Latest / The Heart-Led Business Show / Vegan Fury to Compassionate Empire with Kate Galli
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker: Welcome to the Heart-Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love.
- 0:09Speaker: Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second.
- 0:20Speaker: From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism.
- 0:29Speaker: So buckle up and let your heart guide your business journey.
- 0:36Tom Jackobs: Welcome back to the heart-led business show where passion and purpose pirouette.
- 0:41Tom Jackobs: Together today we have the incredible Kate Galli from down under.
- 0:46Tom Jackobs: Gracing, our virtual stage, and as a vegan health coach, master trainer, and all around plant powered powerhouse, Kate has spent nearly two decades helping folks sculpt bodies and build lives brimming with compassion.
- 0:59Tom Jackobs: Join us as we dive into our heart-led journey and uncover the secrets to thriving with plants.
- 1:04Tom Jackobs: Kate, welcome to the show.
- 1:06Kate Galli: Tom, I am so excited to be here.
- 1:08Kate Galli: Thank you so much.
- 1:09Tom Jackobs: I'm excited as well.
- 1:10Tom Jackobs: And having, coming outta the fitness industry myself, I always love geeking out with other fitness folks and learning about your heart-led journey as well.
- 1:20Tom Jackobs: And I know it's quite, quite the journey as well, so I can't wait to dive into that.
- 1:24Tom Jackobs: But first, I always like to ask, what's your definition of a heart-led journey?
- 1:28Kate Galli: To me so far as business, it is a business that aligns with your values and beliefs and ideally it is also one where you are leading with compassion and it's all about having a greater positive impact.
- 1:44Kate Galli: It's not just about the money, but it's about that positive impact you're looking to have in the world.
- 1:49Tom Jackobs: Positive impact and living with purpose is kinda what I heard from you on that.
- 1:53Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 1:54Tom Jackobs: And that's a common theme, the purpose, living with purpose.
- 1:57Tom Jackobs: So whenever I hear that, I always like to ask too, have you had a job where you weren't living your purpose?
- 2:02Kate Galli: I absolutely have probably a few.
- 2:04Kate Galli: However, I've been lucky in that whenever I had bosses and I haven't had a boss since 2008, and I don't really think I could again.
- 2:13Kate Galli: However, I always had bosses from the very get go with exceptionally high standards, which I think is such a gift as a boss to give your new employees to have those high standards.
- 2:26Kate Galli: So I always learned a lot.
- 2:27Kate Galli: Even though the business wasn't, initially aligned with my heart or my mission, goodness, I didn't know what my heart or mission was back in my early twenties.
- 2:36Kate Galli: So I've had those, I've had those careers.
- 2:39Kate Galli: And mom used to always say to me, Katie, you always make it so hard on yourself because I would start to really see success in a career.
- 2:49Kate Galli: then I would step away because there was some sort of a values misalignment, and I can never just ignore that.
- 2:55Kate Galli: Once I'm aware of it, I'm outta there and often too fast and sometimes without knowing exactly where I'm headed.
- 3:02Kate Galli: But that's the deal breaker for me.
- 3:04Kate Galli: Once I realize that your mission and your business is not aligned with me, I'm gone.
- 3:11Tom Jackobs: Wow.
- 3:11Tom Jackobs: And how long did it take you to realize that or to develop that sense or was it always within you?
- 3:16Kate Galli: I probably, it was more a notion of having the courage to back myself.
- 3:23Kate Galli: Probably you have an awareness of what's not aligned and you ignore that because you haven't built the self-belief.
- 3:30Kate Galli: You haven't had the successes yet, and equally, you haven't had the failures yet that you've come back from and realize that, failure's not final, right?
- 3:38Kate Galli: You just pick yourself up, learn hopefully, and keep on going.
- 3:41Kate Galli: It was my late twenties when I first stepped away from a business that was originally super aligned with my heart because I was working on behalf of not-for-profits that I respected most in the world.
- 3:54Kate Galli: However, there was an in between, there was an organization that, ran the fundraising side of things, and I was part of that organization.
- 4:02Tom Jackobs: Oh wow.
- 4:03Kate Galli: They came a point where there was a conflict, right?
- 4:05Kate Galli: I wasn't directly working for the businesses, the charities that I respected.
