229-SYNCPodcast_JamieSheppard

[00:00:00] Jenny Swisher: Welcome friends to this episode of the Sync Your Life podcast. Today, I’m joined by my friend, Jamie Shepherd. Jamie and I met actually through the grapevine, I guess, when she joined my course, I guess it was probably around a year or so ago. And from there became fast friends and are now venturing into new business endeavors together with human grace.

[00:01:16] Jenny Swisher: Um, if you haven’t listened already, I’ll make sure that I link up in the show notes for you, just my story and things that are happening in my life with. evolving and moving fully into a hormone health space when it comes to just my health coaching adventures. But for today I wanted to introduce you to Jamie.

[00:01:31] Jenny Swisher: Jamie is, um, an amazing woman. She’s, she’s really, I feel like you’re kind of like a Jack of all trades. Like you’re so brilliant. You have so many amazing, um, strengths and skillsets, but I’ve really just learned to respect you so much for your, your business savvy and what you see as far as like how the world can be changed in positive ways in the health atmosphere.

[00:01:51] Jenny Swisher: So I want to start off with just as I usually do asking you to just sort of introduce yourself. Tell us more about who you are and what you do. And then we’ll go from there.

[00:01:59] Jamie Sheppard: Well, I that’s such high compliments coming from you. Jennings have so much respect and admiration for you as well. And in so many of the same areas, but hi, everyone.

[00:02:08] Jamie Sheppard: I’m so honored to get to speak today to all of you and. My name is Jamie Shepard, as Jenny just said, but I am, I am a current resident of Vermont. I, um, so up here in New England, but I was raised, um, in Oregon. So I’m a West coaster, but moved here two years ago this month to kind of start a little bit of a different, slower chapter.

[00:02:31] Jamie Sheppard: I recognized that my life was. not conducive to my nervous system health and my stress levels. And I recognize that I wanted to set myself up in a life that was a little bit, a little bit more aligned to my aspirations and goals with my own hormone health, my nervous system health, and just a slower way

[00:02:53] Jamie Sheppard: of living, which is very much. If you’ve ever seen a Hallmark movie, it is true. It is truly how kind of the world goes around here in, in Vermont, at least. But, um, and I share that because it’s really part of my commitment, the, I’ve taken some big strides in my own life to really prioritize my. My health, seeing that my way, you know, I spent 10 years in the health and fitness space.

[00:03:19] Jamie Sheppard: You know, social selling domain and a coaching, life coaching, health coaching, business. That was my primary sole income after having been in the educational world for 12 years. So I was a school counselor and a waitress, always kind of working 80, 90 hour weeks to just pay the bills and like, you know, paycheck to paycheck and just kind of like trying to cobble together.

[00:03:40] Jamie Sheppard: What I needed with, you know, three to four jobs at all times. And I was a yoga instructor as well, but I recognized that my life wasn’t congruent with like the living yoga of, you know, having balance and having inner peace and having prioritizing, you know, health and wellness and nourishing our bodies with like how much I was overworking myself.

[00:04:01] Jamie Sheppard: So I made that pivot. Back in 2013 to try to find a way of living in a more aligned way that way, where I was supported in. being healthier, you know, mind, body, spirit. And for me, that looked like leaving the traditional workspace, you know, like I’d gone to grad school to be a school counselor. Like I checked the boxes of growing up as the, all we all had.

[00:04:24] Jamie Sheppard: And I recognized like I wasn’t fulfilled. I was burnt out. I was sick all the time. And so that was a really beautiful start of a new chapter for me. Like I loved that. Decade I spent really like helping people also try to pivot their life into prioritizing their own health and loving themselves enough to make them that investment in themselves.

[00:04:44] Jamie Sheppard: Because so many times, especially as women, we deprioritize us, right? We take off our oxygen mask for everyone else. And, um, and I recognized by doing so I was able to like help so many more people when I help myself. And so just being able to shine that outwards and help so many other women do the same.

[00:05:02] Jamie Sheppard: And men too. But over the years that got a little upside down, right? Especially as you’re in the business space or, um, for me, I was, you know, through a really rough, like post pandemic world where, like, it was just a lot of, or it ultimately was a lot of burnout, but a lot of stress, a lot of trauma, a lot of, you know, Aging, I’m 44 now and so I recognize as like life changed, the world changed, my health and life changed, my body changed, I was no longer to find that place of health harmony that I loved to teach and share and I started trying to like whack a mole.

[00:05:38] Jamie Sheppard: My own health and my own trying to figure out like these symptoms. And, you know, we talk a lot on this pod, you talk on this podcast about the gaslighting that happens like at the doctor office. And I felt like that was just, I was like that, that Roomba machine that was bouncing into a corner and couldn’t like find some redirection.

[00:05:56] Jamie Sheppard: So it took like, for me, some really intentional, massive pivots, to realign because I wasn’t finding a path forward. And I thought really hard for a path forward. In the fitness and health space that I was in to like continue to help people, you know, be healthy and be successful and build businesses in the health and fitness world.

[00:06:17] Jamie Sheppard: And that wasn’t, that wasn’t just attainable from my experience. And so part of that was like, I had to go first. I had to make some intentional shifts. With my lifestyle, um, my adrenals had completely failed a couple years back and like, it has just been a really rocky road and I recognized like what got me here wouldn’t get me to this next level of health.

[00:06:38] Jamie Sheppard: Like I couldn’t just out exercise or eat, follow a certain meal plan and find my health back on track. My hormones were just not going to like, Be cycle classed away into balance, right? Like I just, I recognize that it had to really look different at this stage in my life. And that took taking a step back and maybe up from like a bird’s eye view to.

[00:07:04] Jamie Sheppard: Some, some really intentional shifts. And that started with my move across the country, which was like, doesn’t have to be what everyone else is like big, you know, like you don’t have to upend your life like that. But for me, it was like, I had to like, get some, like, you know, I had to like, just really fresh start a lot of things because I wasn’t sure how to, how to move forward in the environment that I was in.

