Time for You: Self-care, Productivity & Time Blocking with Renee Claire- Season 3 Ep 8

 

What if the secret to unlocking your full potential in work and life is as simple as time management and self-care? Join us on a journey as we explore these vital topics with Renee Claire of Renee Claire Consulting. Renee shares her wisdom on preserving energy, setting boundaries, and incorporating self-care into our busy lives. She brings to light the importance of offloading draining tasks, breaking down money-related limiting beliefs, and shares actionable strategies to help women running businesses as well as those with PCOS.

We also dive into the deeper layers of self-care, including setting boundaries and creating routines that prioritize your wellbeing. Renee introduces the concept of time blocking to help with focus, and discusses how childhood trauma can sometimes prevent us from taking care of ourselves. Together, we challenge these narratives and share strategies to foster a lifestyle that prioritizes sleep, movement, and healthy eating.

Amber shares her personal experiences with diets and how our nutritional needs change as we grow older. We discuss the crucial importance of embracing change, learning from mentors, and charging a fair price for services. Above all, we underline the significance of self-care, movement, and sleep in maintaining optimal health and productivity.

Find Renee on instagram @theproductivewp and her website https://www.renee-clair.com/

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Episode transcript:

Speaker 1: 0:40

Welcome back everybody. I’m very excited today We’ve got a great guest. We have Renee Claire of Renee Claire Consulting. Hi, renee, hey, and we’re gonna talk to us today about we’re gonna go over several things. We’re gonna talk about serving energy time, blocking self-care. We’re gonna talk a little bit about some stuff for those of you who are self-employed entrepreneurs or you run small businesses, because Renee has a lot of expertise there and she’s actually helped me quite a bit with my business in the past as well, and we are going to focus a lot of our attention today on some of the things that she really shines at and does best at, which is helping people preserve their energy so that they have enough to give to others, and I think these lessons are applicable to a lot of us. We are gonna talk specifically about some stuff with PCOS as well, with this. So, renee, tell us about you and introduce yourself for us.

Speaker 2: 1:40

Hi everybody. I’m so glad to be back here again. It’s been like a hot minute, but I’m it’s such an honor. So hey, as Amber said, my name is Renee, last name is Claire.

Speaker 2: 1:50

I’m a productivity consultant. I’ve been helping women who are in the growth stage of their small businesses, who feel overwhelmed, disorganized, chaotic and the big whammy. They feel like they can’t breathe. You know, if this is you, I can totally relate. I’ve been there too.

Speaker 2: 2:07

I help women to determine if it’s time to hire help so they can offload tasks that just feel super draining. I teach them how to train their team. I know sometimes it can feel overwhelming or like you feel alone, like you don’t know who to talk to about that kind of stuff. And of course, my cornerstone is time management. I love teaching people time blocking techniques and putting themselves first with time management. I know I geek out on process and project management, so like planning your projects, and then I really excel in marketing and sales strategy. I’ve been working as a project manager in the marketing area for the wellness industry Gosh for like over three years now. It’s pretty incredible. And then I love holding space for people to break their limiting beliefs and, you know, break beyond thinking that they aren’t worth more or can’t make a certain amount of money. So I really love helping women to make their first 100k. So it’s really rewarding to just be there and be a source of light and show people how they can shine their light brighter.

Speaker 1: 3:14

Yeah, I love that. That is exactly what you do. Renee helped me quite a bit at the in the early days of my work, when I was transitioning to being totally virtual and doing more online work and more education work and stuff like that to figure out how to really balance out my needs as a person with my sort of desire to share all of this stuff with the world and limiting beliefs about money as well and how much money I should charge for my services and things like that. So we did a lot of work back then. That has served me very well over the years and I’ve built off of a lot of it and very grateful for the help that she gave me back then. When was that that we worked together? That was like what? 20 maybe, I think. So it’s been a while ago, but you know, I still am implementing a lot of the stuff that we sort of solidified back then.

Speaker 1: 4:11

Before I met Renee, I was already kind of trying to figure out like what does that look like to time block as an entrepreneur? How do I protect my peace, protect my energy? How can I like charge appropriately so that I’m making enough money to support myself to where I have time for myself to you know, and just like getting out of this idea that it always has to be more and more so, anyway, very grateful for all that. So let’s talk a little bit about this stuff. So tell us about what is time blocking? First of all, like people are probably listening, like so what is that?

