Pam (00:20):

Are you a lady boss making 50 to a hundred thousand in your business, and you’re ready to break through that six-figure barrier. Have you

Jane (00:28):

Done a great job of creating a nice life as the ultimate gig master, but no, your inner CEO is calling you to greater Heights. You’re in the right place. If you want to create and implement solid fundamentals in your business without sacrificing fun.

Pam (00:42):

I’m Pam Ivey, I’m certified in small business management and I concentrate in the areas of training and certifying real estate assistance, coaching and mentoring entrepreneurs in online business, marketing growth and profit acceleration. And I take men and women business owners aged 40 plus two bucket list destinations around the world for a month at a time to work, explore, and live in community.

Jane (01:08):

And I’m Jane, Garee known as the sales strategist for the non sales person. And I work with business owners who want to increase their conversion rate, shorten their sales cycle and have more impact and influence with the work they do all while having more fun with it.

Pam (01:24):

Hey everyone. And welcome back to the flourish and grow to CEO podcast. Today. We have a really exciting guest with us. His name is Adam Walsh, and he’s been in the coaching space since 2016 and he focuses on helping us women entrepreneurs to achieve their health goals without sacrificing their business and sanity to get there using an approach that they can enjoy through his company, the lean professionals. Welcome Adam. So great to have you here.

Adam (01:56):

I appreciate you having me on I’m excited. I’m excited to chat.

Pam (02:01):

Awesome. So we said that you worked with women entrepreneurs. How can you help them?

Adam (02:08):

Great question. Um, so, uh, just before we actually hopped on there, we were just chatting about how a lot of women, entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in general, but a lot of us are spending a lot of time at our desks were always wanting to be able to, to move towards our health goals or fitness goals and all that kind of stuff. But it never quite feels like the right time to actually pull the trigger take action, because we look at other people that are getting results. I’m not getting results and they’re all spending a hell of a lot of time, basically at the gym or trying like extensive diets and restricting their lifestyle. And basically as people who are putting a lot of time and energy and focus into our own businesses, we don’t have a that time and B that mental capacity to actually like spare all that mental energy and focus because that’s going to be taken from the things that we’re trying to accomplish in business. And that’s even before if you’re like raising kids or doing more things at home and stuff like that too. So basically it’s coming down to boiling things down super, super simply for people and just making it as simple as possible for them to actually take action and yeah, just move them to pull that trigger and make things easy for themselves.

Pam (03:19):

I love that. That sounds perfect. And you know, what we didn’t do, Adam is, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I, I kind of hear maybe I, I detect a little bit of an accent in there. Oh yeah,

Adam (03:32):

Absolutely. So I’m originally from Ireland. Um, I’m actually heading back home to a, to the month. So I feel like my accent would probably bumper right back up, but, um, I’m originally from Ireland and I’m living over here in Canada. And I think as you said there in the, the intro I’ve been here since 2016 and I’ve just been coaching ever since then, but, um, yeah, as a minute ago, I think, um, surprisingly suspicious. I think that one or two people might’ve ended up hiring me just at the initial point in the business. No, it’s, it’s lovely though. I’m super happy to be living in a different country. There’s seems to be a lot more entrepreneurs here or maybe it was just the area that I moved to, but, uh, people over here are absolutely incredible. And

Pam (04:17):

I think I would hire you just to listen to you, talk to your broker is so soft is really lovely to say thanks for the feedback.

Jane (04:30):

And I know that for me, health and fitness this year has become the priority. So I’m wondering what a gentleman like yourself, how did you end up deciding that you were going to really focus primarily on women entrepreneurs?

Adam (04:45):

Oh, that’s a great question. Um, so honestly, a lot of this just came around logically, right? So I was like, before, even niched down to entrepreneurs, a couple of years back, I was just like, oh, training everyone. You know, how we all are when we get into a new, new business, all that kind of stuff. Um, basically did the best way to answer that is entrepreneurs themselves. I’ve niched down too, because we all kind of share a similar psychographic, right? We’re all generally type a people where we’re trying to go get things, make things happen and all that kind of stuff. Um, why focus on women? I won’t even lie. The main thing was, it was just out of all the people that I was working with around 80, 85% of them were women. So I was just like, Hey, look, this is the group that are responding better. This is the group that are getting better results relating with the approach more. And yeah, I’m just always a fan of doubling down with what’s working in business and life with your health goals and all that kind of stuff. So that’s a, that’s the simplest explanation, but it’s the truth for sure.

Jane (05:41):

Awesome. So, you know,

Pam (05:43):

There’s so many people in your field, what, what makes your approach and you unique? Why would we come to you over somebody else?

