0:00:01 - Betsy Jordyn
So are you a consultant or coach and you want to optimize your performance in everything that you do to grow your business and get clients? Well, spoiler alert, what you're not going to do to get higher performance is just keep doing more. It's more about taking care of yourself, and you're going to find out more about this on this episode of the Enough Already podcast. And welcome to the Enoughay podcast and welcome to the Enough Faraday podcast. This is the show for consultants and coaches who want to forge their own path to success in their careers and in their lives.
I'm your host, betsy Jordan, and I am a business mentor and I'm a brand strategist for consultants and coaches and their unique strengths. So everything that I do is all about helping people really activate their best at strengths and their authentic passions and bring them all to bear to help them put it all together into a business model and really compelling messages that draw in and attract clients. But today, what I really want to talk about is a really important element that's involved with really creating your business dreams and your productivity, and that is all about dialing into your self-care. So what are you going to do to take care of all of you and to help us out with this conversation. I'm bringing on the show Julie Griffin, so she is an amazing coach that helps really high achieving people, specifically women who are in executive positions, to prioritize self-care and use that as a key way to optimize their performance. So she sees the connection in a very unique way. I'm so excited to have her on the show. Welcome, julie, I'm so thrilled to have you here.
0:01:46 - Julie Griffin
Thank you, Betsy. I'm thrilled to be here.
0:01:57 - Betsy Jordyn
So let's get into the conversation about self-care. So what is self-care and what is the relationship?
0:02:02 - Julie Griffin
between self-care and optimal performance. Yeah, self-care is kind of a bad word these days. It all feels a little selfish. Right to take a look at your priority list and try to put yourself at the top to people, just in general, because there's just so much to do in our busy lives today. So self-care is anything that's going to nourish you. It's anything that's going to make you feel physically, mentally, spiritually healthier, and it can be in the form of getting enough sleep and not just enough hours in bed, but actually achieving your REM and your deep sleep like you need to. And it can be stress management. We all are right, overwhelmed in our lives today and there is no end to the things that we have to accomplish, and it's stressful. So how do we manage that stress? Nourishment in terms of food. Food is medicine and, specifically, with my coach training with respect to functional medicine, it's so key that what we put in our bodies is so important. A calorie is not a calorie. I am not a nutritionist, but I can tell you that a can of Coke and a head of broccoli, right, is going to do very different things to your body. So self-care could be mindfully choosing that broccoli versus the can of Coke, so to speak.
And movement, physical movement in some shape or form. It could be a walk, it could be yoga, it could be breathing exercises, for example. It could be, you know, your regular running and cardio, weightlifting, that type of thing, but it doesn't have to be a specific thing. That is a thing, so to speak. I don't like the way I said that, but it doesn't have to be a huge event in someone's life. You can move all day long. After this call, I'll probably do some high knee steps, because I've been sitting here for two hours just incorporating some movement in your life and just taking the time to here and there to care for yourself. That's self-care.
0:04:43 - Betsy Jordyn
Yeah, it's interesting, as I hear you talking about this is. I kind of have this visualization as, like consultants and coaches, like we're all head people, you know, we always are thinking and creating for a living. Like that's what we do, our ideas are what we monetize, and it sounds like what you're talking about is, instead of nurturing our brains, we nurture our bodies. Like that's everything I heard. And and recognizing that our bodies actually play a role in what we're able to create with our heads is that.
0:05:12 - Julie Griffin
I don't know if I'm getting into it, but if that's something that you're saying yeah, absolutely.
If you're physically not able to move your body and get up off the ground and walk from the car to the office building without breathing really heavily, guess what? You're probably not thinking clearly either. And there is a huge advantage of being physically fed and taking in the right kinds of foods to fuel your physical body and that brain connection and being able to perform better and cognitively think at a higher level and more clearly, and therefore you're performing better at work, you're performing better as a mom, as a wife, as a friend. It goes all 360 throughout your life.
0:06:09 - Betsy Jordyn
So okay. So what you're saying, then is our mental fitness is has a direct correlation with our physical fitness, that these you can't. You can't be mentally fit without being physically fit.
