Inspiring Lives with Penny Rackley

-- Click here to listen --   Are you stuck doing the same old things and getting the same old results? You probably already know what you need to do to be more gratified in your relationships, to have better health, to make more money, but maybe just can't find the courage or the wherewithal to make it happen? If fear or apathy are holding you back from the life you want, then this is your show. Together, with some introspection and private writing, we’re going to pinpoint the right risks for YOU, and avoid the awful poison of regret. Taking Risks: I’m here to tell you, other than trying those weird new Oreo flavors, I’m not much of a risk taker myself. No skydiving, not a racecar driver, no baccarat tables. I’m going to be the first one out of the lake and into the boat when a lighting storm starts. BUT at the same time, I acknowledge that in order to get some of the things we really want for ourselves -- enriching experiences and relationships and financial opportunities -- we have to be willing to take some risks. We don’t want to look up in five or ten or twenty years and say, If only I'd have tried this.…If I’d only found the courage or the energy to try that. So today, if you think you’re ready to take a little leap and make some positive changes, then stick with me. We're going take this time to define: - what risks are genuinely worth our effort - specifically how we’re going to get started - and when it's time to get up off the couch and really GO FOR IT Risk is Scary Of all people, I acknowledge that risk can be uncomfortable. Fear — of course — is the main thing holding us back from success. Fear of: change being wrong being different thinking for ourselves failure disappointing ourselves or other people revealing ourselves judgement or disapproval being hurt being vulnerable Sometimes we’re even afraid of success and the changes that might come with it. However, I don’t know where you’re at, but -- I'm 50! I've already come to the day when I'm regretting risks I didn't take, and opportunities that I didn’t have the guts to pursue. But if I don't get past my fears and take some risks, I'm going to AN OLD LADY WITH A WHOLE LOT OF REGRET. I don't want that, and I don't think you do either. A Little Confidence Before we set our brave new goals, let’s build our courage with some positive truth about taking risks. If you’d like a worksheet to write on, THE LINK IS HERE. For now, let go of the idea of your goals and the future and fears, and just think about your life. What are some of the risks you've taken that have really paid off in a big way? (Here I tell a personal story about a time I took a risk that paid off. I made a friend!) The point of this exercise is for you to remember a time in your life when you’ve had the courage to take a risk and then benefitted from it. Maybe you... Invested a 1000 in a stock you believe in Summoned the courage to ask for a raise Submitted a portfolio of your work Now’s the time for you to write out the chances you’ve taken. The ones that kind of make you feel like you won at life! Risks That DON'T Pay Off Let's identify the kind of risks that we don’t want to include in our writing — the kind that usually don’t pay off. When we take scary risks to fulfill our OWN life goals, we see immediate gains in confidence and life satisfaction, even if things don't turn out exactly as planned. But when we take risks, stick our necks out, for someone ELSE's goals, the risk seldom pays off. Risks like... ...taking the bar exam because your dad wants you to be a lawyer. ...putting your finances on the line to open a boutique with your sister because it's fulfilling HER dream. ...quitting a job that fulfills you, and retiring early because your kids say its time. As I’m sure you can imagine, these are the kinds of risks that aren’t necessarily going to pay off for you. So as you write out your goals and the risks they will require,

-- Click here to listen -- Do you use that fancy fitness tracker to genuinely improve your health -- or just monitor mediocrity? What kinds of trackers do the best job? How many calories should we be burning each week to maintain or even lose weight? In this podcast, champion bodybuilder and Serious Results fitness coach Adam Hammett teaches us how to get the most accurate information from our fitness trackers, and then what to do with that data to see real change. Charge up your tracker and get ready to learn from Adam! Aside from being an award-winning body builder (as in 2010 The Lone Star Classic), Adam Hammett is a fitness coach who teaches regular people like you and me how to build muscle and manage our weight. He’s exactly the guy we need to hear from, especially now that the bathing suits and the shorts are out, and everywhere we look there are tempting foods around — Oreos! Potato chips! All my favorites! I know that many of you received one of those fitness trackers — maybe for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, birthday, Christmas, and you may be using them, but, as Adam lovingly says, “Are you just tracking your mediocrity?” In this podcast, Adam helps us learn how to use these devices to actually improve our overall health. First, do we even need these trackers? Are they just a silly fad? No, they really are useful. The right fitness device can serve as a compass to help give us direction. Lots of times when we want to lose weight or improve our fitness, it’s like a needle in a haystack -- you’re not sure if what you’re doing is going to pay off, if it’s enough, you don’t really know. These trackers put finite limits on what you should and shouldn’t do. Do you have any favorites? Yes, the Apple Watch and the FitBit are popular, but we always stick with the Polar brand. It has a GPS built in for runners and cyclists. I like them better because they track your heart rate, which can make a big