Abundant + Aligned
Welcome to the Abundant + Aligned podcast. We welcome women who are ready to live the life of their dreams. Here, we talk all things mindset, manifestation and entrepreneurship. We are on a mission to create abundance in all areas of life and playing small just isn't our jam! So if you are ready to expand your mind to the possibilities, turn off autopilot and live with intention, you are in the right place! We are abundant and aligned.
Abundant + Aligned
164 // Do less and earn MORE! Avoiding burnout in business and finding more balance with Madison Hawes, Wellness Coach
Can you really pull back in your work load and still be wildly successful?? Today I am sitting down with Madison Hawes, renowned women's wellness coach and entrepreneur, to discuss the question we're all wondering.
Madison Hawes is the Founder of Body By Madison, a women’s wellness business helping clients to find balance in their lives and bloom into their best selves.
Madison has coached her clients for almost a decade and has recently launched her new program offerings BLOOM - a 12 week wellness program that provides the tools and road map to take charge of your health and create a balanced lifestyle.
Madison also offers The Find Your Balance Membership, a lifestyle and wellness membership nurturing a community of like-minded women on their journey to live a more balanced life
During this episode we challenge the conventional advise of "work harder, achieve more" by advocating for self-care and more rest while still creating success in business.
We also dive into the early signs of burnout, discuss how aligning business activities with the menstrual cycle can boost productivity and well-being, and share practical strategies for maintaining energy and wellness in your life.
Tune in for an engaging conversation that promises to transform your approach to work and health.
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Yeah, I think we need to change the narrative and not feel bad if we're not in the office working hunched over our desk all day, and instead we're feeding ourselves, nurturing ourselves, taking care of ourselves as if that's our job and getting paid to do that. So I think when, yeah, when we're our best, we're going to obviously make the greatest change in the world.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Abundant and Aligned podcast, where we welcome women who are ready to live the life of their dreams. So if that's you, I'm so glad you're here. I'm Jess, your host and your new bestie, here to remind you to dream big, live with intention and believe that actually, yes, you can. Here we talk all things mindset and personal development. We are on a mission to create abundance in all areas of our life, and playing small just isn't our jam. So if you're ready to expand your mind to the possibilities, turn off autopilot and start showing up with intention. Buckle up for the ride. We are Abundant and Aligned.
Speaker 3:Hello everybody and welcome to the Abundant and Aligned podcast. Thank you so much for tuning into another episode. I have a guest speaker here with me today, which I'm excited for. I feel like we've done solo episodes for the last couple of months, so I'm really excited to bring back some inspiring conversations and we're kicking off with a goodie Today. I have Madison here, who we connected through a networking event we were supposed to do together in Tassie that didn't unfortunately go ahead. But we've stayed in contact and I'm really excited to have her on the show today to talk all about finding balance in your life.
Speaker 3:You guys know I'm the biggest advocate of making a lot of money and being super successful, but not at the sacrifice of your own health and wellbeing, and Madison is the testament to the fact that that can be done and balance can happen when you take that control and you implement some incredible habits in your life to respect what you need, nurture your body and know that you can still be that woman but also have all the success that we're here to create. So, madison, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited. Madison, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited. In terms of an intro. Let me hand the mic over to you. Give us both a personal and a professional one. I like to get to know my guests in all areas, so take it away.
Speaker 1:Sounds good. So yeah, my name is Madison Hawes. I am married recently. I haven't changed my name yet, just testing this first marriage and then you know if it doesn't work out. The paperwork will be a lot easier if it's my second marriage.
Speaker 1:I love that. Just jokes, just jokes. I've been with my beautiful husband for 10 years. He is incredible. I live in Tasmania, I have a golden retriever called Sunny and I have and he is just oh, this is the most beautiful baby in the world. A fun fact about him is when my husband proposed to me on the beach, he recorded it and Sunny got the zoomies and went absolutely crazy, and that video has circulated online over a hundred million views. It went viral. I deleted my TikTok after a while because it was just out of this world, but the notifications were just going crazy. Jennifer Aniston commented on it. Also. Jennifer Coolidge commented on it too. Like Sunny is famous. Wow, I love that. That's cool. Yeah, so that was fun. I have a baby in my belly right now. I'm about 13 weeks pregnant, which is a fun new journey for me.
