Jen:
Molly, welcome to the Mumsafe Movement Podcast. How are you? I'm so excited that you're here.
Molly Galbraith:
Hey Jen, thank you so much for having me. I am, you know, whenever people ask, how are you? I feel like especially for the last like several years since the pandemic, it's like you're like checking in with like all the parts of yourselves, you know what I mean? To like come up with the real answer because I don't like to be like fine, you know? So it's like I'm pretty good all things considered, you know? Like... I'm recovering from some really hard stuff. I am excited about a lot of things. I am feeling like life gets better by the day for the most part. I'm tired. You know what I mean? There's just like, there's kind of like all of the feelings going on, which I would imagine other people can relate to as well.
Jen:
all the layers and I do like the checking in first rather than just going yeah I'm fine so I think we're talking the same language. Let's kick off then with the way that I like to start the podcast with the three questions
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah.
Jen:
so please share with us your word around how you're showing up today which again it's a safe space and if it's been a shitty day for you not morning
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah.
Jen:
you can share that then we're going to win and something that you're working on.
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah, I think the most authentic word for like how I'm showing up today is probably recovering. You know, and that's like, I just spoke at a conference. I was telling him before we kicked off and I had terrible travel on the way there. I got stuck in an airport overnight for 12 hours. I got 37
Jen:
Oh my
Molly Galbraith:
minutes
Jen:
goodness.
Molly Galbraith:
of sleep. Yeah, my aura ring, it felt like it was trolling me. It was
Jen:
I've
Molly Galbraith:
like,
Jen:
got my, yeah.
Molly Galbraith:
hope you're feeling okay after 37 minutes of restless sleep Wednesday night, you know.
Jen:
Far out.
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah, so recovering from that recovering from a really big like work sprint. So we released a menopause coaching specialist certification back in June. So if I look at like, you know, the last several months leading up to that, and then I don't know if you heard, but my sister passed away really unexpectedly
Jen:
I did.
Molly Galbraith:
about a year ago and just shattered my whole world. So like really this whole year has been a year of like, healing and
Jen:
Mmm.
Molly Galbraith:
like recovery and just like You know, I mean, on the one hand, so present and grateful for what is, you know what I mean? And just so wildly sad and, you know, shattered about that. And so it's, yeah, it's just been, it's been a lot. It's been a roller coaster, that's for sure. So I would say recovery, recovering from the weekend, recovering from the last six months, recovering
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
from the last year has been, yeah, probably, probably how I'm showing up today.
Jen:
Yeah, thank you for being so honest. Yeah,
Molly Galbraith:
Hmm.
Jen:
yeah. Yeah, I just want to, I feel like I want to say sorry, but I don't want to say sorry about your sister. So I just want to acknowledge you sharing that with us
Molly Galbraith:
Hmm.
Jen:
and also what you've been through over the past year, which I can't even imagine what it's been like. So I just wanted to pause on that for a second. Yeah.
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And I appreciate you creating this space where I feel comfortable sharing that too.
Jen:
Thank you. Oh wait.
Molly Galbraith:
A win. Oh, I would say the menopause coaching special certification,
Jen:
Yeah.
Molly Galbraith:
huge win. It's something that is just so wildly needed. Girls Gone Strong exists in the industry because there was such a lack of education around women's specific topics. You know, pregnancy, postpartum,
Jen:
Mm-hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
exercise, diastasis, pelvic floor, pelvic health, right? There's also the PCOS and the endometriosis and the menstrual cycle and the- body image struggles and the diet culture. And then there's menopause, right? And when you think about, not only are women underrepresented and underserved, but the older we get, right, it feels like the more invisible we get. And so it's just been so amazing to see how many professionals were so excited about learning this information, how many women are feeling empowered by it. I mean, It's no surprise that one of the biggest populations of people who hire a coach or trainer are women over 40, right?
Jen:
Mm-hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
And menopausal symptoms can start for women at age 39, which I just turned 39 last month, right? So it's like I'm right there in it. And so I think being able to create that and have so many people care about it feels like a really big win.
Jen:
Yeah, congratulations on that. It's always awesome to watch what you guys are doing at Girls Gone Strong and what you're doing personally. So huge congratulations, because it's a big body of work.
Molly Galbraith:
Thank you.
Jen:
Yeah. And I kind of feel like that's what you'd be working on, but what's your working on right now? Like, does she need anything else, really? Yeah.
Molly Galbraith:
Yes, yes, yes. We are creating a bunch of new free five day courses, which is
Jen:
Amazing.
Molly Galbraith:
really exciting. So that's kind of always been our thing where we create five day courses about, you know, like micro topics or whatever that we think people might be interested in. One, because we're passionate about the accessibility of information. We don't want geographic location or finances to be a barrier to people being
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
able to access really high quality information for themselves or the women that they work with. And two, it also gives people just a little taste of the quality of the stuff that we do. So we've got a really great one coming out about menstrual cycle. I think it should be out in a couple of weeks. And then we've got another one related to nutrition and menopause. So how health and fitness professionals or women... could use nutrition to help combat some of the most common symptoms of menopause. So everything from brain fog to hot flushes to poor sleep and low energy to, you know, weight gain, things like that. So the things that really impact women at midlife, we talk about nutrition, like tips and stuff that they can use to help combat those symptoms. I'm super excited about putting those out into the world.
Jen:
Amazing, very, very exciting. Molly, I wanted to talk to you today, and I said this a little bit before we came on, is I always try and pin down one thing that I want people to kind of get from our conversation, and I really just could not do that for this one. So I'm gonna bounce all over the place around raising women up, talking about women in fitness, and also talking about business. But before we get to that point, could you tell us a little bit about your story what made you so passionate about working with women, what got you into the fitness industry, and also why you even wanted to build a business of your own.
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah, I can do that. So I gotten to health and fitness. It's been over 19 years now, which is pretty wild.
Jen:
Wow.
Molly Galbraith:
So I started. Yes, I know I'm coming. I'm in my 20th year. So I got started personally at the beginning of 2004. Very quickly, I started having kind of a physical transformation. And so other people started asking me for help with their nutrition and exercise. And of course, I was like a 19. you know, 19 year old like fitness fanatic, like all over fitness forums. This was before social media was even a thing, right? Literally
Jen:
Yep.
