#135 - Improving Your Overall Well-Being with Jamie Lerner

In this episode of the Morning Upgrade podcast I talk with Jamie Lerner about her morning routine, improving well-being, overcoming entrepreneurial challenges, hobbies and more.

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Announcer  

Welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast with Ryan Cote where we feature casual conversations with entrepreneurs about personal development and growth.

Ryan   

Hey, Jamie, welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast. How's your day going?

Jamie   

Excellent. Thank you.

Ryan  

Good to hear that. Let's start this off Jamie, tell my audience and morning upgraders who you are, what you do for a living, and it's something you're grateful for right now.

Jamie  

I am a well being therapist. And what that means is I assist people in assisting themselves getting from where they are to where they want to be. And I am so grateful right now that the sun has come out after so many days,

Ryan   

you're saying that you're in Illinois, so you're getting a lot of snow? So good. Enjoy it. When you say well-being therapist, is it mental health or is it physical body to mind and body?

Jamie   

It is mental health. Although I believe that the mind friends the body, I used to be psychotherapist. And after doing that for quite a while I realized that maybe I wasn't assisting people in the way that I could. So I shifted. And now I'm just doing something very different. And in fact, it's really helpful that people are learning that they are their own greatest resource. So assisting people in assisting themselves.

Ryan  

Yeah, it must be a very gratifying profession. Have you always been? Yeah, have you always loved it?

Jamie  

I do. I love people. I think people are just amazing and beautiful. And so filled with well-being one's favorite member. That's really why we're all here to feel good to know ourselves to love ourselves, and then hopefully find meaningful connections with other people.

Ryan  

We'll get to your morning routine in a second, but you're making me think of something. So in my family's marketing agency, Valentine every Sunday, I send out an email to the team called the Valentine Digest. And it's five things like I talk about company news, personal development, just kind of like random topics. And so I don't watch the night news. But I think it's very, very much like positive mindset. And like nighttime news. It's very negative, because that's what draws the eyeballs. But my father recommended this resource called nice news.

Jamie  

Oh, read it every day. First day. malarious. Absolutely. Yeah, that's

Ryan 

excellent.

Jamie 

That's great. Yes, I shared

Ryan   

I shared it this past weekend. And there everyone seemed to like it. So

Jamie  

don't even know it exists. So that's great that you're spreading the word.

Ryan 

Yeah. For everyone. Listen to this nice news.com not affiliated, just you can subscribe and they send out positive information to give your mindset a boost. That's good. All right, Jamie, let's talk about your morning routine. Tell us how you start your day,

Jamie 

I'm up at five every single morning, no matter where I am in the world. And clearly a morning person, I spend the first few minutes just sitting quietly with myself. And it's gonna sound a little woowoo. But kind of receiving from the universe and just connecting with me, and finding a few things to appreciate about me, not what other people appreciate about me. But what I appreciate about me, is that I drink some coffee, and then I pre-pave my day, which is I take myself through my day in the way that I like it to roll out. And lo and behold, when I do that, it rolls exactly the way I've pre paved it to go. So that's a very helpful and productive 30 minutes for me.

Ryan 

It's excellent, I do something a little bit similar in terms of like, when I first wake up i i think about what I'm grateful for just let it come over me like stream of consciousness almost, I guess, just for like a minute and think about what I'm grateful for. And, you know, so I think it's it's a great way to start the morning. It is Have you always had a morning routine? Or if not, when did you start it? And why did you start it?

Jamie  

I've all I think as far as I can remember, I've been a morning person. And I feel that I am the most open to receiving what I need to know, in the morning. So I think that's started a really long time ago. And it seems to serve me personally very well.

Ryan  

Do you have a nighttime routine? I'm assuming it's getting to bed early if you're waking up at five, but do you do anything intentional at night?

Jamie  

I do I do the same thing. Whereas it's a very conscious process of going to bat and once again, pulling on moments of appreciation for other people and for myself and for the way things have unfolded for the day.

