Is it true that the more weights you lift, the more money you make? In today’s episode, I’m continuing my mindset series and introducing you to fitness, nutrition, and mindset coach Michelle Stallings. Michelle debunks the idea of committing to “all or nothing,” and explains why prioritizing your health is an essential part of any business plan. 

On Quianna Marie Weekly, we’re chatting about business growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating wins of all sizes through the lens of a photographer at heart. Sprinkled throughout stories and interviews with past clients, photographers and other business owners this podcast is designed to help you step into your purpose and to truly create a life you’re proud of, a life worth photographing and sharing.

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Review The Show Notes: 

Breaking Free From The All Or Nothing Mindset (4:09)

Falling In Love With Your Body (11:38)

Strengthen Your Muscles To Strengthen Your Mind (19:45)

Baby Steps To Becoming Her (26:45)

We Don’t Have The Time (33:59)

We Are Not Average Human Beings (39:23)

Key Tip From Michelle (42:30)

Connect With Michelle:

Instagram: instagram.com/michelleestallings

Ambitious And Fit Podcast: ambitiousandfit.buzzsprout.com

Free Masterclass

Review the Transcript:

Quianna: Is it true that the more weights you lift, the more money you make? Is there really a correlation with your physical strength and your mental strength as ambitious and high achieving business owners? Of course, we wanna look and feel our best, but sometimes adding one more thing to our calendar or making time for meal prepping and working out already feels exhausting just thinking about it.

Today I have the honor of introducing you to my new forever friend, Michelle Stallings, and she comes prepared with some big mindset shifts to start prioritizing our health and fitness goals. She kicks off this transformational conversation by debunking the all or nothing rule encourages us to love and respect our body instead of punishing it or sticking to depriving diets.

We even unpack the mindset shift for using our health and fitness as an accelerator for success. Bridging the gap from where we are now financially, physically, emotionally, and mentally, really are just baby steps away from becoming the best versions of ourselves. Michelle Stallings is a high-end fitness, nutrition, and mindset coach specializing in helping ambitious women get fit, master their health and radiate confidence while building their empire.

As the founder of Ambitious and Fit, Michelle empowers high achievers to elevate their body energy and confidence without sacrificing their fast-paced lifestyle. Through her signature coaching programs and top rated, Ambitious and Fit Podcast, Michelle Blends science backed strategies with results driven approaches to help women feel their absolute best from the inside out.

I promise this isn’t another exercise in dieting conversation. This legit coaching call will help shift your mindset around prioritizing your health as a business plan. Developing lifestyles for your greater good and stepping into the next best chapter of your life. Without further ado, from Dallas, Texas to Scottsdale, Arizona.

Please welcome this high vibe, friendly and encouraging soul sister Michelle Stallings. Let’s get her on the show. Welcome to Quianna Marie Weekly, a podcast for creatives who love to celebrate wins bigger, small by dancing in the kitchen photographers who are excited to serve their clients and friends who are ready to chase.

Really, really big dreams. You can find all of the resources mentioned in this episode QuiannaMarie.com/podcast

Join me as I share weekly motivation, chat about growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating your wins through the lens of a photographer at heart. Come join me for a dance party.

Ready? Let’s go.

Hey, hey, hey. Welcome to the party, Michelle. It is such an honor. To have a beautiful, powerhouse woman like you on the show. How are you?

Michelle: I’m so happy to be on this podcast with you. Uh, it was literally last fall that you and I were at the Powerhouse Women Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. I just walked up to this lunch table and I just started seeing all of these, this circle of powerhouse women having these conversations and instantly saw you connected with you 1000% and just something about you.

You are so magnetic, genuine, like you just care so much about people and making them feel their absolute most authentic and their best. And so I literally was like, I love her. She is my favorite. I’m totally down. And we only talked for like 20 minutes during the break, and now we’re literally here six months later having an amazing podcast episode and then maybe even some future stuff in Arizona in the fall.

So. Full circle moment. I am so happy to be here. Thank you for having me on the podcast.

Quianna: Yes. Oh my gosh, what an intro. I love that. That was such an incredible and like pivotal moment. And even another example of why it’s so important to get in the room. Right. So I have some questions for you and I have some juicy questions for you.

Breaking Free From The All Or Nothing Mindset

We’re gonna be aligning health and fitness and mindset and abundance. We’re gonna be talking about making money and feeling our best. So one struggle that a lot of ambitious entrepreneurs and really just women in general really struggle with, is this all or nothing mindset? So Michelle, can you walk us through?

Why this is so common and how we can all break free from this all or nothing mindset.

Michelle: Yeah. Hands down. So one thing that I will highlight, so I am the fitness, nutrition, and mindset coach specifically for high achieving women. Women like you and I, ambitious women, business owners, corporate world. I even work with surgeons like we all, we all have big aspirations for our lives and have high performance in our lives.

And a lot of the times. I think we’re all very naturally, um, driven human beings, which means that we typically had a focus in our life that maybe took a lot of our attention, whether it’s our business, whether it’s school, whether it’s our career, like whatever it is. That meant that a lot of things went on the back burner, naturally, including ourselves, including our health.

And then we get to this point in life where we’re like, whoa, whoa, whoa. My body and my mindset and my energy. Like I know where I’m going. I know where I’m going in my business, I know where I’m going in my career, like I know what I’m meant for, but now my body and my energy and how I look and how I feel about myself doesn’t match.

