Alison Sher: The Millennial's Guide to Changing the World

23 Apr 2019 · Be A Smart Woman

00:33:54

Today, the Be A Smart Woman podcast welcomes renowned author Alison Sher. Alison is an expert on the subject of millennials and the challenges they face. This is the subject of her fantastic book: Millennial's Guide to Changing the World. Today, in the first part of a two-part series, Alison shares what led her to write this book, what it is like to be a millennial in the world where older generations think they are floundering and only living up to a small fraction of their full potential.

In addition to her amazing book, Alison runs Millennials Incorporated. Millennials Incorporated does cross generational reconciliation work inside of organizations helping bridge the generational gap that leads to millennials turnover and helps organizations transform corporate culture. Alison offers cost sensitive, custom tailored organizational strategies to transform company cultures in a way that is proven to help increase retaining millennial employees.

Alison shares her thoughts on the millennial generation from her study of numerous perspectives within the generation uncovered by the interviews she conducted as a foundation for her book (2:45). Alison also discusses the impact of coming of age within the great recession, climate change, and income polarity has shaped the values of the millennial generation. (6:47)

Alison discusses how she believes we can break away from the victim mindset that is so prevalent in society, especially in the millennial generation (13:42). Alison then talks about the challenges of misinformation and biases that todays digital world faces and how millennials deal with these and other systemic issues in their emerging adulthood. (16:48)

Alison spends the remained of her time discussing the issues that is caused by the generational gap inside businesses and how the millennial generation is changing how businesses get done. (22:18)

To Learn more about Alison and her work visit her website at http://www.millennials-incorporated.com.

Quotes:

Alison on what the millennial generation really wants:

“What I know about this generation is where we want to go is we want to change the world because we're inheriting a lot of global crises and our systems need urgent changing in order for us to mitigate [their] impact…” (04:46)

Alison on frustrations other generations often see with millennials:

“My experience with working with baby boomers and working with people who do care about the future of this earth and do feel some kind of responsibility for the legacy they're leaving the coming generations is we're like, "I want to empower millennials with the resources that I have, but I can't even get them to pick up the damn phone and give me a call back.” (08:23)

Alison on why she included so many perspectives in her research for the book:

“[The] reason why I made sure to include all these different perspectives inside of the book [is] because empathy, I believe is how we start to come together and really understanding other people's perspectives and stop turning them into the enemy or the other.” (13:43)

Alison on why the millennial generation is changing so many businesses and causing so many businesses to go bankrupt:

“They are not places where we want to work, so what we're finding is that this evolution of business has to happen for these companies to stay alive because millennials are not, we're not drinking the Kool-aid.” (23:01)

Alison on emotions and the millennial generation come together:

“Millennials just aren't able to compartmentalize their emotions the way other gene ... We come with them. You're going to have to acknowledge that aspect of our psyche if you want to earn our loyalty." (26:52)

Links Mentioned in Todays Show:

The Millennial's Guide to Changing the World: A New Generation's Handbook to Being Yourself and Living with Purpose by Alison Lea Sher

Connect with Us

To learn more about Claire Faithful and the Be a Smart Woman movement visit us at: http://www.beasmartwoman.com

Or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter

Also listen to this podcast on: iTunes, Spotify, and at BeASmartWoman.com

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A conversation with Meg Chamberlain at Fermenti Foods Part 2
7 Nov 2019· Be A Smart Woman
Today the Be A Smart Woman podcast welcomes a very special guest in part 2 of our series on fermented foods. Her name is Meg Chamberlain and she is the founder of Fermenti Foods. We will be talking in more detail about how fermented foods can help you. The many gifts that consuming this wonderful food group can bring into your life.
This episode will be packed full of great information so you might want to get a pen and paper for this one. Highlighting and discussing all the in's and our's of fermented foods. Why you should consider including such a dynamic health food into your daily diet, how to do this in a balanced way. Especially if you are a new-be at this.
We will talk about lots of recipe ideas and share some great tips on how to get your young children excited about eating these wonderful foods.
We will be answering questions on this today in away you may have never heard it explained before. By the time we finish our 2 part series you are going to be looking at these little powerhouses of foods in a totally different light.
We also discuss in more detail how eating fermented foods and fasting intermittently supported Meg in loosing over 200 pounds,
Please keep in mind that we are sharing personal stories, we are not doctors nor do we play one here on the internet so make sure you check with your doctor for any health concerns you might have and weather using fermented foods would be beneficial for your health and well-being
After the show we would love to invite you to join us with Meg in our Private online forum for further conversations around these podcasts.
To learn more about Meg and her wonderful company Fermenti foods you can visit her web sit at
www.fermenti.biz and
www.wncfermentingfestival.com
Facebook, instagram, twitter @ fermentifoods
and on their free YouTube Channel Fermenti Mountain
Quotes:
There are four things that you really want to have, you want to touch on in regards to fermented food and consumption. The first one is when you go to incorporate these realistically into your everyday diet, again, diversity is key. Obviously picking a ferment that you are going to want to consume is very important. I know a lot of people will buy something because it's good for them, but then they don't eat it and that's not good for them...(04:10 to 04:50)
You can even use the brine from ferments as like a salad dressing. So then that's another application is probiotic rich salad dressings. You just replace the vinegar with the brine. That's probiotic rich. (09:44 to 09:56)
One of the things that I find so fascinating specifically at markets at my booth is kids will come up and they will want to try something. And more often than not, a parent will come up and be like, "Oh, you don't like that. You don't want that." (25:22 to 25:41)
Yeah. It's like even animals, like dogs will come to my booth and I always have a little dog dish where I put some sauerkraut. (26:46 to 26:52)