Speaker 1: 4:43

and how can we use it as a tool for not just our businesses but our health and wellness?

Speaker 2: 4:50

So I started off time blocking well before I was even I even considered myself a productivity consultant. I actually didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. So let me take you back way back, everybody, to 2015, 2016, when I realized that my marriage was over. So it was like rock bottom time and I’m going to my therapist and I’m telling her everything that I’m doing and I’m saying I don’t know why I’m tired, I don’t know why I’m run down, I don’t know I have energy. I don’t have energy for anything. And my people, my friends, are getting mad at me, as well as my coworkers. And she’s like Okay, tell me what’s going on in a week. And so I did.

Speaker 2: 5:30

I was told her I was accidentally double and triple, booking meetings or outings with friends. I was working myself like more. I was working probably 50 to 80 hours at that time and adding in extracurricular activities. And in order to do all that, I wasn’t choosing to sleep and I wasn’t choosing to eat and I wasn’t choosing to exercise. So this wonderful therapist of mine was like Okay, Renee, it’s time you need to write down exactly what you’re doing and you need to focus on these big three things. And I was like what are those? And this is like what I preach and tell people every day today. The three things that you need to make as a priority are eating, sleeping and moving, and if you do those, then you’re having a successful life. And I couldn’t even fathom it because I was like, Well, isn’t my job to show up for other people and work?

Speaker 2: 6:21

and, you know, drive myself into the ground in order to support other people and she’s like no, your life is about you. And I was secretly covering up the pain, you know, and the failure, right, feeling like a total, like failure from my marriage. And I don’t know why I’m still getting emotional about it, you know, because I know I’m now happily engaged.

Speaker 2: 6:42

There’s a happy ending to this story? Yes, so how does that relate to time blocking? Time blocking means just chunking your time and focusing on a task or a group of similar tasks, and so the way that I figured out was important for me was that I needed to create at least two to three hours to focus on myself care. For me, that meant in the morning, right, so I was developing a really routine, and then at night, like making sure I was going to bed at a reasonable hour so I could get my, and I literally have to have eight hours of sleep. Everybody, or I’m just like really cranky and hangry throughout the day.

Speaker 2: 7:20

I think we all need that, yeah, and I’m not thinking it sounds like so, like cryptic and weird. There’s actually Elon Musk. I read an article on him and he time blocks in five minutes. You all, and for me I’ve tried to do 15 minute, five minute time box. I will tell you, as a woman, it doesn’t work. We have to leave room for distractions and the kids popping in and, you know, our friends to call, or for us to have like a squirrel moment where we look out the window and pay attention to something else you know, or we get that fun Instagram reel popping up on our phone yeah, Five minute time.

Speaker 1: 7:55

Boxes cuckoo bananas.

Speaker 2: 7:56

I mean, I guess it works for them.

Speaker 1: 7:59

I could never yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:01

I don’t know. I’m like I do wonder if it’s like a masculine, you know thing and it could work for some like women who have like a little bit more masculine than them. Those are the things that I suggested. People start off with your morning routine. So time block, you know you have a good three hour nurturing time block and focus on like three things you can do for yourself, care and for me. You know, I just said the top three. So this morning, for example, I walked, I had a really nice, lovely like breakfast. That’s 500 calories. I’m working on macronutrients right now. And then I’ve been meditating for years for about 20 minutes a day, but lately I’ve come back to technique called EFT or tapping, and I find that that is just really like catapulting, you know me forward and getting out of these like the yuckiness or pressure anxiety a little more quickly. Is that helpful?

Speaker 1: 8:53

Yeah, that’s great. No, I love that. That makes a lot of sense and I think to illustrate kind of the way that I do it, because I do maybe a little bit differently, but I have blocks of time where I see clients sort of all at once. What I have changed over the years is that I used to try to block all my appointments and client facing work on the same like two days of the week and just kind of knock it all out so that I could rest the rest of the week. And what I realized over time is really a more of a balance with my schedule actually worked better for me. And as I worked on boundaries with myself and how much, how much unnecessary energy I was giving just out of a place of like people pleasing Once I worked on a lot of that, I realized that I didn’t really need to shove everything onto one day of the week so that I could recover all the rest of the week. So now I just, you know I have some clients, some blocks in the morning where I do, I have like about three hours, like you, in the morning where I’m, you know, lucky enough, I don’t have to go into an office, so I get to make my own schedule and I take that time for myself feed my sourdough starter, go out and do the, go out and check on my garden, you know, do all the things that I love to do. That’s kind of my meditation, and that usually happens before my son wakes up and I get him ready, get him off where he needs to go, then I’ll see a couple of clients for the day and then I take, you know, the afternoon and the evening unless I’m teaching or something like that for exercise. I pull dance now and so I will go to my pole classes and the afternoons and, you know, come back, make food for my family, all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 10:40

