Latest / Tone It Down / Hard Knocks’ Rachel Hague: "You Already Know What Your Next Step Is"

Transcript

Hard Knocks’ Rachel Hague: "You Already Know What Your Next Step Is" · Tone It Down

• 0:00
  Right now, I feel like I'm right on the brink of realizing what my superpowers are as an entrepreneur and just as a woman in general.
• 0:07
  This is your weekly girlfriend chat, the kind that we all crave, where we can show up exactly as we are, laugh until we cry, get honest about the things we're navigating, and all the private girl talk that we need more of.
• 0:20
  No pressure, no perfection, just real women like us sharing real stories with real connections.
• 0:27
  Over the years of Tone It Down, I've learned that the most transformative moments don't always happen in a workout.
• 0:33
  They happen in those conversations before and after.
• 0:36
  When we realize we're all going through something, when we feel seen.
• 0:40
  And that's what Tone It Down is built on.
• 0:43
  My intention is simple, to help you tune back into yourself, to quiet the noise, and to remind you that you're allowed to evolve.
• 0:52
  This is Tone It Down.
• 0:58
  Welcome to the Tone It Down podcast.
• 1:00
  It's your girl, Karina Dawn.
• 1:02
  I'm so happy you're back here to hang out with me today.
• 1:06
  Before we dive into this week's guest, just a reminder, click that subscribe button so we can have amazing guests that I know you want because you DM me all the time.
• 1:16
  So thank you for subscribing.
• 1:18
  And also don't forget, you can leave me a message at karinadawn.com slash message.
• 1:23
  It's a voicemail and I will play your voicemail questions
• 1:27
  comments, anything you want to share.
• 1:30
  I may play it live on the Toner Down podcast when I do a solo app.
• 1:35
  Also, my Tone It Up girls, October 12th, we have our fall challenge in the Tone It Up app coming out.
• 1:41
  It is three weeks, 21 days to change your ways.
• 1:44
  It's called Fall Back to the Beach.
• 1:46
  We got Tone It Up nostalgia.
• 1:47
  We have new workouts.
• 1:49
  This is what you've been asking for, so I put it together for you.
• 1:52
  I'm so excited.
• 1:53
  This is like kind of those feel-good vibes as we're in fall and moving to holidays, where I know it can be a lot of...
• 2:01
  a little bit stressful for some of us.
• 2:03
  And you know what doesn't stress you out?
• 2:05
  Your workout.
• 2:06
  So join us, hashtag TIU team.
• 2:08
  Make sure you check out.
• 2:09
  We all start October 12th.
• 2:11
  Head over to tonerup.com slash activate and make sure you sign up.
• 2:16
  Okay, this week's guest, literally, come and knock on my door.
• 2:21
  I've been waiting for you.
• 2:23
  Okay, I know you've heard of School of Hard Knocks on social media.
• 2:27
  All the street interviews or showing up at people's houses, right?
• 2:31
  Rachel Haig, the host for Hard Knocks, one of the hosts for Hard Knocks here in Austin, literally came knocking on my door and did an interview with me.
• 2:41
  It was really actually a fun interview.
• 2:44
  I wasn't expecting to have her in my house.
• 2:46
  So pardon, if you watch it on YouTube on Hard Knocks, pardon the mess.
• 2:50
  You can tell I was not expecting this visit.
• 2:52
  But it was really fun to have Rachel interview me.
• 2:56
  She is an incredible interviewer and such a passionate person where then I in turn was like, hey, can I interview you for Tone It Down?
• 3:06
  And she said, yes.
• 3:08
  So in this conversation, we sit down here in the Tone It Down podcast studio, and Rachel shares how she landed her hosting role on Hard Knocks.
• 3:16
  There was almost a thousand applicants, and she got the job.
• 3:20
  She also talks about what she has noticed about founders that she interviews and how writing helped her through losing her sister.
• 3:28
  She also talks about finding her people in Austin, her rescue dogs who changed her home, and what a sabbatical taught her about who she is beyond every title.
• 3:38
  If you ever wondered how to make friends as an adult or how to follow the next step that feels scary, this one is for you.
• 3:44
  We talk about Rachel's childhood, growing up in a family of entrepreneurs and eldest daughter energy, reading the room and taking control of habits that often lead to building companies.
• 3:56
  We talk about grief and how everyone has experienced grief, whether you're going through a breakup, whether you're just grieving a past version of yourself, or whether you've lost a family member, a friend, a pet.
• 4:08
  So we talk about Rachel's bodybuilding experience.
• 4:11
  I talk about mine a little bit, the one show I did in Miami.
• 4:15
  Yeah, we talk about her focus on finding her voice as an interviewer.
• 4:18
  Like I said, she is incredible and very warm, but to the point, to the point, she gets it out of you.
• 4:26
  Yeah, this is a great, great interview.
• 4:29
  And make sure you share this with someone who needs to hear it, wants to hear it.
• 4:34
  Great information in here.
• 4:36
  Enjoy.
• 4:37
  Love ya.
• 4:39
  Welcome to Tone It Down, Rachel Haig.
• 4:41
  You came a knocking at my door.
• 4:43
  I did.
• 4:44
  And interviewed me and I was like...
• 4:46
  Well, now can I interview you?
• 4:48
  And now we're here.
• 4:49
  You got the full Hard Knocks experience.
• 4:51
  I did.
• 4:51
  Yes.
• 4:52
  School of Hard Knocks.
• 4:54
  That's where you know her from.
• 4:56
  Can you just jump into that right away and kind of talk about how you started working with School of Hard Knocks and what would you consider your passion in entrepreneurship today?
• 5:09
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 5:09
  Well, I wish that I was the mastermind behind the School of Hard Knocks, but I am not.
• 5:13
  It was far before my time.
• 5:15
  The founders are James, Jack, and Josh, and you guys have all probably seen James's face where he goes up to millionaires and billionaires and asks them how they got rich.
• 5:22
  It all started as a media company and young kids, similar to myself, being really curious about wanting to learn from other people that have built big things.
• 5:30
  My personal journey is I am so ADHD.
• 5:34
  I have never wanted to do just one thing.
• 5:37
  And so when I met the Hard Knocks guys and I realized it was everything that I ever wanted to do, which was to just be in every different industry, get to pretty much build a giant resume of learning every possible company and also ask questions and be as curious as possible to tell people's stories in a different way.
• 5:54
  Well, first of all, how did you meet them and where?
• 5:57
  Yeah.
• 5:57
  So a little bit School of Hard Knocks, we have over 26 million followers across platforms, and that was all before this channel ever existed.
• 6:05
  And I host Hard Knocks business.
• 6:07
  So my previous experience, which I'm sure we'll kind of get into, is I used to host giant events for female entrepreneurs, and I had an audience of a whole bunch of women in business.
