Episode #74 - Getting Fit For All Areas Of Our Lives: An Interview With Jennifer Hensel

Intro: 00:00:00

Welcome to the podcast where relationships, confidence, and

Intro: 00:00:03

determination, all converge into an amazing, heartfelt experience.

Intro: 00:00:08

This is Speaking From The Heart.

Joshua: 00:00:11

Welcome back to episode number 74 of Speaking from the Heart.

Joshua: 00:00:15

Today we'll have Jennifer Hensel joining us.

Joshua: 00:00:17

Jennifer is 41 years old and has owned her own personal training business called

Joshua: 00:00:21

Valkyrie Fitness for over five years.

Joshua: 00:00:24

She trains clients and also runs fun group boot camps, and she recently started as

Joshua: 00:00:29

a real estate agent, an exciting career change of adventure, which we talk about

Joshua: 00:00:35

the unique differences between running a real estate business and being in

Joshua: 00:00:40

the fitness industry in this episode.

Jennifer has two kids: 00:00:43

a daughter who's 15 and a son who's almost 13, and they live

Jennifer has two kids: 00:00:48

in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania with her boyfriend Mike, which include three dogs,

Jennifer has two kids: 00:00:53

two rats, two ducks, and 18 chickens.

Jennifer has two kids: 00:00:57

Now, despite all the farm land that she has to do all those different things,

Jennifer has two kids: 00:01:02

I think what I found really interesting is the connection that she has within

Jennifer has two kids: 00:01:06

her own family, which you hear about this interesting discovery that I

Jennifer has two kids: 00:01:10

found out during this episode, but you also realize that there's different

Jennifer has two kids: 00:01:14

people along the way that we play off to with our strengths, and that, in

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itself, allows us to become the ultimate being that we want to be in our life.

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We can be homegrown in more ways than just one.

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And with that, let's go to the episode.

Jennifer has two kids: 00:01:33

All right.

Jennifer has two kids: 00:01:34

We're here with Jennifer Hensel.

Jennifer has two kids: 00:01:36

Jen, thanks for sharing your heart with us today.

Jen: 00:01:39

Hey, thanks for having me.

Jen: 00:01:40

I'm excited to be here.

Joshua: 00:01:42

I am too, and full disclosure, I've already let a little bit about

Joshua: 00:01:46

you already out there in the world and what you do, and really my first

Joshua: 00:01:51

question for you is, and I seem to always have this sort of question

Joshua: 00:01:56

that I ask people, especially in the fitness industry, because I've had a

Joshua: 00:01:59

few people already on the show about it.

Joshua: 00:02:02

What got you prompted into helping people with fitness?

Joshua: 00:02:07

I'm really curious about the answer to that question.

Jen: 00:02:10

Well, I have been into fitness pretty much from my high school career on.

Jen: 00:02:18

I played sports in high school, and I'm actually a twin.

Jen: 00:02:22

I have a twin sister.

Jen: 00:02:23

We're identical twins, and I remember it was probably our junior year and

Jen: 00:02:30

that summer she started going to the gym and when we had to do the mile run

Jen: 00:02:35

for field hockey, she beat me and that was a problem, so that's when I started

Jen: 00:02:43

going to the gym, and as the years went on, I actually got into AdvoCare,

Jen: 00:02:48

which is a supplement company, and I started promoting that along with my

Jen: 00:02:54

fitness and I was helping people that way, mostly women, and the biggest

Jen: 00:03:02

thing that I heard from them is that they were afraid to go into a gym.

Jen: 00:03:07

They didn't know what to do, so then I started holding free boot camps in

Jen: 00:03:11

the community just for fun and to give them a place to work out, and then from

Jen: 00:03:17

there it just kind of spiraled and I got into wanting to do it as my job,

Jen: 00:03:23

because I'm like, "If I'm just doing this like part-time for fun, I want

Jen: 00:03:27

to do this as my job, so I got a job at Crunch Fitness and from there I got

Jen: 00:03:34

my NASM certification and I was not there very long, probably about four

Jen: 00:03:39

months, and I decided it wasn't for me.

Jen: 00:03:43

It was just too restrictive on what I could do as a trainer and there were just

Jen: 00:03:49

a lot of roles and guidelines and I didn't like that, so then that's when I decided

Jen: 00:03:53

to start Valkyrie Fitness, which I've been in business now for five and a half

Jen: 00:03:58

years, and I started Valkyrie Fitness.

Jen: 00:04:02

I had a gym in my basement, so I didn't go to a gym where I had to pay rent or

Jen: 00:04:10

anything like that, so my clients come to my house and trained them, had all the

Jen: 00:04:15

equipment and then I also continued doing outdoor boot camps at Cousler Park in

Jen: 00:04:21

York, and it's just been what I've been doing since, and I actually had a move

Jen: 00:04:30

in the process, so I'm still continuing, it just moves with me, so it's been fun.

Joshua: 00:04:37

When you were starting the business essentially and helping these

Joshua: 00:04:41

people, and maybe even before that, when you were doing just the free

Joshua: 00:04:45

boot camps, was there a particular group of people that you were trying

Joshua: 00:04:49

to help those that maybe were older, maybe having some sort of health issue?

Joshua: 00:04:55

I mean, you don't hear very often of people saying, "Oh, well I was going

Joshua: 00:05:00

to do this, and anybody that comes will just come", and I had friends myself

Joshua: 00:05:05

that have done something of that nature.

Joshua: 00:05:07

They've kept with it for a little bit, but then they kind of change direction, so

Joshua: 00:05:12

I guess this is question is two pronged.

One is: 00:05:15

why?

One is: 00:05:17

Why would you do that and help people with that for free, but then secondly,

One is: 00:05:22

it's been five and a half years.

One is: 00:05:24

What keeps you going?

