John (00:08): Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch. My guest today is Jennifer Watson. She's a healer, high-performance coach and breakthrough speaker on a mission to help leaders heal and accelerate their deeper purpose of impact through their vital wellness, leadership genius and potent speaking. She does this through her company, Jennifer Watson, leadership. So Jennifer, welcome to the show.

Jennifer (00:34): Thank you so much for having me, John. It's an honor to be here going into the holiday season and just honored to serve your community.

John (00:41): So you have, let's see, not necessarily a typical background entrepreneurial background. So I always sometimes love to say, how'd you get here? What was your journey that led you to this being what you were meant to do today?

Jennifer (00:56): Absolutely. I started as a high level athlete. I was a two-time, All-American track and field athlete. Used to be pretty fast everyone, and go figure. I had my chair of injuries and I started getting interested in the wellness and physical therapy world because I had physical therapy. I went to doctors to help with injuries. And during that whole journey I was also struggling with depression and anxiety. And I started realizing as an athlete that wellness and fitness actually incorporated more than physical. It was mental, emotional, spiritual. And it started my journey toward not only healing myself and optimizing overall health, but understanding that health is mind, body, soul. And because of my thought process on how to engage health in a more powerful way, I started my own practice just a few years after I graduated from PT school because I felt that traditional way of health care, at least in the areas of true healing and optimizing even performance with Hilo athletes was missing some pieces.

(01:57): So my practice has always incorporated mind, body, soul optimization. And from there I just took it in the last four to five years into coaching and consulting and speaking because what I found is beyond my four brick walls of healing, people in leadership positions and executive and business leadership positions wanted this information. And I knew, listen, how can I accelerate this information more powerfully in the workforce? And that's when I became a coach consultant. And now I get to also speak across the country on aspects of mental emotional wellness as well as really staying into performance and team productivity, no matter the environment that you can truly be successful and keep your health no matter what life gives you. And that's just an honor for me to do throughout the years that I've had here.

John (02:47): So I'm envisioning you working on somebody's knee and then chatting them up about leadership skills and it just blossomed from there. Is there a little truth to that?

Jennifer (02:59): It's absolutely, it's really interesting because a lot of people that came to me, John, were high performers, business leaders, executives that had physical issues but also had some anxiety and depression or had some performance and productivity issues with their team. So of course after working with them for a while, that's when they started getting some of my expertise. I was leading teams and I was pretty good at it and giving them advice on that. So it was a natural bridge. Such a great question, John, because people ask me, how did you go into coaching, consulting, and speaking from your PT practice, brick and mortar, it was actually a very easy bridge to craft because what you just said, a lot of people were drawn to the type of work I did as high performing business leaders, and I got to just use my skills as a wellness provider and a leadership person because I was growing my own business. So the two got married together to really bring out the coaching, consulting and speaking, and no one's ever asked me that. So thank you for asking.

John (03:53): I also, I've always said for years, I think a lot of people underestimate the physical aspect and maybe the sort of parallels to being an athlete to running a business. I mean, it is very physically demanding. There's a lot of the, you need to have rest, you need to practice, you need to perform on game day. I just think there's a lot of parallels. Do you feel like your background as an athlete really helped you kind of understand what was missing maybe in leaders and in entrepreneurial journeys?

Jennifer (04:22): It's interesting. A lot of executives and leaders that are drawn to me are prior athletes. So it's funny you should ask that question. And I will say this, I learned about leadership performing in different environments, in environments that were not maybe optimal for race performance in a powerful way. So I would agree with you, there's a lot of things I learned in performance, mental edge mastery and leadership as an athlete. However, I want all of you to get this. What I also found is some things that were detrimental as an athlete that I had to learn to transition into different skill sets for myself and for the people that I work with to help leadership and performance in a different way. What I mean by that is this, John, and I think it needs to be very clear because a lot of high performers and athletes, former athletes see performing hard as pushing through, as getting through the hard stuff as at all costs of often health, just get it done and be successful.

