Women Like Me Stories & Business
🎧 Introducing "Women Like Me Stories & Business" - The Inspiring Business and Story Podcast by Julie Fairhurst! 🎙️
Are you ready to embark on a captivating journey of business success and personal growth? Look no further, because Julie Fairhurst is here to enlighten and empower you through her incredible podcast.
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a curious mind, or simply seeking motivation and inspiration, this podcast is a treasure trove of wisdom and guidance. Gain practical tips, innovative strategies, and actionable advice that you can apply to your own life and business endeavors.
Julie Fairhurst's passion for storytelling, combined with her extensive experience in the business world, makes "Women Like Me Stories & Business" a must-listen podcast for anyone craving insight, motivation, and a newfound sense of purpose.
So, grab your headphones, tune in, and prepare to be captivated by the stories of success, resilience, and growth that await you.
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Women Like Me Stories & Business
Menopause Isn't a Crisis—It's Your Superpower Activation
Sally Thibault shares her remarkable journey from a mother struggling with her son's autism diagnosis to becoming a menopause wellness coach who helps women embrace their wisdom and power during life transitions.
• Australian-born Sally moved to Canada to be closer to her adult children
• Published "David's Gift," a book about her family's journey with autism
• Hit rock bottom at "the night at the lake" when overwhelmed by challenges
• Discovered Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) which changed her approach to healing
• Created a wellness program focusing on women experiencing perimenopause/menopause
• Uses EFT to help women identify and release limiting beliefs from childhood
• Views menopause as a transformative beginning rather than an end
• Emphasizes the importance of caring for your health to pursue your passion
• Believes the world needs more post-menopausal women in leadership positions
• Distinguishes between soul purpose (innate qualities) and life purpose (current focus)
A BIT MORE ABOUT SALLY...
Sally empowers women to navigate midlife challenges with confidence and balance. With over 40 years of experience in the fitness industry as a gym owner, instructor trainer, and TV show host, Sally brings a wealth of knowledge and a proven track record of inspiring
transformation.
Specializing in the unique journey of mid-life and the menopause transition, she integrates holistic approaches that address emotional, physical, and mental well-being. With a strong background in counseling, Sally employs techniques such as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT or & " tapping ;) to help women overcome emotional blockages and step into their true power.
Known for her expertise in weight loss, stress management, and purpose redefinition during midlife transitions, Sally uses her own experiences to guide others through this transformative period.
Through her books, dynamic speaking engagements, and personalized coaching, she inspires women to embrace midlife as an opportunity for profound personal growth and empowerment.
Discover how you can reclaim your energy, redefine your purpose, and thrive in every area of your life with guidance from a true industry veteran and transformational leader.
Sally
FREE GIFT: Unlocking The Secrets of Abundance
What if you could unlock the secrets to true abundance—not just financial wealth, but a life rich with joy, purpose, and fulfillment? Unlocking the Secrets of Abundance is your guide to shifting your mindset, removing limiting beliefs, and embracing the daily opportunities surrounding you.
Whether you're seeking more prosperity in your business, deeper connections in your relationships, or a sense of personal fulfillment, the key to unlocking abundance starts within. Let’s begin this journey together—because everything you desire is already within your reach.
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Who is Julie Fairhurst?
Julie Fairhurst – Speaker, Author, and Founder of Women Like Me
Julie Fairhurst is a champion for women’s empowerment and the founder of the Women Like Me Book Program. Since 2019, she has published 30 books and 300+ true-life stories—at no cost to the writers—giving women a platform to heal, inspire, and reclaim their power. Dedicated to breaking generational trauma one story at a time, Julie’s mission is to uplift women emotionally and financially, helping them create better lives for themselves and their families.
Hello everyone, welcome to the Women Like Me Story and Business Podcast, where we celebrate stories, success and the spirit of women in business. I'm your host, julie Fairhurst, and I thank you all for being here with us today. I'm super excited today I have such a lovely lady. I don't know her very well, but our paths have crossed a few times and then she agreed to be a guest on the podcast, so I'm so excited to have her. Her name is Sally Thibault and she is from Canada. I think she's French-Canadian but living in Vancouver.
Speaker 2:No, no, I'm Australian actually.
Speaker 1:What Are you wrong? Australian, but with a French-sounding last name. Yeah, okay, just for confusion for everybody. It'll keep everybody on our toes. So did you grow up in Australia?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm an Australian married to a Canadian. Ah, got you. And we actually lived in Australia for 43 years. We're still married and our children were all dual citizens and so, one by one, they've just moved back to Canada for some unknown reason and they weren't coming back, so we had to move here, of course.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, why don't you tell us a little bit more about yourself, sally, if you don't mind?
