get out of bed where I'm just sort of a bit dozy. Because what I've noticed with myself is that, and I'll give you the layman's answer but then also tell you how my naturopath would answer, is that the layman's terms of am I going to eventually break out of this cycle where I second guess myself in everything and I have anxiety and I've got a business and I need to move to the leadership role. That's right, I am the leader already. I look at it as am I going to second guess the decisions that I make, which is why I gave the example of sending the text message or the message and so on. Because sometimes I would second guess that or I would send like three messages and the old me wouldn't have sent any. You know, it's just weird stuff. Follow ups. But sleep is that factor? Yeah, so if I've had a good night's sleep I won't be like that as much. Yeah, interesting. In all honesty, if we are rest, everything still does come down to some really, really simple principles. If we're hydrated and rested, getting our oxygen in as well, getting away from blue light, I carry these glasses with me. I'm usually wearing them on meetings. I am sensitive to it. So I'm a little bit more sensitive to things physiologically and psychologically. Yeah, okay. I guess when the hormones aren't as scattered and we don't have a fluctuation of estrogen, you're not going to feel anxiety. However, it's layered with the fact that we are extremely tired and our body and our brain need to rest. Probably more, probably like a teenager. Now I know that's ridiculous saying that to someone. But also understanding that if you didn't sleep well, you can definitely give yourself half an hour to be off the screen to go for a walk or to sit and breathe or do something else, quote unquote, for yourself. There has to be more time built into our routines for ourselves. I promise as we move into more leadership roles of that, the inspiration of what the right move is to take or to make or the person to contact or the thing to do actually drops in in those times anyway. So technically it's how we should have been doing things anyway. It's just we've got to relax on the accelerator. Excellent. You start showing up in people's algorithms. Kate, we're just going to take a quick break now for the news. For our listeners, you have been listening to Kate Martin, a health coach and also the creator of the Healthy Hormones Club. We will be back right after this. Welcome back to the Business Huddle on Gippsland SM 104.7. Today I am joined by Kate Martin, a health coach and founder of the Healthy Hormones Club. We are talking everything 40 plus women in business. Kate, what does a supported, hormonally balanced woman in business actually look like? What becomes possible for her that wasn't before? I guess as we were talking about it before, like is there a path to, well I'd like to say is there a path to speeding up the clarity? I don't know if there is. I think having understanding and more compassion. Compassion. Yeah, definitely a thing. That word was not in my vernacular even six months ago. Yeah, okay. Compassion for yourself or for others? Compassion. Everything is about you now. Let's go back to teenage years. Yeah, that's right. Self. Yeah. Compassion for self. Less worrying about others. Yeah. I do think that it's important we know that there are other people that are going through this, quote unquote, without outsourcing our power that it needs to be fixed by an external party. Yeah. Necessarily. Yeah. Always get yourself tested for your specific case. Everybody's case is different. Lots of things get misdiagnosed. Lots get overdiagnosed. Lots get prescribed things at the wrong time of the month and then they're ovulating twice. That happens. Are you talking about doctor prescription? I know you mentioned naturopathy before as well. Is that something that can sort of go hand in hand for this? Yeah. Often a good naturopath will work with your GP. Yeah. A naturopath will usually ask for a different set of blood work to be done. Yeah. So the same things but then also more things based on the patterns that they can see and hear like are there underlying things that are displaying that there might be a thyroid issue or have you maybe had congenital fever when you were a teenager which can also mean later in life autoimmune things. Now, I'm massively generalizing. Yeah. So I'm just... Yeah. They're pretty much different. Yeah. And I think sort of bringing those two together especially if they can work together can be really beneficial. Yes. Exactly. Except they have to be willing to work with each other and they're not all. Yeah. Which is also like I didn't mean to talk about my own thing but why I wanted to create a space is because I've been a health coach my whole life as well and the second half of that I'm a business coach too is often we would refer somebody to a surgeon or a practitioner or they'd come to us and they'd seen a doctor or some specialist of some kind. Yeah. And then they would see someone else and then we would be telling them as a trainer or a massage therapist or a nutritionist would be telling them something. So they would have multiple different pieces of advice which is hard to filter through. But I want people to know at the end of the day you as an individual, we are the CEO of ourselves and it is up to us to be able to make decisions. So I think that applies more to the general population. Yeah. People who are in business and work for themselves kind of act that way anyway which is why they're usually more sensitive to the subtle