Joey Pinz Discipline Conversations

#857 Whitney Gee: 🌍 From Burnout to Bali: Building a Global Life

• Joey Pinz • Episode 857

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What does it really take to build a life of freedom, travel, and impact… and keep it together when everything falls apart? 🌍

In this episode of Joey Pinz Conversations, Joey Pinz sits down with Whitney Gee, a seven-figure entrepreneur who turned a one-year gap year into a global retreat business—only to see it nearly collapse overnight during COVID.

Whitney shares how she rebuilt from zero, navigated frozen bank accounts, and transformed her business into a thriving coaching model. From walking the Camino solo to hosting 700+ retreat guests across 9 countries, her story is a masterclass in resilience, reinvention, and self-awareness.

This conversation goes beyond business—into mindset, health, human connection, and what success really means.

🔥 Top 3 Highlights:

  • 🌪️ How she survived losing her business during COVID and rebuilt stronger 
  • 🧠 What 2,000+ clients taught her about habits, mindset, and real change 
  • 💡 Why chasing income alone won’t create the life you actually want 

If you're building a business, chasing freedom, or redefining success—this episode will challenge your thinking.

 

 

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Join us for enlightening discussions that spark growth and exploration. 

Hosted by Joey Pinz, this Discipline Conversations Podcast offers insights and inspiration.

 

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SPEAKER_00

Whitney G, thank you very much for your time today, Whitney. What a great conversation. Fascinating background. Um, been to over 60 countries, um, had a retreat business, a lot of lessons learned in the retreat business. We talk about that. Um, and COVID knocked it out. Lost most of her business. The government seized her accounts. Uh, she made a pivot. Um, all everything that she learned from retreats and helping people, she does now in mindful coaching, but just a fascinating journey from the beginning to there. You know, how she met her partner, her business partner, how she met her husband. Um, her view on discipline, very unique. Very unique, uh, Whitney's view on that, and you know, what she got from her mother and just the journey there. Uh, really, really enjoyed my conversation, Whitney. I know you will as well. Thank you, Whitney, again. And thank you for watching and listening. Hi, I'm Joey Pins, and here's my 45-second introduction. After starting my business in the 90s, I started developing poor habits of eating in my diet because of working way too much. Before you know it, I found myself 340 pounds. The doctor told me if I don't lose the weight, I'm not gonna see my daughter graduate. Took the next seven months, lost 130 pounds. People think there's some secret. Ask me, how'd you lose that weight? Like there's some secret. There is no secret. How'd I lose the weight? Just one word. Discipline. I've had other successes in life, and I attribute them all to discipline. Now I'm not the king of discipline, but I believe that it can help all of us. Friends, colleagues convinced me to start a podcast. Podcast Mission, how do we better ourselves and society? I talked to interesting people in health, fitness, sport, wellness, business, technology, science, art and culture. And I eventually asked them how discipline plays a role in their life. Podcast Vision, growth through learning from others. Hey, Whitney G, I'm so excited to talk to you. So, what has dance class and ukulele taught you that business doesn't?

SPEAKER_03

Ooh, I love this. I think especially so ukulele's been something that I've wanted to learn since I was 16. And I actually have four ukuleles, and like one is in Bali, one is in Hawaii, one's in Kentucky, one's here with me in Wisconsin. So, like, I've got the instruments. But I think what's so hard as an adult is to enter something with a beginner's like mindset. I think we stop having that propensity to try the hard thing, to be a newbie, to not be good at something. And so it's it's a very humbling experience. And I think like once you get to a certain point in business and you go through all these different steps, it's like, I shouldn't have to be new at something. I shouldn't have to be a beginner at something. And so we we stop to we start to have aversion to that feeling, I think. And it's like, I just want to be able to play, but you got to put in the reps, you got to put in the work, and there's no shortcut for that. And I think that's been something as an adult trying to learn something where I'm like, whoo, this would be so much easier if I had that like neuroplasticity of a 10-year-old. Um, it's it's a very humbling, beautiful process. And I think dance as well, it just really teaches you what you're all about, which is that discipline. Like if you want to be good at something, you really, there's just no shortcut for it. And that's what I love about those things.

SPEAKER_00

In this fast-paced MSP landscape, how do you stay ahead? Introducing MSP Influencer.com, your ultimate hub for MSP news, insights, and community connection powered by Forza Dash. More than 75,000 MSP subscribed to our MSP Influencer Pulse weekly newsletter. Staying informed and ahead of industry trends. Tune in to emerging podcasts for Joey Penn and leading MSP voices, offering essential tips, powerful insights, and success stories. Explore our multi-authored lives, crafted specifically for MSP leaders, delivering fresh perspectives and actionable strategies. Celebrate excellence with the industry-leading Force Dash MSP Influencer Awards, recognizing innovation, leadership, and impact in the MSP community. Join thousands of MSP professionals who trust MSP Influencer.com to grow their business and expand their networks. MSP Influencer.com, where today's MSP leaders connect, collaborate, and conquer, all powered by the Force Dotch platform, helping MSP vendors work effectively with MSPs and helping MSPs grow. I see that a lot. I play golf and I see that a lot because many adults take it on later in life when they're, you know, when they're really excel, when they excelled at basketball, soccer, whatever it is, baseball, football. So they're really good at those sports. So they think everything could just translate over. So they they don't have like that new mindset that, you know, and they get frustrated really quickly that they haven't mastered it yet and perhaps never will. But you could, you know, when you're learning an instrument like that, you've got to start from scratch.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. And you would probably hate to play golf with me, Joey. I am like chopping that grass all day long.

SPEAKER_00

That's all right. Bad golf is acceptable, slow golf is not. So it doesn't matter. You know, I play with a very a lot of varying handicaps. You've been to over 60 countries. I mean, well, how many countries do we have? Like 100, almost 200, 190, something like that?

SPEAKER_03

Yep. I'm well on my way. My goal is to get to 100. So I've got definitely some. I'm gonna be hitting my 62nd country coming up here in a couple of weeks. I'm on my way to uh Montenegro. So that'll be a new one for me.

SPEAKER_00

And standouts from those countries are like what surprised you?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I think when I was a little kid, my father got me a um National Geographic subscription. So I was obsessed. I my parents are always like, you're getting on another plane, you're traveling again. I was like, Y'all did it to me, like getting the little kid National Geographic. Like, I just think that I wanted to explore the world from a very young age. And I remember so distinctly seeing a National Geographic about Namibia and the stargazing, and it just seemed like something that was so incredibly exotic and seemed light years away from a little girl who grew up in Oregon, you know, going to Africa just seemed like such a unique experience. And so um, a few years back, I got the opportunity to do Botswana and Namibia um in a couple of different countries at once there in Africa, and it was just the people are so incredibly kind. The topography and the natural landscapes are so rich. You can't even drive at night, Joey, because there's not enough street lights, like it's illegal to drive at night. Like that's just such a cool thing going from you know a Western US lifestyle to that. It just makes you feel like you're going into a time machine, and people have those like authentic, real sit-down and chat, open the door because they haven't had kind of this like fast-paced modern lifestyle as much as we have.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, there's something to be said about that. My my father was an Italian immigrant, so I spent a decent amount of time over there, and especially southern Italy, where they just everything is just slowed down.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, whereabouts in Italy.

