EXPERIENCE 43 | A Leadership & Wellness Journey with Jennifer Watson

Welcome to the LOCO Experience Podcast with LOCO Think Tank Founder Kurt Bear. Listen in as Kurt digs deep into the business and life stories of business owners and thought leaders at different stages of growth from all walks of life. Launching and growing anything can be a crazy experience, so expand your thinking and level up your understanding of what it takes to find success in the world of free enterprise. Welcome back to the LOCO Experience Podcast. This is your host Kurt Bear and I'm here today with Jennifer Watson. Jennifer is the founder of Jennifer Watson Leadership and she also founded Watson Wellness. And Jennifer, if you would, let's just start with what's Jennifer Watson leadership and what so we can the life look like for you. Thank you so much first and foremost for having me Kurt. It's an honor to be here and I love to serve and I've had so many different journeys Kurt and what's led me and I know we're going to go into that a little bit later, but what's led me to what I do now and my focus anymore with Jennifer Watson Leadership is really on coaching, consulting and speaking and my coaching consulting and speaking all really focus on wellness and leadership. I call it the dynamic duo and what I do in a typical day in a typical week in a typical month is majority of my work is in coaching consulting entrepreneurs, thought leaders, business leaders that want to take their wellness and their leadership to a new level. And if we haven't figured out after last year, you know, wellness affects everything, right? My body, soul, whatever you're limited in affects how you serve affect how you impact the world as a leader and entrepreneur. In leadership, I found people really struggling with last year because of what was going on, not only what was happening and affecting their business, but questions their employees were bringing in. So the reason why I bring that up, my day in my life has really changed and transcended in the last year. So the wellness piece we've taken on more mentally emotional spiritual wellness for people, that's really helped them unleash their leadership role and unleash their physical realm body in leadership. I've really seen my clients do best tapping into intuition, their emotional intelligence, their super self-awareness and really dial in and really leading self well that optimally really communicating and creating productivity in the team and leading team well. So with that said, I would say 50% of my time is actually coaching consulting, which it doesn't sound like a lot, but I do a lot of really personal development. I do a lot where I invest in myself, Kurt, which I, as you know, as a thought leader yourself and entrepreneur, investing yourself and that includes coaching, that includes courses you take, weekends, collaborations with people. I spend a lot of time researching things in the background to create better service to my clients. Well, I have to think that the time that you spend with your clients, you probably have an hour of time outside of the room working on their case or whatever you want to call them. My wife is a social worker by trade. So it's like a case manager, right? Where you've got to look at your last notes and figure out how they're doing. What's the next door to open for them? 100%. And so that's part of it is you're doing a lot of background work to create powerful shifts for the people you're working with. I take it very seriously when people invest in me. So the other 50% besides coaching consulting is really, yes, doing the support work around it, making sure I'm bringing the right stuff, the right goods, the table, personal development is huge. Like I said, coaching that I get, I believe that all of us need coaches and mentors and masterminds to make us better at what we do. And there's a lot of that. So they're supporting them not directly in that role at the time, but doing it with all the stuff that's not the shiny fun stuff, right? And then speaking, you know this, I love to speak. I'm one of those rare people that I love to get on any stage. I don't care if it's a retreat, a summit, a podcast like this, to see the collective group, even if it's on a zoom, really shift because I can see that happen when I'm doing a group call or doing a speaking gig. And it's so profound to see there's something about getting a group of people together that are wanting something similar. That's why they're at the event or the retreat and seeing that magic really transcend to me. It's like four or five coaching sessions in one speaking opportunity. And I can do it actually really well because I read my audience well. I know what group I'm going into and what of my quote tools in coaching that I can bring to the table. I would say 75% of my clients come from speaking opportunities even last year with a virtual. And it doesn't mean I'm not expanding other platforms, but that's my skill set. Yeah. So what are you speaking about? I'm imagining that you've got a number of different topics and sometimes topics get old or tired and you got to come up with new stuff or whatever. What's that look like being a professional-ish speaker? Oh, I love that question. You know, as I've evolved, I've been drawn to different events than what I was drawn to five years ago, because I'm evolving so my clients can evolve as well. I always say I'm maybe one step ahead of my clients. Right. You know, always trying to get in what you want most and if it needs to shift. So therefore my speaking has shifted on where I speak and I've gotten really picky. I would say where I probably speak the most on is mental emotional wellness and wellness summits where they tap into that more. As far as leadership, as mentioned, I tap a lot into your unique intuition and emotional intelligence. In both those topics, wellness and leadership, I will say, Kurt, I have my own method. It's called the gut leadership method. And I share that at speaking gigs and it's a very counterintuitive way to the mainstream of how to tap into your mental edge, how to tap into your intuition, emotional intelligence, which I believe those three things are the superpowers to create high performance in any individual, no matter the environment. When I say environment, adversity, things that come at you at left or right field. So when I speak, I want to talk to the people like, what are you struggling with? And let's tap into those components of wellness and leadership I mentioned. And I'm telling you, Kurt, what I've evolved to is it's game changing. When we tap the big domino of mental emotional wellness, when we tap the big domino of your intuition and emotional intelligence, which ties into so many things in leadership, game over. Not to interject, but it feels like that gut, follow your gut, phrase, and it's because it's the right thing at the right time, a lot of times. Like we have this kind of, like I said, an intuition and follow your gut, whatever. What I was just imagining there is like, I don't know how to quite phrase a question. We have to cut this part out, it's boring. So what I was, I just lost the handle on that. So yeah, bring me back to coaching. Like who are your clients? Yeah, I love that question too, because that's also evolved. That's really evolved. I say that I am a leader of leader coaches and what I mean is I tap into the 1% leaders and what I mean by 1% leaders and the high performing, like they're in the 1% realm of leaders and entrepreneurs in the United States. I tap into those people and what I give them, what my product is, what I'm selling to those 1% leaders is that their board, they're exhausted, they're feeling their little off target right now. They want a deeper purpose. They feel like they're a little bit not where they need to be anymore. Many of the people that come to me, Kurt, are very successful quote and I'm putting this quotes in the air you guys and I mean money. Maybe they've had a lot of influence and they've actually made a lot of impact. But what I found after last year and many of these same leaders were like, you know what? I don't want to do this same thing anymore. I do have a good following, but I want to influence in a different way, but I'm not sure how to do that, Jennifer. So I take them, my product is to take these epic leaders, these powerhouse influencers that have done quite a bit, but are now lost in translation. You'd get back on track with a new purpose, maybe refine deeper purpose. When you're on your deeper purpose, everything gets easy, right? I remember my question finally and it was, I'm thinking about frankly, we're in a time of tomorrow, we have to go back to indoor masking and my friend that was talking to me about it yesterday is like, I've got 10,000 square feet and 17 employees. I could have all the room in the world, but that's not the rule this time. And so now I've got to enforce this thing and it's a thing that he doesn't really believe in. You know, and so when you feel pressed to go against what your gut says is right, that's got to be really agonizing. Have you seen a lot of that in your experience? That's why I elevated to a new level because many leaders, like you said, were very successful in their last year, they were doing things that were not aligned with their intuition and sent them off their culture for a deeper purpose for mental health, everything. And then go figure because they weren't in good space, their team started, it was a domino effect. So you guys, here's, that's, that's a tough position. I get that, you know, people come to us and you want to appreciate what's going on from both sides, but how do you stand in your truth? You know, how do you stay aligned with your intuition? Because I'm going to say side note, there's research on this, Kurt, when you're doing things chronically, I'll say consistently long term that are not aligned with your truth, your vision of doing what you consider, quote, right or wrong in your morality and your integrity, whatever that is to you, they are showing research that it creates huge emotional turmoil in the body, your systems and constant, what we call fighter flight. And that's hugely related to depression, increased risk of heart disease, cancers, let alone anxiety, let alone how you're leading your team. So I would say wellness leadership, right? So here's the deal. It's important that you address it. So, you know, there's seven depending on the person and their business, because I again work with business leaders, how they want to handle it. To me, there's three different, you know, decisions on that. Okay. And the first one is you have to decide, do you get out of the current situation? And I mean, whether you move location, whether you stop doing the type of work you're doing and do virtual, like you literally take a hard right, you shift because you're like, I'm not wearing masks. That's a good example in a building. So how can I continue in my work and stay in alignment? That means I'm shutting down the building. That means you know, so they don't have to wear masks. Maybe that's option. I'm moving and I mean this. I'm moving my location from Larimer County to another county. I had people actually do this because they were so, you know, basically aligned like I can't do this. And again, you're not the judge of their decisions. You're helping them uncover kind of their values, their purpose deeper. We know exactly. Exactly. So that first decision is do shift massively. IE in this example, you gave, do you shift counties? Do you shut down your quote physical location, which a lot of people did move out of California? Yeah, move out of cover. And I mean, you guys, that sounds like a big decision. But I'm here to tell you again, the cost benefit ratio of staying out of alignment with your intuition. What