Wellness as a tool for success and better relationships? Yes! (and it can be simple)

Are you doing a good job of balance your busy life, building your business, and looking after your health and wellness at the same time?

Or is your wellness taking a backseat, while you tell yourself that you will worry about self-care, rest, exercise or eating better ,when you have time, when you reach that next goal, or when you finish this launch?

No, I’m not reading your mind – I’ve had those exact thoughts myself too.  I think we all have some version of that, at one time or another.

You are not alone, but you definitely shouldn’t be waiting until you have more time to think about creating a healthier lifestyle.  Because we all know there’s always something else that pops up, and “someday” never seems to arrive.

Here’s the secret, wellness is not an extra thing you need to get to, it’s actually a tool that will help you succeed in all areas, if you focus on it now.  It will help you succeed in your business, improve your relationships, and enjoy your successes more.  And Nicola is with us today, as a 20-year veteran coach at Nike, and a personal trainer and mindset coach. to give you realistic, tiny steps to help you tap into your potential with your health and wellness.

So, if you are ready to make some very small and easy changes today, so you don’t have to keep saying “someday” then let’s get into it!

Join the "Win Your Worth" 5 Day Challenge:  HERE
Connect with Nicola:  HERE

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Transcript

Are you doing a good job of balancing your busy life, building your business, and looking after your health and wellness at the same time? Or is your wellness taking a backseat while you tell yourself that you will worry about self care, rest, exercise, or eating better when you have time? Or when you reach that goal or when you finish this launch, , No, I'm not reading your mind.

I've had those exact thoughts myself too. I think we all have some version of that at one time or another. You are not alone, but you definitely shouldn't be waiting until you have more time to think about creating a more healthy lifestyle. Because we all know there's always something else that pops up and someday never seems to.

Here's the secret. Wellness is not an extra thing you need to get to. It's actually a tool that will help you succeed in all areas. If you focus on it now, it will help you succeed in your business, improve your relationships, and enjoy your successes more. And Nicola is with us today. She is a [00:01:00] 20 year veteran coach at Nike and a personal trainer and mindset coach, and she's giving us realistic tiny steps to help us tap into our potential with our health and wellness.

So if you are ready to make some very small and easy changes today, so you don't have to keep saying someday, then let's get into it. 

Kristy: Nicola is a transformational health coach supporting women in business to transform their health into wealth by building confidence and self-worth using her framework of mindset, movement, nutrition, sleep, and stress. Thank you so much for being with us today, Nicola. I really appreciate you being here.

Nicola: Oh, that's all right. I'm really excited to be here. Christ. 

Kristy: I think so often we end up trading one for the other, right? the health for the, the advancements in our business, and I, I know I do and it sometimes seems unachievable to find the balance and to really improve my health and wellbeing.

Well, maintaining the crazy life of a woman entrepreneur. So I know personally, I'm really looking forward to this conversation and, and [00:02:00] can use some help there. And I think this is gonna be really helpful to a lot of the ladies out there. Can you. Kinda what your journey has been to hear and, and exactly what it is that you're doing now.

Nicola: Yeah, so I have a very long corporate background. I was in corporate for 24 years and last year I was made redundant. I'd worked at Nike for 20 years and that came to quite a sudden end in March of 21 and. I honestly didn't have a plan B. I had no idea what I would do after Nike, I was approaching mid 40.

I loved the brand and the culture that I was part of, but I had struggled with anxiety for a long time. So when I was 19, I started to have quite severe panic attacks and that continued with, you know, panic and anxiety being a big part of my life. And it was something that I actually hid whilst I was.

[00:03:00] Working in corporate for all of those years, I was very ashamed of what I was struggling. I saw it as a huge flaw and something that meant I had, you know, a fault that there was something wrong with me. So, although I loved the job that I was doing and I really did enjoy being part of the company 

I'd found it a real strain on my health because of how I'd hidden what I was struggling with, with the anxiety and the anxiety led to very low self-worth law, confidence, very law, self-belief, imposter syndrome, just constant self doubt and unhappiness, to be quite honest. You know, I was surviving like a lot.

People do, especially women when you juggle in a career, whether that's as an employee or in your own business, juggling kids, family, a home, all of the other things that come, you know, part and parcel of of life. . I [00:04:00] knew that I wanted to stay connected to helping people live a healthier life, because that's obviously what Nike's sort e vision and purpose is to make sport a daily habit, and I was very passionate about that.