Speaker 1:So that's a lot about my sort of personal side of things. When it comes to my professional side, I have a business, and I have it's the same business that I first ever launched my one and only, and I've had it for almost 10 years now, which is awesome. It has been a business that I've been able to go full time in from from as soon as I launched it, which was pretty cool. I had my business is a women's wellness coaching company, and I had an amazing mentor, who's my dad. He's a business coach and my entire life he would. You know, when I was in literally in high school, he had me reading Rich Kid, poor Kid, the Richest man in Babylon. I would have to write book reports on these books every week. So becoming quite literate with money was important to my dad and he kind of taught me a lot when I was growing up. So I think I was always bound to be a bit of a entrepreneur in some way, and so I think, just I found that I lived a really active lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Something that my parents also instilled in me was, you know, living an active lifestyle, going to the gym and eating in a really balanced way. So my title is, you know, a women's wellness coach, and I really focus on balanced eating and balanced living. So I'm not a. I don't focus on one diet or one thing, or I don't think one thing is better than the other. I think that we all need to find what works for us, and that's kind of my goal and what I do. So yeah, I was really lucky with my parents growing up and the influence that they had on me, and so when I found what I loved, which was movement and eating in a healthy and balanced way movement and eating in a healthy and balanced way.
Speaker 1:Plus, I had this um, like performance based personality, like I was, I was voted like most likely to be like a famous actress in school or something like that, cause I just loved to make people laugh or dance or be silly. And, um, I was also a middle child. So I guess that's very attention seeking. Just from birth, you know, you want everyone to be like, hey, I'm still here, we're moving on to a new baby, but I'm still right here, guys. So I had that in me as well. So I kind of paired those things together my love for all things, health and wellness, my business background and money background and put them together and created the business called Body by Madison, which has supported hundreds and hundreds of women through creating a balanced lifestyle and feeling great in their bodies, living the life that they want to. So, yeah, that's kind of where we're up to now.
Speaker 3:I feel like it's not spoken enough. This idea of balance. I feel like we all crave it, but we don't allow ourselves to create a life where it exists. We feel like the scales constantly need to be tipped and I mean, of course, there's chapters in life where perhaps it will be, maybe we're more focused on business, maybe we're growing a baby, maybe we are traveling.
Speaker 3:But giving yourself permission to try and create a balanced life is something that I love that we're here to talk about today. But, yeah, it's something we crave but often we don't give ourselves permission to. Well, let's try and create a balanced life, Like let's actually see what shifts we need to make and changes need to occur in order for us to actually have that. And it's really interesting that your business kind of founded usually a business is founded because your life was turmoil and you had no balance and then you had to find balance and then you help other women. I think it's really lovely that you grew up in a family where it's always been instilled in you that you can kind of have this life where, yeah, the scale aren't always tipped and so, like, what does work with your clients now look like, I guess, where are the women at when they typically come to you, and what do you help them with to get that end outcome?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I definitely started off working really hard in business. I think now we probably say work smarter, not harder. You don't have to work really hard to make money and we believe that now right, but when we started out we probably worked really hard to begin with. You know and I kind of think that's a bit of a rite of passage you know, moving into a business and you want to pour your heart and soul into it. So that's what I did and I was doing a lot of one-to-one coaching and I had a full when I launched. You know that I was starting this coaching business. I had a really great community of women in Hobart where I live anyway who I was connected to through the fitness industry, and I had 30 women join immediately. Then my books were closed. My book stayed closed ever since. You know, for the next few years I just always had full books, which was really awesome. I felt really great about that.
Speaker 1:But how far can one-to-one coaching go? There's only a certain amount of hours in a day that I could help people and I was working 12 hours every Sunday doing everyone's check-ins for them and touching base with all my clients, and it was not as good for me, as I'm sure it was for my clients. Good for me, as I'm sure it was for my clients. And one day I said to my dad you know shit, I can't. I can't come because I've got like check-ins on Sundays. And he's like did you set this business up? And I was like, yeah. And he's like, well, why don't you speak to the boss about changing things up and see what happens there? And I was like, oh no, I can't because clients have to check in on Sunday. And he's like, literally why, why do you have to put them on a like this day is the specific day that it has to be? And I was like, oh, so true, I make the rules. So then I turned it around so that I could just work nine to five, monday to Friday, and that was really awesome.
Speaker 1:But as time has gone on, I have created programs that my clients can come through, that they can do as they please and book one-to-one sessions. So that has evolved over time. I have a team of five and they all support me in different ways. So I have an assistant coach. She does a lot of the backend stuff. She works with clients as well.
Speaker 1:I also have a women's mindset coach, who works within my business too, and she's a life coach. I also have a social score coordinator. She really supports the community down here in Tassie, but I do work with clients all over the world as well, because it is an online business, but we just do in-person events, and I have another dietitian who works with us online, which is awesome as well, and then I have an ambassador as well, who is part of our team. But right now we have had a bit of a change recently in going from like holding and hosting eight-week challenges for clients Now we are doing 12-week programs, and so we can get our clients through that and support them through that in. Yeah, in sort of like a more group-based sense. So I do do one-to-ones, but honestly I do like one or two a week at this point, and most of the stuff I do is group coaching or just checking in with my girls in the Facebook group.