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you, yes, so I'm as I said, I'm Australian. I met my husband actually in Edmonton in 1979. I was traveling through Edmonton in December Lord only knows why I'm an Australian girl and I thought, you know, just a light coat would be nice and some high-heeled shoes. Yes, I met my husband in 1979. We were married in 1982. We lived for a little while in Canada but moved to Australia for our children to grow up, by the ocean actually. So we lived on the Gold Coast in Australia, right actually on the ocean, overlooking the ocean, beautiful. And our kids are dual citizens and so one by they came here. My youngest came here first to study dance at Harbour Dance downtown Vancouver. My son, who we'll talk about, met a girl online. Anyway, they've been together 10 years and married and lovely. And then my middle daughter said well, if they're there, I want to be there too. And so she came five years ago and ended up getting married in September to a lovely Canadian. So we moved here.
Speaker 1:Oh well, what else can you do? I've been to Australia once and it takes a very long time to get there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, for Julie, for us it was it takes a very long time to get there. Oh yeah, and you know, for Julie, for us it was really COVID when, when everything was locked down and Australia was very locked down, as you know and I thought with something had happened to one of the children or something had happened to us, we, we couldn't have got to each other, and it was then we really made the decision. We didn't want to be separated from them. Yes, um, took a little while to make the decision, as you can realise, you know, being older parents, but we came here in November 2023, and it's been the best decision we ever made. I just love it here. I really love living here and I love being close to them too, even though the cold was a little bit challenging to get used to. Yes, but I actually really like the changing seasons. I love that we didn't have that in Australia because we're subtropical, so it's been the best decision we've ever made.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm so glad that you guys are here and it sounds exciting like a whole new adventure for everyone. So I wanted to start off, sally, talking about your books, because of course, I'm women like me and we do a lot of books.
Speaker 2:so, um, you've got three books that you've published two books and one is will be published, uh, later on 2025.
Speaker 1:Okay so you've got across. So one that you're, one you're working on and two. So do you want to tell us about the two that you've got?
Speaker 2:published so far? Okay. So the first book is a book called david's gift asperger's life and love, and it I wrote that book following my son's diagnosis of autism, which now it's not called autism we don't use the terminology asperger's syndrome anymore and it was really the story of our family's journey, in particular, me coping as a mother and what I went through at a time when there was very little known about autism. In fact, when David was diagnosed, it was one in 600 children. There's now a sound about one in 35. And so it was a really trying time, very emotionally draining. I have two other children and we went through things like the global financial crisis. Everything kind of just happened and during that time I kept journals. The whole entire time, from literally the day he was diagnosed, I had kept journals and so when we actually had, you know, got him out of school and through university, a friend of mine said you should write about your journey and I actually had only decided to write that book to hand to my family. I thought so, they know the story, they know what we went through, right. I thought so, they know the story, they know what we went through, right, and little did I know at the time, because it was the very first Autism Awareness Day was actually the day I, the week prior to me launching the book, and that catapulted me on to national media. I ended up with two guest spots on two different radio stations. I was then taken around Australia to run seminars, workshops and presentations to help healthcare providers and teachers and families to understand the impact of autism on families. That was my specialty not necessarily strategies for children with autism, but for people to see beyond the diagnosis for the family that sits behind it. Wow. So that was the first one, and so from there I ended up a career I'd come out of.
Speaker 2:My background is in fitness and health, so I'd been a fitness instructor for, at that stage, 25, 30 years, and when David was diagnosed I had to step out of the industry because back in those days there was no funding. They were very right therapists. We had to do everything ourselves, with the guidance of fantastic um occupational therapists and speech therapists, but we really kind of lived on our own to do it and I couldn't do it and have the other two girls and be in a gym at six o'clock in the morning. It was just impossible. So I stepped out of the industry for a period of time which you know we might get onto this later was soul-destroying for me in one way, because I let go of a career I absolutely loved In hindsight, the best decision we ever made.
Speaker 2:As far as for David in particular and who I became along the way, we called it David's Gift because it was a gift. It was a gift to me to become a far better parent than I could have possibly imagined, not only for him but for our other two girls as well. And it was in writing the book that became very cathartic when I could actually look back and say, oh my gosh, I don't believe we survived that. Now I look at the book and realize now what I was also going through was perimenopause at the time and so having little knowledge about perimenopause, little knowledge about autism, it was really, was really really an emotional. It was like a house, was like a volcano ready to just erupt at any point in time. Um, you know, mother nature's greatest joke is to put a pubescent child in the same house of perimenopausal mother. Watch the fireworks just take off.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, wow, what a. You know I. I loved how you named the book. Uh, his gift because it's it puts a and it should be a positive spin on a stressful and unknown back in the it was it back in the 70s or the 80s?
