Suzanne Proksa:
Welcome to the Happy Healthy and Rich podcast, formerly the Suzanne show. I developed the happy, healthy, and rich brand in 2016 to help women just like you have some real discussions about personal development, navigating the ins and outs of being a woman, women's health, and how to find more joy. Come on in, friend. I'm Suzanne Proxza, multitalented founder, Suz Pro Innovations, and I'm proud to serve women online business, and to the people ops HR community. I'm also a former featured Etsy seller, plant addict, concert lover, gardener, and human straight up obsessed with helping others and cheering on women. Grab your coffee or your wine. Break out one of your hundreds of notebooks. Yes.
Suzanne Proksa:
I see you. Light that soy candle and let's dive in. I am here today with Jen Rhodes to talk about creating a bulletproof confidence that reconnects you to your inner badass. After the birth of her first child, Jen had about £85 to lose. To make matters worse, she felt like a little fish in a big pond at her gym. Sure. We can all relate to that. She had no idea where to start, was terrified to ask for
Jen Rhodes:
help. Eventually she
Suzanne Proksa:
took a leap of faith and hired a trainer. And with that began the journey to lose £95 in 9 months. The results inspired her so much that she also obtained her physical training certification. In the last 20 years, she's made it her purpose to move and motivate with intention. However, it wasn't until she truly understood the psychology and mental programming that needed undoing that she was able to shatter all of her limiting beliefs and undergo a complete transformation of her mind, body, and spirit. And she's made it her mission to ignite massive impact in the bodies and minds of her clients and her own self so that we can evolve into the person we were meant to be. Now is the time for everyone to commit to their own complete evolution according to Jen. So welcome to the show, Jen.
Suzanne Proksa:
I am so glad to have you here. Is there anything that you would like to add to that introduction?
Jen Rhodes:
Suzanne. Hello. Thank you so much for having me onto your program. I'm so excited to be here, and I wanted to just add, and I love hearing my bio. Right? Like, just when I took the time a few years ago to write this bio, obviously, I was in a different place. You know, we're we're constantly changing and evolving. And so it's it's fun to hear, you know, where my thoughts were a couple of years ago, even, you know, even being in the fitness industry for 15 plus years when I wrote it. Right? But I I want to add that I think it's so amazing how the initial decision to fully invest in myself, not only in my business, but in my complete mindset.
Jen Rhodes:
I wanna call it an overhaul. Let's do a makeover. Let's say makeover. Right? We're in the makeover business. Right? And hired a mentor. I've not only transformed my physical body, but completely made over my mindset from the inside out towards a path of growth and evolution and self discovery. And I know that evolution obviously is a lifelong journey, but I think the more that I dig into my future goal, my future visions for myself, for my family, the more I get excited. I'm so excited about what's to come, not only in my future, but the future of my legacy.
Jen Rhodes:
And I think the more that we lean into that evolution of our legacy, the confidence can just almost follow. It's like your future self lifts you to where you need to be. And I've also learned that in making myself my number one priority, literally every area of my life has amplified abundance. And it's about creating an evolution of a healthier and happier version of yourself, both physically and mentally. And it it doesn't happen overnight. It definitely takes dedication. It takes consistency. It takes a willingness to find joy in discomfort, but it takes a vision.
Jen Rhodes:
But I have to say it's worth it. So I'm so excited to share with your listeners today.
Suzanne Proksa:
So Jen, you transitioned from a corporate job to become a co founder and creator of the Phoenix method and the 5 day badass body love challenge. Can you share your journey with the audience and what inspired you to make this significant career change and how did it impact your life?
Jen Rhodes:
Oh my goodness. That's a great question. My husband and I got married our senior year of college, and upon graduating, his corporate job took us to Los Angeles where we've spent our 1st year of marriage, learned a lot, indulged a lot as 22, 23 year olds will do. Right? And in that year, his position was to be in that location for a year. They train you up, and then you move to a specific region. And when it came time to move, we I was incredibly homesick, and so we were blessed that an opportunity arose in the Kansas City region where we're not from Kansas City, but it was kind of a nice midpoint between our two families. And so we jumped at the chance to move back to Kansas City. Upon moving back, I was blessed in learning more about my own body because of a few health setbacks, one of them being a miscarriage.
