Real Life Runners with Angie and Kevin Brown

357: Sneaky Habits Affecting Your Running Performance with Megan Blacksmith

• Angie Brown

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In this podcast episode, Megan Blacksmith, co-founder of Zesty, shares her transformative journey from extreme running and health complications to discovering the power of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Megan discusses the idea that 'success leaves clues' and how to overcome limiting beliefs and patterns in both life and running. She details her personal experiences with postpartum anxiety and depression, triggered by extreme marathon training, and how it led her to explore holistic health, functional medicine, and ultimately NLP. Megan emphasizes the importance of language in uncovering one's model of the world and strategies for achieving one's goals. The podcast highlights how NLP can aid not just in improving running performance but in various aspects of life by uncovering and reprogramming deep-seated beliefs. Additionally, Megan mentions the upcoming habit training event in Dallas, inviting listeners to join and discover how NLP can transform their lives and leadership skills.


Megan Blacksmith is a holistic health coach, Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, speaker, NLP Trainer and mindset ninja. She is the co-founder of Zesty and the Becoming Zesty podcast. She trains coaches, practitioners and leaders with the tools for faster (inner) transformation without fighting themselves along the way through Functional NLP, a combination of the principles of NLP, functional medicine and compassionate coaching.


If you want to connect with her, you can find her at the links below!

Habit Transformation Accelerator August 20-21 in Dallas, TX

Website: https://becomingzesty.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/becomingzesty/


02:12 Megan's Marathon Journey: From Challenge to Change

07:45 The Impact of Running on Health: A Personal Story

13:20 Discovering Holistic Health and Functional Medicine

16:46 Unlocking Potential with NLP: Tools for Transformation

21:49 The Runner's Mindset: Overcoming Subconscious Barriers

25:00 Empowering Change: The Role of NLP in Personal Growth

34:07 Transformative Experiences Through NLP Training

35:45 Personal Stories of Growth and Realization

40:45 Understanding and Applying NLP Beyond Running


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Welcome to the real life runners podcast, episode number 357. Using NLP to improve your running. With Megan blacksmith. Welcome to the show today. Everybody. I am so excited to introduce you to a very special guest. Her name is Megan blacksmith and she is one of the founders of the company called zesty. And she teaches neuro-linguistic programming. So you might be sitting there asking what the heck is neuro-linguistic programming and how does this apply to me as a runner? Well, neuro-linguistic programming is one of those things that can apply to any of us. If we want any sort of change in our life, because change is hard. And we've talked about change many times on the podcast. And you're probably, you probably realize that to make any sort of change in your life. There's a lot of mental work that you need to do. And there's a lot of thoughts and beliefs that you have to kind of get to the root of and figure out how to change. So that you'll start doing different things, because our thoughts drive all of the actions in our lives. So. Megan in this episode helps us understand more of those subconscious belief patterns that are really driving our actions. And she is a runner herself, or was a runner and had some really interesting experiences that I think. Uh, a lot of people will be able to take. Um, really good information away from, so I'm really excited for you guys to hear her own personal running story, and also how she now helps people using the tools of NLP. And if you are someone that likes what you hear today, Megan and her business partner are running a, an in-person event. It is August 20th and 21st in Dallas, Texas. It is their live habit transformation accelerator. So if you're someone that wants to take action, if you want. Habit transformation in your life. And you really want to get down to the subconscious belief patterns that are holding you back. And maybe you're someone that wants to make changes, but you just haven't been able to make those changes. I want you to check out this habit, transformation accelerator, um, check out the show notes. I'm going to be putting the link in the show notes so that you can get more information about that. Weekend event. And if you're not quite ready for an in-person event, Megan is also going to be a guest inside the real life runners academy. She's going to be doing a live workshop on zoom for us on May 14th. So I would love to invite you to that as well. If you are already a member of the academy, you get that workshop for free. Like all of our monthly workshops you get. All of our monthly workshops are included when you have an academy membership. If you are not currently a member of the academy, we would love to invite you as well. So for a fee, you could either join the academy and get that workshop included as well as all the other amazing things inside the academy, like training plans and coaching and all of the other benefits. Um, but if you want to just attend that workshop. There's also a link in the show notes where you can go to join that workshop as well. And if you have any questions, you can always email us over at hello. At real life runners.com. So without further ado, let's start today's episode.

Angie:

All right, runners welcome to the show today. I am super excited to have a very special guest on the podcast with me today. So Megan, welcome. I'm so glad you're here.

Megan:

Thank you, Angie. I'm excited to be here.

Angie:

Yeah. So let's start out by having you introduce yourself to our audience and just tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Megan:

So my name is Megan Blacksmith. I am the co founder of a company called Zesty. What we do now, it has transformed over the years. As does everything else. What we do now is we train coaches, practitioners, uh, entrepreneurs, online business owners to add NLP, so that's Neuro Linguistic Programming, which really the important part of this is the idea that success leaves clues and we can elicit those clues. And then install a strategy. If there's something that we're really good at in one area of life, or that somebody else is doing really well, if there's a fabulous runner out there who's doing what you want to be doing, we can elicit their strategies, what are they thinking? What are they saying to themselves? What are they seeing? What are they hearing? And apply it in our own life. And language, the way we speak, really helps us to uncover our model of the world. Because we can even be hiding things from ourselves, Angie, which I have done, and all my clients have done as well, so we can use language, it's learning to listen to language and then having a tool to actually rewire the subconscious mind, so rewire any limiting beliefs that are holding us back, any constant strategies or patterns that we are like operating under that are just they're automatic.

