The Face Your Dreams Podcast

Hosted by business coach and mentor Keri Brecht, the focus of The Face Your Dreams Podcast is to provide you with the best tools to set your business, life, and mindset on fire. You will learn from different experts every week to inspire, motivate, and lead you to live a life and run a business you are obsessed with. Our goal is to help you hone in on your dreams and discover how to turn them into massive action in your life and business.

How Cycle Alignment Can Change Your Business with Guest Jenna Carelli 07/15/2020

How Cycle Alignment Can Change Your Business with Guest Jenna Carelli Interview with Jenna Carelli, a Business Consultant who specializes in systems and automation. Jenna is also a speaker at network marketing leadership events and retreats, and the host of the annual Raising Influence live event, in Tampa, Florida. In this episode, Jenna shares the facts behind cycle alignment and the effects on your business. Could you be pushing yourself at the wrong time of your cycle? When are you exuding your most charismatic self for interviews or guest appearances? How do men cycle through the same 4 phases in just 24 hours while it takes women 28 days? Listen to learn the phase names and actions to take with your business during each phase. It makes perfect sense as it aligns with the phases of the moon! You may remember Jenna from Episode 5 where she shared systems for a business on a budget. If you missed it, it’s worth your time to go listen! Please support Face Your Dreams with Keri, by submitting a review and hitting the subscribe button now! TimeStamp: 13:39 Kate Northrup author of “Do Less.” Guest Jenna said “Get it because this book explains everything in detail.” TimeStamp: 16:30 Dr. Louann Brizendiner, quote “One of the greatest predictors of maternal thriving is predictability.” Ovualtion Apps Mentioned: FLO and My Flow Where can you find my guest and me, the Host? Guest, Jenna Carelli: JennaCarelli Host, Keri Brecht: ***Full Trascript Keri Welcome to the Face Your Dreams Podcast. I am your host Carrie Brecht, a business coach and mentor, who uses intuition and soulful strategy to help new and aspiring online entrepreneurs go from dream to action in their businesses. In this podcast I, along with other amazing experts, will help you set your life and business on fire through insights on all things mindset, strategy, and soul, to truly own both your life and business dreams and turn them into action. Consider this the go to for your inner go getter, as you rock the socks off personal and professional goals. You are not just a dreamer. Now let's find out how to ignite your dreams together. Hello again you business babes. I am here with Jenna Carelli. Again. Thank you for coming back. Thank you for having me. Jenna I love hanging out with your People. Keri So Jenna was on for Episode Five. And we talked all about systems and the importance of implementing systems in our business, how they can make your life easier, the ways you can do that on a very limited budget, and all of that. So you'll have to check out that episode if you missed it. But today, it's kind of a system that we're talking about. We're going to be talking about cycle alignment and specifically with using that to help us rock our business goals and, you know, hone or harness our energies. And you know, be able to use those to the best that we can. So first of all, I want her to just reintroduce herself again really quickly. And then we will go into discussing what this term cycle alignment actually means. You probably have been seeing and reading about it on social media media a little bit more, but she is going to share all of her wisdom with us today. So first of all, share a little bit more about just you what you do. Jenna Yay, so cycle alignment is one of those things that once you hear once, you're not going to be able to let it go Keri It will follow you everywhere! Jenna hen you want to be a Jeep owner like you You always see people driving Jeeps, right. Um, but I, so, I am a business consultant and I work with people primarily in the wellness industry on streamlining their systems and their processes. I also speak very heavily to network marketing leadership retreats, I speak at retreats, and I host my own annual raising influence live event here in Tampa, Florida. And I just love data and analysis. I love tracking what's working rather than focusing on what's not working in your business. And that's what I primarily do on a day to day basis. But I did come from the wellness space. And, I, the business that brought me home from my corporate job was fitness nutrition specialists and speaking to CrossFit gym members on how to track their macronutrients. And so the wellness space is always going to have a place in my heart. And that's really how I started diving into the research of cycle alignment, which is a system like you said, it's actually a system that keeps us alive as women Believe it or not, and it's taboo. But it's how we remain alive. It's how we cycle