Hello, ladies and gents Robert Sykes, he does have his.com
today. I've got special guest, Tanya
Pennington on the line and we dive deep into DNA testing.
She does a DNA testing clinic group with her clientele.
So we dive really deep into what to look for with different
tests. What those precursors could
indicate and how epigenetics and lifestyle design and factors are
going to play the major role in how those genetics or
Illustrated in your body. So thoroughly enjoyed that
conversation. We dive into hormonal health and
how to to use the genetic testing in tandem with blood
work and hormones to really, truly optimized ones, being so
thoroughly enjoyed the conversation.
Tanya is a wealth of knowledge. I've always enjoyed interacting
with her at various conferences. She is brilliant.
I've got no doubt that you will take something from this and be
able to apply it to your own day-to-day life.
So without further delay, sit back relax.
Enjoy the conversation with Tanya Pennington.
We are live 10 you, how are you doing, great.
How are you doing? Robert, I'm good.
I'm good. Do people ever say, Tanya, is
that bother you? My name is Tanya and I said,
Tanya. So I'm the Man to answer your
question. It doesn't bother me.
It doesn't. Okay, that's good.
It doesn't bother me. Yeah, I think, you know, it's
interesting. I just had to fill out.
I had to write my name out, phonetically.
So that, when my name is announced Oz, you know, they say
it right and I thought and so I put thah@n Dash y.
Uh, and I thought you know, I guess maybe my name is kind of
spelled wrong be because like there's it I've seen it
dispelling with a no and that to me makes sense like Tanya you
gotta know when they're with an a.
It's like taenia. So I don't know.
But yeah. No it's yeah.
It is Tanya but I do get tan. Yeah, quite often.
All right. Well you will never ever get
Tanya from me again. How are you Les?
We saw each other was, I guess this passkey token, right?
Yeah, it was this past keto Khan.
Yeah. And I was trying to think of the
last time I was on your podcast, and I actually think it was
like, I think it was 2019. And the reason I think it was
that year is because I think we touched on the fact that I was
about to run a 30-mile Spartan Race.
I do think that is correct. That was 2019.
That's that's crazy. Yeah, I ran that race at the end
of 2019. And so we talked at some point
before that That which is not. Wow.
Well, a lot has happened your life since she doesn't 19.
I'm assuming a lot, A lot has. Yeah.
Well, let's dive into it. What is the?
So people listen to this, definitely go back and listen to
that first podcast with Tanya. But what hasn't happened since
then? That you've been?
They've been dive into it. When I say akito-kun, you were
like this awesome Booth you had. I mean your booth was rocking.
I mean you had like all the displays you been doing a lot of
DNA and Homo panels lately with your clientele, right?
I have Yeah, I have. And that's a lot of what I
talked about at Key token. You know, thinking back to that
podcast. I think that I was, I had been a
functional nutritional therapy practitioner at that point,
maybe for a year or two. And I had just started getting
into lab testing as a restorative Wellness
practitioner. And I'm still doing both of
those things, but I also had at the time my brick and mortar
store. So I just sold that July of last
year. So I had that for a total of ten
years and 101 brick-and-mortar, like what I was included, but
then so that was a supplement and nutrition store.
It was called Total Nutrition, which there are total nutritions
all over. However, this it was completely
individually owned and operated. So I wasn't, I didn't end up
being affiliated with any of the other told a nutritionist, but I
had that for ten years, I probably was done with it at
eight years. And I don't know, maybe that
happens for a lot of businesses, but my life had just my business
life had kind of started going in a different direction that
just, I wasn't spending the amount of time at my store that
I needed to. And so, and luckily, I had a
great staff but the opportunity came in July of last year, to be
able to sell. And, and so, I jumped on it, and
it's just been amazing to open up my plate for some other
things. So, I'm a hormone in Fat Loss
specialist For women and I use DNA and blood chemistry both to
help mainly women over 35 who are looking to lose stubborn,
wait to get their energy back, you know there's a whole slew of
symptoms but those are generally end up being, you know, the top
two that women come to me with and know.
I do this through my DNA reset for fat loss program, which I
launched three times a year. I'm just wrapping up one class
right now. That began in In January, the
next one, we launched in April but we actually start working
together in May there's a little time in there between launching
it and starting because you know but he's got to get their lab
testing done and it mainly I have a history of working with
with women one on one. That's really what my entire
practice has been is a one-on-one model but one of the
things that has changed you ask what's changed in my life?
One of the things is I'm currently in the process of
obtaining my doctorate in clinical nutrition.
So I mean that really Fills up my schedule.
And so I actually had been out on a bike ride one day and God
just downloaded an entire program to me and said, here's
how you can do it. And so I just, I took out my ear
pods. I was listening to some podcasts
at the time started talking to my husband, we talked the rest
of that bike ride, on the way home, because I just had to get
all of this information out. And then I went to work and I
created this program but my background, which I think we
probably talked about A lot about in the last podcast but my
background began in the health and fitness industry.
When I was competing in figure, competitions and dating back to
2002. So you can do the math on how
old I might be. And, and then I switch to
competing in CrossFit, competitions running half,
marathons running, Spartan races anywhere, from 3 to 30 miles and
doing really well, and all of these things.
But after so many years of doing all of this, I ended up finding
myself. Self being diagnosed with
adrenal exhaustion. And and when that happens when,
when you really have done this to yourself, I did it to myself
other. There's other implications that
come from that. So I ended up with a hypothyroid
diagnosis. I had low testosterone low
progesterone. I was losing hair.
I was gaining weight. I had no energy.
I had no motivation. And that's one of the important
things to know is a lot of times.
It's okay. If you have Both thyroid.
You know, why where did that really stem from?
So, that's one of the things that we look into.
But here's what I should point out.
I should rewind that getting to this diagnosis was not easy
because my conventional doctor told me that my labs were all
normal that all she said to me, actually I should she didn't
just say my labs are normal. She said I wish I had your Labs
because you're going to live to be 100 years old.
All you. All you need is some vitamin D.
Your vitamin D is a little low. I was actually dead.
Ava stated at that point, because I felt horrible.
And the reason I had gone in there is because I felt
horrible. So needless to say, I started my
own Journey found a functional practitioner, who did not live
in my state who ended up diagnosing me with, with
everything that I named earlier, and I began my own healing
Journey. So, so today, I do less
competing in things. I still enjoy being active.
I do a lot of mountain bike riding with my husband.
Most recently I've taken up dirt bike.
Riding with my Just for fun and I trained at our home gym but
it's I really, I'm not competing in any one thing at least at
this point in time. And so it was really through my
own healing process that I was able to create a roadmap to help
other women who are in my shoes to get my same results and I
basically step in where their doctor steps out.
And so yeah. So those are a lot of the women
that I work with it. They've kind of been through the
mill with with their doctors already.
D. Yeah I think there's definitely
a threshold to what typical Western medicine provides.
And oftentimes the solution is much further beyond that
threshold. Yeah, yeah.
And there's a time and a place for it, right.
Yeah. Totally.
Of course need Western medicine but but maybe perhaps we are
going to our Western medicine doctors for the wrong things.
Yeah, I agree when it comes to like knowing what you know.
