90: Movement Meets Mindset: Petra Kolber on Mental Health, Joy & Breaking Free from Perfect

What If the Most Powerful Transformation in Fitness Had Nothing to Do With Changing Your Body?

Some people teach movement. Others teach transformation. Petra Kolber - author, keynote speaker, DJ, and positive psychology coach - has spent three decades helping people move beyond self-doubt, burnout, and limitation toward purpose, possibility, and joy. But her journey to becoming one of the wellness industry's most inspiring voices started with something unexpected: crippling anxiety hidden behind a "perfect" fitness career.

In this milestone 90th episode of Group X Appeal - filmed during Mental Health Awareness Month - Kimberly and Terry sit down with the incredible Petra Kolber to explore the intersection of movement, mindset, and mental health. Discover how a dancer on a cruise ship accidentally stumbled into fitness, why Petra's anxiety actually grew as her reputation soared, and the breakthrough moment at a conference that changed everything when she finally shared her truth.

Learn why no one connects to perfect, how to separate what you do from who you are, and why your presence (not perfection) is your superpower as an instructor. Petra reveals her three non-negotiables for mental health, the difference between creating and consuming, and why that "one thing" you've been putting off might actually be a divine assignment meant only for you.

Plus: Petra shares her current pump-up song and teases her upcoming remix-the-room concept blending DJ-ing with leadership lessons.

Two-time cancer survivor. Student of positive psychology at 50. DJ at 55. Solo traveler through Europe at 58. Petra proves it's never too late to reinvent yourself—while becoming more of who you truly are.

Follow Petra:
🌟 www.petrakolber.com
🌟 @petrakolber 
    - https://www.instagram.com/petrakolber/
    - https://www.facebook.com/petra.kolber

🎶 Listen to Petra's go to pump-up song here: https://open.spotify.com/track/5CKbUv7zkOdf8X2602qgei?si=f7c858802423428f

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube - @groupxappeal.

Questions or topic ideas? Email us @ groupxappeal@gmail.com

Get your FREE Guide To Holistic Well-Being here: https://gxaguide.com/

Stay Connected with Kimberly:
- @kimberlyspreenglick on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
- email: kimberly@theinspiredlifeuniversity.com
- website: www.theinspiredlifeuniversity.com

Stay Connected with Terry:
- @terryshorter on Instagram & Facebook
- email: terry@rippedplanet.com
- website: www.rippedplanet.com

Transcript

What if the most powerful transformation in fitness had nothing to do with changing your body and everything to do with changing the way you think, speak, move, and show up in your life? Well, today's guest has spent decades helping people do exactly that. She's an internationally renowned fitness educator, keynote speaker, author, mindset coach, and one of the most inspiring voices in the wellness industry today. We are honored to welcome our friend, the incredible Petra Kolber to GrubX Appeal.

Kimberly & Terry (00:32)
Some people teach movement, others teach transformation. Petra Kolber has built a career helping people move way beyond self doubt, burnout and limitation and really toward greater purpose, possibility and joy. For years, Petra has inspired fitness professionals and participants around the world through her unique blend of fitness, positive psychology, mindfulness, emotional wellness and personal growth. Yep. And her message goes far beyond workouts.

She reminds us that true wellness isn't just about what we do physically. It's really about how we speak to ourselves. It's about how we manage stress. It's how we cultivate resilience and also how we choose to show up every single day. Definitely. And in a world that often celebrates hustle over happiness, Petra's voice is a powerful and much needed reminder that success means very little if we lose ourselves along the way.

Yeah, so today's conversation is all about possibility, purpose, mindset, and creating a life that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside. Thank you for being here Petra. There she is.

Petra (01:38)
Thank you. my God, it's so great to be with you both. I can't believe any excuse to see you, because it's been too long. So I'm already happier than I was five seconds ago. So thank you.

Kimberly & Terry (01:44)
Yes, way too long. We could

stop now and just go get lunch. Yeah, let's do it. We'll come up to Redondo. We'll come up to you. Yes, definitely. No, we have way too much to talk about with Petra. So we're to dive in. Absolutely. So I'm Terry Shorter. And I'm Kimberly Spreen Glick Episode 90 of Group X Appeal. We're so, yes, 90.

Petra (01:53)
Sounds like a plan.

