Two Peas in a Podcast

Episode 111 - Britany Williams

Britany Williams is a global fitness trainer on the Sweat App, podcast host and content creator. She motivates women to find their best self through fitness, humor and hard work. Diagnosed with an autoimmune disease (Rheumatoid Arthritis) at the age of 13, Britany brings a realistic approach to feeling better in both body and mind.

From home workout routines to running humor to unfiltered rants about the wild ride of motherhood, Britany’s mission is to be the motivator you need to achieve your goals and the friend you turn to for a laugh.

To connect with Britany directly please reach out to:

https://www.instagram.com/britanywilliams

Broadcast on:: 20 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

Brittany, it is so, so, so rewarding to see you here. And first and foremost, I just want to thank you for sharing your time with me and our audience because I know how valuable it is. Thank you for having me. Now tell us who exactly you are and what is it that you do day to day. Yeah, I am a sweat app trainer, which means I am a fitness trainer to thousands of women around the world on an app called Sweat. That's where I spend most of my time building workout programs for women to do at home or in the gym. And I help them achieve their goals, right? Some of that's mental, some of that's physical. With that, I've gained a bit of a global following on social media. So I've also now adopted the role of influencer, content creator, whatever you want to call that space. And I'm also a podcast host. So really, I kind of use this one umbrella term as I'm a motivator. I try to motivate women specifically to feel their best, to live their best lives and to realize that they're probably making it harder than it has to be and kind of be that good girlfriend in their ear to motivate them to do whatever it is that they're trying to achieve. Yeah. And the reason why my wife and I love you so much is because your content just feels so relatable. There's a sense of humor. There's a sense of honesty that a lot of social media influencers today kind of tend to miss. Like the perfect body, it's about this touched up physique. And the honesty that comes through in your videos is what makes you so, so relatable and why so many people are watching every single thing that you touch. Now let me float this crazy question by you a decade ago. Did you ever see yourself being this motivational person making videos at home for working moms for people who are trying to get in shape? So you know, the true honest to God answer is that I wouldn't be surprised. So no, I, 10 years ago, I was working for Under Armour and I very much wanted to climb the corporate ladder. I was in sales and I was just grunt work hard. I was in Excel spreadsheets and financial calls and running analysis on retail numbers and all of the things. And so this is definitely 180 from that life. But I have always been the kind of person who was never afraid of public speaking, never afraid of the limelight. You could turn a camera on and I wouldn't shy away. I remember as like a kid like, you know, dancing in front of a mirror and holding a mic and kind of always feeling like I was going to be in front of a camera. Now, I didn't know how that would all come about like, but I didn't think that my love of fitness, which got me to Under Armour, would turn into becoming a fitness trainer, would turn into kind of becoming an influencer. So no, I am shocked that I am doing this full time. It's an absolute dream and I'm thankful for the opportunity every single day. But there's always been an itch inside of me to help people and to do it in kind of a, when I say larger than life way, I really like humour. Like I really enjoy making people laugh. And so I kind of knew that I'm going to help people and I'm going to make them feel good about themselves. That wouldn't, that part wouldn't surprise me. Yeah. I love that because obviously the office setting is not the setting to be making people laugh all the time. And just like, I had some fun in my office days. We had some good laughs at my office days, but it's a little different. I love that you said that because when I talk about a corporate job, I said the exact same thing. Like, as much as it doesn't fit your personality, you still find bright spots to make the most of the opportunity while you're kind of chasing this life of doing sales. Tell me a little bit about the career trajectory at Under Armour. And at what point you knew that, hey, even though I love doing this now, a decade from now, five years from now, I might be doing something else. So I, it's funny because I didn't know until right until I quit this. I want to believe, I still, I still to this day is like, I could, if the internet falls apart tomorrow, social media goes away, I would go back. Like I did. I did trouble there. I did. I did. Yeah. Hopefully not. Not on wood, but I was a sport management major in college and a business minor. And I really was obsessed with the business behind sport. Like when most people turn on a basketball game or an NBA game, they're watching players play. And I was finding myself curious about like, oh, it's interesting that like the Coca-Cola logo is really big. And like, oh, it's interesting that this halftime, you know, performance is sponsored by so-and-so. Like I just became really interested in like all of the stuff that is required to make fitness a business. And that landed me in an internship at Under Armour. I got super lucky. It was a very hard internship to get. And I interned in their product department building their first line of footwear. So it was a super cool way to be really early on. So massive company, right? But at the time, this is 2009, they were only making apparel. And so to, and I think maybe football leagues, like this is their first running footwear line. And it was to be able to see a brand who was so hot back then, build a footwear line for the first time. It just sparked a passion for the industry that I, I didn't even know what the footwear industry was. I had no idea what the apparel industry, I mean, knew what they were, but I didn't understand the business behind it. So I interned my junior year of college. I interned again in between my senior year and my fifth year because I did, I was a track and field athlete in college. So I stayed an extra year because I registered it. And then there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to work full time. Like I, there was a hiring freeze when I graduated because like that was back during like the financial bubble back then, or a crisis, whatever you want to call it. And a part of me just wanted to move to Baltimore, which is where their headquarters were because it's like, I know I'm going to get a job. It's just a matter of when, like I was dead set and sure enough, I got a job in