Adam (05:51):

I love that. Cool. So, um, there’s a couple of different ways. I guess we can break this down, but I think a lot of people, especially as I said, we’re kind of driven people who are entrepreneurs, all that kind of stuff. Right. So when we do something we’re trying to be all in and I think that’s one of the main things that, that goes wrong when people just basically like take standard approaches or let’s say, they’re like, okay, look, I’m going to try keto or I’m going to try this, that look, there’s nothing wrong with any of these approaches. They can all work. Um, but we have to find what’s right for us. Right. So before I put up a post recently, and I think it kind of hit the nail on the head and it was like, if you’re not going to take someone else’s medication to stay healthy, it’s like, why would you take their diet?

Adam (06:35):

I saw that. That’s brilliant. Yeah. Yeah, totally. And it’s, it makes so much sense when we hear it like that. But when we actually put it into practice, it’s like we see someone being successful and we’re trying to find out everything about their approach, but at the same time, like they have different genetics, they have a different lifestyle. If there’s a hundred things that are different. So why would we just copy them to get the same results? And we do this a lot in business and it does seem to work for the most part. But when we do this in our, the health space and stuff that we start running into problems because we’re all different. We have different preferences and all that kind of stuff. So what sets us apart is what we generally try to do is encourage people to find their own version of their process.

Adam (07:15):

Right? So in business, we talk about building business systems, so little tasks that we have to do, and we just simplify everything. It’s like, okay, look, if we do a, B and C, then our marketing is going to move forward. Or her sales is going to be at a certain point and we just have this checklist. Right. And it’s just building this checklist. And we maybe like between the two of you guys, it’s like, okay, I’m sure you have different departments of like the podcasts that you go through and all that kind of stuff. And both of you prefer the parents that you were doing more than likely. And that’s why it works so seamlessly, right? It’s like you’re enjoying the process. You have a system. And it’s just basically making sure that that system is realistic and that it expands and contracts. And what I mean by that is as entrepreneurs or as busy people in general, some weeks are going to be absolutely nuts busy.

Adam (08:04):

And some weeks might expand a little bit. You might have a free 30 minutes an hour, or if you’re super lucky, you might have a couple of extra hours in a week. But during those difficult times want to be able to have an approach that basically contracts and still keeps you moving forward. So what we do is we lay things out in terms of like a hierarchy it’s like, okay, are your training and nutrition equally important to the goals that you actually have set up here? Um, if they’re not, it’s like, okay, well actually is the hierarchy. So if one of those have to fall off and being super, super realistic that you will have weeks like this, um, then we can always basically keep making sure we’re taking action on the things that will move us forward. So the basic point that we try to get people to is starting off.

Adam (08:50):

If during your busiest time, you can make a little bit of progress, or if you can stop yourself moving backwards, then all of a sudden you have the keys to the kingdom. You are basically going to be able to get to your goal. It’s just a matter of time. As long as we stop regression, as long as we stop people falling off track by overextending themselves with diets, they don’t like while they’re trying to do a million things at once, the first little bit of stress that comes in, people are falling off track and they blame their discipline if they blame their willpower. But at the end of the day, it’s the approach that’s broken. And we’re obviously seeing this time and time again, because if there’s still a massive problem where we’re still all dealing with this as entrepreneurs, and that’s something that hasn’t been quite fixed yet, and this is just the approach that I’ve seen work with the most. So that’s pretty much where we come at it. Um, if I can sum that all up into one sentence, it’s having systems. And if you can enjoy the process that you’re taking to get to your goals, you’re going to be able to repeat that process because you’re enjoying it. And if you can repeat that process, you can keep your results. Well, that’s

Pam (09:49):

Kind of interesting, cause that’s what we talk about for our businesses. Do you need that system? And you’ve got to enjoy the ride. So I think that’s really awesome. Hey lady, boss, do you think like a CEO when your business starts taking off, you’re ready to scale up at this point, you’ve got to stop thinking of yourself as a solo preneur and start thinking of yourself as the CEO of your company. If you remain in the mindset of a one person operation, then you won’t be able to grow. You’ll never have the time, energy or expertise to do everything by yourself and your business. Won’t be the success that it has the potential to be. So are you thinking like a CEO take our free assessment to find out you can find it@flourish.biz forward slash think that’s F L O U R I S H dot B I Z Ford slash T H I N K. Once again, that’s flourished.biz for slash think. All right, lady boss, let’s get back to the show.