Jen: 00:05:26

Well, I guess for me, starting out, I didn't really have a niche and I started

Jen: 00:05:33

out doing it for free just because I just wanted people to come and have fun,

Jen: 00:05:38

and at the time, I was not certified to be a trainer, so I felt like I just

Jen: 00:05:44

shouldn't be charging people to come.

Jen: 00:05:47

Now, obviously now I charge people, but at the time it was just something I'm

Jen: 00:05:52

like, "Hey, let's just do this for fun.

Jen: 00:05:54

I'm doing it too", and that kind of thing, and then, when I started my business, I

Jen: 00:05:58

just wanted to help anybody, so I worked with teenagers, older people, men, women,

Jen: 00:06:04

and as time has gone on, I have narrowed it down that I do prefer working with

Jen: 00:06:10

women, so I work primarily with women and I do have, once in a while, a male,

Jen: 00:06:16

like males are welcome at boot camp.

Jen: 00:06:17

They have come and the average age is between 40, and I have

Jen: 00:06:25

clients that have stuck with me.

Jen: 00:06:26

They're 65, so-

Joshua: 00:06:28

Wow.

Jen: 00:06:29

Between 40 and 65, and I tend to have more of a body building training

Jen: 00:06:34

style, so lifting weights, and also depending on their age, if they're older,

Jen: 00:06:40

we do more functional fitness, so for them it's not about necessarily losing

Jen: 00:06:46

weight, it's more about getting stronger.

Jen: 00:06:49

I have one that she plays golf and her golf swing has improved and she

Jen: 00:06:55

said that it's easier to get up and down off the toilet, like stuff like

Jen: 00:06:59

that is important when you get older.

Jen: 00:07:01

That you're not thinking about when you're younger, and then my younger

Jen: 00:07:06

ones that I train, it is a little more intense and then my boot camps are

Jen: 00:07:10

definitely more of the HIIT style.

Jen: 00:07:13

We do some weights and more cardio based, but what was the

Jen: 00:07:18

second part of your question?

Joshua: 00:07:20

Yeah, I think you kind of answered it because what I was asking is, a,

Joshua: 00:07:24

what is it that you have done with the group of people that you really focus

Joshua: 00:07:28

on and really the why, and I think you really covered both of those aspects,

Joshua: 00:07:33

but maybe if you wanted to, could you elaborate on a little bit, because

Joshua: 00:07:37

you said earlier about being part of these free boot camps that you did.

Joshua: 00:07:41

That was something that you did in the beginning, before you started charging.

Joshua: 00:07:44

Why was that initially what you did before you started charging people, or

Joshua: 00:07:48

I like to call it, knowing your value?

Jen: 00:07:53

Honestly, I think I felt like I had a little bit of limitation on myself

Jen: 00:07:58

and thought people aren't going to follow me, they're not going to want to

Jen: 00:08:02

do this, so maybe if I just do it for free, then it doesn't hold, obviously

Jen: 00:08:10

for me, as much value, I guess, so-

Joshua: 00:08:13

Yeah.

Jen: 00:08:14

Honestly though, when I offered boot camps for free, I see no difference from

Jen: 00:08:19

offering them for free and charging and having clients pay for them now, so I

Jen: 00:08:24

definitely have learned along the way.

Joshua: 00:08:28

I have too, and I feel like I had that sort of feeling myself.

Joshua: 00:08:33

I have called it on the show imposter syndrome where-

Jen: 00:08:36

Mm-hmm.

Joshua: 00:08:36

I had this sort of feeling of, "No one's ever going to come to me

Joshua: 00:08:41

and do this", and, "No one's going to pay for what I have to offer", but we

Joshua: 00:08:45

kind of get ourselves into it and then we experiment with it and that light

Joshua: 00:08:50

bulb sort of turns on saying, "Aha.

Joshua: 00:08:52

I can do it.", so yes, I know what you mean by that, and I'm curious

Joshua: 00:08:58

because you touched on something earlier that kind of had me interested.

Joshua: 00:09:03

First off, how is it to have a twin sister?

Joshua: 00:09:06

No, I'm just kidding.

Joshua: 00:09:06

Let's not answer that question.

Joshua: 00:09:08

I don't want to incriminate you, and then she hears later, "Oh really?

Joshua: 00:09:10

You said that about me?"

Jen: 00:09:12

We're very competitive.

Joshua: 00:09:14

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:09:14

Yeah, absolutely.

Joshua: 00:09:15

Well, you're on the podcast, she isn't, so you won in that regard.

Joshua: 00:09:19

Yeah, exactly, so you won, but is having that relationship with your sister

Joshua: 00:09:25

helped to become who you are today, because you said, literally, that it

Joshua: 00:09:29

has helped you to really get in shape and then kind of go into this field,

Joshua: 00:09:33

but has she been a big influence for you as you continue to build this?

Jen: 00:09:39

I think so.

Jen: 00:09:39

I mean, really, we both kind of do the same thing, so I mean she-

Joshua: 00:09:43

Why am I not surprised by that?

Jen: 00:09:45

Yeah, so we started out different paths, but now we've been on kind of

Jen: 00:09:49

the same path, a little different, but I think that with the competitive, like

Jen: 00:09:55

I'm competitive in anything I do, but with her, it was definitely someone that

Jen: 00:09:59

I always felt like I have to be just as good or a little bit better, because as

Jen: 00:10:06

a twin, it just, everybody just thinks you are the same person, and you're not,

Jen: 00:10:13

and I mean, we have completely different personalities, so I felt like if she

Jen: 00:10:18

was doing better in a certain part of life, then I was going to be left down

Jen: 00:10:24

on or be compared, which we're compared anyway, but I guess I just felt like I

Jen: 00:10:30

always had to like, keep up, so to speak, so I do think she was a big influence

Jen: 00:10:35

and obviously still working out, like it's kind of sometimes in the back of

Jen: 00:10:38

my head like, "I can't stop working out cause she still works out", and I can't

Jen: 00:10:42

let her look better than me or something like that, but, off topic, we did not

Jen: 00:10:48

find out that we were identical twins until we were 40 years old and we are 41.