• 6:16
  And Hard Knocks had posted that they wanted to start a women's channel.
• 6:20
  And this was after I had closed my company.
• 6:22
  I was on a sabbatical.
• 6:23
  I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next.
• 6:25
  And I knew I wanted it to be something creative.
• 6:27
  So I applied.
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  I put in an application.
• 6:30
  And 950 women applied.
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  And it came down to two of us.
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  And they couldn't pick just one.
• 6:36
  The woman that hosts Hard Knocks Women now, her name is Sam.
• 6:39
  She's incredible.
• 6:40
  She has a pageant background.
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  She's a girly girl.
• 6:42
  Yeah.
• 6:43
  And then I'm a little bit more of a tomboy.
• 6:45
  So I get to do the oil rigs and the blue collar interviews and stuff like that.
• 6:50
  And that's what's on Hard Knocks Business.
• 6:51
  I love that.
• 6:52
  So, I mean, it's such a wonderful career choice, too, because you get to meet so many millionaires, billionaires, people, just very interesting people and learn so much from them.
• 7:02
  What is the most standout moment of someone you got to interview and what you learned from them?
• 7:08
  See, I feel like I learned something from somebody that is a hundred thousand dollar entrepreneur and a billionaire.
• 7:16
  I learned something from everybody that I interview.
• 7:18
  My favorite day in the life was with Jim Keys, who is the CEO of Blockbuster and 7-Eleven.
• 7:24
  I brought the idea to him.
• 7:25
  I was like, hey, I want to come spend the day with you.
• 7:27
  Just we can do it in your office.
• 7:28
  And he's like, no, if we're going to do a day in the life, it has to be extravagant.
• 7:32
  We ended up going on his private jet, which he surprised me that he was also the pilot.
• 7:37
  So we flew from Texas.
• 7:39
  We went to Scottsdale.
• 7:40
  We got lunch.
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  We did meetings.
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  Then we went to LA.
• 7:43
  It was a full day, multiple different locations.
• 7:46
  And although that video was so much of the flashy things, the private jets, the different meetings, he was such a humble being.
• 7:54
  Yeah.
• 7:54
  And he really just broke down his foundations in his life.
• 7:57
  And one of those things was...
• 7:59
  Star Wars, may the force be with you.
• 8:02
  And that's actually an analogy for faith.
• 8:04
  And you have to have faith in what you're doing in your visions and your goals.
• 8:08
  You have to have a deeper foundation behind everything you do or you will lose track.
• 8:12
  And he was a great example of that.
• 8:14
  Can you spot an entrepreneur that doesn't have faith in what they're growing and building?
• 8:20
  Or does every entrepreneur have that passion and that drive and their why?
• 8:24
  I think every entrepreneur has a level of obsession.
• 8:27
  That's what I'm learning.
• 8:28
  Mine is Pomeranians.
• 8:29
  Yours is Pomeranians.
• 8:30
  You are definitely obsessed with Pomeranians.
• 8:32
  She has six, guys.
• 8:34
  But I get it.
• 8:35
  I'm a dog girly too.
• 8:36
  But every entrepreneur has a level of obsession that overtakes the moments that they're losing faith.
• 8:43
  every founder has had challenges that made them want to throw in the towel, give up, burn the whole thing down a thousand times, no matter how successful they are.
• 8:52
  But their obsession is what brought them back into that.
• 8:54
  And that typically is tied to being in pursuit of their purpose.
• 8:57
  Yeah, I can admit there's many times where I was like, I quit!
• 9:02
  Every founder that I've talked to has had those moments, those breakdowns.
• 9:05
  What am I doing?
• 9:06
  I'm going to just go hide somewhere in a cave and forget everything.
• 9:11
  And then you're like...
• 9:12
  Next day, you're like, all right, let's go.
• 9:13
  And that's one thing you said in our interview today was how you're so grateful that you kept going in those moments.
• 9:20
  And that's what I see in all these founders too, is like at the end of the day, the payoff and the ripple effect that comes from the businesses that you created after those challenges is so purposeful that it's all worth it.
• 9:31
  Yeah, and we talked about how I learned to get through the hard times because of our childhood.
• 9:38
  Yeah.
• 9:38
  So I want to talk about your childhood.
• 9:40
  Oh, let's bring it back.
• 9:42
  Yeah.
• 9:43
  It's so interesting because you're from Vegas.
• 9:46
  Yes.
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  A family of entrepreneurs.
• 9:48
  Yes.
• 9:49
  Take me back to your childhood and what that was like.
• 9:53
  Yeah.
• 9:53
  You know, I think who I am now is a great example of somebody who,
• 9:59
  that thought I didn't have any superpowers.
• 10:03
  And right now I feel like I'm right on the brink of realizing what my superpowers are as an entrepreneur and just as a woman in general.
• 10:10
  I grew up in Vegas.
• 10:12
  I grew up in a middle class-ish family.
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  My parents were divorced.
• 10:15
  So mom's house, sometimes we struggled a little bit financially, but I had really great parents that led me and my mom had a business as well.
• 10:24
  She had a cleaning company and stuff.
• 10:25
  So I got to see little pieces of entrepreneurship
• 10:28
  My little sister was disabled from birth.
• 10:31
  And so I feel like I stepped into that entrepreneurship mind of taking care of everything else around me very young because I got to parent my sister from mom's house and dad's house, give her medicine, take care of her and things like that.
• 10:44
  And I'm sure we can kind of get into the journey a little bit.
• 10:47
  Yeah.
• 10:47
  I mean, just stopping and pausing there for a minute.
• 10:50
  I too, like with my mom being out of the house all the time, I had to step up and take care of myself and sometimes the household on my own at a very young age.
• 10:59
  So that's just one of the things that I'm sure when you talk to, you know, founders and entrepreneurs, like a lot of that, you know, that hardship in the beginning.
• 11:07
  Yeah.
• 11:08
  Yeah.
• 11:08
  It's like the eldest daughter syndrome, whether you are the eldest daughter or not.
• 11:13
  We want to take control of things.
• 11:15
  We read the room really well.
• 11:18
  At some point in time, we raised our parents or we raised our siblings or we had those friends that we were leading.
• 11:23
  And typically those are the ladies that end up building companies.
• 11:25
  So hey, wouldn't change a thing.
• 11:28
  Yeah.
• 11:29
  Can we talk about Danielle?
• 11:31
  Because that was not done in 2020.
• 11:36
  And from childhood to now, such an impact on your life.
• 11:41
  You know, grief is something that people avoid like the plague to talk about, but it's something that every single one of us experience.
• 11:49
  And I am the woman that I am today because I watched my favorite person in the entire world pass away.
• 11:54
  My sister was the most ambitious, outgoing, goofy girl.