Jane (10:59):

And one of the things that MinMind was thinking about too, when you were talking about systems and processes and enjoying the ride, and this is something else that we talk a lot about in regards to just wanting your business is a whole mindset around it. And I know for me, the biggest mindset shift that I made that has enabled me to be really consistent with working out is, um, I started getting addicted to truly the, the feeling that I had afterwards as endorphins. And so my mantra now for myself has become, oh, I’m just 30 minutes away from a different mood. So when I’m feeling stressed or anxious or irritated, and you know, the tendency in the past would be just to kind of lock in and plow through and keep working on something until I solved it or honestly go emotionally eat or, you know, whatever it is.

Jane (11:44):

I had different tools for abating, the stress or the negative emotions. But once I started working out really consistently, then it just became, I’m just 30 minutes away from a different mood. And I will tell you, it has really changed the way I think about working out because now it has become, it’s a healthy addiction. I finally have something that’s a healthy addiction. So what would you say about a mindset shift? What are some things maybe that women can do or embrace a different way of thinking? So instead of I have to go work out, it becomes more of which I still, yeah, I’m still so excited. I’m able to say this. So instead of I have to work out, it becomes more of like, I get to go move my body and I get to come back as kind of like a little different person to an extent,

Adam (12:29):

Oh, I love this question. Um, so basically bringing it back to, to begin with it’s a mindset and it’s, how do we actually get ourselves to that point? And when we’re thinking of, Hey, look, let’s say dial it back a couple of months before you were actually at that point. Um, maybe a lot of the listeners are kind of at that point at the moment or have dealt with this in the past. But when you’re there, when we’re thinking about, okay, look, I want to be able to change these habits. I want to be able to do these things consistently. I want to be able to get moving, to, to get in shape. What comes to our mind is all the negatives, right? Like our brains are something like five times more likely to focus on the negative aspects of something. Then they are the positive, right?

Adam (13:07):

It’s something that’s kept us alive through evolution, which is great. Um, the problem is when we are looking at lifestyle change, the first thing that comes to our mind is, oh my God, I’m already so busy. This is going to be worse. Or I’m already sold a therapeutic or I’m having difficult weeks. Or if so much of my plate having this is going to be worse. When we start focusing on all the negatives that we’re actually getting out of something. So I think one of the first things is the literally to experiment. Like don’t put so much pressure on yourself being like, Hey, look, I’m going to start working out Monday and I’m going to get everything right, right off the bat. It’s like, Hey, just get some form of movement in. If you haven’t in a while, get, get a little bit of a walk in or something that you like doing.

Adam (13:46):

Um, for me, I grew up in martial arts. Um, some of my clients just like literally like put on some of those old school, like eighties Jane Fonda videos, or some of those more like dime style kind of things, but anything just to get yourself enjoying movement again and rebuilding that relationship because I think exercise nutrition and all that kind of stuff has been hammered into us as just even like over the course of the last couple of decades is hammered into us as something that’s a chore and all that kind of stuff. And we really need to unwire some of that. If we have a, if we’re wanting a plan to enjoy that and actually get those results, you asked about mindset. And there’s an interesting thing. Uh, there’s a book called growth mindset by, or it’s just called mindset by Carol Dweck. And she talks about having a growth mindset.

Adam (14:31):

And we all like to believe, especially as entrepreneurs and we do have growth mindsets, but we all like to believe that we have that in every area. And what I mean by growth mindset is the belief that you can change your traits. Aren’t super fixed and all that kind of stuff. Now in business, we started out and we’ve seen all this stuff in front of us and we’re like, Hey, this is all overwhelming. And it’s, it seems to be like impossible to get from where we started to even where we’re at today, where we want to be in the future. But starting off, we knew, Hey, look, there’s skills that I can acquire. And there’s things that I can do in order to build a business that I have today or one that have done the line. And the same thing happens in the health space.

Adam (15:09):

But what we don’t realize is we can have growth areas or growth mindsets in some areas, but not in other areas. So a lot of us go through business being like, yeah, cool, look, I can solve this problem and all that kind of stuff. The second we shift over to the health space, it might be from past dieting experience or maybe just your relationship with exercise and all that kind of stuff. But we can basically be like, oh, that’s not for me. Or that’s not something that can, that can happen now. And all of a sudden with these closed statements, we shut off the possibility of actually being able to make change. Because as business people, as entrepreneurs, we are problem solvers. And once we bring that level of identity into what we’re doing on the health and fitness side of things, it can really, really inspire us to take action.

Adam (15:53):

Because at the end of the day, if we don’t think that the action that we take is going to actually get us that result, we’re not going to be motivated to take that action. Once you started focusing on, Hey, this is a little bit of energy, or these are the endorphins that I’m getting from this. You were like, Hey, look, this is a direct result that I am seeing right away. And that’s, that’s amazing that you’ve found something. Cause you’re focusing on those positives as opposed to the things that you have to do to get there. And I do believe that’s everything.

