The BOLD and Brilliant Podcast with Tracie Root

Bold and Brilliant Podcast with guest Gina Coviello

• Tracie Root • Season 1

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In this episode of The Bold and Brilliant Podcast, Tracie talks with Gina Coviello about how a great life starts with Self-Love.

From overcoming deep emotional pain to discovering the power of self-love, Coach Gina’s journey exemplifies resilience and transformation. As a self-love coach, speaker, blogger, and aspiring author, she passionately shares the life-changing impact of self-love as the key to true healing and fulfillment. With heartfelt wisdom and experience, Gina inspires others to embrace self-love and live their most empowered, extraordinary lives.

Episode Summary: In this empowering episode of the Bold and Brilliant Podcast, host Tracie Root is joined by Gina Coviello, a self-love coach and advocate for embracing personal transformation. Gina shares her inspiring journey of overcoming emotional pain, discovering self-love, and finding her voice after years of fear and self-doubt. Through her heartfelt story, she highlights the importance of self-awareness, daily practices of self-love, and the courage it takes to challenge deeply rooted fears.

Tune in to hear Gina’s bold decision that transformed her life and led her to pursue her passion for helping others live authentically and vibrationally aligned lives.

 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • Gina’s personal journey to self-love and overcoming emotional pain.
  • The distinction between self-care and self-love—and why both matter.
  • Tools and practices for cultivating self-awareness and showing up for yourself.
  • How self-love influences your energy, relationships, and professional success.
  • Gina’s bold decision to step into public speaking and how it reshaped her life.

Actionable Tips from Gina:

  1. Start with Awareness: Pay attention to your thoughts, feelings, and body signals. Self-love begins with understanding yourself on a deeper level.
  2. Challenge Your Fears: Take one step at a time to face your fears, whether it’s speaking up, setting boundaries, or expressing your truth.
  3. Commit to Consistency: Self-love is a lifelong practice. Be patient and compassionate with yourself as you build this habit.
  4. Embrace Joy: Pursue activities that bring you happiness, from hobbies to meaningful connections, and prioritize them in your life.

Memorable Quote:
“Self-love is how you show up for yourself every day. It’s about being there for yourself as you would for someone you love.” – Gina Coviello

Bold Moment of the Episode:
Gina shares her transformative experience of volunteering to speak publicly for the first time at a Polka Dot Powerhouse meeting. It was a pivotal step in confronting her fear of rejection and finding the courage to express her authentic voice.

Connect with Gina Coviello:

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Your host,
Tracie Root

Tracie:

Are you ready to take bold action and live a life of brilliance? Welcome to the bold and brilliant podcast where women leaders share inspiring stories about the daring decisions that shape their businesses, their lives, and their careers. Today, I'm with the fabulous Gina Coviello. Gina is a self love coach who delivers a powerful message about the importance of self love. As we talk, you'll hear Gina share one bold decision that created her path her resilience, risk taking, and transformation will inspire, encourage, and support your personal and professional growth and fulfillment. Welcome Gina to the Bold and Brilliant podcast. Thank you. Super excited to be here, Tracie. Yay. Thank you. I'm so glad you're here. Gina, you and I have had a chance to be connected for quite some time. You're a Polka Dot, which I am as well. You're a creator in my Gather Community. We've had some time to get to know each other, but for the listeners who haven't, Had a chance to experience your loveliness. Tell everyone a little bit about yourself and how you got to become a self love coach.

Gina:

Thank you, Tracie. I'm going to give you the brief version. So I grew up with a lot of emotional abuse and was led to believe there was something seriously wrong with me. I just was not acceptable as a human being. And I grew up making some, not the greatest relationship choices. I chose people who were not good to me. But because I didn't feel good about myself. I chose people who didn't feel good about themselves either. And of course, I didn't understand this at the time, but a couple of years ago I hit rock bottom. So I was 54 at the time. I'm 57 now. I hit rock bottom and that's a horrible place to be in. When I got there, for a hot minute, I wanted to take myself out. It got that uncomfortable, that unbearable. But there is this part of me that thank goodness for it. It always shows up in my darkest moments and says, we're not going there, not today. It was during COVID and I really did isolate myself. I walked away from my own interior design business. I let go of almost every relationship in my life and I isolated myself, but I started listening to me. I didn't know that was self love, but that's, what it turned out to be. Two years later, I found myself becoming a coach and public speaking, which changed my life. It came out of me. Hitting my darkest moment in life. And finding out that self love is the greatest secret on the planet nobody teaches you how to love yourself. I really want to share this because it has impacted my life so much that I want people to know you can absolutely have the life of your dreams. We're all walking around with, Feelings of emptiness or inadequacy, and it's all starts with you internally. And self love is the answer to find your way out of all that stuff. So that's what I'm doing. I am trying to just help lift people up because I really do think self- love is pretty much the answer to everything on the planet.

