Podcast #5 How to Take one Small Step at a Time Towards Self Care

Self-care is self-preservation. Believe it. Amazing advice from our guest Claudine Francoise.

Claudine is a health and wellness coach for women entrepreneurs who are looking to get more vivacity, more abundant energy in their lives. And the reason she started on this path was having to struggle with energy every day, even though she thought she was already healthy. 

Claudine had been through the struggles she saw so many other women going through. The struggle of putting yourself first and how hard it is when we have this huge laundry list of things to do. 

Especially as women…... You know, we have to, I'm being very conventional here, but we usually take care of the house and the children and all of the things that no one else wants to take care of. There's a lot of mental energy that goes into doing all of those things. But your family (and yourself) need you to set aside time for your well-being!

It’s so important to put yourself and your health first and make yourself a priority. You have to remember to put yourself at the TOP of your list. Nothing will actually happen until you do.

And don’t overwhelm yourself with having to do everything at once! It’s ok to start small. Claudine gives us a great idea to start with lemon water and eating more whole foods. Try paying attention to what you eat and how you feel and just focus on one food item at a time.

Changing our diet and eating differently than most people can come with all sorts of challenges. Claudine and I  talk about our struggles with going out to eat, people not understanding our lifestyle. It can be hard to not speak up because you are scared of being judged, or as being seen as “needy”. But the after-effects of how you feel will be so worth it! And in so doing, Claudine has been able to be a role model to lots of other women who are looking to change their life.

In this episode, we also discuss how Claudine considers herself a disruptor and what disruption happened in her life that caused her to change her perspective. We learn the benefits of looking at the positive aspects of change instead of the negative and how that impacts our mindset.

               5 Rapid Fire Questions for Claudine:

1. What is your Mantra? - Self-care is self-preservation
2. What three words would you use to describe either yourself or your brand? - cheeky,(Because I can be irreverent and a little playful way.), adventurous, and a french word -  chaleureuse - which means warm and inviting, making people feel comfortable and at ease.
3. What is your least favorite mode of communication? - Text message! Without the voice inflections or facial cues, it's really hard to know what someone means.  I just prefer to either have a voice text or a phone call or a zoom call, you can get more of the interaction.
4. What outfit makes you feel like a badass? - Probably a power suit. 
5. What are your brand colors and why did you choose them? - blue and mauve/pink

Listen to the Full Episode Here

Watch the Full YouTube Video Here:

Featured on the show:

Brand Disruptors Program

You can find out more about Claudine here:   

Website | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest

Enjoy the show?

• Don’t miss an episode, listen on Spotify and subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or RSS.
• Leave us a review in Apple Podcasts.
• Episode #4: Great Photos Begin With Intention

You can view Full Transcript Here:

*Note- The Brand Disruptors Podcast is produced for the ear and made to be heard not read. We strongly encourage you to listen to the audio which includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting it in print.