- 4:10Kate Galli: And that's when I stepped away and that's when I got into personal training.
- 4:14Tom Jackobs: Wow, awesome.
- 4:16Tom Jackobs: What was that journey like between working for other people and then transitioning into personal training?
- 4:24Kate Galli: So I was really lucky when I was first a personal trainer and I started at about 28, 29.
- 4:29Kate Galli: Before I was too old, Tom, I thought that any older would be way too old for fitness.
- 4:35Kate Galli: 19 years later.
- 4:36Kate Galli: That was very young.
- 4:38Kate Galli: However, my first job, at a personal training studio.
- 4:42Kate Galli: My boss was amazing, and he was still very hands-on, even though he came to the point where he had multiple studios and they were all under management.
- 4:50Kate Galli: When I jumped on board, he spent a lot of time with his team, and he was amazing at what he did in many ways, and I learned a lot from him.
- 4:58Kate Galli: Again, he was a tough boss.
- 4:59Kate Galli: He had high expectations.
- 5:01Kate Galli: And I like that.
- 5:02Kate Galli: I'm not gonna expect you respect you as a boss if you don't have high expectations, I had that, I guess that learning period before I went out on my own.
- 5:11Kate Galli: So I'm very grateful for that.
- 5:13Tom Jackobs: Oh yeah.
- 5:14Tom Jackobs: Oh, that's great.
- 5:15Tom Jackobs: Yeah, it's funny.
- 5:16Tom Jackobs: 28 too old to be a person.
- 5:18Tom Jackobs: I started when I was 32 or 33 maybe.
- 5:21Tom Jackobs: I always had the thoughts.
- 5:22Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 5:23Tom Jackobs: I always had the thought too.
- 5:24Tom Jackobs: I was like, boy do I really want to be, putting weights away and doing this when I'm 50 and now that I'm 50, I'm like, yeah I could still do that if I needed to.
- 5:34Tom Jackobs: It's not that bad.
- 5:36Tom Jackobs: I loved people.
- 5:37Tom Jackobs: It was great.
- 5:38Kate Galli: And also if your clients are super loyal, like mine were, Older, they get older.
- 5:43Kate Galli: And they don't lift quite as heavy weights anymore, and so you're not lugging those big 40 kilo dumbbells like you used to be.
- 5:50Kate Galli: So it all works out.
- 5:51Tom Jackobs: Yeah, it does work out.
- 5:52Tom Jackobs: Exactly.
- 5:53Tom Jackobs: You do more stretching and mobility work.
- 5:56Kate Galli: A hundred percent.
- 5:57Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 5:58Tom Jackobs: That's awesome.
- 5:59Tom Jackobs: So tell us a little bit about your business now and how it transformed over the years.
- 6:06Kate Galli: So where do I start?
- 6:07Kate Galli: Because my business now is very, we'll go back to the business from hell.
- 6:12Kate Galli: I think we're fast tracking through some of my biggest learnings and I'm sure we will come back to them, but where I am right now is I've left one-on-one personal training behind.
- 6:22Kate Galli: That was something that was good to me and good for me for a lot of years because that was a business.
- 6:29Kate Galli: I'm sure you'll relate where.
- 6:31Kate Galli: brings out the best in you, right?
- 6:33Kate Galli: You have to choose to be super pos positive and focused and there for your client and not caught up in you.
- 6:40Kate Galli: And that was really good for me actually, to be focusing on other people, choosing my mood and such, and.
- 6:48Kate Galli: I guess the conflict with that business came around the fact that I'd been vegetarian 23 years.
- 6:55Kate Galli: I turned vegetarian for the animals as a 16-year-old and I'd been vegetarian a decade by the time I became a personal trainer, and that was totally cool'cause I wasn't forcing my vegetarian beliefs on any of my clients.
- 7:09Kate Galli: It was a bit weird that I was that vegetarian personal trainer, but I was fit and strong and healthy and it was all good.
- 7:15Kate Galli: When I became vegan nine and a half years ago, and I was well into my personal training career, I was successful.
- 7:22Kate Galli: I was super confident in the way that my body looked, and I decided basically overnight that if I was vegetarian for the animals, I needed to be vegan for their animals.
- 7:31Kate Galli: And I became an angry vegan for quite a period of time, and.