So my life has, because of the concept of time blocks, I have developed this ability to have so much more time just for me and to not feel guilty about it because I know that everything will get done in a reasonable timeframe. And it’s helped give me permission to say you know what? I don’t need to show up every second of every day for everybody else’s needs. Like people can wait a day. You think it would be 24 hours for an answer, or you know what have you, whereas before, when I didn’t have time blocks, it was like everything felt urgent.

Speaker 1: 11:50

You know, it also helped me realize when I was out growing my own ability to run my own business and I needed help. And so now I have two employees, which is awesome, and they helped me with a lot of different things. Shout out Linnea and Dora. So those are all things that time blocking has helped me with. So I think you’ve never done this before. I know some people work like nine to five, so what would you tell them if they worked like a nine to five job? How would they manage time blocking in that sort of scenario?

Speaker 2: 12:20

Actually, what my heart like, it’s like someone can like, can really like in an embody. I call it embody productivity, right, like? Call it body yoga, body movement and body productivity, so that it’s like interior life and you are doing that and it’s not perfect. It’s not a perfect system. Everybody like what. Teach people time blocking. People have this kind of concept of like. Once I said it, then that’s it and it can’t change.

Speaker 2: 12:45

Well, the actually it’s like organic it changes with you and it changes as you grow your business or you change in your life, or there’s a new season or a new kid or you know, like an elderly parent you need to take care of. There’s so many things about it that are really fantastic, and I love how you found that integration and you said the keyword at the beginning. There it’s it’s of using this time blocking technique for boundaries right, and I started off showing that this is boundaries for other people, but really, at the end of the day, it’s boundaries for yourself. It’s learning what you will and won’t do and learning that it’s okay and that you can accept yourself and accept your life as you want to live it in any given moment. And so I just wanted to highlight that and just say thank you. And then, for nine to five years been there.

Speaker 2: 13:34

So the first time that I applied this, I had a full time job, and so I focused on my morning routine, so my morning time block. And then I focused on a lunch time block, either 30 minutes to an hour, just really disconnecting from work and figuring out like a walk. If I was able to do that, sometimes it’s not possible during the hot Texas summer, so I might like find a little look to read or just talk to a friend or get a cup of coffee or something and after work, really nice wind down time block. So like things, you enjoy it. Maybe you don’t like movement in the morning and it works better for you in the afternoon. Maybe that’s the time you do it, or maybe you do some food prep or cook, you know those kinds of things. And then a really nice like evening routine where you maybe disconnect from technology which I know is really, really tough in our day and age and see like, oh God, I just got it from my phone but then we got it like that Right.

Speaker 1: 14:31

Well, it’s hard. I mean, it is hard so much of what we do, especially if you are like a small business owner. A lot of what you do is usually on your phone too, so it is really difficult, like some ways, I think it’s more difficult for me to not be on my phone than the average person, because you know there’s always something to do on there, but then, on the other hand, it’s easier in some ways, because to me, I associate my phone with work, whereas other people, I think, associate their phone with fun and with, like you know, winding down or relaxing or whatever.

Speaker 1: 15:02

When I go on TikTok or I go on Instagram, it’s not relaxing experience for me it’s more like I have all these DMs I need to like reply to or whatever, and so I made like dummy accounts for myself so I could have just like a normal social media experience. But also I started implementing this concept that I saw on TikTok, which is low dopamine mornings. Have you heard of this? No, tell me.

Speaker 1: 15:26

So it’s like I’m concept, well, the similar concept to your morning routine, but it’s the idea that in the morning you sort of don’t do anything that’s going to give you a huge boost of dopamine, like getting on, you know social media, and you spend that time, you know, creating sort of a routine that’s a little bit more calm, you know semi-structured, like meditation, like you do, you know looking at the getting some sunlight on your skin, all those kinds of things that are good for circadian rhythm and that really serves you the rest of the day and that has been really helpful for my focus, actually. Yes, so I like the concept of you know, when you’re working a nine to five, having that time in the morning, although you know sleep is very important, so I wouldn’t like myself up at 4am, but I think there’s usually at least an hour or two that most people could carve out in their morning, and it does make a big difference to you not feeling like work is overcoming your entire life, right?