changes. Yeah. But is there a supportive, hormonally balanced woman? Yes. Because our hormones will stop fluctuating but I think come back to the first word, supportive. Yes. Let's allow ourselves to be supportive. And I don't mean by purchasing things. I mean by each other. Although we can purchase things I suppose. Yeah. Do the shopping. I do think that like I know that I've moved into a phase of I don't want to do it all by myself which is why in my program I'm not the one delivering it. I can't just go and be a naturopath for 25 years. Yeah. And there are people with medical qualifications in there as well but I can't just be that person. Yeah. And so the benefit of something like that is the entire team, we have meetings about the clients. Yeah. So all of the different practitioners whether it's a psych or a nutritionist or a medicine person, we all have meetings about the people so we're all on the same page. So if you are seeing multiple practitioners just know that you have to decide for the patient. Actually I'm happy for anyone to ask me if you've got questions because I know good people that can potentially ask this because it's a minefield. Online's a minefield. I know. Social media's a minefield. Yeah. All of the different authorities on this topic, a lot of which are doctors in the US by the way and they sell stuff. That's fine. But honestly follow the money. Yeah. Which is something I've always done in practice anyway. Yeah. So what does it look like? I think it looks like somebody that's happy, maybe it's somebody that left their partner. Maybe it's somebody who needs that extra support and can get that whether that's through a program. So tell me a little bit about the Healthy Hormones Club. I don't know enough about it. I think I could probably benefit from it but who do you guys actually help? You bring together people from different genres or professions I guess. Yeah. We help support women in business specifically. Yes. Specifically. Yeah. Because that's me and I understand how their mind thinks. Yeah. However it's hard to get people that are even in business that are used to making decisions if they aren't. If they are for example seeing a naturopathic cleanse like I've done and figuring out what's wrong with me because that's what's going on in their mind. I'm not sure a lot of women in business know that this is happening. It's just that next iteration. It's that next stress that they have to deal with. So the fact that they could fall over something like this is a little bewildering. I think the algorithms like we talked about on Facebook before. It's almost like ads are targeted at me because I am of a certain age now. So maybe that's why I'm seeing more or there's different levels of help and maybe some women don't know that they need it. So does the Healthy Hormones Club provide that environment to help you understand that no you're not just snappy and you're not an ice queen. Just like what your colleagues might say sometimes. You're just a high performer who actually her hormones are a little bit out of balance. Yes they are a little bit out of balance but without making it sound like it's a little bit because it sounds and this is not you. This is actually our culture. We're very dismissive of the age group. Now I'm not being all doom and gloom but it can be very hard. I know while I didn't know that it was the thing that was going on and I'm not looking for a word because I didn't want to be diagnosed anyway even though I begged my doctor for stuff that she wouldn't give to me. Often there is a stress or a stressor that can trigger things. Sometimes it will be major surgery. Sometimes surgery will set it off. Often we're in that age where we're looking after our parents at the same time as running a business and at the same time as having teenagers. Yes doing it all still. Yes. So there are a lot of stressors but often there is a stress that will set it off. Yes maybe you're being targeted because of your age. I think also the digital distance to us as well. Yes. It still surprises me every time but I do know that that's what happens. I think this is also a little bit of a taboo topic as well Kate. Not that long ago we weren't really talking about this. Now that it's sort of out there and I guess with the Healthy Hormones Club, how do you approach marketing something that's so personal and what makes women trust you with something so vulnerable? I obviously follow you online and I see your videos and it's very relatable but it's actually a really personal topic and taboo recently. So how do you make those women just trust you? To be honest I don't, and this is not me speaking from a marketing perspective, I never would have had empathy for a watch. If I had been the healthy personal trainer still with the six pack and coping with life fine, maybe I would have had some fluctuations in mood and tiredness and anxiety and clarity and brain fog and itchy skin, frustrating periods, like all of it. I don't think there's a symptom I haven't had because I got slightly unhealthy and I went right down that, right down. Very downhill, lost an organ actually, had my appendix down and yes that is from being unhealthy. And that took such a long time to recover but I don't think, if I hadn't have done that there's no possible way I could have empathised. I'm not listing a list of, oh do you feel these symptoms and you should try this supplement because I'm not into everybody taking too many supplements. Yeah you need to take manganese and get a good quality and I'm for sure, probably. Anything