[00:07:28] Jamie Sheppard: So that ultimately dominoed into other intentional shifts in. My life and my career and my, how I, how I approached my own health and then elevated to like my brand, this like brand I had built on social media and my own, you know, like customer base to how we were talking about health and wellness, and I realized that I had, I had outgrown talking about fitness and weight loss and nutrition, like it’s still such an important component to it.

[00:08:01] Jamie Sheppard: But I’m like, I. I want to have a bigger conversation around this. I need to be able to have a bigger conversation around this if I really want to continue to serve the women that have also spent 10 years, 10 to 12 years aging with me, you know, so my regular life is filled with animals. I’m a big rescue advocate.

[00:08:19] Jamie Sheppard: That’s kind of like, I mean, there’s so much more to say. I love to travel and I’m a vegetarian, vegan, vegetarian. Like I really, you know, Jamie and I have interesting conversations around plant based and meat based diets, but, um, I love, love talking about health and wellness and also just, and all of that embodies and embraces, but my life is really just designed now as I kind of am building a homestead and, starting a new career chapter.

[00:08:46] Jamie Sheppard: It’s been really fun to just like, Look at what makes me happy versus what everyone else in the wellness space is doing. And so I think that was, that’s also an important thing to note because I kind of had to like, pull back, pull up and then go inward to make some decisions for myself, you know.

[00:09:07] Jenny Swisher: Yeah. Well I love the Roomba analogy, so I’m gonna steal that from you and use that. Right. I like that. Like bouncing, we’ve all

[00:09:13] Jamie Sheppard: seen that Roomba, right? That just like boom boom in the corner of my, that’s why I don’t have one anymore. ’cause I could never get it to like, yeah. No one can ever around my

[00:09:19] Jenny Swisher: house take the whole house.

[00:09:20] Jenny Swisher: That’s so funny. Um, yeah, so I love all this and I, I think, you know, from what I hear you say, it’s so similar to just my experience and so many others who, you know, I was in health and fitness and weight loss for 13 years and. It served me right for a certain period of my life. I got really into, I would, I would call myself like a fitness enthusiast, right?

[00:09:41] Jenny Swisher: I had a gym, I was personal training. I was probably overtraining and, uh, really just kind of beating my hormones into the ground, which I feel like you can kind of get by with maybe in your twenties and early thirties, but as you get closer, at least in my case, I got closer to 40 and all of a sudden you start to realize like.

[00:09:56] Jenny Swisher: Wait a minute, what have I, what, what repercussions am I now facing for the years of thinking that intense fitness was the way, right? And so I think we have similar stories in that. I know when we first connected, it was like, you were that Roomba of like, I’m stuck in the corner. Like, what do I do? I’m no, and I see this so often with women where they’re like, I’m no longer getting results.

[00:10:16] Jenny Swisher: I no longer, I feel like my energy is tanked, um, and they think they’re doing all the things because they are exercising or they are following some sort of like diet plan or nutrition plan and they don’t know why they feel so off. So I think we have a lot of similarity in that. I also remember Um, sort of bonding with you over, like, 1 thing I feel like we have in common is, is what I call details matter, right?

[00:10:38] Jenny Swisher: The details and the ingredients of things you’re consuming matter. Um, the details of, of what you’re putting in and around and on your body matters, right? Which is what we’re going to talk about today. But I think at the end of the day, you know, you said I had to go 1st and I wrote that down because I think.

[00:10:54] Jenny Swisher: You got to a point in your own journey where you’re like, I can’t, I can either stay stuck in this corner of just like hitting all the walls or I can just step out entirely and maybe, maybe I need to take a different approach to my health. And so I, I sit here sort of saying the same thing in my own story.

[00:11:09] Jenny Swisher: And I’ve already shared my story here on the podcast, which I said, I’ll link up for everybody, but. I had a similar experience in that, you know, I can only, I can’t exercise my way into hormone balance. I can’t exercise my way really into energy anymore. It might’ve worked at 27, but it’s not working at 39 or 40.

[00:11:24] Jenny Swisher: So, what is working is, is mindfulness is regulating my nervous system is controlling my boundaries and my relationships and putting myself around positive minded people. And I think there are two women, too many women out there who not only are stuck in sort of the, the like. The fitness enthusiast side of things, but also we were stuck in maybe a toxic environment or toxic culture or feeling like.

[00:11:50] Jenny Swisher: They have to be all the things and do all the things for all people. And they’re really not seeing any reward, whether that’s physically or financially or otherwise. So you made a shift, right? You were the first year for this first to make the move. And, I’d love to just hear, you know, why hormone health, like why was that, you know, with a background in, in, in weight loss and fitness, what was it that turned you on to, to hormone health?

[00:12:14] Jamie Sheppard: Yeah, there’s so much we have in common. And one thing that I think rings true for you as well. But one thing that. Like no one needs to know my whole history but I’ve gone through a lot in my life.

[00:12:24] Jamie Sheppard: I’ve overcome a lot of trauma, um, from a young age all the way through. And one thing I am not and never will be as a victim of that. Right. Like I’ve always taught that I’m a hero of my own story. I’ve taught that I’ve led that and I’ve lived that I will always embody that. And so. When I recognized that I was I was stuck.

[00:12:45] Jamie Sheppard: I was stuck in so many layers of my life. And I was once I had that conscious thought, I’ve always said, like, you are not a tree, you can get up and move at any time. And I think like, that was why that physical move across the country was me showing like, you are not stuck, you can literally uproot your life and move it.

[00:13:02] Jamie Sheppard: But I think that that was so important. For my own mental health and my own, um, hormone health, because, you know, we talk a lot about sex hormones and like, as we age, like, you know, in our forties, like, of course, our sex and then thirties, like, and beyond, like our sex hormones are going to play a huge role in our health and wellness.

[00:13:21] Jamie Sheppard: But what for me was happening more was my cortisol was like that component. And like, you taught, you teach and taught me about the four legged chair. And the, what, you know, and I, we’d always went straight to thyroid. We went straight to sex hormones. Like for me, it was my adrenals and my cortisol, right.