Angie:

Mm hmm

Megan:

that aren't leading us to where we want to go and so we we train coaches leaders practitioners to Uh become certified in nlp quantum time technique and hypnosis all that just basically different ways to rewire The mind to get the results that you want.

Angie:

I love it. And so You now are working with coaches and practitioners. Did you start off by working with? You know people and helping them do this or like, how did you get into this field? You

Megan:

So I actually started by helping people with their health because of my own lovely health crash after I had my first child, which we'll get into the story, but it did start with me wanting to run a marathon and running one and doing it in a way I was saying to before we recorded this in a way I really, really wished I'd had these tools that NLP teaches before, back when I was running, because I had no limits I had no way of kind of keeping myself in a healthy state. I would go all or nothing. I was really, really extreme about it. And in the process was really, really extreme about it. Ran my first marathon ever and got pregnant right after. And the depletion of both of those things, I ended up. And this is not going to happen for everyone, this is not like a thing for sure, but for me, I was in such a stressed state for many years that this tipped the scale for me personally and after I had my child I just ended up with severe postpartum, um, anxiety, depression. I wanted to, I actually wanted to break my arm so I wouldn't have to go into my corporate job. Like, I would sit there thinking. What could I do to get out of this? And luckily I didn't do that. It was a really horrible idea.

Angie:

So let's rewind for a second and like, give us a little idea of like, what got you into running and wanting to run a marathon in the first place? And what was that experience like? Because you kind of just alluded to the fact that it was not the best experience. So give us, can you give us a little bit more? Info and background there because I think that and the reason I asked this because I think that so many runners going to be able to connect to this because just from that little snippet that you said of like pushing so hard and like not having a limit and wanting to just go out and do overdo it, you know, all the time and not even thinking that you're overdoing it, right? But just we often trick ourselves and think ourselves think that this is the way that I'm going to get better. This is the way that I'm going to hit my goals and perform better if I just keep pushing hard all of the time. And this is a trap that so many runners fall into, and it kind of sounds like that might be what happened in your scenario. So like, how long had you been running before you decided that you wanted to run a marathon? Or was it just kind of like, I'm going to start running and I'm going to run a marathon. You know, that's the first thing I'm going to do.

Megan:

This is such a good question because I'm just thinking back. Angie, the reason I ran a marathon is because my husband said I couldn't do it.

Angie:

Ah, there you go.

Megan:

That was actually, that was the impetus. We lived in Hawaii at the time and he wasn't, he was just kind of joking around. He, he's very supportive of me and was just kind of joking. Cause he is a runner and runs and has run many marathons and half marathons. And. I played field hockey and tennis, so I ran for sports, I just had never really run for fun.

Angie:

Same. That's like my story and my husband's story as well. Like I was always in the team sports, he was a runner, and so I completely connect to what you're saying.

Megan:

Okay. So I was like, well, I'm not a runner and I can move my legs.

Angie:

Yes.

Megan:

So I had never gone out though. I'd never gone out and done like a six mile run because in sport, we just didn't, we didn't have to go that kind of length. So he says that I can't do this. I decided I couldn't do this. And there was a, you know, a marathon happening in Honolulu and he was signed up for it. And so I joined a running group. And so the whole thing is funny because coming into it so he's saying I can't do it and I'm like, I could do it. I'm athletic. I can do it. Yeah. And I joined a running group and I remember getting there and they were, um, Much more serious than I was expecting and kind of asking me to like, what are your times and what's your PR? Yeah, no idea right and at the time I was much more insecure. This is over 13 years ago I was much more insecure than now and so I and I hadn't gone on my honesty journey yet So I essentially pretended that I was a runner

Angie:

Yeah

Megan:

And they're like, well,

Angie:

I totally understand everything you're saying.

Megan:

Yeah. Like, do you? So they're like, okay, well, we're going to do this six mile loop. And I was like, okay, so I just did it. Yeah. I just went with them. And. Later on, I'm learning like the coach of this running group. Um, she's an amazing marathon runner and, um, she made it to the Olympic trials. And so these are fast people. And I just kept up. I mean, I didn't keep up with her. I just kept up with the slowest in the group that were, we're doing pretty well. And I literally, I just kind of followed the plan. She had a very specific, you were on this. And then you increased and we did speed workouts and track workouts and I just did what everybody did and I would push myself to the extreme. So this was the part where I think the group was so amazing because I love group and that was kind of what kept me going of like, well, they think I'm a runner, which is funny because in a way, like, how do you, what's the identity of a runner? You just run. You get up and run. So I was like, well, I am doing that. Yep. I go to, you know, I go four times a week or five times a week with them. It was, it was a lot. And then one day, I, after a track workout, I went into work and I had, um, this rash on my bra line. And I was like, oh my gosh, did I get bit by something? And it was like all these bumps on, like, around my sports bra line. And And then I'm like, this is weird, and I went into the doctor because it was starting to blister more and get really gross, and I had shingles. Wow. So, I'm a 27 year old, very low stress life at this point. I have no children. I live in Hawaii. Mm hmm. And I work remotely for my company still in San Diego. Just overall, like, very chill life. The only thing I did that was, like, stressful to the body was run to the point where most of the days after my run, I would need to sleep. Like, I, that, I would have a headache, be dehydrated for the rest of the day and I would need to, I would need to take naps. Uh, and the doctor said to me, I'm like, I don't know. She said, this is often stress induced. Is there anything going on? I was like, my life is great, but I am running, training for a marathon and running a lot. And she said, yeah, that will do it. And I've seen this. So that was kind of my, like, hmm, maybe I need to learn. Some limit. Maybe I need to learn what my body can do.