customer service working with wholesale accounts. So I worked with big retailers. So like here in the United States, the biggest example I could give is like exporting goods or a footlocker. They have teams of people dedicated to their business at an underarm or at Nike to Adidas. And they work on the products that you sell, how much of it you sell, where it lives in the store, marketing, fixtures, mannequins, all the things. So I kind of worked on the customer service side of shipping and logistics. And then eventually that got me into sales. And then I had, if you would have asked me in 2010, 11, 12, 13, what are you going to do for the rest of your life? It was work at underarm or like I was like, we, there's a few of us that called ourselves lifers. Like I was just going to work at underarm or like it was like dumb to even consider. Yeah, like people like, you know, oh, update your resume or, you know, like, oh, there's this job open at Nike, doesn't matter, I'm staying at underarm or that was like my very narrow minded way, but like all of it, that's kind of how I thought in the twenties or when I was in my twenties. And then when I moved to Portland, I moved because my husband then boyfriend had moved out here. He also still works for underarm or to this day. I became a fitness trainer back in 2017. And it was just something that I loved doing. Again, I was passionate about fitness, I was passionate about public speaking and helping people. That was a natural kind of progression. But that itch became a full blown rash, became a full blown like obsession into fitness training. And I started posting, I made a fitness account specifically for fitness and I started posting fitness related things. So by day, I'm crunching at underarm or I'm moving my way up in the sales department. So getting larger and larger retailers, getting more and more financial responsibility underneath me of kind of like my quota, my revenue that I needed to bring to the company. And I'm climbing the corporate ladder and kind of you get to this certain point, I think where it feels unacceptable to also be having a part time job. But I just loved it so much that I just kept doing it to the point to where I saw the opportunity and the runway in front of me. And I said, I think I have a unique voice in fitness on social media. I think that there's a lot of people who are selling a very toxic bill of goods when it comes to health and fitness online and a very toxic mental talk. I mean, I guess some people are pushing some not healthy products too, but I meant mentally, I think that a lot of people are causing a lot of these mental health problems and maybe self-love issues and the way that people look at themselves and critique themselves. And I think that I recognize that the way that I talk about fitness and my approach to fitness and social media content is unique. And I said, you know what, how often do you have the opportunity to work for yourself and to tell this story online and to motivate people to be their best self. So I said, you know what, underarm or is not going away. I can always come back, but I will be very upset with myself if I don't see what I can do. I also, this was four years ago that I quit under armor, wanted to have a kid eventually. And so I knew that like ultimate flexibility of working for yourself is going to be great for that. But no, it was the day I was like sitting with my boss, crying, telling him that I'm leaving like, and he's like, you're crying and I was like, I'm just not sure, but I'm also 100% sure this is the right decision. I love that because lessons that you took from underarm or obviously make you so, so special in the social media space today, because I feel like some of the lessons of having a corporate job include paying attention to the details, understanding how the world works, making sure that, you know, every, every single rock has been turned over until you find success. And it feels like the way that you talk about your job at underarm or aligns fully with the same vision of what you are now building with your social media brand, where you are just doing the small things right, making sure that the content you're creating each and every time out is special, resonates, but is also so, so unique in your specific approach. Yeah, I think, I think one thing that underarm or taught me is that you have to understand what your unique, you know, selling proposition is, like, what is your unique point of view. And like, you know, one of the hardest customers I had hard in terms of getting our product landed was Nordstrom. Nordstrom is highly coveted, very luxury, very high-end and underarm or in the footwear space specifically in its infancy wasn't that we had a lot to learn as a brand. And I was in charge of the Nordstrom account and trying to teach someone, like, hey, you get approached by every footwear company that exists, all of them running, like anything, anything, luxury, whatever. And I'm sitting here and you've allotted me 20 minutes to pitch my entire line, like, I don't have, I can't pitch the entire line in 20 minutes. So I got to pick like three shoes. What are the three best shoes? Like, I learned how to see who the audience is and I don't want to say tweak my message because that sounds like you're like lying, but like of this large message that I have, what's unique to them and what do they actually need? Nordstrom doesn't need another running shoe. The world doesn't need another running shoe. So you best be coming to the table with something that is unique that is going to make people say, oh my God, I've never thought of it that way. I need to get it on this. And that is exactly, I take that approach and apply it to my content. Like, how do I make this workout completely different or the way that I talk about, let's be real, fitness is fitness is fitness. There's really only a few ways to do fitness right, but how can I take something that can be pretty boring? Here's a squat. Okay. You've seen it a thousand times. How do I make it interesting, click worthy, savable, share worthy. It's the same, it's the same thing. No one needs another squat, no one needs another running shoe. Same concept. Yeah. I love that this is exactly how you talk about your job, because a lot of the people talk about specifically when they're leaving the corporate world, like they leave a life behind where the best of the best always talk about it as I take the lessons that I learned with me because they make, they're part of my story and they make me exactly who I am. 100%. Now, how do you find humor in fitness, and why is this a specific route that you chose to take? Because fitness sucks. I mean, come on, it's not very fun, like I'm a runner and like, I love running, it is my first love, but I hate it, it's miserable. Like there's very rarely a run the entire time, I'm just like, like I always equate