Jane (16:21):

Yeah. We just, we were interviewing somebody earlier, she’s a photographer and she did this big photo shoot up in New York. So we were asking her, what did she really learn from hanging out with these powerful business women? What kind of advice did they give her? And one of the, one of the pieces of advice, the one that stuck out most for me was somebody had said to her, I’m paraphrasing here, but basically like you don’t have to go all in and accomplish everything all at the same time, keep making incremental or incremental rather steps towards it. And as you were talking at him, I was thinking about the compound effect. That’s that that’s actually a book by Darren Hardy. Who’s the founder of success magazine, but he talks about that and he actually uses a weight loss analogy in there. And he talks about the person that gets up and I used to be like this.

Jane (17:06):

So the person will get up and go for the next 30 days, I’m going to run the equivalent of a marathon, you know? And it doesn’t last very long as opposed to the person that says for the next 30 days, I’m just going to make sure I do 30 minutes. And if I can’t do 30 minutes, I’m going to do 10. And if I can’t do 10, then I’m at least going to do 16 squats here, my home office or something. And at the end of a 90 day period, what happens? And this is health, nutrition, fitness business, everything is that compound effect starts to happen. So the person that got up and was gangbusters and eventually just kind of dropped off because it’s not sustainable had lost five or seven pounds, but the other person that made sure that they were consistent in doing it in incremental, which is what you were talking about. They had lost significantly more weight and the habit was actually ingrained in them, ingrained in them. So I think a lot of times what happens is the actions will shift your mindset and the mindset is actually encouraging you to keep doing the actions, but we almost see them as separate entities. When I think they’re, they’re really kind of connected

Adam (18:08):

Totally a hundred percent. I love that idea as well. And one thing I’d add in there is when people are doing these like incremental things, it’s very easy for us to get lost in. Oh yeah. Look, I’m just going to start focusing on hydration or dislike one or two things, but what it’s important thing to add and that there was zero wrong with that approach. And I love it. And especially as entrepreneurs, we’re always trying to fix everything and do everything at once. And then we crash and then we start like making a bad relationship with exercise food and all that kind of stuff. And then we’re making more of a track record of failure, which builds into that identity of, oh, this isn’t for me and all that kind of stuff. Right. Um, one of the things that I do recommend to people when doing something like that or putting something in incrementally and you don’t have to be a perfectionist about this, you don’t have to run around and be like, what is the one thing that I’m going to do each and every day, but making sure that what you’re doing is something that’s going to move you towards your goals.

Adam (19:01):

So for example, if someone’s goal was to run a marathon, then if they’re sitting at home and their one thing is I’m going to eat a little bit better, but there’s no running then. Yeah. Cool. You’re you’re you are making an improvement, but at the end of the day, that’s not the thing that’s made the biggest part of the, the puzzle moving you towards your goal. And it’s the same with weight loss. If people are like, okay, weight loss is my goal here, I’m going to do one thing and I’m just going to go out for a walk each and every day, it’s like, no, if we’re looking at weight loss, we should look at the thing that’s going to drive the needle forward the most, which is going to be on the nutrition side of things. So always thinking of it as a hierarchy, all of your actions and created equal.

Adam (19:40):

So if you have only one thing to do, and especially as an entrepreneur, we’re generally limited on time. So are we able to have a look at the nutrition side of things first? And then as things expand or as we have more free time, or as that habit is built, all of a sudden we can start building in some of those workouts or some of those form of movements that we like, but that makes sure that if you are making a little bit of effort, you prove to yourself that that little bit of effort is actually moving the needle forward towards your goals. All of a sudden it’s a million times easier to be motivated as opposed to, Hey, look, I made this change. I feel a bit better. And this kind of like some intangible results, there are something that’s very hard to measure, um, then trying to convince herself to add more.

Jane (20:20):

Yeah. That makes, that makes perfect sense. Because in business we talk all the time about, are you doing revenue generating activities? Cause you don’t want to be just doing work that it’s not that it’s not important. It is. But are you focusing on those or are you focusing on the revenue generating activities because that’s really where the focus needs to be. So it’s the, it’s the same thing with the nutrition and exercise is that is the choice that I’m making right now or is the one thing that I’m making right now without over analyzing it. Is that going to move everything forward?

Adam (20:47):

Totally. I love it. I’ve never thought of connecting those two together, but yeah, it’s just like, is it your goal accomplishing activity? Is it that main thing that’s moving you forward? That’s, that’s a perfect analogy for it.

Pam (20:59):

So we’re talking a lot about goals here. How do we set realistic ones? That’s what I really need to know.