• 11:59
  She was so courageous.
• 12:01
  I'll tell you a quick story.
• 12:03
  So she was special needs and she was a little person.
• 12:06
  She was super little.
• 12:06
  Yeah.
• 12:07
  And so I shadowed her one time at her high school dance.
• 12:11
  She wanted to take her cool sister to shadow her.
• 12:13
  And all these kids are way taller than her.
• 12:16
  She's super shy in the corner.
• 12:17
  And then all of a sudden I lost her and I couldn't find her.
• 12:20
  I'm freaking out.
• 12:20
  I'm like, I'm going to get in trouble.
• 12:22
  And there's this whole dance crew going off and everybody's like, yes, yes, yes.
• 12:26
  My little sister being her like four foot self was dancing in the middle of that group of kids and twerking and having, you know, her best time ever.
• 12:35
  And she was the most courageous little girl.
• 12:38
  And I was not that.
• 12:40
  I was so quiet.
• 12:41
  I didn't make friends very much growing up.
• 12:43
  So I always, even though she was my little sister, I always looked up to her.
• 12:46
  And I was always kind of her caretaker.
• 12:49
  And so when she did pass away in 2021,
• 12:52
  Not only did I lose the person that meant the most to me, but I completely lost myself because my identity was being Danielle's sister.
• 13:00
  My identity was showing up in this world so I could go back to the hospital bed and tell Danielle what I just did because she was locked down in the hospital every day.
• 13:09
  And, you know, I went through my fair share of...
• 13:12
  moments of tears and crying and going through it.
• 13:15
  But I realized that that grief helped me recognize those superpowers that I did have to now be able to show up in what it is that I do.
• 13:22
  And I believe she's with me in every moment and grief has shaped the woman that I am.
• 13:28
  That's really experiencing heavy grief at such a young age.
• 13:32
  And I understand the identity part.
• 13:34
  When my mom passed away in 2021, my whole life was my schizophrenic mother.
• 13:39
  Where is she?
• 13:40
  She's a missing persons again.
• 13:41
  How do I find her private investigators?
• 13:44
  And then when she was gone, I'm like,
• 13:46
  The chaos is gone.
• 13:47
  This is different, but a different thing where it was my identity and learning that.
• 13:51
  So what was, I do have a lot of community members that have experienced grief, losing parents, like, what was that process for you?
• 14:00
  Writing is really what got me through my grief journey.
• 14:02
  Maybe one day I'll launch it as a book.
• 14:04
  I don't know.
• 14:04
  I call it unwashed sweatpants because I never washed my sweatpants and I cried all the time in them and I wrote every day.
• 14:11
  But what got me through my grief was trying to find real world examples, analogies to compare my grief to.
• 14:17
  And then I started to share it with people and I realized that everybody has experienced grief, whether they're going through a breakup, whether they're just grieving a past version of themselves or whether they've lost a family friend or a pet.
• 14:30
  One of those analogies was that grief is like a balloon.
• 14:34
  And if you let go of it, it's going to float away and you feel this fear of missing out on your loved one, forgetting them.
• 14:40
  You forget what their voice is like and you're so scared to let go because you don't want to forget them.
• 14:45
  But if you hold that balloon too tight, it'll pop and it'll hurt you and it'll cause pain.
• 14:50
  But if you hold the string of the balloon and you allow it to follow you and blow in the wind, that person is always going to be with you.
• 14:57
  That grief is always going to be with you, but you're not going to be suffocating it and you're not going to be letting them go forever.
• 15:03
  I would just journal on these different pieces until I finally started to come to terms with my grief is not something that's going to paralyze me.
• 15:11
  It's something that's going to give me a different perspective of the world.
• 15:14
  That was a great analogy.
• 15:17
  Listeners, soak that in for a moment.
• 15:20
  So is it true that you lived in your car for a while in Vegas?
• 15:24
  I did, yes.
• 15:26
  So my sister was very sick and my parents had to focus on her a lot.
• 15:30
  And I was a wild teenager that, you know, I was a wild teenager.
• 15:36
  I started working at 14.
• 15:37
  I wanted to be an adult really early on.
• 15:39
  And my parents did have to focus a lot on my sister.
• 15:42
  And so my 18th birthday, my family, I've actually never talked about this on camera or anything,
• 15:50
  be in Utah with my sister in a hospital that was doing rare tests on her because it was the only hospital that would see her.
• 15:57
  And I wanted to stay in Vegas and finish my senior year in high school.
• 16:00
  And my mom's husband, boyfriend at the time, and I did not get along.
• 16:04
  And he pretty much said, hey, you got to get out of the house or you got to pay me rent.
• 16:07
  And I said, well, if I'm going to be paying you rent and I don't even want to be here, I'm going to go find a place to pay rent.
• 16:12
  I didn't realize that my hard-headed 18-year-old self had no renter's proof and no apartment.
• 16:19
  It's going to be like, yeah, you can have an apartment here.
• 16:21
  So there were several weeks that I did live in my car.
• 16:24
  I was doing a bodybuilding show at the time.
• 16:25
  I would go into the gym and shower there and work out for five hours straight.
• 16:29
  I got really buff, really good at my discipline and my habits.
• 16:34
  That just shows your character too.
• 16:35
  You're homeless living in your car, but instead of...
• 16:39
  letting Vegas take you.
• 16:41
  Well, I mean, you had your fun, but you took that path of fitness and going to the gym, showing up.
• 16:47
  So obviously tone it up.
• 16:49
  We like to work out.
• 16:50
  That was your fitness journey.
• 16:53
  And I know you still work out, but competitions, how was that?
• 16:56
  I did one once.
• 16:57
  Did you?
• 16:58
  How did you do?
• 16:59
  Terrible.
• 17:01
  Terrible.
• 17:01
  I was like, it was just for a test.
• 17:04
  It was in Miami, but it was like a bikini, whatever.
• 17:06
  Yes.
• 17:07
  I failed.
• 17:08
  I didn't place anything.
• 17:09
  But you look good.
• 17:12
  Really?
• 17:12
  I didn't have enough muscle.
• 17:15
  And I wasn't, like, probably taking supplements like everyone.
• 17:18
  I was very lean.
• 17:19
  But it was, like, so restrictive.
• 17:21
  I remember flying on an airplane to Miami and packing my own chicken and asparagus.
• 17:27
  Like all the bathrooms at the hotel smell like asparagus.
• 17:29
  Mine was tilapia and spaghetti squash.
• 17:32
  I can't even look at it still to this day.
• 17:34
  So how many competitions did you do?
• 17:36
  I did two competitions.
• 17:38
  Back then, my first one was when I was 18 years old.
• 17:40
  I was still in high school.
• 17:41
  I was also working a karate job.