Joshua: 00:10:54

I was going to say, wait a moment.

Joshua: 00:10:55

I literally just read that you are 41 and you literally just found out in the

Joshua: 00:11:00

last year that you're identical twins.

Joshua: 00:11:02

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:11:02

How's that?

Joshua: 00:11:03

How did that happen?

Jen: 00:11:04

So my mom did not know that she was pregnant with twins when they checked for

Jen: 00:11:08

a heartbeat, there was always only one and so they don't know if our heartbeats

Jen: 00:11:13

were in sync or if one was in front of the other; know this was in the eighties,

Jen: 00:11:18

so they also didn't do an ultrasound unless it was needed, and she went into

Jen: 00:11:24

labor, had me, and then the doctor was like, "Oh, there's another one in there",

Jen: 00:11:27

so the doctor told her that we were fraternal, and I said, "But how did he

Jen: 00:11:33

really know?", I was like, "They didn't know that you were having twins", so then,

Jen: 00:11:38

as a joke growing up, everyone always says, "Are you sure you're not identical?

Jen: 00:11:42

You guys look like you're identical", so finally, joking, I said to my parents,

Jen: 00:11:46

"You should get us a DNA test for our 40th birthday", and they did, and we sent

Jen: 00:11:53

it and it came back that we are pretty much almost a hundred percent identical.

Joshua: 00:11:58

Wow.

Joshua: 00:12:01

It kind of turns into, "Oh, well this would be really fun to do", to, "Oh shoot.

Joshua: 00:12:07

We actually are sort of related to each other."

Jen: 00:12:10

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:12:10

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:12:10

I mean-

Jen: 00:12:11

That's a fun story.

Joshua: 00:12:12

Has that changed your dynamic a little bit or has it been the same?

Jen: 00:12:16

No.

Jen: 00:12:16

It's always been the same.

Jen: 00:12:17

I mean, we've always been pretty close.

Jen: 00:12:19

We talk every day and now it's just a fun story we get to tell people.

Joshua: 00:12:26

It's a fun story in itself.

Joshua: 00:12:27

I mean, I've known people that have gotten DNA tests because they find out that

Joshua: 00:12:33

they're related to somebody that they have never met in their lives and they

Joshua: 00:12:35

come in their life like, "Oh yeah, I am related to you", and then it turns out

Joshua: 00:12:39

that, "Oh shoot", that it is coming back as sort of the truth, and it's sort of

Joshua: 00:12:44

those stories of, "Wow, I can't believe that's happened.", which, in that same

Joshua: 00:12:50

vein, I was pivoting back to your business a moment, so you have Valkyrie Fitness

Joshua: 00:12:57

and your identical sister essentially has something along the same lines.

Joshua: 00:13:04

Do you guys do it differently, because you were talking a little bit of

Joshua: 00:13:07

how your business is and how she does some things, but I was curious,

Joshua: 00:13:12

does she do anything different from you in terms of the fitness realm?

Jen: 00:13:16

She is more into the nutrition side of things, so she does more

Jen: 00:13:20

of that and also a physical therapy assistant, so she does that also.

Jen: 00:13:24

She kind of does the nutrition stuff as a side job to her full-time job.

Joshua: 00:13:31

Do you guys play off each other when it comes to even helping each

Joshua: 00:13:35

other's clients, so for example, if you had somebody in your group that is like,

Joshua: 00:13:39

"Oh, I need some nutritional help", do you send it to your twin sister?

Jen: 00:13:43

I have, I mean, I can give basics, so some people are just looking for

Jen: 00:13:47

like basic nutritional help, but I'll send people her way and then if people

Jen: 00:13:53

want training, she'll send them my way.

Joshua: 00:13:55

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:13:56

This is kind of a interconnected question then to put it bluntly.

Joshua: 00:14:02

Have you ever had a client, and if you tell me, "No, I

Joshua: 00:14:05

never had", I'm okay with it.

Joshua: 00:14:07

Have you ever had somebody that has gone through your fitness regimen, has

Joshua: 00:14:13

also received the help of your identical sister, and has essentially transformed

Joshua: 00:14:18

their life, meaning that they start out fitness, they're thinking that they were

Joshua: 00:14:22

going to get some help that way, they went over then to the nutrition side and they

Joshua: 00:14:27

have just been a complete success story, and if you do know somebody, don't mention

Joshua: 00:14:31

their name, but tell us a little bit about what that journey has been for them,

Joshua: 00:14:36

if you can share some of those details.

Jen: 00:14:38

Yeah, so I do have someone, but it wasn't somebody that was using me and my

Jen: 00:14:42

sister for nutrition, but she came to me and she wanted to do a bodybuilding show,

Jen: 00:14:50

and so she had a lot of weight to lose.

Jen: 00:14:53

She had a pretty long journey ahead of her to be able to do a fitness

Jen: 00:14:57

competition and she trained with me three times a week for, gosh,

Jen: 00:15:03

she was with me for over a year.

Jen: 00:15:07

It might have been two years.

Jen: 00:15:09

It was over a year, and then she came and when she was there, she busted her

Jen: 00:15:14

butt and she just had that mentality of, "I'm going to do this", and I helped her

Jen: 00:15:21

with her nutrition, but she kind of just took that and went with it on her own,

Jen: 00:15:27

and then she just had to stop training, and then I ran into her, because she told

Jen: 00:15:32

me she was going to keep working out.

Jen: 00:15:33

She was going to the gym.

Jen: 00:15:34

I ran into her at the gym; this was a couple months later and she was

Jen: 00:15:38

completely, like she looked great when she left me, but then it was obvious

Jen: 00:15:44

that she continued with that journey, so my goal is to always teach my clients

Jen: 00:15:49

to continue their journey without me.