So one of the biggest struggle struggles just in general, is that all or nothing mindset that you hit on, and that is probably the number one thing I talk about with my clients. And I only work with women like you and I. So like that is literally like the most common thing that comes up. So I’m so glad that you’re asking this, but that all or nothing mindset comes through in a couple different ways.

Typically, it comes through where, you know, essentially you’re saying like, oh man, like if I can’t get all of the workouts, all four workouts in this week, I might as well not do any. Man, I had that one bad meal with a client or while I was traveling or that girl’s dinner, you know, screw it. I’m just gonna start next Monday.

Like, it’s very much a black or white thinking. What’s interesting about that is that normally all or nothing thinking serves us in our business. It serves us in our career. And it serves us in so many different, in our, in our finances, in some of our family life things. But it doesn’t work in.

Fitness and nutrition in your mindset journey. It doesn’t work at all. And that’s why so many high achieving women like us struggle with that. ’cause we’re like, what do you mean? I’m all in? And so how we break through that all or nothing mindset, like we have to break it. That is something that we have to do and we have to shift away from in order to break free, we have to lean into instead of like, I’m all in or I’m all out and have that inconsistent habit.

We need to lean into something is better than nothing. One of the things that my gals tend to struggle with the most is like, Michelle, I don’t have an hour to work out. I’m so busy. I have, I have 8 million responsibilities and our obligations in addition to being a mom and or, you know, a roommate or a girlfriend or other responsibilities, especially for our small business owners, maybe they also have a full-time job in addition to their business and they’re spread so thin and I’m like, Hey, if you don’t have, if you don’t have an hour, that’s okay.

If you only have 15 minutes, do something for 15 minutes. And they’re like, that works. I’m like, yes, it does. And it surprises them because they feel like that perfectionism kind of comes up too, where it’s saying like, I need to be perfect across the board in my business and in my fitness and nutrition and mindset journey.

But that’s not the case. That’s what fitness teaches us, is that it’s actually its own per, I feel like, I think you’ll agree with this. I feel like business. It’s its own version. I think this is something that Lindsay Schwartz had highlighted on the stage of the Powerhouse Women Conference. You and I got to like fricking riff on that and we had highlighted saying it really is the, the small, it’s the small deposits that you make on a day-to-day basis that really matter.

It’s not the going extreme and going down and going extreme and going down. And so that’s something we have to keep in mind here is it’s really the small things that matter. So that’s, that’s a way that I would say for all of us to break three of the all or nothing mindset ’cause it’s not serving you at the end of the day when it comes to your transformation, your energy, and helping you feel and look your best.

That way you can perform your best for your family, your business, and achieve the life that you want.

Quianna: No, this is so incredible and I love that you brought that idea to light, is that we have been conditioned, or we have been trained, that all or nothing equals success, right? So if you are talking to a boy, for example, and you’re starting dating and you kind of have like one foot in one foot out, and you have both, maybe haven’t fully committed, right?

Like going all in or nothing. Right? And you’re like, that works in the dating life, right? Like in relationships and in business, right? Like are you really committed to this or are you, is this just an expensive hobby? Right? I would love to dig a little bit deeper into that and like actually make a distinction between going all in or nothing and how it really is different in business and in your health journey.

And I, I know you mentioned like the small steps and all that, but like. Let’s kind of like tie that with a bow because that is just that, that to me is a new thought that I haven’t really compared the two.

Michelle: Yeah, definitely. I think all or nothing really. So in our, in our business, in our career, and even in the dating life as you had highlighted, there’s always these milestones or almost these deadlines.

And so as high achieving, ambitious women, high performers in general. We always have this short-term and long-term mindset kind of flow. We’re like, okay, once I get to this milestone, I’m good. I can take a chill pill for a hot second. So there’s this constant sprinting and stopping sprinting and stopping sprinting and stopping.

It’s, you can be all in on a project. You can be all in on, you know, landing a, a certain client number or revenue number. Be all in to get to the engagement stage with your person, right? You can hit a financial goal, but in your actual. Your transformation and your lifestyle journey. The tough news and the tough truth is there is not a deadline that exists.

The deadline is when you’re dead.

Like it’s just like you’re constantly and you’re constantly living. And so that’s the thing that we have to really lean into is all or nothing is so common. It’s a comfort place for women like us, but we need to be leaning into the imperfect actions. Because that’s ultimately what’s gonna serve you.

And, and really recognizing it is about enjoying the process as best as you can, or at least finding out what works best for you. Really like finding a lifestyle flow. Um, it’s really about a flow, not really a getting it done and checking it off a list like a high achiever Enneagram three status. It’s more about a, this is not just for the next one year, five years, 10 years of our lives.

This is for the next 50, 60, 80 years of our lives. So I think that’s, that’s one of the big pivotal reasons between, you can’t go all or nothing. You have to lean into something is better than nothing, and I’m going to just lean into more of an experimentation, trial and error mindset, versus you can be all in on something.

Don’t be so black and white. You need to live in the gray a little.

Falling In Love With Your Body

Quianna: Yes. And I even call the gray our watercolors, like in that like just kind of like blend of things and, and you’re so right. This is a lifestyle change, right? Like this is an opportunity for us to really fall in love with our bodies. And so I love to kind of take the conversation here.

How can we, especially as you’re a part of this mindset series, I’m just so grateful to have you, you know, during this interview. And I just think like sometimes when we think of working out or we think of choosing dieting or even just eating more vegetables and adding more protein to our plates. It can feel like a discipline, it could feel like a punishment.

So in your experience and in your best opinions over here, like how can we really fall in love with our body and fall in love with our mind that we wanna fuel it with nutrients and whole foods? Like let’s chat about that.

Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. I think there’s a couple of things here. I think the very first one is really like having an understanding of.

First of all, if you are a small, if you are a small business owner, an entrepreneur, or freaking a seven figure earner like you have. You didn’t start this dream just because like you started it with a big why, with a big reason on where you wanna take it and how far you wanna take it. So I think the very first thing and trying to fall in love more with the overall health and fitness journey, it is connecting with your deeper why.

And I would say a lot of my clients, they’re deeper wide. They of course, vary over time. Sometimes they even change after six months to a year. It can always evolve, but I would say probably the biggest one is. Truly having them like reach their true potential in life. Like they feel like they’ve lived this muted, they’ve reached a certain level in their business, but if they really wanna go far in their business and create this empire for themselves, they know that their current energy levels, their current responsibilities, the current way that they’re feeling in their body on camera, sharing with the world, their gift and all those things, there’s a little bit of a.

I really wish that I loved myself. I really wish that, you know, I was able to take care of myself, prioritize myself, and that way I could really show up as the best version of myself for others. So I would say, I would say one is really connecting with the deep why that you want this for yourself. So I would say high achieving women have like a bit of a superpower, because if it’s related to our business, you best bet we’re gonna pay attention to it.

Right. So I would say one way to start really leaning into enjoying the process more is honestly, make it part of your business metric. Make it part of your confidence playbook. Make it a part of really leaning into as you’re thinking of becoming her in your future. Like that girl, that’s that 7, 8, 9 figure business owner who has so much freedom in her body and outside of her body, financial freedom, all of the above that she’s creating.

You have to think like her, which means she do the things that she would, including taking the self care and taking care of yourself. So I would say that I would also say falling in love with the journey. I would honestly lean into a lot of people focus on the scale number and I think that society kind of effed us up a little bit in the brain a bit, and that’s because, you know, back in the nineties and the two thousands and 2000 tens, everyone was talking about being as small as you possibly could and having that number be as low as possible.

I personally, my philosophy and my company is called ambitious and fit because again, we’re helping ’em with ambitious women, like take over the universe and master their health and amplify their energy and like literally, you know, transform their bodies. What I would say is that really leaning into what I, one of our philosophies is really focusing on how you look and how you feel, and how you’re performing.

So when you are first starting in this journey, biologically speaking, your body is not going to show off all of your hard work on the outside, which is so, so many people focus on the aesthetics, but it’s not gonna show up until eight to nine weeks into the journey, which is why most people stop. At the four, at the three to four week mark, they like go hard, and then they’re like seeing nothing.

Okay. And that’s a start and stop effect, right? But what I would highly recommend in terms of falling in love with yourself and the journey, lean more into how you look and how you feel, step away from the scale. The scale. I would say it’s 40% how you look in terms of progress photos, and how you are overall looking in the mirror and seeing those changes.

And then 40% on how you feel, like, how is your energy? How are you performing at work? Are you showing up? How are you overall like energy wise, fatigue wise, all the above. Right? And then I would even say, you know, 20% is gonna be the scale. The scale can be a very small metric, but it’s the tiniest one out of all of them.

So I would almost encourage others to step away from the scale because it really can mess with your head sometimes. If you’ve ever seen those memes, I would lean into how are your clothes fitting? How are you feeling with the changes that you’ve been doing consistently? Are you keeping promises to yourself?

Are you proud of that? Are you proud of the habits and the morning routines? And I would focus more on creating the lifestyle that you actually want, because what’s crazy is going back to our all or nothing mindset piece. It’s those small, consistent daily actions that catapult you and you will be a completely different human being in six months to a year, to five to 10 years from now.

And it will just be the smallest tweaks that you did for yourself. And then the last piece that I’ll mention here is really finding something that works for you. I will be a, a top proponent in saying muscle does weigh more than fat. So the scale is also not a very good, you know, benchmark in numbers.

But that how you build muscle is typically through strength training. I would highly recommend strength training, even from a mindset perspective. Strength training is amazing because it gives you the ability. To release all the stress and all the pressure that you’re feeling on a day-to-day basis.

Whether it was a good day or a bad day, it gives you a place to leave it. I would highly recommend, you know, making sure to include some sort of strength training because for your mindset, it is an absolute gift. Working out is an absolute gift, but I would say strength training, I would highly recommend.

But if strength training is not for you, then the number three is finding a process that you enjoy. So if you’re a Pilates gal, knock yourself out. If you’re a body weight gal, knock yourself out. If you’re at a home workout or gym workout or a running gal, like whatever works best for you. The way that you fall in love with the process and with yourself and your body is doing what you actually enjoy.

In terms of like walking or you know, getting out in nature or going to work out with a partner or going to a class and just kind of like taking a step out of your normal routine and like becoming her, I think is the biggest piece. Those are my top three that I would say your why, focusing on how you look and how you feel.

And then just finding something that you actually enjoy, don’t feel forced to be in a certain pigeonhole. That’s specifically for women like us.

Quianna: Yes. Oh my gosh. Well, okay, Michelle, hold on. I feel like you just like hit me over the head with all these incredible mindset shifts, strategies, action items.

Like, whoa, holy smokes. I have so much to say. But the first thing that I do wanna touch on, because as you know, we are all highly ambitious. We are entrepreneurs, we’re business owners, and you know, like you said, anything that has to do with our business check, we’re on it. And it was done last Friday. Like we’re already onto the next thing.