Angie:

Yeah. And I, I, I'm going to interrupt you here because I think that this is such a hugely important point that so many runners don't understand. And quite honestly, this is one of the things that I've been leaning into so much more recently. We're like with. What I'm trying to help runners understand is that running is a stress on the body. And it can be a very significant stress on the body when not done correctly. And when, when you're pushing yourself and not recovering and just getting, you're digging yourself into this hole. And it's so interesting, like your story is a little bit different. You know, you, you did this kind of as a challenge to prove your husband wrong. Right. But a lot of runners do get into running. As stress relief as a way to reduce stress. And it's so funny. Cause you're like. When your doctor told you, you know, or was asking you what, what's going on stress wise in your life, you're like, nothing, right? Because oftentimes we think of stress as mental stress, psychological stress, emotional stress, right? Something has to be, something outside of us in our life has to be going, going on, right? But we often forget that we are putting our bodies under such physical stress, especially, Especially with something like marathon training that is more extreme than, you know, someone running five K's or 10 like shorter distances. Right. And I think that, um, it's just really important for us to recognize what a stress that can be on the body if we are Doing it in a way that is pushing ourselves to the limits every, especially if that's, you know, every single time that you're going out to run.

Megan:

So I do just have to wrap for the story for my husband and him saying, I couldn't run a marathon. I did run, I did run one marathon. I've run a bunch of half marathon since, but I did run that one marathon in Honolulu and he was running it too. And I trained, like I really trained all the way up. And, um, I got to the halfway point running with, uh, my running partner, and she said, isn't that Nate, my husband? And he was super fast, like way, way faster than me. And I was like, well if we're passing Nate, that's not, that's not a good sign. Yeah. She's like, should we stop? I'm like, no, I trained for this. And so he has this pattern of, he doesn't really train. He just literally like a month ago, ran the marathon here, um, Virginia beach. And the guy never goes over, never goes over 10 miles and he just runs the marathon. So I'm like, no, I trained for this. And, um, he had, he had pulled a hamstring. So he stopped. He didn't finish. And so I did complete the marathon, which has become a full joke now because yeah, you know I ran it faster than him.

Angie:

Yeah. Not only did you run it, but you beat him head to head. Yeah. That's awesome. Exactly. Oh, that's awesome. That's great. So then after, after that marathon, kind of what happened after that? Like when did you start to realize when, like the shingles, at what point in the training did the shingles show up?

Megan:

The shingles were maybe about two months before the marathon.

Angie:

Okay.

Megan:

So it was when I had been ramping up so

Angie:

yeah

Megan:

I remember being like, oh no, am I gonna be able to do it? Because I did take a while off it. It was pretty miserable. Shingles are not fun.

Angie:

Yeah.

Megan:

Everybody's have them and so it knocked me off a bit, but I had, um. Train so much. I was fine. And it was a great. I mean, it was a really cool experience. It was such a like, you know, you can do this. You can complete something, go beyond your limits. I actually ran my last, um, three miles faster than any of the other ones. Like I saved energy. It was a really cool overall experience. Powerful experience, and I just got pregnant not too long after that, so I just think the combo of pushing myself really hard to that depleted state to the point of shingles and then getting pregnant, um, I used up all my nutrients, so I was just super, super depleted afterwards. We also had some stressful life situations happen during pregnancy, so it was just kind of that whirlwind that led me to having a really tough time. So the crazy cool part is that that whole story led to my health crash that really led me to finding holistic health and nutrition, functional medicine, because all my regular blood work said I was fine. I went to the doctor and I was like, you're good. Your thyroid's fine. You're not overweight. It just must be, you know, postpartum. And I remember thinking if this is normal postpartum, there's no women on this planet that would have more than one child.

Angie:

Yeah.

Megan:

Right. I'm looking around and I see people with more than one child. I don't think that this is just normal. Postpartum.

Angie:

Right.

Megan:

Uh, and I, so I got dismissed a lot and then found luckily this amazing functional medicine practitioner. And at that time I said, I can't believe this is a job that what she was doing and I, and I went back to school and I was, I studied functional diagnostic nutrition, holistic health coaching and started to do that as a profession, which then led into, you know, one hurdle after another. It's like I kind of got the physical body learning what the physical body needed and then. Same with my journey would find people I was working with were doing all the amazing physical body things like they're They're even doing the stress relief things or they're in their sauna or right? They're staying super hydrated They're eating the most amazing diet way better Whatever that means right but seeming to be so much healthier than anything I would ever eat and they're still struggling with either their cycles or weight or You fatigue or depression, whatever it was, that things just didn't seem to be shifting that in the way that would make sense with all the functional medicine tools.