after that should be specifically figured out. I am a fan of. You don't have to, also I don't think you should go too far down the rabbit hole and get too many tests done as well. That also happens which, don't do that because I don't want you to have too many blood tests. It's not good to be giving blood all the time. So how do I, I don't make anyone trust me, which would be my marketing brain because you know with AI we can create great avatars and do fantastic business. But I am coming from, I know you don't have to feel like shit because I literally got rid of a house, got rid of a car, was going to get a caravan and literally moved. And I shouldn't have done that, I have a child at home still. So I know how that felt. I've never been in a position, can I say, well it's, often when I'll create a course or go into a niche it will be from a personal experience. I didn't go into it on purpose thinking I need to have this experience because the last time I did this was just after Stella was born which was 18 years ago. And I put on handsome weight and then lost it but it took me four years. But it took me not grabbing my fat while I went to the toilet at night and telling myself I was fat. If we lose a bit of weight that's a good side effect. But it's not the thing that we care about anymore. It doesn't define us. Pardon? It doesn't define us. I mean obviously we'd all like to. It doesn't define us. But it's honestly, I have just been telling my story and I want people, I want women to know if you can, that's why I keep coming back to if we can fix your digestion and your elimination and your sweating and hydration and then you will sleep. Yeah. And then we will stop fasting and then we will eat breakfast because guess what? I know fasting. I've done every diet in the world and also, and I've promoted all of them as well because I've been in that industry my whole life. Yeah, yeah. It breaks the fast. Yeah. If they didn't ask me what can we do? But seriously, ladies if you're fasting I know it's good and sometimes it's good at different periods of your life but your cortisol levels are going through the roof and if you can break the fast by eating some breakfast, leftover dinner is the best. But if you can't come at that, just eat anything that's not cereal or out of a box because it sets up your blood sugar levels for the day but it also, it stops your cortisol from being produced. Yeah, okay. And it elevates testosterone and the natural hormones that you should be producing and And after two weeks you will get hungry again. Yeah. It will be life changing. As a very general blanket statement to say this changes a lot of lives, it's highly recommended. Yeah. And I think if you're going to work in that hype out position or even if you're working for yourself, it's probably a really good start for the day especially if you've lost a bit of that mojo that you would normally have woken up with in the mornings and finding that you're not actually there anymore. I don't know. It makes such a difference to the morning. You can ask my partner and he's like so tired. Yeah. I'm tired. Like very tired. I've got to go to bed at night at like 9, 10. Oh wow. But yeah. But are you up like super early though? No, no. Not overly early but also when I'm up, I'm not foggy. Yeah, yeah. I mean I was but it used to take me hours to wake up. Yeah. It's strange, isn't it? And sorry, just for our listeners, we're listening to Kate Martin who is a health coach and also founder of the Happy Hormones Club and we're talking about perimenopause, perimenopausal women especially in business. Healthy hormones. Healthy hormones. Sorry. I keep saying they're like say happy health. They're always happy. Yeah. I'm feeling happy. They are happy. Yeah. We should make happy. That would be a better name. I'm going to sell the Happy Hormones Club. Let's do that. Oh dear. Kate, can you share a story with us without naming names of course or if you don't want to of a woman who came to you I guess at a real low point in her business because of what was happening with her health and what her life looks like on the other side of that now? One of the clients was in a situation with work where she just didn't have as many boundaries as she clearly should have. That's the way it's easy to see from an external perspective. Yes. Now fast forward where like four months in she's left that role, that contract and she's started her own business. Oh wow. Yeah. She has a family. Yeah. She's set that up and she makes time for herself. She didn't have more time created for her. I say the thing about the boundaries thing because there was a lot of back and forward. It was, oh I'm not sure. That was... Yeah. Yeah. Just was very unsure of herself. That's not her as a person either. Yeah. But she just couldn't... I guess you could say pull it together. So yeah. Now she's all healthy. Is that normal? I think like I do hear a lot, like a lot of women burn out in particularly corporate roles as well. They burn out and just sort of throw it up in the air and go, do you know what? This is too hard. I'm going to go and be a receptionist at my hairdresser's. You know, because I like talking to women and it's just easier and I'm happy to take the pay cuts and I'm just done with all of this pressure. Is that sort of something that you might be seeing or starting their own consulting business? And I know you've spoken a bit before about charging what you're worth and maybe some women don't understand how much they're actually worth in that sense. Like is that something