0:06:21 - Julie Griffin
I would. I would definitely say that I think people get by. I think people can be strained and give it their all and get by, but to be fully and fully optimized as a high performing executive, a high performing executive eventually it's going to wear you down if you don't have the physical stature to have the energy and the connection to your cognitive processes to think more clearly about what you do and how you do it at work. So, yeah, I think there is definitely a connection and there's a lot of research out there that talks about the brain gut access axes and how incredibly important it is your gut health is to being able to think clearly. And I think you can take that to just physical health in general and I've experienced it myself when I've not been healthy and when I have been more physically healthy, and what a big difference that makes to my energy levels, my ability to lead and ability to perform at work.
0:07:43 - Betsy Jordyn
Yeah, I had somebody on the show who is a gut health expert, in fact a. I had somebody on the show who is a gut health act expert. In fact. I'll put in the show notes my act, my interview with her, which is one of my most popular of all, of the all the podcasts that I've done, which I think is interesting that this must be like.
This new insight that we're having is that access between like you know, and it's like we say trust our gut, you know. So there is something about like I trust my gut. There's something about like you know, this inner core of me, you know, and that connection. So that makes a lot of sense and when you're talking about it, I can see it's like as myself, as a high achieving woman, like I've I've danced around burnout in many different times. Oh, I also have podcasts on burnout, so I'll put links to those podcasts too in the show notes. But I've had this like ongoing dance and I think what's interesting, you know, for me it's just like these 70 hour work weeks, like this insanity of like I mean, I think what's interesting is like I hit burnout twice, one when I was internal and I left Disney to start my own business, in part because of that and the crazy work weeks. And then what I did the same thing is, I then recreated my career in my business and I was working just as hard as I was before.
You know, and I think that there's something about like this misconception so let's talk a little bit about the misconceptions around like self-care. Is that there's something about it that you know? I don't know if it's like high achievers, like we have performance addiction, you know, and it's really hard for us to just take care of our bodies, or you know, what is it about us that makes it really hard, you know, and that we choose it. You know, I chose. I chose maybe because I wasn't as conscious, like when I left Disney. I just thought, okay, well, it's crazy work hours, I want to have balance, so, just because I'm home, I'm having balance. But then I just went and recreated the whole thing all over again. So what is that that keeps us high achievers from? Hey, you know what You're, you're getting overwhelmed, you're doing too much work. Focus on that Another aspect of yourself, nurture that other aspect. Why can't we do it? Why is it so hard for us?
0:09:48 - Julie Griffin
Yeah, I think there may not be a compelling reason. Right, You're getting by, you're doing fine, you don't know otherwise. And I think change really occurs when somebody is faced with a monumental issue, Something that is, you know, a chronic disease or a heart attack, or what is that compelling reason that says, oh, you have to stare at yourself in the mirror and figure out what do I need to do so I don't die or have to live with insulin injections or whatever is the case, or you know whatever is the case. So you know, Betsy, you probably don't. You never had that compelling reason, right, and so it never, Until I hit clinical burnout.
0:10:35 - Betsy Jordyn
Yeah, exactly, then I had a reason.
0:10:38 - Julie Griffin
Sure, but it is. Yeah, it's not until that time that you really pause and understand the importance of taking care of yourself. And that it's a shame, because I think we all know what we should do, right, but it's the prioritization that doesn't happen. It's it's always at the end. And I think health coaching there's some studies on the neuroscience of coaching, and I think coaching is very helpful for people to engage in those changes in lifestyle behaviors because you have an accountability partner.
Behaviors because you have an accountability partner and you have somebody that asked you the hard questions. Um is brutally honest with you. Um, it's, it's. I'm not here for chit chat, right? I am here to help you embrace change and make change in your life so that you can, um, make change in your life so that you can feel like you can do more at work and more at home. And so I think the accountability piece is really important and a lot of times people say, well, I can hold myself accountable and some people do. I'm not saying nobody does, but it's really hard when faced with all the pressures of life and traditions and family and friends and social scenes, so it gets really a lot of. A lot of things get in the way of that, so it doesn't stay top of mind.
0:12:22 - Betsy Jordyn
Well, especially if you got like a performance achievement addiction, you know you do need outside support to break free of that because it's protecting you in some way, you know.
So, speaking of like needing to have something that makes a change when you. The reason how you and I got connected is I was on LinkedIn and one of our mutual dear friends posted your post about your business and I'm like this girl's got a story. You know, like I got to find out her story because you came from a total rewards HR senior leadership role at I believe you were at Darden before you transition. I'm like this girl's got a story, so you can you tell us a little bit more about your story around? How did you go from being a high achieving executive with you know? And if our mutual friend is Sarah King, so I interviewed her on the podcast, I'm going to add her to the list of what's going to be in the links in the show notes. She's an amazing leader. You probably had an amazing experience there, but something happened that got you to want to start your own business.
