Season 3 | Episode 9 | Build the Business Around the Life, Not the Other Way Around

What does it actually take to build a business that works for your life, not against it?

Trudy sits down with Joelene Edwards, health and wellness coach and gym founder, for a conversation that bridges business, health, resilience, and the real cost of building something from scratch. Joelene is also FEMPIRE Rising's first New Zealand-based guest, and her story is one worth hearing.

Joelene built a gym from the ground up in a small town of 7,000 people, with two young children, working two jobs, navigating community pushback, and doing it all in a country she hadn't grown up in. She now runs a successful coaching business focused on women navigating perimenopause and menopause, and is moving her services fully online so she can work and travel with her kids.

This conversation covers a lot of ground, and most of it applies whether you're talking about your health or your business.

In this episode, Trudy and Joelene cover:

• Why Joelene built a gym and what her real definition of success looked like
• The community resistance she faced as an outsider, and how she tuned it out
• Why resilience isn't about feeling strong, it's about showing up when you don't
• Boundaries, the non-negotiable kind, and why setting them early protects everything
• Why women struggle to stay consistent with their health, and how simplicity is the actual solution
• The wellness noise problem: 12-step morning routines, extreme diets, and quick fixes that burn women out before they start
• What actually moves the needle for women's health, especially in their 30s, 40s, and 50s
• Why "eat less, train harder" is a recipe for burnout, not results
• The direct parallel between health foundations and business foundations
• Celebrating wins, because high-achieving women are the worst at it
• The shift from trading time for money to building a business that travels with you

And the line that sums up the whole conversation: build the business around the life you want. Don't try to squeeze your life into the leftovers.


01:28 Meet Jolene Edwards

02:38 From Perth to Cromwell

03:07 Building a Gym

04:18 Why Work Life Balance

06:16 Resilience and Boundaries

09:01 Small Town Naysayers

13:02 Health Consistency Basics

15:15 Cutting Wellness Noise

17:58 Common Health Mistakes

19:36 Consistency Over Quick Wins

20:54 Minimum Effective Dose

22:36 Celebrate Your Progress

24:34 Define Your Success

27:04 Niche and Authenticity

28:20 Do the Boring Work

31:25 Freedom Through Online Pivot

33:05 Women Rewriting the Rules

33:56 Final Takeaways

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What do you think that consistency looks like? And what is it that they can't get consistent?

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Yeah, honestly, there's just so much unnecessary noise out there, and it completely paralyzes people. So women are constantly being told that they need to do like a 12-step morning routine, they need to track every single macro, they need to meditate for an hour, they need to do high-intensity workouts, and it's exhausting just thinking about that to do it.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Yeah, yeah, it's overloading before you even get going.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Exactly. So women need to understand early on that every business model comes with a lifestyle attached to it. So you have to decide what you are willing to sacrifice.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Yeah, what your negotiables are. And exactly. Welcome to Fampire Rising, the podcast for women who are serious about building strong, profitable, sustainable businesses. I'm your host, Trudy Hines, the CEO of Fampire, business coach and mentor. And here we are in season three. This season we are bringing you the women behind the infrastructure of business, the experts in marketing, finance, systems, strategy, visibility, and design who help businesses grow properly. Because building a business takes more than passion, it takes structure, it takes smart decisions, and it takes the right support around you. So if you're ready to think bigger, operate better, and build a business with real substance behind it, you're in the right place. Let's get into today's episode. Today I'm joined by Joelin Edwards, a health and wellness coach who has built a business from the ground up alongside raising her young family. And I'm especially excited about this conversation because Joel Ann is our first New Zealand-based guest on Fempire Rising, which feels like a really important step as we continue opening up more conversations beyond Australia. Joelyn specializes in helping women build strength, confidence, and sustainable habits that actually fit real life. But what stood out to me wasn't just the work that she does, it's how she's built her amazing business. Because building something from scratch or navigating family life, changing seasons, and the realities of being a woman in business is where the real lessons are. Thank you so much for having me, Judy. Oh, it's my pleasure. Now, before we get into the work that you do now, I want to start with how this all began. And given you're our first New Zealand-based guest, I'd also love to understand what business has looked like for you in the market and how your local community shaped what you built. So, firstly, can you share a bit about your background and how you came to build your business?

