The Cameo Show
The Cameo Show is a podcast about sharing our life experiences and learning from each other. Through solo stories and inspiring conversations with a wide variety of guests, we explore the secrets and strategies for feeling confident, empowered and equipped to live the life we want to lead. Tune in to learn how to find joy and fulfillment in your life and to gain valuable insights from the amazing stories and lessons of our guests.
The Cameo Show
Work With Your Cycle, Not Against It! With Renae Fieck
Ever feel like you’re a different woman (or living with one) depending on what phase of the menstrual cycle you’re in?
Some weeks spinning your wheels—some weeks crushing it, other weeks barely holding on? What if that “inconsistency” isn’t a flaw, but your body trying to tell you something?
On this episode, feminine leadership coach and cycle-syncing expert Renae Fieck shares how women can align work, family, and life with their natural 28‑day rhythm—trading burnout and self-judgment for strategy, clarity, and ease. We unpack how your energy, focus, and creativity shift through the cycle, share practical tips for planning work, deep focus, and recovery, and show how simple awareness can smooth relationships at home and at work.
We also challenge hustle culture, reframe rest as a performance multiplier, and explore how seasons and cycles—even the moon—can guide sustainable momentum. If you’ve ever wished you could ride your highs, survive your lows, and actually plan your life around your rhythm, this episode is for you!
Learn more and follow @renaefieck on IG and grab a free copy of Cycle Sync Your Business in the U.S.—just pay shipping and handling.
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Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show. I'm your host, Cameo, and today we are joined by my husband and co-host, Mr. Greg Braun. Hi, Greg.
SPEAKER_03:So good to be here.
SPEAKER_01:Do you have a dad joke for us to start us off, Greg?
SPEAKER_03:I do, I do. Kind of back to school and that vibe. So what did the buffalo say when he dropped his kid off at school?
SPEAKER_01:No idea.
SPEAKER_03:Bison.
SPEAKER_01:Very good. Good chuckle. Well, I'm so glad you're here with us today, as per usual, because our guest is someone that I'm excited to dig into her research and information and expertise because it's all around the female cycle. And Greg, we've had conversations about this in the past already. We talk about it frequently, even with our kids. And so we have our guest with us today, Renee Fick. She is a mom of three, so no stranger to momhood and all that you have to balance and juggle with that. A feminine leadership coach, a cycle syncing expert, and business strategist. And as the founder of the Flow Collective and author of Cycle Sync Your Business, she teaches women to align their businesses with their bodies' natural rhythms so that they can work less, make more, and lead with confidence. All things that I say hell yes to. So with a background in occupational therapy, somatic healing, and breath work, she blends science-backed productivity, feminine wealth energetics, and cyclical strategy to help women build the life and businesses of their dreams without all the extra hustle. Her mission is clear to help women find permission to build the life and business of their dreams in a way that works for them. Renee, huge intro. Welcome to the show. I'm so excited to dig in. Oh, thank you. I am so honored to be here. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. I recently completed reading your book. And I must say, not only is it a quick and entertaining read, it's so valuable. It has so much information that as a 42-year-old woman, sometimes I'm still surprised by my cycle and how to work with it. And I think that every woman, every young woman, every man who loves a woman, be it his daughter, his wife, his mom, whoever, should read this also. Because I know it pertains to business, but I think it just pertains to women and their energy and their levels that fluctuate along with their cycle in general. So thank you for writing this book. Yeah. First of all. And I would love for you to share with us how you kind of started researching this and making this your mission to empower women to work with their cycles.