Links mentioned in todays show:
www.fermenti.biz
uncfermentingfestival.com
www.beasmartwoman.com
Connect with Us
To learn more about Claire Faithful and the Be a Smart Woman movement visit us at: http://www.beasmartwoman.com
Or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter
Also listen to this podcast on: iTunes, Spotify. Utube and at BeASmartWoman.com
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Claire F.: (00:00) Welcome to the Be A Smart Woman podcast. Everyone has their own story to tell and you never know what impact your story might have on someone else's life. This is the foundation of the Be A Smart Woman movement. Our movement seeks to empower women through the sharing of their journeys with other women. Sometimes we don't even realize the lessons that our stories hold until we share them with others. I am Claire Faithfull, founder of Be A Smart Woman, and it is my hope and dream that this podcast will illuminate personal lessons for you the way listening to other women's stories has inspired me for years. We are so glad you are here. Let's enjoy this journey together.
Claire F.: (00:52) We are here today for round two of our fermented foods discussion with Meg Chamberlain, owner of Fermented Foods. You'll definitely want to grab pen and paper for this one as it's packed full of information. We'll be discussing the best ways to add these fabulous foods into your diet. A little hint, it is different than you might expect. Listen in. First we talk recipe ideas and share some great tips for getting even your pickiest eaters to love them. Meg talks about her personal journey of losing nearly 200 pounds by healing her gut with ferments and intermittent fasting. Please keep in mind that we are sharing personal stories. We are not doctors nor do we play one here on the internet, so make sure you check with your doctor for any health concerns you might have. After the show, we'd love to invite you to join us with Meg in our private online forum for further conversations around this podcast. You can find the link of our website or simply do a Facebook search for Be A Smart Woman online community.
Claire F.: (02:28) Wow, everyone. Welcome back to our fabulous show. I am so excited that we are going to be doing a part two with the wonderful Meg Chamberlain because I feel like we just touched the surface, and I was so excited about our first podcast. I felt like I just had to pull her right back in. And let's get some more questions answered, and let's understand on a deeper level because I got such amazing response from you guys and you all were asking about more and understanding more. So here we are. We have the wonderful Meg Chamberlain.
Claire F.: (03:06) Hey Meg. Welcome to our show again. I am super excited that you're here because after our first podcast together, I just felt that there were... I felt like we just touched the surface and there were so many questions that I had and I feel like even this one is just going to be a bit more of that because there's so much I'm realizing to gut health and to our general wellbeing and where fermented food plays a role in that. So I guess my question to you would be on another level or a slightly deeper level, what is it that we need to know about fermented foods? How can we add this into our diet? Are there simple techniques we can add fermented foods into our diet? Now in the last podcast we talked about where we could buy different fermented foods and the types, but I just wondered if you could talk a little bit more about that.
Meg Chamberlain: (04:09) Yes, actually there's, and thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. There are four things that you really want to have, you want to touch on in regards to fermented food and consumption. The first one is when you go to incorporate these realistically into your everyday diet, again, diversity is key. Obviously picking a ferment that you are going to want to consume is very important. I know a lot of people will buy something because it's good for them, but then they don't eat it and that's not good for them because they're...
Claire F.: (04:51) Yeah, that's me. I go, oh, I'm going to try that. And then I taste one little one at home and I go, yeah, no. And then I don't do it.
Meg Chamberlain: (04:57) And you're in very good company. There's lots of us that do that, myself included sometimes. So the first of the four things that I recommend when you are looking at adapting your diet with fermented foods is you want to double your servings of fermented foods to start. So in the first podcast we talked about the initial four to six weeks and how as when you start to consume them regularly, the soluble fiber takes the lactic bacteria down into your large and small intestines, and they will attach themselves to the impactions. Like if you have leaky gut or ulcerative colitis or Crohn's, it will attach to the impactions. And layer by layer, the soluble fiber is really the vehicle that helps remove those impactions from your system. So to start, if you're craving or your initial idea is to eat maybe a palm full, maybe initially have two palm fulls.
Claire F.: (06:07) Oh, so you're talking about like the palm of our hand. You take a palm full of fermented food. Like we were talking about sauerkraut because I guess that's what everyone knows the name of, sauerkraut. But so you'd put that in the palm of your hand, but you would do two to start?
Meg Chamberlain: (06:24) Yes.
Claire F.: (06:25) So you'd actually have more in the beginning?
Meg Chamberlain: (06:26) A little bit more in the beginning. So that's anywhere from an eighth to a quarter of a cup. So you might be choosing to eat a half a cup or so with every meal to, start for four to six weeks. I do recommend that you're aware that you can overdo it. Like if you were to sit down, because I have people that are like, "Oh my gosh, your kimchi is so delicious. I just sat down and I ate a whole jar. Help. Am I going to be okay?" And the answer is yes, you're going to be just fine. But you might have a little diarrhea the next day because of the amount that you've consumed.
Meg Chamberlain: (07:10) So I do recommend to try to eat maybe only half a jar if you have that compulsion. But again, I always above all recommend to follow your gut because our guts are never wrong.
Claire F.: (07:25) Well, I just love that saying. Follow your gut, listen to your gut. And we're talking about the gut and healing the gut. And yet we have to listen to it in the context of even how much fermented food we put in our gut.
Meg Chamberlain: (07:36) Yes. And also giving yourself permission to let go of our minds because our egos and our brains very much think that they know what's best. And if we give ourselves permission to deepen into our physical beings, that is really how we go with our true intuition and our gut. So a lot of people when they're like, "Oh, I just intuitively did it." No, they put together a series of logical fallacies that led them to do something that might, yeah.
Claire F.: (08:09) Well, it's just making me think about how people say to us, "Listen to your gut for your like intuition or your guidance." But I guess if your gut isn't healthy, then maybe you're not going to be able to listen to your gut so well.
Meg Chamberlain: (08:26) And that's part of the healing journey that we are all on in this day and age. And it is a give and take. There is a back and forth. But over time you will learn to understand what is your ego based, I'm going to do what Maggie wants to do, versus Maggie's gut being like, girl, we need this.
Claire F.: (08:50) I know. And that's the thing is how do we know what we need and how much do we... Well you're saying how much we should take to start with. And how does that go on? Like do we take half a cup of say fermented foods in the beginning, but how do we take it for a week, two weeks? I mean...
Meg Chamberlain: (09:12) Again, I recommend the four to six week period is a pretty good guideline.
Claire F.: (09:14) Four to six weeks you do that. With every single meal?
Meg Chamberlain: (09:17) I do. I also recommend that you consume cruciferous vegetables, living, raw at the same time.
Claire F.: (09:24) Raw vegetables. I mean you're talking about like raw broccoli or cauliflower, carrots.
Meg Chamberlain: (09:30) Lettuces.
Claire F.: (09:30) Oh, you can have lettuces, salads.
Meg Chamberlain: (09:33) You can have all sorts of leafy greens.
Claire F.: (09:35) I love kale. I love making fabulous kale salads.
Meg Chamberlain: (09:42) That sounds delicious.
Claire F.: (09:42) With a little lemon, a little olive oil on it. And black pepper. One of my favorites.
Meg Chamberlain: (09:44) You can even use the brine from ferments as like a salad dressing. So then that's another application is probiotic rich salad dressings. You just replace the vinegar with the brine. That's probiotic rich.
Claire F.: (09:57) Oh, I'm going to do that.
Meg Chamberlain: (10:00) And we'll get more into that in a minute. But when you consume the plant fiber with the fermented food, it helps go in and release those impactions over time, layers and layers. But you want to eat at least two times the volume of fresh to ferment. So if you're having a salad, maybe you can press the leaves to two handfuls of salad leaves or greens and then one handful of ferment.
Claire F.: (10:37) Oh wow. So they say two cups of vegetables, one cup of ferment?
Meg Chamberlain: (10:45) Yes. And then on top of that, the last thing to remember is as you are, because ideally what you're trying to do here is to clean up your system, correct?
Claire F.: (10:54) Right.
Meg Chamberlain: (10:55) You're trying to undo a lot of a lifetime's worth of quote unquote damage or dis-ease that's within our system. So to do that, and I know this might seem really impossible and it feels like it at times, but to achieve optimal results, you ideally would remove sugars, like refined sugars and refined processed wheats in flours from your diet as well.
Claire F.: (11:24) So in other words, if we really want to heal our gut...
Meg Chamberlain: (11:28) You have to stop doing the bad things that got you where you are. Which is eating the refined sugars and flours. Yeah.
Claire F.: (11:35) Right. And in a way, let's think about that. I mean like we kind of all are becoming aware now that refined sugars and flours and things that are white are not great for us.
Meg Chamberlain: (11:47) Agreed. And they tend to cause inflammation, which is another concern of leaky gut is your tissue is inflamed. So if you remove the factors that are causing the inflammation, healing can take place much, much more effectively. So you're not continuingly causing a problem while you're trying to fix the problem.
Claire F.: (12:11) Right. So, in other words, you could be taking the fermented foods, which will be helping you, but then if you're eating tons of sugar, well you're kind of going to be counter... It's like not really going to fully help you, is it? It might do a little bit of good, but it's not really going to help you heal.
Meg Chamberlain: (12:25) It's not going to get you where you really want to be. And then on top of that, just experientially, after the birth of my daughter, postpartum hit me like a brick. So I emotionally ate and went from 165 to 345 pounds.
Claire F.: (12:48) Wow. That's hard to imagine everyone as I'm sitting in front of her and she's just like this very smelt, beautiful woman. But I can't even imagine. But I'm going to take it. I'm going to take what you're saying as truth, but she looks amazing everyone.
Meg Chamberlain: (13:07) Thank you. And I mean I do have photos because I don't even believe it, but the exciting thing about that is in my life I learned it was part of my healing journey was I had to go to that point to then pull back from that point because one day I looked in the mirror and I looked at my beautiful daughter and I was like, I'm pre-diabetic. I'm probably inflaming my Crohn's. Every tissue in my body's inflamed. I'm unhappy with myself. I'm being jaded in my daily interactions because I'm unhappy with myself, because I don't have the love I need inside of myself for myself, obviously because I wasn't taking care of myself.
Meg Chamberlain: (13:54) I can't have that love then for my daughter or my family. So I had a really big moment where I had to make a decision to heal. And in doing that, I revisited the fermented foods because by that time, we had been fermenting on the homestead, and I had been eating kimchi and stuff off and on. But it wasn't something that I really took seriously in a way to change my reality. And I changed my reality over 18 to 22 months. It didn't happen overnight and it's not supposed to, but what...
Claire F.: (14:32) Oh, so this is a process? It takes time.
Meg Chamberlain: (14:35) And be patient with yourself and you have to be loving with yourself because it's not easy. But through intermittent fasting, which was choosing to eat within a four hour period every day. I didn't eat before that four hours or after. I could consume beverages. Like I didn't do just a water fast in between. Like I would have coffee or I would go to jail because I would get in trouble. So I gave myself my caffeine, and I would have teas and things like that, but I restricted the consumption of the food that I was eating within that four hour period. And the ideology behind that is to give your system a break.
Claire F.: (15:20) Yeah, I've heard about that. I have actually listened to other people talking about this concept of fasting where you eat... What I've heard is maybe you eat for like an eight hour period or a seven hour period or six hours. I haven't heard four hours. This is the first time I've heard four hours.
Meg Chamberlain: (15:39) And that's a little extreme.
Claire F.: (15:40) Yeah. But so maybe not everyone in the audience could fathom only eating for four hours. So could you stretch it like a little bit longer?
Meg Chamberlain: (15:50) You can. Six hours can work, but I find for me and for my physiology, four hours was the most effective. And if you think about it, a lot of us are so busy running around doing our day that we forget to eat lunch anyway.
Claire F.: (16:04) No, I do that. I do that a lot where all of a sudden I'll go, oh my God, it's 3:30 in the afternoon. I've had my, I don't drink coffee, but I've had my tea and maybe I've grabbed like a little tiny couple of strawberries or something or half a food bar, but I haven't really eaten. Because I didn't actually call that eating. That's just, and that's it. And I go, oh my God. And all of a sudden I get to five o'clock and I think, I have to eat now. Like I can feel that my sugar level is starting to drop. So I'll make myself food. But honestly, you're right. After I've eaten this fabulous meal, I don't think about food again. If I can get to the 3:30, but I have to be busy because if I'm not, if I'm having a quiet day, that's when I kind of think, oh, let me make breakfast and oh let me have some lunch because I have time.
Meg Chamberlain: (16:55) Yes. Then you're taking the food into more of a activity versus sustenance. Now I will say that something that did help me considerably was as I, and and it didn't happen overnight. I started at six hours and then went down to four eventually. But one of the things that helped me was I would get these horrible hunger pains and I was like, oh my God, I'm going to die if I don't eat right now, I need to eat right now. And I would make myself stop, and I would really drop into my body and think about it and be like, okay Meg, are you tired? Are you really hungry or are you just thirsty? So then I would drink water. I'd drink eight to 16 ounces of water. And nine times out of 10, I wouldn't think about it again. So I found that a lot of the times when I think that I'm hungry, I'm truly dehydrated or that it's my body's way of telling me to consume some sort of liquid.
Claire F.: (17:58) Wow, that's great information.
Meg Chamberlain: (18:00) And that's just again experiential data. But that's what I've learned. And then I paired this fasting technique with fermented foods. So during that four hours, I would eat an eighth of a cup of kimchi and a quarter cup of salsa that's fermented and a few dilly beans that were fermented. And then a few preserved lemon peels on top of a salad that I was eating, and I would consume ultimately the right amount. But I did it through diversity, through choosing to consume them more as condiments versus setting down a jar of sauerkraut on the table and being like, mentally, I have to consume half of this to dah, dah, dah.
Claire F.: (18:45) Yeah, that doesn't sound like fun. I can't imagine many people wanting to do that.
Meg Chamberlain: (18:49) I make it for a living and I don't even want to do that. So you don't have to make this torturous. The point of food, I believe, is to enjoy life and enjoy the flavors and spice and creativity of life. So you're not here to punish yourself. And that's why I think a lot of diets quote unquote fail, is because you come from the perspective of, oh, I've been bad, I have to punish myself to be good. And that is not sustainable.
Claire F.: (19:16) No, it's not. I agree with you.
Meg Chamberlain: (19:18) And who wants to be punished?
Claire F.: (19:20) No one. But I think as individuals it's very easy for us to self punish. I think that's one of the things I see, especially for women that we do a lot where we beat ourselves up.
Meg Chamberlain: (19:32) Well culturally we're ashamed and we're taught to shame each other. It was a way that we kept each other in check as women. And I believe if we are going to be smart women and take care of one another as we're meant to do, we can't fall into that shaming category because again, we're not only just shaming somebody else, but we are hurting ourselves by perpetuating these outdated social tools to keep us quote unquote with our legs crossed and our mouths shut. We as women are not meant in my belief to be hobbled like that.
Claire F.: (20:16) Oh, I love that word. Yeah.
Meg Chamberlain: (20:19) There's a saying, and please forgive me, the source is alluding me. But it's when women wake up, mountains move. And being here in the mountains and being around so many women that wake up, stuff's moving. Like we are making an effective change. And when we stand up and we make the conscious choice and give ourselves permission to be the change we want to see and thusly support the women around us be the change they want to see, that's when community comes together and we can stand together as women.
Claire F.: (20:54) I know. And that, I mean this is a little side note everyone, but that is really what for me Be A Smart Woman is all about, is bringing women together in community to share together. Like we're sharing about fermented foods, and this is giving me so much personal, helpful information. It's like you have this gift and now you're sharing it with me of which now we get to personally, the two of us, share it with all the people that choose to listen to this fabulous podcast. And then they can share that with their friends and their women friends, and this is how this can spread and then we get healthier. So we can be, because I think women are powerhouses.
Claire F.: (21:40) I think we can move mountains. But we also need our strength and our health. And I think that's one of, even for me with this project, I realize I have to go to bed a little earlier. I'm getting up earlier. I have to be more mindful of how I'm feeding my body because I need the energy to do all the things that it takes to put this podcast on, which is a lot. And it's fun, but I realize I need the energy. I just can't be doing some of the things that I used to do before. And so I think the fermented foods is and healing your gut, because I think isn't your gut about your energy? Because if I think about it from color, it's the center, it's the core. And I guess if that's healthy then we have more vibrance.
Meg Chamberlain: (22:29) Agreed. And there's a lot of data that's being brought out now in the scientific community about how the gut is our second mind, and it's even being argued that it is our primary mind and that our intellectual brain is not really as smart as we like to think that it is. In that getting back to the visceral nature because as a species, before we cultivized or civilized everything around us, we would have an altercation let's say with a wild boar and we would run for our lives. Well, physiologically we would have to then shake that off like a deer in the wild. They'll shake things off. And through becoming civilized, we don't allow ourselves to do the things we need to let go of emotional traumas.
Meg Chamberlain: (23:30) And as women in particular, we tend to push things down into our solar plexus and our womb areas. And that can cause a lot of dis-ease again. And so a lot of it for me has been yes, fermented food and yes, intermittent fasting, but also giving myself permission to take the conscious choice to go into those things that I have been told and allowed myself to be told. And that's another thing is that we allow ourselves to be coerced and then pulling these things up and looking them and seeing if they serve me well.
Claire F.: (24:10) No. And I think now the time is a lot that's what women are really doing is looking at where we've been kind of suppressed and sort of shut down that we have to live in this certain way and this is how it is. And I think now we're starting to go, well maybe I just don't want to do that. And it's not about feminism and this whole women's lib thing, "burn your bras" of the 60s. Maybe that was the beginning of that movement. I think now we're in a different time. It's about women really being empowered and being smart and going, how do I take care of myself? How do I take care of my health? How do I take care of my family? Or how do I take care of my friendships?
Claire F.: (24:48) How do I nurture healthy friendships in life where we care about each other as women instead of attacking each other, which was the [inaudible 00:24:57]. And I feel like that was the set in the culture too. But that's another topic. But it did make me think about something which is, okay, so we have our little children. How do we introduce fermented foods to young children? Because you know how picky they can be. And I'm figuring it would be good for children to have fermented foods too.
Meg Chamberlain: (25:22) It is. And one of the things that I find so fascinating specifically at markets at my booth is kids will come up and they will want to try something. And more often than not, a parent will come up and be like, "Oh, you don't like that. You don't want that."
Claire F.: (25:42) Oh really?
Meg Chamberlain: (25:43) Yeah. And so...
Claire F.: (25:45) So the child may be intrigued or interested.
Meg Chamberlain: (25:49) Because natural curiosity. And nine times out of 10, through behavioral patterning, we help our kids be picky, a lot of times. So it's so interesting when I find a parent that is willing to let their child consume anything. And of course I always ask permission. You always ask permission, but these kids, they'll eat the beets or they'll eat the kimchi or they'll eat... I even had one eat the hot sauce. Our pickles are a huge hit with kids of all ages. And it's so fascinating because these children, and in fact at market, some of the other market kids will every week come to my booth, "I want pickle juice, I want pickle juice, I want pickles. Can I have some?"
Claire F.: (26:39) So something about them that innately, they know this is good for them.
Meg Chamberlain: (26:43) Yes.
Claire F.: (26:44) So they're drawn to it.
Meg Chamberlain: (26:46) Yeah. It's like even animals, like dogs will come to my booth and I always have a little dog dish where I put some sauerkraut.
Claire F.: (26:53) So you can give this to animals too?
Meg Chamberlain: (26:56) Yes.
Claire F.: (26:56) Woo hoo! I'm going to give this to my dog. Oh, yay. Oh yay. Cool Monte.
Meg Chamberlain: (26:59) His quality of life will improve.
Claire F.: (27:01) Oh yes. I'm so excited.
Meg Chamberlain: (27:03) It is exciting. And so what's so neat is that when we don't have those filters, so many of us do gravitate. And it's really funny even with the adults that are very much in those patterns of restriction, self restriction, they'll come to my booth and I've gotten quite good at being like, don't come to my booth and bring that here. Just try it. Look, I got a spit bucket. I don't look. If you don't like it, no harm, no foul, but give it a shot.
Meg Chamberlain: (27:35) It's free to try. And nine times out of 10, people will try it and they'll be like, "Oh, well I actually like that."
Claire F.: (27:45) They weren't expecting it.
Meg Chamberlain: (27:46) Yeah, they had a preconceived idea.
Claire F.: (27:49) I actually did have that when I came to your booth all those years ago. And who would've thought we'd be doing this podcast together years later? But that's really what happened to me. I came on, my husband was saying, "You've got to come and meet this lady, Meg, she's awesome." And I went, oh, but I don't like that stuff. I literally was like that. Oh, I don't know. And I went, okay, I'll come and look. And I remember I'm sure saying to you, I really don't like that stuff.
Meg Chamberlain: (28:14) Oh, you were very clear.
Claire F.: (28:14) I was very clear. And then you said, "But I have this one that I think you might like. Would you be willing to try it?" And I was like, okay, I'll try it. And I have to say, I did, everyone, I got this little cup and I put a little bit in my mouth and I went, oh, that's not so bad. And you know what? I thought it was going to taste like pickles. Like you know when you go to restaurants and you get the burger and the French fries and they always have to give you all of these big horrible old pickles? I just think they're so disgusting. So I always had that picture in my mind that that's what fermented foods was, and I was so wrong everyone. It's completely different.
Meg Chamberlain: (28:58) And that's where I'd like to get into speaking really quickly about how to eat fermented foods because they're not always what we conceive them to be. And their application is wide and diverse. I have the incredibly talented chef, Jay Medford at Dope Donuts in Asheville. He is a donut genius, and he has agreed to work with me and we play.
Claire F.: (29:22) You mean could eat donuts?
Meg Chamberlain: (29:24) Yes, you can.
Claire F.: (29:24) Oh my god! Okay, everyone. Now we're reaching a whole new level here. Donuts with fermented foods. Oh yay.
Meg Chamberlain: (29:32) So on one note, again, you're not supposed to eat the weight in sugar, but on the realistic note, if I can have a donut, know I'm getting some probiotics, I'm rocking that. So it was a life goal for me to be able to marry the two. And he has agreed to play with, I'll make all kinds of fermented things like dragon fruit or preserved lemons or he'll take hot sauce that I make or pumpkin that's been fermented, and he makes these probiotic rich glazes for the donuts.
Claire F.: (30:04) Oh my God, how wonderful.
Meg Chamberlain: (30:05) It is. And I've also been working with Hop Ice Cream. They've made probiotic rich ice cream, not just regular ice cream but vegan ice cream. So the application process...
Claire F.: (30:18) And this is something that then I guess you can give your kids.
Meg Chamberlain: (30:22) Yes. So here you go, Timmy or Mary, you may have this probiotic rich donut. And yeah, it's your one donut week treat thing, but you know at least they're getting something of value within it.
Claire F.: (30:36) And can you give kids, like say for instance when they have their dinner, because kids don't always eat the same as us, especially when they're young. They're pretty fussy. But could you just give them a little bit of the fermented food on their plate and recommend that they eat that?
Meg Chamberlain: (30:54) I do that with my daughter. I always put a little bit and I'll sneak it places. I do this game where I say find the ferment, and so I've done things where like I've put sauerkraut in tuna salad or egg salad or chicken salad or tofu salad, whatever the medium is. I've also taken, like we do probiotic rich dehydrated seasonings and kraut flours. I will either take those or brines and instead of making water with my hummus, I'll put brines. And so you can have probiotic rich hummus or guacamole. I like to also, like for my daughter's birthday, I have a lot of health conscious mama friends. And so for the cupcake, what I like to do is I will take a cup of sauerkraut and put it in the cupcake mix because yes, I am human and I use a cupcake mix.
Claire F.: (31:56) Yeah, I know because that's the thing. But we're all going to have sometimes yummy things, and I think that's the point here as well. It's that we can be healthy and we can eat like good foods, but at the same time we can still have some of our yummy treats. Because I think in life we have to have a little bit of yummy too. I think all food is yummy personally, but sometimes there's nothing like having, I don't know, a great cupcake.
Meg Chamberlain: (32:24) And if you don't have that yummy, your overall dedication to being healthy is not going to be sustainable. I mean realistically. Like maybe once a month you need that cupcake or that doughnut, but you can put kraut in the batter. And yes, when it's baked it loses the probiotics, but you're still getting that soluble fiber and vitamins and minerals. Now to get the probiotics, I take the brine from the beets and ginger and I mix it in the icing. And I put that on the cupcake.
Meg Chamberlain: (32:55) So from beginning to end, top to bottom, you have fermented foods acting in an everyday item that you wouldn't normally perceive them in. A lot of people will put of course, obviously ferments as a topping to a sandwich, like a ruben or kimchi on a grilled cheese or salad topping with the beets and ginger. Those are all pretty obvious applications. A lot of times I like to use the brines in things like smoothies or the hot sauce in things like bloody Mary's. If you're going to have a bloody Mary, you can take fermented hot sauce and put it right in. You can put fermented tomatoes as the base.
Meg Chamberlain: (33:43) I do a preserved lemon where a friend of mine, like every month she has a get together with her friends and she'll take my preserved lemons and puree them up with tequila and ice and she makes frozen fermented lemon margaritas.
Claire F.: (33:57) Oh my God, that sounds amazing.
Meg Chamberlain: (33:59) So the application is as diverse as you want to take it and as much fun as you want to have culinarily. So it can be anything from just putting a little kimchi on pan fried potatoes next to your filet mignon, or it can be a freaking cupcake.
Claire F.: (34:16) Wow. Now I know that none of us knew any of this. Now do you have like a book or anything yet that we can find out some of these ideas? Because I mean obviously it sounds very simple, but I know how we all are girls. We like to have something that we can look at, a recipe or something visual so that we can be told, do A, B, C and D, and this is what you can do to create it. I know that I would like that.
Meg Chamberlain: (34:46) Well right now I am working on a recipe book. It is about a third done. I just have to find 36 hours in 24, but but it is in the works ladies. It is coming. In the meantime, I do have a free YouTube channel at Fermenty Mountain where I talk about mostly how to make, but I will be branching this summer into how to consume realistically these foods like serving suggestions. And then sometimes on my Instagram or Facebook, I'll throw things out like, hey, I just had this to eat and look how I used it.
Claire F.: (35:25) Okay. So there's ways that we can find out more about some of your different ideas and creative ways of eating like basically fun foods which have healthy aspect to them even though they're fun. Because I really like that. I think that in this day and age, not everyone wants to be 100% healthy, like vegetables and fruit and nothing else.
Meg Chamberlain: (35:52) Well life is short. And you should enjoy it. But again, there's ways to do both. Like last night we had some strawberries left in our garden and I sliced them and I put a teaspoon of our hot sauce and mixed it in. And then I pan fried some tempeh, which is a fermented.
Claire F.: (36:12) Yeah, I love tempeh.
Meg Chamberlain: (36:13) And I put the, the hot sauce berries on top, on a bed of beet greens and it was insanely delicious.
Claire F.: (36:21) Wow. Oh that sounds like a good, oh I'm going to try that one. Oh my God, there is so much. I mean I just am so excited. But I think now we have to wrap it up. We've come to the end of our podcast today, but maybe Meg will come back again another day and grace us with her female tips of some ideas. Because I just feel like this is like something so important for us as women to really know for ourselves and for our children and for our significant other or how that is in our walls. Anyway, I just think you are so awesome and thank you so much for coming back on our show and sharing some more of your wisdom. I mean I love it.
Meg Chamberlain: (37:08) I appreciate you having me and I'll leave you with a final quote. Fermenters Do it longer.
Claire F.: (37:15) All right. Bye everyone. Meg, you are so inspiring. I could continue picking your brain for hours, and I just might. We are thrilled to announce that Meg will be our very first podcast guest that we feature on our brand new Facebook online community. We do hope you'll join us there. The link to that group and to all Meg's contact information is on our website, beasmartwoman.com. Thank you for tuning in today. And remember when women wake up, mountains move. Women are powerhouses and the Be A Smart woman team is committed to sharing stories like these that all support us all along our journey.
Claire F.: (38:15) That wraps up our be a smart woman podcast for today. I hope that you discovered something about yourself during today's podcast as I truly believe we can learn something from everyone we meet. If you like what you heard today, I invite you to subscribe and leave a review. We'd love to have you in our Be A Smart Woman family. You can also follow and like us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. If you've got questions or think you have a story to share, you can find our contact information at beasmartwoman.com. Thank you for listening and see you next time.
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A conversation with Meg Chamberlain at Fermenti Foods Part 1
29 Okt 2019· Be A Smart Woman
Today the Be A Smart Woman podcast welcomes a very special guest her name is Meg Chamberlain and she is the founder of Fermenti Foods.We will be highlighting and discussing all the in's and our's of fermented foods. Why you should consider including such a dynamic health food into your daily diet, how to do this in a balanced way. Especially if you are a new-be at this.
We will be answering questions on this today in away you may have never heard it explained before. By the time we finish our 2 part series you are going to be looking at these little powerhouses of foods in a totally different light.
we are going to learn wow to use these foods to clean up our gut, We will be sharing a beginners guide on baby stepping your way into fermented foods and what to expect when you do. I thin you will be surprised.
We will also discuss how Meg went from 345 pounds to the svelt woman we see in front of us today.
To learn more about Meg and her wonderful company Fermenti foods you can visit her web sit at
www.fermenti.biz and
www.wncfermentingfestival.com
Facebook, instagram, twitter @ fermentifoods
and on their free YouTube Channel Fermenti Mountain
Quotes:
I've also found that the microbiome within our gut is highly effected by lots of things throughout our lives. Like even the way we were born, whether through cesarean or the birth canal (20:25 to
Well, and then on top of that, with every 16 ounces of living probiotic, there's a recent study that was done, probiotic rich fermented food, you are getting more lactic acid bacteria and variety than if you were to consume nine bottles of store-bought probiotics. (27:36 to 28:00)
Well, we're finding out new data every day about the particulars of exactly what's happening, but basically what's happening is the soluble fiber is coming in and lactic bacteria needs the soluble fiber. Like as Americans in particular, we don't have a lot of dietary fiber in our daily intake and this is causing our overall microbiome to get less and less and less diverse. (10:19 to 10:49)