Jen Rhodes:
We hadn't been trying to get pregnant, and in my own health journey, I'd had a few doctors in my teen and early 20 years say that I probably wouldn't be able to have children. And when we moved back to the Kansas City region, I actually got pregnant within the first four months of us moving back here. And in working with my doctor, it was something that I took very seriously. I wanted to be healthy to be able to support a child, But I was so ill equipped in terms of health and wellness. I listened to literally every piece of advice I could get from highly unqualified opinion, which led to that 85 pound weight gain when I got pregnant with my first child. In in hoping to be able to carry a baby, full term, I had many people say, you need to put on more weight to carry a baby, so I did. You know, looking back, I'm so blessed that I was able to carry her full term. She is now 20.
Jen Rhodes:
She is a junior at Kansas University and just a thriving human being, but I know I had to go through that weight gain to get to my path. And it always makes me choke up just a little bit to share that, but it was in that challenge that I learned that not everybody knows health and wellness. The more that I started to work on my own body, my own mind, and also just a logical approach to health and wellness. And so in that 95 pound weight loss journey, I was still working full time in my profession and, you know, obviously was dealing with some of the struggles that I'm sure that most young mothers deal with, lack of energy, not really sure what to eat, how to eat, nursing, trying to figure all that all those things out, but then also get your body back because you wanna feel good about yourself. You want to, show up for your spouse. You want to show up for yourself. And so in beginning that journey, I started to tune any messaging out that didn't quite pencil the old restricting calories and working out more. It didn't quite make sense to me.
Jen Rhodes:
I didn't understand it. Logically, it didn't it didn't pencil. So I started to ignore all the old habits that we were taught, all those bad things that we were taught in the nineties, right, from diet culture, and just began a journey of building strength, of building muscle tone that I'd never seen before, but also building a positive relationship with food. I am a dancer by trade. I grew up dancing. I think most of the horrible habits that I developed regarding food were to be a certain size for, you know, for my sport. And so in that 95 pound journey, I started to reject those old lessons, those those ways that got me skinny back in high school, but I knew they probably they weren't that smart, and they weren't that healthy. And I didn't have enough energy to support my family when I didn't have enough food in my system.
Jen Rhodes:
And the more I just leaned into logical choices, I discovered a passion that I didn't realize was there. And others around me noticed it as well. Hey, Jen. What are you doing? You look great. You've never looked like this. What have you been doing? You lost that weight so fast. And I'm blessed because during that 95 pound journey, you know, we were working with a couple of different health and wellness companies that were rooted in the logic of food is fuel. And I really just began to embrace how to create muscle.
Jen Rhodes:
And that strength building really isn't super difficult when you rely in the foundational basics. And the more that I sat in the foundational basic, this light bulb went off of, oh my god. We've made this so hard on our bodies. We have killed ourselves for years. Why don't we just do it this way? And so then I was on a mission. And the more I kept sharing what I knew, the more people kept asking me, hey. Have you thought about being a coach? Will you coach me? And the funny part was I was still working in my full time job this entire time, and my husband was on a business trip and went to a local gym to where he called me from from the road and said, hey. I found I found your new gym.
Jen Rhodes:
I know you hate the gym we're at right now, x y z. And I said, oh, yeah. Cool. When are they opening? He said, no. You're gonna open it. And so it's funny because you asked how I got into the industry. Some of it was by the grace of God. Some of it was my husband just pushing me off the ledge saying, no.
Jen Rhodes:
You're gonna do this. So I can't believe I'm kind of tearing up sharing that, but it was his confidence in me that helped me find my own confidence. So thank you for that question. I didn't expect to tear up so fast in this interview.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you so much for sharing your story. It really is crazy how we end up landing into the things that we were meant to do. I actually got my online start as a health and wellness coach. So I absolutely understand the understand the challenges that can come with that industry. And so my next question is, what do you find is the biggest challenge currently in that industry?