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to Brand Disrupters. I'm your host Mia LaMotte. And today I have with me, my really good friend, Claudine Francoise. And she's going to be telling you a little bit about herself, and then we're going to go into the rapid fire questions so we can both learn a lot more about her. And then we're just going to have a little conversation. So welcome to today's episode. Claudine. Thank you so much. Lovely to be here with you. I always love having you on, I have to tell people that you're like the best person to travel with because Claudine was going to do all of the research before we go, where we're going to eat. She's going to know where what's the coolest stuff to do in town. She'll even know some conversational phrases in different languages. So she's the best travel partner in the world.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
So yeah, you got to have the good eats, right? What's the point in going to Greece if you're not going to eat well? Yeah, absolutely. So why don't you tell us just a small smidgen about herself? Like, what do you do? How did you start doing this work? And then we'll jump into the questions. Okay. I am a health and wellness coach for women entrepreneurs who are looking to get more, if I've acidy more abundant energy in their lives. And the reason I started on this path was, gosh, there's a long version of this. Let me try to make that part short. I, myself, struggled with energy. I was, you know, even though I thought I was healthy, I was dragging every day. I'd need several cups of coffee to make it through. And eventually I started my own business. I'm doing accounting, which is what I did for 20 years.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
And it just kind of made it worse because as an entrepreneur, as you know, we put so much pressure on ourselves to do all the things. And there's always so many things to do that. Eventually when I started my health and wellness business, I realized that was the group of people that I wanted to help most because I had been there and I knew the struggle of putting myself first and how hard it is when we have this huge laundry list of things to do. And so many people are counting on us to actually set aside time for our wellbeing. Yeah. Especially as women. Right. You know, we have to, well, I'm being very conventional here, but we usually take care of the house and the children and all of the things that no one else wants to take care of. Right. Right. There's a, there's not mental energy.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Right. The mental ticker tape. I forget what it's called emotional labor, you know, we're, we're, we're keeping track of everyone's doctor appointments and the birthday cards that have to go out and, and all of the extras that just weigh on us. And as you saw earlier, I had this long list of things to do. Right. Like some of them are for me, for my business and some of them are for everybody else because we just, for whatever reason, that's role that we have allowed ourselves to fill. Yeah. And if we're not careful, it can consume us. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I just want to make a mental note about that list that I just saw qualities. It looked like, but it was actually handwritten. So it was that.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah. I think though, or like, if I'm wrong, you know, we're old enough to know. Oh no, it's all right. I'll be careful. These are your answers. What is your mantra? Self care is self preservation. Believe it, wooed. I love that. It is. It is. And for me, I know a lot of people say self care is not a massage, but for me it is. I mean, I will take him aside, especially now. I haven't had one a month. Massages are definitely self care for me. What, what, what three words would you use to describe yourself or your brand? I think they're, these words can apply to both good answer because my brand is a lot of me, but the first thing I would say it's cheeky. Cause I can be irreverent and a little playful way. So little cheeky bugger adventurous. Yes. And there's a word in French that there's not an exact translation for it's called shadow hook, which means like warm, inviting, just making people who are really comfortable and really at ease. And I just, I liked, I hope that I make people feel that way. And I feel like I do just because random strangers walk up to me and tell me their life stories. I don't think they would do that if they didn't. I feel comfortable with that.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Those three kind of encompass not only me, but what I try to portray in, in good clean taste. Love that answer. And then she got a little French she's gone in here too. So, so what is your least favorite mode of communication? Text message. Text message. Cause it can, you know, without the voice inflections or the facial cues, it's really hard to know what someone means and it could be for me, I can be really careful because you don't have to, how could this be perceived by someone else? I just prefer to either have like a voice text or a phone call or a zoom call, you can get more of the interaction. Love it, love it, love it, love it. What outfit makes you feel like a bad ass? Well, this probably stems from being in corporate for about 20 years, but if I bought a power suit, I'm like, Hmm.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah. If I have a, if I have a good suit on, I feel like I can rule the world particular color. Is it pants or skirt or dress? You know, it's funny that you asked that I haven't thought about there's this one suit I used to have that I haven't thought about in ages because, well, for one thing I haven't fit into it in ages, but I was wearing it when I was like 24, but it was kind of like a sharkskin kind of color green, but a little bit gray. And it was like, I have a pencil skirt. So definitely a pencil skirt with a fitted jacket, color pumps. I had black eyes, black or black pumps are effective too. I did have, I think they were nice black pumps. Like they weren't like the cheap ones. I actually got nice ones to go with it. They had like a pointed toe and I just felt super sexy in them. That sounds like one of my favorite outfits too. Okay. So what are your brand colors and why did you choose them? I have a lot of blues blues. My favorite color I'm wearing blue today. I even wore blue to my wedding. Your eyes are green, right. They kind of go between blue and green. It depends. Okay. So yeah, they could be either I'm a chameleon.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
But yeah, I love all kinds of blues. And so my brand is there's some light blues or some dark blues and there's some like pops of kind of mauvey pink. Not that I love pink, but I just love the color combination. Perfect. Awesome. That was good. French. Now, maybe I'll see. You told us a little bit about how you got into this industry, the disruption that happened in your life, or how do you, how do you consider yourself a disruptor? The disruption that happened in my life with when I, I a Baker, a person who baked all the time for fun, because I liked to eat baked goods, had to give up gluten. And I was like,