SPEAKER_00:It was never something I ever, ever, ever thought that I would be talking about. I don't think I shared it in the book, but I have this like remembering when I was in middle school and a couple of my friends thought it would be funny if we like hid in the bathroom and then like surprised all the other girls coming in to change for PE. And so we were standing on the toilet and I had to pee so bad. But it was that time of the month. And at some point I started laughing. And so not only was I peeing in middle school all down my pants, but it was pink pee coming all the way down my pants. So my socks were all soaked and whatever. And so I vividly remember that day and thought I hated my period. I hated my menstrual cycle. Like it was everything I wish I could have gotten away from as a woman. And it was never something I ever thought I would be here today, like champion and talking about. But it really came out of necessity, to be honest. Like it wasn't, like I said, it wasn't something I planned or predicted or was like, this is where I want to talk, and this is what I felt passionate about. I, as a mom, I had three young kids. I was working at the children's hospital, was working way more hours than I really wanted to. It was the same year that I had my third baby, it was the year my husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor. And so it was a crazy year, to be honest. There was tons of, I mean, ambulance rides. Like I had to call 911 in the middle of the night. I had he was having seizures. I had a brand new baby. He couldn't drive for an entire year. I don't know how I survived that year as like a solo driver in our household. And really, it just was like that year that made me realize like we are only, we are only guaranteed this moment that we're currently in. We're not ever guaranteed tomorrow. We're not guaranteed six months from now. And so many of us are living with that feeling. Like I felt like I was living for that moment, like when things just got easier, when my kids, you know, got a little bit older or when they were sleeping through the night, or whatever it might be. I was always just thinking, like, when they get to that next step, things will get easier. Like life will get easier. And it was that year that made me realize this is life. Like this is what I'm living right now, is where I need to be. And that's what made me start a business. And I was like, I want to be able to be home with them. I want to be able to have the freedom to travel or do whatever we want to do and not feel like we're so limited. And a few years into building a network marketing business at the time, I was hustling my ass off. I was like, the opposite of really what you're trying to create is freedom. I was doing the opposite of that. I was pumping while I'm eating and messaging and trying to chart at the hospital, like all at the same time. I was getting up early, I was going to bed late, and really finally got to the place where I was like, is business only meant for certain people? Like, can only certain people really make this work? Is it is it not because it doesn't feel like it's a matter of effort because I'm efforting my ass off.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:So is it something that some people just have this magic touch? And I I come from an entrepreneur family. So it's like technically it should be in my blood, like or to some extent, right? Like I grew up around it, but like is this this is just not working? Like, I cannot do this. And that was when somebody told me about how I actually learned it from a Native American woman who it was like a cultural tribal thing. They have all this like sacredness around our menstrual cycles and this like awareness of how our bodies function and our connection to Mother Earth and to nature and these rhythms and all of this stuff. And that was like my gateway, but it was very much from this spiritual perspective and more of this ritualistic perspective and like, you know, cultural things that were passed down. But it got me digging into the science and the research and the understanding of how humans and our biology and women are so different just from men. And as I was sharing it with some of my clients at the time, they're like, oh my gosh, this is what we need. Like, this is what more women need to know. So that was a little bit about how I got here. And like you said, the book, I mean, I wish that every woman read it. I love working with entrepreneurs because I feel like entrepreneurs have the capacity to change the future and the landscape. Like, I think if we as women building businesses change the way we're operating and change the way we're leading companies and employing people and just setting, we have such a massive opportunity to change the tone of how our entire society runs. I agree with that.
SPEAKER_01:And I love that that's something that you have made your mission because from a business perspective, I agree. And I love how you open the book with all of your background and this definition of hustle. Well, hustle harder then. You're obviously not working hard enough if you're not getting the results that you want. And then this acceptance that, okay, there's a better way. And it has to do with like leaning into my own literal 28-day cycle. Let me back up one second. I think every woman probably has some traumatic story about their period. So whether it's middle school, high school, adulthood. So thank you for sharing that because Greg, I know it gets a little weird when we talk about like uterus and ovaries and all the female anatomy. It gets a little weird.
SPEAKER_02:My favorite words.