- 7:37Kate Galli: is very common and completely understandable, and it also negatively impacted my relationships, including my business relationships and those with my clients.
- 7:49Tom Jackobs: Oh wow.
- 7:50Kate Galli: It got to a point where, as a professional, I just had to swallow.
- 7:55Kate Galli: My beliefs to a degree while I was with my clients who'd be eating animals and not taking my nutritional advice so much.
- 8:04Kate Galli: Some of them took on some advice and that was amazing.
- 8:08Kate Galli: However after quite a number of years, I just, I guess I felt that all or nothing, alignment that I, I had that calling before where the current position that I'd gotten myself into with business was out of alignment with where I wanted to be.
- 8:25Kate Galli: My number one value was freedom.
- 8:27Kate Galli: My number two value was integrity.
- 8:29Kate Galli: I was feeling a lack of integrity.
- 8:32Kate Galli: And I was feeling a lack of impact as well because I was helping these non-vegan get amazing results and I wasn't really impacting the life of the vegans and vegans that had out there that also want to create that fit, strong, healthy, plant powered body.
- 8:48Kate Galli: And so to finally answer your question, that's when I transitioned to online vegan health coaching only.
- 8:55Kate Galli: And that is my focus these days where I help vegans and vegans at heart go from stuck or inconsistent to fit strong confidence in a plant powered body and lifestyle they love aligned with their hearts and the heart is really important.
- 9:13Kate Galli: And that's part of the reason why I was so excited to come on this show.
- 9:18Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 9:18Tom Jackobs: And there's so many connections with the heart and with being vegan as well.
- 9:23Tom Jackobs: You're taking care of your heart and you're, and it's heart about animals as well.
- 9:29Tom Jackobs: So I always have the question when I talk to vegans, what's the difference between vegan and plant-based?
- 9:37Kate Galli: Yeah, great question.
- 9:38Kate Galli: Plant-based usually comes from more of a health perspective.
- 9:42Kate Galli: Very definitely is not a diet.
- 9:43Kate Galli: It's not just about the nutrition, it's all about compassion and to the best of your ability living in a non-vegan world, to avoid any animal exploitation.
- 9:53Kate Galli: So it's not just food, it's entertainment, it's clothing, it's makeup, it's all of that.
- 9:58Kate Galli: And again it's not really coming from, Hey, I am doing this for my health, even though personally think it is a really healthy way to live.
- 10:06Kate Galli: That's not where it's coming from.
- 10:07Kate Galli: It's coming from the heart, the ethics, the values, the animals.
- 10:11Kate Galli: Plant-base is a, an undeniably healthy way to eat where you are prioritizing plants.
- 10:18Kate Galli: You could live on junk food as a vegan, I could live on burgers and chips.
- 10:21Kate Galli: And Oreos as a vegan.
- 10:23Kate Galli: And that is part of my mission as a vegan health coach.
- 10:26Kate Galli: Those animal rights activists out there that only care about the mission and I love them.
- 10:31Kate Galli: I am all there for them.
- 10:33Kate Galli: However, I wanna help them be healthy as well, so that they can be in it long term for the animals and and not just skinny or skinny fat or unhealthy or low energy, which you would be if you survived on vegan junk food.
- 10:48Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 10:48Tom Jackobs: Yeah, totally.
- 10:50Tom Jackobs: And my, my, my niece Hey Anna.
- 10:52Tom Jackobs: She was vegan for a long time.
- 10:53Tom Jackobs: And I always, I was interested because I always looked at the packaging'cause it, being nutrition oriented and personal training, and I was just, I was appalled sometimes by the number of ingredient ingredients in a lot of these vegan foods that you can't even pronounce.
- 11:10Tom Jackobs: I'm like, how is this, it's ultra processed and it's, and you're trying to make things taste like meat.
- 11:16Tom Jackobs: I'm like, that just seems goes against the whole philosophy of vegan and just the health aspect of it as well.
- 11:23Kate Galli: So it's gone through phases, right?
- 11:25Kate Galli: And initially the phases with the vegan mo meat and dairy alternatives and such.
- 11:30Kate Galli: They were great transitional foods and they still are.
- 11:33Kate Galli: If you're a little bit lost and you don't know what to do and it all seems a bit overwhelming, there are realy.