Speaker 2:no, no, in 19 he was diagnosed in night. The diagnosed at the beginning of 1997, just when he was about to go into grade 7 or year 7 at school. Yeah, yeah, and prior to that, the internet only came into being in 1996. Yeah, and so you know, for years prior I was always being called up to the school because there was something going on, and then I'd go from one therapist to another, from one medical practitioner to another, to be told off and that's just your parenting.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh my goodness, I was taking some parenting courses, which was even the worst, like I was not only dealing with all that, but to think I'm a terrible parent. Like what did I? I come from a loving family. You know I came from a loving family. You know I'm one of five children. What did I get so wrong? And it was just. You know, the day he was diagnosed, he was 12. And I wanted to go down to our local store and buy a big neon sign that said it's autism, not my parenting, yes, yeah. And the judgment that you go through. And then the self-doubt that happened because of that and, as I said, fortuitously I actually kept a journal of the whole entire time. So when I came to writing the book, I was reading through my journals thinking I can't believe I survived that. Oh, I'd forgotten all about it. Oh, my God, I remember that day.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:So the process of writing, which I think, as you know and I know I've heard you speak about before that process of getting those words down, get it out of your head so you can look at things objectively was really emotional because I'd forgotten what we'd been through, but at the same time, very empowering because I wasn't the same person. I wasn't the same person that started this journey and who ended it.
Speaker 1:I think that we either look at the positives, do the best that we can and go through it, or we don't. And I believe, just like you said, some some things are the best things that could have ever happened. You know, even with, even with terrible covid, there was a lot of good that happened, you know, with covid, and here you and here you and your husband have reunited with your kids and come back to canada, and so just we just never know what's going to happen. I know one of the things you you wrote in your, in your, in your, I guess, story to me about what we could talk about was you mentioned that you were driving. You mentioned that you were contemplating driving your car, your vehicle, to the water, and I'm assuming, yeah, and off the edge of the boat ramp.
Speaker 1:I think there's so many women that I've spoken to so many women where they're like. You know, I'm driving down the road and all I could think of is I just want to drive my car in the ditch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know a hundred percent. You know that that night actually lives really, really strongly in my mind. I think we all reach a point where we have a breaking point and and I often think of that you know, I was very fortunate to be in a loving relationship. I had, um, my mother had passed away but my dad was very supportive, my family was very supportive. But because I couldn't figure it out, because I thought it was all about me, I just thought what's the point? What you know, what's the point? I now understand perimenopause and I understand because that's the area I now work in helping women through that perimenopausal. I understand, because that's the area I now work in helping women through that perimenopausal, menopausal stage. That suicide ideation is actually quite strong for many women going through perimenopause and what it?
Speaker 2:is is a lack of estrogen in the brain. Our brain function changes and we can't think clearly. The brain fog. So I now understand that.
Speaker 2:But that particular night what happened was David was in uh, grade 10 at the time and he was bullied constantly at school just all the time, and um, it had come to a head one day. When um, he came home with bruises all down his arm and and I said what happened, he told me about this boy that used to punch him in the arm all the time when they were lining up outside the classroom and because I just, you know, I wanted just go to the school, he said, mum, don't do that, don't, because if you say anything it'll make it worse round about that. For that night. Then I'm trying to get her to do his homework. And he wouldn't do his homework and there was an assignment due the next day and then the other two girls were crying because we were fighting, and then my husband was and I were fighting. He was saying you know, can he just settle down, calm down?
Speaker 2:I was like I've just had enough of everybody, grabbed my car keys and just got in the car and drove and then drove to the end of this lake and, and what I often think, that there was a guardian angel sitting on my shoulders that night in the form of my mother. She had died, she had passed away some years before that. And I remember thinking in this moment of clarity how would my husband explain that to my children? If, after a huge argument, your mother just ends it Like what would the children live with? How would would you know?
Speaker 2:And I thought that's not me. And so I remember walking back home after a couple hours walking, driving home, walking in the door, and I said to my husband we have to figure this out. We just have to figure this. I don't know what we can do. Um, it was at the end of the global financial crisis. We lost our house, you know, financially really struggling at the same time, and I'd taken a job as a telemarketer. You know nothing to nothing wrong with telemarketers not at all, but I don't see it soul destroyer, because I needed to be available.
Speaker 2:The school would be calling me all the time for something to come up and see something about David, or I'd drop in an occupational therapy or speech therapy, plus trying to get him to do his homework. And the very next day I walked into the school and told them I was going to pull my son out of school. And I did. I just walked in and said this isn't working. I don't know what's going to work, but him being in this school isn't working. And the principal at the time was actually really nice. He said we just don't have the support in place to assist David. There's not enough funding for him.