SPEAKER_00

A caserta, so near the Amalfi coast.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, fabulous.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, beautiful.

SPEAKER_03

We just went to we did Sorrento, the South, and we I was like, you know what? Let's just take some time to take cooking classes. And so we did like Airbnb experiences. We jumped into people's kitchens, and it was just, I think the Italian culture especially has this like love through food and connection that you can just feel. It's just such an amazing experience.

SPEAKER_00

It sure is. And like you said, like they don't drive it. I always tell this one story when my friends try to they want to know really what it's like there. So I remember I would go there as a kid and I was a teenager, and uh my two cousins, uh Antonio and Franco, what are the odds, right? Um they work they work for like they work, quote unquote, for the town, they like sweep the roads or whatever. I remember Monday, it was it was raining, Whitney, and they weren't working. And I said, Why aren't you working today? And they said, Well, it rains, we can't work outside when it rains. I said, Okay, so Tuesday was another rainy day, they weren't working. Wednesday was a beautiful day, beautiful day, and it they weren't working. I said, Why aren't you working today? And they said, You never start the week on a Wednesday.

SPEAKER_02

Mic drop. That's everything you need to know.

SPEAKER_00

So that's it. That's southern Italy right there, especially in those small towns. You walk the Camino solo, something I've always wanted to do. I've talked to people who've done that. Tell me about that experience.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, um, so I had a beautiful blessing. So I've ran my own business for a better part of a decade. And so I decided that I wanted to take some time off. I'm a bit of um a quote-unquote workaholic, as some people would call it. So it is quite hard for me, because I do love what I do, to disconnect and not to be like constantly thinking of like the next thing and what I could do to improve. So I knew that if I wanted to really take some time off and truly disconnect in a powerful way, I needed to go somewhere where I could remove screens from my life. I could remove temptation. And so the Camino de Santiago, for those who don't know, is this pilgrimage that's been around for gosh, thousands of years where people will walk across Spain and there's all these different routes that you can take. So I got it into my head every year I do something to challenge myself physically, mentally, um, be it a triathlon or a race or something that I can do just to kind of keep things fresh. So I said, well, I'm gonna do the Camino. And so that was such a unique experience because I think for me, I just generally gravitate towards the archetype of always having somebody with me. So, like if I'm traveling the world, I live nomadically for 10 years, I oftentimes had a travel partner. Um, if I was building a business, I would build it with a business partner. And so that was one of the first things I think I can remember in my adult life where I was truly alone. And I had this like romantic vision because I am a logistics queen and I plan my life to the degree. I was like, I'm just gonna roll into town and pick up a hotel and stay there for the night and then mosey on and walk. Well, I didn't realize how popular the cabino had become. And so it was like I would walk for 20 miles that day and I get in town, be like, oh, can I get a room? Like, oh, we're fully booked. So I was like, oh, okay, next town's five miles down. So it started to be a little bit more where I had to plan and everything else. But I think the experience of walking into these little towns that you would never see, sitting down, and I think when you're in that space of being alone, you're so open to receive. And so I would get on, you know, chats with people from Korea and you know, Latin America, all over the world. And so we'd share a lunch and have this really profound connection because we didn't have anywhere to go, we didn't have any to-do lists, and we just got to spend a day together, and then I would never see them again. But it was like that sweetness of the moment of just being there really present. Um, that was so incredibly cathartic for me as being somebody who's constantly on their screen, constantly planning to just really be present and say, My whole task today is just to exist, to feed myself, and to move.

SPEAKER_00

You mentioned you want you challenge yourself every year to do something difficult. When did this start?

SPEAKER_03

Oh I think it's always been like I feel like I have my mom was very amazing. She was very counterculture. So when I was in high school, we moved to Mexico. Well, we moved to Mexico when I was in third grade. Then we moved to Hawaii when I was in high school. I went on an exchange program in Brazil. So I was always moving around a lot. But my mom would say, Hey, you'll go to school till noon. I'm gonna check you out, and then we're gonna go to school of life. And she'd be like, What do you want to do? And I was like, Okay, so in Hawaii, I would take surf lessons, I would take hula lessons, I would just do things that were unique to that culture, things to do. And so I from a very young age really just saw like, hey, I could learn Spanish, let me take a class. Hey, I'm I'm gonna learn ukulele, I'm gonna do this. So it's always been a hey, high rocks is this new thing I've never seen before. Let me try it. And I think it's just been this beautiful way to keep myself guessing, growing, and really trying to kind of reach that next understanding of myself.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I heard you talk about your mother. Like she like lives in Eastern Europe now, doesn't know anybody, and yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Joey, she's uh she's a beautiful soul. She says that we hail from gypsy roots, so we both get what that iconic itchy feet we call it. So it's like we'll be somewhere, we're like, this is a good place, and then it's like, okay, let's go to the next thing. So, you know, she's of a certain age, she's in her golden years, as I like to call it. And so it's been about where would you like to retire? My mom has been such a hard-working individual. She was an entrepreneur, she raised three kids by herself. You know, she's always had businesses. She'd be working at three in the morning. Um, you know, I'd wake up when I was a little kid and I'd go find her in her studio. She would be making luggage to sell at farmers' markets. Like she just had this really high desire to provide for her family. And so when it came to her golden years, I said, I'd love to see you just relax. So we took her on a huge walkabout. We took her to Hawaii and Portugal and Thailand and Bali, trying to find that perfect home. You know, she loves to garden. She wanted to find a space that, you know, economically she could have a more spaciousness because, especially for a lot of unfortunately, those entering their golden years in America, it's hard to survive off of what it used to be. So um we settled on Albania, which most people say, where is Albania and why did she pick it? But it was really for her, it was the price of living, the you know, you can stay there for a year as a US citizen. It's easy to get a visa as of right now. Um, and she's building a little community, which I absolutely love. She's got her little like coffee date community, and they're, you know, I think at the end of the day, that's what we need as humans, no matter where you are in the world. And that's why I found after traveling to 61 countries, it's about like finding community, finding people that you can connect with, because the same things are gonna be happening everywhere. You're gonna do your laundry, you're gonna be eating, you're gonna be, you know, doing something to occupy your days, but it's really that sense of community, I think, that makes a place so important.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it really does. So you left corporate Whitney to do a one-year gap year. Like, what were you running away from? What were you running to when you just made that decision?

SPEAKER_03

I think I was really running, I had a bit of a health collapse. Um, and so, you know, my mother, while she was this very wild, wonder less free spirit, my father was very get a job, go to the government, like step by step. If you take care of it, it's gonna take care of you. Very pragmatic individual. And so I think I have that duality within me. So when I graduated from college, I went in and I first started as a wild land firefighter. Everybody in my family's done it, so it's like a rite of passage. I was a biological science tech, I went into renewable energy, and I just kind of like I literally graduated from college. I threw a party that weekend for my whole family, I started work that Monday. Like I just I worked three jobs through college, so I would have minimal debt. I just was like always on a race. And so when it came to a point, you know, with renewable energy and these different kinds of contracts, government money becomes very important. And what's happening politically impacts those jobs. So we had a regime shift in America. It was I saw the writing on the wall of what that would mean for environmental programs, and I was like, listen, I'm gonna go back to grad school, I'm gonna make sure that I can more foolproof my career here. Um, and then I will, you know, get to that next level. So I took a gap year and I always had the intention. Like I visited the university I wanted to go to, I had everything planned out, and I was just gonna take a proverbial gap year. Um, I did 18 countries that first year, and I really started to heal myself and really recognized whoa, I was completely out of balance. Like I had gained so much weight, I wasn't eating healthy, I wasn't sleeping, I had anxiety, and all of these things I just kind of took it as like a badge of honor because it's like, oh, well, I'm working hard and I have all this responsibility, so you know, this is an indication that I'm you know hustling because I want something and I, if I work harder, I get it. And so I had to really unlearn a lot of these things. Um, when you go to these different countries and people have such a high quality of life and they're so happy. Monetarily or materialistically, they might have less than us, but geez, to like, you know, go out and watch a sunset at 3 p.m., you know, go and leave the office early so you can go to the beach and do these different things that have value to them really enlightened me when I was in my 20s of I think I need to approach life differently because innately I already really pushed super hard.