Links mentioned in todays show
www.fermenti.biz
uncfermentingfestival.com
www.beasmartwoman.com
Connect with Us
To learn more about Claire Faithful and the Be a Smart Woman movement visit us at: http://www.beasmartwoman.com
Or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter
Also listen to this podcast on: iTunes, Spotify. Utube and at BeASmartWoman.com
SHOW TRANSCRIPT:
Claire F: (00:00)
Welcome to the Be A Smart Woman podcast. Everyone has their own story to tell and you never know what impact your story might have on someone else's life. This is the foundation of the Be A Smart Woman movement. Our movement seeks to empower women through the sharing of their journeys with other women. Sometimes we don't even realize the lessons that our stories hold until we share them with others. I am Claire faithful, founder of Be A Smart Woman and it is my hope and dream that this podcast will illuminate personal lessons for you the way listening to other women's stories has inspired me to give. We are so glad you are here. Let's enjoy this journey together.

Claire F: (01:02)
Today we have a special guest on our show and we are highlighting fermented foods. I know, trust me, if you're anything like me or rather how I was before learning this amazing information that we share with you here today, just the sound of that might make you feel a little hesitant. I mean after all, we are basically consciously controlling rot. So why is this considered such a dynamic health food? Why should we be eating it as part of our daily diets? And most importantly, how can we learn to love it? We're going to answer those questions here for you today in a way you may have never heard it explained before. I know, I was shocked, but it makes so much sense and I promise you, you are going to look at these little powerhouses of foods in a totally different light when we are done.

Claire F: (02:05)
In fact, the information shared here today was flowing so incredibly that we divided this up into a two part series. Today, in part one, you're going to learn how to use them to clean up your gut. We're sharing a beginner's guide on baby stepping your way into fermented foods and what to expect when you do. I think you'll be surprised. Our guest today, Meg Chamberlain, co owner of Fermenti Foods. She runs this family business with her husband. Their story of how they came to love fermented foods is hilarious. She actually thought he was going to poison himself, but instead the health and their entire lives were changed for the better. Meg went from 345 pounds to this incredibly healthy woman we see here today. And she is here to help change the way the world see this incredible tool in taking back your health as well. Without further ado, I'd love to introduce you to Meg Chamberlain.

Claire F: (03:31)
Meg, it's so great to have you on our show today. How are you?

Meg Chamberlain: (03:36)
Thank you for having me. It's an honor. I'm very excited to be here and to share my love of fermentation with you and your audience.

Claire F: (03:43)
Yeah, and I'm wondering, you know, if you could share with with our audience today about like what led you into getting involved with fermented foods and creating your company called Fermenti. I mean it's sounds like a very interesting story.

Meg Chamberlain: (03:59)
Well, the story goes back to 2008 2009 my husband and I were professionals in Washington DC and we ended up just quitting our jobs and coming here to the mountains of North Carolina and we discovered a love of homesteading. Somehow we made it out to Bolivar, Missouri and we ended up investing in 20 acres that was completely off the grid. We grew 70% of our own food.

Claire F: (04:34)
Wow.

Meg Chamberlain: (04:35)
And we traded and bartered for the rest with the local Amish community. And about a year into it, my friend Amos helped my husband get introduced. And so one day I was in the kitchen and it was just a 24 foot cabin that my husband had built with hand tools. And I was in the kitchen on the camp stove canning. And I had done like maybe 34 quarts of tomatoes and basil that year or that day. And I'm hot and I'm sweaty and I'm overwhelmed. And he comes in with a couple of cabbages and a bag and an old hand shredder. And he had the biggest grin on his face. And he was like, "Well, Oh I, you know Amos just showed me .. I'm going to make sauerkraut." And I'm like, "You're going to get out of my kitchen because I'm hot and I'm done." Like I'm not doing any more projects today.

Claire F: (05:32)
And I'm not making sauerkraut.

Meg Chamberlain: (05:33)
No, that was not going to happen. So I ended up finishing what I was doing and he took over and I went up to the loft to like cool down and rest for the evening. And for a couple hours I heard him clanking and banging and you know, wrestling this cabbage into a crock that we had gotten in an auction a few weeks before. And it was a straight sided crock and so it wasn't a proper fermentation vessel, which I thought was very ironic. And so he put this stuff in our back pantry and the temperature in the pantry would wildly jump throughout the day and the evening in the summer. And I would walk by and I would kick it.