difference in your results. The step-counters like the Apple Watch and FitBit tell you how much you move, but they don’t tell you what’s really going on inside your body. For example, let's say my wife Debra and I go walking. My heart rate runs 120 beats per minute, which means I’m burning 10 calories for each minute. Her heart rate is at 70 beats per minute, so she’s only burning 4 calories. We’re going on the same walk. Without the data about what’s doing on inside your body, you might expect a lot more results for your effort than is really appropriate. That’s why I like the monitors that track your heart rate. But don’t the Apple Watch and FitBits monitor your heart rate? They do, but they’re not very accurate because they are monitoring at your wrist, and that can alter the results, especially if you’re moving your arms a lot, lifting weights or doing a step class. But accurately tracking the calories is important. One pound of fat has 3500 calories — you just can’t get away from that. So if you want to lose a pound or two a week, that’s 3500-7000 calories that have to be expended or eliminated, either by exercise or calorie restriction (meaning not eating — and no one likes that!). Get off your butt and do something! On the other hand, you need to know the amount of calories it takes to maintain your body weight, which is roughly your weight times ten calories. (So if you are a 120 lb. woman, that’s 1200 calories per day, plus whatever you burn exercising.) If you just want to maintain your body weight, the info from the gadget will give you direction on where to go and what your numbers should be looking like. This information can feel defeating if you don’t exercise — your weight times ten calories is not a lot of food! If we want to get leaner or healthier, we have to exercise, not just diet it away. This is where I comment that it’s not "fair" to be female. Adam weighs a muscular 230. So to maintain his weight, he can eat 2300 calories per day. Then on top of that,

  -- Click here to listen -- What is life coaching about, and why would I want to try it? Is it like therapy? How long does a session take? How many do I need? Why did you become a coach in the first place, and why do you think you're qualified for the job? I love to receive questions about coaching! In this podcast I answer some of the most common inquiries, and give a little background on why and how I became a coach. Coaching Q&A I've coached since 2011, and have worked with dozens and dozens of people over hundreds of hours. Some of the most common questions I receive are: Is coaching like therapy?  First, let me say that coaching is not therapy. They are similar in that both are confidential, professional relationships. But therapy oftentimes focuses on the past, on issues from your childhood, how you were raised, examines past wounds that you’ve suffered and the effects of those wounds on who you are today. It also addresses issues such as substance abuse and domestic violence. When I recognize a client is facing problems such as these, I always recommend a licensed therapist that is trained to delve into them. Instead of focusing on the past, coaching is about understanding where you are right now in your life, defining where you want to go, and helping you devise specific steps to get to that goal — whether it’s graduating from high school or college, successfully and peaceably attending a family reunion, finding a new and more gratifying job, negotiating life after a layoff or a divorce, or choosing when and how to retire. Again coaching is about defining where you are now, choosing where you want to go next, and then building steps to get you there. Here in the podcast (at 2:18) I share an example of coaching a college student through a decision point and next steps for his future. It was an exciting moment! The beauty of this example and all coaching is… I’m not your mom or spouse or roommate or your boss, I'm your coach. We don’t share an office or a 401K or a pantry or a bed. To me, your decisions are your decisions, your choice -- I'm a neutral third-party who has no preferences, judgments, preconceived ideas or opinions on what you should to do. My role to help you: outline your goal understand the implications and consequences (good and bad) of that goal to your future life determine the steps to you get there I'm an advocate and neutral sounding board who can help you think through your options and the potential outcomes of pursuing those options, get it all out on the table and look at it, without fear or judgment. What’s the first session like? It’s like dumping all your legos or blocks out on the table — your work life, your social life, your love life, your job, your family. We sort through whatever is weighing on you (meaning, I don't choose the topic, you do). Then we talk about the kind of life you want to build with those blocks. I’m not so concerned about what you’ve been or had or done in the past. My primary goal is to help you solidify your building plans for the future, and then to line out how to start construction on what you want. The next thing clients rely on me for is to help them stay true to their plans, their commitments to themselves. That might mean reminding them of deadlines or promises they’ve made to live in a different way from before. I will also pinpoints obstacles that you are putting in your own way, and help you determine if those obstacles can be moved or maybe even eliminated. I hold you accountable to yourself and yourself only. I'm not your boss’s coach or your neighbor’s coach or your spouse's coach. I'm really your advocate. How long does coaching take? Do I have to sign up for a specific number of sessions? Sessions usually last about an hour, and the number of sessions and the scheduling of those sessions is entirely up to you. Here (at 7:05) I describe some example coaching issues and a...