Jen Rhodes:
This is a great question, and I'm I'm super happy that you asked that, being in the industry yourself. I think the biggest challenge as a coach right now is how muddy the waters have become. I think there's so much information and so much redirection within the industry that consumers are so overly obsessed with finding the next hack that they try to get cute with the basics. And I said it before, the more I rested my resolve in the foundation, the basics of programming were so simple after. When I speak with my clients, it is a deeply personal goal. It is a deeply emotional goal that they reach out and hire a coach. And our job as coaches is to be an ear for that, but to give them the tools that they know how to fix this for good. I don't want lifelong clients.
Jen Rhodes:
I love lifelong client, but I wanna make sure that I teach them enough that they can do this on their own, and they choose to stay because they just really, really like my programming. So the first thing I do with my clients is get through the emotion of all of the different things they've tried in the past. I don't know how many different things you've tried in your own journey. Right? I shared with one of my girlfriends the other day. I don't know. Do you remember oh, god. I'm gonna really date myself. Do you remember the different types of app machine they would sell on infomercials in the nineties? There's so many different things that we've been sold as consumers as the latest greatest hack that we've forgotten that calories in versus calories out, add some strength training, make sure you're mobile, water step, sleep.
Jen Rhodes:
I mean, the foundation is so very simple when you stick to the science. And once I teach my clients how to stick to the science, no matter what the goal, the science of the equation changes a little, but it's so much easier in terms of reaching those health and wellness goal. I've actually taken a few women through reverse diets. I've had a few in an actual bulk phase right now, and they they constantly are okay now. When is this gonna happen, or when are we gonna change this? And the more I can rest them in the knowledge of, we're not gonna have to change much other than how much you're eating or how much you're moving your body because it's a science equation. It's really fun to take women, especially through that process that shows them how hard we've tried to make this health and wellness, this fitness thing on ourselves. So I love that question. Thank you for asking that.
Suzanne Proksa:
Jen, you mentioned using the law of attraction to manifest abundance, joy, and success in your life. Could you provide some insights into how the law of attraction has played a role in your personal and professional transformation and how others, especially women, can harness its power.
Jen Rhodes:
Yes. This is this is a fun topic for me. I mentioned it earlier after the introduction, how to use not only the law of attraction, but I don't know if you were like me growing up. I was a daydreamer. I wasted many days. I can I can actually remember my 5th grade classroom staring out the window, just daydreaming, just thinking of the future, thinking of things that I wanted to be, thinking of things that I wanted to become, how I wanted to grow, just dreams that I had for myself? And it's funny I'm living that dream. I wanted to be on stages speaking and sharing my message. And so when I speak about the law of attraction, The easiest way I can harness it, and I share with my my client to be able to harness it, is just to create that future vision and just kind of daydream inside of it.
Jen Rhodes:
Let let those future visions of yourself pull you to that future self. That is the law of attraction. And the fun part about it is the more that you sit with that vision and design it, your brain can close the gaps quickly. I don't know if you've ever met somebody just out of nowhere and oh my gosh. I've been thinking I've been thinking about connecting with somebody in that industry. The more you can harness that that future vision and who you need to meet or who you need to connect with or things that you need to overcome or maybe beliefs that you need to let go of to get to that future vision, the law of attraction just starts to solve the problems for you. And so that's the easiest way I can say you can harness that power is so often we try to push in our goals. And the law of attraction just creates, like, this pull environment.
Jen Rhodes:
You hit this this flow where everything's hitting and clients are magically coming to you through whatever means necessary, through referrals, or, even just catching your message out of nowhere. One of my favorite my favorite example, currently, I had a client find me, through a Google search, and we have no other connection other than that search, and she didn't reach out to the top person on that Google search. She did not want to go to a gym for that Google search. She found our method of health, wellness, fitness, mindset, and nutrition. And when we first connected, she'd actually been working with a coach for 2 years prior, working with an online coach and had had zero results, but knew that if she just kept going, she'd eventually get the results she was looking for. And so when we started working together, we did a few things with her food, again, just resting in those basic. And within the 1st week, she had lost £5 because she'd never treated her food in a logical sense. It was more emotional.