Kimberly & Terry (02:09)
And we're super, super excited to share this milestone with Ms. Petra Culber here. This is a special edition. Super special edition. also super special because as we are recording this, it happens to be mental health awareness month. So we got the right girl. Yes, we do. ⁓ She has been very helpful in my mental awareness over our mental health, health over the years. Mental awareness to help me become aware of a lot of things going on in my mind.

So let's get into it. Take us back Petra. Share with the listeners, share with our viewers. How did you get started with group exercise and what really made you love it?

Petra (02:50)
⁓ my goodness, we're going way back. We're going way, back. If we go all the way back to the beginning, we're going back to when I was a dancer on a cruise ship. Now this is when I was a dancer on a cruise ship and this is not when I was thinking, doing anything to do with fitness. In fact, I kind of turned my nose up at it. But at the time we were also asked to do crew staff duties. And one of those was to teach poolside aerobics once a week. I had no idea what aerobics was.

Kimberly & Terry (02:53)
How far back we going?

A dancer on a cruise ship.

huh. wow.

Okay.

Petra (03:20)
I had no intention, but somehow I got my feet wet, literally. And yeah, not really interested in it, but I didn't hurt anybody. We got off safely. And then I was in Miami and I was dancing again. And one of the dancers was teaching this thing called aerobics. One of the star dancers, Alan, his name, Alan Sherwood, still remember him. Brilliant, brilliant dancer. They just won Star Search. Him and his partner had just come off Star Search, winning it. So I was like,

Kimberly & Terry (03:24)
Literally.

No one drowned.

Uh-huh.

wow.

Petra (03:49)
my gosh, I just loved everything about them. Again, not teaching myself, but I took an aerobics class. And it was the first time I thought, ⁓ this feels like dance, but different. Fast forward, ⁓ Step Aerobics came around. No idea what it was, wasn't teaching fitness, but I thought, let me go and take this workshop. It seems interesting to me. I took the very first ever step workshop with Jen Miller. Pete Francis was there.

Kimberly & Terry (04:00)
Uh-huh.

Mm.

⁓

Petra (04:17)
Back in the day, Joy Prouty was an ambassador

Kimberly & Terry (04:18)
the cleaner self. Wow.

Petra (04:20)
at the time. Again, I was a dancer, not interested, but I loved this thing called the step. I thought this is so fun. So I got a certification. call that very loosely a certification. It was like the Dolly Dingle certification. It was, Don't, it's, But I started knocking on doors going, there's this thing called step. Nobody was interested.

Kimberly & Terry (04:27)
Right.

I'm gonna have to look that up.

Petra (04:47)
And the step came with a VHS tape. And so literally I copied every single move. I knew music because I was a dancer. And I found this one studio that went, oh, we've got all these sprayed boxes, like graffiti boxes in the back. Is this for that? I'm like, they're all different sizes, like eight inches, 10 inches, 12. I'm like, those are the steps. They said, okay, you can have a slot like four o'clock on a Saturday afternoon.

Kimberly & Terry (04:50)
Right, right.

Sure, as a dancer.

wow.

Petra (05:14)
There's me, my little cassette tape, like going in, not a clue. Started teaching, no one. Next week, two people. Next week, four. Within six months, you couldn't get into the class. So then I thought, well, if I'm gonna do this, I should probably get a certification. I was still dancing at the time, just doing this for fun. ⁓ Took my ACE certification. Even my dance friends to this day remembers me practicing backstage.

Kimberly & Terry (05:28)
Wow. my gosh.

Petra (05:44)
I had two shows one day. I flew up to Tampa in between my shows, took the certification, flew back down to Miami. All that to say, I then ended up moving to New York City and I was still one of the first to be teaching STEP. So because of that, I got into a lot of the boutique studios before they were bought out by the big box gyms. And that's kind of how I got my career. And then it fast tracked because I was teaching this thing called STEP.

Kimberly & Terry (05:58)
Hmm.

Petra (06:12)
I had a much more British accent at the time. Reebok was looking for another face of fitness. They had Gin Miller at the time. And I was teaching this class, the step class to live drummers called London Beat. As a whole nother episode of how I met the drummers, again, we had no idea what we were doing, but I thought, this is all about just doing it and then figuring it out.

Kimberly & Terry (06:15)
Hahaha

⁓ that's cool.

Right, right.