[00:13:39] Jamie Sheppard: And that was where years of neglect and over abuse, like my body will just figure it out. Like I’ve kind of muscled through a bully myself through all of these harder seasons until my body literally like doesn’t pursue doesn’t produce cortisol anymore. My adrenals have Addison’s like, so for me, hormone health came through the way of like my body literally saying.

[00:14:01] Jamie Sheppard: I give up. You don’t literally get a choice anymore. You don’t get to bully me through to work harder anymore. Like I had, you know, we got went through this season. I’m feeling like I was being gaslit in my career to gaslight myself, right? Like, well, I just need to work harder. I just need to stay up later or I need to like do X, Y, and Z, right?

[00:14:20] Jamie Sheppard: We’ve all been there. And the story sounds different. It’s all unique, but we’re all, we often all do it to ourselves. And so I recognize we get to a point where our body We get sick, we get injured, our body just starts to fall apart. And we start, we have like all of these unexplained ailments and illnesses.

[00:14:38] Jamie Sheppard: And I was so blessed to have a best friend who is a functional practitioner. And she specializes in pediatric mental health, but she was connected to me, to my functional medicine doctor back home, in Oregon. And so she was really opened my eyes to like, we would spend our doctor’s appointments talking about my emotional stuff going on because at the time I was starting to go through a divorce and things, and I was like, she just really liked me or like, why are we spending so much time talking about the mental and emotional health?

[00:15:08] Jamie Sheppard: You know, um, cause we, we had, you know, same friend group, but really that was, that was part of the treatment protocol was understanding what was going on. with stress with emotions. Same with my acupuncture. So I recognize that my hormone imbalances were coming from career and lifestyle choices, right? And I was working so hard to get healthy, but I was only looking at through a lens of like, should I be eating something different?

[00:15:33] Jamie Sheppard: Should I be taking a different supplement? Should I be working out differently, et cetera. But Also in a framework of a job that like I had to, there were things I needed to be doing. There was a, a way of being right. To like lead by example. Anyway, so I recognized, and she was actually the one that was like, Hey, look, I recommend that you sell these things and that these are important.

[00:15:53] Jamie Sheppard: And I can see the value and all out of these products, but like, I don’t think they’re helping you. And so by removing those and recognizing that that is when I started feeling better. Some of the, some of the products that had been taking for years and years, Yeah. And it made me realize like, Oh my gosh, there’s such a bigger conversation that needs to be had here.

[00:16:11] Jamie Sheppard: Right. Not that like, it was like, they were bad things because they’re great products. They helped me for a season. , and they helped certain people. I saw more and more with the women I was coaching and mentoring is they were finding the same things. Like what used to work, wasn’t working anymore. And so for me, that was, like I said, I had to go first.

[00:16:28] Jamie Sheppard: I had to really start looking internally in my own health. And seeing like, okay, this isn’t cookie cutter. And I went into my forties, the healthiest and fittest I’d ever been. And that didn’t prepare me, right? Like that didn’t make a damn difference. And so I had to start looking at like, okay, this isn’t working.

[00:16:51] Jamie Sheppard: There’s some brokenness to the system, this community. And like I said, I will never be a victim to any of it. So I will I will always find the greater good, the greater solution, and I’m really committed to building strong communities, as are you, and helping those communities, not for my own personal profit or gain or bottom line, like I, we’re really here to serve, and so I had to find somewhere that I felt like

[00:17:16] that

[00:17:17] Jamie Sheppard: was possible.

[00:17:18] Jamie Sheppard: Does that make sense?

[00:17:19] Jenny Swisher: Yeah, it does. And what you’ve done here is you, you’ve made that connection between, Our emotions and our traumas and the way that our nervous system is operating on a daily basis to what results in the form of hormone imbalance or disrupted cortisol. Right? So that’s where I want to start here is just sometimes we don’t recognize what’s really going on beneath the surface until you said my body gives up.

[00:17:41] Jenny Swisher: Like my body gave up on me. When your body gives up on you, you have no more choice. Right? Addison’s disease is a very real thing. I know for me, I faced cortisol burnout too. Um, and so, And it’s not until that happens for a lot of us, a lot of us that are especially like the type a go getters, like the ones who can always just like you said, I can bully my way through anything until you can’t until your body physically gives out.

[00:18:02] Jenny Swisher: And I’ve had a similar story in that, um, I had an actual naturopathic doctor come to my house with her, like, chiropractic table and. Uh, we spent an entire hour and a half session, I thought she was going to do like some craniosacral therapy, I thought she was going to do some massage, and we actually just talked through my emotions.

[00:18:18] Jenny Swisher: And it was the most, I still say, like of all the doctors I’ve seen in the last eight months for my migraines, it was the most life changing appointment, because it was like, oh my gosh, I didn’t realize how much I was mentally holding onto that was manifesting as what I was holding onto physically. And when you can do that, when you can release that it’s a physical release as much as it is an emotional release.

[00:18:41] Jenny Swisher: So I think that’s a great place for us to start is just in recognizing that sometimes you have to come to terms with like, this is no longer serving me. This is no longer working for me. And what can I, what can I now do to just step into something different? Right. So, there’s so much, so many directions we could go.

[00:18:58] Jenny Swisher: But the first thing I want to say is. When you’ve been in that culture. So I think we can both speak from this experience when you’ve been in a culture of feeling like you’re just burning it at both ends. And I like to say, you’re working for free. A lot of people in health and fitness are working for free, whether you are teaching group exercise classes for 15 an hour, or, um, your, your health coaching and you’re running accountability groups, you know, you can really burn yourself into the ground feeling like, I know I always felt like people were putting their results on me.

[00:19:26] Jenny Swisher: Like If they weren’t getting results, it’s my fault because I didn’t help them stay accountable or, or whatever. And in reality, it’s it’s, there’s so many boundary issues there, right? It’s like, no, everybody is, your health is up to you. So number one, I see a lot of people in health and fitness, regardless of what, what you’re doing, whether you’re teaching classes or whatever.

[00:19:44] Jenny Swisher: Stuck in this, like working for free, burn myself out zone. So not only are you possibly just also physically burning yourself out, if you are a fitness influencer or, or a fitness teacher or whatever, you could also be emotionally burning yourself out too. And what I want to say is it’s okay to admit and acknowledge that that lifestyle is actually more detrimental to you than you think.