• 17:43
  So I was teaching karate after school.
• 17:45
  I would go...
• 17:47
  to the gym in the morning, do my cardio.
• 17:48
  You know, you got to do like two hours worth of cardio.
• 17:50
  So much.
• 17:50
  I would go to school, do the little amount of classes until I, you know, just so I could pass.
• 17:56
  I'd go teach karate for hours and then I'd go to the gym afterwards, shower at the gym, sleep in my car in the parking lot, and then do it all over again the next day.
• 18:04
  I did end up placing fairly well in my first show.
• 18:07
  Yeah.
• 18:08
  But I realized that that was not the true definition of health.
• 18:12
  That was what we see on magazines.
• 18:14
  Yeah.
• 18:14
  And you're like, I want to be like that.
• 18:16
  But then once the curtain is pulled and you are talking to someone who's training and I'm like, I don't think I should be doing that.
• 18:24
  Yes.
• 18:25
  I'm sure we can get into it.
• 18:26
  But it's like the now days of like the Olympic crisis.
• 18:30
  Back then it was like...
• 18:32
  You know, everybody is cheering me on saying, oh, you look like the girl that's on the front of the magazines.
• 18:38
  And I was dead inside.
• 18:39
  I was unhealthy.
• 18:40
  I was chugging or eating spicy candy and sour candies before I go on stage and I haven't eaten in days.
• 18:47
  Like it's the most unhealthiest industry.
• 18:50
  I think it taught me self-discipline.
• 18:52
  I do recommend women do a show or they do a high rocks.
• 18:54
  They do a competition to see how hard you could push yourself.
• 18:58
  Yeah.
• 18:58
  But I wouldn't recommend the bodybuilding industry necessarily to someone unless that is going to be their full focus because it will take a toll on your body.
• 19:05
  Yeah.
• 19:05
  And the other thing too, when I had that whole experience and I was walking down the street, I mean, whatever, drag in Miami beach and all the girls were then binge eating.
• 19:15
  Yes.
• 19:16
  And I was like, oh, the body dysmorphia after that show.
• 19:19
  I remember there's photos of me where I'm 90 pounds and I would look at those photos and I would cry my eyes out.
• 19:25
  I didn't go to pool parties my senior year.
• 19:28
  I didn't go to some of my graduation parties because I thought I was fat just because I bought I got back the water rate from my show.
• 19:35
  Right.
• 19:35
  Yeah.
• 19:36
  The water depletion.
• 19:38
  Anyways.
• 19:39
  Also, tangent.
• 19:40
  This is a girl's talk, right?
• 19:41
  Okay.
• 19:42
  If anybody has ever done modeling or like bodybuilding shows, can we just talk about the awkward spray tans?
• 19:49
  Especially when you're that lean, you are freezing cold, you're jittery because caffeine is the only thing keeping you going, and you have to rotate like a rotisserie chicken in front of the fans to dry your spray tan.
• 20:03
  You should see.
• 20:04
  PTSD experience.
• 20:05
  Yeah, I know.
• 20:06
  You can Google Karina Dunn, my fitness bikini Miami.
• 20:10
  And my tan is so tan.
• 20:13
  Yes.
• 20:15
  I'm like...
• 20:16
  curl.
• 20:17
  Granted, they do that so that the stage lights don't wash you out.
• 20:20
  So I get it.
• 20:21
  But it was a whole experience, especially being like 17, 18, the youngest one in the room, trying to figure it out, but dazzling my own bikini because I couldn't afford it.
• 20:30
  It was interesting.
• 20:31
  You had to go to the stripper store to get the stripper heels.
• 20:33
  Yes.
• 20:34
  Yes.
• 20:34
  The stripper heels, learning to walk in those and not let your butt jiggle.
• 20:38
  Oh my gosh.
• 20:38
  It's a whole thing.
• 20:39
  But yeah, to answer your question, I did one show when I was 18 years old.
• 20:42
  I placed first in that show, but I had taken a lot of fat burners and stuff.
• 20:46
  So I got really bad stomach issues after that and kind of had to recalibrate.
• 20:50
  And then I did my second show actually in 2024 after I had already started running a business.
• 20:55
  And I didn't take it as seriously, but I did it to get those discipline back.
• 20:59
  To track my macros, to do the cardio, kind of get myself back in the track of it.
• 21:04
  I placed fifth though.
• 21:06
  And then you're like, forget this.
• 21:07
  And then I was like, I like cookies way too much to do it ever again.
• 21:11
  So then how do you get to Austin, Texas?
• 21:14
  So in 2020, my sister passed away and I wanted a new start.
• 21:18
  I mean, I'm sure anybody that has lost a loved one kind of feels like when you drive around your city, you know, you see memories everywhere.
• 21:24
  And I wanted a place where I could kind of find myself a little bit.
• 21:28
  So I picked up, moved to Austin, did some door-to-door sales, was trying to figure it out during COVID, came to Austin, Texas.
• 21:36
  And that was when I met my best friend and we had started the women's company in Austin.
• 21:40
  Connect her.
• 21:41
  Connect her.
• 21:42
  Yes.
• 21:43
  So, you know, I recommend to anybody pick up and move to a new city.
• 21:46
  If you feel like you want to meet new people, if you feel like you want to change into that next version of yourself, reinvent yourself.
• 21:52
  Yeah.
• 21:53
  Because a new environment will do that.
• 21:55
  But yeah, we built Connector.
• 21:56
  We ran it for multiple different years, met so many incredible female founders.
• 22:01
  That whole season for me really showed me what it's like to have female relationships in my life.
• 22:07
  Because I thought a lot of women were catty.
• 22:09
  I thought women were drama.
• 22:10
  I was so scared of judgment.
• 22:12
  And that entirely just changed my perspective on what it's like to have other women in your life.
• 22:19
  And then, yeah, we ended up closing it, did the sabbatical, and now I'm here with Hard Knocks.
• 22:24
  I know that's one of the things that from the beginning of Toner up purposefully, the messaging as a community of women with no judgment.
• 22:32
  Yes.
• 22:32
  Like, don't come at me.
• 22:33
  Don't come at a community member and talk shit and judge.
• 22:36
  Yeah.
• 22:37
  Because we know what judgment is really coming, projecting.
• 22:40
  So I think it's so important.
• 22:41
  And female friendships are hard.
• 22:43
  Even now, as I'm older and I'm working a lot and there's a lot of families and it's so hard to make new friends.
• 22:52
  It is.
• 22:53
  Yeah.
• 22:54
  It is.
• 22:54
  We started that community.
• 22:55
  It actually started as a fitness community.
• 22:58
  We would just do workouts in the park, free workouts.
• 23:00
  And we were getting men and women joining.
• 23:03
  My business partner at the time, she was like, no, I want to do all women.