0:13:36 - Julie Griffin
Yeah, um, it's so, achieving um goals and high performance. I mean that my bar is set incredibly high. It has been for all my life. Maybe it's been my older sister who was valedictorian and I felt like I had to compare. You know that that drove me in that way.
But when I when I landed the job at Darden, I lived in Omaha, nebraska, and I had a senior in high school that was graduating and I had a freshman in high school and I was faced with a choice to take this job and move from Omaha, nebraska, to Orlando. And we as a family decided that would be a good move for us. And at the time Darden was going through the, the leftover of being taken over by a board. So there was a ton of work, especially in the total reward space executive comp, that had to be cared for. And so for four months, five months, I commuted back and forth because I told my kids you can finish your school year and we'll move, you know, at the end of the summer. And so, yeah, you talk about 70, 80 hour work weeks. Um, definitely easy to check that off Um and um. I wanted to prove it was a bigger role for me and I wanted to prove that I was completely able to do it, um, so I really put my all into it, um, and that just set the stage for you know who Julie is and what you can count on. So that bar never dropped, it always raised, and so it was all constantly chasing a new performance kind of level, and that really wears on you.
At the same time I started having menopause issues and perimenopause and I remember one day I was presenting in a board meeting and had kind of a big part, and I'm here presenting this piece. I was confident about the topic and I had a hot flash, and it wasn't just a small one, it was I bet these guys can see me sweating and I just it became an issue, these hot flashes. I couldn't sleep and it was really waning on me to be able to, you know, perform at the level that I had shown I could perform at. And so it was. It was that health journey that my conventional doctor said Well, we can get you, you know, put you on synthetic drugs and help you out with that.
But I didn't accept that as an answer and started doing my own research into functional medicine and became pretty much a podcast junkie and reader of all things functional medicine, and decided that I wanted to help people understand that there are answers that are, you know, lifestyle behaviors that can help people. You don't have to just take a pill if you have a chronic disease. And so it was that passion around spreading awareness and the desire to be more credible in how I talked about it to people that made me enroll in a health coaching class. It was a virtual class, and I did so in the fall before I left Arden. Unbeknownst to me, my job was eliminated in January a couple years ago, and so that really the silver lining there was.
I was free to pursue that passion and not just skim the surface right and take that virtual course and really understand how functional medicine is such a incredible alternative to conventional medicine that that really helps chronic disease. You have diabetes. Guess what? It's not forever, you can reverse it, guaranteed Um. People don't think about it that way. And so that journey to be um, journey to become certified health coach Then I became board certified last July and I said, well, I want to help people.
What's the best way to do this? And I wasn't sure that I wanted to actually coach. But now that I'm coaching and I can feel the impact on people's lives and just this week I had somebody say I want to do this because she's a CEO of a company, new CEO and she not only wants to improve her own health so that she can perform better, but she wants to be kind of a catalyst to the people she leads and the community she serves to impact their lives positively as well. And that just you know that. That makes me really happy that I have a part in that impact.
0:18:58 - Betsy Jordyn
You know there's so many cool things to follow up on, and what you just talked about Like one is the catalyst that got you to move. There's like two out of like actually those are the two main ones that I see in working with clients that get them to actually move and start their own consulting or coaching business. I would love to say we do this because we just have vision. It's like, oh, we just want to be an entrepreneur, we always wanted to be our own boss. We've dreamt it forever. We just decided to take action. Not really happened. It doesn't happen that way. It's either one physical thing, like burnout, like you were talking about, which where you were experiencing health systems, and that was a catalyst for you, and then the big one is a job change of some kind, either a job redefinition that would ultimately lead into a job loss, or a job loss of some kind, and I love that. You just effortlessly said, okay, well, this happened, and now this is a silver lining. And the other thing that you said I think is also important is that you built a business.