it to the kind of jokes you see memes about the salad ads and like the girl eating the salad is always like smiling really brightly and she's eating her like plain romaine lettuce and like tomatoes with like no dressing, like her healthy salad. No one likes that salad. No one likes that. You know, like no one smiles like that when they're eating that salad. And that's kind of how I feel about fitness. Like a lot of times you see these fitness trainers and they just seem so perfect and their form is perfect and they start every reel lifting up their shirt to show you their six pack abs and then they just seem to float through the workout effortlessly. And so then here's you, the everyday person doesn't have a six pack more often than not, if you're living in the United States, you probably are maybe a little bit overweight and maybe to the point to where you actually are working with your doctor to improve it. Like we absolutely have an obesity crisis in the United States. And I think that you're coming at it, maybe working out in home in your PJs or maybe you're going to the gym and you're feeling intimidated. The concept of this person that you put out in a pedestal that is perfect is so far away from maybe what you're experiencing and sure it's all arranged. But I as a fitness trainer who is in more better shape than most people in this country and also intimidated by those people. So like I just one day worked because I the first wanted to be that person. I want to have a six pack. I want to be put on a pedestal, but then I just realized, no, I would rather be in the trenches with you and like look at you and say, I understand that this is hard. And the way that I deal with the hard is that I'm, I'm joke about it. Like that's just how I teach classes in person. Like I just, I tend to lend into comedy when something is difficult. And so that I think people is just so unique like fitness trainers don't complain about fitness online. Like you don't see it except I complained about fitness online probably every single day. And I think that's exactly what makes you so relatable, right? It's because an average person even as they're leaving the gym, they just go, Hey, that kind of sucked. I'm hurting everywhere. That wasn't great, but I need a little bit of motivation. I need a little bit of laughter. I need a little bit of friendliness to come back in the gym and make sure that I'm here tomorrow. Yes. And that's exactly it, but I think that it's actually, which is funny, which is also something that I learned from under armor and I'm going to butcher kind of the saying or the statistic. But under armor had, or someone at under armor, I think the consumer insights team had done some research on like what motivates people to work out. And again, this is well before I had any, any interest in this being my job, but they were saying that for men, men, again, this is old data, don't take this for anything now. This is like, again, 2010, but men in their study were more interested in or more motivated, excuse me, or inspired by athletes, Steph Curry, Tom Brady, LeBron James, the big, big names, women were more motivated by the people around them by word of mouth by their girlfriends. Oh my God, I tried this workout. You need to try it. That was going to get women out the door and into the gym more than, or in this case, what is Steph Curry wearing? I want to wear that. That was very much a man point of view. And the women point of view was my neighbor Sally loves those leggings. She says they're so comfortable. Now I want to get a pair. And I think that that approach is very much how I would explain my Instagram to someone. Like, I would love to be the Steph Curry of Instagram fitness. Don't get me wrong. Yep. But I think I'm going to do more good being your neighbor. Yeah. And I have so much appreciation for that first and foremost, because this kind of speaks to a big difference between men and women that a lot of people for whatever reason choose to ignore a lot of the time. And it's that around community, like women are just better communicators. You guys are more in touch with each other and you talk about things like being at the gym, the specific training methods as well as buy into the same thing. What is it like building a community that is women led because we both know that there's more talk about the feelings side of the workouts. And I feel like that's a really, really good thing specifically as you're trying to get going and you're trying to commit to a long term goal. Yeah, I think that the female space is a really interesting one. One because just from like a business perspective, women are the buyers of the two, right? Like when it comes to running the economy, like I would always laugh when like the Taylor Swift and the Beyonce tours were going on and they were talking about how the like economy in those cities were just booming in each city that like they visited. And I'm like, yeah, because women are buyers, we and not just for themselves, right? Like we're buying for the family, we're buying for the home, what have you, buying for our partners, whatever. And I think that for me, so from a business perspective, it makes a lot of sense. From a personal, emotional perspective, I think that women have been sold a bill of lies for many decades now when it comes to health and fitness, when it comes to you think of like the toxic marketing ads in the 90s or just how we've talked about women's bodies. And I think that we are very vulnerable. We as women are very vulnerable and susceptible to negative talk around dieting, nutrition, health and fitness in general. And we are very vulnerable at feeling like we should be doing something a certain way or we should look a certain way. I just don't know if that exists as strongly in the male world, like sure, you're pressured to be able to do certain things I just saw real earlier about how men have to go kill the spiders. And he doesn't want, he's like, I don't want to have to kill it either. He's like, it's hard to be a real man, like I agree, like, yep, that does suck. But like I, so to me, I think that this type of talking, being the neighbor versus the Steph Curry, like I just want to protect and hug the women out there who like me grew up in the 90s and 2000s and felt like I had to be as skinny as possible and felt like I had to show up to everything being perfect and beautiful and naturally effortlessly this way when in reality to look effortlessly, it takes a lot of freaking effort. And I think that I just, there's something in my heart that wants to protect these women and young girls and just say like you can be you without having to work so hard to be the you that society wants you to be. Yeah. And I have so much appreciation for this exact way that you talk about it because even with my wife, when we have these conversations, like we both do CrossFit