From Glass Creations to Body & Life Coaching: Meet Courtney Gray | Ep #174

Second Act Success Career Podcast
Season 1 - From Glass Creations to Body & Life Coaching: Meet Courtney Gray | Ep #174
Episode - #174
Host: Shannon Russell
Guest: Courtney Gray
Transcription (*created by Descript and may not be perfectly accurate)

[00:00:00] Courtney Gray: When you take care of your body, it affects every other area of your life. You can get coaching and learn how to make more money.

It's not going to affect your relationships. It's not going to affect your, follow through and all that. But for some reason, when we take care of our body, it affects every area.

I decided to Call myself a body and life coach because to me it's so much more than weight loss. So much more than weight loss.

[00:00:24] Shannon Russell: Are you ready to quit your nine to five job and start a business of your own? Well, you're in the right place, my friend. Welcome to the second act success career podcast. I am your host, Shannon Russell. I am a former television producer turned business owner, career transition coach, and boy mom. My mission is to help you produce your best life.

This podcast will teach you how to get from where you are now to where you want to be and how to build a business that fits your life and lights you up. Let's get started.

Welcome back to the Second Act [00:01:00] Success Career podcast. I am your host career transition and business coach Shannon Russell. Today, I'm chatting with Courtney Gray.

She is here to discuss her second act success career story, where she moved from being the CEO of a glass and jewelry business. To now being a certified body and life coach.

Plus Courtney will share some really excellent advice for entrepreneurs who work from home.

Tips on how to maintain your weight and not gain those extra pounds by walking back and forth to the kitchen all day long. Stick around because Courtney has so much energy and so much fantastic advice to give. Let's get to it. This is my conversation with Courtney Gray.

Okay.

[00:01:43] Shannon Russell: Courtney Gray, welcome to the Second Act Success Career Podcast. I'm so glad to finally have you here. I know. I'm really excited to be here, Shannon. Thank you for having

[00:01:51] Courtney Gray: me.

[00:01:52] Shannon Russell: Yes. Well, we met on Instagram and it's so wonderful to meet other entrepreneurs there. And I want to get your story because I [00:02:00] absolutely love what you do.

So let's take it back. Let's start where your career began.

[00:02:05] Courtney Gray: And I love that you're providing this for so many people because I think there are so many women I listened to one of your podcasts just the other day and you said something about like it's an antiquated concept These are my words But it's an antiquated concept that when you're 20 you make a decision about your career and then you retire in that same career And I think that you're giving a lot of women the freedom to be able to go, okay, I've done that.

And now I want to do something else. And that's kind of my story. I went to college and got a degree. But I really wanted to be a stay home mom. That was really what I wanted to do. And I had twins out the gate. And so I was just loving being a stay home mom. And, um, when I was in college, I took a glass fusing class.

You have to buy a kiln. And I, I was loving it and it really was just for fun. And when my kids were little, I created a few nightlights. For the first time ever, 'cause I had been doing glass for a few years, and no, no one, none of my family and friends really cared, . But [00:03:00] once I created these nightlights, I had friends going, can you do a palm tree?

Can you do a heart, can you? And so I, I created about 50 different designs of nightlights and I. I started a business out of my home, literally out of my dining room, and while my kids slept and took naps and, and when they went to bed at night and I started this business and I got in about 20 different stores and, and I never thought I would be an entrepreneur.

I didn't know the first thing about being on an entrepreneur. So I started this business and it went on to eventually become a multiple six figure business. Eventually hired two employees at that time. I eventually had, I ended up having another child. So I have three children and it was an amazing business.

And I, I literally, it's like one of my babies. I just, I love it. And I'm so proud of it. And I still am, it's called Gracie Glass. I still am running that business. Now it's a side hustle. Cause what happened for me is I was at a place where I was doing all the things in my business and I really wanted to make more money and I felt stuck.

And so I really started diving into stuff. I'd always been into self help and, [00:04:00] you know, thoughts on money and limiting beliefs and all that, you know, Tony Robbins and all those things. And so I hired a coach. I eventually invested in a coach and it really started helping me uncover that I did have some money beliefs.

So I worked through that. But then at the same time, that coaching helped me start transforming others of areas of my life. It helped me make my marriage even stronger. It helped me as a mom and helped me with my time management. And it also really started to help me with, my weight. I felt like I was out of control with my eating.

