E180: How to Follow Your Passion with Brianne Hanson

Brianne is a multidisciplinary entrepreneur, heading into her 20th year in the cheerleading industry, having developed skills, knowledge and experience in the sport that have led to her success in becoming the Co-Founder of Cheer District. Together with her business partner, Dr. Scott Christie, they are offering the next generation of cheerleaders the tools they need to increase their skill acquisition and reduce their risk of injury through science and technology.

Alongside building her experience and knowledge of sports physiology, Brianne is also passionate about business leadership, entrepreneurship, business development and mental health advocacy. These passions lead Brianne to incorporating her business; Consulting by. B., consultancy for individuals who are looking to start a business, or established small businesses who are looking for help in finding organizational, operational & financial success.

Whether she is in the gym working with athletes, or working alongside a client helping them realize their true potential, Brianne is always finding ways to better build and support those around her…

[01:50] Valerie LaVigne: Brianne, Welcome to the Women's Empowerment Podcast. I'm so excited to have you here. I feel like we're doing the back and forth. I was on your podcast and now you get to be on mine and I'm so happy.

Brianne Hanson: And thank you so much for having me. I'm really looking forward to the conversation because I know how much value you bring. And I love when we get together and I feel like we can do a little things together. So I'm excited for the listeners to hear this episode.

VL: Yeah, it's gonna be great and I don't want to give too much away. But I would love to jump in with something a little bit more personal to you and to your journey. So why don't you tell us about what you do and how you got to doing what you do?

BH: Totally. It's funny because my podcast actually watched an episode today. That's my journey into entrepreneurship. So I'm just preparing for this conversation.

So I'm a small business consultant, but I also own a small tech business in Germany. We have a custom app, personal fitness app for cheerleaders, and we do research using advanced technologies to help athletes better train for the sport.

As well as I have a podcast obviously as we discussed, and it's been quite the journey to get there and to become the entrepreneur that I wanted to become the last five years, almost six years now that I've been in it. It's been a roller coaster, but it's been exciting because I've had the benefit of being able to follow my passion and I've had this board around me that no one has allowed me to do that. But I started off in I started off in corporate and to be honest, that's where I thought I wouldn't be forever. That's kind of when I was in university High School. That's where I envisioned myself I envision myself like we're working downtown Toronto, or New York or something like that, like climbing the corporate ladder, but it's funny because I watched my dad in entrepreneurship my whole life, but he was kind of a blend of corporate and entrepreneurship because he was an investment banker.

So he would be in the corporate side and then find a business through investment banking, and then dive in and be more a part of that business through entrepreneurship, and kind of run it and stuff. So it was this really weird combination that I watched him do as I grew up, and that's really what made me think I was gonna go to corporate and so when I came out of university, I went right into business development in an orthotics manufacturing plant, which was not for me at all. I'm not passionate about feet, let me tell you.

It was a painful like every day going in and trying to build a business around the feet. it just wasn't for me. So then I spent a lot of time with my now business partner, because growing up in cheerleading, I didn't take care of my body as I should have and so I was going to see my business partner, sports scientist, physical therapist.

Me being me,, whenever I was laying on the table, I was just like, I hate it. Why am I doing this? And eventually he got sick of it and said brand doesn't work for me.

Sign me up. So then that was a really cool experience because he was an entrepreneur. He owns multiple clinics and the clinic that he wanted to come work for him was only employee and it was in the cheerleading gym that I grew up in. So it was like, Oh my gosh, and practice passionate.

I get to go back and although it's not directly working, it's within the home. That's like the place that I called home for so many years. And so they get to go back there was like, Oh my gosh, and I was so happy and so excited about the opportunity. And one of the things that he instilled in me the day that I started was, you will get out of this what you put into it, so like decks that grow the business, you know, you get to be a part of that and you will benefit from that or if you come up with ways that we do new things in the clinic, you will benefit from that. so he set me up in a way that was very much in the scenario.