consistently, we both work out quite a lot. And at the same time, when I go, hey, like we need to clean up our diet and get just a little bit better about what we're putting into our bodies. Her first answer is always, oh, we just need to eat less. Like there is just a mental block where a lot of women were taught, I feel like from a young age that if you just do less, if you eat less, if you like, I've always just questioned why it is so ingrained in us and why it is so, so hard to change. So based on some of the experiences that you have had that in the fitness space, can you tell me why it's so hard to change women's minds and their outlook on this approach to fitness? Because it starts from the beginning. So it's been really interesting. And I mean, beginning of life, I have a one and a half year old girl and just hearing, you know, if she eats a really big meal, someone would be like, Oh man, you're a big eater. You're eating a lot. It's like, or the constant commenting on what she's wearing, how she's cute, how much is she way, how much does this, and like sure, that does also exist with boys. But I can see how, how much is your kid way, which is a very valid question when you are younger and it is indicative of health at that age, and at any age, but specifically at that age, you want to make sure that they're growing, I can absolutely see how if we're paying attention to what a kid's eating and or you picky or not, and suddenly then you also introduce society who is going to tell you that you need to be skinny and is going to focus on models and who's pretty and popularity contests come into play once you hit like elementary school and middle school, you can absolutely see how the two just start to marry each other and become a really, really bad mix. And I think that for me, I don't ever remember a time not trying to look my best ever. Like it's ingrained in me from the beginning, like, and that's what I think is so scary is like, for me, like hearing how older generations talk, because I do think millennials are maybe aware of changing how we talk to children, I don't think that we're the best at it, but I think we're definitely more aware than the generations before us, and I hope that the generations after us just become a little bit better over time. But just sometimes hearing how older generations talk about their own bodies, how they talk about other people's bodies, I'm like, no wonder it's ingrained from the beginning, because this is how we talk about ourselves, like, one thing that I hear a lot because I'm in this space is women talking about, oh, I need to lose five pounds or, oh, my body is disgusting. Women are so quick, and maybe men are too, but most of my conversations are with women, so I can only speak for this half, are quick to degrade themselves. And then you take that degrading and you, those, maybe those small off comments that you make yourself in front of the mirror, in front of your kid who's going shopping with you. Oh, well, my mom is trying to lose five pounds, but I think she's perfect. So if the perfect woman has to lose five pounds, that definitely means I also need to lose five pounds. And then you start taking that with you over life, and then after 20 years, you wake up, and I won't say I ever had an eating disorder, but definitely had on and off years of disordered eating, where I'm manipulating everything just to be skinnier, not because a doctor says I need to be skinnier or for any sort of medical reason, just because that's what you do. Yeah. And I think literally the question is as simple as, hey, do you think you look good? Because what I found is if you ask a typical male who's overweight and just kind of is not in great shape and you ask him, if he's super good looking, he's going to go, of course, I am. And if you ask the same woman who is, I mean, in the peak of her fitness, just doesn't necessarily fit into that stereotype of being the hourglass shape, she right away criticizes herself way harsher than any man does. And I think it's always been like a problem with Western society or the way that we just set things up. Yeah. Yeah. I think, and I think that it's, it's everyone plays a part, right? It's not just women beating ourselves up and it's, oh, you just need to be better. I think there's also the men side of it. And I think holding women to a specific standard or holding women down, there's, there's so many different things I think that can be addressed. I don't think it's one thing. But I think as society, we just need to open our eyes, which I think we're doing. Thankfully, a little bit more. It's like how you talk about the female body and the female psyche, because it matters and little girls are listening. And that ingrained, I don't know why, but that ingrains itself into your brain, worms yourself in there and sticks. It feels like we're moving in the right direction, right? I think it feels like some of these conversations, a lot more people stepping up and having, or at least being open, being vulnerable and putting out content where they go, hey, like, I'm not perfect, but this is exactly who I am. And what I've at least seen is this kind of shift in the last five to 10 years, maybe where women are just getting better at supporting each other rather than tearing each other down. Yeah, I agree. And it just makes me hopeful for the future. I agree. Yeah. And I think that it's like having permission to do so, because I think that like, if perfection used to be the goal, you almost didn't want to support someone who wasn't being perfect, because then it makes you feel like you're shooting for something that's like, how do I explain this? It's kind of funny. I was kind of talking about this with my therapist the other day. Like, like, if I'm working so hard to be perfect, and then I see someone more successful than me who isn't perfect, that hurts, that burns, because I'm working really hard to be perfect. And you're telling me that I don't have to to be successful. And I think that that took a little while of like, because it's funny. Sometimes I will get hate for showing my imperfections. Like they're not I'm not imperfect enough. Like that happened a lot. When I was after I had my baby, I remember I showed a video of my like skin, like all my loose skin. And I got so much hate on it. At first, I'm thinking, Oh, I'm gonna get hate because like, Oh, you're not perfect. That's disgusting. It was the opposite. It was the you're too skinny to think that that's a problem. Or like, that's not enough skin. And I'm like, it's not enough. Like, I'm not this isn't a competition, friends. I'm just saying it happened the loose skin, the flab, the extra fat that you hold on to after having a baby is normal. This isn't a competition to who has more than than the other person. And I think that that's the sort of stuff that I'm like, Oh, we're so we've made so