  — Click here to listen — Do you have difficulty enjoying your dog and keeping its behavior under control? How can we train our dogs with respect, understanding and some kindness? In this episode, Certified Dog Trainer Tod McVicker reveals the three things that matter most to dogs, and how we can effectively co-exist with them (without being a jerk). Tod is a certified dog trainer, and has been training dogs professionally for ten years. He has served on the board of directors for the International Association of Canine Professionals (IACP), and is currently one of their ambassadors. I asked Tod to visit with us, because I know that many of you have dogs and love your dogs, but also have some difficulty in controlling their behavior. If that sounds like you, then Tod is your guy, and in this podcast he shares some insights and hard-won experience that’ll help us. Tod came to our home and trained our dog a few years ago, and after just one meeting, he had all of us eating out of his hand. He really does train PEOPLE how to effectively co-exist with their dogs -- teaches them the appropriate expectations to have of themselves and their animals, helps clients understand more about the breed they’ve chosen, and he can even recommend a specific breed for your lifestyle. Here's a transcript of my conversation with Tod. What’s the most common dog training goal or problem that you see? "My dog is jumping on me, he won’t walk on the leash, he isn’t obeying me" — all this boils down to, “I’m not important to the dog. The dog isn’t mindful of me.” In these cases, you’ve got to become important to the dog. Dogs are amazing creatures, but we have to remember that they aren’t people, and learn what IS important to them. If we are in control of what’s important to them, then we will become important to them. -- Being important to your dog and your dog loving you are not the same thing. -- Your dog can love you to pieces, but not look to you for information. Your dog can look to you for information and not feel great about you. What we want is a dog that loves us and looks to us for information — who wants to engage with us, and does what we want it to do.  Here Tod notes that the ideas he shares in this podcast are not all his own original ideas, but ideas that he’s collected throughout his education and experience learning from many other professional dog trainers. Three things that are important to dogs  1. Who picks what activities we’re going to do, and when those activities stop and start There aren’t bad activities, only bad initiators. It’s a great idea for you to initiate a game of fetch, but if you’re on the couch watching TV and the dog’s over there hitting you with a ball, it’s not a great idea for you to engage in that. A great litmus test is to take the dog out of the equation and put an adult person in its place. If an adult person was sitting next to you and poking you or demanding you rub their back or something like that, would it be considered cute or rude? If it’s considered rude, then we need to treat it as a rude interaction.  -- I want to teach people to ask for some self respect and some space for themselves. -- What I want is a respectful relationship with the dog. I want to treat them with respect, and for them to treat me with respect too. Most of the dogs I meet are grownups — once a dog is one and a half or two years old, it’s an adult — so we should behave with each other as adults. What’s the main thing people do incorrectly with their dogs?  In terms of activities, they let the dog direct the activities. For instance, I’m on a walk and the dog's out in front of me and the dog decides, “We’re going to go to the left,” and pulls me along. Then the dog decides, “Oh this is a great tree for me to stop and read the pee-mail.” So the dog starts to smell, and I wait, and when the dog decides he’s done, he drags me along the road.