Despite the fact that I wasn't running my own business. And that's actually how my first business started. So cheer district which is the custom fitness app for cheerleaders started as a little project. My co founder in his clinic have helped routers to make better so they don't end up like me, broken and in their 20s and still having to go full time so each service despite the fact that I wasn't sure and it became too much of a thing that I could have handled both the clinic work that I was doing as well as running to district so I took it ran with it.

It became my full time job when I raised money and built that business. And I was like so thankful every single day that I got to wake up and be in the church. Because that's the passion that in my life I had through and through since I was six years old until passed University growing this business. I was so lucky to be able to live that life and have something that I was passionate about every single day And then it hurt a lot. It was a rough two years. I know we're still kind of coming out the other side of it but despite the fact that we were an online service.

It was awesome at first thought pandemic was when we thought it was going to be a couple of weeks. It was like we had a huge influx of signups people that wanted to stay strong at home while the pandemic was going on and it was so great. But then when the pandemic shifted to lasting longer and longer, Our primary customer base was in Canada.

They had to start offering their own programming in order to keep their kids in their facilities and like in the gym, and coming back after the pandemic. So there was a lot of stress that came along with that and I had to find ways of like continuing to fuel my passion and although I'm still so passionate about cheer, and luckily now that the pandemic is winding down, I get to continue to grow that passion and continue to like build this business back to kind of where it was pre pandemic and they're on track to surpass that by a lot. But I found a new passion, which was really cool, in that we know throughout the pandemic, a lot of people started their own businesses, and that included a good number of my friends. And because I had kind of jumped before the pandemic and before really it feels like everybody had some kind of side hustle. I had gone through all of the steps of what does it mean to incorporate what does it mean to create a business plan? What does it mean to build financial projections, all of those things? And those are things that I love to do so my friends kept asking me the grand like, I think I'm starting to build this do you mind helping me?

Of course, it was a no brainer. Like I'm, I love that kind of stuff, but also I'm always going to support my friends.

And so I started to feel a lot of fulfillment and a lot of passion in that side of the work. and I have always loved that piece of when I was building your district. those things excited me I really liked building the business behind it.

So when your district was in a different place because the world was in a different place I started to get fulfilment from something else. And I know that we want to dive into this a little bit but I actually started at first I had I had guilt of have a new passion. And does that mean that I have to give up my old passion does that mean if I'm going to add this passion to my life and my resume and my docket of work every day? Is that not fair to my old passion? Does that mean that I'm not passionate about it? And so it took me a bit to come to the passionate about more than one thing and it's okay that I do more than one thing which we talked a lot about. You are a guest on my past on my podcast, multi passionate entrepreneur, but that's what got me into consulting which is what I'm doing now. I'm also doing your district so I do them both. But I'm so passionate about helping other entrepreneurs like find what it means to build a strong foundation for their business and see those light bulb moments that they have when they figure something out. How to scale their business or taking it from an idea and turning it into something that they Wow. I'm actually like I've grown so much.

So I'm lucky to have found multiple and and through that I've been able to support my mental health and like find my internal happiness because I get to follow my dreams every day.

[11:13] VL: Wow, you said so many amazing things in that story. So glad I'm so glad I feel like there was like full circle moments and how I want to say that success leaves clues like all these little things are kind of leading you in these directions. And I always butcher this quote and I can never just stick it on my computer because I love it so much. But Steve Jobs says you can't connect the dots looking forward you can only connect the dots looking backwards. And it really sounds like that's part of your story is really seeing like everything is really connected. And when you're in the moment and you're in those transition times. You're following the passions. There's so many different things that can come up there's fears there's doubts there's the guilt, you're safe. And I know a lot of people listening will be listening to your story and you know, having a little like a little inkling like I felt really bad and let's get to that from the beginning, basically. And how would someone get clarity around what their passion is? how would you even know? you're passionate?