Jen: 00:15:52

You shouldn't need your trainer forever, even though I'd love to train you forever.

Jen: 00:15:56

You should be able to take what you're learning and then go and do it on your

Jen: 00:15:59

own at some point, and that's exactly what she did, and I haven't seen

Jen: 00:16:03

her, but she was getting ready, she said, to enter into a show, but then

Jen: 00:16:10

I haven't seen her and I dunno if she did so well, but she looked amazing.

Joshua: 00:16:16

Well, if you're out there, we are looking for you.

Joshua: 00:16:19

Please get in contact with Jen as soon as possible.

Joshua: 00:16:21

We really want to know what happened to finish this story.

Joshua: 00:16:24

We'll have you on the show.

Joshua: 00:16:25

We can have you explain it, but, in all honesty, I love that, because for

Joshua: 00:16:29

some of us, we often think, "Yeah, once we have them locked in, it's all ours.

Joshua: 00:16:34

We're going to be able to have them forever.

Joshua: 00:16:36

Ha ha ha."

Joshua: 00:16:37

It's sort of like the Dr.

Joshua: 00:16:38

Jekyll, Mr.

Joshua: 00:16:39

Hyde or Dr.

Joshua: 00:16:40

Frankenstein sort of thing that we can have this creation, but

Joshua: 00:16:43

that's not really what we're doing.

Joshua: 00:16:45

We're really helping people, and I've had plenty of people on my show, and

Joshua: 00:16:49

even specifically, I've talked about this, about the importance of empowering

Joshua: 00:16:54

those people, so giving them the skills, the life skills, or in your case, the

Joshua: 00:16:58

fitness skills, to be able to do that on their own, which is why I find it

Joshua: 00:17:02

so connecting, essentially, that you're talking about doing at home, having it

Joshua: 00:17:08

homegrown, kind of turning it into this sort of mini empire that you're building

Joshua: 00:17:12

yourself, and then you're having other people take those skills along the way.

Joshua: 00:17:17

Has there been somebody, maybe in the last five years since you've opened,

Joshua: 00:17:21

that they have reached out to you and said, "Wow, thank you so much, Jen.

Joshua: 00:17:25

You have really given me the skills to really excel."

Joshua: 00:17:28

Has there been a story like that, and how has that made you feel, especially

Joshua: 00:17:33

being somebody that had a personal touch or sort of an embodiment of

Joshua: 00:17:38

that experience with that person?

Jen: 00:17:40

So I actually had somebody; she actually was bad mouthing me to me-

Joshua: 00:17:49

Wow.

Jen: 00:17:50

In a private message on Facebook.

Jen: 00:17:52

She had a lot of not very nice things to say about me, basically saying that

Jen: 00:17:58

I wasn't helping the right people.

Jen: 00:18:00

I only work with people who were already in shape, and I'm like, "I

Jen: 00:18:03

can't help who comes to me", and at first I was really upset and I'm

Jen: 00:18:07

like, "Why would she say these things to me", and so I just responded and

Jen: 00:18:11

basically defended myself, and then she responded and shes like, "Wow.

Jen: 00:18:17

I didn't expect you to respond that way."

Jen: 00:18:19

She decided that she wanted to train with me, and at first I was

Jen: 00:18:25

like, "I'm not training this person.

Jen: 00:18:28

She just was so mean to me.

Jen: 00:18:30

Why would I train her?", and then I decided, "You know what?

Jen: 00:18:33

I'm going to prove to her that I can help her", and so I always say, "You should

Jen: 00:18:40

follow the person that you want to become, like, who you might want to be more like."

Jen: 00:18:46

If you're following negative people, you're going to be negative.

Jen: 00:18:49

If you're following positive people, you're going to be more positive.

Jen: 00:18:52

You're not going to get advice from a poor person if you want to be rich.

Jen: 00:18:57

You're going to get advice from a rich person, so with training, I feel like

Jen: 00:19:01

you should be getting advice from a trainer who is in shape and is following

Jen: 00:19:05

what they preach as opposed to someone who's out of shape and is not following

Jen: 00:19:11

what they are preaching to other people, and she kind of had that frame of mind

Jen: 00:19:15

was that I can't train with somebody like you because you don't understand.

Jen: 00:19:18

You don't have the struggles that I have, so then she decided she wanted to

Jen: 00:19:22

train with me and at first I was going to tell her no, but then I decided to

Jen: 00:19:27

train her and give her a chance, and she trained with me for three months because

Jen: 00:19:32

that's just what she could afford, and she lost like 25 pounds in that three

Jen: 00:19:40

months, and I'm telling you, she would come and a lot of training sessions

Jen: 00:19:46

turn into therapy sessions and she cried more than she didn't in her training

Jen: 00:19:52

sessions, not because of the workouts, but because we were talking about something

Jen: 00:19:57

else and she would cry and she ended up having this great transformation,

Jen: 00:20:04

not just physically, but also mentally.

Jen: 00:20:07

I could see it, and how she came with me in the beginning to how she left,

Jen: 00:20:12

she was just so much more positive and she was so grateful and she

Jen: 00:20:18

raved about me on the Internet and she didn't think she could do it.

Jen: 00:20:22

She didn't think that she could have the results that she had,

Jen: 00:20:25

so that was honestly, probably my favorite story just because of how

Jen: 00:20:30

it started and then how it ended.

Joshua: 00:20:33

That is simply incredible.

Joshua: 00:20:35

I never heard a story like that where someone's just bad mouthing you and

Joshua: 00:20:39

saying, "You only work out with the best people", and I hate that so much.

Joshua: 00:20:44

I know I normally don't say the word hate for my listeners that

Joshua: 00:20:48

have been following me all along.

Joshua: 00:20:50

I normally don't say that because it's such a strong word, but you never

Joshua: 00:20:54

know that person that's coming in.