  — Click here to listen — — Click here for the Notes outline —    It can be very difficult for people who value harmony — those of us who like to get along — to say no, whether it's to our loved ones, friends or co-workers. In this podcast, I give some tips and strategies to help you know how to say no when you need to -- to your kids, your boss, all the tough ones. Because we don’t want to be doormats. And if we’re not willing to say no in the right times, our integrity, our self-respect and the respect of others go out the window. What do you value above getting along? Let's find out. ______________________ To begin, draw a square on your paper, or print this notes page. At the bottom of the square, write the words, Peace/Harmony/Getting Along. This is our values box. Be thinking about what you value above peace, or harmony, or getting along. Here’s an example: If you have a child, or have ever taken care of a child, I am willing to bet that you value their health and safety more than you value peace. I know this, because you’ve been willing to buckle them into a car seat! Just about all children dislike being in a car seat, and will argue to try and get out of being strapped into one. But no! We value their safety more than we value peace, so we’ll argue and wrestle with them until they’re safely buckled in. What else do you value more than peace and harmony? Maybe it’s sufficient alone time. Maybe it’s being truly known. Your integrity. Be thinking about that, and write it down in the values box, above Peace/Harmony/Getting Along. The Short Game - Reacting from Emotion The short game is when we react out of emotion instead of responding out of intention. When we want a quick fix — we want to feel better immediately. In the podcast, here I give an example from my life of when I played the short game and LOST. I didn’t have the courage to say NO when I needed to, and later regretted it, very much. In the heat of that moment, I pressured myself into choosing harmony over doing what I knew was right. Think about your own life, and on your paper write “My Short Game Examples”. Under that heading, write about some times when you should have said no, but instead you took the quick way out, the easy way out, went along to get along, and later regretted it. I hope over the next few days and weeks, I hope you'll continue to collect these memories, because acknowledging them will help you in the future. Look back at your notes, and think on these memories when you need the courage and inspiration to do what you know is right. The Long Game - Responding with Intention What we want to be working toward is playing the long game, that’s being willing to say no, with everyone watching. It's being willing to ruffle a few feathers, but responding with intention, and with our eye on the future and the eventual outcome of our decision. Here is give an example of when I played the long game. It was hard! But I’m still glad I stuck to my guns. Think about your own examples. Take some time to write to yourself about both — when you’ve given in to pressure, just to get out of feeling bad, and then suffered the consequences down the line, and then when you’ve played the long game, when you had the courage to say NO, and felt like you responded with intention, and with consideration for the future. Saying No - Power Points Your Values Box I hope you’ve been keeping track of your values, writing them down as you listen and think through the podcast. What do you value more than just getting along? In my earlier "long game" example above, I valued my health more than getting along, more than playing it cool. Maybe in your examples, you realize you value your alone time, or your education, or your children's educations more highly than keeping the peace. What do you care about and are willing to protect above and beyond just getting along? My hope is that you’ll develop this list,

— Click here to listen — Bleh! Who has time for illness? And don't you know, when the kids are sick -- we all get sick! In this episode, Nurse Practitioner and owner of Pediatric Health Partners, Kim Bookout shares her strategies for staying healthy through the end of flu season, updates us on the Zika virus, and tells us what kinds of supplements we and our children need most. ________________ My family and I met Kim when our boys were five and nine, and ever since that first visit, she’s been the health care provider we turn to whenever we need medical advice and information. Kim has helped us through the flu, strep throat, sports injuries and the terrors of adolescence, and she’s also been an enormous help to us in getting through a major illness with one of our boys.  But just as important to me as Kim’s considerable qualifications and experience, she is a kind, empathetic and trusted member of our little family village — one of the people we count on to help us live a healthy life. If I have a question about a medical issue, I ask Kim, and if she doesn’t know the answer, she’ll find it. And that’s why she’s here today -- to help us parents! Here is my interview with Kim. What made you decide to care for children as a career?  