[12:33] BH: That's a really good question. And I think like you said about that steep drop backwards like connecting the dots looking backwards at this that explains it in a very clear way that it's looking back and thinking about what are those things that need to have filled your cup that gave you those butterflies in your tummy that you went home? And you wanted to tell your husband, wife, mother, sister, brother, whatever, and you get excited and you're like, this really cool thing happened to me today and I want to tell you all about it. That's the first thing that I noticed in my experience finding these passions is noticing little things along the way. That indicated to me that that's something that makes me happy because there's a transition period of doing things that scare you in order to grow right. So the first time I thought about consulting and because I thought that butterfly feeling when I would help my friends were building their businesses and I would want to go home and tell my fiancee Elliot, I did this cool thing with my friends building her lash business.

And, you know, we did these financial projections and she was so impressed by you know, the spreadsheets that we were able to create to really see what the potential of her business was. And there was a lack of pressure in the situation because I wasn't charging because I wasn't I was just doing it in the goodness of my heart and helping a friend when at the end of the film.

But there's that fear of when you cross the path of kind of making it a business that there there is that imposter syndrome that comes up there is that fear but you really just have to lean back on. I know I can do this these things. It makes me happy and I feel 100% fulfilled by this passion. So I want to continue to grow that way. And it's not to say that all of your passions have to be businesses.

But in my opinion, the more passionate you are about something, the easier it is to bridge that gap of from fear to excitement, and the easier it is to grow your business because you found that passion. You've seen those little things sprinkle in your life of doing things and trying new things and finding your way to that thing, your passion. And to be honest, if I hadn't started helping my friends I probably never would have found this passion. So it's about just letting like happen. I think that's honestly something that I've been telling myself really just the last six months like since I started this consulting business because I really do feel like it was something that I didn't expect for myself. And so I opened myself up to the opportunity even though it scared the crap out of me. And ever since then, I've been telling myself, allow things that come into my life and evaluate them. And that's something that my dad always taught me every time an opportunity would come up and I'd go to him and be like, No, I don't know about this. He says evaluate every single opportunity that comes into your life. assess how you feel, then move forward. And I've allowed myself to do that for the last six months and it's crazy how much I let go and into my life where I may have just blocked them off before so I would say for anybody looking like how do I find what I'm passionate about? allow things new things to come into your life. Open yourself up.

When someone says hey, would you be interested in x y Zed even if you get that feeling in your belly that's like kind of be like to evaluate the opportunity. talk about it more. see what you know the people that you rely on like your immediate family. think about it if you want to talk to them about it. talk that through don't just shut it off as soon as it comes your way because it scares you. I hope that answers your question. it was kind of like a really round the rosy circle of getting there.

[16:35] VL: Kevin Yeah, absolutely. I think that you said a lot of great points is like checking into what lights you up and then or what has led you up in the past and what are those things and and really getting curious about what maybe you want to be doing in the future like if you give your family like family time into your life, we're just kind of making this like, Wish List of like what that perfect with that perfect career or legacy you want to build is or whatever it is. Right? And then like using the past as those clues, and as those reminders of what works for you. And then you kind of went off you kind of went into whatever the next question is, which is really about that transition and you start bridging the gap. So let's say we figured out what we are clear on and we want to bridge that gap and you said it's smoother if we are super passionate about something but I feel like in the beginning, a lot of us don't have that same connection to our gut. That's a connection to self. That's a trust in self. That's something that I definitely know as an entrepreneur I've built over the years but it wasn't something that I started with because really you have no idea that it's completely new for you. A lot of it is jumping into the unknown a lot of it is taking rescue teams and so speaking to the that evaluating, period, like what are some of the things we can do to evaluate and assess the opportunity that's coming up? How can we take maybe small steps to get over that bridge or to or to close that gap? Because as much as we want to be like leap into the unknown and doesn't mean your parachute on the way down. Everything's gonna be fine realistically doesn't happen. We're not all we're not all in that position. We're not all in that position to do so. So, so take us through maybe just like bite sized pieces of how we get there.