Claire F: (06:17)
You would kick it?

Meg Chamberlain: (06:18)
I would kick it and I'd be like, "Oh you stinky thing." And you know, I was just-

Claire F: (06:22)
How does it smell?

Meg Chamberlain: (06:23)
I was not very nice to it. Let's just say that. So I ignored it and I ignored it and a couple of months went by and one day my husband is like, "Oh, I'm going to eat it." And I'm like, "My name's on the deed, right? Because you're going to die and I loved you."

Claire F: (06:43)
Oh my God, that's so funny. So you were thinking that this, whatever concoction he was making was probably going to make you really sick.

Meg Chamberlain: (06:51)
It was completely foreign to me. I had never really engaged with anything that had been cultured, or at least I didn't believe that I had. Of course, I'm a huge cheese fan and a sourdough bread fan and a yogurt fan, but I didn't equate those with cultured foods. And so he just was so excited that day. I'll never forget. And I'm like, well, you know, I loved you. I won't marry for a few years, you know, all that good stuff. And so he pulls back the cloth and he had just used a rock, like many people, a rock and a plate to hold it under the brine. And so he takes the rock out and takes the plate out and the top four inches had oxidized and they were gray.

Claire F: (07:41)
Oh my God.

Meg Chamberlain: (07:42)
And they were kind of slimy looking.

Claire F: (07:43)
Oh no, that does not sound appetizing at all.

Meg Chamberlain: (07:49)
Not in any way, shape or form. So he's digging in it, you know, because he's not deterred. And so he's digging in it and he gets down to this beautiful, crisp, bright green, yummy smelling layer. And so he pulls all the oxidized off and he puts it in the compost and he starts eating this stuff that he had made.

Claire F: (08:10)
And he knew what he was eating, I presume.

Meg Chamberlain: (08:12)
No.

Claire F: (08:13)
Oh he didn't?

Meg Chamberlain: (08:14)
I mean I think he had an idea, but neither of us understood any part of what was actually happening to our lives because when we cultured that first batch, everything for us shifted, our entire future shifted. And so he was happily eating this stuff and I'm just like about vomit in my mouth. I'm so grossed out. So I'm like-

Claire F: (08:36)
I know that just sounds awful. I'm getting the visual in my head of this kind of greens stuff. I'm like, oh no, that is not something I would want to try.

Meg Chamberlain: (08:46)
So I didn't and I let him eat it because I'm okay with letting him take the lead on certain things. And this was definitely one of them. And so for about two or three weeks, he would eat it every day and he started to like fart and have, you know, gas pains. And we later learned that that was the impacted glucose and wheat that was in his abdominal tract in his gastrin, his stomach and all the intestines and all that.

Claire F: (09:18)
So fermented food actually, what, eats up the bad bacteria's in your colon? Something like that?

Meg Chamberlain: (09:26)
Well, what it was doing, we found out what the soluble fiber was taking the lactic acid into the crevices of impaction within his large intestine and small intestine and it was fermenting basically out these impactions because lactic acid eats glucose and so it was then-

Claire F: (09:49)
okay. I think we just ... like stop there because I think ... lactic acid eats glucose. Is that what it is ... or because I just want to make sure our audience like understands this process in within our like gut. Because I mean, I don't know. But for me like the visual, you know, like I want to really understand it. So you eat this fermented food and it goes into your intestines and then what? What happens? It-

Meg Chamberlain: (10:19)
Well, we're finding out new data every day about the particulars of exactly what's happening, but basically what's happening is the soluble fiber is coming in and lactic bacteria needs the soluble fiber. Like as Americans in particular, we don't have a lot of dietary fiber in our daily intake and this is causing our overall microbiome to get less and less and less diverse.

Claire F: (10:49)
That's why there was telling us to, to eat ... like we need wheat.

Meg Chamberlain: (10:53)
We need a lot more fiber.

Claire F: (10:54)
Fiber, okay.

Meg Chamberlain: (10:56)
And with industrialized processes of you know, processing flowers and grains and rices, we're losing all of that soluble fiber and the diversity that it creates within us.

Claire F: (11:08)
I don't know about you, audience, but I never really understood that. I mean I always heard that we were meant to have fiber in your diet and I would look at things like rice or oats or whatever different types of fiber foods that they would tell you to eat and I couldn't understand this concept in my mind that I was going to eat this piece of bread, this whole wheat bread, and it was going to go into my intestines and somehow this was going to be some fibrous thing that was going to help me poop really healthy because it didn't. It used to make me really constipated. So maybe I'm understanding that-

Meg Chamberlain: (11:44)
well that's because with the bread you were eating an industrialized processed flour that was made into a bread. So I'm talking, when I speak about fiber, like un whole grains, raw grains, fruits, vegetables, those sorts of fibers as well. So it's not just, you know, eating a loaf of bread, which is extremely detached to as our ancestors used to eat, and they've even studied certain cultures that have very quote unquote primitive diets. They have much more cultural diversity in their microbiome then people in industrialized countries. So.

Claire F: (12:34)
Well, I think it's also, from my perspective, it's understanding that really the kind of foods, because I honestly had a picture in my mind of what this fiber, you know, where it came from. Like if I had brown rice that that was a good thing because of the fiber in it. But I didn't really understand what really ... and I'm sure lots of people that are listening have that same thought. We think we know what fiber is. But from what I'm hearing you say maybe we're not fully understanding what the real fiber we need and that's good for us is.

Meg Chamberlain: (13:10)
And I myself am still learning. There's lots of data that's coming out about what to consume that has those fibers. But from what I've been able to pull is fresh vegetables, fresh ... well I like fermented paired with those things, but like fresh fruit. So you, you need the soluble fiber.

Claire F: (13:35)
Okay. So okay, so you've made this first batch of fermented cabbage, right? And how do we work out when we have ... first of all, where do you buy a fermented foods? I mean, is it something that you can get in the grocery store or do you have to go to a special place? I mean, I know that you make it and people can buy that from you, but you know, is it just a general thing that's sold now that people can find easily?

Meg Chamberlain: (14:07)
Well, again, cultured foods go back to many different types of foods, you know, like yogurts and cheeses and breads and even charcuterie, like meats, certain prepared meats. But in the realm of fermented vegetables, which is where my company specializes, there's misinformation out there because when you're consuming a kraut or a kimchi, you want to make sure that it's living. You don't want anything that's been processed or heat canned because when you raise a fermented vegetable or fruit sometimes and you raise that temperature 105 degrees, it loses its probiotic structure. So you're still getting, yes, the soluble fiber. And depending on how hot and for the duration of that heat, you might still be getting some vitamins, some minerals, probably no enzymes, but you are just getting something that is dead.

Meg Chamberlain: (15:14)
And that's why, you know, people ask me all the time, well, why are fermented foods safer than canned foods? And they're safer because if you've ever grown mushrooms in an inoculated environment, that's how they're grown is you take a medium and you sterilize it and then you inoculate it with whatever strain of mushroom you choose to grow. Now this same process is what happens when you can. so all those jars of tomatoes and basil I was canning through high heat and long temperatures, I was destroying all of the nutritional value that was in the food and I was turning it into basically what was an emotionally dead medium.

Claire F: (16:00)
Wow. So that's ... because a lot of people love to can and do that. And that's ... is that what we do? I mean I know that I've done a little bit of canning over the years and I had no idea that I was actually destroying the nutrition in the food.

Meg Chamberlain: (16:16)
Well, and I think that canning, you know, to speak too ill of it, it does have its place in our evolution and it's also a useful preserving method, but to be aware that you're not getting the nutritional value you might have conceived of getting from it. So when I consume a canned item, I usually pair it with something that's living or fresh so that I get the diversity.

Claire F: (16:42)
Well, so that kind of leads me to ask you the question about, okay, so here we have, you know, maybe our little jar of fermented foods, which now I'm understanding is really good for you, but how do you know how much you should consume of this because ... I don't know, should you have a little bit? Should you have a lot? I mean, I've heard people saying, Oh, fermented foods, if you have like leaky gut syndrome, which I think is a very common thing nowadays, it can have a negative effect for you. And I just wondered, seeing as your an expert in this area, how you feel about that. And I also do know that Meg has healed her gut, so I feel your answer is going to be from a place of actually your own physical experience.

Meg Chamberlain: (17:31)
Well and to state clearly I am not a medical doctor. All of my data is experiential. Some things that I've lived in or I've witnessed from others. So always, you know, consult a medical doctor. But that being said, the data and the research that's coming out now, a lot of medical doctors don't have the time or the inclination to keep up with that data. So it never hurts to be open to learning on your own. And you know, I'm quote unquote an expert, but I'm still learning every day. So what I-

Claire F: (18:11)
But I'm figuring that you, okay. So the reason I say that you're an expert from my perspective, who knows nothing about this. So this is why I'm so excited about this podcast because I'm actually learning, everyone. I guess I'm looking to you as a person that has gone through different experiences, like your husband started to make it and then you've gone through different life experiences, which has led you now to have your company Fermenti Foods and often. And so I'm, you know, I'm just the interested into like really what your experience was and how this has helped you.

Meg Chamberlain: (18:49)
Well, when I consumed fermented foods, I find that it is best for the majority of people to consume like an eight to a quarter of a cup with every meal and to do a variety because different bacteria are present on different vegetables and I'm even coming across data now that's saying that different vegetables from different locations have slightly different possibilities of strands being created. So you want as much diversification in your gut as possible. I've also been reading that as we consume fermented foods with the probiotics and the prebiotics and the enzymes and the minerals, all of what you get 400 to 700% more when you ferment foods versus any other preservation technique. What's happening is is that a lot of them are going through like a flash flood through your system and a lot of them are not sticking around and like cultivating the environment. So I find them useful because they help me break down foods that I do consume that aren't fermented. So then I get more nutritional value out of the foods that it's paired with.

Claire F: (20:14)
So you like to mix ... so you like to have your fermented foods with regular food.

Meg Chamberlain: (20:20)
More of like a condiment.

Claire F: (20:21)
Like a condiment so it helps in the digestion?

Meg Chamberlain: (20:25)
And I've also found that the microbiome within our gut is highly effected by lots of things throughout our lives. Like even the way we were born, whether through cesarean or the birth canal, that can highly affect whether or not we were ever put on broad spectrum antibiotics which acts like an atomic in your system. And they're finding that once you lose some of these strands, some of them you may never be able to get again. So like if you ate kimchi two years ago, that more than likely isn't helping you today. So consuming them consistently throughout your re cultivation of your biome, you have more success in things working together, things sticking around.

Claire F: (21:20)
So you really suggest ... well, what I think I hear you saying is that we need to use fermented foods as a daily part of our diet.

Meg Chamberlain: (21:30)
And in diversity.

Claire F: (21:32)
So different types of fermented food. Now I know for me that I'm not a big fan of fermented foods and the way they taste. So my husband's a big fermented food person and loves them and eats this stuff all the time and I have lots of this stuff in my fridge and I always look at it and go, "Oh okay. Not for me." But I know I have leaky gut and I know I have allergies because of that and different, you know, ailments and I'd really liked to heal my gut. So now I'm sort of looking at that as a possibility. But I noticed that there's different flavors and there's some things are very salty or they have a very bitter taste. Then there's other flavors I've tried cause my husband has gazillions of different flavors that I really like. Like there's one which is like a salsa type that I've tried, which I really liked. And actually I've tried one of yours that you make which is with beets, which I love because it's a little sweeter. I guess I have a sweet tooth so, so I don't know if I could do all the different flavors. So what about people out there like maybe me that may say, well I can do this one or two flavors because they're going to ... is that still going to help us?

Meg Chamberlain: (22:48)
Yes. Anything is better than nothing. And you know when I say diversity, I also mean fermented grains, fermented fruits, fermented vegetables, fermented dairy, fermented meats. So-

Claire F: (23:01)
so fermented is a lot. It's not just what I'm thinking of like sauerkraut.

Meg Chamberlain: (23:09)
Yes, it's not just kraut. There's a whole world beyond it.

Claire F: (23:11)
Okay, oh I'd love to learn more about that. I mean-

Meg Chamberlain: (23:16)
It's fascinating. I can't learn fast enough and I do this as a living. So I will say that in Fermenti I strive to accommodate your inclination because a lot of people that I come across are not interested. In fact, I have people that come to my booth and they will put their hands on my table and be like, "I do not like kraut." And I'm like, "That's okay." You don't have to.

Claire F: (23:47)
I am one of those people.

Meg Chamberlain: (23:49)
And that is totally fair.

Claire F: (23:50)
I'm like, nope, I don't ... I think I did come to your booth once before I ever really met you and went I'm not going to eat that. No, Nope. No. And I think you suggested if I remember, it was a few years ago, the beat and gingers. Is it beet and ginger?

Meg Chamberlain: (24:06)
Yes and then the salsa.

Claire F: (24:07)
Yeah. And I liked those. And you knew that. It was like you said, "No, I think you're going to like this Claire. And I think you're going to like this." And I did and my husband has all the other ones and I have tried them and they are just not palatable for me. I mean I can't.

Meg Chamberlain: (24:20)
Well if you want to speak about non palatable but very good for you, Natto which is a fermented soybean. It's inoculated with a strand that turns the soybean ... it has like a snot consistency over it. And it smells a little like feet.