Speaker 2:So we brought him home and he actually stayed in his room for three months. He'd just come out for dinner and then he'd go back into his room and I'd just check on him to make sure he was okay. And then, bit by bit, he started to you know, started to come out. Then he started to want to come shopping with me and then he wanted to come to family picnics with us. And then we found in Australia we have a TAFE college which is like a vocational college. They had a year 10 literacy and numeracy program and we enrolled him in that and then he went on to there. He did a number of certificates in computer programming. He then went on to do a diploma in multimedia which gave him enough credit points to get into university to study film and TV. And you could be no more proud of parents and that graduation ceremony when he walked across the stage with his Bachelor of Film and TV. We took a long way to get there but we got there.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And who I became along the way. I became a much less judgmental person. You know, I see parents in sores now and their kids are having a meltdown and I just don't give them a hug or look, I get it, I get it, I get it where you're at. But it also gave me the impetus to decide what I wanted to do with my life. So when we released the book and it's four years I spent, you know, travelling around Australia and doing all these seminars.
Speaker 2:And when I gave David the book to read originally before we launched it, he sat up all night and read it. Oh, and he came downstairs the next day and he said, mum, I just want to talk about one thing, and that was the night at the lake. And he said was that my fault? And I said no, it wasn't your fault, honey, it was my fault. And he said you need to tell this story. However, mum, if any time I want you to stop talking about it, can you give me your guarantee you will? I said, sure, thinking like it never happened. Yes, sure, what night he walked in. Can you stop talking about it? Now? I'm like, okay, I had one more conference to be a keynote speaker in it. I thought that was it okay.
Speaker 2:I had to honor him, yes of course I'd said I was going to yes, um, and then I was like, oh god, what now? And that's when I went back into working, uh in supporting women uh through weight loss and fitness and health and coaching so is that the time?
Speaker 1:so what's the time frame when your second book came out?
Speaker 2:So the second book came out in 2017.
Speaker 1:Oh, so not too long ago.
Speaker 2:No, do you know, things always happen serendipitously, don't they? I mean so not long afterwards and I'm like, oh, what am I going to do now? I'll go back to coaching. But a friend of mine actually it was an accountability group for a business coaching group. I was on And'll go back to coaching.
Speaker 2:But a friend of mine actually was an accountability group for a business coaching group I was on and she was from New York and we used to hop on these calls every week and she was studying EFT emotional freedom techniques, often called tapping and Susan was a really powerful businesswoman, she ran an enormous sales organization. And when she started talking about EFT and I'm like, oh, don't give me that, I'm not gonna go there, it looks stupid because you've got a tap on your face and like, oh yeah, been through so much with David, I thought no, no, no less is evidence-based and I'm not interested. Anyway, persistent as she was, she did a session for us one day and it was just blew. My mind absolutely just changed so much. And so I then I'm like, oh, what is this? I wonder how to do it. And it just so happened two weeks later.
Speaker 2:Um, the only emotional freedom techniques trainer in Australia was actually putting on a four-day seminar just like an hour away from us, so I did that, fell in love with it, became an EFT master trainer where I trained um health care providers, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, doctors and teachers to use the modality, and then decided that I wanted to do my own. I wanted to incorporate that and work with women going through menopause and fitness and health, and so things are combined in the work that I do now.
Speaker 1:So with that, are you? So with the tapping there's positive language. That you're saying as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, so how EFT works? It works on the premise of releasing the emotional connection to past stories that you tell yourself. So every time you do something for instance, if you're two years old, put your hand on a hot stove and it burns your fingers you pull away. That story is registered in the hippocampus and amygdala, which are now reptilian brain. So the next time you go to put your hand on the stove, you remember that it's hot, so you're not going to do it again. However, it also records all those things that were said to you when you were a kid in the playground, and it just hasn't gone away. Somebody told you you weren't smart. Someone told you you'd never amount to anything. Someone told you you were ugly when you were 14. That story still sits there Now.
Speaker 2:For many women, that can be enough to hold them back from stepping out to be truly successful. Because what if? That's where the imposter syndrome comes from? Yes, I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy enough. That's just a story you're telling yourself. Yes, and so what we do in EFT is we go in and we tap on the emotion around that story. So that's the first thing we tap on to release the emotional connection. And under MRIs. We notice that when people tap saying the truth of how they actually feel, the the neurons just for a minute rewire in the brain and then we do once once you get that emotional connection down to a zero or two, so it's not triggering, we reframe and we put a new set of beliefs in.