[18:29] BH: Totally. And I think I have to be honest, the second time was a lot easier. Because like you said, in entrepreneurship that's something that you have to invest in is yourself and your self growth. And the more that you do that, the more you can have that like gut connection and understand what your feelings are. Sometimes you have that feeling and fear that's actually a feeling of excitement and you can tell the difference. But if you don't really have you aren't in tune with your feelings in the same way you might just sit strictly as fear.

VL: So wait, let's talk about that real quick! This is so good. So fear and excitement. They do feel very similar in the body. What's the difference? How can we discern which ones here and which ones?

BH: Now, you're right. That is a very tough question. And I think it's probably a little bit different for everybody and their ability to understand their emotions.

For me, when I am… for me, I try to take just a cool approach to and find the balance of fact versus feelings to understand if my feelings are excitement or if my feelings are validated fears.

And if it is a validated fear that I will lean into that. But if it's an unvalidated fear so for example, if I'm taking on a new client or my consulting and it's in a business that I've never worked in before, but what they're asking for help with is something that I've done a million times.

I might get a feeling of that. That belly feeling that feels a little bit of victim like that butterflies anxious feeling of trying something new. But I can take a piece of paper or now I've gotten to a point where I can do it in my head. I used to write it down on a piece of paper of the facts that validate why I should be doing something why those nervous feelings are really excited feeling so I might say they're looking to help for building your business plan and build a million business plans. I tell all my other clients successfully build their business plans, you know, although I might not know their exact industry really well. I am really good at research and I can help them do that and they know their industry really well so they bridge the gap. And I can write down all of those facts that I can read and say, Okay, so this is a this is an unvalidated and it's probably just me being unsure but also exciting, new opportunity.

Obviously when it's just a pure excitement feeling. I think I have enough my body connection to understand just it's truly excitement, but it's I think it's more when it's gray area. Is this something I should be excited about?

But I'm not really sure how I feel. And so actually physically writing things down to figure that out for me has been really helpful.

[21:44] VL: Amazing. That's definitely something that we can do. Right away we can write our feelings down and understand if they are legitimate fears or something that may be that we're struggling with. That's part of entrepreneurship, just like you said, it's really about the mindset. it's really about personal development and personal growth. And you mentioned that it's quite the roller coaster and I would echo that for sure.

BH: There's this saying that I can't remember where I heard it. I heck you're probably gonna be like Biranne I told you that. Like, is it the story or is it the story I'm telling myself? And so what's the reality versus the reality I'm trying to make through? And so that that's kind of a place that I put myself in, and we're literally saying, is this the story or is this the story I'm telling myself and try to work through the muddy waters of that to figure out what what the right direction is?

VL: Exciting. This is so powerful. Okay, so we have our clarity on our passion. We know what we want to do. We're feeling ready. We've overcome the mindset blocks to say that we can't do it and we're taking steps for what next? How would we get from where we are now to really working and diving into our passions.

[23:06] BH: I think it's different for everybody. I think surrounding yourself with the right people is asking for help. building yourself up. I think when it comes to entrepreneurship and following your passion, there's one thing it's one thing to be passionate about. Something and it's another thing to take tangible, proper steps in the right directions to follow those passions and truly make them successful.

Whereas I see a lot of people in entrepreneurship. They're super passionate about something so they just like, dive right in without even thinking and as much as I love that, like heck yeah, do the thing. There's also a level of like, okay, can we figure out what the actual steps are to taking it in the right direction? And to me that is sitting down and writing down okay, what are my strengths? What are my weaknesses, where are the holes that I have? So I might be passionate about?