Claire F: (24:37)
Oh lovely. Oh no! Well that's the other thing. This stuff does smell sometimes. It does.

Meg Chamberlain: (24:47)
Well you're controlling rot basically through fermentation. You are using the preservation techniques of salinity and temperature to control and break down your food outside of your body. Like I talked to people that eat raw foods and every time I'm like, "You fart a lot, don't you?" And they're like, "Yeah, we do. How'd you know? We were downwind. How'd you know?" And that's because when you eat raw foods without the addition of fermented foods with them, you're forcing your body to ferment with inside of itself.

Claire F: (25:21)
Oh wow.

Meg Chamberlain: (25:22)
So when I ferment, I like to do it in an anaerobic environment, which means that no oxygen can get into the vessel, so it will off gas. So when you're force your system to ferment within itself, it's going to off gas.

Claire F: (25:40)
Okay. Which means that we fart.

Meg Chamberlain: (25:42)
And you're going to have bloating and cramping and even this happens sometimes when people initially start to eat fermented foods is they'll have the bloating and the cramping and they'll associate that with something that's bad. They're not understanding, like I said before, that that fermented food is going through their system and in essence is cleaning them up.

Claire F: (26:02)
So it's a good thing.

Meg Chamberlain: (26:04)
For typically four to six weeks in my experiential data, I find that most consumers of fermented foods that are new to it experience somewhere from, you know, three to six weeks they'll experience some sort of gas or bloating because that fermented food is going through them.

Claire F: (26:20)
So for my audience, so if anyone out there that's listening and you're thinking about like trying to add fermented foods into your diet to help with gut health, you're basically saying that we may experience about three to six weeks of bloating, gas, maybe feeling a little uncomfortable after we've eaten. This is okay.

Meg Chamberlain: (26:43)
And it's normal.

Claire F: (26:43)
Like it's not something for us to be worrying about and thinking, Oh my God, what's wrong with me?

Meg Chamberlain: (26:47)
Nope. It's totally normal. In fact, it's a good sign because it's showing that it's working, it's showing that it's cleaning up however many years you've had of poor dietary choices is cleaning it up. So.

Claire F: (27:02)
So we really can what's the word ... help our gut heal.

Meg Chamberlain: (27:07)
Yes.

Claire F: (27:07)
I'm not going to say heal our gut, but it can help, right? It can-

Meg Chamberlain: (27:10)
It's definitely a powerful tool in your tool box.

Claire F: (27:14)
Right. I mean I think that's something I want to definitely try. I mean, because why not? I mean, I don't know how much, you know, I've tried ... what about probiotics? A lot of people, you know, we go to the grocery store and we think, Oh, take a probiotic and I've heard things about probiotics that if you ... you can use a strain, it may not be the right strain that you need. So it does absolutely nothing for you.

Meg Chamberlain: (27:36)
Well, and then on top of that, with every 16 ounces of living probiotic, there's a recent study that was done, probiotic rich fermented food, you are getting more lactic acid bacteria and variety than if you were to consume nine bottles of store-bought probiotics.

Claire F: (28:00)
Oh my gosh.

Meg Chamberlain: (28:01)
So usually when you buy ... and some brands are better than others, but usually when you buy a store bought prebiotic, there's one or two strands. When you eat a living food, you're getting thousands of different diversity.

Claire F: (28:16)
Well, you know, like when you go into the grocery store and you see them in the fridge and they say like 20 billion or 50 billion, whatever numbers.

Meg Chamberlain: (28:25)
Of one strand.

Claire F: (28:26)
And I always look at that. And I go, what does that mean? I mean I know that in the past I've picked up the bottle that says 50 billion because I think it must be good. But then I don't really know. And I think a lot of us out there don't know if this is, you know ... when we buy something is it really going to help?

Meg Chamberlain: (28:45)
Well again it's 50,000 of what? One strand? Or multiple strands? What does the rest of the labels say? And in addition to that, when you eat or you consume just the probiotic, you're not getting the soluble fiber that is the vehicle to your large and small intestines. You are losing the majority of that within your gut because of the acidity of your gut.

Claire F: (29:10)
Right. And that's something I've always thought about when my doctors have said, "Oh you need a probiotic, you know, take a probiotic." And I go, "Well, which one?" And they go, "Well, I don't know. They're in the store, you know, go and pick one." And you look and you think, well, and then I have heard with some naturopathic doctors that I've worked with where they say, "Well, you know, one doesn't fit all and you have to see what your body needs and what strains your body needs." And I find that very confusing. And it sounds like fermented foods is a much easier way to actually-

Meg Chamberlain: (29:41)
It's a short cut.

Claire F: (29:42)
Yeah. And it sounds like it's more simple.

Meg Chamberlain: (29:46)
It's as simple as eating the sauerkraut grandma used to make, you know, we actually, there's data that proves that we co-evolved with lactic acid bacteria as a vertebrate species and in fact all vertebrate species benefit from lactic acid bacteria. So it's within our highest and best interest to consume it in a diversity and consistently throughout our consumption of calories throughout the day. You're also, when you eat a living food, you're getting the prebiotics, you're getting the probiotics, you're getting the soluble fiber, you're getting the vitamins, the minerals, the enzymes. So that you don't get from a store bought-

Claire F: (30:29)
Something in a bottle with a little white powder.

Meg Chamberlain: (30:32)
Yes.

Claire F: (30:32)
Okay. Yeah, because then they have the yogurts, too, that I've ... I've tried the yogurts and then I'm like, "I don't think these do anything." I mean I don't know what your experiences, obviously you might know a little bit more about that.

Meg Chamberlain: (30:44)
Well it's very interesting because again, it is just certain types of strands. And on top of that, it's kind of like how sauerkraut is to some people. Not everybody wants to consume it every day. Not everybody wants to drink a yogurt every day. Not everybody wants to choose sauerkraut every day. And that's really where as Fermenti I tried to create that diversity of flavor structure and application for you. That's why I am an advocate of teaching how to ferment, because you're going to come up with flavor structures and then in fact, if you ferment here in your home, you will have different strands than I have present in mine-

Claire F: (31:29)
Oh really? Because-

Meg Chamberlain: (31:31)
Because of the vegetables and where you sourced them, because of your own biome where it's fermented, all of those things have factors and there's data to kind of show that. So I recommend when people are like, "Oh, I should just eat your kraut." And I'm like, "No, I'm not here trying to ..." Yes, I would like you to buy my product so I can continue to do what I do. But you also need to go home and make it, you need to have your neighbors make it. You need to have your family and your friends make it and you all need to share because the more that we share these different cultures with each other, the more likely we are to have a healthier biome.

Claire F: (32:08)
Wow. That sounds so fascinating. I mean, yeah, I mean a lot of people are not going out and making fermented foods. I mean, I'm sure most people, especially people that live in big cities and they don't even have a concept of that because their lives are so fast paced. So then obviously they're going to need to go to someone like you and buy your product. And that can still be a benefit though.

Meg Chamberlain: (32:34)
Extreme benefit.

Claire F: (32:35)
I think that's what I want to understand is how can we help our gut be healthier in a simple way when we have very busy lives. Because I know that my husband would definitely ... like when he listens to this podcast, I pretty much can guarantee he's going to be calling you up and he's going to want to do a class and he's going to want to start making his fermented foods. And I'm going to have the barrels or whatever they are of the stinky stuff in my house. But I know that I wouldn't do that. And I think that there's a lot of people I know that probably would not do that, but they might consider going out and buying some already fermented foods just to try it, just to try something-

Meg Chamberlain: (33:17)
They should. Yes, they totally should. There's Natto, as I said, is the highest plant source of vitamin K2 and K3 and that has proven to lower heart disease, which is a major killer in our country and it also has the probiotics, prebiotics and all that good stuff. There's Kefir. There's Kvss which is a little harder to find, but it can be found. I would recommend to people to go to their local communities as opposed to going to large chain stores.

Claire F: (33:59)
Okay and maybe like farmer's markets if you live in an area where you have a farmer's market.

Meg Chamberlain: (34:03)
Farmer's markets, small co-ops, these are the places where you're more than likely going to find a local fermentor to wherever your location is and you can support your community locally, which is also a wonderful thing to do, but you are going to be getting ... you have to make sure that it's living and it's not been canned.

Claire F: (34:25)
Okay, so when you say difference, meaning literally in a can? Or meaning in a jar? I mean, how do you know?

Meg Chamberlain: (34:33)
Well in a jar. Usually it's some of the larger brands. I won't name them, but they, for distribution reasons ... you know when you ship to Ohio or California ... and you'll find this, sometimes additives are put in like sodium benzoate, things like that to help shelf stability. But those are maybe less desirable. And so-

Claire F: (34:59)
Are they the ones that aren't in the fridge?

Meg Chamberlain: (35:05)
Well that's a great question because there's the kraut that's on the shelf that is not refrigerated, that you know has been canned and heat canned. And then there's the elusive bagged kraut that you think is good because it's cold, but check the label.

Claire F: (35:25)
So in other words, not every kraut is equal. So we have to do a little bit of label-

Meg Chamberlain: (35:32)
You have to be an educated consumer. Yes. And to be educated, look for pasteurized.

Claire F: (35:37)
So if it's pasteurized?

Meg Chamberlain: (35:39)
It's a no go.

Claire F: (35:40)
It's just not going to do anything for your gut.

Meg Chamberlain: (35:43)
Well, you'll get the soluble fiber and you'll get, you know, some vitamins and minerals, but you're not going to get the probiotics, prebiotics or enzymes-

Claire F: (35:51)
That we need, okay. Wow. This is a lot of really ... now do you have a website that people can go to to find out more?

Meg Chamberlain: (36:01)
I do. You can find out more about my particular business at www.Fermenti.biz. And that's F-E-R-M-E-N-T-I.biz. I also have been working very hard to ... I created a festival of fermentation because I'm trying to cultivate my community and bring together and make fermentors and the fermenting community more visible for people that are like, well, where do I go? What do I do? Well there's a festival and we're all in one room and you can pick our brain in one day.

Claire F: (36:38)
And you can learn a lot about this.

Meg Chamberlain: (36:40)
Yes, you can.

Claire F: (36:41)
That's awesome. I mean because I think this is such a ... I mean I feel like this is an ongoing topic because there's so much to learn and I feel like we've just touched the surface. So anyway, I'm really, really grateful that you came on our show today and just to give us a little insight into fermented foods and your brand Fermenti. And I highly recommend that everyone goes out and checks Meg's site out and we all learn a little bit more. But I'd know for sure I am definitely going to start eating my fermented foods and being a good girl about it because I kind of have not been. So anyway, but thanks. Thank you, Meg, for sharing. This is really awesome.

Meg Chamberlain: (37:25)
Well it's my pleasure and I will say that, you know, I don't even like to eat sauerkraut every day.

Claire F: (37:31)
Right.

Meg Chamberlain: (37:31)
So again, that diversity is very important.

Claire F: (37:34)
Yeah. So I can have my beets. Now the beet one, I'm going to have that.

Meg Chamberlain: (37:39)
You can have your beets and eat them, too.

Claire F: (37:40)
I can have my beets. Yay. Thank you ever so much.

Meg Chamberlain: (37:44)
Thank you.

Claire F: (37:44)
Bye.

Claire F: (37:52)
Wow. Such incredible life changing information. Now we know you are probably eager to get started. See there, I told you this would reset your thoughts around fermented food. It is very important to tell you that you can overdo it. So before you run out and grab yourself a few jars of Meg's delightful product, we'd like you to first tune in and listen to part two of this series. We don't want too much of a good thing to leave you with some undesirable feelings. Part two teaches us how to begin introducing them. It isn't like everything else where you start slow and build up and we'll discuss reasons why that is. Diversity is also super important. Tune in to part two as we learn more together.