I had a hard time getting myself to go to the gym when I said I was going to the gym. So like I had a hard time following through and It started helping me. And so I eventually, like so many coaches use, you know, you hire a coach, get coached, you see the, , benefits of coaching in your life, and then you can become a coach.

So I really became a coach just for fun. At first I told my husband, I'm going to invest in a coaching certification, which was about 20, 000. [00:05:00] But I'm like, I'm doing this as a hobby. It's like a gift to myself. And he goes, well, you should really coach people if you're going to spend all that money. I'm like, well, I didn't think I had a lot of time.

And so he's like, well, that's the limiting belief. I wanted to punch him. No, but he gets

[00:05:14] Speaker 3: it. That's impressive that he understands that.

[00:05:17] Speaker 4: He totally does. So I started thinking, Oh, I'll coach a few people. And man, right there, when I started coaching people, it was, I knew that this was my next chapter. And so I started a coaching business.

And it is definitely my next chapter. So I still am doing the jewelry, but it's all about the coaching business is my main gig now.

[00:05:38] Shannon Russell: Wow. Okay. So your glass that you started, so you started doing nightlights and then it evolved into jewelry. Then is, was that really your passion? What you enjoyed as the

[00:05:47] Speaker 4: business

[00:05:47] Speaker 3: grew?

[00:05:48] Courtney Gray: Well, the joy, the lighting actually, like, cause I actually did wall sconces and pendants and all those lighting is really my love, but the jewelry is what people started demanding. Like I remember I had girlfriends like you should make pendants, [00:06:00] you should make pendants. And I was like, ah, cause I'm not a huge jewelry person myself, but I started making pendants and, That's what started selling. In fact, I went to the farmer's market. I, I here in my local town, I got a booth at the farmer's market and every Saturday I would go and I would have a whole table of plates and bowls and nightlights, and then I would have three little, , trays of jewelry. And I started noticing that I would go home and, you know, 90 percent of my revenue that day was all from the jewelry.

[00:06:28] Speaker 3: And

[00:06:28] Courtney Gray: I love making jewelry. I love being creative, but I love making money. I love being able to, you know, support my family. I love the entrepreneurship. I love the game of it. And so I thought, well, you know, if they're wanting more jewelry, this makes more sense. So eventually I stopped making the nightlights and I stopped making the bowls and I, I, it was hard, but I had to be willing to give up some things in order to grow.

[00:06:52] Shannon Russell: That's smart that you pivoted to because so often you can say, but no, I want to offer people this and that's not [00:07:00] what they want. I love that you noticed that and pivoted because like you said, you love money. You wanted to follow what would really, feed into your family and provide for them.

Yeah. Yeah. And then the coaching, I love that you really found that your coach helped you and that you could see how you could help others.

So I'm curious when you decided to get your certification, did you know what area you wanted to coach people? Did you want to be just a life coach? Did you want to bring in that health and wellness aspect to it? How did you develop that coaching program?

[00:07:34] Courtney Gray: First for most coaches, I don't know, but if this was your experience, Shannon, but for most coaches, you kind of coach on everything at first,

[00:07:40] Speaker 3: you've

[00:07:40] Speaker 4: just learned if you, if you have a certification, which you don't have to have a certification, but I learned everything in my certification.

And so I kind of was just excited to coach anyone. In fact, my first client was, an 18 year old girl, loved coaching her. Learned so much. I coached a few men. I coached women in midlife. On career. And I coached a [00:08:00] lot on business. When I went out into the world and said, I'm a coach and I'm, you know, taking on clients, I drew in a lot of women that do handmade goods, purses, candles, other jewelry artists, all of that, which was awesome.

And I enjoyed it. But what I really started finding I enjoyed was when women would come on and we would be talking about their business. And I would say, okay, Hey, like, why are you not on social media? Why are you not putting yourself out there? And they would say, you know, I would put myself out there, but I just feel like I'm heavier than I've ever been.

I'm just not confident and I will be like, well, let's fix that. Let's fix your weight and let's fix your confidence. And so what it really made me realize, and I knew this for myself was

[00:08:40] Courtney Gray: when you take care of your body, it affects every other area of your life. You can get coaching and learn how to make more money.