Now I mean you're a badass by ever since the word like you've
competed in multiple different events.
You've done the, the Competitions, you've done the
Endurance Sports, the strength and conditioning Sports, the
agility sports, like you've done all that stuff which is very
impressive. So people like you like me that
are very, you know, type A go get them, do everything be
intense? Go all out like that.
Oftentimes comes at a cost. I mean that's what cost you the
adrenal fatigue and led to the thyroid condition.
How would you go about filling that cup?
Checking that box of doing all those intense?
Sports in a way that doesn't cost you.
Your health, like, is there a way to do that in a sustainable
manner? That doesn't, you know, down
regulate your thyroid and cause any hormonal issues and doesn't
you know take some years off your life.
I do think so. And you know what?
I think that one of the things that could have given me some
great Insight if I had had this in my 20s, when I was starting,
all of this was honestly to be able to run a DNA test because
when I take a look at my DNA results, it's so interesting.
My DNA results tell me that I am a very average athlete.
Okay. Like that that my athletic
ability is just not. About average.
Now, does that mean I can't do amazing things?
It doesn't mean I can't do amazing things.
I did. And I mean, and I really did
very well at all of these things.
My 30-mile Spartan Race. I finished second in my, in my
division, you know, I generally would take Podium.
However, if I knew that, okay, I'm not necessarily meant to be
elite and any of these things and furthermore my DNA tells me
that recovery for you Tanya is exceptionally important beyond
the average person. Then I could have said okay so
if I want to take on these Endeavors I need to make sure
that I am focusing. Even more.
So on my recovery right? Which is is my sleep making sure
that I'm getting enough calories making sure that I'm doing all
of those things so that I can continue to do this but
admittedly Robert especially back in my figure competing
days. I was working 10-hour Days by
myself. I don't know, I said about
myself. I was working 10-hour days
living by myself is what I was gonna say.
I had two dogs and I would go to bed.
Around 10:30 11:00 because you know you had to get in that
extra cardio session before going to bed.
So I would get to bed around 10:30 11:00 and I kid you not I
wake up at 3:30 to get my first workout in because I had to work
out you know this probably 40 minutes from home get back.
Be able to work a 10-hour shift. I mean I was doing nothing for
my recovery. I absolutely thought I was
invincible in my 20s, for sure. So I think that and not
everybody's going to have information about their DNA nay
but I think that focusing on your recovery can allow a person
to do more. Yeah, totally agree.
And I feel like in regards to like, I like to think of any
type of intense sport, there's like a yin and a Yang.
Like you can't go 100% all out, a hundred percent of the time
but you can do that. If you have if you allow the
pendulum to swing in the other direction from a recovery
standpoint, I bet that's the reverse diet to the competition
prep so to Speak. And I feel like a lot of people
don't I mean realistically you should probably spending be
spending more time in that building recovery, caloric
Surplus, you know, State then in the utmost intense State and I
feel like many people fail to do that.
Absolutely. And especially with can
competing. And I was guilty of this myself.
I think people do too many shows in a year.
Yeah, because we're is that recovery between shows.
So when it comes to diving, you know, on an individual level
into one's DNA, to figure out what their genetic makeup is
going to, you know, best position them for, as a return
as it pertains to recovery. Like what are you looking for?
Because a lot of people will go to like 23andMe, get some, you
know, generic, you know, genetic Test and it'll spit out.
Some very, very high level. Often time, superficial Insight
like hey you shouldn't do well with fat or you need to you
don't process caffeine very well or something like that.
That's just not really actionable.
So what are you doing? That's different than those
superficial high level. Yeah, oftentimes generic
templates. Yeah, you know there's those
like the 23andMe and then you also have some DNA companies who
say, you know, give us your saliva.
And we're going to tell you exactly what your super Odds are
we're going to tell you exactly what you shouldn't eat.
But there actually isn't clinical evidence, at least, not
yet for a company, to be able to spit out that detailed of
information on your foods. And so, one of the things I will
say is be careful of a company. I think that over promises on
things like that because it actually isn't technically
possible yet. Is there even a legit company?
That does any of that? Like, like, what is the best one
that you know of? Because if like a lot of the
bull or scamming my people getting scammed right now, It's
true. It's and as you know, it's like
all they have to do is scroll through Instagram and then
somebody's trying to sell them, you know, you know, but
different topic. But like a never really well
right, which I'm also not a fan of and so.
So there's so many things out there.
And it's so enticing to think that you can get a list of
exactly what you should be eating.
I mean, that sounds amazing, but there just isn't enough clinical
relevance yet. So I did a lot of research into
different companies in the one that I settled on.
Who I really like is 3x for genetics, have you heard of
them? I haven't but I'm going to
Google them while I'm talking to here so that I can be sure to
look them up later 3x for genetics.
Yep. 3x for genetics. They will only do report on DNA
where I mean there is so much clinical evidence that it can be
backed up time and time again. And so, and what they do is you
send in your saliva sample. And I can't remember the exact
numbers, but they take so many. Different variants.
They don't run all of them quite yet, but any of the variants
that they have, that they know that they're researching that
they may come back around and have more information on.
They'll keep that information on you so that you could then get a
new report without having to then send in another saliva
sample then. So, I love that.
And so this particular company, what they do is they actually
give a report to each person with Some different topics.
You're going to learn about your cellular, Pathways your
cardiovascular, health, your energy, which your energy
section, really tells you if you have trouble losing weight or if
you don't, and it's pretty spot-on.
It actually tells you are you made to live in an apocalypse.
I for one. Am I actually make fat very like
a professional? That's one thing that I am a
professional at is making fat I do not utilize my fat for energy
very well. It's all very interesting and I
have known throughout my entire life that I had to work harder
than the person next to me and this kind of gives me the answer
and you go oh okay and here's why it actually tells you, you
know. Do you need more recovery than
the next person? Are you more likely to be good
at Sprinting and you know powerlifting or are you more
likely to be better at you know, endurance type training, are you
prone to injury? And it's just so interesting
because time and time again, we get these results and and, you
know, I talk with clients about them and they go, oh my gosh,
I've always had joint issues, I've always had.
And so an important thing to mention here is that when you do
get these results, it doesn't mean necessarily that you are
destined End for being overweight, right.
It doesn't mean that you are destined for any of these
things. This has everything to do with
our epigenetics and so I have known my entire life that I have
a harder time than the person next to me.
And so of course, throughout my entire life, I've done something
about that, right? It's your lifestyle epigenetics
are your, your lifestyle, are you going to turn these genes
on? Or are you going to turn them
off? And and so that information is
incredibly valuable and what's not Nice.
I think that probably one variant that people hear often
about is the MTHFR, Gene variant, okay?
Now, that's great. You can get that information on
your DNA report, I for one do have that variant but then you
take a look at your lab work. You take a look at your blood
work, your blood chemistry. And you say okay, my DNA says
that I am likely not to methylate very well, but am I.
And then your blood work will tell you.
If Homocysteine as elevated well yeah in fact you are not
methylating well at this point in time and so that blood work
kind of gives you that real-time information so that you can see
if your DNA is actually having an effect on you know, the
symptoms that you are experiencing and there's not any
company that's doing both those in tandem, right?