SPEAKER_01:But it's reality, and it's a reality that men don't have to deal with and don't often know is happening to us on a regular basis where it's an extra stress and worry. And I appreciate you for being involved again in this conversation, but involved in this conversation in our household, because we have these conversations like with our daughter just last night about like be where your feet are and being able to explain to her that this isn't just spiritual, ritualistic, this is legit science. So again, thank you for sharing all of that. Let's jump back to the cycle, though. So in the book, you explain very well that men have a 24-hour cycle and women have a 28-day cycle. And so the expectation that women can show up specifically in the workplace or in business, but just in life in general, the same way men do, is kind of bonkers, really, because of the way that our bodies work. So can you speak to what that looks like and how that's different from men and women?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So most of our society is really built around the way men's hormones operate. So men have testosterone, which functions more on a 24-hour daily rhythm. And so it starts generally pretty high in the morning. They may have some ups and downs as it waxes and wanes as the day goes on. They get to the end of the day, it's a little bit on the more depleted side. They go to bed, they wake up the next morning, and they have a fresh dose. It really operates in this same rhythm as like the sun. The sun has a similar pattern. It's up during the day, it goes to bed at night, it wakes up the next morning. So that is how men's hormones operate. You know, obviously there's changes like as they age and things, you know, there's variation in that, but predictably they're pretty much the same every single day. Whereas women have estrogen and progesterone, we have testosterone too. And but those are our two dominant ones. They have estrogen, we have estrogen more dominant in the front half of the month and progesterone more dominant in the second half of the month. And so every day, if you look at the whole month, your hormones are not the same any one day of the month. Like the combination, like the cocktail of those two things is completely different. And so day to day today, you're gonna feel very different. Estrogen feels a little bit more similar to that testosterone feel. So it's the, you know, get up and go, feeling really confident, feeling ready, feeling ambitious, like saying yes to things. Whereas progesterone is a little bit more like, I want to just curl up on the couch. I don't want to talk to anybody. Let me have my own inner feelings, let me, you know, be in my body and like feel my things versus the estrogen. So they feel starkly different. A lot of times, women will say yes to something and then, you know, be in that luteal phase or the menstrual phase and be like, hell no, I don't want to do this right now. I don't want to go out right now. I don't want to talk to anybody, but they've committed to it because they committed to it in that, like, yes, I can take on the world. Like everything is wonderful and great. And so those hormones are just very different. There's no right, wrong, right? It's not like women are less than. I hear that all the time that women are less than, that they can't perform the same way all month long. And it's really just redefining the way we look at productivity and how we produce. Women can produce so much in those phases when they're outwardly producing, more so than if they were trying to just do it the same all month long. So it really becomes like how do we lean into where you are in the cycle and tap into the magic that each one of those different phases has. And that's what really helps women be able to perform really well, but not burn themselves out. They see it all the time, right? Like it's one of the number one things I see scroll when I scroll through Instagram is like how burnt out women feel. Like women feel so tapped out, like trying to juggle business and trying to juggle kids and trying to, you know, have a great body and like great health. And then now we learn we need women need more sleep. And so it's like, well, how do we fit it all in when we're sleeping nine hours a day? Right. How do you do it? And it really does come from this place of like tapping into where your body's best performing. Like, where are you? I'm sure every and sure you've heard you feel it too. I'm sure you see it with your daughter. But there are days when you're like, man, I could run a marathon. I feel so good right now. And then those other days where you're like, don't ask me for anything.
SPEAKER_01:That's and I love that we're having this conversation about this just in general, because for a really long time, not only did I not understand my own body and know what in the hell's going on and why am I so on and then so don't talk to me, don't touch me, so off. But I couldn't obviously explain it to my husband. I couldn't explain it when the kids were young. Sometimes I don't even want my kids near me when I'm in my luteal phase. And I'm like, I don't not love you or like you don't gross me out or anything, just don't touch me, you know. Don't touch me. I feel like, especially back then, and even still, we we don't have this conversation enough to understand our cycles. So yeah, Greg, I know you have probably a million stories to share about what that looked like, especially early on, but I'm gonna make us look really weird here for a second. We joke because it's easier to joke about now that we know what's going on, about the moon. I mean, we we can talk about the moon because I know you reference it in the book, but we call it cycle season because it's like once I hit that point, I mean, I'm even at the point where I'll be like, I'm on day 17, so you know what's coming, leave me alone. And we call it cycle season because it's like I leave for a couple of weeks. Sometimes somebody else replaces me, and she's not as nice as me on my good weeks, and then I come back. And, you know, the men in our lives, that's why I think it's really important for them to understand this too, are hanging on by a thread half the time, trying to keep up with us and understand what we need. And it's nearly impossible, right? Greg, you're just kind of like, okay.
SPEAKER_03:Well, yeah, I mean, all of this is great because knowledge is power and you only know what you know. And in the beginning of our relationship, you know, we've been together for over two decades now, right? I mean, like it's it's it's been a long road. And in the beginning, we were just young and dumb and we didn't know. I didn't even know how to navigate my own emotions and my own trauma and triggers, you know. I'm trying to figure it all out and provide and take care of we had we had a little baby, and and then and here's you from one day to the next, it's like over here, then over here, and then like and and it just looked like fights and arguments and and uh just the mess. But when you start to learn these things and and realize, like, all right, you know, this is when and and what, then it's like this makes so much sense. And as your partner, this this is good stuff for me to know too, because then I can respect what you're going through, and and we can be in the same boat rowing in the same direction instead of me expecting you to be a certain way when you just physically can't, emotionally can't, and same with me, you know. It's yeah, yeah, knowledge is power, you know.