But it's not necessarily going to affect it's not going to affect your relationships. It's not going to affect your, follow through and all that. But for some reason, when we take care of our body, and I think it's because we experience [00:09:00] our whole world through the lens of our body and how we feel in our body, it affects every area.

And I really just decided, , this is where I want to go into. I really want to become, and I decided to Call myself a body and life coach because to me it's so much more than weight loss. So much more than weight loss.

[00:09:20] Shannon Russell: When I saw that that was your title, I guess, or who you serve, it's so, all encompassing.

It's really empowering women in all areas of their life. If you think about it, as you said, so tell me about when you decided to venture into that path, what you were finding and how you built this business to bring in those clients and continue to bring in money to provide for your family.

[00:09:45] Courtney Gray: Hopefully women will resonate when they hear this, but at first, when I decided, I really think I want to do weight loss is what my thoughts were. I really had a lot of limiting beliefs around that because my weight loss journey, like where at my heaviest, I mean, when I was pregnant with my twins, they were [00:10:00] huge babies.

So I gained 75 pounds. But I lost that pretty quick. I was breastfeeding two kids. It really, it was pretty natural. It came off. So that was not a problem for me. My problem, when I think about my, like being my overweight problem was only 12 pounds. When I decided to do weight loss, I thought, I don't know if people are going to take me seriously because it's my weight loss was only 12 pounds.

And sometimes I would get on a consult with someone and they would want to lose 30 pounds. They would say, well, you know, what was your journey? And I'd say 12 pounds. And every once in a while, they'd be like, Oh, that's nothing. But what I really found was, first of all, there are a lot of women that are struggling with five, 10, 15 pounds.

So there's a lot of people that I could literally be a, 15 pound. I'm going to help you lose. 15 pounds forever coach. If I wanted to, for now I'm coaching women anywhere from five to 50 is kind of my, my expertise, but, but I really found that that once I just decided it was not a problem, right? I just decided I'm going to say it boldly, like [00:11:00] to me, 12 pounds.

It wasn't just the fact that I had 12 pounds to lose. It was the fact that I was constantly thinking about food, constantly obsessing about food. In the morning I'd be like, okay, Courtney, today's the day we're taking this seriously. No more shenanigans. And I would do really well all day until right around four o'clock.

And then I would just change my mind. And I'd be like, you know what? You had a hard day girl. You deserve chips and salsa. It doesn't matter. Your husband thinks you look great. Like, what does it even matter? Life is meant to be lived. So I would all of a sudden I'd have all these thoughts.

And then I would eat, and I wouldn't eat crazy amounts, I wouldn't binge, I would, I just would eat more than my body needed to lose weight. Right. And then I would, and I was slowly gaining, gaining more and more weight. Another thing my body, I was, would tell myself is you're in menopause now, so like this is just what's expected, right?

That's the story we're hearing in society. And then I would go to bed and be like, Oh my God, I did it again. And I would start again. The next day I was [00:12:00] in this overeating shame cycle that I talk about, on my podcast, that was just, it was torturous to me. When I started talking about that on my podcast, on social media, I had so many women going, Oh my God, the way you talk about that, it's literally like you're in my head.

And so that is one way that I really, I think I've built my company is just by being radically honest and the people who hear that and go, Oh my God, you're in my head. They are drawn into me. The other thing that really, I think draws a certain type of woman into me is I say that diets don't work. We've all done diets.

I don't know about you. Have you ever done like a whole 30 or keto or anything like that? Oh yeah. I have. Yeah. Yeah. So I did whole 30 and I lost, I don't even remember. It was so long ago. I don't even remember maybe nine pounds, whatever. And you know, and then, then what happens is, is you start eating normal again.

You know, you tell yourself you're not going to, you start eating the bread again. Yeah. And then you slowly start, yeah. And then you slowly start gaining the weight back. And as you gain the [00:13:00] weight back, you tell yourself you're shame yourself. And you're like, there's something wrong with me with the fact that I'm doing this.

And so in my program, I really, we don't go on a diet. It's about eating better forever. It's about like learning how to follow through learning, how to say, okay. Last night I had a small dessert. So tonight I'm not going to have dessert. And then when, when all of a sudden seven o'clock comes, you're going to want that dessert.

I give you tools to be able to not eat it.