- 11:39Kate Galli: Easy starting point, as an industry, initially they just wanted like taste parody.
- 11:44Kate Galli: They wanted to get the taste right and then they needed to get the price right.
- 11:49Kate Galli: And now the frontier that they're on now is having taste and price and health, like minimal whole food ingredients, and there are amazing businesses doing truly amazing things where it is, as you suggest, only quality ingredients as it should be.
- 12:06Kate Galli: None of that rubbish that we can't even pronounce.
- 12:09Kate Galli: However, you do have to look out for it.
- 12:10Kate Galli: You do have to be aware, like with any way that you eat.
- 12:12Tom Jackobs: Of course.
- 12:13Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 12:13Tom Jackobs: There's plenty of non-vegan unhealthy foods out there as, as well, for sure.
- 12:19Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 12:20Tom Jackobs: So you had mentioned earlier that you started as a, an angry vegan.
- 12:25Tom Jackobs: How did that come about and why?
- 12:27Tom Jackobs: Why were you angry?
- 12:30Kate Galli: Yeah.
- 12:30Kate Galli: Big one here.
- 12:31Kate Galli: I was vegetarian for the animals for 23 years, and then I realized that animals were still dying for my food choices.
- 12:39Kate Galli: I used to consume 21 free range organic egg whites a day, you know because I was, for a decade, I was a high protein, low carbohydrate, vegetarian personal trainer.
- 12:51Kate Galli: That was their belief.
- 12:52Kate Galli: The mistaken belief that I had back then.
- 12:54Kate Galli: And when I realized that.
- 12:57Kate Galli: There was still all of this suffering that I didn't know.
- 13:00Kate Galli: I was still contributing to.
- 13:02Kate Galli: I was angry that I'd been misled by the marketing, I was super disappointed when I shared what I learned.
- 13:10Kate Galli: And most vegans go through this.
- 13:13Kate Galli: You learn this advice and it is so impactful on your heart, and you make a change and you expect.
- 13:20Kate Galli: That every compassionate human, will make the same choice.
- 13:23Kate Galli: Not because they don't care, and they're not compassionate.
- 13:27Kate Galli: because we all have different maps of the world, right?
- 13:29Kate Galli: We have different values, beliefs, goals, life experiences, and more.
- 13:33Kate Galli: So what we make all of those things mean.
- 13:36Kate Galli: And so I would share this advice that broke my heart, these learnings, and people either wouldn't listen or wouldn't care, they just wouldn't change.
- 13:44Kate Galli: And so I became angry and I started hanging out with other vegan animal rights activists.
- 13:51Kate Galli: And that was great for community, that was amazing.
- 13:55Kate Galli: However, also it drew the stark contrast between those individuals and the family, clients and friends I had that did not live that way.
- 14:05Kate Galli: And Tom, I don't know whether I would've come to this realization on my own without the most brutal awakening and the brutal reality that got me to the point of giving up being an angry vegan.
- 14:22Kate Galli: It was about three and a half years ago, I got the phone call from my father that I always thought I'd get from my mom.
- 14:29Kate Galli: Dad's not the healthiest man, not in the way he eats and not in the way he thinks.
- 14:34Kate Galli: And I always thought I'd get the, Katie, it's your dad.
- 14:38Kate Galli: And I got the Kate, it's your mother.
- 14:41Kate Galli: Mom had died suddenly and I'd spoken her to her that morning and everything was completely fine.
- 14:49Kate Galli: I will say Mom was the only vegan in the family and she was the picture of health and full of love and compassion and energy, and all of a sudden one day she was gone and it didn't happen overnight.
- 15:02Kate Galli: However, anyone listening that knows, that just the indescribable shock and grief when something so horrific, you don't even think about it ever happening.
- 15:10Kate Galli: 'cause you just can't when it does happen.
- 15:14Kate Galli: The energy, the sadness, and the emotions that are just so all consuming.
- 15:19Kate Galli: I genuinely had no more energy left beyond that grief to hold the anger and frustration that I had been holding towards all the non, that I just didn't have it in me.
- 15:31Kate Galli: also I realized with mom, no regrets.
- 15:35Kate Galli: We both knew how much we loved and respected each other.
- 15:39Kate Galli: If that had been my father, I would have had regrets.