in our lives as the female species. Keri I love it. I always thought I'm sure you might have been like this too. We learned how we learn about our period is like, okay, you're going to start bleeding, and it's going to suck and you're gonna have a lot of pain. Here are some pads. Here's how to use a tampon. Good luck. Jenna I learned more how to hide the tampon. Keri Yes. I remember having to wear baggy pants and baggy shirts so that I could like stick them in my pockets. Jenna I’d stick them in part of my my jeans and then you had to walk a certain way. Keri Yes! Yes. They wouldn't make a sound because they weren't ultra thin yet. Yeah, they were still the thick. Yeah. And then I wore swishy pants to mask, to mask the sound of the pad. And then I was before everybody else. And so somebody would mention like, oh, Keri has her period. I'd be like, what? No, I don't know you're talking about Jenna They have no appreciation for what actually is. Keri Right. And I don't think it was until maybe just recently where I started. Like when it comes now I like I'm wanting to have children someday. So I'm like, grateful like thank you. Thank you for coming. Thank you for making me aware of your presence. And you're here all the time. Right. That it is always with us. It's just, we're at a different stage. And I remember in college thinking like, God, am I going crazy? Like I felt like I was bipolar my, my moods were so up and down. And that's kind of when I started realizing, okay, there is something to appreciating our cycle because I know now at certain points in my cycle that I might have more mood swings, or I might have a higher amount of anxiety. So like, what can I do to combat that, but I never thought about using this concept for business and productivity and really harnessing our energy at certain points in our in our cycle to help us rather than hold us back or, you know, think of it as in that those pain terms, like when we were learning about our cycles and cursing it and… Jenna Yeah, no, I mean, I grew up, what was it, sex ed in elementary school, middle school, whenever that was. They basically tell you, you're going to have your period and they tell you how you can procreate and then how to not procreate. And that's really all we learned about it. And I remember going on birth control pretty young because I was on a birth control for acne. And I was probably 15. I mean, I met my husband when I was 15. We started dating we've been dating ever since. So, I also went on birth control for you know, preventing a pregnancy as well. But I remember using birth control to push back or push up my period, because I didn't if I was going on vacation, and I knew when that vacation date was I was using birth control to change when my menstrual cycle phase started, which looks back, it's horrible. And I always had this negative connotation surrounding it. So I, I love the fact that I can now appreciate the different phases that I'm in. And it gives me comfort knowing that if I am having mood swings, there's a reason behind it. And I'm not just crazy. My husband knows I’m not just crazy. Keri I love that. Um, I like that you brought up the birth control and using that because my mom was always like, hey, if you need to be on birth control, like I was literally learning how to drive in the car, and she was right next to me. So I know you started seeing someone and it was like, we would go to a movie and be like, hey, do you want to hold hands? Oh, I don't know, you know? And she's like, if you want to be on birth control, I'm like, Can you not talk about that? Like, it was so taboo for me to like, even think about talking about that stuff like, eww, you're my mom like, yeah. Jenna I would always hint to my mom. Like, we wouldn't talk about having sex. Okay, talk about me being on birth control for my face acne, right? Yeah, my daughter's on birth control for her face acne. And we both look at each other like hee, hee, hee. Keri Right, it’s so funny. We always felt we had to preface that with “Oh, I just do it for her acne and stuff.” And it's like, who can't like, you know, be sexually free or, you know, well, actually aware and safe and you know, all of that stuff, right? So I remember the last time I was on it, I was on it for a long period of time in college. And not a long period, I guess compared to a lot of people but it was maybe like, six, seven years or so. And I remember getting awful migraines all the time, and we could never figure out what was causing them. And then I did some really Research and it was like birth control related to migraines or changes your hormones around like, “Oh, I'm going to try it” and I took myself off of it and have never, well maybe once or twice just because of food that I’m eating or things like that, but I've never had a migraine since then. Jenna I've had so many friends who've had to switch from birth control to birth control because of leaking or migraines. Keri Yes! Jenna Wasn’t helping. I was lucky that the one I started with was the one I