Angie:

Yeah.

Megan:

I'm like, huh. It wasn't adding up. And with that group of people that weren't, it wasn't adding up, we'd usually uncover some belief. There was some either belief, there was some really significant emotional event early in life. There was something that the body was holding onto that was keeping them from actually getting healthy or reaching optimal fitness or success.

Angie:

Mm hmm.

Megan:

And these patterns. It just showed up over and over and over and that's when I, for my personal health, went and found, I found NLP because I knew that there was a portion of this that was not in my head like made up, but it was driven by my mind and my thoughts and my beliefs. And I was like, I'm doing all the physical body things and I don't really want to get more strict with that because I didn't believe that was there's a point of diminishing return right where we're doing things so amazingly well that we're actually stressing ourselves out and I just knew absolutely there there was more to it so finding the Part of that, finding that I had very specific beliefs around health, around fitness that were stopping me and then being, now having a tool. Now I had a tool with NLP and hypnosis to actually rewire that. And then we saw all these other people really quickly make progress. For example, they could be taking the same protocol, same supplements, but now they're actually absorbing them. So it was really cool to add in the tools of the rewiring, not necessarily, they don't necessarily have to do anything different. Like don't have to go out and run harder. You don't have to go out and actually most of the time we had to do a little less, but then the results were better and that just got very, very exciting.

Angie:

That is super cool. So you mentioned how you wish you had these tools when you were a runner and when you were training for that marathon, what specifically, if there's maybe a couple of the tools or a couple examples that you could give us, do you kind of wish that you knew at that time that could help us now in our running journey?

Megan:

So the, some of the beliefs I had around the all or nothing mentality, and it's not just This was not just a running thing. This carried over into all of life, and what I realized not too long ago was that the belief of, kind of the belief that I, I can't, I don't have limitations, like that I will override my own body. Mm hmm. Was carrying out in business as well, because when I would start to grow or reach a certain level of success, my subconscious mind would say, hey, that's cool, but you're also the same lady who ran me into the ground, like, for three hours longer than I felt like I could and, right, felt like I'd been dropped off a ten story building after that marathon, right? Yeah. So my body's like, we don't really trust you. And what you're going to do, because you've overridden our cues enough times. So that belief was playing out everywhere. So if I had had the tools of NLP, I think I would have been able to recognize that my drive to just push as hard and as far in every single workout, in every single run, was What that was driven by. And it wasn't really about me. It was more, um, acceptance of the group and this, this striving to like, maybe I will reach some level that then I'm good enough and then I'm in, and then I'm a runner and this like identity of like, what would I need to do to prove myself? And as it turns out, no one really cares.

Angie:

It's so true.

Megan:

I don't really care what your pace was because we're all out there on our own. And so I spent a lot of time just grappling and pushing my body to this state to cover up something else. It was like I was really just searching for meaning. Am I good enough? Am I in? So that's the power that now with the tools I have is that you can. I find that some of these things are linked and that that's what's, that's what's making it unhealthy. It's not that running was unhealthy. It was the way I was doing it, the way I was just so forcing myself and trying to be this some, this other person that really led to super, super extremes. Yeah. I'd say the other thing that I now know really clearly that I didn't know then was that I It's the idea of really focusing on what we want. And so this has obviously become more aware, I think, in the world of people going after goals and making things happen. But in NLP, We make sure that the goals are so specific that you know exactly what will you hear, what will you see, what will you feel, what will you say to yourself, like, how will you know that you have gotten this? So we want to make sure that all of the internal representational systems, meaning visual, auditory, kinesthetic, are on board together. Because if you even have one of those. That's, that's going against you. You will not hit your goal. So maybe you're like, okay, I can see myself running. I can see myself getting to the end. I can feel it. But then you have that little self talk of like, no, you can't. Or maybe you have great self talk, but every time you envision it, you just get this feeling of dread. Or this feeling of like, I'm not making it or I know my husband had the, the situation where he was focusing on like, Oh, I really don't want to pull a hamstring. Like I, he was concerned and focused on not pulling that thing. And we're so focused on what the knot is so focused on the, Oh, I don't want my stomach to be all messed up during this and I don't want to have to run to the bathroom and what I, what we don't want. That we can, I mean, we actually can create that and have, right? I mean, I think everyone's experienced like when you think of a really, uh, you think about maybe yourself being on stage or you think of something stressful and you have the physical, physical body is like, Oh, we're running to the bathroom, right? Your brain is actually creating that. So we didn't have that same scenario with running and I think I would have done a much better job at really. Okay. Um, and I think that that's, that's, uh, you know, I think we're just, we're just getting clear, so that everything was moving towards what I want and that I could see the goal and have it feel really good and be really clear about it. And instead of this, like, I'm running away from like, I hope I don't mess up.

Angie:

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that that's, You really nailed it there, because so many runners get into running, I think, with these types of subconscious beliefs that they don't even realize are there. And I even just saw a reel the other day on Instagram that was something about like, You know, to all of you straight A students, um, that no longer have school to validate you. How's your marathon training going? Right? It's like we try to substitute like these areas where we used to be high achievers or high performers. And then we just take that and we're like, well, I don't have school anymore to exhibit that. So now I'm just going to put it into my career or I'm going to put it into work or I'm going to try to find some other outlet and people do the same thing with running. Yeah. And, or their fitness in a lot of, a lot of scenarios.