• 23:06
  This could be awesome if we just get women together.
• 23:08
  And I was like, I don't want to do that.
• 23:10
  Women judge each other.
• 23:11
  There's cattiness.
• 23:12
  This is not going to feel safe.
• 23:13
  Like what if people get in arguments and what if they get in clicks and we can't control it?
• 23:18
  And she was like, just trust me, like we can build some really great relationships.
• 23:22
  And again, my sister was a girl's girl.
• 23:24
  She was a cheerleader.
• 23:25
  She was a dancer.
• 23:26
  And I was like, okay, I'm going to live for two.
• 23:28
  I'm going to embrace my inner Danielle and give this a chance.
• 23:32
  And there were so many conversations where I met other women and I saw myself in them or they saw themselves in me or I saw my sister in them.
• 23:39
  And I was really able to realize that all those things were taught as girls where we judge each other, we make fun of each other.
• 23:45
  It all comes from most of the time.
• 23:48
  Things that people have projected on us.
• 23:50
  And we all actually really want to build each other up and do things together.
• 23:55
  Okay.
• 23:55
  So if a woman is listening and she's like, I want to make a friend, what would you tell her to do?
• 24:02
  So, I mean, this goes into maybe business growth too, but we've built most of our community in Facebook groups.
• 24:09
  Whether you run a business or not, you can go into any city and typically there's a Facebook group for that city and just introduce yourself and say, hey, I want to meet some new people.
• 24:18
  And that's how we started our groups was we would just have a whole bunch of girls come to a coffee shop and everybody would connect.
• 24:25
  Some people you resonate with.
• 24:26
  Some people you're like, maybe we won't meet again.
• 24:28
  But typically you're so scared to put yourself out there.
• 24:31
  But there's someone else out there that's also scared to put themselves out there that's dying for a friend.
• 24:36
  Yeah, that was something with Tone It Up too.
• 24:38
  There's still a hashtag like TAU Austin, hashtag TAU LA, TAU Chicago is huge.
• 24:43
  And that's a great way to meet someone.
• 24:48
  I love meeting friends through fitness.
• 24:50
  I think everyone I talk to and hang out with in Austin is in the fitness industry.
• 24:55
  Probably met them at the gym or some, like when I, we've talked before about how I had my fitness follow up for a couple of years and didn't work out.
• 25:02
  And I had to go get a trainer because I'm like,
• 25:04
  Sitting on the couch at the gym, I'm like, make me work out.
• 25:07
  Make me love this again.
• 25:09
  And so it's a great way to meet people in a healthy environment.
• 25:14
  That is why Tone It Up has become what it is, is it wasn't about necessarily the fitness you can go get.
• 25:20
  Now you can ask ChatGPT for a workout plan and workout wherever.
• 25:23
  But it was about the community that comes with it.
• 25:25
  You know, but I think it's the same thing.
• 25:27
  Like if you're struggling to make friends, go to a gym, find a fitness community, go take a Pilates class.
• 25:33
  That's why Pilates is popping off because these ladies are finding friendships.
• 25:37
  But fitness is really where that started for me, at least.
• 25:41
  All right.
• 25:42
  I want to shift back to hard knocks.
• 25:43
  I want some stories.
• 25:45
  Let's get to hard knocks.
• 25:46
  Let's go.
• 25:47
  Who was somebody that you interviewed that you were completely starstruck and you're like, I can't believe I'm interviewing this person?
• 25:53
  Yeah.
• 25:55
  You know, I've realized now that I do it more and more, I don't think I get starstruck as much because I just realized like, okay, everybody's human too.
• 26:04
  Like sometimes I'll be in an interview and I'll be like, are you nervous right now?
• 26:06
  And they'll be like, yeah, I'm nervous.
• 26:07
  And I'm like, why are you nervous?
• 26:08
  I'm nervous.
• 26:09
  You know, like we're all human.
• 26:10
  Yeah.
• 26:11
  One of my first trips with the guys was when James was interviewing Jordan Belfort.
• 26:15
  If you've ever seen The Wolf of Wall Street.
• 26:16
  His ex has been on the podcast.
• 26:19
  She's amazing.
• 26:21
  Okay.
• 26:21
  I'll have to watch it.
• 26:22
  Yeah.
• 26:23
  She's on the big silence one.
• 26:24
  Okay, we'll watch it.
• 26:26
  But I personally didn't chat with him as much other than just, you know, a little bit of Hard Knocks business stuff.
• 26:30
  But that was a moment for me because I think sales was what sparked my entrepreneur career, was doing door-to-door sales during COVID, which was the worst time to ever do door-to-door sales.
• 26:40
  And I would watch a lot of his stuff and read his books and things like that.
• 26:44
  That was the moment where I was like, this is real.
• 26:46
  Like I'm going to meet some really incredible people and I can't look at them like they're stars because if I do that, I'm not going to be able to be fully present and ask the right questions.
• 26:55
  Yeah.
• 26:56
  What are some, or maybe like one pattern that you see in most entrepreneurs?
• 27:01
  I mean, I think one is obsession, like we talked about.
• 27:04
  I think the other one that really debunked for me was I thought that I had to be fit to build a successful business.
• 27:12
  Most entrepreneurs start in fitness.
• 27:14
  Like my first ever business was a personal training business.
• 27:17
  Right.
• 27:18
  But what I've now learned is there is a lot of entrepreneurs that...
• 27:22
  didn't focus on their health and wellness and still built huge multi-million dollar companies.
• 27:28
  But fitness is what has allowed the right people to feel fulfilled in what they've built.
• 27:35
  So you don't need to be fit to make a lot of money, but you need to be fit to enjoy your money and enjoy that journey.
• 27:41
  And make sure you're alive to... And make sure you're alive to experience the money that you make.
• 27:45
  Yeah.
• 27:46
  Do you see any differences that stand out to you between male...
• 27:50
  and female entrepreneurs?
• 27:54
  Yes and no.
• 27:56
  Every time I get to interview a female founder, I'm really excited inside because I'm like, I'm with the girls.
• 28:01
  But I think the most successful female founders that I've met, they know when to be in their masculine and when to be in their feminine.
• 28:09
  And,
• 28:10
  And most of those ladies were too strong in their masculine for too long, burnt themselves out, and then realized that the real superpower that they have as a female founder is when they can turn on their feminine and still negotiate and still show up in these rooms.
• 28:26
  And you actually talked about this today in our interview of how, you know, when you were selling your company back in the day, you walked into these rooms and it was all men and you had to learn how to negotiate and carry yourself and show up confidently.
• 28:38
  Yeah.
• 28:38
  Yeah.
• 28:38
  But I think the moment that these female founders recognize that that is a superpower, that you are the only woman in the room, but that's what makes you special.