Tracie:

What I love about the focus on self love is that it really means it's universal and it's individual. It means something very specific to each person who is figuring out how to love themselves more. Yes. Because our own experiences are all unique that, the things that you went through are not the things that I went through yet the tools. and practices about loving yourself every day, are aligned. So tell us a little bit about the tools and things that you bring to your clients. to help them recognize areas that they need to love themselves more in.

Gina:

The biggest tool is simply self- awareness. Just being aware of the thought, what are you saying to yourself? How can you

Tracie:

help someone be more aware?

Gina:

This is where I can only point the way, but each person has To make the effort to pay attention and it's not easy if you're not used to doing it. It is not easy. And it is a kind of thing where, perfection is not required, right? Every day, you get a little bit better at it, right? And self love takes time. This is not something you can achieve in a month or two. It is a lifelong, right? And we want immediate gratification today, we want instant results,

Tracie:

right?

Gina:

Self love is not going to give you instant results. And it does take a lot of effort. People don't even want to allow themselves the time to, pursue a hobby. Or to exercise or to go out to lunch with your girlfriends or whatever. Cause sometimes we feel guilty as we are making time for me. So it is a, it is, it takes time to just pay attention to what you're doing saying and even feeling. As you and I were just talking a few minutes ago, I just came back from Yosemite for a couple of days on the way home, I'm driving by myself and I noticed there was this ache in my chest. Not my physical heart, but my heart chakra.

Tracie:

Yeah.

Gina:

And I was like, Oh, this is not the first time I'm noticing this. And so I'm like, Oh, I just left this place that grounding and exquisite for me to be in the space of Yosemite national park. And I'm heading home and I'm realizing, okay, my body's telling me something. But it's up to me to pay attention and figure out what it means, but it takes a lot of practice, but that awareness is the absolute most important. And I think that's a really important part of self love is what am I thinking, what am I feeling, what are the words coming out of my mouth, what am I feeling in my body, because your body gives you sensations like that heart chakra ache, I'm not sure what my body was telling me now I have to pay attention more to that and see what that's about for me,

Tracie:

yeah, I love that. And that was perfect because my next question that had come to my mind. Yeah. Why you were talking about going out with girlfriends or whatever was tell us the difference in your work. Between self love and self care.

Gina:

So self care can be a specific act like going to the spa taking time for yourself, right? Self love, because I think there's a big misconception about what self love is, right? It isn't, self love isn't going to the spa. That can be a self loving thing to do. Self love is how you show up for yourself. All day, every day, right? Just like you would show up for your child or your loved one. If they're having a tough time, you're going to be emotionally supportive to them. You're going to help them figure out a solution. You're going to just be there for them. We are not very good at doing that for ourselves. And that is what self love is showing up all day, every day. Knowing that you are worthy of the time to make yourself happy and that it's okay to make yourself happy. You can be greedy and selfish, or you can be in this healthy, balanced place. Making time for you is not greedy and selfish unless you're overdoing it. Self love is showing up for yourself in every area of life. Self care is a specific. Taking that bubble bath or sitting in your chair and reading your book for an hour, those kinds of things.

Tracie:

Yeah, I love that. And, I think that as we think about the things that we do for self care, I think about the things that I do that are not only physically supportive, but also mentally supportive, emotionally supportive, the things that are, feeding my dreams, like my business that it's the ax versus the feeling. And I love your story about that heart chakra ache, because it seems like that's a really good. Example of that noticing is something that we don't often, that's that's, I think we're a channel, like we know when we're tired or in need of a manicure or whatever self care thing we need, or even time with girlfriends. But. What are we actually feeling and how is that showing up in our body in our dreams and in the different things that manifest in our state of being. As opposed to the things that we're doing. I love that.

Gina:

had so much emotional pain in my childhood and for most of my life that I was numb to it. And now when I feel emotional pain I'm like, Oh yeah, because I don't have that much anymore, which is great for me. But when I do I'm like, Oh yeah. I forgot what that feels like, that sinking feeling in your stomach or someone asks you a question and you feel yourself tighten up or close down, right? That is your body telling you, I don't like this. something is wrong. We don't always listen to that, but those are very important physical sensations, super important messages. Your body's trying to tell you help. I need attention here, but we're not always listening to that.

Tracie:

That's amazing. And also I think as women, you're right that we have been ingrained to not notice things so that we can keep serving, but also for those of us who are entrepreneurs, leaders, in business. We often are in that high achievement mode that we focus more on what needs to be done versus what we personally need in order to be our best selves to get those things done. Yes. Like crazy catch 22, right?