Petra (06:38)
It was in the day

where you didn't have to be perfect. No one was judging you. There were no cell phones going, this girl doesn't know what she's doing. You just went and figured it out. And so this class got huge press, got Reebok's eyes on me. And that's the shortcut of how very quickly I got a Reebok contract and then the rest is kind of fitness history.

Kimberly & Terry (06:47)
Right.

Wow. That is next thing you know, you're on stages all over the world. Yeah.

Petra (07:03)
Yeah,

and this really was all about just doing it, not thinking about it. Because if I thought about any of those steps, none of them made sense. You're going to teach with drummers. You're going to go and do this thing called step that nobody wants. They don't believe in it. You're going to fly up to Tampa to take this thing called an ACE certification. Why? But then when you look back, you go, thank goodness. I said, yes, yes, yes, yes, yeah.

Kimberly & Terry (07:18)
Mm.

I said, yeah.

Absolutely. At the time was her hesitation or is it I'm going to go for it? I had nothing to lose. Yeah.

Petra (07:34)
I had nothing to lose. I never

really came to the, I never really thought it was ever going to be a career. I just thought it would be due for fun. And then I will never forget this turnaround point. As a dancer, it was always the hustle. Like I love what you said, you can't replace happiness with the hustle. It was always a hustle. Like a lot of industrial work where you're into, you know, you're auditioning for, and it was all about what you look like at that point. Do you fit the costume? Do you fit the brand? And I was just getting tired of that.

Kimberly & Terry (07:39)
Right. For fun.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Petra (08:03)
And the turnaround point for me was like, I think I'm going to say goodbye to dance and hello to fitness. got a phone call. still remember this. I was in this awful, whatless studio in the Lower East Side. This is way before the Lower East Side was cool. And my sister was visiting. And it was my sister and a couple of roaches at the time and some mice. was just like a full house with the wrong types of guests apart from my sister. I remember getting this phone call. I picked it up.

Kimberly & Terry (08:08)
Mmm

Right.

Full house full house Right

Petra (08:33)
When I was teaching in a boutique studio, it was another boutique studio, they said, hey, we'd love you to come and teach on our schedule. And I'd never heard this question before. What would it take for you to come and work with us? like, was like, to my sister, they're asking me how much money I want. I think at the time I was making maybe $25 an hour, was good money at the time. So said to my sister, I should I ask for $40? She goes, no, no, ask for 60.

Kimberly & Terry (08:46)
Ooh.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

Petra (09:02)
$60. They went, okay. I'm like, in my entire dance career, no one had ever asked me what exactly. was like, ooh, this could be interesting. So that's kind of where I went from this to like, ⁓ left turn, let's become a fitness person.

Kimberly & Terry (09:05)
should have asked for a hundred.

what you want.

of

Yeah.

That's incredible. And you of course have had an incredible career in the fitness world and that's how we met teaching at the conferences. And we've had over the years many conversations, we talked about it before we started recording today, about the concept of going beyond fitness. Not forgetting about fitness, but just expanding, like widening our lane of interest to include more holistic wellbeing, mental wellbeing.

Petra (09:27)
Yep.

Never.

Kimberly & Terry (09:46)
And you really pioneered taking that alternate path that brought to life things beyond the physical. So what was it that started pulling you toward things like positive psychology and mental health studies? And did you feel initially like it was a departure from fitness or like we talked about, like a natural extension of it?

Petra (10:09)
Yeah, I didn't even relate the two at the time. All I knew was that I myself as a fitness, I'm gonna use the word celebrity very loosely, but when people have your eyes on you, right? was before the influencer, they were looking to you for the next thing. And I mistook that ⁓ thinking that I never used the word fitness expert on myself ever, but I was beginning to be introduced that way on TV shows and news shows and Reebok kind of used that word.

Kimberly & Terry (10:17)
Mm-hmm. It's true though. Mm-hmm.

Petra (10:38)
And some little part of my mind went, if you're being called a fitness expert, well, that means you better be perfect. You better know everything. You better show up. so internally, I had this constant struggle that was at the beginning. You asked to ask this question before Kimberly, was there any doubt? I'm like, I have nothing to lose. When I first started, nothing to lose. So there was no anxiety. But as my reputation grew, there was more to lose.

Kimberly & Terry (10:45)
Yeah, gotta step up.