• 28:47
  That's when they saw the success.
• 28:50
  And I think the mindset, too, and I don't think I mentioned this earlier, but it's like in your head, you're going to be like, these men are sitting around the table because they want to buy my company.
• 28:58
  Yeah.
• 28:58
  They want to invest in me and I have the control.
• 29:02
  The other question that I honestly get asked a lot is like, as a female interviewer, do you feel safe interviewing a lot of these men?
• 29:09
  You know, I'm going into their offices, I'm spending time in their houses interviewing them.
• 29:13
  And at first I was a little bit worried that that was something I would be concerned about.
• 29:17
  And I've actually experienced that a lot of these guys that I'm interviewing are very respectful and they do see me as equal or they do see like they're very kind still too.
• 29:29
  And I think a lot of women, when we walk into those rooms of men in business, granted, maybe there's some people with bad intentions, but...
• 29:37
  Seeing yourself as an equal with them, when you see yourself as lower status, you're going to put yourself in that position in your mind versus just walking in and believing that you're meant to be there.
• 29:47
  I interviewed this guy named Chase Hughes, and he said, true confidence is the willingness to accept social injury.
• 29:54
  And the number one way to destroy your life is when you walk into a room and you look at that room as hierarchy and status, who's higher, who's lower, just simply because you're always going to be behind your eyes, too much in your head, trying to figure it out.
• 30:06
  And you're not actually going to be present with the people that you're around.
• 30:10
  And most of these founders have figured that out, that if they're present, they walk into this room and they know they can learn from anyone, no matter how much money that person's made, no matter what company that person's built, or whether they're not an entrepreneur at all.
• 30:21
  Yeah.
• 30:22
  You ask when you interview, like, who have I learned from or who do I look up to?
• 30:26
  But you have learned from so many people.
• 30:29
  It's incredible.
• 30:30
  Like, what are your goals for the future and your entrepreneurship and what you're doing?
• 30:36
  There's so many.
• 30:37
  And I feel like I'm in a very blessed space to be working with a team.
• 30:42
  I've done the entrepreneur stuff where it's just you trying to figure it out.
• 30:46
  And I realized that I'm a creative at heart.
• 30:49
  I would rather have a piece of the watermelon than the whole grape.
• 30:52
  And so Hard Knocks has so many verticals already.
• 30:55
  And I see a vision where we're going to build multiple verticals off of Hard Knocks business and off of the audience that I relate to and that gets to know me as an interviewer.
• 31:04
  So there's some things that we're kind of working on there.
• 31:06
  But right now, honestly, my biggest focus is just honing in on that content, finding my voice more as an interviewer, connecting with the people that I interview and learning.
• 31:16
  I learn something new every single day.
• 31:18
  And I'm constantly testing new things because, as you know, social media changes just about every five seconds.
• 31:24
  So finding the best format.
• 31:25
  I feel so old when social media keeps changing.
• 31:28
  I go to my team.
• 31:29
  I'm like, what am I supposed to do now?
• 31:31
  Just tell me.
• 31:33
  Yeah, yeah.
• 31:34
  But yeah, and I think that's part of it.
• 31:36
  That's part of the obsession and evolution.
• 31:38
  Same thing with a business as a content creator.
• 31:40
  Like you're not meant to do the same thing over and over and over again as a human that gets boring.
• 31:45
  So we're meant to evolve and our audience will evolve with us.
• 31:48
  That's something I'm trying to accept is like every video is not going to be a banger.
• 31:51
  Every video is not going to be my best.
• 31:53
  Sometimes I look at it and I'm like...
• 31:55
  Girl, I should have gotten ready that day.
• 31:57
  I don't want to post this, but I know that if I just keep going, make the next video even better, I'm going to build an audience that evolves with me.
• 32:04
  Yeah.
• 32:05
  Well, let's go to Rachel behind the lens when you're not working for hard knocks or social.
• 32:11
  Can we talk about your dog, your dog's rescue?
• 32:15
  I love this.
• 32:16
  Which you have lots of palms.
• 32:18
  I do.
• 32:18
  And I got to meet them today.
• 32:20
  So you get it.
• 32:21
  Yeah, I mean, when I went through my sabbatical season before I started Hard Knocks, I really started to realize I had a lot of those what I call superpowers that we talked about earlier that I realized from my grief.
• 32:32
  And one of those was empathy and nurturing and taking care of things.
• 32:36
  I wanted to challenge myself to do that in a way where it's not somebody that's my client.
• 32:41
  It's not somebody that's a partner.
• 32:43
  How can I do something outside of building a business?
• 32:46
  And part of that was finding an initiative that I really wanted to get behind.
• 32:50
  And that was Animal Rescue.
• 32:51
  And so on my sabbatical last year, I set a goal of rescuing over 100 dogs.
• 32:57
  If you do any research in Texas, the street dog population is horrible.
• 33:02
  The shelter system is horrible.
• 33:04
  There's so many things wrong with those systems.
• 33:06
  And I really wanted to make an initiative to change it.
• 33:08
  And so I ended up getting to like 54 cases, I think, of dogs that I had pulled off the streets.
• 33:15
  Yeah.
• 33:15
  Helped find homes for with the help of rescues, multiple rescues that supported and financially supported the initiative.
• 33:22
  And then I realized it was quite emotionally taxing.
• 33:24
  I had seen some hard things and kind of took a little bit of a pause.
• 33:28
  But yeah, animal rescue has been that's my side project.
• 33:31
  That's my my hobby.
• 33:33
  I mean, it's a perfect hobby.
• 33:35
  I mean, it's it's hard, but everything is hard.
• 33:37
  But also animals just bring you so much joy.
• 33:39
  And how many dogs do you did you foster fail?
• 33:42
  I foster failed many times, many, many times.
• 33:44
  There's so many that I wanted to keep too.
• 33:46
  I cry every time I see their faces, but I had four.
• 33:50
  I just had one pass away from heartworm disease that had heartworm before I got him, which is a new thing that I've learned a lot about is, you know, if you have pets and you're in Texas, definitely please get the preventatives.
• 34:02
  But now I have three.
• 34:04
  I have a little girl dog that was actually pregnant when I found her.
• 34:08
  So we went through the whole litter of the chaos crew at home.
• 34:11
  I kept one of those puppies.
• 34:13
  And then I also have a pit bull named Romeo who has a really touching story.
• 34:16
  He was tied to a tree in somebody's yard and he was a like two out of nine body count.
• 34:23
  So he was so skinny that we didn't think he would make it so dehydrated.
• 34:26
  I'll say in nice terms, the gentleman that owned him pretty much said, well, I don't want him.
• 34:32
  I don't feed him.
• 34:32
  I haven't fed him in months, was willing to give him up in McAllen, Texas.