SPEAKER_00

Very interesting. You met your co-founder two weeks after founding your business. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_03

It was, you know, so it was 18 countries in. I was towards the very end of my gap year, and I like call my parents because my dad was really this like go to school, do these things. I was like, okay, I'm going to one last hurrah. I'm gonna do a month-long retreat in Bali and I'm just gonna do yoga every day, stay on the beach, eat fresh fruit. Like, this is gonna be the last before the man takes me back and I go back to work. Um, and it was just the weirdest thing. That day, I'd been on campus going to school, doing the yoga every single day, and I just had something where I was like, I just want to get off today. So I walked miles. I had literally the place picked out that I wanted to go. I sat down, I ordered the salad that I wanted, and I looked next to me, and somebody's ordering the salad that I wanted. So I just struck up a conversation with her, and we ended up finding out that we were birthday twins, that we're both solo and Bali. And then she said, you know, I'm here because I want to take this dream that I have of curating more inclusive spaces and retreats. Because at that time, you know, Bali was the mecca of retreats, but it was very linear in terms of what you find. Like everybody's stick thin and Lululemons, or they're all like really like strong crossfitters.

SPEAKER_00

Around what year?

SPEAKER_03

This was 2018, 2017.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

And so she was like, I want to create a retreat for everybody. So if you're beginning, if you've never tried yoga, how can we get a place that's more inclusive to be a softer landing pad for people who want to explore their healing journey and their wellness? So I said, Okay, I'll help you, but I'm going back to grad school. So for months, I would be like building out the Excel spreadsheets, drafting up these kind of back and napkin ideas. And I always said, you know, this will be somebody else that will support you, but I'll help you build it. Well, she said, well, just do the first one. And that first retreat was so chaotic, Joey. Like literally, we got there to Bali. We had everybody leaving the United States, and the owner of the villa was like, Hey ladies, I'm sorry, but your villa's not done being built.

unknown

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_03

So now we're looking for like a new space to go. We didn't know where we're gonna put these people. We thought, like, we're gonna seem like, you know, charlatans bringing all these people and we don't have anywhere to put them. But it was then that moment that I really realized, you know, we worked well together, that we could weather storms, and we ended up working together for a better part of a decade, building a multi-seven-figure business, traveling around the world together. Um, so it ended up being something so beautiful. And my dad was actually the one that said go for it, which I thought when I called him, he'd be like, No way, Jose, like you're going back to grad school. But he said, You're always gonna wonder if you don't try, and you always wonder if it was a missed opportunity. So I'm I'm glad I took the leap.

SPEAKER_00

Good for you. What goes into you know running a retreat that most people don't see?

SPEAKER_03

The retreat space, I think, is one of the things that you know, there's so many things in our lives where it's like when you get to enjoy it from the outside, it's like, oh, that seems so easy. But when you really peel back the layers of the onion and look behind um the curtain, there's so many things that go into curating space. And especially for a retreat, you know, what you might see on the sales page is like, oh, the amenities and what I'm gonna be doing every day. But behind that, especially a retreat curated for transformation, which is I think what most retreats should be, is this catalyst of change, of coming with stress, overwhelm, burnout, whatever pain points it is that you are, and getting to take off that mask and leave it at home for a bit and say, I'm not mom, I'm not dad, I'm not, you know, caregiver today. I'm just Joey. And I get to be here and be present and have these experiences authentically as myself. But there's not many times in our life where I think we really get to do that. So, in order to build that out, that actually takes a lot of intention. In order to curate a container in a space, I would say, like the logistics and everything else, I mean, that's pretty streamlined and straightforward, an event planning 101, if you will. But curating experience, an emotional arc where you take people and give them opportunities to really get healing, to decompress, to have free time and to build that experience in that environment, I think is what makes a retreat experience different. And if anybody's Looking for a retreat, that's what I would really look for is you know, is this something that's going to be transformational for me?

SPEAKER_00

I have friends in the you know hospitality industry and they just say heads and beds. So I mean, it really doesn't I I guess with retreats, you still gotta put butts in seats. I guess that's the same thing in entertainment, right? I mean, essentially you've got to create something that's a value for these people to come.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, absolutely. And I think too, there's you know, back when I started in 2018, there wasn't as much competition as there is now. Like it is a loud, loud space. And so if you are going after commodification of, okay, well, I'm just coming on with as a fresh retreat host, and I'm gonna go and say, like, listen, you know, this person's charging 5,000, well, I'll charge 3,000. Well, now we're going on a race down to the bottom and we're gonna be comparing amenities to prices. And that's such a hard business to be in. But if you, as somebody who is a leader like you, Joey, of discipline, how do you really live and walk the life of discipline? And all these wonderful people are listening to you and really be believing in what you do, then it's all of a sudden like, hey, come experience what discipline is like with me. And that is such a powerful difference of all of a sudden, it's leaders in the space coming in to offer in-person experiences. And in an age of AI where content is just running rampant, I think that that's really, really important for individuals to have that opportunity to be something different, something iconic, and make people feel something.

SPEAKER_00

Has the HBO show uh White Lotus helped or hurt the industry?

SPEAKER_03

So, you know what's so funny, Joey, is before White Lotus popped off, I'm not a huge HBO person, so I didn't really watch the White Lotus series. We've actually hosted in Kosamoy, Thailand, which is where the most recent, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

So we were there hosting, and I think it's Walter Goggins, one of the famous actors. Yes, he walks by us on a dirt road in Thailand, like at a farmer's market or something. And my husband's like, I think he's a famous actor. And I'm like, why would he be here? I was like, no, he's not. And then the show came out and he was like, I told you. Um, but you know, it was so funny because then we've been hosting there for multiple years, and so somebody would call me and be like, I'm so excited to go where the white lotus is. Like, I love that show. But then, you know, that plot line is about like murder and so that some people were kind of like hesitant, I think. What I do think what had the most profound impact was do you remember that documentary that came out? I think it was like Fire Island.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah. The one in the Bahamas where they tried to have like concerts and stuff. And is that the one you're talking about?

SPEAKER_03

Yes. And I think people ended up, it was like portrayed as like a five-star experience, and people got like food and like little doggy bags.

SPEAKER_01

That's right.