you believe is aligned with your truth is very costly, wellness-wise. And ultimately, at least I saw people that stuck to what they felt was not right last year. And it was the demise of their company. So you guys, when I say this, you want to take this seriously, if it's really something that's, I, I got to make a stand on this, then you have to make hard decisions in this leaders. We know this, Kurt. We sometimes have to make hard decisions. COVID is not the first time as leaders. We have to make hard decisions. No, no. How many times have, I've done this, I almost went bankrupt once, my first open my business, a new business. I'm like, do or die momently. There's tough decisions to be made. COVID is no different. It just amplified things. It took on more of a global collective of people, not just your one business. So, but we as entrepreneurs, I think, should be a skill set that we can handle stuff like this. Yeah. If it has to be a hard right, so that's the first thing you have to do. If you feel that you're like, you know what, it's not really something that I'm a diehard for, that it's not totally against my intuition, but I feel people in my business, it is because you have to think about them. Maybe there's three or four people. Yeah. You're like, it's not a do or die for me. I'm cool. Like these oil-filled employers right now are going, oh, I guess in a couple months, I'm going to have to tell all my oil-filled workers that I'm going to have to wear there. And honestly, when you do that, you have to understand the potential with that in this particular case is a walk out. You know, you're seeing with pilots. So, my point is that if you're okay, that's great. Okay, this way you're like, no, I don't need to do a die moment, but I need to think about my staff. Okay, this is when you have to have, again, this is where you navigate the depths with your staff, where you have to have tough conversations in this case, the mess, and really create as a leader. And there's tools I do for this to open up the conversation, a safe space for everyone to talk. Because when you do that, it's amazing how people that even maybe be more resistant, that maybe you're on the fence, when they feel safe, they're willing to quote, negotiate. And even heard. And being, yes, when you're heard, it's such a huge thing. I actually heard in a research study that the one in the in the group that is the most flexible and creates the most safety in an environment wins. And what I mean has the most influence in the crowd. So leaders, you have to and I have tools for that create safety and ability for each individual, no matter what they agree, disagree on to create an opinion and why it matters to them. And then from there, you make the call. That's when from once you get like, what are we at? Does this person, and then that's when we go down a rabbit hole, of course, like more complexity, like, do these people need to work at home? Could we help them or both of them are doing? We need to just let them go all together. And is that okay? And not must stay that way. But that's when we start down that conversation once you get a feel for your whole team. Does that make sense? And that's really, I think you're answering my next question, which is, where does the consulting come in? And so, oftentimes I'm imagining you get your speaking gigs, turn into coaching gigs. And then as you uncover big rocks that actually need to be engaged with the team or key leaders, you can go in there and help facilitate that conversation in a safe way as well. Right. Absolutely. And so here's the deal. I say to all my leaders, and this is why it starts with coaching them first. And I do coach their teams as well. If that's something they want to do, I said, if you want your team to come forward and say what feels intuitively right to them, are you being intuitive? If you want your team to come to you in safety and say and express their truth, are you doing that with them? I mean, all these things that you're frustrated with often with your team are a mirror of things that you're not dealing with. So many of my leaders that came to me like, this team member is being belligerent. This team, you know, all this stuff. Like, okay, people are here for two reasons. Okay. Basically with some nuances here, current, current two reasons, reflecting your shit, excuse the French, okay, shes it, okay, ref, you know, really reflecting what you need to work on yourself, okay, team, family, whatever, or expressing all the great gifts in you, okay? People are drawn to you like draws like the good and the badness, okay? So we need to take that very seriously when we're having, quote, struck goals in our business with team members that aren't agreeing with us or aren't playing well during this time of COVID. Okay, step back first, like, you're getting triggered because it's probably in you too. So I'm getting triggered just a little bit by one of your phrases you've used a couple times, which is the your truth. And in my grammar, it's more like your perspective. And truth is the truth. Yes. But we don't all see things from the same angle. And so I know exactly what you're saying and I tend to agree with the way you're using that. But it is such an interesting thing is that your truth isn't the same as your truth isn't the same as your truth. And that's all of our perspectives. And that's the complexity or the paradox card of truth. So fact is COVID happened in 2020. That's fact. Okay, the difference between fact and truth is what you just said, there's variances in how we're filtering through our old stories, beliefs, wounds, behaviors. It doesn't matter our genetic blueprint. We all have quote, different truths. And again, as a leader, the only way you create safety and ability for people to fan and express their truth and collaborate together is when you dial in yours. And they don't necessarily have to agree. Again, the paradox there. People are drawn. By the way, everybody, I've seen it last year. People are drawn to integrity to yourself. Even if they don't agree with you, I literally, yes, I had a conversation with President, I personally, my truth is not mass squaring. Okay. I have a very, very well educated friend that 180%, you know, believed opposite of me. She's like, be Jennifer. I'm really drawn to you. She said that to me, she's like, I want to hear you out because there's something that you really feel dialed into. It's called truth. You guys truth and integrity. Guess what? They are at the same, they resonate at the same frequency. Did you guys know that truth and integrity and people, it's a higher frequency. And people are drawn to that. So again, I go back to create safety. When you honor in a loving way, like, this is where I stand. Where do you stand? Okay. Let's see. Can we create flexibility on it? What's your hard know? What's your yes? Just starting that dialogue, a lot of it starts falling away as far as what your truth is this. It's really not about that my truth is different than you. It's about can we still work together in our variances? Does that make sense? Yeah, totally. And that's that's a good cue for, you know, just the strength that comes with diversity of views, diversity of talents on a team and perspectives. And the other thing too, when you create psychological safety in a room, this is where I work so much. And I have a certain protocol. It's the gut leadership method that taps into what I call the seven layers deep of intuition. It's taking in sensory acuity. It's taking in body language of what people can handle and what questions at what time? I mean, you're not just going in and being like, hey, we're talking about masks, you know, it may not be the way you handle things. If it's really sensitive, you get into an environment intuitively, you read your environment. Okay. Who's really on edge? Who is not? How do we start this conversation? Powerful questions give powerful answers, create psychological safety. So again, this is where intuition pulls into communication, reading a room, when to say what? And by the way, guys, we're not perfect at it all the time. I consider myself probably an intuitive expert. I will say that I've always been highly intuitive on average, but everyone has that gift. It's in all of us. It's a God-given birth, right? I will say what's happened to this country for leaders? And this is my opinion with working lot of leaders. We've thwarted that. It lives in the feminine space. We're all about go, go, go, do, do, do, which by the way that has space, but when it's not balanced, it creates hysteria, exhaustion, competitiveness, not with yourself, but with others. Yes. Blaming. Disharmony. All this in great, what happens? You guys, again, wellness leadership, dance. You internalize it. You're more prone to heart attacks. You're more prone to needing antidepressants. Again, the domino effects continue. So to me, and I will say this, intuition is where I start with most of my leaders when they are feeling chaos in their own life. And if it's bleeding into the team or the team's bleeding into them. And we dial in your truth. What are barriers blocking it? What do you believe about yourself and what you want for your vision of your team? Take out the clutter, use your intuition, dial in and very well. And before you know it, you go to a meeting and they're like, I've literally had people say, when I've coached them, like, my members, my team members, like, you just seem different. You're steady, you're confident. I don't even necessarily agree with you, but you just seem better. Yeah. Totally. So it's huge. Well, and I'm thinking about how one develops intuition because I would just say the same about myself that my intuition has been a strength. And it comes, I think, in part, like when people sign up to be coached by you, they are entering into a safe place and they're expected to get out of their own comfort zone, to get stretched, to be real. And as people do that, you can really develop your own intuition. Like, yep, I knew that and I knew that. And it's interesting because people laugh when I say this, but leaders that I've coached actually agree with this. It's just like anything you try new or you're not good at. Or there's a little bit of a safety like, oh my gosh, I'm scared of this growth. I've never played tennis. I've never had a tough conversation. I've never tapped into my intuition. It's kind of scary, right? So our safety zone, if any of you seem like the growth, what we'll call just like levels for you to be able to grow in, your safety zone is the middle circle. The growth zone is right out where you start tapping into something that you want to get better at. And then the unsafe zone. So when I teach intuitive leadership for people and they're like, I have no clue, Jen, I know it's in all of us, but literally, I don't know what it feels like. We start with one to two small steps. We don't just jump them into my seven levels deep and be like, this is where you go. We start with a simple decision. And the first two levels, and I'll just give that to you guys right now with intuition. If you're really at that, I'll call it kind of novice state is you really have to get tapped into feelings, which people have emotions like what you feel in your body. That's what we call the somatic experience. Your body is brilliant. Anybody that says to me, they had symptoms out of blue, hasn't been listening to their body. The body's subtle at first, but it's always giving you, I don't even call it symptoms. It's semantics to me, I guess, but it's really your body's way of communicating to you. I don't like that. I do like that. And I mean, you eat food and you just stomachache. I don't like that. If you meet a person and you feel low frequency, it's not your person. I don't like that. Does that make