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Well, I've been in the um health and fitness industry for about 15 years. So it started off uh before personal training. I was a PA to a director in a big business in Perth, and then we shifted through to a small town in Cromwell, Cromwell, New Zealand. It's a very, very small little town, so it was massively different from the big city coming into something so little. So it took a little bit of getting used to. Then went into the personal training industry, then went into sports nutrition because I've got a passion for that. Okay. But the real turning point for me was starting up our business in 2018. We decided to build a gym from the ground up. Wow. Yeah. It was a big commitment and a completely unknown. We had never done anything like that before. Okay. Um, and at the time we decided to do this, my kids were three and five. So, yeah, absolute grind. And while we were doing, I was working two jobs at the same time just to try and get the gym up and running to the point where I was able to take a wage from it. The driving force behind why opening up the gym was probably my why. I grew up with a single mum who had to absolute ass off to try and provide for us. And I respect her so much for that. But the reality was I didn't get the privilege of spending a lot of time with her growing up because she was always working, and I knew I wanted something different for my kids. I wanted to be a mum who could leave work in the middle of the day to go to basketball games or uh athletics or anything like that. So we put in the massive hours and energy up front. It was a huge sacrifice back then, but it's all paid off now. Um, and now I'm just building up um my second business as we go.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Oh, wow. Okay, so we'll talk more about that in a minute. But one of the things that really resonates with me, and it's funny, I had a conversation with a lady that I coach yesterday, and she has made a similar pivot into her own business for exactly that reason. Often we find that a lot of women in business, now, whether that be in corporate or whether they're coming out of government roles or whatever the case may be, they make a decision to move into their own business because they truly want and need that more work-life balance. Yeah, it's a common thing that I'm hearing time and time again.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Yeah, I think women have been pushing themselves or grinding themselves for so long, and we've suddenly realized that all that effort and all that work definitely paid off to a degree, but there was a sacrifice to find it.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Absolutely, yeah. And I I came out of a corporate world and I was a single mum, and I used to fly from Canberra to Sydney and work in Sydney during the week. And I was only discussing with somebody yesterday that I had to have a nanny because I was away for work so much. And the result of that is that I didn't spend enough time with my children. And that's you know, one of the things that mothers always carry is that mother guilt. And you know, here I am, my children in their 30s, and it's still a regret that I have. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

It's it's a hard one, you know, because you always feel like you're you're doing your best that you can, and you want at that point in your life, you think that this is the best option for you, but it is that mother's guilt, we always don't feel like we're doing enough.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Correct. I guess ultimately you identified that and you were able to then pivot into something. And I think it's always really good for our listeners to understand what the story behind someone is and why they build it because it usually shapes also how they show up in business. So I would think that you are very much empathetic of those mothers that you might train, and then they have these competing priorities, and maybe they have to check out or cancel at late notice. And you've got that comes from a place of understanding, and I think that's really important. Yeah. What did building a gym from the ground up while raising young children teach you about your resilience and your leadership skills?