Joshua: 00:20:56

They might have everything put together, but they might actually need some help

Joshua: 00:21:00

because they are struggling inside, and although you were in the intention

Joshua: 00:21:05

of, "Yeah, I'm going to help them out physically", like you said, you did help

Joshua: 00:21:09

them in the mental sense with getting them into that mindset and helping them to get

Joshua: 00:21:13

to that next level, so that's incredible and kudos to you to say, "You know what?

Joshua: 00:21:18

I am going to prove them wrong.", and I was thinking, "Yeah, that's

Joshua: 00:21:21

because Jen is competitive and she wanted to make a point."

Jen: 00:21:24

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:21:26

But Jen, I want to ask you, this is very interesting.

Joshua: 00:21:30

I don't think I've had anybody on the show that has done this yet.

Joshua: 00:21:34

You do fitness, but you also do real estate?

Joshua: 00:21:37

What's the connection there, and maybe tell us a little bit about

Joshua: 00:21:41

your real estate adventures too.

Joshua: 00:21:43

How'd you come into that sort of field?

Jen: 00:21:46

So there's really no connection other than helping people again.

Jen: 00:21:50

That seems that's always been my job, but I knew from a young age, maybe

Jen: 00:21:55

middle school, that I didn't want to work for other people, so I always had

Jen: 00:22:01

it, maybe not in that sense that I knew I was eventually going to someday own

Jen: 00:22:05

my own business, but I definitely had a thought that I don't want to work for

Jen: 00:22:08

other people, so that's when I started on my fitness journey, my own business,

Jen: 00:22:15

and real estate's kind of the same.

Jen: 00:22:17

You're working for a brokerage, but you really are still

Jen: 00:22:20

pretty much your own boss.

Jen: 00:22:22

You create your own hours, and you're doing what you want to do, so I got

Jen: 00:22:26

into real estate because I had somebody ask me a question and she said, "Do you

Jen: 00:22:33

think you'll still be a personal trainer when you are in your sixties?", and I

Jen: 00:22:38

was like, "Oh, that's a good question.

Jen: 00:22:40

I could be, but do I want to be?", so I imagined I could go into like nursing

Jen: 00:22:46

homes and train older people, like my niche can change, but I said, "I don't

Jen: 00:22:52

know if I want to train for the rest of my life.", so that's when I started thinking

Jen: 00:22:57

about real estate, more so because I would like to have investment properties

Jen: 00:23:03

down the road and I feel like real estate really would be beneficial with that,

Jen: 00:23:08

and it just always sounded fun to me.

Jen: 00:23:12

I haven't been in it quite a year yet, but so far I love it and it works great with

Jen: 00:23:18

my training business, and I am trying to take my personal training business into

Jen: 00:23:23

more of an online route and do the group fitness face-to-face, so I feel like it

Jen: 00:23:30

would be a really good transition for me to be able to do the real estate and

Jen: 00:23:34

the online training and group fitness.

Joshua: 00:23:38

You actually have a really cool niche in doing that now that I

Joshua: 00:23:42

heard your explanation as to kind of how you got into it, because now you

Joshua: 00:23:47

can leverage the ability to say, "Well, I want to open a gym", and you're a

Joshua: 00:23:52

real estate agent, so you know what you're going to get your yourself

Joshua: 00:23:54

into in terms of the characteristics, the investment that's involved.

Jen: 00:23:59

Mm-hmm.

Joshua: 00:23:59

I have a buddy of mine, his name is John Schuchman.

Joshua: 00:24:02

John, if you listen to this, I say hello.

Joshua: 00:24:04

He runs his own podcast called The Real Estate Survival Guide.

Joshua: 00:24:08

I'll have to connect you with him then Jen, because he would be a great

Joshua: 00:24:11

connection for you to kind of learn a little bit about that, because John

Joshua: 00:24:14

has been doing that himself, and for anybody that is looking to do any sort

Joshua: 00:24:19

of things in which you're thinking about, "I want to enter this one field."

Joshua: 00:24:23

I've had a guest that has talked about marketing in which you go into

Joshua: 00:24:27

all these different areas that have synergy so that you can create that

Joshua: 00:24:31

opportunity down the road, no matter how far away it is, so kudos to you.

Joshua: 00:24:36

I mean it is something that you normally won't think, "Oh, really?

Joshua: 00:24:39

Somebody that does fitness and also can help me with selling or buying a home?"

Joshua: 00:24:44

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:24:45

It can make some pretty powerful connections.

Jen: 00:24:48

I call myself the real fit agent.

Joshua: 00:24:51

Yeah, there you go, and that's allows for some awesome,

Joshua: 00:24:55

cool taglines, just like that.

Jen: 00:24:58

Yeah.

Jen: 00:24:58

Moving With Jen.

Joshua: 00:25:00

Yeah, and I'm the Speaking From The Heart dude, because I

Joshua: 00:25:02

haven't figured out my tagline yet, but Jen I'm really curious.

Joshua: 00:25:08

We're getting closer to the end of our time and I really want to

Joshua: 00:25:11

ask you this one last question and get your thoughts on this.

Joshua: 00:25:15

I mean, I feel that we're approaching the end of the year.

Joshua: 00:25:19

We're going to start a new year, 2024, and I often think about the

Joshua: 00:25:23

fact that most people have zero goals.

Joshua: 00:25:27

They have set nothing, and then they're going to go and they're

Joshua: 00:25:31

going to go to a Crunch Fitness.

Joshua: 00:25:33

Nope.

Joshua: 00:25:34

No harm to that, and they're going to spend the initiation fee, and then they're

Joshua: 00:25:38

going to have their monthly membership.

Joshua: 00:25:40

They're going to say, "Yes, I'm going to lose this weight", or,

Joshua: 00:25:42

"I'm going to work on my nutrition."

Joshua: 00:25:45

We all know it.

Joshua: 00:25:46

It's the 1st of January, the 2nd of January.