- 15:43Kate Galli: And part of that was my judgment on him, a big part of it.
- 15:49Kate Galli: And so that was when I consciously decided to let go of that angry vegan part of me.
- 15:55Kate Galli: And it's still, I won't lie, it's still a daily, focus and effort.
- 16:02Kate Galli: It doesn't come naturally.
- 16:03Kate Galli: I'm committed to it though.
- 16:05Tom Jackobs: Did you feel just a lighten, like lightening up in terms of the emotion and just realizing that the love needs to overpower that anger and all that within you?
- 16:17Kate Galli: You do.
- 16:18Kate Galli: First when you go vegan, initially, most people say a heavy weight is lifted.
- 16:24Kate Galli: That weight of incongruence.
- 16:26Kate Galli: If you're a compassionate person and you are not living a life aligned with those compassionate beliefs, whether it's consciously or unconsciously, I experience that lightening, that heart opening.
- 16:37Kate Galli: When I first went vegan, and then I let too much anger and frustration back into my heart, right?
- 16:44Kate Galli: We need compassion for the animals ourselves and our fellow humans.
- 16:49Kate Galli: Not just the animals and not just the animals and ourselves, right?
- 16:52Tom Jackobs: Sometimes the animals are nicer, so.
- 16:55Kate Galli: A
- 16:55Tom Jackobs: 100
- 16:55Kate Galli: percent easier.
- 16:58Kate Galli: and so definitely it is the better way and
- 17:01Tom Jackobs: the more
- 17:02Kate Galli: fun way.
- 17:03Kate Galli: And more importantly, it's the more effective way.
- 17:05Kate Galli: And this is, this relates to business as well.
- 17:08Kate Galli: Obviously leading with love, compassion, deliciousness, and hey, let's do this together.
- 17:13Kate Galli: Welcoming people into the lifestyle that is a whole lot more effective than leading with judgment and frustration.
- 17:21Kate Galli: And you need to be perfect, right?
- 17:23Kate Galli: That's just not effective.
- 17:25Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 17:25Tom Jackobs: Yeah, exactly.
- 17:26Tom Jackobs: And I've seen that in business over and over again in d different businesses, but especially in the fitness and nutrition area and health and wellness.
- 17:35Tom Jackobs: There can be a lot of judgment from the trainer or the professional to the client, and that relationship is just not it's not built on a mutual understanding and trust and love, and it just, it doesn't go anywhere.
- 17:49Tom Jackobs: And I've found that once you bring in that love and the compassion, it really blossoms really nicely and business takes off as well, which is a nice side effect to them.
- 18:00Kate Galli: A hundred percent.
- 18:00Kate Galli: And I learned that lesson early days of as a personal trainer as well.
- 18:04Kate Galli: I used to get disappointed when my clients didn't have the same goals that I wanted.
- 18:09Kate Galli: Like I had, my expectations for them were super high and they felt a lot of pressure.
- 18:15Kate Galli: And not in a good, supportive way.
- 18:17Kate Galli: And it, it took me a while to learn that I needed to meet them where they are at and be happy with what they're looking to achieve.
- 18:26Kate Galli: And that's it.
- 18:27Kate Galli: That is all it is.
- 18:28Kate Galli: And I can't want it more than they want it.
- 18:31Kate Galli: And it's the same with everything I would imagine.
- 18:34Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 18:34Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 18:35Tom Jackobs: Absolutely.
- 18:36Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 18:36Tom Jackobs: Cool.
- 18:37Tom Jackobs: And thank you for making the distinction too between plant-based and vegan.
- 18:42Tom Jackobs: And I hadn't heard that definition before and I really appreciate that.
- 18:45Tom Jackobs: It's about everything around the animals, including like shows and things like that, that, that don't always treat the animals as good stewards, but just as performers.
- 18:57Tom Jackobs: And it's, that's sad too sometimes.
- 18:59Kate Galli: Just think of an animal as an individual that doesn't need to be exploited or owned or used.
- 19:04Kate Galli: They're here with us, not for us.
- 19:06Kate Galli: That's that simple.
- 19:08Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 19:09Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 19:10Tom Jackobs: Cool.
- 19:10Tom Jackobs: So let's shift gears a little bit and let's talk about everybody's favorite topic, money and business.