SPEAKER_00:A hundred percent. I think for me, it's just the awareness, I think, of my own body, like those luteal phases when you feel like you're off your rocker. Even just the awareness of like, hey, I'm in this phase, that's why I'm feeling this way, changes the game for me. Like, I you can say, okay, I'm just gonna give myself a little bit more grace. I'm gonna give myself a little bit more compassion. And it's the same, I think, with a partner. When your partner understands that, it's like, oh, okay, she's not wanting to bite my head off today because she hates me and then it's something about me or I did something really wrong. It's like she just is in a space where she needs a little bit more grace and compassion right now. And just that awareness on both sides, right? And it kind of goes this. I mean, we could flip this in reverse and look at men in different ways and like how that grace and compassion is needed there too, just different aspects. But I think that awareness, like you said, knowledge, like just knowing this is what's happening with my body, or this is happening with her body, or how can I honor that rather than try to fight it? I think so much of our life is about, you know, feeling into our body, feeling into our emotions, feeling into what's there. Most of our society is not teaching us that, right? Or it's like push through, you know, if we're like talking about hustling or we're talking about workouts or we're talking about success, it's all about pushing past your limits. When in reality, so much of it is like, how can I actually listen to my limit and lean into why is that limit there? And how can I maybe stretch the limit, but doing from a place of compassion and really understanding what's happening in my body. And I think our society does not do a great job of that. So it's really just about how do I feel? I and I I like we could go on this like a whole tangent, but I think our world is so caught up in our minds that we're we've like lost touch with the feeling parts of us of like what's actually in my body, and going back to that beginning of like you are only guaranteed right now. So how do I actually fully live into right now? Like I read the book The Power of Now, I don't know, I think probably five, six years ago. Game changer for me. Cause it's like this is this is your only now. So how do I, instead of being in the goals or in the future or in the whatever, it's like, how do I actually just be present with like what's right here? And I'm feeling really overwhelmed. My body feels tired, my body feels whatever. Like, how do I actually just honor and be really present in that instead of feeling like I have to change it?
SPEAKER_01:Beautifully said. I know that for me personally, there was a lot of resistance to the point where when we would have arguments or conflict, and he would say, Oh, you know, sorry, Greg, I'm gonna throw you under the bus a second. Totally fine, but with zero compassion because we were young and didn't know any better, didn't have the knowledge, would say, Oh, you're gonna start your period. And then my head would explode. And then I was resistant to it.
SPEAKER_03:That's the wrong thing to say.
SPEAKER_01:And I would be like, No, I'm not. This is just how I really feel, you know? And then, and then you learn. And then, like you said, lend some compassion to yourself on those days, specifically as a mom, as a businesswoman, as a goal setter, athlete, go getter. I am so much better to myself in the way that I speak to myself, because there are days when it's not just don't come around me, don't touch me, I'm being nasty today. It's like I feel terrible and it's okay. I can lay here and that doesn't make me a loser. It doesn't make me non-productive because it redefines what that looks like based on who I am and how I feel in that moment as a human, as a woman. Yeah. So as it pertains and translates to business, yeah, it makes so much sense. Yeah. It didn't click for me in that way because it's still just clicking for me now about how I navigate all of my normal life. But in business, it makes so much sense that in the first couple of weeks, when I feel amazing and I can take on the world, run a marathon, schedule all my meetings, say yes to everything, that that's actually when I should be doing those things. Not necessarily saying yes to everything, but like doing the yes things and then preparing myself for that kind of winter or that, you know, slower phase of my cycle when I don't really want to be around anyone. And yeah, and how to lean into like, well, that's the time I maybe do my deep work, that's the time I do my research, my reading, my writing, those types of things. So, what was the moment for you where you're like, this makes sense from a business standpoint? We have to help women understand that.