Joshua: 00:25:48

Normally they're going in and they're going to work on these goals, and I'm

Joshua: 00:25:52

using big air quotes for my listeners as I say that, because we all know

Joshua: 00:25:57

that it can be such a struggle.

Joshua: 00:26:00

For someone like you that has been through a couple industries and you're

Joshua: 00:26:04

building yourself, what is it that you would say to somebody, even somebody

Joshua: 00:26:10

that's listening to this, that is saying, "Yeah, I do want to do this,

Joshua: 00:26:14

but I want to do it intentionally."

Jen: 00:26:17

Mm-hmm.

Joshua: 00:26:17

When it comes to fitness, which my question's more about,

Joshua: 00:26:20

what would you say to someone just to help them stay accountable,

Joshua: 00:26:24

especially as we enter the new year?

Joshua: 00:26:26

What are your thoughts?

Jen: 00:26:28

I would say you want to start with hire a trainer.

Joshua: 00:26:33

Smart answer.

Jen: 00:26:36

You're more likely to go to your trainer if you were paying

Jen: 00:26:39

for one, but start small so you can't necessarily rely on a friend.

Jen: 00:26:46

If you want to go to the gym, sometimes saying, "I'm going to go with a friend"

Jen: 00:26:49

doesn't always work because then that friend doesn't go, which causes you

Jen: 00:26:53

to then not go, so really kind of just focus on yourself and you have to

Jen: 00:26:58

give yourself small goals to complete and write them down, so I think of

Jen: 00:27:05

like a staircase and you have on each step you have a goal that you want to

Jen: 00:27:10

meet, and you can't go from the bottom step and jump to the very top step.

Jen: 00:27:16

You have to walk up the stairs to get to that final destination, so if you're

Jen: 00:27:22

somebody that has never gone to the gym or you stopped going to the gym,

Jen: 00:27:25

start out by going two times a week, and schedule it, so actually put it in

Jen: 00:27:32

your calendar that this is when you're going to the gym or this is what time

Jen: 00:27:36

you're working out and do not cancel those plans for any other plans.

Jen: 00:27:41

You are going to the gym and stick to that goal, and then when you're

Jen: 00:27:45

in the gym, just start out small.

Jen: 00:27:47

I always say walk on the treadmill, watch what other people are doing, so that's

Jen: 00:27:52

how I learned how to do everything in the gym, most everything, is I watched other

Jen: 00:27:58

people and then I just did what they did, and then you can learn more as you go.

Jen: 00:28:02

Start out with like a small weight loss goal.

Jen: 00:28:05

Focus on changing with your nutrition one thing at a time, so if you drink

Jen: 00:28:08

soda, maybe stop drinking soda.

Jen: 00:28:11

If you don't eat fruits and vegetables, add in a fruit and a vegetable

Jen: 00:28:15

for your meals throughout the day.

Jen: 00:28:16

Eat your veggies first and eat more protein because that keeps you fuller

Jen: 00:28:22

longer; that kind of thing, but definitely write it down because you're

Jen: 00:28:26

more likely to follow your goals if you write them down and see them on paper.

Joshua: 00:28:32

Such powerful advice, because for some people, they don't even write

Joshua: 00:28:36

it down, and that is something that I have even reminded my own clients when

Joshua: 00:28:40

they go through my coaching program too.

Joshua: 00:28:42

Write it down, make yourself accountable, and we actually work on that to

Joshua: 00:28:46

then check in and see how things are going and if there is a struggle, we

Joshua: 00:28:50

adjust, we move the needle to make it so that it isn't as overwhelming or

Joshua: 00:28:55

overbearing, so I think that's some pretty powerful advice, especially as

Joshua: 00:28:59

we enter this new year, and Jen, I want to give you the last few minutes now.

Joshua: 00:29:04

If you like to pitch Valkyrie Fitness, let us know how we

Joshua: 00:29:07

could get in contact with you.

Joshua: 00:29:09

How is it that we could schedule some time if we want to learn a little bit

Joshua: 00:29:14

more about what you're doing and how you can help potential clients, maybe even

Joshua: 00:29:18

real estate too, since you are "That Fit Gal", I'm sure that you can also help

Joshua: 00:29:22

them out with a fit home as well, so I wanna give you the last few minutes, Jen.

Joshua: 00:29:26

Go ahead.

Jen: 00:29:28

All right, so Valkyrie Fitness, I actually have a Facebook page.

Jen: 00:29:31

It's just Valkyrie Fitness.

Jen: 00:29:32

You can find me on there, you can follow me.

Jen: 00:29:35

I post a lot of stuff with my boot camps and just other information

Jen: 00:29:39

about fitness in general.

Jen: 00:29:41

My classes are $12 a class, or you can purchase a punch card, which is $60,

Jen: 00:29:46

and there are six punches on the card, so it's a little cheaper if you get a

Jen: 00:29:50

card and I do that because I want people to be accountable and come to class,

Jen: 00:29:57

and then I offer class on Saturdays because I do live in New Cumberland, so

Jen: 00:30:01

Saturday mornings 7:30 AM to 8:30 and you can message me for that address.

Jen: 00:30:08

It's a undisclosed location, and then with training, I am getting into the online

Jen: 00:30:14

fitness, which is great for people that maybe can't afford a one-on-one personal

Jen: 00:30:17

trainer, and that is an entire program that I write personally for my clients,

Jen: 00:30:25

and there's video demonstrations in there so they can go do it in the gym,

Jen: 00:30:29

and then we have check-ins every week along with some other fun activities

Jen: 00:30:33

for them to do, and then of course, my personal training, which is one-on-one

Jen: 00:30:38

and face to face, and I have done some virtual personal training also, but

Jen: 00:30:44

if you are looking to sell your home.

Jen: 00:30:47

Now is the time to sell.

Jen: 00:30:49

It is still a seller's market and you can hit me up and I will sell your house.