SPEAKER_00 6:23

It's taught me that resilience isn't about feeling overwhelmed. It's about waking up and seeing what needs to be done anyway, because it doesn't matter what you do, any situation can feel overwhelming. But if you just break it down into smaller steps, it can be much more achievable. So when you're building a physical business and raising small humans at the same time, there's no perfectly balanced day. You're always constantly triaging.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

So you're always you can't plan that one out.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

No, you can't. As you said, kids are sick, or there's a fundraiser at the school that you need to go and help out with, or there's something that's happened at at work that you need to go and do. So I learned very quickly that leadership starts with how you manage yourself when the pressure is on. So if I was stressed and chaotic, that bled into my family and my business. So I needed to make sure that I was able to manage myself, have those hard boundaries in line. If I couldn't do something, I wasn't going to overcommit to it. And it's also taught me a lot about resilience of kids. So we worry so much about how our work impacts them. But my kids watched us build something from the ground up, from nothing. They saw us or do the late nights and the early mornings, and they very, very quickly adapted and they've learned what hard work looks like. So leading a team or leading kids, they're learning from you. And we've always made sure that everyone that comes into contact with us or the like the business or family, they were always direct and honest. There's no sugar coating and using my time, which is my most precious resource wisely.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Absolutely. And I think the critical thing that came out of that for me is boundaries. And it's it's a conversation that I have time and time again with women that I coach, and I'm sure you do as well, is that until you can set your boundaries and enforce them, then people will continue to push them. One of the analogies I use is that you need to treat potentially clients and customers almost like you would your children or your pets, in the fact that if you can't set a boundary, they will continue to so it's up to you to train and you to enforce. And if you can't do that, you will be constantly overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Oh, absolutely. And I think those boundaries are a very strong thing that we need to learn very early on in business. Because if we just came, oh yeah, I can do that, oh yeah, I can do that, no worries, I can do that. And then we start burning ourselves out when we're broken, everyone else is broken around us, it's counterproductive of not being able to say no to something. And you're right, if you say no to it, they're not going to come back to you next time and ask you the same question. They'll learn to do it themselves so that they are more efficient at their jobs.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

That's right. And I think, you know, the other thing you you talked about obviously was resilience. And one of the things maybe I'd like to explore a little bit further in that is that obviously you you've come from Perth, you've moved into a country that you've never lived in before, you're in a smaller community. So talk me through how you developed your own inner resilience to that, to be able to essentially pull yourself up. Because it would be very, very easy to say this is all too hard, this is all too much, and obviously you've got some wonderful support with your husband. But what are the tools that you use to be able to pull your resilience up and potentially not listen to the naysayers who might have said, Oh, what do you want to build a gym for? What's that all about? You know, we don't need a gym here, or there's a million and one gyms, or so what did you do there?

SPEAKER_00 9:45

That's quite an interesting question or conversation, really, because we did we move from a city um with you know millions of people in it to a small town with like 7,000 people. So, you know, everyone knows everybody, sure, and everybody has an opinion, you know, every and everyone is very open about their opinions here. And I remember announcing that we were opening up a gym and everyone took it quite personally, like because there were other gyms here already, they were like, Oh, okay, oh, you're competing with the locals. Yeah, yes, how dare I? This this non-local person coming in from another country coming in, and locals are quite funny like that because they'll stick together and all that sort of stuff. So there was a lot of negativity around that by we're upsetting people or we're trying to be uh malicious against other people because we're doing this. Whereas it was literally just a lifestyle choice that we decided that we wanted. So deciding that we wanted to do this, and then a lot of negativity coming from that. It was so easy to just go, you know what? I'm just gonna go work for somebody else because it's just gonna be so much easier. But it was just a conversation that I had to have with myself and just go, well, I can either upset somebody here or upset somebody somewhere else. So I can I'm gonna go somewhere else and I'm gonna do the exact same thing. Whereas if I know someone's upset, I can just go, okay, well, it's fine, it wasn't intentional, whatever it's. So it was yeah, it was it was definitely hard coming from a city where I didn't know anybody to some.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

So that anonymity to you know being very, very visible.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Yeah, absolutely. And now, you know, you work in a service-based business and everybody knows you, and everyone, as I said, everyone's got something to say about it, and you can't please everybody. Everyone will come at you with suggestions because they think that's going to succeed, but you have to know what your product is or what your service is and stick to it and stick to your guns about what you're going to be doing. Because otherwise, if you get so sidetracked by all the noise that's outside, your business isn't going to succeed because you need to trust your own product or your own service rather than trying to listen to everybody around you. You just need to keep your contact small and listen to that without all the noise happening.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