(05:22): And what happened is a lot of business leaders were tanked, were exhaust and overwhelmed, and I questioned that. I'm like, there's got to be an easy way in the business leadership world to do things that you can actually be healthy and vital and actually still be a great business leader. So some of the things I took from being an athlete that you had to push through didn't work in business. So the things I did extrapolate that were good as an athlete were powerful in leadership and performance. But one thing I really feel downloaded just to share with your audience is actually how the transition for me was different, becoming a leader that I had to get a different relationship with resilience, I had to get a different relationship with performance because if I kept up the whole athletic press on, don't tell anyone, suck it up buttercup.

(06:08): That's when I started self imploding to be quite frank in my health, in my relationships, Albany in my bottom line when I started shifting what performance meant to me and the relationship with it and shifting how I could shift that for my team and be a better leader in a healthier state is actually where my bottom line took off, where the productivity and performance of my team took off. So I did take powerful things from being an athlete, but the biggest caveat I would give the leaders now is be careful about the push push scenario. I'm not saying that's not necessary once in a while, but I'll say on average you need to be in a calmer flow state for you and your team to actually provide value and get things done effective on a time while keeping your health

John (06:52): Well. But one of the points there though, I think athletes are especially at a very high level where there's millions of dollars on the line of their performance. I mean rest is as equally as important as practice nutrition is equally as important as weightlifting. And I think that a lot of leaders are starting to wake up to that whole, I got to take care of my body if I'm going to make it through this product launch or something. And I think that's a really healthy thing that I think is finally starting to land and push out sort of the hustle hustle approach.

Jennifer (07:29): It's interesting because people obviously probably like you, John, say, what are the top three things that you think leaders need, especially post to 2020, what do you think accelerates them? It makes them maybe above the rest, like go from good to great or even from average to good at a powerful rate. And I will say from a physical sense, sleep is hugely important. There's so much research on this and I'm talking about sleep by the way, prior to midnight. You optimize more REM sleep and deep sleep when you're getting more hours before midnight. And I would say it's an active activity everyone. So that's a number one. Number two, I'm going to go into a little bit later, but it has to do a little bit with nutrition. That's a good thing that will help with all leaders. But a second middleman that I really want people to get, because people ask me this all the time, if you could pick just one thing, and I don't think it's just one thing ever, I don't ever think, but if I had to pick one thing that would really help leaders be better leaders, help them accelerate their performance, their productivity, create good team culture and connectness in their team and make a lot of freaking money doing it, is this, everybody listen up.

(08:33): You have to learn to manage, refine and master your emotional state. It doesn't matter if something external has triggered you into bad emotional state or something internal. A belief has put you in an emotional state, big or small, it does not matter Everyone, when you have emotions that you cannot harness to work for you instead of against you, you will lose hours perseverating in the emotion, perseverating in the belief and lose connection to your team and productivity. So I teach a lot of frameworks in my business and on my team as well as a lot of leaders in workshops and presentations on ways to master and harness no matter if it's whatever it's coming from. And you guys, that covers a lot of things from bottom lines to communication to losing staff at last minute to everything to maybe some personal stuff happening at home.

(09:27): And these templates really help people understand how to do that. When you do that, it game changes everything. And I see that leaders are understanding the value of that, especially since 2020. So I would say sleep is number one from a physical sense. Even over exercise, everyone, I'm a high level say that number one is sleep. Number two is the emotional regulation and mastery that I really, really want to delve into in the third. I can talk about in a second, but I'd love to answer any questions you have on that. But that's a big one for a lot of leaders and teams.

John (10:00): Yeah, and I think a lot of it just becomes automatic response. I mean, there's a lot of things that push our buttons throughout the day. And I do see this, and I know you talk a lot about meditation and pausing and mindfulness, which are all kind of practices to sort of bring all that back in, I think is the longer I stay in this, the more I realize how valuable that is. And I probably wouldn't go as far as saying I control my emotions all the time, but I realize when I'm being acted on as opposed to me mindfully acting. And I think that becomes, that's a tremendous skill for sure.

Jennifer (10:34): And the thing is, everyone, by the way, I can just give you kind of a tool right now just help gain traction on this. But there are some people that just have some core triggers that they just can't get rid on their own. That's why we have coaches and consultants to help people navigate through that. I mean, we're human, everyone. And no matter how many tools we try on our own and download from our YouTube, there might be times that you need support and that's okay. One thing that will help words are powerful, John, and what you said about trying to manage your emotions. I always say you guys shifting the words. So if you're feeling depressed, angry, sad, frustrated, especially those I call 'em more the negative emotions or negative feelings, I always say change the words if you're feeling angry, like I'm curious.