Megan:

Oh my gosh, that's so good. Angie, I've been saying that not working with women in their health when it was hormone health specifically that we started with. It was like, the more of the straight A better student they were, like, the more of like, I, maybe they're the CEO or they have their own company, like the, the tools that got them really far, um, often were driven right by, they could have been driven by trauma. They could have driven, been driven by like really needing to prove ourselves and me included. I'm in that, like, you know, go for the straight A's. Yeah, you too. And it was. Yep. Yeah. The more we saw that, the more we saw that, um, and I thought it was good at first, I just had these clients come in, and I, and they'd be so compliant, like whatever you said to do, and I'd have people say to me, and I'm sure this happened, I'm not sure, I know this happens in running too, is like, I will do whatever you say, just give me the plan. Right. And they will be like, well, yeah, my ankle was falling off, but you said 19 miles and like, I was only at 17. So like it was, it was on the plan. And this would happen with food too. It was like, whatever was that it would be like, you want me to be upside down and eat carrots on a Saturday. Okay. Right. Or was. But the thing was, it was almost like the better they were at doing that, the worse results we got because they were so good at, they, I, was so good at overriding what my actual body was saying in any intuit, in any intuition. And so then we're ending up with results that essentially are leading us completely down a different pathway because, It took some expert outside of them to tell them what to do, and now all the work we do, basically everything we do in our trainings, we do seven day in person trainings for, because it's a certification. And we spend the whole time essentially trying to get the person back to figuring out, to be able to tap into what their body and their needs are. And their unconscious mind says, we're actually trying to get rid of all the junk that's stopping them from hearing that and making the decisions because we are not ever telling anybody what to think. It's how to think. So it's a really cool process because, because of this, because of the tools, I could help someone, um, I could help a runner do something I've never done with these tools and I could help someone. I've and I have helped people in business make way more money than I ever have because it's, it's, the tools are helping them unlock their next Mm-Hmm. level. Mm-Hmm. It's not about me knowing a strategy. You're just eliciting eliciting it from them. Mm-Hmm. So it's a super cool process. Same thing with a relationship. Breakthroughs like, I don't know what to tell you to do, but they already know. So, the tools themselves help uncover, okay, what, what's literally keeping you from the next thing? Their, their unconscious mind already knows, and sometimes we're hiding it from ourselves because we actually don't believe that we're worthy of having a great life or getting good results, but it's there if we can uncover it.

Angie:

Yeah. So then the next obvious question then becomes like, how do we uncover it? Right. And that's, I guess what the, what you're saying here is, is using these tools. Can you give us some examples of like what are considered as NLP tools?

Megan:

So there's a whole slew of what we call subconscious rewiring processes. So that would be using language to discover what I do is use language to discover someone's limiting, limiting belief, meaning somewhere along the line, some decision was made that maybe the belief is I'm not fast. I'm not a runner. Um, I am not strong. It can be whatever it is. Like somewhere, somebody's, I'm lazy. I'm lazy. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I'm not consistent. I don't finish things. All sorts of different. I'm not athletic. Not athletic. Yeah. We started to find and uncover like, what, what are these beliefs? Because what's happening in your reality will help tell you what these beliefs are. So you can say you believe like you're worthy of a million dollars. You can say that you're, you believe you're a great runner, but like if you're not doing the things, if you're not, you know, progressing, if you're not having the outcome, then usually there is some belief there that's actually blocking them. So we get to just start to look around, just get to look in the reality. And what's happening, and then also what the person says they want. And if there's a mismatch there, then we know there's a belief. So, Language is one of the most important parts of NLP. So there's processes, right? There's, there's anchoring. You can anchor in a really powerful state for a runner. So you can get into that state of like, I just crossed the finish line and you can actually anchor it in onto the body, like by pressing a certain part of your body, like your hand or something, so that you always have access to that feeling, which can help you get into the state like you're doing. So there's physical processes, but then there's also. Um, using language, using, asking people to help uncover their model of the world so we can discover, like, how do they know they're successful? Like, how do you know when you had a good race? Yeah. And if you don't know what specifically that is and means, and many, and maybe it's running, maybe it's in a business, maybe it's in a relationship, but if we don't have a clearly Mm hmm. outcome. We will hit the goal, not recognize we hit the goal, move the goalpost, and never feel successful or good enough because it keeps moving.

Angie:

Oh, my gosh. It's so true. And I think that's one of the things that attracts runners to running oftentimes is that it's very numbers based. So it's very clear. It's very easy to set a goal, right? It's easy to say, I want to run 13. 1 miles or I want to run a half marathon under two hours. But exactly what you're saying. We've seen it so many times is that they achieve that goal. And then there's still this, like, emptiness there that because they feel like, Oh, it's not good enough. Now, what's next? What's next? Because in their mind, they just kind of picked out this number that the world said, or that, you know, other runners said was like a good number to shoot for, you know, a sub two hour half or a sub four hour full or whatever it might be, but it didn't actually mean anything to them. And they, you know, We're defining success by someone else's standards, and they didn't actually have a connection to that.