So like your work when the client like you're having them
go through this 3x for getting that documentation but then
you're the one that's analyzing their blood work in tandem with
that data. Yeah.
So so to answer your question, I don't know of a company who does
both and so yes. I what I actually do is I order
a bunch of 3x for text test kits and I send them out.
To all of my clients, individually with their, welcome
packet, and everything else that I give them, because when they
are registered under me, I get their results into my
practitioner online portal, which gives me even further
insight into their DNA beyond what they're going to get
through. PDF God you got you okay?
That makes a lot of sense and then for blood work like it when
you get your their data back and you can say okay I need to check
from a blood sample, blood panel standpoint, if they're methylate
incorrectly or whatever then you just follow that up and have
them take certain certain blood Labs.
So every person is soon as once I launch my launch, my program,
everybody is signed up, they all go into their portal and they
have what's called pre-work and that's when it kind of tells
them, here's what? Going to do the first week.
One of the things is you're going to go to LabCorp and
you're going to get your blood draw.
So they'll have a requisition form that I have sent them.
So I order a very comprehensive blood panel on everybody so they
go in, get their blood drawn there.
They know they're going to receive their 3x for test kit
from me. They'll get that in the mail
swab, their cheeks, send their saliva in.
And then that way I am, receding all of their results.
Gotcha, and you only work, Females you work, with both male
and female. So I mainly work with females.
But I'll tell you this now in my past working with clients
one-on-one, I've worked with both in this particular program,
I'm only working with with females.
However, what has happened is the women have come back and
said, okay, is there somebody else that you can recommend?
Or are you willing to take on my husband because he wants to do
the same thing that I'm doing right now?
So I actually am putting together.
I'm not going to have a Group program for men, kind of the
feedback I'm getting from them as they don't necessarily want
the community but they do want the, you know, the answers and
the protocol. And so I am setting up a way for
men to be able to do the testing through me for me to interpret.
And then I actually send them a loom recording about all of
their results. What's going on in their bodies?
And then here's what your protocol is.
So I am setting that up. I'm going to sign up for that
bad boy, because I want to hear the results for sure.
It's pretty fascinating, Robert. It's I think that people love
learning about themselves, but when you can really learn and go
oh, that makes so much sense for me.
You know, I take a look at my DNA and I say, of course I was
diagnosed with adrenal exhaustion, of course, today I
have to focus on keeping my stress levels down on a daily
basis. There's actually a variant that
will tell you whether or not you're likely to Lee to gain fat
when you're stressed. Yeah, yeah, no, I think it's
super viable information. I feel like there's been a lot
of pushback for people from people against testing their
DNA. Like, I don't know if it's
because they're concerned that the government's going to get
their information and clone them.
I'm not really sure what's going on there, but I feel like I've
heard that too and I'm in this, I'm in the same.
I'm where you are. I'm, I don't, I don't know
exactly but I figure they have all the information on us
already anyway. Yeah, that's kind of where I'm
at and I feel like nobody wants to close On me anyways, I'm
aware of I don't feel like I'm that valuable of an asset to the
government. May be a man who knows but I
feel like from a genetic standpoint.
Like it just simply equips you with more data more information
that you can then make actionable decisions with him.
It's the kind of the same thing as like people don't like
stepping on the scale and I get the reason people like stepping
on the scale by the end the day. Like I tell all my clients,
look, it's just simply data, it's not good or bad, it's just
a numerical value that you can then act upon, and make
decisions accordingly with like It's not a inherently good or
bad thing and I think genetics pretty much the same way.
Like it's not inherently good or bad, it's just simply dated that
you can then act upon It, you're so right and one of the main
conversations I have with my ladies, prior to even showing
them, their results is, I tell them, here's what I want you to
know your genetics, your DNA, what you're going to learn about
yourself is not your destiny and and I show them my results
because if somebody were to look at my results, never having seen
me before and they know something about DNA, they're
going to guess that I'm not just overweight but that I'm obese.
I mean that is My DNA says and so and because I'm able to stand
in front of them, not being that way.
My whole point behind this is, some women are going to get
these results and they are already going to be in a place
where they want to lose a lot of weight and I don't want them to
feel that. Oh, well, of course, I'm this
way. This is how I'm always going to
be because that's not it at all. This particular company.
Any, any DNA that they run any variance that they're going to
tell you about? Out, you can do something about
every single one of them. This is not a medical DNA
company that's going to tell you about specific diseases that
you're likely to get. Yeah.
And there's that's a good point. I feel like you know, like
people don't test because they don't want to know, which I
don't think is great. But I think at the same token
the inverse of that is equally bad which is like people test.
They see a you know a genetic predisposition that they're more
likely to gain weight and they just kind of like lean on that
as a scapegoat as a reason not to Act, according to work
against that happening. Like, it's like, there's two
edges to that sword, like people, you know, they don't
need to look at that data, as something that's inherently
going to dictate their future. Like it's just simply a
precursor that they can then change in form through
epigenetics through their lifestyle decisions.
Absolutely 100%. What about the act in three Gene
to act in three? I think that's right, acronym?
Right? Acting three, you know, I don't
know. I actually it's so interesting.
Can you bring that up? I had just written that one down
recently because I've been going through the clinical guide to
making a spreadsheet with all of these.
And I know I just wrote that one down on my iPad notepad.
Yeah, it's, I've had a few clients that have that.
And like if, if you get the double x snip for the actin
three Gene, you're supposedly less able to build muscle from a
hypertrophy standpoint in. Your recovery is hindered.
So I didn't know if you had any if you had had clients with that
snip and kind of what what you what the conversations of the
dialogues been like with them, I do and But I'm going to have to
look that one up. I think that's right.
I couldnt 880 see in three.
I think that's right maybe I'm wrong but I mean I kid you not I
just wrote that one down but the nice thing about all of these is
that again, there is something that we can do.
And so what's nice about these reports is that they also say
okay so if you have, you know, if you have this variant here is
what you're going to want to stay away from here, is what you
are going to want to focus on. You know, it's interesting.
There's a part of me that is almost I had said earlier that,
you know, if I had had these results back in my 20s, perhaps
I could have, you know, not been diagnosed with adrenal
exhaustion but at the same time I'm so grateful for everything
that I did in my athletic Endeavors that I think I
probably wouldn't have applied myself as much because my DNA
says I'm so average. Right?
Yeah, totally. And so I think that with these
specific it's never about Specific variant.
It mean you really have to look at so many different variants
and that's what this company does is they take so many
different variants and they go because of all of these it leads
to this it's never about just the one variant.
Yeah, 100%. And I feel like a lot of people
like a lot of these generic. I don't even know how they get
some of this information, like they'll have your data and then
like when it comes a lot of the food recommendations, I think
they're basing those recommendations off of Of what,
you know, the heart American Heart Association recommends
more so than the actual genetic data.
So I think, looking at the data as data objectively and seeing,
you know what, that snip predispose you for is the only
way to go when I agree with you completely, when it comes to
adrenal fatigue, adrenal exhaustion.
So that's a term that a lot of people in the evidence-based
Community, push back on. They say there's no such Thing
as adrenal fatigue. It doesn't work.
That way nonexistent. I'm assuming you're not in that
camp. I'm not.