Molly Galbraith:
all over fitness forums and people are reaching on asking for my help. And I'm like, well, I'm not a trainer, but like, I can tell you what's working for me. Right? So truly, like as soon as I started, as soon as I got into fitness, I started coaching, even though I didn't know that it was coaching at the time. And even though I was like, super unqualified to do it, right. I just started being like, well, hey, I would say I'm not a coach and I won't charge you, but like, here's what I'm doing. Here's my workout. Here's what I'm finding is helping with my nutrition, things like that. So almost instantly I started having people ask for my help. And within a few years I did become a coach and start coaching clients online and in person. But that was 2004. And like most women, I started working out because I wanted to quote unquote, get in shape. I wanted to feel more comfortable in my body. I wanted to... I was already like lethargic and sluggish at 19. I was like, this is not what I want for my life. So I started working out, started dating a guy who was a trainer shortly after that, and got thrust into the world of pretty intense exercise really quickly. So I was competing in figure competitions and powerlifting. I was reading everything that I could get my hands on about coaching. I was going to seminars, I was reading books. There weren't so many online courses at the time, but I was reading tons of blog posts and articles and things like that. And like I said, attending conferences and mentoring or working with mentors. So kind of apprenticeship under training underneath really smart coaches and physical therapists. And I realized after a few years, like, there's almost no one talking about all of these women specific topics that are impacting myself and my clients. So again, everything from you know, pregnancy and postpartum to by that time, I had been diagnosed with Hashimoto's and polycystic ovary syndrome, issues with my adrenals. I had pelvic floor dysfunction. I started having incontinence when I was a seven-year-old gymnast, right? It had been impacting me basically my whole life. A diet culture, I mean, I developed terrible, disordered eating habits and just like really deep body image struggles and shame and comparison and self-doubt and guilt and all of these things. pretty like in the first several years of my fitness career and nobody was talking about them.
Jen:
Mm.
Molly Galbraith:
And so myself, I was struggling with these things, my female clients were struggling with these things. And so in 2011, about seven years into my career, I co-founded Girls Come Strong. And the idea was that we would be a hub initially for like celebrating women and strength and women specific topics. And in the last 12 years, we've evolved into basically the world's largest platform providing evidence-based interdisciplinary women's specific health, fitness, nutrition, pregnancy, and menopause education to women and the professionals who work with them. So it was really like so many of us who create things to solve problems, right? They were born out of my own problems that I was solving where I couldn't get the help that I wanted. I couldn't get the training to help my clients. And so, yeah, it was really just about identifying a big gap in the industry and saying, okay, well, and I don't... Certainly, there's no way I could have anticipated what Girls' Guns Run was gonna become, but I have ADHD and so I'm very impulsive. So when I see something, I'm like, well, yeah, I wanna start a website. Well, yeah, I wanna open a gym. Well, yeah, I wanna start a Facebook page called Girls' Guns Run. Right, so I really didn't even think it through. It wasn't like I had this big grand plan.
Jen:
Mmm.
Molly Galbraith:
It was like, here's this problem and like I can do something about it maybe. And so that's kind of, you know, I say that I had the audacity and naivete to start a business back in, back in 2011 that has become Girl Sounds Strong.
Jen:
which is absolutely fantastic because often these things don't get started if we have the foresight of what they could look like or how hard it could potentially be along the way. I picked up something you said around disordered eating being within the first couple of years of you entering the industry, which I always find a fast and I can relate to the same exact same story. I got a personal trainer. I you know, it was all about he, I still can't remember if I told him I wanted to lose weight or whether he decided that was my goal. So then it became all about measurements and, you know, eating, like I got advised to eat half a sandwich for my lunch instead of the whole sandwich and to pick the yogurt with the least calories and all that kind of thing. Yet, probably at that period of my life, I got the most praise because again, potentially like yourself, my body changed. I did lose weight, but I don't know, like. It still fascinates me today how a lot of us, our kind of age of women entered the industry, entered disordered eating, got praise for it, decided to help other women, but we were still helping them when we still didn't have our own shit together. I don't know if there's a question in that, but I don't know if you wanna talk to that.
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah, yeah, totally. That's that's so super resonates me resonates with me, especially because I got my start kind of in the figure community. So, you know, figure there's like, there were at the time there was like figure and bodybuilding. And since then, they've started a bikini division and a physique division, but they've had to do that because the physiques keep getting more extreme, right. And so So I got my start doing these really extreme diets. At one point, I was on a 900 calorie a day diet for 16 weeks doing two hours of cardio. I am almost six foot tall and 170 something pounds. So what is that? Like 80 kilos or whatever for my Australian friends. And I was eating 900 calories a day. And I ended up, that's part of the reason I think, my doctor said she thinks I was predisposed to Hashimoto's and PCOS and essentially,
Jen:
Mm-hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
I my genetics, like, this is not the best term, my genetics loaded the loaded the gun, the stress pulled the trigger, right? Like that's essentially what she thinks happened there. And yeah, my eating was wildly disordered until 2013
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
when I remember I had hired a fitness coach and he had been, because my weight had been fluctuating and I was like, I just have to hire a coach and I just need to get, if I just get lean, it'll fix everything, right? And so. I was looking through, he gave me this meal plan and I was sending him pictures, progress pictures. I remember one week, my weight didn't change. I looked down at my meal plan and he had taken away my avocado at dinner. I started crying. I was like, is this what I want for my life where some dude two states over looks at a picture of me in a bikini and tells me I can't have avocado with my dinner? No, this is not what I want for my life, for my one wild, true, beautiful life. This is not it. you know, and so at that point I was like, I'm not doing it anymore. I'm not
Jen:
Mm.
Molly Galbraith:
dieting. I'm not going to obsess about how I look. And it was really, I'm going to eat whatever I want, you know, and for the first two weeks, whatever I want was pizza and cookies and cake and ice cream, whatever. Right. But eventually that's not really what, you know, what our bodies want for the most part. And so I kind of went on this little spree and then I was like, I just started incorporating, um, improved nutrition habits. And over time, gained nutrition skills, right?
Jen:
Mmm.
Molly Galbraith:
So it's not just about the habits, it's about having the skill to navigate, like eating in the context of our real lives. And so I started like slowing down and tuning into my hunger and fullness and like realizing that hunger is not an emergency, right? And that it's okay, like I don't have to, you know, I don't have to like dive face first into a bag of chips or if I'm hungry, like I can surf that and then I can eat when it makes sense, right? When it's time and I can prioritize protein and vegetables and like. I can have pizza and salad for dinner, right? It's not this either or. And so, yeah, so the disordered eating, you know, there's a 2008 study of, or a 4,000 women, a survey conducted by UNC, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Self Magazine here in the US. And of the 4,000, over 4,000 women, 75% reported engaging in disordered eating behaviors. So if people aren't familiar, there's normal eating behaviors and there's clinically diagnosable eating disorders across the spectrum right in the middle or disordered eating behaviors and that's obsessing about weight, cutting out food groups, call it, you know, without a medical or religious reason,
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
calling foods good or bad, being anxious about, you know, your food, compensatory eating or exercise. So feeling like if you eat a certain amount, you have to make up for it, right? Or if you did a hard work that you deserve to eat this particular way. And so I mean, and all of that just sounds like the fitness industry, right? Like it literally, it's glorified
Jen:
Really? Yeah.
Molly Galbraith:
by, truly it is glorified by all the different areas of the fitness industry. It's called cheat meals and clean food and, you know, bad food and let you know, and trainers punishing their clients if they see them eating a burger on social media and, you know, diets that cut out entire food groups or, you know, and so yeah, it's just, that is the fitness industry. They glorify that. And I think we're seeing a bit more of a shift in the last five to 10 years, which is really nice, but it was really rampant. I would say when you and I got in the industry so many years ago.
Jen:
It was huge. And I do think we are moving in the right direction. I also always have this awareness though that my bubble is moving in the right direction and is the wider fitness industry moving in the right direction?
Molly Galbraith:
That's
Jen:
Yeah.