I loved working with women and kids and I'd been a leader of different teams and a mentor at Nike, and I knew I loved working with people and coaching them. What I was standing for with the business I wanted to create was helping people to enjoy their life now by being healthy and well and strong.

And so yeah, that's how Life Now coaching came about. And that's so often the 

Kristy: case, isn't it? I found it in my journey as well. Is that it seems like, and it is difficult at the time, but so often that's the little push that you needed to do the next thing, right? You probably would've stayed for another five years or 10 years or whatever without listening to that little voice in your head.

If, if you had 

Nicola: the choice. Yeah, absolutely. Because I think. The biggest thing for me was I felt trapped [00:05:00] that I didn't even have a choice to dream of what I might do if I could do something else because of the salary that I was earning and what we needed for our family. So, you know, I, I knew that I would love to do something else, but I just hadn't ever allowed myself to get to that point of really thinking what that might be.

And that, A problem, not just for that specific, you know, goal or dream that I might have have had, but because I just wasn't allowing myself to see any other way of living. It was like, this is it. I'm stok. It has to be like that. And that's a big part of what I focus on now is helping women who are feeling so stuck because I know what that feels like to just think, well, this is my lot, this is life.

This is how it has to be. I'm too busy. I'm not good enough. You know, I haven't got the money, I haven't got the time. And, and that's, you know, often what stands in our way if making even small changes. [00:06:00] So that's what I really focus on now with the coaching, is helping women to overcome those thoughts, to get back in control and have that penny drop moment of, yeah, actually I can do something different that might not be leaving one career to move into a completely different one.

But it could be something in how you take care of yourself or just how you operate within your family or your other relationships. Right. 

Kristy: So you, I mean, you've got a lot of experience with this personally as well as with 20 years at Nike. So let's maybe start by defining why is it that and I mean there's some obvious reasons, and I think there's probably some less obvious reasons, but why is balancing our health and wellbeing so important, not only to our lives, but to our 

Nicola: businesses?

Yeah. I often talk about it being the missing piece of your Strat plan because, As business owners, we're very good at investing our time, energy, and development into everything that we think is [00:07:00] gonna lead us to achieve our goals. So that could be the marketing, the sales piece, the strategic plan itself, you know, having a coach to support us and help with our mindset and so on.

if we're working to achieve those goals There's two things can happen here. One route is that you're really, really struggling to achieve them because you're actually not performing at your best because you aren unhealthy and strong. You're actually struggling to have the energy and the motivation, which a lot of business owners deal with and, and find the procrastinate a lot because they can't get off that starting block because they have low self worth or self belief lacking and so on.

Oh, you, you're pushing yourself so hard that you just can't get there because you are really overwhelmed and you just can't keep up with the pace that you need to go at. So that, that's the first, you know, challenge that we have. The second is that it you, you need to be well so that when [00:08:00] you do achieve your goals, if you are in that second lane and you are managing to get where you want to go so that when you get there, you can actually feel successful and fulfilled and happy.

Because what I hear from a lot of people is to have targets, especially around revenue goals, and they hit that goal. It's often, you know, monthly amount that they want to bring in, but then they feel that there's a pace missing and the goal. Well, okay, I'm making this amount and that was what I wanted, but I can't enjoy it.

I've got no time to enjoy it. I've got no energy. Oh, there's just something lacking because they haven't rounded it off with feeling really well and strong in the themselves and their health. 

Kristy: You have a framework that you use a five pillar framework to help us map that out and work on that in our own situations. Can we talk about that a little? 

Nicola: Yeah, so the framework that I use has five pillars in it, and it's when I show it as a visual, it's five circles with mindset in that center circle, [00:09:00] and that's surrounded by the other four pillars, which are movement, nutrition, sleep, and stress.

And I center everything around the mindset because I really believe that's where it begins and where it always needs to. Circle and, and you know, pivot and move direction around. And all of those five things are very intrinsically linked in our health and wellbeing. They all affect one another, so. You know, for example, what you eat affects how well you sleep, how much energy you've got, and the ability and desire to move.

It also affects very much your stress levels and your mindset. You know, we eat for our, our mind, our brain, not just for our bodies. So I use that as really the core framework to build the foundations, very strong foundations of health and wellbeing. And, you know, there's other things that come into play with your health and wellbeing, [00:10:00] like your social environment your financial environment, the relationships that you have, your career.

But they're the five things that are really, really critical to making sure that you can. Work in an optimal way. When I say work, that's not work in the business sense. It's work in every way. You know that you can get up and be awake and focus for the hours that you need to in the day. You can be the parent that you might need to be, or the partner or the friend, as well as, you know, just being able to have the energy that, that you need to work at the capacity and the rate that you, you want to through every part of your life.