far, but then now it's like swinging the other way. I'm like, no, guys, no, like, just you're so so happy that you chose to take us in this direction because I literally was going to ask this. Yeah, with this women's empowerment movement and a lot more people being way more positive. Part of what I actually really don't like is the movement of the big girls who are on some way, advocating for the right, the right idea, again, like being comfortable with your body, but not at the cost of ignoring the health benefits of being relatively skinny and being relatively fit. Sure. Where is this middle ground where we can talk about it in a positive way, where we can still say, Hey, it would help you to go to the gym, it would help to be fit. But that doesn't mean necessarily that you have to have a six pack, you have to be killing yourself at the gym every day, because it feels like if you approach it from one side, it's super negative. But on the other side of it, like, it's always Lizzo. Lizzo is the one who is like, yes, has this impact based on being such a talented artist and based on being so, so big. But at the same time, some of the messaging is lost based on people just blindly following. Yeah. Yeah, I think that a lot of it is taking, like, you have to look at what your metric of success is and taking a lot of the focus away from the way that someone looks and look at what your metric of health is. So for example, if you can play with your kids, you can get up, you can get up down, up and down the stairs, you can go from an healing position to standing, you can walk 10,000 steps a day, you can work out, you can do live your life the way that you want to. And maybe on the scale, the number isn't where you want it to be and it is bigger. But if you can accomplish a healthy lifestyle, that is worth celebrating. I don't care at all what you physically look like. And I think Lizzo is a great example, because she does some amazing things on stage that we could not do. Lord knows I couldn't do them. So who is to say that my health or fitness is better than hers, because when we both step on a scale, I'm going to assume my number is lower. Like, I think that we have to stop treating what the mirror shows us as our benchmark of success, because then you go also go there, you can take the exact same conversation and talk about the flip side, people who are dangerously skinny. And you see a lot of that online that people who have such a low body fat percentage that are touted as these amazing fit people. And I'm like, they just have a low body fat percentage. That doesn't mean that they can do a pull up or that they can do a push up or that they can do any sort of physical feat. It just means that they have a low body percentage. And that shouldn't be celebrated. The same way as just because someone is overweight and just becomes someone is obese, whatever the number that number is that arbitrary number is just one point data point in the array of data points that should make up what your health is. And we can't let the way that someone looks or the number on the scale determine healthy unhealthy fit, not fit worthy unworthy. I think that it's really more of a of a you got to look at a holistic approach. Well, I think when we first of all, we shouldn't judge people. But if we're gonna judge people, you got to take a moral holistic approach to what they're doing. And then I do truly believe in like, you've got to also let doctors determine when someone needs to make a change for a medical reason. And like, that's always what people like when everyone, someone comes to a weight loss to me for weight loss. Yeah, sure, I can help you get there. But can we first unpack why we're trying to do this? Because often their goal isn't necessarily to lose fat. The goal is to like, let's say, be more toned or sculpted, like, okay, weight loss is part of that. But it's that that's a very small part of the equation. We also need to get you to like, um, gain muscle so that you actually have something that is defined and sculpted and toned using air quotes. We also need you to sleep and hydrate and do all these do all of these things. It's a holistic approach. It's not just I want to lose weight. Um, so I think that I, it's hard. It is hard because I think there are a lot of people who are overweight who are doing amazing things and will always get haters simply based on how they look. And I think that anyone who's willing to judge you and what you bring to this world based on what you look is not someone worth losing sleep over. That's for sure. Yeah. And I appreciate that perspective so much because at the end of the day, what you're saying and the message you're driving home is that this is your journey. Like other people should not get in the way of telling you how you should be living your life. Just make the best of it relative to where you want to be. A hundred percent. And you already talked about holistic health. So let me take you in this direction really quickly. And that is the role of mental health in your overall health because it's strange to me when people only talk about diet and working out a lot of time. Don't touch on the topic of mental health because I feel like when you're building a perfect human, you have to approach happiness. You have to approach holistic wellness when having this conversation. Yeah. But again, that's to be double advocate. It's because again, people use what the mirror shows you as their metric of success. And unfortunately, the mirror doesn't show us much about what's in between your two ears and what's taken on the inside. I think the role of mental health, I honestly think is more important than physical health because usually mental health is the unlock that can get you consistent with physical health. And if someone's physical health is failing, and I don't mean failing like, oh, he's dying, but just like you have some things that you need to work on. Usually, if you are unsuccessful at being consistent with those things, there's a mental blockade and a barrier that we first need to break down. Because if we don't break that down, we can work super hard to try to get you to do all these things. But it's going to be trying, it's going to be like trying to force a circle into a square. And I think that being happy with who you are, I don't think you have to be happy with who you are. But there have to be parts of yourself that you love that you want to hold on to that you cherish. Because that's where we're going to light little fires. Okay. And those little fires will turn into a flame that will turn you into a new person that will make the lifestyle changes that you're looking to make. But if there's nothing that you can't grasp onto and say, I want to grow this part of me because I love this part of me, it's very hard to motivate you to get out of bed and do hard things. Like we've already said