sense? What happens with all energetic fields? So I tell people, you got to just just put the radar in like, I'm going to tap intentionally into feelings today when I'm around people or place. Do I like it? Do I not? Like, is it low? Like I feel kind of in crouch or expansive? Like, gosh, this is my jam. And I haven't started a really basic situation. Just get used to the somatic experience of feeling, yeah, that's my vibe. That was to you when you walked into the office here. You're like, I did this. We got the ping pong table and all the plants and the light and it makes me happy to be here. And it's a great space to have a podcast because it creates energy of inspiration, of transcendence. It makes me want to give more, right? If I were walked in here and maybe, and I'm making this up, like a deep dungeon and some people are like smoking something on the side and I'm like, like it would pull me in. It wouldn't make me creative in my answers. Like I would actually, I want to get out of Dodge quickly. And again, you guys, that's where it starts. Get tuned in to your somatic experience, your feelings, and that's the start. That's where I start everyone, which is day and day out. You're not thinking a lot about like, oh, that feels good. That person place or thing. Oh, that feels bad. That per then you start checking off yes or no, which is part of intuition, but also who you are. You guys bonus. What do I like to do? Many times are like, oh, my gosh, I really love basket weaving. Oh, my gosh, I might make a business out of it. I mean, you start again, intuition feeds into your inspiration for a deeper purpose. So start with something basic. That's my first step. And then the second step is taking like a basic decision. Like, I'm going to the grocery store and I'm just going to go through the grocery store and kind of look at different food and see what looks good, feels good, sounds good. So now you're going to make a decision with it. Now you're not just going to take on the world organically. Now you're going to go into it for a purpose. That's basic, not just for grocery shopping, right? It's also for team meetings or are when thinking about if Sally has been okay and customer service, but maybe she'd be way better in sales. Yes, 100%, 100%. So you sit with that. I don't call it the pros and cons. When you say things out loud, loud, Sally has been good at this. Would she possibly with her skill set be good at this? You actually feel you guys again, we all describe it differently. It can be light expansion like wonder woman hero creative ideas start popping up or when you say it is it more like this pulling in, okay? And don't think too much about it again. You guys feelings don't think too much about it. I have to put my hand you guys at this point when I'm making decision on my heart. Your heart center is your truth. You guys it's also besides your gut. Guess what this is also this is part of my gut leader Smith. It is also where your intuition lives. We always talk about the guts being your gut. It's actually in your heart. When you put your heart there or your hand on your heart, you can feel it expand or pull in. I'm not talking about the heart beats. I'm talking about like the actual size. When I make decisions that like Sally would be good here. I think I literally feel myself almost sit up tall and expand and it's subtle at first. But again, sensory cutie when I go into a leadership meeting and I say Sally, it's thought of something that you might be interested in with your talents. What do you think? And I state what I've intuitively thought she might be good at sensory acuity. I watch her body language because again, body language doesn't lie. Is that step three in your thing? Yes. Okay. So body language doesn't lie verbs do. Okay. I'm just going to say that. Well, I wanted to share like one of the things I have I'm a no filter guy. Yeah. Right. And so I say things, but I like to sometimes share that just because I say something doesn't mean I think I'm just kind of test flying it, seeing how it lands amongst the people I'm talking with. Yes. It's a really a safe place for landing that idea. And you will find that person either and again won't be this extreme, but maybe go white, crouched down, look away. She doesn't like it. Right. Or in any case, she doesn't have to say yes. She says yes and she does this and I don't mean in a bad way. She's lying. I guess so. Yeah. Right. That's what even if her word says yes, but she shrinks down. That means probably not. And honestly, guys, private investigators, you know, that question people have been doing this stuff for years. Sure. Yeah. Your verbs, your words are the last truth. And I hate to say that your eyes, your skin tone, everything shifts when you're aligned or not aligned with something that resonates with you. And I'm not trying to like, oh, you're a liar. It's a way of going, okay, I'll be back off on that. Like she might not be comfortable yet to say her truth, but I can tell she doesn't really want to do it. And it's okay. Check. Does that make sense? Yes. Yes. For sure. It's that third step of then taking it down and realizing with communication, you guys, this is research based. 25% of communication comes through your mouth. Leaders, 25% of communication comes through your mouth, including your team. You have to intuitively also read the audience as you land ideas, land potential conflict, mass going back. Just and you guys, then it becomes fun. You guys, it's you, it starts getting easy to read. Once you practice it, then you get subtle signs. Then when you have to make a big decision, a maybe an investment in a million dollar deal, you're so dialed in. We haven't gone to the four other layers. Yeah, let's do. Yeah. Yeah. But still this helps you. So when something big, I've literally done that where I've taken out a huge loan. I just, I'm like, how did you do that so quickly? I'm like, because I now trust the funny thing truth, trust my intuition, which is my God-given birthright of expressing what I'm saying yes to no to and aligned with, which means I'm going to manifest the hell out of this experience if it's aligned with me because the universe puts something in me to fully express myself. And if it feels good at saying, how yes? Yeah. Even if it looks like not good. Now, you guys, by the way, that doesn't mean we don't bring the left brain like, okay, now that I've said yes to this million dollar deal, where the action steps to do this, but you have to make the decision. The power of decision is real. It's a book. You guys, you got to read it. It's one of my favorite books, the power of decision. Now, you know, it's just a misplacing the name right now. Look it up. Google it. Power of decision is real. When you make a decision, knowing not how the hell you're going to deal with it. Totally. Oh my God. I'm going to make a decision, have a tough conversation with my staff about mass. I'm not sure this is going, but I'm going to wing it and trust my intuition. I'm going to make this million dollar deal. I don't know how I'm going to come up the money, but I know it's going to come because I'm going to get people places things and ideas to come to me to do this the right way because I'm aligned. I'm aligned with me. It's not about everybody else. And I would say when it's about you, then it becomes about everybody else. Then it becomes about you. Yeah. No, I love that. Actually, let's get back to the about you. Yeah. Let's talk about Jennifer as a third grader. Yes. Where'd you come from? I think you're out Easter from way back or Callie or I even know. No, I was born and raised until I was age 12 in Billings, Montana, Montana girl. And slowly, a lot of my family, not all my, I've older siblings. My older sister went to CU Boulder. Okay. And then my brother after college trickled down here, my dad then as well. But I spent the first part of growing up age 12 in Montana when my mother redeemed. Right. Billings or what kind of a life balance that? Right. Billings. And back then, you know, Billings now, you guys hate to say it's all of you that are listening there and Billings love all of you. But it's, it's run down a little bit more. It was, it was, read the time we left at age 12, which has been many years ago now, casinos start coming in. And you guys, by the way, I'm not saying I'm against casinos, but the Connie was really not doing well. So they were trying to boost it. Right. Right. Long story short, there's been some demise to that. And again, you guys, there's economics behind that, whatever. But I will say we spent most of our growing up outside Billings as far as fun stuff, like Western Montana, Mozilla. I mean, we grew up camping, you know, we thought we were rich and over a couple of times I reckon glacier, Yellowstone, like it's so beautiful in my mom and my dad were divorced when my twin and I were very young age six. So my mom was, you know, kind of counting pennies for a while. She was uneducated, didn't go past high school, but she was smart and gritty. And so our vacations consisted of our doors. We thought we were rich, though, you know, playing outdoors, AKA you guys actually having fun as real kids, you know, get them off the phone at least once and while I get them outside, it just stimulates so much and mental, emotional, physical wellbeing. But point is that's where I grew up. I learned to love the mountains. I became a runner at a very young age, actually became a D1 athlete at Wisconsin, Madison, and was an American. So, so talk about after 12, after Billings, where did you, you said the front range here? Actually, so after age 12, when my mother got remarried, my stepfather was from Minnesota and they wanted to start their own building, contracting company. So they, because economy was not great in Montana, we moved to Minnesota, where he was from. And that's actually kind of, I mean, I was recruited pretty much across the country, because I was really good in high school. What were you running? So 800 and 1500. So not too sure. Medium long. Yeah, that's a challenging space because you're sprinting for a long distance. That's what I'll say. Yeah, most long distance runners can't really sprint very fast in vice versa. But I grew up both in Montana and Minnesota and very loving supportive family that always found my guess. What was really nice because as my parents were kind of building a business, you know, this is an entrepreneur too. There are times where kind of counting pennies trying to make things spread out and get really gritty and resourceful. So I was on a full-ride scholarship and I have a twin sister. So to be able to do that, so I could take the load off of my family. I did take it as a responsibility like my gift can serve beyond me. So my twin got to go to the same university as I did at Wisconsin Madison. And it was a big party school. Like when people left North Dakota state, it was because a lot of times they decided to go to Wisconsin Madison because it was cooler. You know, it's a great party school. I will see this. Unfortunately, that's like the overlay that everybody knows. But let me tell you. Not for the runners. Yeah. I mean, we had probably the number one at the time. This is not bragging. We actually statistically did. I was an American, but all my friends and roommates were national champions and Olympians. We had the best middle distancing in the country for four to five years. Hands down. Us in Villanova. And it was really fun. We traveled. We went to Europe. It gave me a really great student athlete experience. But honestly, Wisconsin was a phenomenal academic school. They're really good in engineering. Any type of medicine, med school, physical therapy were in the top 10. I think when I went to, I got my master's in PT there as well. But I love the experience. I mean, you know, the