[00:20:06] Jenny Swisher: Also, you know, it’s like one of those things where I feel like you get it as you age, right? Like, and I’m not saying that like I’m this wise old expert, but as I’ve entered the age of 40, there are certain things that I realized about like myself. There’s a lot of, I think the phrase we use in our sync courses, there’s a lot of unlearning that has to happen.

[00:20:25] Jenny Swisher: I like that phrase unlearning because it’s like, You know, yesterday it was like, I felt like I wanted to do a workout. My energy was there, my schedule didn’t allow, but I didn’t like beat myself up over it. There were, there would have been years where I’d been like, Oh my God, do you think I might work out in today?

[00:20:38] Jenny Swisher: Or I would have been like trying to get it in at 9 PM. And now I look back on it and I’m like, well, that’s a little obsessive, you know, like maybe that wasn’t serving me. It wasn’t, it wasn’t healthy. So I think there’s a lot of things that we could say there, but I do want to make the transition into just having the conversation about.

[00:20:53] Jenny Swisher: Still being very, very much into the details and very much into helping people figure out a healthy lifestyle that works for them, helping them unlearn the ways that society teaches us, which is often. Over training and under fueling under fueling being a totally separate issue, but very common diet culture, right?

[00:21:11] Jenny Swisher: There’s there’s all this stuff in the health and wellness realm and you and you might think that that’s the only way there’s a whole other way. There’s a whole other way where you can teach people nervous system regulation where you can expose them to. Products and behaviors that are just better for their nervous system and better for their skin and all the things.

[00:21:29] Jenny Swisher: So, so Jamie was sort of the first to go. She was the first to, to join you and grace and to introduce me to Sarah. Who’s the founder who we’ve had here on the podcast. Amazing woman. And it’s been such an awesome ride, even just in the last two months. Um, starting with this company because it’s a, it’s an entirely different culture than what I’ve been exposed to before.

[00:21:49] Jenny Swisher: Uh, it’s very much a, um, it’s, it’s social selling, but in a way that you really feel like is, you know, you can make it your own endeavor. Like it’s really whatever you want to do with it. So let’s talk more about like why human grace for you. Why was that the option that you went with? And also just.

[00:22:06] Jenny Swisher: What do you see as far as the potential here in formal health? That’s where I really want to go. Is it? Oh yeah. Oh, these are fun questions. Really on the rise.

[00:22:13] Jamie Sheppard: Yeah. Can I say first, like I have been a fitness girl my whole life. So like, I’m going to say all of this with like this preface that I am still, I was a yoga teacher for years and years of spin instructor.

[00:22:25] Jamie Sheppard: I like worked out at the gym every day. Like I still have this personal love of fitness and that does that look different? Yeah. Now that I’m older and like, I can’t do HIIT workouts anymore. My body literally won’t let me, you know, like I, I don’t have the, that capacity in me to do that in a sustainable, healthy way.

[00:22:45] Jamie Sheppard: Like, yeah, but fitness is still at my course. I feel like sometimes people look at it and they’re like almost closed mentally to the idea of like expanding into a, like a, a broader wellness scope, um, Like in the hormone health space, because either they think like, Oh, I’m not in menopause. It doesn’t apply to me.

[00:23:03] Jamie Sheppard: A like, that’s a whole different topic. Like, it’s not about, it’s not about your sex hormones. It’s about all of your hormones, which is literally like what informs every cell in your body. But bigger than that, I think it’s people from, from more of a fitness influencer space of like, well, but I’m, I’m about fitness.

[00:23:19] Jamie Sheppard: I love fit. I can’t not love fitness anymore. And so I just wanted to offer that because I still love fitness. I will always love fitness. I’ve lived in, I’ve lived an active lifestyle my entire life. I grew up as an athlete. I don’t need to beat that dead horse there, but all of that to say, like, I just got to a place where.

[00:23:38] Jamie Sheppard: I wanted a bigger conversation around it. I wanted a broader tool bag with which to help people. I can still help people with fitness and nutrition. I do every single day, but that isn’t my sole responsibility. My business isn’t based around my weight, your weight, um, what you’re eating. And I don’t have to, like you said, work for free.

[00:23:58] Jamie Sheppard: Like I have released that emotional weight and responsibility. Um, To, you know, like early on in my coaching career, people would be like, can you just come to my kitchen and like slap the bad food out of my hands? They would say it jokingly, but that was like the, the nonverbal contract we would make that people would make with us, like, you know, we were talking about suddenly like internalizing this responsibility to monitor what you eat, if you’re working out, if you’re, if you’re being an adult and taking care of yourself.

[00:24:27] Jamie Sheppard: And so like being able to move beyond that is also freeing. That probably has been like the best thing for my own weight that I’ve done in a long long time because I’m not because when You do align your nervous system and your health Like I finally like lost a lot of the weight that I started had that I had started to gain like literal pounds, you know Because I was making different like different choices that were more aligned for my hormone health and I saw like oh Okay, I don’t have to have an income tied to Of a Zik or a diet culture kind of thing.

[00:24:58] Jamie Sheppard: And I think a lot, like we talk about, I say it like we, when we know better, we do better. Right. And we grew up in a world like of about fat when it fat free and low calorie, a hundred pack snacks and like. You know, then we came about like margarine and then no margin and it was about, you know, um, partially hydrogenated oils and then it’s about healthy fat like we have grown up.

[00:25:23] Jamie Sheppard: All of us have been around and taken enough trips around the sun to see that nutrition, wellness, fitness evolves, right? A lot of stuff we learned. And we have to unlearn or I call it deprogramming. Now is it are things that I was taught that were designed for men, right? We talk a lot about in the same course around that there were no studies done on women as their target demographic for a long time.

[00:25:46] Jamie Sheppard: And so I say all this, cause it, it ties in with, you know, like your question in terms of like, why hormone health? Well, first of all, I felt like it is the big, it’s the umbrella, it’s the umbrella that fitness and nutrition. live in. It’s a vital foundational piece, but there’s so many other components to it that honestly, I think so much more important, like our stress and our ability to handle stress.