Molly Galbraith:
fair. I always think about like GGS like yeah, like we're in this bubble and like when I peek out from behind the curtain, I'm like,
Jen:
like,
Molly Galbraith:
I don't
Jen:
oh
Molly Galbraith:
want
Jen:
my
Molly Galbraith:
to go
Jen:
god,
Molly Galbraith:
out there.
Jen:
keep me away. But then we have to go, well, how do we get out there more? And how do we infiltrate, I think that's the right word, infiltrate
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah.
Jen:
the areas that create lasting change? And I do believe that both what you're doing and what I'm doing are creating lasting change on a level. But I feel very passionate about the fact that there's... levels and I will say potentially above us or to the side of us. Like I think we've got these armies of trainers and people going you know what this is how we need to do things but there's definitely the other areas of the world whether it's the government, big brands, I talk about RTOs a lot, I talk about big box gyms like what is happening there. So what would you say, I mean we talked a little bit about some of the change but what What would you say that, whether it's about body image or anything else, what else do we need to be doing? Like what else pisses you off? Ha ha.
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah.
Jen:
And we've got the
Molly Galbraith:
How
Jen:
next hour
Molly Galbraith:
about,
Jen:
if we wanted to stay on this topic.
Molly Galbraith:
I know we've got time. I know. I'm like, I'm like, I have ADHD and a microphone and a lot of passion. So how much, how much time do we have? Um, I, you know, truly, I think it's the idea that women are a niche or a special population.
Jen:
Mmm...yep.
Molly Galbraith:
That is just like, I mean, we make up 51% of the population. We make up 67 to 75% of people who hire a coach or trainer. And
Jen:
Yep.
Molly Galbraith:
yet, whether it's pregnancy or postpartum or our menstrual cycles or going through menopause, like menopause can impact women's lives, like symptoms for up to 20 years.
Jen:
Mmm.
Molly Galbraith:
And it's like, on average, you know, perimenopause lasts four to eight years, but it can be longer for some women. It starts between ages 39 and... and 51. And I think the average age of menopause, at least in the US, is 51. And then symptoms can impact women's lives after that for about 10 years. So it is possible that some women will start experiencing menopausal symptoms in their late 30s and earlier if they have surgical menopause or ovarian insufficiency or whatever. It starts then and it lasts for 20 years. And 73% of women never, they report never seeking help for their symptoms. And I was talking to my partner the other day because he was asking me some questions about the different symptoms that women experience. And I was like, it goes from literally like our brains to our boobs, to our bones, like to every part of our body. Like truly it can start with brain fog and anxiety and depression and mood swings and cognitive changes to like increased cardiovascular risk, increased muscle tension, increased risk of breast cancer. changes in where we store our body fat, so increased abdominal fat, even if weight or body composition isn't really changing, muscle loss, bone loss, strength loss, power loss, increased risk of falling, digestive changes, constipation, diarrhea, IBS, changes in vaginal tissue, painful sex, dryness. It's ridiculous. The
Jen:
Mm-hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
list goes on and on and on and on. And the fact that women feel like they have to navigate, hot flushes, low energy, poor sleep, cravings, the fact that women feel like they have to navigate this on their own, and just the number of times that I think women feel alone in their bodies and their experiences because there's so much shame around what's happening, whether they're painful periods or heavy periods or postpartum depression or leaking urine or the hot flushes and the poor sleep and the low sex drive cognition changes where women literally are afraid they're getting dementia or Alzheimer's like that a number of times women feel alone in their experiences and their bodies when they're so wildly universal because we treat them like treat us like a nitro special population Really pisses me off
Jen:
that you went into, because when you were talking about menopause, I'm like, and then what about the women that started in teenage, their teenage years leaking because they were athletes and then they, they moved through, they had painful sex, maybe they've got a hypertonic pelvic floor, recurring UTIs, then go into pregnancy postpartum, don't know what happened to them and then they're fucking hit with perimenopause and menopause. And it's just like, where did it start? And it never ends.
Molly Galbraith:
Yep, it literally never, I believe 50% of women in post-menopause experience incontinence and up to 19% of women in the US will have surgery for pelvic organ prolapse or incontinence by the time they're 85. And this hit home for me, my mom came to visit me, it was about maybe a year and a half or two years ago, and she started, she's in her 60s,
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
post-menopause, she started, she was really active growing up, especially when I was young, she took me to the gym with her all the time. She was, she taught
Jen:
I saw
Molly Galbraith:
two
Jen:
that post,
Molly Galbraith:
90s.
Jen:
was it yesterday
Molly Galbraith:
Yes,
Jen:
or a couple
Molly Galbraith:
yes.
Jen:
of days ago? Yeah, so good.
Molly Galbraith:
She taught two 90 minute aerobics classes back to back with a 10 minute smoke break in between, which is the most, at least in the US, that's the most 80s like fitness thing ever, like with the thong, thong leotard and the tights and the belt and the buzz cut. So anyway, she was really active then and then her activities kind of fluctuated throughout
Jen:
Mm.
Molly Galbraith:
the years. But when the pandemic hit, she started walking a ton. And about a year and a half or two years ago, she was having her current UTIs. And she was like three or four months in and nothing was working. And she was at my house and she was kind of like limping around and she was having a hard time getting a comfortable position. And she was like, it just feels so heavy. And I was like, heavy? And she's like, yeah, it just feels so, and she was just like kind of clutching her pelvis and she's like, it just feels so heavy. And I was like, mom, has anybody mentioned like the possibility of something called pelvic organ prolapse? And she's like, will know. And I was like, when
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
you get home, I really want you to talk to your doctor about that. And she ended up going to the doctor, seeing a pelvic health physio, being diagnosed with pelvic organ prolapse. I think what happened was, she had five pregnancies, she had two miscarriages, she had three vaginal births, and then was super active after that without ever doing any specific rehab or recovery, and then goes through menopause. tissue changes, right? And then she starts walking all the time. So all of a sudden her body goes from being somewhat sedentary to walking like five miles a day. And I think just the increased, you know, pressure down, downward pressure on her pelvic floor from
Jen:
Mm.
Molly Galbraith:
just this big jump in activity and, you know, not, you know, not realizing that she's post menopause, that, you know, I don't think she got any help in terms of like menopause hormone therapy or anything like that. And so long story short, she was diagnosed with pelvic organ prolapse. And luckily she had a great pelvic health physio who was able to help her. return to activity and get stronger and heal. But when we were talking about it, she's like, oh yeah, well, your grandmother had, she's like, I had to take her for bladder sling surgery when she was like in her seventies or whatever. I was like, what? I had no idea. And I'm like, okay, so two women in my family, right? Because certainly there's going to be some genetic components to some of this stuff as well. Like, oh, I started having incontinence when I was seven. That makes sense. You know what
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
I mean? Like for a lot of different reasons, right? There's a lot of things that can affect pelvic floor health. But yeah, just the fact that I didn't know that about my grandmother. You know, my mom was seeing these professionals and no one even mentioned this as a possibility. And so it's just, yeah, just the fact that women just suffer in so
Jen:
Mm.
Molly Galbraith:
many ways in silence and just either don't bring it up with their healthcare provider or if they do, somehow they're still not getting that information. So another thing that pisses me off is
Jen:
Bye!