Now it's not an actual. There's no conventional
medicine, doctor, that is going to give you a, you know, an
adrenal fatigue or exhaustion diagnosis.
Of course they're going to wait until they see, you know,
something like Addison's disease which is now non-reversible.
Yeah. But you know, the warning signs
prior to getting there is not anything that they are going to.
To acknowledge for sure. So what is that?
Like, what, what comprises adrenal exhaustion?
Like how does that look from a lab standpoint?
From a, what kind of phenotypes are you illustrating?
Like, what does that look like for people?
So when I was working with that particular practitioner, and we
had done. And again, this is another thing
where it's never just one thing she had, run my labs, and my
sodium was incredibly low. In my potassium was incredibly
High. My that and those two are
generally going to point toward an under production of cortisol.
If it were opposite, if you had a higher sodium and a lower
potassium, generally it's a hyper too much of a production
of cortisol. And then my cortisol, my
salivary panel backed that up my cortisol production in the
morning, so you should have this Colonel Rhythm throughout the
day of cortisol and so it should be highest of course at rise and
then it drops to a lower level around noon.
It drops to an even lower level around 5 p.m. and then of course
it should be at its lowest level around you know 10 p.m. to
midnight in my diurnal. Rhythm was a tries, I was
bottomed out completely around noon.
I was still low around 4 to 5, I was still low and then around
10. To 10 p.m. to midnight.
I was then high. And so you often see this
dysregulation of cortisol levels, my diurnal Rhythm was
completely off, which explained the not sleeping at night.
I mean it was and if I did happen to fall asleep, I could
easily be woken up. Yeah.
So when you get that diagnosis, when you get that feedback like
what are some things that you changed in your life instantly
to fix and correct course, So it's funny.
I do I feel that I actually do more now than I did at that time
as a preventative. So that I don't end up there
again, because I'm so predisposed to it at that time.
I cut out coffee, I completely, I cut down on my training.
I was making sure that I was sleeping.
I mean, I did like the complete opposite of the lifestyle that I
had been living, at that time, prior to that, I I was training
no less than three hours per day and sometimes even twice a day.
So I really pulled back on that. And so I would do maybe 23, Max
days of weights and in between that would be still movement,
but something like yoga. It could be as simple as
stretching doing the sauna. Just things to kind of bring me
down into my State. Now today, I still do those
things but I incorporate even more, you know, breathing
exercises, which dramatically can change, you know, your HRV
which at the end of the day changes, your heart rate
throughout your day when you can see these things happen.
Right? Before your eyes, if you can
focus on, making sure that you are getting into your
parasympathetic State, I actually had A scare recently, I
say recently, this was in October of last year and I had,
it was just such a bizarre experience, Robert.
But it really showed me that I had been going back in the wrong
direction again. And I got a headache one night,
and it wouldn't go away. And I even ended up taking
ibuprofen, which I generally don't, but it had gotten to the
point. Where, you know, you just had to
and it didn't take my headache away and I had this headache for
five days in a row. My heart rate was elevated.
My heart rate was actually over 100 beats per minute, for almost
all of those days. And I had been in contact with
my different functional medicine doctor than the original one.
But one that I'm really close with and he had sent me to
urgent care to get some things checked out and they did.
I mean, all they ran all of these tests.
They did an EKG had me pee in a cup and, you know, and nothing
was being found finally over the weekend.
He said, Ed, I need you to go to the emergency room because we
need to rule out an aneurysm. He said it's unlikely but we
need to rule this out. And so he wrote that up for me.
I went to the emergency room, nine hours, I spent in there all
the tests that they ran, again, they ended up.
I mean, this is almost embarrassing for me honestly to
tell this story, he ended up saying we need to test you for
meningitis. Hmm.
Do you know how they test for that?
I do not have the test. Uh they do a spinal tap.
Okay, not again. And so I mean, you know, I'm
going to say no. And so so I said, okay?
And so they do that, and of course, everything's perfectly
fine. Clear liquid.
Okay. So I leave in the same
condition. I've been there, nine hours, we
come home. And I tell my husband I just
could not get comfortable in bed.
Can you rub my neck? I just, I got something I need
rubbed out. He rubs my neck for 20 minutes
and he says, I've never felt your neck this way before ever.
I don't What's going on? After 20 minutes, Robert
headache was gone. Heart rate back down to 65 and
everybody lived happily ever after wowee.
You like prior to that, where you increasing your training?
Getting less sleep under more stress.
Like what was the what was the cat I will?
I will say more stressed. It's so my graduate program had
started not too long before that I was creating a program.
I was, I mean, I was literally, I can't even say this was due to
training. This was from my laptop.
Yeah. This was from my laptop and I
remember thinking. So, interesting, a few days
prior to even getting the headache.
I have this thought in my mind, that you've been looking at your
laptop too much, like I literally told myself that I
felt like I was stuck in my sympathetic state.
It was, it was so strange prior to this headache.
Like, I knew, I had the red flags and I just didn't pay
attention to them. And so, you know, and then all
of this fell through went through.
And I thought I've In stuck in my sympathetic State.
And because my neck muscle was so contracted because of how I
was looking at my laptop. However, many hours a day, my
body thought, oh, she's Contracting better, give her the
heart rate, she needs to run, right?
Because she's clearly in a stressed State and Never again,
yes, not good. You gotta you never again and so
daily. I focus on getting into my
parasympathetic State, and this is a lot of what we cover in the
program to, because there are so many people living in this
state, and they don't even know it because we've really
increased our Baseline, rest State, and when we think we're
resting, we're actually not resting.
So what are some tangible things that you do daily?
Now, to ensure that you spend time in the Pathetic state.
So every morning I start out by literally.
I'm not allowed to look at my phone or anything for hours
after waking up. So for me, my Bible studies is
my thing. So, I do Bible studies for about
an hour, I then we'll spend a little bit of time, allowing
myself to read a book that I'm learning something from, then I
cold plunge, which is the, which I are, you guys still doing cold
plunging? Yeah, every morning.
Okay, what am I? Absolute favorite forms of
hermetic stress. I feed my dogs, I work out.
I mean, I literally have this kind of this morning that takes
a few hours that allows me to just like arrive at my day.
So that, by the time I'm checking emails, I've already
set the tone for my day and not, somebody else who's needing
something from me. And then I set my alarm on my
phone for every few hours and every few hours I have to do
something that brings me into Parasympathetic State and that
can be a breathing technique that can be sitting in our.
We have a massage chair at home which I highly recommend.
I'll sit in massage chair for 20 minutes.
Sometimes I just hang from a bar, just allow myself to just
completely hang. Allow my body to completely
relax. I'll go for a walk even a
15-minute now. The whole point of these walks
when you are trying to get into your parasympathetic, state is
not to take a brisk. Walk, it's actually to do
something. That's completely
counterintuitive and it's really to just kind of like Mosey
around and just kind of feel the the breathe that your skin, feel
your feet, hit the ground, notice things around.
You just sort of brings you back and then when you get back to
doing the work or the things that you're needing to do,
you're actually more productive and see.
I was caught up, I was getting caught up again and oh I've got
to get this case study done. I've got to get this.