And I think it's interesting. You made the comment about knowing your why. That's that's critical, and that's one of the things that in Fampire we 100% work on with anyone that we coach right up front. And the the other thing is you understanding where your niche is and having that self-belief that you are the expert in that field and you don't need to be all things to all people. This is exactly your lane, and you stick with it and you believe that you have got a solution to somebody's problem.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Yeah, absolutely. And I think a lot of people struggle by putting their flag on the ground and going, This is what my product did. What's that saying? I can't remember what it was, but it's like if you are everything to everyone, you're nothing to no one. If you're trying to cater to every single person, you're not going to discover your niche. And it is, it's hard. It's hard to try and discover a niche and stick to it. But if you do it and do it properly, you will get your clientele. Great.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

I love that. Why do you think so many women struggle with consistency when it comes to their health and routines? Because this is obviously right in your wheelhouse. And our listeners are business women who probably put themselves last when it comes to their health and wellness. What do you think that consistency looks like? And what is it that they can't get consistent?

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Yeah, honestly, there's just so much unnecessary noise out there, and it completely paralyzes people. So women are constantly being told that they need to do like a 12-step morning routine, they need to track every single macro, they need to meditate for an hour, they need to do high-intensity workouts, and it's exhausting just thinking about that to do.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Yeah, yeah, it's overloading before you even get going.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Exact, exactly. And like, let alone trying to fit that into a lifestyle of trying to run a business, raise children, keep a household together. When the expectation is perfection, the result is usually not doing anything at all because we get so overwhelmed that we just like it paralyzes us and we just kind of sit down.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

But they call it analysis, paralysis, you're analyzing so many different things that you're supposed to be doing that you just can't shift.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Yeah, exactly. So they struggle with the consistency to adapt those routines and keep them in a ongoing routine. They'll do all these routines for two weeks, burn themselves out, and then they feel like they've failed, which is then going to add on to their confidence and things like that. So consistency comes from literally simplicity. So it's about finding those non-negotiables that actually fit into your real messy lifestyle. So if you only have 20 minutes, what's the most effective thing you can do in those 20 minutes that are going to help you? So once you strip away all that BS and focus on the basics, consistency becomes a lot easier.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

I 100% agree with that. I walk every morning. It's a not negotiable in my life. It's I don't have any sort of noise. So it's no headphones, no, I walk my dog, I'm present, I'm in nature, and that is my not negotiable. I try and do other things, but consistency to me is critical. And I think it's also one of the biggest gaps that we see not only in our personal health and wellness, but it crosses into business as well, right? Absolutely. How do you cut through all the noise and focus on what actually works?

SPEAKER_00 15:19

I'm I'm known for being a naturally blunt person. I get some into trouble quite a bit.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

No, we like blunt here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

So I've got a fairly good BS detective. I call it out as it is. So when I look at the wellness space, I always ask, is this sustainable for women who has a job, kids, and a life? If the answer is no, I throw it out. I like to focus on the science and the basics. So in my 15 years in the industry, the things that actually move the needle hasn't actually changed. It's eating enough protein, lifting heavy things if we can, getting outside, prioritizing sleep and stress. It's not overly complicated. So all those fancy supplements and complicated workout protocols that are just being marketed as noise.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