football games, I mean, Wisconsin Madison, it is a party school, but it's a phenomenal school. And I have a lot of great memories there. But it was my meal ticket. My running, my gift was my meal ticket to not only great opportunities, but opportunity to help my sister opportunity to learn about different things. I come from a pretty conservative Christian background to go to Madison. You know, it's the most probably one of the most liberal schools in the United States at the time. Right. And it grew me up though. It allowed me to see other things. You see other opportunities. Create space to learn. Wow, that's not how I think, could I think differently? Do what do I believe? Is this my parents believe? So it really stimulated me in a lot of beautiful ways. So I love Madison for the way I grew up personally. Athletically, I take a lot of the same skill sets to my business. The opportunities I had were worth on just just surreal in so many ways. And I have a lot of great memories for Madison. But through all of that, Kurt, and how I actually really got into, you know, PT, I mean, it was my because of athletic stuff. That's because I got injured and I thought it was a great field. But why I really got into it deeper down. I did a whole TEDx on this is my journey toward health actually was not in the physical realm. It was really in mental health. I struggled years, probably starting at age 12, 12, 13, there's a lot of related to divorce, right? No, because that was been to years. Yeah, there's a lot of layers to that. So there's a lot of wounds and trauma that come from divorce, which by the way, that's that's not shaming or blaming parents. Okay, guys, this is just filters kids have. And usually if depression begins, it often starts around puberty. So there's some probably old beliefs behaviors that I took from just different things I saw, including the divorce that I took. Also, divorce runs, or actually depression runs a little bit on my mom's side of the family. And it's like hard to see it's a little more predisposed. I was perfectionist, high performing athlete. If I didn't perform credit, you know, so that perfectionist mindset, which is also a trauma response, by the way, which I won't go into today. But a lot of behaviors of perfectionism and always having to be number one were a way of really seeing trauma-based wounds that I had on fear of being left neglected. All this stuff and abandonment from a very naive and what that caused because it was so exhausting to keep up because I can't be number one at everything all the time. Go figure. And it created severe depression. It's severe depression and anxiety at times. And I hit it behind closed doors for years. As you guys, I have to say, the stereotypical story, you know, that they look like they have it all, you know, it started a young age and I was very, quote, successful. I had a business. I was in all American, like I had friends. I had a courthouse, all this superficial success. But I was drinking about a lot every night, so to speak. I was literally dying inside like my soul. I'm like, I'm fighting so hard to be good at everything. So everybody likes me. So it won't be a ban on it. It was exhausting. I'm like, I can't keep this up. And you know, I had that come to Jesus moment on the bathroom floor. It seems like it's either the kitchen of the bathroom floor of something's got to give because literally, and I said this in my TEDx talk, that I remember thinking, let's see, I could do take my life around tax season. It might be easier paperwork wise on my family. And that's when I stopped myself. I'm like, that's a really sick brain. And I mean, because really you guys, by the way, physiological speaking, physiologically speaking, from science, we desires human beings, animals, and you know, have a Nate desire to live. Okay, that's why people can spend six weeks on like a dessert island and somehow survive. Okay, so I got that. I'm like, you know, there's something really going on that's wrong, which I know obviously, right? Like wanting to check our on tax season. But that I had to have that thought in my head to go, oh my gosh, something's really messed up here. And literally right, probably after I had that thought like a minute later, my mom called me. And she said, hey, honey, how are you doing? She's just calling this and I was weeping. And I'm like, I'm not doing well. And she knew I had struggled on and off, tried everything. By the way, we perfectionists try everything. Right. And I was like, except for confessing your challenges to other people. And honestly, that was the key, because people said, what was the key? I'm like, what was the key was being on the bathroom floor? Not that everybody has to be there. You guys, I don't believe that, by the way, that you have to have that moment all the time to actually get it right. That was a moment for me. And that's when I said that semester brain. And the only thing I haven't done besides diet, exercise, counseling, whatever was let my truth out. And the truth being my whole story, you know, because I was afraid people wouldn't respect me or shame me, right? So that's when I literally ripped the bandit off and I didn't go right to a TEDx. But I started sharing slowly, which it was very hard for me. I was afraid. I'd rather run a marathon than really do that. You guys, that's how scared I was. And my mom, I remember saying that she's like, Jen, you need to share this because that's the only way that people give begin to understand. And then the mental illness, mental health, this becomes less taboo. Then you can tell them what helps, you know, then they can ask you what helps or what they can support you in. It creates this huge connection and vulnerability and authenticity and develops a relationship. So I took that into my PT practice and found many people had mental anxiety depression, majority of Americans do it at some point. You guys, the who organization has said it's going to be within five years. The number one reason why people go to the doctor's office, depression, anxiety, world wide, you guys, this is not like, this is everything they have really good pills for that. Well, that's a whole, that's right. Yeah, we probably should go there at the moment there. So talking about those early professional years, like, because I'm assuming this was actually in college when you had that bathroom floor moment, but, but then you started talking about you brought into your PT practice and was that like, as your own business right away, or did you work professionally for a while first? I worked professionally for a while. I climbed up the corporate ladder, where I was a leader for several, like, team leader. That was, I became manager supervisor very quickly. And I did that for a few years before I got my own practice. But, and I wanted to do things where I incorporated mental emotional well-being and my boss at the time had certain structure. And I wouldn't say wouldn't allow it, but I was kind of like, no, stick with this. I'm like, I need to make a practice that's more mind-body soul that's wholelessly because I see a lot of clients have physical, mental, any emotional issues and they all combine and influence each other. I'm not going to fix their body unless I put a little more work into their brain here. And I was one or two steps ahead. My first practice is in Virginia Beach where I treated military, military wives, PTSD after what they went through. Okay. And if you don't think that affected all their physical stuff, 100% and even in the military, the mental health stuff is still taboo, you know, even to this day. Sorry, you guys. We've come a long way. But again, as we all say, you know, when you get out of the closet, there's a lot of power on that. All of a sudden, when I did it, guess what? TEDx, talk. Other people started having the courage to do the same. The phrase, when you take that step and take it out of the closet. And I, when I did that, and this is where I actually sometimes get emotional, I'm like, it had no more power over me. Like you guys, when you are take a deep breath, you don't have to get on in front of millions of people and do a TEDx per say, if you don't want you, but tell someone the power of it that it has no more power over you, that you're a human being, having a human experience and maybe you don't have a broken arm, but you have a broken brain. And guess what? There's tools and I will say non-medication and I'm pretty strong on that opinion with research out there. But that's okay if you're not. I'd love to have that dialogue with you, but I do have other things that support you. But just like a broken arm, you get a cast for it. There's things for a broken brain. And you guys, I'm going to tell you right now, I've been interviewed on a lot of podcasts. I've been on Fox in radio news and NBC and they ask me all the time. All the things I've done in my life that have been quote, again, air quotes successful at what has been my biggest success every time. And it still is and I get emotional about it is I heal my brain. I heal my brain and I did it from the inside out. I came forward about it and I had to do the dance and enjoy you guys leaders. The process isn't the symbolic of leadership in a business. The process of figuring it out, not everything worked. But I figured out the equation for me diet exercise, meditation, prayer, connection, counseling, EMDR, cognitive remapping. Like I had to try a lot of different things before I found the magic equation. And people say to me all the time, isn't it have to be that hard? Like you guys, sometimes it is you have to be willing to take a butter knife through the woods. So to speak in like hack through. Now by the way, when you get to the other side, there's a lot of ease in flow. Enjoy in power because you let go of something that has power over you. But yeah, sometimes you have to do the work. You guys in business owners, same thing. I mean, when you're aligned with what you want to give to the world and impact, it translates that it will make it worth all the hard work. But I will say even as leaders, it may not be mental health. But you guys, I can't tell you in meetings when I've come them like, you guys, I don't want to do with this. I don't want to do with COVID. I'm confused. I'm a little afraid. I can't tell you how much the team just does this. Then and they're like, oh, my God. She's human. And then they feel safe. And they start coming with ideas. So when you admit when you're struggling, you guys, I mean, it seems so simple. But let's just be honest leaders. How many of you like hold back? So you have to look strong for all your, you guys, it's BS. You guys, there is, you know, vulnerability, authenticity. I know it was like the big words going around right now. I'm just say this, bring your crap to the table. I'm not saying you unload everything on your, your, your shirt sleeve. But if it affects your team, you're like, listen, I'm concerned. I don't want to do this new mask mandate. You guys, it's not my truth. This is not who I am. But I want to hear your opinion. I'm scared. I'm not sure. I need your help on this. Even if they disagree, you'll be like, okay, this is a safe space to do that. So everything I learned in recovering my brain and recovering myself, I've taken into business, work hard, figure out your truth. Know you can heal whatever's broken, even if it's in your business. Like there's always, always, always a problem solving solution. Always, you guys, for every problem, it's polarity, it's a yang, yang, yang, for a problem. There's a solution all the time. It may take you while to figure it out. Yeah. You know what I mean? Well, and don't just be in your problem. Yeah. Try something. And if it don't work, try something different. Exactly. And you know what? And get intuition