There's like two kinds of expertise. There's the expertise that you have formally, like you could have gone in and said I'm going to do a consulting business and I'm going to go into companies and help them create total rewards program that allows them to attract and retain great talent. And you could have done that you know as your business. But you went ahead and built a business around, like your passion area, which is another expertise that you developed out of your own personal experience in dealing with your own health symptoms, and then the degree that you had and that you went in that direction. What gave you? A lot of people at that particular crossroads would say I'm going to go the safe route. The safe route would have been to go and do total rewards consulting, but you went with this route that was newer to you. So what gave you the courage to say, yes, I want to go in this direction and I trust myself and I trust my. I don't, I trust with that I'll be able to create success out of this.
0:20:51 - Julie Griffin
Well, I heard you say it was effortless and it was absolutely not effortless. Okay, there was a journey behind it and it took a lot of soul searching to really understand what I wanted to do.
0:21:06 - Betsy Jordyn
Yeah, I could probably have gotten another total rewards job and but I really or been a total rewards consultant and still try to have your lifestyle balance, and you could have still done that the wellness thing you know while you were doing that, but you went all in that way. Yeah, so good, sorry.
0:21:25 - Julie Griffin
Yeah, I, you know, I, because my passion is more around helping women to know that there are other options and that they can change and that there is a better life for them. Um, and that was a much bigger passion than creating an incentive plan design, yeah, um, and, and that gave me more joy, more um, uh, gratitude around what I knew, so that I could share that with other people, and it just became eventually a no brainer of this is. This is what God's calling me to do, and I have to fulfill that.
0:22:09 - Betsy Jordyn
I love that. That's exactly how I look at it is this is what I'm being called to do, like I think a lot of times that we think like a calling. It is like, but it's a listening, you know. Call at the root word of vocation, you know, is to call, which means there's like a hearing, like no, this is what I'm being drawn to do, this is what needs me, not necessarily what I want to do, but there's a big need out here and now I feel compelled to fill it. And I love that you're seeing this mission come to light, because if this CEO takes your message seriously, like, let's just play out the impact that this is going to have, because she's going to carry the message of wellness, so she's not going to create a work environment where she's expecting her employees to do the work of two, three, four people.
And I think that's part of where the challenges are in our world of work right now is that there's a lot of things that are in place that are total violation of of our nature, like when I was telling you about when I left Disney, they replaced me with three people. I was doing the work of three people, you know, but it's like I didn't, you know, I was like, okay, they keep adding more stuff to my plate and you know, and you keep saying yes, and there is some to me. There's a a a tragedy that's going on in the work world where, because of you know, layoffs, post pandemic or what have you, people are doing all of this extra work. That's why workloads are so heavy, is that we're not staffing up properly and you just created a scenario with a CEO who, I imagine, when she takes this seriously for herself, she's going to create that work environment that doesn't have those violations of our nature which is really cool.
0:23:49 - Julie Griffin
Yeah, I mean, that is one, I hope, positive outcome of that particular relationship and any that I have. I hope a positive outcome of that particular relationship and any that I have um, just the awareness and understanding of um, the fact that you support your team in a way that um helps them thrive physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, you're going to get so much more out of that person than if you were to just continue to, you know, pile on in a way that is unrealistic. And I do think that now I've been out of the corporate world for a couple years but I have a lot of friends in the corporate world and I do think that companies are beginning to recognize that and understand this connection of health and performance. I did a lot of research and interviews with executive women's and it came out. So I think the awareness is beginning to take traction and I think eventually more and more change will occur. But you know as well as I do, as inflation costs and companies have pressures to meet streets. You know street expectations. You know they're going to look really closely at the short term things that make an ROI right, not necessarily the soft and smushy things that make people feel good, right.
So I do have hopes that companies are turning the corner. It's slow, it's kind of like a big cruise ship trying to make a course correction right. It happens in time but it takes quite a while. But the more people that are talking about the ability to change and provide support to make those changes and evoke kind of that transformation within yourself by asking really good questions, listening intently, having confidence in that person to be able to change and really leaning into the strengths that they bring to the table, is really powerful and it it drives change. Um, so the health coaching um model, and particularly within functional medicine, specifically around lifestyle behavior change, is very effective and I'm really excited to be able to continue to impact lives. Um, my vision is to impact those lives and then have those women be catalysts for change throughout their leadership and their communities. So eventually we're just going to be like you know, utopia will be everybody's just beautifully healthy right.