Claire F: (38:46)
That wraps up our Be A Smart Woman podcast for today. I hope that you discovered something about yourself during today's podcast as I truly believe we can learn something from everyone we meet. If you like what you heard today, I invite you to subscribe and leave a review. We'd love to have you in our Be A Smart Woman family. You can also follow and like us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. If you've got questions or think you have a story to share, you can find our contact information at beasmartwoman.com. Thank you for listening and see you next time.
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A Conversation with Belinda Jane Robinson -- Part 2
30 Jul 2019· Be A Smart Woman
Today, the Be A Smart Woman podcast welcomes back Belinda Jane Robinson for the second part of a two-part interview. Today, Belinda talks more in more depth about each jewel featured in her book The Seven Jewels of Life: what they represent in our life, from the color, country, food, emotions, and how practically these jewels will take you on a journey of self-discovery towards inner confidence and empowerment, in order to reach your unique destiny.
Belinda discusses the seven steps of understanding behind the Seven Jewels of Life. She walks you through each jewel and shows how they work and how they can be used in your life.
Step one is determining what the seven jewels represent for you. Each of the seven jewels represents seven primary areas of our life. The idea behind the Seven Jewels of Life is that we should polish each of these seven jewels in order to light up our diamond within. Additionally, for every jewel, there's a day of the week, a color, and a continent celebrated (2:38).Step two is all about letting the jewels help you get clarity and direction in your life (4:33). To help bring clarity and direction, Belinda talks how making dream sheets for each jewel helped her get visual clarity for each jewel.Step three is to become aware of your thinking and recognizing your thoughts are like magnets. What you're thinking and fearing, you'll tend to bring in more in of that they of stuff. To overcome this, one must understand that you not what is in your thoughts, and start to generate thoughts about what you do want to think about (14:15).Step four is about understanding the gap between what you want and your lived experience. Here is where you examine what is happing when your thoughts don't match your dream (21:23).Step five is what to do when negative thoughts stop your thoughts from matching your dream. The answer is to write. Belinda created a formula for this step called SBS, which stands for stop the thoughts, breathe to claim yourself and step into your own diamond field. (23:48)Step six is all about choice. This step is where everyone can decide for themselves whether to stay out in the storm a bit longer or go inside to your diamond field. Step six is knowing we all have the ability to change perspective. (31:50)Step seven is where Belinda created Diamond Day. (37:26) The Diamond Day puts all aspects of the Seven Jewels of Life together is a time table that makes it all accessible at a glance.
To Learn more about Belinda and her book The Seven Jewels of Life, visit her website at http://www.sevenjewelsoflife.com
**Quotes: **
Belinda on how our repeated thoughts become beliefs and can block us from achieving our dreams:
"So we all come into this world with a beautiful little diamond shining, and innocent and full of joy, but along the way life happens, we have good and bad experiences, and they become beliefs. We collect beliefs that get stored in our subconscious mind, and these beliefs can get stuck… and they become the lenses through which we see out in our world.” (12:70)
Belinda on how making dream sheets for each jewel made the ideas more visual and spurred inspired action:
“What you're doing every day by thinking of the jewels, you're thinking of, how they make me feel, you're continually thinking, you want to feel good, because you know it's the feeling good that will fuel your inspired actions. (38:36)
Links Mentioned in Todays Show:
The Seven Jewels of Life by Belinda Jane Robinson
Connect with Us
To learn more about Claire Faithful and the Be a Smart Woman movement visit us at: http://www.beasmartwoman.com
Or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter
Also listen to this podcast on: iTunes, Spotify, and at BeASmartWoman.com
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Alison Sher - Bridging Generational Gaps, Part 2
16 Jul 2019· Be A Smart Woman
Do you have a Millennial in your life that you'd love to better understand? Whether it is a personal acquaintance, a coworker, your company's employees or maybe even your own child, this podcast sheds light on bridging such gaps.