Megan:

That's so good. So we do a two day, a whole two days on habits, a whole two day in person habit training. We do that twice a year. And one of the things that we will look at Is people will come in with a habit that they want to add in and maybe it's running and we're like, that's awesome, but we need to know your motivation. Why?

Angie:

Yes.

Megan:

80 percent of the time, by the time we're done talking to that person, their habit that they want, their goal is not really their goal. And it's for something else. And that's fine. Maybe that, maybe that will get you there. Yep. But if, if it is someone else, so sometimes it's someone else's goal altogether. Like my dad just kind of always installed that. That would be good. Like he wanted to do it. I guess I'll do it. Yep. Uh, sometimes it's programming of, you know, you've taken on like, well, um, I will be considered successful if I can run this far or right. Or I'll get something from it. Right. And then, um, sometimes there's a belief that you will end up feeling a certain way if you hit that, right? There, there could be all these different motivations to getting there. But we really want the person to check in with, like, do they actually want it? And is it outdated? Meaning, maybe this was something that used to be good. So for, in our model of the world, we used to have a lot of people come in and they'd say, my goal is to, like, stop eating carbohydrates. And so we're like,

Angie:

That's a terrible idea.

Megan:

Yeah. Yeah, so right so in my model of the world and when I was testing women's hormones that did the opposite for them Right, it would end up in a way worse state and it was about weight loss It actually caused weight gain because now their brain is like high alert high cortisol There's no nutrients coming in. We need this building block. So Sometimes the goal is just not actually aligned with the human body or like what's best for them. So maybe you can follow it, but is it what, is it what actually works for you and makes you fastest or, or, or operate the best? So we're really trying to tease out where did these goals come from and then how are they impacting us like physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically, like how, how are all of the bodies? Being affected by this goal. And once we kind of get all of them on board, that's when the people, their goals will happen and it will, the habit will become really easy because they have actually pieced out, like why they're doing it, what it's going to get them. Mm-Hmm. and how they will feel when they do it. And if they do the thing and hit the goal and don't feel any different, we at least can get that feedback. And they could say, okay, well, if I'm not going to feel any different when I hit the goal, then do I enjoy what I'm doing? Or am I miserable? Like, some people are like, yes, I love running and I want, I love the process. I love the growth. I'm going to do this forever. And some are like, nope,

Angie:

right.

Megan:

You know, so that clarity does help with what I went through with the burnout because now you're not running for someone else. You, you know what you're running for.

Angie:

Yeah. Have Absolutely. And, like, it makes me think a lot, too, because You know, one of the things that we always talk about is how running is a metaphor for life and how the lessons that we learn running we can apply to the rest of our lives. And I'm seeing so much of that here with NLP as well. Like not only can NLP help us as runners, but it can also help us Uncover a lot of things for us and help us reprogram our brain to Get the things that we want in other areas of our life as well And I think that that's such a powerful thing is when we can use One modality to support another and like have it be a two way street You know We can use NLP to improve us as runners and then we can use runners to then improve or use running to then improve the rest of our life and By getting clear on why we're doing it, our intention behind it, the why behind, um, all of what we do with our actions, that has such a ripple effect into our health, our, you know, both our physical health and our mental health and our relationships and so many other areas of our life.

Megan:

Yeah, it does really represent, like, you can see how I go into the running process is probably just how I, how I do everything. So you can, we play this game with our clients of, you know, just let's look at what's happening in one area. For us, it's like how people show up to training. Yeah. Because our, you know, yours is training, but ours is seven day in person training. And the container itself is training. really intense. Like, it is a container where you're there to, um, you're learning tools, but really what you're there to do is shift your own beliefs during the week and embody it. So you'll, you'll practice with someone, and so you'll, you'll do the process with them, and then they'll do it with you, and then you'll have experienced both sides of it. So you see the transformation in the other person, which helps tell our brain like, oh, it's possible. So we do a lot of the modeling is a big part of NLP. The idea that you can just see when someone else is doing something well, you can start to elicit their strategies. And you can just ask them like, okay, what exactly were you thinking when you did that? Like, what do you do in the morning? What are you seeing? What are you saying to yourself? Yeah. What do you hear from other people and really start to see like, what is the difference in how I think? Or the things I say to myself versus people who look like they have what I want or have the, the results that I want. So in our training container. Just being there seven days, it's like, um, stuff will come up for people. They'll be like, it's really cold in here. Or this person next to me is really loud. It's like just the, the noise around you, just like the irritation of like, Oh, I was supposed to get out for my run an hour ago and now it's too hot. And like the, the chatter of all the stuff that, that comes up. Is what brings to the surface all the good beliefs of them, we get to clear them. And in the container itself, and I think that's what running does too, it just like brings all your stuff to the surface so that you can see what is here and what is underneath this. Yeah. Because my cat, my pattern of just always pushing myself too hard, I noticed I'm, I was still doing that. I went to a retreat and my mentor, they had, um, Ice baths outside. It was in Utah and it was really, really cold and there were ice baths outside and I was like, Oh yeah, I want to do that. I hadn't done one in a while. Yeah. He said, how long do you want to go? And I was like, Oh, I don't know. He's like, how about three minutes? And I was like, Oh, geez, I'm like thinking maybe I'll like dip in and out. I have no idea how long I'll last. And so he said three minutes and I was like, okay, maybe that's, maybe that's the ideal time.