Yeah. All right.

Mm.

Yeah.

Petra (11:08)
There was a brand

deal. That was my identity. And as that grew, so did my anxiety. That I never talked about and that grew into panic attacks. So for a good part of my fitness career, front, I was that cheerful, you the girl with the weird accent, how do you say in her name, Petra Petra, who knows, but go and take a class. But internally, I always thought I needed to be perfect if I ever said the wrong thing or did I look, and it was just exhausting.

Kimberly & Terry (11:14)
Mmm.

Mm.

Yeah.

Petra (11:38)
I didn't connect the two inside of fitness until I was at a fitness convention. I think it was the BAM convention up in Chico and I was a lunchtime speaker and still not really speaking that much at the time. And I had my perfectly planned and curated, you know, presentation. And I don't know what made me start talking about anxiety and my own personal journey.

Kimberly & Terry (11:46)
Mm.

Yep.

Petra (12:05)
thinking that I was maybe the only person in fitness dealing with this. So I never really connected the two and thought that one could help the other. And I never forget the end of that talk, there was a line of females out the door, like, you suffer from anxiety? my gosh, me too. Yeah, me too. And that's when I went, we have to look at this. Still didn't know what it was, had been in therapy for a long, long time.

Kimberly & Terry (12:16)
Wow.

of all people.

Mm.

Petra (12:32)
Then this thing called positive psychology fell across my emails. And I thought it gave a language to things I couldn't understand. Like if someone said, ⁓ Kimberly, Terry, I'm so inspired when I take your class. Amazing. But we couldn't dissect what that inspiration was back in the day, right? We're like, okay, that's great. But how do I teach that? How can I produce that in a way other people can learn from it?

Kimberly & Terry (12:57)
Hey.

Petra (13:02)
By going back to school for positive psychology, not only did I have a language for what was inspirational, I had a language for what causes our anxiety and our panic. And it was a whole lot between the ears. And then I realized how many students, mostly women, had been coming up to me over decades, looking outwardly, absolutely got it all dialed together, and all they could focus on.

Kimberly & Terry (13:13)
It's huge

Petra (13:30)
was the one thing that they didn't like about themselves. And you know, in fitness, we can do a lot of good and a lot of damage depending on the why or the messaging between why or why were you moving our body? And that's began, I went to connect the two like, ⁓ if we put the psychology of how to think well about ourselves, along with the power of movement, how powerful would that be? And that's kind of how that transition, it basically happened because of my own personal need.

Kimberly & Terry (13:32)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

attention.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Yeah. ⁓ man. I'm so glad you took that and translated it outward because.

Petra (14:02)
They see, right? Yeah.

Yeah, well, they often say you teach what you need to learn. So it's like,

Kimberly & Terry (14:09)
Right. Absolutely.

Right. Absolutely. So in that, you know, what you just shared kind of led into our next question, answer our next question, which was, you know, how you discovered the relationship between the physical and the mental well-being just through your own story, through your own experience, through your own growth, through your own expansion as a fitness professional is how you did it, which is so, so great to hear.

You know that and you would think it'd be the other way around as you're you you would think when you first start your career in any any industry, right? There might be some anxiety. There might be some ⁓ some some ⁓ just might be nervous or stressed out or you know, just not necessarily feeling really good about you know, getting in front of talking getting in front of people and talking or presenting but it's awesome that it was the other way around for you and

Petra (14:59)
And to your point,

Terri, and for anyone listening who's a fitness professional, it is really good to be nervous. It's good to have those butterflies. It's so healthy. But it's when those nerves overstep their boundaries, when it's not about, maybe it's your first time teaching or getting on a microphone, that's absolutely normal. But when we are getting so anxious about the idea of I need to teach the perfect class,

Kimberly & Terry (15:09)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Petra (15:25)
If I make a mistake in class, what does that mean

about me? When we can't separate what we do from who we are, that's when we can get into trouble. So I'm not saying there's nothing wrong with nerves. It's actually a really positive thing. It means you care. But if those nerves and that anxiety stops you from trying something or stops you from saying yes to an opportunity, then maybe we want to examine it a bit deeper.

Kimberly & Terry (15:32)
Right.

Yeah. Sure. Yep. All right.

preventing you.