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Are you kidding me

Speaker 1 (08:11):
That? And it's funny because it made me change my perspective on a lot of things. It made me change, obviously how I ate and how I looked at food. But it also made me realize that things that we perceive as hard don't necessarily have to be that hard based on our perspective. Yeah. Cause when we say, Oh my God, I can't have this or I can't do this instead of, Oh, look what I get to do or look what I'm going to eat or be, or have right. Or look what I get to explore. I get to explore how often flour works in a recipe and how I can, you know, put different combinations of things together. Get more nutrients than I was getting before. Yeah. And that speaks to your adventurous spirit too. So what did you learn about yourself or the way that the world works by going through this? Well, for one thing, I definitely learned that I can do hard things and if they don't have to be hard, right. If I'm thinking about them in the right way, I shouldn't say the right way, but in a different way. And what I learned about the world,

Speaker 1 (09:31):
This is going to sound weird, but people are really judgmental about what other people eat.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
Why do you care? What I eat?

Speaker 1 (09:41):
I think it has a lot to do what they want to eat. Yes, absolutely. I've gone out to dinner before and like we were eating pretty, pretty similar stuff. And then there are people at the table like, well, why don't you eat this? Or why don't you drink that? And why don't you do this? And it's just like, can we just have our plates? Sometimes they're just curious, which is fine. But I find that especially men tend to be really Oh, well, that can't taste good. Or why would you eat that crap? You know, I'm like, I'm not gonna eat that. And I'm like, I didn't tell you how to eat that. I'm eating it. Like when I'm, when I hear about it. And when I think about like making adjustments to recipes or making special requests in restaurants, it almost feels like it's on the high maintenance side.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Right. And I'm wondering if, you know, some of the reasons why we don't speak up about it is because we don't want to be perceived as high maintenance or needy. So we just take it as it comes. Oh my gosh. That is so true. When we were in the, I did this trip to India in January and it was with a bunch of women and you know, I did my usual thing where I asked to make sure that there wasn't any gluten or dairy and it was, we were staying at a hotel. And so after a couple of days, the servers got to know who I was and like, Oh, we made this for you. And it doesn't have gluten or dairy. They were really sweet. But then some of the other women who had just been suffering with what they were given started to say, Oh, can I have that?