Adam (21:06):

Great question. Um, so there’s a couple of different ways that we can break this down. Is it realistic goals in terms of weight loss? Is it realistic goals in terms of, um, accomplishing some fitness goals? Like what that actually all of those things are going to be quite different, right. And when we’re first getting into this kind of space, it’s very easy for us to be like, okay, cool. Just going to get healthy or label something kind of very vague. And we’re kind of picturing ourselves running marathons, going on, hikes, eating perfect, all this kind of stuff. So I think it’s important to kind of define what that is to start off. Um, and that’s, uh, I guess that answers a little bit of your question. What does it mean to set realistic goals? I think getting super specific on what you want and write them down in order of importance is huge thing to start off with, especially since we don’t have the luxury of having a bunch of free time each and every day.

Adam (21:58):

In most cases, when it comes down to how do we set things that are realistic and something that we can definitely achieve? What I’d say is measure things, right? So I think a lot of people when going through like accomplishing goals or setting goals and all that kind of stuff, we’d fall into two categories and one person is going to be the person that’s measuring everything. They’re going to be super, super obsessed and everything is going to feel like a chore. And on the other side of things, we can be like, Hey, look, I’m just going to make this hydration change. I’m just going to give myself a bit of extra time during the day to unwind and let myself feel a bit better and that’s going to improve your health. And that is true. But I think meeting somewhere in the middle and being gracious with ourselves and just be basically tracking goals and making sure that we’re measuring progress around along the way is important.

Adam (22:49):

So what I say to people isn’t measure what happens in the first couple of weeks, and then it doesn’t matter if you’re your cousin or your friend or something like that lost four or five pounds in a weekend. If she used an approach that is going to be gaining that back up a week later or something like that. So what I say is, okay, look, let’s start off before you even set a goal, set it a little bit vague, just be like, okay, look, maybe weight loss is my main goal here for two weeks. What kind of wave can I lose using an approach that I’m enjoying? That’s not overextending myself and sacrificing my business time with my kids, whatever that may be. And then from there it’s like, okay, can we push that a little bit? Can we stretch this a little bit without sacrificing quality of life? And once you find that perfect balance, then you can say, okay, I want to lose 1.5 pounds a week. I want to lose two pounds a week in a way that I’m enjoying. And I still get to have my glass of wine chilling out in the weekend or whatever that means.

Pam (23:42):

I think that’s excellent setting, you know, starting with something it’s just more attainable, but if it’s a little bit easier and it can ease you into changing your lifestyle, I really like that.

Adam (23:56):

Totally. Um, one of those things, I think it’s basically setting the goal and then it delays, setting the timeline a little bit. I mean, there’s this like old idea of smart goals and I think they might have some updated kind of versions of this now, but I’m like one of those, the T in smart goals was for timely, right? So you’ve got to attach a time onto your goal. And I think that’s, that’s completely fine. But when you’re setting a goal like this, because of the fact that everyone’s different, everyone has different lifestyles. Some people are going to be losing to three pounds a week. Some people are going to be losing maybe 0.7 pounds a week, if you’re pretty close to your goal, or if you’re dealing with, um, metabolism issues or thyroid or whatever that may be. Right. So I think it’s important to set a timeline, but set it on the process, set it on the things that you’re going to do and be like, Hey, this week, I’m going to do this on Thursday, as opposed to, I must figure out by next Sunday, how to lose six pounds. Otherwise I’m giving up on this crap. You know,

Jane (24:48):

The biggest key, because we’re going back to you. I have to versus I get to. And when you were talking about the nutrition and exercise really have been kind of pounded into our heads is this thing that you have to do. And I know a simple shift from I have to, to, I get to has made a big difference for me and then attaching the goal to something that is really, really fun. So Pam should have phone or have a travel company called adventurous life. And I’ve been with them since their inception and went on their inaugural trip. And next year, next November of 2022 what’s on board on tap is Buenos Aires. And I want to tango in Buenos Aires. So I keep saying to myself, every time I’m like, I really want dessert. I go, no, you don’t. You really want to get into that slinky tango dress and make sure that you’re having fun down in Buenos Ari. So really shifting from these are required. This is something that must happen too. I have the privilege. I have the opportunity to really make a decision for myself. That’s more in line with my ultimate goals.

Adam (25:51):

I love that. And what do you think is like one of the main things that shifted? Cause you mentioned that it took you a while to get to that point. Um, so you got to a point where you’re focusing on all of the positives, right? You’re like, Hey, look, I get to tango, I get to do this. I get to feel good. What was that shift? And I’m sorry to put you on the spot here, but if there’s anything that you remember, it’s fine. If not, but was there something that shifted your belief in terms of, Hey, doing this is actually going to get me those results as opposed to before, when it was more difficult to take action.