Yeah, I think if we can realize that when we try a thing, whether it is through fitness or through anything in life, when we make an attempt, regardless of how it goes, if it doesn't go the way we wanted it to, if it wasn't perfect, instead of looking at the situation outwardly and learning the lessons, too often we turn inward to your point and we create a narrative around what that failure means about me and what I'm capable of.

And I think what you're talking about is just the recognition that, you know, let those butterflies, I remember my mom saying to me one time, if you feel butterflies in your stomach, just use your imagination to have the butterflies form a line and have them come out of you and into what you're doing. It's kind of beautiful. But the butterflies are like a positive thing. And the recognition that no matter how this goes, it's a win because either it's going to go well or I'm going to be able to learn from it.

And so it's all good.

Petra (16:51)
That's such a good point. I think one thing, because we often hear that, right? it's a win or it's a lesson. Easy to say, but really hard to go through if you think it hasn't gone well. One thing that's helped a lot of people I work with is when we take our eye, and this can be challenging in fitness, if we take our eye off this idea of the goal being whether I did it successfully or it didn't work out, and instead of change it to like, who do we become by even trying?

Kimberly & Terry (16:56)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Yeah.

Petra (17:20)
So that's the win in that, right? It's not about the end goal, this external validation. It's who we become, the courage we build, the grit we rebuild, the resilience that we grow, the self-compassion, then that's a huge win. But if we make this endpoint, if I hit it, it's a win. If I don't make it, it's a loss. That's when we can get into challenging, know, into a challenging mindset with ourselves.

Kimberly & Terry (17:30)
Sure.

Yeah.

Absolutely. And I think to piggyback on that, I think that is such a brilliant point. And I think that what I've learned about me is that whenever I have felt the fear and doubt and disappointment, it was not only putting the attention on the wrong thing as far as like it went well or didn't go well, a success or failure or whatever, but also means my focus was on me. And so what I hear you saying is like, it's OK to let the focus be on you as far as what you've gained, who you are becoming.

but I also learned it helps me to turn my focus on who do I want to help? And the fact that we are all in this space of wanting to be of service, whenever I'm feeling those negative feelings, sure enough, I am thinking about me. I'm thinking about, ⁓ I good enough? Did I fail? Am I going to fail? Am I going to disappoint people? But if I flip it and I focus on those that I'm here to serve, then that takes precedent and the fear can fade. Yeah. And I think, you know, externally,

and piggybacking off of that. my gosh. There's a lot of piggybacking. you know, one of the great things that I got out of your story that you shared Petra, ⁓ going up in sharing the part about how you have the presentation all prepared when he went up to BAM, ⁓ you're a little bit apprehensive sharing the mental part, you know, what you what you experienced. But because people saw the cracks, because they saw that perhaps Petra is not perfect.

Guess what? They related to you so much more on a much deeper level than just showing them, you know, a nice presentation through PowerPoint or. I told you that Petra is the one that I got that thing that I said to you before. He always laughs at me when I say, but I got it from one of your presentations that we as humans do not connect through our perfection. We connect through our cracks. And whenever I say and I said, I've heard that from Petra. Whenever I say that connect through our cracks, it makes them giggle like an eight year old.

Petra (19:18)
Yeah.

Yep.

Kimberly & Terry (19:38)
But it's true!

Petra (19:39)
Men.

Just gonna say, love you Terry, but come on.

Kimberly & Terry (19:44)
So

I love that he just brought that up.

Petra (19:48)
I'm going to bring it back out of that area right now. one thing that, yeah, a therapist once said to me, no one connects to perfect. And I was like, God, the one thing I thought everybody, that everybody wanted from me was perfection, was actually separating me from them because they're like, well, she's not relatable, you know?

Kimberly & Terry (19:51)
It's a good idea. it and bring it out of the crack. Go for it.

Yeah, it's true.

Yeah, put you on a pedestal.

Petra (20:11)
Yeah, not saying that we're gonna share our, you're not going out there to be therapy on stage and share our wounds. Not at all. It's not what I'm saying. But just share your humanity, your struggles. Like, you, me too. I know what that feels like.

Kimberly & Terry (20:16)
Sure. All right. Yeah.