SPEAKER_00:I think it was when I just started learning about it and integrating it into my life. It was like the food, you know, you can the exercise, like I was changing all of those little things. But I think it just kind of came little bit by little bit. Like it wasn't this, like, aha, like I'm gonna put this into my business. It was just, okay, I'm gonna start working on these things. And it was just this little bit of change over time. And I honestly, that's how I recommend people do it in the first place, like now, even, is just little bit by little bit. Like you don't have to change your entire life. Like, I guarantee, if we were to look at our you and I as where we're at in our cycles, we're probably both in totally opposite spots. Like, in order for us to match out right now to do a podcast, we have to. Like, there's you're gonna have to adapt to life and the world and be out of sync, I guess, in some ways. But it's really just how can I adapt small things? How can I make those small shifts over time? And so for me, it was just like integrating it little bits, little bits. And then once I started leaning into it fully was when that's when I was like, oh my gosh, this is the game changer. And now it's gone even further. It's like not just the cycle piece. It's like, how do we really build businesses from a very feminine place? Because most of the marketing messages and most of the tactics and stuff out there come from a very masculine, capitalistic sort of perspective. And not that it's bad, and we still need some of those things, right? We need to know how to really write a good hook or we need to know how to write these things, but how do we lead our businesses from a place that's a little bit more intuitive? How do we lead our businesses from this place of community over necessarily just competition? How do we lead our businesses in more of these more like feminine practices and feminine ways? And so it just kind of evolved. I don't, I don't know that there was like one pinpoint sort of place or time when I could go back to, but it was like, this just makes sense. And then as I dig into it a little bit more, it's like, oh, this makes even more sense. Like one of my big things recently has been I saw a not so great interview with Mark Zuckerberg about Facebook ads and or not about his Facebook ads, but uh from him. And I use Facebook ads. And then his interview made me really pissed about his perspective on women in business. And I was like, I'm so sick and tired of using Facebook ads. Like, how can I build my business not using his ads? Like, I'd rather not give him money if this is the belief and the stance he's behind. And so it built put me in this place of like, how do I actually collaborate more with other women? How do I create more relationship-based built growth? And how do I do it from and then and now I'm like, this is the whole way women were designed in the first place. Like we were designed to work together in community and supporting each other. Like, why am I been trying to build my business all on my own? Like in this, you know, sort of so it's just like been this ever-growing sort of process that just gets deeper and deeper. The more I the more I do it, it gets just gets deeper. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. And that's the most beautiful way that it can evolve is kind of pivoting when you discover something new and then applying it to what you're already doing or what you may do in the future, so that it makes everything. I mean, aren't we all just craving like more ease, more life and love in our day to day without all the stress? So the women that you're coaching, I could make some assumptions about what maybe their the largest hurdles are. But uh, I'll rather than make my own assumptions, I'll let you tell us what are some of the things that you hear most frequently and what are the things that you share with them about how a small shift can impact where they're at or what they're feeling. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I think kind of going back to what you were you were saying earlier too, is like it's a lot of it's the inner game. It's the the understanding of like that luteal phase hits, and a lot of my clients feel like burning their entire business down. They feel like walking away from everything. Every month. Every month. Yeah, it's like that's the phase I can remember distinctly there was a time when I got, it was like before my awareness of cycle stuff. When my husband and I were on our 10-year anniversary, so we have like three kids, we're in Hawaii. Should be this like amazing, luxurious. And I'm looking back, I'm like, I probably was in my luteal phase, but I wasn't really, I think I was actually even postpartum, so didn't really even know. But I got so angry, like so angry at him that I like got out of the car and I'm walking down the street in Hawaii and had zero intention of returning to my family. I was like, they can go home, they can start over. I will start over in this time. I'm not having kids, I'm not getting married, I'm not doing that way. Like, I'm not gonna do it. And I had zero desire to actually get back in the car.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And we we laugh, and it's nice that we can have that moment because I know that I've been there a million times too. And I bought a gazillion books about rage because I thought it was just me. But it's a sad reality that a lot of people do actually, specifically women, have that moment of like, I can't, I can't anymore and don't know where to turn. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And it does sometimes feel like you said earlier too. It's like it's like four different women or like different women living in your house. Like sometimes it feels like that. Like it's not me. I remember taking my shoe off one time and throwing it at my husband, and he looked at me like, Are you freaking kidding me? You just threw your shoe at me. And I'm like, I am so angry right now. Like there's just something that comes over, right? Yeah. And now when I look back at those moments, I'm like, oh, it makes sense. Like that's probably where I was at. I was like in that luteal phase. But sometimes I think for a lot of my clients, like there's just these emotions and these feelings and these thoughts and these fears that come over. And it especially in business, and especially if you're an online business where it's like your face and you are part of the brand, there's so much of you that gets dinged at when people aren't buying or when people aren't commenting or people aren't whatever. And it's so easy to internalize it. What's wrong with me? What am I not? Yes, right. Yeah. Yes. And so that is, I think, a big part of like a lot of the things I see my clients come to is like, I've been trying all these things, I've been doing all this stuff. Why is it working yet? Why can't I stay consistent? Why is it seem like it's working for everybody else and it's not working for me? It's like a lot of that internal stuff that's going on. So that is a huge factor for them. Like, there's a lot of the inner work and the inner game that comes into play when we really start to look at how our women, like women's, are just different in how we build a business. And then I think another thing is this essence of like a lot of them are exhausted. Most of the clients that I have are not new entrepreneurs who are excited and ready to go and get things up off the ground. They've been in it, they've been doing it, and they're really tired of trying to build a business and raise kids. And, you know, some of them maybe are still working a job and they're still taking care of the house and just trying to juggle and manage all of it. They're a lot of them are wiped, they're exhausted of trying to manage all of it. And so it's like, I have this vision, you know, they're most of them are no, they've like got so much impact and change that they want to make in the world. And they're just like, how do I make it happen? I'm exhausted. So I think those that those like feelings of like I'm inconsistent, the ways I've been trying to do a business. I've like invested in all these other programs and I've done it. And some of them have made great money and seen really great success, but it's not sustainable. It's like one of those things where they can do it for a short period of time, and then it's like, I gotta, I gotta breathe, I gotta take a rest, I gotta pause. And it feels like they're doing something wrong in that when they feel that they need to do that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I love that there's this what's the word I'm looking for? Like destigmatizing, maybe if that's even a word. But this conversation around the impact that our cycle has on us. Because I think, and this is just me in my opinion. I think it's easy. Again, Greg, I'm not throwing you under the bus. I think it's easy for whether it's our spouse or someone from the outside to look at us and be like, yeah, good excuse. Okay. So you were on your period or you were getting ready to start your period, and you weren't productive and you were bitchy and you were all these things. Nice. And it's like, well, hold on a second. Actually, there is science. Actually, there is something called, you know, hormonal variations that are fluctuating. And there is a complete reason to be having this conversation that normalizes it instead of making us as women feel like I'm weird or I'm making excuses or I'm not good enough. It's it's a legit thing to lean into and to embrace, as you're saying, like understanding your cycle and knowing when no wonder I'm exhausted. Okay. And now I know how to lean into what would what would benefit me the most with intention, understanding how my own body works and honoring that instead of fighting against it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I think it is like it's redefining what. We see as productive. And two, also seeing that those moments of when we need to rest or slow down, those are what gives us the momentum in the next phases. Like every single one of those phases has something that's really intentional and really needed. No one of them is better than the other. It's not like you have really great weeks and then really poor weeks. It's just you don't understand what the power of those other weeks are yet. And when you understand the power of those other weeks, then they begin to operate as your slingshot. And they are the thing that actually propels you forward faster, easier, you know, farther, all of those things. And giving yourself the grace to like actually tune into what are those power like things in those phases? What are the things that are actually gonna get me the best out of this season, out of this moment? And how do I fully embrace it in that way? Rather than, you know, like you said, stigmatizing it. Like a lot of our society sees women as like you have good weeks and you have bad weeks. And it's like, let's deconstruct that language. And like every one of these weeks has something really powerful for us. And I will say, as I've learned leaned into it more and more and more, the roller coaster of the weeks changes. Like if you're really honoring your body and you're really leaning into it, you don't feel the extremes. Like most of the women that feel really big extremes are the women that are fighting it. And if you fight it, it's gonna be more intense and work harder and whatever versus you lean into it. There are some weeks I'm like, wow, did I just go through a luteal phase? Cause I'm not sure if we felt any of that. Because I've done such a good job now of really honoring where it's at. Like not saying it happens like that all the time, but there are, you know, you start to see the extremes of that intensity diminish as you really start to lean in up with it.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I would agree with that. I think you would too, Greg, that this cycle season that we joke about has definitely not consistently, not always, but it's kind of sanded off a little bit where there will be moments where he'll be like, you did a great job this month. I didn't even know that you know you were getting ready to start your period based on my behavior. And that sounds judgmental and it sounds silly. But I think to your point that you've mentioned a couple of times, like it's listening to ourselves and this cycle of our body, like literally the biology and anatomy of our body as the baseline is a really great place to start. Some of the other stuff might not make sense without a full understanding of just the things that we can't really control. Like it's happening. So let's listen to that and understand that and build from there. And that makes so much sense. I very much enjoyed your book.