Gina:

It is right. And when you make time to feel fulfilled and feel happy, you will bring joy and love and compassion, whatever, positive. Things into everything else that you are doing, including running a business. But if you're not happy inside, we bring our emotional pain, we bring resentment, we bring anger, frustration into what we're doing, and that impacts You know, as business women that impacts our relationship with our clients or colleagues as a partner, it affects your relationship with your partner or children. When right when you are happy inside and make time to make you happy. You show up very differently in every other area of your life and that you impact the other people that you're dealing with in a very different way. And there's that ripple effect, how I show up in my relationship with you Tracie affects you. And how you show up with, your next client or a business associate or your family at home. There is, absolutely a ripple effect, you can show up happier. Everything else in your life starts to fall into place into a healthier way as well. So it's super impactful in your entire life.

Tracie:

I love that. And absolutely a hundred percent, I think there's a lot of people who are very concerned about how they're showing up. Am I salesy? what are they going to think of me? they're very nervous and fearful And then of course, that's the energy they're putting out there. it's not anything intentional, but Your ability to attract your client, your future clients is based in your ability to put out the energy that they're looking for.

Gina:

You have to vibrationally match your clients. Yes. And that's the law of attraction, right? You draw to you, not only what you intellectually know, but what you subconsciously or internally believe you are worthy of. And if you think I'm not good enough for these clients, then you're not on that vibrational level that will attract those clients. Yeah.

Tracie:

So good. Okay. So I want to ask you. Our big question, which is something that's going to be part of every single episode of the bold and brilliant podcast. what is one bold decision that you made in the past? Turned everything in a new direction that created the path that you are now walking down or created a new path from where you were. you already talked about some of the changes that you made in your personal life and that created you becoming a self love coach. But I know that there's a different one that you actually want to focus on because it's what you're really excited about right now,

Gina:

Yes. And what it ultimately goes to is challenging a fear. I was afraid to even express my opinion to one person. I was terrified of expressing my own opinions or ideas because I grew up feeling like I was unacceptable. My words had no value. Nobody wanted anything to do with me. So for me, speaking my truth, whether it was asking a question in a meeting or expressing my opinion or speaking publicly, I was terrified of all of that. I would be afraid to go to a social event, like a holiday party with my family. social interactions meant potential rejection. I got to a point in life where I was like, you know what? I'm tired of being afraid all the time. I really want to break through this. So I chose to volunteer to speak publicly at a polka dot meeting. Wow. Afterward, I spoke about self love cause I wanted to speak about something that meant something to me. And was starting to really impact my life at that point.

Tracie:

So this is before you started your business,

Gina:

I was a Cabi stylist at the time and that wasn't my passion. That was a stepping stone, but I didn't know what my next step was. So I spoke about self love and got positive feedback from, the 15 women that heard my talk. two women said to me, Gina, your speech was thought provoking. for someone afraid to express my opinion. Hearing that was Earth shattering in a good way, right? Like in the car, on the way home, like the sun is finally shining on your life. Yeah. But also regret that, oh my God, I've been wrong all this time. Oh no. so I thought my talk was a platform for a book that I've started to write, still editing. then someone said, Gina, you should be a life coach. I was like, yeah, that feels right. So I've spent this entire calendar year trying to build a coaching business and this is something I never would have done if I hadn't chosen to open my mouth in front of, 20 people. If you went back to my high school graduating class and said, who is likely to be a motivational speaker? I would have been at the very end They'd be like Gina, who that was nowhere in my plan of life. And now, I am. I think that I'm here to inspire people all around the world. So motivational speaker. That's what my vision for myself is, but that never would have come to be. If I didn't step out I wanted to face and get over this particular fear of rejection but it has changed my life. And I'm super happy for the progress I've had and just enjoying the ride and starting to get really comfortable with speaking publicly. I never dreamed that this is what my life would look like.

Tracie:

Oh my gosh. That's so exciting. I never dreamed that this is what my life would look like. Yeah. And for those who are listening, I saw Gina do a very short storytelling speech a couple of weeks ago. Gina, I wanted to tell you, the increased energy and vibrancy and excitement and passion that you had. Telling that story when I've heard this story in the past, How you've developed and grown in the last, say six months in, in your comfort. In your ability to really be emotionally present in the story and show yourself.

Gina:

Yeah,

Tracie:

You're really showing yourself and your personality and your excitement and passion for sharing the story in the hopes that it'll transform someone else's thoughts and feelings that day. you're doing amazing. And I am so happy for you. The bold decision to become a speaker, right? you almost have to go back to when you decided to speak at polka dot in front of. 20 people, 15 people who you already knew, they weren't strangers. But you made a decision to become a speaker.