My mother says I was born with a baby in my hand! I always wanted to take care of kids — it’s been a lifelong passion, so from a very early age, I can remember making the decision to go into healthcare. I thought about being a physician, but I also wanted a family, and had to balance out how that was going to go. Being a nurse practitioner seemed to be the best of both worlds. It’s a good mommy job. She is the ultimate mommy. Sometimes I feel like she’s my mommy! Health in North Texas Here in the Dallas area, we really never got a winter this year. That’s a marker for us — parents usually can stop giving allergy medicines once we’ve had a good, cold, hard freeze. That’s when we get to ease up on things like asthma treatments. This year we didn’t see it, so the allergy sufferers are still having some symptoms, and taking antihistamines a little more quickly than normal. Typically we start them in late February, early March. This year we’ve been on them all winter. I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet. I think there still may be some cold weather that comes along. If you think about this time last year and the year before, we had ice storms in North Texas. Are we through the flu season for this year? The flu season got a really slow start. Based on 2014 numbers, we hit flu season pretty early. In December 2014, most of the ERs around town were full, a historical high. This year, Dallas county is reporting that only about 6% of all cases being tested come back as positive for flu. The last statistic we have on that is from February 6th. That means that the numbers on the people who appear to have the flu symptoms are testing as not having the flu — it’s some other viral illness 93% of the time. Is it too late to get the flu shot? It’s kind of a roll of the dice. We know that getting the flu shot does not give you the disease. It’s usually because there’s been a bad match for the vaccine, and the strains that are out in the community are actually different than the ones we captured in the vaccine. This year the vaccine was actually a better match. In last year’s vaccine, the H1N1 component was less stable when it got to warmer temperatures in shipment. So what they found was, if we keep it colder or if we change the strain to one that’s more hearty, then it will last longer. The flu vaccine is still available, but getting it now might be a little late. I don’t know that I would. If you became sick, and you feel like you have the flu, I always tell parents, if you need to be at work, then Tamiflu might be a good option for you. I don’t use it as often in low risk children and children who do not have comorbid diseases,

-- Click here to listen -- Every one of us is going to experience some hardship, disappointment, sadness. But after the dust settles, how quickly can you shake off that dark mood and get back to life? In this podcast, we'll learn and practice some specific exercises designed to build emotional strength, clarity and resilience. Based on Dr. William Larkin’s book Growing the Positive Mind, this episode will challenge you to recognize and take responsibility for your emotions, and teach you how to enjoy the work. ________________________ This podcast is about YOU — you (and me) feeling better. The desire to feel good drives just about everything we do, but it’s difficult to maintain any happiness if our emotions are out of control. Let’s say you get in a wreck on the way to work. You call the tow truck and the insurance people, and get those details taken care of, and you’re back safe in your office. How quickly can you get out of the dark, angry feelings that were drummed up during the accident, and get back to your day? Or maybe your child comes home with a bad report card, and after the lecture, and talking to their teachers, maybe hiring a tutor or setting a new curfew, how quickly can you let go of the sadness, disappointment, maybe even anger — and get on with life, with being a parent? It can be really difficult to shake negative emotions like these, but the fact is, for the rest of our lives there will be hardships. So after the initial upset, do you have the emotional stamina to get back to life? I’m here to tell you that we can be in charge of our emotions with a little bit of understanding and some work. Today, we’re going to learn some practical and proven techniques to strengthen and stabilize our inner voice, and we’re going to feel better for it. This podcast was inspired by a book that I think you’ll really love, Growing the Positive Mind, by Dr. William Larkin. If the exercises described in this podcast are helpful to you, I encourage you to buy the book. I was attracted to the book, because I think many of us struggle with allowing our negative emotions to be “in charge” of our lives. So when I read Dr. Larkin’s claim that we can control them, I wanted it to be true! For myself and for my clients, I want that ability. It’s so easy to play the victim to our feelings. We say things like: "My sister made me so angry." "The traffic ruined my day." "The weather completely wrecked the party for me." "I had a bad dream last night, and I’ve been in a terrible mood ever since." This kind of language puts our emotions out of our control, as though they just happen to us. It's as though we are their puppets, and we have to stay in those emotions and don’t really have any say over them. So, to get started, first we’re going to learn to hear and acknowledge our negative voice. That’s the voice in our heads that gives us the most insulting, soul-squashing, terrible advice. The one that shuts down our confidence. I call mine “Jenny”. She says things like: “You’re too fat to go to the gym; why even bother?” “Nobody wants to hear what you have to say; why don’t you keep your mouth shut?” “You’re not worthy, you don’t contribute, so why don’t you just stay on the couch. Nobody cares.” “What us up with that hair? You need to put a hat on it and stay inside where no one can see you.” Sounds harsh, but you have a negative voice too. It’s the one that tells you you’re usually wrong, that you should stay shut down and inside, hidden away from others. That's pessimism — the tendency to listen to our inner negative voice. Whether or not we indulge that voice can be an overwhelming factor in our personal success and achievement, and according to Dr. Larkin, our dark moods, our ugly self talk can be the greatest deterrent to us having well being and overall life satisfaction. It is also a lazy habit — to allow ourselves to sink back into that dirty couch of self-recrimination and unfair self-loathing.