You really are in my head. Like you are speaking my language too. As entrepreneurs, We are working from home, you know, sitting in a chair all day. Same as if we were in our office jobs, but we're here and we're working.

We're just stationary in our chairs and We're not moving as much. And then the food is there because we're at home and it's easy. Are you finding a lot of your clients are in our positions and that that is what is making them more, I guess, food dependent or food aware.

Going to the kitchen more than they would if they were in an office. Yeah.

For sure. But it's even more than [00:14:00] that, Shannon, because I think, especially I coach a lot of entrepreneurs. I actually thought about becoming a like weight loss for entrepreneurs, because here's what I know from my personal experiences is that when you are an entrepreneur, it is one of the most gosh, um, like up leveling things you can do for your life.

Just the mental. The mental strength you need to be an entrepreneurship and build something in the belief and the doubt and the insecurity and all of that that goes around with that. What happens for a lot of entrepreneurs is not only are they at home and the kitchen is, 20 feet away, but they're doing hard things.

And they're sitting there saying, okay, I'm going to start a podcast. And then they're having, their primitive brain. When I was talking about how at four o'clock, all of a sudden I started, I changed my mind. I didn't change my mind. What happened in that moment was my primitive brain was stepping in and wanting me to feel as comfortable and as pleasurable as possible.

[00:14:54] Speaker 3: I,

[00:14:54] Speaker 4: so, and that's what I teach my clients. So for a lot of entrepreneurs, when they're sitting there and they're all, okay, today I told myself I was going [00:15:00] to like, start a podcast. Well, then they're having all these doubts and insecurities and who am I to do this? And what if no one listens and I don't know what I'm doing and all of that comes up and then you can go, you know what?

I'm going to just go have a bagel

[00:15:12] Speaker 3: because it's

[00:15:12] Speaker 4: going to make everything better in that moment. So there's a lot of entrepreneurs that they start their business and they start actually gaining weight. And that is why, because yeah, that is why, because you are doing just. Amazing things. When you go, a lot of times jobs can be stressful, but when you have a job, like I think of my son, he works at Verizon, he goes and he shows up and he does his job.

And of course he has stressors during his job, but he's doing his job and then he leaves and he leaves the job. Yeah. There's a level of ownership when you are an entrepreneur and that's extra pressure. And the fastest way to feel better about that is food and alcohol.

[00:15:49] Shannon Russell: It's funny how that is the comfort that we need

I think too, being midlife women, that you are with your kids and you're running [00:16:00] around and you don't have that time for you. The time that is for you, you're building your business and you're working with your clients or your customers and you're like, Oh, I could stop through the drive through on my way home.

And that would just be the little pick me up I need. And I deserve that. Yeah. And yes, you deserve something for your hard day, but it might not be that, but that's the easiest, quickest thing to grab. You're thinking about your business and you're thinking about those things that you want to do tomorrow.

So it really is a cycle that I think we put ourselves in. So you focusing on. And the body, the health, the life aspect is just so needed. I love that you're teaching, you know, strategies for the long term because we're not, most entrepreneurs are not going to go back to their nine to five.

So they're going to find themselves in their home office in this kind of lifestyle for. the time being for the foreseeable future.

[00:16:52] Courtney Gray: Yeah. And I think that we, I think also yes, to everything you said. And I also think that we are tired. I mean, not even just women, men as well. I coach [00:17:00] some men too, but, , well, my groups are for just women, but we are tired of going on diets.

I've had so many women say I'm joining this group, but it is literally my last hope. Like this is the last thing I'm doing, you know, and what is missing with most people's past attempts. Cause if you talk to any woman out there, they've tried things. What is usually missing with most of their attempts is the mindset.

Understanding why you've done things and like why you're doing what you're doing, why you eat when you say you're eating. aren't going to eat, why you tell yourself you're going to get up and go on a walk before work and you don't like understanding the mindset that drives you to either do or do what you truly desire.

[00:17:42] Shannon Russell: And it's not so black and white. So having someone like you to help figure that out and change that and give you the right mindset strategies to move forward is so important.

The listeners that I have, the clients that I work with, they are leaving their nine to five jobs.

They're trying a second act of their own. [00:18:00] They are trying to start a business. What do you think? It's important for them to remember when it comes to body, wellness, mindset, and making that transition. Because there's a lot of emotions and issues going on when you're thinking about a drastic change.