[00:26:11] Jamie Sheppard: Are we sleeping? Are we staying hydrated? And all of these things, like, how are we, you know, like in supplementation is a big part of that as we age as well too. And so when I realized that I was wanting to get unstuck and I went on a search for what was out there. This has been my career for a long time and I was like, I was open.

[00:26:35] Jamie Sheppard: I kind of said, God, I’m open to whatever. Like I’ll go, you know, do I want to be, get a job at it? Like be an employee again? Do I want to be a school counselor again? But I really loved working in the coaching and wellness space. And so I went on a really active search of what was available, what companies were out there.

[00:26:51] Jamie Sheppard: Like what. What were their unicorns, you know, like, were there companies that were poised for growth that were really having this really important conversation? One thing that was really important and part of my personal journey was, uh, when I learned about greenwashing, which is just the idea of products being marketed as green and safe, but, you know, coming from Oregon, especially like crunchy was a thing before crunchy was popular.

[00:27:16] Jamie Sheppard: And so I, you know, and then learning that these products that were clean or green, We’re actually very much not, they were just marketed. Well, um, and so my, in my personal journey with toxic, non toxic, non hormone disrupting chemicals was very, it was like for the last six or seven years, as I learned, you know, like that, my scented candles were killing me and my laundry detergent and dryer seats, sheets were poisoning me, things like that.

[00:27:43] Jamie Sheppard: And so. And I would actively search for products and companies that I could trust, to be a safe brand that I could knew if I bought from this brand that it would be clean, non toxic, hormone safe. Um, and it wasn’t even really about hormones for me at first. It was just more about, I knew that they were toxic ingredients.

[00:28:00] Jamie Sheppard: I didn’t even understand that it, what they were doing to my hormones. I just knew it was not good for my health. Um, and then I would recognize later I’d find out, oh, I was just bamboozled by yet another company. So I was really. Searching for a company, a brand that I knew I could really trust. My trust had been really broken by my previous company, by a lot of these products that I thought I had vetted.

[00:28:20] Jamie Sheppard: And so I was really looking for someone that that was their core mission. Transparency, authenticity. Reliability in the formulation. And so when I saw what I found here in grace, and I saw like every single product has a COA, like a published COA, which is like basically their product testing, for the efficacy, their ingredients, the impact, like the actual potency of those of those ingredients, their formulator call, like the formulator of each product is like Does a step-by-step, ingredient by ingredient training forward facing for anyone who wants to watch it.

[00:28:55] Jamie Sheppard: And that the entire mission of the company is to make, is to create a brand for the things that go in, on and around our skin, around our bodies of things that are non hormone disrupting and toxin free and save your whole family. So like, that was the entire mission. So it caught me, you know, I was like, okay, if this is the, the ethos of their entire brand, then like that to be the one you can trust.

[00:29:19] Jamie Sheppard: Then I’m interested. Right. And then I talked to Sarah, um, she blew me away. Like, I really found like, \ this was where I felt like I could see, um, see so much growth. It was, it’s poised as a company. Like I always often like would dream about the days of like, Oh, I wonder if I found my previous company, like in the beginning, like, you know, when it was like bright, when it was growing.

[00:29:39] Jamie Sheppard: And I feel like. You know, three years in, it’s not a startup anymore, which is, you know, human grace is not a startup anymore. It’s three years in. So it’s already gone through that startup phase and has just continually, like it’s funneling the pipeline full of products. Like I almost can’t like keep up with the launch of all these great new products.

[00:29:57] Jamie Sheppard: And I know more are coming, but every single one really focuses on that alignment and that commitment to you. Hormone safe products for your whole family. The simple swaps for the things that go in on and around your skin. And so the simplicity of that, I was like, okay, there is a unicorn out there because honestly, there are a lot of wellness companies out there to partner with so many, most of them are cookie cutter, or it would just be another version of what I was trying to leave behind.

[00:30:22] Jamie Sheppard: And there wasn’t that commitment. Like the products aren’t clean. The ingredients aren’t clean. There’s no company ethos commitment to always make maybe like a couple products were out of a whole catalog, but that wasn’t like the core of their mission, right? It just happened to be maybe they were trying to serve a specific demographic and like, Oh, we’ll, we’ll throw a bone to this population that wants something really clean.

[00:30:42] Jamie Sheppard: Right. But that’s not the whole company mission. And so for really looking at hormones. Hormone health and being hormone safe than every that that goes from the ingredients to the packaging to being environmentally conscientious and how we ship like it just is, I think the fact that it’s like part of that core mission shows that there is going to be some longevity in that because honestly, that’s where the You know, hormone health is the biggest growth, the, not, I hate saying like the most trending topic last year, but it was, but it’s not trending, it’s like becoming the most talked about concept, the most talked about and sought after product, like product vein, um, because Once you know better, you do better.

[00:31:26] Jamie Sheppard: Once we learn something, we can’t unlearn it. And I think women are becoming much more conscientious consumers. They value, they know they don’t want to be putting toxins on their kids. They don’t want to be putting toxins on their body, in their homes. And we can see, we’re seeing the, the long term effects of Of just years of toxic of like toxic, you know, ingredients, hormone disrupting ingredients.

[00:31:47] Jamie Sheppard: And so this need and demand is not getting quieter. It’s not going to go away. I’m not going to like, just get bored and go back to toxic dryer sheets one day. You know what I mean? Like, I’m just not going to like, you don’t just like default into like, when you’re not like, oh, yeah, yeah. Like, so it’s like, once you like now that so anyway.

[00:32:08] Jamie Sheppard: Yeah, that’s like a longer answer. I hope that no, that’s

[00:32:11] Jenny Swisher: really good. I mean, I love the know better do better. I say that all the time. And I think the transparency is, is so key. I really think that like, at the end of the day, what I find myself saying most often that I hope people will take away from this is I picture the woman who used to come into my gym.

[00:32:29] Jenny Swisher: There’s one woman in particular that always comes to my mind, right? She was coming in fully committed. To her health and wellness, she signed up for six days a week. So I was literally seeing her every single day that the gym was open. She was in my gym. She subscribed to the protein shakes, right? So she was on board with the protein shakes.