Speaker 3:I love that. Now I'd love to take you back to the pivot that you made when your dad called you out, mentioned that you are your own boss and you can set your own rules Again something else that we forget about, and not just in business again in life that we actually can create our own rules and if something isn't working, there's so many other options that we could tap into so that it does work more in our favor. But I would love to take you back there. Was there any resistance to changing the business up? I know, when something is working and it's very successful, sometimes this fear comes on of like well, I can't change it because it's working and it's super successful. So how was that pivot for you? Was it an easy process to just make the changes so that you could give yourself that time back? Was there some resistance? Did you have to do some work behind the scenes to be okay about pulling back without it necessarily impacting your results?
Speaker 1:I think like initially I was definitely like what do you mean? Like I can't, just. And dad was literally like you are the boss, you make the rules. He said are your clients going to follow you and do what you say? And they want to be guided by you. And I was like, oh, totally like, I'm their coach, you know that's what they're here for. And he's like then, go for it. I think in that moment it was a pretty light bulb one for me. A pretty light bulb one for me. I feel like it took a bit to change it and let the clients know this is how it's going to be from now on Best decision I ever made.
Speaker 1:But I do really feel like, as businesswomen, we get in our own way. Sometimes A lot of the stories that we tell are just made up in our own head. It has to be this way. I have to be the one doing the emails. I have to be the one responding to these messages. Nobody can do it the same as me, and I remember my dad telling me like nobody can be you, nobody can have your personality and your presence and the way you make people feel, but anybody can do a lot of the stuff that you do.
Speaker 1:So stop holding on so tight, change things up. And I guess, like my main focus has always been lifestyle. I'd love money, um, but I am driven more so by lifestyle. I like what money can give me the lifestyle that I want to live, but not working, um, like not working so much. I don't want to work 10 hours a day, I don't want to work all weekend. I want to work when I feel inspired and make like impact, like make big impact with the energy that I do have, and then I want to just just live my life.
Speaker 1:So, um, yeah, I feel like at first there was, there was like a little bit of resistance, then it was an like, then it was a light bulb moment. I changed things up. And from then on, I've I've kind of been saying in my business well, this is how it is, would you like it? If you would like, for sure, then then come on in and this is how we'll do it. And I, I allow myself to be the boss and to be the coach and to guide everyone in the direction that I want to go.
Speaker 3:I'd love for you to paint that picture for the women listening to this who can't even imagine a reality where they have more time, they have more freedom. Maybe they are at the beck and call to their clients. Maybe business is taking up every single day and they are afraid that if they slow down they'll lose it all. I'd love for you to paint the picture of the reality where, yeah, balance exists.
Speaker 1:This is what it looks like and this is how you go about it. In terms of like money, my business has grown every single year as I have worked less over time. I'm not going to say that I didn't work. I worked a lot for the first few years. A lot, a lot, a lot. These days it has really changed.
Speaker 1:I work when I want to, how I want to. I'm in control of my calendar. Some days I don't work at all because I don't feel like it and I'm not going to be any good to anyone. And that's been a huge block for me was you have to work hard to make money, because my dad business coach work hard, make money. Because my dad business coach work hard, make money. You know you got to work. You know you got to set up your business. You got to, and he still says things like that to me, like it's really funny, um.
Speaker 1:So it was a bit of a block to realize that I can get paid in the moments when I'm not actually physically like in the room doing work. You know I saw on your post the other day you were having a facial and you got a new client and you know it's possible, it's totally possible, we've done it and this is the most impact I've ever had on anyone. Right now, in this, in this part of my career. This is my clients are getting the best results. My clients are the happiest they've ever been. I are the happiest they've ever been. I'm the happiest I've ever been. So I don't. Yeah, I think we need to change the narrative and not feel bad if we're not, you know, in the office working hunched over our desk all day and instead we're feeding ourselves, nurturing ourselves, taking care of ourselves as if that's our job and getting paid to do that. So I think, when you know when we're our best, we're going to obviously make the greatest change in the world, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we see that in our own life, like when we give ourself that time to eat the good foods, exercise, get a good night's sleep, drink lots of water. When we look back, it always did result in success, more money, more growth, better clients. We just often do forget it because we are put in this mold. We hear that story and those beliefs growing up. In order to get something, you need to work really hard for it, and so living life differently goes against all of that. So I'm always the first one to admit yeah, it's hard to do life differently. It's hard to be the woman who lets herself take the day off when she needs it or only shows up when she feels like it. It's hard because you are pushing against what society tells you to do, what we heard growing up. But you know, you're the proof. I'm the proof that it can be done. But you've just got to lean into the unknown and just trust that you will make this work. And there is another way that that does exist.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. And I think if you have like a bit of a mantra I have a bit of this mantra and if you, if anybody wants to borrow it, I think it works really well is like, um, taking care of myself is what I get paid to do, and I think that's what every business woman uh, needs to know as well. Just because I'm a health and wellness you know coach, it doesn't matter what you do, what your business is Like. The business is only going to be as good as you are. And so if you can be like, okay, this isn't selfish, me taking off a day to go and see my cousin's baby and just have tea with her and just, you know, relax.