Jane (26:20):

Yeah. I love actually being put on the spot. It’s kinda my, kind of my jam, like ask me more questions. I think it was, I think it was really realizing that what I was doing was making me very unhappy and the results that I was getting was making me very unhappy and I thought there’s there’s and again, it goes back to that interconnectedness. I thought, well, I choose to eat things that really aren’t in the best interest of my, I choose to tell myself that I don’t have the time and or whatever, so that I don’t go exercise. And I just felt like I was getting unhappier more and more unhappy. And it was honestly because I just kept putting on more and more weight. And I thought this is really crazy making because I’m still relatively young. There’s still a lot of life out there.

Jane (27:01):

I want to travel. I want to have the energy that I need to travel. It really, the travel, I think for me was probably the big thing I want to, I have niece and nephews. I want to be able to keep up with them when we’re going to these different things. So that was the first thing. And then really like you were talking about Adam, I chose the cardio activity that I knew was going to be the easiest for me. And at the time it was swimming and very quickly that was the big shift that happened because instead of saying, oh, I’ve got to go do my workout because everything else was feeling so cumbersome. It was frankly just feeling, it was really hard on my body and it just, I hated everything about it. And I’ve never been super hyped up on cardio. They were, my cardio go-tos were always dancing and tennis and it just, neither one of those was really possible for a variety of reasons at the moment, this was, this was actually in 2018.

Jane (27:52):

So I thought, you know, the one thing that I can do is I can swim and it did not take long for me to move from. I have to go get in my cardio swim today to when do I get to go do my cardio swim? And it was, it was really during that time period, that number one, I noticed that embracing it because it was fun. And because I was looking forward to it because it didn’t hurt my body. And it was, it was something that I knew that was good for me. That was the big thing. And then the other thing that happened was that’s what that whole, I’m just 30 minutes away from a different mood started to come in for me because no matter what I was feeling, how cranky, how tired, how frustrated, discouraged, whatever negative emotion I was having.

Jane (28:29):

I said, I would always say to myself, just go get in the pool, just go get in the pool. And sometimes it was really hard to do that because I wanted to lean back into my previous, why I’m too tired. I’m too, uh, I’m too busy on to whatever, but it just became go get, go get in the pool. And once I got in the pool, then it was no problem. And when I got out of the pool, it was amazing. I felt like a different person emotionally. So the shift was just number one, picking something that was actually easy for me to do. And then number two, really realizing the power that those endorphins have and the exercise and how it really can just totally shift how you’re feeling about everything. And as a bonus, what I really discovered was when I feel better and I look better, I perform better. I’m, I’m a happier person. I’m better at my job. I’m better at my business. I’m better in my relationships. And the motivation continues.

Adam (29:21):

I love that. And you’ve hit the nail on the head with something that’s super important there. And it’s that when you’re looking at making changes here, um, basically moving towards health goals and all that kind of stuff, the only way you’re actually going to get there is if it’s a net positive on your life, if you’re like, Hey, look, my goal is to lose 30, 40 pounds, whatever it may be. And you’re like, cool, look, I’m just going to do this. It’s going to sacrifice my business a little better. It’s going to be taking a little bit more time or whatever that may be, whatever the sacrifice is. If you’re just like, yeah, cool. That will get me to 30 pounds less, which is where I quote unquote should be. It’s like, you’re never want to have the motivation to make that happen. There has to be an overall net positive.

Adam (30:00):

And once we actually like do these things, that’s when you notice, Hey, this is actually helping me in my business. This is helping me be more grounded throughout the day. This is helping me be less neurotic, making better decisions, all that kind of stuff. And uh, yeah, I think that’s why there’s a, there’s a very big disparity between people who don’t work out consistently and people that do train in terms of like, it’s very hard to see people that are in the middle of being like, Hey, yeah, I didn’t train like sometimes. And then not other times, it’s like a lot of the time we see people who are like, Hey, this is something I’d love to do, but I can’t make it work quite yet. And then people over at complete other end of the spectrum, just like swearing, but it’s like nearly like a, a huge like religious shift or something like that. Right.

Jane (30:43):

It has been so profound and to combine the business and the exercise. Now I’m going to layer in the travel because some really cool things started to happen when, when I was traveling and I was with Pam on these trips actually, and one was the inaugural trip that Pam took all of us on. We went to Lisbon and after Lisbon, uh, episode, I was extras that we were walking a lot in Lisbon, but I went to the Algarve region afterwards with a, with a friend. And that was when I’m like, I gotta get my swim in. So we were staying, we were stayed at the resort and it was really still kind of cold and she’d be out Sunday late or whatever. And I’m just pounding away in the pool. Like I got to get the swim at, I got to get the swim in and it was the same thing in Australia.