And I think one thing that really resonated with the many things that you just shared was taking care of our bodies is. Another business plan, like literally that whole concept just totally blew me away. Where, you know, if we are feeling stuck, if we’re feeling stagnant, if we’d like to, you know, go from that six figure marker in that, you know.

Bringing in 80 to $120,000 after taxes, right? Like that is a huge milestone. And then boom, we wanna scale that. We wanna grow what’s next, right? Maybe it is those tiny daily steps of start lifting some weights of going on those daily walks. And I just thought that was completely mind blowing and I’d love to talk a little bit about that, where it’s like.

Strengthen Your Muscles To Strengthen Your Mind

Is there a correlation between the weights we’re lifting, like the strengthening of our muscles and the strengthening of our minds? Like tell me all the things. I wanna chat more about this.

Michelle: Oh, well, first of all, there’s actual scientific proof that talks about when you are, essentially, when you’re working out, when you’re lifting heavy and lifting weights, when you’re contracting your muscles.

There’s something released that secretes from your muscles called hope molecules. There’s of course, a scientific name for it, but they, the generic term is hope molecules. It is a natural antidepressant that streams throughout your whole body, and it’s not just the endorphins that you feel good afterwards.

It really is this ability to just truly feel better. And like it’s because when your body is in motion, when your body is, you know, contracting the muscles, and there is that strength training piece. It truly is like this beautiful amplifier in your energy and in just your overall happiness, which is such a cool correlation.

I highly recommend people go and like, look it up. There’s so many Instagram like reels out there about the hope molecules. It’s incredible. But I would say more than anything, especially for myself, so in my own story. I actually had started, um, my corporate job. I actually had lost a family member about three weeks after I had started my corporate job.

And then I had gained about 25 pounds of fat through, you know, going through a lot. Um, at that, at that point in my journey. And it was until I hit this rock bottom moment where I was like, okay, I just need to make a decision. I just need to commit. To taking care of myself, because clearly what I’m doing is not working and I’m staying small.

I’m staying mute, I’m staying, and I’m this big personality. Like the moment you and I met at the, at the Powerhouse Women Conference, both of our energies were like wabo. Like it was like a whole, like, it was just this vortex of incredible energy. But I was not like that whenever I was not feeling, looking and feeling my best.

So what I ended up doing was I went and started at a local gym. I had, you know, started lifting again, and it wasn’t until I actually met my amazing husband. And I was like, I wanna date you. He’s like, we’re gonna be friends. I’m like, we’re gonna date for sure. I started working out together and he pushed me beyond.

He like helped me start lifting heavier weights. He helped me, you know, stay consistent with my routine. What was amazing is that I ins, I saw these beautiful, this beautiful transformation happening in front of me, but more than. Anything. I saw me, I saw the, the version of Michelle. I always wanted to be, my confidence skyrocketed because when I started lifting weights, I felt like I was, I could handle anything.

It almost was this moment where I kept on telling myself, if I can lift these weights and do this hard workout, then I can handle anything. I can do hard things. So it, when I started lifting and then when I started seeing results and proving to myself, keeping promises to myself, I was able to, you know, lift heavier and see the, this amazing result happening and get stronger and feel that energy just explode.

That was then the point where people started asking me like, oh, what are you doing? And I look, I turned to my husband, I said, I think I’m gonna do a fitness competition. He’s like, let’s do it. So to answer your question, I mean like working out and strength training. It gives you this sense of I can do anything I set my mind to.

Our business already does that for us, but in your personal health journey only amplifies that you get more energy. It, it really does help you. It’s like this happy personal development drug that you’re taking to towards personal development. Right. It helped me even do a fitness competition. It helped me push my mindset to see what else can I do?

How far can I get outta my comfort zone? What other mindset barriers can I break through? And then I ended up getting a second place in my fitness competition, went to nationals in Vegas. Amazing. And yeah, it was incredible. And then after that I was like, you know what? I think that like we can create this beautiful, balanced lifestyle without restriction ’cause.

I mean, we need to be living more of an 80 20 lifestyle, like 80% you’re on par with your healthy foods and your routine and all the things, but 20% we gotta live a little, we have to. We get to have the beverage, we get to have the cake, we get to go travel, we get to go do these things ’cause it’s a lifestyle.

So then I created this lifestyle, looked even better on my wedding day than even on a stage and people came up to me and said. Holy cow, can you please train me? And I’m like, I mean, yeah, sure. They started paying me, I started my business and then out of nowhere my husband turned to me and he was like, I mean, what else do you wanna do now?

I said, I think I wanna start a podcast. And so I, I, I al, I like it just, just like kept on coming. And I started the ambitious and Fit podcast. That is my, that is where I get most of my, my clients. That’s my main revenue driver. That is my community, my inner circle. And I, I love my gals so, so much. But to answer your question full circle is I.

If I didn’t start, if I didn’t like actually commit to what, who I wanted to become and really like focus on my self-care and working out, if I didn’t go to the gym that day, if I didn’t actually go work out and start lifting the weights and like proving to myself I could do hard things, I wouldn’t have stepped on a stage.

I wouldn’t have, you know, gone to nationals in Vegas. I wouldn’t have started a business, which is now a multi figure six figure business, and I wouldn’t have started a podcast, which has then exploded my business and my circles and my career, like my business in general. Now, I’m the Michelle. I’ve always been meant to be.

So when you are working out and when you’re taking care of yourself, it’s proof that your business might be where it is right now. But imagine if you. Tapped into that like potential, that unlocked potential and you actually looked and felt the way, you know, that you could be, that that version of you should be like, oh my God, it’s gonna like skyrocket you, your business, your personality, your, it’s gonna amplify who you are.