Speaker 1:And then tomorrow I've got heaps of energy and I'm going to do like a huge coaching session or I'm going to, you know, do all of my orders or whatever it is. Taking care of yourself in whatever way feels best for you on that day is part of what you get paid to do, and start to see it like that. So, like when I'm actually doing Pilates, I'm like I'm doing a plank and I'm like I'm getting paid to plank. This is, you know, I need a strong core. Let's do it, and I think that's been a huge mindset shift for me personally in my business.
Speaker 3:Love. I love that and, yeah, it's like being creative of all the different ways that you can make money while you're plank, while you are visiting. You know your cousin's baby Now I know, because Madison and I did catch up before this episode, that you went through a bit of an episode that we all hear all the time burnout, where we push ourselves too hard to the limits. We forget about everything we've just mentioned in terms of looking after yourself, which is easy to do when you're passionate about what you're doing and when you have a business that you absolutely love. While we're sitting here saying you don't need to work every day, sometimes you want to.
Speaker 3:There's days where I don't want to do anything else other than work in my business, but I'd love for you to share that story if you're okay about that. Yeah, what burnout looked like for you? What to that? The symptoms, because I reckon there's probably more people living in a place of burnout right now than that but then what they probably realize um, they've just taken it on as their normal. Um, but I'd love for us to highlight today, you know, like constant fatigue and and whatever else you're about to share isn't normal and you don't have to put up with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was freaking hectic. I've only ever really experienced it once, and that was this recent one that I'll share on today. But last year my husband and I and because I run an online business, I was able to travel. So I was like let's move overseas for a year, let's travel for a year, why not? We don't have kids. We had Sonny, but we live on land with Jack's family and we've got five acres of land here. So he was always fine. You know, he had his grandparents with him all day, every day, and the luckiest dog in the world.
Speaker 1:I call him Sounds like it. Yeah, but we did want to go travel and we wanted to get that you know sort of out of our system and have these experiences. So we sold our cars, we sold our furniture, we literally packed up everything. We had a house that we owned and we rented that out and off. We went and I ran my business from the beach in Italy. I ran my business from France, you know, from like a little Airbnb in France. I ran my business from absolutely everywhere and I had little.
Speaker 1:I had set up myself so that I would get up and start work when I needed to in the morning, after having breakfast with Jack, and I would pretty much log off or finish work at about 1pm because everyone in Australia was going to bed and so nobody was like asking me anything or you know, it was kind of like there was no point me being on Insta. Everyone was asleep. So that was really cool for me because it meant that, you know, after lunch Jack and I were off to travel and we were doing whatever we wanted and then, you know, I'd be laying by the beach and on my phone and doing little videos or, you know, responding to clients and doing work anyway, but from my phone or whatever. But it was just beautiful. It was amazing.
Speaker 1:I had guilt in the back of my mind the whole time that you have to work hard to make money and, oh my gosh, you're having so much time off, from like one o'clock every day till nighttime. You just keep taking, you just keep having all these hours off. And I still had that kind of self-belief in the back of my head and I would constantly try to tell myself it's fine, like this is an important. Everyone gets to go traveling. You just get to help people while you're traveling. Like you know, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So I made a promise to myself that when I got home I'd work really hard, and not that I wasn't already working really hard, I was already giving my best and helping people and changing their lives and supporting them in the best way that I knew. So I got back. We ended up going for about seven months instead of a year because, just you know, we were just so ready to come home. I think it's a longer time than you think and I know this sounds really entitled, but there's only so much lazing about by the beach that you can do before you get ready to live your life again honestly, yeah, it's wild to think that isn't it?
Speaker 1:we're crazy wild, but when you're there you're like I'm crazy totally and I and it has given me so much gratitude for my life and being able to go travel and being able to do all of those things that we wanted to do I'm so grateful. But, yeah, like when your life is your life and you love it, you don't need to have a big holiday away from it. You know you just enjoy living it, and that's how I felt. So coming home was really exciting. My job is my passion and you know I do it for the love, and so when I came back, I was like, okay, I'm going to work really hard now because I, you know, I've taken my time and I've really traveled the world and I've, you know, had time off, really, reality, I was working like just fully the whole time. Anyway, I don't know what I was thinking. So I came home, got really into work and just found myself like at my desk all day, every day, working really hard, going above and beyond. Um, it's not even that I'm working hard, it's like working for the sake of it, working to make busy work, working to you know, and and I was I was having business coaching sessions and I was really like focused on, you know, building things and really, you know, taking off a bit more and and all that stuff. So I did that for like oh God, I actually don't know how many months, um, and then after one event. So I have um events with my clients a lot of the time and we celebrate their success.