Speaker 2:So EFT works brilliantly for anything that's holding you back and something's not going right. Okay, what's going on? What's the story I'm telling myself here? Where did that start? And normally, for most of us it's childhood. Yes, yes and believe it, a lot of parent issues, and that's not to make our parents wrong.
Speaker 2:Many of them are doing the best they could possibly do. But they may have said something to you as a joke and you didn't see it as a joke. That's right, that's, or it was a time you would felt very vulnerable we had a saying in our house. My mother used to say it all the time a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips yes. I grew up believing that anything that I ate put on weight. That's, I'm thinking, where did that come from? And then I did some tapping went up.
Speaker 1:Well, it's so interesting you say that because, uh, I have a friend whose mother told her um, oh, oh, you shouldn't wear that, your behind is too big, and her entire life she thought her behind was too big, but it wasn't. But it was that one little sentence, and I don't think her mom didn't say it in cruelty or anything. It was just like oh, you know, you might want to wear something different, that doesn't? You know, it's not fitting you the best, or whatever she meant, it's your beautiful figure.
Speaker 2:You know you could be like. That's where most mothers come from I just want our daughters, their daughters, to look lovely. Yes, yes, but that's the thing you know, and and oftentimes, when I'm working with clients, what happens is that we'll find family sayings that just register and then when we tap, they kind of go. Actually, that's not true. Why have we been hanging on to this? It especially shows up for women in leadership roles.
Speaker 1:How long do you think that it takes for when somebody, so someone, realizes that they've got a problem, an issue that they want to clean up from their past? So how long does it normally take people like, on an average, if you know? Five minutes, really, that's pretty good. That's really good.
Speaker 2:So what's really interesting is the original person who developed this EFT that we talked about. A guy called Gary Craig was actually a Stanford engineer and watched another gentleman, a psychologist, working with a woman with severe fear of water and watched him tapping. So he talks about our palace of possibilities. We have this palace of possibilities, but it's overshadowed by all these writings on our wall. Yes, and so what we do, what, what I find with EFT, what you do I mean I.
Speaker 2:From the time I started with EFT, just after David said don't do this anymore, I probably tapped every day for about four years and again recorded it all, because we have what you know, these things, what they call table tops and table legs, so you could have a belief about um, if I speak in public, people are going to laugh at me, right, and it's held up by numerous beliefs. So you can tap and get rid of one belief, tap and get rid of another belief, but it takes sometimes four or five different beliefs and different incidences to make that belief collapse. So you can get rid of one. For instance, I did a tapping in my group last week. It was talking about intuitive eating, which is, you know, allowing your body to tell you what to eat, not your emotional brain, and the women on the call were saying oh my God, why did I think chocolate's fattening? Like, where did that come from?
Speaker 2:As we were going through it. And that's the thing. We often don't know. What's the belief that's holding you back? There'll be something. It's like body relationship and bank account three big things. And so if those three things, if something's wrong in that area, it's just a belief, yes, and so you tap on. What's this belief that's causing me to shy away from speaking up, or I can't release this last 20 pounds or I don't have the motivation to exercise, which is the area that I work in.
Speaker 2:So what's the belief? I don't have the motivation to exercise, which is the area that I work in. So what's the belief? And normally we hide behind our beliefs because they keep us safe. Gay Hendricks, in his book the Big Leap, talks about that. So, every time you want to get to the next level, you're going to go through a whole other layer of beliefs you've got to get rid of. Yes, to go to that, because you feel vulnerable and failing privately by having these beliefs is a lot safer than failing publicly.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely so I, I just, I, I'm just sitting here in awe of you because I'm very much of the belief that beliefs half the beliefs we have. We don't even know why we have them, but we just have them yeah yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2:You know, that was the thing I think that I've found in this work with EFT and I've done a lot of personal development before this came along, as probably we all did in the 80s. You know, it was very much that sort of personal development here, tony Robbins, and all that stuff we went through um, dr Wayne Dyer, all that stuff. But. But what I love about this is it is, once you learn how to do it, you can do it yourself. And then then the empowerment comes from when you recognize, hang on, where did that belief come from? Why did I just say that? Or why did I just think that? And we go okay, wait a minute, wait a minute, where did that come from? And it's about being really aware of the steps you take, the things you do during the day. Right now, I think we're all living in this low-grade stress and anxiety because we don't know what the heck's going to happen. You know the next hour. We just don't know. And so our cortisol levels are heightened, our adrenaline levels are heightened.