• 34:37
  So we brought him in.
• 34:39
  He had quite a bit of food aggression and he wouldn't let people touch him.
• 34:44
  He was
• 34:44
  quite traumatized from that experience as any pet would be.
• 34:47
  But now he is the most loving boy.
• 34:49
  He cuddles with everybody.
• 34:51
  He's buff now and way too big for his size.
• 34:54
  And he's going through some heartworm treatments now.
• 34:56
  So.
• 34:57
  Yeah.
• 34:57
  You kind of met Kaya who was under the couch and she had that four and a half years of living in a cage.
• 35:02
  But I promise like when it's just me and Bobby at home, she comes and cuddles and once the belly rubs and for like for the first few months, she wouldn't, she would just bark at me.
• 35:12
  Yeah.
• 35:12
  Her owner that overbred her was a woman.
• 35:14
  So she was just not liking the ladies.
• 35:17
  But yeah, they can be transformed into very loving animals.
• 35:21
  They can.
• 35:22
  You know, I think animals have always shown me unconditional love.
• 35:26
  And I think just as women, like there's so many girls that just want a whole farm.
• 35:30
  One day I'm going to have, you know, a whole farm.
• 35:32
  Whoever I marry is going to.
• 35:33
  They're up for something, you know.
• 35:35
  But I think especially women in business, like we are so in our masculine, making decisions every day, leading in different ways that when we come home, it's so important to experience that feminine nurturing side of us.
• 35:48
  And my pets bring that out of me.
• 35:50
  And so I think that's, you know, that's why...
• 35:52
  I love my pets so much and why I recommend any woman.
• 35:56
  Also, if you don't have a pet, if you travel a lot and you can't have a pet, go volunteer at a shelter.
• 36:02
  There's so many shelters, so many rescues that need support.
• 36:05
  A lot of shelters don't even have people that walk the dogs every day.
• 36:09
  So potty trained dogs don't get to go out and go potty.
• 36:12
  So if you can just go walk some dogs, it gets you back into calming your nervous system and it does something for an animal.
• 36:18
  My friend Lindsay here in Austin every Sunday, because she's also single.
• 36:21
  So she's like, what do I what can I do?
• 36:23
  And I'll go volunteer every Sunday at the dog shelter.
• 36:26
  Yeah, walk the dogs, clean up duty.
• 36:30
  And so I'm like, that is so cool.
• 36:34
  So let's jump into we talk about routines.
• 36:37
  What is your morning routine?
• 36:39
  Girl, I got no routine.
• 36:41
  No routine?
• 36:42
  Nothing.
• 36:43
  You just pop out of bed.
• 36:44
  Yeah, I just roll out of bed, grab my laptop, grind away.
• 36:47
  No.
• 36:49
  With hard knocks, I do travel a lot.
• 36:51
  And that is something that's newer in my lifestyle a little bit.
• 36:54
  So I kind of go through seasons where I go heavy into my, do you track your cycle at all?
• 36:59
  I'm in menopause.
• 37:00
  I don't even have my period anymore.
• 37:02
  Well, I went through, I started perimenopause at 37.
• 37:05
  So I don't bleed.
• 37:07
  Don't miss it.
• 37:08
  Well, if you're still bleeding, ladies, I've noticed that ovulation is when I'm the most social.
• 37:13
  Yeah.
• 37:14
  So that week I'll typically try to do a lot of my interviews, a lot of my traveling, and then my period week.
• 37:21
  The guys watching this at Hard Knocks are going to be like, Rachel, why are you telling the world this?
• 37:24
  But my period week, I tried to do a lot of my like journaling and moving through that, getting back into my routines, my yoga, my workouts, things like that.
• 37:33
  Yeah.
• 37:33
  Even now, because when I did have my cycle, I always knew when I was most energetic and I would try to book like all my filming and stuff.
• 37:40
  And but I still even now I still have hormones and I definitely have like two weeks of the month where I can just go, go, go, go.
• 37:47
  Yes.
• 37:47
  And then the other two weeks I'm like, yeah, I'm like mud.
• 37:51
  But I get it done still.
• 37:52
  But it's just so much harder.
• 37:54
  You know, and I used to give myself so much shit for my moments that I was down, my weeks that, especially being a woman in business, right?
• 38:03
  Men, they have the same clock.
• 38:05
  They feel the same constantly.
• 38:06
  And I'd always compare myself like, why can I have all these ideas?
• 38:09
  And then the next week, all I want to do is sleep and sit on my couch.
• 38:12
  And so it gave me so much grace to start to understand that and then build a lifestyle around it.
• 38:19
  It's not perfect all the time, but that's one thing I focus on.
• 38:23
  Other than that routines, I try my best to get my steps in and my dogs definitely help with that.
• 38:28
  Oh, for sure.
• 38:28
  So it's anywhere from like 7,000 to 10,000 steps a day.
• 38:32
  I definitely try to do and I'll work out at least three times a week.
• 38:35
  That's pretty much what I hit on.
• 38:37
  What do you do for your workout?
• 38:39
  I lift.
• 38:40
  I mostly lift.
• 38:40
  I think, you know, you definitely always have to have muscle.
• 38:43
  I've been trying the like Pilates stuff.
• 38:46
  I did martial arts for 18 years and I've been trying to maybe kind of get back into that.
• 38:51
  But the face is the moneymaker.
• 38:52
  So I'm a little nervous.
• 38:55
  I can't show up to a hard knocks interview with a black eye or anything.
• 38:58
  But ideally I try to do three heavy lifts, you know, in the gym a week and then an extra dance class or something like that on the side.
• 39:06
  Where do you work out in Austin?
• 39:07
  Lift ATX.
• 39:08
  Okay.
• 39:09
  Yeah.
• 39:09
  And it's so hot in the summer.
• 39:11
  I've wanted to cancel my membership like 20 times, but I can bring my dogs if I go early in the morning.
• 39:17
  So that's why I lift there.
• 39:19
  I love that.
• 39:20
  And then what about, I'm assuming you have no nighttime routine.
• 39:24
  Do you try to go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time?
• 39:27
  I do.
• 39:27
  Yeah.
• 39:28
  So there's a routine.
• 39:29
  As a creative, maybe you can relate to this, but I get most of my ideas right before I lay into bed.
• 39:36
  Yeah.
• 39:37
  I'm...
• 39:38
  A middle of the night or morning idea person.
• 39:40
  It's like 2 a.m. and I'm like, I know what I'm going to do.
• 39:43
  But I try to get into bed by 9 p.m., 10 p.m.
• 39:47
  Typically, I lay in bed and write down my ideas that come to me.
• 39:51
  And then I try to wake up and get out of bed before seven.
• 39:53
  It's definitely not perfect.