Hands down

Quianna: 1000%, and I’m so grateful that you shared this journey with us to a, of course, get to know more about you. But then B of course, just feel so inspired. Like this is the part that I, this is what lights me up, is understanding that correlation and I mean everything from looking good, feeling good.

Like you mentioned, like all those probably big name, you know, lots of letter words of all those chemicals that run through your body, right, that are happening and. I mean, everything correlates, right? It’s maybe not stepping on stage for us to, you know, hop into a fitness competition, but maybe it is speaking on stage for conferences and events, or maybe it’s getting live on Instagram and Facebook and just sharing your story and getting those boosts of confidence like, Hey, I committed to myself.

I’m showing up for myself and I feel good, and I’m here to share my message with the world. Ooh, I just, I love this energy and I love these mindset shifts and they’re powerful. One thing I do wanna talk about, and this is something that you brought up, talking about becoming her, right, like becoming, just like you mentioned, like the best version of Michelle, or for those of us that are listening, like just the best, most.

Beautiful, highest version of her. And I feel like it’s kind of trending, right? Like it’s, it’s, we’re, at least for me in my algorithms, like it’s all about, you know, becoming your highest self, taking those actions to, and choices that she would be making even if we’re not quite there yet. So when it comes to our health and fitness journey, what are some baby steps that we can start, because.

Baby Steps To Becoming Her

I know all of our highest self versions are gonna be very different, but I’d like to say that we’re in our best health. We have a thriving career. Like you mentioned, we have the financial freedom. We’re in loving, passionate, and growing relationships. Right? So like all that aside, what are some baby steps that we can collectively take to become her?

Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. This is my favorite topic on the whole planet, so I love that you’re asking this. I would say very first one is really determining like what workouts would be realistic for you in this season of your life right now. So, for example, would be, uh, maybe planning out your weeks ahead. So if you’re like, okay, so if the type of workouts that I want to do right now, I feel like I wanna start, maybe I’m not, I have some gym intimidation.

I don’t wanna get there quite yet. I don’t wanna be surrounded by all those people and feel a little out of place. Then maybe start with home workouts. Maybe just like getting a, I mean, who doesn’t love an Amazon Prime moment? Right? Like just pop on Amazon Prime, get two pairs of, you know, 10 twelves, or 20, you know, dumbbells.

Have them come to your house, create a space in your home or even in your garage or outside, and just try to bust out two to three workouts. Let’s say that you’re just starting and you really are like. Michelle, I haven’t worked out in a really long time, like, Hey girl, understandable. So maybe just try two to three workouts and maybe that’s you.

Just plan them ahead in your own business mindset, planning ahead saying, you know what? I have a break during lunchtime between X and X time. I will go and do a 20 minute workout, just lifting some weights. You can look at this up on YouTube, you can look at the Peloton app. There are tons of different apps and you know, resources out there.

So I would highly recommend those things. Maybe it’s going to the gym and actually immersing yourself. If you are an environment gal, like just find a way to poke into the gym and then just get started. It might even be that you’re just hopping on the treadmill for, you know, 15 to 20 minutes and that’s your first step baby, step back into the gym world, and then you’re starting to observe other people and what are they doing and things like that.

Right. So I would just even. Find a way to make your workouts realistic for you. Uh, I mean, a lot of times for gals like you and I, sometimes we just like being told what to do. So going to a actual workout class, whether it’s a cycle class, a orange theory, or like a berry’s class, like any type of mix of maybe circuit strength training.

Type of style, like just go to a class, even if it’s hot yoga, just make a goal to do it one to three times to start. See how that goes for you. And really if you schedule it, my fellow business owners, if you schedule it and you treat it like a non-negotiable appointment, like your client appointments, your vendor appointments, all the things that just becomes a part of your lifestyle and your habits.

So I would say definitely planning ahead is gonna be huge. I’d say making your workouts realistic. I would say another one is implementing that 80 20 sustainability rule that I highlighted is okay. If you struggle with, you know, that all or nothing mindset type of flow. A really good way to integrate, you know, the 80 20 food sustainability lifestyle is like, okay, I’m gonna live in the gray, I’m gonna lean into 80% of the time.

80% of my meals, 80% of my week, I’m going to have a great morning routine. I’m going to eat like my whole nutrient dense foods. I’m gonna prioritize my protein. I’m going to, you know, move my body, even if it’s just for a walk with the dog, you know? Um, it’s even like getting to bed at a certain time to make sure I get enough sleep.

That’s huge for our energy as. Entrepreneurs. Our energy is our income. The, the more energy we have, the more money we will make. Right? So just like having a bank for that, right? But leading into 20% of the time, it’s okay to have fun. I. Okay, so I would say maybe two fun meals per week. Maybe it’s like your best friend’s birthday and you’re like, yep, that’s the night and I’m gonna have an amazing amount of cake and have a margarita or two.

Maybe it’s Sunday brunch with your family and friends that you haven’t seen in a long time. Or whenever I come out to Arizona, you and I are gonna have an amazing dinner together and just hang out and chat strategy and just catch up. Like that will be a night that I’m like. Let’s have a great time and order the avocado chocolate cake.

Let’s dive. You know, and so finding a way to integrate the 80 20 rule, so two fun meals or a couple indulgences throughout the week is going to be such a baby step, but you’ll even see big results after a couple months of integrating that as well. I would say that those are the tiny steps that I would make in the beginning, and then once you get to an intermediate and advanced stage.