Alison Sher, author of The Millennial's Guide to Changing the World, is an expert on the subject of millennials and the challenges they face. Today, in the second part of our two-part series, Alison shares the in depth research and life experiences that led her to write her fantastic book. She describes what it is like to be a millennial in the world where older generations think they are floundering and only living up to a small fraction of their full potential.
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Brittanny Craig - Balancing Mom Life and Dream Career
2 Jul 2019· Be A Smart Woman
Today on the show, we have a message of passion and commitment. We'll be talking about following your dreams and the importance of never giving up on them. I'd like to welcome Brittanny Craig who is, indeed, a very smart woman. She is a powerhouse of a woman and has some very valuable wisdom to share with us. She is an Aveda Color Pure Professional hair designer. We are going to be discussing the evolution of her career, how she got started and where she is today.
Hey Brittanny, welcome to the show today.
Thank you.
I'm really, really excited to have Brittanny on the show because Brittanny is my hairdresser, and she is the best hairdresser absolutely ever. But Brittanny's going to be talking to us today about her journey from where she started out after she finished school and going into her career and having children and then into this fabulous career as an Aveda Color Pure professional. So, Brittanny, just ... Can you give us a little insight into, basically, how did you even become a hairdresser? Where did that ... How did that happen for you?
Well, actually, my mother was a hairstylist for 35 years. And my childhood toys were mannequin heads and perm rods and cones and brushes and all that good stuff. And I piddled around with it all through high school, and it never crossed my mind that I would become a hairstylist. It just was something that was in our house and we did. I actually was going to go to school to become an interpreter for the deaf and-
Oh, wow.
Yeah. Yeah. I did sign language all through high school and actually interpreted it for a girl my senior year in high school and was going to go to school and then I had to drop out of college because my mom was having some health issues. And I put that to the side., then an opportunity came up for me to go to cosmetology school, and I said, "Well, I know it, so why not?" and that's where it started.
So, you just ... It was just kind of like ... So, in other words, life led you, and through circumstance, to start?
Right, right. Yeah. It just happened, and it was something that I knew that I felt comfortable with and I said, "Okay. I can probably do really well at this," and it wasn't an overreaching, overstretching, overstressed situation that I was already kind of in, so it was a way for me to engage myself, better myself in a way that was more feasible than going away to a four-year college because my mom, at the time, needed me to be there [crosstalk 00:04:04]-
So, you had to make some clear decisions at a very young age about what was going to be best for you and your family?
Yes.
That's awesome. So, once you went into ... So, you went to school and you became a hairdresser and now, I know you have four beautiful children, so can you explain a little bit to us, like did you work when your children were young? How long did you work for? Can you explain a little bit of that to us?
So, I started when ... Actually, I had my oldest child the year I graduated from cosmetology. So, I started-
Oh, my God.
Right? So, I graduated from cosmetology school, I was super, super blessed to have my mom be in the same city that I was in, and she was so gracious to help me with watching Madison, and then as more children came along, she was able to help me. So, by the time I had my third child, she was getting ready to move, and I was still doing hair part-time, but the childcare issues come about. Then when I got pregnant with my fourth child, I decided to take time off and stayed home for five years with all the kids until everybody started back into school.
I want us to be clear. So, you basically went to cosmetology school, had a few children-
Just a few.
And while you had the few children, you worked, you worked part-time, so you-
I worked full-time.
Oh, you worked full-time-
I worked full-time-
And your mom took care of the kids?
And my mom helped take care of the kids. So, I worked full-time for five years and then worked part-time for about a year and a half, two years, and then decided to stay home, but if any other hairstylist would be listening to this, they know that you can never get rid of all of your clients if you stay home. They say, "I will come to your kitchen and you can cut my hair," and I did do a little bit of that while I was saying at home, and it was great. It helped to have a little bit of money on the side and everything. But it was important for me to stay home. I had four children from the age of five to newborn and so it was just important for me to be able to stay home. And my mom not being available to watch to watch the kids for me and if anyone knows how much childcare costs, it was unrealistic for me to work and have childcare for three children that were still at home and my oldest being in kindergarten.
Wow, that's amazing. Did you enjoy that time that you had with your kids when you were a stay at home mom?
Oh, absolutely. I loved it. Loved every minute of it. It's kind of a genetic disposition for our family to be creative. That's just where things that are, my husband's very creative. The kids were very creative, you know, growing up, I let them do basically everything with me from cooking to cleaning. We were together all the time, you know, and it was really good for them. They knew how to express themselves, but yet, you know, going and doing and being out in. I never stopped doing any in particular thing because they were with me, you know, we would go to church on a regular basis all the time.
Or if I had shopping to do, or if we had an outing to go to or people just knew that if you got me, you got four kids too.
Oh, I love that.
So, it was so great to be able to stay home with them and to be able to, I don't want to say educate them, but it was educating them because it was always such a surprise to me when my kids started school. I remember my oldest child's kindergarten teacher and she always commented about how, you know, oh she already knows her abcs or she knows the colors or she knows this or that or the other. I think, you know, any parent, you try to set your child up for success. But it was just interaction, you know, that we were constantly interacting with me or with, you know ... My kids love to cook.
That's one thing that that I think is that they see as special, you know, from the time that they were really, really tiny. You know, I actually made them their own little oven mitts and they had oven mitts that went up to their elbows and little aprons and they would be in the kitchen with me and they love to bake. My son until he was about 10 or 11 years old would still, if I took cookies out of the oven and he didn't have the opportunity to do it, he would be mad at me. Like mom, What are you doing? That's my job kind of thing. Yeah.
That's adorable.
So it's just really fine to have the time with them and then them seeing how life worked, you know?
And the reason, I guess I'm asking you this, because I think a lot of women struggle with this in the modern world, especially career women that then want to have families. And you hear all this controversy of how women should have children and then stay at home and be dedicated parents until they've left home, you know, like at 18 or whatever. And then there's all the bits in between. Then there's the women that have children and they work all the time. And I like the way it seems that you've done it. It's like you were there for your kids when they were little, but then once they all went to school, then you went back into your career, which is another piece of the conversation that we're having, but I just wanted to see what your perspective was for that with women, where there's that guilt feeling that we have when we're mothers and then we go back to work. You have any sort of like wisdom to share with us about that?
Well, I think it's very different for every single person and and I want to preface this with that I don't think anyone should feel judged about what your choice is and what choices you make. For me, it was very easy for me to work when my kids were very little, especially with my first three because my mom was there and I have the best mom in the world. She's amazing and she was so gracious to help me with that and for me to be able to still have my career and be a mom and at the same time. But then it became ... She wasn't there anymore and I needed to have some sort of support and you know, I feel like that women need to not feel like you have to do it all on your own. You don't have to be the supermom.
Yeah, right. I know because there's this fine line, you see women like pulling their hair out and they have kids and their careers and then you know, like the fried women.
They're fried and they feel like the supermom is their kid is dressed to the nines everywhere they go. They never have a spot of dirt on them. Their hair is always nice. If it's a girl, she's got a nice big pink bow in her hair and you know, they're just super well behaved and that's just not the case. You know, kids are going to be kids. That's what they do. You know, they don't know how to interact sometimes in a situation and they don't know that they shouldn't say something when you know you're in public.
I mean, my kids were the kids that, and I have three girls and one boy, and they were the rough and tough Tom boys. You know, when they were little, they were all the ones that wanted to go out in the yard and roll in mud. My third daughter would do anything in a dress. She wanted to have a dress on the entire time. It didn't matter what time of year it was. It didn't matter what she was doing. She'd go play in a mud puddle and she was going to do it in a dress.
I love that.
So it's just putting yourself in a space of knowing that, you know what, it's okay that my kid's dirty right now. They're building immunities. You know, it's okay if you you go out and their shoes aren't put on the right feet, it's okay if their shirt doesn't match their pants. The world is not going to stop revolving over that and no one is really going to judge you for that. They're going to be like, you know what, you made it out of the house today and guess what? You had a shower. Bonus. You got to take a shower today. And it is, because it becomes crazy especially when you have kids that are really close together.
My kids were very close together. There's only five years and two months between my oldest and my youngest. So it was Bam, Bam, Bam.
Wow.
So it's just very interesting to me when when mothers puts this pressure on themselves to make sure that their kids look perfect, that they look perfect or their house looks perfect. You know, my house has never been a house that was perfect at all. You know, it's very lived in and there's something always going on. We are normally like Noah's Ark because currently we have two dogs, a turtle, a python. We used to have a rabbit but we don't have that anymore. We have eight outdoor feral cats that we've decided to feed and they have made our yard their home and there's something constantly all of time.
Well, I do know everyone. I know Brittanny quite well and I do know her children and her children are growing up. And two of them are in college or one is in college and one of them is out of high school, but they're amazing kids. So that's why I wanted to talk to you about this just a little bit before we move into that, because you really have very like wonderful kids. I mean I've met them. You can have conversation with them. They are kind, they talk to you like actually they can have a conversation with an adult in the modern world, which is pretty amazing.
Yeah. Well, I mean, that was one thing when they were little that was my pet peeve is, we didn't do the baby talk thing. It drives me batty. I just couldn't handle it.
Baby talk, is that where you kind of go, oh, goo goo ga ga?
Right. I just can't handle it. I couldn't handle it. And so like when they were little, I'm just like, they're a person, just talk to them like you would talk to anyone else and you know, they'll understand and we have to make sure that they're going to be able to function in a world, you know? So I guess it was one of my pet peeves and you know, no judgment on anybody who he does that, that's totally fine. But that was just my thing. And they are, they are great kids. They are going to do well. And it's amazing how for people from the same gene pool, you know, turn out so differently, and you just have to go with it.
As a parent you have to go with what you know. Everybody's going to go in a different direction and no matter how much alike you think they are or aren't, you know, they are each their own person and the only thing you can do is hope that you've trained them to be a profitable, a productive member of society that you know is caring and just and wants wants to do something with their life and be able to touch other people.
I know that you've done a really great job. So I feel like there's something to that, given how you had your career in the beginning and then you've told us the story. So can you then explain how you did the transition from this full-time stay at home mom baking and doing all these wonderful things with your kids, to then going back into your career because-
Yes, and this is a really funny story because the decision for me to go back to work evolves around my son and his need to go to preschool. None of my girls went to preschool and I was at home making a, what was it? I think it was ... I was making a dog bed for my sister in law and we were sitting there and I'm ironing material and I'm cutting foam and doing all these things to make this dog bed. And Gabe was there with me. He was the only one at home. Everybody had gone back to school and I had bought a new iron and a brand new pair of pair of sewing sheers. Gabe was my kid that he would just go anywhere with me. He would sleep anywhere, he would do anything. He was such a good baby and he was always good when we went out, when I had, you know, even with the girls, but when he was by himself he was fine.
He never caused any problems or anything like that. But you could tell he was getting fidgety being the only one at home. And I was pitting material on this dog bed and all of a sudden I hear, oh, mama! And I turned around and there was a flame going up in the air and he had taken my brand new sewing sheers and cut the cord to the iron that was plugged in.
Oh No.
A flame went up in the air. Luckily the scissors had rubber handles on it, so he didn't get shocked.
Oh my God.
I called my husband and I said, well, first thing I'm going to have to buy a new iron and a new pair of sewing sheers because it literally melted a hole in my sewing sheers.
Wow.
I said, Gabe needs to go to preschool. So I started looking for preschools and started looking for work to go back to work.
What I think is cool is just how you knew that he needed to be in a school environment and interacting with his little peers and having ... Because just being with mom was not quite right.
No. He was like, where's all my playmates? He was like, I have an instant playmate and they're all gone, you know? So he just, he needed that and it was great for him. It was absolutely fantastic for him and then I started looking for work.
So how did you do ... You went back ... So how did you go from, like I said, stay at home mom, obviously now we know why you went back to work, but how did you step back into it? Because I think a lot of women, I know myself, as I was a stay at home mom and then sort of moving back into my career a later time. But I know women goes through this where we have this like fear because we feel, I mean I'm not going to speak for all women out there, but I pretty much know most women I talk to, there's that uncertainty whether they still can go back into the workforce. Am I still trained? Do I know enough? Do I have to go back to school again? You know, though, did you have that like anxiety or stress at all?
Oh, I was petrified. I was absolutely petrified and I actually did have to take my state boards again.
Oh you did?
I did.
Wow.
I had been licensed for 10 years, a little over 10 years I think, and when licensing was done originally you just paid a fee every year. No big deal. You pay your fee. If it lapsed, you paid a little bit extra and they'd reinstate your license and it was no big deal. When I decided that I was going to go back to work, I knew that my license had lapsed from the year prior and so I was like, it's fine. I'll just call the state board. I know that we have to have continuing education now. I'll see if I need to attend some classes then that's fine. Go ahead and do that and then I can get my license reinstated.
So I spent from November, wait, no, October of that year and I can't remember exactly, I'm wanting to say it was like 2007 from then to mid December, back and forth with North Carolina State Board. What do I do? I don't know. Do I need to take classes? I don't think so. So they just kept bantering back and forth with me while they closed for two weeks and I said, so can we just deal with this come the new year, it'll be fine. They said, absolutely, that'd be great.
I'm feeling like there's going to be a [inaudible 00:21:35] here.
So I called back the week after New Year', so it was the second full week of January and I call back and I said, hi, my name is Brittanny Craig. I need to speak with so-and-so. We've been talking about my licensing issue and so I get on the phone with this woman, I wish I remembered her name.
And she goes, Oh, I'm so sorry you're going to have to retake your state boards. I said, excuse me? I said, we've been talking about this for three months now. You trying to find me an answer? And then she goes, oh, well as of January One everyone has to retake their tests. I was livid. I was so upset. Luckily, I had a very good friend that we went to church with that at the time, she was the director of Haywood community college and she was on the North Carolina State Board for cosmetology. So I gave Deborah a call and she says, I'm going to see what I can do. I had judged hair competitions for her. I had done all kinds of stuff. She was trying to recruit me to become a teacher, and so I was like waiting, waiting, waiting. She calls me back a couple of days later and she's like, Brittanny, I can't do anything.
She goes, I can't pull any strings. You're just going to have to take the test over again. What I can do is I can give you a state board kit. She says, come out to the school. I'll give you everything you need to take this test again and just go knock it out. So after ten years of being licensed, I had to go take my state board again. So that was the first like gut wrenching-
What a hurting.
... Thing. Yeah, to be able to go back and I'm like, 10 years, rules have changed. Sanitation rules have changed, what you have to actually do on the state board has changed and everything but it was good. I felt really good because I went back and I actually made a 96 on the exam, which was really good. I only made an 87 on the written exam, but I made a 96 on the practical. And so it was fine. You know, it was just more of like, oh my gosh, yeah I'm going to have to do this not right out of school, you know?
No, I know, but also, what's amazing to me is that you didn't give up. Even when you got the, you're going to have to take these boards again. even though they had messed up and they could have told you in I guess December or November. Oh thank you for just letting me lapse, but oh well that's a government thing, I think. Right?
Right.
But the fact that you kept going, because I think that's when a lot of people would give up.
It is, it was very difficult and it was, you know, I was super fortunate to have Deborah on my side because I mean that would have been to get everything for that kit that I needed, I mean it would have been six, seven, $800 for me to have all of that stuff that you get in cosmetology school. But you know, two years after you're out of cosmetology school, it's all to pot because you've bought everything else new. You know, because, and so it was difficult. It was challenging.
But you made it.
But I made it. It was okay. And then I started looking for salons and spaces and that was even more gut wrenching.
Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
So I had looked at a couple different places and pedaled around working, you know, just putting my feelers out and seeing what I needed to do. I mean, I had a clientele when I stopped working that was booked six weeks out and I had given all of that up, so I was like starting completely fresh, no clientele whatsoever.
Oh, that must've been really scary.
It was.
So you had to start all over again?
It was like, okay, I have to start all over again. All over again. I mean, I had like three clients that, it wasn't even ... Not to say that those people aren't fabulous, because they are, but it was like I had nothing to bring with me. So I got word that this Aveda Salon was hiring and I'd never worked with Aveda products ever. Before I'd used a Redken and Goldwell Matrix and stuff and couple other lines. I piddled with Paul Mitchell a little bit. So I was like, okay, but I knew what Aveda was. So I did have that. I went over to interview and this wasn't even to do a practical to do like a haircut interview. It was just for me to talk to the owner and manager of the salon. I pulled up in the parking lot and I literally sat in my car for 30 minutes wanting to throw up.
Oh my God.
Because it was just like, what do I ... I've not been in this world for five years. I have not been, you know, trained like some of these people probably have been trained because I knew Aveda was very big in education and things like that. I just had my skill that I knew I had where it was five years ago. Five years prior. So the good thing is, is the interview went well because I'm with Aveda still.
That's amazing.
Yeah. I've been with them for 12 years. So it's been a really, really, really amazing journey with that.
I know and you have this ... I mean, the thing I know about Brittanny is I met her when she was at this first salon and I have a funny story just to add to that. My daughter actually found Brittanny and I was from Florida originally, so I was looking for a hairdresser in the Asheville area, but I was very nervous because, you know, I came from the film business doing makeup and hair. And I was a trained hairdresser and I was paranoid because my hair is like fine. I was really paranoid and so my daughter was the Guinea pig and she went to have her hair done with Brittanny and I really liked it. I was like, oh, that's pretty good. The color looks great, the whole thing. So then one day I went to see her and I was like, now I'm really fussy.
I can't remember if I let you color at first or whether I let you cut it out. I know. I don't think I let you did both.
I can't remember. I can't remember.
She was allowed to do one of the tasks of my hair and after that it was okay, she passed the test. So this is what hairdressers go through.
Right, and now you don't have to fly to Miami every four months.
No, and I love Brittanny, and I've been with her ever since. And I'm just like, she's the best hairdresser ever and my hair just looks fabulous and I love to flip it. Is it flip it or flick it or whatever we do as girl is. But anyway, but I just think that also from, I remember with the pictures of your kids, you had all the little pictures and they were all little.
Yeah. Really little.
And now I come to the salon, they're all like growing up. But I just wonder how then once you got to work in the salon, I mean how did it take time to build that clientele and how did you keep going? Because now you're at this higher level innovator and what does it take for you to get there? I mean-
It took a lot of work because I started back again with no clientele. And I worked five days a week and worked a split shift actually on Tuesdays and Thursdays working, having a two hour break so that I could go pick up the kids, meet my husband in the parking deck behind work and he would pick them up from me. So I would leave work, I would work from 8:30 until 2 and then I would leave, go pick up the kids from school, come back to work, swap the kids out in the parking lot and come back to work from four until eight to every Tuesday and Thursday because you have to work evenings, you have to build a clientele. I worked every Saturday. For any hairdresser out there who thinks that you can't work Saturdays, the only way that's going to happen is if you have a super big clientele and you've coached them into doing that.