Speaker 2: 16:30

Yes, amen and I want to hold space for people. I got this reel that got a lot of attention and sometimes it was like people’s beliefs. But normally we see like the 5am club and like at 5am and, yes, that’s great for some. But for those of us who need extra healing time, especially after trauma or you know you’re going through, you know your own like, you know healing internally, you need more sleep, and so I’m here to say that you do not have to wake up at 5am to be productive.

Speaker 1: 17:01

I just want to like I need to make a bumper sticker. I mean, I love what you said about the fact that, like your three, like most important things are right are eating, movement and sleep. I think you know my experience with my PCOS clientele has been, and with myself, is that I think a lot of us do come from a place of, you know, childhood trauma and those with PCOS have higher ACE scores on average, and so there’s a lot of that sort of like giving, giving, giving and never getting back sort of vibe and we end up not taking care of those three main things, sleep being one of them. Right, so we might get into the. Somebody might be listening to us here and misinterpreting what we’re saying and thinking, OK, well, now, because I have, I need to have a morning routine. So I need to wake up at 5am and I and I’m you know I can’t get to sleep till 11. So I’m not going to get a full eight hours. Sleep needs to be part of that time blocking right.

Speaker 1: 18:02

Yeah so I mean from a purely from a health perspective. You know, like you said, when you need extra time for healing, when you have a chronic health condition, like usually those with PCOS, do need more sleep. So at least eight, sometimes even nine hours. I mean I function better off nine hours if I can get it, if I can make my body sleep that long. You know, got to build it in right. So, renee, tell us how we can, just give us some examples of how we can reframe this concept of like, care and work.

Speaker 2: 18:36

Yeah, I had to figure this out for myself and it took a while because to me they felt like so separate and even today I’ll have people still message me and it’s it’s. It’s really interesting because I just I constantly blurt it like so care first. That’s like what people know me for. I’m like so care first, but it feels like so selfish and then, especially like when you’re working, like well, that’s not really your time, right. But some of the ways that I’ve begun to look at self care and work, aka productivity is is more through the lens of like.

Speaker 2: 19:10

So, not balance, but like integration. Like how do you combine the two? How can you be in the present moment and and check in with yourself, like as the observer, just kind of like watch your energy as you go throughout the day and if you realize, like after a meeting or talking for an hour, that you’re spent like can you take 10 minutes or 15 minutes to walk away from the computer or get a drink of water or go look at a tree and connect with nature? You know those types of things Like it’s important to realize that as we’re working in our you know in a corporate setting or in our small businesses or entrepreneurship, that we are the ones working. It is still us. If we, you know, the job would not exist without us, our body, mind and spirit there. And so those are the things that I’ve been like sitting with and I’m always exploring, like what do you, what do you think about that, amber?

Speaker 1: 20:02

No, I mean that makes a lot of sense to me actually, and I think I love the concept of integration rather than balance, because I mean, especially for people who are entrepreneurs or they’re small business owners, like there’s like the extra element of like I don’t want to say like identification with your work, but like your, your, it’s your baby, your work is one of your babies and it’s very important to you and it’s it’s a lot of times it’s a passion project as well.

Speaker 1: 20:28

And so to think of it as this sort of you know thing that’s draining me or this thing that I don’t love or need to take space away from, I don’t know, it doesn’t feel authentic for a lot of us who are in fields or positions where we do really like what we do. But, on the same token, you know when you really like what you do, sometimes you overdo it and you don’t listen. So I love that concept of just like chen with yourself after a meeting or one thing like that. I mean I find that often for me, you know, different people, different people’s energy interact with my energy differently, and so sometimes I leave a meeting feeling energized and refreshed, and sometimes I need to take half an hour and kind of, you know, just go sit under my tree. It’s funny that she said that, because I do have a special tree that I talk with. Do you have a special tree?

Speaker 2: 21:24

I have, we have. I’m in a new neighborhood so we have like teeny tiny trees. You guys built your house right. We did yeah, yeah, oh everybody, that was a huge goal that I set for myself that I achieved early. So you know, I am super grateful, so I share that, because it’s not like, oh yeah, I have a brand new house. No, it’s like I really put everything in motion and project plan for that. So I want to hold space for everybody who feels like maybe they can’t ever get a new house, Like it is very possible, it really is a little bit about your journey with, like limiting beliefs around, well, money, I think, is one where I think people often start with money.