Something that all of us as driven human beings and high achieving women, love to say is we don’t wanna work harder. We wanna work smarter. So maybe at some point, maybe it would be good if you’re intermediate to advancing and you’re, you’re at least working out and getting in a flow, but you really wanna take things to a new level with your transformation, with your gut health, with your longevity, with like the amplification on who you’re becoming in terms of becoming her.

And you’re like, I just need someone to give me the blueprint. What the heck I need to do specific to me and to my body. It is looking at a coach. Maybe it is looking at a mentor. Maybe it is, you know, going to your local gym and going to a trainer who actually has the body that you want. I. You would definitely take advice from that person.

You know, definitely asking them and say, Hey, you know, can we maybe do one to two training sessions each week? Because as ambitious women, like if someone can give us the blueprint specific to us and tell us what we should and shouldn’t do in the beginning, I. We can literally 10 x our lives and get the transformation within six months to a year versus what some, what took someone three to 10 years, right?

So those, I would focus on the baby steps first, but once you get into a higher level, look at ways to, you know, integrate and get some, and even listening to podcasts like this one, I mean, this is another great way for you to get free information. You don’t even have to pay for it, but it’s a way that you invested your time and learning from experts and people that understand.

The background of these things.

Quianna: Oh my gosh, 100%. You are absolutely speaking our love language and our business language when it comes to that correlation. And yes, I’m so on board with this ’cause, and even for me personally, one of my biggest mindset shifts, and I I, I know we mentioned this briefly when, when we kickstarted this conversation, was avoiding working out, avoiding all this extra time because we’re like, we don’t have time.

We don’t have time, we don’t have time. Because even for myself, for example, the thought of going to the gym. Oh my goodness. Like, to me that’s a two and a half hour process. Like, and, and for me, what that means, I’m not spending two hours at the gym. I’m spending maybe 45 minutes, if I’m lucky, right. If I, you know, maybe an hour max.

But like, to me, that’s preparing the dogs before I leave. That’s, you know, having a nice light breakfast before I leave that is doing the workout, that’s coming home and showering and getting my life together before a podcast interview or before a photo shoot. Right. So, like, for me that, like, that heaviness on that.

Just kind of like a, what is that called? Like brain fatigue or something like, I don’t know, thinking fatigue. There’s a name for that can be heavy. But the thought that you just mentioned, like, wait a second. No, these are just baby steps. Like if you only have 15 minutes to lift some weights, do a, a, even just a stretching yoga flow to get that blood flowing.

Like these are baby steps that I can implement now. And then I even know from my own health journey. I crave that success, right? Like I crave like a good progress photo, like a good before and after, right? And, and also chasing those good feelings. So the more you make those 80 20 choices, the more you choose love for your body instead of discipline and punishment.

Oh my gosh. Like, it, it becomes fun. It just becomes your lifestyle. And I’m just so on board with all the things you’re sharing, and it’s just, it’s lighting me up.

Michelle: Oh, I love that. I mean. The thing that I would say is that ultimately, like a lot of us, like we don’t have the time, right? And, and it’s because, you know, we are currently prioritizing other things in our lives.

However, my, my encouragement to the amazing gals that are listening to this podcast episode is if I think we can all agree if something matters to you and you make time for that thing as well, it’s not necessarily that you don’t have the time. It truly is also like. Needing to make the time or get resourceful on the time you do have available.

And so I think that’s just a really good key thing for us because ultimately I think something, sometimes we think about that I don’t have time, but I think that we also need to lean into what happens if I don’t change what I’m doing right now. Nothing changes. If nothing changes, nothing changes. Right?

And so if you were looking six months to a year from now. Does the life we have right now, does the energy, does the no time does is is where we’re at right now, where we wanna stay. And if you ask any high-achieving a high performance woman, they’re like, heck no. I’m like going to the moon. I’m skyrocketing.

I’m doing the dang thing. Well, great. You need to then make sure that you’re aligning your actions and who you’re becoming with that goal. And so that version of her, that version of the person that you’re becoming, how does she act? How does she prioritize her time? What does she look like? What does, what does her routine look like?

And then actually envision that. I would encourage everybody listening in this podcast to even just take one minute to a answer the questions of six months from now, and let’s say it was, you know, the future version of Sarah or Christine or you know, whatever, or Ashley for example. What does she look and feel like?

What is her routine? What do her days look like? What does her energy look like? What do her relationships look like? And then start to think about everybody gets stuck in this, we have to do, and then we have to be, and then we, then we will have, but it’s actually the opposite. It’s actually you have to be, do as if that person and then have, and so I would just really encourage us, US gs, like, I wish that someone would’ve told me this information sooner.

I thankfully. Literally, I, I, I was able to achieve my transformation and keep it for a decade. But I will tell you, if someone would’ve told me all of this information, especially from a mindset perspective for us and our unique unicorn personalities, like who we are as women that are gonna take over the universe and live until we’re 120 years old, like, I wish that someone would’ve told me this sooner because I would’ve learned it five years sooner.

I think that’s the the biggest piece. So truly like all of us, all of us as driven, amazing, ambitious women, we deserve to look and feel so good in our skin and mastering our health that way. We get to move longer, we get to do longer, we get to be successful longer, and. We get the inner and outer freedom we’ve always dreamt of.

Quianna: Yes. Oh my gosh, this makes my heart so happy. And I love, I love that this is another full circle moment that this isn’t about, like you said, it’s not about the scale, it’s not about, it’s not even about being skinny. Right? It’s about being strong. It’s about reaching these big goals. It’s about being able to only do one trip from the trunk of your car carrying all your groceries, right?