[00:18:16] Courtney Gray: First of all, I think I would say that it is an amazing change to make and I think everyone should make it. Personally, I think this is our one life and we might as well go all in. And if we feel like. We are being called to do something else or we feel like like for me the jewelry even though i'm still doing it a Little bit on the side.

It feels complete to me And so I think go for it, but I also think it's going to be hard But can that be okay? I think what keeps a lot of women a lot of people in general but from a lot of women like starting another job, right like we think of probably a lot of women that are like I became a and now that my kids are almost all out of the house I kind of don't feel like doing it anymore.

It was wonderful, but now I've always wanted to start something else. Right in that [00:19:00] moment. I'm like, yes, do it, but it's going to be hard. We have a pretty easy in terms of, life right now, things are pretty easy. Some of us have not experienced. doing something hard intentionally.

We are amazing women when it comes to having something hard put on us, but to actually put yourself in the fire of like creating a lot of difficulty in terms of walking away from something and starting something new is hard and can that be okay. And then when it is hard, can you actually process through those emotions?

Like a lot, for a lot of people, I would think most of your clients have a lot of doubt, like, can I really do this? And then they look back at their past and they don't have any evidence that they can really do something just like this. Can they actually allow themselves to feel doubt and support themselves?

By not turning to food and they can, but they just have to learn how, you know,

[00:19:49] Speaker 2: right. To go into that transition to that change, knowing it's going to be difficult, it's not going to be an overnight success and prepare yourself as you're going through. [00:20:00] And I always say like you, You get one life. So check the box.

I did that. Recently, I sold my franchise business. So I left television, I opened a franchise, and then I got into my career coaching. I sold my franchise. And that was a very big and scary thing because now I'm 1000 percent into second act success.

And that's exciting. That's what I wanted. But there's a lot of emotion and, changes in not having that stability of that business that was paying me really well. But I look at it like, again, like you said, that's whole. I did it and I can check that box and I'm excited. And scared but excited more of what I can do and just getting yourself in that mindset of you can do it and you know that it's going to take time, but you're excited to watch yourself try we can impress ourselves over and over again. with what we can do. And, it's [00:21:00] proof as mothers that we've done that a million times with our children. , but I think having the support of someone like you or someone like me, depending on what you need to really help you get to that next step and have that accountability is really key.

[00:21:15] Courtney Gray: Oh, yeah. But I love that you said that it was scary too. Clearly you did, you held space for both because you're so young. I don't know exactly how old you are, but I'm looking at you. You're so young. You've got so much life left to, to build this coaching business. And so I think, you know, bravo for being willing to say there's more for me here.

And that was for me, it was one of the, one of the hardest things I've ever done was actually kind of walking away, giving up a lot of what I did with my jewelry business. And I did it. Slow. I didn't rip the bandaid off necessarily. I stopped making nightlights and then I stopped eventually, , selling wholesale.

And in each time when I did something, people were like, no, please tell me it's not true. You know, cause I have a huge fan base, which is such a compliment. But every time I thought I am giving this thing [00:22:00] up in order to build something else that I'm more passionate about when I don't know for sure if it's going to work, but can that be okay?

[00:22:08] Shannon Russell: Taking that bet on yourself, right? And therefore you're showing your kids that you can do that. And to me, that is the most important thing. Because I, I want my kids to know that they don't have to pick that one thing to be forever, that they can have this amazing job.

They could be a doctor, but they can also own a business on the side and they can do all the things. And I think we weren't necessarily taught that by our parents, my parents did have a job that they stayed with from high school till retirement, but that doesn't have to be the case.

And I think that's a great lesson. Learned for our kids and for ourselves,

[00:22:42] Speaker: Oh, for sure. For me, it was like college is the answer. You have to go to college.

And I think college is a great idea. I have two kids in college right now, but like back then it was like, if you're not going to college, there's a problem. That's awesome. Right. And so I, back to like being an example for our kids, we have three boys. We just became empty nesters, which by the way, is [00:23:00] amazing.

Everyone says it's hard. , I'm having a great time, but one of my boys school was not for him. In fact, I was the one that said you should drop out. You know, he was not well, it was not going well. And I was looking at the trajectory. If he kept going, it was not going to end well. And so one day, beginning of a senior year, I said, you know what?