Ryan 

Yeah, that's excellent. So I like to talk about tips on the show personal development tips. Being that you're a mental health expert. I've got to ask you about that. Are there any tried and true steps? I know it's gonna depend on the course we were speaking with but are there any tried and true strategies for mental health or I guess either protecting your mental health or improving your mental health you could share with us?

Jamie  

Well, first of all, I'm not an expert, I'd like to say that I never positioned myself as an expert. So, you know, I think that if we can figure out a way to connect with ourselves, to feel comfortable in our skin, know ourselves love ourselves, nourish ourselves, then I think it makes it so much easier to connect with other people. And people tend to look for tips and tricks outside of themselves. But I think it's a real inside doll. So I asked people to sit with themselves and get to know themselves and be lovingly curious and remove the judgment and have a laugh, too, if they can isolate their self-talk. Once we hear our self-talk, often, we would only laugh because oftentimes, it's not very kind. But I think personal development is crucial to our ability to connect and be with other people in an anon-judgmental way.

Ryan  

You mentioned, loving yourself, I think that's a really, it's actually been a common topic on my show later, the last handful of guests, we've talked about that, for whatever reason, I don't know why it just worked out that way. But I think it is a very important topic. Do you have any self care habits that you that you rely on every day, obviously, the morning and night routine that you have anything else during the day that you can share with us?

Jamie  

Well, I have a passion, I ride in jump horses, so I make that a priority to build that into my day, every single day. And it's interesting, when we do something that we love first and foremost, or at least build it into our day, then we tend to be so much more productive, and the other roles that we've taken on whether it's were for a parental role, or just being with friends. So I think to nurture and nourish ourselves, and for every person that is different. I think that that is important, because the relationship that we have with ourselves is the basis for every other relationship that we belong to have with

Ryan   

others. You said jumping horses that I get that

Jamie 

is so I ride in jump horses, and that's that's actually my passion I used to show competitively. And now I just do it for fun. And to learn more and more about the questions. Yeah,

Ryan  

that's amazing. I don't think I've ever ridden a horse before.

Jamie 

I can think of well, just to be in their presence. They're amazing creatures.

Ryan  

Yeah, very powerful. But I'll second what you're saying. I think it is. For everyone listening, it's really important to have something that you're passionate about, especially outside of work to like, I don't think I've always, I've always been very work oriented. And it's most it's only until recently that I've tried to like for example, I'll just for my, my personal experience, like walking every day. And also martial arts. I started doing that last year Krav Maga and so having something I do a couple of times a week, pushing myself and the goal of getting a black belt in five years. So I've set myself and set that goal for myself. And then just like the connections you meet in class with other people I go, so yeah, I think it's you know, I think that's really important. I'm assuming in your horse jumping, you've got people that they're there with you. And it's not just you and a horse relation with your building?

Jamie 

No, it's a it's a lovely bar family, which is really nice.

Ryan  

Yeah. So you're kind of checking off a lot of boxes with that. Yeah.

Jamie  

yourself permission to do that without apologizing. You don't need to apologize for doing something for yourself. Because in the end, it's a win win for everyone.

Ryan   

Yeah, absolutely. Let's talk about your business. I'd like to just learn from you in terms of what you had to have entrepreneurs that listen to this show. What have you had the most success with in terms of growing your business? anything come to mind?

Jamie  

Yes, before COVID, I started a service called the Quickie a lovely texting option, which I had wanted to do for a long time. And clearly, there's never a good time when things are going so well. But yet, you want to make a little shift and add a service and you're unsure. But I just rolled it out. And it was so successful and so wonderful. And then COVID hit and it was like perfect time. So I think that when we listen to our inner knowing our gut, our intuition, whatever you call it, then I think that things work out in a very positive way. And the other thing is that when we don't ask others what they think about what we're thinking about doing, that's also really helpful. Thanks As people will always try to talk you out of something that you really want to do, for whatever reason. So I really kept it under wraps and developed it, you know, in a way where I just thought, you know what, I'm gonna do this, because I want to do this, and this will be great. And it was. So trusting yourself. I think it just comes back to that.

Ryan 

You have to experiment with different things, because some things will work some some things won't. And it's really hard to predict what will work and what won't you don't know what to test. Can you just give us a sneak peek into what the texting program? What it is just surely.