Speaker 2:You mightn't feel it but you're reaching for that last glass of wine, or suddenly you really need something sugary to eat, or you find yourself being stuck in procrastination and all that is is that low-grade stress and anxiety because we don't know what's going on. So then, using EFT to lower that, lower those cortisol levels, lower those adrenaline levels, so you can think more clearly.
Speaker 1:That is just so easy. It's too easy.
Speaker 2:Shouldn't I be spending thousands of dollars on therapy?
Speaker 1:No, I believe that. I think that's just amazing. Do you have so? Do you teach classes still, or what do you do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I have an online program now, you know, after I go back. So you know, going back to that time, when I suddenly realized one day, um, that I was, that I was going through, or just had been through, perimenopause and nontomenopause, I gained 20 pounds. I was just a mess, you know, and, and, and the doc, and I'm thinking because my background is in fitness and health I I thought, okay, well, I'll just restrict calories and I'll run more. Didn't work. I know that was sore knees and sore hips and tired.
Speaker 2:And when I began to do more work in this area, I realized that our wellness as we move through menopause has to be more than food and diet and exercise. It's who we become on this journey of menopause, because we become somebody so different. In fact, our brain actually rewires during menopause because of lack of estrogen. So that's why brain fog, that's why we get brain fog, and so then the neurons rewire and we come out of it I heard a great quote the other day that said we come out of it caring much more deeply, but caring less.
Speaker 2:Yes, because that's what we do we. We become this in just very wise, intuitive women. Um, and so so I created what I call the 10 principles of wellness and that we're looking at. You know, eating intuitively. How do we learn to do that? How do we? Because women are very intuitive if they have knowledge. Yes, and knowledge is really important about, for instance, nutrition. But then you listen to your body. So you know, are you fasting intermittently? Exercise purposefully? I've created a whole series of what we call nine-minute workouts. It also includes, you know, tapping daily, meditation and discovering your purpose. Who do you become now in this journey?
Speaker 2:Because you know for many of us we're reaching our 50s. Our children are living home and I can remember the day my middle daughter moved to Canada, so my youngest daughter gone first, eldest son, eldest child next and then my third, and I remember sitting on the couch and saying to my husband now, what, yeah, what Like. In a way it was like I've got no excuses anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't say I've got to drop everything and go pick them up from school. I can't say, you know, I need to help them, you know, navigate their lives because they don't have time. And it was really, you know, going very deep and understanding. Where did I, where was my soul lit up? And it was fitness and health.
Speaker 2:And for all women, you know, it's rediscovering their life purpose as they move through this menopause stage because, as I said, you think much more deeply and care less about what other people think of you. So it's a magical time. I was just talking to my sister about half an hour ago. Her youngest daughter's moving and she said all of a sudden I'm by myself. I said what a magical time.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, what a magical time. Exactly yes, yes, what a magical time. You're not beholden to anybody, she's separated, divorced from her husband. But I said this you can do anything you want. And she was like oh yes, the bottom of that lies you have to be healthy.
Speaker 1:That's right. Yes, for sure. Had a girlfriend. I had a girlfriend, the same thing, so ended a relationship, got fired from a job and dog died in the same week and I said congratulations, your life is just gonna go in a super fantastic direction. Yeah, if you follow.
Speaker 2:If you follow it exactly well you know, first of all, you've got to get real sad and crying yes, of course, of course of course, but then it is yes, I. I was sitting in a networking event just recently and there were two younger girls sitting across. Younger girls, since when we call women in their 40s younger?
Speaker 1:I don't know, but anyway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, two women in their 40s sitting opposite me and asked me what I did. I said well, I'm a menopause wellness coach. And this one woman said I'm terrified of menopause and I said why? She said I only hear really bad things. I said you are so lucky you don't realize how fortunate you are. You are going to go through this with way more knowledge than we ever had. Yes, the research that's coming out, especially here in british columbia, who I believe are ahead of everybody else in canada, with the bc women's health clinic opening up um lots of research into menopause and wellness and also hrt will be free here in april. So there's all these things that are happening. Yes, you don't need to be scared of it.
Speaker 1:It's an exciting time of your life.
Speaker 2:Yes, I look back on those times. You know going through all of that and I remember sitting in a board meeting one day. I just started to cry, oh, I don't know everything and there's all these men running around. Do we?
Speaker 1:need to give us some time off.
Speaker 2:Can we get a wine? I just couldn't stop crying and now I recognise that's what it is. Stress levels were heightened levels. I was going through perimenopause, my estrogen and testosterone levels were all over the place, yeah, and so that actually is interesting because that's where the cost to the workplace is enormous, when we don't understand what women go through and 51% of the population will go through this- yes, they will go through this.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's my passion now, as you can see, because I just love working with women at this age. They're smart, they're intuitive with you, know why, and they get it. Yes, get it yes.