0:26:55 - Betsy Jordyn
Well, you know, and that's where sometimes we think like short-term gain over a long-term sustainability. You know, I picture, like we mentioned Disney, you know, and I I remember, you know, taking my kids, that you know, to Disney, of course, all the time, when they were little, you know, but if they are like overtired, you know they're not going to enjoy anything. And same thing with, like employees. You know, like if we are trying to do too much, and I wonder, like when you think about like a quite we could talk about out there, like the changes that we as consultants and coaches want to make in corporations and how things are operating, and we all know that, but then how do you apply that?
Like you're a CEO now of your own company, you know how do you live this mission and you're, if you're my audience, are consulting, consulting and coaching business owners, like how would you suggest that they take their, their, the role that self-care plays in their own performance, and and what? And your own performance as a business owner, because you could be working 24, seven if you wanted. You know. So how, what are the, what are the tips that you would have for them?
0:27:51 - Julie Griffin
That's a really good call out and it's something you have to constantly remind yourself. Have it be top of mind. So, when I first started this business, I had specific goals and intentions for myself personally that when I left the corporate world, um, I enjoyed, um the the time for self-care and and I really um I had self-care habits in the past that really have um fine-tuned those in a way that make them more habitual, and so I first and foremost my priority. I know that I don't do well unless I get my physical activity in and in the mornings, whether that's running or strength training, and couple that with, you know, 10 minutes of meditation just to clear my mind and be um present for the people that I serve the rest of the day. So that is is really important.
Um, and as I just launched last December, um, I'm not full-time and I don't intend to go full-time. So I have the luxury to be able to say that, um, I'm going to hopefully earn full-time. So I have the luxury to be able to say that I'm going to hopefully earn full-time salary. But I'm going to be very choiceful around who I choose as clients, that I don't underprice my services or undervalue what I have to offer, because I could probably do a whole host of you know I probably fill my calendar up if I was willing to charge at a fraction as what I'm doing today, but that would completely violate all of the intentions and goals that I set aside for myself personally. So I would just say that it's really important to understand what your goals are and be very intentional about writing them down and putting them down in terms of self-care.
What is it that is going to drive my performance? Is making sure I set aside time for self-care. What is it that is going to drive my performance? Is making sure I set aside time for self-care. Realizing that and then putting forth some intentional goals around that on a weekly basis, putting it in your schedule and I think people will find that even high. Achieving individuals that feel like they have to be 24 seven. You can accomplish so much more in that timeframe If you're sound of mind, if you feel good physically, if you have energy. You slept well the night before, just like you know your kids that are overtired. You're not going to go ask them to do their homework when they're having a tantrum at Disney, right?
So how do you expect yourself to be your best and perform your best if you're overtired and have no energy and have not taken time for self-care? So it's a long-term investment and it's a positive spiral, right. It takes time and it only, it only it can start if you haven't started with self-care. It's just one thing. It's it's building one habit, one moment at a time and being intentional about it, and the momentum and that positive spiral really builds once you see success. And there will be absolutely I don't call them failures, but pauses in progress, and that's an opportunity to say why did I pause, what did I learn and experiment with something different that works for you. But I guarantee you through all of that, if you're intentional and you do start, that you're going to not have to work as much because you're going to be more effective.
0:32:07 - Betsy Jordyn
You're giving me like a thousand thoughts as you were going through your description of what it is, and one of the first things that I do with my clients when we get started on their brand building work is we talk about setting intentions, and the first thing is is what is your business supposed to create, not just for your career, but for your life, you know. And what is it supposed to look like? You know, design your perfect day, month, year, you know. And then what? Then? Build that in your calendar. First, because I tell people all the time too, because what I did wrong when I first started my business is my intention was I wanted to be present with my kids, but then I had a bunch of mentors who would tell me like, oh, you're doing great, because my first 18 months I went from zero to 300,000. I got podcasts on that, whatevs. But then they're like W revenue, w revenue. So I got caught up in this competition and you know, and I'm sitting here having this existential crisis because, yeah, I'm. I'm like I'm in on an international assignment, my kids are home with a nanny. I was living somebody else's dream. So think like thing one is what you're talking about like set those intentions and make them really clear before you start being successful. You know, and and put it in there before, because you could easily lose sight of it in the context of success. The second thing that I heard you say is own your worth seriously, you know, and it's not just a self care type of thing, but it's like own your worth, you know, so that you can maximize every dollar that you ever I mean maximize every hour that you're working on your business. So that seems to be like bucket number two I would add in, and I'd love to get your feedback on.