Yeah, and that's that's the thing people are gonna say they'll either say so what or me too one of those two things right whenever you give a presentation So love that so then for the the group ex instructors and wellness professionals who might be listening or watching right now the people who? Who show up every week and they're pouring into others. What would you want them to know about their own mental health and? Also the invisible impact that they're already making for others

Petra (20:29)
Mmm, love that. So what? me too.

Well, firstly, thank you for the work that you do. You are like so needed in this world right now. I think the biggest thing is it depends on how much you're teaching, right? If you're doing it a little bit as a side hustle, keep doing it for the joy. Make sure you're measuring the right metrics. You're not worrying about the perfect class or, and that you too are staying inspired. I think one of the greatest things we can do for mental health is do a different form of.

Kimberly & Terry (20:56)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Petra (21:17)
movement than you normally teach. Get out of your own bubble every so often. ⁓ Look at others for creativity. Look outside of this business for creativity. And then in terms of burnout, I think I'd like to think that this world is changing because I remember when I was teaching 18 classes a week, you would show up sick. You would show up with shins splints. that is, yeah, but that is not healthy.

Kimberly & Terry (21:19)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. ⁓ yeah. No matter what. The show must go on, right? Yeah.

Petra (21:45)
So no one's gonna tell you to take a day off. No one's gonna tell you. So really it's honoring your own boundaries. And if you're feeling like, just can't do it this week, I need a little bit of space to recover and reflect, 100 % do that. Also, I don't know, I'm turning on what type of classes you teach and this is nothing new. People are not there for you to do it 100%. You're there to watch them.

Kimberly & Terry (21:45)
All

Mmm. Go for it.

Petra (22:15)
Also managing your own body. And then I think now more than ever, the work that you do is so valuable. To me, the gift that you're going to bring is the ability to know people's names, to really connect on an eye to eye, heart to heart. We talk about AI, this automation, people are getting laid off, people are so stressed. Just moving and breathing with you is a gift that is such a profound gift that we know you're not getting paid enough for.

Kimberly & Terry (22:45)
Right.

Petra (22:45)
But if you

can just allow yourself to also appreciate yourself and know you're doing such great work, you're not always going to hear the great stuff. We often, you know, if we do ever hear anything from our boss, it's often that one complaint. No, from that one complaint, there's probably 80 people that said they love you and they show up every time. It's not the amount of people in the class that is a metric to measure.

Kimberly & Terry (22:52)
Mm-hmm.

You

Petra (23:14)
It's what that interaction is with that one, two, three, four, 10, 100 people. And yeah, and just really keeping a check on your, as you are bringing wellness to others, making sure it's never at the sacrifice of your own health.

Kimberly & Terry (23:20)
connections.

I love that. Love it. Yeah, that is I hope. I hope if you're listening, you're listening now. You took some really good notes on that. Those are golden nuggets. Big old golden nuggets. Help people with their own wellness, but not at the sacrifice of your own. Yeah, absolutely. We always talk about how, you know, there's so many things that we could do, but we have to ask at what cost. So huge.

Petra (23:54)
Yeah, especially,

yeah. And in this world where everything is becoming faster, right? Like I am barely on social media these days because everything I'm seeing is more, more, more, automate. I'm like, I am tired. It's like, and even if I wasn't tired, I don't, do we need more? The one thing if you are listening, we don't need more. We do need more of you.

Kimberly & Terry (24:08)
Yeah, yeah. I'm with you, sister. 100%. No.

Mm-hmm.

Petra (24:19)
We need

more of your heart, more of your wisdom. You don't have to say the perfect thing, but the more of your connection. That to me is gonna be the superpower of the future. Your ability to not teach so many classes that you can't be present in the class that you're teaching. Your presence is gonna be the gift that will set you apart from any other instructor and trainer out there. If you can be really in that moment, in that class with your client.

Kimberly & Terry (24:36)
Mmm, that's huge.

Petra (24:49)
and not in the next thing that you have to do or the thing you just did that you didn't think went well. Your presence is gonna be a superpower.

Kimberly & Terry (24:54)
Yeah,

So love that. And what do you do specifically Petra to nurture your own mental health? And I know you gave great tips in the last question just about going and trying other people's classes, right? Getting out of ⁓ the modalities that you're typically accustomed to teaching, perhaps. But what do you do? Do you like getting out and walking, doing hikes? We know you love hikes. ⁓ three. Love it.