And just all those quick fix, quick win things that you see all over social media.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Yeah. They make you feel like you're missing out on something. You're right. We live in a world that is so easily accessible, right? Now, if you want a car, you can go into a car dealership, sign a few pieces of paper, and you've got a car within a couple of hours, you can go and doom scroll on Instagram or social media, and there are instant dopamine hits. Things like your health and your wellness are not quick fixes. They should not be quick fixes. If it's a quick fix, it's not long lasting. So when I work with a lot of my clients, I tell them straight up that we're not doing anything extreme. We're just going to build foundations that makes you feel like yourself again. So cutting through the noise is just about having the confidence to say, I don't need to do it all. I just need to do what matters.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Yeah, no, I love that. And I think again, there's so many crossovers between that and business. It's about getting the right foundations. If you can build the right foundations and show up with consistency, then it doesn't seem overwhelming. But there is no quick fix. You know, you can't build a business overnight. Contrary to what, you know, lots of influencers will tell you. If it's a good, sustainable business, it needs great foundations. If it is your health and wellness, it needs great foundations to build from. Sure, you can tweak along the way to maximize benefits, but if you're not moving or you're not eating correctly, then it doesn't matter how many tweaks you make, your health is not going to be great, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Absolutely. And you can think of the classic example of building a foundation with a house. You know, once you have your foundation down and it's a strong foundation, you can pretty much do anything that goes up above that. And you can tweak it as you go, as long as you have those foundations. If those foundations aren't set in concrete and they're routinely non-negotiables, then things will start failing along.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

It's the house of cards. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So what do you see women getting wrong when they're trying to improve their health and fitness? Obviously, not being consistent is one of them. What are some of the other things when you hear it or people talk about it gives you the ick or the cringe factor? Before we jump back in, if you know you need more support in your business, but you are not ready to commit to one-on-one coaching, the Fempire Academy is your next step. This is our stepping stone program for women who know they need more guidance, more structure, and better support as they grow. Inside, you'll have access to thousands of dollars worth of business training, a monthly Q ⁇ A session with one of our coaches, and our sisterhood Facebook group, where we share exclusive content, insight, and support for women building serious businesses. And because you're a podcast listener, you can join with 25% off using the code RISING. You'll find the link in the show notes. Now let's get back to the episode.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

I think it's thinking, especially with women going into their 30s, late 30s, 40s, and 50s, that their bodies are the same as what we were when we were 20.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

So you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

You know, dancing until 3, 4 a.m., going high for an hour snooze and getting up and working perfectly fine for the entire day. And my brain was on point. I had all the energy in the world. And us, we now, we don't function like that anymore. So we can't do that anymore. And we can't do that. If things aren't working right now, put on a little bit of weight. I'm just going to eat less and train harder, and I'll get the results. It doesn't work like that anymore. Our hormones are shifting, and our stress levels are through the roof from running businesses and families and trying to eat less and and train harder. It's just becoming a recipe for disasters. They ignore the foundational stuff. It's kind of like burnout.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

You can see the burnout coming in the distance, can't you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Yeah, absolutely. And people just think that they they're going to do more or eat less and do more, but you can't out train a stressed-out, undernourished body. So women need to stop looking for those quick fixes or extreme diets and start treating their health like an investment in their business and their life. So you need strength, you need balance, and you need to fuel yourself properly.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

I love that. That's the critical thing is just stop looking for quick wins because they might, you might get a quick win to begin with, but long term you need to invest in yourself, whether that be health, whether that be coaching, whether that be education, you know, you are important and everything that you invest into yourself is going to pay dividends for much longer term.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

So those and those foundations, they're not like whoo, celebratory moments. You know, they're not they're they're they're not the big life moments, they are the basic, unsexy stuff that aren't Instagrammable because it's so boring and relentless. It's just things that we need to do over and over again to make sure that our foundation is strong. And no Instagram influencer is going to post about it because it's literally it's so boring.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Well, again, there's no dopamine here, right? It's it is like your ho hum.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Yeah, exactly. And you're right, it's not that quick fix, it's not all that sort of stuff that are going to get the results. It's it's the things that you're constantly doing and constantly putting the work into that are going to help everything in your life.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Yeah, no, and I again I think it all comes back to consistency, and I think that's the the key message in everything, isn't it? How would you say your approach has evolved as your life and responsibilities have changed in relation to your health and wellness, but what you now do within your business versus when you were building your business?