- 19:16Tom Jackobs: How has that changed for you over the years?
- 19:19Tom Jackobs: Starting your business?
- 19:21Tom Jackobs: I don't know if you're like me, but I had no even though I had run millions of, or, had a budget of millions of dollars in oil and gas.
- 19:31Tom Jackobs: That I was managing.
- 19:32Tom Jackobs: I knew nothing about running a small business, and I almost went broke within the first six months of opening my personal training studio.
- 19:39Tom Jackobs: And then I had to learn to sell and all these other things that I was super afraid of doing, but it saved my business.
- 19:47Tom Jackobs: So how was that journey for you and knowing that money is what is needed to fulfill your mission and to help more people?
- 19:56Kate Galli: Yeah, I guess if we do touch on the business from how, which was a personal training franchise that, that first boss who was so amazing, I actually.
- 20:06Kate Galli: I went into business with him a few, a couple of years in, so we bought one of the personal training franchises after I'd been a trainer a couple of years or so.
- 20:16Kate Galli: And my ignorance around money shone through.
- 20:20Kate Galli: At that point in time, I was the star personal trainer and he was the owner and I thought.
- 20:27Kate Galli: Due diligence.
- 20:28Kate Galli: Let's just le leave it all up to him.
- 20:31Kate Galli: All I need to know.
- 20:33Kate Galli: My only idea of being a director and a manager was lead by example.
- 20:36Kate Galli: Really not enough.
- 20:38Kate Galli: Super basic wrong.
- 20:40Kate Galli: And we entered into business on a Handshake with a couple of other gents that were basically selling the first gym in that franchise that had ever been sold.
- 20:49Kate Galli: So even though the franchise is amazing with all its rules, it didn't have rules and guidelines yet for the selling of a franchise.
- 20:58Kate Galli: So it was Like the clients will stay, right?
- 21:00Kate Galli: Yeah.
- 21:00Kate Galli: The clients will stay.
- 21:02Kate Galli: And when you buy a gym, you buy Goodwill.
- 21:04Kate Galli: We took over a commercial lease and we took over to equipment leases.
- 21:10Kate Galli: The only asset that we were buying was the Goodwill, the clients, and one of the guys was an exceptional trainer at an exceptional gym, and he went straight back to that gym and took all the clients with him.
- 21:23Kate Galli: And that was a really hard lesson learned that I'd paid, bought into this business.
- 21:29Kate Galli: The clients basically disappeared.
- 21:31Kate Galli: We took on an old team who didn't really have the ethos of the franchise.
- 21:37Kate Galli: And again, I was like, let's win them over.
- 21:39Kate Galli: Let's not fire them.
- 21:41Kate Galli: And so that was tough lesson.
- 21:45Kate Galli: Slow learns.
- 21:46Kate Galli: And the biggest lesson I think, was to back yourself.
- 21:51Kate Galli: I went into that business believing.
- 21:55Kate Galli: The self-belief that all these other individuals in the franchise had about themselves.
- 21:59Kate Galli: It was I'll say it, it was a boys club and a lot of the boys thought they were pretty special and I believed them.
- 22:06Kate Galli: And it's one thing to be confident in good times, but to back yourself and have that self-belief and keep going and pull yourself through the tough times, is a whole different story.
- 22:19Kate Galli: And so the business from how zero regrets getting into it because the lessons were absolutely worth it.
- 22:27Kate Galli: However, get, again, coming back to values, I had no freedom and in the end felt little integrity in that business, and so I was very grateful when I eventually was able to sell it and exit.
- 22:40Tom Jackobs: Oh, okay.
- 22:40Tom Jackobs: So what was that exit like then for you?
- 22:43Tom Jackobs: Was it, you just got fed up and he was like, I'm selling, get me out of this as quickly as possible, or was it?
- 22:51Kate Galli: It was a very, drawn out process.
- 22:53Kate Galli: We had a business broker.
- 22:55Kate Galli: We changed business partners, another guy entered the business.
- 22:58Kate Galli: My first partner was so smart, he could see that this wasn't a good investment and I wasn't giving up on that thing.
- 23:06Kate Galli: And so I got another business partner and him and I had a brooch relationship from the very get go, zero trust.
- 23:13Kate Galli: And we hired a business broker when we were looking to sell, and he was the most.