Speaker 1:And after hosting one of those events, the next morning I woke up and I just couldn't, I just couldn't bear to look at my phone. I couldn't bear to like text my team. I couldn't bear to look at any client messages. It was like a full shut off, like I didn't have any feelings really, like I didn't feel happy, I didn't feel sad, I didn't feel hungry, and so I didn't eat and I didn't do anything. I just felt blah, I just felt nothing. All of my emotions were like shut off and I felt like I wasn't being myself. I didn't have my normal empathy and my normal compassion and my normal personality and like even just being with Sonny wasn't giving me the same buzz and same love that I had normally felt. It was like proper burnout, like mental, mental burnout. And it's funny because the whole time I was exercising every day, moving my body, eating three balanced meals a day, drinking my water, sleeping like that's what I coach people on doing and that's what I do, that's how I live my life.
Speaker 1:But those daily habits, they didn't actually. I'm sure that they held me up for as long as possible, but I wasn't doing the switching off of the brain and I wasn't allowing my brain to come down off its high vibe state. You know, I would have been in this like state of like constant go, go, go and that's just kind of like who I am anyway. So I have to really consciously switch off and I don't think I switched off for months on end. I honestly don't think I did.
Speaker 1:I remember going to like a, you know, a trip to Melbourne with my girlfriends and I'm still working away up there and you know I would wake up first thing in the morning. I would check my emails on my phone. You know I would check my business Instagram, reply to people's messages from 5.30 in the morning when I'm awake, and then I would get started with work and you know. So the burnout for me was mental exhaustion and I did end up like messaging my team and saying, hey guys, I'm not very well, something's wrong mentally. And I could tell it definitely wasn't a depression, it wasn't an anxiety. It wasn't a state that I needed to go and get medicated for anything, and I think if you do identify certain feelings like that, you need to go to the doctor, you need to get help, you need to advocate for your mindset and your brain. In that way, I could tell that that's not what was going on for me. This was just pure you're done, you're not stopping, so we're stopping for you.
Speaker 1:And I didn't eat.
Speaker 1:I couldn't eat, like I didn't want food. It was everything was turned off. My hunger fit. My hunger was turned off Like it wasn't there, which is so rare for me because I'm such like a beautiful big eater, you know, and I'm so. I love food and I love what food does to me and helps me in my active lifestyle. So that was really weird and hard and I remember documenting quite a bit of it.
Speaker 1:Once I felt up to being able to talk, even, and just showing them, I think, like I ate this today, how good am I and all of my followers being like that's awesome, you know, well done, keep going. And um, yeah, I shared about it as much as I could because I know it's very common. Um, but now I can. Really, I've never seen those, seen that happen before to to myself, never experienced that before. Now I feel like I can see those signs and symptoms, and our whole lives are a journey. We're learning constantly and you know I can teach you, I can. You know anyone listening we can say this is what happened to me. But sometimes we have to go through these things ourselves, to feel it, to know what we don't want, or to know what we do want, what's important to us, and like, yeah, for sure, you know your healthy habits are going to hold you up for as long as you can.
Speaker 3:But learning to identify the times in your life when it's like if you don't stop, your body will just stop for you, yeah, and I love what you said about you could be doing all of the right things physically, but if you're not switching your brain off, yeah, it's going to preserve you, but it's not going to prevent eventually your nervous system just turning the lights out on you and saying we cannot keep going. And I think we also live in a world where sometimes even the physical stuff we're trying to do too hard, like we live in a world where sometimes even the physical stuff we're trying to do too hard, like we live in this world where we're constantly exposed to someone doing it better that the pedestal is always raised with everything. So I feel like we can even take that too far, like over compensating in everything. Eventually, yeah, your body's just like we can't keep doing this. And what's really interesting is you describing what your business and your life looked like prior to that burnout.
Speaker 3:I'm so sure a lot of women are sitting there saying that's literally my day, every day. And like I wanted this episode to not scare anyone but just to alert you that our bodies aren't supposed to keep doing that. And there is another way, which we're going to talk about in a second, where, um, you can pull back. Well, you kind of mentioned that before you can pull back, but that doesn't have to make your business suffer or your growth suffer. Um, so, with that, I'd love to know, like following everything you went through, like what changes did you make and what come from all of that, everything you went through like what changes did you make and what come?