Jen: 00:30:55

I will help you find a house to buy, but yeah, I work for Berkshire Hathaway and

Jen: 00:31:02

you can just hit me up on Facebook and find me and chat with me through there.

Joshua: 00:31:08

Awesome, and thank you, Jen.

Joshua: 00:31:10

I think that a lot of people might be interested in not only getting a house,

Joshua: 00:31:14

but also getting trained at the same time, so that in itself makes it so

Joshua: 00:31:18

competitive, but I have to tell you, thank you so much for just sharing so many

Joshua: 00:31:25

different aspects about your life, and really what I find interesting is that

Joshua: 00:31:30

you beat your twin sister onto a podcast, so congratulations, you get that stamp.

Joshua: 00:31:35

Sorry, twin sister.

Joshua: 00:31:36

You're going have to reach out to me.

Joshua: 00:31:38

Nah, nah, nah, but Jen, all seriousness, thanks for being

Joshua: 00:31:42

on Speaking From The Heart.

Joshua: 00:31:43

I really enjoyed our conversation today, and it was really

Joshua: 00:31:46

good getting to know you.

Joshua: 00:31:47

Thank you.

Jen: 00:31:48

Oh thank you.

Joshua: 00:31:50

I want to thank Jen again for being part of the show and listening to

Joshua: 00:31:53

her story, especially with the way that she got started, homegrown, with the gym

Joshua: 00:31:58

that she has, Valkyrie Fitness, really helped to put in perspective the fact

Joshua: 00:32:03

that many of the best ideas are started right at home, and for her, especially,

Joshua: 00:32:08

with her twin sister, which was quite a surprise to me when I found out about it,

Joshua: 00:32:13

is that it really helped to understand and create some of the best things that

Joshua: 00:32:17

she's doing with her sister as well.

Joshua: 00:32:20

I think that for many of us, we think about the fact that bodybuilding: this

Joshua: 00:32:25

big, bulky muscles that we can have, almost like Arnold Schwarzenegger, I think

Joshua: 00:32:30

that for many of us, we often think, "Man, I don't know if we really want to do that.

Joshua: 00:32:35

I really don't feel like we need to be that strong in our lives.", but being

Joshua: 00:32:40

able to strength train, and especially with the things that we are tackling in

Joshua: 00:32:44

our lives, whether that is going to the grocery store, being able to drive to

Joshua: 00:32:49

one place to another in sort of endurance race, or even walk around the theme

Joshua: 00:32:54

parks that are local to even where you're located at, can be really important.

Joshua: 00:33:00

We can have different people that help us to push us along the way, and I

Joshua: 00:33:05

love the fact that she even shared some of those stories about some of those

Joshua: 00:33:07

people after I asked her about them, that really helped to showcase that they

Joshua: 00:33:12

can make a lasting impact on others.

Joshua: 00:33:15

We can all play off of those strengths and create some of those best versions

Joshua: 00:33:18

of ourselves as a result of creating not just that strength training exercise

Joshua: 00:33:23

program, but maybe getting a little bit of nutrition on the side, which, hey, if

Joshua: 00:33:29

you talk to Jen, and her twin sister, can certainly do that for you, and especially

Joshua: 00:33:34

as we approach the new year, I think that health and fitness is so important

Joshua: 00:33:38

for many different aspects of our lives.

Joshua: 00:33:41

I think that it helps us to reflect on the importance of not only the things that we

Joshua: 00:33:45

need to do to take care of ourselves in the physical sense, but it allows us to

Joshua: 00:33:50

have the proper feeding of our brains, of our muscles, of our entire bodies, which

Joshua: 00:33:56

in itself, need the chemicals and the nutrients to help ourselves become some of

Joshua: 00:34:01

the best things, the best positive things, because if we feed ourselves the wrong

Joshua: 00:34:06

way and we feed ourselves different things that often aren't healthy, those negative

Joshua: 00:34:13

things are really what we consume.

Joshua: 00:34:16

Those are the things that oftentimes create that lack of energy, that inability

Joshua: 00:34:23

to move forward, to be able to understand truly, with pure conviction, what we

Joshua: 00:34:30

can do to create the opportunities that exist, and we need to be able to

Joshua: 00:34:35

follow those like-minded people that are positive, that have those opinions about

Joshua: 00:34:40

themselves, that can change our opinions about our own selves, but oftentimes

Joshua: 00:34:47

then too, you might hear, "Well, don't worry about those other people.

Joshua: 00:34:51

They're not like you.

Joshua: 00:34:52

Why should it matter?", and I know I've talked about them many episodes

Joshua: 00:34:56

about the importance of just staying away from those toxic people.

Joshua: 00:35:00

Don't even associate with them, but when I talk about association, when it comes

Joshua: 00:35:06

to people, I'm always referring to the fact that we need to have positivity.

Joshua: 00:35:11

We need a community that surrounds ourselves with the

Joshua: 00:35:14

expectation of saying that we are not going to go down that path.

Joshua: 00:35:20

Instead, we're going to go down another path that allows us to

Joshua: 00:35:24

build that energy, or what I like to call building that synergy.

Joshua: 00:35:31

Oh yes.

Joshua: 00:35:32

That sort of energy level when we are able to synchronously create that

Joshua: 00:35:38

opportunity of different areas where we are syncing ourselves, and helping

Joshua: 00:35:43

ourselves, achieve the goals that are in mind, but I think that sometimes we get

Joshua: 00:35:50

in a little bit over our head, and we even talked about in this episode about the

Joshua: 00:35:54

importance of just doing the small things.

Joshua: 00:35:58

Jen really broke it down in some great ways in which we can even just start out

Joshua: 00:36:02

in the new year, which I want to repeat.

Joshua: 00:36:05

First off, start small.

Joshua: 00:36:07

It doesn't have to be these big changes that you do, and I'm not literally

Joshua: 00:36:11

just talking about eating rice instead of just eating the cheesy rice.