Pilates, I may be really passionate about Pilates. And so I really want to be a teacher and I really want to take it there. What's the first step? I'm a great student, but here's a whole I actually don't have a certification to teach Pilates like, that's a relevant poll. Okay, I go and get my certification. What's the next step and actually sitting down and figuring out hey, I'm really passionate about something. Let's draw out the steps which is why I love the business. Plan, because I think it naturally gives you the ladder to success. If you do it properly. If you take the time to really build a strong business plan, you can start at day one, and be at year three, and see a clear path of how you're gonna get there. Yes, things are gonna change along the way. Yes. The roller coaster is gonna go upside down and backwards and you're going to take a million wrong turns but at the end of the day, you always have that one thing that you will come back to to say, okay, when I sat down passionate about Pilates, this was my plan and the roller coaster went backwards, but I know how to turn around and make you go forwards again, because I had that plan to lean on to make sure that I'm going in the right direction.

And the roller coaster turns around goes backwards because life happens. Pin down and rewrite that and that's totally okay. It circumstances drastically change but to have something to guide you through that passion, and then use that passion as fuel every single day to follow that path to say the Pilates certification courses no, no, it's fine. like yes, I love Pilates. but no, I don't want to learn. I don't want to do a CPR course that comes along with it. like that's boring to me. but I'm passionate about what I do. I'm passionate about the end result so I'm gonna do that anyways to take the next step in the right direction and doing it properly.

[26:06] VL: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a really, really good idea because it kind of maps it out for you without you having to do anything and then be able to build a business plan with someone who knows how to build a business plan. they're going to be asking all the right questions, but I also think really helps.

Sometimes people come to me with business ideas, and I ask a lot of questions. I think if you're passionate about something that's really amazing. That's definitely your first step. But there are a lot of things that people don't realize if they're not already in business. If they're not business owners and entrepreneurs. And because you and I have those experiences, we can ask those questions. What are you gonna do if this happens? What are you gonna do if this happened and where do you where do you want to be here? And of course, that stuff isn't always fun. It's always like no, absolutely not. It feels a little bit like people are asking you questions are taking the wind out of your sails, but really, it's not. It's setting you up for success and setting you up for because even in my coaching with with healthy habits, we're talking about small, seemingly insignificant behaviors. That we are building every single day.

We’re asking these questions questions because I know that these are very common obstacles that come up, but guess what we're gonna prepare ourselves. Now. Stuff like those things come up to come up in the future, are not going to let it dim our light. We're not going to let it snuff out our fire. We're going to keep that fire and keep that passion going to continue to move forward and continue to grow. And we only get better at it. It does get easier then secondly, thirdly, or whatever it is. So okay, let's say we were in it. We've we've been able to transition maybe it looks a little different for everybody. Maybe it was a quick transition. Maybe it was a little bit slower, but we're doing the passionate loving goes by all of a sudden, something else starts to give her a little bit of a little edge. And now all of a sudden, we notice something else just like you and your consulting agency. What what are we doing women want to change or shift your passions? how do we get over those mindset blocks and what does that look like?

[28:40] BH: I think it's a lot of listening and learning to listen to yourself and to learn to listen to those feelings and not push them aside and not think that I wasn't worthy or think that I was letting myself or somebody else down because I had new passions. So the first thing is truly acknowledging those feelings as they're there for a reason. They're coming up for a reason. And everything happens for a reason. And that's something that I truly believe in.

So, I think it's very similar to the first time around, it's sitting down and it's saying, Okay, this passion is poking at me. So what does that look?

I have the experience of when this was all when my consulting was coming out. This little idea wish that I had but I was too scared to say it out loud. I was too scared to write it down. I was too scared to get out of my brain because I was like I don't know if I'm ready for this. I don't know what good enough I was also coming out of a place in my life and like it was a season of my life where I was lacking confidence. My mental health was not in its best place. I was really struggling.