Gina:

Yeah.

Tracie:

So that title is not just, you decided to become a speaker since then.

Gina:

Yeah.

Tracie:

And it's a huge, bold decision. It's very exciting.

Gina:

I would love to encourage people to challenge their fears, right? you never know what your life is going to look like when you move outside your existing comfort zone, I had no idea that being a motivational speaker might be on the table for me unless I stepped out. So you just don't know what's out there waiting for you. The path that is going to be amazing in your life is out there somewhere. But you might have to get uncomfortable to find it by surprise.

Tracie:

I love that. speak directly to someone who is trying to get past their fear. tell them how it feels to be on the other side of that decision. How does that make you feel?

Gina:

It's a mixture because on the one hand, I feel sorry for my former self. I felt trapped in my life. But challenging that fear was the best thing I've ever done. And I think that talk that you heard me give Tracie, I talked about this phrase the best stuff in life is on the other side of fear. I heard this from the actor, Will Smith, and he was talking about skydiving he was super afraid to go skydiving, but he did it. And he said, he felt like he was flying. I want people to know that our fears, it's just a story that we tell ourselves and that fear, depending on what it is, isn't truly real, I was afraid that my words had no value. Now I'm finding out people are resonating with what I have to say and it's just me finding my confidence to say it. You know that phrase, feel the fear and do it anyway. It's so true. It's okay to be afraid. it's totally normal, If you're stepping outside your comfort zone. It is uncomfortable. That doesn't mean it's a bad thing. And obviously I'm talking about things that are safe and reasonable to do. I want to be clear. I'm not telling anyone to do something unsafe. But your fears are holding you back. maybe your greatest moment in life might be on the other side. of stepping out of your fear. I totally encourage people to challenge them and failure is not actually a bad thing, right? It's not failure. It's constructive feedback. That path maybe wasn't optimal Try it this way. There's a different way to do it. it's okay to be afraid. I was afraid to speak. I did it and it turned out to be the best decision of my life. you just don't know what's out there waiting for you. Try it and see you're going to be okay.

Tracie:

Yeah. You were talking about that quote. you heard from Will Smith it's all over the planet. what if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly that made me think of that? Because you're talking about Will Smith in skydiving. Yeah, there's a poet. Writer, Erin Hanson, that's off. That's often attributed to, but really these all get mixed and matched in our world because everyone who says them has been touched by the idea. So that's why there's so many people saying them in different ways. Will Smith, Erin Hanson, Oprah, you, me, like it's all of us. Because when you step out of your comfort zone and take a risk and make some sort of bold decision whatever is on the other side is either a miraculous new life. or it's something to be like, huh that was interesting. Let's see what happens next because it is the unknown. And I think that's, ultimately a lot of what people are afraid of the unknown. They don't know what's going to happen. So that's scary and let's not do it versus you don't know what's going to happen, but what's the worst that could happen. Let's try it anyway.

Gina:

at a minimum, you get to learn something about yourself, right? whatever you learn might not benefit you for 10 years. Who knows? But it's an opportunity to learn,

Tracie:

Deposited in the vessel and we'll hold on to it for when needed.

Gina:

you cannot grow if you stay inside your current comfort zone. if you want to grow, expand what you're doing and try that thing it might turn out great. It might not, but that's okay too.

Tracie:

Yeah. Beautiful. Love it. Okay, Gina. I know that we can find you in the gather community. But also where else can Pete, where's the best place for someone to find you to come to one of your free workshops or one of your events or hear you speak.

Gina:

The best place is to go to my website. So that's coach Gina Cove yellow. com. I know worries about the spellings, it'll all be

Tracie:

in the notes,

Gina:

Yeah, I have a free monthly workshop. those are posted in there. And then you can always email me my email is in the website, you can get ahold of me and find out what else I'm doing. Get on my mailing list and I do post where I'm speaking and that sort of thing.

Tracie:

You have a great newsletter and you're always workshop speaking all the things that you're doing. It's really lovely. So yeah, definitely get on the list for your newsletter.

Gina:

to have you join the list.

Tracie:

thank you again for being here on the podcast. And to all of you listeners out there, thank you for listening to the bold and brilliant podcast. I hope our discussion today was just what you needed to take your next bold step forward toward your brilliant future. Cheers. Thank you for listening to the Bold and Brilliant Podcast. I'm your host, Tracie Root. And I want to invite you to check out the show notes, find out where you can connect with our guests, find out more about what I and the gather community have to offer you, and be sure to subscribe to this podcast on your favorite platform. Thanks so much.