Bucket number three is take how you're wired seriously. You know, like what does this really mean and what do you really need in order to be successful? Like, so, for example, for me, I'm a I definitely am much more of an introvert. I need lots of time alone. I built a business model where you know my interaction with people you know doesn't, you know, has some degrees of barriers. You know where I have and I have plenty of time for myself. You know where I can have time to think, because that's what replenishes me.
I got other clients who are super extroverted and if they built a digital business, they would just like be depressed all the time, you know. So it seems like take your wiring seriously and build those self-care routines that make you your best self. It doesn't look like everybody else's, you know. For you, 10 minutes of meditation, you know would work. You know somebody else might be is, you know would work, you know somebody else might be. Is, you know, going to play golf every, you know, couple times a week? That's what they need, and so it seems like take yourself seriously. Does that sound?
0:34:45 - Julie Griffin
Yeah, absolutely. And you touched on something that's really important and that is the personal personalization. You know we're all very unique, made up very differently from one another, and so, you know, keeping up with the Joneses and oh, this person across the street, they run, you know, five times a week and I got to do that too. Maybe that just doesn't serve you well. And so really understanding what do you, what brings you joy as part of that self-care, is really important, because otherwise it won't happen. And so personalizing your own approach, experimenting, getting real curious about oh gosh, you know I've heard a lot about pickleball and I think I would really like that and trying to know.
If you hate it, then you don't have to do it again. You don't have to feel, um, obligated to stick in with that. It doesn't mean failure just because you tried it and didn't like it. Um, that's an experimental mindset and being really curious and creative about how you fulfill those self-care goals. That, ultimately, is going to make you feel better. That's what the goal is. Yeah, not to check the box.
0:36:06 - Betsy Jordyn
And I think the other thing that I would add to our conversation is that, as you're making this shift from employee to entrepreneur, you might've been used to a nine to five, monday through Friday, nine to five ish, you know, core kind of schedule. Nine to six or what have you? When you have your own business, you could choose when you want to work. I mean, if you have like client delivery that covers over like certain business hours, cool. But you know, if you're a night owl and that's the best time for you to, you know, do your marketing, write your social media posts, create your content cool, do that, you know. Or you could look at your week more holistically, like my daughter asked me the other day, you know, if I wanted to spend the afternoon. She wanted to go, you know, get something to eat, go to the library, have a chill day. I'm like, oh well, I could look at my calendar. So I'm like I got some time and tomorrow afternoon she's working on Saturday, you know. So why not? I could take, I could work, I could work on Saturday, I don't have to, or I don't have to work at all. But I choose to do that and no harm, no foul, Like my clients aren't going to lose their minds If I say, hey, I I'm out of the office right now. I'll get back to you, like they'll get it, you know, if you're working with someone.
And I think that that's one of the things that we forget about when we're our business owners is we have control. We leave like my take on, everything that we're talking about here is we leave corporate and or our employment, our jobs to have control over our careers through having our own businesses and then we cede control to our clients. I think that's where I lose my mind on people when they want to chart by the hour. I haven't been an hourly worker since I was like 20 something years old. I'm like don't be an hourly worker, don't be tied to your hours, don't let your income be tied to your hours. It goes completely against the whole control over your career thing.
And we get to decide. We get to decide what our self-care looks like. We get to decide what our personal lives look like. I think what you're talking about is have a personal life, not just a career. Have a personal life and have that personal life be fulfilling. That's the self-care you know. Personal life and have that personal life be fulfilling, that's the self-care you know. Personal life, that's fulfilling with your body and all of that other stuff. But we get to decide. So you know, do you agree with me that you know we have control, we could choose or do you feel?
like oh well, you know scarcity, I just got to do whatever you know no, no, I absolutely agree with you.
0:38:33 - Julie Griffin
Um, you have the power of change. So you've changed from moving in a corporate world to starting your own business, and that control to your point doesn't stop just because you have clients that you have to service right and support, you should set the rules right. So that's what I'm trying to do as a business is, you know, with the appropriate flexibility, right, but setting the rules right.