[00:32:46] Jenny Swisher: She was, uh, she asked me to create her some custom meal plans, even paid extra for the, for the custom meal plan. She was following the meal plans to the tee. We had conversations about sleep and hydration. Like she was, she, she was really, truly. Like the most coachable person that I’ve ever worked with.

[00:33:01] Jenny Swisher: Following all the things, right. And yet still struggled so much, not just with weight loss. But she was reliant on her Starbucks. She was reliant on the caffeine. She was, um, carrying a lot of weight in her middle section, right? Like her, she would have labs done and her cholesterol and her markers would be all off.

[00:33:22] Jenny Swisher: So I just want people to understand, and I feel like a broken record, but there’s so much, you know, about our health that is, we need to, I guess, shift our focus away from the number on the scale and the way that we look. To our metabolic health and our metabolic flexibility, right? What is our blood sugar doing?

[00:33:40] Jenny Swisher: How is our body on the inside? We all know that guy who’s like Well, I can’t believe he passed away. He was a runner. I hear that from like my parents all the time. You believe he passed away? He was like a marathon runner. And I’m like, well, you can be really into, you know, nutrition and fitness and still be struggling.

[00:33:57] Jenny Swisher: And I picture this woman who, you know, at that time, that was 10 years ago when we were training in the gym. And I think about just the little things that I know she was doing. She was a huge fan of Bath and Body Works, right? So she always smelled like country apple. Like every time she’d come in my, in my gym, I was always like, Whoa, there’s a Bath and Body Works.

[00:34:15] Jenny Swisher: I can like

[00:34:15] Jamie Sheppard: feel country apple in my cells. I know

[00:34:18] Jenny Swisher: exactly. Right. So you picture like, you know, she’s, she’s into the caffeine. She’s into the, um, You know, the, the bath and body works, lotions and all the things, right. And I just, when you know those details about somebody like that, this is why I share this because you can’t exercise your way to healthy, you can’t even exercise your way to metabolic health.

[00:34:40] Jenny Swisher: You’ve got to take a look at the products that are going, like, what are you cleaning your home with? What are you putting on your skin every day? Like what, what is your makeup? How are you putting your makeup on almost every day as a woman? Right. So I hope, I mean, I don’t, I shouldn’t say I hope, I hope you are paying attention to the ingredients that are in it because.

[00:34:55] Jenny Swisher: It really freaking matters. So when you’re, it’s, it’s like, it’s almost like society has embraced certain aspects thinking that that’s the way, like I must need to join a gym because that’s the way, or I must need to whatever. And I feel like finally you said women in particular are waking up to this idea that like, wait a minute, maybe I do know my body best.

[00:35:15] Jenny Swisher: Maybe I do need to advocate for it a little bit more. Maybe I am being gaslit in the doctor’s office. Like I really haven’t felt good for years. And I’ve just been told it’s part of aging or it’s part of period menopause. I mean, I think I think that’s why it’s the trending topic. It’s not a trending topic because it’s trendy.

[00:35:29] Jenny Swisher: It’s trending because people really, truly are waking up to this idea that, wait a minute, there’s more here

[00:35:34] Jamie Sheppard: it’s just not something I have to accept. I don’t have to accept it, right. Yeah, I don’t have to accept this. I don’t have to accept feeling, crappy all the time like and the message to all of you listening is no you do not like please please don’t and it’s it’s overwhelming like it is hard i still like have an attachment to the number on the scale like you’re not gonna just wake up and be like i don’t care about my pant size i don’t care about my weight like no one’s asking you to it’s understanding that there’s so much more to it like you were saying jenny like And that it, it isn’t like this big, huge pendulum swing.

[00:36:06] Jamie Sheppard: It just, just baby steps, baby steps every day. And that’s where like having being plugged into the right space, the right community is to help you baby step. Cause like no one can afford, I can’t afford to throw away every single makeup product, every single cleaning product, you know, like it’s as. Things have, as I’ve run out of something, or I’ve just been like, okay, I’m like, I’ve committed to no more Lysol, right?

[00:36:29] Jamie Sheppard: Like, you know, like, I like just picking one thing to swap out. And so it’s Baby Step. Baby Steps is really the way. So I think a lot of times people feel really, I know I’ve heard a lot of women that feel really overwhelmed, like, where do I start? You just start with the one thing that caught your interest.

[00:36:45] Jamie Sheppard: For me, that was honestly the Marine Collagen peptides. That was what I started with. And then that opened, like, that just opened the crack of the door for me to see, like, oh, is there more here that I would be interested in? Um, and you just want, you know, one thing at a time. Yeah, yeah.

[00:37:01] Jenny Swisher: Well, I think you, you know, you mentioned transparency, and I think that’s, we’re going to start to see, you know, that become a thing for all, all things.

[00:37:08] Jenny Swisher: Nutrition, you know, I feel like, , I was just in whole foods this morning and it’s like, you know, almost all the brands, not all, but the majority of brands that are in whole foods are very transparent on the label. It’s not just the marketing. It’s not just like, Hey, this is fat free or sugar free or whatever.

[00:37:23] Jenny Swisher: They’re actually being very forward facing about what is in the product. And here is the ingredients and we’re proud to share it. And I hope, you know, if nothing else, the people listening to this, we’ll start to pay attention to that because you can be easily marketed to. Um, But you having the understanding of what’s going in your products really matters, which leads me to what’s interesting here, which is when, when Jamie first introduced me to the opportunity and the concept that maybe I could leave, leave this, uh, this culture behind that I had been part of for 13 years and what that might look like.

[00:37:53] Jenny Swisher: It was really scary for me at first. Cause it was like, oh my gosh, this is, this is like who I am. Like, how could I ever change? How could I ever, and the one thing that I was really, really a stickler about, especially when I had my initial conversation with Sarah. Was I don’t want to just, I mean, I’ve been in a hormone health already myself for years, right?