Jen Rhodes:
Fast forward, by using these types of mindset techniques, creating this future vision of herself, she had found a block, and this was about our 3rd month of working with each other. She had found a block that she just couldn't see herself in the future. I said, okay. Let's work through that. And the more she thought about what her, quote, unquote, perfect day would look like and how she would spend her day and what she was wearing and who she was with and what activities they would do and what's the location they're at, She called me after about 2 weeks of working on this specific exercise, And she was crying, and she said it hit me like a bolt of lightning. I was cooking dinner, and this future vision of myself just hit me. I wasn't even thinking about this exercise, and it was like my future self just smacked me on the head with a frying pan. And it was so perfect.
Jen Rhodes:
And, Jen, I wrote everything down, and I'm so excited, and I'm I'm gunning for that vision of myself. I can't wait. And I said, awesome. What's the first step? And she said, I need to buy a dress. I said, okay. Let's go. And I will say she bought her dress, Alterations have been done. She sent me pictures of her in this dress at this wedding.
Jen Rhodes:
She has not worn a dress since her wedding 10 years ago. Her block was that after her divorce, she did not see that she deserved an environment where she got to wear a dress and feel pretty again. And I know she'll be okay with me sharing that, because it was such a powerful moment for her using that law of attraction. She was able to see a future vision of herself 10, 15 years from now, and guess what? It showed up 2 months later. She was able to step into that vision, and it was such a beautiful moment. I'm so excited to have shared that with her. But that is just one example of how you can quickly harness the law of attraction without having to do much research. The beauty of it is if you can get into that relaxed state, the brainwaves that take over help to send that vibration out so that those that need to be a part of that future vision will find you.
Jen Rhodes:
It's amazing.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you for sharing that example, John. That is so helpful because I think that we oftentimes make the law of attraction way more difficult than it has to be, and that certainly breaks it down in an easy way for us to start trying to use it. You note that the Phoenix method and the 5 day badass body love challenge Focus on creating confidence, abundance, and joy. Oh my goodness. Sounds fantastic. Could you explain some of the practical tools and techniques you use to help individuals achieve these outcomes? And what advice do you have for someone looking to start their own journey of transformation?
Jen Rhodes:
I love this. So I know I've touched base on it in in terms of your vision of yourself. One of the first things I do with my client is we create that vision in 5 different areas of their life. And so if you only have a vision of yourself in the physical realm, not every area will meet that vision. There may be some parts of you that are still incongruent with that future vision, and so what I do with my client is we create that future vision with so much detail down to the very tiniest pixel detail in the 5 different areas. So those areas are fitness or your physical form, faith or your spiritual journey, and that includes mindset, and your mental health, family and or social relationships, finances, which could also be career, achievement, financial goals, that that legacy building financial area, and then finally, freaky time. So the 5 f's. Right? Being able to design every single piece of your world gives you foresight into what's really important to you.
Jen Rhodes:
And the more you can define what's important to you, you can find things even that you may have forgotten were important. The reason we have them work on those five areas, most people come to me with a fitness goal or a health goal. And when I start talking about how I want them to create a vision for their sexual health, for their relationship with their partner, how do you want your relationship with your family to look like? What about your kids? Have you thought about how you want to relate to their kids? Creating that future vision in every single area gives you the opportunity to address things that you may not be congruent with, but it also gives you a chance to create that future vision if you never have. If you're coming to me with a fitness goal, you may or own you may only be looking 6 to maybe 9 month in the future. I wanna know what your 30 years goals are, your 50 years goal. And so when you start to design those aspects, you can find pieces of you where you might not be congruent, where you may have sabotaged your success in the past. Those unconscious behaviors that, oh, I just don't know why I keep tripping myself up. These practices help that.