Speaker 1 (11:14):
And it's funny because they came up to me, they're like, you know, I never really thought that I should, I should bother people with the things that I need and I didn't want to speak up. And then I thought that you were doing it. And I was like, well, maybe I can speak up too. And it's like, you absolutely can because no one's gonna suffer. But you, by what you're putting in your body and the people who were there as the servers, it's their job to make you happy. Right? Like they want you to have a good experience. And if you don't tell them what you need so that you can have a good experience, you know, that's, that's on you and they want nothing more than to happen for you to have a good experience. I agree. I used to call them, I would call a hotel ahead of time to let them know what I needed.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Even if I was going like to a, a special dinner or something like that. I'd say, look, I'm coming for X and I'm going to need X and can you accommodate me for that? And they'll be like, yes. Or they'll say yes with an upcharge or they'd be like, no, it's not part of the program. And I'll be like, okay, so I'll just eat before and then, you know, deal with it when I get there. Right. Yeah. They absolutely do help. They do accommodate you for sure. That's a great idea of calling ahead because if you're going to be staying somewhere and they know ahead of time, then perfect. That, that helps them even more to plan, especially for like a conference or something where you can have multiple meals. Yeah. And I think it's, I think it's really great that you recognize how some of the other ladies who were with you on this trip to India, they didn't think about making those modifications until they saw you having the modified food and something that was actually healthy for you.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
You actually were like a a role model when it came to that. Right? Yeah. I guess it would. Yeah. Yeah. Not feeling terrible after the meal. Cause I know for dairy, especially that can be really hard on some people's indigestion systems and it's like, why do you want to deal with that? Yeah, absolutely. So much easier just to ask no dairy. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. All right. So if somebody wanted to begin eating clean, cause that's what you teach, right? How would they start like give them three ways to get started on at least experimenting with clean food or figuring out like, what's the problem. So we live in America where the standard American diet rains, and this is the case you didn't notice standard American diet. The acronym is sad because that's how it makes sense because it is. So the first thing before I even get people onto all, well, the first thing actually is the self care aspect and making time for yourself really because none, none of the other stuff can happen until you actually make, put yourself on the list and prioritize yourself on that list.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Right? Because so many of us, we didn't put ourselves on the list, forget where we are on the poverty level. We have to do that first. But in terms of like easy steps to have, like let's say, you're just, you're doing the typical American diet. The first easiest steps you can take are to get rid of fast food or processed food. Cause there's so many things in that, in those foods that are messing with our insights, because we have a natural detoxification system that can work. If we let it, if we stop throwing all gunk in there, you know, it'll do its thing, but you know, eating whole foods, real foods, you know, things that don't have ingredients, they just are what they are [inaudible] then starting your day with a big glass of lemon water. I mean that the first two reasons, one, because it actually helped start the detoxification process during the day.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
But two, I think it gives you a little bit of like zing in the morning kind of lifts you up. Like for me, I had, I recently gave up coffee, which I know. And so that lemon water kind of saves me cause it's like, Ooh, kind of perks me up. And you know, it gives me that little and I actually now when I have plain water, I'm like, Oh, I wish I had lemon. I should go get some lemon. The, the real living right now, lemon. Yeah. You can either one thing that like my son, he doesn't like to drink water he's nine. I don't know why he doesn't like, he doesn't like playing water, but he loves it when I'll make a big pitcher of water. And I just put some lemon slices and some cucumber slices or maybe some mint in it. He'll drink that all day long. And I don't know why, why will he drink that versus plain water? I don't know. But that seems to work. So for people that aren't in love with the idea of drinking water, either the lemon idea, the cucumber mint even like frozen berries at the bottom.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah. I actually, I recently did a whole, like a, an email to my list and like here are the great ways you can add what water into your diet. Alright. So what else? So so getting rid of the process stuff, doing the lemon water, you could know some people don't really know whether or not they have food sensitivities cause they haven't ever tried giving certain things up. And I know that that's, that can be a challenging concept for some people like, Oh, I don't want to give stuff up. It's going to be too hard. That kind of thing. But if you, if you wanted to test it, you could really just try one thing at a time. Like this month, I'm going to see what it's like if I don't have dairy. And now that now that we have like coconut yogurt, macadamia, nut creamers, almond, you know, all those different things, you can, there's so many substitutes that you can find that are just as good as the normal thing, the regular dairy even cheeses, you know, all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