fitness is not easy. So like, I can't like people like, Oh, how are you motivated to work out? And I'm like, I'm not working out sucks. But I love the person who I am after I've worked out because I accomplished something I feel confident and I can take that confidence into my day. And I know that if I just feed that part of me, that person who's working out that confident person, I can show up in my work in a better way. And so like, what are those things for you? And like, let's work on that first, because if you are miserable, working out is going to be even more miserable than it already is. And I think that it's a delicate balance between the two, but mental health, I think is more important than physical health, frankly, like, I truly believe that like, I truly like, I tell people if you only have so much resources for some for things in your life to spend money on things, spend money on a therapist before you do a personal trainer, truly. I could not agree any more strongly to that cause. Yeah, let me challenge you. This is how I make money, but don't spend money on me. Go get a therapist. Yeah, get better first. And at some point sooner or later, you're going to end up with me either way. And I want to challenge you on this specific piece that you're talking about, because when I think about the people who are the healthiest and the fittest and the most well in my own life, I feel like there is this duality between for both love and hate. They love the person they are. At the same time, they kind of hate that they're not exactly at their goals yet. And it drives them to do incredible things because they understand the capacity that they have as a human being for achieving greatness. They know they're just not there yet. Do you find the same thing in the fittest people? Oh, 100, 100%. I think the word that comes to mind, I think, is potential. And I think that there is the you that you are today and that there is the you that is reaching his or her max potential. And there's always going to be discrepancy, right? Like no one's ever going to reach their whenever working at 100% max potential at 100% of the time. And I think that you have to love who you are today, but want to fight like hell to get to where the potential is. And I think that to me, and it's funny, I looking back at like my group of friends in college, I'm like, man, wait, hold on. Like, I kind of grew up in this little petri dish of like high overachievers. And I look at all of us Olympians, like world champions and different things, a lot of professional athletes. I don't know what was in the water, but like, I'm like, man, I've got like some cool examples in my life of high achievers. And I look at all of those people and all of those people have achieved amazing things. And the minute they achieved them, they're like, Oh, I want more. But they still went and celebrated what they achieved. And I think that that duality is so important to be hungry, to reach your potential, but being just enough satisfied that you may never 100% get there. And that doesn't take away from your worth as a person. It's a part of you, you know, like when I was running competitive track, I like my 100% goal in cross my last cross country season was to be all American, which is like top 30 in the race, which is like the top 200 girls in the country. Division one, like could not be more of my peak athletically. I mean, I guess unless I was professional, but I just wasn't at that level yet. And all I had to do is be top 30, which I could have ran backwards and been top 30. I just you have to run the race. Like that's why we do sports is because you have competition is because it's not what's on paper. It's what actually happens in the race. And then the first 400 meters, I fall pretty bad. And I have to wait for all 200 something girls to pass them. You can't just stand up in like the beginning of a race because it's like a stampede. So now I'm in the back. I end up getting like 200 like 178. I don't even think I ever looked at what place I got. But forever, I left with this like I had a goal and I literally my entire goal that entire season I was in the best shape of my life was to get all American. I didn't get it. And I've over the years, the only way people are like, how did you get over that? And I was like, because I know that my potential was there. It wasn't that I couldn't do it. It just didn't happen on that day. So like, I just have to know that like my potential actualized, I was actually able to do that. But just because some girl trip me, like that doesn't mean I wasn't a worthy runner. And it's that like pulling yourself out of like the data and the like numbers of things. I think that helps you keep a healthy mindset. But yes, you do have to still be striving for what's next. Yeah. Now the question is always the same. Do you feel like that loss made you a better human being and set you on this path of being? I mean, undeniable, both in your professional career and now as an influencer. I think, yeah, yes, it certainly did. I think the bigger lesson I learned from my running career was that hard work can get you so far. Like, I walked on. I was a nobody. I was very not slow. I wasn't slow. But like, I was a long distance runner for frame of reference. I ran the five K in the mile and cross country. And I was okay. I was a walk on, right? Like nothing special. No one's paying me to be here. I'm just happy to get a uniform and to show up to practice. And I left after four and a half years, qualifying for nationals four times, being a school record holder, like accomplishing way more than I could have ever experienced. And it's not the times that I ran or the accolades that I got. I'm most what what I take with me now, however long I've been out of college almost 20 years. No, 15 years. I was like, wait, hold on, 15 years. Don't make yourself come on now. Yeah, 15 years is the journey. Truly the fact that I ran, you know, a mile. I think my mile time was like five, 10 in high school. And my five K pace was faster when I graduated college was faster than my mile pace in high school. That stat to me means way more than anything else. Like I came in, being able to run one mile in five minutes in 10 seconds. And now I can run three miles at five minutes faster than five minutes. Like I'm like, yes, like that to me is what I take in. And like, people are like, Oh, I can't do this. Oh, I'll never get there. I'm like, girl, buckle up. I'm not saying it's going to be easy. It might take years, but where there's a will, there is a way. And to me, I don't want to say it didn't learn anything from not getting all American. But I kind of, I kind of don't know what I learned from it. Because it was a day it was what I learned is that that was one day. And it was really bad day. But it doesn't take away from what I look at my journey, because I know that I had so much potential and I actualize so much that potential that I can be proud. And that's what I want people to take into their fitness is just like, look at what you can accomplish. You may never get the six pack. I, I'm probably never going to have a six pack either. So we're running along in the same boat, but there's still so much to be proud of. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't try. I think that lesson by itself is one that most people, I mean, spend most of their life not learning. And it's that it's all about the journey. It's not necessarily about the outcome that like, it's not defined by whether or not you actually get somewhere, you should have fun in the middle of it. You should be able to talk about it. You should look back and just go, Hey, I am much better today than wherever it is that I'm starting. And I think maybe that to go back and actually actually answer your question. I think by not getting all American, it kept me in love with the journey because I never got to my end destination. So I couldn't say, isn't it really cool that I did this thing? All I literally have is the journey because I never got the end goal. I can only tell you, look at this amazing journey that I went on. I don't have any accolades to show for. And then might have been the most important lesson yet. Exactly. Like, I think in the end, that is the lesson that like, I wouldn't do any of it different. I would maybe punch that girl in the face. I love that. I learned one thing that I should have punched her. Now, there's one last piece, just a little bit. Yes, just in my dreams. There's one more piece that I want to make sure that we talk about because you are such a healthy advocate about it. And there are so many people who just don't even touch this topic. And I find it to be a really meaningful one. And that is postpartum fitness. Now you are a very, very outspoken influencer on this side of the world where you talk about your body, you share with the community exactly some of the things that are going both through your head, as well as that are happening to your body. At what point were you comfortable enough to go, hey, here is the story that I want to share with other people. And when did you start realizing that it was so powerful that it was changing other women's lives? Yeah, that's a great question. I think that for me, so I little bit about my postpartum journey to give context. I had preeclampsia, which is high blood pressure, which can lead to stroke and seizure. So very serious ordeal that arrived in my 32nd week of pregnancy. And so I ended up having an emergency C section eight weeks early. And I'm an influencer at this time, I share everything about my life as influencers do. And then suddenly I'm being rushed to the hospital and being, you know, operate having major operation and have my baby pulled out of me at 32 weeks. And my baby's in the NICU and I'm in the hospital and I'm a complete mess. Like I very much had a rare case of preeclampsia called help, which is quite life threatening. And I had this moment of I've never heard of any of this, right? Like I have no idea what the protocols are. I have no idea how severe help the syndrome that I had is like how life threatening it really is. And I have no idea on it because no one talks about it. No one talks about emergency C sections and how difficult they are emotionally and physically. And it's like, I remember having this moment where I was sitting on my phone and I was in my hotel, my hospital, I wish I was in my hotel, I was in the hospital bed. And my daughter is in her NICU. And I'm like, do I talk about this on Instagram, which is my job, which I have talked with everything else. Or do I keep it private because it's so emotional and so raw and it's so scary. And the best content that I have ever made in my life is always because I answered this question a certain way. And the question is, what do I need to hear in this moment? And that's what I asked myself. If I was Sally Jane who follows Brittany Williams online going through this, what would I need to hear from Brittany? And I just remember on that day, I said, I'm going to share everything. I'm going to share everything. So every single day I posted on Instagram, every little update about Blake, my daughter, about me, I shared the bad stuff, I shared the good stuff, I shared the scary stuff. And it exploded into the issues in the NICU for 30 days. So I did it for 30 days. And it just exploded into so many women who had gone through the same situation I had, whose babies were also in the NICU or had been in the NICU. And I was just like, Oh my God, no one talks about this. And there's so much stigma behind postpartum because we do it in closed doors, because it is the quote unquote ugliest time of our life in the sense of you are at your weakest, your most vulnerable, both mentally and physically, and you're sleep deprived and you're dealing with all the baby things. Like it's, it's really, really hard time of life. And no one talks about it. No one, you just see people pop back. Okay, I'm back at work. Huh, everything's fine. Like, just let me, I didn't sleep last night, but let me just put a smile on my face. And I'm just, and it's funny going back to my corporate life. I remember women coming back from postpartum. And if I have one regret in my corporate life, it is not to look at every single one of those women, women who came back on their first day of back from attorney leave and give them the biggest hug and say, if there's absolutely anything you need me to do, if you need me to do any of your work, you need me to stay late to do something, send an email from your email. I don't care. I'll do it. Because it's such a hard time. And it's such a lonely time. And it's, I think the one time that women need friends and community the most. And it is the one time that we are most afraid to show up for women. And so I think I just learned that if we as a society need to peel back the curtain to how hard postpartum is, and so I probably talk about postpartum and motherhood, honestly, more negatively than I do positively. If you've you tallied up every post that I make about motherhood and postpartum, it probably would lean more negative than positive. And I love it. I love my daughter more than anything in this world. I want to have another kid like sign me up a thousand times. Okay. But it's very important for me to over index on you're not alone in how hard this is because women are being told that they need to bounce back that after six weeks, you're going to go back to work and everything's going to be fine and normal. And you can send your kids daycare and not miss them. And just all of these things. And I'm like, wait, hold on. There's so much emotion and so much rawness in this time that I am going to make sure that you know you're not alone. And so I try with every single