Because you know the super. Yeah. One trip. Yeah. We are one trip superheroes, right? I mean, even when it comes to, you know, picking up our grandkids one day and you know, traveling and being able to get to these really awesome places and these hikes and these just, I just see how the possibilities are endless and I think when we can correlate this mindset shift of business success.

Equals like health and love for your body. Like Woo. Like that just unlocks a whole new mindset. This is incredible, Michelle.

We Don’t Have The Time

Michelle: Oh my gosh. Like your health is ultimately an investment. It’s not. It’s not a luxury. And what’s crazy is that there are so many studies that are coming out saying that being fit will become rarer in the next five years.

It will be so rare to see a fit human being. Versus seeing someone with a Rolex or seeing some, seeing all these luxury vehicles and all these things. It’s just a true testament to like the health in our society and all the things. So I, one thing I’ll highlight is that every single human being that’s listening to this podcast, I would consider an extraordinary human being.

The thing is, is that one, one thing that a lot of us feel is maybe, you know, some, some guilt from others, or, oh, you’re changing, or, oh, you’re changing your routine, or who is this? Like, you know, I even had, as I was transforming, people were like, I’m concerned because like, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re pivotally changing.

I’m like, yeah, I’m changing. I’m evolving myself. Right? But the thing is, is that so many average human beings are going to not fully understand when you are in this beautiful health. Journey because again, it’s gonna help you make more money. It’s gonna help you turn into the business owner of your dreams.

But when you focus on this, there’s a little awkwardness that happens in the journey, and that’s to be expected. But what I would encourage is for us to remember, we are not average human beings. So ultimately, if we want an extraordinary life, we have to do the 1% things that the 99% are not willing to do.

So therefore, be extraordinary, be different, be bold. That is what you do in business. You have to do the same thing in your transformation, and that ultimately will lead to you having that gorgeous, sculpted fit, healthy, anti-aging, reverse aging body that you are really in line with in terms of who you are in your business and in your family and your life, too.

Quianna: Yes. Oh my gosh. 1000. 1000, 1000%. I love this so much. Thank you for sharing all of this encouragement. Really, this is, this is what I hope to bring to the podcast is, you know, we have the answers. We have the answers within. We can always lean on coaches, we can always lean on mentors and just all the magic that is around us like that we have access to, but we have to remember that.

Our business, our growth, our future highest self is, is rooting for us, right? Like they’re depending on us to step up and literally, it just takes that one baby step, those simple choices and decisions, and it’s just, it adds up. It adds up quickly.

Michelle: It’s a game of sustainability. At the end of the day. It’s not focusing on what’s perfect, it’s focusing on what’s sustainable for the rest of our lives.

So. Really creating that consistency and sustainability versus feeling like you have to be perfect all the time or all or nothing like, again, that might, might serve us in some other areas of our lives, but really leaning into like what’s sustainable for me in my future and how can I amplify in all of these different

Quianna: areas?

For sure. Incredible. Oh my gosh, Michelle. Well, you have been a wealth of knowledge. As you know. You and I can talk all day long and I could just keep asking a million questions. Oh my goodness. But I would love to ask you one more question. This is a question that I ask every single guest. What is your key tip?

What is something that you wish you knew sooner or something that you would love to share with ambitious entrepreneurs today?

Michelle: Ooh. I would say I, I wanna talk a little bit about mainly a morning routine. I think that, I think that your night routine and morning routine really are the things that can really catapult you forward as a high achieving business owner.

I would say starting with your night routine, find a way. For all of us. Find a way to wind down at the end of the evening and just create this disconnect because when we are business owners, we are almost married to not only our spouse, we’re married to our business. We feel like we always go through this one more mentality of like, okay, one more email, one more message, one more picture, one more caption.

And then we go into all of a sudden then going into our TikTok or our Instagram feed and just like scroll doom scrolling and all that, and then we go to bed not having the best mindset I. Or we all of a sudden go to bed and we aren’t getting the highest quality sleep because we’re not as strict with ourselves on a bedtime.

So what I would highly recommend is creating a beautiful wind down routine for yourself and having, starting to think about during the week, having a set bedtime and whatever that time works best for you, but trying to aim to get seven to nine hours of sleep if possible. I know a lot of us operate on seven, so great.

But then reverse engineer that to say, if I’m going to bed at at 10, then that means I can get up at five. That’s when you then can create, or, or 11 and six, for example. But that’s when you can create a morning routine, I would say. Making sure to turn off your phone a little earlier in the, in the evening, face down, or go into airplane mode, plug it in.

Unwinding with your skincare routine. Unwinding. No more phone for the rest of the evening. Get to bed, wake up in the morning, still don’t take your phone off. Airplane mode, nobody needs, uh, if anybody listens to Mel Robbins on this podcast, we don’t wanna open our phone and go straight into social media and allow everyone to be in our bedroom with us.

Like yeah, true. Make your morning for you, make your evening for you and your morning for you, because that’s when, from a mindset perspective, you made the choice. To choose you and what you wanted and what your routine is gonna be. And so for me personally, I love to do my workouts in the morning. I wake up, I go and I work out.

I come home, I make breakfast for my family. I wake everybody up, and then I get to start my day. And now that’s gonna look different for others. I have other clients that just have a slower morning for at least an hour or so, and then they get into their day. But I have to say by prioritizing yourself at night.

And disconnecting and just, you know, having, having a routine yourself, even if it’s only 10 minutes, like we’re talking, like just a turn it all off after the kids go to bed or after your spouse is off doing their own thing. Choose you at in your night, in your morning. If you end the day with you and start the day with you, you’re gonna be unstoppable.