Jane (31:22):

There were all these really cool rock pools. So am I going to go get the swim in? I gotta get, I gotta get the swimming. And it was, it was, I remember thinking this is a little bit mind blowing for me because really what I was doing was making sure that I fit exercise into my schedule while I was globe trotting, which I can honestly tell you, I have never thought about doing before in my life. And I would just think we’ll walk around the city sufficient, but I was so gung ho on, I got to get the swim in and now what has happened for me is I on my list are all these different places and all these different countries that I’m going to go get my swim in. So swimming underneath the waterfall in Hawaii, you know, swimming in a rock pool in Australia, swimming. So it’s, it’s really just become a passion of mine. And it’s, it’s got so many health benefits on the other side. Yeah.

Adam (32:12):

I love that. And to anyone on the outside or to even yourself, if you were to see yourself in the future doing that, you’d be like, this is a mad woman, where does, and she just enjoyed her holiday, our vacation

Jane (32:26):

Cocktails or whatever. I’m going to go get the rock pool and do my 45 minutes. It just, it really is. It’s amazing. And the changes that it has brought about in my life, in all different areas, which I really, I just don’t think I understood what would really happen for me as a result of one activity, being like a spider web, you know, it just affected everything and in a very positive way

Adam (32:51):

And to the listeners or to anybody who’s like hearing this and be like, yeah, that’s, that’s all well and good, but how do we actually get to that point? Or how do I, because by the sounds of it, like you mentioned that, Hey, you hit a certain point and you were just like, screw this. This is enough. And then you had a little bit of a window of opportunity. You were like, cool, I’m going to do swimming. And then it’s like, those windows are narrow. They will come around a couple of times, but you have to take action and grab those. Right. So, um, I think one of the key things to break down there is at a certain point, you basically hit a point where your standards were above where your let’s say your body was getting to, or your levels of fitness were getting two. And you’ve just got, oh,

Jane (33:30):

I got to pause you on that because that is really huge. My standards were above what, what my body was lucky. Like, yes, yes. My, my insides really were not that’s. I love the way that you said it. And I’m gonna say it just a little bit differently so people can hear both. So my standards were above what was happening with my body and the way that I would say it is my insides, who I knew I was on the inside. It was not being reflected on the outside. So, sorry, sorry to interrupt. But I think that’s a really big point for people. So keep going. Totally.

Adam (34:04):

No, that’s, that’s perfect. I’m glad to have the, the other perspective on it as well, and just phrasing it in a different way. But one thing that’s important is we don’t have to wait until that point happens. Right. It’s we don’t have to wait until we hit that quote unquote rock bottom of her own standards. So we can either wait until things get to the point where we’re just like, Hey, look, this is, this is my breaking point. Otherwise we can just basically decided that, Hey, look, we can raise those standards right now. And all of a sudden where we are currently is below that point and we’re working to become that new person that we already just decided we’re going to be so we can wait for it to come to us. Or basically we can just be like, okay, look, I’m raising the standards, this, this isn’t cutting it. Let’s, let’s go, let’s try to make some change and let’s be realistic about it and be nice to ourselves and be gracious to ourselves along

Jane (34:49):

The way. Yeah. Well, so

Pam (34:54):

Can you give our listeners a couple of tips on how to get started moving toward those goals?

Adam (35:01):

Great question. So basically what I’d say at first, right down as we chatted about a minute ago, write down what that main goal is for you. Um, most of the people that I work with it’s generally way all schools. So I’ll answer the question in general and then I’ll answer specifically a weight loss. So in general, just basically write down what is the most important thing. And if it’s not weight loss, basically just see what it is. That’s going to be the main thing that drives you towards that, right? Then your reasons to do it be realistic. So if, or like, Hey, someone told me, or I checked his program online and it says to work out four times a week. And I think with my business, I’m only going to fit in maybe two to three times consistently build that approach around you, test it and just see what happens.

Adam (35:48):

And then you can adjust from there, record data and understand that failure. Isn’t something that’s old that it just didn’t work again, failures information. So if you start analyzing those failures and this is why it’s an awesome idea of working with a coach or having some accountability partner or someone who can actually unemotionally dive into this information, once we learn from these failures, that and adjust, then all of a sudden each and every time we fail, we’re moving towards our goal. So just literally get started, start failing faster and make sure you’re adjusting from those failures. And you will find yourself moving forward and getting the results that you wanted really down quickly. Um, in terms of weight loss goals, again, bringing it back to what I was mentioning a while ago, focused on the hierarchy. There’s something that’s going to move the needle forward more than anything else.