Jen Rhodes:
So that's one of the first things I do with a client. But, again, the beauty of the 5 day badass body love challenge, Do we have some fitness, workouts? Do we have some fun recipes in there? Yes. 100%. But the minute people can sit and truly identify what's important to them, how they want to move in their future shape, how they want to look in their future shape, how they want to show up for every single section of their life. By day 4, people are moving differently. They're speaking differently. They're identifying some pieces that maybe they were scared to address, and maybe it's not so scary anymore because they're a different person. The beautiful thing to watch that quick how quickly that evolution can happen, But I love working on that with people.
Suzanne Proksa:
In your work, you help people unleash their inner badass. And I love that because I actually had something like that in my original, business coaching endeavor. So I love that. Love that. Love that. Can you give us a glimpse of what that entails and how someone can begin to take charge, shed their old self and embark on a journey of self transformation possibly in just 5 days?
Jen Rhodes:
Absolutely. And the fun part about that, if anyone that knows me or follows me, I have no fear. I am it's so funny. I'm so much my mother. I climb on cabinets, and I zip line upside down, and I go deep sea fishing with my kid. And I I am generally unabashed in my own skin. I I I wear crop tops. I'm a 45 year old woman.
Jen Rhodes:
I I generally have no fear when it comes to how I live my life. I live out loud. Right? In working through that 5 day challenge and those 5 different areas that I spoke about, the faith, family, finances, fitness and physical, and freaky time, you can immediately see what's important to someone in how they move, in how they dress, in what helps them feel confident. And being able to show them and amplify the pieces that they love about themself, we can start from there. So often, my fear is our industry has us focusing on what we don't like, that we forget about what we do like and amplifying that. And so the first step, honestly, we're gonna go right back to that vision of yourself. What does that evolved version of you look like? How do they speak? How do they move? What do they eat for breakfast? What does their daily schedule look like? How do they interact with their spouse? How do they interact with their team? If they're a CEO, how do they interact with anybody, let's say, at the grocery store? Like, how does this person move throughout their day? And the more you already have that vision for yourself, that piece of you is in there. There must there may just be some other evidence in front of it that's convinced you you're not that person.
Jen Rhodes:
And so in being able to create that future vision, you can reidentify what those pieces that you love about yourself. You can reidentify with those pieces that you forgot you always wanted to be like x y z, and that's where we begin our work. Identifying, writing down those things, and even just creating some core values. I want x y z. These are my nonnegotiables. The beauty and the confidence that that alone creates is amazing. And so even if you don't take part in that 5 day challenge, Sit down and create a future vision for yourself. What are your core values? What's your mission statement? What were you put on this earth for? The confidence comes so easy once you can realign with that part of your body.
Suzanne Proksa:
So, Jen, I think that we are all really intrigued by what you're doing. Can you share a success story or an example of someone who's gone through the Phoenix method or participated in the challenge and experienced a remarkable transformation in their confidence, abundance, and or joy. And what lessons or key takeaways can we learn from that person's journey?
Jen Rhodes:
Oh my goodness. I love this question so much. I know I shared one of my clients' journeys earlier, and I want to share probably one of my favorite transformations to date. She is a dear friend, and she came to me probably 5 years ago in my brick and mortar business through fitness classes. And so that's how we met. We quickly became friends. She is a fellow wild woman, just a little badass. But in her joining my fitness classes, she shared with me some overall health concerns, internal health concerns.
Jen Rhodes:
She shared with me some external health concerns in what she wanted to look like as well as how strong she wanted to be, and what those physical attributes looked like. And so beginning to work with her when we started our 1 on 1 process, the most resounding transformation, I think, occurred at the point when she decided that she just needed to get out of her own way. And I know I shared my distaste in the fitness industry that there's so much information and that she wanted to do everything right, and not necessarily hack the system, but optimize every section that the foundation was never built. She wanted to skip over that piece to get to the faster, more finite details of health and wellness. And once we rested in that foundational piece, it became very simple for her body to respond. Things that she had talked herself out of prior to beginning working with me were now a possibility again. And I The reason I love sharing this specific example, her name is Tori. She is a 63 year old grandmother who now has 6 pack abs and solid guns on her arms, and a husband that cannot keep his hands off of her.