• 39:55
  Yeah.
• 39:56
  Okay.
• 39:56
  And so you work a lot.
• 39:57
  What do you do for fun?
• 40:00
  Work is fun.
• 40:01
  What do you mean?
• 40:02
  I know.
• 40:03
  I know.
• 40:04
  But in Austin, like exploring Austin, like what outdoorsy things have you found that you love to do?
• 40:09
  Yeah.
• 40:10
  I mean, for me, it's been a lot of the dog rescue stuff.
• 40:13
  That was my fun.
• 40:14
  Even hanging out with my own dogs and making sure they're getting my present time.
• 40:18
  I love painting.
• 40:19
  I've been, I bought a whole bunch of wood panels and randomly started painting things in my house.
• 40:24
  I love nature.
• 40:25
  So going out in nature has been a big thing for me.
• 40:28
  I feel like I hear my intuition and I hear God mostly when I'm out in nature.
• 40:33
  And so I definitely try to make time for that.
• 40:35
  Austin is a good place for that because there's a lot of community and nature spots.
• 40:39
  It's also really hot though.
• 40:41
  Yeah.
• 40:41
  So, you know, it depends on the season.
• 40:45
  Well, thank you.
• 40:46
  We have been hanging out all day and sweating all day here in Austin.
• 40:50
  It's like 100 degrees.
• 40:52
  How can people find out where to follow you and see all of the cool stuff you're doing?
• 40:56
  Yeah.
• 40:56
  And obviously the Hard Knocks.
• 40:58
  So you can find me on Hard Knocks Business.
• 41:01
  My personal page is Rachel with two L's, H-A-G-U-E.
• 41:04
  I know the last name is...
• 41:06
  Hey, it's hague, not hog.
• 41:08
  But you can find me on all platforms with Hard Knocks Business.
• 41:10
  And typically, Rachel is tagged there.
• 41:12
  So you can find my personal as well.
• 41:14
  Well, thank you for knocking on my door and hanging out with me today.
• 41:16
  Do you mind if I turn the rules for a second?
• 41:19
  Oh, sure.
• 41:19
  Okay.
• 41:19
  Because it's your podcast.
• 41:20
  Yeah.
• 41:21
  If you could give advice to a young woman that's watching today that wants to build a company and maybe is scared to step into that woman she knows she wants to become, what would you tell her?
• 41:33
  We talked about this earlier too.
• 41:34
  It's don't give up.
• 41:36
  The more no's and the, you know, that you and failures that you have or get means that you're trying and stick to it.
• 41:43
  I've talked about how so many people I know do something for a year.
• 41:47
  They say it's not working.
• 41:49
  Do it for another job, another, another business, another, and they just don't stick with it.
• 41:54
  Stick with what your passion is.
• 41:56
  So, I mean, I have to give that advice because that's what I do and what I've done.
• 42:00
  Yeah.
• 42:00
  What about you?
• 42:02
  For me, it's always being in pursuit of your purpose.
• 42:06
  And if it's not a hell yes, it's a no.
• 42:09
  Yeah.
• 42:09
  There was so many times I said yes to things and then I realized my body didn't actually want to do them and I regretted saying yes.
• 42:15
  And then I felt the guilt of letting people down or having to change my mind.
• 42:19
  So if it's not a hell yes, simply don't do it.
• 42:22
  And you will always be guided to that next thing.
• 42:25
  And the biggest thing that I learned from my sabbatical season was typically you already know what your next step is, what God is trying to tell you, what your intuition is trying to tell you.
• 42:35
  You're just not listening because it's probably scary to say.
• 42:39
  And so when you follow that first step, you'll then be given the step after that and the step after that.
• 42:43
  And you won't get the whole game plan at once is what I'm learning.
• 42:46
  Yeah.
• 42:47
  Yeah.
• 42:47
  So stay open.
• 42:49
  Pay attention to the signs.
• 42:51
  Yes.
• 42:51
  Yeah.
• 42:52
  Okay.
• 42:52
  So now I have to ask, what did you do on your sabbatical?
• 42:55
  I cried a lot.
• 42:57
  I slept a lot.
• 42:58
  Yeah.
• 42:59
  Because I was a burnt out founder for sure.
• 43:01
  And I painted a lot and I rescued a lot of dogs.
• 43:05
  But most importantly, I think I found out who Rachel was.
• 43:09
  Yeah.
• 43:09
  Not Rachel from Connector.
• 43:11
  Not Rachel, Danielle's sister.
• 43:13
  Not Rachel, Tina and Wayne's daughter.
• 43:15
  Who is Rachel?
• 43:19
  this version, but tomorrow she's going to be a different version.
• 43:23
  And the next day she's going to be a different version and she's always going to change.
• 43:26
  Cause I was always trying to get back to my past self.
• 43:29
  And then I felt this guilt that I couldn't get there.
• 43:31
  And I was always trying to get to my future self, but I was never present with who I was in that day.
• 43:35
  That reminds me of a lot of comments I've had in the past is you've changed.
• 43:41
  And I'm like, I hope so.
• 43:42
  Damn right.
• 43:43
  I did.
• 43:45
  I did change.
• 43:45
  Do you know what I went through to get here?
• 43:48
  Yeah.
• 43:48
  Yeah.
• 43:49
  That's the thing too that I've realized we were talking about it earlier is like we are going to change as founders.
• 43:54
  Yeah.
• 43:55
  And our audience is going to evolve with us.
• 43:57
  And some people are going to drop off because they're no longer meant to experience our next season.
• 44:02
  Yeah.
• 44:02
  And that's okay.
• 44:03
  Yeah.
• 44:03
  For so long, I felt, wait, every time somebody would unfollow or every time somebody would, you know, give me a hate comment, I was like, dang, I got to change what I'm doing to be there for this person.
• 44:14
  And I realized, no, we're meant to evolve.
• 44:16
  And sometimes we're only meant to be purposeful in somebody's season for a small season of their life.
• 44:21
  Well said.
• 44:22
  Yeah.
• 44:23
  Well, thank you for having me.
• 44:24
  And I do just want to say you, you've probably heard it before, but you are an OG in the fitness space.
• 44:30
  And there are so, so many women that you have changed the trajectory of their lives from what you do.
• 44:37
  And so I'm so grateful to be here, but I really just want to give you your flowers to know, like there's so many women that probably watch this and they are where they are today because at some point in time, your company or you
• 44:49
  gave them a sign that they can continue going or they could find a version of themselves.
• 44:53
  Thank you.
• 44:54
  It's been an honor to spend the day with you.
• 44:56
  That means a lot because sometimes I need encouragement to keep going too.
• 45:00
  You can always call me.
• 45:01
  I got you, girl.
• 45:01
  I got your number.
• 45:02
  Thank you.