 You know, when we talk about having a wealthy life, that's a combination of the things that matter to you, your values, the things that make you feel really fulfilled and happy and successful. And so the mindset's really key to that because if so, for example, you eat [00:11:00] really well.

And you exercise and you mobile, you have quite an active life. You're definitely gonna feel much better because of that and it's gonna have a great impact. And maybe your sleep's pretty good and you don't tend to get very stressed and you can manage the stress that does arise. But if you are still.

Struggling with your self worth, for example, and there's a lot of negative self talk going on, and you have low confidence and belief even though you are doing a lot of great things to help you feel better if you are struggling with the mindset aspect. It's gonna pull you down and so you're not gonna feel, you know, like the 10 out of 10 that you might, if your mindset was actually much more optimistic and positive and growth mindset rather than a fixed type mindset.

So I think, yeah, the mindset has a huge part to play, to kind of round everything off. And I think, you know, you'll know this as a business owner. That's always a [00:12:00] battle, isn't it? Even if you've got generally quite a growth type mindset, there's always gonna be things that come along that you have to catch, you have to reflect on, and you have to be able to, you know, reposition and, and change so that you don't let them pull you away from the direction you want to be going in.

Kristy: Yeah. It's never job done with mindset, is it? It's 

Nicola: always exactly progress. . Yeah. And that's why I've got it as a circle, and I talk about it being the beginning, but it's never the end. There is no finish line and actually there is no finish line with our health. It's not a job done. And that's a message I've been trying really hard to get across because for a lot of women, They do think of it in that way.

It's like, I'm gonna go on a diet. Right? And then when that diet's done in two months time, few back to normal life again. You know, I can, can go back to not restricting myself and deny myself and, and all the other things that a lot of [00:13:00] people apply when they're trying to be healthy and go at it with things like, Oh, a diet, or, I'm just gonna go to the gym.

And it's often when you've got. An occasion ahead of you, like holiday or a wedding or you know, some special event that you want to look and feel your best for. But then you know when that's over, it's ah, back to the usual way of life. And so there is no finish line. It, it's forever. It's part of who you are and that's why you have to.

Build sustainable habits, ones that become part of your life and your routine and that you enjoy because they're aligned to the values that you have as a person and how you want to be and live your life. . 

Kristy: So can we dive in and I'm sure you go deep into, into the framework in, in some of your programs, but can we just kind of.

Touch on each one of those pillars and just give everybody some actionable bit that they can take for each of those pillars that, that, that they can start working on [00:14:00] now. 

Nicola: Yeah. So if we start with mindset, the big thing that I would say, hey, yeah. Is to treat yourself like you would trade, someone you care about.

So a friend or a family member, you need to become your number one fan or supporter. That's how I put it. So, Catch yourself when you hear yourself not being that friend, because we all do it. You know those thoughts that inner voice creeps in and we say quite dero things to ourself. We're really harsh to our ourselves, often for quite irrelevant reasons.

So that's the first thing I would say is be kind to you like you would be to others, because when. treat yourself with that respect. When you support yourself, when you encourage yourself, you are really gonna start to lift your self belief and your confidence and your mood, and you're just gonna feel much better.

And that does have a ripple effect, and at this theme will [00:15:00] probably come across in the other four. Everything has a ripple effect when you do start to build on, you know, the good things that you do for yourself in your life. So then for movement, It's about looking at small ways that you can move regularly through the day.

So don't jump right out to having to do big workouts and sessions, especially if you're not someone who regularly exercises. Just think about being active. And the big thing to remember here is that as humans, we are designed to move. We weren't designed to sit down like a lot of us do for a lot of the hours in a day.

So think about opportunities, for example. When you put the kettle on, that you could maybe just walk around the kitchen or do some squats or some lunges or a little dance if you've got the music on, you know, set a reminder maybe for every five minutes in the hour to get up and just move around. Even that's to use the bathroom, refill you glass with some water, [00:16:00] or you know, get up and move.

If you're gonna be messaging or checking social media, do it while you're moving around. So just find little ways that. Floor through your day to move your body on a regular basis. 

Kristy: that's such a great tip. And I don't know, how many people are like this?

I know with me, if I'm going to, start working out, then I will pick the hardest program for an hour, and then it lasts a week because I'm tired and I don't have time to do it. We had a fitness expert on with this not too long ago, and, and she had a very similar point that.