And that’s where your routine and these habits and those little nuggets. That’s when things get so easy. ’cause the rest you could handle the chaos for the rest of the day because you took care of yourself. So I would say that was a really big one for me personally, that I share with all of my clients.

Quianna: Thank you for sharing that. And I think this is a beautiful reminder and something this is, I’m so big on the podcast, like this is something you could do tonight. Like this is something we can start today, tomorrow morning. Yes. Like I love a good, I love all the inspiration, I love the stories and I also love these action steps just as much.

And, and that’s true. Like, I’m so happy you shared that. ’cause even myself, I’m like, oh shoot. Like I probably couldn’t. I can update my, my evening routine and I can get those workouts in in the morning. You know, it’s possible when you, when you plan for it, and just like you mentioned, circling it right back to business, we need to put this in our calendar just like we would another appointment, another client call, another opportunity like I.

This is important and I am just so grateful that we’re having this conversation.

Michelle: Oh, I love it. I’m so glad. Well, honestly, thank you so much for just even having me come on your podcast, like just in general. I love being in your circle, like again, your energy, just who you are as a human being. You only attract the best human beings.

So thank you for allowing me to like pop into the inner circle of the best gals around. That makes me so, so happy. And also for the gals that are listening to this, that really wanna learn more about how to truly as a high achieving woman, get in the best shape and health of your life. As a high achieving women, I do have a free masterclass that’s going to be, uh, that is gonna be coming out on Sunday, April 6th.

Um, at 4:00 PM Central Time. I will go ahead and send over the link to you and to your team. That way you have it. And what I’ll do is, even for the gals, like this podcast is evergreen. She’s gonna live for freaking ever. Um, I will go ahead and also send you over the replay. That way all gals that listen to this podcast can get access to the repay.

Replay for free anytime. Get the nuggets, the tangibles, like all the things that they can implement in their own life. And then also, if you guys wanna pop over to my ins, uh, my podcast, um, um, ambitious and fit, I would love to have you guys over and join at my inner circle as well. I think when women like us are all connecting in each other’s circles, we truly.

You are Wonder Woman and we just help each other lift each other up and we can skyrocket to the moon and even to Mars together.

Quianna: Yes. Oh my goodness. Michelle, thank you so much for sharing your words of wisdom, all your encouragement. We are absolutely gonna be sharing all these links so we can tune into that masterclass.

I. Continue learning from you. We are adding your, your podcast to our playlist. I am so excited to deep dive into that as well. And I’m just so grateful for you. And while people are listening, how can we find you on Instagram? Do you hang out on Instagram?

CONNECT WITH MICHELLE

Michelle: Yes, I hang out on Instagram. Michelle Stallings

Pop on over, say hello. Say like, Hey, I listened to that podcast that I would love to be able to say. Hey girl, what’s up? And be able to answer any questions that you have from this podcast episode or any other masterclass or episode. I’m happy to answer those for you. We, we all need to be there for each other and lift each other up ’cause we’re not in this alone.

Quianna: Amazing. Yes. Thank you so much. It was such a joy chatting with you. Can’t wait for you to come out to visit Arizona soon and we’re just gonna create some magic and, uh. Girl, I’m adding these workouts and these new meal plans to my schedule. ’cause this is a business plan. This is a business plan that I am.

I’m going full force on. Let’s go.

Michelle: Yeah, you go girl. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast. Thank you. Have a good day.

Quianna: Oh my goodness. I told you that was gonna be a good one. I’m so grateful for this conversation and already adding more living room workouts and walks to my calendar just like I would book a brand session or schedule another podcast interview.

I’m making my health and fitness a priority. I. Did this chat resonate with you? Please make sure to follow along with Michelle and drop into our DM’s to say “Hi!”. We would love to hear from you and learn about any updates you’re adding to your schedule for your morning and evening routines, any workouts you’re adding, any new fun classes you’re attending, or tell us about your business partner and your fitness partner.

We wanna hear it all. The more I think about it, the more I’m intrigued about tracking my steps. No, literally the steps I take daily. So like how many miles I walk a day, how many steps I reach, and I wanna correlate that with my income and how it increases with every step I take. Like literally like I thought about it, it doesn’t make sense for me to kind of like go off this scale.

I really wanna see if the more steps I’m physically taking, the more dollars I’m making. Let’s see if that’s a thing I am making, that I’m betting on it. I’m gonna try. I truly believe that the stronger we are physically, the more financial freedom we create. I know after a sweaty workout, I feel like a superhero capable of anything.

My ideas start flooding. My confidence skyrockets, and it gives me the courage to take even more calculated risks. Thank you so much for tuning in and joining this episode today. It is truly an honor to have you a part of this mindset series. If you found this conversation interesting, please, please send it to a friend.

Leave a review for us. Take a screenshot of you listening and share it on Instagram. Make sure to tag a Quianna Marie. I would absolutely like drop everything to respond back to you, re-share it, and should just have a fun chat with you in the DM’s.

You are powerful, my love. You are beautiful from the inside out.

Stop overthinking and start taking action. I am cheering for you today and always keep on dancing your way through your business meetings, your workouts, and your fun adventures. I’m so happy to do life and business with you. Can’t wait to chat next week!!! Love you. Bye. That’s a wrap on another episode of Quianna Marie Weekly.

Thank you so much for your listenership and support. You can find the resources and show notes for this episode and more at quiannamarie.com/podcast. I’d be honored if you’d show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on on dancing.

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