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I know that in your book you talk about a couple of different things to think about. And I would like to maybe end on that and whichever one you think resonates most. I think they're both beautiful, but uh going through seasons or like the moon phases. The moon phases is something that we reference around here a lot. We'll joke, oh, it's a full moon, watch out. You know, it's just it's something to lighten the mood around the changes. But um which one do you think resonates most? Or do you want to speak about both of them? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I think they're both really great to consider. I think they all kind of blend together, right? When we start to really look at humans, I just the like I said, the more I go into it, the more it's like, wow, it just amazes me of like how intricately connected we are to Mother Nature and how intricate our entire planet operates and how it exists. And we we don't necessarily see all of the rhythm. But when you start to really slow down and look at like the rhythms of Earth and the rhythms of humans and the rhythms of how we operate. Like I remember one year I would see on my you know Facebook memories, it would pop up. I got sick the same week every year for five years in a row. And I was like, that's a that's a rhythm. Like there's something there. Like there's something either, either a, it's one of the weeks came a couple of weeks right after Halloween. I'm like, I can guess what that one was. I was like eating a ton of sugar, little extra weeks, Hershey bars, right? Yeah. Uh so then it gives you the awareness, like, okay, maybe I won't eat as much sugar. And that can you can adjust it. You can take back the power in that. And then others, it's like, this is just the rhythm of how my body operates. Like, how can I support it leading up to that, you know? But when we look at the menstrual cycle and we look at the moon seasons and we look at the seasons of the earth, mother, you know, spring, summer, winter, fall, they all follow a very similar pattern. They all follow a pattern of this sense of like dormancy turns into spring, into early growth, into like fully, fully bloomed, and then a harvest season. And then it kind of goes back in. The moon follows a very similar, you know, like type of rhythm. It has the there's no moon, it's growing moon, a full moon, it's like turning back and then hiding back again. They they all follow a very similar pattern. And as somebody who works in healthcare, like you can ask anybody, anybody that works in healthcare or public service or something of some nature, the moon does make a difference. It does. Like, I mean, I work in the NICU and it's been nutty this last week. Like it was freaking off the walls, like so many babies born. I was like, hun, I clocked over time, like just to and I still didn't get to all of my babies, like I didn't see all of them, but it was a full moon, and I'm like, it makes total sense, right? Like, we if you ask people that are in public service, yeah, in some way like that, you see it. It is crazy how the moon, and you think like the moon affects the tides, it affects so much. And like when I had a when you look at the menstrual cycle and how it matches up with the moon, I had a client one time go, Oh, that makes sense. Like the ovulation is the same as the full moon because back in the day when they didn't have artificial light, that would have been the only time you could see your partner to actually to have like frolic in the woods, kind of an idea, you know? It's like it kind of makes sense. Like if in if you had no artificial light and you're out there stumbling over rocks and finding it, you know. So anthropologically, biologically, like everything, it just all has the same flow. And I think it's a masterpiece of the way we were designed to operate. When we really look at there's a season for all of it when we are operating our business, we're operating our lives from this place of we're in full harvest all the time, is when we we burn out, you know, like last year was not that season for me. Last year was a winter season in a big, ugly way. And I remember messaging my sister at one point, and I was like, I think I'm not meant to leave this winter season right now. Like, I think I need to just fully embrace the winter. And I let myself do that. I let myself, you know, my business revenue dropped like two-thirds of my revenue last year. And I think the only thing I did last year that was like it was launch the book. And the only way I launched the book was because I had a mentor of mine like really supporting that one project, you know. But otherwise, I it was a winter. And I think we underestimate that when we look at in business, in life, in our cycles, you know, men go through those same seasons and same elements. It's just in a different rhythm, it's a different capacity. I don't think as a culture, we really honor all of the parts of those different seasons.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I agree. I think it's really um fascinating. And that once you are able to see it in that way and you know, connect the dots of the intention and and what's happening, it's easy to see in all of the other ways, like how that's happening and and tap into that flow and rhythm rather than be oblivious to it. I think we're just kind of go, go, go, and not taught these things. And then when you slow down and you feel them and you see them and you connect them, then it's like, oh, it all makes so much sense. So one last thing, and uh, this is not even this is kind of unrelated, but you're a NICU nurse.
SPEAKER_00:So our son therapist, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:What what kind of a therapist? Like an uh occupational therapist. Yeah. Sorry, I no, you're good. Our son was a 24 week.