You could just try it. And then after a month, put it back in and see how you feel. You do the same thing with gluten or you could just like giving up sugar. That's a big one. That's a tough one for a lot of people when they hear that they run for the Hills. I know, but I can't tell you how much better. I feel not having sugar refined sugar like that, that brain fog the whole like slumping in the afternoons because, and you're right. It's hidden in so many things like it's hidden in your latte, hidden in your crackers. It's hidden in the bread. It's hidden in everything. Yeah. So those are, I don't want to get too much into it because I don't want people to feel overwhelmed, but they could really just start with the lemon water and trying to eat more whole.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah, no, that that's really good advice. So, you know, because I think that people do think they have to do all or nothing. Right. So I have to give it all up or I'm just going to eat crap. Yeah. That's, you know, that's funny that you say that I was just talking with a woman yesterday who is in that conundrum. She has an autoimmune disorder and she's going to all these doctors, right. Who are telling her either we can't do anything or let's give you a bunch of pills. And the funny thing is when I looked at this, it's a really where auto immune disorder. When I looked at the, all the information I got was, it's actually a part, something in your diet, that's making it flare up. But for her, she already did an elimination diet for a year and a half and gave up everything.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
And now she's like, I can't even think about going back to that, that was so much work. And I had to make so many adjustments in my lifestyle. And I was like, well, why don't you just try, you know, one thing at a time rather than going whole hog and just doing yeah. Are easier to maintain than this whole all or nothing. Yeah. And people can have like food, food, sensitivity tests done. Right. So they can see what they're allergic to and see what the reactions are. Or just kind of go back to a time when you felt bad. After you've had something like Sanford is allergic to strawberries. And we just figured it out because he was sick. And then he went back and looked at all the times they had strawberries and he's like, Oh right. Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah. Yeah. Another thing to know about food sensitivities. Cause I know a lot of people who don't want the test cause they actually don't want to know is that sometimes they're not permanent. Like I've had several foods since to be panels done in my lifetime. And at one point, everything I had been eating was on this panel. Like I was basically sensitive to everything. And the reason why was because I had leaky gut and I had to heal the leaky gut in order to be able to eat my normal foods again, because I had just been in such a constant state of stress and anxiety that like I had messed up my insides and that's, that's one of the other things. There's a lot of us women who are so, you know, like our kick button, everything in our lives, we don't realize what the toll the stress is taking on us until our body makes us realize the toll that it's yeah. Almost like the pandemic, right.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Got like kidney stones. And she was laid up for two weeks and had she just actually taken care of herself up until that point, listen to her body, you know? And I can tell you, there are a million stories like that. Mine with my leaky gut, this other lady with her auto immune disease, there are just so things where we've, we keep pushing, pushing, pushing until our body finally says, you're done. Like you're out for the count because you are listening. And now, now you're gonna be laid up for a bit. And I hate, I hate to see people get to that point. So I like to get them a little bit early. I mean, I'll take them, you know, even after, but it's just, it's easier for them if, if they realize it before preventive maintenance. Right. Exactly what medicine actually shouldn't be. Right.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
Preventative healthcare. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's a whole other podcast episode because we don't want to get into what, what our health care system is all about because it is, it's just about giving people medication and not really helping them to find the roots of the problem, which is exactly what you're doing. Because a lot of our, a lot of the problems that we do have, have to do with our diets and our lifestyle. Sure. Yeah. So besides being a part of the freedom lounge, clothing is definitely going to be having a training in there. And so you can see her there besides in the freedom lounge, buddy, how can people contact you if they want to work with you? Do you have any new programs coming up, any new offers that you want to talk about today? Absolutely. well they can always find [email protected], which is my website address.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
And of course, Facebook, Instagram with those same address. But I haven't met anyone who needs more energy in their life and let's face it. Which how many of us don't I have a free guide on endless energy that you're welcome to download it. You can get it from the popup on my website or maybe me. If I give you the link, you can make it available. We'll put it on and we'll also have it in as part of your offer in the freedom. Awesome. I have a short course on energy. If you want to take it to the next level, I have group programs and then of course, one on one coaching. Awesome. Awesome. It has been so much fun hanging out with you today. Likewise, as always, are you going to sing for us before we leave gal? She has. She just starts to sing and I'm just like, I'm just going to listen. Oh, you're so sweet. I try to think. What do I think off the cuff? Give me a word. I need a word, a word. Good food, good food. Anyone have a song about good food. I don't know. Last time you mentioned the word chocolate and it wasn't till after we got off the phone that I was like, Oh yeah, you're love is better than chocolate.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
I know. Yeah. I scream. [inaudible] Sound better than I scream. And I forgot the rest of the words. But the second verse is about chocolate. Just go look for the song. So talented, talented friends. She bakes, she she sayings, I just an entertainer and she's really good with numbers, right? People were like, are you sure you're an accountant? I can be artsy and I can know my numbers. I can just be me. You can just be you. Thank you so much for coming today. I really appreciate it. And for those of you who are looking to work with Claudine, Claudine Francoise, and all of our information is going to be in the show notes. So I'm looking forward to seeing you guys on the next episode. Talk soon.