SPEAKER_03

So I think that era we definitely saw some like, is this thing real? Because I I never take it for granted that people will find us through Instagram and say, okay, I'm gonna trust you to hop on a plane, fly across the world, and come and experience this. And I think that's one of the beautiful things, like social media is complex and it has so many downsides. But I do think that's one of the blessings that social media has given us is it helped you understand a brand on a more intimate level. And it helped you see, you know, we had like silly little things called like drinks with the G's, because both both of us had last name G's. So we would drink coconuts around the world and you know, coffee in you know, Italy, whatever was unique to that space, and just talk about that culture. And so people felt like when they arrived, they already knew us, and like that is such a beautiful gift that I don't think we've had before in our society to be able to really feel like, oh my gosh, I know this person enough to trust them to fly this foreign country by myself.

SPEAKER_00

You've hosted over 700 guests, I believe. So, I mean, what patterns do you see from the guests who actually make change and those that don't?

SPEAKER_03

You know, I think when you come into a space of really being ready to create change, I think it's coming from that willingness to try. And I had an amazing client, and she was from New York, and she had this like strong kind of exterior. And you know, New York, you just you gotta kind of bring it, you gotta push it, repel because it's such a intense energy. And she said, I didn't come here for that kumbaya stuff. And then at the very end, she's like, you know what? I love the kumbaya stuff. And so it's always like when people first come in, you see them coming in with who they need to be on the outside. And especially for us, we've got a lot of like judges and lawyers and people that have these very serious jobs that are used to always having the answers, used to always being seen in the spotlight. And they'll come up to me and be like, Whitney, have you seen my passport? And I just like I love it so much because I'm watching them relinquish. They don't feel like they have to have all the answers and they can just be themselves, they can be a person. So I think it's those who really step into it and say, like, I don't need to bring who I was with me to this space. I can uncover and dust off who I really am beneath and allow that version of self to get healing. And I think that's really, really powerful.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the Northeasterners that got that kind of hard chill. You gotta you gotta give it back to them a little bit, but the question is how much? Not too soft, not too little. But once you do that, they're they open up. People, you know, there's a false reputation, they're not friendly. It's just gotta kind of crack through that a little bit and they they they open right up, I find anyway. Um so you have so 700 guests, over 2,000 clients you've been working with. Just overall human behavior. I mean, you must have seen the gambit coming through your doors there, coming through your your retreats.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, very honored and blessed. So I've hosted over 700 uh lovely, amazing clients. And then in my coaching practice, because COVID shut the world down, obviously. So retreats went on freeze overnight. I literally had people, I was in Africa with hosting a retreat, and I was supposed to have more people arriving. Um, and naively, I didn't think it would last this long. So, like, I got everybody home, and then I was like, Oh, I'm just gonna ride this out. And my parents were like, my dad, of course, military background. Get out, bug out now. So, so what do you do at that point, right? So we had to pivot into digital products. So we took what we had learned and garnered from human behavior, from what people need, and we translated that into a digital space. And that's really where, you know, we were coaching a bit prior to that, but this is really where we invested heavily in taking the skills and wisdom of how do you love yourself into wellness? You know, so much of the narrative out there is like in the past, I would say we're kind of turning a new chapter, which I'm excited about. But it's like deprivation and you gotta want it, and you know, all these different things, and you know, discipline yourself into, you know, never getting to have a treat. And a lot of people couldn't sustain that, especially in the time that we were in in COVID. Like people needed to love and they needed to be held and they needed community. So we really kind of flipped the rubric and we really started to coach from a place of, you know, we had clients working with a dietitian, nutritionist, working with a licensed therapist, working with a mindset coach, working with an accountability coach, a fitness coach. So it was a really a beautiful way to approach wellness that had human first element. And I think that was so helpful. And what we really were able to identify is getting into habits because I think we all want to focus on the end result. I want to lose 20 pounds, I want to lose, you know, whatever X amount, I want to be this dress size. And it feels like such a big chasm between that point and where you are that it feels overwhelming. We try for a little bit, we give up and we say, okay, never mind, I can't do it. But if we can get into habits, small little shifts, then we can break down anything that we want into these tiny bite-sized pieces. And so that was really what I love to see because, you know, especially for coaching and retreats, we have high caliber, high-powered people that come into our doors and they already have a ton on their plates. Like they don't need the science behind things, they don't need all this, they just need to be told what to do. They just need to believe that they can. And I think from a human behavioral standpoint, something that we discount is the power of that like mindset of belief in self and having others believe in you and witnessing you do things and celebrate you. And so a lot of times, you know, there's these great apps and there's AI and there's all these things that we can use, but I don't think that we can truly replace that humanizing element yet because we crave it so much as people.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we certainly do. But going back to COVID, not only, Whitney, did it shut you down, but they froze your assets, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yes. Talk about a stressful time in my life.

SPEAKER_00

I'm glad you could laugh about it now. It wasn't funny then, I'm sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It wasn't funny then, you know, and it was, I do not discount how hard that season was for so many people around the world. And I think that was a really hard time for me, too, because I had connections around the world and I would get calls from people like my transport team in Thailand. And the compensation that they would get from the government when tourism was frozen would be rice, you know. And so it was very intense, and we were trying to support everyone in the ways that we could. Um, I left my triathlon bike with him, so I would send him what I called bike rent. I said, just don't worry about it. I'm gonna send you some bike rent every month. Um, but it was, you know, coming into that space, you try to lead as a business owner that is like, I'm gonna do the best by my clients. And so some people wanted their money back, which is totally understandable because they all of a sudden lost their income. They didn't know. So we try to have people roll as much as we could into future dates. And we were very naive about like, oh, you know, in six months we'll be able to host. Okay, a year we'll be able to host. But some people wanted their money back, and so we were trying to give money back. They froze our accounts because we were in the travel industry. And so I literally was, I think for one year, I didn't take a single paycheck. And I was doing work trade for people so I could have a free place to stay. Um, it was a really challenging time. And at the same time, simultaneously, we took on a hundred thousand dollar loan because we said we got to build an app because we want to get to everybody, and people aren't spending money right now. So rather than go like high ticket, let's build something where everybody can access it. And I think those are the decisions that you make when you are in stress because you become so, you know, your stress response comes on, you're not thinking very clearly, and you become very like narrow-minded and focused. We couldn't see any other solution. It was like, we've got to build this app, we've got to build this app, this is what's gonna save us. And so we took out that hundred thousand dollar loan. Joey, we just paid that back last year.

SPEAKER_00

Wow.

SPEAKER_03

Um, so that project was really bad too.

SPEAKER_00

You ended up hiring a bad developer and lessons learned.

SPEAKER_03

Lessons learned. You know, I think if you want to go through a personal uh growth journey, become an entrepreneur. You're gonna learn about yourself in so many different ways.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you certainly are. When you when you kind of when you eat what you kill, everything kind of shifts, everything's reframed, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Because I started my my business in '93, and so I'm virtually unemployable at this point, Whitney. So I mean, I I've just always had that attitude of, you know, of uh if I don't hustle, I don't eat, you know. So um the mentality of getting that paycheck every two weeks is man, that must be nice.

SPEAKER_03

Right. It's it's tempting. Like there's certain days where I look back or and I see, you know, I've got friends in corporate and they've got a little Xbox in their office. And I say, when do you have time to play Xbox? Well, if there's no contracts, we can just play and hang out. The company just pays us to be here. I said, There's never a moment in my day where I'm not like, there's not something I can do to move myself closer to another sale, another deal, another stuff. Exactly right.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, going to some of these corporate, there's like ping pong tables and beer kegs and some of us like, what is wow, wow, wow, wow. So when you you had to make this huge pivot. So you go, you kind of go digital, you try to make an app, but ultimately you you're you're you're a coach now. Correct?