SPEAKER_03:Connecting dots here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, paying attention. Uh yeah. So our our sophomore son, he's 15, he was a 24 weaker. And so that was like a really stressful time, uh, obviously, but we love our our NICU nurses. We still have a handful that we stay in contact with. Like you're just angels. So thank you for the work that you do day in and day out for these babies, because I didn't even know, you know, embarrassingly, I didn't even know what a NICU was until I was thrust into one in our situation. So we are so grateful for our NICU nurses and women like you who take care of these babies.
SPEAKER_00:It's one of those things people are always asking me, like, well, will you ever leave if you're like with your business and whatnot? And I was like, I don't know. Like, there's those moments when like that, like a 24-weeker, and the first time like I get to help that baby like latch at the breast or you know, whatever. It's like there's been so many times I've had those like tears, or you see their tears or the connection. It's like there's something magical there that it those moments are hard to leave too. So I don't know. I may not do spump um you saying that because the work you do is so important.
SPEAKER_01:So thanks. I thank you very much for showing up. It's I I'm sure from our own experience that showing up in the capacity that you do is it's beautiful and it's it's uh very rewarding, but I'm I'm sure it's also very difficult. And you know, that I would be remiss to not mention that. I can't imagine some of the things that you see and go through. So thank you. Yeah, complete tangent, but yeah, yeah. Um, well, I can't thank you enough. Greg, do you have any questions? I know that I I brought you on to have a male perspective and then the two of us just chit-chat the whole time because it's like, I get it, we get it, it's the same. But I I know that there have been times when it's difficult to understand and you've done a great job being understanding.
SPEAKER_03:And did any of this like make you go, oh, or do you feel like you've already kind of been there and like well, so I didn't read the book, so just call myself out here. But you did cover to cover, and you love it. And um, you know, I would just say from you know, any man that's listening or from a male's perspective, it's it pays dividends to understand and know and not just uh you know be macho about it, but she's you know, art period or whatever, you know, like I like I used to be, you know, like get if the more uh intelligent and connected and and communicative the spouses can be about this subject that's very taboo to talk about, you know what I mean? From a from a so I think that's that's the the big takeaway here is like now that I'm on the inside track here, when you say something off to me, I can look at you and go, okay, this is not, you know, or if I'm doing something that I would normally do that bothers you all of a sudden, it's like, wait a minute, okay, this isn't just you're a three-horn devil here, there's something else at play. You know, and and it's like without that kind of um compassion and and you know, understanding. So for you to write a book and and be around this topic, it's very amazing. And then also for you to just literally write a book and publish it, you are a brave soul, you know, that that's with a lot of tenacity because I've watched Cameo go through the last five years putting her book out, and it's just it hasn't been an easy road. So yeah, um, congratulations to you. And I hope I hope you know it's it's all the success in the world for you on that. So thank you.
SPEAKER_01:I appreciate that. I mimic that. It is so much work, and it's like writing it's one thing, publishing it is the next one thing, and it's like, oh my gosh, and then promoting it. So kudos to you. I will link this in the show notes. Everyone should read it. Like I said, men, women, daughters, whoever, it doesn't matter. I I know it's benefited uh us. I know that it benefits our daughter when she's a little off. We can say to her with confidence, like, hey, and it gives, I'll close with this. It gives you permission as a woman to be like, okay, I can look at myself in a in a different way here when I understand, rather than feel like it's an excuse or I'm doing something wrong. It gives you permission. So thank you. You're setting people free with this book by just sharing your knowledge and sharing your experience. And that's a beautiful thing. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you so much for joining us. And uh, we have new episodes of the cameo show every Wednesday. So if it's your first time joining us, thank you for being here. If you're here every week, thank you for being uh with us all the time. And if you have any questions for Renee, you can hit her up on Instagram. Where's the best place to find more about you?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Instagram is definitely my favorite place to hang out. I'll like try to spend most of my time there. And if you're if your people are listening in the United States, I would love to hit you up with a free link to get a free copy of the book. So I'll make sure that we get that to you and then they can grab that in the show notes where they can get a free copy. You just pay shipping and handling inside the United States. I wish I could do it outside. The shipping and handling is exorbitant. You know, just to ship across a book across the like I have clients in UK and stuff. I'm like, sheesh, like how do they pay so much for shipping? Anyway, but inside the United States, I will cover shipping and handling if you go over and use that link.
SPEAKER_01:Amazing. That is wonderful. Well, I can't thank you enough. It's been really nice to chat with you and really nice to meet you virtually. So yeah, all the best.