- 23:19Kate Galli: Grizzled old, tough old gent.
- 23:22Kate Galli: And I can remember him saying, Kate, if you ever escape this thing, you need to write a book.
- 23:28Kate Galli: This business is a soap opera.
- 23:31Kate Galli: Many dramas within the business not for this podcast, but so many dramas that is a fairly naive, 31, 32-year-old.
- 23:39Kate Galli: It was a lot.
- 23:41Kate Galli: And so we eventually sold and, just the huge relief and I basically broke even my new business partner, of money and I escaped, and again, tough lesson.
- 23:55Kate Galli: I signed an anti-competition clause at that.
- 23:58Kate Galli: I wouldn't do any personal training for a year and later learnt that no one else obeyed those.
- 24:06Kate Galli: Yeah, I ab obeyed it.
- 24:07Kate Galli: I didn't do any pt.
- 24:09Kate Galli: So many lessons.
- 24:13Kate Galli: yeah but the freedom of escaping.
- 24:16Tom Jackobs: I bet that was a huge relief and quite frankly to, to leave, even from when you started.
- 24:22Tom Jackobs: That's quite the accomplishment for sure.
- 24:25Tom Jackobs: That you didn't lose a lot of money either, but.
- 24:29Kate Galli: It was worth it.
- 24:30Kate Galli: The lessons were so worth it.
- 24:31Kate Galli: I was such a shy little thing going into that business and the self certainty I came out of it with just for the disputes with the franchise, the dis disputes with my business partner.
- 24:44Kate Galli: They just, I came out super clear and I think one of the most important lessons in business and life is knowing what you don't want.
- 24:53Kate Galli: It's just as important as absolute clarity on what you do want.
- 24:56Kate Galli: That really taught me what I don't want and I've managed to stick to that ever since.
- 25:03Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 25:03Tom Jackobs: I think that's a common theme for any failures that we go through or conflicts is okay, now I know what I don't want.
- 25:10Tom Jackobs: And then, and that, that burns deeper into your brain than when you have the successes.
- 25:16Tom Jackobs: And I think that's just our human nature to always default to the negative versus the positive.
- 25:22Tom Jackobs: But it protects us in that.
- 25:23Tom Jackobs: It's, our brain was built that way to, to protect us.
- 25:28Kate Galli: Yeah.
- 25:28Tom Jackobs: Yeah, this time I've had similar situations.
- 25:31Tom Jackobs: I've never gone in.
- 25:31Tom Jackobs: I did start when I was going to build my business or build the gym.
- 25:37Tom Jackobs: I did have a business partner for, oh, maybe 30 seconds.
- 25:40Tom Jackobs: I know exactly.
- 25:41Tom Jackobs: And I went to the, my, our, we had an attorney and we're gonna, build out the partnership agreement and do all this.
- 25:47Tom Jackobs: And the attorney was a friend of mine.
- 25:48Tom Jackobs: And after the meeting, after my other friend who, who left my attorney was like, so why are you doing a partnership with him?
- 25:58Tom Jackobs: I'm like because he's really interested.
- 25:59Tom Jackobs: He is nah, not good.
- 26:00Tom Jackobs: You need to dump it.
- 26:01Tom Jackobs: And I so appreciate my attorney friend that I was like, oh yeah.
- 26:05Tom Jackobs: And it really got me thinking about is this the right partnership?
- 26:10Tom Jackobs: And it was totally because it wasn't the right partnership because our values weren't in alignment and our purpose wasn't in alignment.
- 26:19Tom Jackobs: And you know that goes to the heart-led as well.
- 26:21Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 26:22Tom Jackobs: It's so important.
- 26:23Kate Galli: 100% big escape there.
- 26:25Kate Galli: Well done.
- 26:26Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
- 26:27Tom Jackobs: So tell, before we wrap up here, I would love to hear one piece of advice that you might have for a heart-led business owner or somebody that's, that identifies as a heart-led business owner that might be struggling right now, and especially struggling with the money side.
- 26:43Tom Jackobs: What would you, what type of advice would you give them?
- 26:46Kate Galli: Oh, three things come to mind and I'll share.
- 26:48Kate Galli: I struggled with the money side as well for a bit, which I think is really in my area.