Molly Galbraith:
just the lack of interdisciplinary education,
Jen:
Yes.
Molly Galbraith:
right? That's so big. That's why for all of our education we bring together. OBGYN, the medical doctor, the public health physio, the strength and conditioning coach, the registered dietician, the psychologist, the molecular biologist, the behavior change expert, the woman with a PhD in women and gender studies, and bring them all together. It's so fun and interesting selfishly for me to watch them duking it out in the comments of our Google Docs. Well, this isn't what I'm seeing in my clinic or this isn't how we do it in Australia. You must be in the US or whatever. Just like... watching everybody talk through all this stuff and then being able to provide all the context for coaches and equipping them with the education they need to understand that even the things that are outside their scope of practice,
Jen:
Mm-hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
that they're on the front lines of these conversations with their clients more than any other member of their healthcare team. So even if treating, you know, disordered eating or eating disorders is outside their scope, even if, you know, diagnosing and treating pelvic floor dysfunction is outside their scope, like they need to know and be knowledgeable about and recognize. what their client might be struggling with, and then refer them out to the appropriate healthcare provider.
Jen:
Absolutely, we become the connectors, don't we? I think that's such a big role of us as exercise professionals. Thank
Molly Galbraith:
Mm-hmm.
Jen:
you for sharing your story about mum and hi Molly's mum if you ever listen. I'm glad you've now been looked after. I do,
Molly Galbraith:
Yes.
Jen:
I like that story because it's an example of what, and I'm always very aware of not scaring people because our work is not to create fear, our work is to empower, but when we hear stories like that, it shows us what. may happen down the track if we're not aware and if women aren't educated. So I think stories like that are incredibly empowering. And then the other thing I picked up on was the, I love how you got, you bring together the multidisciplinary approach inside the education you create. And I think that needs to flow through. So one of the things that pisses me off is how that is not happening in the real world. and how we help our trainers to go out, or we empower our exercise professionals to go out and go, okay, well, I wanna speak to your obstetrician if it's necessary. And I wanna speak to your allied health. And has your allied health practitioner spoken to your obstetrician? Maybe you've got a hypertonic pelvic floor. Maybe we need to have a conversation about the delivery, but it's not my scope of practice. So really they need to speak to each other. Yeah.
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah, it's just wild how that ball is being dropped in so many different areas of health and fitness. And that's why, I mean, truly I feel like as health professionals, we have the best job in the whole world, you know
Jen:
Hmm
Molly Galbraith:
what I mean? We can truly have so much ability to help our clients feel strong and confident and empowered in their lives and bodies. We can help them. not just add years to their life, but life to their years. You know what I mean? It's just like, we have so much opportunity to do that. They might come to us for the weight loss or whatever, and it's like, that's cool. We can help them reach those goals, but it's like, we can whack them with the empowerment and the confidence and the education and the whatever. I always joke like that about GGS. They come to us for squats and fat loss or whatever,
Jen:
Squash
Molly Galbraith:
and
Jen:
some
Molly Galbraith:
it's
Jen:
London.
Molly Galbraith:
like, we
Jen:
Yeah.
Molly Galbraith:
whack them with all... Yeah, exactly. We whack them with all the other stuff, but they didn't even know they needed maybe when they got here. Yeah, I just, I truly think we have the best job in the world in terms of how much we can positively impact our client's lives,
Jen:
Absolutely.
Molly Galbraith:
all within our scope of practice.
Jen:
Why do you think other industries, I think our industry is very, or maybe again, our bubble of the industry is very open to collaboration. Why do you think that, I mean, to me it's like allied health medical. I mean, there are some, especially in Australia or in Australia, there are some obstetricians that now have pelvic health physiotherapists in their practices, which I think is amazing, but why do you think that's just not being done?
Molly Galbraith:
You know, in my experience, coaches and trainers specifically, so people who identify as a personal trainer or a strength coach or a nutrition coach or health and wellness coach, tend to just be very growth minded and
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
personal development oriented. You know what I mean? We're just like constantly seeking to improve, whether it's going to therapy or... looking for ways that they can level up in their personal lives and their growth and development. At least again, that's my experience and the people that I spend my time around. Maybe that's who we tend to attract. But I think, so I think there's that, we tend to be growth minded, personal development oriented and just like open to like always getting better because we, there are so many lessons from the world of strength and conditioning or personal training that apply in all of these other areas of our lives. And so it's like, like getting 1% better every day and like compounding small habits and skills over time and like Seeing you know where we are now and learning how to set You know behavior-based goals or whatever and build the skills to get where we want to be And so I think just in general we tend to attract people who are you know, think that way maybe More than I don't know like medical school or I don't I don't know that for certain. It's just kind of what i've seen So I think there's that. And then I think truly we encounter our clients having so many struggles that we're like, oh, I like I want to help you get better or hey, this is impacting your ability to get results in the gym. And so we're seeing like, there's this piece missing that like, maybe I could do a little bit with but there, you know, I need to have this relationship with this other person. So truly, I think when you spend three hours a week with someone versus a doctor who sees them 15 minutes
Jen:
Mm-hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
once a quarter, you know, like you get to know them and you care about them and you know their lives and you know their struggles and their hopes and their dreams. Doctors like, okay chart, yep, uh-huh, okay, great. And your name's Jen again, you know what I mean? You're just like, ugh. So I think, not to hate on doctors
Jen:
No.
Molly Galbraith:
by any stretch of the imagination.
Jen:
Yep.
Molly Galbraith:
They have impossibly hard jobs that I can't wrap my brain around, but they get eight minutes. You know what I mean? They get eight minutes with their patients when they see them. And learning how to communicate with a... medical professional is a
Jen:
Mmm.
Molly Galbraith:
skill. And so we try to teach our coaches how to teach their clients to communicate with their doctor. Like I don't, you know, I don't know how many personal trainers will talk to their client and they're like, is there anything going on that you want to tell me about? They're like, no. And then you find out later they've had this surgery and they've had that surgery and they've had this illness and that else. They just don't think to share that stuff with you, right? Or they're not comfortable sharing it with you. So we try to, so the doctor can only work with what the patient sharing with them. And if you know, they, they don't feel comfortable sharing it or whatever the thing is, and they can't get the help that they need. So like, for example, in our menopause certification, we give our coaches like a one sheeter that they can give their clients where they write down, they track some of their most troublesome symptoms, right? When they're happening, what's happening, you know, they have food and symptoms journals to try to connect like, is it something that I'm eating or the alcohol that I'm drinking or my coffee or whatever that's making these things worse? And then they have this one page or when they walk into their doctor, they can say, hi, I think I'm in... perimenopause, here's what's been happening with my cycle, here are the symptoms I'm having, here are the top two things that are most important to me that I want help with. And my mom had breast cancer and my aunt had skin cancer, you know what I mean, or whatever the thing is, and then they can just hand it to them. So
Jen:
That's fantastic.
Molly Galbraith:
like, yes, but like even communicating with the professional is a skill that has to be developed, right? So I think there's a lot of different stuff to it. I think professionals who don't get that much time with their clients or patients makes
Jen:
Mm.