So that's what I'm trying to do as a business is, you know, with the appropriate flexibility, right, but setting the rules. This is how, these are the rules of engagement, this is how I'm going to interact with my clients and making sure that I don't shortchange myself. And because I've 30 years of having all of it on my shoulders and feeling like I was sinking into a pit that I couldn't climb out of and you don't feel like you have control because you have a boss to report to, who has expectations. Well, you have expectations of yourself. Certainly, clients have expectations that you have to fulfill.
But if you set those expectations up at front, they can be your rules, your control, and then you can't just let life carry you away. You have to revisit those intentions. Often I have my mission and my vision on, you know, on my wall in front of me, and that helps ground me in terms of what. What am I doing this for? And it's because I love it and I want to spread awareness. But I also want to walk the talk right. I want to be healthy myself so that I can be a good role model and example to to my clients.
0:40:24 - Betsy Jordyn
Yeah, I think that that's really important is a lot of times like we have missions for what we want to create for our clients and we do need to live it. You know, like that's why I get so picky about you know my copy on my website and you know other people like this is where I have a love hate thing going on with chat GPT right now, because my brand is about, you know, messaging and chat GPT is not. That's not the voice that I want to communicate.
So it's like you just got to be congruent and and I love how you've been able to take your business full circle from like total rewards and one type of angle a high achieving woman in the workplace to your business becoming a CEO. But now going backwards almost like completing that hero's journey is going back to where you started and trying to influence these organizations. I think this is amazing because if you can hit these executive women, they will be the catalyst that you're talking about. So the strategy is smart. Can you tell a little bit about like your programs and what you offer, how people can find out about them? I know you have like a unique coaching program where there's like one-on-one stuff and you have like a text aspect of your coaching. Can you talk a little bit about your programs and how people can find them?
0:41:35 - Julie Griffin
Yes, so you can find me on social media LinkedIn, instagram, facebook. I'm most prevalent on LinkedIn because that's where my clients are, and my website is thehealthyearexeccom the packages, or package that I offer. When I was designing what I was going to offer, I really took stock in what people told me with my market research, and that was they wanted something simple, they wanted something flexible and something that didn't take a lot of time, because they have none, and so when I put together the package, it's a 12 session package. I don't care how often you want to meet. If you want to meet every day, great, for 12 days, I'm in. If you want to meet once every three weeks, fine. All I ask is that the engagement for those 12 sessions be completed in a six month period, because we know that if you only did one session of six months, how much change is really going to happen for you, right?
0:42:50 - Betsy Jordyn
Yeah, so it's like in service of what's in the best interest of the client, exactly.
0:42:55 - Julie Griffin
And so during those 12 sessions, however long that takes within that six-month period, I'm available for support via text or phone call. I also personalize the approach. I don't have a bunch of resources on my website because I feel like I don't want to overwhelm people with a bunch of information. I don't want to overwhelm people with a bunch of information, so as we have sessions and things come up that would be relevant to them on research or how-tos or breathing exercise, whatever the resource is then I can supplement that during our journey together, and so that seems to meet the needs of an executive woman that doesn't have a lot of time on her hands and can be flexible enough to fit those sessions in during that period of time, so it's a six month program.
0:43:52 - Betsy Jordyn
You set some goals in the beginning. They can use the 12 sessions whenever they want, but in between those sessions they have access to you and then, when relevant, you give them, like just in time, resources that will help them, you know, to in their journey, depending on where they're at.
0:44:10 - Julie Griffin
Yeah, absolutely, and I think coaching right is about 25% education and 75% support right, and so there is is for people that want to learn more, and sometimes the attitude is I don't know what to do. Just tell me what to do, and I can to a degree, but that coaching relationship coaching client relationship isn't going to work very well because it doesn't come from them, it doesn't come from within. The solution is something that's being handed to them. You know, it's just like having your kids. Okay, go do this. Right. How invested are they in wanting to do that versus would you like to do A, b or C? And they have a choice. So the whole client relationship is going to work much better if it's less instruction and telling them what to do versus evoking what's important to them and the ideas that are living within them. They just have to be pulled out.
0:45:14 - Betsy Jordyn
Yeah, I think that the key here is that you're a coach and you're there to help support them, versus like what I do. I'm a brand messaging strategist and business mentor. I use those words specifically. I also have my ICF clients who are like you're not a coach. I'm like, I'm not pretending to be a coach. I do coaching sessions but my clients don't always come to me because part of it is they want my ability to, you know, put some words around what they're thinking relatively quickly, you know.