Speaker 1: 22:04

I guess some of us, depending on how we were raised, might have less limiting beliefs around money than other things, but, like you know, with PCOS, you know a lot of us have really limiting beliefs around our health as well. So I would love to hear your experience with, like your confidence with, with different things like that.

Speaker 2: 22:23

Yeah, for us. I don’t think everybody has asked me that before. I have realized that I’ve been holding on to three limiting beliefs for the longest time and everything’s still a work in progress. It’s just as we age or we get more clear, it’s just more awareness right, and we’re able to catch ourselves. So I don’t ever want to ever prescribe that I know the right answer or there’s a fix to anything. It’s always a journey. By the way, if I talk really woo-woo to everybody, I’m a certified yoga teacher.

Speaker 1: 22:54

I’m so sure, I’m just noticing that. Yeah, if you’re noticing, like, why should you speak like that? Yeah, because I’ve got a little yogi to me.

Speaker 2: 23:02

But three limiting beliefs that I was. Oh gosh, they were so loud in my head. From my ego mind it was I don’t have enough energy, I can’t do that, I don’t have enough time, I’ll never have enough time. And I don’t have enough energy Like, oh wait, I said that I don’t have enough money. I don’t have enough money, I don’t have enough money, I don’t most particularly love.

Speaker 2: 23:23

Yeah, I know we got a like a thing with that one Everybody in tap on that. So I don’t have enough money, I can’t afford that. I’ll never make X amount. And usually you know, as you’re probably listening to me say all this, like the core of it is is I’m not enough. Right, there are so many limiting beliefs, but for me that’s been the one that’s always plagued me. You know, I’m not enough or don’t shine too bright, right?

Speaker 2: 23:47

So as I’ve worked with my therapists and lovely business coaches, I’ve learned to understand my values, understand my worth and my capabilities on this planet. And then now I actually teach my clients how to budget their energy, time and money and be aware of what those are and the limiting beliefs surrounding that. Because you know, just because mine is like not enough, it might show differently, you know, for you or somebody else. And the way that I, in particular, I’ve worked on those things is like a lot of journaling. And I mentioned meditation and yoga. For me that was really pivotal, like my first ever was being a yoga teacher, and so that’s like really I’m at the core is just kind of understanding that there are ways to help heal people from the inside out.

Speaker 2: 24:37

And so some of the things that I asked my clients to do was, like you know, every day, ask yourself as you wake up, you know, what is it that I need today? You know, if your mind says, well, I don’t have enough energy, okay, well, it’s one thing I can do, you know, to replenish my energy and recharge my battery. Does that mean sleeping one more hour? Does that mean logging into work late and not telling anybody? You know what does that mean? Or I feel like I don’t have enough time, okay, can I take off my plate? Or who can I talk to and share that I’m overwhelmed about this task or project, and so that it’s not so much about time, it’s just about, like, the workload itself.

Speaker 2: 25:14

And then I don’t have enough money. Like to, and actually befriending your money and like looking at it and looking at it right in the eye Okay, how much debt do I have and what can I budget? And actually almost turning that around on its head a little bit and feeling more into abundance what do I have? And getting out of that feeling of lack. Right, because we sit in this like lack and scarcity. When we’re out of these three things, right, so it’s like, okay, what do I have? You know, I have this cell phone, or I have, you know, a wonderful fiance, or I have family, or I have my son, or Calvin.

Speaker 1: 25:49

Shout out to Calvin Shout out to Calvin, who likes white flavor. He went to get a snow cone at school yesterday. Calvin’s three and a half and his teachers took him for last day of school to get a snow cone and all the other kids were saying that they wanted, you know, red or blue. They asked Calvin what flavor do you want? He said white, white flavor. So just an unusual little boy.

Speaker 2: 26:15

He’s funny, you can relate to him. I’m going to go get some white flavor right after this.

Speaker 1: 26:19

I know Sounds good. Po-co net, no, I, I, all of that is is really powerful, and thank you for sharing all of that because I think I mean I’ve gone through a similar journey. I see a lot of negativity on, particularly on TikTok and I think, because it’s a an app, has more, has younger people on it. They still haven’t kind of worked out their own, you know, beliefs around money. I see a lot of like negative money talk on there oh you must be rich, rich or like y’all never have that, or too bad, I’m poor, things like that.