Speaker 1:from all of that. There's a guiding message that I have now which is like, how does your life feel to live, versus how does it appear or how does it look to other people, or, you know, and I think that's really important, because how my life felt just before I went into burnout was pretty hectic, you know, high-flying, very busy, successful, but doing all the things. But I didn't feel really calm, I didn't feel really at peace and stable. You know what I mean. Like I think it just looked like I was winning and I was getting all the shit done, which was really cool, you know, at the time. And now, especially being pregnant and knowing I'm about to bring a child into this world, I intend to continue running my business while I'm a mum. I intend to have more kids and have a family while running my business. So if I can wake up every day and think how do I want my life to feel today, then that will be like my guiding light the whole way, because your body is telling you. Your body is telling you if it's if it's feeling good or if it's feeling a bit hectic, you know. So the big changes for me came with implementing meditation, mindfulness and breath work, which I know you're really big on, and that's, for good reason, so simple. We just don't do it. But I implemented a lot of that. I set up strict boundaries with my phone in the morning. I read now, or you know, I found out that my energy is best in the morning and I don't have to have a lay in or a sleep in to feel like I'm well rested. I actually can do it in a different way. So getting up early is really does feel good for me. But going to bed early feels better Like that, like finishing at 3pm every day or earlier whenever I need to, and then focusing on being present in the moment and making dinner with my husband and just being me. That's not a business woman, you know, being able to read stories or being able to take our dog for a walk together and just be us as a family and us as a couple, rather than yet business person. Madison that does put on her performance side and does, you know, try to make people laugh and have a nice time and all that kind of stuff. I don't feel the pressure to do that, you know, in the evenings. So I work in the morning whenever I feel like it, get up nice and early and capture my energy in those moments, and then I stop when my energy has actually you know it is coming down for the day and I don't push past those points anymore.
Speaker 1:Another really big thing was becoming the what did I call it? I learned it off someone online becoming the like keeper of your calendar, or something like that. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but I'm really strict with my calendar now and I colour code everything. And if someone and I colour code them as in like energy givers or energy takers or whatever, and so now if I have a day that's like lots of blue and there's no pink and pink for me is my flamingo color, that's like my self-care, things that bring me joy, things that make me that build my energy and don't take it away.
Speaker 1:So if I have all blue, that's like work, that's like energy stuff that's giving, giving, giving then I don't allow any more room in that day. That's it. That's. Three of those is enough. I'm not taking on any more than that, and that's how I plan to have longevity in my business from now on. I've already, you know, almost been here 10 years, so I feel like I've got. I've got it down that I can hold onto this business and I can continue to grow it. But, um, for the next 10 years I'm going to be really strict with my calendar and so that I can just show up at the best possible way, yeah.
Speaker 3:I love wearing myself down. Yeah, I love the energy giver and the energy taker blocks in your calendar. That's really effective. And what's your insight or your takes on women living in alignment with their menstrual cycle? This is something that I've really tried to honour in the last year or so. It's nice. I love your views on all of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, it's really so. My assistant coach and I work together on Zoom. She's in Queensland, I'm in Tassie and we have always worked. She's actually a women's performance coach and she's hugely into helping women work in alignment with their menstrual cycle and I mean, I've always been interested in that too. It's kind of what brought us together online, been interested in that too. It's kind of what brought us together online, me and Ash.
Speaker 1:But in our office we are so in alignment with our menstrual cycle. So she'll literally text me and say, hey, babe, luteal phase day, no brain available. And I'll say so I'm literally ovulating, let's go, I'll do all the thinking, you do the writing down and we'll. You know we'll get it done that way. And I'll text her and say got my period today not coming in. She'll be like all good, babe, I've got you. And then every now and again we have our period on the same day and that's that's no work for anybody. There's nothing going on on that day.
Speaker 1:So I'm a huge advocate for working in alignment with your cycle, not only like actually business work, but like exercise too. You will actually from. I'm a personal trainer as well, I'm a fitness instructor, I'm a Pilates teacher, rhythm ride instructor too, and from a performance and growth aspect, from a coach's perspective, with my clients, we see our clients actually like having better results when they listen to their bodies, don't exercise on day one of their menstrual cycle because they don't feel like it. They save up energy, they change the style of the movement that they're doing and instead of going to you know, a CrossFit class or a rhythm ride class, they'll go to outside for a long walk or they'll go to something slower like yoga, and then, as that, you know that phase and that cycle comes to the next phase.
Speaker 1:As the cycle comes to the next phase, they change it up again or they might push themselves harder, and we always see better results in people that do that versus the people that do the same thing every single week, regardless of their period. They always show up for the same class, they always do the exact same thing and they don't take the breaks that they need. They just push past because they think they have a belief that if I don't do this I'm lazy, or if I don't do this I'm not committed, which I've experienced in clients and things in the past. But yeah, yeah, I just think that we always tend to see better results in clients that are sort of living their lives in alignment with their menstrual cycles sort of living their lives in alignment with their menstrual cycles.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's been such a powerful shift in my own life and crazy how much I was not honoring it before. Well, I didn't even know about the four cycles, to be honest. I was. I was 27 before I even learned that we had four different phases and that we're essentially a different human being in every single phase, and all of the incredible things that do come with every phase too. I think you know the week of our period. Everyone's like oh, my period, like I hate this week, but there's so many other incredible things that you're actually during that week. So when you learn all of that, it's empowering. I love being a woman.
Speaker 1:Yeah, can I ask you what you do with your, with your business in in your menstrual cycle, like in? You've just started this journey. What's it look like for you?
Speaker 3:My calendar is a big big thing. So I have workshops, I have launches, I have podcast interviews and things like that. I will look ahead to see if something's going to land on the first three days of my period, because that's when I'm typically the most fatigued. I just want to not talk to anyone. My social battery doesn't exist. I will make sure I don't have meetings or big launches around then. My event on Saturday is strategically put then because I'm coming into my ovulation phase. So good, yeah. So calendar planning is a huge one.