Jen Rhodes:
And the reason I love this transformation specifically was once we rested in the foundations, she she just kept stating, I just needed to get out of my own way. The plan was there. I just kept trying to sidestep or or hack the system or speed things up. Once I just rested in the basics and perfected and got consistent with the basics every single day, She travels for her job. She travels for fun. She was able to continue with her goals while on a two and a half week vacation to Europe. She came home lighter than when she went, and she said, Jen, I just did your plan. I just did exactly what you said, and I didn't try to find a way around it.
Jen Rhodes:
The really cool part about her transformation, did we get her weight loss journey 100%. She's she's at a weight that she feels amazing in her own skin, wearing bikinis on the beach with her grandbabies. Like, she is just she is just a vision of radiant ageless beauty. But the cool part about her transformation is we are on her 3rd goal now, because that first goal she never thought was possible and she tried to fix the problem for so long that she started talking herself out of what she really wanted. I honestly just wanna feel healthy. Awesome. We're gonna solve that very quickly. What do you really want? What do you really want? What is so important to you that is stirring in your soul? And at the at the end of it, she wanted to feel sexy and amazing and powerful and strong in her own skin.
Jen Rhodes:
And so now her goal, we're actually going through a bulk, we are putting muscle back on her because she wants to get even stronger in some areas and she wants to define the muscle even more. What's so funny is, and she'll text me anytime this happens, she gets stopped quite often asking if she is a personal trainer. That is how much of a transformation that she has had, and she still can feel 100% feminine in her work clothes, in her dresses, when she goes on vacation, she just feels so sexy in her own skin. And I love being a steward of that journey.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you so much for that. And now we are to one of my favorite questions of every episode, and that is, you know, what are three things that you would love for the audience to take away to get themselves started in their own journey?
Jen Rhodes:
Oh, this is definitely one of my favorite questions. I'm so excited that you incorporate this into your podcast. I if you have followed me for a moment, you will find very quickly that I love alliteration. I I love to study linguistics, and the three things I would love for your listeners to take away from this experience, from my own journey, and from my clients' journeys is 3 words, dream, decide, and do. Because without that vision, your subconscious mind has no idea what's really in your heart of hearts of what you want and what is possible. You need to dream. You need to dream big. You need to allow yourself permission to dream bigger than you ever thought, and then you need to decide.
Jen Rhodes:
You need to make the decision of what is important to you, of what that future self looks like. Making that decision, write it down, decide, and then finally do. What are the steps that you need to take for you to bridge that gap between now and that future self?
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you so much for sharing all of your wisdom and talking about your program and your challenge and your journey. I am sure that it was incredibly helpful for my audience. I know that confidence is something they're always craving, you know, that and weight loss and all of those things. So I am sure that this has been a favorite episode for many. How can people reach out to you? Where can they find you? What offers might you have for them, before we say goodbye?
Jen Rhodes:
Awesome. Yes. This has been a a lot of fun for me as well. If you want to find me, you can find me on Instagram at Jen Rhoades official, jen with 1nrhodes official. You can also follow our business page, the phoenix method, p h e n I x method. And in terms of how to immediately jump in to learn more about the phoenix method, I have a free group where we talk fitness, nutrition, and mindset. I would love to invite your listeners to jump in and start in the dialogue as the as well. We have so much fun in there.
Jen Rhodes:
My dog usually joins us in my live streams at some point as well. But that is also Phoenix method transformations, and that is how you can connect with me.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you again for being on the show. I know that this has definitely had an impact for my listeners, and we are so blessed to have had you here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
Jen Rhodes:
you. Suzanne, thank you so much for inviting me to be a guest. I I hope you found as much value in today's episode as I have. I can't wait to connect with you and your listeners even more, and I hope you have an amazing badass blessed day.
Suzanne Proksa:
I am so glad you joined me for another episode of happy, healthy, and rich. If you loved the episode, do me a favor and help with a rating and a tip. Looking for more info on the podcast? My women's membership or how to work together? Head to my website at suzanneproxa.com or my easier URL at seusspro.cobodcasts. See you on the next episode.