going back to that. That didn't feel good. I'm using myself as an example, you guys. That anti-depressant felt like crap on me. I feel worse. I feel concerned. It didn't feel right when the doctor gave it to me, but I had the white coat syndrome of EMD. He knows everything. I'll take it. I did that to you guys. You know, I don't do that anymore. You know, I've been in a practitioner and functional integrative care for 20 plus years before I got into coaching consulting. So I have a lot of knowledge by using my intuition. Like that does not feel good. I'm not doing that. That does feel good. You guys, that will save you a lot of, I'll call it hard work and make it more smart work. Whether you're healing your health, smart work or helping your business or having a tough conversation, you got to be willing to navigate the depths of figuring it out. That's what I'll say. Talk to me about starting that first practice. Like you're you're in Virginia Beach, I think you said. And and were you just you were working for a firm or were you just fresh to Virginia Beach? And I'm going to build my practice right here or tell me about the circumstances on the ground at the time. Yeah, yeah. So I had been managing a clinic. Okay. The the gentleman that had the PT practice had like, I want to say eight across the Virginia Beach area. Virginia Beach is like half a million people. You guys just kind of give you a reference point. Okay. And I managed like three of them. I was probably like the big leader there. You know, whatever. And I just saw a lot of things that I, as mentioned in where you wanted to be, you weren't able to incorporate wellness. Exactly. So that was several years. And then I decided to take the leap. And you guys, this is going to wrap everything together. I've been talking about you guys. Guess when I opened my first practice, my first PT practice, the crash of 2008. Oh, is that right? The crash of 2008, you guys. Great time to start a business. Great time. Well, by the way, you guys just let you know, I had thought leaders, people and mentors that I really respected. I said, Jen, you are smart. You got a good business plan. You are going to fail. Do not open it this year. They literally said that. And people, I respect that influence to me. And I remember thinking three things. I'm like, okay, I know people have made a lot of money during hard times. Look at the depression. They were millionaires. Like I started coming up with evidence. I'm like, people have done this during quote depression, during crashes. I think I can figure it out. Number one, number two. This is a big question. I asked myself before intuition. I'm like, if I have no money in no building in nobody backing me, what I still do it. And my answer was hell. Yes. Because I wanted that mental emotional spiritual practice. That was it. And it made me feel light. Then I tapped into my intuition. Then I'm like, okay, every saying, no, I'm putting my hand in my heart. I literally was in the corner my bedroom in the dark at night. I'm like, do I do this guy? And that's how I connect to the universe of expressing my, my gifts. Like, is this the time? Like I'm, I supposed to do this right now. And I literally, I felt expansive. But I also, and this is other part of the Southern levels of emotion, I tapped into my other unique gift of hearing things. I felt God just come to me. He's like, do it now or you'll never do it. Well, you guys, guess how all that ended up? Me and Uber did just fine. They also opened in 2008, early 2009. Maybe they made a little more money than me, but what I'm saying is they also opened that year. Okay. I did take it alone. I paid it right back with, you know, I want to say months, it was crazy. Like I literally took the bleep, bleep. I got resourceful. I started just taking a deep breath. I utilized my intuition. I took off. Were you a solar printer or did you quickly build a practice? Talk to me about that practice business journey briefly? Yeah. Yeah. So I started out with me just and I had what we call, they're kind of like medical assistants that doctors have. I had a, like a tech, a PT tech assistant and then a front desk. Okay. So there's three of us basically. And I have, but that's still two people getting takes from you right from the start. 100%. But I needed that because I wanted quality and I want to do the job that I was gifted at and doing all the tedious scheduling or the background bills or this was a lot. Yeah. You know, and sometimes when I was getting, I was someone getting someone checked in was easier. So I was willing to bang that out. Right. Give them paid vacation. They worked harder for me. And guess what? You guys, the business took off because I created an environment that I appreciate them. I paid them well. By the way, you guys, I paid them for vacation. I'm like, oh my gosh, already. Like because I wanted their value and it dissipated the force for me. And guess what? Within a year, maybe it was a little over a year, year, year and a half. I started needing someone. And I started contracting. And then I moved into part time. And then I moved into full time. And then once I sold it, I sold it to one of my PTs that worked for me when I moved back here five years ago in 2016. I sold it to her and it's still thriving. But we had three, three physical therapists that were working for us at the time. Okay. You know, and so how cool. And she's continued to expand it. And it's been fun. We're good friends still. But she bought the practice. And this is where I started my transition. I'm like, I've helped so many people during this time with my gifts in the brick and mortar. But I'm being called now. You guys, all of us are all of us 1% leaders. I call you influencers. Not that all of us change our profession. But often we get antsy of developing more pushing our gifts into a different area of impact sometimes. And that's where I was. I'm like, I need to create bigger impact on a bigger stage, on a bigger platform with all the experience I've had. How can I do that? In coaching, consulting was where I could pull in my leadership and my wellness space. And I feel like the reason why I made that leap is because I felt like I could impact at a bigger amount. I really wanted to impact more people than just a one-on-one ratio. But by the way, you guys, that's so beautiful too. But I just was being called to do something bigger for me to impact in a different way. And speaking, I've done even when I was in PT school. I mean, I just was natural at that. I love to do it. And that just took on its own nuance because, like I said, it filtered into the coaching consulting. And, you know, I'm a personal development junkie a little bit by saying that a really loving way because I'm always trying to elevate myself to the next level so the people that come to me can elevate too. Because it's about me, because it's about you, which is about me, really fully expressing myself to transcend to that next level so you can too. And that's why I love coaching consulting. I want you to dig to your deeper purpose. That is lily what I'm selling to you. And I draw in those leaders that have had the success like me that I've had in many areas, but maybe needs something different, something more, need a newer impact that they want to create. It doesn't mean where their ad is bad. It's just now, especially after last year, it's ripped a bandit out. They're like, do I want to keep doing this? Do I have something different I want to do? But they're a little bit in hysteria from all the noise. So I just help them dial it in. I dial in their intuition. I clear out the saran wrap if there's some mental emotional blocks. And when you dial in your new impact, let's do it. Let's not wait till tomorrow and I have to say our program is pretty awesome. I see people shift very quickly in our program. They early need me a lot or half of the program because they're really one earnestly wanting it. They got the pointer headed in the right direction. They got the motor. Yes, they want to be on the right freaking ladder. They want to have the legacy ladder. Why do we wait till in a real life like, did I have a good legacy? Live in freaking now. You guys, I call it the living legacy project with a lot of my clients. I'm like, what is your living legacy project? Like, what is that to you right now? I don't know. Great. Let's figure that out. You know what I mean? Let's make a gain plan then to get there. I was a business or an Emma business or always have been then we then we it's gets fun and easy. Once you're clear on who you are, die on tuition. Yes and no. Get your deeper impact. All the steps then the business steps get easy and I will say that and I'm not saying it doesn't take time. I'm just saying they just get easy to do. So tell me about I'm suspecting that some of your clients are business leaders but then others maybe are coaches as well and they're trying to maybe weave a little bit of wellness awareness or a little more wellness awareness into their own practice. Yes, 100%. So many of my coaches and consultants last year were finding they were not just resonating as well with their clients. They were there's a lot of resistance because they were in what we talked about maybe their own mentally emotional turmoil. Right. So they weren't communicating. They weren't dialed in with their clients. So like, Jennifer, I feel like I'm not even doing a good job now. I'm kind of questioning myself, you know, do I not do this anymore? I'm like, it has nothing to do with that, honey. Again, clear off the ceramic. Yeah, exactly right. Clear off the noise of what's going on with it be internally in your family or in your team or externally with the world. How is it affecting you? Why is it affecting? Why is it triggering you? You'll clear that out. We got to clear that out. Get you mentally, emotionally, spiritually grounded. Then now let's look at your intuition, your gifts, your deeper purpose. But what we're trying to do and what my coaches and consultants try to do last year's scramble. Right. I gotta look strong. Well, they were fearful. Yes. And because of their fear because of all these events that they normally went to and speaking things, all of that fear clouds their ability to even really be productive for anybody else. And you guys, here's the deal I want all of you to know. So a lot of you are probably like, well, I have some, I get it, Jen, I go to counseling, I get EMDR, I get meditative, I get that you guys, but I'm gonna tell you right now, you can't see your shizzy when you're on the inside of the bottle. Even if you have all the tools, this is why I'm a 100% believer in coaches. I have coaches most of my adult life, whether they were business, life, a therapy, or whatever. It doesn't matter. And the reason why is because it clears the clutter faster. It's more objective. Yeah. And even with the tools that you think will be helpful, I gotta need a coach. I know all the two. Do you? Yeah. Well, and you can't see it clearly. Anyway, because you're spending all your time looking out through your own eyes. Exactly. And I would argue and I would make a local think tank commercial here. But the power of a diverse perspective released upon you is even much more so because it's not just one person saying, yes, there's your words. But it's like, hey, you got some words over there too. Yeah. And it's really, it's a beautiful thing. It creates this ownership piece and just mirrors like the things you need to work on. So I think that's huge. Yes, coach consultants have the same problems as brick and mortar, business leaders, thought leaders. Again, I'm talking about people that came to me that make a lot of money, you guys. Okay, they're not coming to me because they need more money or need more influence. They have a lot of followers or