It's Sounds like school's not for you. I think you need to quit and get a job. And it was a hard at hard time, but I think now what my kids are seeing is they can really choose something that they can enjoy and they can take risks and they can fail right in our school system. We're not taught to fail.

You're taught to get the a, and then one of my other boys, he's going to college, but he's like, I really want to be an actor and I want to move to LA. And I'm like, beautiful. After you graduate moved to LA. Set yourself up now, become a waiter so you can move to L. A., get a job down there. Like, go for it.

Why not? This is your one life.

[00:23:52] Shannon Russell: . Ah, I completely agree. Let's talk about your podcast because you're getting your message out there through your podcast as [00:24:00] well. Tell us about that and kind of what you teach and offer through that.

[00:24:05] Courtney Gray: My podcast is called modern body, modern life. And it really is.

I call it a teaching podcast every once in a while. I will have a guest and it's usually one of my clients on to talk about their experience because for a lot of people, they don't really understand what coaching is. Coaching is still relatively new in our society. So I will have a client on it to talk about her experience.

But it's a teaching podcast. So I teach people about their brains. I teach people about how really we are wired to seek pleasure, avoid pain and conserve energy. If we look at your clients, right there, you know, seeking pleasure, avoiding pain, that is going to go against taking this next, act that they want to take next, next chapter of their life.

And for my clients, right? Seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. If you think about in the moment, you told yourself you were only going to have one glass of wine and now your girlfriend's like, Oh my God, have another, what are you talking about? In that moment, the fastest way to pleasure is the wine. The fastest way to [00:25:00] getting out of any pain is the wine.

So how can we actually understand our primitive brain, but in the moment have the tools to be able to make a decision because you want to not only be healthy, I'm all about health and wellness, but I'm radically honest about talking about wanting to feel good in your jeans. wanting to feel good when you're intimate with your partner, wanting to feel like someone's like, let's take a picture and you're not pushing people in front of you to make it look like you're smaller.

Right. We've all done that. And so to me, that's, I'm very, I'm a little inappropriate. I use foul language. I'm pretty raw and honest on my podcast, but it comes out every week. , I consider it my baby. I love it. I love it.

[00:25:39] Shannon Russell: Yeah. Where are you in the fact that you've made this change?

You had one business that was successful. You pivoted to another successful business. Do you feel happy and accomplished? how do you feel now in this business compared to the jewelry business?

[00:25:54] Courtney Gray: Oh, that's such a great question. You know what? I'm happier in my business now than I've ever been at.

[00:26:00] And I'm not, I'm not making multiple, multiple six figures yet in this business. I will, but I'm not yet. But so it's interesting how it really isn't about the money. It is about feeling a sense of purpose. It is about feeling like you're helping someone. I loved the jewelry, but I, you know, jewelry doesn't help.

I think that for a lot of people I was inspired. I would get people telling me you've really gave given me the courage to start my own thing and all that. And that is amazing. But what I'm doing now is really helping people. Right now in my business, I'm really, I'm really proud of myself that I was willing to take the leap.

And even though it was so hard and I'm really diving into listening to my own intuition, in the coaching industry, like I've been a part of many programs where they're like, this is how you do it. You start private coaching at first. And then you get fully booked, whatever that means to you. And then you start groups and then you start membership.

And there's kind of this general consensus of how it looks. And finally, at the beginning of this year, I was like, okay, but what do I think? You know, I'm going to take a minute to [00:27:00] meditate. I'm going to talk with my future self and I'm going to be like, okay, future self who is where I want to be. What do you think I should do?

And so, , this year I launched into small groups and I . could not be happier in small groups. I don't know if someday I'll eventually start a membership, but for right now, small groups is just, I'm absolutely loving it. So it's groups of anywhere between six to 15 women that meet once a week.

I teach them all my strategies and mindset, education for how to lose weight in a sustainable way for the rest of your life.

[00:27:30] Shannon Russell: We all need that. That's amazing.

All right, it's time for our five fast Qs of the week. Here we go.

[00:27:39] Shannon Russell: Name one thing that these different chapters in your life have taught you.

[00:27:43] Courtney Gray: to listen to myself. To really go within. I mean, I think all of us, right, we listen to other people and take guidance and that's so important to find the people that you resonate with. But really, at the end of the day, you need to take everything you're learning and say what feels right.