was on but I was on it for 13 years. So from 15 to 28 ish. I got pregnant at 28 and I stopped birth control three months prior to trying to conceive by the direction of my gynecologist and knew I was never going back on it. I said once I was off it, I'm not going back on. I don’t, I don't want to do that to my body. But the interesting thing about my story is I didn't know anything about cycles. I didn't know anything about ovulation and like, the term ovulation. It was used used loosely, you know, friends would say it and I'd be like, yeah, like, I know what that is. But I didn't know how to track it or even what it did for me. And I was lucky enough that I didn't need to track population to get pregnant. I got pregnant right away. But I had a friend who kind of poked fun at me after I announced my pregnancy. She was like, “Oh, are you tracking your ovulation?” And I was like, “What's that?” She's like, “How did you get pregnant?” I'm like, “I don't know. Like this stars. Yeah.” Keri The birds and bees work. That’s how it happened. Jenna I was like, well, you know, and then I went into the details. But I had, I'll share because this is kind of funny. I had a friend tell me if you want to get pregnant turned upside down afterwards. And that's what I did. Keri That's so funny. Jenna Just to add humor you guys day today. So you’re probably in your car or running. But um, after that, I looked into what ovulation was and I downloaded the app. It's not the My Flow app that I had been using, it was just slow. So there's two apps that are very similar to each other. The flow app, which is just F-L-O is the app that I started using, as soon as my daughter was conceived. And this whole encounter happened with my and I simply tracked my, my period and my observation using this app. Now, recently, when I found out about cycle alignment and the different phases that we’re in, I am now how using it's called My Flow, same thing and M-Y-F-L-O. Because it tells you the four cycle phases, and if you know the length of your cycle rotation, you know exactly what symptoms, as you should be experiencing, and you know exactly what types of tasks and energy allotment you should be giving in any given time, and it's, it's incredible. Keri I started that too. I was on Ovia. First I started using that one. And I never really got into tracking too much on it. I started when I was like, because I was using it to try to get pregnant. But I didn't track like I should, because I wasn't super inspired to do it. But now you got me on My Flow. And I'm really liking that one because it tells you just like everything that you said. And then it also gives the food suggestions also, which I like. So like you should be prepping for the next week by eating these things. And it like really does a great job explaining why it has all those different programs that you can learn more from about if you're trying to get pregnant, you know, you can do some of those types of things. I interrupted sorry. Jenna Yeah, no, I absolutely I love it. Um, I would love to just share how I even gotten into this and yes about the difference between men and women because that was my biggest eye opener was that men and women both cycle for the same four phases so I think that's an interesting yeah. I was in my car I was listening to Entrepreneurial On Fire the podcast. I clicked on the episode called “Do less have more.” Okay and I didn't know what it was about, but I was like, I like that right. I can align. Keri we all want to do less and have more. Yeah? Jenna This is my first encounter with cycle alignment. And it was Kate Northrup, who I now have her book called us it recently came out and if you don't have it, get it because this explains everything in detail. I also have a resource that I can provide to you because I've been taking notes but she started talking about before phases of our cycles. And what was the most interesting to me was that, um, you know, we've been programmed in society and with jobs in the corporate world to believe that we need to stay active at all times. And we've been programmed that, you know, for on this 24 hour cycle, we've been programmed to wake up every single day. Show up at the same exact time at our job, put in as much work or more in terms of effort and intensity than we did the previous day. And for men, it works because men have a cycle that is a 24 hour rotation. So for a man, they go through the same four phases that we go through as a female in 24 hours. And the rotation, as we know most of us is, on average, a 28 day cycle, right? So, for me, I'm ready. I was like, Okay, this is great information, knowing that I'm going through four different phases over the course of 28 days. But holy cow men are going through the same four phases in 24 hours. Like no wonder, my husband's, like, you know, so consistent with what he done and why we're so, um, you know, why we have these mood swings and like, well, we can wake up one day with so much energy and then the next day just want to crawl under the covers