whatever. Okay, they're coming because they're like, I feel like drinking all the time. I'm emotionally exhausted. I'm in chaos in hysteria. And when I'm sure that I'm leading well, I don't know what's going on, Jennifer. And I'm supposed to be this great coach. And I'm like, exactly. So let's figure it out. I've been there. You guys, it's not a judgment. It's just being honest where you're at. So I would say all of them had the same theme that whatever was causing me to get off their, their anchor, their purpose, we had to dial it back in and take off the SRAM rep and see, is this really what you want anymore? And how can you lead with your truth and your intuitive space to lead yourself and your team well? And then before you knew it, they were back on track. I mean, I literally saw people where I do a 90 minute deep dive that in 24 hours are like, oh my gosh, this opportunity, I mean, it's fun to get those tags. And it like all we did is do this, bring you from low to high frequency to take off the shizzy. Let's figure this out together. I can't see my own stuff. You guys, and I teach this stuff. Why do you again think I have a coach? I pay a lot of money for coaches, by the way, you guys. I do because I get the benefit and I get the benefit, think tank, okay, of mastermind me, of getting people to throw things out at you in a beautiful, loving way. Like, have you thought about this, Jen, this is not your skill set? Have you thought, like figure it out? And if you're at that space of feeling but hurt because, oh, I don't have this skill set. I'm like, that's okay. Then that's it. That's actually a trauma trigger, by the way. Yeah. And he isn't something to really build upon. No, exactly. You know, creating so much of that in this world. I'm going to call a short party break and then we'll be back in a minute. So Jennifer, I think I could listen to you for like five more hours and enjoy every bit of it because I'm learning new things with every passing minute. So, but instead of that, let's let's get into our faith family politics segment. You've mentioned your faith already. You came from a kind of conservative Christian background, but you've got a lot of woo-woo with your juju going on as well as manifesting and things like that. So tell me about that journey a little bit. That is such a great question because I'm a big believer in no matter how you grow up, you really need to question it. You need to question if you believe it. And faith is one of them, you know, faith because often for many of us and I'm making this kind of a loose term, it's our connection to a higher power. Whatever that means to us, you know, Anukera's Buddhist Hinduism, Christianity, it's our belief system. So no matter how you grow up, I really believe it's healthy to question it. And I went through a stage even after college because I saw the other side of conservatism, you know, I was pretty like, I want to say, quote, protected, but just didn't see a lot of that until I got to college. But I loved it because it created an opportunity for me to question. And I love my family, and I grew up in a great family that loved me and I think provided a lot of great values to me through our faith, you know, and to church, really. My dad was a pastor at Illinois. But they were very, this is you guys, I'm very blessed. We're open to me questioning because I would come back from college. I'm like, I don't know if I believe if Jesus is the only way. I don't know if I believe, you know, so I started questioning it. And what that caused me to do is research, right? Research other religions start really delving into what do I really believe? Do I believe all this? I believe it's just a really fun story that has a lot of motivational tips and tools, which are great too. But what do I totally believe? And like you said, as I start getting into my mental health in realizing I'll call it the more quantum physics, the spiritual energy work. I'm like, does this align with Christianity? If I do believe in Christianity? And I would say during this entire journey, I am still a Christian after you know, doing all that research. And 100% Christianity is aligned with quote, and again, air quotes woo woo energy work. Yeah. What's happened in I think it's really sad in America is, you know, Christianity has really been boxed, um, thwarted, and and where we can go with expansion and manifestation and healing, including energy work of all sorts of a loving, I'll say a loving creator. It's all about brimstone and stuff. And I started, I read the Bible in 90 days. I started, I wanted to really, I'm like, I want to get this stuff. Like, is it figurative? Is it contextual? Like, what's going on? And I realized it did align with my truths. And I realized that spirituality in my spirituality was very aligned with Christianity, but everything I believed as far as healing self. And again, that included the energy work. Sure. That included, yes, quote, you guys, the woo woo stuff, which again, it's not woo, I hate to say, I hate that word because everybody's like, oh my god, that just means it's kind of out there. You guys all this is quantum physics. Okay. It's energy at a different level that's shifting you whether it be mind, body, soul that we're talking about. Jesus healed with woo woo work. Right. Just, you know, and by the way, he was just a super good energy worker. And he might have even had some crystals, right? Yes. Well, you know what? I'm playing a little bit about that. And I will say that's another thing. Like, how much was saved in the Bible as it was passed from generation to generation? You know, you know, I think that there's women leaders. That was a big thing too. Like women aren't like leaders. And like, there are definitely women leaders in the Bible. Like, clearly there were. Yeah. What's happened again is we've made it a political statement. And that's why we have so many denominations. So it makes everybody confused. All these little different boxes. Yeah. And say, well, this is figurative. This little, and it just creates what we call just like last year, you guys, fighting over something. And like, we're talking the same thing. To be honest, we're just going through our own filter of what we're seeing and what we believe is good to write. And again, I will say that with the Bible. I really had to question that. And once I did, it did align with what I believed was healing for me with clients. It did align with what I believe in manifestation. Because I believe all that. I mean, Jesus gave that power to the disciples to here. Yeah. Prayer moves. God moves the world. Right. So when Christians come and say, how do you believe in energy work? I'm like, do you pray? And you believe that prayer can heal someone. They're like, Oh, yeah. I'm like, how was that not energy work? You're taught, you're praying for someone five states away. And you're saying that that's energy work that you're not touching them. You're it. So again, what I do, you guys in a really long way, I go into churches because I'm sick of the bullshit. You guys, sorry. And by the way, I swear in churches too. Because I am. I'm just like, you guys, there's powerful women leaders. There's energy work and healing. There's a massive abundance. God is not this. I hate you. Doomstone and that's old testament. New Testament talks about love and acceptance and manifestation and peace and joy and happiness. He wants for all of you. What are you guys talking about? I actually found a lot. I would get angry at the Christian faith. I'm like, you guys, there's so much power on the Bible, but you are fighting each other on student points that aren't even true. Like when I said, and again, I gently and I'll leadership, I throw them like, so, you know, again, you believe in prayer, but you don't believe in energy work. Well, your five states will like, how is that not? And like, oh, so it's just kind of getting people to see things differently. I think what we've done is we're afraid to go in and say, well, the word manifestation or energy work, you guys, the Bible and Jesus was manifestation. He was energy work. He was a lot of things. He was love. He was acceptance. He was letting people speak their truth. He hung out with prostitutes. Okay. I mean, he hung out with the worst of the worst and said, you have so much in you to be beautiful. He was empathetic like everything that we desire. So I'm like, where are we getting this? So my point is with religion, so to speak, my voice is through the Christian faith, through Jesus, 100% and it is my truth. And I was able to walk through it, not because my parents believe, but like, I believed it. And I had to go through everything I was doing. That was intuitively aligned with me. Was it aligned with my faith in what I consider faith to be how you communicate to your creator, whatever that is, universe, and it was. And so I did come back and my mom just kind of smudge like, I knew you kind of would, but you had to figure it out. And I'm like, 100% I did, because now I could say it was my truth, not my parents' truth. So no matter who you guys are, whether you agree with me or not, Namaste you. I have friends there. I actually am a mezzanianic Jew. We come from Jewish heritage. We have Jewish blood. And my grandfather, when they came across from Russia, they changed to Christianity because Judaism was like, you know, anti-Semitism. We'll start up it as much as you can. Exactly. So it was kind of by default. But my point is, is, you know, I embrace and I support everybody where they're at. And I want to be very, very clear with that. But I'm also, because when we talk about earlier, I want to lovingly stand in my truth so we can have a conversation and learn from each other. And I think when we really are willing to navigate tough conversations like that, because religion and politics and just be open and like, listen, like, I'm really curious. You guys use that word. I can't tell me in terms of like, I'm really curious. Yeah. Why you believe that? Like, tell me about that. Like, atheist, I'm like, I'm really curious. I mean, I actually don't get that. I'm like, I'm really curious about that. It takes more faith to believe that than it does mine. But anyway, it's great because I'm like, I'm curious. Like, tell me about that journey. So the more we get open to that, it will either keep us get us more dialed into our faith or shift us into our real belief. Well, and just help understanding as well. I was reflecting while you were talking about, I wrote a blog on last fall on virtue was the title and ended up circling around to the 10 commandments and calling it not commandments. And God will smite you if you think about breaking these, but instead 10 principles for your best flourishing. Yes. Yes. And if you do these things, things will go better for you. If you don't, bad things may happen. Bad things might still happen. Yeah. But it's better for you if you do. Yeah. And when we focus so much on you guys, by the way, and I'm not trying to be blasphonic, you know, for all those Christian followers, when we focus so much on the 10 commandments, like the icon of the Old Testament, that's where we go. Well, and partly because they're in a negative fashion, whereas when you take the two commandments of Jesus, it's love God and love your neighbor. Yes. Very positive things, not thou shalt not that honor the, you know, honor the father, mother, good fault witness. Yeah. And that's why I believe that that book was written because we humans kind of need a little polarity. Yeah. You know, to know love, we sometimes have to hate, you know, to be joyous, we have to understand what sadness is. So I think that was there for a reason, you know, to see some negative stuff. But I think it allows us to hopefully fan bigger, beautiful parts that bigger old Jewish system