Molly Galbraith:
their job really difficult. Patients or clients who don't have the skills to communicate, like what problem they're trying to solve and what they're struggling with, makes it really hard on that professional. So I think we have an advantage in a lot of ways that we get to spend so much time with our clients and get to know them so well. And then again, we, we as trainers have to understand communication and communication skills so we could work with our clients on those. So I think we have a lot of advantages that other professionals don't in that way.
Jen:
I agree. I do think there's a lot of exercise professionals that feel like they maybe don't know enough to create those relationships with the medical and allied health professionals. What would you say to exercise professionals that feel that?
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah, I mean, that might be true. And also, it's still your best option to say, like, you know, contact the pelvic health physio and say, Hey, I'm a personal trainer. I'm learning a lot about pelvic health and pregnancy and postpartum. There's a lot that I don't know. But if I have a client who seems to be having some issues, like if you know, is it okay if I refer them to you? And then if you, you know, can communicate to me, like, what's okay for them to do and like, maybe what's not or some changes that I could make to their program, like I'm more than happy to do that. But I think like any, any knowledgeable professional is going to like, totally respect someone who says like, here's what I know, and here's what I don't know.
Jen:
Hmm
Molly Galbraith:
I think it's when you try to pretend like you know something that you don't that they that you're less trustworthy, right? And so I think just saying like, Hey, I'm learning about this. And like, this is important to me, like, would you be okay, if I started referring my clients to you, and you can refer patients to me, or if you want to wait until I'm a little bit more knowledgeable, or whatever, that's fine. Or if you could look over my clients program and show me where some of the things are that might not be the best fit for her. That would be helpful in helping me learn, you know? So I think just being really honest and then just continuing to educate yourself. I mean, that's why, you know, I know you provide a ton of education. That's why we have the articles and free courses that we do at GGS. Like there's always going to be more to learn. And at the same time, it's not trying to set up that relationship with them now is only going to do your clients at this service.
Jen:
Absolutely. I think once as a trainer, you get your head around one, you don't need to know everything. Like being that connector is really important and two, asking questions because I truly like for myself, it's like the more I know, the more I just go, holy fuck, I know nothing about this stuff anyway. So I may as well ask the question and go, hey, can you please tell me more about that
Molly Galbraith:
Mm-hmm.
Jen:
so I can learn during this process as well?
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah, and I literally will be like, explain it to me like I'm in kindergarten, you know,
Jen:
Exactly.
Molly Galbraith:
like, if they if they say something to you, because we have the curse of knowledge, like, I was just talking, I presented this conference this past weekend, and I was talking about language that we're using when we're coaching and queuing clients. And I had this client many years ago, and I trained her for about two or three months. And I said something about glutes. And I like touched my bum, right. And she goes, Oh, that's
Jen:
haha
Molly Galbraith:
what glutes are. I've been wondering this whole time. And she's like, everything you've said makes so much more sense because we have, you know, as professionals, we have the curse of knowledge, right? And the same thing can happen with pelvic health physios or OB-GYNs or whatever. So they explain it to you and you still don't understand, say, hey, I really want to get what you're saying. Can you back it down a little bit and explain it to me like I'm in first grade or whatever? And then they'll be like, oh, yeah, okay, that's right. You might not know all of those words, you know? And so just help them, you know, kind of. Don't be afraid to let them know that you want to understand and ask them to bring it down to your level.
Jen:
I love that. I think the biggest thing on that is I want to understand what you're saying and that straight away engages the other person because you're not just standing there and nodding. Yep.
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah, totally. 100%.
Jen:
I want to change a direction a little a little bit. Although I'm like, I can ask all these questions around pelvic health and all that kind of stuff. I'm not going to. I want to talk about women supporting women. Now, I know that you've got a background of stories around, or your story around where not enoughness showed up for you very early in childhood. But I mean, you can share that if you'd like to, but also when do you think that starts for, if someone doesn't have the same story, like you cruise through primary school and everything's okay, and then all of a sudden, like.
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah, yeah. You know, yeah. So like you said, I kind of have some stories of being bullied and stuff when I was a little bit younger and just feeling like I didn't quite fit in. And, you know, we didn't have a lot of money growing up and I didn't have the cool clothes and it, you know, took me for, I didn't try that for the cheerleading squad three times and never made it. And I was all quirky and weird and, uh, quote unquote weird. And I had probably undiagnosed ADHD. And so, you know, and so, um, yeah, I just really didn't feel like I fit in for a long time. And it felt like other girls and women were my comp. for basically everything,
Jen:
Mmm.
Molly Galbraith:
whether it was like the cute boy or the cool clothes or the spot on the cheerleading squad. And I have multiple stories of where literally like, I didn't get something because another woman got it, right? Like I tried out, tried to be part of this like elite kind of like lifting team at one point. And literally they said, sorry, Molly, you're great, but we just brought on a woman like you, right? And so it was just kind of this
Jen:
One
Molly Galbraith:
over
Jen:
woman.
Molly Galbraith:
and over
Jen:
Ha ha
Molly Galbraith:
again.
Jen:
ha.
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah, exactly. We just brought one woman like you so we don't need any more women, we're kept. right? I know, I know. And so, yeah, so I had all of those stories. But for women that don't get those stories, you know, I think there is still so much societal influence. And
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
like, obviously, I, you know, you're in Australia, I'm in the US, I can only speak to like, you know, my experiences here. But like you said, so often, there will be, you know, one girl who makes it or was like one girl who makes it on the, you know, the debate team or you'll go to a conference and there's 10 guys and there's one woman speaking, right? And it feels like, well, there's only one spot for women. So if she has that spot, then there's not a spot for me, right? And we see, we're so underrepresented in everything from business to government, you know, politics to leadership, that we truly think that we have to duke it out with one another for the limited spots available instead of believing that. we can create a world where there's enough room for all of us, right? It's like Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a really famous Supreme Court, US Supreme Court justice, and somebody said, when will there be enough women on the US Supreme Court? And she said, when there are nine, and there are nine justices on the Supreme Court, right? And so people were shocked by that. They're like, you don't want it to be half? And she's like, nobody thought anything when there were nine men on the court, right? And so it's like when there are nine, like it's like you can't even envision a world, right? Where all of this US Supreme Court justices are women because just barely eking it out to get a little bit has seemed like enough or the right amount, right? And so I think it's been, gosh, probably the last like 10 years or so when I was just like, I'm not gonna play that game anymore. You know what I mean? I'm not gonna play that game. And so even if other people, cause like I don't wanna, we hear these things that like, women are catty and girls are mean and women are bitchy and they tear each other down and stuff. And I believe that some women have those experiences
Jen:
Mm.
Molly Galbraith:
100%. I believe in that and I want to validate that. And I believe it doesn't have to be that way. I believe it is a scarcity mindset set up by a false construct that there's only so much for women and we have to duke it out for like the little scraps of the pie that are left. Right. And so I think what you've done with your business, what we've done with girls, we've been like, no, no. Like we're going to envision something different. We're gonna build a new table. Instead of fighting for like one or two seats at that bullshit table, we're gonna build a new table and leave room for everybody to pull up a seat. And so yeah, I just think, and I think that when we behave that way and like very authentically show up in our lives that way, then we start to attract other people like that. And I know for me and my friends and my family members, We've evolved together in this way. My best friend of 25 or six years, we had our catty moments, we had our fight over the boy, he's mine, yell at each other, get mad. We had that stuff
Jen:
Hehehe
Molly Galbraith:
early in our, and we have evolved so far past that.