[00:38:09] Jenny Swisher: Like I’d already had the podcast. I already had my courses. And I was like, I’m not just going to like associate with a company that says their hormone health, because that’s a trending topic. I’m not just going to join a company because they’re the first to say, Oh, we’re a hormone health conscious prop, you know, company.

[00:38:24] Jenny Swisher: So for me, I did a lot of vetting of the products, the labels, the ingredients. Um, wanting to know how things are sourced. And that’s one of the things that I love the most is when you come in as an advocate with human grace, you’re learning about what actually goes into each formulation from the formulators themselves.

[00:38:40] Jenny Swisher: There’s no guessing. You’re not wondering how it gets made. You’re not like assuming it’s good. You are actually seeing that and I think that that transparency behind being a hormone health company with, like you said, we’re exploding with new products, exploding with growth, I think is setting us up for a successful future.

[00:38:57] Jenny Swisher: So anybody listening to this, if you’ve not been into social selling before, or if it’s been scary to you, I want to touch just briefly before we wrap this up on, on the differences, because I think one other thing that human grace is very unique with. Is the approach that they’re taking in the social selling space.

[00:39:13] Jenny Swisher: It is not the traditional, what I would call network marketing type approach. It’s much more of like an affiliate marketing style model. So if you could give us just like a quick, over and we don’t have to, and we, but by the way, if anyone here is interested in learning more specifically. We can link up a way for you to contact us so that we can have a private conversation as well, but I just want to make sure that we address this too, because I think a lot of people are like, Oh, wait a minute.

[00:39:36] Jenny Swisher: Is this like a social selling thing? And I want to make sure that we identify that this is a very unique and different type of opportunity.

[00:39:43] Jamie Sheppard: And that was something like so I bet in this like super thoroughly as well for the same reasons and products and ingredient transparency, but also this business opportunity.

[00:39:54] Jamie Sheppard: I wanted to make sure this was a place that everyone could win that. There was like, you know, like whether your goal is to make a lot or a little, um, and so. It starts at the, the, the beauty of this, like, because they’re really modernizing and, uh, North Park, let’s be honest, needed modernization, it needed to be brought kind of out of this old school man.

[00:40:17] Jamie Sheppard: So, you know, like a, through a male lens, like it was really this masculine Business space and we’ve like dominated in this, the women have dominated, but like it didn’t, the business model didn’t like evolve as women have taken over this landscape. So this is, this is a much more feminine, versatile, um, approach.

[00:40:35] Jamie Sheppard: I think as we’ve seen affiliate opportunities explode all over the online space, like they really wanted to bring this into this like really modern approach. So that starts at the customer level. Like there’s customer referral program. Like, even if you were like, I don’t want to. You know, sell anything, but I would love to share this with friends and get free products in return.

[00:40:53] Jamie Sheppard: It starts at that level. And then if you want to want to earn money beyond product credit, there’s three different ways. And so there’s the traditional building a team, having, you know, earning 25 percent commission up to 40 percent commission. Um, and that’s more of the traditional space, but as that, the advocate role.

[00:41:12] Jamie Sheppard: As an advocate, you can also offer an affiliate role to people. So that’s earning 20 percent commission, offering a 10 percent coupon code. and that’s just, just a traditional affiliate exchange. Like you have a link, you can post it on your social, you can share it in an email, newsletter, campaign, whatever.

[00:41:28] Jamie Sheppard: And then my favorite part was there is retail component. We are partnered with some really incredible brands, the four season Walmart, Pistoria. Um, institute for integrative nutrition, um, fertility clinics in Malibu and Napa, like there’s just, and more and more and more like, um, very connected to this beautiful, like a high end boutique kind of, um, vibe in terms of like a higher end, more modern elevated brands have really sought to align themselves with you and grace because of, because it’s a different approach.

[00:41:58] Jamie Sheppard: But through that, we also have a retail opportunity for, um, Like, if, you know, my favorite yoga studio, or gym, or chiropractic clinic, or fertility office, or med spa, or just the boutique on the corner, um, wants to feature any of our products, whether it’s the home cleaner, or the collagen, or skincare, or soap, or whatever.

[00:42:18] Jamie Sheppard: They can stock their shelves with any of those products and sell in a brick and mortar, which I know, you know, they also have an e commerce site as well. But and then that would be something as an advocate. I could enroll a retail space to so which I think is a huge. We’ve got people on our team that are Um, and so I think that’s a on social media, but more that are growing in a retail space, a traditional sales space or just partnering with their community businesses.

[00:42:42] Jamie Sheppard: Or, um, you know, one of the gals just started partnering with her local I. V bar right like where they’re getting doing an I. V drips and vitamin drips. B and B’s like they’re just my mind is exploding daily with these cool partnerships. People are finding, um, able to do like event pop ups and community collaborations versus just posting in your stories, which I think honestly, like for me, I was looking for a way to build off of social media.

[00:43:07] Jamie Sheppard: Um, I’m personally, I love it. And it’s given me a lot in my life, but I’m a little burned out by it after 11 years of posting every day. Like I wanted a way where I could also step away from that a little bit if I wanted to, but there’s the option is the spectrum is long and wide. And I think that’s just like a glimpse of like the difference of the modernization commitment to it.

[00:43:32] Jamie Sheppard: Um, you don’t, you’re not boxed into just selling one thing. We don’t care if you want to sell, you know, other products, other companies, even if it’s another network marketing company, like they’re, you’re not golden handcuffed here, I should just say that because really are committed to helping, they want everyone to win and everyone to love being here.

[00:43:49] Jamie Sheppard: Period.

[00:43:52] Jenny Swisher: No, I love that. And I think, you know, I think. If you think about how, you know, we, we already mentioned that if you’re in fitness, you’re most likely not making a lot of, a lot of money, right? And so the people who are in the social selling space with health and fitness are, are really relying on social media.

[00:44:07] Jenny Swisher: They’re relying on sort of the morality or, um, that influencer status to, to help lead into their income. Right. And I, I really got sick of that too. I got sick of feeling like I had to have constant social media content in order to succeed. Whereas here, it’s just a totally different approach. Like you just said, I won’t repeat what you said, but I think it’s, it’s important for people to understand that, first of all, social selling is changing, like the, the, the landscape for it is changing, the models for it are changing.