of laws and things like that and the old covenant and whatnot had to be there before the new covenant could be put up in contrast to it. Right. And it's just part of the human experience. But I agree all the new comments, they come more in this abundance higher frequency, which God meant it that way to me. I'm like steps up towards him. Yes. You know, a lot of ways. I would say this, the creator, the universe, however you want to look at you at it, you guys really get this. He, she meets you where you're at. And sometimes where you're at is in the negative realm. So we have to start there to get you to this other side. Yeah. Yeah. Not everybody needs your head of water sometimes. Exactly. So I'm mindful of the time. I know we've both got a commitment following this. But I love that on faith. And you want to fold from there right into politics? Yeah. Is that some appropriate? Yeah. No, absolutely. Even if faith and politics are huge. I, I think clients can wear their masks. Yeah. Starting tomorrow, if they're up virtual. You know, I will say this, most of the people, and again, like I say, a lot of times when you're aligned with your truth, you draw on a lot of people that are in a alignment with them. I'm not saying everyone, by the way, because you have what I call divine adversaries. Sure. And that's needed. So when I say this, I'm not saying this is all our none. But what, what has happened because I am aligned with my certain truth, I hate the word politics because anymore, what's Republican? What's different? Yeah, they're both gross. They're both gross for different reasons. And you guys, I'm not trying to be blatant about that. There's research I've looked into this on so many different sides. And there, there's such a melting in what it is at this point is it's just being used as a way to create hate on either side. So I want to move that aside and just say this, whatever you guys believe, I'll just say what's going on with, with 2020 in COVID in the pandemic, they have made your truth, basically a political statement to diverse of like basically pet people against each other. So we'll just use the mass, you know, forget vaccination. That's a touch here. You know, that, both of those, you guys, they're taking whatever your truth is the same. Well, that person saying this, so you guys have to hate each other. And that's what politics is now anymore. And you guys, I hate to say that and I'm not trying to be generalization. There's more to it than that. My brother-in-law is a lobbyist. So listen, you know, I'm, you know, I'm fairly well versed in it. But I'm going to say at this point in our life, I will say it's only being used as a vice to people against each other. So the higher ups can do whatever they want to do to control us. And I, and that's in a summary, I will say that. So what we need to do is unplug from the matrix and go back to what we had at this conversation regarding politics, regarding religion. What is your truth and stand truly in it? And the people that are aligned with that will come to you. The ones that are not, but need to be in your life still to kind of be your divine adversary to make you step back and be empathetic and patient. And do I believe this or not are going to be there. And as far as the, the mask, you know, most of my clients to answer your question, no, they are actually not going to wear the mask. They're actually stepping in that truth and they're willing to risk everything. And I actually honor that at this point. You guys, I get, by the way, last year I, I had colleagues like, this is my, my livelihood. Like I have kids and I, you know, intuitively, I want to do this. I'm like, I get that. How can we work through this whatever? But it's been 20 months, you guys. Okay. There comes a point where how much are you going to break yourself, ultimately, and then ultimately the hate continues to build and let them, you guys, I'm raising my hand above my head, the higher ups, when of this hate that is such low frequency, when you're going to finally take a stand, whatever your truth is, the people that align with me are not wearing the mask. I read a, are I listening to a podcast actually earlier today, and it was talking about how the increased power of the president role, you know, starting aggressively with Clinton, probably, but continuing through Bush and you love those. Yeah, I know, I love my love. And, and, you know, through Trump and, and through Biden, that executive authority thing is like making it such that, and the way it's used, it's like, you know, Trump gets in and he puts the, the removes the state tax exemption from the federal tax code in California, New York, like, asshole. That's right. Right. And then Biden comes in and is like, hey, we're going to, you know, mandate mask within 20 days for all employees over 100, right, right to which the Southwest pilots are like, are you sure? You know, we've got all this drama playing out. So, I mean, politicians are not even saying truth, or if they are, they're promising one thing, and it's not happening or they're promising one thing and saying another, it doesn't matter, because this is why I go back to really your intuition, pick for as far as politics, the person that you think is probably the most aligned with your truth, but actually means it. Right. Okay, you guys, and by the way, that's really hard at this stage. There's so much layering going on right now. It's really hard to know that. And sometimes you have to make a wrong choice to get it. And by the way, you guys, that's okay. I voted for people like, oh, I thought it should, you know, and I was wrong. Or I felt I was wrong. Well, and DC corrupts people, you know, it sucks them in there and turns good people into shitty ones. And that's why I believe in term limits, you guys, if you want to get really political, I believe some of this higher up power that's happening. I believe in big dominoes to make changes. So as far as this, I'll call it the politics on either side, craning this huge hate on a variety of levels, economically, health-wise, worldwide, it doesn't matter, starts with term limits. And I will say, I'm not even sure, because I'm not that well versed in politics. How could we get that? And finance reform, right thing. So I find it as a close to me, yeah, for sure, close second, if not right out there. But we need term limits, not only because it starts degrading people at that level, but it also keeps them on the toes for the right reasons. Right. They know they haven't been on making this up, everyone, four years to get stuff done. They're not going to be waiting to kind of do ridiculous, all this other stuff that happens in DC. So I believe all both sides, everything, you know, I would say, you know, get rid of everyone, so to speak, I'm just being funny about that. But, you know, in make term limits, and I think that would improve truth, honesty, integrity to a certain extent. I'm not saying you guys, it's going to be a one shot. Magic button. There's still a lot of power concentration there. But I will say this, everyone, you know, at this point, I think on both sides, if you want to call it, we're done with the lies, we're done with this, this weird pandemic. And I will say even people that were believing in mass before, I will say a lot of my colleagues that were on the other side, but they're like, we're done. Like this is done. We're seeing it's not matching what's going on. Everyone's done. Everyone's waking up and everyone on both sides. You guys is seeing, I'm going to be honest, the lie. And so what's happening is more people like many of my colleagues are saying from business owners, like restaurants, gyms are saying, we'll let you do what you want to do. We're rising, and we're going to take that chance. They're not going to rat on us, whatever. And we're going to stay open and let it be your choice if you want one. And I've heard it from their mouth. So, and honestly, I think that's phenomenal. If it's your truth, I'm like, great. It's so brave. It takes so much bravery these days. Listen, I didn't wear a mask last year at all in my practice. I'm just going to be honest there. And the people that were drawn to me were willing to see me for that. Well, and you're so tuned into your body that you would know probably if you were sick. So, and that's one of the outcomes I wanted to see from this COVID thing was like it might motivate our nation full of fatties that take a pill for every problem that maybe just getting like actually healthy might be better. 100%. And let me tell you guys, we got a vaccine for that instead. No, well, exactly. And we have so many other things that people, you guys, I mean, we could talk about this for hours, but there's so many things that we are dying from that have nothing to do. Right. Yeah, in Africa, there's about a hundred deaths per million. Yeah. But their baseline is 10,000 deaths per million. Exactly. So it's one hundredth of a percent or something like that of their problem. So they're like, we're having a hard time considering this a huge, just problem. We got a lot more malnutrition killing babies instead of just COVID killing old people. Going back to mental health, you guys, I mean, suicide and depression anxiety has been skyrocketing for years. Right. Last 10 years in particular. That's on teenage girls and stuff. Yeah. It's literally, I mean, what was the number like 200%. I mean, it's skyrocketed last year. We keep ignoring that. Yeah. And I'm not going to school. Well, and God is dead. Yeah. And the government tells me how to do things and make me dance and do the different. Yeah. I mean, you guys need to realize they're making, they're degrading you at the moral level. They're making politics about hating each other. It's, I'm going to say this in summary with politics right now. You guys and I believe things can change as I'm an optimist and a realist. You guys, it's sinister. There's genocide going on in hospitals. Yeah. You guys, there's genocide going in nursing homes. I, you know, that's another story. My mom got sick hospital. It doesn't matter. I got in broken, so to speak. Listen, you guys, there's so much that doesn't make sense. Even if you believed in mass vaccination, I'm going to encourage you. Just take a deep breath and look at the evidence. I would say you, a five year old can figure this out with some of the stuff that's going on. And when I say that, that's not trying to be kind of sending you guys. None of it is making sense on vaccinations, no vaccinations, mass, oh, yes, mass, double mass, it's a medical industrial complex. They're creating the medical complex. And I want all of you to know as far as vaccines and we are a lab experiment. It's a bio weapon and we are a lab experiment. And I actually have evidence. If you guys want to links on this, I have all this, by the way, of what they're putting in the vaccines, including graphing oxide. You guys, it is lethal. It's like putting mercury into a freaking vaccine. Okay. This is not for your health. This is completely financial, political. And I, you guys, I have so much research on this. If you want to know what's in these vaccines, I am actually treating people with protocols that have had the vaccine. They're having huge massive side effects. You guys, and they were keeping this quiet first. This is real. And it's just like anything. It's going to affect some more than others. This, this shit is real. There's genocide going on. And I'm going to be an extremist about that, because I actually care that you guys get this and that you wake up from these higher ups that are playing you. We are a lab experiment right now. Wake up. You know, be the lion right now. Be the person that's not going to wear the mask. When enough people do it, you guys, they have to back down. They're throwing the kitchen