(11:14): Okay, curious everyone, that's a powerful word. It has a higher frequency to, I'm curious why I am feeling anger right now. And when you allow yourself to choose a different word, it actually calms the nervous system everybody. It's really important to calm your nervous system, to get it on board to chill out so it's open to its pollution or an idea or a reason in this case why you are angry. So when you choose different words, it already starts chilling out a little bit. I'm not saying a lot all the time depending on where the trigger's coming from, if there's trauma behind that, but a lot of times it's at least going to chill you out. And then that's what the brain does when it starts calming down the calm, parasympathetic state, the calm state of your nervous system. It's in more optimal use of brain resources.

(11:59): It wants to create an opportunity and solution for you. It's going to start looking for answers when you ask a question. So when you ask questions, I'm curious, why am I having anger right now? You'll find how you start journaling, figure out from their why and then often the solution. So that can create some momentum, you guys, for you, there's sometimes more depth, there's more layers to that, especially there's other team members involved. But it's a great way to help you start mastering that and moving forward because you're going to gain productivity, performance and ultimately your bottom line. So those are big things for emotional regulation. So we talked about sleep, we talked about emotional regulation. And the third thing really even before exercise, you guys also didn't say exercise yet. That's the fourth. The third is really nutrition. And by the way, I'm a big believer that it's specific to each person.

(12:44): Metabolic rate, blood type, your past milk constraint. I've been a practitioner a long time. So specificity to your type of food plan is necessary to optimize your body and brain to feel vital that day. However, one thing I will say for every American across the board, and I'll say every American, okay, we genetically modify a lot of different foods in this country for a variety of reasons. And the thing is that's happening is we have a hard time digesting that colors, food colorings, all this. And one of the things we genetically modify the most are wheat flour, our carbohydrates. And the reason why that's important for Americans to understand is Americans, 90% of us eat too many carbs, too many wheat products. And most of us in research show that we have a mild to severe allergen to the genetically modified wheat products in everybody.

(13:35): So a mild to severe like celiacs where you have more of an anaphylactic response. And the reason why that's important, everybody, it puts inflammation in your entire body, your brain, your gut, your whole body. So you think if your brain's a little plane, do you think you're going to be able to be more clear on your message, articulate well during the day, write up an email effectively? No. Okay. So those three are going to be probably the biggest dominoes for you to start gaining traction as a powerful leader to stay in your vitality and create connectness and good productivity communication with your team, sleep anything before midnight, that's going to be the big chunk for you guys. Number two, learning how to manage and emotionally regulate your system. Sometimes you need coaching consulting here, but at least trying to shift your words will open up Pandora's box in the brain powerful way. And then third, looking at not necessarily eliminating, I don't eat gluten wheat flour, which is gluten itself, but at least in modifying its usage, which can help calm down inflammation in the brain. And then fourth, we could go into a whole nother podcast is movement and exercise. But those things I believe are really big things that can help people from a general level to create traction as powerful leaders and then delving in more powerful. We need more coaching consulting beyond that. She

John (14:51): Might actually live a little longer too. I mean, what you just gave was really a good recipe for having a more enjoyable life period, right? A hundred

Jennifer (15:01): Percent about the quality of life. Don't we all want that? The quality of life, longevity of life, right?

John (15:06): So if somebody came to you and said, look, I listened to this or I went to your website and I'm ready to turn things around, is there kind of a recipe for optimal health? Or you maybe said this already that everybody's different, but there's probably a few truths I guess that are going to show up on anybody's recipe, aren't they?

Jennifer (15:27): No, absolutely. This is number one, we're just optimizing health. And again, everyone, leaders, this probably goes without saying, this is your vehicle that God gave you. We don't treat it well hardly at all. It's really interesting. It's actually really brilliant just by the way we go on a whole nother podcast on this, the brilliance of the body to rise even with all the junk we inhale from pollution to the food, food to the less activity, to the toxic environment from social media, it's amazing. Our body actually rises as powerful. It does. So just be thankful and grateful for that everybody. But if you want to optimize this to actually work for you, because this is the tool, this is the vehicle we're using every day to show up, not just as John just said as leaders, but in our life as husbands, as fathers, as just wanting to enjoy life.