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
We used to do the gossip, talk shit about other women, meh, can you believe she was wearing that? Who does she think she is? She thinks blah, whatever. Did you hear about so and so and what she did with this guy? You know, we had that and we've evolved past that, right? And so, but we had to be those women for each other to become those
Jen:
Hmm,
Molly Galbraith:
women. Does that make sense? And
Jen:
that
Molly Galbraith:
like
Jen:
makes
Molly Galbraith:
to
Jen:
complete
Molly Galbraith:
start to
Jen:
sense.
Molly Galbraith:
attract, start to
Jen:
Yep.
Molly Galbraith:
attract more of that, you know? And so, so it's just like this kind of slow evolution over time of being like, oh, actually gossiping like that doesn't feel good or like, hey, I actually, I don't think that either or of us has to speak at this thing. So like, I'm going to put your name in as someone that would like to. I'd like to see at that event and like, if I get a chance, that's great too. And just deciding that you're going to do these things, these small acts that lift other women up, whether it's sharing their work or amplifying their voice or recommending them for something or complimenting them about something that has nothing to do with the way their body looks, whatever the thing is. The more I do that, the more I attract women like that in my life and the more good that comes back to me from... other women and from the universe as a whole.
Jen:
Yeah, I love that. And I love this, the what can I do? Because I think that it's really natural to feel, like from the places that we've been, the scarcity that there has been in the world for women to step onto the stages, into the spaces, whatever it may be. I think that's very normal to feel that level of, oh, like she's got it, and still feel that today, but then to go, what am I gonna do instead? when I feel that
Molly Galbraith:
Mm-hmm.
Jen:
feeling and then over time those feelings dissipate. I don't know that they ever do they go away completely like I'm still like I get it and then I'm like but that's cool I want to do that and she's showing me that I can do that. um
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah, that's the thing. And I think it's the difference in a reaction versus a response. So
Jen:
Mmm.
Molly Galbraith:
it was so funny. Right when my book was about to come out, when it came out in March of 2021, Strong Woman left each other up. When I submitted my book proposal in the fall of 2019, your agent sends it to all these different publishers. And then you go meet with them. And there was this one particular publisher that said... Hey, Molly's proposal looks really great, but we actually just like acquired another book from a really big name That's really similar to Molly's book. And so we're gonna pass So again, it was literally the universe being like this woman is getting this spot not you You know it was like testing me to the absolute nth degree and then her book came out like two weeks before mine or something like that and I remember being like oh You know and it hit like the New York Times
Jen:
Yeah!
Molly Galbraith:
Bestseller and I remember just being like Oh my gosh, like this is truly the universe being like, are you really about it? You know what I mean? Like, like, okay, how much do you really believe in this? You know, but truly like looking back, it was like, it, it allowed me to do a number of things. So number
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
one, it allowed me to like, to like pause and re you know, respond instead of react. Number two, it allowed me to like see what was possible for a book about this topic and like how many people could care about it. It also raised awareness about, because a lot of what I talked about in my book is like women struggling with their own self-worth and being able to get to a place where they feel good enough about themselves to lift other women up. Well, her book is about, it's called Believe It. It was about feeling really good about yourself. And I was like, cool. So then the next step is to lift other women up. Sounds like amazing. Her book is actually a bridge for women when they get to the point where they feel good about themselves that they then want to lift other women up. So like, births could actually be a catalyst, you know what I mean, for more people to want mine. And so I just like found all of these and like, and you know, I'm supporting her and liking her stuff and following her and like maybe at some point she'll see, you know, see my work and see my book and talk about me. Right. And so there was just, I just like found all of these ways to be
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
like her having success doesn't mean that I can't have my own version of success, whatever that is. Right. And so yeah, I definitely still gets me every once in a while, but I would say in general, it's less often,
Jen:
Yeah.
Molly Galbraith:
it's less intense, I can get over it more quickly, you know, and I just, I have the skills to respond instead of, instead of react, just to practice like anything else.
Jen:
Yeah, it is practice. On a small scale, what would you say are some of the best things for people to do if that's what they're feeling?
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah, absolutely. So first is you notice and name. Okay. So when you feel yourself kind of like flaring, it's like, all right, I'm feeling jealous of this person. So there's evidence to suggest that when we can name how
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
we're feeling, then it actually reduces the intensity of the emotion. So noticing and naming, and then starting to do some retraining of our brain or asking ourselves, instead of saying like, this is so awful, what could be good about this? When you start to ask yourself a question like that, your brain literally starts to brainstorm like positive spins on this. So like what could be good about this woman's book doing really well? And it's like, well, it means that it could raise more aware, like I just said, raise more awareness about the topics that people are searching for this topic more. It could, you know, her book does some of what my book does, but not all of it. It's different. And so it could be a bridge to more people wanting to learn about mine or people, you know, if she builds this audience and she stumbles upon my work, then she might share mine and people want to find it, you know, etc. So I think noticing and aiming how you're feeling and then asking yourself what could be good about what's happening here, like what positive could come of it. And then how do I want to show up in the world in a way that's aligned with my values? You know what I mean? Like
Jen:
huge.
Molly Galbraith:
that's ultimately it, is asking like, and so identifying your values, which is something I cover in my book is so important because it's like, it's the guardrails for what you think are a good life, like a life well lived. And so for me, my number one is make a difference. My number two is integrity. My number three is resilience. And so like when I'm struggling, I'm like, okay, what is the action or behavior that's going to help me make the biggest difference in my life? And for those of time that's like eyes on my own paper, focus on my own stuff, right? Worry less about what other people are doing and worry more about the work that I'm doing because that's what I'm here to do
Jen:
Mm-hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
is make a difference. And that's what I can do when I focus on my life and work versus going on a downward spiral, right? But for someone else, maybe it's connection. For someone else, maybe it's kindness, you know? And so knowing what your top values are and saying like, what are the actions that I can take to show up in a way that's aligned with my values, I think is really powerful. When you have that little pause of like notice a name, you know, ask yourself what could
Jen:
Mmm.
Molly Galbraith:
be good about this, and then figuring out how you can respond in a way that's aligned with your values, like those three things we'll usually do. And in worst case, you call your absolute best girlfriend and you vent for like 15 minutes and ask her not to judge you. And you know, I mean, because I've definitely, I've definitely had that. I had a friend many years ago who got divorced from her husband and she is the sweetest, kindest, like most lift women up thing in the world. And she's like, I just need, she's like, I just saw So-and-So's new girlfriend. I just need to vent about her outfit for like 10 minutes. I'm like, girl, this is your space. I've got you. You know what I mean? Like,
Jen:
I love it.