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Yeah, so it's massively changed. I mean, in my twenties, I had all the time in the world to go to the gym and meal prep and go and socialise and tick all those boxes. But when we were building the gym, working two jobs, trying to raise toddlers, that whole approach went. Out the window. So I had to learn how to get the maximum return for the minimum effort, uh like the minimum effective dose. So it was just about trying to find out what works for me and trying to not try and do everything at one point. It was just about finding out what was most effective and doing that over and over again.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Yeah. And I think that's really important because what worked for you in one season may not necessarily work for you in the next season of your life. No. But ultimately, the you know, the underlying message is stripping it back to you and being able to focus on exactly what works for you rather than comparing yourself to the next person or what your friendship group might be doing. It's working with somebody that can literally, and whether that be a fitness and wellness coach or whether that be a business coach or any other sort of life coach, is it's actually working with somebody that can help you understand your essence. Yes, yeah. And support that. Yeah, absolutely. Give you the confidence to actually step into that and go, This is me. That might be you. That's great. Yeah, um, I love you and I support you. But the reality of it is, is this is what I need to be my best person.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Yeah, absolutely. I think starting a business and being really stretched thin at that time as well, it's given me a lot more compassion, both to my clients and myself. Like you can see how far you've come when it comes to you look at your business from afar and go, shit, I did that. Like exactly, exactly. What an amazing thing that has come out of all of that hard work. But sometimes we're so close to the situation that we don't actually appreciate what we've done. So stepping back for a moment is so important for us to be able to, you know, show ourselves some some congratulations to be like you've done it. And I love that you work.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Yeah. I love that you've brought that to the front because I think celebrating our wins is something that women do not do enough. And I know that we need to just take a step back and reflect on how far we've come and what we have achieved. Because often when you do that for somebody, you can see their eyes kind of go, oh, and they they have an epiphany of, oh my God, I actually have done. But they're they're so in the weeds of doing things that they don't feel like they've achieved anything.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

Exactly. And I mean, especially women in business, where there's generally a type of woman that goes into business because we're high achievers, you know, we're entrepreneurial. Exactly. And we're moving towards something, and we never feel like we're reaching that goal because we're actually always raising the bar. Absolutely. Always we get a little bit closer, and you're like, okay, well, I'm a little bit closer, I can do this now.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna stretch myself a little bit more.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And and see how much further we can go. Because and we never we I mean, that's the essence of a successful business, right? Is by always trying to make it better and better and better. Yeah, but you also have to take a step back and go, okay, well, buy it used to be here and now it's up here. And I've done everything to get it to both of those and still. That's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Yeah, go me. Yeah, go me. Oh dear, I love that. Now, yeah, let's focus on our season three core questions because I think it's really important to understand the woman behind the business and get a real gauge on what she's feeling about things. So, from your perspective, what is one thing women in business need to understand earlier if they want to build something strong and sustainable like yourself?

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Yeah, I think you have to define what success actually looks like for you. Not what Instagram says it should look like, but so when we built the gym, my definition of success wasn't about making huge amounts of money. Sure. It was having the freedom to go to my kids' sports games or school events or whatever it is. So if I had built a business that had made millions of dollars but required me to work 80 hours a week and miss their childhood, that would have been a probably a failure to me because that's what my priority is. So that's what my success is to be a very, very present person in my kids' life. So women need to understand early on that every business model comes with a lifestyle attached to it. So you have to decide what you are willing to sacrifice.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Yeah, what your sociables are.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

And yeah, exactly, and what is completely off the table. So I didn't want to work 80 hours a week. I wanted to be at home and all those sorts of things. So when you build a business around the life that you so you sorry, you need to build a business around the life that you want. Don't try and squeeze the life into the leftovers of your business. So it requires setting hard boundaries early on, like we spoke about earlier. But it's the only way to build something that you won't actually resent because if you're earning millions of dollars and can't spend time with your family, then that's not successful. It might be someone that might not have kids or their kids have grown up and they're no longer at home. That might be something that they want to be able to do so that they can travel for the rest of their lives. It depends on what your version of success looks like.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