sink at the wall because they're getting that you're getting it. They're like, oh, they're not as stupid as we thought they were. And I mean that, you guys, if they think you're stupid, just a light and ignorant and worried about looking at your phone and how many likes you have instead of looking at is your sovereignty being taken away. You know what I'm saying? I actually just sent a sign to Alma to ask her to pretty it up and print it tomorrow that we care about you and your bodily sovereignty. This office will be a mask optional zone. And please don't come in if you're sick or been around somewhere that's sick. And then that's great. And by the way, everyone with these statements that I'm making, I encourage anyone to DM me and go live with me because I want to hear your story. If you have an opposite opinion, this is how we learn. I don't say that in a like an aggressive way. You can even come on the local experience podcast. We'll have some spirited debate. I would I love that. And I mean that, everyone and I when I when I debate, I want to, you know, I come in love because if you do have an opposite because I do have a strong opinion on this and I have evidence backing a lot of what I'm saying, then maybe you do too. And I've anybody that reaches out to me that has a different opinion. Like I would love to go live with you so far. No one's taking me up on it. Fair enough. Well, I think we got more than I've argued for the political side of let's talk about your family. Like who do you consider family? We've talked about your sister. You got a twin. And are your parents still around? Yep. So I, I want to say unfortunately or maybe in some ways, I got the blessing to to watch my stepdad and my dad and my sister die of cancer. I actually held my sister's hand as she passed to the next life. So I've had a lot of loss that all happened within several years. My stepdad and my older sister were six weeks apart in 2018. So, you know, I've experienced a lot of loss. But I will say this, I believe people that have had that intense of a loss have an edge. Yeah. And the reason why I say that, I live with a very big sense of urgency. And I don't mean as an anxiety like I have to live each day like I, I mean it. I had a friend say to me a couple weeks ago, you really live each day. And I started crying. I'm like you don't know how much that is the biggest compliment you could give me. And so with that being said, with my biological physical family, it was very close to both my stepdad and my dad and very close to my older sister. It was hard, but I've been very blessed to be very close in that deep connection with family. Obviously very close with my twin sister. And the irony is, she's very polar opposite of me, which is just hilarious because she's kind of like sometimes my divine adversary. But I love her, but we've had ironically, my twin and I, more of a tumultuous adult relationship because we're so opposite. And as we've grown and gotten through our wounds and grown up as she beings, we're now close to her. Starting to see the value of being oppositely here. We're like the mirror twins, divine adversary, but we're very close, and I'm very close with my mom. She's probably the strongest person I know. Everybody says that. She's a true warrior that's such a resilient heart. She's been through a lot of loss. She lost her dad at age 16 of her dad. You know, she's had a lot of loss. I mean, it's, it's never normal to bury your child. It's not supposed to happen that way, right? So to see her rise, she got COVID, you know, to see, and she's had so many different things, but she is risen. And I will say this about my biological, my blood family. I'm really proud of all of them. We all have our issues. We've all had our pitfalls, but I have to say, I'm very proud. You know, I've gone through tough times with each of them and fights and just like siblings do. But overall, I'm really proud of who they are, who they've become that they're really good people in this world. But I will say that, you know, I'm single. Someday I will be married, but it's given me an opportunity to create an extended family. I would say your friends are the family you choose, right? So to me, I'm an introvert, so I'm very picky with friends, but I have to tell you, I have had such, through all my stages in life, God has brought to me amazing, like exceptional men and women to challenge me, to love me, to connect with me, to forgive me, to just lift my spirits to help me lift theirs. I've had, and I've been, so I'm so grateful for truly blessed extended family and friends. As a single woman, I've been able to expand that maybe a little bit more and use my gifts in different ways because I don't have that energy space for children, whatever, but my, my joy is really in that connection to my extended family. So, my family is very important to me, both my biological and my extended family, and I gain a lot of energy and resources from them, and I believe they would price the same about me. So I love family. It's so important to have that deep connection to people that you can be authentic with, vulnerable, trust, and when you have that anchor, it makes things easy like stepping in courage. So, a single and unattached is that true right now on the marketplace? Yes, you know, I'm currently actively dating, but still no one is serious at this point, but that's an exciting space. Tell me one or two words that describe the person that you're likely to marry. He will be a leader for sure, but very opposite of me. You know, I lead from stage, he leads from the background. I will say that, but definitely someone that has a higher calling as well, because we do have to show that someone that values wellness on all platforms, someone that loves my family. And probably the biggest thing that they will have, and people think that's not nothing, but it suits me, is that he fully sees hears and knows me and accepts all of it. Yeah. And that's a beautiful thing. When you meet someone like that, I think that creates a lot of power in you and vice versa. So I'm open to it and you never know. It's still that we have another three months for the quarter. You never know what might happen. Yeah, we'll share your website and LinkedIn stuff at the end of this interview. So that's great. I loved hearing that, and I was just reflecting on how I can definitely say that about my wife of, you know, now 19 years, and we also don't have any children. And so kind of the same thing, I get this, my living legacy of some sorts is these podcasts, it's local think tank and the joys I get through that. I want to hear about your local experience, the crazy experience that you'd like to share with our audience, whether it be business journey, personal journey, track victories, whatever that is when I say that. Yeah, you know, the crazy experience, I will say this about, like Fort Collins, it is a very special space. It's like one degree of separation. When you're in your truth, your message, your personality, your gifts, your being spreads like wildfire fires. So I will say in that sense from a personal and business sense, it has been easy. But it's been crazy because I started with my brick and mortar Watson wellness, which is obviously my integrative PT practice, but I knew my ultimate goal was coaching speaking. So trying to bridge this gap and, you know, you're kind of pivoting and who am I really and my Watson wellness and my general, what exactly my coach and my PT person. I was literally in this evolution moving here, but I have to say it was crazy, but the people here met me where I'm at, they're like, I get it, you know, and then they, you know, challenge me, which I love like, well, I don't get it. That's not very clear, Jean, what's your message? I'm like, I'm not sure because I'm struggling with that because I'm in this, but I would say the craziness serving a PT patient and they're like, hey, maybe you should coach me and you're like, exactly, exactly. So I was in this massive transition. So it's been crazy ride with that, but I have felt really supported by people with this ride of this transition, this transcendence to something different. So that would be honestly my crazy experience. If you want to call it, it's just kind of moving to this new space of impact that have been a little bit, I don't want to say wishy words, but kind of like, oh, I'm not sure to move or how to message it and stuff. People just met me where I'm at and I've just met amazing people here, amazing people through the experience. Like it's almost like every kind of goes to the crazy and they're like, yeah, whatever. You're one of us, you know, so I have felt really embraced by the community. I have family that still lives here. My older sister's kids, not in Fort Collins, but like a loved one area, and my older brother and his family. So I have family here too. So I get to connect with them, my twin and my mom and her family still live in Virginia Beach, but I spread my time often between the two. But it's been nice to fan this other side of me with this, my family in this side, because I don't only come for vacations or whatever. So to see my nieces and nephews grow up, and I'm always the favorite on because I'm the single one that can do things with them and spoil them, but it's been really fun. So it's been fun. It has been crazy because it's been this transcendence for me of going into a new space of identity of being, but I felt really loved and supported. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and the cobbler's kids often suffer for shoes. Yes. Yeah. That is such a great phrase, but it's so true, right? That's hilarious. I love it. I love it. Jennifer, why don't you tell the people that are listening where to find you, what your socials, your website, all the stuff, and then we'll give a good sign off. Absolutely. So I'm the most active on Instagram at the Jennifer Watson. And then LinkedIn and Facebook are close second. And that's Jennifer Watson leadership. That's my company name. And I answer my own DMs. If you guys have any questions for me, don't hesitate to do that or email me, get that for my contact information on Jennifer Watson leadership.com. And I do have new programs coming up, both for one-on-one in group that I'm elevating it to the next level. Like I said, I'm always trying to challenge you guys and meet you where you're at. And my new program is the your, your living legacy project. And we really dial it into where you're at trying to filter through the noise, dial in where you want to be with your deeper purpose and get the action steps to get there. And it's been really fun for me to create this. It's my labor of love project. And it's been what I've been waiting for, but it had to be the perfect timing. So if you guys have questions about that, definitely connect with me. But no matter what, I just am here to serve and make sure you guys live the life you want to live on purpose. I think that's great. And like, it just sets up that that life of legacy. You've said that so many times. So it tells me that you're moving into even better the truth that you've been working on. Yes, thank you so much Kurt. It's been great being here. It's been super. Thanks much. Thank you for listening to today's episode of the Local Experience Podcast. This is your host, Kurt Bear, and founder of the Local Think Tank. If you or someone you know would be a great guest for our show, or if you'd like to learn more about our small business owner, pure advisory chapters at Local Think Tank, please visit our website at localthinktank.com or email us at connect at localthinktank.com. That's LOCOthinktank.com. If you've been enjoying this series, don't forget to subscribe. We love great reviews on Apple podcasts or wherever you're listening. And don't forget, always keep it LOCO.