So this just being explicit, and I think for you it's like it's, it sounds like really the outcome that your clients will get from your process is really to uncover, like, what self-care looks like and feels like for them and implement them and then, through your coaching and support, it actually becomes a way of life, you know, so that they can achieve that, that performance. But you don't tell them, okay, I think that you know pickleball is for you. You know it's like what do you think about pickleball? And they could decide, and then it's like well, and we'll pick a ball, cause, you know, I think pickleball is like an interesting example, because lots of people are playing pickleball nowadays, but how much is the pickleball just achieving, like the physical thing versus also the social thing, because pickleball has community versus like I can just, you know, go for a walk by myself.
So I like that you are creating these options and really deeply listening to your clients around, like what does self-care really look like to you? And going back to what I was suggesting before, like we got to take ourselves seriously. You know at some point, like this is how I'm wired If I'm longing social interaction, I need, that is self-care Having lunch with a girlfriend, you know, or a guy friend if you're a dude and you want to go, you know, or wherever you know.
0:47:02 - Julie Griffin
I'm not trying to be gender specific, you know that could be self-care, absolutely yeah. And the other thing that I would add, um, what people would get out of this coaching kind of contract, is accountability and um I think I mentioned it earlier, but it just, it, just, it just serves to be reinforced here is we think we can be accountable to ourselves at the end of the day, if we're really being honest and this is what I'm hearing from clients is that they need an accountability partner to really stick those habits right Once they're in place and they're routine, and you know we're good to go, but it is that building of the habit and building momentum and making sure it gets stuck that they need that accountability partner for.
0:47:54 - Betsy Jordyn
That's great, so that I love that and I love your program sounds amazing, um, and I'm just picturing like myself at different burnout points. I'm like gosh, where were you when I needed? So I'm really glad that you created this um I was probably burnt out too. Yeah, you were worth me, we could have been in a support group together yes, there we go so is there anything else that you want to tell me specifically about the connection between self-care and high performance, and I'm just not asking you the right questions.
0:48:27 - Julie Griffin
Well, you've asked me some great questions, betsy. I just I think it's just real easy again to be aware of the fact that, yeah, I know that self-care is going to lead to better performance, but getting just, you know, real intentional about carving out a little bit of time, and it doesn't have to be. It can be five minutes, right, and it can um something that you stack on something else you do on a routine basis. Oh, I'm brushing my teeth. I'm gonna do two push-ups, right, or I'm going to meditate while I brush my teeth, um, or whatever it is, I could do self-care right now.
0:49:13 - Betsy Jordyn
I can move my chair away and I could stand. Yes, perfect perfect example there I'm doing self-care because I can move. Now, while we're talking, I'm doing self-care.
0:49:22 - Julie Griffin
If you want to change I mean you got to want to change, you can, you have the power to do it, and having that mentality and that mindset is really important, but it it will free people to experience a higher level of effectiveness and efficiency at work. It's you could probably point to any number of research articles on that, but my personal experience with it, as well as peers that have fallen in and out of kind of the self-care routine, and knowing that there is a huge difference between the two, so I encourage everyone to just take stock in that and think about what's one thing that they could do to improve their health and wellbeing over the next week.
0:50:29 - Betsy Jordyn
And one of them could be to get your own standing desk. Yes, you know, and the only thing I would add in like so my take on this that I would want to encourage everyone who's listening because you guys are consultants and coaches and you have your own businesses or you want your own businesses is not only you have the power to change what your experience is like and you have the power to take care of yourself. I would say, for you all. You have the control. You are your own boss. You can set your own expectations and you have control and you can make your life look like what you want it to look like. So you don't have to look at what everybody else is doing on social media. It's like, oh, I guess I should do that too, and whatever going on.
You got to figure out what works best for you. Use your strengths in your business to grow it and to market yourself so that everything that you do feels like flow and you can do these little tweaks like we just talked about. You're gonna do the high step and stretch out your leg and your back because you've been sitting. I just got my standup desk, I'm gonna use it, and there's a lot of things that we can do, so this has been so helpful. Thank you so much, julie, for being on the show. This has just been so illuminating in so many different ways and just really great reminders on things that we already know. For those of you who are tuning in, if you like the show, I would love for you to subscribe and, you know, leave me a rating if that works out for you. And until next time, thanks for listening. Thanks, betsy, thank you Julie.