That's critical. Everybody has their own definition of success. Yes. So it's actually you sitting down and deciding or working out what yours is and making that the goal, as opposed to you know, your family may, or you know, and I always say, you know, your accountant is all about profit, your family might be about balance. But it's you sitting down and saying, what is it that is going to give me that feeling that I have been successful? And only you can decide that one.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

Yeah, absolutely. And it looks different to everybody else. And it as we said in the beginning, it's everyone's gonna have an opinion of it. Uh, and they're only gonna see the tip of an iceberg if they're gonna see all your version of success. It all depends on that person. That's right. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

So, in your field, what is one mistake you see business owners make time and time again?

SPEAKER_00 27:49

I think in the health and coaching space, the biggest mistake I see is probably people trying to be everything to everyone. Okay, yep. It's a not niching down. Exactly, exactly. So they water down their message because they're afraid of alienating people. They use soft and fluffy language that doesn't actually mean anything. So early on, I made a decision that I was going to be exactly who I am. I read no sugar coating. So I focus specifically on women navigating perimenopause and menopause, but I also know that my style isn't for everybody, like I'm not everybody's cup of tea. And that was that's okay too, right?

SPEAKER_01 28:20

You know, I'm the same, I'm no fluff, very direct. We'll call a spade a spade. We'll call, as you said, we'll call you out on your BS. That's fine if you like that. But there is plenty of work for everybody. And if you can feel comfortable and authentic in what you're doing, then you'll be great at it. And that to me is critical. You if you're trying to be someone that you're not, clients will see that in a heartbeat.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

Yeah, I absolutely. And as we said, like when you try to connect with like when you try to speak to everybody, you connect with nobody. So the business owners who struggle are the ones who are afraid to plant their flags and own their specific enterprise and personalities.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Yeah, yeah, own it. Yep, absolutely. So, what separates the women who build lasting businesses from those who struggle to gain traction? And probably very much to the point that we've just made. But can you think of anything else they really are struggling to build? Obviously, if they don't niche, we know that that's a real issue for them. Consistency is critical, but is there anything else that you can think of that I think it's also the willingness to do the unglamorous things.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

You know, it's the yes, you know, it's the boring, it's the boring work that we need to do consistency. So building a business isn't a series of massive, exciting launches.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

No, no, it's not all a podcast, is it?

SPEAKER_00 29:39

No, no, no, it's not. As waking up and doing those foundational tasks when nobody is watching, there's no one cheering you on, saying, Oh, you can do it, you know, and especially when the motivation wears off, because it will. Absolutely, it will. Yeah, you need to keep doing all of that boring stuff. So when we're getting the gym off the ground, there was nothing glamorous about working two jobs, coming home, eating quick five-minute meals, trying to build these stupid machines like at 3 a.m. in the morning because it needed to be done. We need to build those foundations, as we've made very clear. I think the women who last are the ones who don't quit when things get boring.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

I think you become your own cheerleader, right? You know, it's because there will be times, and this is what I say to again, a lot of the particularly a lot of our coaches, is that everybody is so fearful of what people's opinions of them are and putting themselves out there. But the reality of it is, is that people just don't care. They're so absorbed in their own life. So if you're sitting back waiting for your friends and your family to be your cheerleader all the time, sorry, that's just not going to happen because they have got stuff going on in their own life. So you need to be able to motivate and cheer yourself on, but however you can do that to maintain that motivation in those periods of time where you just really do struggle.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