Speaker 1: 26:57

And you know, I mean some of us do come from difficult circumstances or we are in difficult circumstances right now, and that’s totally real and valid. But you know, I think the concept that has helped me a lot is understanding that it doesn’t all have to be right now, like I have time. You know, like if I go back to my 22-year-old self who thought she was just dirt poor, I would never make it anywhere, never do anything and never, you know, shine brightly. Like you said, be like just wait a little while.

Speaker 1: 27:25

Like I got into my 30s and my time started coming around, you know, and so you gotta be patient with yourself, but I’ve had to work a lot around concepts of selfishness and loveability and so you know a lot of my work sort of, you know, meshes in with that, like body image issues and things like that. But also the concept like time blocking was difficult for me at first. Boundaries was difficult for me and you know, like you said, still work in progress because you know I always fear that it’s selfish and if I’m selfish then I won’t be likable and if I’m likable then I’m not lovable. So you know we’re all working through different things and it’s okay to be at the beginning, it’s okay to be in the thick of it, like you have time and you need to block out some time to make that time known.

Speaker 2: 28:20

No, I love that. I wrote this note down. Amber gave me all these questions everybody, and so I’m such a productivity geek. I like to answer all the questions, right.

Speaker 1: 28:31

And.

Speaker 2: 28:31

I’m always going off books. So you hit on something that I wrote down that I’m so excited to talk about, which is like it’s a journey, you know, kind of almost like going back to our younger selves and saying, you know, there’s this from the Dao of Poo everybody. It’s just like a really cute book that is on Daoism but it’s framed from the, you know, poo Bear and Eor, like those characters. The quote that I love from there is what’s the rush? What’s the rush? And so I wanted to hold space for everybody with that because, you know, important that as we go on our journey, to say, like, how can we savor this?

Speaker 2: 29:08

Like growth spurt that we’re in and I truly, you know, this year, one of my symbols for my goals is a wave. I truly believe that, like everything that we do in our life, kind of like sometimes we need more energy and sometimes we require less energy, but we are empowered to decide how do we want to show up, how do we want to spend our time and energy, what do we need to do to recharge and take care of ourselves. We get to choose that, which is so incredible. So I just, you know, wanted to kind of piggyback on what you said, because I’m like, yeah, you’re absolutely right. And sometimes I wish I could go back to younger Renee and say like, hey, girl, are we fine? Like enjoy your life a little bit. You know, can you sell a bit more, can you have more fun.

Speaker 1: 29:49

Or you know, like, let’s tap it out you know, yeah, for sure I wish I had had a ton more fun than I did. You know, I think I don’t know, and this may be something that’s true for a lot of people, or it may be entrepreneurs mostly, or something I don’t know but the sort of concept of needing to achieve get from point A to point B really fast, improve yourself and all of that, it’s just like in the end you get there one way or the other anyway, like where you needed to go and you should have fun along the way. Like and I think that’s true for health too just to tie back into nutrition, right, because so often we’re very like, compare ourselves to somebody who’s years ahead of us in our journey with health and nutrition, and we think, oh gosh, like that’ll never be me, I can never have that. I’m so unhealthy right now, or my body just doesn’t cooperate, it’s out of control, I can’t do anything about it. Or, you know, I hate vegetables, I’ll never get there to where I can eat a salad, and those sort of concepts are.

Speaker 1: 30:59

You know, it’s important to look at the deeper issues behind them and kind of figure out like, well, why do we think those things?

Speaker 1: 31:05

But also to just, you know, encourage you, be patient with yourself. Like my own history with food and nutrition has been the 15 year journey, you know, and like I, just the last, probably, I don’t know five, six years actually. Sometimes I’m like, wow, I’m craving a salad. You know, like, if you would have told me that when I was 22, I would have laughed in your face because I could not even eat a leaf of spinach without gagging. So you know things like that. And then the way that your body’s functioning, whether your hormones are functioning right, like the changes that you’re making, however small they will build with time, like, and you will get to a place where it’ll all sort of make a lot more sense. You just kind of have to keep going and I think Renee’s concept of making self care, movement, exercise sorry, movement, eating and sleeping priorities is a nice way to actually probably get there faster, because when you focus on those things, your body really responds to that, you know, physically no-transcript.