 It all adds up. It all counts. 

Nicola: Absolutely. And I'm a personal trainer as well, and so I do definitely advocate working out because you do need higher intensity

or at least moderate intensity, but it doesn't have to be for a long block of time. That can definitely be done individually and then all come together to get the tool you need across your week, but, Even if you are working out, don't let that workout be the only time you move in. Maybe [00:17:00] the 14 hours you're awake in a day.

You need to move throughout all of those hours. That's the key message is, you know, don't think often. A 20 minute walk, few, that's it. Now I'm at the desk and I won't move for the next eight, nine hours. You do need to get up and just move around on a regular basis. and then for nutrition.

There's so much that I could say on this one, but I think the, the best thing to do here, and it's a bit of a mindset hack again, but it's just to think about what you put into your mouth and your body. Not all calories are equal. Every calorie does something different. So think about the food that you having and the way that it's gonna fuel your body.

And I talk about a car analogy a lot and how, you know, we want our car to run optimally. So we put the best fuel in, we make sure the oil's in the water, the windscreen wash. The tires have the right air and so on. Our bodies [00:18:00] are a system. We're a machine, and you know, we have 11 systems in our body. They all work in harmony to enable us to survive.

That's the reality of how we are. So you want to be putting the best fuel, the best oil, the best water, you know, everything into your body to make all of those systems work as a machine needs to work. So just think. What you're eating is a bit of mindfulness, you know, to just be considerate. If is this meal gonna give me what I need?

Is it gonna give me the brain power, the fog, the energy that I need to complete, the things I want to be able to complete each day? And then for sleep. I reverse this for sleep and talk about a morning routine rather than a bedtime routine because what you do on a morning actually has a huge role at play in how well you will sleep that night.

So things like getting daylight as early as you can. Motivating yourself with a bit of [00:19:00] movement, even if, again, that's just walking around in your house or doing some stretching. If you can get outside as early as possible or as soon after wig, then that has an incredible effect on your energy levels and your body clock rhythm so that you can have a good nighttime and sleep pattern.

So really just think about how you start your day. How active you are, both from a mental point of view and your physical body so that you can try and set yourself up to have a really good night's sleep with good quality sleep as well. So stress is the last one with stress.

The biggest thing that I would say here is to think about what your triggers are and know. Causes you to become stressed and then to look at how you can manage those differently. You know, because the will be patterns is a time, for example, is it that you'd never have [00:20:00] enough time and maybe you're over planning what you can fit into the time?

I was definitely guilty of this. I used to. Write list. I've always been very good at organizing what I need to do, but I started to use a time block planner with 30 minute blocks, and I realized when I was putting things in there that there was no way I was ever gonna do the things that were on my list.

So I was setting myself up to feel, because I'd. Put all of these things on the list, I was then getting really stressed when I wasn't getting them done. So, you know, it, it could be anything. It, it could just be that you put too many meetings in, or maybe you're stressed because you actually don't move enough and you need to have a little bit of downtime and step away from the screen.

it could be, The types of conversations you having with people, absolutely anything, but try and find what your biggest triggers are and look at ways that you can not necessarily eliminate them, but manage them differently so that the beyond resulting in you [00:21:00] becoming too stressed. Because when we're stressed, it has so much impact on our body and really does trigger all of those other areas that I've spoke about.

I like to call 

Kristy: that aggressive scheduling . So I justify it. I'm trying to stop that as well cuz you're right, it does, you get to the end of the day and you, you haven't done all the things and you feel like you failed when really you may have been incredibly productive, you just set yourself up to fail.

Nicola: Exactly. 

Kristy: So what do you think is the biggest challenge, cuz I, there's all sorts of challenges, but what's, what do you think is the big stumbling block for, for most women in, in implementing a healthier 

Nicola: lifestyle? I believe it's lack of self belief and self-worth. I think so many women think that this is just who they are.

You know, they would like to change. Maybe it's getting fit loose and weird. Maybe it's just generally feeling more healthy. For a lot of women, I think it's feeling less tired and having more energy. But what they tell themselves [00:22:00] is, this is just who I am. I'm not a person that can change living like that doesn't happen for me.

That's somebody else's story. I'm not capable of being like that type of person. And all of that comes from really low self-belief and worth, and that leads a lot of women to just accept that things are the way they are and that plays out in lots. Areas of your life. It could be relationships, you know, even friendships.