Petra (25:19)
Three things, walking. Well,

yeah, three main things. If I'm not doing one or two of these, that's when I really feel myself getting in a bit of a doom scroll spiral and just not maximizing this amazing thing called my life. One is walking. I'm out this door. I've got the ocean, so I have no excuses. Kimberly knows I want to meet you both for a hike. It's been, I'm going to come down to you. love hiking. Number two, DJing.

Kimberly & Terry (25:35)
Yeah.

Right.

Let's go.

Petra (25:49)
It's my relatively new passion. When I'm in my headphones, when I'm in music, when I'm discovering music, when I'm mixing music, I'm in flow. ⁓ Four hours can go by. like, my god, I thought that was like four minutes. And then the big thing for me is being a creator versus a consumer. That's the biggest one for me. If I'm here in conversation with you, or I'm creating a new music mix, or I'm working on a keynote, or I'm

Kimberly & Terry (25:49)
Yes!

Okay.

Yeah.

Petra (26:17)
trying to maybe even show up on social media but in a different way or I'm working in a photography. If I'm creating and not consuming then it's a win. The moment my mental health begins to suffer is if I'm not creating I'm just consuming other people's content. And I teach it. I know it but I still do it, you know.

Kimberly & Terry (26:20)
Mm-hmm.

Mm. Yeah.

Right.

Yeah. We all, we all fall into those traps from time to time. 100%. But I think that the key is to catch yourself, not like a shame on you thing, but just to kind of catch yourself and be like, aha, I'm doing it. I know I need to make a different choice now. Yeah. And I'll be back in a good place. love it. So walking, getting into flow, love that being creative. Everyone could do that. I love when, I love when you got into DJing. I'm like, so cool.

Petra (26:44)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kimberly & Terry (27:08)
To see you, I mean, I've seen you reinvent yourself and yet become more of yourself in the process multiple times and it's just such a joy. Yeah. So if we were to look ahead 20 years, let's just talk legacy and you think about all the classes you've taught, the workshops you've led, the lectures you think of your group X teaching, your speaking career. What do you hope that all of that energy and the love that you put out there

Petra (27:13)
No.

Thank you.

Kimberly & Terry (27:38)
What kind of legacy do you hope it leaves behind? Like, what do you hope that your participants will say about the experience they had with you?

Petra (27:44)
She helped me believe in myself. Because our beliefs are everything. It's a huge thing right now. A lot of male authors, some of my favorite authors, we're seeing this big resurgence of belief. Kimberley, you've spoken about this. Terry, you speak about this. I've spoken about it for a long time. But if we don't believe in ourselves, if we don't bet on ourselves, the way we believe and bet on others, we will never.

Kimberly & Terry (27:48)
Mmm. Mmm.

other people.

Petra (28:14)
reach and I don't like the word potential because it feels like it's running a ladder but your capacity, your ability to really stretch yourself and explore and say yes before you know how to do something and figure it out and and and stretch your courage and so it really comes down to this idea of do I believe I am worth the effort and whether it's through movement, through music, through my speaking that is the one thing I hope I can be a little part of.

Kimberly & Terry (28:25)
Mm.

Yeah.

Petra (28:43)
of helping them build and strengthen their belief muscle.

Kimberly & Terry (28:47)
Mmm. Well, you it is a muscle and you've done it you've done it you've done it So I know people tons of people countless people say that about you ⁓

Petra (28:50)
You didn't?

I

put money into the chair, like here, see.

Kimberly & Terry (29:00)
There you go.

We do what we have to do. Exactly. Whatever it takes. WIT. Well, that is awesome. So just for fun, Petra, this is put DJ DJ PK in the house. for fun, what's right now? What's your go to pump up song right now that just gives you a good pump? You raise the roof, you're pumping your fist. What song would it be? Oh, OK. I already like it already.

Petra (29:04)
Yes.

This is so easy. It's called Joy by Ray.

Kimberly & Terry (29:29)
by Ray. Okay, Joy by Ray.

Petra (29:30)
By Ray. I will send it to you when we get off this. Please, if you can put it in the clip notes, I'll link to it. It is insane. Ray is a British singer. She used to be on a lot of like David Guetta songs and then she broke off on her own. Not that note well known yet. And my sister and I just went to see her live at the Greek.

Kimberly & Terry (29:35)
Yes. For sure.

Okay.

cool.

cool. That's a fun venue.