Absolutely. It's those hard moments. I think we also need to stop seeking external validation from people. You're building this empire for you, you're building this empire for your family. I'm not building it for anybody else. No, you know, getting validation from yourself. I speak to my clients all the time about this because how I would encourage you is very different sometimes how people would talk to themselves. Referring to myself in third person, if I'm having a really, really tough time, I would be like, Jolene, just take a moment, calm down, take a few deep breaths, go for a walk outside, come back to this.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Take your own coach, coaching the coach.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

Exactly, exactly. And I found that that for me that works really well because I generally would talk really nicely to other people if I'm being really hard on myself, kind of like, come on, like what are you doing? We are our own harshest critics, right? Absolutely. So talking, fine talking to myself myself in third person sometimes, just go just as a as a little bit of extra, just going, come on, I'm my own cheerleader. I know I can do this. We just need to take ourselves away for five minutes and then come back to it.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

And I think that's great. That is great advice because you know, we need to learn these things to be more resilient, to be more consistent, all the key things that we've talked about. So what's the one decision or shift that had the biggest impact on your own journey?

SPEAKER_00 32:11

So the biggest shift for me is probably realizing that I couldn't trade time for money forever. I wanted the life that I envisioned, which was balance freedom. Freedom. Yeah, I wanted a really good work-life balance. Sure. So the gym was a really, really massive achievement for us to be able to achieve that. And now that we've built that and it's a really successful business, I've decided to go into another business because I want to work remotely, purely remotely, so that I can travel with my kids now. So I would love so that's the next pivot on and you said into your coaching space? That's in my coach jollying space, yeah. Yeah, so that's where that's where I'm pivoting now, is so that I can travel the world because I think the world is such an amazing place for such a great education for children, right? It really is. And I think people that get stuck in one space for a really long time, they just lose sight of the bigger picture. My next biggest decision to move all my services completely online so that I can work from anywhere in the world. My children can, you know, I can still be coaching somebody online on a beach in Hawaii.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

Yep, no, and look, I'm on board with that because a lot of my coaching is done remotely, and it is fabulous because it allows you to balance that life. And it's one thing that we talk to a lot of women who are potentially looking at becoming femai coaches. Your experience is critical. The one thing that I cannot teach you is the fact that you want to serve people. Everything else, we can teach you how to become a great coach, how to find your niche, how to find your why, and how to build that business so that you can do exactly what it is that you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

When you look at the future of women in business, what gives you the most optimism?

SPEAKER_00 33:48

What gives me the most optimism is seeing how women are completely rewriting the rules. So we are no longer accepting the old corporate hustle culture model that demands we sacrifice our health and our families for success. So women are building incredibly profitable, impactful businesses now on their own terms. So we're talking openly about things like perimetaphors and mental health and realities of absolutely, and I love that. Yeah, and the realities of motherhood, and we're integrating all of those things into how we're working. So we're just providing that we are able to be present mothers, prioritize our own health, and be powerhouses in businesses all at the same time. The fact that we are having these conversations and building businesses that support real life, that makes me incredibly excited.

SPEAKER_01 34:34

Oh, I love that. And that's great to close on that point. Jolene, thank you for sharing with us. I really appreciate your time because what you've built is a great example of what it takes to create something sustainable. Not perfect conditions, not perfect timing, but consistency, clarity, and a willingness to adapt. And that is a real conversation. Building a business that fits your life is possible, but it requires decisions most people avoid. I appreciate you. I appreciate your time. Thank you for having those conversations out there. And we will put all of your details in our show notes for our listeners. And thank you for being my first New Zealand-based guest.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

Oh, what a privilege. Thank you so much, Trudy. I appreciate the time. It's an absolute pleasure talking to you. And I love the idea of Fampire and what you're creating. I think it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

Thanks for being here for another episode of Fampire Rising. If this conversation gave you value, challenged your thinking, or helped you see your next move more clearly, share this episode with another woman in business who needs to hear it. We'll include the links to our guest in the show notes so you can connect with them directly and learn more about their work. Make sure you're following the podcast, and I'll see you in the next episode.