that you're seeing that women are particularly just throwing it up in the air and going, you know what? I don't want that stress anymore. I want an easier, simpler life. Yes, apart from the last statement about it being an easier, simpler life. Do you know what my favourite expression is at the moment? Life's hard, choose your heart. Working for yourself is not rainbows and unicorns no matter how old you are. I honestly think it's a competition to figure out how to do it in the best amount of time. I know statistically speaking there are more millionaires and people that go into business for themselves and succeed after two years over the age of 50 than any other demographic. Yes, okay. That's encouraging. From an overarching perspective, it is encouraging. Yes. Because, and I do think that it's a coincidence, I don't have the statistics on this, but I do think it is a coincidence that it happens around that age when we're like, I'm not going to put up with this anymore. Yes. Just like some of us that aren't in a corporate environment but we don't want to put up with what's around us anymore. So the job I guess is just one of the easy things to do with a fleek. Yes. You have to be somewhere else on someone else's time. And while I'm, yes, some of the content I put up is helpful for those people, I think the overarching how women feel with anxiety comes in with anything no matter how long you've been working for yourself. That fear of, if I create this, is it the right place, is it the right time, is it the right price, will people buy it? Yes. But then that just comes, that's fixed with experience because you know that you don't go create things before you sell them. Yes. It's a risk as well. I think when we're talking about starting something like that, it's risky and as we're getting older we're trying to find more security, like you say, like I don't want to do this alone anymore. That could be seen as quite a big risk to step out and do something different depending on how compelling the need is. It is and I would say regardless of who you're asking, because women are really good at asking for help generally, speaking in terms of comparison to men, but just have a look at what they have done and how similar is that to what you would like to be able to do rather than thinking that you just need to do a course on how to become an influencer on Instagram because quite often those people haven't actually built a business, they've just got really good at Instagram, that doesn't mean anything about a business in the background. Yes. So yes, definitely ask for help. There's a lot of free stuff on YouTube as well, but it can be confusing. It is sometimes easier to ... There's a lot of blue lights. There's a lot of blue lights and a lot of green lights and then all of a sudden everything's red and you're not quite sure what direction to go in. Exactly. I don't know why your algorithm is feeding you that now. So Kate, to sort of wrap this up I guess, if a woman is listening right now, she's over 40, she's built something that she's pretty proud of, but lately she's exhausted, she's foggy, she's not sleeping well, she's probably a little bit resentful and just sort of quietly wondering, should I just quit this? What's the sort of one thing you would want her to know and where can this woman find you? So many places. I wrote goosebumps as you said that. So many places. The easiest thing is probably send me an email, Kate at KateMartinMentor.com. That is an American accent. Yes. I've got a free Facebook group. I've got a free guide. I'm also just happy to answer any questions. I think you've built the resources out for people. Yes. Because it's what I did, but I also know if you're going to generalize, what are some principles that you need? Yes. Also please know that if you send me a message, I'm not just going to sell you something. I don't do that. I have a huge network and I'm happy to refer you to other people or ask you a few questions and if it's not me, they can help you. I know some great doctors who will actually do bloods and prescribe things as well if that's where you want to go. Yes. I hope that it's not a fix forever. Yes. You are actually going to have to eat breakfast and make time for yourself and put energy into this thing. Yes. I like to make time for myself. You also don't have to do it alone. I think we need to do stuff together. Yes. Create that community which you've done with Healthy Hormones is creating maybe that community. You can grab the guide actually by going to HealthyHormones.Club, C-L-U-B. Yes. Great. And there's a free guide there for people to have a look at. You never know. Yes. It could be a Facebook group and then you'll get connected to me and you can ask questions. Yes. We could be healthy and in a healthy club. It's simpler than what you see online, I promise. It's got nothing to do with counting calories and there's no even exercise in this five step thing. Literally, it's like eat breakfast. Yes. Sounds perfect. Kate, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. I've definitely learned something out of this and I was so looking forward to doing this interview because I feel like you were speaking to me. Except I haven't burnt anything down yet but I've probably burnt dinner a few times and had a few coarse words in the meantime. Thanks so much for joining us. That was Kate Martin.com. Kate? Kate Martin Mentor. KateMartinMentor.com. You can reach out to Kate there. This is the business huddle. Thank you for joining us and we will be back right after this.