Petra (29:53)
Let me tell you joy

was the last song I literally left my body. I was like a teenager jumping up it it's the most joy joyful song. And anytime I'm driving up to the gym, I don't want to go I just stick it on and it's an immediate mindset shift it's you cannot listen to this and be in a bad mood, it's just part one of those genius songs I have heard in a long long time.

Kimberly & Terry (29:59)
Wow. can't.

I love it.

Wow.

I

can't wait to hear We need more of that. We need more joy. You don't hear that that often nowadays about music, just how it moves you, how it's infectious, how it immediately changes your state. So thank you for sharing.

Petra (30:32)
I could see this in one of your classes,

Terry, like a warmup, like both of you. This could be a warmup that, yeah.

Kimberly & Terry (30:36)
Yeah.

Okay, homework, we have homework. We're getting it. And we'll definitely include the link. Yes, we will. for sure. Thank you for sharing. Can't wait to hear it. Joy by Ray. Joy by Ray. Yes. my gosh, Petra, thank you so much for being here. Is there anything else that is just on your heart to share since we have this opportunity to come together and chat?

Petra (30:59)
I think the one thing is, there's, always, the one thing I often say at end of a talk is, you know, if there's been, if you're as an instructor or whether it's inside your teaching career or outside, most of us have something that we've been thinking about doing, right? That one thing that, I'll get to that when I have more time or I'll get to that when I know more. I'll get to that when I'm ready. And that to me is often this dream.

And it's often we don't do it because we really care about whether we think it's going to work out or not. And so my invitation to you is what if that wasn't your dream, but what if it was a divine assignment given to you? And that thing is only the thing that you could do and bring out into this world. So if there is anything that you have been waiting to do, this is your sign, this conversation between myself, Kimberly and Terry.

Kimberly & Terry (31:44)
⁓ To act upon you

Petra (31:58)
Today is the day to start doing it. Just say yes and you'll figure the rest out.

Kimberly & Terry (32:03)
Yeah. Love it. I say, Yes. Let's go. Let's go. Well, Petra reminds us that wellness is not about perfection. It is about presence, possibility, and learning to meet ourselves with compassion along the way. Absolutely. And whether you're an instructor, whether you're a participant, a leader, or simply someone just trying to navigate life with more purpose, today's conversation truly is proof that small mindset shifts can create

powerful transformation. Yeah, most definitely. So if this episode inspired you, please do share it with someone who could use a bit more positivity and possibility and encouragement in their life. And let us know what's the one message or golden nugget from Petra that stayed with you from our chat today. We'd love to hear if you see this on YouTube, just share it in the comments or if this clip happens to land on Instagram in the comments there works too.

or just message us, we'd love to know. For sure. And Petra, where can people find you? Where are the best places they can connect with you?

Petra (33:04)
probably in my website, PetraColbert.com, P-E-T-R-A-K-O-L-B-E-R.com, and in all the socials, I'm just Petra Kolbert.

Kimberly & Terry (33:13)
Don't say just, you are the Petra Kolbert. You know what? It should be at the Petra Kolbert. The Petra Kolbert. Or the real Petra Kolbert. Right? I love it. You're in good shape. Well, we will make sure that all of those links are in the notes so people can find you easily. Is there anything that you're working on right now that we could let people know about? Any new books outside of the Perfection Detox, which is a fantastic book? By the way, everyone.

Petra (33:22)
Well, luckily there's not too many people called Petra, so we're pretty okay there.

Thank you.

Thank you. I have a new app coming out in June. It's going to be a positive psychology app for women in midlife.

Kimberly & Terry (33:44)
Mm.

soon.

sign me up.

Petra (33:54)
And then the rest is more work related. working, I'm going to actually put it out here right now because it's this thing that I've been putting off. It's called a remix the room. And I'm going to be, it's going to be lessons behind from the DJ booth in leadership. So I'm mixing, DJing and speaking. That's I'm working on that right now with my speaking coach. Yeah.

Kimberly & Terry (33:59)
Yeah, let's hear it. Let's hear it.

Sweet!

That's fun. Are you

thinking of that more in like a corporate setting? How fun. Oh, they have no idea what they're in for. Oh, yeah, sure. 100%. No, just say yes. Just say yes. Figure out the rest along the way. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Petra, for joining us today.