- 26:54Kate Galli: Being anyone in animal rights, activism, anyone in a creative field, anyone that's doing something they'd almost do for free.
- 27:03Kate Galli: Anyway, right?
- 27:04Kate Galli: They care so much or their purpose is bigger than themselves, that they'll readily undersell themselves.
- 27:11Kate Galli: A lesson I've learned from training some incredibly successful wealthy people is earning more money allows you to have greater impact.
- 27:20Kate Galli: It allows you to amplify your impact and also the impact of the people that you respect, and it's just so much more freeing, the compounding effect of being able to earn what you're worth, and not be bootlegging it, which is exhausting.
- 27:35Kate Galli: So that was a lesson, but also I do want to share my biggest, most impactful lesson of 2024.
- 27:42Kate Galli: I did too much in 2024.
- 27:44Kate Galli: I.
- 27:44Kate Galli: Split myself way too thin and I just, I was seeking calm and clarity, and I wasn't finding it until I started journaling a habit that I had denied for years.
- 27:59Kate Galli: Like I denied meditation for years halfway through last year, I swapped my doom, scrolling in the evening and craving red wine for.
- 28:09Kate Galli: A more positive addition to my life, which was 10 minutes journaling down by the river or more, and I was seeking calm and clarity.
- 28:18Kate Galli: I started every day, every page, each evening with the words calm and clarity, and journaling was the habit that brought me that calm and clarity.
- 28:27Kate Galli: So if you're feeling anxiety or overwhelm or you're not sure of their next best step, journaling is almost like self-coaching.
- 28:36Kate Galli: And it's amazing to clarify your goals, to enforce your self belief, your gratitude, all of these things that are undeniably impactful.
- 28:45Kate Galli: And you can start with as small as one sentence or one minute a day.
- 28:49Tom Jackobs: For sure!.
- 28:50Tom Jackobs: I guess you could have the glass of wine while journaling as well, and enjoying nature down by the river.
- 28:57Kate Galli: I was needing to break the every night habit, Tom, on the weekend.
- 29:01Kate Galli: That glass of red wine, absolutely fine, but not every night.
- 29:05Tom Jackobs: Awesome.
- 29:05Tom Jackobs: Kate, this has been just an amazing conversation.
- 29:08Tom Jackobs: I've really I'm glad that we had this this show together.
- 29:12Tom Jackobs: How can people learn more about your training, your online presence, and potentially work with you?
- 29:18Kate Galli: Amazing.
- 29:18Kate Galli: I've had so much fun too.
- 29:20Kate Galli: Tom, thank you so much.
- 29:21Kate Galli: The best place to connect with me is strongbodygreenplanet.com.
- 29:26Kate Galli: You'll find links to everything I do there.
- 29:29Kate Galli: You'll find links to the Plant Positive Journal.
- 29:31Kate Galli: I love journaling so much.
- 29:33Kate Galli: I created one.
- 29:35Kate Galli: Also, it helps you adopt a healthy plant-based lifestyle one step at a time if that's something you're open to.
- 29:42Tom Jackobs: Thank you so much, Kate, for joining us today.
- 29:44Tom Jackobs: I know the audience really appreciates you and I certainly appreciate you as well, so thank you so much.
- 29:49Kate Galli: My pleasure.
- 29:50Kate Galli: Thank you, Tom.
- 29:51Kate Galli: It's been a blast.
- 29:51Tom Jackobs: Yes, it has.
- 29:52Tom Jackobs: And thank you listeners for listening to and watching the show, depending on what platform you're on.
- 29:58Tom Jackobs: We really do appreciate it.
- 29:59Tom Jackobs: Now make sure that you're checking out everything that Kate's doing, and we're gonna provide all those links down in the show notes, so make sure that you're checking that out.
- 30:07Tom Jackobs: And if you're down there checking out show notes, there might be a little review button down there as well.
- 30:12Tom Jackobs: If you could do me a favor and click that review, five stars, please.
- 30:17Tom Jackobs: And that really helps spread the word about the show and get the word out for more heart-led people so that they can understand what it's like to be a heart-led business owner.
- 30:25Tom Jackobs: Until next time, lead with your heart.
- 30:28Speaker 2: You've been listening to The Heart-Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs.
- 30:34Speaker 2: Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.