Project done. I was going to take a break
right now, but if I get started on this sooner, then I'll get
done faster and that's a lie. You actually get done faster.
If you can take some time away to get back into your
parasympathetic State come back and your focus is so much better
than if you had just Tried to power through the whole time.
Yeah, I completely agree. Do you have like a use, a
standing desk? Uh-huh, I'm standing right now.
Yeah, yeah, I think that's a game changer to because like, I
spend so much time sitting in front of a computer as well, and
it's just like, I get up and move and then I to think that
not having, you know, not looking at your phone or any
screen. First thing in the morning is
key, I've been waking up and then I'll read a chapter in my
book on the floor with the so right, you know, you've met with
the so right device. Yes, yes.
Yes. I'll just lay on that and
stretch out my. So as muscle while I read that
first chapter of a book and it's like that I think is simple as
that is. I think that definitely helped a
lot and doesn't it sound so simple.
Yeah, super simple but not I mean I think so many people are
just so reactive like they wake up, they wake up to a blaring
alarm clock and then they look at their phone, check their DMS,
check their emails and I do check emails and clients and
stuff pretty early in the morning but not before.
I read I stretched like I think that like not simply just not
looking at your phone. First thing the morning,
probably the single best thing that most people can do just set
the day off, right? I agree with you.
I think that would be the number one recommendation because if
otherwise, I mean you really are living on somebody else's terms.
Yeah. Absolutely.
What about sleep? Do you do anything, like, sleep
hygiene wise? That's out of the norm.
So I do use orange blue, blocker glasses in the blanks.
And so, now I use blue blocker, glasses during the day, looking
at my laptop which, you know, are mostly clear.
But at night, I use ones that have an Orange Hue to them to
emulate. The idea that, you know, the sun
has come down because I do also spend too much time indoors.
I really do. I just, I know this, I do try to
get outside, I do take my walks but but even still I'm just it
doesn't help that I'm also a homebody and Justin, like
completely happy at home. And so at night, you know, that
orange really allows your brain to go, oh, it's evening time.
Maybe I should start producing the right things in order to
Want to go to sleep and not something that I have all my
ladies do to and across the board.
They say it's a game changer for their sleep.
Yeah, totally. Totally give get a pair of
glasses as well. You know, use those, I need to
get better at use them. I haven't used them much lately,
but I also try to not be on my phone and screens after the sun
goes down. Yes.
Harder. Like I'll typically wake up and
start using like, I wake up, you know, three or four and I'll
start doing email shortly thereafter.
So I start we but then I like ending early to because I don't
have any shame in saying that I go to bed at 8:00 p.m.
I have no shame Robert. I mean, I I woke up and looked
at my report from last night and said I slept eight and a half
hours and I thought I mean that feels like winning the lottery.
Yeah. Now one thing I noticed like
I've gotten worrying and my Garmin watch and my my deep
sleep is usually pretty good, but my REM sleep is
non-existent, and I think that's because since I wake up earlier
and most people tap into the majority of the rooms, The
latter half of their sleep phase.
Yes. And I'm just waking up before my
body. Next, we would.
So I'm pretty much missing out on all that REM sleep.
Yes. Yeah.
What time do you say? You wake up three or four
depending on the yeah. Yeah.
So I think really it's usually about the 3:00 hour that that
REM usually kicks in. Yeah.
But I will tell you deep sleep is I think of all of our sleep
is like the most important. That's, I mean, that's where
most of our recovery happens. Yeah.
If I had to pick one for sure, I'm glad that I'm getting too
deep instead of putting them. But I wouldn't mind having some
more room so because you get cooler dreams, you know, I mean,
the dreams, it's just crazy, they're just dreams.
You don't even want to talk about, right?
I know, I know, let's talk about hormones a little bit, so if
your typical client demographic is, I think I read somewhere on
your like Instagram, bio that, most of your female clients with
35. And I'm, is that right?
Correct? Yep.
Okay, so that's one thing I've seen grown in prominence, a lot
lately, like the Two years especially is, you know,
bioidentical hormones, HRT for both male and female.
And that's like a lot of it's pretty unchartered territory.
Like there's a, it's like the wild west out there when it
comes to hormone replacement therapy.
What is your take on that? Like some people like you know,
you used to compete. I compete like I've always
competed in natural Federation, so they're very incredibly
strict going on the Federation on not taking anything.
And I think there's a lot of benefit to that for sure, but as
you age as we've gained more insight, as to, you know, what
we can do proactively to prevent some of these aging phenomena
occur, you know, like, there's a lot of things backing up the
benefits of hormone replacement therapy.
So where does one? Where does one?
You know, skirt that line. So, here's where I stand on it
because I'm not completely against it.
But I also do not believe that it should be our first line of
Hmm, I do not believe that you should have your hormones tested
and say, oh, I'm low on this and this and so let me go replace
them. I think that if you end up
there, you end up replacing that, you know, because because
you've done the other groundwork to foundational work and you
find that you need to what I call top off, because you're
still not feeling well, and we think that these particular
hormones can help you, then I think fine do that but I think
that there's so much ground work to be done.
First before you get into actually replacing because so
often, you know, so often our hormones are low because of our
lifestyle, how we're eating things that were not focusing
on. So here's what I find often
times, is women come to me and they come to me, for hormone
reasons, we don't necessarily do anything specifically for
hormones, but because we're focused on balancing blood sugar
levels were focused on nutrition.
Shin will get them on a good supplement protocol not
necessarily supporting hormones yet but supporting some more
foundational systems in the body.
Then we retest and we find oh I've actually increased on my
testosterone. I've actually write a fallen
into into range on some of these and there are times where I
might have wrapped up working with somebody and they're not
technically in the quote-unquote optimal range on a particular
hormone. But I Ask, how do you feel?
I feel amazing. Well then let's not go.
Get you on, you know, hormone replacement therapy, right?
If you feel good. So, these ranges that are out,
there are certainly guidelines, but at the end of the day, you
have to ask yourself. You know, how do you feel here?
And generally once they've done so much of this work, it's a
very small population of the women that I work with, who end
up actually going and getting on hormone replacement therapy.
I will say One thing that a lot of women do end up using is and
you don't have to get a prescription for.
This is a progesterone cream. Yeah and that's just something
that a lot of times I find it's usually around that 35 age that
progesterone begins to decrease it yet but but again you're you
know that has so much to do with your adrenals, you know your
adrenals produce progesterone but if you're living a
stressed-out life cortisol which your adrenals also Zeus is going
to take precedence and so that that progesterone gets lower,
that's one hormone that I find is hard to bring back up
compared to testosterone and estrogen.
Yeah, I think I think, you know, definitely doing all the
groundwork prior to going the right of exogenous hormones.
Has absolutely Paramount. I feel like some people just
look for that quick fix scenario and reach for the hormones that
really giving much thought to what the long-term repercussions
of. Would be so I'm 100% on board
with their. Do you think from a female
standpoint? Like let's look at menopause for
instance. Like when women go through
menopause it becomes harder to preserve lean lean tissue and a
lot of times women will reach for the hormone replacement
therapy therapy simply as a way to preserve the the muscle that
they built, because as we both know, the more lean tissue have
them, that's like the longevity organ.