Speaker 3:Exercise more recently as well. Again, just being okay about not going to the gym if I don't feel like it. Trusting myself as well. I think this is a big thing for me, and something that I love to talk about more is if you are having a day where you can't be bothered, you don't want to be on camera, you don't want to go to the gym. Don't freak out that this is you now and you're this lazy at home. Like, just trust that in three days time you're going to be back on camera, you're going to be back at the gym, you're going to be back doing all of the things. So just enjoy the slowness, um, and don't be scared by it because you'll be back on the bandwagon by the following week.
Speaker 3:Um, so that's been a big thing for me because, yeah, I would get in these little moments where, if I did want to have a sleep in or not go to the gym, I'm like, oh my God, I'm so lazy. What's going on? And like almost like, get yourself into this spiral that you're never going to get out of it. But, yeah, three days later you're back on it. So, yeah, exercise and my calendar has been a huge thing for me. I am curious to learn more about diet, because I know that's also important. Like particular foods we should be eating during different phases. So, yeah, I want to explore that more, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally. I think that'd be a really nice journey for you to go on is to start leaning into those phases a little bit more. And what can support you even better? Because you are getting paid to take care of your body, yeah, yeah, and this is something exciting that you get to do. But another tip for being in business and not getting your period at all is to get pregnant and then it just stops. There's no period, there's no cycle anymore.
Speaker 1:That's true, that's so true, but honestly, you actually then feel like you're in a luteal phase. For every day which is Nine months of it, yeah, and it's not everyone's experience. For every day which is nine months of it, yeah and not. It's not everyone's experience, but that's my experience so far. So so maybe that's not the best tip actually Enjoy the ups and downs because, yeah, there's no ovulation phase anymore.
Speaker 3:Now to wrap up, I know you very briefly spoke about some things and habits that you've implemented in your own life following that burnout and just to create more balance. But if you could give the listeners your top three daily habits that help achieve this balanced lifestyle, whatever they are, yes them to take away oh, my top three.
Speaker 1:Um, these are things that I do like every day as part of being someone who can run a business that is successful. And, yeah, to keep up would be to have like a high protein breakfast that is balanced. That's really important for me. Interesting because throughout my pregnancy, I'm not able to eat the same foods that I was pre-pregnancy that were really amazing. So, for example, I will always have something like three eggs with cottage cheese and avocado on toast.
Speaker 1:I'm getting a balance there. I'm getting protein in my eggs and cottage cheese. I'm getting some carbohydrates and fiber in my bread, which also has protein in it. It's a nice sourdough. I'm also getting some carbs and fiber in my avocado, which is one of like the highest, the most nutrient dense foods in the world. It's like going to power your brain avocado, and so if I have some of that, I'm also getting my healthy fats, but also with the eggs. So it's just a really balance of the three macros that we need, which is protein, carbs and fats. So I have a big breakfast, something that is going to nourish me, because I know that's when I want to use my brain. Like, when do you want to use your brain? Do you want to use your brain before bed or do you want to use your brain in the morning?
Speaker 1:I kind of think about it like that and then I fuel for the occasion, and the occasion is get up and smash whatever it is that I want to do. Smash the day. I want to go to my class, work out, and then I want to come home and take Sunny for a walk and then I want to work on my clients. So high protein breakfast, that's my number one. Number two habit that I would do every day is being really hydrated. Like drinking a lot of water is really important for me.
Speaker 1:I know that's just like simple, but if you've ever experienced a day when you haven't drank water, like your brain does not work, doesn't function, your digestion doesn't function either, and so energy's low, energy's shit when we don't drink enough water. So I just have like a nice drink bottle that I like to have around me all the time and I just keep refilling it as much as possible. I'll chuck some like protein water into my drink bottle, or some ice, or some lemon or some cucumber or something to make it yummy, to make it interesting, and that's just like a huge thing for me. And then the third thing is sleep is probably the most important. I think that you really need to figure out how you sleep best and align your life and your business so that you can have the best night's sleep.
Speaker 1:Like I said, get up early so I finish work, wrap up, become just Madison, not the business owner Madison from early in the afternoon, and then I have dinner and I switch off and like nobody sees me after 7.30, really Like, yeah, that's when I'm going to bed and I'm okay to be someone who goes to bed early. I mean I can still party, I can still stay up till 2 in the morning if I had to, but that's rare, you know. It's not happening all the time, it's just when I've got a best friend's birthday on or a hen's or whatever. Mind you, those days feel long gone now.
Speaker 2:They're gone now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but that's just something I really take care of myself with sleep and I'm very I'm very like um into it and into it, like I know the darkness and the temperature in the room and I don't. You know, I'm not going to sit there and have heaps of caffeine before I go to bed.