SPEAKER_03

Yes, I've made a huge pivot. Um, so in last year, 2025, um, we had decided to close down the whole experience business, which was a really hard decision. Um, essentially, my business partner really wanted to build out her family more, be more, you know, solid and being more stable, if you will, because I mean it was a great life. I'm not going to take that granted for you. But we were traveling 10 months of the year, and it is hard. And for that first year in 2025 where I got engaged, she had, she was married and had one baby. We're like, you know what, we're just gonna travel with everybody. It's gonna be so easy.

SPEAKER_00

Parties.

SPEAKER_03

And we we took everybody for a couple of retreats and it was fun, um, but it's not sustainable long term. And so, and especially for me, you know, there were days when I would wake up and I'd be like, what bed am I in? Where am I? Like, I've lived almost exclusively in Airbnbs for 10 years. And so it starts to get a little bit harder on the body. Like I'm cruising towards 40. I feel things on a profound level, like my hips snap, crackle, pop, like there's no more sleeping in airports for me. So I think for me, it was about well, how do I take this love that I've curated? And that is for travel, that is for, you know, transformation, that is for retreats. I absolutely love that business. And I was really able, because I was in the trenches for so long, survived the pandemic, you know, grew something from 16-person events up to 40-person events. Like towards the end of the journey, we would just rent out entire wellness resorts in Thailand and bring 40 people. It was so much fun. And it was like wellness festival vibe. Like any given time, we'd have Pilates and Muay Thai fitness and everything happening at the same time. You could choose your own adventure. It was just so much fun. So I've taken that wisdom and knowledge and said, well, how can I help other coaches? How can I take this in a way that's gonna support me a little bit more in terms of, you know, my husband probably wants me to be home more than two months of the year, three months of the year, um, and still be able to stay in that world. And I think coming into different chapters of life, that's what's so beautiful about, you know, being an American, is that we can, this is the land of opportunity. And I feel so blessed that I can parlay wisdom and turn it into something new. And it's scary and hard to create that that change and to jump off the precipice of being a newbie again, like the ukulele. Um, but it's so exciting as well.

SPEAKER_00

Wendy, what's the difference between a coach and a therapist?

SPEAKER_03

I love that you asked this question, Joey, because I think that in my practice, so I'm a mindset coach. And a lot of times I feel like, you know, some of the things, especially when you're going through like a weight loss journey, which is what we really specialize in our coaching programs, a lot of the stuff that comes up borderlines on that fine line of, you know, a lot of times it's childhood trauma, it's things that need to be unpacked, it's things that are really needing that kind of expert level. And so that's why we really hired a therapist to come in. And so people would have the opportunity to join mindset calls and therapy calls. And in my opinion, it's really important that we both kind of stay in our own zones. And I think there are overlapping, of course, you know, and in terms of being a coach, what I always see my role is is to not have the answers, but to curate the space where answers can be uncovered from within. And I think walking, you know, with the therapist that we have, she's able because she has that training and that skill set to really dive in deeper into areas where we could potentially do more damage than good if we don't know what we're talking about. And I think that's, you know, social media has created experts all around us. Um but a lot of times too, and and sometimes, you know, I go to these gyms and I work out around the world and I realize, oh my gosh, this kid doesn't have any certificates, you know, he's like no certs and he's training people. So it's like, I think that we really do need to be cognizant at the level of which of pain or healing that we're looking for, that we find somebody that can really support us. And I would highly recommend for anybody to get a coach and a therapist in every stage of life. I always am looking for business coaches, therapists, you know, with relationship therapy, all the different things, because I think anything worth having needs care and support. And those those different individuals help us keep that tune up. And I think that's what keeps a well-oiled machine running.

SPEAKER_00

Somebody once told me, I asked that question. I like to ask that question to therapists and coaches. Somebody once said, and maybe it's an oversimplification, I wonder what you'll think. Therapists look back, coaches look forward.

SPEAKER_03

I love that. I think coaching as well, though, it's helpful. So a lot of the framework that I do, especially around like emotional eating, as an example, is to understand, well, where some did some of these things come from? Oh, when I was a kid, I was always told I had to clean my plate. There's starving kids in China. Or, you know, my mom always said that I couldn't go shopping until I lost weight. You know, some of these narratives that we are telling ourselves today are still happening. And so I think sometimes as coaches, it's helpful for us to understand what's happened so we can say, is this coming up again for us a little bit? Like, how can we reframe this? Um, but I definitely think for me, it's probably if I were to imagine like two people with shovels, therapists can go deep. Like they're the excavators. And for me, like that coach is like, let's let's dust off and see really at the core what's coming on for you here.

SPEAKER_00

What if discipline wasn't about punishment, but about unlocking your best self? I spent two and a half years writing discipline for greatness, because discipline changed my life. And I know it can change yours too. This isn't a theory. Inside, you'll find real practical steps you can use immediately to focus better, build stronger habits, reduce stress, accomplish your goals, and bring more balance to your life. Whether you're trying to get healthier, improve your career, or simply feel more control. This book gives you the framework. Start today. Grab your copy of Discipline for Greatness at joeypins.com slash book. Thank you. I get asked, and I I I'm not smart enough, Whitney, to give to give advice, but I always say the three things that changed my business. One, the first one was join a peer group. You know, then I could be around like-minded people. It's very tough to be a business owner entrepreneur because you feel lonely. You know, you have to report to everybody, your clients, you're you know, it's very lonely. So joining a peer group helped there. Two is that there's many um business operating systems, you know, how to do reporting, etc., how to do meetings, get one and adopt it. And third is don't be, you know, be humble enough to hire a coach. Those three things really change things. When somebody is looking for a mindset coach, Whitney, what questions should they be asking themselves? And then once they know they need one, what questions should they be asking the prospective coach?

SPEAKER_03

I think mindset has been one of these things that so when I grew up, my mom was actually a yoga instructor and we had yoga um centers my whole life. So yoga has always just been a huge part of my life and yoga philosophies and all these different types of things. But wow, has it had its time in the sun lately? Like everybody all of a sudden is a mindset coach. And I think going back into that analogy of like shovels, I think that there's things of like, oh, well, this is something that really resonated with me. I started meditating and now you know I'm a my a meditation coach. Or it's like really saying, How can I help you figure out what's aligned for you? And so why I say that is a lot of times meditation where we're closing our eyes and being still, if somebody's had a lot of trauma, their nervous system won't let them do that because it's not, it doesn't feel safe. And they'll feel agitated and frustrated of like this person's just telling me to calm down, their voice is driving me nuts. But and because I've had the blessing of working with so many people, I've seen it in my practice over and over and over where somebody can't close their eyes, they can't calm down. And so now all of a sudden they might think if that meditation coach only has that kind of one modality, they might think it's just me, I can't do this. And I've had tons of people come to me like that in that space. So, what I do is I say, Hey, why don't we do breath work? Why don't we do something more somatic where we're moving? Why don't you go and do a walking meditation where you just Go out and walk something where we can meet them where they are and take them through those different levels of resetting their nervous system. So I think for me, it's if you're looking for a mindset coach and you're looking for you know what you need is to understand is it really just like clarity of mind and having a bit of accountability and you know some community around that of people who are talking about these things that really excite you, like mindfulness and you know being more centered and grounded, or is it I recognize and honor the fact that I have insomnia, I'm not sleeping, I don't feel safe, my mind is on anxiety loops. Okay, if those are my pain points, how do I dive in deeper into that and find somebody who is really primed and able to support me through that? And I think that's what's so helpful because I never want somebody through mindset work to think it's not for them because they don't have the right modality that's ready for them in that season. Joey, when you talked about having those three different levels, I thought that was really interesting how you kind of broke that down. And I was just curious because you've been in the game for so long, since '93, have you seen like evolution and growth? Because I feel like back in the 90s, the entrepreneurship game was very different and it wasn't as common. So have you seen like, was it harder for you back then to be like a trailblazer and be in that space?