Adam (36:36):

Um, with the weight loss side of things, it will be overall nutrition. And you’re just basically finding a way to take in less energy than your body’s burning each and every day. Right? So get an understanding of calorie intake. And as I say this, some people might have a knee-jerk reaction of, oh, at this, this calorie tracking thing, this might be too obsessive or there might be a hundred different things going through some people’s mind right now, but basically write down what actually, what bothers you about the process of understanding where that energy balance is? Because when we’re taking in less energy than our body’s burning each and every day, our system like science is Newton’s third law of like energy, whatever it’s energy cannot be created or destroyed and all that kind of stuff. And so when we’re having less energy taking in, we have to be losing weight from somewhere and that’s going to be coming from body fat.

Adam (37:22):

So once we can understand what’s actually happening, how do we make sure that we’re tracking what our intake is and understanding how much intake we have to eat each and every day to lose weight. And when this happens, some things might come to your mind, as I mentioned, and it’s just basically breaking those down. Hey, calorie tracking feels too obsessive. Okay. How do we do this in a way that doesn’t feel so obsessive? How do we track some things and have an idea of our intake and just make sure that we’re getting some results. And then back off some tracking, we have like a loose understanding of, Hey, this random latte that I was having in my morning that I wasn’t really enjoying that much. Actually it was 400 calories, which is a quarter of my intake for the day. If I just cut up that latte, it’s nearly a pound a week, this 3,500 calories in a pound of body fat, roughly.

Adam (38:07):

So just basically getting an understanding of the things that are tripping you up and realizing that the amount of change that you have to make is actually a lot smaller than we think. Sometimes it’s just spotting that one latte and you might just be like, screw you. I love my coffee. It’s never going, but you’re going to have your own version of that latte. There’s going to be a certain couple of things that you can change around that are super small, but add up massively. And once you’re tracking things, you have an understanding of what this is. It’s like you’ve been walking around and trying to change this goal or lose weight with a blindfold on. And what you’re doing is you’re taking off the blindfold. You’re looking at the things that you’re bumping into. You’re looking at the main problems and it can be overwhelming. Cause you’re like, oh my God, I’d be bumping into all this like silly stuff the whole time. But at the same time, it’s also liberating because you’re like, Hey, cool. I know the way forward. I know exactly what to do to get, to get to my goals. And you don’t have to change everything or just beyond this perfect diet or give up the things that you love doing wine, whatever that may be. Right. So just basically, yeah. That’s, if I can kind of wrap it up into one explanation, that would be it.

Pam (39:13):

Perfect. I think that’s easy for us to do so. Look around people for those that latte and see what you can maybe remove. Just, I mean, that gets us going, right. I love it. So where can people find you? How can they get in touch with you and where can they find you?

Adam (39:36):

Great. So basically I run a Facebook group and this is the Facebook group is called the lean professionals. So just a quick search on that and you’ll find it. Um, so that’s kind of basically where I have like my proverbial website, right? So on there we do free trainings. We actually explained to people how to do all of this, the actual process of getting those results, right? So once you have that mindset down and you’re like, Hey, look, this is a change that I’m able to make. We have trainings in there to guide people through the process of, Hey, tracking calories or understanding what’s happening, it’s dieting, isn’t working. Or if they feel like they have some issues with metabolism, or if they’re measuring things and they’re doing all the right things, but nothing seems to be working. We have trainings in there to break that down and kind of help people understand, okay, what things do I shift here and all that kind of stuff. So that would be the best place to kind of connect, find that community. Um, if you can’t find it, you can search my name. Adam Walsh is that’s a D a M w a L S H on Facebook. And I could probably add you, uh, right in through there.

Pam (40:32):

That’s perfect. And of course, listeners we’ll have that in our show notes, all of those links so that you can get in touch with Adam. I want to thank you so much, so many, so much great information that can really help us kind of level up our bodies along with leveling up our businesses. So thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Thank

Adam (40:53):

You so much for, for having me on. It’s been a pleasure and yeah. Thank you guys for giving me the platform to share some of the, these ideas and for the listeners as well. Thank you for taking the time to take a little bit of time for yourself and actually help you move towards these goals. And that was great, Adam, thank you so much.

Pam (41:09):

Super. That’s a wrap. That’s a wrap everyone. Thanks for joining us this week on the flourish and grow to CEO podcast. Be sure to visit our website@flourish.biz. That’s F L O U R I S h.biz, where you can subscribe to the shows in iTunes, Stitcher, or via RSS. So you’ll never miss an episode. You can also find our show notes and resources there too. And while you’re at it, if you found value in this show, we’d love for you to leave a rating on iTunes. Or if you’d simply tell a friend about the show that would sure help us out too. Now get out there and.