Molly Galbraith:
it's like more human. You know what I mean? Like you give her, and she's like, okay, I didn't actually mean any of that, but I just needed to say it. And I'm like, I got you, I got you. I'm holding all
Jen:
needed
Molly Galbraith:
this space
Jen:
to get it
Molly Galbraith:
for
Jen:
out.
Molly Galbraith:
it. You know what I mean?
Jen:
Absolutely.
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah, yeah
Jen:
Yeah. I love that you talked about values, my two values of courage and connection. So I'm really coming back to that, whether it's around the business you want to create and how you want to show up in the world. I think the other thing about the, the trigger feeling you get if you're feeling jealous of someone else is reflecting and going, what does that mean that I want to do that I'm not doing? And how do
Molly Galbraith:
Yes.
Jen:
I step into that? which can be incredibly powerful because it's got nothing to do with the other person at the end of the day and everything to do with something that maybe you're not doing and then how can you lean into support that person exactly like you said and then support yourself to move forward into what you want to do.
Molly Galbraith:
100% when I got the book deal, a good friend of mine reached out and she said, I am so happily jealous for you right now
Jen:
I
Molly Galbraith:
because
Jen:
love that.
Molly Galbraith:
she goes, she goes, you deserve this. And this is something I've always wanted for myself. And so she literally was able to say like, I'm so happy for you because you deserve it. And I'm jealous because it's something that I want. But she was able to identify like, what is it about? Yeah, what is it about this feeling of jealousy that I'm having that is about me and like you said not about the other person. It's not like you don't want the other person to have success. It's like it often just helps you kind of navigate and say like well what yeah like you said what is it that what is it about this that is you know picking at something inside
Jen:
Hmm,
Molly Galbraith:
of me that I want for myself you know.
Jen:
absolutely. And while we're on the topic of business, which I'm just looking at the time, I'm like, this is where, this is, it's all flowed very nicely.
Molly Galbraith:
Mm-hmm.
Jen:
Building your business, Molly, like you have built an amazing, I'm gonna call it an empire because it's amazing.
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah.
Jen:
What, I guess what are the things that have got you to where you are and who are the key people that have supported you along the way?
Molly Galbraith:
Oh, key people. We definitely don't have to. I could start listing them now and it would be,
Jen:
And
Molly Galbraith:
and
Jen:
no
Molly Galbraith:
we
Jen:
offense
Molly Galbraith:
would, I
Jen:
taken to anyone,
Molly Galbraith:
know.
Jen:
like you
Molly Galbraith:
Yes,
Jen:
don't have to name
Molly Galbraith:
I know.
Jen:
them specifically. Yeah.
Molly Galbraith:
Yes. No. So I have an amazing life and business partner. So I started Girls Come Strong in 2011. At the time I had a brick and mortar gym. I had a seminar business. I had a online nutrition and training software company. I had all of these other things because truly that was my ADHD brain going, yes, I'll do this. Yes, I'll do that. Yes, I'll do this. And so I had too many things going on. So GGS really didn't start taking off until about 2013, I would say, which is when he and I started dating and he was an entrepreneur and had a history of entrepreneurship. And so by 2016, actually he was full-time Girls Found Strong. So he
Jen:
Thanks
Molly Galbraith:
still
Jen:
for
Molly Galbraith:
has
Jen:
watching!
Molly Galbraith:
his brick and mortar mattress and sleep specialty store in Kentucky, and they actually warehouse inventory and fulfill all of our GGS physical product for us. So. for anybody that has one of the textbooks that came shipped from my partner's mattress and furniture
Jen:
Amazing.
Molly Galbraith:
store. Yes. And he is so wonderful because a couple of reasons. He's good at everything that I'm not good at, which I'm just so wildly blessed. Like I can't even wrap my... GGS would not exist without him. And that's not me being self-deprecating. That is just the honest truth. And one of his unique abilities is to get really like darn good, like top five to 10% in the world at any skill that he needs to acquire, which
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
is just so annoying because that is not my thing. And it just looks so easy for him. But it is truly a unique ability. So all that to say, he has been by far, bar none, the most important person in building GGS into what it is. I also have an incredible mentor and friend in Dr. John Berardi, who created Precision Nutrition. So that was a behemoth of a business. They've coached well over, I think, 150,000 clients at this
Jen:
Mm.
Molly Galbraith:
point. They've certified 50 to 100,000 personal trainers in coaching nutrition. It's really big, definitely here in the US and Canada. And I know they have somewhat of a footprint in Australia, but he has truly been a mentor and just, yeah, just kind of, he doesn't quite tell people what to do. He's like a wise sage. He like drops these like little breadcrumbs of advice. And everyone's like, enough with the fables, JB. Just tell me what to do.
Jen:
Tell me what to do.
Molly Galbraith:
Just tell me, don't tell me another story. Don't give me another parable or whatever. I'm like, just tell me the answer. But he's done a couple of different things for us that have been wildly important. So a couple pieces of kind of business advice that he's given us is, number one, you will encounter people who are way smarter than you. about specific topics related to your business, but they will never know more than you about your business. And he's like, so you might be talking to an attorney or talking to, you know, a tech person or whatever, and they're going to be like, well, this is the way you should do it. And you're going to believe them because you think they're so much smarter than you in that area. And they are, but they don't have the context that you have for your business. And so it's really important to listen and that's even become him for us. You know, like he still gives us advice and sometimes we're like, hmm, we need to consider the context of his words of wisdom there. Cause they don't actually apply to us in this particular situation. So it's, it's knowing, understanding that while other people are experts in different things, like you are the expert in your business. Number two is to remodel the room instead of remodel the house. And so, I asked him at one point, I said, have you ever made any big mistakes with PN? Because it feels like everything you've done has been like a home run success. And he said, you know, we have. And he said, but the thing is, is he's like, we've always remodeled the room first. We've always started small and made changes there. And if we that way, if we like it, we can keep going. But if
Jen:
Mm.
Molly Galbraith:
we don't like it, we can, you know, we can scrap it before it gets to be too big of a thing. And then he said, everything you do must build on itself. And so I think it's so easy as entrepreneurs, especially when we're multi-passionate, to get distracted by a bunch of different things. And so it's just like everything you do builds on everything else you do. We coach women and we teach people how to coach women. And it would be really easy to go do a whole bunch of other different things, right? But it's like we've stayed very true to that path and learning how to stay focused. I mean, you know how hard it is to get my attention. We've talked about this before. like for different things, right? I say no. I say
Jen:
Mm.
Molly Galbraith:
no. Okay. Oh, this is actually a really, really good piece of wisdom. He wrote about this in his book, Changemaker. You know, when you're brand new to the industry, you say yes to everything because you don't have any opportunities. Like, yes, you'll go to the Chamber of Commerce and speak to their people. Yes, you'll join this, you know, particular group on Thursday morning so you can talk to people about training. Yes, you'll train so and so for free. I mean, I trained so many people for free for years, you know, when you're new, like you say yes to everything. And as you get a little further along in your career, you start saying no to more things. And you do that because you start to, you have more opportunities, right? But also you start to know like where it's important to focus your time and energy. And then when you get a little further along in your career, you're saying no to most everything. And then as you keep going, you're saying no to everything basically. And then someone else is saying no for you. And that's like, that's the status where it's like, okay, but it takes a while to get there, right? You put in the rep, you do your time, you put in the work, but I say no to pretty much everything. I have
Jen:
Mm-hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
an auto responder up on my email that says like, Hey, I don't really check my email. And so if you need something, email info at girlsconstraining.com, which is our client care, client care team, simply because I have a mission to fulfill. And when other people ask you to do stuff, they're asking you to help them fulfill their mission. And if your mission, if they can't get their mission to align with your mission, it's a distraction.