Speaker 2: 32:18

Yes, in the productivity realm we call that habits and consistency, and so that’s my sneaky way of sliding this self-care into all things, productivity, because it’s true, and that’s where I’ve seen exponential growth.

Speaker 2: 32:34

Like I just turned 40 everybody this year I still look like I’m 25. However, this is the best I’ve ever felt in my whole entire life, Like I didn’t feel this good in my 20s. Honestly, you know. And so and it’s. I’m really grateful for the this journey that I’ve been on and I’ve explored so much. To Amber, Like right now I’m exploring the pre-moballic way of eating. I don’t like to see diet anymore. I’m way too restrictive and, again, we’re choosing what we want to put in our body at any given moment and we’re making the best decision for ourselves at any given moment and I’m enjoying, like this, and I did the gluten-free thing. You know my 20s and 30s and you know, and that’s all we’re doing. We’re just always exploring, figuring out what works best for us as we go along. And you know I’ve come to terms with okay, in my 50s I’m probably going to do something else, you know, because we’re just different, you know, yeah, and your body just with time, and it has different needs with time too.

Speaker 1: 33:30

You have to adjust. I’ve had to make so many adjustments since, well, firstly, coming to mom and then second, and I think even more so since having a hysterectomy ufrectomy, because I’m in menopause, and so my body behaves very differently around food, movement, all those kinds of things that it used to, and you know I’m a little young for that. But here we are, so we’re learning to navigate it and it’s a whole new realm and, fortunately, because I had so many what I would have perceived in the past as failures, I know that just because you know it doesn’t, something doesn’t work out, it doesn’t mean that that’s a bad thing. It’s just, this was a learning opportunity. I see everything that doesn’t go exactly the way I envisioned it as a learning opportunity and that has really served me in my life with, like, making good out of, you know, situations that could have been really difficult, still really difficult, but anyway, that’s a little thing that I do, so let’s see.

Speaker 1: 34:29

Okay, well, let’s talk about little baby nutritionists, because there are quite a few who listen to this podcast and they, you know, they want to what I do now and I know back when I was in my early days of being nutritionists. We’re going on almost a decade now, which is exciting. I used to look up to a lot of nutritionists who really seemed like they had their act together and they just like everything was in place for them. So what advice would you give to somebody who’s new to the nutrition field or who’s thinking about getting into it, thinking about becoming an entrepreneur? Like, yeah, what advice would you give them?

Speaker 2: 35:08

First of all, I’d say yay, we need you. The imposter syndrome tends to come up for a lot of us, like in the wellness field, like we’re like like well, there’s enough nutritionists, there’s enough yoga teachers, I’m like there are, there are not. It’s just because we’re hanging out with other people who are interested in the same thing as we are so it makes our world seem smaller.

Speaker 2: 35:25

But first of all, people need you Come on down, yeah. Second of all, when you look at like people like me and Amber, you know, for instance, we are going to appear from the outside Like we’ve got all of all of the nuts and bells, and you know I’m getting all of my metaphors mixed up right now but like that we have it all together.

Speaker 2: 35:47

But the truth is I was like we are still learning to. We’re still having those moments of imposter syndrome, like can we really do this, or I want to try this next thing, or would it be okay if I changed my mind and did something else? You know, once you start your business, it it’s almost like you’re just kind of signing an unspoken agreement with yourself that you’re just embracing change for as long as you go on the journey. So that’s one thing I want to, to just mention that change is inevitable and success is is very different. It’s one of the things that I teach my clients. It’s not initially how you think it’s going to be. So work with a coach. I really believe working with a coach or mentor is going to give you that shift in perspective and get you unstuck in those moments that you’re stuck because those can feel super debilitating. But there there’s a way out, I promise. And then, oh gosh, I had something else. Brilliant, another gym. Oh, share it with us why was it?

Speaker 2: 36:44

Oh, it’s like right there it you know, like how it comes to the forefront of your mind.

Speaker 1: 36:50

Oh yeah, that happens to me all the time. If it comes to you, we can edit it back in at the appropriate time frame, don’t worry. Okay? So if you guys just heard three gyms, then then I did my editing.

Speaker 2: 37:04

Oh gosh Was that two Shoot. Oh gosh, what’d I say? Okay One, there’s enough people.

Speaker 1: 37:12

Two change is inevitable, right, you said get a coach or a mentor Three, so that’s three, okay.

Speaker 2: 37:20

You had four. I think there was a fourth one, but I’m glad I slid in. The coach or mentor is trying to secretly.