Angie:

Right. That's what I'm supposed to do.

Megan:

And he said, he's like, well, I usually go five or six and I didn't know he was kidding around with me. And so

Angie:

challenge accepted.

Megan:

Exactly. Angie guess who went in. Guess how long Megan went in. I went six minutes.

Angie:

Yeah, you did.

Megan:

So

Angie:

But see, this is the thing that's so interesting too, is like, you know so much of this, right? And like, these things still pop up, like these bold patterns, right?

Megan:

Well, it was super cool because of this process. Because I'm always, I'm doing the like, map it over to other areas. It was the six minute ice bath, which, actually allowed me to realize that I was still holding on to old beliefs from running and that was affecting my business. So I cleared that. Oh, I've seen a huge shift in my business because I really did believe that like, I was like, well, I ran myself into the ground there. I will do that in business. So I was, Stopping myself from hitting a certain level there was like not consciously But there were these like 10 percent activities that if I had done them things would have progressed Further and somehow I never got to those 10 right until I had the ice bath experience and realized I was like, oh, this is still This is still a strong belief because I'm actnot just a belief, I just did it. I mean, I just physicallyand I was like, I have noI had no idea what was like a air quote normal amount of time. Right. And I don't think that really was gonna be good for me. I mean, I'm sure I just like, stressed my body totally out by going from like, haven't done them in a long time to six

Angie:

minutes. Yes, that sounds excessive.

Megan:

Right? And I was like, in my thought process, I was like, well, I'm already in here as soon as I got in there.

Angie:

You go numb at some point, right?

Megan:

Yeah. Like, I can go longer. And so, there was that, right? I can go longer. Do I need to go longer? No. Right. So, it was, it has been really, really cool to watch the, the, then how that shifted other areas of life and, and we're so good at hiding these things from ourselves, like it, that's why I go to events and retreats and things because every time I'm out of my environment, this kind of thing will pop up and I'll find something else that's hidden, some other belief and I'm like, oh, okay, time to clear that one. Uh, but it was, it was a really cool experience. It was a really cool realization and I'm like, wow, that running, my whole running, um, life has really still, is still an impact on what I do now.

Angie:

Yeah, that's so funny. Like, but it is so true because I think that, you know, one thing you said earlier that I wanted to just touch on was running is something that will help to bring a lot of these things up to the surface, right? But what then happens is, If we don't have the tools to then deal with what comes up, then oftentimes we just shove it back down, right? Or we lean into, well, I'm just going to push harder. I'm just going to keep doing more because we don't have the tools to actually know what to do with them. And that's where I think this is one of the things that comes into play with NLP and with like a lot of the things, you know, that we also help to help our runners to work through as well, because we really try to get under. A lot of the superficial things. Yeah, we have training plans, but it's not about the training plan. It's about what you're thinking about yourself going into that training plan. It's these underlying beliefs that you've already mentioned of, you know, I just need to do more. I just have to push harder. These are the ways that I get better. And it turns out that's often the way that you get hurt, right? That's often not the way you get better. That's often the way that you get hurt or understanding that sometimes there are places and times that We do want to push harder, but most of the time we want to take it easy and pull back. And, and when we don't understand that balance and when we don't understand kind of what to do, when some of these insecurities surface, that's where it becomes like almost, what's the word? Oh, it's like, it's almost like, um, reinforcing those beliefs even more, right? Because like, since we don't have another tool to use, we just lean into the current belief even harder. Does that make sense?

Megan:

Absolutely. I think that the tools are paramount of finding them, having them, finding them, learning, right? Then running becomes this amazing opening of like, what else is here? And if you're opening that up and clearing it, you're already doing the thing. You're already physically moving, which so many people are lacking, right? So, You know, sometimes we have people who are willing to do the transformation work but not willing to move the body and we need the, we need all of it on board so that's like super cool if you already have the physical movement on board now we can incorporate. Um, the mind as well. I thought of one more story, Angie. I have to tell this story because this highlights, I forgot about this, but this highlights the same thing, like you said, of having kind of an arbitrary goal. I remember my running group and I, we were gonna, it was gonna be, um, an under two minute, sorry, two minute, under two hour half marathon was the goal. So we were, we were working up to this and I got, I got pregnant during this time. Um, and, um, I'd already signed up for two races, right, and I was pregnant and I was like, okay, well, I can still run this race. So I'm four months pregnant, running the race with my group of friends, and, um, We had a set goal, so I was gonna, you know, I was gonna make it happen. And so, oh no, okay, so I did, I, I hit the, I hit the two hour on a previous race because I knew I was pregnant, so I was like, I'm gonna push this one that was earlier on and not the next one. But I still went with my friends, because that was where they were gonna, they were gonna hit the two hours. So I went with my friends, but I'm running much slower. I have the picture, the official picture of me, of that race, and I look Like, death. I looked so miserable, and I was. I was having pains in the bottom of my stomach, like, it was so miserable. And the end of the marathon, or half marathon, was kind of, is torture, but it was, like, where you go by the finish, and then there was, like, a maybe two mile loop.

Angie:

Oh, that's so, yes. Those courses are so evil.