[00:44:34] Jenny Swisher: And so to be on sort of like the, the, the cutting edge, so to speak, of how that’s shifting in a space that is purely transparent about what they’re doing and, and, um, And outward about sourcing and ingredients and, and what, you know, why they’re doing what they’re doing is really, is really key. So, all right.

[00:44:52] Jenny Swisher: So every

[00:44:52] Jamie Sheppard: product is consumable. I will say that too. Like, I think that’s really important too. Like I ran out of my, like, just was running out of my home cleaner, which is probably my favorite one of my, I mean, we have so many amazing products, but like this one, it’s like my favorite one. And like, I was, I was thinking about this the other day, I’m like, Well, like I’ve always used the same cleaner.

[00:45:09] Jamie Sheppard: Like I just go order, you know, like you go grab another one at the store. It’s same thing. It’s not like you’re trying different. We’re most of us are a creature of habits, habits are loyal to a brand. So from a business perspective, like these are consumable products that people are going to naturally.

[00:45:23] Jamie Sheppard: We’re not trying to talk them into some new thing they weren’t already using. Like literally when we say simple swaps, we’re swapping out things and products people were already using. This is just most of the time, right? This is just a safer, cleaner option for that. And then there’s this brand loyalty that we have with a lot of, most of us have with the companies that we love, especially when we know we’re in.

[00:45:44] Jamie Sheppard: Investing in, in our family’s safety and well being. So, I think from a business perspective, having a consumable product line means that I’m not always out there looking for new customers. Like, I have a customer base that like will continue and grow with me. You know what I mean?

[00:45:59] Jenny Swisher: Yeah. Yes, I do. So I want to wrap it up with this.

[00:46:03] Jenny Swisher: Okay. There’s two things that I want to, I want to say as we close this out, and this has been awesome. But the first thing is you mentioned this in a couple, like when you were kind of talking about other things, but I want to call attention to it is the one, probably the most exciting thing that Jamie and I are seeing, um, in making this transition for ourselves is we’re seeing women win again, and something that I want people to understand is that if what’s not working for you, whether that’s your health or your finances, um, you know, No longer working for you.

[00:46:33] Jenny Swisher: It’s okay to embrace a new idea and to say, maybe I need to step into something different so that I can have the opportunity to win again. We’re seeing this happen on a daily basis. We’re seeing women feel like they, they came out of this hole, not really knowing what direction to go. And now they’re in a, just a better environment.

[00:46:51] Jenny Swisher: And this goes for everything. We’ve talked about a better environment for their health, a better environment for. Their nervous system, a better environment for their relationships. Um, and then the other piece to that is, you know, women often ask me the question of like, What’s the first thing I should do?

[00:47:04] Jenny Swisher: Like if I really want to bring on, if hormone health is a focus for me, and I really want to take on hormone health, what’s the first thing I should do? And I can confidently tell you that embracing your fitness would not be the first thing I would tell you to do. The first thing I would tell you to do would actually be, well, what, what are you currently living in and around and applying to your body?

[00:47:25] Jenny Swisher: That is causing disruption, right? We have to remove the bad before we can incorporate, before we can incorporate the good. So it’s just like, you know, back in the day when I was, um, in sort of just the basic health coaching space. We have to eliminate what’s in the pantry. We have to take out the Oreos. We have to take out the box meals and we have to introduce the fresh produce and the healthy foods.

[00:47:46] Jenny Swisher: The same thing goes is true here, right? And yes, nutrition is important. Sleep is important. Supplementation is important. Exercise is important. But the first step is in, let’s just make these transitions to healthier products that we’re consuming and get the bad out of our system. So if we can control that.

[00:48:02] Jenny Swisher: Then we can move forward with the lifestyle changes that we need to really make that, that huge pivot. So thank you so much, Jamie, for being on here. I’d love for you to just, um, close this out with final thoughts. How people can find you all the things.

[00:48:16] Jamie Sheppard: Well, thank you again for having me. I, you can find me in the same group.

[00:48:20] Jamie Sheppard: Um, are in social media. Um, Jamie Shepard or my roots and wings. Wellness is my brand name. So roots and wing wellness. Um, dot com or just on Instagram is a great way to reach out. And. I guess my closing message to, and always feel free to reach out, like, uh, you know, like, just to pick my brain, to kick tires, like, I love to share, but, um, I want you to know that you do deserve.

[00:48:47] Jamie Sheppard: To feel good again, like you do deserve to feel your most optimal, healthiest, most beautiful, radiant self. Um, I heard that a lot from Gabby Bernstein, um, who was one of my favorite kind of like personal development mentors of is like reach for that next best feeling. Like when you’re in a low place, like the advice she always gives is like, go for that next best feeling.

[00:49:09] Jamie Sheppard: And start there, but also, but just knowing internally that like, you don’t have to be stuck. You don’t have to feel like crap. You do deserve to feel good. You do deserve to feel aligned. You do deserve to feel, um, fulfilled. You know, and in growth, like, well, the last thing I’ll say is like, if you’re not green and growing, you’re ripe and rotting.

[00:49:32] Jamie Sheppard: Um, an old mentor of mine said that on a conference journey, they went to a long time ago and it stuck with me for like nine years. Like if you’re not green and growing, you’re ripe and rotting. And I’m committed to not ripe and being right. I’m not, I’m still too young to be ripe and rotting. And so are you.

[00:49:47] Jamie Sheppard: So, um, so choose the alternative and it just takes a commitment to doing it. And then the doors will open for you.

[00:49:55] Jenny Swisher: Yeah. I mean, that’s exactly. I mean, I say on this podcast, every episode, you know, women deserve to live with maximum energy and that goes for our health, our relationships, our environment, everything.

[00:50:05] Jenny Swisher: So thank you so much, Jamie, for being on here. It’s been a blessing to become your friend and to now work alongside you. Um, thank you for, for leading the way and friends. I will link everything up that we talked about here in the show notes today. If you have any questions, you can swipe up and click.

[00:50:19] Jenny Swisher: Otherwise we’ll talk again soon. Take care. Bye. Bye.