But I was doing a lot of work like I was talking to a therapist. I was you know, doing the journaling but I still wouldn't journal about this one thing that I was like, I feel like this could get me out of this. And then I made the decision of going to allow myself and I went I asked my mom if she wanted to go on a little mother daughter trip. So I did figure out what my next step was. And so we went to Vancouver together and on the flight four and a half hours. I sat down. I feel like half an hour because I wrote down everything that I wanted to do all of my ideas. How can I build this business? What does it look like? I didn't have a structured business plan. But I was like basically writing one in my notebook and going through every single thing that could happen should happen. What would my daily structure look like in balancing multiple businesses and how can I make that happen? What support what I need? So what am I starting with now? What am I going to do in a year from now if I see the growth that I want to see and I literally just put everything that was in my brain on a piece of paper. I got to the first thing we did was go up for dinner my mom's like, okay, let's talk about some ideas. What are you thinking and like, you know, Mom, I actually spent four and a half hours and I wrote her the entire plan and so like I'm happy to read it to you, but I think I think I got this.

She's like, Brianne, we just got here?! I thought the whole plan was to figure this out once we got here?! Yeah, I mean, you know, I think I still have a lot to do.

Obviously you can't plan a whole business four to five hours. But I got so much further because I just allowed myself to feel those feelings and to put aside the feelings of, I'm not good enough. I'm not worthy. I'm letting something else go. Because I wasn't. It was just finding a balance. And that's something that I've opened myself up to over the last six months is if something comes into my life, it's not how is this going to hurt something else? How is it going to take away some from something else? It's how do I schedule my life so that it can fit? And then what support do I need to make it all fit for?

I hired a virtual assistants because I was like, I'm really struggling with keeping up with my emails. And my inbox is a mess and I hate the person that misses emails or has 500 unread emails. I feel unorganized. So I need somebody to help me with that. So really, it was about and it is about as I get bored, because I'm continuing to beat myself up and and people think I'm crazy. Brianne, you own two businesses.

You're doing all these things. On the street. And I'm like, well, it's difficult, but I do it because I'm passionate about it. And I do it because what would my life be like if it wasn't following my passion? What if I didn't listen to that gut feeling I just passed it off.

And I didn't get to do what I love every single day. I didn't get that feeling of filling up a cup every single time I get occupied.

As I want to follow my passions, I want to be happy. And yeah, that might mean that I'm busy. And it might mean that I have a lot going on. But then that comes down to me and managing that and figuring out how to manage that how to be the most efficient in my tasks. Because yeah, I could work volunteer district full time. I can literally consulting full time. but instead, I find a way to do both Well, and to do most efficiently so that I get to do two things.

[33:25] VL: I love it so much. I think your story is really inspiring and I think it's also gives people permission to get on a notebook and a pen and just write whatever is happening because I know and this is like a whole other podcast episode I feel like is learning to listen to yourself. I got it.

I understand that connection, because unfortunately for one of us we're so distracted and are so disconnected from that gut intuition that I really feel like journaling as much as it's not – It's not like my first go to thing that I do but I can definitely find it really helpful when I am doing it. And if that's a little practice that people can get into, and then even being able to look back and to see like, what, what really lived here today or what was that idea that I was writing about? Does it still resonate with me? Does it still feel like I want to do this? or do I still envision myself going into that business or starting this product or helping these types of people? and yeah, I think there's a lot of power in that.

BH: you know, to be honest, I love journaling and it's funny because probably three times in this episode I said, You should write things down, but I find that there's this box that you put yourself into when you and this is just my personal opinion and it works differently for everyone. If I tell myself that I'm going to journal every single day, and when I've had not so great mental health sticks in my life that is something that I've tried to do because it helps me get my feelings out. But I wouldn't say that I'm like an avid journaler. But I because I feel like once we put the label of journaling onto it for some reason people get it myself included. I get put off of it. I'm like I don't want to just like write down about my feelings. Whereas I rely on writing and like, like I like to call the word vomiting into my notebook to just get my feelings and thoughts out of my brain because sometimes it's so overwhelming like I could not fit another thing in my brain right now. and I need to get it out. So whether that's saying it out loud to someone or writing it down and most often I just feel most comfortable about writing it down first so I can kind of flush out my own thoughts before I talk to somebody about it.

