The mental side of the game is a skill and can be learned and practiced just like any other aspect of softball, soccer, volleyball, or any other competitive sport. Coach Jennifer Siess Gansner believes that when we define our experience, we can know it, name it, own it, and change it. 

As the founder of Mine to Define coaching, Coach Jenn helps competitive, athletic girls take charge of their performance, break down defining moments, create personalized strategies, and level up to win at sports and in life.

What We Talked About:

 What is the Mine to Define Framework?

We're born with some gifts, but we all have the ability to improve anything we want to with practice and work. The framework includes three pillars: Optimum Ownership, Growth Mindset, and Courageous Confidence.

What is Courageous Confidence?

It's having the courage to believe in yourself when you don't know what the outcome's going to be. 

Can you share an example of how this might work with a...

According to Mike Pullano, our podcast guest today, resistance training might be an aging girl’s best friend. The Chief Product Officer at ARX (Adaptive Resistance Exercise) recommends resistance training as a key part of aging gracefully—and for good reasons. Mikes insists that resistance training is a fundamental part of health. It is arguably the first line of defense against muscle loss. Strength training also builds resilience, reduces your physical vulnerability to injury, helps ease the management of chronic conditions, boosts your cognitive health, and even impacts gene expression to reverse the progression of aging. 

A Few Takeaways from Our Interview: 

This discussion covers a wide range of topics surrounding the use of machine-driven resistance to create an adaptive resistance training program to help optimize the physical and mental benefits of...

I thought this would be a helpful topic to cover as we head into the holiday season. Somehow, as a society, we've worked ourselves into a place where there can be a lot of shame and guilt around holiday eating. Magazines and fitness experts will blow up your social media feeds the next two months, with all kinds of "rules" around eating... how to plan for that stuffing or pumpkin pie, how to starve yourself all day so you can go to that work cocktail party, how many burpees you need to do to "work off" the holiday cookies you ate in the breakroom. 

It's no wonder we have so much confusion over nutrition, diet, exercise... as well as a stigma around larger bodies and a skewed idea of what beautiful means.

Today's guest wants you to know that all the emotions and confusion you feel around eating are not your fault. We've been fed so much garbage about what to think and believe, it's hard to sort through it all.

Cassie Christopher is going to set you straight, and hopefully,...

How do you find time from the hustle and bustle of modern life to work on your mental and physical health? We all know that health and fitness are crucial for our longevity and overall well-being. But scraping a few minutes from our increasingly fast-paced and chaotic world to focus on ourselves is a whole ‘nother hurdle—which is why I welcomed Amanda Jane to our podcast today.

As a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer, Mindset Coach and Group Fitness Instructor living in the busiest city in the world (i.e., Brooklyn, New York), Amanda has a few nuggets of wisdom to share with anyone looking to manage life and maintain optimal health without compromising on either.

A Few Topics we Covered:

Mindset is Key – First Believe, Then Achieve!

Amanda: If we're not in the right state of mind, then essentially, we can't really achieve any of our goals…a lot of people have limited beliefs going on in their...

No one stays as animated in their 40s+ as they were in their childhood or youth. But getting older doesn’t automatically banish you to a life of less vigor and energy. Sometimes all it takes to crank up your steam are lifestyle changes.  

Melissa Gunn joins me in today’s episode to share her tips on how men and women can invigorate their energy levels past the 40 mark. She is the founder and CEO of Pure Strength LA, a Certified SuperSlow Specialist, and a fitness and nutrition coach with decades of experience in helping people rejuvenate their health and achieve optimal well-being.  

Snippets from Our Conversation: 

We talked about what it takes to supercharge your energy after 40. As she puts it, “It really comes down to exercise, strength training, moving every day, eating nutritious (not processed) foods, cutting down on the sugar,...

This week's podcast guest knows all about forging a new path and finding happiness and success. At a young age, Marie Gould found herself with a gaping hole in her heart. Her journey to mend her brokenness took her to all the wrong places, and at times she feared she would never find what she longed for as she continued to make decisions that made her life challenging.

In the introduction to her book, "Love Thirst: a Spiritual Journey from Broken to Beautiful,"  Marie says, "My story is not about anything extraordinary other than the fact that from the time I was young, I needed a lot of love and kept looking for it in the craziest places. I was like everyone, desiring to be loved. So I looked for a lot of it, plain and simple."

Marie is a hairstylist, mother, grandmother, author, and speaker who hopes to encourage others with a longing to heal their own broken, hole-riddled hearts.

What we talked about:

I grew up with Marie, and we had not talked to...

There’s a creative genius in you; in all of us! This is a remark shared by Izolda Trakhtenberg, this week's guest on Power Up Your Performance. Izolda T. is a speaker, author, podcast host, and innovator who leverages her years of experience as a NASA Master Trainer to help businesses tap and supercharge innovation in their workforce. Her message is all about empowering individuals and promoting collaboration as a way to solve problems at the personal, organizational, and global levels.

What We Explored:

We went over several topics revolving around communication, nurturing creativity, why collaboration is key (and how to go about it), creating a culture of innovation based on Izolda’s “3 Cs of Changing the World,” and more. It’s a conversation with a thing or two for parents, teachers, team leaders, and anyone in the workforce.

Working with NASA

Izolda: I worked for a program called GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the...

“You are worth building a beautiful life beyond just what you do day in and day out…Invest in yourself and your happiness…Do what genuinely makes you feel your best, routinely.”—Emma Ehrenzeller. 

Life is beautiful, but only if you tune your inner lenses to see it as such! You have a choice to either create the happy and purposeful life of your dreams or give in to the barrage of everyday pressures. It all comes down to the mindset you nurture.  

Emma Ehrenzeller is a life coach and the founder of Authenticity Remastered (aka. AuRem), which is a coaching program that offers “the strategy & structure to accelerate (or simply start) your personal growth journey.” She helps people work through negative self-talk, fear of uncertainty, and other internal conflicts that hold so many people back.  

In our conversation, we delve into a wide range of transformative topics—including body positivity, dealing with...

What should you eat? Eating is a basic human need—but one that has been twisted to seem overly complicated amidst the flurry of food misconceptions, contradictory information,  unsustainable fitness goals, and fad diets that are churned faster than you can keep up. The realm of nutrition is just so messy! But what if you could ditch the ever-growing list of diet rules but still eat healthily? Mallory Gonzales believes this is possible and her solution is as simple as, well, making nutrition simple. 

Mallory Gonzales is a registered dietitian with a Master of Science in Nutrition. She is also the head of nutrition at Kencko, which is a plant-based nutrition company that is on a mission is to help people get more organic fruits and vegetables in their everyday routine every single day through shelf-stable smoothies and...

Casey Edward is a Certified Life Coach, a Certified Yoga Instructor, and a firm believer that you can be happy AND successful, calm AND productive. She helps people live in the moment, learn how to say NO and get out of that place where they feel lonely and empty - so they can move on to relationships, work, and activities that allow them to lead their best, most fulfilling lives.

What We Talked About:

We covered lots of topics including: choosing your thoughts and the way you respond to situations, getting out of tough job or relationship situations, toxic positivity (and what that really means), and how to make tough life changes. 

 You Don't Need to Believe Every Thought You Have:

Casey: We think 70,000 thoughts a day, and I was believing every single one of them. And for me, it was, "You're not enough. You should lose weight. You aren't good enough to do that. Who are you to start a business?" And I was believing all of them, but if someone had just said, ...