SPEAKER_00

Well, uh technology didn't play as big a role as it does now with AI and just the we didn't have email in '93, you know. So I always knew I taught myself a computer language, so I knew I wanted to be in tech. You know, I would sit there and program my Atari computer back in the early 80s, and all of a sudden I look out and it was morning, and I'd been programming for hours. So I said, wow, if I could do this for a living, something I love. So I always going into high school, going to college, I know I'm going to be in the tech space somewhere. Uh, so I didn't really look at it that way because so many other people didn't know it, you know, didn't understand. In college, I was the only person in the, not only in the floor, but pretty much the whole dorm that had a computer. So it was it was a very different time. And it's just something I excelled at and loved. Yeah. When when what's the biggest lie? Thank you, thank you for the question, Whitney. What's the biggest lie you think people tell themselves when they're trying to build like that perfect dream life?

SPEAKER_03

I think maybe the lie that we can get stuck on early on is that it's a a price point, it's a benchmark of income. And that was it for me. I was like, you know, if I can just get to 5k months, I'm gonna be sitting pretty. And then it's oh, if I just get to 10k months, okay, if I just get to 20k months. And it's this, you know, and my parents always taught me this fiscal responsibility has always been a very big conversation in our household. And so they always warned me of lifestyle creep. And I am somebody who's very fiscally responsible. I squirrel away money like crazy.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_03

Like I have a little bit of that like 10 that, you know, I lived through 2008 in a very in my formative years. I watched the huge massive impact it had to people in me in my community and literally losing homes and things. So I've always been very intentional about that. But I think that when people start out, they become so fixated on this end result of like, if I could just get to 10k months, and it's some for some reason, especially in the internet space, this magical number that everyone talks about. Except with inflation, I think it really needs to be like 15k months now. But then they get there and maybe they're burnt out, they're overwhelmed, they hate their business, they feel, you know, and so it's I think people think once I get to a precipice, problems will be alleviated, and I just hit this magical area where life is great. And having been somebody who's built a lot of success and now starting over and then built success and starting over, especially with COVID and everything, I can really say that like we can't put off building a dream life for a certain rubric or goal. Like, we need to take care of our wellness now. We need to make time for loved ones now. We need to like spend some of that money that we have on things that bring us joy now. Because as that rubric grows and you hit those benchmarks, it's human nature. We'll always set the next precipice for ourselves, we'll always be reaching for that next rung. But if we don't like stop to enjoy in the journey, it's gonna be constantly feeling like we never have enough. And it's just gonna create this cyclical journey where we feel like we have never achieved anything.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's really really, really good insight. Winnie, is there something like what would break your current success if you stopped doing it?

SPEAKER_03

What would break my current success? I think for me, having gone through a health collapse, um really, you know, I think that it's so scary when you go to a doctor and you're like, I've gained so much weight that last week I could put these pants on and this week I can't. Wow. Right, which is an indication of massive inflammation. When you walk upstairs and your heart is palpitating like you ran a marathon and you're in your 20s. When you're drinking the green juices, you're eating the smoothies, you're doing all the healthy things, and you're breaking out and your body's totally inflamed and you can't figure out what's wrong. When you talk about at that point, you would sacrifice everything in your bank account to crack the code. Um, you truly recognize the fact that health is that greatest level of wealth. And I think that for me right now, at this point in my journey, because I've gone through that, I'll really always protect my health. And I really recognize like at a certain point, if something is too stressful, I'm gonna have to walk away. I'm gonna have to reimagine things, I'm gonna have to change things because I am no longer willing to be the type of person who will sacrifice their health for financial prosperity, for ex, you know, alkalade. And I've seen it across the board. These people who are incredibly, incredibly successful that I've had the honor of working with, they always push not always, but most of the time, the thing that gets cut off, like they've got everything going for them on paper. They're driving the nice car, they've got the nice designer clothes, they're living a beautiful life, their health is a complete mess. And so I think for we need to really continue this narrative. And I love that about you, Joey, is that you've sustained your weight loss journey, you've gone through this journey, you lost, I think it was like a hundred pounds in nine months or something through discipline and been able to sustain it because it has value to you. And so now I see those as being incrementally valuable success and health.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and have the gratitude for that, you know, because yeah, there's many rich, rich people of when I say rich, monetarily rich, who are unhealthy, and it's it's a sad, it's a sad thing. It Whitney, is there something that you believed in strongly, like 10 years ago that you no longer believe?

SPEAKER_03

I used to be especially because I battled with my own weight loss journey.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And so I've had eating disorders, I've struggled with, you know, body images, you know, self-body image, self-worth, self-love. And I really thought I kind of came from that mentality of like, if I don't have something, it's because that I haven't worked hard enough and I don't deserve it until I work really hard. And I really believed that, you know, my body was kind of like this ATM where I could just keep polling, polling, polling from it. And so I really do believe now it's, you know, if you want something, you got to love yourself into that process. And I've really tried to dispel, and it's a daily process. Like I almost daily have to remind myself because I will sit and I will work for 10 plus hours if I don't stop myself.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_03

And so I think it's really important that we remember like you can hyper speed yourself to a destination, but what to what end? And so 10 years ago, I would just be like, oh, if I want something, I'm just gonna get it. I'm gonna figure this out and I'm gonna work until I I have it. And now I think that it's like, no, life is meant to be enjoyed, life is meant to be something that we savor. And I'm really trying on a daily basis to make space for joy and fun and love and count that as much as you know, a value add to my life than success and everything else.

SPEAKER_00

Is gratitude a regular practice? It seems so.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, absolutely. That's been a game changer for me, especially to change the aperture of which I see my life instead of looking at lack, which is a really it's very um motivating to feel that sense of lack, right? Like, oh my gosh, I don't know, you know, I don't have enough for retirement, like all these things that we can kind of think about, but we can go back and it's it's little things of, you know, I have this practice that I do with my husband. Every morning we do meditation together, then we do Wim Hof breath work, and then we go through three things we're grateful for, three things we're manifesting, and three things we're excited about. And it's just like 20 minutes in bed, we get to do it together, and we do it every single morning, and it just sets that focus because we're both in career change, we're both in this like time of shift. The world is in a massive time of shift. It can be so easy to start your day with like that nervous system being like, oh, this is really stressful. Or we can say, look at all the amazing things that are going well. And the last one I'll share, Joey, is I love this. Um, so I'm half Chinese and somebody gifted me uh this golden pig for lunar new year this year, and I call it my prosperity pig. And every week we have a rule where we have to write something that went well this week that we're proud of, and it goes in the prosperity pig. So this week you're gonna be in my prosperity pig is getting this chat together for sure.