Your career definitely, as well as then some very specific parts of your health and. I think it gets very easy to just believe that and tell yourself the story of, Well, this is my life. This is just how it is. You know, so I have to stay like this. And that comes from our limiting beliefs which is another huge topic, where we, we've got all of these beliefs and stories about who we are and, and how we are that way, and so, we just quashed down any thoughts that come in about [00:23:00] changing and living our lives any differently.

Kristy: So you, you know, you've given us lots of great steps that we can take for all of these , different areas. But for somebody listening today, what, what would be an easy first step? What would be your suggested first step to, to get on the path for healthier habits 

Nicola: to actually take action.

My suggestion is to block five minutes tomorrow, so get straight on this. All you need is five minutes to do something. Anything that is gonna make you feel better, whether that's just getting outside for a quick walk, it's putting a little meditation on, maybe reading a book, even if it's connecting with a friend that you haven't spoken to for a while.

Just something that is giving you. Something beneficial for your health. And then when you've done that, give yourself a pat on the back. Congratulate yourself. Because how small steps are so incredibly [00:24:00] valuable with change in anything, not just your health, is that you can then measure and see progress.

And so when you are just doing those small steps, You can reflect on them and congratulate yourself on them and see that you've done something that you haven't done before. So if, if we say that person does take the five minutes and do something tomorrow, after that, they can say, Today I have done something that I've never done before and I do feel better for it.

Yeah. I don't feel the way that I want to, but that's not gonna happen overnight. You know, that mountain is there to climb, but I'm gonna climb at one small step at a time, and every step is getting me closer to where I want to be. And I love 

Kristy: that. And we all have, I mean, as busy as any one of us is, we all have five.

Nicola: Exactly put it in your calendar, get a reminder in. And that's how it has to start as well for a lot of people, because any habit is difficult to form because it does come from consistency and repetition. So you have to find your way to remember to do [00:25:00] it initially and want to do it.

And that's the other key thing is you have to want to do it. You've gotta really connect with why that matters to you. And I talk a lot. Your why? Because when you know your why, that's what drives the initial motivation, but then gives you the momentum. 

Kristy: You've got a, a free challenge that we're gonna talk about in just a second, which I think is amazing.

And we'll put the link for that in the show notes as well. But before we do that, I'd love to ask every one of our guests what their best piece of advice is for newer women founders. 

Nicola: Do you know what? I've been amazed at how much support is out there coming into this world. Completely new, there's so much advice that I've had and received and has definitely benefited me. I think the biggest thing I would say is to connect and reach out for support because there are so many incredible people out there who have a wealth of knowledge, and everybody in my experience is willing to share that.

People will give their [00:26:00] time and their knowledge, so connect, build those relationships. Don't be afraid to go into a group and think, Oh, I don't know anybody. This is weird. You know? It's not a team. Part of like, when I was maybe, you know, an employee rather than an entrepreneur and, and so entrepreneur.

So just step in those groups and really connect with people and you offer your support and ask for support wherever you needed to. 

Kristy: And it's one of the things I love about women entrepreneurs specifically, is we really are prone to helping each other for, you know, no reason, but to help each other.

So if you reach out, you'd be amazed at the help you can get. That's great advice. So you have a, a free challenge and, and it runs all the time. They can join this anytime. Is that? 

Nicola: Yeah, it's a do it yourself challenge. So it's five days on email, so yet you just do it at home on your own.

As you get the emails each day and it's called Win You Are Worth. . . And as we talk about that is one of the biggest [00:27:00] struggles that women have right at the beginning of a journey of wanting to make a change to their health and. This challenge really does help you to get clear on why you want to change what's going on right now that's standing in your way so that at the end of those five days you have built up.

Some self belief and and self worth to know that you are valuable and you are very much worth taken care of because that's what you need to have happen. It's that light bulb moment. You know, you need to realize that you are somebody and you have got one life and you deserve to be living it differently if that's what you want.

To make sure that you are as happy and as feel as wealthy as what you want to feel and deserve to. 

Kristy: I love your definition of wealth. I think we need to, we need to look at it that way. So we're gonna put the link for that challenge and, and the link for Cola's website as well in the show notes. You can always go over to the podcast website, [00:28:00] which is one step empire.com.

One step empire.com or you can go to she coopered.com and click on podcast. Either way, you'll get all the show notes to get the link for the free challenge. And you will get a link for Nicola's site so you can connect with her as well. So I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you so much for being on with us today.

You've given us so many actionable bits of information that we can, put to use right away. I really appreciate that and I think you're gonna help a lot of people. 

Nicola: Oh, I hope so. Yeah, and I've really enjoyed our conversation. Thank you.