-- Click here to listen -- Serious athletes and other highly- competitive persons understand that a little bit of flexibility creates resilience -- but how to get it? Boston marathon vet, certified running coach and certified yoga instructor Jennifer Wilford feels your pain (and tightness), and knows exactly how to work you through it. In this episode, Jennifer explains her unique approach: Bringing softness to foster strength and endurance. If you're an athlete or just a weekend warrior whose performance is limited by inflexibility and/or injuries, then you've got to meet Jennifer. ___________________ Yoga and running are two of my passions in life. I’ve run the Boston Marathon seven consecutive years. I started running and felt like it was an amazing, life changing activity for me, but realized that in doing so, I was getting pretty tight. So I took to yoga, and eventually decided I wanted to be an instructor. I am the least pretzel-like instructor, and my students tend not to be overly-flexible. I’ve merged the two — running and yoga — and have been able to bring it to anyone who wants to practice, but especially athletes who want flexibility, not only to their minds but their hamstrings as well. Jennifer really does come to yoga with the athlete’s perspective in mind. Jennifer's 2013 Boston Marathon experience -- the Bombing Boston is the Super Bowl of running! The city just wraps you up in a big hug. It’s like a professional sports experience for an amateur athlete. I was in 2013, and finished 49 minutes before the bombing. That was one of the major life changing events in my life. It showed me a lot in regards to the fragility of life and the things we take for granted. I finished the race, and staggered through the finish line. At the time, I thought that 2013 would be the last year I’d run Boston for quite some time. I was ready to foucs on teaching yoga and cut back on mileage, run a little less. I took a moment at the end, and actually looked back at the old South church near the finish line, and soaked in the colors and the experience and the crowd. It was a beautiful day, and I left on what I thought was a really high note. Later, back at my hotel, I received a text from my no-nonsense brother. It said, “Are you okay? If you’re downtown get the hell out of the city.” I had no idea what he was talking about. I’d been in the shower. At that point, I told my roommate, “I think we need to turn on the TV. I think something is wrong.” You’re so physically depleted at that point from having run that far, and then to emotionally experience such a tidal wave, to look at the coverage and to realize less than an hour before, I was down there with those people; it jarred me, because it took the things I held most true in my life -- running, big events, supportive people, humanity, all these gifts life can offer you -- and in a cloud of smoke it imploded. It was a personal thing at that point. I got home and immediately went to my son’s school and had lunch with him and gave him a huge hug, and felt so much gratitude. I think gratitude is a word that we kind of toss around in yoga, but it was a profound sense of being safe, being home, being with the people I love. It was a game changer. It gave me a chance to appreciate even more what I have in my life. How did that appreciation manifest itself in your life after Boston ’13? I decided that I needed to revisit Boston. I wanted to be part of the next marathon. I knew it was going to be healing, not just for the city, but for the runners that had been there, so I committed to maintaining a level of fitness that I needed in order to go back. -- At that point I think you begin to realize that a constant thing in life is change. -- Then you have to figure out how to best navigate it. Some of that change is catastrophic change. Some of it is little bits and pieces that happen every day. But sometimes the wave comes over and the sandcastle diminishes and how do yo...

-- Click here to listen -- Do you need to get a handle on your finances, but don't know where to start? Over the last few years, Certified Financial Planner Sean Kelleher has brought my family the peace of mind and freedom that comes from knowing the truth about our finances. He's helped us better understand our limits, what’s reasonable to spend (and what's not), how much to save and where is best to save it. In this podcast, Sean explains what to expect from a financial planner, how they get paid, and all the best questions to ask yourself and your prospective planner. If you're feeling at loose ends about your money, where it's going (and where it should be going), and how to make it last through the later years, then Sean is your guy. What do you mean limits? I don’t want any financial limits! We all have financial limits. We all wish we had unlimited money, and for that matter, everlasting health and beauty! We need to know what those limits really are. But examining spreadsheets and stocks vs. bonds to the level of detail it takes to get an accurate assessment of our finances is not my idea of fun. Sean and his partner Rhett are passionate about this stuff! That’s the kind of person you and I want advising us about money and budgets and investments. Here's what Sean had to say in our interview. I have always been interested in finance, since my first economics class in high school. I studied marketing in college, and later discovered that my interest was in financial planning. Witnessing clients hitting their financial goals, seeing their visions realized, inspired me to start my own firm with my best friend. Both of us have been practicing for 20 years now. The benefit to us is -- we don’t always know the result going in, but the possibilities are endless. I don’t know if maybe I helped a client send their kid to college, and that kid finds a cure for cancer — you just don’t know, and that’s the kind of thing that keeps us