piece of content that I make. Just say like, what do I need to hear in this moment from me? And what is something that a woman may be like, oh my god, you too. It's not just me like that. If that's the response I get from a piece of content around motherhood or postpartum, my job is done, even if it's just one person. Now, how rewarding was it for you while you were going through this difficult time in your life to hear women step up for you and go, hey, you are not alone. We've been through this. We know what it is. This is just a step up the journey and know that it's going to be okay on the other side. It's honestly crazy because I had no idea, no idea how many women have preeclampsia, how many women have C-sections, how many kids go through the NICU. I was just my daughter's NICU reunion a couple weeks ago and my husband and I were like, there are so many children here. Like, this is which is sad. Like, there's so many kids here and it's like, dang, like you just hear about one version of pregnancy, which is a vaginal birth and it's really hard and then it's done and you go home with your baby in two days and you snuggle and it's fine and your back's working out after Dr. Clears you in six weeks. Meanwhile, my kid didn't come home until she was a month and I didn't feel back to normal my workouts until probably nine months later and I'm a pre postnatal certified fitness trainer. I have a whole program dedicated to postpartum fitness and I still did not feel 100% in my workouts until nine months to 12 months later and hearing so many women go through that just made me feel more motivated to tell women, trust me, you're not alone. My DMs are full of the exact same conversations of thousands of women going through this collective experience that we've all just been quiet about. Brittany, like, it's such a strong, strong message to that. At the end of the day, I'm just so happy that you're out there sharing it with the world because I can only imagine how difficult this journey has been for you knowing that with the positive, there are a lot of negative comments and I just want to ask you one last question before we let you go for the day and it's this one. In these times of going through hard things, what were some of the techniques and some of the tools that you use to stay mentally happy, mentally aware that hey, there is a positive ending to this and we can get through this because I think sharing some of these techniques is so, so useful and so, so powerful. Sure. Yeah, that's, I completely agree is probably the biggest takeaway we can give people. First and foremost, therapy, like I already said, is a big one. I think that for me, like I am a busy mom and the concept of spending an hour working on my feelings does not feel appeasing, but I go every other week, right? It used to go weekly and now my schedule doesn't equate for it. So I'm like, you know what, like do it what you can. I think that goes a long way. For me, one thing that my husband and I started doing when our daughter was in the NICU and we were in this really weird state where you leave your kid the NICU and you say, okay, we're gonna go home now. We'll see you in the morning, which is very strange because that's not what you do with the baby. You're supposed to be with the baby all the time and what have you. And so we would go home and we would get in the shower and this, we have a double shower, so we both can stand there and we would just debrief. What are the positives of the day? We're not going to talk about, oh my God, she failed this test. What are we going to do? But we would just literally stand under the running water and like, what were the winds of the day? And we would go to bed each night and we would we and we we've done this. The majority of our relationship is like, what was the best part of your day? And always ending on the like today was awful. But what was the best part? And like, let's talk about that. Sure, there's plenty of business things we need to talk about. There's plenty of like, logistic things we got to worry about. We got to worry about our kid's health. But well, let's end the day on something that is positive. And for me, then it's funny, I kind of learned this in therapy, is recognizing that everything in your life is parts. Is that there are parts that are bad. There are parts that are good. And you've got to handle the bad, but do not neglect the good parts. And I think that's the biggest takeaway I can give someone is find a way to honor the positivity in your life, even if it's tiny small. I got my nails done today or like, oh, I tried a new, you know, eyeliner. And I liked it. I'm not saying these have to be big things. Okay. They can be very small wins, but find a way to celebrate those things. I think celebrating them with another person can be huge. And I always invite people to like, if you have a win in your life and you have no one to share it with, send me a DM. I'm happy to celebrate you because like, just saying, man, this happened to me today, out loud, not yes, some people journal, but I'm a true like, I'm a talker. I'm a type a person. I think there's power in sharing it with another person because then they can they can they can celebrate you back a piece of paper can't celebrate you back. And I think that to me communicating the small positives in your life is I think a way that has kept me feeling like there's a chance. Okay, we can do this. We can do this. And I think that Instagram has allowed really allowed me to do that because if you're over sharing your life, you're going to share both. And it makes me feel really good when I can share something positive. And I think that people can find different ways to do that in their personal lives. It does not need to be online by any means. But it builds your community and it builds people around you that are going to celebrate you so that when you are in rock bottom, you don't have to worry about lifting yourself up because they'll do it for you. Yeah. And I'm so happy that we get to end there because this message of positive thinking, this ability to even in the bad days find just a little bit of the good, it feels like a lot of people are on the path to discovering it and haven't gotten there yet because based on social media based on how we are just wired to think within the hundred positive comments, we'll find that one negative one within the best day of our lives, we will find that one thing that didn't go our way. And you sharing this idea of even in the bad days finding the good speaks volumes to who you are as a person. I am so so proud of you for everything you've already. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I'm just so excited to see where you go next. So Brittany, thank you so much for sharing your time with us. Thank you for having me. And we will see you guys next time. Thank you for listening. [BLANK_AUDIO]