and not get out. Right. So that was that was the big eye opener for me when I was listening to the podcast. And I really wanted to apply this to my business coaching and the students that I worked with in terms of time and task management. So I dove into the research and all I could really find is, um, talk about food cycle of things. So aligning these four phases with the types of food that we should should be eating or whether intermittent fasting and this is a whole other subject should actually be done consistently or only when we're most resistant to insulin, which is the menstrual phase. Um, I couldn't find any research on time and task management as it relates to what phase we were in, in our cycle. The only person I could find is Kate Northrup. So I you know, listen to a few other episodes that she was on, podcast episodes, and I dove into some discussions with integrative health practitioners. Um, and then somebody by the name of Dr. Louann Brizdine, I quoted her saying “One of the greatest predictors of maternal thriving is predictability.” So as a mother, we want to be able to predict things but as a mother, like life, and everything in general is so unpredictable. So when there's something that we can hold on to that gives us a solid answer to why we're acting a certain way or whatever, like we really hold on to that. And growing up in the health and wellness space, I always counted my macronutrients. And that was my way of saying, I have a good handle on my health. I have a good handle on my body, I can I know exactly what I'm putting in because I'm counting it, I'm tracking it. So cycle alignment for me, has been has been my way now as a mother to be able to explain why I'm doing things and be sure of it right and be able to predict it. Keri Right. That's super important. Not currently a mother but future mother. And I think even for me just as a human being, I mean, it’s, there are some days where it's like you have so many things going on, especially living outside of the states. I feel like we have we need to be speaking with our families. You know, we need to be staying in contact with people, we're trying to, you know, do new things here. We're running our business. We’re doing this that the other and having that predictability and knowing, okay, this is going to be coming at this point in time really helps with that structure because especially like we were talking about working online, like there is a lot of unpredictability there where, okay, well, what am I going to do today? Well, I have this, this and this, but… Jenna How many times when people they're talking about what they've done, and how much they've done, we're aligning our value to that we guess, you know, look at everything that I've done. Like, look at here, here, it all is on my plate, like that's how much I'm worth all this stuff that I've done, and in one day. Like, like, I would want you to consider reframing that and like, I if somebody says, you know, “I haven't slept in five days,” like I don't say congratulations. I want to be just like you, ya know? Keri That used to be the status symbol. I think people still sometimes think it is. But yeah, no. Jenna Yeah. And I can completely identify with workaholic tendencies. I mean, my father was an entrepreneur. I became an entrepreneur. When you actually really love what you do. I mean, I personally see working as a break, a lot of times. I mean, whether you're a mother, a mother figure, or you have friends that you spend a lot of quality time with I, I tend to need that break. And a break for me is often working. So it's hard for us to turn that action into inaction unless we have a really good reason behind it. And I think that when we know the way that our bodies function, it's a good enough reason to rest instead of rest just being a default when we're overworked and frustrated, and then we've already hit rock bottom. Keri Right? Yeah. I love that. I love that. Thought like had we talked about this several years ago, I'd have been like, Oh, I don't know, but I have stuff I need to get done. So yeah, I like the idea of when I, for example, we know that there is a rescue, an important time of rest in our cycle. So, if we don't take that rest, we're basically making ourselves kind of set the clock back a little bit like we're not taking that time that we need for ourselves. So then we're going to be behind on some other Things that we take that rest are going to have the motivation and the the energy, the right amount of energy, you know, to tackle some of those tasks and those productive times. So why don't you share a little bit about it. The different cycles yeah the different phases and stages and all of that. Jenna And I will say that I am very data driven as well. So Like an energetic side to this, and then there's a biology side to this. So if you need the scientific evidence behind everything that we talked about, Kate does talk about it within her book. I'm coming at it kind of from an... /episode/index/show/faceyourdreams/id/15226670