Jen:
Mmm.
Molly Galbraith:
And so I think it takes a while, took us till about 2016 to get wildly clear on what our mission is. But once we did, it's been like, we've been getting more and more and more and more and more focused every month, every week, every day. And so, yeah, I think those are probably the kind of best words of wisdom
Jen:
Mmm.
Molly Galbraith:
you could say that. has gone into building GGS is time, it's prioritization, it's focus, it's passion, it's being radically clear on your North Star and not letting anything deter you from it, whether it's people on the internet who are trolling you and think you're doing it wrong, or it's, you know, even like, it is true, it's difficult to say no to things like the people I care about and things I really want to do. And also, I'm like, I have an obligation to my team, to myself, my team and my GGS community to stay focused. Because the more success you have, the shinier the objects get, right? The bigger
Jen:
Absolutely.
Molly Galbraith:
the opportunities, right? And so the harder it is to say no to them because it's like, but this one thing is like really cool, you know? And so, yeah, so I would say just radical, radical focus and prioritization, which I don't
Jen:
Hello.
Molly Galbraith:
do by myself. That's my partner chirping in my ear.
Jen:
talk about focus like obviously we work with a lot of trainers that look after mums but the majority of them are mums so if you can drill down and at the retreat last weekend we were talking about what do you stand for and how does that relate to
Molly Galbraith:
Hmm
Jen:
your mission how does that relate to the things that you're actually getting done in the world because your time is small especially when you've got young kids so that's a really important message about getting focused and saying no to the things that are not
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah, and I think there's like this kind of matrix, right? This like, if you think of four boxes and you think of like, urgent, like more urgent and less urgent and more important and less important, right? Like Casey was asking me about something. We were wanting to update something on my book jacket cover because we're getting ready to order some more copies of my book to send to our students and grads. And he was like, we were trying to figure out, he's like, well, I was like, babe, this is urgent. Like it needs to be done now, but it's not as important. And so we're not going to do it. You know what I mean? Cause like the, yes, there's a timeline on it, but we have things that are urgent and important
Jen:
and important.
Molly Galbraith:
and so, yeah. And so that has to outweigh what's urgent and less important. And so I think, you know, if you can kind of put the tasks that you, that you do on a regular basis, things that are not urgent and not important, get rid of them, you know, things that are urgent, but less important, maybe delegate them things that, you know, are important, but less urgent. You can do, but maybe put them, you know, a little lower down on prioritization scale and then the things that are urgent and important get like your main focus right
Jen:
Get
Molly Galbraith:
now.
Jen:
it done.
Molly Galbraith:
I think that's a really helpful way to kind of organize the tasks that you have to do and figure out where your time is best spent.
Jen:
Absolutely. And I love when we talk about business with women because I truly believe that the ripple effect of helping women to grow awesome businesses is huge on so many levels. Molly I've got
Molly Galbraith:
Mm-hmm.
Jen:
one last question for you and I'm aware of time so I just wanted to
Molly Galbraith:
Mm-hmm.
Jen:
make sure that that's
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah,
Jen:
okay. Cool.
Molly Galbraith:
it works great. Yep.
Jen:
Thank you. What legacy do you want to leave?
Molly Galbraith:
Oh, that's a good one. That is a real... I want to leave a legacy such that when people find out about the business that we built with Girls Gone Strong, that they don't even understand why it was necessary because it seems ridiculous that women's topics wouldn't be at the forefront of the health and fitness industry. like when people like when you hear like it was in the late 70s when at least in the US when women they couldn't get a credit card without their husband's signature or open a bank account like that stuff just blows your mind. I want to leave a legacy such that people don't even understand why our business had to be created in the first place because it seems absurd that women's issues aren't at the forefront of health and fitness.
Jen:
need to give that a little bit of airtime because there's so many layers to getting that done but what a massive and amazing goal it's and it I think that's pay tribute to everything that you do in the way you do it in a giving way and that your goal is to make yourself not required anymore
Molly Galbraith:
Mm-hmm.
Jen:
which
Molly Galbraith:
Yeah.
Jen:
is huge
Molly Galbraith:
If we do the job well, you know what I mean? Then it just becomes just part of what people learn when they,
Jen:
Hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
you know, when they join the health and fitness industry. So,
Jen:
Yep,
Molly Galbraith:
yeah.
Jen:
fantastic. I wanna say a massive thank you. The words that you said at the Women's Health and Fitness Summit back in, I wrote the date down, my brain does not remember dates, 2018.
Molly Galbraith:
October 2018.
Jen:
And I was at the point in my business where I was, I thought I wanted to license and I was doing all these things, but what license involves is carving up the country and saying, you can have that part and you can have that part. And I even paid somebody to do that. for me and listening to you say, we must build a table big enough for everybody. And I was just like, this is not, and I wondered why I was dragging my feet, but when I heard those words,
Molly Galbraith:
Hmm.
Jen:
I put a stop on the work that was being done. And I kind of went, I'm not creating a country or a landscape that we need to carve up and say that's your piece and that's my piece because. I truly believe that the world needs every single one of our voices to change the landscape for women. And I'll be forever thank you for you for saying those words at that point in my world to mean that Mumsafe is what it is today. And we don't, you know, the whole, we're built on collaboration over competition. You can have someone in the next, literally the next street. And I love seeing those people get together and they create collaborations and partnerships. And they understand that there's so many women that need looking after. And thank you for being a constant voice for women. And I'm so excited that we actually got to do this goddamn podcast. Ha ha ha.
Molly Galbraith:
I know, I know, well, thank you, Jen. Like seriously, I know that you are just an absolute powerhouse over there, an advocate for women in Australia and that your ripple effect ripples all the way over here to the, to us in the U S and Canada and UK and whatnot as well. And like, I just, I think it is not an accident that I was at that event for so many reasons, right? Like with. from Rika and Mish and my
Jen:
Mm-hmm.
Molly Galbraith:
relationships with them. And then what happened with the talk and then your business and then how that keynote actually led to, you know, the creation of the book and just everything. Yeah, I don't think it's an accident that our paths crossed. I don't think it's an accident that they crossed at the time that they did and that was the topic of the talk and I'm just wildly grateful for you and your friendship and all of the important work that you're doing over there. And just thank you so much for having me and. love how aligned our messages and our missions and our vision are and just feel super lucky and grateful to know you.
Jen:
Amazing. Thank you so much Molly. I don't know I can follow that with any more praise apart to say keep doing what you're doing and And let's hit women absolutely everywhere. Thank you so
Molly Galbraith:
Yes,
Jen:
much
Molly Galbraith:
and thank you for letting me say fuck on your podcast too.
Jen:
Oh, you can say fuck whatever you like in this podcast. Thanks Molly.