If you want to create a business for new stylists, you have to work those days that people are available. You just have to, so I worked Tuesday through Saturday for ... It took me two years to build up my clientele where I was pleased with it. And within two years, a myself and one other stylist in the salon where the top producers.
Wow.
Yeah, we were bringing in roughly 50% of the salons income, the two of us.
That's amazing.
So we were really busy and I was super fortunate. I was super, super blessed and I still have the majority of those clients with me today and they are amazing. I absolutely love them.
Yeah, I love them.
You are one of them. Yeah. So it just takes a lot of hard work, you know? Luckily my husband and I were able to work out our work schedule so that it was okay and you just do it, you know, you just do what you have to do.
I get the comment all the time of, I don't see how you do everything that you do. I don't see how you do this with the kids. I don't see how you even have a time to sit down and breathe or whatever and you know, you just, you do what you have to do with the kids, when it comes to what they need from you or ... And there's always within reason, there's plenty and plenty and plenty of times that I've said no, you know, whether it be something that the kids want to do or if it's to a guest as well, you know sometimes. And when you give those parameters, you have to give yourself space to-
Is it like having boundaries to yourself?
Right. Well it's having boundaries at the appropriate time. You know, I went through that two years and it was grueling and it was exhausting and it took a lot of time. But you made it work, working a split shift and you know, figuring out who needs to pick up when and where.
So it's like you ... So what I hear you saying is that to like be successful because I know you are successful and I've been on the journey with you from that ... I guess I met you right at the beginning when you were just starting back out. Although I had no idea everyone, I had no idea but now I know 10 years later something like that. Anyway, so, but one of the things I see with you is this incredible dedication and I have always been amazed at your dedication to yourself and your career and your dedication to your children and your family and your husband because we've not really talked about your husband. Right? There's a whole story there with him, which I would love to talk about one day but I didn't have time today.
And I see like how your kids are and how well adjusted and grounded they are and how smart they are on all levels. Like you know they're intellectually smart but they're smart as human beings. That's how I see it.
Street smart. Street smart.
And then I see how you've carved your success with Aveda and what it's taken for you to get there. I just wondered if there was just something before we end that you would just leave our audience with today. Like the women out there that are maybe uncertain about going back into a career or should they work or they're having those doubts of, I'm just a mother, which is the, you know, I know that's the not the right thing to say, but that is sometimes how we feel. It's the most honorable job. But I feel that then we think, oh, you know what, I don't have ... Like you didn't have your, what is it, your license or whatever it was, you had to get all of a sudden and you had to go back and study and take exams. So, okay. So what I'm trying to get to is what message would you leave all the wonderful women out there that may have a little self doubt or uncertainty from being a mother and maybe moving into a new career or an old career that they once had?
Right. I would say the first step is the worst. Like the just taking like the first physical step that you take towards whatever goal you have is going to be the most, and I know I said this before, but gut wrenching, but that's what we feel. Like somebody's literally reaching into us and trying to rip something out because either you feel like you're not worthy to do the job or that you're not ready to do whatever you're setting out to do or that someone's going to judge you for what you want to do. You know, there's tons and tons and tons of jobs in this world. The one thing that I have told my kids and I feel like that my husband and I have really taught our kids well, is that it takes hard work and you have to put yourself out there and you have to take the step and you know the worst thing that you think is going to happen to you is failure.
That is not the worst thing at all. Failing teaches you, success teaches you nothing.
Wow.
Failure teaches you what you don't want to do again and that allows you to move on and move further. If you're successful at everything, you never learn anything. So you know, working hard to achieve your goals, whatever those goals are is important. Don't let anyone tell you that they're not. It doesn't matter if you want to learn how to lay brick, if you want to learn how to lay brick and that's important to you because you have a project that you want to do, then that's what you need to learn how to do, and you need to know that it's important. Or if it's you wanting to go back and getting a different degree then go back and do it. People, I'm too old to do this or I'm too old to do that.
No, you're not. Absolutely not. You're never too old to do anything. You know? One of my goals was to become a professional by the time I was 40. And it happened in 39, six months before I turned forty. You know? And it was just really, really great. It was definitely ... I was nervous as all get out. There's always something. The unknown is what makes you nervous. And as soon as you step into it and we've all done it, you go, oh, well that wasn't horrible. You know, maybe I could do this now. Or maybe I could do this now. So I just encourage everyone to step out, have a team of people around you that can encourage you because that's super, super, super important. You never need to do anything alone and if you feel like you are doing something alone, I promise you you're not, I promise.
Yeah. Wow. Well thank you Brittanny. That is like what an awesome message to leave all our fabulous audience today and thanks for coming on the show.
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Victoria Johnson: How the Divine Feminine Can Lead the Way Back to Life
18 Jun 2019· Be A Smart Woman
Today, the Be A Smart Woman podcast welcomes Victoria Johnson. Victoria is a former special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Assistant United States Attorney who completely changed her career path and is now a shaman, teacher, writer, and oriental medicine practitioner. Victoria will share what led her to choose a completely different career path and discuss why it's so important for us women to follow our dreams and how the divine feminine in each of us, can help lead the way back to life.
Besides her fantastic work as a shaman and oriental medicine practitioner, Victoria leads workshops and groups to support you in healing your heart and following your true soul path in life.
Victoria shares that her work in the predominantly masculine world of law and law enforcement lead her to become unbalanced and seek another path. (4:19) She also shares how this path of self-discovery led her to rediscover the divine feminine in herself. (06:26)
Victoria discusses the need for women to unplug and take time for themselves to just be. (8:31) It is in that time where one can begin to balance the masculine and feminine parts of themselves. (15:54). Victoria also talks about why it’s so important to honor the mother earth and be the best steward of the planet and not just see it as a commodity. (18:28). Finally, Victoria shares one piece of advice she wants all women to hear. (31:02)
To Learn more about Victoria or schedule an appointment with her, visit her website at https://condorjourney.com
**Quotes: **
Victoria speaks about the divine feminine
“I realized this divine feminine is an aspect that we all have. A lot of times we subjugate her. Men have this. Women have this. And we put her away because of the pace of our lives, because of our work, because of our family duties. And when she comes out, she comes from such place of her own individual heart. A person's own individual heart. But also the world heart.” (06:24)
Victoria on how important taking time
“When we are in that place of relaxing into the feminine, when we can do that, we create peace inside of ourselves. And that peace can flow from us out into the world. (16:27)
Victoria on why women supporting other women is so important:
“…for one woman to acknowledge another woman's beauty, and power, and gift in the world is tremendously healing for everyone in that interaction.” (23:38)
Victoria on one piece of advice for women:
“Really believe in yourself. Take time to nurture yourself and to nurture your dreams while you're nurturing everyone else.” (31:02)
Links Mentioned in Todays Show:
Women Who Run With the Wolves by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés (02:51)
Connect with Us
To learn more about Claire Faithful and the Be a Smart Woman movement visit us at: http://www.beasmartwoman.com
Or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter
Also listen to this podcast on: iTunes, Spotify, and at BeASmartWoman.com
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Adora Winquist: Alchemy, and Your Soul Work is Your Sole Work
4 Jun 2019· Be A Smart Woman
Today, the Be A Smart Woman podcast welcomes Adora Winquist. Adora’s work
focuses around the divine feminine, and being able to support a woman's transformational process, and ultimately elevation and excavation into her highest potential. Today, she will discuss alchemy, and your soul work is your sole work.
Adora is a transformative healer, and inspired teacher, and expert Aromatherapist. Her up and coming book will focus on healing the whole body one system at a time. She is the founder of Adoratherapy, an all organic vegan fragrance company, Mood Boost, a line of expertly blended essential oils formulated to transform your mood in the moment by setting your intention through breath and the powerful connection scent creates with your limbic system and is the co-founder of Zenergy Medicinals.
Traditionally, alchemy means the transmutation of metals, turning base metal into gold. However, true alchemy is actually the journey of the spiritual seeker. It's about us being able to take the opportunity to be still, to truly know thyself. (03:46) Adora discusses childhood mapping and the ability to use it determine patterns that have roots in our childhood that affect our relationships and overall happiness today. (8:43)
Adora also talks about through personal process work, we all can get to a tipping point where we're able to not only recognize or life purpose but actualize it, to be able to ground it and create life, bring life to it. (20:46) Finally, Adora discusses how belief systems that are passed down through generations can imprint and then become part of our day-to-day living. (25:39)
To Learn more about Adora and her work visit her website at https://adorawinquist.com.
**Quotes: **
Adora on what it takes to actually become the alchemy:
…”Being able to look at the places of our physical health, our emotional health, and psychic health. To be able to see, where do I need to apply the practices or tools or hacks if you will, of self love and transformation..” (04:40)
Adora talks about what life’s journey means to her:
“I really believe that this life offers a journey until our very last breaths. And that journey is one of awakening and continuing to elevate ourselves.” (15:39)
Adora talks about following your sole purpose and life goals:
“When we are truly following our sole purpose, we move into a place of ease, grace, of effortless flow.” (21:42)
Links Mentioned in Todays Show:
AdoratherapyMood Boost
Connect with Us
To learn more about Claire Faithful and the Be a Smart Woman movement visit us at: http://www.beasmartwoman.com
Or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter
Also listen to this podcast on: iTunes, Spotify, and at BeASmartWoman.com
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Belinda Jane Robinson -- The Seven Jewels of Life
21 Mai 2019· Be A Smart Woman
Today, the Be A Smart Woman podcast welcomes Belinda Jane Robinson for the first part of a two-part interview where she shares her journey around the world that led her to inspire, empower and reignite the true brilliance of so many souls using the tools and gifts she shares in her book, The Seven Jewels of Life.
Besides her amazing book, Belinda is a former registered nurse and entrepreneur in the UK. She now has an international podcast recorded at the Shed Studio in the Cotswolds area of the United Kingdom.
Belinda discusses how receiving a little wooden treasure box containing seven glass jewels as a gift from her mother when she was sent to England for boarding school changed her life (06:15). Belinda then tells us how, in one of the darkest moments of her life, nearly 30 years later that little wooden treasure box containing seven glass jewels became the inspiration to reignite herself and inspire her book. (08:58) She then explains how the act of polishing the seven glass jewels represents looking at the areas in your life that are important to you, and by paying attention to those areas of your life, you're polishing your own diamond within yourself. (22:40)
To Learn more about Belinda, visit her website at http://www.sevenjewelsoflife.com
**Quotes: **
A favorite quote of Belinda Jane Robinson said by Hafiz of Shiraz
"I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being." (02:27)
Belinda on how she began to use her jewels to reignite her life:
“The jewels came to represent areas of my life that I felt at that time I needed to get into balance (14:38)
Belinda on how listening is key:
“…to light your diamond up, you have to listen. And we've all got completely different messages from all of it, because we're all unique.” (25:55)
Links Mentioned in Todays Show:
The Seven Jewels of Life by Belinda Jane Robinson
Connect with Us
To learn more about Claire Faithful and the Be a Smart Woman movement visit us at: http://www.beasmartwoman.com
Or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter
Also listen to this podcast on: iTunes, Spotify, and at BeASmartWoman.com
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Lynne Buchanan: How Women Can Help Save Our Water
7 Mai 2019· Be A Smart Woman
Today, the “Be A Smart Woman” podcast welcomes Lynne Buchanan. Lynne is a nationally recognized environmentalist and fine arts photographer. Lynne shares with us what led her to follow her heart and go from stay-at-home mom of three to a photographer of water issues in the United States and around the world. Lynne is excited to share where this journey has led her today. Lynne is also an artist, writer, and educator and has a beautiful book that has just been released called: Florida's Changing Waters: A Pristine World in Peril. Her book, a collection of photographs and essays, showcase the beauty, diversity, and complexity of Florida’s waters, while also documenting the negative effects of pollution, population growth, development, and climate change on Florida’s inland and coastal waters and springs.
Lynne shares how an interest in yoga led her to become interested in water. She then describes how she rediscovered herself by traveling across the country photographing water issues after going through a divorce and the last of her children leaving for college. (4:28) Lynne also explains why water became such an interest for her and how she has discovered a mission to protect water sources. (5:45)
Lynne discusses her thoughts on how women have a unique perspective on the world’s problems and what unique qualities they often bring to the table. (10:04) Lynne then shares what led her to create her new book. (13:10) Lynne also talks about waterkeepers and why they are so important to keeping our water clean. (14:10)
Lynne then moves on to talk about her trip to Antarctica and why she went there. (16:16) Lynne also gives women tips on how they can make small changes to their daily life to help the climate and specifically our planet’s water. (20:52)
Finally, Lynne shares how her children think about her new mission and thoughts on what we can do to help the planet keep clean water. (25:12)
To Learn more about Lynne visit her website at www.lynnebuchanan.com, follow Lynne on Instagram @lynnebuchananphotography
**Quotes: **
Lynne on how she believes being a mother shaped her views on the world
> “As a mother with children, you have several children if you have more than one and they have all these different wants and needs and desires. They're going to come in conflict and you love them all. You're trying to figure out, how can I help make peace here? You can take that same thing out into the world.” (12:15)
Lynne on a message given to her by Betty Osceola of the Panther Clan of the Miccosukee that still gives her chills
"When one person cares, there is hope." (26:38)
Links Mentioned in Todays Show:
Florida's Changing Waters: A Pristine World in PerilClearwater on the Hudson River (14:19)Waterkeeper Alliance (14:37)
Connect with Us
To learn more about Claire Faithful and the Be a Smart Woman movement visit us at: http://www.beasmartwoman.com
Or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter
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Alison Sher: The Millennial's Guide to Changing the World
23 Apr 2019· Be A Smart Woman
Today, the Be A Smart Woman podcast welcomes renowned author Alison Sher. Alison is an expert on the subject of millennials and the challenges they face. This is the subject of her fantastic book: Millennial's Guide to Changing the World. Today, in the first part of a two-part series, Alison shares what led her to write this book, what it is like to be a millennial in the world where older generations think they are floundering and only living up to a small fraction of their full potential.
In addition to her amazing book, Alison runs Millennials Incorporated. Millennials Incorporated does cross generational reconciliation work inside of organizations helping bridge the generational gap that leads to millennials turnover and helps organizations transform corporate culture. Alison offers cost sensitive, custom tailored organizational strategies to transform company cultures in a way that is proven to help increase retaining millennial employees.
Alison shares her thoughts on the millennial generation from her study of numerous perspectives within the generation uncovered by the interviews she conducted as a foundation for her book (2:45). Alison also discusses the impact of coming of age within the great recession, climate change, and income polarity has shaped the values of the millennial generation. (6:47)
Alison discusses how she believes we can break away from the victim mindset that is so prevalent in society, especially in the millennial generation (13:42). Alison then talks about the challenges of misinformation and biases that todays digital world faces and how millennials deal with these and other systemic issues in their emerging adulthood. (16:48)
Alison spends the remained of her time discussing the issues that is caused by the generational gap inside businesses and how the millennial generation is changing how businesses get done. (22:18)
To Learn more about Alison and her work visit her website at http://www.millennials-incorporated.com.
Quotes:
Alison on what the millennial generation really wants:
“What I know about this generation is where we want to go is we want to change the world because we're inheriting a lot of global crises and our systems need urgent changing in order for us to mitigate [their] impact…” (04:46)
Alison on frustrations other generations often see with millennials:
“My experience with working with baby boomers and working with people who do care about the future of this earth and do feel some kind of responsibility for the legacy they're leaving the coming generations is we're like, "I want to empower millennials with the resources that I have, but I can't even get them to pick up the damn phone and give me a call back.” (08:23)
Alison on why she included so many perspectives in her research for the book:
“[The] reason why I made sure to include all these different perspectives inside of the book [is] because empathy, I believe is how we start to come together and really understanding other people's perspectives and stop turning them into the enemy or the other.” (13:43)
Alison on why the millennial generation is changing so many businesses and causing so many businesses to go bankrupt:
“They are not places where we want to work, so what we're finding is that this evolution of business has to happen for these companies to stay alive because millennials are not, we're not drinking the Kool-aid.” (23:01)
Alison on emotions and the millennial generation come together:
“Millennials just aren't able to compartmentalize their emotions the way other gene ... We come with them. You're going to have to acknowledge that aspect of our psyche if you want to earn our loyalty." (26:52)
Links Mentioned in Todays Show:
The Millennial's Guide to Changing the World: A New Generation's Handbook to Being Yourself and Living with Purpose by Alison Lea Sher
Connect with Us
To learn more about Claire Faithful and the Be a Smart Woman movement visit us at: http://www.beasmartwoman.com
Or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter
Also listen to this podcast on: iTunes, Spotify, and at BeASmartWoman.com
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Janese Derrough - Healing With Gratitude and Self Love
9 Apr 2019· Be A Smart Woman
What is gratitude and self-love? How do I know if I am fully in gratitude or in a place of self-love? How can being in a place of gratitude and self-love help me on my journey? If you have any of those questions, today's episode of “Be A Smart Woman” is for you. Today, Janese Derrough shares her journey toward gratitude and self-love and how discovering this awareness can help us heal stress and trauma, and lead a life filled with more compassion and, kindness.
Janese has worked with intuition, healing, and empowerment, for over 35 years as an empowerment guide and intuitive life coach. Using her education in Social Psychology, Janese is certified in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and trained in the importance of accessing intuition from a young age. Janese believes we can create a life of love, health, and well-being through the use of positive tools and intention.
Janese discusses how gratitude and self-love is really a way of life (10:53) and how gratitude and self-love can help us heal stress and trauma by healing the part of the brain that helps us think more realistic and long term. (4:26) Janese also discusses the goal of gratitude and self-love is to strengthen ourselves, so when a situation triggers prior trauma, we have the tools needed in that moment to remain mindful and keep our minds from going down a rabbit hole. (18:17).
To Learn more about Janese practice as an empowerment guide and intuitive life coach visit http://janesederrough.com.
Impactful Quotes:
Janese on how living a life of gratitude can help our overall health:
“The more that we start really looking at our life from that gratitude place, the less victim will feel, the less trauma activation happens, and the more happy and healthy we will be.” (12:28)
Janese on how gratitude and self-love can draw people toward a person:
“…when you bring the self-love and the gratitude together, in your being, it becomes more solid in who you are, and you are happier, you're radiating more, you're attracting like a magnet more in your life, because people feel that.” (26:13)
Links Mentioned in Todays Show:
Dr. Bob Emmons Gratitude Studies (10:56)
Connect with Us
To learn more aout the Be a Smart Woman movement visit us at: www.beasmartwoman.com
Or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter
Also listen to this podcast on: iTunes, Spotify, and at BeASmartWoman.com
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Dr Peggy Farmer - The Power of Self Love
5 Feb 2019· Be A Smart Woman
IIn our 2nd Podcast Claire is interviewing Dr Peggy Farmer. In this Episode Claire and Peggy will be having and in-depth conversation and exploring together The power of Self Love, what is self love, how do we know we are living up to our full potential. What does loving yourself look like and mean.
How can you obtain this self love, where does your mind play a role in this. Can we forgive our self and others. Are you enough?
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