Speaker 1: 37:26

The mentor one is is very true. I I was not as well and, like I remember, back in my you know early days of being a nutritionist, I had a another nutritionist who mentored me quite a bit. I worked inside her office and she was actually the original person who helped me figure out this. It was outright wise because, you know, a very, very] a fair pricing schedule, because imposter syndrome was raging. The concept that I was here to be a helper and so I needed to, like you know, basically just do my work for free, was very, very big at that time for me. And she was like you’re not charging enough. People have to, you know. You want clients who value what you do, and money is an energetic exchange, you know.

Speaker 1: 38:16

And so, while I agree that there are some sometimes when that can get you know out of balance, or that you know it’s health care, private health care, things like nutrition do end up being so expensive, it is important for me as a person to take care of myself and my family first and to make sure that I am charging enough so that I can do the amount of work that I’m feasibly able to do while still caring for myself.

Speaker 1: 38:46

Because, if not, and this has happened to me in the past. I’ll take on too much and then nobody gets the best of me right. They get like the 50% version of ambers Not as good as the 100% version. So that’s how I operate now and you know, she was the first person to kind of tell me that and plant that seed and if I hadn’t had that, my original thought of like how much I was going to charge per session was like $25. So very grateful to her because I would have definitely burned out on nutrition within probably a year and I would probably be doing something else right now. So yeah, totally agree on the mentor one.

Speaker 2: 39:26

Yay, yay, let’s give it up for mentors and a coach is great too.

Speaker 1: 39:29

I mean honestly, probably wouldn’t have been better to have a business coach even than a mentor, because then with mentors you get into the whole. You know they have doing things and it’s not always the best way for you and but they’re for you right To kind of like help the best way for yourself.

Speaker 2: 39:44

So, yes, yes, we are.

Speaker 1: 39:46

That’s right. Did you think of your gym? No, I can’t. No, okay, no, it’s all good, okay. So, before we close up, why don’t you tell us about some of the you know things that you have on offer for people that you know that you are excited to share with us?

Speaker 2: 40:04

Yes, so if you want to hang out with me, I am on Instagram. My handle is T H E, so the or the on what side of the country you’re on in the US? If you’re here in the US, productive, which is P R O, d, u, c, d, I, v, e Hopefully I spelled that correctly and then W, p, so that stands for the productive wellness printer coming out. I’ve got some good tips that I share, and I’m also announcing some free masterclasses and a beautiful four hour retreat, so I do that twice a year. I’ve got masterclasses that are totally free four times a year, so I’d love for you to come and join me and hang out, and if you’d like to learn more about time blocking, I have a totally free time blocking guide and welcome video on my website, which is wwwrenécom, and come on down and join my clarity club newsletter and I’ll also share different like tips and tricks on how to make sure that you’re putting yourself first, as you’re also digging into your small business, if that serves you.

Speaker 1: 41:15

And I know I’ve been to one of Renee’s masterclasses and I get her newsletter. She does a great job with both of those. She is very consistent and it’s very impressive how many newsletters she sends out. If you guys are on my newsletter list, you know that it’s you know it’s not.

Speaker 1: 41:33

I love yours when they come out they’re good and I’m not so straight person to follow online her masterclass. Like I love that she has so many free options, because I think this you know kind of stuff really resonates for people of all in all positions those who own their own businesses, but also people who are just like busy and have a lot going on and just want to kind of figure out, like what is really important to me, where can I subtract, where can I add? Like how can I get everything blocked? So wonderful, we will have everything linked in the description box to her website and her Instagram and everything. If you guys want to just click on those below and if you’re watching on YouTube, thank you for watching us and if you’re listening, thank you for listening and you have anything else you want to add before we close up?

Speaker 2: 42:23

Renee I think it’s just that, no matter where you are in your life, like you are where you’re meant to be, you know. So whether you, you know, are a full time parent or parenting an older relative, or you’re pursuing your entrepreneurship, or you’re going to school, or you’ve been in your small business for a few years, you know, just just keep going. We need you and need to be as healthy and as vibrant as possible to show up and do the beautiful things in your life that you’re meant to do.

Speaker 1: 42:53

I love that. That’s absolutely true. I 100% agree. Well, thank you for being here today, renee, and we will talk to you again another time, I am sure. Thanks for coming on.

Speaker 2: 43:06

Bye, everybody, thank you.