SPEAKER_00

That's very, very nice. Whitney, I I heard the story of how you met your husband. Please share.

SPEAKER_03

So my husband and I met uh a better part of a decade ago, and we were just like ships passing in a night. He was a commercial real estate broker. And so people were, you know, I was on this property working, and he came on. And you know, when you hear commercial real estate broker, you think this man in a suit. Well, he was living in Colorado at the time. He had this man bun and he came on. I was like, what? This guy's like my age. Um, and you know, we just hit it off right away. We had this whirlwind romance for like 24 hours, and then I was leaving. I was starting my international business. I think I was on my way to India for two months. So, you know, we just said, Hey, you know, Merry Christmas, happy birthday for like 10 years. We would stay in touch via text. And then a few years ago, I reached out and I said, Hey, you know, I'm at that property where we originally met. I just wanted to say Merry Christmas. And so we started talking. I was living in Thailand at the time. So we were doing Zoom dates. One turned into two a week. And then he said, You know what? Wherever you are in the world, I'm gonna take you to the dinner that I never got to take you to. So he flew, and I was in Bali then at that point. He flew to Bali to take me to dinner, which was very romantic.

SPEAKER_00

That is so sweet. That's wonderful. Is there a question that you wished more people asked you?

SPEAKER_03

I think that one of the things that is missing or lacking in our society is true connection. And I think a lot of times we ask each other on a daily basis, hey Joey, how you doing? And we are so quick to give a very surface level response. And I think one of the things that I wish, not necessarily that people just ask me, but I wish that we all did, is we let each other in a little bit more and we took opportunities to really connect. And I really try to do that when I go to the grocery store and I check out, and you know, my husband's great at this too. He'll always like comment on, wow, those nails are fabulous, or you know, I love your hair. And it's just so beautiful to see people light up and truly connect. And I love seeing when we can create a spark and elicit true human connection, and it doesn't take a lot. Right. And I just hope that we can do that all for each other more and more because people are very lonely these days.

SPEAKER_00

A little goes a long way, doesn't it? Just a little, little mention like that, and it you could just see it sometimes, you know, kind of kind of lighten up. I try to do that too. There's a fine line though, when a man compliments a woman, so you gotta be careful. Yes, but um, but uh but you know, you you know, you try to be humble and you try to be genuine, you know. And um so you mentioned it before. I st uh, Whitney, I started the business back in the 90s. I was, you know, I was working, like you said, you know, 10, 14 hour days and uh just putting my health in the backseat. You mentioned your you know your clothes didn't fit anymore, and uh I was developing really bad eating habits, diet, and I wasn't working out anymore. I you know, I played soccer all my life, baseball and basketball. And so I'm at the doctor, she tells me I had 340 pounds. So I had gained all this terrible amount of weight, and I knew I was getting big, but I didn't think I was that big. And uh 46 inch since 46-inch waist. Now I'm a 32 now, by the way. So um she says to me, if you don't lose this weight, you're not gonna see your daughter graduate. So my daughter was just born, and um you know, scared the life out of me, you know, and uh her her motivate her way to motivate me at first got me angry, right? So I'm driving home and I'm upset with myself, and you know, I could fill this pie hole all I want, but it might my decisions are much bigger than me. So spent the next six, seven months lost about 120, 130 pounds, and and kept it off. You know, you can't look at these things like finishing line. And again, when when pe when I tell this people the story, they always say, What's your secret? Weight, weight loss is a you know, you work with people, it's a very big issue. One of the more difficult things one needs to do in their life. And uh, I always say discipline. That that's how just focus, motivation, routine, all part of uh what I call the discipline spectrum. How does discipline play a role in your life, Whitney G?

SPEAKER_03

I'm an incredibly disciplined person. And I think you have to be that way as an entrepreneur, or I think that it's really helped me because there's nobody looking over your shoulder. There's no one saying, hey, did you get that report in? There's no one saying, hey, did you post that blog post? Did you schedule the podcast interview? It's all on you. And to your point when you said earlier, you eat what you kill. Um, you have to be so disciplined. And in a world, especially today, where it's like, you know, we could train ourselves on AI, we could jump on podcasts all day. Like there's a plethora of opportunities that surround us. And the question that I always pose to my coaches and myself is the fact that you can do anything in society right now. We are all incredibly powerful beings, but you can't do everything. And I think for me, it's having the discipline to really tune in and say, what do I need to focus on? What is it truly going to be? How can I get linear focus, like pull away the things that don't absolutely have to happen in order for me to be the person that I want to become? And so discipline happens in different ways. That's about saying no to certain things so I can protect my peace, which is very hard as a recovering people pleaser. Um, discipline is saying, hey, you know, even though I've got all these meetings today, I'm playing the ukulele for 10 minutes, even though I don't sound like uh Jason Moraz just yet. Like I'm gonna keep jamming until I get there. Discipline is, you know, I just competed in a race, a high ROX race. It's some days you're gonna go to the gym and you're gonna feel like you don't belong at this race with all these really fit people, but you're gonna keep pushing through. And so I think it's about having those conversations with self. And in 10 years ago, to your point, I think my conversation would be like, I'm gonna punish myself into this. But now I think it's I love myself enough to be disciplined because I know what I want is on the other side of that.

SPEAKER_00

You know, as I get to know you for the last minutes we spent together, and you're very structured, you're very disciplined, you plan things out, but you also dance and you know, play the ukulele. So it's the art versus science question. So, how often when making a decision, Whitney, do you ask your gut? Do you do it in the beginning? Do you do it in the end? Is there a gut uh conversation at all?

SPEAKER_03

There's definitely a gut conversation. And you know what's interesting, Joey, is I've made some bad mistakes in my life.

SPEAKER_01

Of course.

SPEAKER_03

Taking out a hundred thousand dollar loan, you know, hiring uh a project manager who didn't work out. And I think that sometimes these things can rock your belief in self and make you ask, like, am I actually cut out for this? Am I smart enough? Am I driven enough? Do I have the intellect and the tools? And so I think that it's it's hard to sometimes not let that create like a ball of distrust around your intuition and your gut. Because I really think all of us, at the end of the day, every answer that you're looking for, yes, you could find it on ChatGBT, but the better answer resides within. And the answer that's gonna serve you better. And so what I try to do is somatically what I do, because I do get very tangled into my intellectual mind, is I'll walk myself down a path. And so, very simple, you know. Let's say that Joy, we're trying to decide between getting burgers or sandwiches for lunch. And uh, and we can't decide like they're the most the best in the whole world. We're just like, oh, we can only get one meal together. What's it gonna be? And that's all I'll ask you, okay, we're getting sandwiches, and I'll say it definitively. I say, well, how does that feel? And then you make, I'm really sad I'm not getting the burger. Then boom, I know into you know, I know on a physical level and emotional level what you really wanted all along because we get so, you know, you might be thinking, Well, I think Whitney wants a burger. No, I think she wants a sandwich. Well, that place is a little bit farther away. Well, that one's a little, you know, we start putting all of these things into it, but when we frame it that way, and that's a really simple equation. But when you start putting it like, do we want this house or this house? Do we hire this subcontractor or this one? Like the questions can go wherever it is, but it helps you get into the feeling of an answer, which I think is really helpful.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that is that is very helpful. It's fascinating how there's all this science and all this data, but we still, you know, we have to ask the little guy inside, don't we? How um yeah, we still can make a bad decision. Hopefully, we learn from it.