motivated. What is a “fee-only" firm? Fee-only means that we don’t earn any commissions or referral fees for the advice we provide. From a client’s perspective, they need to be comfortable with how their adviser is being paid. We felt that being fee-only was going to give us the most objective way to provide the best advice, and it really gives us the deeper client relationships we need to have the role we want with our clients. Let’s say you tell me to get life insurance and refer me to a provider. How much do you make off of that recommendation or referral? I don’t make anything. We don’t sell insurance. We will recommend an agent, but we don’t get paid by that agent. I’m working solely for you, my client. The nice thing about that is, if you look at all the different elements of someone’s financial life, there is an insurance component, an estate planning component, and advisers for all those components. But are any of them actually making sure that all of them are working together — seeing the overall plan? That’s what we do. (And that’s why I like them!) What are some of the most common financial challenges you see from clients? Not knowing how they’re spending their money. People don’t like budgets. They want to stick their heads in the sand. But it’s important! It should be our goal to spend money in line with our values. If you value travel but aren’t taking any vacations -- but are eating out all the time — then you need to ask yourself: Is eating out more important to me than travel? If vacations are what you value most, we have to know where else you’re spending your money, so we can make sure it’s going to what you really value. This kind of homework — knowing how much you’re spending and where — is integral to the planning process. I can’t tell you how much you’ll need in retirement if I don’t know how much you’re spending now. You really are bringing your clients the truth about their money, and we can’t have the truth without the facts. I tell clients,

-- Click here to listen -- Are you ready to feel better? If you’re looking for exercise that will improve your balance, your flexibility and strengthen your body as well as your mind, then meet Bethaney Pilat, Owner and Founder of Inspire Yoga Studios. In this podcast, Bethaney answers the most commonly-asked questions about yoga, tells newcomers what to expect from their first class, and fills us in on the benefits of this invigorating and life-affirming practice. _________ Many of us are looking for a way to get fit — especially in January, not to necessarily to compete in an IronMan competition or walk the red carpet, but just to be able to sit on the floor and play with our kids or grandkids, or maybe walk nine holes of golf with our friends, or get through a shift at work without being completely worn out.  That’s a rough place to be, to say, “I don’t have the mental or physical energy to do the things I want to do.” That’s like saying, "I’m not even healthy enough to try to get healthy.”  If that’s how you’re feeling, I’m really excited for you to meet my friend Bethaney, because she and her husband Adam have created a couple of places where everyone can feel welcome and encouraged to pursue their own health, in their own time, with their own individual abilities and disabilities. And all without judgement or competition or a scoreboard. Bethaney On How Inspire Yoga Studios Began Inspire is really a story of discovering connection. I was a new mom, struggling with postpartum depression. And I had lost my fire, my connection to myself. I felt like I really just needed to rekindle who I was. I loved being a mom — don’t get me wrong — but also felt like part of me had been lost along the way. I wanted to find that again. I had been a long time yoga practitioner prior to having my son, so I got back into the practice more seriously when I got to feeling a little bit better — when I felt I could get back on my mat again mentally and physically. When I started practicing again regularly, I began feeling sparks of that connection — of who I was — and I began feeling good again, like I could carry on and do more of what I was meant to do. With that, the practice gave me back what I needed in that moment, and I knew that, looking around, I wasn’t the only new mom out there. I wasn’t the only one who experienced postpartum depression. I wasn’t the only one who felt lost.  -- I knew that if I needed that sense of community and connection, there were hundreds of other people in my own neighborhood, in my own community who could benefit from the benefits of yoga as well. -- So I took it upon myself to create that place. I felt like I could create a space that other people could benefit from, as I would myself. And that’s what I set out to do. And that’s what she’s done! Brag Time I had to ask Bethaney about the awards Inspire Yoga has won over five years they’ve been in business, because it’s really kind of amazing that such a young business has seen such success. Bottom line, they’ve won Best of Denton County every year since opening, and Best of Flower Mound every year they’ve had the competition. And their teachers win Best Yoga Teacher awards year after year. So Bethaney, what’s your secret? Why are your studios winning and winning and winning? It’s obvious: It’s our teachers, and our students who feel like they’re in a wonderful place when they’re there. It just shines in every interaction you have with the people in the studios. I practice at Inspire three or four times a week, and I love all the teachers. They’re all highly trained and helpful, and the environment is open and accepting. Listeners, if you’re intimidated by the ‘gym experience’, then you need to give this a try, because it’s not a competition at Inspire Yoga. It’s an environment of acceptance, and most importantly, self-improvement. Our Questions About Yoga I’m not flexible! Can I do yoga at all? Absolutely! I tell students,