Speaker 1:I know for myself. I was in sales and marketing for 34 years and then I got extremely burnt out. But then I thought, well, what the heck am I going to do like? What am I going to like? What am I going to do with the next phase of my life? And I actually was able to retire in February 2014 officially and do Women Like Me full time. But it was a process for me to get here and it was a five-year process and little hints were along the way of what I should be doing and it's listening to that. I never thought in 2020 years ago, if somebody told me I'd be doing podcasts and writing books with women and all of that, I would have said insane. So I agree with you and I hope that anyone who's any woman who's listening takes this to heart and realizes that that it's not the end of your life. It's actually the beginning of your life because you're not really living for everybody else anymore, 100% and now, the interesting thing too is that women went through menopause in the early 20s.
Speaker 2:What's that last century? So 100 years ago? Yeah, women went through menopause around about the age of 53. We actually go through menopause earlier now, but they only live to an average of 72. Women now go through pentaforce about two years early 51, 52, but will live up to 85. Yeah, now, you know that's the average. But if you care for your body, you know, do the strength exercises, you know, focus on your well-being and you know how are you going to spend that time, from 55, say, to 85? What are you going to do for the next 30 years of your life, exactly?
Speaker 1:That's what my whole stress was all about what am I gonna do? What could I? You know, I want to do something. I don't want to. I'm not a tv watcher, like what am I gonna do? So I agree with you. I think that, um, I, I think that we should get more excited instead of stressed out. You know just what.
Speaker 2:I think more women. I would love to see more women in leadership positions. Yes, at this age, unfortunately, many women are struggling and confronted with ageism in the workplace. Yes, uh, and. And then, on top of that, going through menopause, and so anybody with three degrees who's 35 years old and might come in on top of them, that really impacts on their confidence. And yet, look, the world's a mess.
Speaker 2:We need more women, post-menopausal women, to get in and say listen, stop this, you need to negotiate, we need to figure it out. We can do that. You do it this way Because a book I read, and I can't remember the name, but it's talking about grandmothers and and the power of a grand, and grandmothers hold the heart of the family. So in in indigenous tribes, the wise woman, the woman, is no longer um, uh, fertile. She becomes the, actually the, the heart. So the men go off and hunt. Yeah, she would stay there and actually hold the community together.
Speaker 2:And that's what we're very good at. We're all village together because we understand we're watching young women go through what they go through. You know, I know I'm not a grandmother yet, but I'm watching others, grandmothers who just, you know what honey, it's okay, he'll survive, yeah. So we bring with that that inane energy and that time to spend with our children. And I think my passion for this is to have more women. You know I'm in late 60s, nearly 70. So it's more for me like this is our have more women. You know I'm in late 60s, nearly 70.
Speaker 1:so it's more for me like this is our time yes, and I think that, and I think what I think, what I found is that they, they, a lot of women as we age, think, well, what am I going to do? What you know what, what? What could I going to do? What you know what, what, what could I possibly do? But oh my goodness, you have a life full of wisdom. There's so much that you can do. If you think back when I, when I get some more mature ladies writing in the books, I just get blown away and there's just, we have so much wisdom and so much knowledge and and, and you say that, uh, really care what you think goes away, it just means the world's our oyster. And if you look back at so many women, um, they started and did all sorts of amazing things in their, you know, fifties, sixties and beyond. I I think, I think it's just, I think it's exciting. I think that women just need to hone in on what their gifts are, because we all have them.
Speaker 2:Oh, and you know, for many of us what we do is we put all those gifts on hold while we're raising children and paying the mortgage and, just, you know, getting your teenagers home alive. You know everything has to go and it did for me. I mean, I had a career in the fitness industry, a tv show, you know, trained hundreds of instructors, but when it came to my son, I chose to put all that on the shelf because that was my job at the time.
Speaker 1:that was my life purpose at the time.
Speaker 2:yes, and and. Uh, I'm so glad, I'm so grateful I made that decision because you know David's gone on to be this fabulous married man, lives in Montreal, got a lovely wife, you know he took himself up to Montreal to live in a, in a city that was mostly French. Yeah, taught himself how to speak French, got a job oh, bram so, and he loves his life because the focus, I think, for us was to ensure that he was a whole person. Yeah, he speaks really honestly and openly about being autistic. He's very proud of it because, as you said, it gives him different skills that other people don't have.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know the skill to focus and the skill to see things and this heightened sense of sound where he can understand what people are thinking, almost. You know, he has this way of. He used to say when he was at school he would always, you know, out of the I don't know how many teachers he had probably a handful of really good teachers and he used to say they're kind to me, oh, he could pick up what they were thinking without having to say anything and the teachers that didn't get him shut down. Very intuitive, very intuitive. And so you know, and I think that's the other thing too, like you were just talking about, we go through seasons in our lives and I'm a great.