Megan:

My friends, of course, cause they're running much faster. They're at the finish. Right. And I was like, Oh, cool. They made their time and I'm running by, but still have a two mile loop. And I remember looking at them and being like, Hey guys, I don't have to finish this, do I? Like, You just finished. You made the time like, and then they all thought I was joking and was just like, ah, like you got this. And I really didn't want to finish. I cried the last two miles. I felt miserable. But Angie, think about that. I needed their permit. If they, if, if even one of them had been like, you don't have to, I would have stopped. Yeah. But I needed their permission like at that point in my life. I just needed someone out someone outside of me to tell me what to do. So I ran them last stinking two months and for what reason? For what? Yeah. Some random half man. I'm other than a good story.

Angie:

Yeah, but like the whole point of you going to that like you just said was to support your friends and be there when they hit that goal and you were there. So. You know, but there was just something inside you that made you keep going, right? Whatever.

Megan:

Like, what does it mean to finish? What does it mean to hit a goal? What does it mean to stop?

Angie:

Because you don't want to be a quitter. God forbid.

Megan:

All those beliefs. Like, and so what we do now with people we work with is sometimes, like, if you're, you know, air quote, always a quitter, then the goal is no matter what you just finish, even if you walk, right? Right. And sometimes when you're the opposite. And you're the, I do it no matter what, the biggest breakthrough for me ever would have been like to just stop, even though my friends like didn't say I could and just be like, I'm done. Yeah. And that would have been the thing that would break through the new belief, like the opposite. Yeah. You never know which direction. It's like whichever thing the person is working with, you're just like asking. We just ask clients we're working with, so what is the identity? Like what is it that you're going for? And what would that person do right now? And if they're like, I'm really wanting to be more flexible and more at peace, then we're like, what does that version of you do? And if they're like, I really want to be more consistent, then you can make your decisions based on that, which will be probably different than what you're already doing.

Angie:

Absolutely. It's funny, we just had this conversation, uh, I want to say it was just a few weeks ago on the podcast where, um, you know, as runners, we are often very much tied to our little like watches, you know, that are telling us whether or not we're doing a good job, whether it's the pace or the distance and how oftentimes if you're running and you get back to your house and it says like 4. 97 miles, you're not going to just stop, right? You have to finish out the five miles and how, um, you know, For people like that that have that in like that need to be at that round number stopping at 4. 97 is going to be the test, right? Whereas people that always tend to fall short. The test is, okay, even though you're tired, even though you're back at the house, you have to go the extra 0. 03 miles, which doesn't actually matter. It doesn't change your fitness at all. Right. But mentally, which one is going to be more of the struggle for you? That's the one that you need to lean into because that's where. Those limiting beliefs are so funny. Ah, oh my gosh, Megan, this conversation has been so amazing. Is there anything that we haven't talked about yet that you want to make sure our listeners hear from you?

Megan:

So I would say that, um, we would love to have anyone come join us in person, Angie. So we're going to do, it's not till August, but our next live two day habit training will be in August. Yeah. And I can share those details with you so you can share that.

Angie:

Absolutely.

Megan:

But we have people, anybody who kind of identifies as a leader. So, whether that's a leader in your business, in your life, leading your family. But anybody who is wanting to continually grow, transform, have tools for them, have tools for their family. So sometimes these tools are just people will learn them just for their personal health and their personal journey. And then sometimes people actually want to use them to become a coach or to have a skill in their business, to speak directly to other people's subconscious mind, to actually have persuasive. Uh, ways of communicating for others, but and ourselves, because this is all in an internal game too. So I would say come join us in August, uh, in Dallas will be the next one. We do them in Dallas. I'm in Virginia Beach. My business partner's in Dallas. So that one will be in Dallas.

Angie:

Cool.

Megan:

And, um, yeah, that would be, it's really fun to have in person where we get to meet up with just like minded people and learn a lot of cool processes.

Angie:

Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Yeah, absolutely. And if you guys will definitely put that information in the show notes, and if you guys are on our email list, we'll be sending out more information regarding those trainings that Megan is hosting because this is As you guys can have already heard, I think from the podcast today, this stuff can change your life. Like not only change your running. Yes, it can improve your running. But if you're listening to this podcast, you also know that running can change the rest of your life. And that's really the goal of what we're all going for here. Like running is wonderful, but it's about the, all of the other things that it brings to our life and, and. NLP is just one more tool that we can use to become more of who we're supposed to be in this world. Right? And live the life that we want to live. So, um, thank you so much for sharing everything that you shared with us today. Um, this has been incredible. Where can someone, where can people connect with you, um, if they want to learn more from you and follow you?

Megan:

Absolutely. So our company is becoming zesty, so Instagram is at becoming zesty. And then our podcast is the other place where we're the most a active, so also becoming zesty on the podcast. And we're on, I think season 20. We have a lot of podcasts for people who are interested in the female cycle. If you go all the way back to season one, episode one, we were talking about how, um, the female cycle affects different. Times of the month and how you can realize really optimize that and then all the way up to our current Series where we're talking much more about transformation Transformation and adding those tools into your to your life and your practice

Angie:

Awesome. And again, I will put all that information in the show notes and also send out via email Megan, thank you for being here and I look forward to Talking with you more in the future.