I've heard it described as such, so they They would benefit from
preserving as much of that, as possible.
Is that preservation via the Exotics hormones, going to
outweigh any negative repercussions down the road or
are they, I guess, what I'm asking is, can women truly
optimized by allowing their by to run, its natural course of
action without any hormones? Knowing what we know now about
the science? I think that I think that women
Through, of course. First lifting weights, right?
Which is going to help increase the testosterone in the first
place. But with along with
supplementation, I see women get their testosterone into what
would be an optimal range. You know, around that you know,
5055 Mark without having to get into exoticness testosterone.
And I think when you talk about long-term effects from it, I
think one of the main things is Is once you're on it, it's going
to be really hard to get you off of it.
Because now, once we've got you on that exoticness testosterone,
your body has said, oh cool, I don't really have to make this
anymore, you know, she's giving it to me.
And so now, if you do choose to get off for one reason or
another, you lost the doctor that you are working with.
I mean, hero all hear all sorts of things.
Now, you your testosterone levels are even lower than they
were prior to To getting on the exoticness testosterone.
One of the, there's a product that I use and now I can't.
I cannot sugarcoat this. This stuff tastes disgusting,
okay? I'm gonna just really does and I
just, you know how there's some products you can say, well, some
people are okay with it. Some people are not, this one is
just flat-out disgusting but it's just incredible in terms of
what I see both in how women feel and how their Labs look
after. It for a period of time and it's
nano formulated DHEA. Plus by scientific?
Quicksilver scientific. Is that?
I think that's who it's by. But that now they've got that's
the purpose of this particular product is to help increase your
testosterone, but what they use our natural to help your body
increase your own levels of testosterone.
So we're not giving it synthetically.
It does also have some DH Hea in there, which I find that the
vast majority of women over 35, do need because, again, that's
something else that your adrenals produce, but they also
have Maka in there and I'm a huge fan of Makkah when it comes
to balancing our hormones in general.
And so, that particular product, it's one teaspoon.
I have, I have women. Take one teaspoon, five
morning's a week, and then we cycle off and on that as well.
You don't want to stay on it all the time, but incredible.
V and even there are some women who don't get up to again that
optimal range. But they find that, you know
what, I'm putting on more lean muscle in the gym and so I feel
good and so we have to also be careful of not chasing those
optimal markers in the functional world.
Yeah, that's super key. I feel like I've seen several
guys that have, you know, quote-unquote low, they're low
on the testosterone range, you know, giving the proxy there.
But like they They feel great. They're building muscle like
everything's solid. Like their recovery is great.
They're getting stronger. So like you definitely take
those ideal reference range with a grain of salt and also, to in
the other reverse of that, like a lot of those reference ranges
are all in the reference ranges are based off of a general
population average. And I don't think the general
population that we see ourselves in now is an ideal population,
sample? Correct.
Well, and here's the thing. I think that, you know, when you
look at conventional ranges, those of course are Like you
said it's based on, you know, a majority of the people and where
they are, but in the functional World we've said, oh no, here is
really where you should be and which I think is great because
now we're looking at a more optimal range, but I also think
in the functional world, we can end up chasing those numbers and
and we just can't, I actually did work with a male.
I've probably been done with him for maybe about six to nine
months, but he had really low testosterone.
I think he was around somewhere between two and three. 100.
And so we got him on the program, got him on some, you
know, some supplements. And he didn't end up retesting
because he just said, he felt so, I mean he felt amazing after
going through this protocol. I wish he would have retest
because I would have loved to have seen how high is
testosterone got, but I can't imagine that it went from, you
know, between two and three hundred up into an optimal range
for his age, based on what we were doing.
But I think it just goes Show that that we can't change those
numbers. Yeah, and is crazy, how big an
impact lifestyle factors have on those numbers to, like,
testosterone specifically, remember getting a test, you
know, at the end of a prep it's obviously quite a bit lower than
it is at Baseline because I'm just a super depleted at that
point. But I also had a test not too
long ago, probably a year ago. Now after I'd had like a week of
just crazy stress and like no sleep and it was in the tanks
but that was also not a Be good. You know reference point because
I don't typically not sleep for weeks on end.
So like you got a really take your lifestyle factors into
consideration to with when you get in these blood panels drawn,
you do. But I also I love that you got
it tested at that point. Because isn't it fascinating to
actually see things play out? Oh, for sure.
I mean, it makes you realize how important sleep is like, sleep
is one of those things that we're always seemingly willing
to just, you know, kick down the curb so to speak, but yes.
Once you get the tangible feedback, like, you know, you'd
feel tired, you know, you don't feel optimal, you know, you're
not as strong, you're not as energized.
But when you can actually like look at the blood panel, I like,
guys, like they look at their testosterone is like, you know,
that that's what makes them masculine.
Like, if they don't have a high testosterone, they feel like
puny, you know, side when you can not sleep for four days and
then get a lab drawn. See your testosterone literally
cut in half. It's like well shit.
I guess I better prioritize sleep a little bit more.
It's true. It's so funny.
You say that to you in all my years of Owning by supplement
store, you know, men would walk in and they'd say, oh, you know,
just want to see if you have some kind of energy pill and you
know, just a little tired and and I and this would happen so
often I would say, well, have you ever considered a
testosterone booster? And it's like all their hand on
their hip. Oh, well no, I'm no good in that
area. It's like I am not coming after
your manhood, nor do. I want to talk about it.
Yeah. But but you know that oftentimes
is one of the causes of that the Teague is that that lower
testosterone and in fact, as men get, you know, over 40 and 50,
you see this transition of less testosterone in this
aromatization into, you know, this elevated estrogen as well.
So, I mean, it's so important to have this information.
Yeah. 100%. And on the same token, I've had
one client. That was 55 years old and he had
like, 11:00 told us, I don't know who's free test was but
like, wow, crazy out of me. That's way higher than mine.
Wow, no money is but he's 55 years old and rocking 11:00
12:00. Total testosterone like you get
some weird outliers like that too, so it's just interesting,
but I think really not getting so hung up on the numbers like,
I'm like we're centered it like use the data, you know, as a way
to make actionable decisions but then also really leaning to
being self-aware and knowing your body and how you actually
feeling. So many people are not in tune
with their body at all, they don't even know.
They're even know when they feel good because they don't, they're
just chronically tired. Like they don't even know how to
compare that. I mean, that is just one of the
most important aspects of. That's one of the things that we
really talked about through my program as well.
I shouldn't even say we talked about it so much.
It just happens because of the process we go through.
And I take everyone who comes into the program.
I guide them through a 21 day detox and it's not until you can
kind of like what I call clear the white noise like just get
some stuff out of the way that all of a sudden.
Now, you're Paying attention to how you actually feel.
And you're so right so many people have no idea how they
actually feel because they're normal is completely off, you
know, because they've been feeling a certain type of way
for so long that it's it's just how they feel.
Even if they're tired every day. That's their normal.
Yeah. Totally, when it comes to
nutrition, any talk about nutrition at all here?
But like, when you're working with these, these clients, a
years to this group setting, do you find that they tend to
respond better to a certain nutritional protocol or is
everybody eating something different?