So yeah, I just I want people to know that journaling doesn't have to be that sticky. boring. What did I do today? how do I feel today kind of journaling doesn't even have to be the like manifestation type. of journaling, it can literally be just one, like your brain is full or when you're feeling starting to feel that that feeling of, maybe I should be doing something or whatever that is.

Writing it down and just word vomiting onto a page I think is the best way to get that out and then read it back and be like oh I didn't actually know I felt that until you write it down, you know what I mean.

But yeah, that's just something that I wanted to mention because i i to get put off sometimes with journaling with when it's structured.

[36:48] VL: For sure I'm glad you said that. I feel similarly, and I word vomit and brain dump all the things and copious amounts of lists like you wouldn't just ideas and and this is another podcast episode.

On all of our ideas have to come to fruition, but it's important to get them out into and to filter them. so yeah, this has been really amazing. We do have a rapid fire show before we get there. Is there anything else that hasn't been said today that you really feel like sharing?

BH: Thanks, so just spending the time to learn to listen to yourself. And your life experience is different than anybody else. No matter how much you say about what our experience has been yours is going to be different. Your gut feeling might be different. Your passions are different. So learn to listen to that and do the work to a sense that at the end of the day, when you're passionate about something you can follow those passions successful. And it's it's a guarantee success will come If you follow follow your happiness At the end of the day being happy matters so follow that follow those passions.

VL: So good. Brianne where can we find you? Where can we follow you? how can we support your business?

Instagram: @consultingby.b

Website: https://www.consultingbyb.com/

Podcast: Spotify

Episode with Val: Embracing Your Multi-Passionate Self

RAPID FIRE ROUND

1. What are you currently reading or what is your favourite book?

BH: I am currently reading my favourite book, it’s called How to Do the Work. by Dr. Nicole LePera

And it really gives you some of the tools to do that mind body connection. And that's what it's all about. It's a really great mix of science and like psychology, and that body connection that is sometimes seen as a little bit less scientific quote unquote, but she does such a good job of pulling them together to help you understand like your child and why you do things, certain ways and why you think certain ways and it really challenges your thinking. and I'm obsessed with that kind of thing.

2. What does “empowerment” mean to you?

BH: I think there's two ways that you can look at it you can see it as external environment or internal environment and I really like to lean into the internal one because I think there's a lot that we can do from inside ourselves. we just have to find it. So empowerment to me like self empowerment would be leaning into the things that you love.

Leaning into happiness. and being empowered to solve that problem. be empowered to continue. And that's one of the biggest things that I've kind of been working on in the last couple years, myself and the power that comes with empowering yourself to be yourself is just going to continue to have

3. What is your longest standing habit?

BH: Good or bad? *laughs* When it comes to work is starting my day off with a to do list slash plan and exactly what my day looks like. because I haven't saying if it's not on my calendar, it's not happening. So I always spent the beginning of my day. Looking at my calendar, figuring out what the tasks between my meetings, and like that's every single day I do that.

4. What are you currently working toward?

BH: I am currently working toward building all of my businesses I have new exciting works So building that business and looking forward to sharing it with the world soon.

VL: Thank you so much for this amazing conversation. I feel like you you've given so many great words of wisdom. so I know that it's hard to keep re listening to this episode for sure. And like I said, I'm going to leave everything in the show notes page on how to contact you. but I did want to say that you are much appreciated the work that you do, the passion that you have and being able to all that, like I said earlier, it really gives people permission to do that and I feel like so energized, I know I came on this episode not feeling as energized and now I feel like Yes, life is good. Passion is everything. I keep this fire going. that's awesome. Thank you.

BH: Thank you so much.

VL: Thank you! This has been an absolute pleasure.

BH: Absolutely. For me too.

Podcast Host

Valerie LaVigne

Valerie is the creator and founder of Valerie LaVigne Life and the Women's Empowerment Show. She helps busy and empowered women create healthy habits so that they can become the best version of themselves and transform their lives. Learn more about Valerie here!