Jamie  

Yeah. So people buy a block of time. And they text with me, and then I text them. And there's this ongoing kind of transcript in the end, and there really is no end it's open-ended, which allows people to see what they texted to me and what I've texted to them. And lo and behold, people realize that they really didn't know for themselves all along. So it's a nice way of I think I'm just the conduit for people to work through stuff. Yeah. And it's very convenient to during COVID, a lot of people did not have privacy, you know, people moved home, and people ended up being the spaces where everyone was home. So it turned out to be fantastic.

Ryan 

And you're giving people options of how they want to communicate. Some people might be more comfortable being vulnerable through text versus being on video or in person. So you're giving them options, which is really cool.

Jamie  

Yes, and also people are busy. But the thing I like about it the most is that in some ways, it sidesteps the a lot of emotion and allows people to be more emotionally intelligent, because when you're texting you, you can go on and on and on and on. So I think that was really helpful to people to kind of be able to state something without all of the emotion and then be able to kind of problem solve from that place.

Ryan   

Yeah, the mastermind. I'm part of we use WhatsApp, which is like a texting platform. Yeah. And so yeah, it's it's right. It's a quick communication that you can communicate with your members or what have you. So yeah, I agree. It's very convenient way of communicating. What Sam business was talking about challenges you've had to overcome, or maybe one challenge. Is there any one particular challenge in your business? That comes to mind? That was really difficult. And then if yes, you know, how did you get through it?

Jamie  

I think it was when earlier when I was transitioning out of my very successful psychotherapy practice into what I'm doing now. And I knew that this was something I really wanted to do. And I waited and waited for, quote, unquote, the right time. And there is no right time. So that was a difficult time for me because it was almost like I was doing something that I knew I shouldn't be doing. And I prolonged. And so listen to myself, you know that that's what I learned from that is because I always know for myself, I don't know for others, but I know for myself, and I believe that for people that you do know for yourself. I've never heard anyone say I should not have listened to myself. But I hear people all the time say I should have listened to myself.

Ryan  

Yes, yes. Listening to your gut, it's so true. Would you say it gets easier to listen to your gut? Like as you do it more and more?

Jamie  

Yes. Because, you know, and then you know, you know, and even though you don't know how or why, you know, you know, you know, but once again, this is only for you. Like we know for ourselves, we don't know for other people. And it's interesting, when we give people the opportunity to tell us what they need to have to ask themselves, what do I need? Even, you know, on my website, the only way people can get in touch with me to work with me, is to reach out to me and tell me how much time they'd like to purchase of talking time or texting time. I don't know what you need, but you do you know what you need. People are not used to hearing that at all. People are used to being told what they need, especially in this industry. And I think we're doing people a tremendous disservice when we do that when we don't give people the opportunity to ask themselves. What do I need in this moment for myself? It's a great question.

Ryan  

That's why I love journaling so much in the morning pen to paper, I've got a one page clean slate, what am I going to write about? What's going to come out of my mind? What am I thinking about? What am I struggling with? What am I happy about? Every day is a little bit different. I don't have an agenda going into the journaling. I just grab the pen and be like, Okay, let's see what comes out. You know, and it's really, really interesting.

Jamie  

And it's great to have that concrete journal to look back on.

Ryan   

Yes, absolutely. Jamie this conversation is flown by I've got one last question for you. Then we're gonna wrap up with you by Sharing the best way that people can connect with you. My last question for you is through the lens of Jamie through your, through your experiences thus far, what is the meaning of life

Jamie  

connection with oneself and with others and really appreciating just in the moment? I don't think there's anything else.

Ryan  

Great way to end this. Thank you, Jamie. Alright, so someone wants to connect with you. Where should we send them?

Jamie  

website? www dot j am i e dash l er en er.com.

Ryan  

Okay, I will link that up in the show notes. Appreciate Jamie. Great job.

Jamie   

Thank you very much.

Announcer  

Thanks for listening to the morning upgrade podcast. Please subscribe and review. And don't forget to visit us at morning upgrade.com For more content

Transcribed by https://otter.ai