[00:27:58] Shannon Russell: Would you recommend taking a leap into a [00:28:00] big life change to your best friend?

[00:28:02] Courtney Gray: 100%.

[00:28:04] Shannon Russell: What is one piece of advice that you would give to someone who's about to start their second act?

[00:28:09] Courtney Gray: Be okay. Not knowing exactly how you're going to do it. Like really be curious and, and like, one of the things I love doing, and I'm still doing this in my business at every phase, I'll make a list of all the different, here's all the different.

avenues I can take, what makes the most sense for my client? We, a lot of times think about what we want. Yes. We want to make this amount of money. We want this schedule. We want to take off Fridays, all that, but what is your client want? What would be like the biggest?

Yeah. Hell yes. For them to work with you and make a decision based on that and just give it a try. Cause it might work in it. A lot of times it won't. That's great advice.

[00:28:46] Shannon Russell: Now, what does the next act look like for you?

[00:28:49] Courtney Gray: Oh, goodness. I'm so deep into this act. I think the next act, I have a vision of a group of 500 women.

So that probably is a membership at some point. , , I definitely [00:29:00] think that women love the weight loss aspect, but what I'm finding is women will work with me in my groups. And at the end of the group, they really don't want to be done. They're like, it's been 12 weeks.

I've lost weight. I'm loving this. There is more I want to do. And so. So I have created like an advanced group that I offer to them. But after that I'm like, I really think that there is a place for women to get together and have these conversations every single week. And it's about, you know, you know how it is every week.

It's something different once, you know, sometimes it's like I'm having a hard time doing my work because my kids are struggling. I'm having a hard time doing my work because I'm being interrupted. I'm having a hard times because I am, you know, I feel like I'm not in the body I wanna be in and I will not stop eating at night.

Mm-Hmm. . So there's it, it never. Fully goes away this whole quest to be better and to, to do better and to want more.

[00:29:50] Shannon Russell: So having an accountability group where, you know, you just want to know that you're not alone and that you have that support outside of your, your inner circle and your family.

So [00:30:00]

[00:30:00] Courtney Gray: what we hear, especially when it comes to weight loss, what we hear a lot from the people that love us is if we say, Oh, I really need to just stop eating this way. I just want to get in my old jeans. Almost every time people are going to go, you're fine. Fine. Oh my gosh. You put too much pressure on yourself.

You're beautiful, which is so sweet. But the reality is we desire more for ourselves. So that's why I can, I feel like, you know, creating a space where women can be around other women that are like, I know I'm beautiful. I know I love myself. I know I'm worthy, but I'm ready to actually fit in my jeans again.

[00:30:32] Speaker 2: Right. Feel better. Feel better in your skin. Yes,

[00:30:35] Speaker: totally.

[00:30:37] Shannon Russell: Okay, so Courtney, this has been incredible, amazing. I know my listeners are going to want to connect. Where can they connect with you and follow along?

[00:30:45] Courtney Gray: The modern body, modern life podcast is always there for them. I post a new podcast every Tuesday, I have a wonderful free course.

That's like a three part video series that I know you said you were going to, post in the show notes. So there's that if they're, if they're at all interested, they should definitely get [00:31:00] that free course because the podcast is great to listen, but the free course, you get to see me talking at my whiteboard and kind of explaining some of these concepts.

I'm going to link to everything in the show notes and I'm going to sign up for your course myself. I love it. And I'm just so excited. Thank you for sharing your journey.

Thank you. Well, thank you for putting this podcast out because I know when I started this, you know, this transition into a new career, , a few years ago, I think I would have loved your podcast. I know I I would have needed it because we want to know that we're not the only ones and when to transition, when to, you know, and then you hear people saying things like burn the boats and you're like, but I don't want to burn the boats.

[00:31:37] Speaker: The boats are It's a lot,

[00:31:40] Shannon Russell: it's a lot. It's all those talking heads and you're not sure who to listen to. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you.

[00:31:46] Speaker 6: Thank you for joining us. I hope you found some gems of inspiration and some takeaways to help you on your path to 2nd Act success. To view show notes from this episode, visit 2ndActSuccess. co. [00:32:00] Before you go, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss a single episode. Reviews only take a few moments and they really do mean so much.

Thank you again for listening. I'm Shannon Russell and this is 2nd Act Success.