Speaker 2:You know figure out soul purpose versus life purpose. Your soul purpose is what you were born with innately, that comes with you, and you kind of wrap that soul purpose around your current life purpose. You know, for me, my soul purpose is to teach, inspire and entertain, and so all through my life I've seen how I've been managed to do that in various aspects. Not always the same role, yeah, but our life purpose changes and it's just amazing to make sure that sole purpose wraps itself around in whatever way you can. So you know, I'm really passionate about women's health for that very reason, because you can't follow your passion if you're not. Well, absolutely yes, and I want to be able to. You know, for however long my life is, I want to be standing up. Yes, oh, for sure I want to be hiking with my grandchildren.
Speaker 2:I haven't got one yet um, you know, in 15 years time, when I'm 83 or 4, I want to be able to do grouse grind with them. You know that, like those are the things that you do now, yes, um, so you've become a burden on my children.
Speaker 1:I think that's just. I think that's beautiful to end with. That is just beautiful because it's it's just so true. We have so many, so many gifts and and I hope that anyone who's been listening to us is going to sit down and write out what their gifts are, because for sure they have them out what their gifts are, because for sure they have them. Sally, I'm wondering. In closing, I like to ask my guests five questions before we close. Do you mind? Certainly Okay, they're fun, don't worry, okay. So the first question I want to ask you is what is your favorite book that inspires you in your business or in your personal life?
Speaker 2:Definitely, the Big Leap. Oh yes, Dave Hendricks is a big one. I think I've read it five times. That inspires you in your business or in your personal life definitely the big leap.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, dave, hendrix is a big.
Speaker 2:I think I've read it five times oh, good for you I love it.
Speaker 1:I love it. Yeah, it's a good one. Okay, if you could have dinner with any woman in history, who would it be and why?
Speaker 2:any woman. You know so many women, yeah, am Earhart's the one that comes to mind, and because I come from a generation of people who flew, she actually landed in Papua New Guinea and was there when my mother's family. So we often heard the story of Amelia Earhart and my great uncle meeting her. So that's the woman Hits on a plane and flies around the world on her own. Yes, yes, that's incredible that Hits on a plane and flies around the world on her own.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, that's incredible. That is incredible. Okay, what is your favorite way to unwind after a busy day?
Speaker 2:I love to go for a walk at sunset. That's my favorite thing to do when the sun comes out. I'm looking forward to being able to do that. A walk at sunset, I think, is my favourite with my husband and we can just kind of debrief the day, or a happy hour, with a good glass of champagne.
Speaker 1:Oh, both of those sound wonderful. The next one is do you have a favourite motivational quote that keeps you going?
Speaker 2:Do you have a favorite motivational quote that keeps you going? My mother wrote in a card she gave to me on my wedding day.
Speaker 1:She said to thine own self be true. Oh, my goodness. Oh okay, I don't know why, but that made me very teary-eyed.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful. It's always stuck in my mind when it all comes out be true to yourself yes, beautiful, thank you for that one.
Speaker 1:And the last question is if you could travel anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would you go and why?
Speaker 2:oh wow, where would you go? And why? Oh wow, where would I go? I think Italy, nice. And I would just like to eat pasta and drink red wine on the south coast of Italy and just enjoy. You know, like just being embraced with the culture and the food, and you know, and again, of course I love pasta. But you know, like just being embraced with the culture and the food, and you know, and again, of course I love pasta. But you know, pasta's not good for here, it's not the best, but you can eat pasta in Italy. It doesn't impact as much as it does here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I loved all your answers. Well, thank you so much for doing that. So I want to let everyone know that if you want to reach out to Sally, if you want to join her group or investigate what she can do to help you, in the details section of the podcast and the YouTube, you will have links to find her all sorts of information there. So, Sally, in closing, is there anything that you'd like to share some wisdom with us all before we close? Not that you haven't been sharing wisdom because you certainly have.
Speaker 1:But let's get a final word of wisdom, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think we are braver and smarter than we believe we are and, if anything, this is a time for the rising of the feminine, and so, for women listening to this, this is your time, because this the world needs smart, wise, intuitive women. Oh yes that's it.
Speaker 1:I love that. I just love that. Well, thank you everyone for being here with us and on this episode. We'll see you another time. And, Sally, thank you. It was, it was so, it was good. I'm left emotional.
Speaker 2:I may need some tapping, I don't know. Thank you, julie. Thank you for having me. It's been absolute pleasure.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you.