Joshua: 00:36:16

I'm not even just talking about eating food that is often bad, like

Joshua: 00:36:21

the M&Ms, which I know you're still putting them up because of Christmas.

Joshua: 00:36:24

It's after Christmas though.

Joshua: 00:36:26

Put the M&Ms down!

Joshua: 00:36:29

I think that for many of us though, it's about starting with the

Joshua: 00:36:32

small things that we can change.

Joshua: 00:36:35

Maybe we can get up 15 minutes earlier than we usually do so we can journal,

Joshua: 00:36:39

write about the things that we want to accomplish in a day; take the

Joshua: 00:36:43

tasks that we want to have in order to create successes so that we feel

Joshua: 00:36:48

a little bit better about ourselves.

Joshua: 00:36:52

We start to write those things down; that's even a second step in itself.

Joshua: 00:36:56

It's one thing to just think about it.

Joshua: 00:36:58

It's another thing to just write it down, because when you write it down, it has

Joshua: 00:37:02

a whole other visual impact, because we can visually see it in our minds, but

Joshua: 00:37:09

visually seeing it on a piece of paper, or even on a notepad for that matter, which

Joshua: 00:37:14

I always keep to the side of me, can make such a big difference, but the purpose

Joshua: 00:37:20

of all of this is to just start small.

Joshua: 00:37:24

To grow big.

Joshua: 00:37:28

Doesn't this sound familiar with what Jen's story is?

Joshua: 00:37:31

She started small in just a little fitness studio in her own home, bringing in

Joshua: 00:37:37

people that she knew she could help and doing that, especially the bootcamp and

Joshua: 00:37:42

creating those opportunities, I think that you start to really see how much

Joshua: 00:37:47

of an impact you can have, so that then eventually that value grows inside of you.

Joshua: 00:37:52

It's almost like a seed that was planted and turns into a beautiful flower with

Joshua: 00:37:58

strong roots at its foundation, because just in Jen's case, those powerful

Joshua: 00:38:06

words of positivity turned into a awesome fitness business that she's

Joshua: 00:38:10

now been doing for over five years.

Joshua: 00:38:13

As a matter of fact, has allowed her to expand into a real estate career

Joshua: 00:38:18

that is just only beginning, but it has allowed her to make connections

Joshua: 00:38:23

not only for her own business, but to help people find a home maybe for the

Joshua: 00:38:28

first time or even for the 10th time.

Joshua: 00:38:33

It is something of remarkable influence, of great creativity, to body build

Joshua: 00:38:38

yourself into something that you never thought you could see yourself in

Joshua: 00:38:42

the mirror to become, because having the roots of being able to just start

Joshua: 00:38:47

somewhere can help you become something that you never thought possible,

Joshua: 00:38:52

and we can do it all by ourselves.

Joshua: 00:38:55

We can do it with groups, but the most important thing that we do with

Joshua: 00:38:59

all of those things is to have fun.

Joshua: 00:39:03

We can all have fun with the experiences that lie ahead.

Joshua: 00:39:07

I think we all have to be willing to understand that there's connections

Joshua: 00:39:11

to all those different aspects of our lives, if we're willing to have that

Joshua: 00:39:14

fun, if we're willing to create those best versions of ourself, if we're just

Joshua: 00:39:19

willing to understand that maybe having different people to help us get from

Joshua: 00:39:26

point A to point B can shift the mental focus that we have inside of ourselves.

Joshua: 00:39:33

Sound familiar?

Joshua: 00:39:35

We've had fitness instructors, fitness gym owners.

Joshua: 00:39:39

We've had nutritionists on this show that have talked about that this past

Joshua: 00:39:43

year, and I think that does something worth noting that the consistent theme

Joshua: 00:39:48

that we hear in each of those stories is about learning how we can grow,

Joshua: 00:39:53

and Jen's is no different, but you have to have the right energy levels

Joshua: 00:39:58

with the right people surrounding you.

Joshua: 00:40:01

This is my challenge to you as we start out the new year of 2024.

Joshua: 00:40:06

What are you waiting for to change that mindset?

Joshua: 00:40:09

What are you waiting for to help you move from point A to point B, because we

Joshua: 00:40:14

can help ourselves and not be surrounded with that negative context anymore.

Joshua: 00:40:20

It isn't just about getting into the gym and working on that treadmill

Joshua: 00:40:24

because there are so much more equipment than just that treadmill in the gym.

Joshua: 00:40:29

It's about building areas of your life that you never thought you could build

Joshua: 00:40:32

out, and hey, you might actually have a twin that you meet along the way

Joshua: 00:40:37

that might be doing such a similar process that you might want to compete

Joshua: 00:40:42

with them too, to see who's the best.

Joshua: 00:40:45

Jen's doing that.

Joshua: 00:40:47

I think for many of us we're doing that.

Joshua: 00:40:49

We have our own twin.

Joshua: 00:40:51

It's the positive and the negative sides of us.

Joshua: 00:40:56

Who are you going to let win?

Joshua: 00:40:59

The negative or the positive?

Joshua: 00:41:03

For all of us, it's something that we can all do, and that's why this

Joshua: 00:41:07

community, Speaking From The Heart, has been a positive influence for me

Joshua: 00:41:11

in the year 2023, and I want to take the last few moments to say thank you

Joshua: 00:41:15

so much for all the support that you have given me as I started my journey

Joshua: 00:41:19

with this podcast, and look forward to sharing more fantastic episodes with

Joshua: 00:41:25

you in the year 2024, but with that said, as your podcast host, Joshua D.

Joshua: 00:41:30

Smith, thank you for Speaking From The Heart with us this year, and thank you

Joshua: 00:41:36

for listening especially to episode number 74 of Speaking From The Heart,

Joshua: 00:41:41

and in the new year, I look forward to hearing from your heart very soon.

Outro: 00:41:47

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Outro: 00:41:48

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Outro: 00:41:52

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