Or how is that structured? So I base this off of their
combined based off of their DNA results and their labs.
And so your DNA, for example, tells you whether or not you're
likely to have type 2 diabetes, that's what mine tells me.
I'm fact mine says, you're very likely to have type 2 diabetes.
However, I take a look at my Work.
And it says, you know, your insulin is a three, your A1C is
a 5.1. And so I know I'm good, right?
So based off of that, I can decide, you know, do I, I like
eating keto and so if I want to eat keto, I do that.
But I can probably handle a little bit more carbs.
What? I would consider a low glycemic
type diet, okay? However, if I'm taking a look at
somebody's DNA and it says, you're likely to have Of type 2
diabetes and then I look at their labs and they have a 5.6
A1C and a 12 insulin. I'm going to say for that Pete,
that person at least for now therapeutically.
Let's use a ketogenic diet to, you know, see some change in
these Labs so that we can change your story.
So that you don't, you know, end up with this diagnosis.
And so, and for that person then It's such a hard thing diet
because I would like to say, let's just how do you continue
eating? He do.
But if they're not going to comply or just, they don't like
they just don't like doing it there.
You know, thinking about other Foods, then I find a middle
ground with them. Once we have gotten their Labs
back to where we want them to be once their A1C is in, you know,
more of an optimal range that the insulin levels have come
down. Then we can talk about maybe a
more low glycemic approach way of eating.
Yeah. Use keto a lot therapeutically.
I find a lot of times with my ladies, they do want to add in
sweet potatoes. They want to add in, you know,
those lower glycemic carbs and so I work with them on that.
Yeah, I think that makes total sense like I never want to be
dogmatic towards nutrition. Like I I like strict.
He do it works really well for me, but it has to be sustainable
for them that they have to enjoy that style of eating.
I do get a lot of pushback from Mostly females that females
require more carbohydrates from and hormonal standpoint.
Because they oftentimes say that, you know, if you're
consuming strict keto, without any carbohydrates, you're going
to be spending more time in a sympathetic nervous State.
And you need to have some carbs to balance that out and kind of
relax more return to parasympathetic State and
improve overall, hormonal regulation, and, you know, their
menstrual cycle for instance. And when I've, when I've worked,
Them. I often times find that that
dysregulation stems more. So from them just simply not
eating enough in general. And if they consume a
well-formed occasion that with ample calories ample total fuel,
all of those symptoms subside I mean is there any evidence that
you've seen in working with your demographic of them?
Simply like all those things equal they just have to have the
carbs to improve their hormonal Health you know I'm in complete
agreement with you Robert. I was going to say the exact
same thing that you did. What I end up finding is because
because sometimes, they'll say, oh well, I've been trying that
diet but I'm just, I'm just still so hungry and I'll say,
okay, you know what, let's have you track exactly what you're
eating so that I can take a look over it.
And I mean I look at these Diaries at times and I'm
thinking, oh my gosh, I mean there are so many women, eating
800 calories and then that's no exaggeration.
So here's here's the thing. If I think, what happens a lot
of times with women, as maybe they just don't Like these maybe
they don't like meat enough maybe they're just and if
they're not willing to eat enough of these particular
Foods, then we have to work on. Okay, well where can we bring in
a sweet potato? Where can we bring in some
butternut squash? Where can we, you know, bring in
some of those things that they will eat so that they do stop
under eating. But I think that the main issue
when you talk, you know, is it going to cause hypothyroid?
Is it going to cause is it, is it going to be seen as a
stressor? On our adrenal glands, I think I
think almost every time it has to do with not enough calories
as opposed to not enough carbs. Yeah, hundred percent agree but
I like hearing you say, because you have a lot more credibility
as a woman than I do and I work with a lot of women.
Yeah. For sure not.
That's, that's reassuring to hear.
Well, shoot, we're already an hour and I don't take up too
much of your time here but talk to me about this.
This course you've got one coming out here soon, right?
I do. So, I am going to be launching
it in April, mid-april we're going to launch.
We start together May 23rd and so but I launched early because
again I've got to get your DNA test kit to you.
I've got to get your requisition form to you, so you can get your
blood draw. So that I then have time to
interpret all of these results. By the time we get started
together in May and so, you know, one of the things that I
just did recently is I sent A group of ladies, a feedback form
on the program. Like, I want to know all of it.
What did you love? What did you not like what, you
know, what can make it better. And so one of the things that
gosh, I'll say 90% of the women are still some women who are
sending forms in but so far, 90% of the women have said because I
said, what would you recommend to?
You know, somebody coming into the program or thinking about
coming into the program and they said that its intense.
So many of them said, it's an intense pain.
I love hearing this from them, you know, I'm just putting this
program together and I just want to give everything, right?
Everything that I know. And so I thought, you know what,
when I launch it again I'm going to make sure that these women
prior to coming in know they know what they're getting in
for. Like this is an intense eight
weeks and I do want you to be at a place in your life, where you
are ready to soak everything in for the eight weeks that we are
spending this time together. You know, this program is not
Not really for somebody who's just kind of starting to get
into, I want to, you know, figure out how to lose some
weight. It's not going to be for that
person. It really is going to be for the
person who's they've been trying things.
They've been to the doctor their labs are quote, unquote normal
but they just, you know, don't have the energy, they're gaining
some way. Maybe they're having hair loss,
they're getting the lower belly pooch.
Just kind of all of those things that you don't know where to get
help. Those are the women who come
into this program. Yeah and then we just hunker
down and I teach every single week I go live with you.
We all need. Of course everything's recorded
uploaded into your portal so that you can watch it later when
necessary. And my guide you through the 21
day detox that we do together. And we just really Implement so
many lifestyle interventions. And what I say to the women is
this one of the things I say is I want you to catch a few All's
I am going to be throwing so many balls at you, but it's kind
of like, you know, if you're in a tennis court and there's that
thing which I don't know what it's called, but it's like
shooting balls out that you're supposed to hit with the racket.
But if I'm if I tell you go in there and catch as many balls as
you can just decide that you're going to catch three because you
know that you can catch on to those balls and hang onto them.
Just let all the other balls go by.
If you try to catch every ball that I throw at you, you're not
going to end up catching any of them?
Because you're going to keep dropping other balls.
So while it is an intense program, I tell the ladies to
choose the things that they can grab on to start to make those
things a part of their daily lives.
And once those things become just like, brushing your teeth.
Now, choose a few other balls that you can grab onto and, and
Implement. And so, all of that being said,
I've designed this program where women can go through it time and
time again. Do you need to continue
optimizing? Your health come back into the
next program. Let's In your Labs.
Let's get you on a new protocol. I mean, I have so many women who
were in my current program, they're already on my waitlist
for this program coming up in May and so so it's just designed
to keep going. I love it.
How do you like the group
setting compared to when you were doing the one on one?
Here is why I like the group setting because I'm able to
teach so much more. When I was doing one-on-ones, I
could only meet with women one time per month.
And yeah, that's not enough. Yeah.
Yeah, It's Tricky. I mean, like the like, I've
always done one-on-one and I like one-on-one, because I get
really deep with that individual.
But I like I think I'll probably always do the one-on-one
because, like, when I'm working with competitive athletes that
are stepping on stage, like like that, it's very individualized,
like, their macros are all uniquely.