Speaker 1:You know I. I just do things that I know us humans need. Yes, and I focus on those basics. Yeah, I love that. What is protein water? And I focus on those basics. I like that. What is protein water? That's funny, I just feel like, because it's all I have ever done.
Speaker 3:What is protein water?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's basically it's whey protein. So not for people who don't want to have like dairy, but for me, I digest that fine. I've always had a great digestive system, which I'm very lucky to have. But protein water I don't know if you ever have protein shakes. It's very different to that. So I am an ambassador with bulk nutrients, the proteins and their Tasmanian brand. That's why I love them. And protein water is like a scoop of powder that has like electrolytes in it so that not only hydrates you but it also gives you like 16 grams of protein. So I've got some in my water now, my water bottle now, and this is like a pink lemonade flavor but there's, like you know, it's like orange or pineapple, like different flavors that you might like, and it just gives you a boost of protein so that you know you stay hydrated, you stay full for longer and energised and yeah, so that's kind of just like a little snack. I'll have on the side Pretty much every day. I'll have like one a day, I would say.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I forget. You can put things in your water like you know, all the vitamin things and stuff like that to make it even better and real quickly. What's your take on drinking tap water?
Speaker 1:Is that a no-no? Oh, I have like tanks. I like have rainwater at my house, yeah, and I don't think I've really ever had anything other than that Like I grew up on tank water. So the rain literally hits the roof and goes into our tanks through a filtration system and into my glass. So, um, you know, and I live next to the mountain, so it's all really beautiful and fresh, yeah, so for me, I've never even really had to look into it. I mean, everyone could get a, like a filtration system if, if, they need to.
Speaker 3:but, um, yeah, not sure, I've been hearing it a lot lately and I'm an out of the tap girl, just feel my water off I go. But yeah, I'm hearing a lot lately like should be drinking alkaline water.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I think that might be a little bit too far for me. I think, if we're willing to drink our lovely wines and our vodkas, so true. Actually you know that we'll probably just have a glass of tap water and feel good. Yeah, actually you know that we're probably just have a glass of tap water and feel good, yeah, so you're keeping it simple here, girls, you're keeping it simple.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's kind of my belief system, but yeah, I've never taken anything like that too seriously. I mean, I'm sure there's evidence and all the kind of stuff behind it, but I'm here for balance and I feel like getting a bit strict about stuff.
Speaker 3:When you've got a tap there that gives you water, why not drink it?
Speaker 1:Why not drink it? Yeah, and then you just go and get bottled water. I mean there's, you know, plastic and all that kind of stuff. So I don't know, or something. I've only ever drank out of the taps.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's good. I keep doing that. Now, just quickly, if someone wants to come and find you, where is the best place to find you? Current office services, all of your things in your world that you share.
Speaker 1:So you can find me on my Insta. I feel like that's where I am every day. I do a lot of just posting of me just getting ready, talking, eating. So if you like that kind of content where you get to just kind of see in someone's life and become friends with them, like that, it's Body by Madison Coach and that's where I am.
Speaker 1:I have a couple of offers at the moment. I've got a Find your Balance membership, which is helping women to find balance between nutrition, fitness, lifestyle, how to implement healthy habits every day to empower them in whatever they want to do in life. So that comes with a whole range of masterclasses which actually, jess, I'd love to get you to do a masterclass for that membership. It would be awesome. I think we talked about that already. So stay tuned, I'm sure we'll do something there. So there's a whole bunch of masterclasses on nutrition. We'll do something there. So there's a whole bunch of masterclasses on nutrition, organization, mindset and I can't forget what. I can't remember what the oh, wellness, wellness as well. So lots of different videos there.
Speaker 1:I also have a 12-week bloom program which is all about helping women to eat mindfully. If mindful eating doesn't come naturally to you, maybe you've yo-yoed up and down in weight all of your life or you've always struggled to achieve balance with food and with movement. Then maybe you want to do this 12-week program. It starts on Monday, the 23rd, so I'm not sure if this podcast will be out or not by then. So that's next Monday, but you can always go on the wait list for the next one if you miss out. And then I also have Flourish, which is doing that same 12-week program, but with coaching on the side as well. So, yeah, there's a few amazing offers that we have there. So, yeah, that's where you can find us, what we do. If you'd like to learn more, just find me on Instagram, send me a DM and we can become internet besties.
Speaker 3:Well, I'll link all of those links in the show notes as well, so just scroll down and it's easy for you to jump across and have a browse about whatever suits you. Well, thank you so much for being here today and sharing your story and all of your tips and advice that I know will help so many women so many women, because we wear all of the hats too often. And, yeah, we're really here to show you there is a different way to do life. So thank you for being a part of that conversation, my pleasure.
Speaker 1:And thanks for holding space for these kinds of conversations. Super empowering to so many women, so thank you.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is Well. Thank you guys for being here and I will talk to you guys next week. Bye.