(16:10): First and foremost. I don't care if you're a person that's fit or a person that's athletic, you don't have to be get outside. The first thing I do in the morning all the time is get outside in the sun. Even if you don't have a lot of sun in your area and it's cloudy, it's still indirectly getting sun from just being outside in the light. There's so much that happens from vitamin D to actually grounding with the earth because we're positively negatively charged. Being so is the earth. It helps pull us into a powerful state of calm state, a parasympathetic state for us to get ready for a day and optimize this. So get outside five minutes, you guys. I'm even saying three hours exercise, five minutes every day, get outside, put your head up in the sun and this is where you're also going to second breathe.

(16:53): Okay? Breath is life. It's not only necessary for all the interactions, it's a catalyst for many things inside our body to happen autonomically, but it also is huge for stabilizing our nervous system, our brain to body to be in a calm state. Again, the reason why I keep saying this, everybody 90% of the day, our human beings are supposed to be in a calm, parasympathetic state is actually reversive that so many Americans and leaders are stressed out. But the reason why that's important, research shows we need that for optimal brain and body to function. So that's why they get outside. Now that you've been outside for five minutes, we start breathing you guys, there's so many different types of breath work out there. I use Wim H method with some of my clients, depends on what your needs are with more performance based, trying to help with anxiety.

(17:40): But no matter what, just getting outside, taking 10 to 20 deep breaths starts that cycle, going to get you into a calmer state. Again, there's more specifics. I teach to get more nichey. Depend what your needs are, but getting outside and breath is next. Third, the one thing that I always say you guys have to do is move. It doesn't have to be exercise move. It could be dance for five minutes. It could be jumping jacks. It could just be you doing some burpees for five minutes. It could be you just walking your dog. The reason why that's also important is it's a triple kind of opportunity for you to not only get the blood flowing, okay, movement to the brain, the body get blood flowing. But guess what else it does. If you're waking up with way, we talk about the beginning of all this emotions that don't feel good.

(18:28): Emotions are energy. Just like food is energy. When you start moving, you actually start moving some of those negative anger, depression, anxiety, outside of your body. I'm not saying it's going to be perfect, depends the layers of what's going on there, but it can move it through you guys. I do this every morning. If I'm feeling anxious about something, I literally will jump up and down outside and it does move me into that calmer state because I'm moving energy that's not good out of my body and I'm getting the circulation pump for the day. So get outside deep. And

John (19:03): It makes for some good Instagram posts too.

Jennifer (19:07): Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Those are biggest, those are probably the biggest three things, John. But then I would say is this connection is key. We're relational beings and one thing that's going to help us from a vitality of physical standpoint and also an emotional standpoint is get connected to people that are your tribe. It's not just your team that's in your business that's on the same mission and mission that love it, but also the people outside. We always hear this that the five people that you're on the most also influence you the most, right? But get around people that you feel good around. Everyone that works on your physical, emotional, mental wellbeing. Let alone all the things that can help you and mastermind and get the things that you want done in your business. So connection with people is the right people. Moving, really making sure that you're doing some breath and getting outside. If I give any tools, will be the that I would give to people to start your day off. This is going to help you get to a higher frequency, calm the nervous system to be ready to go and perform no matter what is happening in your environment that day.

John (20:10): Well, I happen to be lucky enough to live in a national forest, so forest bathing is certainly something I do every single day. Well, Jennifer, I appreciate you taking a moment to stop by the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast anywhere you want to invite people to connect with you.

Jennifer (20:23): Absolutely. So I'm the most active on LinkedIn and Instagram. LinkedIn. I'm Jennifer Watson and then on Instagram it's the Jennifer Watson and I do answer my own dms. So if you have any questions about this podcast or connecting with me more and learning more about what I do and how I can support you, connect with me there. I'd be more than happy to support you.

John (20:43): Awesome. Again, thanks for taking a moment to stop by and hopefully we'll run into you one of these days in Colorado. Soon.