Everything's very different for that individual.
But I'm thinking about rolling out, some type of group coaching
format as well and it's not like going to be me, you know,
calculate their macros or anything so much.
That is I want people to be able to lean into one another and
have the format to follow. Because I think there is a
strength in numbers. And I just recently, signed up
for this Mastermind class with a business setting that
nutritional setting but like just, then we've been able to
interact with other people within that group setting has
been beneficial for me. So I think there's a lot of
value added when you have people with similar interests, similar
goals in mind, all being able to kind of work together.
Plus, it takes a little bit of a load off of your shoulders
because Someone that knows more or follow your program in the
past, like they can answer some of those questions that that you
didn't have to answer. Yes, to all of that.
I, in fact, a lot of the ladies on the feedback form said the
same thing that they really enjoyed the community aspect, I
think it's powerful. Now one of the things I did
offer going into it I thought what I was going to do is offer
for a handful of ladies to be able to upgrade into one-on-ones
with me. I ended Up not doing that.
Just as protection for myself in time just because of where I'm
at right now with school and everything.
But what I did offer is for some ladies to be able to upgrade to
where I did a very deep dive, like I pulled up their results
and I recorded a loom for them and it was anywhere from 25
minutes to 45 minutes depending on how much they had going on
and just sent them that information on themselves and
every single woman who did that upgrade I loved it to learn more
on themselves so I think there are things that we can do in the
group setting to allow it to still be more personalized and
feel like you said, I like to actually have a bond with each
person that I work with that admittedly was maybe a little
lacking. This round one of the things I'm
doing for this next round. I'm not taking as many ladies.
Yeah. And that's a decision that I
made because I do want to To be a bit more connected with each
woman. Yeah, that makes sense.
I think having like a threshold cap as that people are in there.
Otherwise, it just becomes like a noxious Facebook group, you
know? You don't want that.
Yes. Yeah.
Which I opted not to have a Facebook group as well, for that
exact reason. Yeah.
What platform are you using? We're totally going.
A little business Deep dive here, but what platform you're
using hosted all on? Well, I'm going to change that.
So what I use for this program was practice better.
I did not like it and I and it maybe it's just me and maybe I
wasn't using it properly, but a lot of the women said, it just
wasn't very intuitive for them. I love practice better for
one-on-ones. It just storing information and
it's just a little Hub where all my clients live, but I also have
because I do also have a monthly membership that women have the
option to join. So, maybe you're not able to
invest in my group program, but you still want to work with me
in some capacity. I have a month.
A membership. That's 37 dollars a month that
is hosted in kajabi and I'm going to do that.
That's actually what I'm going to do for my program.
This next time is move it to kajabi.
I didn't think I was going to be able to but another thing that
I've done for myself Robert and all of this trying to take
better care of myself, as I've hired an operations manager for
my business, prior to bringing her on, I was doing everything.
Anything. I mean anything you saw my bit
like I was doing at all, which is why?
At the end of the day, I wasn't doing enough because I'm only
one person. So, she is helping me and she's
like, let me do this for you. And she is setting all my stuff
up and, you know, checkout pages and things like that.
So, that's awesome. It's also, I do enjoy kajabi.
Have you used it before? Yes.
Oh, my deeper State keto program that we made that I made with
keto connect way back and like, 2017.
We originally put on WordPress and then I migrated over to
kajabi a couple years. Ago.
And so it's on kajabi, but then I'm in the process of building
out, this Behemoth of a competition, Prep course, and
it's going to be on kajabi as well.
That's not live yet. It will, hopefully be launched
in May. But I like kajabi.
I think it's got and they recently just updated their
whole Community aspect. They good, haven't really dove
into that but I'm excited to see because I didn't really like the
community aspect before, but I think with the update it's got a
lot more functionality, their Community.
I She created a community for my membership ladies before and I
deleted it because it was just it was clunky and it was not
good. So, that's another thing that my
operations manager is doing is looking into that the community
portal for me because hopefully, we'll be able to utilize that
this time as well. You and I just, you know, like
when we you want to get on this year, right?
I'm not I won't be there this year.
Hope we need to just like sit down and talk business someday
and just like talk about courses and yeah we seem like have a Biz
Dev Deep dive sometime soon. Yeah let's do it.
I think it's so helpful. I've Got, I've got a girlfriend
who, you know, we just, we kind of have her own Mastermind and I
mean, it's just so incredibly helpful to be able to run these
ideas by each other. Yeah, 1000% agree.
Well, until then, where do people go to sign up for your
course? Given the waitlist dive into
your life a little bit more? Yeah.
So if you go to my Instagram account which is Tanya dot,
Pennington dot Miller, you can go to my link tree and you can
see the Are to add yourself to the waitlist.
Basically, what that does is it puts you first in line to hear
about the program, that's who I will release the program to to
begin with. And then if they're still spots
available, then I release it to the rest of my email list as
well, but that kind of gets you first in line.
Get you all the updates about it and everything.
And then of course, I put info out on my Instagram as regularly
as I can. Hopefully, more now that I have
my operations manager and then my website is Tanya Pennington
milord Calm and you can learn more information there as well.
Awesome. Well I will certainly link out
to all those. Make it easy for people to find
you. Tanya, I've always enjoyed
chatting with you, I learned a ton every single time we talked
and I'm excited to continue this conversation from a business
standpoint but then also I'm gonna hit you up for from DNA
standpoint here soon to. Yeah sounds good and thank you
for having me. I'm anything that ever has to do
with you and Crystal. I think that the two of you are
just two of the most stand-up people that I know.
And I mean Every aspect. So it's just an honor to be able
to be here with you. Yeah really appreciate that.
Out of curiosity where in the world did we first connect?
The how did we meet originally? Was it through Instagram or you
know, I don't we met at I think the first-ever keto Khan was
that? What we first met?
I think it was the first ever win in the work.
You do con I, so I'm an introvert.
Okay, so I don't ever just like go up to people and but my
husband is the extrovert and so he gets me To go up to people.
And you had talked competition and I have no idea.
There was like some question and my husband was like, go ask him
and I'm like no way and and he's so great like I just this is why
God chose him for me because anyway and so I came to ask you
a question and we had a conversation and Crystal was
there and she was your girlfriend at the time and she
was so super quiet and it's just been amazing to see how she has
just completely blossomed since that first time, Then I think I
started following her at some point.
You had her doing a competition and she was talking about
something about the week prior to the show and I offered her.
I had a list for all of my athletes.
When I was coaching to laugh, here's a list of things that
you're going to want to, you know, have in your little pack,
or whatever, leading up to the show that had more to do with
female type stuff, right? And so then I sent her that list
and then I just have always Kind of stayed in contact with her.
And yeah, that's about it. We've really only met in person.
You know less than a handful of times.
Yeah, it's crazy. That's crazy.
Well, like I said it's always awesome chat with you.
I have utmost respect for you. It was great meeting your
husband as well, the conference I mean y'all are just killing it
on all fronts, so there's ever anything I can do to help push
yells needle forward and on any shape or form just let me know.
I appreciate that Robert. And likewise you bit tiny?
Take care. You too.