SPEAKER_03

That. And I think from that, when we make bad decisions, we create rubrics of measuring in the future. Okay, well, why did I hire the wrong person? What did I learn from that? What could I have garnered? What were the, you know, red flags that I missed? And how can I utilize those as a framework to assess in the future? And I always say that there's no losses in the game of life, there's only lessons and wins. And so what are the lessons? And I think as long as we continue to garner those, we're gonna be getting better and better as we go, hopefully.

SPEAKER_00

Have you changed your mind on anything in the last month or so, Whitney?

SPEAKER_03

I think in the last month, I've changed my mind on time and speed. I think that I, you know, starting this new business, I was I closed down whole experience in 2020 uh six of this year. So in January 2026. So it's kind of fresh. And I, you know, so many people were like, you should take time off, you should do this, da-da-da-da. I said, Well, you know, it's gonna take a while to build a new brand and to start from scratch. So I'm going to push. And that's my stress response. And now looking back at it, I realized that it was my nervous system responding to something. It didn't feel good not having my identity tied to a business because I'd been an entrepreneur for so long. And really recognizing, again, like that matrix of time. I felt like time was scarce and I needed to move fast. And we're coming into an era where people are living longer and longer. We're getting more out of life. And so I really am starting to try to challenge myself of is this a stress response in my relationship to time? Or is this a true need? And so I'm trying to reimagine my relationship with timing and being at my own race and my own pace, which is very difficult because it feels like for AI, I feel like I'm just so behind. Like all these people are learning how to make, you know, AI agents and all these things. And so I'm going to all these trainings, it feels so overwhelming. And then I'm like, you know what? It's okay for me to be a little bit slower. I'm a team of one right now, I'm building these things, and that's okay. If I get this implemented in six months from now, as long as I get it done, that's okay.

SPEAKER_00

Is AI helping or hurting the mindset coach and the mindset coach business?

SPEAKER_03

I think it will be very fascinating to see how AI is going to be impacting. Because I noticed, so I recently made the switch from ChatGPT to Claude, and I have a paid version and I work with ChatGPT very frequently about, you know, hey, these are the things I want to execute this quarter. Hey, this is you know, I'm training for. For a race, you know, all these different things. And I've got all these projects going with it. So I had this weird experience, Joey, when I canceled my Chat GBT and I went over to Claude. I felt like this sense of breaking up with someone.

SPEAKER_00

Like it felt so and I felt because it knows so much about you, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And it starts to fork, like it's creates this kind of in, especially like I've done the work of building the clone and like putting all my data in the back end and stuff. So it's like it felt just like such a weird, and I see it happening more and more where it's like, hey chat, I'm I'm at the gym again. What's what's on the docket for today? Hey, you were at these weights. Let's see if we can go up here. Real talk, you tend to push super hard and then shy away. Like it's having conversation with you. Um, and so I think that we're probably gonna come into a time where AI is gonna be better and better, especially. I think they're talking about creating AI friends, and then you know, if you put that into like a personification of a robot, but I think they're also doing studies to show that people who use AI more are actually more lonely. So can it truly fill the void of a coach? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

Fascinating what's gonna happen there. What motivates you, Whitney?

SPEAKER_03

That's a wonderful question, Joanne. I think that you know, we were talking so much about like as an entrepreneur, you don't eat unless you hunt. And that's very motivating. We have bills and we have, you know, we live in this, you know, society. We have to deliver on our responsibilities. And I think what also really motivates me is human connection. Because at the end of the day, I was looking at what's coming up on my docket. I'm about to go traveling, I'm gonna be in four countries in the next month. I'm gonna be traveling around and doing some really fun stuff. And I was thinking, you know, I've been to all these places before besides Montenegro, all the other countries I've been to. So it's not as exciting anymore. And I really got into it, I was like, well, why do I not feel so excited about this? And I think it's because for me, it's about the human connection. And so when I was traveling to these places, it was all about creating community. It was all about bringing people to these places and my networks that I worked with in country. I love that. I love that human connection. I think you know, when we do well, so a part of the retreat arm is that we had a nonprofit that we call it we give back. So we built a well, helped build a well in Indonesia. We helped after school kid programs in South Africa, the kids that were in the townships, and we got to have like real participatory development where these people would get to go into the schools, play with kids, like watch their dance performances, blow bubbles together. And I think for me, at the end of the day, when I lay my head on the pillow, those are the things I'm most proud of, and those are the things that get me most excited. So I've really been able to identify it's it's that human connection that I crave and that I want to bring more into the world.

SPEAKER_00

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SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So given the motivation, human connection, impact, making a difference, how do you measure success, Whitney?

SPEAKER_03

So one of the things, and it's just a personal choice, I don't have anything against for or against kiddos, but I've just decided that's not really a path that I want to take. And so for me, you know, this idea of leaving legacy or leaving something behind is really important to me. And not in, you know, I've got a beautiful goddaughter, for example, and I have nieces and nephews, and I really want to make sure that I'm able to leave it a little bit better than I found it. And that's always been something that my parents have taught me. If you borrow a car, you better gas it up, you better wash it, you better vacuum it, make it look nicer than when they gave it to you. And I think that same premise kind of comes to me in my business and what I do, and that's why it's always been really important to me. Of everything that I do, I want to leverage that as a way to create impact.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it sure is. What a what an absolute delight talking to you. I love your social media. You just um you're very genuine and you're very direct, you know. Um I was surprised to hear you're not from the northeast. You're not from the northeast at all. You're originally from Wisconsin. I mean, um Oregon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, yeah, West Coast. Um really uh I'm on transplant here in Wisconsin. I've never experienced below 20 degree weather. It's a horse of a different color.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's I I moved away from the Northeast because of that. I have friends in Wisconsin. Wonderful people. Just, you know, uh kind of like Chicago, just about seven months of the year. It's wonderful. Maybe six. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's tough. Such a delight talking to you. Uh, anybody watching or listening, how can they get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_03

Yes, absolutely. Retreat Strategy Co. I also am going to be sending over a little gift. If you have a business and you're wondering if you could host your own retreat, what that might look like for you in terms of a business lever, um, I will make sure to share it with the show and so you can download it and give it a whirl.

SPEAKER_00

Whitney, thank you so much. Uh it if we're ever in the same geography, perhaps uh you and our partners, respective partners, will have a cup of tea.

SPEAKER_03

I would love that. That would be an honor.

SPEAKER_00

Whitney, you be well. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you for listening and/or viewing Joey Pins Discipline Conversations. Please share this episode with one or two of your friends who you think may benefit from the episode. Our website, www.joeepins.com. There you find lots of resources, and you could join our mailing list. Please follow us on all our social media, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Podcast information, the video version of our podcast is on YouTube. Please subscribe. Audio is on all major podcasting platforms. Please follow them. And if you like it, please consider giving five star rating. Would really appreciate that. Thank you again for listening or watching Joey Pin's Discipline Conversations.